idols, treats and horses

i feel the need to write an update, but i can't really say that i have much excitement to write about. here are some thoughts in random order.

the right guy won american idol, and coacher and i are thrilled. we feel that this proves that the real america isn't into perversion and crazy-weird high drama. we might be reading too much into it...on a related note, the show was pretty good, minus queen latifa's outfit and that crazy-long tongue hangin' out of the KISS guy's mouth the entire performance. (bonus: paula didn't speak!)

track and baseball seasons are over. i was actually a little giddy on the bus after our last meet (i love coaching track, but a few kids with attitudes or poor work ethic can ruin it for me...don't tell anyone was giddy about the end). baseball's end wasn't as good for coacher, whose team lost by 1 in the district playoffs. i will leave the details to him if he wants to share, but i will tell you this: there is this one baseball mom who is a real treat to be around (<---dripping with sarcasm).

speaking of treats, apparently there is a knock-off brand of spam called treat. (is that even possible to have a knock-off brand off unidentifiable meat?) coacher claims that it's yummy and, sadly, we now have some in our kitchen.

and finally, i got to send some high school graduates off into the "real world" tuesday night. around 12 kids from my alternative program graduated, and it was a sight to see. i could have done without the obligatory graduation speeches, but watching them graduate was a must. i got a couple pretty heart-wrenching thank you letters from a few students who absolutely would not have made it without the program. BUT here is the sad part...one of my absolute FAVORITES (yes, i have favorites) didn't pass her test to graduate. let me tell you, telling her she didn't pass and therefore wouldn't graduate was the most heart-breaking thing i've done all year. she broke down into sobs and had to leave because she couldn't even talk. if you knew the girl, you would understand how much it hurt. (here's a glimpse: she lives by herself and passed up an opportunity to continue living with an awesome family in Texas just to pursue of graduating from our high school because she wanted to graduate from the same school her mother graduated from. she is awesomely sarcastic, and she became a Christian a few years back because of the awesome family with whom she lived. it's evident that God is working in her life. at graduation (she came to support classmates), she said that she had prayed and prayed and prayed that God would let her pass the test, but that if that wasn't the Lord's will she understood and would be okay. wow.)

on the other hand, i had another girl in my class who has basically half-hearted tried to get her work done the entire semester, and the final two days before graduation she spent all day in my room trying to complete all of the assignments she had neglected all semester. she didn't finish. she didn't graduate. she cried hard. big, rolling tears. i felt bad for her and tried to encourage her, but geezzz, i had been warning her all semester not to put things off. what's that saying? "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink..."

i'm thankful for the horses that drank this semester.

and finally...i still have 9 days of school left. ouch.