SHEs Organized

Harriet...
I have always felt a great responsibily for keeping my students safe and out of harms way. Probably more so than most teachers. In addition to the normally required lockdowns I tried to find the strength and weakness with in my own classroom. All of my classes practiced what we would do should a shooter be within our school. Filing cabinets were placed by my door so they could be used to barricade it. I kept emergency water and food, flashlights and batteries....I worked in a windowless room. I explained we could not open the door for anyone until we had proof of who was on the other side.

I took great pride knowing I would keep my kids as safe and protect them as if they were my own. Only once did I refuse to not do the duty I was asked to do... That was to check lockers to look for bombs. I told my principal I would be glad to die for my students, but searching for bombs in students lockers was not written in my job description.

We have one resourse officer that we share a few days of the week.'we also have two security officers who areunarmed on our campus. However last year a person was riding around on a bike on our campus. There were volleyball and baseball games going on after school. This guy was seen with a gun tucked in his back waist band. School security immediately call 911 to report the incident. She was told it was not an emergency and she needed to call the non- emergency police number. 45 mintute later the police showed up. The school administration tried to keep this all quiet. I found out because the security gal was a friend of mine who reported the incident and couldnt believe how this had been handled.

I know what you mean, Cowinkie.
Our school is not the best it could be in this department, either.
Personally, I agree that the resource officer should be armed, principal & other administrators should be armed, and ROTC instructors should be armed. DH thinks ALL teachers should be trained & armed. Personally, I do not want that responsibility, but OTOH... maybe that is what our world is coming to.
I definitely feel that the saying is true, if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. I mean, if a person is intent on committing MURDER, which of course is against the law... is this person going to be deterred by having to go outside the law to obtain a weapon???

I am grading papers.

I am glad this is going to be a relatively short week. Out early Thursday & Friday.

Off to bed. Dishes are done, the one load of laundry for today is done and I'm recording two more episodes of Downton Abbey. So I'll be 5 or 6 behind by tomorrow morning.

Did nothing really useful towards Christmas this evening. I had meant to put up the tree but got overwhelmed with tiredness.

Got everything put away except the clean laundry.


I even cleaned the bathroom. I did that because Mike finally moved the bucket of salt water to were it belongs. (It's used to top up the 2 fish tanks when the water in the tanks evaporates.) I kind of "nagged" about it earlier today. Plus I sort of "mentioned" it a few days ago.

So the house looks a lot better for when the world ends this coming Friday... (Mike believes that. I don't.)

Edited to add... put away all the clean socks/underwear/swimsuits.

Hello. I am barely functioning right now, but came to say hi!
Dee, very happy for you that ddil's tests were good.
(MT) I can't seem to lose weight either, and I had such hopes things would be different once my thyroid was regulated.
Twins, it is very nice to read how your relationship with your DD has improved.

Well, I put my best self forward today and did amazingly well today. First was church, then DH sent me shopping for Christmas gifts for the gift exchange with the teen-agers today. We didn't know about it until today.

I came home to a messy house and all those people coming, so from noon to 6:00 I cleaned, put away a mountain of stuff, vacuumed, mopped, scrubbed bathrooms........... and it all looked wonderful.

I thought while the teen group was here I would write our Christmas cards or something, ha,ha no. I tended to the kitchen (parents who were helping had no idea where my pots were etc. etc.) and we ran out of room on the porch so I put up extra tables, fetched he tableclothes; moved the furniture around in the living room since the corner where the rocker is was too hot from the fireplace going. And it went on and on till 8:00 when they wrapped things up and started going home.

They had 30 kids signed up. We got over 50. Someone counted 60. At one point they took them ALL in a truck with trailer/hay Christmas caroling along with our music director and his guitar. They knocked on doors and commenced to singing carols. Said people were pleasantly surprised by it all. We could hear them 2 streets away.

I did most of the dishes (cookie platters, etc.) and thankfully one of the ladies broom swept the floor. I ran around with the mop after they all left.

Feel like a truck ran me over right now. But at least the house is picked up and fairly clean. Oh my goodness. Wow. Wow. I never wanted to get involved in all this anyway, but I did, and oh boy, I'll be glad if it's a long time till it happens again, if ever.

More busy days since I last posted, but I miss not saying hello to everyone.

We spent most of the day on Thursday putting up lights outside. It's been a few years since dh has done this, but we decided we wanted to decorate outside also. I thought it better if I did the lights on the roof as I am a little steadier on the ladder. Friday we started our shopping; tomorrow, hopefully we will be able to get most of it done. Today was a desk day, getting bills paid and papers filed.

Congratulations to OKay & dfamily for dnephew's birth. And happy birthday to dgd2.
Dee, I'm happy for your ddil for a good 3 year checkup.
Scattered, good luck on your new job. Sorry to hear about the break in, though. ((hugs)).
Kathryn, ((hugs)) for dd and dsil also, for the break in they've had.

I did not hear about CT until late Friday afternoon. My ddil#1's dbrother and his family live about 40 minutes from Newtown, Ct. It is so sad and reminded me of what happened at our high school here in 1988. A teacher and an asst. principal were injured and another asst. principal was killed when two students brought guns to school. My oldest dson was there in school that day and he knew at least one of the students involved. I believe all our schools in this county have at least 1 armed police officer on duty as a resource officer.

Dove, I watched your flash mob link and I couldn't help but sing along! Kathryn, that is a lovely prayer you had for church this morning!

Wow, Harmony, that was a large group you had. I'll bet the singing was lovely.

Time to turn the lights off and get ready to start a new week. It will be a busy one for me and I think most everyone here!