Just like the old days...except different

So, I took my kiddos to an FFA contest. On the way down there we picked up my mom -- she still loves being the FFA Mom chaperone, except this time she's the teacher's chaperone, not the kids! :) We had dinner with my dad...which my students absolutely had a good time with! he's such a practical jokester...which made my kids laugh!


I had a Nursery/Landscape team and a Floriculture team. The nursery/landscape team does plant ID & a test over plants used in landscaping. The floriculture team does plant ID & a test over plants used in floral design. My biggest interest in my floriculture team. It's such an EASY contest and my kids are very dedicated to it. I love nursery/landscape also, but that contest is much harder. Floriculture gets plants that are ready to be put in an arrangement, while nursery/landscape gets sticks and twigs sometimes. It drives me crazy because most of the time, like the kids, I don't know what they are either! If you look at the picture of the tree, can you tell me what it is? If you guessed Bald Cypress, you're right! (I only know this, because I remember taking this picture!) So needless to say, my nursery/landscape girls had a rough day yesterday. My floriculture girls on the other hand did great! Three of these girls were on the team last year, we had one new one! So, my floriculture girls placed 3rd out of 36 teams! I WAS SOOOOOOOO EXCITED! They did such a great job, and I'm an extremely proud teacher!


What made this day even better was that my brother and sister-in-law were there. (Remember, my mom is with me, I've already seen my dad, and now I've got Jayson & Annette.) It was a family affair, what can I say? This was the first time that my mom & I have ever seen Jayson drive a bus, which we laughed forever about. It was always weird seeing us drive a school vehicle, but now a school bus...and not only was a it a bus, but it was a short bus. How appropriate!!!! :) So, I've also added a view pictures for your viewing pleasure. My favorite one is him with his kids at the very end of this blog.

So it was just like the old days, going to FFA contests with mom in tow, except this time we were the teachers, not the students. We drove the ag. truck/bus, instead of just riding in it. We train the teams, we're not on the team. So it was just like the old days....except different. :)


And finally, this week Kurt asked me a very important question. "What would it take for me to get my teaching certificate?" I'm sure many of you are confused on why I called that an "important" question. With his current job, he does get vacation days. But if he was a teacher, we would have the same hours, the same holidays, and the summer off---TOGETHER! I think this is going through his head for when we have children, because otherwise, I feel like he would miss a lot of the good times with our kids, if he wasn't a teacher. Being a teacher is a very flexible job with GREAT benefits. So, we don't get paid all that great (well some of us do make good money, but not me) -- but how many other jobs allow you to have atleast 6 weeks consecutively off. I say 6 weeks, because that's really all I get because of FFA stuff. Our contracts are longer than a normal teacher's....but we also get compensated for it, so it works out. So hopefully, one day he'll decide that's what he wants to do.