Regionals

For those who do not know, the world of college baseball has a looong post-season. And it can be slightly complicated.


Basically, there are three "rounds" if you, in fact, get past regular season and are good enough to qualify for post-season play.

Round #1 are the Regionals. I think there are 16 Regionals. Each Regional has four teams. It is a double elimination tournament, which means a team has to lose twice to be out. The winner at the end of the tournament advances to round two.


Round #2 are the Super Regionals. There are 8 Super Regionals. Each Super Regional has two teams (each a winner of their Regional). This is played as a best-of-three-series (meaning you have to win two games to win the Super Regional).


Round #3 is the College World Series in Omaha, NE. The 8 winners from the Super Regionals all travel to Omaha to battle it out for the title of College World Series Champs.


Ok, now that you are caught up on the system, Ole Miss is hosting a Regional this year (as we have the past five out of six years). Side note: we are also the SEC Champs this year! The first time in 31 years that a major Ole Miss sports team (basketball, football, baseball) has earned this title.


In our Regional are Monmouth, Missouri, Western Kentucky and us. (As I type this, Monmouth has been eliminated and Western Kentucky just beat Missouri. We've won all of our games, so I have every possible body part crossed that we can hold up and win our game today to take this Regional. If we do, we travel to Orange County for the Super Regional.)


We can usually make it to the first round, i.e. Regionals. And usually we can advance to the Super Regionals. We are still trying to make it to Omaha.

Many people think this is our year. It would be super fabulous if we did indeed make it to Omaha. This is the first official year that Richie is the head strength coach, so it would be totally awesome if we made it. It is really great that we made it this far and are the SEC Champs. My husband works soo hard, and I'm incredibly proud of him :)

Some pictures from this weekend.

Uncle Mike & Aunt Donna's grandson, aka The Chunkling

(It's his first tailgate!!)

Taking his bottle. How adorable!


Love him!



The tailgate


The Martin boys

Me & The Chunkling

Playing with the camera

How sweet :)

The final score of game 2 v. Western Kentucky-

We won!

The team post-win

Richie & Uncle Mike chatting

The dugout. We were the "visiting" team for this game (game 2 v.

Western Kentucky)

Me enjoying the game. Not the heat! The student section.

I'm Addicted

In the past six days, I've acquired

one

two

three

four

new pieces of McCarty.

Yup, addicted.

Please note the use of the word *acquired.* I did not spend money on these. I could never afford one piece of McCarty for no reason, let alone four. I used my wonderful gift certificate from my students and I had a big piece to exchange. Viola! I'm in love :)

Yay! My parents are officially moved in. Well, their stuff is anyway. And by moved in, I mean scattered every which way and crammed into every available inch.

The cat wondering why boxes are on the counter.

The other cat looking at the mess and feeling annoyed.

This chair is in the foyer. As in, you walk in the front door and the chair greets you.

We ran out of room...

The garage became the catch-all. Don't know where something goes?

Put it in the garage!

My mom needs to hurry up and get here!

You Take One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

Eh, that's always the way.

So Dailiah had to be put to sleep. Step back #1

Then my school called, and they don't have enough students for me to teach summer school. Step back #2

Sucky, sucky.

Dalilah, the happy dog in the post below, woke up on Monday paralyzed.

My parents just brought her to the vet where she received a shot of cortisone.

He said it doesn't look good.

If the shot doesn't work, she will have to be put to sleep tomorrow.

I'm devastated.

Procrastination

I should be cleaning this,

organizing here,

and washing these.

Instead I am sitting here

typing this.

Yup, procrastinating.

But you just had to see my new piece of McCarty. None of the above is as important! Isn't it wonderful? It's a chicken roaster. Love it! Thank you wonderful students!

Good bye D'ville

My parents are packing up and heading this way. And I couldn't be more excited! Hopefully they feel the same way.

Richie & I went to Georgia this weekend to help out. We drove back with the cats so my dad could just drive back with the dogs. It was actually a super easy drive. I expected howling and crying. But Richie didn't do either. ;) Neither did the cats. Thanks vet and tranquilizers!

I actually wasn't sad leaving. I guess because I never really lived in this house. Daliliah is very excited to move, because her new house doesn't have stairs for her to climb to stay with Dad. She protested not being able to come with us by taking a nap in the landscaping. See if you can find the dog. Just three more days, Lilah!

While in Georgia we stopped to visit my BFF from high school, Lisa. It was so wonderful. I felt like we picked up right where we left off. Except we talked about marriage and babies. But it still felt just as comfortable as it used to be.

After we left, I got in the car and started tearing up. It made me miss Lisa so much. With all the drama this year, it was such a happy thing and made me feel so good. God answered my prayers that day; I am truly blessed.

And tell me that Ellie is not the absolute cutest thing you've ever seen? She is also the sweetest little girl I've met. Considering her parents are superstars, I wouldn't expect any less :)

Home Improvement

In just two days, we've finished up a few unfinished projects. Well, almost. It feels good to at least take a step in the right direction.

Here, the fruits of our labor:

This is the after picture. We still have a row each way to add, but it is much better than what it was.

What it was :)




We needed to add color and make our house more inviting. So we put plants on the porch. Thank you Home Depot for giving a discount today for veterans. Richie's four years in the Navy paid off!

Ok, so this really has nothing to do with us. I'm just excited that our Magnolia tree is blooming! It means we didn't kill it :)

Exemptions

Another work vent. Bare with me...only 8 more days until summer break :)

At our middle school, if students have an A average for the year at the end of the 4th 9 weeks, they do not have to take the final exam for that class.

The cut off date was last Friday, May 8th. An A average is a 93. We can click on a button and it will show us the end of year average for each student. The final exam is worth 15% of the student's final grade. It is comprehensive. Lots of incentive to work hard all year and be exempt. Being exempt also means they don't have to come to school. Bonus (for all of us involved!)!

If one more student asks me about his or her grade, I'm going to scream.

All I heard all day was, "Can I do anything to bring up my grade?" No, ding dong. It is the end of the year!
"How close am I?" <---this was a question asked 5 times by the SAME STUDENT. He has an 88. He had an 88 on Friday. He still has an 88 today.

And my personal fav, "Why is that my grade?"

I handled this question well until the last period of the day. Then I lost it.

My response to a student: "Because you didn't turn in your homework, you talked while I was teaching, you bombed quizzes and tests, you half-worked your classwork, you didn't make up missing assignments and you had a bad attitude. Now stop asking stupid questions."

Oops.

Vent

I need to take a minute to vent about something. Yesterday I was out sick from work (side note: a student has chicken pox and I was a little worried I had caught that but fever is gone today so I think I'm good), and it worked out well because it was an easy day for the sub. My English classes were taking a practice test and my social studies class had a chapter test. Easy.

Last night I'm getting ready for bed and I get a text from one of the teachers on my team that a student did not take the SS test. Instead, he brought a note from his mom saying he was absent for the day we did the first section of the chapter. Now, before you think I'm irrational for being SO MAD at this student, realize that he missed the first section only. He was here for the rest of the chapter and the 20 announcements about the test. And for review day. Did he say once that he needed the worksheet? Nooo, he waited until the day of the test and then made his mom write a note. And he was here for the review!! I think tears are in his future because he will be taking the test when I return on Monday. Had I been there on Friday, he would have taken the test.

I can't stand irresponsible students!!

Maybe this worked in elementary school but we are in middle school people!

Thanks for letting me vent :) Only 5 more days of teaching and 14 days until I am done for the summer!!