What's Next?

I was so relieved to have FF behind me.  I had allusions of chilling on the SA front for awhile and begin focusing on the growing pile of neglected papers on my desk...

Then I was asked these questions yesterday;

~Can you supervise us after school so we can practice our skit to announce the banquet tomorrow?
~How much are we charging for the banquet?
~Do we charge teachers? How much? What about those that HAVE to be there to supervise?
~How far is it?
~How much will they charge us for the bus?
~Who will drive the bus?
~Where is the Kodiak mascot suit?  (????)

Then I had to ask these questions;

~What are the dress code issues for this banquet?
~What exactly defines backless???
~Is halter OK?
~How short is too short?
~How exactly am I to explain to the student body tomorrow that the girls breasty parts are not to be showing?!
~Who will drive the bus?
~How much will it cost us?
~Where is the Kodiak suit?
~Do I really have to do this????

Heads up...I'm gonna whine....
I'm Part Time...
I teach and get paid for 2 classes...
My schedule says I "work" 3 days a week...

Let's begin with last Friday:

I taught my two periods (only 54 min...half day) but I was there from 8 am until 5:30 pm

Sat I was at the school from 6pm until midnight

Monday (one of my official days "OFF") I had teacher in service

Tue: I taught my two classes and organized the "ticket count" at lunch.  Which meant I was hungry all afternoon...not a good thing! I supervised a skit practice and tried to answer difficult banquet questions...
It wasn't until 8pm that I stopped with the counting and watching my husband whip up a snazzy spread sheet regarding the ticket count.  All this so I can report to my colleagues tomorrow what their "take" from FF was...

Wed, My day OFF! Not, I have to go in because SA is announcing the banquet and I have to explain to teenage girls, in front of teenage boys, that when they (the girls) bend over we do not want to see things hanging out from the back or the front! Keep the breasty parts covered!

Thur, Teach - a "regular" day, I think...

Fri, Teach

Oh, and my oldest officially has a "girlfriend". I don't care if he is 16, I'm not ready for this!

Thanks for letting me vent

Frychik

Pictures of Home

So on Sunday in celebration that FF was behind me I spent the day enjoying that I didn't have to do ANYTHING related to FF!

I decided to grab my camera and have my amazing man drive me around the beautiful countryside that I call home.

I hope you enjoy!

Frychik

100th Post and Fall Festival Pics

Wow! I can't believe I've done this 100 times now!  Thanks for hangin with me!

So, if you didn't have a chance to come to Fall Festival, you are in luck!
Here are some pictures of the amazing work done in preparation for the event. As well as what things looked like when all was up and going.

Let me just say, that it takes weeks of planning, organizing and coordinating  the big event.  Then it takes Wed, pm, Thur pm and all afternoon Friday to get things set up and prepared for the doors to open.   It is a crazy madhouse right up to the opening moments and then it just all comes together somehow and works...

It is frantic. It is crazy.  It is stressful!  It is amazing to see what can be accomplished!

 This was built by Mr. Belin.  No problem for him!  Wow, nice touch!

 Looks much better with the lights off!

Do you see the jewels glowing in the mine?  It turned out so cool!

 Before....

 After....WOW Circle the wagons friends!

 Amazing art work!  Thanks Julia!

 Our covered wagon ticket booth worked like a charm!

 Buckin bronco...



 Lasso booth!

 Yes, this cowboy's underthings are showing....that's my kid!  Wonder what they would have done back in the day to a real cowboy if his underoos were showing???

This cracks me up!

This cracks me up!  Look how everyone is holding their hands! :)  Thanks parent volunteers.  You rock!

The place really fills up!

 Panning for treasures

Fruit Kabob anyone?  I'm sure they had these on the trail west! ;)

 I love how all the booths fit with the theme...notice the wanted posters...

And yes, even I tried to fit into the theme...


What is shocking is how fast it all comes down.  We were headed home by 11:45 pm.  Everything cleaned up and put away!

3 days of putting it up, 2 hours to take it down...sigh

Frychik

Lesson Learned

So one of my students asked if he can bring pina coladas for his Latin American food project...

I said sure...
I should have said no...

For years at CAA the Global Studies teacher has been doing food projects with her class.  Its naturally very popular with the kids because it involves eating and little to no school work...

I, wanting to be liked and considered a cool teacher, did not want to end this tradition.  Besides I like to eat and it sounded easier than teaching...

It also seemed like perfect timing.  This week is crazy, insanely, ridiculously busy.  Anticipating this I planned for Latin America food day to fall on Thursday of this week.

The guidelines were; (colon, semi-colon, I have NO CLUE!)

1. Choose a recipe from a Latin American country
2. Make the dish yourself
3. Bring a recipe card with the recipes written on it
4. Bring the food and eat it!

Simple, simple, simple.

Unless your class is 20, 15-16 year old boys.  Because if its 20, 15-16 year old boys then its,

chaos, chaos, chaos

And if you are already tired and stressed out and your head is going a million other directions, even what should be simple, it can suddenly feel like your climbing Mt. Everest without oxygen!

So, Mr. Pina Colada brought the fixins, in a large green storage bin...
He included a whole, unchopped, pineapple.  Various cans of juice, measuring cups a blender a pitcher, bags of ice...he was prepared.  Except he had no clue what to do with it all.  He was really overwhelmed even with the first step of making juice in the pitcher.  He asked me to chop the pineapple, which I declined....

I did encourage him, tried to give him direction. But then, thinking my advice had been wise and carefully listened to, headed off to monitor the other boys as they were placing their food items on the table....

I had managed to walk about 10 feet away from Mr. Pina Colada when another student approached me saying "uh Mrs. Fry, we have a problem..."

Yes, indeed we had a BIG problem.  I wish I had the present of mind to say, "hold that pose, while I grab my camera"  but I didn't, so no disaster pic. 

It would seem that Mr. Pina Colada had poured an entire pitcher of his juice mix into his blender without first checking to make sure the bottom of the blender container was fastened.  So it was a nice funnel for an entire pitcher of sticky juice (minus Pineapple because I wouldn't cut it up) all over the counter and the brand new carpet in our brand new Ad building....

Mr. Pina Colada was rattled.  He was frozen, not moving, not sure what to do... I, trying to be encouraging and motivating, stayed calm and tried to clean things up with 2 paper towels and a recylcling container...

While I was cleaning the sticky mess up, I turned just as another student, we will call him Mr. Salsa, dumped his salsa all over the carpet...

As I headed to the door, I'm not sure if I was gonna run or look for back up...Mrs Bowes showed up and calmly offered assistance.  She is AMAZING! Love her! Hope to grow up to be like her!  She stopped whatever she was doing and rounded up cleaning supplies and helped me mop things up!

Thankfully, I had the good sense to have them eat outside...

Next time we will do the entire meal outside!



It's a good thing I love them...

Next post I'll tell you about how you make a covered wagon out of plywood, butcher paper and pipe and how to turn a entry way into a mine shaft with butcher paper, dollar store table cloths, black cloths and Christmas lights...


Frychik

I got nutin

That's all I have to say for today....

Frychik ;)

Have you been to Fall Festival at CAA?
I believe I was 12 the first time I attended Fall Festival.  That was 30 years ago!  Ugg I have to pause here and feel old....

I remember getting so excited about Fall Festival that I would get a stomach ache!  I could not wait for the sun to set and the party to begin.

Here I am my freshman year at CAA at Fall Festival

And here I am again last year.

I figure I've been to FF approximatetly 20 times (give or take a few).  I've come as a kid, a grown up, a parent, a teacher, a parent volunteer, and this year I'm the SA sponsor which means I run the whole thing...

I have an amazing group of people to work with!  If it weren't for them this year would be a disaster!  I don't know what I'm doing!  The details are killing me!

• How many booths can you fit on the east wall? 
•  Did you know that the booths with power have to go under the sound booth and between the bathrooms?
• Did you know that it takes several teenagers and hours of work and several days to rip the tickets into $10, $20 and $50 bundles?
• Did you know SA provides the paint for the signs? and the tape for the floor and butcher paper and the tickets themselves? Which by the way all costs a pretty penny!
• Did you know that we are making the ticket booth into a covered wagon this year?
• Do you know how to make a covered wagon out of butcher paper, pcp pipe and scrap wood?  If so give me a call ASAP!
• Did you know that I have to get a costume for this weekend and I have no idea, where or when I will accomplish this?
• Should I go with the Little House on the Prairie look or the Sheriff?
• Did you know that SA has to make the "gym map" assigning everyone a space for their booth?  And did you know that it doesn't all fit together easily??? Especially when someone decides they want a 16X12 bouncy house in the gym and you can't move the rope ladder because there is a thingy in the floor that it must attach to and you can't move the bucking bronco because there a thingies in the ceiling it much attach to and you can't move the free throw booth because you need the hoop...
• And did you know that you can't have a pie in the face booth anymore because they voted a few years ago that we can't do that anymore...(no I didn't know...grrrr)

Our theme is Westward Bound.  I suggested Westward Ho... but times have changed and that just wasn't gonna work..

I'm really, really hoping it all pulls together.

Come out Sat night and see for yourself

Frychik

Top 10 before I die...

Recently my friend Jill and I played a little FB game.
We took turns naming a place in the world we want to see using the alphabet.
Jill went first choosing Austrailia and then I chose Belize...

It was fun.  It didn't help my travel bug though...

I so wish I had a trip to plan for...

Here is my list of the 10 places I hope to see before I die

1. Ankor Watt, Cambodia
2. Ancient Petra, Jordan
3. Victoria Falls, South Africa
4. Amalfi Coast, Italy
5. Puket, Thailand
6. Machu Picchu, Peru (grrrrrrrrrr)
7. Prague, Czech Republic (check march 2008)
8. Cappadocia, Turkey
9. Zanzibar 
10. Dalmation Coast, Croatia

Prague was everything I hoped it would be!

The best part was I got to see it with my best friend!

I tried to get him to get the hat that said "Czech me out!"  ;)

Frychik