And....

The Scripps National Spelling Bee starts tonight...I LOVE THIS!!!!! That is all.

Inspiration

Pulled from a CNN Article....

LOS ANGELES, California -- A woman who lost both legs and an arm as a child is poised to become a doctor for children.

Kellie Lim, who became a triple amputee at age 8 because of bacterial meningitis, will graduate from UCLA's medical school on Friday, and she plans to focus on childhood allergies and infectious disease.

The Michigan native, 26, does not use a prosthetic arm and manages to perform most medical procedures -- including giving injections and taking blood -- with one arm. She walks on prosthetic legs.

"I think for any training physician it will be difficult to do any kind of medical procedure," she told CNN. "It's not an innate ability. I think I definitely need a lot more practice and anyone in my position as a medical student and as a starting intern needs more practice."

Lim said being sick as a child helps her be more empathetic.

Raised by a blind mother in suburban Detroit, Lim went through years of wheelchairs and painful therapy after toxic shock from the meningitis claimed her limbs and three fingertips on her remaining hand.

When she was fitted with a prosthetic right hand at 8 years old she didn't have much use for it after years of compensating by learning to use her left hand.

"I used it as a paper weight to hold down my papers instead," she said.

Lim recently saw her childhood medical file, and learned that doctors had given her a 15 percent chance of survival.

"I hate failing," she said. "It's one of those things that's so ingrained in me."

Lim's teachers and fellow students said she exudes a calm that makes them and her patients forget her physical circumstances.

"She has an aura of competence about her that you don't worry," said Dr. Elijah Wasson, one of Lim's supervisors. "At first you notice her hand is not there. But after about five minutes, she is so comfortable and so competent that you take her at face value."

Although no adult patient has ever expressed shock or concern when they realize she will be treating them, a few younger patients have been unable to restrain themselves.

"Younger patients - ages 3 or 4 - would see me and look frightfully at me and they would pull away from me," she said. "I usually describe myself [as if] it's like their hand, it just looks different."

Lim will begin a residency program at the UCLA Medical Center.

Weekend in Review

YAY, it's Monday and I am excited about this Monday because it's Memorial Day weekend this weekend, which means a short work week following that. I decided to join a softball team. Actually I was asked to join because I've got mad SKILLZ, don't hate! In reality, I've played ball with a few of these women before, so I decided what the hell...I'll go back. My biggest concern is my knee, but I'll just watch what I'm doing and I know my limits. And the weather was gorgeous this Sunday, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, nice breeze, not blazingly hot, it was a perfect day for softball. I played right field and third base. Now people, third base, the HOT corner, is my HOME! I'm not afraid of the ball, I laugh in the face of line drives and while not perfect, I don't miss much. And when I got up to bat...2 doubles and an HR and let me tell you, nothing feels quite as good as that feeling of swining the bat, feeling the ball "smoosh" against the bat and watching it fly over centerfield to the fence. Softball players know what I mean about the "smoosh". No, our team didn't win, but we didn't get our asses kicked either. I'm okay with losing by one or two runs, but a slaughter chaps my hide. All in all it was a great day.

Then I got home and sat in the sun. I did that Saturday too after I got my new couch, sat in the sun and read Nineteen Minutes by Jody (Jodi?) Picoult. I highly recommend it, seriously.

Sunday night my mom called me, she's in Atlanta for a conference, to make plans for dinner one day this week and while talking to me, told me that someone had poisoned one of their (my mom and dad), white German Shepards. My dad was pissed. And knowing my father like I do, I can totally see him sitting out under the carport, at night, watching and waiting for the person to do it again and shooting at them. Maybe to miss, maybe to scare, who knows. Here's the thing...these dogs are in an enclosed dog run, so it's not like they were out terrorizing the neighborhood. Bunch of REDNECKS up there!

Anyway...the weekend went great and I pray this week goes by fast.

Solid Foundation

I was having a conversation about going back to teaching with a friend of mine, when the topic moved to that of being an Administrator and/or Principal/AP. Granted it’s not an easy job, but neither is teaching in general. However, there’s not too much to complain about , when your salary is 85K to 100K+ compared to that of oh…26K to 30K for a beginning classroom teacher.

Now, I know many of you might think, “well, an Admin deserves that much, they have experience and more than likely a Master’s Degree” or “it’s hard work running a school”. I’ll give you this…it is hard work running a school, I mean essentially you are running a business, and yes, most Admins have Master’s or above…but the experience…I wish.

I use to be friends with someone who became a Principal here in Georgia and when I asked her how long she had to teach in order to get to that position she said “I’ve never taught”. THAT BLEW MY MIND!!! Never taught? How can this be possible? And then…one day she asked me how she could motivate her teachers and I gave her a slew of ideas, I got met with “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Well ok then, I mean YOU’RE the PRINCIPAL, YOU’RE making 85K a YEAR and yet you don’t know how to motivate your teachers but don’t want to hear advice from a former classroom teacher? Ok then.

Granted, there are some bad teachers, just flat out bad. Just like there are bad (insert your favorite profession here) everywhere. But don’t feed me that bullshit of “oh it’s because of BAD teachers that are schools are failing” or “it’s because of BAD teachers that our kids are failing” and yes, sometimes that is true. But does anyone ever look at the Principals and the Admins, rarely to never in my opinion.

It works like this…when you build a house, you want a strong foundation under that house. Your Principal and Admins are the foundation; your teachers, the supports and you better believe ALL of that, that teachers are the supports. When the foundation begins to break down or fails to do a good job upholding the supports, the weaker of the supports gives out and usually fairly quickly, eventually the remaining supports have to pick up the slack and we all know that NO ONE likes to do extra work if they don’t have too. So then, the grumbling begins, by the time the “non-classroom experienced” Principal realizes this, it’s too late and the infrastructure of the house falls apart.

I think that Principals that have zero classroom experience should not be allowed to be a Principal or an Admin of any sort until they have at least 5 years of classroom experience. I’m more qualified to be a Principal that my former friend is.

Furthermore, I think the Principal, AP or Admin should have to teach ONE class, of their choosing in addition to being a Principal. Then they can carry the workload a classroom teacher manages on a daily basis so that they can see what’s it’s like to TEACH. ANYONE can walk around with a clipboard and look important.

Let me just say that this is what I’ve had first hand knowledge of in GA. When I taught in the Bronx, yes I said the BRONX, 4200 kids, MINIMAL problems, an AP that taught AND did admin duties and a Principal who ran the school seamlessly. And why did that school run seamlessly? Because that Principal had 7-10 years of classroom teaching experience before they even considered him for a Principal position.

We NEED GOOD Principals, AP’s and Admins. We NEED GOOD teachers. Because so much depends on it.

Transformation

I decided to do a little landscaping this weekend around the mailbox and took out what was once dead shrubs and replaced them with Pink Knockout Roses. Knockout Roses are perfect for the person who loves roses but needs or wants low maintenance. I love all roses and am more than capable of planting and growing them, but they all need different environments. Knockout Roses on the other hand, love 4-5 hours of full sun a day and well...if they can have afternoon shade, great, if not, these roses are perfectly fine with that. They are a hearty rose and bloom from Summer to Fall and that's a pretty long season for a rose.

With that said...I hope you enjoy the transformation.

After removing the shrubs.



Termite Repelling Weed Barrier with some red mulch to hold it down.



Knockout Roses planted.



Finished landscaping with iron sunflowers around edge.

Okay...so I'm messing around at work...

I Got COOKIES!!!!! yum yum yum yum

Now With More Photos...

Because I got told "blog something I'm sick of reading about the DAMN PANTS", I'll give you some photos because, well...I just don't have any words to put down. Actually that's not true, I have MANY words to put down, I just don't know where to start. So...in the interim...here's a look into my life. Enjoy.

The back yard.



At one of the corners of the house, in the backyard.



The front of the house. This house is between 40-45 years old.



And finally...part of the front yard. You can see it, but there's an island in the middle that desperately needs some landscaping and I've got big ideas for it.



And people wonder why I have so many leaves to rake in the fall.

So Ridiculous, It's LUDICRIOUS

Check this out...Judge leaves his pants at a Dry Cleaner, Dry Cleaner loses them, Dry Cleaner FINDS them one week later...Judge sues for 65 million dollars. ONE PAIR OF PANTS...which was found. I don't know about you, but I don't think there's a 65 million dollar pair of pants out there.

Read for yourself and then you be the decider. Clearly, this is a case where someone's position in life has caused him to think he's better than the common man. Shame on him.

65 Million Dollar Pants