Backing Up and Bringing it Forward

Even though it will be out of chronological order with my previous posts, I'm going to back up to January and move forward to more current information.

End of January:

Winter blahs set in about January 6th. It was a long, cold, snowy, and hard winter this year. Many people said it was very atypical; colder and more snow fell than this area has experienced in about 30 years. When we came in and heard that the winters were mild and not much snow we were thrilled. Now we think they might have lied to us to get us to accept the job and move here. That or moving and getting record breaking winters is a Broadbent curse. (That happened our first couple winters in Illinois; coldest on record and most snow on record.)

Regardless, we survived and even managed to get out to a few school boys' and girls' basketball games; in between school cancellations, game reschedules, and late starts for school.

Girl's JV Game at the half.

Same girl's game final score.

  

 
Despite only making it to a few games, we enjoyed watching the teams play and cheering them on; no matter the score. Another fun aspect was seeing so many of the students we've met by visiting their homes. As of today we've been in 41 Senior Division homes and 2 Middle Division homes with an average of 11 students in the homes, that's a good portion of the school's population!

Most of the student homes we've been in have intercom systems. Some homes use them all the time and others not very much. Majority of the student homes had some remodeling done within the last decade; however, once in awhile we have been in a home that's soon to be remodeled with older intercom systems--ones that would be straight out of the Brady Bunch:

It even has a cassette tape player! Now THAT's Old School.

February:

Sometime in the fall we saw that Kristin Chenoweth was giving a concert in Lancaster, PA. We decided to splurge and purchase tickets. Since it was a weeknight, we took the evening off and headed the 30 minutes or so away to get some dinner and then attend her concert.

Such a special night deserves...McDonald's?!?!

The concert was FABULOUS! It was wonderful to be in the audience while she performed. She was very touched by the reception she received from the audience. Her family had lived in the Lancaster area and so she felt that she was coming home. Her concert was 90 minutes with no intermission. We would have gladly listened to her for another 90 minutes with or without an intermission! Listening to a singer who is also an actor makes a huge difference; she became the character she was singing for. Such a marvelous night!

The day before the concert we were covering a boy's student home. That morning Dan headed out to scrape off and start the student van for me so I could take the boys to school and he could head to his doctor's appointment. It wasn't a big deal except that day we had a late start that was quickly creeping upon Dan's previously scheduled appointment to follow up on his back.

He'd been outside for a little while but I wasn't too concerned. When he came it he didn't look ok & told me he'd slipped on the ice and hurt his knee. He headed off to his appointment and I took the boys to school then tried to get chores checked and such before he returned from his appointment. We then went over to the worker's compensation doctor's office to have his knee checked and found out he sprained his knee and couldn't work. He walked out of the appointment with a crutch!

Having watched some others from our training group and other houseparents fly solo because of spouse's being injured, having a baby, or surgery, I wasn't thrilled by the prospects of me flying solo. Thankfully he was out only 4 weeks and I survived the time ok. It was strange to work without my spouse for that time. We had been together all the time and to suddenly not have him with me was odd. I even went to a couple student homes he's never been to which is strange too. But we survived and are stronger because of it. (Yea, whatever.)

We've seen the following on bookshelves in more than one student home:

Whenever we see it, it just puts a smile on our faces. We can't proselytize but we look for this wherever we go.

Before Dan returned to work there was a large drug bust on campus. When the Home Live Administrators learn about drugs on campus, some of the students might be immediately terminated from the school (if they are selling or the middleman). Those who use or purchase might be spared expelling but they are on detention. The Home Life Administrators will often go search a room to try and find the contraband items. One of the homes I was helping had a student who's room was searched. This is what it looked like when the adults finished searching for the drugs:

Hopefully that left no doubt that the administration doesn't take drug use lightly. The student had to clean everything up. Lucky for him, he turned in all he had and wasn't hiding any in his room. Some other students weren't so lucky. Wish we could say it's the last we'll have of that problem, but we're not living in a perfect society.

And with that, I think I'm up to March!