Ups and downs.

There are times when I feel like I just posted and then I go and check and it has been several days! Where does the time go?

I have been working more and more and it is a blessing as Fito lost his job on Monday.

He came home and told me, but I thought he was joking at first, then I realized by the look in his eyes that he was serious.

There have been lots of student and parent complaints that he is too hard, gives too much work, and so forth. The principal said he was tired of fielding so many complaints and let him go.

We have several months to find a new job and actually, I think he might try a different field. Teaching at High School is becoming more difficult each year. I could go on for hours about what is wrong with Public Education.

The bigger and more bureaucratic the system becomes, the worse it gets. And every year they add more regulations, more paper work, more red tape, and then they wonder why there is less teaching going on.

Not to mention that teachers have students with mental problems, behavior problems, learning disabilities, and so forth main-streamed into their classes and they are told they must care for all these students but keep producing the same level of teaching.

Of course, it would be easier to teach if the different groups were separated out and classed according to needs, but that would be politically incorrect so we keep everyone together and pretend they are all the same smart, the same in comprehension, the same in maturity...

Blah, blah, blah...

Why not extend the Pell Grant and bring it down to the high school level. The money follows the student. If they want to switch schools severals times or switch majors (i.e., tech school versus traditional or vocational). Great! If it takes a student 5 or 7 or more years to finish...okay.

They keep receiving their money (just the same as college) as long as they make satisfactory academic progress and keep attending.

Then the schools can compete for the Pell Grant dollars.

Enough of that mess.

Here are some pictures of a new puppy we got last night:

As you can see, he is in Maria's pocket so you can see how small he is. He is a cute little ball of fluff.

Elizabeth, I think has decided on Fluffy (it is her dog...long story) but I like Ace and Zues which were also suggested last night.

I canned 9 quarts and 13 pints of Salsa. On Sunday, I pulled all the tomatoes, bell peppers, and jalapenos that were left in the freezer out and cooked them for several hours.

Monday after work, I ran them through the blender and then cooked it again, but added onion, garlic, hot sauce, vinegar, sugar, and salt.

Tuesday, I added 2 bundles of fresh cilantro I ran through the processor, then put the salsa in the jars and processed them.

I cooked Beef Stroganoff and mashed potatoes yesterday.

Monday, I bought them Mc Donald's.

Sunday, I cooked all day and we ate like queens and kings. I also gave a talk on Sunday that I believe went very well.

I was on the computer all day on Saturday and I can't even remember Friday except I worked and my sister Shannon came by (on her way back to Nebraska) and we had a nice visit with my mom.