Last day of school - Beginning of summer 2019

Due to last year being the "Summer of SUCK" I sat down this winter and planned a LOT of fun stuff for this summer. But right now, as I sit in the cottage I'm just exhausted.

Inside the cottage

Jenkins got tired of being petted and took to the floor, exhausted just like me. 

Starting the school year with a concussion sucked. I was still behind from the end of last year, and didn't catch up until yesterday! I turned in my badge and keys this morning, brought Cab a coffee at work, and went out to the cottage where I sat. For hours. Then I ate a snack and sat. Then I thought about this blog, and filled in some of the events of last summer. Now I'm sitting again. In two days I'm leaving for Cottage Grove, to help out a friend, and play on mom's boat. For two weeks.

Updates:
Ruben is nearly 16. He just finished his driver's ed class last week, and he finished his last final exam today. He's exhausted too. It was a hard push to make it though this spring. He spends way too much time on his phone, but he's about to spend a lot of time out of cell range, so that will change for a while anyway. He's taller, thinner, hairier, and more manlike than boylike, but is just as easygoing as he always has been.
His grades in school are all passing (3.0 gpa this term) He's taken two years of auto shop, but is switching his electives to have more computer classes next year. He is continuing on with choir, he auditioned for concert choir, (the highest one) last week. He said he did great on the sight singing part of the audition. He sings bass now, and has a lovely voice. He just finished up his 5th year of piano, and is thinking of taking lessons again next year. He reads music fluently. He isn't very social outside of school.

Cab and I are doing okay. Ru and I moving into his house didn't go smoothly, and we actually grew apart even though we lived together. He realized this when I filled out an application for an apartment and so he made some major changes that enticed us to stay. Things are better than tolerable and moving to good. Cab is still teaching 6th grade math at Crossler Middle School, and plans to do so till he retires in another 10 years or so. His son Parker just got moved up in his competitive soccer league, he'll be an 8th grader. Molly will be a senior next year, and is an honor student. She is traveling this summer back east for a civics seminar/camp. She hopes to go to law school at UofO.

Diet and fitness: I decided in November I wanted to lose the weight the concussion put on, and Ru and I started a great fitness program called HIIT4 which was weight lifting and high intensity interval training. We did it for 12 weeks, I hit my goal weight, and was feeling pretty strong, then spring happened and we got busy. I gained a lot of weight the past few weeks. Hope we get back to the exercise soon. It's easy to eat too much in the summer. Do you hear the ice cream calling? I do. All the time.

Bands: I'm in two now. FBI lost both keyboards and guitar in December, and so we took some time off, then found a guitar player, and although he's good, funk music has so much keyboards that he didn't know exactly what parts to cover. I advertised for a keyboard player and just two weeks ago we got one! He's amazing. So now FBI is back in the secret training facility, getting it's groove back.

No Shade just lost a member, but is actually picking up momentum. We have a fun setlist, jazz, blues roots rock. Not too many covers that people will know, but stuff that we all like playing, and that is fun. The guitarist Nate sings a lot of the songs with me, and I play guitar in this group!

My job: I'm teaching special ed in middle school. My schedule next year looks pretty sweet, I hope it doesn't change. 1st Prep 2nd Coteach math 3rd Study Hall (teach organization skills and executive functioning skills) 4th Coteach Language Arts 5th Small Groups 6th Academic Workshop (special education class to preteach/reteach and support math/writing) 7th Consultation (planning with other teachers, returning phone calls, paperwork). I'll have just over 40 kids on my caseload. That part sucks. Ideally I'd have half that.
My middle school is starting renovations this summer. The SK bond measure for school improvement passed last year, and my school is one of 3 that were the neediest. They are building new science classrooms, a weight room, renovating the cafeteria, and fixing walls that would crush kids if there were an earthquake. My room.... gets a new clock.

Workers taking over Judson this morning

This spring I became known as the "Ukulele lady" because I play while I do hall duty. I tried to learn a new almost random song every day. The trickiest song I tried was Thank You. This year I lost a very good instructional assistant due to budget cuts. I worry about next year with one less person, and more needy kids.
The long range forecast for my job is mixed. Its way too stressful for me to think of doing till I retire. My current plan is to finish my next three years to get my loans paid off/forgiven, then revisit my career choices. I have some ideas. (no, none of them involve becoming a rock star uke player)

Big plans for summer: Spend the next few weeks in Cottage Grove, boating, helping my friend, getting exercise and sunshine, practicing guitar, and reading. Mid July Ru and I are going to Spokane for a long weekend at a Buddhist event, then traveling around Montana, spending 4 days camping in Glacier National Park. We have a short redwoods camp trip planned for early August, with a stop at Oregon Caves. Cab and I are planning to go to Maui in mid August (the man is amazing at finding travel deals!) Cab and I both go back to work August 20.

Little plans for summer: practice guitar, exercise, relax. This is Ruben's last summer as a kid, hopefully next summer he'll be experiencing the world of work. I want this summer to be fun and memorable for him, yet provide him with some of the growth opportunities he'll need to successfully launch.

Time to get ready for the next fun thing. Or take a nap.