TIM

The employee - His job changed this year, going from an online teacher to a traditional class. He's still on the same campus and has small classes. Compared to previous years, however, there's one major change in the students he's now teaching. Judging by a show of hands on the first day, he's estimating that at least 75%, probably more, of his students have a P.O. That stands for "probation officer", meaning a lot of his students are in trouble with the law.

Tim's a minority, dealt with some hard circumstances as a kid, struggled academically in high school, got kicked out of college because of his grades, and tried his hand at theft a few times as a minor. In other words, he has a lot in common with his students.

However, and this is the cool part, he also graduated from high school, got a B.A. in health promotions & fitness management (first college degree in his family), got his M.A.T., which is masters of arts in teaching (also a first in his family), gave himself a "three strikes, you're out" policy for stealing and chose to quit after the third time he got caught, and is doing well in life.

His past will help him relate to his students, while his present life can offer them some encouragement to get things turned around and make the best of their situations. I'm eager to see what this year brings for him and his students!

The cook - I wanted to try a recipe for funnel cakes that a friend had shared. Neither Tim nor I had ever had them, though we are big fans of their culinary cousin, elephant ears/doughboys. However, I don't like frying stuff. It never works and I get irritated. So, Tim took over.

#1 - Oops. Two small of a funnel.

#2 - Right funnel, but not exactly the "web pattern" the recipe called for.

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#3 - Improvement. Some sort of pattern is evident.

#4 - Success!!

The verdict? They look cool and taste ok, but they don't even come close to being as good as an elephant ear. Not by a long shot!

The dad - Tim has a lifetime pass to sporting events at the high school he went to, so he always takes the boys with him. This year Naomi got to join in for the first home game of the season.

Everyone bundled up (in our family that means you grabbed a sweatshirt) for a drizzly game.

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Turns out Tim had read the schedule wrong and there was no home game. I, of course, had committed one hour to housework, then planned on spending the rest of the evening reading in a silent house. So, Tim took everyone to Wendy's for a frosty, then brought them back just in time to get them into bed.

The husband - As I mentioned yesterday, Tim showed his support of my participation in the Race for the Cure. By coming to watch, he also modeled family support to our kids - specifically husband for wife, kids for mom - two areas of support that are often lacking in families.

He also got down on his knee and gave me a gift after the kids went to bed on Friday night. A box.

Nope, it's not jewelry.

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It's strawberry milkshake Whoppers!! He loves me.

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And right now, on a Sunday night, while I'm post-dating a blog post for Monday, he's washing dishes with Naomi. She was wiped out from our day downtown and napped way too long. Oops. After listening to her sing in bed for an hour, he got her up to tag team dishes. Glad we don't have bedtime issues so that we can enjoy these rare times where a kid won't go to sleep.