Elementary School Prom???

At the school I work at now, our big fund raiser is called the CRCT Prom. The CRCT is our huge standardized test that requires you to give all but your first born child to ensure that your students will pass, and then if they don't you still might have to sacrifice your child to the state or whatever idiot it was that decided that this was the best way to measure learning (yes, I am SICK of the pressure!!!) and is coming up in April. I have no idea why the prom is named after this, but it is. Anyway, the way it raises money is that each class has a prince and princess to represent them, and then the students and parents raise money in whatever way they want, and whichever class raises the most money is the winner of prom king and queen. The parents at this school are completely uninterested in buying junk like cheap-o wrapping paper and over-priced candles, but, by golly, they'll go to all sorts of lengths to get their baby to win king or queen. We raised enough to buy a good bit of playground equipment, which is pretty expensive if you've never looked into it. Andy had to go out of town that night, so I took my kids with me and they had an absolute blast. It was a pretty fun night for everyone. Here are the few pictures I managed to snag with my phone, although they're not that great because it was hard to keep anyone still and I don't have a flash on my phone.

In this picture, the big girl in the middle (who is actually a year younger than Drew!) is the sister of boy in my class, and then there are 2 little girls in my class along with Drew and Alli. Alli made best-buds with a little girl in my class who is about the same size as she is. They were cute together.

And then here I am with the same 2 little girls in my class and Alli there in the back!

Our Frugal Answer to Technology!

So, we lived for a month or so with no internet, T.V. or land-line telephone. After realizing the withdrawals wouldn't subside, we added DSL internet, just knowing that we could plug the computer into the T.V., and it would be almost as good. But, it just wasn't. I mean, for the sake of frugality, it was ok, and Andy was fine with it, but I was missing it. In fact, I was doing pretty poorly. I realized just how much I use T.V. to unwind and get my mind off of things. I mean, I'm not a bottler or anything, but I'm definitely a dweller - even after I talk about it, I have to talk about it 47 more times to as many people as I can find that will listen, and without distractions, I'll just dwell. So, being the good man that he is, Andy discovered that we can get all our local channels, including a channel similar to TBS and Style Network (entertainment stuff and decorating in one channel - how fabulous!) for a mere $10.00 a month through Dish Network (we already had the dish and receiver). No, there's no DVR or HDTV, but it's all I need. And, on top of that, to cut down on our cell phone minutes, we invested in a Magic Jack, which is a pretty great invention. For $40.00 we bought the jack, which plugs into the computer if you haven't heard of it and gives you a phone line through your internet connection. The first year of service is free (unless you consider the $40.00 for the item itself), and then after that it's only $20.00 a year for phone service, which includes voice mail, caller id, free long distance, and registers you for 911. So, we're back in the world of the technologically connected, and things feel normal again. (...don't judge my addictions - I haven't even brought up the Reese's Cup/Redi-Whip concoction I'm hooked on right now - if only you knew the whole truth...)

Another Ridiculous Take-Home Project

Evan and Alli were assigned yet another ridiculous project by their teachers. This one was a robot that was supposed to have to do with geometric solid figures, and I think their story in their reader for next week is supposed to be about robots and things they can do. So, we had to make robots. Now, seriously, how many first graders do you know that are able to create a robot on their own. I mean, I know they're out there, but they're classified more as prodigies, or kids with parents with a lot of free time, which are few and far between these days. So, as we were wrapping our Girl Scout cookie boxes and toilet paper tubes in foil, Evan mentions that a little girl in his class brought in a robot that was as tall as her. I don't mean to be ugly, but I happened to teach this little girl's older brother, and had more than one conference with the parents, and I'm very comfortable with the ability levels of this family. There's no way that girl made that robot herself. I'm also just not in the mood to be that competitive parent -- I just don't have the energy right now. The robots turned out cute enough, and I had them write up their little description about rectangular prisms and cylinders, and Evan and Alli were definitely pumped about their little teeny robots. But, I'm still searching for a way to tactfully tell their teachers that whoever it is on the 1st-grade team that is coming up with these bright ideas for take-home projects needs a reality check!

It's About Time!

I'm finally getting around to blogging again. We've gone through a trial period of doing without most things technological to see how it would go. After about a month of no T.V. or internet, we're ready to go back. I still have internet access on my cell phone, and then of course I have it at work, and, honestly, we're so busy that we really don't spend that much time watching T.V. or messing around on the computer in the evenings. We thought we could live without it because of that, and it's not that we're just dying or anything, but we miss it. I've enjoyed my time away from technological obligations, like checking email and blogging, but those obligations are now more like entertainment since I haven't been able to do it as much. So, I'm coming back to my sporatic blog updating. Tell your friends! :)

As you can see from the picture in the title box up there, we've had quite a bit of snow around here, which is really unusual for this area. Usually we might get one snow in a winter, and that's a pretty big deal, but it has now snowed twice, a couple of inches each time, and we're expecting more tonight! The kids have absolutely loved it, and I sure did the first day. The second I was feeling a little colder than the first, and being hit with a snowball had somehow lost it's joy. Still, I did the fun mom thing and played. I'm thinking if we do get snow tonight I'll join the rest of the parents on my street and be a dud. We spent much of the first snow sledding down the neighbor's driveway, which is incredibly steep and made for great sledding. Then we went back behind our subdivision and took the neighbor's kids and Andy's dad with us and sledded down some pretty big hills.

Even Daisy had a great time playing!

After the snow, the kids came in and warmed their feet by the fire. It's so nice to get warm and dry after a soggy snow day!

The 4th grade also did this year's President's Day program at school. Drew's still one of the smallest kids in her class, but isn't she cute?

Here's a typical "Drew" face:

Blogging From School

So, my laptop at home keeps telling me Windows is encountering errors and won't open, and every time I reload it, it happens again and again, so there's some problem beyond my knowledge that I need to get fixed. I haven't had time to take it to Best Buy or one of those places to get a free diagnosis, and now we've decided to cancel our cable service, leaving us without internet at the moment. I'm now using the school to do this post, but blogging from school isn't the most convenient thing to do...not to mention the unprofessionalness of the whole thing should someone walk in on me blogging, rather than teaching (the students have left for the day by the way). So, don't give up on me!!! I'll work out the kinks one way or another, and we're already having TV/internet withdrawals at our house, so I'm sure something will be hooked up in the near future!

My computer crashed and my phone will only let me do titles! Stay tuned for more posts soon! :)

Ending School, Starting X-Mas

We had a great Thanksgiving. I know I mentioned something about you reading all about it through Christmas decorations, but it was regular old Thanksgiving at all 3 places and I'm just not up for details. I can tell you that nothing unusual happened, but we really enjoyed all of our family. So, on to other things. First of all, I am finally finished with my Master's. Hallalujah!!! I took my last final last night, and the semester officially ends on the 11th. My official degree is a Master of Education in Reading, Literacy, and Language, which means I also have a reading endorsement and an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) endorsement. This semester was absolutely horrid, so I'm just thrilled that it's over. Along with my last few projects being due this week, the first grade teachers at my kids' school (not the one I work at) decided that it would be a great take-home project for the kids to make a gingerbread house. I'm sorry, but I found it to be ridiculous. I felt like it was really a stretch to tie it to standards, which they did with geometry and patterns, and the kids are just too little to be able to do this on their own, so it became a total parent project. They sent these directions home saying that it would be easy and cheap with glue, graham crackers, and a small milk carton, but we just went and bought gingerbread house kits. They turned out ok, but after talking to a few other first grade moms, we all decided it was not the brightest idea the first grade team ever had. Also, Evan and Alli had their Christmas program last night at school. The whole 1st grade sang together, but each class represented a song. Alli's class did Frosty the Snowman, and Evan's did Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Aren't they cutie pies?!

Oh, and I'm blond.

Ready for Christmas

Yes, I'm excited about Thanksgiving, and will definitely be blogging about our 3 big meals this year (yes, 3 - I can't wait!), but you'll just have to read it through Christmas decorations because I'm ready to decorate!!!

Brutal Honesty

So, here's the truth. I almost never cook anymore, unless you count pouring cereal into a bowl, heating up something frozen, or slapping some peanut butter and jelly between 2 pieces of bread, and I miss it. I despise laundry with every fiber of my being and might give thought to a nudist colony if my post-3-kids, 30-year-old body didn't look so post-3-kids and 30 years old. My house is NEVER clean for a solid 24 hours unless I clean it and we leave immediately for an overnight trip. I have every desire to be mom of the year, teacher of the year, housekeeper of the year, and cook of the year all at the same time, but no one is cooperating with me, and God just won't add hours to the day or remove the fact that humans need rest - I've asked. I've decided, though, that anyone who does one thing well must be lacking in some other area. For example, women whose houses are completely spotless at all times when they have one or more children in the house are either on some sort of drug so that they never sleep, or they are lacking in their motherhood. I have met these women. I can back this up. Women who are awesome teachers have no homelife. I have met these women and can back this up. Women who are outstanding cooks could very well be awesome mom's. I actually have never met a good cook that I've looked at and thought, "Something's not right." Cooking is like gardening, but instead of a green thumb you have a chocolate thumb, or maybe a tomatoe sauce flavored thumb. Surely it's not a color - it has to be flavored. Maybe garlic. I always feel like a true cook when my hands smell like garlic from chopping. But, still, I wouldn't classify an amazing cook as an automatic good mom. I've met bad cooks that were good moms and good cooks that were queens of dysfunction. I'm told that when my sisters and I were little, our house was always a mess, too, although I really don't remember it that way. I do, however, remember my mom quite frequently asking us to clean up when I didn't see what the problem was. So, here's what I think. Someone should do a research study on what really matters to kids, which has probably been done. Do kids care if their house is clean? Mine sure don't hesitate to bring the neighbor kids around when their bedrooms look like they should be condemned, so obviously there's no embarrassment there. Do kids care if their clothes are clean? I can answer that with a hearty, "HECK NO!", although I would feel a sense of shame if my kids had to wear dirty clothes every day. Now wrinkled...well, that's just different, and, again, the kids sure don't care. So, why do so many people put so much pressure on women to do it all, including women?! I mean, we all know better than anyone how hard it is to keep up with everything, especially when you work all day and have kids who are in activities. And don't even get me started on the hormones that fight against us 2 weeks out of every month. I say, if you have the nerve to criticize someone for not having a clean house or for not cooking every night, somebody needs to feed you a sharp dose of reality. Let's just get real - either you get it and you've got some sort of personal issue, like self-esteem problems or being a pathological liar or not being in touch with reality or you're just a jerk; or you just don't get it, in which case you need to just admit that you are not capable of understanding and have no room to talk. I've decided that I have no patience for people who do not have a sense of realistic compassion - not just being realistic, or just being compassionate - but a combination of both. Being realistic is essential to not being an idiot (again, I've met these people, I can back this up), and being compassionate is essential to not being a jerk, and, for goodness sake, every kid knows there's nothing worse than a stupid jerk, right?

Halloween 2009

Last night we went Trick-or-Treating in the rain, which was actually not as bad as I had worried it might be. I guess I wouldn't say it was full-on rain. It was more of a steady mist. But, it didn't matter anyways because the kids had a great time. We walked around the neighborhood amid the line of cars who were either from other neighborhoods or didn't want to walk in the rain. Here are pictures of the kids:

Evan was Captain Jack Sparrow.

Alli was also a pirate, or a Buccanneer, to be specific. I, personally, don't know the difference.

And, Drew was a Skeleton Bride, which ended up looking more like Lily Munster to me.

This is the only picture I got of all 3 kids together, with our next-door-neighbor, who walked with us.

Hiding my Fury with More of Andy's Handy Work

Ok, first, and most importantly, I just want to say that Andy went and delivered the bills to the neighbor. The wife answered the door with the video camera in her hand and said that they're not paying anything because Daisy was visciously barking and trying to bite her husband and they thought she had rabies! Then she proceded to call the police on Andy for trespassing!!! The policeman totally took our side, talked to the neighbor that rescued her, and said that those people are really bad liars and that he's taking it before a judge to get a warrant to arrest the man! Can you believe it?!?!?! I'm trying to calm my fury by blogging about other things, so here are the other things:


We've done TONS of work to fix up this house, and one of the things includes updating the fireplace. Before it was pretty basic with no hearth to speak of - just black slate flat on the floor. When Andy layed (laid? - I get confused on that one - where's grammar.com when I need it!) the hardwood floors, he broke up the slate and trashed it, and then built up the hearth and covered the whole thing with stone. This is the best picture of the old fireplace that I could find. (Alli's first day of preschool - the other two's pictures didn't show as much of the fireplace - she was 3 - isn't she precious?!)

And here is what the fireplace looks like now:

Much better, huh?

Daisy Update

Daisy had her surgery on Wednesday, and it went well. They pinned 2 of the 3 bones that were broken and said that the other two would support the 3rd one. She's in a new, little green cast now, and they pinned it so that if she put any weight on it she would feel pain. So, now she's hopping around like a 3-legged dog, but it hasn't slowed her down any. Andy's mom came by the other day and was surprised at how active she was despite the fact she had just had surgery. We're now learning to cope with the joys of an indoor pet - she's short-haired so she sheds like crazy, and she's not house broken since she's always been an outside dog. But, like I said, she's very obedient and smart, so we're staying optimistic about the potty training. As far as the hair, we bought a "professional" grooming tool (that's what it said on the package), but I sat and brushed her for what felt like an eternity yesterday and the hair on the brush never seemed to lessen. They also had to shave her leg and a spot on her back for something during the surgery, so she has even more loose hair in her coat right now. She's precious, though. She's just laying sweetly on the rug right now. Our new challenge is to send the bills to the neighbor. I have the voicemail where the lady called and apologized (and left her first and last name, her husband's name, and admitted to throwing the brick), so I haven't deleted that, and we're going to make copies of all the bills before we deliver them. Hopefully we don't have any major battles ahead of us. I have this dream of handing the bill over and the guy writing us a check write then, but I have a feeling it won't be so easy.

More About Daisy

For those of you who aren't big dog lovers, this may be getting old, but Daisy is doing better. She's doing really well not trying to chew off her cast, so when we're around we take off the "cone of shame" as the orthopaedist calls it. She's getting tired of not being able to run and jump like she usually does, and I think the saddest thing is that she goes and lays on the step and watches out the window on the door longingly. She's not used to having to stay in a crate while we're gone, but she's not supposed to walk around much, which has been difficult for us all. It's almost like someone has to sit and pet her constantly, or she has to go in the crate to keep her from trying to run around. We're getting a little meaner and tougher on her about it. I took a little video of her hobbling around with her cast on, which might make the true animal lovers out there cry a little. Daisy has her orthopaedic surgery scheduled for Wednesday, so I'll be glad to have that over with, and then we can start the real healing process. Andy stopped in to let the neighbor know what to expect as far as bills (which you can imagine - orthopaedic surgery on a dog costs as much as it does on a human, minus the help of insurance), and the guy got red faced and abruptly said, "Fine," and shut the door in Andy's face. We really don't want to have our neighbor arrested for cruelty to animals!

Bad Neighbors, Good Neighbors, and a Victimized Puppy

Last night after Andy got home from work, we loaded the kids up in the car and all went to the grocery store together. It was Thursday night, almost the weekend, and we were in no rush, so we sort of drug around with no list and took our good old time. When we pulled in the driveway, our next-door neighbor, the one that falls in the "Good Neighbors" category met us before we even pulled in the garage. We got out of the car, said hi, and all that neighborly stuff, and, since it was dark and cold outside, we asked him what was up. His reply was, "Your dog's got trouble." We asked what happened, and he said the guy across the street hit her with a brick! We were shocked. I was almost standing there waiting for him to say he was kidding. Daisy is the kindest, gentlest, most obedient dog I've ever had. Why would somebody hit her with a brick?! Andy asked where she was and the neighbor said she was in his garage, so Andy went over and got her. The neighbors had tied a bandage around her leg, but you could still see blood through the bandage. Andy tried to take it off because we were thinking it looked kind of tight, but she would just scream. So, furious, he walked over to the bad neighbor's house. He was so mad. You know how there are times when you worry that someone is just too angry to deal with a situation appropriately, and then there are times when anger is needed? Well, I knew Andy could potentially kill this guy, but I didn't care. Andy nearly beat down the door and the guy cowered as he opened it. After several choice words, the guy admitted that he did it and said he would cover any bills. So, I headed off to the animal emergency room with Daisy, which was surprisingly busy. They looked at Daisy's leg and said that the cut was so deep that it severed a tendon and an artery (ya know, the one in our wrist that, when cut, kills people), so it's a good thing the neighbor even saw her or she would have bled to death, and it's no wonder they tied the bandage so tight. They also took x-rays and said that her foot is crushed. She needs to see an orthopaedic surgeon to have pins put in or she'll be in constant pain for the rest of her life when she walks. The idiot who threw the brick at her's wife called and apologized and said he never meant to hit her but just wanted to scare her because she got in their garage. Still, that was a pretty expensive mistake on his part! I'm sure he's not expecting this huge bill he's about to be handed! Daisy's just pitiful. She can't scratch at all, she's having to stay in a crate, which she's not used to because she's an outside dog, and she's half Jack Russell, so there's no jumping, which you can tell is killing her. But, she's getting tons more attention and having her tummy rubbed way more than usual, so maybe she'll survive it!

Andy's Mii

For those of you who don't know, when you have a Wii, you create a Mii for yourself, which is your character that you play as, and which probably does other things that I don't know of because I don't play it much. Of course, when we first got the Wii, we all went in and created a Mii for ourselves. We haven't played the Wii in a while, but the kids have revived it, which reminded me just how amazingly similar Andy's Mii is to what he really looks like. Andy hates pictures of himself, so he'll be really resistant to this post, but it's just too funny not to publish!

Tattle Tale, Tattle Tale...

So, now that I've gone from teaching 4th grade to 2nd grade, a few things have changed for me. One thing is the unbelievable amount of goofy junk that the kids choose to come and tattle about. I thought it was bad in 4th grade, but I guess the younger you go, the lower the ability to just get over it. I have to admit, I'm not the most patient or sympathetic person when it comes to this kind of stuff, so rather than bark out the response that I would like to give them -- a nice, hearty, "I DON'T CARE!"-- I went with the old teacher method of a tattle box. This way, they write down their tattle and stick it in the box, which turns a completely annoying issue into a hilarious one for me. Before I go on, I have to tell you that when you're dealing with kids this young, very few of them are good at being sneaky, so serious issues are out there. Everything that ends up in the tattle box is just ridiculous complaints, which, you'll see, is why I'd like to say, "So what?" or "I don't care!" at times. Here are some juicy little tidbits that were in the box today:

• Fernando was telling me no no no no no no no and he was talking over and over again, and Joseph.
• Joseph was bothering me and telling me can I borrow the re re re re re re re re re RED.
• Kristina was telling me to dig in my nose.
• Ishmael is putting names in the tattle box and the people didn't do anything (side note -- yes, there were a TON of just names in there with nothing else - the tattle box also serves as a torture device).
• Rebecca made a mad face and copied Keylin.
• Joseph was trying to take the diamonds off my shoes.
• Joseph was bothering me.
• Joel was beating on his desk with a pencil.
• Alex is bothering me.
• Bailey will not be quiet.
• Joel won't leave me alone.
• Elizabeth is bothering me.
• Joel had the books on his head.
• Ishmael has a Pokemon card in his pocket.
• Joseph was pushing me from the line.
• Joseph was being mean.
• Joel keeps coming to our table and I'm trying to finish my work and he will never leave us alone.
• Joseph is out of his seat.
• Joseph was in the "cunputer". (the computers are right by the door, so touching them when we line up is a constant problem for some)
• Joel was telling me bad words.
• Alexander tripped me.
• When I work in my math book Joseph sees at my book.

So, this is why I refuse to let them tell me anymore, and now it makes me laugh every day. It sounds like I'm running a zoo, but any other teachers out there will understand.

Busy, Busy, Busy...Or Am I?

Keep in mind as you read this that I have nothing but the career of teaching to go by. I don't know what anyone else's job is like, so I am, by no means, trying to out-do, or one-up. However, when you teach, you take about 2 months to have little responsibility (in theory), and then school starts and it's like an all out sprint until May. Well, I wouldn't say an all out sprint. It's more like, you walk in and take 3-5 days depending on how kind the higher-ups decide to be in giving you payed time to get ready (you can take as much time as you want for free), and you decorate and copy and laminate and hot-glue and organize and make everything nice and neat for your little angels to arrive, and then the sprint begins. My problem this year was that I literally had 2 hours to do what is usually done in 3-5 days, which means that most of that didn't happen for me this year. Not only that, but I was in a totally new place with all new people in a new grade level, so I didn't get to do the fun, cutesy stuff, and I was somewhat disoriented. I've been doing the sprint while doing all the other cutesy, organizational stuff. Imagine a trackmeet where the sprinter jogs around the curve, jumps 10 hurdles, throws herself over the high-jump, tosses a discus, barrels through the triple jump, and pole vaults, all while carrying those long sticks with spinning plates on top, and then heads off to a steady cross-country jog. Fastforward a month and a half and here I am at the cross-country jog. Actually, I'm sitting on my couch with papers graded, lessons planned, laundry folded and put away, no intention of cooking tonight, and the kids' homework is done, bookbags are packed, and Andy has a softball game to go to. This means starting at 8:00 I will have a perfectly quiet, football free evening to do and watch whatever I want. I could even go to sleep if I wanted to. The possibilities are endless!

The Hardest Easiest Project Ever

This really wasn't a difficult project, but it just took me FOREVER to complete. I bought these letters over a month ago thinking this would be a cute, quick, cheap, and easy decoration to add to the kids' rooms. It is cute, and it was fairly easy, and reasonably cheap, but it wasn't so quick. Just because of multiple coats of paint and a little bit (very little bit) of precision needed with the painting, I would paint a little, and then head off to something else while the paint dried, then a week later I would paint a little more, and it became one of those nagging things that I'm glad is finally over. Here's Evan's name strategically placed between Iron Man and Optimus Prime, his 2 favoritest characters. And here are the girls' names with a cute little plaque in between that says all these sweet things about sisters. My sisters actually got it for me, and I thought it would be perfect in their room.
Speaking of precious sisterly things, the girls have bunk beds, but I still walk in to wake them up in the mornings and find them sleeping together in the same bed. I love it because it's just like me and my sisters. I quit sleeping in the same bed with them when I went off to college even though I had my own bedroom for years. I love it!

Last Weekend

Last weekend IBM had another family day thing that they paid for, so Dad took us to see the Gwinnett Braves, a minor-league team, play baseball. It was a pretty neat set-up. This first picture is of where we sat from the opposite side. We laid out blankets on the little hill over there in front of the score board and watched the game from the back. IBM provided bracelets for the kids that let them get into all the jumpy things and little activity things. Here's a picture of them walking around up there. They're kind of hard to spot. They also provided vouchers for free meals. It was so nice to go get everyone a hotdog, fries, and a drink, and have the lady tell us it would cost over $50 and hand her the vouchers. It's crazy how much things cost at a ball game. We had a lot of fun, and the Braves won, which was nice. Andy and my dad go to the games a lot and sit in the regular stadium and love it. It's such a better experience than going to see the Atlanta Braves and dealing with traffic and all the joys that come with Atlanta. Of course, we wouldn't turn down free tickets to one of those, either!And, I'm ashamed to say that we spent the entire day with Dad and I didn't get one picture with him in it! Sorry, Dad!!!

Our Newest Family Member

Andy was driving down the road today and miraculously saw a tiny baby box turtle in the road, so we've adopted it. We have no idea about determining sex, so we've decided it's a girl, and the kids are debating names right now. She's living in a cardboard box with her little swimming pool and rocks and a nice stick to walk on. Apparently, from what Andy read, box turtles can't be in a clear container or they'll obsess about getting out, and she's proven that to be true since the first container we had her in was clear. She bashed her head on the side for an hour! So, that's our excitement for the weekend!