Seattle and more

I know its been a while since I've posted, it has been on my to do list, but always gets bumped down to "tomorrow".

Since I last posted, we had a whirlwind trip to Seattle, Herman has settled into his new job, and I made it all the way to Spring Break... barely.

Herman's work schedule has settled down some, but there are still times, like today, where he was told he was working nights, no...days.... nope... nights again. Its a bit of a roller coaster, but each week he has gotten either close to, or over 40 hours.

The behavior of the kids at school had been going straight downhill, I think in part to the looming week long spring break. Thankfully we did finally make it, and I have some great ideas for starting back up and hopefully staving off the deteriorating behavior until summer break. *fingers crossed*

Our Seattle trip was, in my opinion, the most fun we've ever had in Seattle. Granted, it started out a bit rough, with Herman choosing a cheap hotel, that was cheap for a reason (SO uncomfortable!) but we went to Pike Place Market and the Seattle Aquarium, and loved it. We got to see some friends, eat some delicious food, and experience the wonders of the waterfront section of downtown Seattle. Here are some pictures

Let Mercy come, and wash away... what I've done

To all of you who I may have offended this past year, or even any time in the past, whether in word, deed, thought, knowingly or unknowingly, please forgive me, a sinner.

I know Lent is a time to put away the secular world, but ever since the first time I heard this song, I thought it had such application to Lent, and the idea of forgiveness.

It is by Linkin Park (not a Christian group by any means), and its entitled "What I've done" Lyrics can be found here



There are many good points in this song, despite the fact that the premise is that they are doing the wiping clean of the slate. Enjoy.

Settling In

Things have been busy here at the hartman home. Life has thrown several curve balls, and Herman's schedule has continued to be unpredictable. He is getting at least close to 40 hours a week though, which is nice for our finances. My paycheck only goes so far.

Herman is really liking his new job. He has made friends with some of the guys, and was even invited to go up to Mount Hood for some snowboarding last weekend. He wasn't feeling well, so he declined, but was excited that he was making friends.

Herman's dad continues to do well, and we expect him down in our part of the world around the end of the month. It will be nice to see him outside of Kodiak. I'm kinda looking forward to playing tour guide, even though he does tease me about my driving.

Things at school have settled down, and are going smoothly now. I can't tell you what a relief that has been. The situation got way out of hand and it took the principal to bring us both back to where we should be. The kids are feeling the effects of spring, and therefore we have beefed up on discipline measures for in the classroom. In an effort to get the students to buy into it, I called a class meeting in which I had them tell me what was going wrong in class, why, and then brainstorm disciplines they thought would work best for them. We then voted on the top 3. Hopefully this will help, but time will tell.

I don't know how much I've shared about Max's health (one of the cats) but he has been pulling out his hair, to the point where he is completely bald in his nether regions, and has lines of baldness going up his back. We had taken him to the vet several time for this, and tried everything the vet had suggested. We changed the food to all natural, we gave flea baths once a week. Nothing worked. I finally had it, as the hair loss was out of control and took Max in one more time. This time the vet gave Max a cortizone shot, and ITS WORKING!!! The hair is finally starting to grow back.

That's about it from our home. We travel up to Seattle this coming weekend to meet up with some friends from around the United States. I will be sure to post when we return.