Pinch Me?

There are one and a half school days left. I have to have my classroom packed up, my grades in, report cards stuffed, and files all managed by Friday at 4:00pm. Oh and did I mention that tomorrow night I can't work on any of it because I have to be at the 2.5 hour 8th grade promotion. Guess we are pretty proud that our kids made it through 8th grade. Nice..lower the expectations and they shall achieve. But I digress, back to my to-do list. This thought alone sent me into a complete panic attack right after the kids left today. How does one handle this? By going for a run. Problem is, I took the trail along the river that spent a good chunk of winter and spring flooded.

Not only did I have difficulty navigating the trail through the shoulder high grass, brambles and the three (yes, three) fallen trees across the path, but I remembered why I don't run this trail this time of year. The only thing that can grow under those conditions besides hypodermic needles (which seemed to be there as well), is stinging nettles. Oh that familiar first singe as your memory banks search for that familiar burn. What is that?? Oh crap!

So rather than drive myself back refreshed and ready to pack up my classroom, I drove myself home and tried to clean the burn off. I somehow even managed to get it on my face. Probably when I grabbed my leg in pain and got the oil on my hands. Needless to say I came home feeling pretty deflated.

What does one do when they feel all hope is lost? Check their grad final of course. May as well add insult to injury. Except for that one time in life when your professor who has ridden your ass all term with all kind of stupid stuff calls your work "impressive." What? I checked to make sure I had logged into my own account and hadn't hacked someone else by mistake. Further more, my cover letter and self reflection gleaned this "you should be a writer."

Whoa Nellie! Me? Like Samantha in Sixteen Candles I have the urge to look behind me and see if he is talking to someone else. Me? The person who just last term you shredded to bits and implied I had no business holding a pencil (or typing a stroke). In my defense, I knew it was good when I wrote it on Sunday. I didn't know it was that good though. Damn, that is one hell of a way to finish up my core classes.

I'd say pinch me, but I think the nettles already took care of that one.

There it is!

The finish line is in sight. I can't barely make it out through the boxes and keystrokes and stacks of ungraded papers. It's there, just beyond the spring crazed children, the parents expectations and the obligatory celebrations. It's hard to see it through my blood-shot eyes from my swirling brain all night, but it's there.

I haven't seen this particular finish line in many years now. It's been out of rotation for a few years, but this year the finish line ends with....wait for it......Summer. I know right? You're thinking, duh lady. But what you don't know is that for the past 4 years I've busted my ass all summer long working on my Master's Degree so that I can keep teaching the rest of the year. So for me, Summer just meant more school. This year though I've got the Golden Ticket. There's nothing on my plate for work or grad school again until August. That's about 8 free weeks for me. I have no idea what the heck I'm going to do with time like that. With all the nervous energy that I've managed to spin to a fever pitch over the past trimester of hell, I'll probably manage to remodel the house by the end of June.

For now I concentrate on navigating the insanity that is my to-do list. Living this week all in the moment just to get through. I will keep looking at that finish line and plodding my way there. I guess I'll start by finishing up my grad class today. One baby step at a time.

Rockstar Antics

Why yes, that is Sean and I in a limo sipping champagne. We do it all the time. Well, we do it when we aren't doing this of course:



Sitting in the FRONT row of Hayward field watching the Prefontaine Meet doing this:



Cheering on world class athletes like this as they set new world records. Oh yeah and giving high 5's to the likes of LaShawn Merritt. It's important that we give them encouragement you know. A little pep talk from the Ross' is critical for a good performance for all athletes.

What's that you say? Oh, the Limo's ready for us to hop back in for our next adventure. Well, ok then. It is the life we lead, someone's gotta do it....

Fur Fix

It's no secret that the past few months have been insane for me. It's also no secret that I haven't been my happy go lucky self (well the happy go lucky self I strive to be). I've been over stressed, over worked and with out my home doggy therapy option it's been tough. The depression has set in a bit and I've felt lost.

Memorial Day weekend is probably the most popular holiday with teachers. It signifies a much needed long weekend after months of testing and deadlines and quite frankly should be the end of the year. However, even though we have three more weeks after, the holiday itself also signifies the end is in sight. Hell, we can do anything for three weeks right?

I've got a huge grad class project due in two weeks but yesterday I finished up the last of my weekly assignments so I decided to participate in some fun time. We ended up going down to the local home brew shop for an Oregon wine tasting event. While the wine was delicious and I always love hanging with the owner, the real treat was his new rescue dog "Blue." I got to spend no less than 20 minutes on the floor loving up the sweetest dog I've met in a while. Sean got in on the action too. Then we went to the pet store with S & S and ended up getting to love up a Pit while we waited for them to finish their shopping. Win-Win!

The pooch fest continues tonight when we head to a BBQ with our favorite First Friday crew held at Miss Maggie's house. Who you ask? She is hands down our favorite border collie on the planet. She's a 7 year old rescue of our friends Jim & Kate. There will be unlimited dog snuggles in our future and I can't wait!!

This is doing wonders for both Sean and I in restoring our faith in good dogs and wonderful rescue stories. Do I still miss my Rogue boy? Hell yes, every single day but it's getting to be many more smiles than tears. The Ross family will be whole again, there is no doubt about that now. Until then, I'm going to seize any opportunity to spend time with my favorite four legged pooches to get me through.

I still love you!

Dear Beautiful New Bike,

I am sorry that you are spending all these lovely sunny days in your stand. I know when I ordered you and you were put together, you had dreams of spending hours and hours on the road. I have those dreams too oh beautiful bike. They are just currently hampered by grad school and eight year olds. Don't worry, our day in the sun will soon arrive. I promise. To quote my favorite Journey song "Don't Stop Believing..."

Sincerely,

Tracie

It's Time Baby!

There is an old song I always loved by The Byrds "Turn, Turn, Turn". One of the lyrics refers to "a time to dance". Let me tell you folks, it's dancing time.

Tomorrow is the last official day of OAKS testing. After dragging the majority of my students through 6 long testing sessions, comprised of 3 opportunities each in both Reading and Math we made it. My students are already done. They finished today. My last kid to finish was a pass, which was a great way to wrap up the year.

Any of you who have been following this blog may recall the horror of last year's results. Our 3rd grade team had a 30% pass rate. It was hideous and our principal used us as the poster team of failure. It's the closest I've ever come to walking away from a job on the spot. He facetiously informed us at the beginning of this year that after last year, anything over 30% and he'd dance on the tables. His lack of faith in us was ill placed.

Well shine up your dancing shoes boss man cause 3rd grade has a 58% pass rate this year. I won't go into how that is one low flipping bar. Today my only concern is the show I'm going to be front and center for.

Don't worry, lest you fear for the kids who were just pawns in a broken system. I've got Popsicles for them tomorrow. We are celebrating in the afternoon with a party for their personal rock star status whether or not they passed. Regardless of their number on a test, there are 27 little 3rd graders who gave it their all. I've never seen kids pulling out all their skills. Boss man better be amazing cause they sure earned it.

Ultra Crazy

Today Stafford ran his second Ultra Marathon. It's the MacForest 50k which is an impressive feat to do once, let alone twice. He was well trained and impressed the bejebez out of me. Way to go Stafford. Here is his day in pictures.

Hard to see him isn't it? Well, now you know how it feels to have my eyes. Yes I could have zoomed in, but then again, note that with my eyes who knows what I might have zoomed in on.

They make a pretty impressive team!

Aid Station #3 or 4 actually I think. We missed photos at #3 because Starbucks is slow and Prius drivers are idiots.

It takes a lot of fuel for 32 miles.

Off again!

Did I mention it was over 80 degrees today? And that he ran 32 miles???? Um, yeah I'll take some ice with my water please.

Finish line in sight!

Stick a fork in it cause he's done. With over two minutes to spare to his goal time. Which was a full 32 minutes faster than last year. Insane, yes. But impressive? Hell yes. Nicely done Stafford. You are a Rock Star. I am truly in awe of what you can do!

Oh yeah and there was this eye candy for me too!

What did you think it was going to be a picture of? Jeez.