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!

It's been a while...

Well, it's been some time since I posted. Sorry. I wanted to post on a weekly basis but I took some time away to have a surgery and then the beginning of the new semester came along and before I knew it...well, here I am, 3 weeks later.
I have had quite a bit of "down time" since my surgery. Watched T.V., did some reading, and got some sewing done...more about that later. But I have noticed a trend in the past couple of years regarding T.V. and the ads companies put out. It seems like anything is acceptable now. Many ads are just disgusting and some just make me grind my teeth.
The ad that first comes to mind is the one I have seen repeatedly for Gain Detergent. It starts with a man, Bob, getting dressed in his bedroom in the morning. He is joyous as he puts on his clean shirt, smelling it all over. The announcer comes on and says, "Bob couldn't have it much gooder..." and then the announcer goes on to tell how fresh his clothes smell, etc... Really? Gooder? Maybe it's just me, I do teach English, but don't these companies know that there is no such word as "gooder"? Please! What moron in that advertising agency, not to mention the announcer himself, the company ad exec that approved the ad, the copywriter and a host of people listening to the ad BEFORE it ever got to T.V. didn't know that there is no such word? I can hardly believe that NO ONE noticed it. Do they know how stupid it makes them sound? Do they think the American public is stupid? That we wouldn't notice? Please, again!
So. I don't buy Gain Detergent now, but if I was in the market for a new detergent I wouldn't buy for a company that assumes I am too stupid to notice the ridiculous flaw in their advertising. Judging from the fact that it has been running quite a time, they have no intention of fixing the problem.
I shudder to think it is because no one has noticed????...hmmm. Maybe I need to write a letter. It would be a "gooder" thing to do, and save my blood pressure!
BTW...as I spell checked this post the only word that came up wrong was "gooder" and there was NO suggestions...gee.

Well, I guess I CAN create a blog...

Hello!
My name is Jody and I have been talking about creating a blog for years. I have been writing for most of my life and originally wanted a place to post my writing for any one who's interested. But as the years have gone by I have branched out into other interesting parts of life and now I just want a place to , not only post some of my writing , but talk about quilting, my family, my experiences as a teacher, Jerome, my spoiled cat and anything else that comes to mind on a daily basis. You will probably see some rants, I am familiar with a soapbox, and thoughts on my past, especially people and places from my childhood.
My children have finally convinced me I can do this, all rather simply, on line with a blog. As you can see I am in the construction phase of this thing but hope to conquer the technology of it all so that others will not find it too tedious.
I hope whoever will read this will enjoy it and feel free to post comments as desired.
Welcome to my life!