Spring Break Together-Heading to City of Rocks

Written on 3-15-25.

     I am at the Big-O in Aztec, and we are having the tires checked out on our Alto.  I just got an update, and it sounds as if we will only need to replace the tires.  The spare tire and the ball bearings are doing fine, but we might want to look at them again at the end of this upcoming season.  We are heading to Albuquerque tomorrow and then off to the City of Rocks Campground near Deming on Monday.  It will feel good to get the tires (wheels in the Canadian owner’s manual) replaced, because we haven’t replaced them since we first bought the Alto in August of 2019.  We are also de-winterizing today.

We started our spring break yesterday, and it’s fun to have a spring break together.  This school year will come to a close quickly after this week.  It usually does.

Casey is moving along with her pregnancy, and they are in their 35th week.  The baby Swopelet is due a month from today.  Excitement is in the air!  

We spoke to Kyle today and sang the happy birthday song to him.  His birthday is on the 12th, though.  He is 30 now.  Gee whiz!  He recently came home after a business trip in Alabama.  The sale of his home is getting closer and closer.  He bought something from Home Depot to help him clean the grout, so he said he saved a large amount of money ($1,000.00?) by doing that himself.

He and Danielle are working on a deal for him to move temporarily into her house once he gets to Albuquerque.  He will have his dogs, but that would help her out by helping pay her mortgage.  Sounds like a win-win to me.  It should not be longer than 90 days, according to Kyle.

On to golf…

I played with Herman and Val (his brother-in-law and not their real names) on Wednesday.  The weather was the best of the week, and I gave a Math Olympiad test that morning, so I got out of school early.

Life at Park Avenue

Written on 2-25-25.

     That’s a fun date.  I am back at Park Avenue, and I am in my room.  We didn’t have school yesterday due to an incident.  Today, Tuesday, we don’t have students again, but teachers were required to come in.  We have a staff meeting at 8:30, so I have a small bit of time to write.

Jessica, our principal, just made an announcement to bring our laptops and something to write with.  She was the first principal to hire me for a Time to Teach training.  Belinda and I have great respect for her.  

This is all so weird and new.  This "incident" has affected our entire district.  Sensors for door entries aren’t working either, so that is a big safety concern.  Yesterday, B and I were able to come to the school and attempt to log in with a new password.  That worked, but this morning we were logged out again somehow, and now nobody has been able to log in. 

Written on 3-10-25.

I am writing on a Monday night, and it’s the second day of Daylight Savings for springtime.  I will write for a bit and then get ready for bed.  I am not a morning person, and this exacerbates my tiredness.  I survived today, though.

I got all of my IEP meetings set up for school, and that feels super.  We only have four days left, and then it will be our spring break.  Yahoo!  I am glad I chose this job, and it has worked out so well.  I can be at school with B while she finishes up her career, and I told her a while ago that I would be willing to get up earlier with her to help her mood.  I would have gone back to bed after she left, but…  

I didn’t know that this would be the way I would be doing it, though, but that’s okay.  Of course, I enjoy the students, and I look forward to coming up with challenging activities, too.  Also, I have looked forward to taking the Math Olympiad tests I give the students.  We made that into a challenge for the kids.  Every correct answer earns $2.00.  Matt, Casey, James, and Kyle participated.  I finally got all five answers correct on the fourth test.  My scores went 0, 3, and 5 correct.  Shaking the dust and rust off of my brain takes a long time apparently.

Greg texted me to go play at Kirtland today, but they used the day to clean up boughs from the last storm and there was a lot of run-off, too.  We ended up getting around four to five inches on Saturday morning.  I was bummed, because I wanted to play.  He also asked me if I wanted to play the Across the Borders Extravaganza this year.  I had to tell him no, because we are reserving those weekends for baby Swopelet.  He understood.

The incident at the schools is mostly over.  We went back to school the very next week, but we did enjoy a “pre-spring” break due to the outage.