Cook-out Fun

Praise God that it has cooled down a bit around here!  Today is the 1st day we’ve had all school year (granted it has not been eternally long that we’ve been in school) that it was not steamy in my classroom!  I’m actually down to only having 2 fans operating!  I also got to wear pants instead of capris or a skirt & I’m not dying of heat!  (  So happy about that!

Today was also our school’s fall all-school cookout!  I’m always in awe of the fact that we can do this!  We had a whole hour for lunch (in comparison to our usual 20 minutes) and it was out on our athletic fields.  The whole school (all 700 some students) bring grills, burgers, hot dogs, chicken, etc. and barbeque!  It is pretty cool!  They are also soooo well behaved…we teachers have a huge smorgasbord of food & hang out and eat like pigs and visit with each other, etc. and the kids are really really good.  There is very little in the way of clean-up that has to happen and there are really NO discipline issues.  When I stop to think about it…I’m quite blown away!

For the past 4 years I’ve been in charge of this event.  It is not such a big deal, except that I never got to relax and enjoy the hour lunch.  I was always busy making sure freshman didn’t burn themselves on the communal grills, or that kids who were pretty clueless about grilling brats didn’t eat raw meat, or that kids who were too lazy to plan ahead had hot dogs to buy to grill themselves (that too is always funny when kids come to buy a hot dog & then are shocked that it is still “raw”…they have to cook it themselves!)

Well, I told school I was NOT going to be in charge this year.  I wanted to have a cookout where I could sit back & relax and not have to run around like a crazy woman for once!  It was so great!  Right now I’m stuffed with lots of goodies!

I also had a funny moment of remembrance during the cook out.  Last year I had an “accident” on my way into the building after the cookout.  There is a guardrail along the edge of our softball field.  One has to lift one’s leg and step over the guard rail to get from the field onto a driveway that leads into the building.  I was with the “clean-up” crew and thought I’d jump over the guard rail (should have realized I was 30, not 12).  When I attempted to jump over the rail I caught my toe on the top of it and totally biffed it.  I hit the ground pretty much face down & soooo hard.  I had blood oozing from my elbow, my knee, and both of my palms.  It hurt a lot!  One of the three senior boys that was right there helped me up (after he 1st laughed at me) the other two just stood there laughing.  I attempted to pick the asphalt out of my hands & elbow and wandered myself down to the office to let the office ladies tend to my cuts (sadly we have no school nurse).  They bandaged me up and I had to head up to my classroom to teach two more classes.

When I got up to my room the kids all noticed that I had issues & wondered what happened.  The principal who was subbing for me right then did not seem to have a clue what had happened and took off right away.  Gee thanks!  Anyway, that little story got a lot of laughs from my students for the rest of the year.  Thinking back to that incident today was interesting.  I know I’m a klutz…stories like that just prove it.  Want to hear more? Ask LD…he’s got a few.  By the way, he’s usually like the two senior boys who just laughed.  Usually.