What the future may hold...

While we were sitting on the beach late Saturday afternoon with Meg and Will, an elderly man and woman, in black bathing suits and straw hats, walked along the edge of the surf holding hands.  I leaned over to Hank and said, "Well, there we are in in about 30 years."  A minute later, another woman joined them and I added, "Look...there's Meg."  Will remarked, "Yep, you'll have to take care of her because I'll be dead by then..."  We all assured Will that we CERTAINLY did hope that he would NOT be dead by then. 

We got quiet for a bit as we continued to watch the trio and it seemed like I should be taking photos...don't know why exactly...it just did.  When they all three held hands and started to walk into the water...well...it was just the sweetest thing.  Hope you enjoy the photos...



It must have been a full moon...

...but it wasn't.  Lord HAVE MERCY, last week was a humdinger at school.  When Friday afternoon got here, we were packing our bags to head down to Folly Beach to join Will and Meg, who had been on a glorious week of vacation at a friend's condo.  I'll let the pictures tell the story...boating, the calming goodness of pluff mud and salt water, good food, good fellowship, riding around on the golf cart, sitting on the beach watching the people. 

I read a book once (actually, I've read books many times) which talked about "thin places" where we feel the closest to God.  I'm pretty sure that He created salt water and pluff mud just for me.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.  I hope that you enjoy it too. 

Where are your thin places??

Enjoy the photos...

Lunch at TACO BOY...mango margaritas...yummy!

Folly Beach is an eclectic place...you see ALL kinds of people and all kinds of sights...

Another reason why my brother Ned ROCKS!

In case you're a new reader who doesn't have a handle on my history.  Ned is my almost 42 year old brother who has Downs Syndrome.

So, a new young man has moved into the group home.  Ned and the other two boys who have lived there the longest get along marvelously.  Their family backgrounds are the same and they are all very gentle and well-mannered souls.

Enter Bob.  Bob who has QUITE a mouth on him and appears to be hyperactive.  My understanding is that his mother is a widow and was perhaps not equipped to handle him.  (Although, our daddy passed away when Ned was just thirteen and mother did just fine...) I kind of feel like Bob just says some things for shock value because he wants the attention.  Although, we're told that he'll sometimes refuse to do what the staff asks him to do. 

The big thing, though, is that Bob tries to bully the other guys.  I've heard troubling stories from the mothers of the other guys, but nobody has ever called us to say that Bob was bothering Ned, so I inquired the other day.  The house manager couldn't help smiling as she said, "Ned won't put up with that...anytime it looks like Bob might be going to start up, Ned says, 'Bob, I'm not talking to you when you act like this.' and turns around and walks away."

We were all assured that the personalities and behaviors of the guys chosen to live in the house would be compatible.  Having said that, Bob may stay, OR, Bob may go.  In the meantime...I think you'll agree with me when I say...

 NED ROCKS!!!

Another Week Becomes History

...and another week gone, but not forgotten !!  The Monday holiday was quite a blessing, might I add.  The remainder of the week was routine...meaning that I hear, "Mrs. Southern...I have a question..." at LEAST every five minutes...sometimes more.  Generally the questions are pretty easy to  handle.  It's when I hear an adult utter the words, "Mrs. Southern, we have an issue..." that my blood runs cold.   Oddly, the issue is usually no big deal, but the seriousness of the tone and the looks on the faces of the adults with the "issues" causes me a split second of terror. Not quite sure how to address this particular challenge just yet. Perhaps it's my own insecurity as a new principal causing the moments of terror.  I know not...Any ideas?

Just got back from Clemson.  Getting away the last two weekends has been sheer joy.  If I stay home, I feel compelled to work.  If we go out of town and I "accidentally" leave the laptop home then I cannot POSSIBLY work and feel very relaxed when we return home.  Here are a few photos...

By the way, the other side lost....BADLY!

I seriously need to start training some other people to take pictures.  I'm NEVER in any of them.

We stopped by Green Grove on our way home to visit with mother and Ned for a little while.  Ned's birthday is in a few weeks and he's requested a cookout (what some of you Yankee friends of mine might call a barbeque, even when you aren't actually serving barbeque.)

I reckon we're going to be having a cookout sometime around October 3.  He doesn't ask for much, bless his heart.

Have a lovely week.  Here's wishing you NO "issues." 

Football Season

I'd love to tell you that things have calmed down on the work front but they haven't. We just aren't even going to talk about it. We're going to talk about FUN!

Hank and I packed up late Friday afternoon and took off for a Clemson weekend that would bring visits with both of our children and, of course, the TIGERS! You may remember that I made every attempt early on in our football obsession to create the perfect tailgate experience. Ninety percent of the time, Hank and I enjoyed the experience alone because Lorelai wanted to be with her friends at parties closer to the stadium. We have a beautiful parking area, but it is on the edge of campus. She doesn't love hiking over there, especially now that she lives off campus. So, Hank and I now glom on to invitations we receive to tailgate with other people. It's easier anyhow...we just carry food and drink and don't bother with tables, chairs, and tent. I do miss planning my "perfect" experiences though.

To tell you the truth...my favorite time is when the team gets ready to run down the hill.  Gives me a chill every single time.

Legare and friends traveled to Atlanta for the UNC-LSU game.  If the Tar Heels had been able to dress out all of their players, I believe they'd have won the thing.  Clemson brought down North Texas (a school which none of us had every heard of) but the "green mean" put up a fight.  Our boys better hunker down before the game with Auburn in a couple of weeks.

Legare met us in Greenville for brunch on Sunday morning at High Cotton.  Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict to DIE FOR!  This was first time we've seen the boy since he accepted the offer of gainful employment post law school. 

I'm rested...ready to jump back into the thick of things.  After all, it's a short week and next week....MORE FOOTBALL!!!!!

What did you do for Labor Day weekend???

Indoor Plumbing....and a weekend!

So...nobody had to use the portable potties.  THANK goodness!  The compromised water main was repaired by the time we got back to school on Thursday morning.  The bathrooms were all nice and clean and the only reminder of the hullabaloo was that the water fountains were off limits...bacteria or some such nuisance.

I've stayed true to my promise to leave work AT work for the weekend.  I woke up around 7:15 a.m., enjoyed a couple of hours of coffee and reading the newspaper and a few magazines and catalogues that had piled up...paid some bills for mother and Ned, and decided to make a pedicure appointment.  Did a little shopping...nothing spectacular.  Cleaned all of my make-up brushes...gathered some things for Goodwill...watched a couple of episodes of Say Yes to the Dress-Atlanta.  Merciful days...the Atlanta version is SO much better than the other one at Kleinsfeld's where most of the brides look like they should be on Jersey Shore.

Sue called...then Meg called.  I tried to call Lorelai but she didn't answer...nothing like your kids screening your calls.  (By the way, who is paying for those cell phones?  Wait, that would be your parents so you might want to answer sometime.)

Deer season opened on August 15 and Hank has been about to die to go hunting so he went over to the farm this morning.  He picked up Ned and let him spend the middle part of the day with him before he went to sit in the stand.  Ned loves the farm.  It's dark now and I haven't gotten a victory call so I'm imagining that the "big one" kept his distance this afternoon.  I reckon Hank will roll in in a little while. 

In the meantime, I think the perfect ending to my relaxing day would be a nice hot bubble bath. 

Sorry I don't have anything spectacularly interesting to share...considering that I'm still in the throes of the start of the new school year, a quiet weekend at home with no work IS spectacular!!

The 7th Day of School

So...about 11:00 AM, just as I'm checking my e-mail, a student comes to the office to say that there is no water in the bathroom.  One of the e-mails (sent at 10:30 AM) is from the college notifying us that there has been a break in the water main, courtesy of the highway department.  It might take two hours to repair...or maybe six hours.  SO, the decision is made to send our high school kids home. 

Mark it down...on the 7th day of school (and a full moon apparently), I sent out my first AlertNow message to all parents and successfully, with the help of the staff, got each and every student on his or her way home three hours early.

I'm just praying that we don't arrive at school in the morning to find port-a-potties in the parking lot.

Port-a-potties are JUST for tailgating...and that's a stretch.

Speaking of tailgating...TEN DAYS until the Tigers ROAR in Death Valley!!

Back in the land of the living...I seriously DO NOT LIKE Best Buy

Oh my...I'm off the Lortab and back at life full steam ahead this morning.  Last week is a little bit blurry.  Who, but ME, would have to deal with root canal business the first week she was a "real" principal with students and all?  I'm pretty sure that Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer came by to see how we were doing, although I should probably confirm with my secretary as I could have been hallucinating from the severe pain in my left jaw.  I'm joking...they did come by and were very complimentary.  Shoot...once I got the Lortab on Monday afternoon, I was coasting until Friday afternoon.  Except for the crying thing...

On a positive note, it seems that the TMJ I thought I might have could have been the stupid tooth all along.  Time will tell.  Upward and onward...

One thing I know for sure...aside from the stupid tooth, I've been burning the candle at both ends for a couple of months now.  Very little time for rest and relaxation, even on the weekends.  Let me just DECLARE that as of now and barring some kind of unforeseen circumstances, I will work like a crazy woman all week but come the weekend, I'm taking time for myself and my family.  A couple of months ago, Hank said, "don't let this make you sick" and to tell you the truth, I think I just about did wear myself slap out.  (But things had to be done and I was the only one that could do them!!!)  I don't regret it because we had a good start, BUT, I've got to change my ways because, if for no other reason....

THE FIRST HOME GAME AT CLEMSON IS LABOR DAY WEEKEND!!!!!

The seasons tickets and parking passes arrived two weeks ago!  Former hometown high school football star Andre' Ellington is going to pick RIGHT up where one of the great loves of my life, CJ Spiller, left off. (I'm also now a Buffalo Bills fan, in case you're interested...they're from NY, right??)

At some point I need to fill you in on our Best Buy hullabaloo.   If you know a person in upper level management at Best Buy, please tell them that one of the managers in one of our local stores  is a first class number one NOT very nice person.  She needs SERIOUS training regarding customer service.  I'll be happy to divulge the store location and name of the manager if anybody can put me in touch with somebody who can actually do something about this, as opposed to the BB middle management do nothings we've talked with off and on over the last six weeks.

For heaven's sake, there are seriously talented people out there looking for jobs...BB needs to beef up their evaluation process and get rid of employees like that gal.  It wouldn't be very hard to find somebody better than her...most of my high school juniors could do a better job and are ALL of my juniors have better manners.  Don't know that I've EVER wanted to have somebody fired more desperately.

That's not very nice of me, is it?

Anyhow...have a great week and thanks for not giving up on me (and the old blog) over the last couple of months!

I don't know where to begin...

Let's go with a list...

1.  Legare got a permanent job offer yesterday.  After his May 2011 graduation from UNC School of Law, he will be joining the Charlotte office of a very prestigious Chicago law firm. 

2.  Lorelai just came of off a week of serving as a junior class student leader for the incoming freshman at Clemson.  She was responsible for 25 of them and to quote her on Tuesday afternoon..."they just don't listen..."   How did she get to be a junior so FAST!!!

3.  Lord love us all...Hank and I are so proud of our children that we don't know what to do.  God has truly TRULY blessed us beyond measure.

4.  This first week of our new school with our students.  I'll tell you more about it later.  As life would go, I found myself in the oral surgeon's office at 6:30 AM on Wednesday crying (and I am NOT a crier) because they wanted to do a root canal and I needed to get to school (it was only the 2nd morning for students).  I talked them into letting me leave but ONLY if I promised to come back before the weekend.  SO...armed with an antibiotic and Lortab, I made it until 2:45 on Friday afternoon when I was forced to return for said root canal.

5.  The bright side...they gave me " laughing gas" for the root canal.  What a great (really, I'm not being sarcastic here) way to relax after one of the most hectic weeks of my life.  I just chilled out in that chair for an hour and a half.  I'm smiling...at least with one side of my mouth...just thinking about it.  Good memories...GOOD memories...

6.  As I said, more on the first week of school later.  I think I'm going to take a Lortab induced nap.  BUT...nobody quit...there were no disciplinary referrals AT ALL...my staff is the best staff EVER in the history of education...and...I'm going to take that nap now. Oh...there WAS the skateboard incident but MY students were not responsible for that little dust up.

GO TITANS!!

Today, the Titans begin their RULE as the #1 Top Best Most Wonderful School in our district.

As Chief Titan...let me just say...

THANK YOU, my blog friends, for pushing me along and supporting me from afar during this grand adventure. 

If I have the energy, I'll do an update this afternoon.

GO TITANS!!

Keep me alive out there....

Sorry...no time to read, therefore no time to comment.
Haven't checked my e-mail in three days.
No time to post.
Decided on Wednesday that we didn't like the way we'd scheduled and decided to redo it.
Clearly not the smartest decision from a time management perspective but it will be better for our students.
That's what it's all about.

Don't forget about me...

I Didn't Know There Was Anything to Resolve...

Occasionally, I'll make a remark about moving.  Don't get me wrong, I love where we live, but we built our house in 1985 and let's face it...it's dated.  The ceilings are 8 feet, except for the two story foyer and in the den, which was added on later. The windows need to be replaced. I'd like to update fixtures in the bathrooms. We don't have a bedroom downstairs for when we get old and decrepit and can't get up and down the staircase.  Sometimes I think I'd really like to have a brand spankin' new 21st century house.  Or maybe a really old 19th century house 

Sometimes...

Anyhow...last night as we were heading home from dinner out and riding around in a very quaint historic neighborhood in a nearby town, I said, "You know...as much as I talk about the possibility of moving someday, I just don't think I'd ever be happy anywhere else...even in a brand spankin' new house or in a really old house. Maybe we just need to reconcile ourselves to staying put."   Hank said, "Yeah, I feel the same way."

This morning...Hank said..."I'm glad we got everything resolved last night, I feel SO much better."  Meanwhile, I'm looking at the paper and wondering what the heck the problem was that we got resolved last night. So...I said, "What the heck are you talking about???"

"Moving," he replied, "I've never wanted to move."   Poor guy, apparently for YEARS, he's been worrying about moving someday.

Hank doesn't like change.  Not one bit.  Although in return for my being SO agreeable about NOT moving someday, I was able to strike a deal regarding some upgrades once the kids are out of school.

Probably won't mess around with the ceiling heights, but to the following, I say, "COME TO MAMA!"

New Master Bedroom Suite Downstairs (photo courtesy Southern Living)

Upgrade Current Bathrooms (photo courtesy Pottery Barn)

New Viking Appliances in the Kitchen (photo courtesy Viking)