September 30, 2008

I'm coughing. I guess it's either part of my allergy symptoms or I've caught a cold. I hate coughing. It's exhausting and makes it hard to get any rest. This usually lasts at least two weeks. UGH, I HATE coughing. It's going to be a long week. I hope it's not too bad when we're up in Monmouth this weekend.

September 29, 2008

It looks like I'm going to probably have to have a talk with the people that run the gymnastics school that Michaela goes to. She's really not liking her new teacher at all. She says that the girl does not pay attention to anyone but her own little sisters. Michaela also says that she just snapped her fingers at her and pointed when she wanted her to move to a spot and did not even speak to her. That is not acceptable.

Up until this point Michaela has loved gymnastics. She always has a little bit of an adjustment to a new teacher, but this time it's different. I am thinking I'll try to really just watch next week and see what I can pick up on. It'll be easy if they have the observation deck finished, but if I have to watch from the lobby I'm not sure I'll see much.

In any case I do need to check on where they have Michaela placed. Michaela says that she's not learning anything new and a lot of the stuff they are doing is stuff she learned quite a while ago. She's not feeling challenged and does not like that at all. So, we'll see what next week brings.

September 28, 2008

We went apple picking today. Michael's parents went with us. We do this almost every year. We missed last year, but I think that's the only year we've missed since the kids were born. We always go up to Eckert's in Grafton, Illinois to pick apples.

It was a really nice day. It was warm enough for short sleeves and shorts, but not overly hot. We got to pick red delicious, golden delicious, jonathon and jonagold apples today. Michael, Michaela, Caleb and I picked about 15 lbs. Michael's parents came home with about 17 lbs. I also bought some apple butter, YUM!

We stopped at a place called The Loading Dock for lunch. It's a bar/restaurant that is in a big shed like building. Most of the tables are outside, but some are inside and inside is opened up with a bunch of big garage doors, so even the inside is open air. The food is good, but the service is a little slow.

This afternoon I worked on stuff for work and did some more laundry. Michael mowed up at our duplex, next door and our lawn. He's worn out.

Michaela hasn't been feeling great today. Her allergies are really bothering her and the only thing I had to give her was Benedryl so she's been a little on the sleepy side, too.

Caleb played outside with his football and has played with his cars a lot today. So after supper he took a shower. They will be going to bed here in a little wile. He and Daddy are now bowling on the Wii. It is so much fun to watch and listen to the two of them play Wii together. I love it when Caleb and Michael are doing things like that together.

September 27, 2008

I spent most of the day messing around with the pictures I took from last weekend when we went to the balloon glow and balloon race. I did not finish them, though. I'll work on them some more maybe tomorrow. I got a few good shots, I think.

I also did some house hold things. I, of course, got started on the laundry and managed to get about 1/2 of it done. And, I cleaned the kitchen really well. The floor really needed some attention. I'm glad that's done. It had been a while since I cleaned it that good.

Michael helped his dad with some dirt they had brought in today. Then, he came home and did some stuff around the house.

I went to pick Michaela up from Anikca's around 2:00 pm. She was the last one there. They both looked really tired. Michaela came home and laid around on her bed most of the rest of the afternoon.

This evening we went to Hatfield's and McCoy's for supper. Michael wanted some fried fish and the only way he's going to get it is to go out to eat.

We wandered around two Halloween stores after we ate. I think Caleb has decided he wants to be a clone trooper from Star Wars Clone Wars. Michael is not thrilled as he hates things like Star Wars. Oh well, he'll have to get over it. Michaela has decided she wants to be a goth girl. Which will be easy and we can buy some of that as regular clothes i.e. the black skirt and tights. So, it'll be much more cost effective.

I don't know if Michael and I are going to dress up this year or not. Church is doing Trunk or Treat on the 29th and they usually encourage the adults to dress up, too. We also decorate our "trunk." Michael loves that part of it. He likes dressing up the van.

Before we came home we did our weekly Wal-mart shopping. Once we got home, Michaela took a shower and the kids went to bed. Michael and I turned off the television and the computers and just concentrated on each other for the evening. It was really nice.

September 26, 2008

Another Friday is here. I'm so glad the end of the week has come. Next week I only have students for 4 days because Monday is a professional development day for us. I'd rather have my students. I like spending time with them much more. At least I get to wear jeans to work on Monday, so that's a plus.

Tonight I had an unexpected couple hours to myself. I wish it could have been longer, but at least it was a couple hours. Michael and Caleb went to the football game at CBC because our nephew was playing in the band at the game. They went with Michael's parents. They came home before the game was over.

Michaela is over at Anikca's for Anikca's birthday party. It's a slumber party so she'll be there all night. I'll go get her around 2:00 pm or so tomorrow afternoon. I may wait a little longer so maybe Michaela will get a little extra time with Anikca. Hopefully she'll come home and want to nap. I'm sure by tomorrow night she'll be nice and grouchy.

I spent my time alone just enjoying the empty house. I did watch a couple episodes of Supernatural. I'm going to try and work my way through the first season and then maybe the other seasons. I've seen some of them, but not all of them.

Caleb came home so tired I think he was asleep before he even laid down in bed tonight. Hopefully, he'll sleep in some tomorrow morning.

September 25, 2008

I am just so tired right now. I am going through some major depression, I think. I just feel listless and it's an effort to do anything. I know a lot of this is work related. I'm so tired of feeling stressed at work and having more and more stress piled up on top of everything every day. I just feel like going into a corner and crying, but I can't. I have to keep going for my students and for my family. I keep trying to remind myself that anyone outside of those people do not matter. But, sometimes it's hard. I don't even know really what I'm saying here except that I just need some time away. I wish I could just go away by myself for a couple days.

September 24, 2008

Tonight was the first girl scout meeting of the year. Michaela is now a junior girl scout. The troop will be working on their bronze award this year. They have decided to help out families of veterans and/or soldiers in some capacity.

The girls were all very giggly and silly tonight, but they had fun. I think the parents that were there had fun being silly, too. We have a good make up. We have girls from four different schools and two different grades. They seem to fit together well. There were a few missing, but hopefully they will be there next time and from now on.

They also made invitations for the next meeting. It will be a bridging ceremony. The girls that are moving up to juniors will be getting their junior pin. The girls that are already juniors will be rededicating themselves to girl scouts and one girl will be invested because she's never been in girl scouts before. It should be a good evening.

Michael had to come and unlock the van for me because I had managed to lock my keys in the van. I've not done that since I was in high school. I felt so stupid. Luckily we were just at the leader's house and that's less than a mile from our house.

September 22, 2008

It's Monday again. I'm still not feeling great, but a little better. I'm really tired, though. It's not a very eventful day, really. It was basically work, supper and gymnastics. Michaela was happier this week at gymnastics. I did get to watch the season premier of CSI: Miami, so that was good. And, that's about all I have to say for today.

September 21, 2008

I feel like crap. I woke up around midnight with a fever of 102. My stomach is a mess. I've not had to spend time in the restroom, but I'm definitely not feeling well at all. I've spent most of the day on my bed. I did do laundry, but other than that I've not done anything but try to nap and play around on Facebook and watch a couple movies.

Michael and the kids went to church. After church they went out to eat at Applebee's with Michael's parents. Tonight, Michael took the kids to Pizza Street. Michael said it was a disaster there. The employees were not doing anything. The manager could not keep up by himself and was not trying to make his employees do anything.

I ate some soup, but still feel really gross. I hope I feel better in the morning because I HAVE to go to work. I am really trying to cut down on how much I miss work. Plus, it's just important for me to be there right now. My students need to keep the routine thing going as long as possible because come November and December it is disrupted more than it's followed with all the days off we get.

September 20, 2008

We went to the balloon race today. It was overcast most of the day, so no bright blue sky for my pictures this year. I think I still managed to get a few good shots and some interesting ones. It was kind of cool today, too. Not too cool, though so it was still comfortable.

We managed to get a parking spot near the ice skating rink. We originally parked in the hospital parking garage, but when we came down the hill and saw the parking lot mostly empty, Michael went back and got the truck. I don't think we've ever been able to park in the park for the balloon race. We could have probably even gotten closer on one of the roads, but didn't realize it would be so empty. There weren't near as many people there today as usual.

The bunny did not get to take off. It was too windy for such a big balloon. The Macy's balloon became the chase balloon today. By the end the last few balloons had to stay tethered because the wind had picked up. We still had fun, though.

The kids had a great time petting two dogs that were near us. They were big dogs and so cute. The biggest dog just loved using the smaller one as a pillow. Poor thing could not move because the bigger one would not get up off of him.

After the race we went to Cracker Barrel for supper. It wasn't near as crowded as it usually is, either. That was kind of nice. By the time we got home we were all really tired. I am feeling a little weird tonight, too. I'm probably just over tired. So, it's off to bed.

September 19, 2008

Tonight was the annual Forest Park Balloon Glow. They do this every year on the night before the balloon race. They held it up on the polo fields at Forest Park this year instead of near one of the lakes. It was a little disappointing to not have any reflection of the lights from the water, but they were able to fit more balloons in the polo fields than they usually can have.

It was a nice evening. Still a little warm so we didn't need jackets, but not too hot. We parked at the parking garage for BJC hospital downtown and walked to the polo fields in Forest Park from there.

The traffic getting up onto Kingshighway was horrendous. It took us probably a half an hour to get from the highway to the hospital. This usually would take a matter of a few minutes. There were so many people going down there for that added to the normal Friday night traffic going into the city.

There were tons of people going to the balloon glow. But, it didn't seem like it was too crowded to move. We enjoyed it. I think I got some good pictures. I'm sure the ones I took when I realized I needed to turn the stabilizer on turned out better than the ones before that. Silly me.

September 18, 2008

Ok, I just have to say this even though I'm not really a political person, but, Palin really insults me as a woman. The fact that she would accept a nomination when she knows perfectly well it was only given to her because she's a woman infuriates me.

Women all over the world have worked their asses off to be taken seriously and given chances at positions according to their merit. Not only, that but to compare herself to Hilary Clinton is just ridiculous. Hilary has worked long and hard to make the strides she's made.

Palin sat in a judgemental, holier than though soap box with her rifle and family values that obviously did not transfer to her children and was handed something in her lap just because the radical left wing weirdos demanded that McCain play the gender card since the Democratic party is playing the race card. But, that's a whole other post. The whole political system in our country is crap and this election is a joke. The whole world should be laughing their asses off at us.

*sigh* Ok, maybe some day I'll express how I really feel.

September 17, 2008

Well, the water line is fixed. Now we have a muddy mess in front of our front door. Hopefully, by this time next week we'll have a new front porch. Michael and his dad worked all day on the water line. When I got home it was buried and muddy on top. They will still need to add the rest of the dirt and pack it down. We'll let it settle the rest of the week before asking the concrete people to come back and make us a new porch.

Michael finished up just in time to take Caleb to t-ball. I know he's got to be tired. I hope he gets some good rest tonight. He's going to be sore for several days, too. I am so lucky to have married a man that not only I love, but that can fix things. He's pretty amazing.

September 16, 2008

Today our porch was demolished. They had it completely torn out before 10:00 a.m. according to Michael. They ended up having to bust out the little step where the door steps up from the porch, too. We are still considering replacing the door. It's original to the house, so it's old and ugly.

Michael and his dad spent the whole night digging up the water line and trying to get it fixed. They had to make more than one trip to the hardware stores for supplies. They've got it fixed for now, but will have to do more to it tomorrow. Michael is not going to go to work so they can work on it most of the day. Michael wants to have it buried as soon as possible so we can have running water in the house again.

September 15, 2008

It was back to work today. It seems everyone is back to normal for now. Michaela went back to gymnastics tonight. It was her fist night at the new building. It's big. They do not have the observation bridge finished yet and it's even harder to watch the gymnastics class from the ground level lobby at this place than it was at the old building. This is because the windows are all looking on the half of the gym that is set aside for the cheer leading classes. Hopefully, they won't take long to finish the bridge.

Michaela was not happy with her new teacher. She said that the new teacher played favorites to her little sisters and that she would not help Michaela when she needed it. So, I guess I keep an eye on that and see if it improves. If it does then I'm sure that it's just Michaela adjusting to the newness. She doesn't like it when the teachers are changed. But, usually after a couple weeks, she gets used to it and everything is fine.

September 14, 2008

I have not been feeling well this weekend. My lungs hurt. I think it's allergies. Michael gets these kinds of symptoms from his allergies, but mine have never been this bad before. It's miserable.

Most of today has been spent grading papers and doing laundry. Michael has done some work outside. He's trying to get someone to come and look at our porch. It has to be busted out because the water main coming into our house has broken. It runs under our porch. Michael and his dad are going to fix the water line themselves, but they cannot take out the porch and replace it. We may end up needing to get a new door, too.

We've had to take everything out of the closet under our stairs because the broken water line has leaked into the closet. It's a mess. We had to throw out all kinds of stuff, but nothing that is valuable or important. I think this is going to be a mess to fix. Hopefully, it won't cost as much as Michael thinks it will.

September 13, 2008

Michaela got fitted for her violin today. She was very excited about this. The first music store we went to I was not very impressed by. There was just one person working and he had a store full of people. He was not interested in making customers feel welcome.

When we finally got our turn, he said he didn't think he had one for Michaela. But, he'd call the other store and have it sent over. I did not like that idea because I did not want to drive all the way out there again. Both stores are in O'Fallon way out on Highway K and that's a pretty good drive for us. He called the other store and they didn't have one anyway. They don't stock them in that size. It looked like they catered more to the electric guitar set, anyway.

So, we headed further down Hwy K to the other store. It was at the end of Hwy K. It was a much friendlier place. They had several employees working and all the customers were taken care of in a quick and friendly manner. They had a violin in Michaela's size in stock, so we got everything we needed. Michaela can not wait to start her lessons on Tuesday.

September 12, 2008

It was a quiet night at home. I'm just so glad it's Friday. It's been a long week and it's already a long school year. I will be glad when we get to a point where I cannot wait until I have a day off. I'm seriously considering having my kids do the after school camp thing on Election Day, even though I'll be home, but I don't know. I don't really need to spend that money. We'll see. I'm just so tired all the time and I really need some time to myself.

September 11, 2008

I HATE Michael's boss. Last night I sat down and finally updated the check book and scheduled bills because I didn't do it over the weekend with the girl scout stuff going on.

Today, Michael finds out his paycheck bounced. Ok, so I've been putting his paychecks in the credit union savings account and then taking cash to the bank for the checking account in case this happens again so if it did bounce it would not mess with our bills. But, I couldn't this weekend because I had to be at Girl Scout Camp and Michael couldn't because he had to be at work until after noon. So, we just went ahead and put the check in the bank. Of course the one time we did he freaking bounces the damned check. So, all the bills that I scheduled to be paid tomorrow could bounce. Our only hope is that MY check is deposited (mine is done electronically) BEFORE the bank issues the payments for the bills I scheduled. Michael does not make tons of money, but his paychecks are for two weeks worth of work and they are substantial. We cannot afford to have one bounce.

I want to punch this man in the face so freaking bad I cannot stand it. He is such a damned idiot.

September 9, 2008

Michaela stayed with Grammy and Papa today. She only had a very slight fever this morning, but I knew she was still not feeling well. I felt it was important for her to rest some more today so that her body would be ready to go back to school and she'd not get worn down too much. I think I made the right decision. Michael's mom said that Michaela took a two hour nap today. She doesn't even do that when she's been up most of the night for a sleep over.

It was an uneventful day at work for the most part. That is a good thing. I really like my class so far this year. They are a bit hard to get focused on things, but that will come with time. They are really great kids, though. I'm enjoying them very much.

I'm watching a new show on Fox tonight. It's called Fringe. It's kind of a weird type show about those things that MIGHT happen or people think could happen but most are afraid to admit they believe could happen. I guess it's a little X-filesish. I'm enjoying it though. It's got Joshua Jackson in it who I've always thought was really hot. And, it's also got Lance Riddick from LOST in it.

September 8, 2008

Michaela woke up with a 102 fever this morning. She complained of a headache last night. I gave her Tylenol and she took a bath. She said she felt a little better. Then, when she went to bed she said her throat hurt. We gave her some hot tea and I thought she was overly tired from the weekend.

Well, I guess not. Her throat was really bothering her this morning along with the fever. Michael stayed home with her and took her to the doctor. She has strep throat. Wonderful.

I guess she laid around most of the day. The fever kept going up and down. They did not get the antibiotics until after lunch time because the doctor's office is all computerized now and they fax the Rx to the pharmacy now. Well, of course since it's something that should happen quicker, it doesn't.

So, Michaela missed gymnastics tonight. This meant I could go to the orchestra meeting and find out about that. Michaela will have violin lessons every Tuesday and Thursday after school until 3:15 pm. So, no Guppy for her after school on those days. She'll be thrilled with that.

September 7, 2008

Michaela and I left Girl Scout camp a little after 8:00 a.m. this morning. We took Ginna home on our way home. I did visit for just a few minutes with Ginger when we dropped Ginna off. It was nice to talk to her and get to see her new place. It's very nice.

We got home around 9:30 or so. We were both happy to be home. Michael and Caleb were up, but not dressed. I unpacked everything right away and got started on laundry. We did not go to church today. I had so much I needed to get done today.

I was so tired most of the day, but no time for a nap. I managed to get some of the papers graded and recorded that I wanted to get done this weekend. I also got all the laundry done. Yeah! And, I got the lesson plans written that needed to be written. They are already turned in, too as I emailed them to my principal tonight.

I managed to get the flier made that I was supposed to make for Open House this week, too. I sent it to my principal for approval as well. So, I did get some stuff for work accomplished.

One other thing I'm happy with, is that not only did I manage to get supper for us made tonight, with Michael's help. But, I also got supper for tomorrow made, too. I made beef stew for tomorrow. Tonight we had chicken breasts. I prepped them and Michael grilled them on the grill. We had Stove Top and mixed vegetables with the chicken. The kids had applesauce because neither of them will eat Stove Top.

It's been a productive day, but I'm really tired and am going to try and get into bed early tonight.

September 6, 2008

Today was girl scout camp day. I have to admit I had been really dreading it. I just really did not like girl scouts at all when I was a kid and I HATED the whole camp thing. It's not like summer camp type thing. It's going with your troop and spending a night or two in a lodge at one of the girl scout camp sites. I just never enjoyed that.

They actually had it planned for overnight on Friday night, all day Saturday and overnight Saturday night. Michaela and I left in the morning on Saturday. I could not handle being there over night for two nights. Maybe it makes a me a horrible person, but that's just too much noise for that period of time for me.

Anyway, Michaela and I got up and got our things loaded into the van and left the house around 7:45 pm. Michael and Caleb had already left. Michael took Caleb to work with him. Michaela and I both were tired, but it was time to get moving, especially since we had a few stops to make first.

We stopped at Circle K for drinks and snacks. Then, we went to McDonald's and got some breakfast. After that we went to the grocery store so I could get myself a bagel for breakfast the next morning. I did not want the donuts I knew they'd have for the kids. I ended up getting a couple more drinks for us because I found one of our favorites there: FUSE.

Then, I realized I needed gas so we stopped at a gas station on the way out of town. I filled up the gas tank and Michaela went to the restroom. Then, finally an hour after we'd left the house we left town. We had to go down to Grey Summit, which is a little over an hour away.

We had to drive past Six Flags to get there. I tried to bribe Michaela on the way down. I told her we'd go to Six Flags if she wanted and skip Girl Scout camp. She was not going for it, though. I seriously would have spent the money on both of us going to miss out on this, but she wanted to go to camp so we went.

The road leading down to the camp was really scary. It's a very narrow road that is surrounded by woods and it is VERY windy. I would hate to drive that road in the winter time when there is snow on the ground. There were hunting signs on the trees too.

I did not get to read exactly what they said, but I started to get nervous. The road was longer than I expected and I was beginning to have visions of us pulling up into a gravel yard in front of a hunting shack with big hunting bubbas that were dressed in camouflage and had guns in their hands.

But, we made to to the camp. We parked behind the lodge that our troop was sharing with the younger troop from our school. Then, we unloaded our stuff. After that I had to take the van down to the parking lot. We were lucky, though our lodge was closer to the parking lot than the others.

First we went to make t-shirts. The girls were allowed to use permanent markers and beads on their shirts. The beads were used to decorate the sleeves. They were to cut the sleeves into strips and tie the beads onto the strips. It was a cute idea and they enjoyed it.

After that we went for a hike. It was a nice hike, but a lot of it was up hill. I really need to get out and walk and do hills more. The girls really enjoyed it.

Next, we walked to another lodge and got a snack. They were serving pudding in ice cream cones. I thought that was a cool idea. It tasted good too.

Then, we went and made lays. These were Oriental Trading crafts. They were made from cording, colored straws and flowers. It was fun for them. They turned out pretty good, too.

When we finished with that it was time for lunch. One of the older troops made tacos and taco salad for everyone. There was also watermelon. YUM!!!

After that we went to learn how to hula dance. No, I did not hula dance. I was too busy taking pictures. They really got into it though. I don't think I've seen that whole group that focused on one thing at the same time ever. It was fun to watch them.

Next, we went to the lake so the girls could go out in the canoes. I was a little nervous. Michaela had never been in a canoe before and she and Anikca wanted to go out without an adult. So, we let them. They did GREAT!!!! I was really impressed by how well they did and very proud. One of the girls in another canoe dropped her paddle because there was a spider on it. Her partner was not happy about having to do all the work to get back to shore. It was kind of funny, actually.

Then, we hung out in the lodge for a little while. That was loud. The girls of course were rowdy and just being silly like girls are. They were not being bad or anything like that, just being girls. But, that is loud enough by itself.

After that we went outside for a while. The girls went down to where they have soccer goals, hopscotch and tether ball courts set up. They played out there for a long time. Of course we had plenty of little girl drama, but that's part of being around girls. Nothing was out of the ordinary, though.

Finally, we went to eat supper. The older girls again made the meal. We had hot dogs, chips, pasta salad and friut cocktail. It was a good supper for camp. The hotdogs tasted good, but then again I was pretty hungry for some reason. And, of course all the girls were happy with hot dogs.

After supper there was another hike, but it was shorter this time. The girls didn't seem to want to walk as far with it starting to get dark. But, we mainly just had free time until the bonfire/luau.

When the sun went down we went down to where they have the bonfires for the luau. First we had the flag ceremony to take down the flag. Then, they tried to get everyone singing, but not many people seemed like they wanted to sing. They passed out the swaps during this time, too.

We were supposed to play games and have s'mores while we were down there, but it started raining. So we all went back to our lodges. We were lucky, we were the ones that got to stay in the lodge with the outdoor fireplace with grill grate on it. So, we had s'mores at our lodge. They were tasty!

About an hour and half later it was finally time for lights out. The girls settled down pretty well. I think everyone was tired. I did not sleep all that great. It's hard to sleep in a big room with a lot of people. People tend to make noises when they're sleeping and knowing that most of those people were kids, I felt obligated to listen to the noises to make sure they were not noises that indicated a problem.

It rained pretty hard during the night, too. But, it was also cool enough that we could have the windows open and still be comfortable during the night. It was not a horrible experience, but still not something I want to do very often. However, I will do it as often as necessary to let my daughter know that her interests are important to me, too.

September 5, 2008

I am a bad mom. Michaela and I are going to girl scout camp this weekend. We are driving down tomorrow morning. We'll be there all day and overnight tomorrow night. We're coming home tomorrow morning. Michaela is very excited about it and I'm glad she's excited but....

I DON'T WANT TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not like girl scouts when I was a kid, so it's hard enough for me as it is to be involved in the activities for it, because honestly, I'm still not into the whole girl scout thing. But, I try to be involved as much as possible and try to do so with a positive attitude so that Michaela will enjoy it and not be brought down by my feelings. But, I REALLY HATED the whole camp thing like we're doing this weekend. We're staying in a lodge, but still I really do not want to go.

It also means being around a bunch of girls that do not belong to me for half of my weekend. I am in charge of other people's kids all week. It's my job. It's very hard for me to get into being in charge of other people's kids on the weekends.

Add to all this that I have enough paperwork for work to keep me busy for a week let alone for a weekend that needs to be done and I'll be missing most of my weekend. It also means I won't get started on laundry until afternoon time on Sunday. This means I'll still be doing laundry on Tuesday because Michaela has gymnastics on Monday.

I'm trying so hard not to be negative about this. I do not want to ruin it for Michaela but I really wish I had not agreed to do this. Although, I could not have done that to Michaela, either. Not agreeing to it because I don't like it is not a good reason to keep her from it. I'm not at the point where I'm comfortable letting her go to these things alone, yet either.

September 4, 2008

Tonight I had to fill out the order forms for Michaela and Caleb's school pictures. Gosh, how overwhelming could they make it? Holy cow! It used to be, you picked the package you want and write a check. No fuss, no muss!

Well, now you have to pick a back ground. Then, pick a package. Next, pick a theme. Then decide if you want re-touch, soft touch, no touch, touchy touch, or whatever. You also have to decide if you want names on the wallet sizes or if you want a "my portrait" page that is a collage type picture. There are add-ons that you can order. There are also other things like CD's, and class pictures, etc.

It took me over an hour to figure out everything. They actually had 16 different backgrounds to chose from. Then, there were about 5 different themes. We kept it basic. Purple background and classic theme for Michaela. Blue background and classic theme for Caleb. Nothing fancy and no extras.

September 3, 2008

People at work can really get on my nerves. Again today, our grade level meeting time was taken up almost entirely by other people wanting to show us things or tell us things. We have 100 minutes of plan time for grade level meeting on Wednesdays and we had barely 15 minutes to collaborate between the three of us. I really am starting to think that it's being done on purpose. It just infuriates me.

We had to talk about pacing for science, social studies and math. We also needed to decide what was going to be covered in the lesson plans for next week for those three subjects. Thank goodness we'd already decided on that stuff for com. arts for the next couple weeks. It is just stupid that we're are required to write lesson plans as a team (which I really find idiotic and counter productive) but yet the time we are supposed to be doing this is monopolized by other things.

When we first became a Reading First school, we were told that half the time of grade level meetings were supposed to be spent collaborating and discussing teaching methods and activities that we could be doing in our classroom. We were told that we'd look at data for DIBLES several times throughout the year, but that most of our time was supposed to be the teachers on the team collaborating. Instead, most of the time these meeting times are taken up by just about anything else and data is presented to us and we're supposed to analyze it almost EVERY meeting.

Something else that really pissed me off in our meeting today was as statement that was made about data. We were told that data was the most important thing. Excuse me? Ok, I guess I'm in the wrong profession, because I thought our children were supposed to be the most important thing. I'm so SICK of the freaking data and my children at work and my children at home being nothing but a bunch of freaking test scores. We are inundated with data but not given time to plan what to do with it.

Sometimes I really wish I could quit work and yank my kids out of school and just home school them. But, I really do enjoy teaching (when I actually get to teach) and I know that the teachers that are working with my kids are there because they care about their students and want them to learn. I really wish more parents would wake up and see what all this crap ass standardized testing is doing to their children and the quality of their education.

People keep thinking that this testing crap is a measure of how well a school is doing when in reality it's just hindering the learning process. And, I wish that more of admin in school districts would have some freaking faith in the expertise of their teachers. They think putting restrictions on us is what is going to make it all work, when they've never given us a chance to prove ourselves without putting the damned hurdles in our way and making us jump through hoops.

Our educational system did not start going to hell in a hand basket until we started putting so much stock into standardized tests. It didn't uncover problems in our educational system, it created it.

September 2, 2008

Michael made hamburgers on the grill for supper tonight. They were really good. We were able to have sliced tomatoes for them from our garden. I really enjoyed mine and hamburgers are not one of my favorite things, but tonight it tasted really good.

Michael did the grocery shopping tonight, too. I was going to go, but he seemed like he really wanted to go tonight, so I let him go. It was kind of nice not having to deal with that tonight.

I worked on making a new homework packet tonight. It was a long process but I'm very happy with the result of my labor. I'm including information for parents like what we're working on in class for the week, things they can do to help their children, and upcoming events. It also has the spelling word list, high frequency words and vocabulary words for the week.

Now that the first one is made it won't be that difficult to make the next one for each week. I'm keeping same format for homework: math on Monday, Phonics/spelling on Tuesday, Vocabulary/writing on Wednesday, reading comprehension on Thursday, and on Fridays it will be an activity I create myself that has something to do with one of our skills for the week.

I am going to present it to my grade level team tomorrow during our grade level meeting.

Labor Day 2008

Today is Labor Day. We did not go to a BBQ or anything like that today and maybe I'm strange but it was nice to just be at home. Of course I've spent most of the day working on laundry and stuff for work, but it was something I could do at my own pace.

The kids cleaned their rooms. Caleb also vacuumed the steps and furniture, then dusted the living room and dining room. Michaela vacuumed the dining room, living room, hallway, Caleb's bedroom and her bedroom. She also cleaned the front bathroom. So, their chores got done today. They've spent the rest of the day just hanging out around home. They did get in the swimming pool for a while this evening after supper.

Michael worked on stuff in the yard and washed his truck. He fixed the BBQ grill, too. It needed the burner replaced in it. Now, he's over at his brother's house for their Fantasy Football draft. He ate supper over there.

I'm actually starting to feel better. I'm not 100% yet, but I do feel better than I have in over a week. I've dealt with a little bit of a sinus headache today, but at least my tummy is not bothering me like it had been all week last week.

I did go out for a little while to do some shopping this morning. I needed some things for my classroom. I also needed to get a couple things I forgot on Saturday when we went shopping as a family.

I found something out when I was in the midst of doing lesson plans this weekend. My school district does not have school on election day this year. The day before election day is a full day professional development day for staff. This means the kids will not be at school, but we will be there. But, on that Tuesday, teachers and students have the day off.