What a day. Sarah and I both had a harrowing day. The difference is that Sarah just left for work, so her day isn't over. I just got home and am having a nice drink to settle my nerves. More on that later. So if you live in Cleveland or are a big fan of the weather channel, you know that there are two big air masses colliding over Cleveland right now. This is creating a fair amount of wind. Enough wind, it turns out, to pull the biggest branch off the biggest tree on our property. Those of you who know our property and are thinking of the trees right now might be asking yourself, "Is the biggest tree on the Mulders' property that maple that the power lines run under." Yes. Yes it is. Luckily, the powerlines didn't break... unluckily they ripped the service off our house and scattered it in pieces in our side yard and the live wires landed in that big puddle that likes to form in our driveway. So here is the good news.... the newly restored garage survived unscathed!!! and we got some firewood for the winter. The electric company responded quickly and everything is back together. Well as far as electrical is concerned. Now we have to call the other utilities and get those reconnected to the house. Pretty exciting day for Sarah. Mine however was more exciting. Some of my blogging audience may be Pearl Jam fans. I find them to be a predictable cliche but my wife likes them and told me about the song "Jeremy." This is a song about a boy in school named Jeremy who got picked on by his classmates and had such a rough life that it made him snap. Well, yeah. I had a boy in my class today named Jeremy. He's a good kid. Those who are reading this who have the last name Mulder, did you get called "moldy" as a kid? I did. Jeremy got called "Germy," and didn't take it well. He was in my homeroom class as well as first period science. By the end of science class I thought Jeremy was a trouble maker, since I saw him jump up and sucker punch Joshua in the face. He went to the principal. I had Jeremy in my lunch period and my ninth period. After talking to Jeremy in my lunch period, I realized that Jeremy was picked on everyday by his peers. It reminded me of people calling me moldy. We talked about ignoring it, and Jeremy told me how hard it was. In my ninth period Jeremy was off in the corner looking at the gerbil cage. When I asked him to sit down, he told me that he was focusing on the gerbils because it helped him ignore the students picking on him. I invited him to come sit at my desk with me and he thought that was cool. Man am I glad he was sitting next to me, because the class I had was the most unmanageable class I've ever had. Jeremy and I were talking about his dog when the class decided to taunt him again. I had already given out detentions for this behavior, but they didn't seem to have an effect. Poor Jeremy heard Germy one too many times, and for the first time in my life I saw white hot blinding rage. Jeremy grabbed a pair of scissors of my desk and jumped at the girl who called him Germy. I caught him. I had him in a bear hug with one hand on the scissors. For 5 minutes he fought with all he was worth. The obscenities he was spewing and threats he was making made the whole class sober up and close their mouths. Jeremy talked of killing everyone in the school. "I want to bring a gun and kill the teachers, the students, the office people, then I want to blow up the school." I realized that it was a good thing I had one hand on the pair of scissors, because he was looking to stab anyone he could. As much as he argued I held him until security showed up. I did get the scissors away from him. After Jeremy left, the whole class and I had a good talk about what it meant to be ridiculed, how it felt, and why we did it ourselves. Many students apologized to me afterwards and said they felt bad for Jeremy. I wish I could talk to Jeremy though. I wonder what's going to happen to him. I know he's in counseling right now. About five teachers from nearby classrooms see me as a hero. After school they all came to my classroom to meet me and apologize for Jeremy. I told them I liked Jeremy. The poor guy has never been taught how to deal with ridicule. I remember my teasing education and the most meaningful phrase, "Joel, you need to have a thicker shell." Thanks dad. I wish everyone could teach their children how to handle the world. That's one reason I got into teaching. I hope I helped today. I'd like to think I did.
Well Christmas has come and gone. It was one of the better ones. We unfortunately did not have enough time to see all our family, and we miss you guys who we couldn't see. But we did get to spend time with our immeadiate families. We first went to Chicago and saw the Mulders in all their glory (well Laura was not in her full glory... a touch of the Christmas flu I think.) Being soundly past that horrible phase in life when the family is a drag, the more time I spend with them, the more I wish I could see them more often. For the record, Brian and I are the Euchre champs for 2006. For Sarah this Christmas was monumental. For one, she got off work for a couple of days for it. More importantly, she hosted her family's Christmas for the first time this year. Our house was filled with 8 Hull family members. The tree overflowed with gifts and the mantel couldn't han
dle many more stockings. 
All in all, it was a wonderful year. My woodshop got a little bigger, the running gear got cooler, and the snow got a lot easier to throw, but greatest of all is the love of family living and growing. May we be even stronger next year. Merry Christmas everyone... we love you all.