Regismas

Friday was our Christmas lunch for the office. 

We enjoyed some good Italian food.

Rocked a gift card exchange. 

(where you can 'steal' a card twice and then it can't exchange hands again)

There is always time for a quick group photo.

Interruptus

I promise I will continue to update everyone on what we did over July and August but for now I am interrupting for some big news. I am most certain everyone has heard but if not.... I AM EMPLOYED AT BIOLA! I love Biola to begin with, but then there are the people (Jeri, Ruth, Amy and now the rest of the gang I am getting to know) and the job which makes it a win-win-win in my book. I started my new position this past Monday, and while there is LOTS to learn everyone has been so wonderful with explaining how they do things and it has been fun being introduced to everyone.

If you click on the photo you can see it bigger. :)

Blog-cation over?

If anyone has been paying attention, you may have noticed that it's been quite a while since I've posted on here. I know it's been at least a year. Could be two. I'm sure the Mrs knows exactly how long because the topic has been brought up on occasion. At the moment I'm too lazy to look it up....and I'm ok with that. I think part of the reason it's been so long is that once I got out of the habit it didn't seem like a good time to post again unless I had something really cool to post. A Zab style post that would get lots of comments. I will tell you right now this is not that post. It does have a funny story coming up, but really the reason I am posting is that Cyndi didn't do it earlier and is driving home from Sandy Eggo so I didn't want the NaBloPoMo posting streak to end.

The funny story? Ah yes. So Wednesdays at work mean team meetings. It's the only day of the week that everyone in every department works. So most of us do our team meetings in our various offices when the kids go back to school for the afternoon.

This week while we were going over our business, both speaker phones in our office came on. Apparently someone in our health office accidentally pushed the button marked "Conference" on their phone. I always wondered what that button did. Now I know. It makes your phone into an intercom so you can broadcast to every single phone on campus. The best part was that just after the button was pushed, one of their staff began questioning whether or not penises could fall asleep like legs or arms do. A lengthy debate continued for every administrator, office, and yes, classroom to hear until finally someone tracked down where they were meeting and pulled the plug on the phone. Luckily for one person, they did not broadcast the name of whoever was complaining of such a thing. That would not have ended well.

So there you go. Is my blog-cation really over? Time will tell.

Calming down...

It's looking like things will be slowing down a bit at work. We've had a lot of thug kids lately...intimidators, fighters, future road rage arrestees. One left on Thanksgiving and another today. They're being replaced by non-aggressive kids which is something we haven't had for a long time. We still have a few thugs, but they're isolated right now and another one will be leaving within a couple of weeks. We haven't been able to even try and find jobs for these kids because we've been so bogged down with behavior issues and needing to supervise several locations 24/7 instead of the independence our unit is supposed to give them. It'll be a welcome break from the stress of the last six months or so.

Journal 11/18/08

I didn't sleep good last night.  Gizmo was a hyper-hypo and made lots of noise and bite marks.  The boys were acting up again today.  They always do when it gets close to the holidays, but this year seems to be worse than others I can remember.  We prepared for it as best we could, so we'll see how it goes.  Hopefully things will settle down a bit.  I had to stay late for a staff meeting, which meant leaving during bad traffic.  When I got home, Cyndi made some seasame chicken for dinner.  After that, we went to Biola to work out for a couple hours.  We came home and watched a little tv.  I chatted a bit with mom and siblings online.  Cyndi went to bed at her normal time.  My mind is awake, but my body is sore all over so I'll probably go to bed fairly soon.  Tomorrow is a late shift and a drive out to Loma Linda for a kid's doctor appointment.

Today and Tomorrow

Today I was busy again at work. Early on we caught 2 kids with dirty drug tests. One of them was packing his stuff to run away, but I talked him into staying. He's real impulsive so who knows if he'll stay or for how long. Another kid decided to create his own family session and invite his whole family to sneak onto campus. He figured he'd just slip out to the parking lot and hang out in the car with them.

Tomorrow is our annual "Safety Fair". I'm looking forward to hours of trainings on how not to fall down around campus, the meanings of road signs I may encounter while in the company vans, and the proper way to put on and take off latex gloves. Ooh, and how could I forget: Holding a fire extinguisher (though not actually using it) to learn how to "sweep the hose" and "put out" a piece of plywood with a campfire painted on it. The only mildly entertaining bit of any of these trainings is at the end of the driver's safety class when the instructor plays Frank Sinatra's "I'm Gonna Live Til I Die" while showing a collection of car crash videos he's downloaded.

Journal 11-2-08

Since we've neglected the blog a bit lately, we figured we'd enter the yearly "blog every day" contest which started yesterday. Three blogs in three days....so far so good.

Last night we went out to BJ's with the family to celebrate my grandfather's birthday as well as my own. December is too busy for everyone to get together and we all have to share a birthday dinner. This just happens to be the closest one. I got a lot of gift cards and a new biography of John Lennon that came out last week and my mom heard was really good. My mom's cousin Monica was down from San Jose to attend a memorial service this weekend, so she joined us too.

Before I had to run off to work today, we made a side trip to Best Buy to spend some of my gift cards. I got the new Guitar Hero game with a mic. I also picked up Batman Begins and The Goonies cause they were both $4.99 on dvd. I still have cards left over for another time.

Work was busy: smoking, fighting, lots of confrontations, and a kid trying to expose himself to a staff working her first day. I ended up staying 45 minutes late writing reports. I have to be back there in 8 hours so it's off to bed for now.

Fundraiser

My school is doing a fundraiser through Cherrydale. They have a wide variety of items for purchase. If you see something you would like to purchase let me know before you buy it so I can sign up your email address, that way our school gets credit for the sale.When you recieve the email from the company make sure you click on the link where it says that the school information will be automatically put in for you. The sale goes through Oct. 6th. You can look at the products at http://www.cherrydale.com/

Thanks for your support

Journal 7/2/08

I went to work in the morning, and since I got off during the worst traffic, I went to my parents house for a bit. I hung out with Brad until he had softball then I went home. Cyndi and I tried to book our vacation. There was a problem with one of the websites though, so the company is going to call us later. If all goes well, we'll be taking a cruise to Alaska leaving from Seattle on Cyndi's birthday. We've both wanted to go there for a long time, so it should be fun.

We're also hoping to make it up to Santa Cruz tomorrow night for 4th of July (it's my dad's birthday too). I haven't been there during family camp since the summer before I started at Biola. We went up there when we were first married and for our first anniversary, but not since.

Work has been more work the past couple of weeks. About half of my boys were caught smoking pot on several different occasions so we had to shut things down. They all lost their jobs and the many other extras they get in the ILP program. A lot of time has been spent with them stuck in their rooms while we are posted outside like prison guards.

Hot!

Today was too hot for me to be outside working school security today. Luckily my boss found other things that needed to be done in the office once it started to get bad and saved me from burning up. There was only one semi-big incident today, but that was right after lunch when I happened to be around. A little excitement, with no damage done to keep me on my toes.

So, what did you do at work this week?

1. Found a bag of tobacco saved up from cigarette butts off the street that a kid was saving and smoking in his room.

2. Caught a kid smoking marijuana in his class at school.

3. Nearly had to restrain a kid so he wouldn't attack a teacher, his roommate, and school security.

4. Interupted a plot by two kids to assault, kidnap, and carjack one of the female staff.

...and I still have two days to go this week!

I feel old.

Today I felt really old. At work I had to take a boy to the hospital. When I was filling out his paperwork, I found that he was born while I was at Biola. He's already had time to grow up and become a poor excuse for a criminal. I told him he obviously wasn't very good at it and he should look into something else to do.

The kid had a cast on his arm. I guess it started to itch, so he stuck a pencil down there and the end broke off and got lodged somewhere in the middle. They had to cut out a square of the cast and then patch him back up. Usually that hospital is packed with broken bones, but there were only 2 people in front of us, and both just had sprains. What is normally a 5-6 hour adventure turned into a little over an hour including travl time.

While cleaning out my saved e-mails...

I came across one that my dad sent me while I was applying for the position I am currently in.

After being interviewed by the school administration, the eager teaching prospect said: "Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning, and I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and even censor their T-shirt messages and dress habits. You want me to wage a war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons of mass destruction, and raise their self esteem.

You want me to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, how to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook, and how to apply for a job. I am to check their heads for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of anti-social behavior, make sure all students pass the state exams, even those who don't come to school regularly or complete any of their assignments.

Plus, I am to make sure that all of the students with handicaps get an equal education regardless of the extent of their mental or physical handicap. I am to communicate regularly with the parents by letter, telephone, newsletter and report card. All of this I am to do with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, a big smile AND on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps!

You want me to do all of this and then you tell me... I CAN'T PRAY?

A minute of your time

If you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, cousin, neighbor or friend of a school-age child in the state of California, please go to the link below and fill out the petition to keep Proposition 98 in place. Proposition 98 guarantees minimum funding to our public schools. Governor Schwarzenegger has asked that Proposition 98 be suspended so that he can cut 4.8 billion dollars in education funding to our schools.

California is currently ranked 46th in the nation in per-child education expenditures. The proposed cuts would move California into 50th place in the nation. The Governor's proposed cuts to education are unacceptable and he needs to be told to find another way to balance the huge deficit that our state currently faces. It should not be done at the expense of our children's futures.

Click here to sign the petition

P/T Conference

This week is minimum day schedule because we are having parent teacher conferences, everyone execpt me that is. I have to continue to teach my full day and then do my conferences afterwards. This makes for very long days and an even longer week. SO... I am going to bed and hope that as my head hits the pillow I will be asleep.

Am I wrong?

Any time one of my boys tells me that his mom is having another baby (such as today), the first thought I have is....ooh, I'll still have a job 13 years from now.

I can't stop it.

Journal 2/27/08

Today was busy at work. For the second day in a row, three people called out sick. Another one is new and was in training all day so she didn't really count. Since all eight of us are usually there Tuesday-Thursday, we schedule as much as we can during those days. I was able to get some of the big afternoon projects done in the morning, but I have no idea how they were going to manage at night. Only one person scheduled past 6pm was still coming in.

Our lunch today was the annual "Black History Month Celebration Lunch". What's the menu like for a Black History Month celebration you ask? Fried chicken, mac and cheese, cornbread, collard greens, black-eyed peas, and watermelon for dessert. The place was packed though, so maybe I'm the only one who thought it sounded a bit wrong.

Now I'm in my photo class working on some of my pictures of the week. The first one is the one I printed out. The rest just get turned in on a flash drive once we edit them. Next week's theme is landscapes which I think is one of my strong points.

(click to make bigger)

Impact

Today we had the pleasure of having an assembly called Racheal's Challenge. For those of you who do not know Rachel Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. This video will explain a little about what I experienced today.

Being in this assembly truly touched my heart and at times hearing her brother speak it was difficult to swallow. Our students could really learn from this program but we need them to be receptive and open to going against the flow of the community, their friends and for many their family.

Here is one of the quotes that really hit me when they put it up on the screen "Don't let your character change color with your environment. Find who you are and let it stay in its true colors." I surely will accept Racheal's challenge, and I challenge you to join me don't let these 13 innocent lives be in vain. A little kindness can go a long way.

You can learn more about Racheal's Challenge by clicking here.

Change

Today was our benefits fair at work. I will be dropping my medical, dental, and vision coverage as of March 1. Cyndi has a better health plan at her work so if all goes as we've been told, I should be able to be covered through her work and not miss any days of coverage. I'll be able to stay with Kaiser which is what I needed due to my ongoing blood clot treatment. The difference is that Cyndi's plan has a lower co-pay, plus they don't take anything out of her check. If I stayed on at my work it was going to go up to $80 per check. Since Cyndi is still on a year to year contract we made sure that I would still be able to get coverage through my work should she not be offered a contract for the fall. We're praying that the transition goes smoothly, but I'll be stocking up on my pills and getting my blood tested right at the end of the month just in case.

Sometimes you can't see what's coming...

Yesterday I had a new experience at work. We had a boy who was making death threats towards his new roommate because of racial issues. Then he decided he was going to A: stab and kill the roommate, B: cut his own wrists, or C: throw himself off the roof of the dorm. His staff ended up having to restrain him and take him off to the county hospital to be evaluated.

All of that happened Monday. When I came in on Tuesday morning, I found out he was still in the ER and had tried to run a few times. Another staff and I went to relieve the night staff that were there with him. Right after we got there, they took the three of us into a locked area. There was an area behind a glass wall for the psych doctors and nurses. We were in the main part of the room with about 20 other psych patients waiting to be evaluated. Most had been brought in by the police.

There were a lot bunch of beds and couches in there as well as two locked, padded rooms in the back for anyone who was acting up too much and was a threat to themself or others. During the 5 hours I was there, they had to rotate numerous people in and out of the rooms and the beds.

One lady kept getting off her bed and banging on the nurses station window to yell at them about how she wasn't a patient there and they had to let her go. She couldn't explain why she had a hospital bracelet and gown on. Eventually they had to give her a sedative, so she took a nap on a bed right behind me.

Another woman, who was also legally blind, kept pacing the room and wailing on and off. They brought her a food tray when she said she was hungry. That calmed her down for a bit. She finished everything on the tray, so they took it out for her. I guess she forgot about that because then she started screaming that they were trying to kill her by stealing all her food before she could eat any. She tried to attack someone on a bed she though was hers and when some doctors came out she grabbed someone's juice box and threw OJ all over the room. That earned her a trip to the padded room where she started ramming the window with her head. As they were dealing with that, the first lady had a seizure and flopped out of the bed she was in behind me.

Another guy was sure that everyone there was spying on him, so he went kept confronting people and even pulling the payphone away from other patients who were calling family to yell at whoever was on the other line. A doctor got cussed out for asking a woman what month or year it was and "acting like [she was] an idiot". The woman never was able to give an answer, though she did have plenty to say to everyone in the room at one time or another.

Eventually they got us out of there, and put our kid in his own room where he couldn't escape. I felt really bad for him despite what he put everyone through lately. He had a vacant look in his eyes the whole time although his questions told us he was terrified of the people in there. You could tell by talking to him that something wasn't quite right.

I don't think this will be his last time in room like that.

And no matter what I or any of the other staff do or say, it's sad to think that this is one we can't save. We can tell what the future holds for a lot of these kids, yet often we are powerless to do anything to stop it.

Sometimes you can't see what's coming. Sometimes I think it's best not to know.