A few thoughts about moms:

Mom was right most of the time.

The times she wasn’t right did matter very much.

You can’t really fool your mother.

You may think you can, but it isn’t true. She knows.

Being a mom doesn’t end at 18.

It doesn’t really ever end.

Mom often goes under-appreciated. We give her a day to honor her but it isn’t enough

Still, its better than nothing. Mother’s Day is a special day.

Not every mom is perfect.

That’s ok….the kids aren’t perfect either.

There are a lot of moms out there that are doing it all alone.

They give up a lot but most of them never complain. Most of them never intended for it to be this way, but they adjust and do the best they can.

There are many women out there who mother children that are not their biological kids. I should know…I live with one.

They deserve our respect and blessing because they are doing this out of choice.

This is not to say that every mom is doing a great job. Most of the ones I see love their kids but lack the skill to parent them. Someone should’ve showed them and taught them.

A smaller number just don’t give a crap about their kids. This is sad. Often another female (grandmother, aunt, friend, etc.) step in and try to fill the void.

I know an 85 year old woman in very poor health who is raising a teenager. She is his great-grandmother. His mother and grandmother are nowhere to be found. God bless her. Where would he be without her?

Mom often goes unappreciated until you grow up. Then you understand what she was saying all along.

Hey there you moms and everyone out there who performs the role of mother….

Thank you for all that you do to nurture, guide, and protect us.

Happy Mother’s Day!

It is midweek and it feels like we might wash away. Thunderstorms have been lighting up the sky and the rain has been pouring down here.

We went to visit my grandmother in the hospital tonight. She was not doing well earlier in the day, but rallied by the time we arrived. She and Aubree have always had a special bond and she was thrilled when Aubree came into the room. I pray she finds the strength to be with us for as long as she can. “Granny” is my last surviving grandparent and I was her first grandchild. She holds the distinction of being the first female law enforcement officer in this county, many years ago.

It is hard to look at her so frail now and think back to the grandmother of my childhood. I spent many happy days at her home.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Kayla a beautiful young girl and niece of Susan. The blogworld has been amazed at her strength and courage for quite some time. Please stop by and leave a comment for her family.

There are fifteen student days left at school….not that I’m counting or anything!

Patrick is at Special Olympics in Stillwater tonight. Hopefully the rain will clear up enough for he and his teammates to be able to compete in their events.

I do miss him, even though going out to eat tonight without Patrick is an entirely different experience than going with him. It is weird not to have someone saying…”Dad, are you ready to go YET?”

Walker has his take on doing favors and the trouble it can get you into. Check it out!

I’m supposed to get my IRS stimulus money this week. I am definitely feeling the need to be stimulated.

So how is YOUR week going?

It is midweek and I thought I was going to blow away today. So windy!

I don’t know what is in the air, but the kids at school have been acting up a lot the past couple of weeks. We’ve had more fights in that time than any time all year.

I don’t quite understand why we have “End of Instruction” tests in April. When we are done testing there is still a month of school left. “End of Instruction”? If that was really the case we’d test the last two weeks of school. That would also give us a few more weeks to get the kids ready. I guess that makes too much sense!

I just finished my final paper for my most recent class. The purpose of the paper? To step back and look at my school as an organization. Take out the people and personalities. How does it work? How does power flow? What are the structural, human, and symbolic dimensions of this particular organization? It was something of a fascinating exercise.

My high school basketball coach is now a college professor, working with me to help one of our young teachers. It is interesting, his recollections of me and mine of him, talking about events that happened so long ago, talking like colleagues instead of coach and player.

I’m now paranoid about losing my ring again. I probably check 50 times a day.

School is out in a few weeks and the kids leave for their trip to England. Is summer really upon us?

So how is YOUR week going?

I spent last night helping supervise my school’s prom. Held at a historic downtown hotel, the decorations were beautiful, and of course the kids showed up in fine style. Most of them stayed for the entire evening and it sure looked like everyone was having a good time. I stood outside for much of the night, making sure that none of them dipped into that six pack they had in the trunk of their cars.

The high school prom is supposed to be one of those scenes that play in the highlight reel of your life. You are all dressed up, celebrating the end of a school year, or in the case of seniors….graduation! You look your best, hang out with all your friends, dance the night away, get your picture taken, and get ready for summer. It is something of a demonstration of entry into adulthood, floppy teenagers dressed like movie stars attending a premiere. You even have the limos. I watched as limousine after limousine pulled up dropping kids at the front door. Our school has 90% of the students on free or reduced lunch, so this was obviously a big deal for many of them to put out that kind of money just for one night.

Of course it isn’t that way for everyone. I know some of our students did not attend because they couldn’t afford the ticket, had to work, or just plain didn’t want to go. I have students who are homeless, who are living alone as single parents, who are married, or who are working two jobs in addition to going to high school. For many of them the prom just isn’t a priority. They are in school to get a diploma, and all the social events don’t mean much to them.

I went my prom in both my junior and senior years. My proms were not held at a swank hotel. They were held at the Elks Lodge. Still, I looked forward to spending an evening partying the night away with my friends. At my senior prom a large group of us ditched out a little early and went and played miniature golf in our formal evening wear. It was all about being with the people you wanted to be with. I don’t know if the prom is on my highlight reel, but I certainly look back with fond memory at an evening spent with the guys and girls I cared about. That night at my senior prom would be the last night many of us would ever spend together. We would all move on with the rest of our lives, putting our high school years behind us.

I had a parent tell her child in my office a couple of weeks ago that he would look back on his high school years as the best times of his life. I thought silently to myself….gosh I hope not. I really enjoyed high school. I was a decent student, enjoyed playing sports, had a group of buddies that I enjoyed being around. Because of my shyness I was not exactly a social butterfly, but I did have a circle of people that I spent a lot of time with. Heck, I even married one of them (albeit 28 years later!). The prom was something of a final hurrah for all of that.

The picture above was taken at my home as I was leaving for my senior prom. If I look a little irritated it is because my mom insisted on taking a lot of pictures and I was ready to leave! What a life I have.

Twenty eight years later I’m still going to the prom.

Two middle aged couples walked by and looked through the window of our students dancing, the music loudly blaring. After they stood and watched for a couple of minutes I asked them if they would like to go in. They eagerly accepted and spent about twenty minutes looking at the ornate decorations and even dancing a couple of times. They came back out, thanked us graciously for allowing them a small trip back in time. They linked their arms together and walk off giggling and talking, like a pack of teenagers.

There is a little of that in all of us.

Editors Note: Patrick found my ring in the yard today. YAY!

It is midweek and spring has sprung! It has been beautiful outside the past few days.

Today is Patrick’s birthday and he is sixteen years old! He is celebrating by going to a movie tonight.

His birthday present from me? A trip to the hardware store where he can buy parts for his “creations”. Hide your hacksaws and utility knives. Patrick is on the move!

I still haven’t found my ring but I haven’t given up hope! Hopefully it will turn up shortly.

Now I have students walking up to me in the hall and asking me if I found my ring.

I have a big paper due on Monday for my organizational theory class. Then I’m done with academic work until late May when it is time for school finance. What a way to begin the summer!

I paid $3.42 per gallon for gasoline yesterday. Is there no end in sight for these gas prices?

I need to write more. I have several blog posts rolling around in my head. I just need to sit down and write them.

So how is YOUR week going?

It is midweek and well…..I’ve probably had better weeks!

Both kids, an hour or two apart, woke up in the middle of the night and threw up. Terri also felt very queasy. I ate the same things they did but had no problems. It does make you wonder.

I did feel sick in a different way however. Somehow….I don’t know how, I lost my wedding ring. I’ve never taken it all the way off since I slid it on my finger in Vegas. It was loose enough to twirl and play with, but required a slight force to pull over my knuckle. Somehow on Sunday, in the midst of loading and unloading a lawn mower, picking up my yard, mowing, and going to bed, the ring disappeared. We’ve scoured the house and yard and I’ve offered the kids a hefty reward to find it.

I’ve racked my brain for days thinking of everything I did that day. Maybe I should undergo hypnosis to recover the lost memory.

I really want to find that ring!

We are in the midst of state testing and so far it has gone fairly smoothly. *Fingers crossed*. There are eight testing days to go!

Patrick did well at Special Olympics, winning first and second place ribbons. He goes to the state meet in a few weeks, a trip that involves two nights away from home. As always, he is very excited.

Patrick has always loved to build “creations” from things found around the house. Sometimes those creations involve using things that should not be used. With a little inspiration from me, his latest idea is to build something using PVC pipe and joints. He has been doodling, making a parts list, etc. We’ll see what he comes up with.

By the way….if you happen to find my ring I’ll give you a reward too!

Maybe this is why my grandmother is still keeping my high school class ring after all these years.

So how is YOUR week going?

It is midweek and I hear the thunder rolling. It is storm season in Oklahoma and there are severe storm alerts for this area tonight.

I actually kind of enjoy the storms unless they are knocking out my electricity, dropping golf ball sized hail on my car, or threatening to blow my house away.

Patrick is due to compete in the regional Special Olympics this Saturday. This is something that he and the rest of us always look forward to. We seemed to have developed a mini-tradition of stopping by Fuddruckers on the way home from Special Olympics and Patrick wants to be sure that we don’t break the tradition this year.

That is fine with me. Fuddruckers does make a pretty good hamburger.

I am really looking forward to this weekend. I’ve put a lot of hours in between work and classes, and I look forward to a chance to relax.

I can’t totally relax. Our lawn needs its first mowing of the season. All this rain isn’t helping matters any!

Have you ever met, read stories, or seen a movie about a battered wife? Ever wondered what they were like when they were younger, how they started down this path? I won’t say much about this situation I am dealing with, but it is really spooky to me how this young lady can allow herself to be so completely dominated by an angry, hyper-possessive, super-jealous boyfriend. Interventions are in order and this is a big priority for me right now. I hope we can turn this situation around and help this teenager to see that a healthy relationship looks nothing like this.

It really bothers me because I can see where this is headed.

So how is YOUR week going?

It is midweek and this is one of those crazy weeks.

Study session with classmates on Monday night. Parent-teacher evening conferences on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Class on Friday night. This is the only night this week where I’m home at the regular time.

No complaints though….I did sign up for this!

One area where schools are often behind in policy making is in technology. YouTube, MySpace, etc. play a large role in teenage student’s lives these days and a lot of trouble comes from it. You wouldn’t believe the story I heard today. Just think about video and the sites I just mentioned. Unbelievable. We are dealing with an increasing number of these issues without many clear guidelines. The kids have their own cyber world which collides with our world.

I finished reading “Mindfulness” and am now writing a paper about it. I will share some thoughts later. The above picture looks very.....mindful.

I find very amusing the way that men and women treat news of getting married so differently. From the guys I hear things like, “You were just too happy. You had to get married so you’d have a little misery like the rest of us!” or…”You could’ve invited me. I haven’t been to a funeral in a long time!”. From the women? “That’s so wonderful. So romantic! I’m so happy for you!”, etc. All in good humor, but there is something of the mindset about how men and women view things differently.

I even got this from the students. From the boys…”Dude, why did you have to go and get married? You could’ve had all the women you wanted!” (yeah right!) From the girls…”Mr. S., that’s so romantic. You must be so happy!”

The boy made me laugh so I didn’t reprimand him for calling me “dude”, usually one of my pet peeves.

It does make you wonder about the differing ideals and expectations of marriage among young people.

I’d better get to work. I have a paper to write.

So how is YOUR week going?

It is midweek and life is returning to a normal ebb and flow.

I’m back at work and gearing up for April Madness, the round of state tests that are given next month. I don’t know if anyone can appreciate the logistics of giving many hundreds of tests to students while other students are not testing. Everything has to be exactly right, every test has to be accounted for, all students have to be tested in the proper areas. How do you have normal school for the kids who aren’t taking tests while securing a good test environment for those who are? We have a plan, but like all these plans I’ve ever seen it isn’t pretty. Lots of people are inconvenienced. Teachers are forced to administer tests, give up their rooms for testing, monitor tests, cover other teachers, etc. Basically, its just a couple of weeks from hell and we all just have to get through it.

The good news is that May follows April and that is the final month of school!

Terri has been working on getting her name changed on bank accounts, credit cards, email, etc. She has gotten a lot done in the last week.

Patrick is still enjoying his work at the aquarium and is excited that one of the scientists promised to give him some of the shark teeth that land at the bottom of the tank. He is already scheming some project he could do with those teeth.

I am currently reading “Mindfulness” in preparation for an upcoming class. The book details how much routine, rote actions, repetition, association, and categorization govern so much of our behavior. The solution is obviously to be more mindful, to expand our horizons, to consider all of the possibilities and choices available in our decision making. It is quite thought provoking and I will probably write more on this later.

One of the things that provoked some thought in my mind was how we categorize people and instantly dismiss things that come from people in certain categories: the senile older person, the frenetic co-worker, the small child, etc. How many ideas of value go unnoticed because of who says them?

Maybe after I’ve finished and reflected on the book I’ll become more mindful. I certainly don’t want to be mindless.

Local authorities finally recovered the body of Aubree’s friend who had been missing and presumed murdered for months. This was difficult for Aubree to deal with, the finality of the discovery even after she had accepted the idea that it had happened. The boyfriend of the girl’s older sister will soon stand trial for murder. It is such a tragedy.

Also locally, a thirteen year old girl was recently brutally stabbed to death by a former friend who was angry about her friendship with a boy that the girl liked. How can you possibly make sense out of such a senseless and barbaric crime? I am familiar with the family and they are certainly in my thoughts and prayers.

So how is YOUR week going?

Home sweet home! We are back from our most excellent Vegas adventure. I would love to share some of the details of our trip.

We flew out of Tulsa early Monday afternoon. On the way to the airport we stopped and purchased a few toiletries, including a large bottle of Listerine. We got in line at the United Airlines desk where we were instructed to check ourselves in using the automated system. I started clicking and a screen popped up that said, “Your flight has been delayed. Do you wish to continue?” I clicked yes the ticket agent said, “uh oh. I think you just knocked yourself off your flight. You may have to wait until tomorrow to fly out.” I said, “I don’t think so. We are flying out today.” He shrugged helplessly and turned to another agent. Without looking at the computer screen they debated how we could get to Vegas, tossing around flight numbers. Finally, Agent #2 says, “Let me see what I can do. What is your name again?” He fiddles around on the computer, casts a funny glance at Agent #1 and says, “folks, you are just fine. You are not bumped off your flight. Your flight is delayed and you’ll have to take a later connecting flight, but you will get to Las Vegas today.” Whew.

Then there was that bottle of Listerine. Somehow I missed that TSA rule which states you can’t carry on large containers of any liquid. The entire bottle, still unopened, got tossed in the trash as we entered the security area. Terri had also forgotten about her can of pepper spray, which was confiscated. I teased her about being on Homeland Security’s database. Now that the nation’s travelers were safe from Listerine and pepper spray, we flew out to Vegas.

We laid over in Denver for a couple of hours, dining at the Cantina Grill where I had a yummy bowl of green pork chile soup, the tastiest thing I ate on the entire trip. We flew out and arrived in Vegas in the early evening and headed to our hotel. The MGM Grand is a huge, beautiful hotel. We settled into our spa suite and went to get something to eat, choosing to dine at Emerils. Bam baby! Kick it up to notches unknown! It was a good meal, albeit probably not worth the price we paid.

Well, we were in Vegas and there were all those slot and video poker machines. I settled down at a machine and Terri wandered off to find a place to play as well. It always seems that any time I travel I see someone that I know. Three hundred million people in the country and I always run into someone. It happened this time too!

After we tired of gaming, we settled into some nice chairs at The Rouge lounge. It had a nice atmosphere, darkened, and surprisingly quiet for being so close to the action. There is a vicious rumor going around about me and a number of Zen Mojitos, but I would like to say that I was definitely feeling my Zen, most definitely in touch with my inner self and the universe. However, I don’t know how much Terri enjoyed hearing me sing Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now”. I think she did however enjoy the hot tub afterward.

We called the wedding chapel the next morning and were told that the line at the courthouse to get marriage licenses was often long in the afternoon. We could wait until then and endure the line or go on down there in the morning and take care of it with no wait. We decided to go in the morning, got a cab, and went to the courthouse where no one was in line. The whole process of getting a license took about five minutes and we strolled out of the courthouse to be accosted by sidewalk salesmen offering wedding services at a dirt cheap price. We passed. Then we looked around and there were no cabs in sight. How to get back to the hotel? Terri looked down the street and said, “we could just walk to the Stratosphere. Its just right down there and we can catch a cab from there.” Great idea. After thirty minutes of walking, the Stratosphere was still….just down there. I think that the Stratosphere looks “just down there” from anywhere in Vegas. We definitely got our exercise for the day before we finally arrived there. We messed around inside the Stratosphere for awhile and caught a cab back to our hotel. We spent the rest of the morning/afternoon shopping, eating, and playing around. I enjoyed the lions in their hotel habitat and the lions seemed to be happy too!

We went back to our room and spruced ourselves up for the big moment. The wedding chapel called, said they were running a little behind, but that our limo would be there shortly. Our limo driver would put a New York cabbie to shame, cutting in and out of traffic. Lets just say he was an aggressive driver, leaving me to ponder the irony of getting killed on the way to getting married. The chapel was just what you would expect in Vegas, cheesy and glitzy, efficient and quick moving. I think we were in the building for about twenty minutes. Our minister, who was positively ancient, performed a traditional wedding service. Just like that we were now married.

We went back to the hotel, changed back into more comfortable clothes and headed over to the Sahara, where we had show tickets. After a trip through the Sahara buffet we headed over to the theater too see Fab Four Mania, a Beatles tribute show. We had a blast, singing along with most of the songs, laughing at the Ed Sullivan imitator, and enjoying the very authentic sounding music. The guy that played George Harrison was spot on in looks, mannerisms, and voice. The rest of them weren’t bad either, especially the John Lennon guy who did a stirring solo of “Imagine”. If you closed your eyes you would think you were hearing the real thing.

We rode the monorail back to our hotel, spent some more time at The Rouge (ahem), and hit the machines again. We played until the wee hours of the morning. I got hit on by a prostitute….at least I think she was. I played a lot of video blackjack. I was up. I was down. I ended even and then lost some when I switched to the slots…bad move! Terri headed back to the room before I did and I joined her awhile later for a few hours sleep before we had to get up and catch our flight out. It was a very enjoyable wedding night!

The security line at the Vegas airport was humongous, but it moved fairly quickly and we made our flight with no problem. At least this time there was no Listerine or pepper spray to dispose of. We flew home without incident. Its always fun to travel and it is also always good to get home. We got the kids, gave them their souvenirs, told our stories, and showed them pictures. The kids were very excited that we had finally gotten married, Aubree casting me a look and saying, “the last time….right Dad?” Yes honey…that’s right!

After a whirlwind few days we are settled back in at home. Now it is back to the more mundane things of everyday life. But hey….I kinda like this life! We are both very happy and looking forward to the future. She is doing the name change stuff. There are some advantages to being a guy!

Thank you all for your kind wishes!