It's a Miracle

School is winding down and I have found out that I will be at the same two schools next year! Yeah, only having to learn a few new students instead of a whole new school, now that is a blessing from God! I hope everyone enjoys their summer, I know I am looking forward to mine. I get to go with my aunt & uncle in a cruise in the first full day in Oregon. It has been a long time since I was in the cruise and not just watching from the sidelines. Junction Function http://www.function4junction.com/2005-winners.htm

My Mother's Daughter

What a way to start off Sunday. I locked myself out of the house and the person with my spare key is camping. So let's just say that I figured out a way to break into my own house. It was pretty comical. I get to see all these people soon!!

God Given

What a wonderful birthday! School went well and we had a beautiful day for lots of water fun. Afterwards the church had a softball game which they let me play with them. It was loads of exercise and a W in our record book. Since there were 3 of us celebrating birthdays within these two days we joined together for a bar-b-q in the park. It rained on us but there was a covered area and since I was Oregon born & raised I was playing in it. We threw the softball around some more and enjoyed the equipment from our beach party. The boys grilled up some meat and there were plenty of snacks with a lot of laughs. To top off the night and start Cory's birthday we went to the midnight showing of X-Men 3. It was good other than the drunks who were sitting right behind us talking through the whole movie. Oh, wait let me rephrase that, yelling through the whole movie.

Peacefully 27!

Count Down is On!

4, 3, 2, 1 or 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! The first is the days of school left and the second is the days before I'm in Oregon. It actually will fall on the same day but we have the weekend so it adds a little more to the last. I can't wait. Everybody is itching to get out of school. As for what plans are for those days, cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning.

Riddles

What does red, short, and racoon eyes have in common?

ME!

After being outside the last couple of days, all day long, I have aquired a tan with a tinge of red, I've always been short and because of my sunglasses, I have racoon eyes.

It is geting close to the end of the year and I can't wait! It has been fun having the beach party theme in class and the students that I coached in track did really well but I am ready to visit Oregon. I am also ready to have a break from the screaming and tattling.

A few of the aides in school decided to chase me through the school to sing happy birthday to me, I wasn't safe anywhere. Tonight we have a softball game for the church league and then we are having a bar-b-q at one of the local parks. One of the guys from church shares my birthday and Cory's is tomorrow so we are throwing a bash together. I'm looking forward to it. I'm taking the beach fun from school so we can enjoy it tonight too. There should be water involved!

Oregon friends and family, see you soon!!!!!

Beach Days

So I was getting sick of telling my kids that even though we were in the 90s they need to be wearing tennisshoes for gym. The solution, lets have a beach theme this week. On Tuesday we had an Oregon Beach day because it was windy, cold, and cloudy. Today we are having a hot beach day so I have added the activity of a water balloon toss. The kids are loving it and I'm getting plenty of sun. The beach theme continues onto tomorrow where it could be cold and windy again with a 30% chance of rain. We are in our thunderstorm season again I'm just waiting for the big one to come through, I love watching them from my window or porch.

2/3rds

Well, we are 2/3rds of the way through with our new track program. We have one more meet, the big city meet. The good news is there can't be any changes to the line ups! The bad news, 1 more 3 hour night right after school. The meets have gone pretty well, and 19 of my students made it to the city meet. I am excited to actually get to watch the events on Wednesday. The other meets I have been in the school with the computer and only caught peeks at different events.

Life on Your Own

I added another new piece of equipment to my life. Nope, sorry, it's not a boyfriend. It's a lawn mower. I was tired of getting more of a workout pushing my landlord's mower (which is supposed to be self-propeled) then working all day. I was done with my lawn in less then a half hour and didn't have to rake after either. It was so nice. I realized as we were loading it in my explorer that last year I had bought myself a lawn swing and rocking chair for Mother's day and this year I got my lawn mower. The same guy loaded it for me too but this time I didn't make Adam help me.

Flowers for Mama

Here are some flowers for all of the moms in my life! Sorry, they are real but I couldn't send them.

Have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Mom aka Mama

with mother's day coming up I wanted to write a little tribute to my wonderfully, fabulous, most awesome mama. I love my mama dearly and know that no matter what, I can turn to her and she will be there. she has had many struggles in life and keeps going, setting a good example for me and my sisters. did I mention I love her dearly. I miss her since I live in MT and she is still in Oregon, I can't wait to see her in June. my mama is my hero, even if I'm the only one who calls her mama.

Just Peachy...

What a day! After lunch one of my students decided to throw up all over his test. Let's just say I need to remind him to chew his food better, including the peaches he had for lunch. So far God has spared me from seeing my students in the actual event, keeping me, a sympathetic puker, from joining in the not so fun.

Another student in the same class decided I needed to take a bath so he hit my water bottle with a ball as I attempted to take a drink. It worked, the H2O went all over my sweatshirt and the gym floor. This time instead of calling the mop brigade, as I did with the first student, I had the boy go get paper towels for me.

On top of all of this I found out that the district is requiring us to enter our grades for this semester on a program we have never used or even seen. We have a mandatory 2 hour meeting tomorrow that we just found out about on Monday. Welcome to a teacher's life...just peachy.

A Little Piece of Heaven

Okay so when I say out in the middle of nowhere, this is what I mean. This is a view from the Dustins porch.

A Wonder of God

Okay, so many of you are wondering who the Dustins are. They are a family I knew of in Oregon but didn't really know. One of their sons is a really good friend to my cousin and they moved to Whitefish a year before I moved to Great Falls. We didn't really connect until last August when my aunt, uncle, and cousins came up to visit. I went to the Dustins to see my family and gained a whole new family. They are so awesome, they took me in like a daughter/sister and have become my family away from my Oregon family. They have reintroduced me to many things, eating a full meal (and not something from the microwave), four wheeling, and something I miss Uncle Darrell for, farting. They say laughter is the best medicine and it is a good thing because I laugh a lot when around them. I don't have pictures at this time but am working on it.

Sights, Sounds, & Smells

Moose (sight), farts (sound), and well, we don't need to be repetitive (smells) :)~ Yep you guessed it, I spent a weekend with the Dustins from Whitefish. We went to Missoula to celebrate Perry's 21st birthday. It was quite eventful, I was up Sat. at 6:45 am and didn't go to bed until 2:oo am Sun. Nope no nap was allowed. While there I went shopping with Betty while the boys went out and shot Perry's new SKS. Went to several meals with the whole fam and watched Perry open his gifts. After dinner we caught MIII. It was good, Perry had fun watching me jump or bury my head. At midnight the boys (Cameron and friends) took Perry and I out to show us downtown. Okay so the joke that says a guy walked into a bar and said ouch, I now completely understand. It really was a real bar and he either was smashed between somebody or had his toes stepped on. I don't know how many times it happened to me. Thank God the guys are tall and easy to spot in crowds, because lets face it I'm not. We had a blast but I remember why I don't do things like that on a regular basis, too many people in too small of a space. Okay so the moose comes in on my way home. About half way home there was a moose on the side. I pulled over and took pictures but unfortunately the camera I have is cheap and they didn't turn out well. Same with the pictures of the Dustin men.

Baby Fix

Benjamin Dutkevitch, Duke & Cheryl's baby.

A New Era

A new era has come, I have a cell phone and now a blog. I'm hoping this will help me keep up with those of you back in Oregon and a few other states. This will hopefully give you a little peek see into my life more than e-mail does.

Uh...Gym Teacher

I no longer have a name, just a title. It is that time of year when kids have an increasing amount of brain farts and forget the name they have called me for a year and a half. Unfortunately I forget it also, at least until they remember or find somebody who does and then I become Miss Jenkins...m.o.k.a. (more often known as) Uh...gym teacher?