May 31, 2010

It's Memorial Day which means we did not have to get up this morning and go to work. I love three day weekends. They are so indulgent. Next Monday will be my last Monday of work for this school year and I am so looking forward to that being over.

We took Michaela to buy her bicycle today. She finally found the one she wanted at Toys R Us. It's a 26 inch blue metallic Schwinn. It is very pretty. It has gears and everything. Her first "grown up" bicycle. Her brother got very tired of her "bragging" about it. The trials of being the little brother, I guess.

May 30, 2010

It was a very nice day today. It's Memorial Day weekend and we actually have summer type weather. I went to my church this morning. Then, spent the rest of the morning doing things like laundry.

Michaela and I went to the veterans memorial service at one of our cemeteries this afternoon. Michaela's girl scout troop helped with the ceremony. Michaela got to help with putting the poppies on one of the wreaths. I felt so proud seeing her up there helping with something so significant.

This evening we grilled chicken breasts for supper. We also had scalloped potatoes, vegetables and pasta salad. It was a good supper and it's a good night for relaxing. I am so glad I do not have to get up tomorrow morning.

May 29, 2010

I'm so glad it is the weekend. It is really nice to have three days off this weekend. We have things to do this weekend, but it's not overly busy for us.

Today was a pretty normal Saturday for the most part. We had errands to run. Michael worked in the yard. The kids did their chores.

Then, this evening we went to my mom's. We celebrated May birthdays, Michaela and Karen. We gave Karen a really pretty smell good candle, an iTunes card and a copy of an audio book that I really enjoyed. Michaela got an outfit, puzzles and 3-D sidewalk chalk set.

It was a very nice, relaxing evening.

May 28, 2010

I am completely exhausted tonight. It was a really rough day at work. It was field day for our school. During field day the kids walk to a park. It's about a 20 minute walk. They do field day there, eat there and just have fun. However, the children who have been in trouble over the past few weeks have to do detention.

Detention is done at the school building. That means some teachers have to stay back with them. I volunteered to do this because most of my class had detention and I thought I was going to get my own students. Ha! I got all kinds of students and only two of mine. The group I got were determined to act out and make it a very long day. They were some of the most stubborn children we have in our building. It was just so frustrating that they would not even follow some of the most basic rules. I am just so emotionally drained from the whole day. I am so glad it is a three day weekend.

Just 5 more days of this school year.

May 27, 2010

Today is Michaela's 11th birthday. How in the world did 11 years go by already? She is growing up so fast.

It was a very busy day for her. She opened her presents this morning before Michael left for work. She will also get a bicycle this weekend, but that she has to pick out herself. She and her brother spent the day at their grandparents' while I was at work. I came home as soon as I could and we headed to the cemetery. Michaela's girl scout troop put out flags on the graves of veterans tonight.

We came home and had just enough time for Michaela to eat a sandwich and get ready before we had to head to the YMCA. It was Michaela's last private swim lesson. When we got there, Michael was just getting finished with his coaches' meeting. So, he stayed and watched Michaela swim, too. While we were there I signed Michaela up for pre-competitive swim lessons and Caleb for basic swim lessons.

Caleb will be having swim lessons on Wednesday nights, baseball practice on Thursday nights and baseball games on Saturdays this summer. Michaela will be having acting class (in July) on Tuesdays and swimming on Saturday mornings this summer. There will be girl scout activities through out the summer, too.

After swimming, we came home so Michaela could blow out the candles on her cake. We all ate cake together and then it was time for bed. Michaela said she was very happy with her birthday. I'm really glad it was happy for her.

May 26, 2010

It's hump day. This week is just dragging by. I really wish this school year would hurry up and get over with already. I really am just completely exhausted by it at this point. I know I'm sounding like a broken record over it, but seriously, I don't think it is ever going to end. Hopefully, once this week is over it'll go by much faster.

I've been lazy about getting started on cleaning up my classroom. I usually have much more boxed up by now. I'm trying very hard to be EXTREMELY organized while boxing up this year because I do not want to have to open all my boxes in August. I only want to have out what I need until January so I don't have to pack so much up when we move to the new school.

Today, Caleb went to Chase's house for the day. They seemed to have a lot of fun. Caleb loves getting to spend time with Chase. Michaela got her grandparents to herself. She and her grandmother baked her birthday cake and it's very pretty.

Tonight the kids had dentist appointments. Neither one of them had cavities! Yeah! Caleb has to brush better. Michaela's baby teeth are all gone. They both will need to see the orthodontist this summer.

May 25, 2010

Our superintendent came to our school today. We were told that we will be reporting to the building we work in now in August. They are planning on moving teachers with students when the new school opens in January. I guess that if there are not enough students for the teachers, that people will be moved according to seniority. I think I should be ok. I'm not sure about the teachers at the other building, but if the make up is close to ours, I'm about in the middle.

It is a huge relief of stress to know that I don't have to move all my stuff now. I can just box up like I usually do and leave it in my class room. I am so glad I don't have to haul all that home and find a storage unit for it all.

We are getting a new principal. It is a woman from California. This will be my first time working for a woman principal. Heck, it will be my first time working for a woman period. I really hope she turns out to be a good principal. I will miss Mr. Hudson next year. I know not everyone likes him, but I really have enjoyed working with him.

Today, Abby turned 13 which is about 65 to a human. It's the longest I've ever had a dog. Happy Birthday, Abby Dog.

May 24, 2010

I booked out hotel room in Branson. We are going to leave Wednesday evening on July 28th. We will be coming home on Sunday, August 1st. We will be staying at The Grand Country Inn. That is the hotel that has an indoor water park and an outdoor water park. Admission to the water parks is included in the price of the room. We are paying the extra $10.00 a night to stay in a room close to the water park. When I was reading reviews of the hotel, several posters said that paying the extra money was worth it.

I am hoping we get to Silver Dollar City while we're down there. Michael wants to go to the Noah's Ark show, so I will look into tickets for that soon. I'd like to take the kids on the ducks, too. I know they would love that. I think we're going to skip White Water since we're staying at the hotel with the water parks. It would be cool to take the train ride, too. But, I don't know if we'll have time or funds for all of that. I also would like to not have to rush around too much. We'll see how things go while we're down there.

I'm just glad we're getting away as a family this summer. I love being able to make these kinds of memories with my family.

May 23, 2010

All the people who left church a little over a year ago were there today. One of the kids was being baptized and he wanted to be baptized at the church he spent most of his life in before his family left. So, everyone that knew him came back for his baptism. It was nice to see everyone.

We went to Applebee's for lunch. I was not able to eat all my lunch so I asked for a box. I thought it would be nice to have something like that for my lunch at work tomorrow. But, then, I left the danged box on the table at Applebee's. I cannot count the times I have done that and it just annoys me every time that I do it.

Tonight I made my mostacolli for supper tonight. It is a two hour process so I don't make it often. It's been a long time since I have made it. Michael really likes it. It is very good, but it is so full of calories and fat. At least I can take some of that in my lunch tomorrow.

Tonight is the last night of LOST. It's been on for six seasons. It seems strange to think it's been on that long. I really hope the finale lives up to the rest of the series.

May 22, 2010

It got really hot today. Michael was outside a lot. He had mowing to do. He also has vegetables and flowers to plant but he's saving that for tomorrow. I think we're probably going to end up needing more flowers than what we bought.

It's always so hard to know exactly what we're going to need. You really cannot tell until you get some put into the ground and see how it all comes together and how it looks together before you can know for sure.

May 21, 2010

Michaela had her swim lesson tonight. She's really getting good. Her teacher works very well with her and she loves the individual attention.

I think this summer we're going to put her in the pre-competitive class. I think it will be good for her in helping her decide if she wants to be on the swim team. Part of me hopes she does want to join. But, it's a big commitment. It's also a long "season". I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I want to get Caleb into swim lessons, too. He needs to learn how to swim better. But, I cannot do that until I know what nights he'll be practicing baseball. Hopefully, we'll know by the end of next week. It is time to sign up for the first summer session.

May 20, 2010

Last night was a long night, especially for Abby and Michael. Abby was very uncomfortable after her surgery and Michael stayed up with her. I am sure he is exhausted today. I did not sleep well either. I kept waking up to listen for them. I am tired too, but I'm sure Michael is more tired than I am. We had to leave Abby penned up in the kitchen for today. She seemed more comfortable this morning. I hope her healing goes well.

May 19, 2010

Abby had her surgery today. They removed as much of the tumor as they could from her toe without taking another toe off. They also took some tissue off the top of her foot. They said they did not find a significant difference between the lymph nodes in her left leg as her right leg so she did not have to have a chest x-ray.

She has a bandage on her foot that they will take off on Monday. At that time they will see if they need to take out the stitches or wait a while longer. Poor thing is so groggy and out of it tonight. I just hate that she has to go through this.

I did ask the vet about us going away this summer and he seems to think it will not be spreading that fast. So, I guess we will make our plans to go to Branson. I'm sure Michael's parents will take good care of her while we're gone.

I just love her so much. It's going to be very painful when the time comes. We all love her completely.

May 18, 2010

We are going to go to Branson this summer. It will be the kids' first time down there. We will probably be going in July. I think we are going to stay at the Grand Country Inn. That's the hotel that has the indoor/outdoor water parks. It costs an extra $10 a night to stay in the rooms close to the water parks. So, that's probably what we'll do.

Hopefully, while we're down there we'll be able to go to Silver Dollar City and see the show at the Noah's ark theater. It would be fun to ride the ducks with the kids, too. Caleb would probably love the train ride. But, we're only going to be there for a few days so we'll not be able to do everything. In any case it's nice that we are going to be able to get away for a short vacation this year.

May 17, 2010

It's Monday again. I have two more Mondays until my summer break. I am really looking forward to it. It has not been a stressful year in my building, but not knowing where I will be next year is really stressing me out. I hate not knowing which is why I did not enjoy substitute teaching.

I am going to have to box up everything and bring all my belongings home this summer. I have no idea where I'm going to put it all. I think I'm going to have to get a storage unit for the summer.

I just hope where ever I end up the teacher that I follow has left a full set of teaching materials for our text books. I also really hope I get to stay in first grade.

May 16, 2010

We did not go to church today. I just could not face it today. Plus, I had tons of laundry to do today. It was nice to just stay home and hang out.

May 15, 2010

Michael went to my brother's today to have him help fix a computer for work. He was gone most of the day. So, the kids and I went to Wendy's for lunch and then went to Wal-mart to do some shopping. The kids also did their chores today and I started the laundry.

This evening the kids went to a kids night out activity at the YMCA. It started at 6:00 p.m. They were serving pizza there so they did not eat before we dropped them off. They got to swim, play games and sports. They both had a lot of fun.

Michael and I went to Ruby Tuesday's to have supper. After that we went to JC Penny and Michael got three new shirts. I looked around for something for Michaela's birthday. I tried to find her a Bobby Jack shirt, but they are almost sold out. I also looked at her favorite store, Justice, but nothing jumped out at me. I'm going to look online for some Bobby Jack. I also need to order the Scottie t-shirt she wants. I think we're also going to buy her a new bicycle. She's outgrown the one she has now. I cannot believe she's almost 11.

May 14, 2010

There are only 15 days left of my school year. This coming week marks 24 years since Michael's and my first date. It is so hard to believe it has been that long. I love him so much still. We have had our rough times, but have managed to find a way to grow together. I love him more now than I ever have. I feel so lucky to have the life I have.

Tonight the kids and I went to the Y to sign them up for the kids night out activity they are having tomorrow night. They will be at the Y for 3 hours having fun. Caleb gets to go for free because of his latch key program. I only had to pay $10 for Michaela. Pretty good rate, I think. Both kids get to have fun and be taken care of for 3 hours for a total of $10.00.

May 13, 2010

Michaela got second place on her team in the science fair today. She was really excited. I am so proud of her. She really deserved it for how hard she worked on it. It's her first ever science project and she did it all by herself.

Today was the last day of school for one of my students. She is going to Hawaii. Her uncle is in the military and stationed there. He's only going to be there for a few more weeks and invited her to come and stay with him before he left. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for her and am very happy for her. I will miss her, but I know that there is no way they could have passed this up.

May 12, 2010

Michaela had her band concert tonight. The 5th graders only played two selections, but they did pretty good considering it is their first year in band. She looked so good sitting there with her clarinet. I'm so proud of the things she's accomplished so far. She just amazes me.

May 11, 2010

Well, Michaela went back to school today. Michael took her to school. She had her science fair project in hand. I emailed her teacher to let her know how much Michaela enjoyed doing her project and she told me that Michaela's project was very creative and executed very well.

I went back to work today, too. We were supposed to be giving the Terra Nova test this week. I started giving it to my students this morning. Right before lunch time we got word that we had the wrong test booklets and we were to stop testing. They ordered the wrong books and now we are to send them back and wait for them to reorder the correct books. This throws off my whole week and messes the week we will actually have to test. So, we rearrange things the best we can, but it was very irritating because I wasted the whole morning on something that will not even be looked at now.

Tonight we had to go to the shoe store. Caleb needed new tennis shoes. We had to get him two pairs because his old ones are not even in good enough shape to play in at home. Michaela needed new tennis shoes and some black dress shoes for her band concert tomorrow night. She ended up getting woman's size 6 shoes for her tennis shoes. She's just growing up too fast.

May 10, 2010

I stayed home from work today with Michaela. She had a fever again in the middle of the night. Her throat has really been bothering her so I took her to the doctor. She has strep throat. The doctor put her on Zythromax. She said Michaela could go back to school tomorrow.

I hope she will be able to because she has to turn in her science fair project tomorrow. She finished it up today. She really worked hard on it. I'm really impressed with how she put it together. She is very creative. I really hope she does well with it.

May 9, 2010

Today is Mother's Day. It was 18 years ago today that I graduated from college. It's been a pretty good day.

Michaela gave me a wonderful book she made in school that is all about me. It's kind of a strange feeling seeing yourself through your kid's eyes, a good strange, but strange none the less. Caleb gave me a very sweet heart shaped clay pot he made at school. He has such a sweet heart. My kids are the greatest. I love them so much.

We had lunch out with Michael's parents at Lewis & Clark's. It was a good lunch but they really put too much food on the plate. I ordered shrimp. It came with six HUGE shrimp. I could not eat more than four of them. But, it did taste good.

We gave Michael's mom a fern. She likes to put them on the little table on her porch each summer. We were lucky to find a nice big bushy one. I think it will look very pretty on her porch and she seemed very happy with it.

This afternoon we came home and cleaned what we could not get done yesterday around the house. I also got a couple loads of laundry done. I'm almost done, but not quite.

My mom came over around 5:00 p.m. We grilled some steaks for supper. I also made augratin potatoes, vegetables, mac 'n cheese, fresh fruit, raw veggies, watergate salad, pasta salad, rolls, and salad for supper. It was a good meal and we all enjoyed it very much.

We game my mom a petunia hanging basket. It is a very small petunia. I don't think I've ever seen petunias with such small blooms, but they were pretty and the color was really cool. Kind of a cross between yellow and peach with red inside. She really liked it.

Michaela has not felt well most of the day. She's had a fever off and on. I've been giving her Tylenol and Advil, but her throat really seems to be bothering her a lot. I'm afraid it could be strep throat. I may have to stay home tomorrow and take her to the doctor.

May 8, 2010

We don't have a whole lot planned this weekend, but with tomorrow being Mother's Day and the way our schedule will be I needed to get as much done today as possible.

We had errands to run and they did not go smoothly. We seemed to strike out just about every where we went today. We did not get all of our errands done in a timely manner because of this and had to go out again later.

The kids did their cleaning. I had to scrub the back bathroom really good as it had not been cleaned the way it should for a while. I tried to clean up my side of the bedroom as much as possible. Michael went up to the apartment to mow the grass up there. It was a lot of little stuff that had to get done today, but it took most of the day.

And, of course I had to have a horrible vice like headache all day long. I did not get the kitchen cleaned yet because by this evening when I was going to clean it I could not stand my headache anymore. I really hope it is gone by tomorrow. It has been a very stubborn headache. I will just have to clean the kitchen tomorrow afternoon before my mom comes over.

May 7, 2010

Another week gone and only 20 days left of my school year. I looked over my district's calendar for next year and the calendar for Michaela's and Caleb's district. They are still starting three days earlier than my students. But, are only scheduled to get out 4 days before mine. They have 11 half days next year. I find that utterly insane. I am so tired of half days I could scream.

We do not get spring break, but we will get Good Friday and Easter Monday off so we will have a long weekend and my kids will be in school all day both days. Both the kids and I have two weeks off at Christmas. Thanksgiving is back to normal, but of course Michaela and Caleb get out half day on that Tuesday and I have to be at work a whole day.

In any case, our schedules are at least a little more in sync next year.

May 6, 2010

I managed to get Michaela signed up for her first acting class today. She will be going to the community college every Tuesday evening in July for this class. I am supposed to get a confirmation email that tells me what room number and such soon. She is very excited about this. I hope it all goes well for her. I loved working on the couple plays I did in high school. I never actually got to be on stage, but it was still fun. My mom was in one of her high school plays, too and really enjoyed her time. But, she got to be on stage.

Tonight was swimming night for Michaela, too. She only has three weeks left of this session. It is going by so quickly. I may see about getting Caleb into a daytime swim lesson during the summer. Hopefully, I can find one that will not interfere with Camp Read A Lot which starts on June 7th.

Baseball at the Y, starts in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to Caleb getting to play. I really hope that this turns out better than it did with the city league. That was a nightmare.

May 5, 2010

I went back to work today. It felt good to be back with my students. They had a really good sub while I was gone and so they were still in the correct mental zone when I got back today.

I am so ready for summer though. I think the kids are too. They just seem to be getting tired very easily lately. It's getting harder and harder to keep them motivated.

I'm always very ready to come home at the end of the day. I'm a very lucky person in that coming home is a comfort to me. I love seeing my kids and my husband in the evening times. I love being with them. One of the things that makes me so lucky is I know that no matter what else is going on around me or whoever may be doing stupid ass things or letting me down in some way, Michael is always there. He has been for a long time. He's been behind me better than anyone else in my life. He's not perfect, but he's the best husband there is and he's mine.

Tonight Michaela and I had girl scouts. It was a nice meeting. The girls spent the whole time making cards for veterans as part of their bronze award. I brought a bunch of scrapbooking stuff for them to use. It was a lot of fun to watch them dig through the stuff and enjoy the tools and materials I brought. That's what makes sharing so much fun, watching the people you're sharing with enjoy themselves.

May 4, 2010

I stayed home from work again today. My stomach was still cramping quite a bit and I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. This has been miserable. But, as the evening has approached I have been feeling more like myself again. I will be going back to work tomorrow.

I've spent the day in bed. I was online playing games some. I also watched all the stuff on the DVR that I had not been able to watch yet. I even started going back through all this season's episodes of LOST. It's all still very confusing to me. Tonight's episode really bummed me out. I cannot believe that Sayid, Sun and Jin died. Sun and Jin both drowned together after Sayid tried to save them all by sacrificing himself. Why was that necessary. I hope it was necessary. I mean Charlie died for a reason, Sayid died for a reason, Daniel died for a reason, even Boone's death had some meaning. The other deaths did at least a little for the story line, but at this point out of the three that died tonight only Sayid's made sense.

May 3, 2010

It's been a rough day. I woke up this morning feeling fine. By a little after 10:00 a.m. I was coming home from work sick. My stomach just decided to attack me all of the sudden. I managed to get homework together so my students could take something home with them this afternoon. They have work folders and I did have some extra worksheets they could take with them when the principal split them up into other classes, too.

It's hard to leave work when you're a teacher because you have to think about what your students will be doing in your absence before you can leave. In the middle of all this someone handed me something to read that really upset me. But, I need to rest and try to get over this stomach thing and just cannot think about it right now. Then again, I may just ignore it all together.

May 2, 2010

We went to church today. I have such a hard time sitting still during long sermons. I just always start to feel like the preacher is saying the same thing over and over and over again when he preaches a long time. I do not really feel like I get much from that. I personally do not learn best or respond well to situations where I feel like someone is trying to beat me over the head with something. Especially, when there is a lot I do not agree with in the way things are taught.

After church we went to Pasta House with Michael's parents. The service was slower than usual there, but it all still tasted very good. It was a nice lunch in any case.

This afternoon I worked on laundry mostly. I also cleaned out Caleb's closet. The kids played outside and Michael worked outside.

I helped Michaela with her science experiment at home. She is testing dogs to see if they exhibit paw preference. So, we tested Abby. Then, all four of us went over to Michael's parents' house and we tested Zoe. Michaela will test another dog tomorrow.

I have mixed feelings about the weekend being over. On one hand I really don't want to go to work tomorrow. On the other hand, it will be one more day closer to summer break.

May 1, 2010

I love the weekends. It's so nice to just be able to be home with my family. We only had one obligation this weekend. Michaela had a birthday party to go to for one of her friends. It was really nice not having to run all over the place all weekend long.

This morning we did errands together as a family. Michael needed an allergy shot. We also went to Wal-mart. After that we ended up at Cracker Barrel, where we bought a birthday present for the party Michaela went to this afternoon. We ended up having lunch there, too.

This afternoon Michaela went to Taylor's birthday party. I think she had a really good time. I enjoyed talking with the other moms that stuck around. It was a pretty laid back party at the bowling alley. The girls all seemed to really enjoy bowling and having fun together.

This evening we all just hung out around home. It was a quiet night, but once in a while on the weekend that is good.