It literally went so fast, that I have difficulty remembering everything. It is now August 4th and we are facing the starting of a new school year. Yes, I did get my job. Thank heavens. I even accidentally found out why we had to interview. While sitting in my favorite place (or Kitchen as my school friend calls it), I saw an teacher I knew a long time ago. She was in Kindergarten when I first started here in Vermilion. She has retired now and is not in very good physical shape. We chatted a minute or two. Then she asked me where I was now that Henry was closed. I told her and what I was doing. She said they put you in that job didn’t they. I told her two years ago I transferred into the position. She said, “No, now. They transferred you into that job.” Then she proceeded to tell me that she had wanted it and called my new principal and told him it was not fair to place teachers in that position. She also got in touch with her school board member and insisted that he do something about it. Well, her school board member is the one that made sure Henry was closed and made sure Ms. Charlotte was moved to Henry earlier. So you know this is not my favorite man. He pushes people around, because he is King of Erath. }:-@ (Arglor knows about Erath) I proceeded to nicely tell her, that no, I was not put in this position. I was hired to be in it. I had to reapply like anyone coming in the door and attend an interview. I got the job because I was highly qualified for the job. (Mind you I said this in a very nice way) She then proceeded to ask “When did it come open’ ” I told her at the beginning of July and it was in the paper. She said, ” I never heard anything.” I then just shrugged my shoulders. I was walking to the truck. We talked some more about herself, and I left her. So you can tell, I am thrilled the woman did not get a chance to even interview. For someone so interested, she did not pay close attention.
Well, Elaine, Beverly and I did not get to move until after the seventeenth, because of the other school could not move before then. Our school, Eaton Park, was merged with the other flooded school, Seventh Ward Elementary. We have divided up the room into three cubicles (hard to say what I really could call them.) It is not small. Much bigger than the area at Herod, but not as nice as Henry. We are putting the finishing touches of bulletin boards and etc. Hopefully, we will not disturb each other. The other room was carpeted and the sound was muted. We do know one thing. We will miss our janitors from Henry. They were with us at Herod, so we could go to them anytime we needed anything. The ones at Eaton Park do not clean well, if the school looks like it does now all year. This was the best time at Henry. The floors were beautiful and everything was clean. I had to sweep my area several times. It still does not look completely clean. (the floor that is) Needless to say we are in and getting ready.
I was a busy traveler this summer. I went to see my nephew in Arkansas with Trey. He is the very happy (in some respects) bachelor with a beautiful home. We also visited my cousins that live near him. They were the same. I just can’t help but love them, even though they get on your nerves. We definitely did not let them know that my nephew is living there anymore.
Our trip to New York was fun!! But I have made my mind up. Next year we will go at Easter. (Maybe they will have the Easter Parade they used to have back in the 1800’s at that time. hehehe) For the youngsters, I will tell you in person about that. The weather in the summer is too HOT (thank heavens we did not go in JULY!) The weather in the winter is too COLD. So we are going to try Spring. Since I can not go in the fall. I still have places to see. I think I want to try the Rickshaw rides the next time I go. And we did not get to finish my list. I just can’t do it all at one time. I really feel old when I go there. I feel good when I leave, because of all the exercise I get. Mary and David are very good host. The most awesome thing we did was watch the fourth of july firecrackers. 😀
I will be traveling back to Texas next week. Then my running around will be through. Because on the 14th I must recouncil myself to staying home. School starts for real and we have a lot of work to do this year.
There is something exciting coming up in September. My cousins from Germany are coming to the area. They will not be staying with us, but they are going to come visit the area and stay in motels. I feel so bad, that I can not offer them a place. But I look forward to their visit. (Hope we are hurricane free.)

Well, truthfully, I have been very busy for me! Yes, you know I am the laid back type, who hates to run and do things. But this summer has been rather different. I can not say that I have been working hard. Everything I have done has been fun or at least okay.
I did have one set back when our favorite friend died, Sir Frederick! He was my faithful companion. I would love to have another, but I could not go through losing one again. Too many people in my life are leaving me and the pain is hard to let go of. But I am alright. I am blessed to have two handsome and loving sons and yep, even my husband has changed for the better! (But watch out, he quit smoking again.)
We started off with a bang this summer. Trey, Amanda, and I took off for Dallas to visit Uncle Bud and Aunt Olga. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. I think Trey tolerated me well. I know that Amanda enjoyed seeing Uncle Bud and Aunt Olga and I think she enjoyed the trip.
Once here, I was asked by my friends from NOrleans if they could come see me. Boy, did I go into high speed. I had to get my little place finished so that it would look good for them. We worked hard and finished almost everything. Well, it looked good enough though. My friend and her family came and we had a wonderful time. It was great talking to them and seeing how things were in NO. I did get a phone call from her when she went home and it depressed me.I know that she is having a hard time coping with events in NO.
Then, I had to go to a workshop in Baton Rouge for the job I am not sure I will have again. Hate to be pessimistic. But I rather think negatively and get it than think positively and not get it. Make sense’ Well, if you are woman, it wouldl.
Finally, I had my friends (minus one) from school come to eat with me and see my little place. They loved it. It was great, except for poor Elaine. She kept getting phone calls from her little grandchildren.
After that we went to Houston to see my high school girlfriend. We visited overnight. She is doing okay, but worrying about her chemotherapy.
Then the fun began. I began working on my slide show for my family and friends. It is through. Now all I have to do is copy it several times. I am beginning the process now.
The next step is leaving Wednesday to go see David and Mary. I look forward to that and having fun with them. I have even been looking for things to do on the internet and I hope that we can do them. Well, I will write again when I come back. But it will be AFTER I have my interview for the job I want.

The day has come and gone. Thank heavens, it was not a day of emotional upheaval. We hugged and cried quiet tears. We worked together to get through with everything. We helped each other. Then we met at Ms. Charlotte’s camp. It was nice. We had some food and visited. I got to talk to some that I had never had time to talk to before. The best thing we had was to set a date to have a Henry Supper Club.That means that once every other month, we will meet and visit at a restaurant. This was a wonderful feeling. I do hope that everyone will try to be there. Especially those that had been together a long time.
I am fine. I leave tomorrow with Trey and will enjoy the visit with Aunt Olga and Uncle Bud. I will especially enjoy the time Trey and I will have together. He does not have long to be here close to me.

I write this with a great big sigh of relief. Yesterday was the last and very stressful day.

This is the first line I wrote at the end of the 2003-2004 school year.

This year has made me wish that I was walking out the door and never coming back. Somehow I need to find something positive to hang on to when the new year starts, or i may be looking for a new job.

This was written at the end of 2004-2005.

How should I end this year”’ Be careful what you even think of it may come true. As I sit awaiting the answer to my “big question”, I do not know what to say as the last day approaches. I look toward it with trepidation. I know that it will be very emotional, but I missed the last party and I must go to this one. I will be sure to bring “grandma’s” kleenex, so that I will be prepared.
Has it been a horrible school year’ No, we managed to hang in there thru all the evaluations and trauma of our experience. But we can not in all honesty say that we had a good year. I am proud of the way we made it and are able to still hold our head up. We feel that our children have done the very best job that they could with what they have been through.
We will be separating as a school.The Prek teachers will go to two different schools. Kindergarten teachers will go to two different schools. The second grade teachers will also go to two different schools. The third grade teachers will go to two different schools. The fourth grade are going together. (They were the best teachers in the school.) The Fifth grade teachers will go to two different schools. That leaves only the reading interventionists (me and my colleagues will be going to the same school–but do not know what we will be doing.
We now feel that “Henry Elementary” is officially closed. :'(
To be continued

One of the wonderful things about blogs or journals is that you can go back in time and compare with today. I started mine in the spring of 2004 after my mother died. I can’t believe how much my life has changed during that time. I started in May of 2004 and it goes up to today May 6th, 2006.
I sat and read about Trey and Amanda moving into Mom’s house and how we worried about her being happy in the woods. She did come to enjoy the place, but I predict she will never leave a city again. Too many unusual things happened to her while staying there that leave a bad memory for her including losing everything she had to the flood.
School changed dramatically in these years. Back in May of 2004, we had teachers bickering and complaining about things and we had not even started the program of Reading First. It was unusual for Henry teachers, but we had so many new teachers. Now people are getting along great, and are very sad that they will be leaving each other. In fact, we will not be seeing some of them anymore. As Beverly said, teacher complained about Henry, but they didn’t realize how wonderful it was. Well, I did. I loved the place the first day I entered there. I was going back to my roots. I had great excitement with retiring at the place that my grandfather had attended. It was the location of the first high school in the parish!
There is also the great closeness of those that will be moving to a different school together. We are grateful and thankful to be with each other. We had become very close during the first year of Reading First, so that makes the separation even more painful. We succeeded so well with our children’s growth last year.
This year at Herod has seen our good kids become “pains”. I saw that what I had said my first year in Henry to the principal was absolutely true. These children were different in Henry. They were taken away from the “projects” and put somewhere where they could feel good if only for a few hours. Now they will be going to a school with 700 total population. They will once again feel like they are not special. One of the best things is that I will be seeing some children that I have become attached to next year. I do hope that they can continue to behave and will not change on me. But that is ridiculous.
As a school, we were able to go to New Orleans to attend a workshop. We were able to become even closer because of this. It also made a special memory of a place some of us (especially me) had not seen since our college days. Now I can read about the beautiful places and know that they are okay, but will never be the same after the storm. Some places that we did not get to see are damaged and have not been fixed to this day. Hope is that they will fix or at least clean them up. They, of course, are at the bottom of the priority list. This is where Louisiana is in the minds of our government especially the President. We have become a thorn in his side, and if he could forget us altogether he would really be happy.
Now we come to our life outside of the job. We are doing well with each other. Oh, of course, we fuss every now and then. But we did that before and will do that for years to come. But we both live in a state of uncertainty. Will it change after the hurricane season is over’ I refuse to predict what life will be like then. I am in a stage in my life where I do not predict past the month. I hope my summer will be fun and relaxing, because I do not want to think about August. We receive the worse storms from that time on.
We have fixed up the chateaux, but there are some special things left to do. Like curtains”’ Yesterday, we went for window covering ie..blinds, shade etc. We came back only with a table and chairs for outside. Talk about odd priorities now.
That’s what life is like in Louisiana today.

Yes, we look toward this day with mixed emotions. Mostly anxiety. Not knowing what to do or what not to do. We were all there feeling the same way. The VAE was present to make sure that the board handled everything properly and with proper regard for us. Granted they were all surgary sweet. They all appeared to be solicitous of our situation. (Oh, but we know their true feelings.) I was even approached by our fearless (ahem) superintendent and asked how I was doing. My wish was to waylay him with all my grievances, but I was my “politically correct person”. Some day in the not too distant future, I will have my say and they will know my anger. It will be when I can say farewell to the school system and hopefully be young enough to enjoy myself.
We were asked what school we wish to go to. I replied Eaton Park, 1st grade, the ladies put me down. Mr. Schexneider said Kindergarten or teacher. I replied again. 1st grade. He made a statement which I knew to be putting me in my place- “we will be transferring all of these to Eaton Park in a group”. Once again, my irritation was rising. I left and walked toward Ms. Ann and asked if I had done the correct thing. She signalled me yes. I continued to my place. I promptly told Elaine to ask for the grade level she wanted. Later the principal came to me and talked to me. He stated that he was aware that I actually wanted to be an interventionist, but if it is not possible, did I want first grade for real. I told him I was highly qualified for kindergarten or first grade. And if absolutely necessary to take the classroom position, I would prefer first grade at this time. So as you can see nothing is for sure. But we did not expect it to be. Ms. Ann replied that we will be finding out toward the end of June if and how many jobs will be open for interventionists, BUT we will have to be interviewed for the positions because too many people now want the jobs. Hmmph No one wanted them when we started. Enough. Til next time.

This state of the union is not doing well at all!

Every where we turn we hit walls. We are in a serious predicament. Things in our area have gone from bad to worse. It is no longer the look of the area, though that stills seems to shock us.

We were told right after the hurricane, we could rebuild our home here at Bancker. We have a permit and we have rebuilt the chateaux. Now everywhere we turn, we are told various things are changing.

First problem:
1) If we rebuild, we must hire a contractor and we must abide by the new rules of building. i.e. raise the building or demolish and rebuild.
2) New permits will cost now 1800.00.
3) If we rebuild, we must have a contractor to rebuild, and we must hire inspectors to check on each step of the process.
4) This of course has hiked the price up greatly.
(We had considered borrowing from SBA and building a metal building that would have been much cheaper and be able to build it up having a carport underneath. These buildings can be built cheaper and hurricane proof.)
5) But with the new rules, we can not swing that much money at this stage of our life.

Second problem:
So we decided, well, lets just stay in the chateaux. Maybe later, something will come up and we may move into an inexpensive apartment. Bingo here comes the federal government again.

They are making new flood zones, and anyone in the flood zones will not be allowed to have insurance. We have already purchased both house and flood. They tell us that if we
have purchased it, it will be cancelled. Now we are not sure whether we can live here or not. We know we will have to give the little bit of money FEMA gave us back, because we would not have insurance.

Third problem:
Yesterday, we were informed that we may receive a letter within the near future telling us that the federal government will buy our land for x number of dollars. IF we do not
sell to them and we flood again. They can take the land, because of “eminent domain”. Our land could become natural wetlands.

We can not find any homes now in the area that are within our price range. Even rentals are very expensive. How would we know that we would not be able to live on the land my
family has lived on for so long’ Who would believe,that we may have to give it up or be forced to sell it to the government’ My great grandfather would be very depressed. My father would never believe it either. My little friend went looking for a small (1600 ft home). They told her she would have to pay 84 dollars a square foot to build it. She was not eligible to borrow that much money.

One thought came into our mind. We could borrow some money and buy a camper. We could park it here. If the hurricane comes, we will just hook up and leave. But do we seriously want to do this””’

We seriously DO NOT know what we are going to do. Steve laughed a minute ago and said…”You know we will be alright and it is just that we do not know what to do. But we do know one thing, what ever we do will be the wrong thing!”

According to our track record within the last few years…he is RIGHT!

We sit and wonder when will we feel relaxed. We are able to forget for a while when we are working. But life is getting too difficult. We have discussed and discussed what we should do. Then we find that life does not want us to do that. I am so tired of worrying about what I will do next month or the next week.
Life used to be more peaceful. I really did not appreciate it. I can remember complaining and thinking I had a good reason. In comparison to today, I was so wrong.

The only thing is that it is not just me. Everyone in our area seems to be hanging on and wondering what will happen next. Hurricane Season has not even started yet and yet we live with the anxiety of what will happen next. My friends keep getting hit with somethihg different in their life. If I thought it would solve the problem instead of just make me feel worse physically. I would get drunk.

Back in January I wrote “I am in a state of depression”. It didn’t go away. I even thought that if I put it down in writing that it might ease. Well, it just went into hiding. But it has come back in full force and I am so angry.

I am so TIRED of a government who thinks it is more important to build a 700 mile fence to keep people out—-instead of a levee to keep it’s citizens safer.

I am TIRED of a government who says. We are going to help you. Then turns around and rewrites what they will cover under flood damage. They give the insurance agencies the okay to say….you can not build there. Despite the fact that your family has lived there for over one hundred years.

I am TIRED of a government who tells you—you must build your house a certain way. You must pay an extremly high price to get permission to build. You must hire someone to build your house. You must pay someone to inspect the house every step of the way. You must pay someone to come tell you how high you must build. And the thought that tomorrow there may be new rules can make you go ballistic.

This is today. I know how I feel now. I hope tomorrow may be a better day.

Picture this…1:30 in the morning, SOUND ASLEEP. Phone rings ….hmmm who could that be. Sleepily you answer the phone…..there is a woman on the other end…
“Why are you calling my boyfriend, Brent’ (words something like that…remember we were sound asleep)
“I don’t know a Brent….I did not call you….” I reply
Woman: “Yes you did. You calll and told Larry that you wanted to talk to Brent the other day.”
“I don’t know Larry..” Steve from the other side of the bed says hang up.
As I am hanging up…
Woman: “I want to know what you are up to with my boyfriend.”
I dutifully hang up.
Thirty minutes later….phone rings. Steve says “Hand the phone to me!”
He proceeds to tell the woman she has the wrong number and she better stop calling. She must say something back…Steve says” No, you don’t understand….it is two o’clock in the morning. DON’T call back.”
The story is told to eldest son…he says.” You should have told the woman…Hey I am 59 years old…I do not want or need a boyfriend.”
Why didn’t I think of that…..well, did I mention I was SOUND asleep.
I think she tried calling me today while I was at work….but she has a private number.
You know, it is hard enough to wake up when you are sleeping and be coherent. But to have an argument with a lunatic is even worse. As if I had time for a boyfriend. Much less the energy.
This woman has serious problems. I hope she leaves me alone. I just will not answer if I get a call from a (no number).

We will be attending a meeting on the last Wednesday of April after school. At this time they will go down the list and be giving each person a job offer. We will received an official paper prior to this, telling everyone where we are on the seniority list. We will be offered a job in a specific school. (But we will only be told Classroom Teacher.) Since I am highly qualified and my certificate is in grades k-5, my job could be in any of these levels. It could even be a special education job (especially since they are in dire need of these type of teachers) as long as it is at the specified grade level. I was told by the supervisor that there will be jobs available in intervention. Say all they have left when they get to me is the special education class. I have to take it or go to the bottom of the list. I can after agreeing to take this class ask for a transfer, when a job I would like comes up. I have up to a year to try to get a transfer. We were already told also that before they offer any of us a job, they will allow the teachers in that school to move to a different grade or job if they want. For example, there are several teachers that are truly wanting to go into intervention.
Our supervisor told us that she is in the process of applying for a grant. She was told that she could not transfer the grant we have now to another school. Instead, she would have to go through the entire process again.She will not receive any official information from the Feds until June. She is trying to get three more schools in the program.
Therefore, I am still waiting to decide what I will do. I am not sure I will even know when the time comes.