What a week

So there's the old saying that teachers have three months off in the summer, which has never been true for me. But now that I'm an administrator, it is REALLY not true--instead it is more like 2 weeks. However, it is much different once the teachers start back as well, which officially happened last Friday. SIX FULL DAYS of staff development before our students (18 short of 2700!) return to campus. Let me let you in on a little secret....six days is too much.

It all started last Friday, a week ago today. We had things like training and 3 hour long faculty meetings to fill our day. Not the most exciting way to start things off. Coming back on Monday, things were a bit rough--some communication issues and such made for some negativity among the staff and really got to me. Today, Gwen and Scott (two other great Asst. Principals) even said that they had seen that I was "down" the past two days, but that they could tell things were better today, and they were. There are a couple of reasons for that: 1) The Obvious (it was Friday) 2)Yesterday many things that had been weighing on me got worked out in a 4 hour long meeting with the principal --yes 4 hours unannounced..... 3)I was reminded of one of the reasons I love my job--the fantastic teachers and staff I work with.

You see, this year, I get to work with my old department--the English Department. They are truly dedicated people who care immensely about doing great things for kids and are passionate about making a difference. I LOVED seeing that again and sharing ideas. We even had a short answer meeting today which probably should have been a real snoozer, but the group made it fun and we laughed and learned together. I was so refreshed!

Sometimes, as my friend and English department head, Stormy said so well in her blog this week, sometimes it takes a low day to help you appreciate the great days. That definitely happened this week--thankfully ending with the great day!

Somewhat relevant story that may apply: Some of you know that story about the guy eating dinner who was approached by a man who said he knew him. The second man said that he used to pack the parachute of the first man when they were in the army together. The first man said that he was so happy to finally know who had saved his life by so carefully packing his parachute because he had never really met the man before. The first man had always wanted to thank the second man but didn't know who he was. Anyway, long story short....the moral is: Consider who is packing your parachute--who is it that supports you each day to "save" you when times are tough? So let me say thanks to my "parachute" (or maybe my parachute packers?...anyway): my family, friends, and husband who offered me words of encouragment and rejuvenated me this week--I am truly blessed and could not have made it through the week without you!

Murder Mystery Dinner

Last night we went with our friends, Mike and Laura, to a murder mystery dinner at a local winery. They have them each weekend during harvest time (the grapes were ripe and gorgeous on the vines!). We had SO MUCH FUN! There were about 80 people there and about 12 were "suspects" including our friend Laura! We were told our parts ahead of time (I was the victim's lawyer, Chris was a "social worker" and of course, you can see that Mike was a minister while his wife Laura was a nun! The case was of a missing matchmaker who was just matching people up without looking at their information because her database went down--she just matched using names and addresses only--of course, people found out and had their reasons for being angry at her and whammo--you have a murder mystery dinner!

Of course, there were all kinds of costumes and people there--the pilot here won for best costume!

The food was fantastic as well and the wine with each course was delicous! We had a really great time with our friends and we decided that we should plan for this every summer before starting back to school! Thanks to Mike and Laura for a fun evening! We truly enjoyed it!