End of Year (school year, that is)

It is quickly approaching: the end of the school year 2010-2011. I know I haven't posted since January. I am a poor blogger. It's not that I haven't had anything to say; I just haven't put it down in print. I teach high school, if you didn't know. With so many cuts to our budgets here in California, it has been very scary to be in education these last couple of years. This is the first year that I have not received a pink slip telling me to not count on a job come Auguest, which is when our new school year begins.It was not because they are not handing out pink slips, they did, but I am no longer a temporary teacher in my district. Last year I got pushed, as we say, to Probationary status and when I signed my contract last month I was given the status of Permanent, which means I received Tenure. I am not sure that it allows me to totally feel secure but at least I am not on the bottom of the list of last employed, so I will not be the first one to be let go if they go deep into the "infrastucture," or what they call RIFFING (Reduction in Faculty).
Anyway...enough of that. The end of the school year brings about the beginning of summer vacation. Summer is not as long as it used to be. When I was in grade school and even when I was in high school, we got out of school in early June and didn't go back to school until after Labor Day. So we had almost three whole months to enjoy. I find that in the spring I start formulating a list of things I want to do during the summer; all those things I have not given myself time to get done during the school year.
And of course, there is always a trip to take during the time off. We are planning a 10 day trip to Arizona and New Mexico.
This year I want to work on photos. I have two large Rubbermaid tubs of pictures plus misc. albums (all half or less full) hanging around. At least I have tried to put them in one place! But I really need to go through and decide what to keep and what to toss. I want to build albums to give to each of my children. and I want to go through and toss pictures that have absolutely no bearing on ANYTHING. I inherited a bunch of albums from my mom and dad and there are a ton of pictures in them of people at different functions they went to and clubs they were involved in and such. I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE! And both parents are dead now so I will never know.
I also have made this year the "year of the quilts to friends." So those are on-going projects. I hope to work on a couple of quilts this summer.
My husband and I have been working on cleaning and down-sizing STUFF. It is amazing how much STUFF two people acquire over the years. So I am hoping to continue that process.
Hope seems to be playing a big part here, huh?
I will try to be a better blogger. I notice on the blogs I follw they don't always write long posts and maybe that is the secret. I'll try that and hopefully you will hear from me more often.
Summer...here I come!