In January I had an unpleasant incident with a student coming up behind me in the bathroom. I was charged by the county, the charges were dismissed, the state board of teaching's investigation ruled that I was within my rights to defend myself as I did and the school basically let me out to dry. I retired from teaching at the Litchfield School District on November 30 after nearly 20 years as a High School teacher and over 25 years as an educator.
In some ways I'm happy I got out (read "Lock downs, school shootings, bad students"), but in many ways I will miss the old job, the good students and my colleagues at school.
I took a job with Minnesota Rubber here in town. I work the 2nd shift weekdays from 2:30pm-11:15pm. I am in the medical inspection area; checking, cleaning and repairing the medical parts they make. For now 2nd shift works well because I can take care of Quinn in the morning then bring her to Karen's office for the last 1.5 hours of the day. I'm also looking forward to the summer when I can be with the kids every morning.
Our pastor asked Karen to take on the full time Director of Religious Education position, cutting that from 1.5 positions to a single full time position. She's organized enough to get it all done but she really does work the hours of 1.5 people. Sure wish she was paid hourly!
Drew, our oldest is a teenager now. At 13 he's still enjoyable but we see a little of that rebelliousness coming out periodically. He really is a good kid though. He's super responsible and a great babysitter. He's enjoying the swimming season again this year and has improved his times a lot since last year.
Theo is 11 now and in 6th grade at our middle school. He took up the clarinet and is surprisingly musical. He likes to play his clarinet songs on the piano when Anissa isn't practicing.
Anissa, 9 years old, is doing well on the piano and practices a lot. It's nice to have piano music in the house. Especially when it's the seasonal Christmas songs lately. She's an A student and loves reading. in fact, she devoured an entire "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" book today.
Therese, 7, is our singer. She did so well at Philip's Christmas concert. There are a few kids you can hear better than the rest at those concerts and Therese is always one of them. I can't wait to see that talent develop as she gets older.
Quinn is also a musical person. She loves to sing and may be even better than Therese. She does have better pitch than Therese did at 4 years old. And she loves to play with playdoh in my studio while I work on my own projects and commissions.
And finally, coming back to the "traumatic" note again: We took a vacation to Silver Bay and Duluth this summer during a little rainy period. Little did we know it was going to wash out our vacation. It took us 10 hours to get home with all the detours and flooding. (It's usually a 3 hour drive.) You can see pictures and read more about it by clicking here.
As I said, we can still smile and that's because we trust that God will lead us through our lives as he has in the past. We really have been very blessed and wish all of you an equal share in the blessings God lavishes on us.