My perfect Valentine's Day flowers.

I had to stay at my parents' with Em since they were in St. George, and on the morning of the 14th, I was dragging my feet as I got ready for school. I had to be there an hour early because I do early morning math tutoring. Extra gag.

Hark, the phone rang at about 6:30 A.M. It had been snowing all night ... nuts, it was for my dad. But then success: My phone rang and it was dear sweet Maggie Jensen. School wasn't cancelled, however, we didn't have to be there until 9:50 A.M.! I ran and woke up little Emily and told her to turn off her alarm.

So I lounged, unfortunately, I couldn't go back to sleep, but it was heaven. At about 7:55 A.M. my phone rang again, and it was Eastmont. Uh ... oh ...
"Are you planning on coming in today?"
"Yes," I immediately started stammering, "but I was told not to come in until, I mean I was still going to come in a little early, I'm sorry, I was told..."
So I pouted and stomped and got to school at about 8:45 A.M. I adjusted all of my plans and turned it into a computer day up in the library. I had my class in there working on the computers, and then Jim, one of our vice principals, asked if he could send another class in because the teacher hadn't shown up yet. So I had two classes in there, they were doubled up on the computers, and some spilled over on to the empty tables.
Steve, the librarian, and I stood in the hall and reminded kids that they were supposed to be in class. Amazing, you're at school and wow, you're supposed to be in class.
Towards the end of the period, I was trying to round everyone up, make sure that all chairs were pushed in and such, and in marches my principal with a huge vase of pink tulips.
"Somebody loves Ms. Bateman!" she sang.
My cute 9th grade geometry boys, Peter Hansen and Ryan Head, bounced out of their chairs with, "It's me! It's me!"
It was adorable.