Figures

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Figures that if I set a goal for myself to post a picture and blog every day for the month of February I would mess up the second day.  At least I posted something yesterday, right.

Here I sit with a fever, a cough, and an achy body debating if I should go to rehearsal or not.  Feeling sicker with the idea of having to figure out lesson plans for tomorrow when all my books are here.  Ugh.  Sometimes I wish I had a job, that if I missed a day I would just be behind in my work, not responsible for filling the time for a bunch of others.

Did that last sentence even make sense?  I am so ugh.

It’s just one of those days

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It started off innocently enough.  Although I haven’t been waking up until 6:30, instead of 6, but otherwise things were okay.

Then I got out to the car.  The door was open a little.  I was sure someone broke in and stole everything or that the battery was dead and it wouldn’t start, but no, everything looked good.

Got to the bottom of a hill and turned to look to see if anyone was coming.  My seatbelt lock and I couldn’t move forward, so I moved over and leaned in again.  And bonked my head on the closed window.

Got to school.  Parked.  Doing okay so far (only 10 minutes late).  Get out of the car and … what’s this?  My pants are wet?  Did I pee myself and not notice?  Nope, still gotta go to the bathroom (did I mention I left the house having to go?).  Touched the back of my pants where it is wet.  Damn, the rain got into the car and the seat was all wet.  Good thing for dark pants.

Before Literacy I got chastised by Miss Universe (the world revolves around her) for how I spoke to her in front of some kids yesterday.  She is just overly sensitive.  Although I have been snippy this week.  Today I apologized to one of my students in the same breath that I yelled at her.

Now I have a headache and my stomach hurts.  I just want to be done with the day.

Black Friday

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We are not shopping today.  All we are going to do is drive home from New York, unpack, clean up our house, and hang out.

This weekend we have some craft supply shopping to finish up the scrapbook, but we probably won’t do any Christmas shopping.  We have a pretty good list going and most of the stuff will be pretty easy to buy around town.

Today, MIL and I have a “teddy bear photo shoot” for the scrapbook.  Gramma has a vast collection of teddy bears and we are going to use them to decorate pages.  In order to cover for this (since the book is a surprise), MIL is going to tell Gramma that she pulled her in the family gift exchange (MIL’s generation + Gramma) and that she is going to give her greeting cards featuring her bears.  When I have them uploaded to Flickr I will share them here.

Random fact: I have had the same bear since I was 18 months old.  We went to Florida to visit family and they threw me a birthday party.  He is a GUND and he has no name.

Friday night fun

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I am so glad it is finally Friday. This was a very long week. My class has been kind of off the wall. We’ve had fluctuating attendance and disruptions. We are working our way slowly through the book, focusing on the story, retelling, spelling, and grammar. I am skipping several skills about comprehension, certain organizational skills, and a few other skills. It still takes us foooreeever to get through certain things. I do like this group a great deal, but it is very trying.

Tonight we went to dinner with my parents, my sister, and her “little guy”. –Several years ago she was let go from her nursery school and then brought back as a one-on-one. When he moved on to kindergarten this year, in a special needs class, she was let go again. She does spend a lot of time with him to give his parents respite.– Little guy was very good while we sat at the restaurant. T talked with my parents while I talked to Mooch and Little guy. He is very sweet and did a good job answering my questions. I pulled out some yarn scraps and she used the to spell words. She is very good with him.

It angers me that to be a “highly qualified” para-educator you have to have a certain level of education. I understand that teachers should have the training and education, but for someone to be a para-educator, teacher’s aide, or one-on-one, shouldn’t experience and ability count for something? So my sister didn’t finish 60 hours of college, she is amazing with kids, takes direction well, and works well with other adults. Hang in there Mooch, someone will hire you.

Random fact: When I was in third grade (my favorite school year, ever) there were only 3 kids in my reading group. We learned to sign Sam’s Cookie. It was one of the funnest projects I ever did. I still love that book.

Kindergarten honesty

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I crouched next to cutie-pie kindergartener to help her with her computer.  She was very thoughtful and quiet just staring at me trying to help her.  I looked back at her and said, “Darlin’ what are looking at so intently?”

“You,” she said.

“Why?”

“You are just so pretty.”

I wanted to take her home with me.

Random fact: Each teacher I had in first through fourth grades left my school after I had them.  1st transfered in district to the school I teach at now.  2nd retired.  3rd had a baby.  4th got fired. 3rd and 5th are still in the district (20 years later) and 6th left after 10 years.

Important lesson

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Baked pancake turner anyone?Plastic on the stove topI learned a very important lesson tonight.

Don’t leave a plastic spatula on the stove when you turn it on. (edited to add pictures)

Random fact: When I was 8 we got our first microwave. I read in the book that to cook a hot dog you set it to 20 seconds. Of course, I didn’t realize that the turn dial on the microwave was minutes. Needless to say, I learned how to make charcoal.

Why I don’t blog much

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I don’t write much here because I don’t have anything in my life that is interesting enough to write about.  I have things that are going on in my life, but I am undecided about whether I should share them.  I never know who is going to read this and I am concerned about what people know about me.

I am sure if I shared my readers (however few there may be) would be very receptive and supportive.  But what if one my students finds this?  Do they need to know about certain private things?

And considering the nature of my issue, what kind of people will it attract?  I guess I could use symbols to replace certain letters, but will that really keep the creeps away?  I am not going to be posting pictures, so I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a concern.

Random fact:  I am not a very good liar.  I try to lie, but I never get away with it.

Sunday Night Blues

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Blue #1: I forgot to post on Saturday. I couldn’t even make it 3 days without forgetting to post!

Blue #2: I have to go to work tomorrow.

Blue #3: It is getting cold.

Blue #4: We forgot to set our clock back so I got up earlier than I needed to.

Blue #4.5: I was still late for Sunday School.

Blue #5: I can’t get my Joomla site to work on my school’s new hosting.

This weekend went by too fast. Friday we went shopping and out to dinner.

Saturday night we performed in a Murder Mystery. It was the Italian themed story and I played the 21 year old daughter (only 9 years too old) and our friend Jay Man played my 25 year old brother (only 7 years too young). Lord S played our father’s twin brother and Best Lady played his girlfriend. It was at a nice restaurant hosted by a local church. The audience was really great and very enthusiastic. We all knew a few people in the audience, which is a little different for us. The audience members I interacted with asked great questions and made really good guesses. It was not as great as the night we performed at the country club where they bought us drinks and had a water gun fight.

Today, not only did we have time trouble, but I had Sunday School, church and then I was in charge of coffee hour with two other great CE members (they don’t read this, but I love them both!). For the first time in weeks all my Sunday schoolers and my helper showed up. We had a decent lesson about Zaccheus and talked about they would do if someone famous showed up in our town and invited themselves over. Then we did a crossword review of the parables we’ve read. I knit my way through church, although this week’s sermon was really great. Coffee hour did not go smoothly, but everyone seemed satisfied. I washed dishes and had really nice conversation.

The afternoon is a blur. I tried to figure out what to do with all the pictures we’ve scanned for MFP’s 100th year scrapbook (more details later) because my MIL and I planned to work on it this evening. I also promised to run lines with a friend who is in A Doll House. I nearly fell alseep several times. The evening was spent with MIL looking at the photos we have scanned and cropping them while T watched the Patriots come from behind to stay undefeated!

Now I am watching the start of this season’s Amazing Race.

Random fact: My parents owned a small country store when I was a kid.  18 years later people still say they wish my parents owned it.