Friday Photos

A look back at the week, Monday thru Friday, through photos and screenshots

It was a mostly good, odd weathered week around these parts.

On Tuesday, Alyssa didn’t have school due to the juniors taking the ACT. The state of Ohio has mandated that all juniors take the ACT or SAT (tests that colleges use as a partial determination for admittance and scholarship opportunities). This is “state funded” which is, of course, a euphemism for tax payer funded. Yes, legal workers’ hard earned money funds every junior’ s taking of this college entrance test. Joining the military right after high school? You take the ACT. Entering the work force and eschewing college right after high school? You take the ACT.  Pursuing a trade vocation? You take the ACT. Going to college? Well of course you take the ACT. But wait, many four year college/ universities are now test optional. That means that you can get admitted and be considered for merit scholarships without submitting an ACT or SAT result. For students who aren’t interested in getting admitted to an elite college or university, there really is no need to take the the ACT or SAT. Just a small subset of students planning on attended college truly need to take the ACT or SAT. But by all means, let’s make every junior take the ACT/ or SAT.🙄

Besides being a waste of money, students missed yet another day of school. This school week marked the third week in a row that high school students only attended school four days of the week. They were off one day one week for a “teacher work day.” The next week, they missed a day for President’s Day (you know, for all of the get togethers and celebrations people do for PD...). And then this week, on ACT day, only the juniors attended school. But the juniors also received no educational instruction. They just went to school to take the ACT. I am all for students getting breaks every once in a while. But in the month of February, the amount of days off seemed excessive. 

OK, looking for the positive... I got to spend the ACT day with Alyssa. We went to take back both of the prom dresses that we ordered from Dillard’s website. We bought two dresses from which we’d decide on one- a red and a blue one. I was on team red and she came around to the red dress as her favorite of the two.  But... she decided that she wanted to keep looking. So, we went to Dillard’s to take those dresses back. Dillard’s received some new prom dresses since our first time shopping there so of course we bought two (because we could not make up our mind on one!) and will make a final determination in the next month (I have to return the one she won’t wear to prom within thirty days). 

I think we decided on the one she’s holding. It’s really unique and pretty. There are actually four thin straps in the front- the two that are on the hanger and the two hanging down in the front. The two hanging down, when on correctly, come up the top in a v shape. So the effect is sort of like a butterfly. Like antennae? I don’t know if that´s how it’s supposed to be but that’s what the dress is reminiscent to me. It’s just so pretty! And not the right size :(. And we can’t get a size smaller :(. There is a gap of about an inch in the back at the waistline. “No, I don’t want my small waist emphasized,” said no woman ever!! We will have to find a seamstress to make the back smaller. 

We did some other shopping in the area and had lunch at Bibibop.

I bought these shoes on clearance...

So good!

I got to spend one of my days subbing doing something fun- I subbed at the junior high on the day that all of the junior high students/ staff got to go to the high school to see the junior high students who were in the musical  perform the musical. Our district’s junior high is on the same grounds as the high school. The junior high was not built with an auditorium- I guess the thinking was that performances could be done in the high school’s auditorium since the two buildings are physically close to each other.  There was no need to go to the expense of including one at the junior high (thank you fiscally responsible building planners!!). It was just a few minutes walk from the junior high to the high school. 

The junior high performed High School Musical and the students in it did amazing! I don’t know all of the students well; being a sub, I don’t see the students day in and day out. However, I know many of the students and it is neat to see so many of them in their element doing something they love. One of my friend’s daughter had one of the lead roles so I really enjoyed seeing and hearing her on stage. 

And, yes, thanks to the taxpayers of Ohio, I was paid to get to watch the performance since it was done during a day at school that I subbing and being paid. Now, students with “extra energy” (that’s a euphemism...) were seated next to the adults including me, with the expectation that we would intervene when/ if the extra energied student became disruptive. So I still had a job to do :).

My brother sent me some pictures of his wife and Mary Gracia who came into his work for a visit. I hope I will get to visit with my brother and his family next month. I need to hold that baby!!

It turned cold one day. I had noticed that Springboro’s seasonal ice cream shop opened one of the days in late February that it was warm. The next day, a cold one, Alyssa and I headed there for a snack. In addition to ice cream, one can order all sorts of unhealthy things! We took our food to go and went straight to the fireplace to sit in front of it for a warm picnic!

I read a really good article in mercatornet’s website about a one women’s effort´s to take down Pornhub. She is making progress! And while lessoning the vile content on one site will in no way eradicate porn on the web, every step helps. 

Abby’s dance studio typically did their first competition of the season in late February. Miss these days but happy for the memories....