August 31, 2008

It was a pretty good day today. We went to church and it was Youth Sunday. They do this on the last Sunday every month that has 5 Sundays. The Youth Minister has the middle school and high school kids run the worship part of the service and he delivers the sermon.

I like when the youth minister delivers the sermon. He's a lot easier to listen to then the stick in the mud minister that is younger than me or the older than dirt minister that is getting ready to retire. It was a great sermon. I really enjoyed it. They sang a couple of my favorite hymns today, too, and that always makes church more enjoyable.

We went out to lunch with Michael's parents after church. We went to Pasta House. I had Minestrone and a salad. It was so good. I love Pasta House's salad. My MIL and I had a really enjoyable conversation about politics. Yes, I said a political conversation was enjoyable. As much as I hate politics I did enjoy the talk she and I had.

After lunch we came home and changed clothes. The kids played on the computer some. I changed sheets and got laundry started. Michael kind of just vegetated for a while.

At 2:00 I took the kids to my mom's. They had a date to go help my mom with some chores because she won their sunflower competition they had going this summer. They took their swimsuits to help wash cars and play in the sprinkler.

While they were over there Michael painted some of the fence and I worked on lesson plans until around 4:30. Then, we got ready to go out to eat. That's twice in less than a month that Michael and I have been able to go out to eat without the kids. We went to Applebee's.

I picked the kids up around 7:00 pm and now they are watching Herbie Fully Loaded. I am messing around online for a little while, which includes exploring the website that the publisher of our new math series has for students. Michael has fallen asleep.

August 30, 2008

Tonight we went over to my BIL and SIL's house. They had a big get together for the Mizzou season opener. Mizzou played Illinois at the Edward Jones Dome down town St. Louis tonight to open their football season.

It was a really fun evening. Everyone was playing flag football and/or sitting around talking. There was LOTS of food and deserts to eat. The kids ran around playing.

We got there around 4:00 pm. My SIL's brother and his family were here from Texas. My SIL's mom and aunt, uncle and young cousin were there, too. Her other aunt and uncle came a little later. My SIL's sister and both her boys were there as well as my MIL and FIL. It was a nice group of people. My niece had a friend there, too.

I ate way too much, of course. But, I really enjoyed the day. Even the football game. I'm not a huge football fan, but I like to watch once in a while. Kick-off was at 7:30 and we stayed until half time around 9:30 pm. The kids were getting tired and so were Michael and I.

Michael and I did watch the rest of the game once we got the kids in bed. Mizzou won! 52-42!

August 29, 2008

My daughter, it seems, has been cursed with my imagination and fear. When I was growing up I was insanely afraid of something happening to my parents whenever they went out. I used to have all kinds of hideous and gruesome thoughts about horrible things happening to them while they were out.

If they were so much as a couple minutes later coming home than what they said they would be I would freak and panic. One time not long after I started babysitting my brother I actually called a neighbor over to our house because I was so panicked about them being late. I think they were 15 minutes late, but those 15 minutes I was so freaked I almost made myself sick.

Anyway, Michael went out on his motorcycle just a little while ago. He's been gone maybe 20 minutes. Michaela is in tears because he's "NEVER been gone this long on his motorcycle." Oh boy.

August 28, 2008

Gosh, it's been a long week. I'm still feeling like crap. I'm glad this weekend is a three day weekend. Caleb and Michael went up to the school grounds tonight for an ice cream social for boy scouts. Michael found it painful. He said no one talked to him. But, I know my husband and I'm sure he did not try to initiate a conversation, either. Although, I'm sure they were grouped into groups of people because they already know each other. I really wanted to go, but I just could not make myself get up off the couch. So, Michaela and I stayed home. I hope I get better sleep tonight. I'm just so tired of feeling bad.

August 27, 2008

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like crap. Every inch of my body ached. My right hand hurt so bad I wanted to cry. Sooner or later I'm going to have to go to the doctor about my carpal tunnel. I took some Advil, but had trouble getting to back to sleep. By the time it was time to get up in the morning I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

I have been having some pain in my back about where my kidneys are. I also felt some pain after urinating. I really hope I'm not getting a kidney stone or infection. That would suck. In any case, I've really felt like crap mostly since Sunday. At the beginning of th week I was able to ignore it and push through it, but it's getting harder to do.

It is almost time for Aunt Flo to come. Last month she really did not come. It' had not started yet when it was time to start a new pack of pills, so it was kind of cut short. So, I'm hoping some of this is just menstrual.

Some of it is also stress. I don't really understand what is going on. Everyone at work is way more stressed already this year than usual for this time of year. I've been trying to figure out why, but can't seem to put a finger on what's wrong. I just know that we've only been through 9 days of school so far and everyone says the same thing.

It feels like we should be about 2 months into the school year at least. One of my co-workers even said she felt like she'd not even had her summer off. She had the same 8 weeks that we all had, but it already seems like it was so long ago.

One thing that does not help is that our double day planning periods seem like they are going to be completely taken over by administration and specialists. My team mates and I really needed to collaborate on lesson plans today, but the whole meeting was taken up by test data and the math specialist. Although, I have to say he did help a great deal with our first grade universal assessment, that we still cannot use anyway. But, if we ever do get to use it, it'll be done.

Anyway, if all of those grade level meetings are going to be taken up like that, we're going to have to use up yet another planning period a week to get our lesson plans together. Why this surprises me, I don't know. Part of me is so tired of being treated like it's ok to make me put off as much paper work as possible to my time at home or after hours. I just don't understand why it's such a horrible thing to ask for the fact that paper work takes time and to allow us time to actually do it.

August 26, 2008

We had a staff meeting that was a complete monumental waste of time. We have a new lesson plan format this year. No surprise there. It pretty much changes every year. And, of course it becomes more difficult each year.

Today's staff meeting was about how to fill out the lesson plan. But, instead of us making out a lesson plan that we could actually use, we did an exercise where we practiced making a lesson plan. This means we made out lesson plans for things like cooking and exercising.

Ok, first of all lesson plans are supposed to be a guide for the teacher. Something to help us remember what we are going to teach each day. But, our lesson plans have become something that is all for show. It's a horse and pony show. They have to be displayed so that any visitors can see them if they come in the room. And, they are written so you really need to keep it with you as you teach. Which is insane.

There is no reason why a lesson plan should contain information that I need to keep with me so I don't "forget" what is there. It should be something I consult as I'm preparing materials for the lesson and glance at at the beginning of a class to make sure I'm on the page I should be on, figuratively as well as literally.

Second of all, we are all professionals. NONE of us are first year teacher's so the whole process was a bit insulting. A simple question and answer session for anyone who needed clarification of what kind of information we need for our show would suffice with time to actually write a lesson plan we need. Especially since these DAMNED things are designed in a way that they take more time to write than an actual lesson would take to teach. Because, Lord knows we don't have enough to do as it is.

I also find it extremely stressful that I have to re-write lesson plans every year on material that I taught the year before. It's understandable when we have a new series or curriculum. But, for things that we've had more than two years, it's just almost spiteful that we are expected to reinvent the wheel each year.

August 25, 2008

Gosh, where did all this motivation come from tonight??? I made supper, cleaned up the kitchen, including scrubbing the sink and the cabinets down, folded the last load of laundry from yesterday and got caught up on grading papers. They still have to be recorded, but they are graded. I never do that much on a week night after being at work all day.

August 24, 2008

Michael is at work again today. Hopefully he'll be home soon. I've been working on laundry. I don't feel very good today. I've been battling a headache and my stomach is not in the best shape today. I should probably take a nap, but then I'm afraid I won't sleep tonight.

My mom came over to use our computer earlier. We ended up in a fight. Not the best way to spend a Sunday, but actually it's a good thing. We got some things out in the open that should have been out a long time ago. Hopefully, it was a step forward for us.

I need to work on some things for work. I've just not been able to get myself motivated.

August 23, 2008

Michael had to go to work again today. He's got major stuff at work that has to be done this weekend. Which means he may have to go to work tomorrow, too. I just hate when he has to work like this. Hopefully, it'll be short lived.

The kids and I went to Wal-mart this morning. We got some necessities. We got an organizer thing for Michaela's room. We're going to get rid of a few things in her room to make room for it. I'm going to make this her responsibility. Why is it so difficult to let her do these kinds of things herself? She's old enough to do these things herself, but for some reason I feel this need to keep "interfering" in this type of thing. It's so hard to let go sometimes, even when you know it's what's best for them.

I also bought the three Star Wars movies I did not have. The kids are wanting to watch them now, so I figured that was a good enough excuse to invest in the three I did not have. I already had Chapters I - III. But, I did not have the originals and I wanted them to watch the movies as they were released, in the order they were intended to be watched. They had them for $13.00 each at Wal-mart, which is a pretty good price for DVDs.

Tonight we went down to the part of St. Louis county known as "The Vally" or Chesterfield Vally. We had supper at The Old Spaghetti Factory. It's been a while since we've been there. I love that place. I'd like to go back to the one that is downtown St. Louis at some point. Michaela and Caleb have never been down to that one.

I watched two movies this afternoon. I watched Spanglish, which is a great movie. I know it's been out for a few years, but I'd never seen it and I really liked it. The other one I watched was Penelope. It was a cute movie, too.

Then, we went to Chesterfield Mall. I wanted to get the kids some of the jeans they had on sale this weekend. HA! Joke was on me. They had NOTHING left even remotely close to Caleb's size. They had baby and toddler boy sizes and they had big boy sizes, but nothing between size 4T and size 10.

They had a few size 10 in girl's sizes, but nothing in slim. I'm not sure that would have worked anyway. Michaela tried on a size 10 regular just to see. Not only were they too big in the waist, but they were a MILE too long. I guess Old Navy runs big. They did not have any size 8 for girls left.

We wandered around the mall for a while and then Michael was tired out so we came home. I read for a while and then fell asleep watching House Hunters on HGTV.

August 22, 2008

Well, my first week of school is over. Five days down, 172 to go. I just have a really hard time believing that this is my 16th year of teaching. How in the world is it possible I've been doing this for that long already?

Michael was late coming home again tonight. The kids and I went and got fast food for supper. Then, we just hung out at home. I watched re-runs of "That 70's Show" on Family Channel. Other than that, there's not much to talk about today.