Stressful Week, Oct. 16th

Today is the last day of the first quarter. I can't believe I am 25% through the year. It has flown by. This week was very, very, busy due to a ton of tests. We are all trying to get the last stuff in before the deadline. Sunday and next week we'll have to grade everything and get the grades done. I'm a little nervous, but I think they students should do ok with their grade. I calculated Bible and only one guy is failing who has been here the whole time. It 100% his fault. On the bright side, he has started trying of late and got a couple Cs on tests, which is a huge improvement from the 20% stuff he used to come in with. I still have one guy that get's those grades. Today he got 3 out of 24 points on a test. The other problem is he has missed weeks of class. Honestly, he doesn't learn much more in class than if he sits at home. He just sits and stares into space or sleeps in my class. I try not to let him do that.

All week the surf has been really small and choppy. On top of that, the tides have been off for us to go out. Suddenly, on Thursday it was firing again. I looked out at 2:00, an hour before school is over, and one teacher and one sub/maintenance guy are already out there. I had to stay with my kids because that day Katrina didn't give art because she was busy covering for one of the guys out surfing. It was killing me until I could finally get out there.

I paddled out and got really lucky with a lull right when I went out. The sets were HUGE and barreling nicely. I have two pictures on Facebook that show how big the waves and tubes were that day. It was crazy. I only took off on one wave. I stayed too high because Dameon was right there and I didn't want to hit him. Later he said he was waiting to see what I would do and told me to come right for him next time. He's really good at duck diving. I didn't even think about who was there, I was just trying to survive. I made it a little ways and got pitched over the lip, went down almost to the reef, and tumbled in the "washing machine." Fortunately, it was really deep and I didn't hit the reef, but I got held down about 20 seconds. Despite all this, I the sickest surfing picture of my life. It's on Facebook. Right now it's my background for my computer. Everytime I look at it I have to stop and just shake my head. It's clear the wave is double over head, or about 12 feet tall, and I'm under the lip, but really high. So sick.

This morning I brought my computer to class and showed all my kids the pictures. They were super stoked about it. After the three tests today, we opened the letters from my mother's 6th grade class. They liked them a lot and wrote some letters back. That was really cool. It's so nice to have Friday and after that Sabbath.