Where've you been all these months?

So you're probably wondering, where's Spur been? Or actually you probably haven't been wondering but who cares. Some days I wonder where I am and have been. Before I started writing this blog tonight I looked at the date of the last entry... woah nelly it's been almost 4 months! Needless to say, time to get back in the blogger saddle. Hope you packed a lunch Alice... this one's gonna be a long one.

BABY:
First and foremost I want to talk about our sweet little baby Reese. This girl is absolutely unbelievable. Those of you who have only seen birth pictures of her will scarcely believe the little lady that's hanging out with us now. This Thursday will mark her 12 week "birthday" and man is she changing fast. Before she was born everyone kept saying, "You'd better drink it all in because they grow up SO fast." I'd heard this before but never realized just how true it is until now.

Oh the places she's going. Well not really, she can't get anywhere yet. But she is slightly less blob like when she's sitting still. Her feet and hands are constantly moving. These days she has started trying to talk alot too. It's a little eerie. I don't know why. Just think of something you're not used to hearing make language type sounds all of a sudden start saying Oooooooo. Like if my cat did that I'd be real weirded out. The baby does it and I suppose it's all part of growing up but still. We've had a long time of hearing the usual crying, farting and retching. Anything else is a little out of the ordinary.

Not only is she trying to make letter sounds, she's also started laughing and smiling constantly. A week ago or so her Gigi was over helping out. We were all standing around in the bedroom putting laundry away or something and Reese starts outright laughing. It was the craziest thing. Those of you who have kids probably remember this moment with your own and you know what I'm talking about. Anyway so she's just staring at Gigi and literally belly laughing. It was a cool moment. Unfortunately it has yet to be replicated since no one knows what an infant thinks is humorous.

As far as being tough to deal with in the normal baby ways, she really hasn't been. For the most part she doesn't cry much. She usually enjoys taking a bath. She has always slept through the night. And she just really like to make eye contact and smile. If you can't tell... we're pretty dang pleased with her.

Lately I've gotten to start feeding her. I say 'gotten to' because I am really stoked to be a part of her feeding process. Before it was all in the wife's hands and I could do little to help. Now I take on multiple feedings everyday including the 11:30 PM and the 6:30 AM. And on that note can I say, I've become a pretty big coffee fan. Off the top of my head that's all I can think of. If there's anything you want to know specifically about the babe just put it in the comments and I'll definitely add to the blog.

Next topic: Teaching
Alright so first year teacher stuff.... not so bad, at least for me. It's funny that I'm writing about this today. There's so much that has been going on today that has made me become very reflective and in turn very thankful concerning my first big year in teaching. Let me expound on this a little....

So when I look through my mind's eye and gaze back into the past, I look around the room at all the young student teachers in my cohort. So much passion, dedication, and drive to be good educators. Thinking back on all the folks that used to sit with me in that class, I can't help but think... Why me? Why am I having such a good year? Has it had it's ups and downs? Absolutely. But in the end, the hand I've been dealt is a much much sweeter one than many people.

First off let's start out with the fact that I got a job. I don't keep in touch well but I'd feel safe saying that a quarter and maybe half of our cohort didn't even get jobs as teachers.... woof. Second, where are these jobs? Many wanted to stay close to Austin, few did. Off the top of my head there's maybe a couple around here, but everyone else left... sometimes with disastrous results.

Which brings me to the fact that for whatever reason, I got the long end on a whole bunch of sticks... and it actually makes me feel really bad. You see at my school I have something that I feel is extremely important to a teacher's success, support. I have a mentor teacher who is fantastic. I plan with her, I go to her in emergencies, I can count on her for sound advice and she has been the proverbial shoulder to cry on in more than one instance. From my conversations with my friends, none of them have that. Then there's another lady I work with who takes care of making sure that students' special educational needs are met. Those of you who are teachers will understand when I say, "This lady and her IEP fulfillin ways are a God send." Without those two incredible women, I'm not sure what I would have done this year. I just find it sad that the others haven't had the opportunity to thrive that I've had.

And now nearing the end of the year, I wonder how many of us will still be teaching next year. I know some are contemplating grad school, others are being let go, and one need only search my previous blogs to see the ultimate in downtrodden school years. Obviously I'm talking about Adrien, a man who given the opportunity that I've been given may well have become teacher of the year but more importantly, would probably still be with us.

It's all just a sad thing. Folks losing sleep, losing their hair, losing their sanity all over something they at one time felt driven with a passion to do.

Anyway, this topic has really got me down so I'm moving on.

Coaching:
So this coaching deal has really taken off since last I wrote. At one time I used to wonder how any amount of money could be worth giving up my off period to take on such a lousy bunch. They were unruly, they didn't work hard, they were overall just a sorry bunch. I'm using the past tense here because I guess it was sometime around Christmas and the baby being born when I said... you know maybe these kids aint turds, maybe I've just got a shit attitude. And I did...

With that realization, I set to work on what would be the reawakening (or maybe just awakening) of our off-season program. It didn't need to be football based because half the guys I was working with played no football. It needed to be fun, challenging and engaging all at the same time. I knew if it wasn't, it would fail like everything else had. And the solution came through an exercise in alliteration that took us through every day of the week:
Marathon Monday:
This day is pretty simple. Running and more running. We run what I call a gasser which in our program I defined as starting from the inside edge of the track run across the field to the other inside edge, back then over and back again. Four trips across the field. Originally I did this when I played football. The only difference is that we used the football sidelines. Using the track edges the kids are running close to a hundred more yards per gasser. If everyone runs them and finishes through the line everytime, we run 8 of these. Then we run 8 one hundred yard sprints. It's a tough day, especially if one isn't giving much effort. Wanting to instill a team mentality, I simply don't count one if people screw around or don't do what's asked of them. Sure enough, they rally together to get the running done right.

Tire Pull Tuesday:
I had almost forgotten this game, but remembered it just in time to make it part of the new program. Any of you that read this who went to Temple will remember going to church camp. What some of you younger pups may not remember is that the games up there used to be brutally violent. One that sticks out in my mind is the one where kids raced across a field with trash cans on their heads. The kicker was that they crossed paths right in the middle with another team. So every now and again someone would get absolutely destroyed and never see it coming. Another game we played was a fantastic game called tire pull. With athletics I decided to play the game much as it had been played at camp. Split the teams into even numbers of all sizes, number them of 1-10 on each team. Call a number and whoever gets the most tires back to their side wins. It's a blast.

To be continued....