Happy Administrative Professionals Day

Yesterday was the day formerly known as "Secretary's Day", a day set aside to honor "professionals" such as myself. The first call I took at 7:05 a.m. was a parent calling to excuse her sick child. We said goodbye and when I picked up the next call a few seconds later, it was the same parent, telling me her child wanted her to call back and wish me a happy administrative professional's day! I thought that was sweet and I felt so warm and fuzzy about my wonderful job!

The next call I received using my headset a few minutes later while I was still in the next room making coffee. This mother was very angry and immediately demanded to know why we hadn't sent a flyer home with her child to let her know that the previous day was spring picture day. I told her I was sorry she hadn't received one, we had sent them out to each classroom to go home with children. She raged on, saying she had called the school numerous times and no one had ever mentioned that spring picture day was coming up. I was a little surprised that she would think we would do that and may have stuttered a bit trying to come up with a polite answer. "Are you brain dead?" she inquired angrily. I said I was sorry, but we receive many calls all day long and didn't mention spring pictures to anyone who called. She was still demanding to know why she hadn't been told, so I calmly and slowly listed our methods of getting information out - we have school calendars available in the office and online, it's on our reader board, we announce it each day to the students, we try to send flyers out. She rudely interrupted me to say loudly, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk to me like I'm a two-year-old!" and then hung up on me. Was I ever glad! Is this what an administrative professional does?

We had a few hints that something interesting was planned for the three of us administrative professionals at lunch time. About 11:20 our principal told us we would be leaving the building in 10 minutes to go out to lunch. When we asked who was covering the office, she looked shocked. She had forgotten that little piece. Of course, it's only the busiest time of the day, because the kids are going to lunch, taking meds, etc. at that time. But I got busy and found the one person in the building who could maybe handle most of it.

A few minutes later amid the commotion of kids coming in to deposit money and take care of other business, three firemen showed up and announced they were taking us to lunch in a fire engine. They presented us with Albany Fire Department hats and mugs. After much more commotion, laughter and picture taking, we were seated in the fire engine, fitted with headsets so we could talk to each other, and took off, waving at the kids and teachers waving from the windows in classrooms as well as some who came outside.

They drove us around downtown a little bit, then pulled up in front of Wyatt's on First Street. With all the people in the businesses nearby gawking out the windows, we disembarked, thanked them for the ride, and gratefully went inside for a quiet lunch with our principal, who was kind enough to give us a ride back to school afterward.

All day a constant stream of kids bringing handmade cards and teachers bringing candy, flowers, plants and cards came through our office. My desk was piled so full of stuff there was no room for me to work. There was no time to work anyway, with all the kindness and appreciation that was bestowed upon us. Wow.


Today was a little more normal, with a few more gifts from people who weren't clued in until they got here yesterday about the importance of the day. Had another interesting call this morning from someone saying, "This is Susan Green, Sam Green's mother. Sam will be in at noon today because he has an appointment." (Names changed to protect the guilty.) I said, "Is this really Sam's mother? You sound exactly like Sam." (Knowing full well that it certainly was Sam.) "Oh, no, this is Susan." "Ok, Susan, please be sure to bring a doctor's note with you when you bring Sam in." Sam actually arrived at 9:30. I know him well because he is frequently tardy. (And he wrote the nicest things on the card he gave me the day before!) I say, "Sam, are you ready to admit that it was really you on the phone this morning?" He says,with a charming grin, "Yes, it was me, but my mom asked me to make the call for her." "Well, Sam, that is really not ok. Do you have a doctor's note?" "No, he didn't give me one." "Well, Sam, I'm afraid I'm going to have to talk to your mom about this." I called his mom and she was shocked and appalled. As far as she knew he had left for school that morning. I told her I would have her son meet with the assistant principal about the skip and she said she could come right down and sit in on it. Poor little Sam will be at Saturday School this weekend, because he was hanging out with a friend who was going with his dad to "Take your child to work day". (A much less important holiday than the one the day before.)


A little later we had to call 911 after a student fell off the monkey bars, hitting his head and possibly having a seizure. (His mother brought him back later to let us know he was fine.) After the ambulance took him to the hospital, my professional partner left for the hospital also because her daughter was there in labor. So my piles grew larger today. Fortunately, tomorrow is a no-kid day (grading/staff development) so maybe I can get a bit caught up.


I am blessed to have a job in a middle school office, working with terrific people and having very few dull moments!

Saturday Night Adventures

This evening Eric and Molly came by on their way to meet friends for dinner before the Jr-Sr Prom, the first prom they've ever gone to. We had just enough time to snap a few photos before we all had to leave. They looked incredible.

I rarely, make that never, have the opportunity to stand next to Eric when he's well dressed, so I handed the camera to Nick and asked him to take one to document this momentous occasion.

Nick and I then went to the wedding of Nathan Riley's twin sister Katy. It was beautiful, and we enjoyed visiting with Nathan and his wife Kari. They are very excited about how God is working in Craig's life and say they have been very blessed to be a part of it. I was happy to be able to thank them in person for literally being the hands and feet of Jesus to Craig. What a joy for my son to have friends who love him so much.

After the wedding I took Nick out to eat at Applebees. We tried to do this Friday night after his baseball game but didn't have the desire to wait in the long line. I felt he deserved some sort of compensation for his hard work and great attitude catching in a lopsided game which we lost badly -(13-2 after five innings). He caught four of those very long innings for pitchers who were having a difficult time, which meant a lot of diving and jumping and running for wild pitches, as well as many throws to second and third.

At Applebees, an elderly man was sitting alone at a table caddy-corner from us. When I walked by him he reached out to me and said something like, "Do I recognize you?" I just said hello and kept walking. He talked to or reached out to grab the hand of nearly every woman who went by, trying to chat with them. The waitresses seemed familiar with him and were very adept at having a few friendly words with him and moving on. A little girl and her dad were at the table beside us, and after awhile the little girl said loudly, "Daddy, that man behind you is a very nice man!" Daddy says, "Shhh, be quiet." "But Daddy, he's really nice. He's a really nice man." "Shhh!!" Nick and I were discreetly laughing because we could see this daddy desperately did not want the nice man to hear himself being called a nice man and turn around to join their dinner!

We would have let Will come along, but he's in Idaho visiting his dad. Unfortunately for us. We were driving the Durango to show off the "For Sale" signs, and when we got home around 9:00, we discovered we were locked out of the house, because the Durango key ring does not include a house key. This happened to Nick and I a few days ago, and he was in the front window in a flash. I immediately locked the front window, telling him he needed to carry his key in his wallet. Yikes. Tonight he was still not carrying his key, and the window was still locked. While I was standing on the front porch wondering how hard it would be to hook up with Eric at the prom and get his house key, thinking it would serve him right after all the times he's locked himself out of the car, Nick was smart enough to check the side garage door. I wonder how long that door had been unlocked. Fortunately for us, or we might still be sitting out on the front porch shivering.

Craig's Thoughts

I am thinking of Craig right now, sitting in the airport in Munich waiting for a flight to south America. He called yesterday and we got to visit with him. Listening to him express how grateful he is for the grace of God in his life never grows old for me. But his new love for Jesus does not seem to have diminished his sarcastic wit, as evidenced from his My Space posting yesterday. I got permission from him to reproduce it here so you can hear about this adventure in his own words. I admit I fixed the spelling and a little punctuation, but I restrained myself from any additional editing!

From Craig's My Space, March 15: "Tomorrow I get the esteemed privilege of spending the night in the München airport. I have to tell you I am very excited. I can barely contain myself. It's been my dream ever since I was a small child to spend the night in a Bavarian Station of Airflights. Well it seems indefinitely that our flight departs from a lovely spring-sprung Deutschland at 7:10 in the morning. "So why would you have to spend the night at the airport if your flight leaves in the early morning?" Well my friends, I asked the same question when I heard of our plan (despite my initial excitement at the opportunity to fullfill my boyhood dream!). Here's the sweet deal, we have to take a train from our area to the airport, but the thing is, the train stops running at 1:00 am and then starts again at 6:00am. The ultimate dilemma is, we need to be at the airport two hours before our flight leaves. My first destination is Caracus Venezuela, and we still don’t have a flight set up for our next destination, Curacau (a small island off the coast of VE, part of the Dutch Antilles), which is to occur directly after our arrival in Caracus. So we'll see how God provides. Hopefully the verse that says we sit in a heavenly place is a prophetic word for our group sitting in first class in a sweet cheap flight.....that occurs in a couple of days.... Hopefully.
Well, if you’re one of the few people who talk to God these days, try to put in a word or two for our group. Well I will probably write a big piece of mail or two within the next two months regarding the work God has called and placed me in front of. I am really in awe at his active faithfulness. A current relational God of truth and perfection is difficult to find these days. I hope you can get a piece of the pie eventually."

Nick Drives a Riding Mower

Yesterday Will and Nick spent a good part of the day in the back yard doing manly things. Will brought his dad's old riding mower here awhile ago, and it's just been killing Nick that it was sitting out there, unoperational. So yesterday they fixed the gas leak and the tire and other stuff, and Nick got to mow the yard with it. Will mentioned that either the blade is a little slanted or maybe the grass just looked a little uneven at the corners because Nick was taking them on two wheels. He drove that thing like he thought he was in the lawnmower races.

So today when a couple of Nick's friends were here, the first thing on his agenda was to show off the lawnmower. Sadly, it wouldn't start. So here's Nick, jumping the battery. It worked.

While his friends watched from the deck, green with envy, Nick demonstrated his racing skills with the riding mower.

This is what a blueberry bush looks like after it is run over by a 15 year old boy who loses control of his mower as he races around a corner, trying to impress his friends.

I took the picture after I picked up all the broken branches. Lucky for him it was already a wimpy bush that has been failing the past two years. Hopefully a good shearing was just what it needed.

We might have a used riding mower for sale soon.

A Tasty New Hobby

I experienced one of the best things that can happen to a working mother yesterday. While I was getting groceries after work, my husband called to tell me he was cooking dinner in his new Dutch Oven. By the time I picked up Nick from baseball practice and arrived home to stay, dinner was nearly ready. Pork chops, potatoes and mushrooms were cooking together in a creamy sauce over the hot charcoal.

There was time for me to put away the groceries and for the guys to sit outside and enjoy the spring warmth. Then there was a little more time for me to sit outside with them. Will says he read that it's nearly impossible to make a bad meal in a Dutch oven - by the time it's ready, people are so hungry that anything tastes good!
How do you like Nick's new fashion statement - baseball socks with shorts. I think it was just a one-night hurry-up look.

Dinner was absolutely delicious - our first outdoor meal this spring. Nick and I especially enjoyed when Will whittled a match into a toothpick and used it, with shavings all over his shirt. Will couldn't figure out what was so funny. Where he comes from, people turn matches into toothpicks all the time. Perfectly ordinary.

Last week when Nick and Will were camping up at the posse camp, they enjoyed some good food at a potluck that had been cooked in a dutch oven. It piqued his interest - and a new hobby was born! I'm loving it!