Back at It

After a short illness and a week off for Thanksgiving, we're finally back to school. Doesn't look like Grace missed much. Thankfully for her things don't move too fast in most her classes, math is a bit difficult to keep up with, but with an understanding teacher, Grace is doing fine.
She got a packet in English today, it was handed out on a day she was absent. When she opened it she was amazed at the work, hopefully it's considered review because she did all this work in 6th grade. Seems like this class is either very difficult or very easy. Am thinking the easy things must be topics that are required for the grade level, but honestly, I think most 10th grade students know to use "wouldn't" in place of "would not".
The holiday season is definitely upon us, I hear kids talking about what they're getting little brothers, going skiing on the break and I loved this, "My grandma should buy me a car instead of building onto her house"............ahhhh to be a teen, no worries of how to pay those credit cards off come January!!

Thanksgiving

No school this week, makes for a happy Mom and teen. Of course there is homework, math math math always math. Since Grace was sick last week she also has English to make up and a little biology. Need to get it all done soon so we're not working on it Sunday night.
Hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving.

Jobs

Haven't been to school in a week, as Grace has been home sick, but we went back today.
It probably sounds strange, but most of the time I'm forgotten. The kids at school forget I'm there and just carry on as if I'm not one of the adults. I normally don't mind since I'm not on the prowl to "get them in trouble". I ignore most of what I hear. Now don't get me wrong, if I overheard or saw something dangerous or illegal I'd be forced to speak up. For the most part I just blend in. I stay quiet much of the time , I know this will come as a shocker for those of you that know me & my mouth.
Grace has a few classes that are more relaxed, kids have the privilege to come and go more in photography and yearbook than in other classes. Today I overheard a not so quiet conversation at the table I was sitting at. There is a group of 5 or 6 seniors at this table every day and they have some crazy conversations.
Today's topic was all about what jobs they're going to get. I didn't hear any of them mention college, which may explain the intelligence behind the statements I heard. Here are a few:
"I'm never working at fast food, I want to work at a restaurant"

"I'm going to work at the Sports Store, " someone asked her if they were hiring and she said "No, but I'm going to tell them I want a job" Who knew it was that easy? geesh all those people w/out jobs take note!!
"I will only work at a store with variety, so I don't get bored when I'm looking at the stuff"
"I can't believe so and so works at that cheap store at the mall, they don't have anything good."

There were more comments, but seriously after these, it took all I had not to just roll on the floor laughing. They honestly sounded like kindergartners, I'm gonna be a fireman, I'm going to be an astronaut, I'm going to work at the toy store so I can play with the trains.
It's a bit concerning to think that these are seniors. They'll be out on their own before long, praying that they can round up 2 or 3 fast food jobs just to buy gas money to make it to their next job. They were really trying to have such a mature adult conversation. they're in for a rude awakening soon. Hope they realize college, trade school, something after high school is a necessity to get practically any job.

Veteran's Day

No school today or tomorrow, supposedly for Veteran's day. I think we need to teach our kids what Veteran's Day is set aside for. Not just another day off of school. I heard some seniors planning their days off. One asked why they had there was no school and someone at least knew it was for Veteran's Day, but when he told the rest I heard " Well thanks vets now we can have fun."
I just finished a book about what the people in North Korea are enduring and have endured for generations. The  things we take for granted,such as non-governmental books and TV, growing a garden, mail, even putting pictures on the wall, can land a person in N. Korea life imprisonment. They have no real internet there to even read a silly blog such as this; if they'd even consider wasting their few precious minutes of electricity online.
We have our freedoms because of those before us that were willing to fight for them. Regardless of how any of us feel about the current war, we should still honor those fighting, and also those here that protect us.
There probably aren't too many families in this country that doesn't have a vet somewhere in it's history, remember them today. Maybe realizing someone has stood up for you and fought for you comes with age. I just hope those seniors I overheard learn to appreciate more than a couple of days off of school.

Pants

You remember every family get together, there was always at least one old man that all the kids bet on. It wasn't that he was especially talented at something, or that he'd tell the best jokes; ( although he thought he did) it was his pants. You always wondered how he kept those things on, they rode so low beacuse he insisted he could still wear the same size pants he did when he was 18, regardless of his stomach size.
 Well, I think some of today's boys have it figured out. they wear their pants exactly as low as the old men did; there will be no getting used to walking weird to keep them up, they already walk that way. In fact, they can run with their britches riding like that. Ok now, I admit I don't have any young men in my house, is there some secret to the pants that I don't know about? Are there hidden suspenders? These poor kids are going to have some messed up hips and backs if they keep wearing those pants like they do.
Not sure which is worse, the uncle fatty wears his pants so low the crotch is past their knees, or the ever popular Fred Mertz look. ( from an old tv show,  I love Lucy for you poor souls that don't know him). Now Fred wore his pants to cover his tummy, right up to his chest! Now if those ever rode low he would have tripped over the crotch of those things.
Ok, Ok, I have to quit thinking about this. It's crazy!!

Rumors

I was feeling just a bit ornery today, when we went to English there was a girl ( lets call her Mary)waiting for the teacher to let her in and I asked her if she was ready for the test. There was no test. The look on her face was priceless. I had her convinced that they had to finish reading the book they're working on for a test today. After a long minute ( for her) I told her I was just joking. She told me I was mean and we had a good laugh.
Well, here came a group of others from the class and Mary passed on the same news I'd given her, then she told them I'd played a joke on her. This happened a few more times and then.....................
Along comes do-gooder-worries about every grade Mark ( not his real name of course). The class had him so convinced that he dropped everything he had in his hands and insisted that the teacher just couldn't do this, she hadn't told him to read what was he going to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thankfully they let him off the hook before the class started, but I happen to know he got a few texts asking him if he was ready for the test in several other classes.
Guess one needs to be careful with a lil joke. Ha!

Dude?

Not quite sure why I need to know if a diagonal bisects a rhombus, or that I should use the distance formula to determine if a quadrilateral is a rectangle, but I think I'm learning it anyway. Should come in handy if I ever come in contact with a shape with an identity complex.
Speaking of identity,what I'm mostly confused about is when did I become a "dude"?????????????
 Seriously, that's all I hear some days, "Dude, did you know? & Dude, did you see? Last I'd heard females were dudettes. Now I know it could be worse as the other name I hear females called ( even by friends in a nice way) isn't something I'd ever let anyone call me. When I was 15 I'd have flattened anyone that called me one, and I still might at this ripe old age of ..well....um..........lets say over 15. So funny how our slang changes through time. I just have to figure out if when one refers to a "dude" it's the he kind or the she kind. Anyone have the answer?   Geesh before long we'll have to use a formula to figure it out and we'll be able to use all the geometry we're learning.

No Excuses

This is typically the beginning of a rough time of year for Grace, I think it starts with all the dirt in the air from the harvests and then the weather begins to change. She had back surgery 3 years ago and has endured some level of pain most days since. It seems worse some times than others.
 She had stayed home Monday and Tuesday, in bed resting her back. You wouldn't think sitting all day would wear a person out, but some days it's just more than she can put up with. I figure a few days in bed won't hurt her.
She does seem to play catch up a lot of the time at school, but she doesn't use her condition as an excuse to get out of the work. She does throw out the occasional joke about being uniquely abled.  Last week she was calling her biology teacher over to her seat to ask a question, now it's a well known fact that he can get side tracked on the way to helping a student, she jokingly told him "Run! Run for those that can't." He got a kick out of her and reminded her that he can't run either, too much arthritis and he's waiting for a hip replacement.
I'm grateful for understanding teachers and the fact that my daughter doesn't expect to get a free pass on school work. She isn't a perfect angel about it, she complains about the amount of homework like the rest of the students, but she trudges through.