Cherry Blossom Candy Leaf

Guess who's writing this? The Rotary Club's Teacher of the Year! That's right. Someone elected me as the teacher of the year at our school site. When my friend Kari announced it at the staff meeting, I was shocked to shit! I wanted to say, "No one must have voted," but as my friend has told me, all negative thoughts must be dismissed and so I cancelled it. I guess it doesn't really matter how many people voted. I don't really know what that award means, but it was cool to hear my name.

On another note, Ben's mom has been gone for a month tomorrow. It is unbelievable still. We constantly relive the moments of the past few months and we don't really understand how we got here. Ben goes to the cemetary every day and says, "I want my mom, now." It's been strange trying to figure out how to be a family without Marilyn, but we are trying to continue with the dinners and such. We put on a stiff upper lip and go on.

Grandma will be 90 on Monday and she has a busy week of lunches and dinners planned. She wanted to have an open house, but we have not finished the bathroom since Ben fractured his wrist on the night before his mom's funeral. He is currently wearing a cast.

On Friday night we are heading out to Dana Point. Sasha's dad has a timeshare at a resort and he is unable to make it. I guess it must have been too late to trade it in. Unfortunately, we can't go for the whole week. I'm still in school and we have missed some days recently when Marilyn died. We are looking forward to the getaway. My last day of school is next Thursday and I have mixed emotions about it. I am truly excited about the summer. However, I have had such a wonderful class this year and I know what's coming up for me next year, so I'm a little worried. I have tentatively been assigned 5th grade again so I will be having my friend Kari's class of "red dots". Red dot is code for "problem". She will be having the 4th/5th split, and one year with some of these future fifth graders is more than enough for her. I leave for Alaska on the Monday morning after Father's Day. Sasha and I will be taking a ferry boat from Ketchikan to Juneau for a 10 day tour. In July, Ben and I will be heading to the Czech Republic. In addition, I am scheduled for 2 1/2 weeks of professional development. I don't know how to break it to Grandma since she has my August planned out with trips to the bank, etc., She's the only person I know to plan errands 4-5 months in advance. The days I am not vacationing/staff developing, I will be here with her. I don't know what to say about that.

Aside from this, my little brother Danny has made a skate video. Here is the trailer. "DCT" stands for Danny, Connor, and Tyler.