37/365

I attended the funeral of a former colleague of mine today. I had his son as a second grader in my class (he's now a freshman!). We taught together for 8 years at the most wonderful little school where we were all pretty much an extended family. As sad as the situation is, it was wonderful to see everyone. (The district closed our school 5 years ago - some of them still work together, but others of us are in other schools or districts.) The service was a great tribute to Mark, but just heart breaking at the same time. He was a huge Ohio State fan so the pastor incorporated Carmen Ohio into his message. I don't think anyone in the completely filled church made it through the service without coming to tears more than once. This has affected me more than I thought it would - I think mostly because I keep thinking about his wife + kids, then my family and what if...

My picture of the day can be seen here.

36/365

Busy day. School, then attended a viewing for a guy that I taught with for 8 of my 13 years of teaching, then back to school for parent-teacher conferences. Exhausting, but home in time to put my kids to bed.

35/365

Bill has parent-teacher conferences this evening. Morgan and I ran to Kohls after school, then we picked up Allison and decided to eat at Taco Bell. The kids chowed down + enjoyed the fruit punch.

My picture of the day can be seen here.

34/365

Morgan went home from school with his buddy Mack to play so Allison got some time to herself and wanted to play Morgan's Star Wars plug & play. Otherwise just a normal Tuesday. Bill has class so just the three of us hanging out.

My picture of the day can be seen here.

33/365

Back to work Monday! Wow last week was quite unusual - only 1 full day of school, 2 snow days, + 2 delay days. This week might seem like forever.

More playing outside in the snow that is still around while the temps are fairly nice. The driveway is still mostly an ice slick.

My picture of the day can be seen here.

32/365

Hello February! It was a great day to enjoy the snow that is still all around. Got up into the 40s today so we could enjoy all the white stuff without freezing. Made buffalo chicken dip and some other yummy snack stuff for dinner at watched the Super Bowl together. Bill + I watched the whole thing - great game. (He was a Pittsburgh fan as a kid - his sister lived there for a while, but neither one of us is into the pro game - prefer college especially Ohio State Football.) I also worked on getting my Project 365 all set up - week cards + journaling cards in pockets for entire year!
My picture of the day can be seen here.

31/365

Month one of 2009 over! Wow, times really can fly by. We had our usual morning of basketball with Grandma + Grandpa coming to watch too.

My picture of the day can be seen here.

Got news last evening that a former colleague of mine passed away suddenly. He was 48 and leaves 3 kids (9th grader{who was in my class in 2nd grade}, 6th grader, Kindergardener) + his wife. Pretty shocking.
The school I taught at for the first 8 years of my career, Wright Elementary, where he and I were colleagues, was closed and the district rearranged the schools and students after the 03-04 school year. That was heart breaking for all of us.
Wright Elementary was a very unique place, no a pretty amazing place - mostly because of the people who worked there and our dedication to each other + to teaching children. It was a small school, only 2 classes per grade level. We were all more than just coworkers - pretty much counted on each other as friends. Many of us had our own children during that time and have continued to get together at least once a year since then - some of the lucky ones still work together, others of us are sprinkled around in other schools and districts.

After hearing the news of his passing one of the girls offered to have anyone over who could make it tonight. It was such a good thing. We talked, caught up, shared about our own kids, were amazed about how old and grown up they've become, told school stories, talked about students we'd run into or read about - good + bad, laughed hard - really hard, cried a bit. We stayed quite a while, like nobody really wanted to go. Eventually we hugged and knew we see each other again soon as arrangements were being made. I included a picture from one of our Christmas parties in my collage today.