Slipping in to September

September is here, and I can't tell you how much I am enjoying this school year. I feel more blessed than I have before. Now, let me clarify. It's not so much that I haven't been blessed before, I think I've had a change in the attitude of my heart and am seeing more things as blessings as opposed to tribulations. With that said, I have a couple of stories to share from the past couple of weeks - hopefully they'll bring a smile to your lips!

What day is it?
Last week I distributed permission slips to all my students. To ease the burden of turning around 20 sets of permission slips in a year, we have students complete one that applies to all FFA events all year. Clever, huh? (Thank you Mr. Fite at Safford!) My freshmen students had to turn their permission slips in to register for a conference, and their permission slip was their place holder. I only had 18 spots, and 35+ freshmen competing for those spots. The next morning I had a steady stream of students stop by to drop their forms off before school started. While this is happening, I had one student talking to his mom on the phone trying to complete the information. He is almost finished and one of the last things he has to do is print the day's date. Simple, right? He asks her, "What is today? The 32nd?" What? Huh? I turn to look at him and he totally wrote that it was August 32! I guess there are worse things than knowing that 32 comes after 31, except when it pertains to days of the month.

A slippery slope
Yesterday was my first day of SAE visits where I essentially visit the project location of each student of mine. This is probably one of the most favorite parts of my job, if not THE most favorite. A senior student of mine built his own greenhouse, yep that's right, built it. Not from a kit mind you. From his own ingenuity. He's a pretty smart kid....probably smarter than me and I don't mind admitting that. Anyway, as I'm pulling up to his house he calls me to tell me that the greenhouse flooded. I reply telling him that it is okay, and I'll still check things out. His mom was nice enough to bring me a pair of rubber boots - after wading through the soggy mess and checking out the plethora of plants he has propagated, I exit the greenhouse. My exit wasn't that graceful though because there was a sink hole that I happened to find with my left foot! I slipped and and definitely had water up to my mid thigh. It was pretty funny, especially considering that his dad and older brother were there to observe my grace. I was just thankful I didn't drop my camera!