Support Groups - Teachers Struggling To Lose Weight #4

THE FUN NEVER ENDS!!!:D

I hope you can all find our thread. All I can say is that I know how much trouble I had when my hard drive crashed in August. I feel really bad for the "3 fat chicks." What a big mess.

So, we start over again.

Summer

I need some help getting motivated. I don't know where it went. I guess part of it is that I haven't felt really well in about a week, and I just got my period. I could use a kick in the ***. Would anyone like to oblige me?

Summer

Summer, consider yourself kicked!! Get out Dr Phil and read, or skim through it. Remember you lost weight before without doing anything, just small easy changes you got from reading him once. You want to do this, for yourself, for your daughter, your DH, but mostly for YOU!!! You can do it, WE CAN DO IT!!! If all else fails, fake it till you make it, pretend you're motivated and on track, making progress and feeling great, and soon you will be!!
Come on, Skinny by Summer, it's only a few months away!

"The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades!"
story

Story, thank you.

I've been MIA due to password issues...enough said. I swear I know my password...and have been typing the correct word..but I'm soooo relieved to be finally back IN!

The week has been tough. Anybody else notice that moon? My kids have been WOUND up! Gotten 2 new ones. Had the Director of Element. Education spend 20 minutes visiting with my class as I taught a reading group...gasp... sat through 3 meetings....and get this final one...facilitated the new exercise club for teachers afterschool!

Summer....Story did a good job kicking your fanny. If I had more time to type, I'd give you my OWN kicking! GIRRRRL... Get it together! Chin up! Face forward! Look to where you want to go. Make a plan of action and head there. (BUT DARRRN so much this week to deal with...I know what you mean! Wait until you are done with that darn AF and you'll be back in the swing of things soon!) ((((hugs to you))))

The rest of you take care...and I'll be back if my password allows it! :) Missed you guys like CRAZEEEY!

TGIF!!! I mean that this week more than usual. This has been one heck of a week.

DD is well, back at school, and full of vim and vigor.

I still have a sore throat and can't stop coughing. But my period is almost done, so things are looking up.

After telling my next door nightmare that I'm trying to lose weight, she bakes me a pan of brownies...my biggest weakness.:fr: I already have to deal with my best friend pulling that crap, I don't need my next door nightmare pulling it too!

Tomorrow morning DD starts gymnastics again. She is a natural. If you looked at her body, then looked at me, you would say, "Where did she come from?" Only when you looked at her face would you know that she is mine.

Well after being completely overwhelmed by illness, schoolwork, and housework, I finally feel well enough to take down the Christmas tree and all of the decorations. Yes. My decorations are still up. We did nothing for the house since DD got sick on the 1st of the year. So, several days later, we will clear it all out.

I'm gonna try to get my head back together, spend some time with the good old Dr. Phil, and do what I need to do.

Take care one and all. Thanks for the much needed support.

Summer

[COLOR=indigo] Don't you hate when people try to sabatoge you?! OR maybe was she truly just trying to make it better with something that she knows you have loved in the past?!

This week has been the pits. I am with you, I'm SO glad that it is over! I hope that you feel better soon, Summer! Curl up with Dr. Phil and a cup of tea! You will be back to "Ready to Rock" soon!
I don't miss the darn monthly :devil: bloodletting.....that comes with all the adorable hormonal drama! NOT dealing with THAT has to be the absolute BEST benefit of having had a hysterectomy! BUT I do remember :s: .......and MANNNNNNNN you did great with your mini melt down! :dizzy:

I've got to move my fanny for the night..and then I'm going to take a bubble bath even if it makes it near midnight! I deserve one after this week...BUT I've gotta move my buttttt first!

Soooo, it is 10pm on Friday of the longest week of my life...and I'm going to WATP with that whiney Leslie again! I bet tonight I won't even notice it....after the week I've had!

Story, you gave her a great kickin! I KNOW where to come for mine when I need it! :) Hope your week ended nicely!

Have a great weekend! EVERYONE, get some much deserved rest!

take care,
Robyn (who will be reading Dr.Phil/Ch2 in the tub in about an hour! :) )

TGIS--SATURDAY!! Why is it when you have a shortened week it feels like a year long? I saw the moon Robyn and yes the kids must have felt it too. Some were in rare form.

I managed to get alot of "back to school" stuff done this week, enrolling new kids to the library and cleaning out the moved away from my files. Between reading programs, tutoring groups, book clubs and meetings, it still feels like December, too much to do and not enough time to do it. For the first time since school started I didn't get my lessons planned for next week. Now that'll hang over me like a rock all weekend.

DH is on vacation for a week until the new job starts. Maybe I can get him to clean a little, take up some slack. Goodness knows there's enough to do around here to keep him busy for at least a week. And, as of today, I have 2 teenagers in the house. My baby boy is 13 today. I can't stand it. I need to go buy a cake and wrap his gifts. He doesn't want a big deal made about it until much later then complains that his birthday was crappy. My little old man.

Summer I hope you're feeling better. Don't beat yourself up too much about the weight loss, when you're ill and your family is, you have to use all your energies just to get better. You'll get there, we all will. Robyn I'm so impressed with you for getting out the WATP tape and going for it at 10 p.m.--on a Friday no less! Wow woman that's inspiration for the rest of us! Have a great weekend everyone, stay warm and keep moving!
story

Well...don't be too impressed.... I did get out the tape! I made it thru the first about 15 minutes before my bestest dearest friend of 30something years called (the phone was busy while I was on the computer!). I pushed stop on the VCR and well....the rest is history.... I had it in my heart BUT what could I doooo? I HAD to talk to my BUD! Anyway..... be impressed that I told the truth! We talked til nearly midnight!

Happy Brithday to the new teenager! Our oldest turns 12 in 15 days..not that he is counting or anything! :)

Summer, hope you feel better! You'll be back into the swing of things soon!

I've gotta rewind that tape and begin again...I'll be back to brag that I did the WHOLE tape in a while!!!

Alright...I did my tape! How did YOU move your fanny today?!

It is so darn cold....it is 22 ...remember than earlier in the week it was 78... TOOOOOO cold for me!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Well......Sunday has a big 3 hour hole shot into it. The boys have a birthday party to go to...at the IcePlex...it is an iceskating party. I don't want to go. It is 40 minutes away. It is 19 degrees. There is enough ice to skate on in the mudpuddle at the end of our driveway but NOOOO they say! ARGHHH! I know I know...what kind of mother would make her children miss the party and skate on MUD??? Not this one! So, I've eaten breakfast and it is time to get ready to go. Yahooo!

When I return I must finish the laundry, scrub the bathroom, finish my homework and plans, clean out the fridge, change the beds, (not in that order!) and get ready for the week. OH dear, I nearly forgot...I must MOVE my fanny to the rhythm of some dumb music and listen to the whine of Leslie! Okey... please notice that being online isn't on the list...sigh! I'll talk to you all on Monday! I've GOT to get this junk done!

Have a great Sunday! As we say at school, "Don't talk about me!" hehehehehe!

take care

Vacation is over for me. My sister said that it was actually over on Friday because yesterday and today are just the weekend. Anyway, it's back to school tomorrow. I don't need any plans for tomorrow except to go over the rules. One would think that after 2 quarters of school the kiddos would know them. I don't mind though because I try to get the kids to think I'm mean. :D

I told hubbie that the sooner we go back, the sooner it will be over. :p

Have a great Sunday everyone.

Cal

Cal, welcome back!

Burrrrrrrrrrrrrr...I'm so friggin' cold!!! It is 3 degrees. No that is not a typo...three, tres, 1-2-3 degrees outside!!!!!!! It is days like this that I can't stop thinking about homeless people. I taught Sunday School, and after much preparation, I arrived with some really cool activities with a good message thrown in. Well, after only 5 minutes, the fire alarm went off. We couldn't hear the alarm in the education building, so all of a sudden, parents started flooding in the classroom grabbing their kids. I had three left to take outside in 3 degree weather without coats. Well, guess what? I broke the cardinal rule and ran to the coatroom (against the crowd) for their coats, and managed to get them outside without losing anyone. We were outside for 30 minutes!!! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I would not have gone to church today if I knew that was going to happen. By the time we got back to the room, we did a half-assed job on the lesson, and then had another interruption by the cherub choir director. Needless to say, the kids went home with half-completed projects, and I don't think they learned a darn thing.




































































































































:( :( :(

Don't ask me what just happened to half of what I just wrote to you guys. As you can see, there is a ton of "white space."

Okay, well, I paid the bills, still have to write lesson plans, do laundry, and bake (No Pudge) brownies with DD.

In the meantime, I feel better as far as my period goes, but I have yet to stop coughing, my voice is here one minute and gone the next, and right now I am eating Haagen-Dazs lemon sorbet, because it is the only thing that makes my throat feel better. Otherwise, I'm good.

Robyn, I can't believe you planned to exercise at 10pm on a Friday. You blow my mind girl.

Story, thanks for the kick, I needed it.

I'd better go, before this gets wiped out too.

Summer

I'm getting so tired of having to log in all of the time.

Okay, I need to vent.

I'm in a transitional faze of my life. I've outgrown my high school friends. As of last spring, they are all out of my life. The last one, which ended last spring, was a very toxic friendship, and I'm better off without her. Over the years, my friends' husbands have been relocated across the country to accept promotions. Now it appears that I've been left with two really close friends and several acquaintances. Although I have made attempts to host parties, those acquaintances have remained just that...acquaintances. I really long for a better social life. My best friend and her husband have a daughter my DD's age, and they are best friends. Unfortunately, they live 40 minutes away, work different schedules, so therefore, we only see them twice a month. And, like this month with all of the illness, we haven't seen them at all. My other friend and her husband don't have children, but she is my DD's Godmother, and they both really love my DD. Unfortunately, they have an incredibly busy schedule, working a couple jobs to support the new dream home they just built. We haven't seen them since November. So, I'm feeling really "short" of friends right now. I can't stand it because I'm a very social person. I love to entertain and go to parties. I love to play games, drink, go out to shows, go out to dinner, etc.

In order to remedy this, I'm attempting to begin a social group for parents at my church. There is a group of adults right now that meet socially, but most of them don't have kids, don't want kids, or have grown kids. They've made it clear that they aren't interested in talking about kids, or God forbid, seeing them. So, I think it is natural for me to want to start a group for people who have children. Well, when I spoke with the church secretary today about getting a list of members with kids, she really hassled me. She told me the church doesn't really have room for "another social group." I told her we could meet at each others' homes. She then told me just to attend the current group. She wasn't interested in the fact that it doesn't meet my needs. Then she told me I'd better not start contacting other parents about starting this group without having a "sit-down" with the pastor..."he'd want to know about this." You'd think I was trying to start some radical group that was gonna cause trouble. I promised her that I would send him a note or call him first so that I could get the damned list from her.

I am pissed. Why can't I just do this? Why do I need their permission? We probably won't even need a room in the church. We won't need funding from the church. It would be a harmless group of adults and their kids getting together to have fun. What is the big deal?! I just want to make some new friends and have some fun. Is that too much to ask?! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Summer

Summer I can SO relate to your anal-retentive church secretary. What is up with wanting to socialize with fellow members of your church? And how dare she say you 'better not contact' people without checking with the pastor first? What is she? The church den mother? Please. Stuff like that just irks me.

I can relate too, to having outgrown friends and feeling adrift, wanting friends, a social life, but not having any you feel really comfortable with. My DS's godmother and I used to be the best, closest of friends, but after my kids got older, she had moved a little further away and I returned to work, it began to sink in for me that she only got in touch with me when she wanted something from me. I wasn't a pal anymore, just the pleasure of my company wasn't enough for her, she only wanted me around when I could be of some use to her. The one time I needed her help, however, she was AWOL. After that I had to swallow the hurtful realization that this was a very one sided relationship and I had to take steps to protect myself and my DS from being hurt. At present I have one or two close friends, but we don't really socialize. I just see them whenever. As for co-workers, well, let me put it this way: They are all older, or make way more money than I do, or have no kids or grown kids, in short, we have little to nothing in common except work. And when they go out it's to expensive shows and restaurants. If I have that kind of money to spend, I feel like it should be with my family, not my co-workers. I applaud you, Summer for trying to find like-minded adults to be with, with kids so you can include, or at least, talk about them. Don't let that secretary stop you, what's she gonna do?--ground you?

Cal-back to the grind, huh? Man what a vacation, I sort of envy you. Robyn you are in inspiration girl. I was thinking of you this morning as I rode my bike at 5:30 a.m., if Robyn can make herself to do it on a Friday night (never mind that the friend called, your intentions were THERE!!), I can too. Onward and downward (in size, pounds, inches :dizzy: )

And Summer, 3 degrees? :o I was whining this morning because it was 50, and I was cold! Kudoos to you in spades for going back for the kiddos coats. Can you imagine 30 minutes in the cold? No way.
I hope everyone had a great start to a great week. Stay warm
story

I think we could all be such good friends if we all lived closer to each other. :D I don't have many friends either. My sister and I are really close, but she lives in California. She has talked about applying to the high school near where we live and it would be great to have her here, but she's still trying to decide which is best for her. It's hard to not try to influence her. I do enjoy chatting with all of you, even though I'd been AWOL for awhile. Sorry.

Hang in there girls. We have each other. :grouphug:

Temp was 77 today. Great day!! Here's some Arizona sun for those of you who are having a real winter. :sunny:

Cal

Story & Cal, thanks so much for making me feel less alone. I too think we would make great friends. We have so much in common. It is just that we are spread out all over the country. I know if we were near each other, we could have a great time together. I'm glad that you are here for me, even if you aren't down the street.

Well, I don't plan on letting that barking secretary stop me from pursuing a better social life. I'm gonna write a letter to the pastor explaining my idea and why I came up with it along with a copy of the letter and questionnaire I want to send out to the potential members. Hopefully he will understand how I feel and be sensitive enough to support me.

If he is a jerk about it, then I will have to think of something else. The thing is if someone tells me, "no," I dig in my heels and say, "YES!" I can be very persistent.

In the meantime, we will still host our annual St. Patrick's Day party in March, and I plan to invite a bunch of couples from that list of parents I have from church.

If you want to make a friend, you have to be a friend.

Thanks again you guys. You made me feel loved.

Summer

I love you too Summer! I am over my head with CRAP here...don't even know why you're feeling UNloved right now...I'll get on some day again and read why!!! BUT I care! :)

Things here are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo annoying.

I've decided to demand that our 3rd grade son be removed from the evil teacher's classroom. I have made an appointment to discuss this with the principal. I'm nearly crazy over this.

Our oldest (SpEd) son's school assigned laptop (part of his IEP) won't work right. It is a week before semester exams. No one will listen to the kid ...OR me!

gonna run instead of dump further!
no exercise today.....but I did great with water and food....

((hugs to all))
Robyn

Robyn, I can't believe the way you are abused by your school system. In my district, the admininstration is so afraid of the parents, that they cave into whatever the parent wants. (Maybe they are afraid of being shot! No kidding!) Some of the parents that walk into my school are pretty scary looking folks. All of the teachers smile really big and cater to the parents no matter what the cost. For example, where I live, I have to pay $200.00 a month, about $2000.00 a year, for DD to attend the after school program (and she's only there for 30 minutes a day). In the district where I work, the parents have always gotten before and after school care for free. Well, this year because of deep budget cuts, the city told the parents that they would have to pay $15.00 a month, about $150.00 a year. Well, you wouldn't believe the reaction. There was protesting, threats of violence, yada yada yada. So, guess what? The district dropped the idea of a fee, and the parents won. Robyn, maybe you need to show up at your kids' school brandishing a weapon!!! :rofl: I'd bet they'd do what you wanted then!!! :lol:

Okay, enough of that.

I've been a naughty girl. I've been so friggin busy at school, I haven't finished reading chapter 2 of Dr. Phil. I've got to do it soon and post something soon.

I have a snow day today, so hopefully I can catch up on laundry, dishes, school work, etc. The frigid temperatures around here, 2 degrees, have been messing with my old injuries. My body is killing me. My broken foot from last year is the worst. My old knee injuries, shoulder injury, back, and hands are so achy. Now I know why all the old people (we call them snow birds) go to Florida when they retire. I always wanted to retire in Cape Cod, but with all of these aches and pains, I may end up retiring in Florida with everyone else! Why am I thinking of this now? I'm only 39, but today I feel 79!

Hi Story & Cal!

Summer

[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=7]
TGIF!
Will check in later...IF I survive this cold weather!
TGIF!

Okay, I've never experienced this in my entire life. School is closed because it is too cold...better word, frigid! It is currently 2 degrees. Yesterday, we only got 6 inches of snow because it was so cold. I guess in order to get lots of snow, it has to be warmer. Whatever, at least now I have more time to get stuff done. It just blows my mind that so many days I'm forced to drive on ice to get to school, yet today the roads aren't bad...school is closed because of the cold. I guess they were worried about buses not starting and kids getting frost bite at the bus stops.

My next-door nightmare just dropped off another plate of brownies. AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately my DD already saw them, so I can't throw them away. I just have to use my new resolve to be successful. I just posted on the Dr. Phil chapter 2 thread. I posted a lot there.

I'm gonna post my stats because I'm making myself accountable to you ladies.

Current weight, 1/16/04: 235
Goal weight, 7/16/04: 165
Specific goal: I will lose 2.5 lbs. over the next 26 weeks with a total weight loss of 70 lbs. I will maintain that weight loss within 10 lbs. I will exercise daily using 1. my recumbent bike, 2. Richard Simmons aerobics tape, 3. walks outside when it feels less like the arctic circle, & 4. going to the gym when I have childcare.

Summer

Getting back into the swing of things is really tough. I spent most of this week reviewing and next week we will start a new instructional focus: inferencing and predicting outcome. At least I don't have to be grade-level literacy coach anymore :cb: The district FINALLY hired one full time. Don't get me wrong, I loved doing it, but it was too much to basically do 2 jobs. It's crazy, a literacy coach is in our school improvement plan, but it was the first position eliminated at the beginning of the year: go figure.

I really feel for those of you back east. The high here is supposed to be around 70 and sunny. Last night was the first time we've had to use our heater since before New Year's. Here's some Arizona sun for you; hope it makes you feel better. :sunny:

Enjoy the weekend.

Cal

"We're having a heatwave...a tropical heatwave..." :flow2: It is a sweltering 20 degrees today!!! WOW!!! I may need to break out the bathing suit!!!

Believe it or not, 20 degrees does feel warm to me. After dealing with below zero temperatures (yesterday was -2 degrees, not 2 degrees like I thought) with windchills of 20-40 degrees below zero. When I brought DD to gymnastics today, we had to park out on the street really far from the YMCA. Walking there wasn't bad at all. It was tough leaving because the wind has picked up, but it still seems awfully warm compared to this past week.

DD is in a new class for gymnastics this year. The cut-off age for her old group is 6, so I put her in level 1. Level 1 has quite a diverse group of ages and abilities. Now that she is no longer the tops of her class, she suddenly doesn't like gymnastics anymore. This is an opportunity to teach her a life lesson. Just because something is difficult and requires practice doesn't mean you should give up. As I'm telling DD this, I keep hearing someone in my ear say, "listen to your own advice." When I was a kid I was the first one to quit when something seemed too hard. As an adult, I have overcome many obstacles...infertility, putting myself through college while working full-time, becoming accredited when my district didn't think I had it in me...there are many other examples, and I would LOVE to add weight loss to that list of accomplishments. And, I'm not letting DD give up on something she has loved for 2 years because it is all of a sudden more difficult.

Have a great day one and all. For those of you in the truly warmer weather, enjoy!!! See ya later!

Summer

I spent the day painting my bathroom. I planned on just painting it yellow and being done with it. But lately, I've been watching two remodelling shows, Monster House and Knock First. Well, once I got started, I couldn't stop. I painted the sink cabinet, the wicker shelf, the wicker mirror. And, if my husband didn't drag me out to make dinner, I would still be in there painting something else.

The cool thing is that I was so immersed in my project that I forgot to eat lunch!!! DD and DH came upstairs at 1:30 asking about lunch, and I sent them to the kitchen to fend for themselves. I wasn't hungry!!! Me, not hungry!!! THAT NEVER HAPPENS!!! Around 2:30 my stomach started to growl so I ate a lean cuisine pizza. But if those two hadn't come looking for food, I don't think I would have even had those hunger pains.

So, now a roast is in the oven, and I am beat. I have paint all over my lovely manicure. I will have to clean up my nails since I won't be getting my nails done until Thursday. I'm so happy that I accomplished something and was too busy to think about food. I don't mind being exhausted and having sore hands and arms.

Apparently I need to be deeply involved in a solitary project to keep from eating. I would love to work on something creative by myself every day, but my lifestyle involves lot of people especially kids. Sometimes when my class and I are doing an art project, I have to set a timer or we get totally off schedule.

We are totally snowed in this weekend. It has been snowing all day. It is still in the 20's...a total heatwave!

Where is everyone this weekend?

Is everyone off tomorrow for Martin Luther King Day?

See ya. Summer

Hello, all! Been AWOL lately.... Talked to Summer via IM... I've been doing NOTHING...I've got NO good excuses... I don't know! Guess I'm just coming a bit unGlued! Lots of time consuming stuff going on...... Guess that is the nature of my UnGlue!

1. My classroom is being dismantled for painting. I've got to get every paper clip off of every surface that is painted. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I still have 24 6 and 7 year olds to deal with and oh, yeah, TEACH something to! Things are piled up everywhere. Kids are getting into piles, knocking over piles. AND haven't they discovered that "huffing" paint fumes is NOT healthy???? :?:

2. My middle school son worked long and hard on a project that was due on Friday....then the teacher that assigned the project didn't even show up to collect them.... Another teacher from the team came...said she didn't know anything about the projects, coach was in the teacher's lounge :mad: and to put them back in their bookkbags ....ARGHHHH! He has another project due on Wednesday. It is nearly done. Wonder if THAT teacher will want that one?

3. I did have a successful meeting with my other son's principal. We meet again on Feb 2nd. :shrug: guess we will see how it goes! Either the teacher is gonna LOVE him or HATE him after the principal suggests to her what she suggested to me!

4. The CubScout man sent me an email and told me to plan the meeting for Wednesday. I am NOT one of his registered assistants. I did say I'd help with a project in February. WHAT THE ****? I emailed him back and was nice BUT...Just what I need after being at school all day...with the paint...and the piles...and the kids....MORE children...and these boys are NOT well mannered. I will chew them up without trying! arghhhh...

5. My husband's best friend's kid is here for the day. Mom's school is having a make up day. He is a nice kid. BUT I've had to have on a bra since 7. I don't really MIND...and they would do it for us..... but mannnnnn....a bra????

6. There has been no time for me. I need to do Dr.Phil's Chapter2. I need to exercise. I need to spend time with my bookbag. I need to spend some time ALONE! Ha! Report cards need to be started. Our bathroom needs to be REdone. The kitchen needs to be CLEANED (that would be a good place to start!)

Geesh, just call me SusiSunshine. :yikes:

SEEEEE...I told you ...I'm UNGlued!

take care!

Gosh Robyn...I can't believe you have to teach in a room being painted.
And that cub scout leader is awfully presumptuous. I hope you can chill out today, even though you have to wear your bra! :rofl: I'm the same way, when I walk in the door, the bra comes off before the shoes!

We have two paid Sunday school superintendents at my church, and the newest one (gung ho) is DRIVING ME CRAZY! :crazy: She wants to know what is in my lesson plans for next Sunday. You've got to be kidding. My principal hasn't even gazed at my lesson plans at school (you know, my paid position) in weeks. Who the **** does this ***** think she is? She is a mom. She is not a certified teacher. I'm the certified teacher generously volunteering my time, and she has the balls to ask to see my lesson plans!!! Second of all, I haven't even written my lesson plans for school for tomorrow, and she thinks I've already planned for next Sunday?! I really freaked her out when I told her I didn't think I would follow the curriculum. I could picture her losing it on the other end of the phone. :faint: I would actually like to do something about Martin Luther King, Jr. I didn't teach SS yesterday, so I wasn't able to do it then. My SS students aren't very tolerant of people different from them, and I would like to expose them to the idea of loving and accepting everyone...people of all colors, races, and creeds. So, doing a lesson on MLK is a great opportunity for me to do that. I may ruffle some feathers by not following the curriculum, but it is on the "Lost Coin" which has been done over and over again. MLK and teaching peace is more important. What are they gonna do? Fire me? That would be the best news ever! :rofl:

Yesterday I painted the bathroom. I love the walls, the mirror, and shelf, but the color on the sink cabinet looks BAD! I'm gonna have to redo it in a different color or I will go nuts.

This afternoon, I'm going to the Ear, Nose, & Throat doctor since I haven't had a clear upper respiratory system since August. I think I should be seeing an allergist, but my regular doctor referred me to the ENT.

Back to laundry, etc...

Cal & Robyn have checked in. Where are ya Story? I'm gonna assume that Shameeka wasn't able to find us after the crash. Oh well.

Have a great day! Summer :flow2:

I am really wishing I didn't go to my ENT today. You wouldn't believe everything I have to do. First of all, because I tend to get a bloody nose from blowing it too hard, the doctor cauterized my nose. NOW I CAN'T BLOW MY NOSE FOR A WHOLE WEEK! If you knew how often I blow my nose, you would understand how hard this is going to be for me. Whatever I am allergic to has turned my nose into a water faucet. And, as a result of the cauterization, my nose is sooooooo itchy. I keep on sneezing, but I can't sneeze through my nose. I have to sneeze through my mouth. The last time I sneezed so hard, I peed on myself!!! :o This can't happen in school. Between a constantly runny nose that I can't blow and non-stop sneezing while holding my legs together (I'd better start doing those kegels again!) I'm gonna go out of my mind. I have to apply bacitracin inside my nose twice a day for a week. I can't bend over because I have to avoid blood rushing to my head. To continue, in a couple of days, I'm gonna have to start doing a sinus rinse (a douche for the nose) twice a day. Then do a new nasal spray. I was on Flonase, and apparently it causes nose bleeds! I will be going for allergy testing soon which probably means that I will have to go off my medication for a while so that the results are accurate. In a few weeks, I will have to stay over night in the hospital's sleep clinic so they can observe me for sleep apnea. Then when we have all of the test results back, the fun will really begin. I will be treated properly for my allergies, and possibly undergo surgery if I have apnea. THE FUN NEVER ENDS. :dizzy:

I'm glad to receive treatment, I am just so uncomfortable right now, and I can't do anything about it for a week.

Bye guys, and enjoy blowing your noses and sneezing with wild abandon!

Summer :crazy:

It is great to see that there are other teachers out there going through the same things that I have to deal with on a daily basis. I have Multiple-handicapped students and I have to try very hard not to let my stress level get too high that I crave snack foods and chocolate. But I think I have it planned that when I start to feel stressed I ask one or two of my students if they want to go for a walk. We walk around the two elementary buildings one or two times. I try to do this several times during the day to get up and moving.

WELL GEESSSS Louise...Summer! You win! You win! (((hugs))) Makes me not wanting to wear my bra today sound VERY lame! I'm so sorry that you have to go thru all this STUFF with your nose. I hope that all of this junk will help you sort out your nasal issues AND that in a while you will be BETTER than you have been. ***CAUTERIZED*** You're my hero! They wanted to do that to me when I was preggers with #2 cause the blood just wouldn't stop....BUT, I couldn't do it! Hang in there! Take the junk with your nose one moment at a time! :)

Hello, Kar73! You've walked into a rather hormonal moment for Summer and I! LOL It hasn't been a good weekend around here! :) We are a small but "nice" group of teachers! REALLY! LOL Contrary to what we are spewing this weekend! We know all too well the hassles, headaches and yep, even rewards of the classroom. Welcome to the looney bin! We're glad to have you! :) Hope you stay around! We don't rant and rave ALL the time! hehehehe!

Happy Tuesday...groan!....to us all! 4 day week, gotta love it!
take care...will check in again soon!

Hi everyone!
I hope everyone had a better day then me today. By 9:30, I was looking for some chocolate. Thank God, I didn't find any or I would have eaten it and went looking for more. LOL. My students were very active and rude today. I guess it doesn't help that their parents feel sorry for their disablilties and lets them rule the roost at home. It really makes my day all the much harder. I have to go to my TOPS meeting tonight. SO that was another reason I did not give into my craves. I am glad my friend gets off work shortly and we can go to the high school indoor walking track and walk a mile or two and help me destress. So what is everyone's weather like? It is very cold and sunny here. I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow at school. I have to go to a workshop on ways to handle autistic children.

Welcome Kar.

I was just blindsided by a very special friend of mine, my DD's Godmother. She is a nurse who works crazy hours, and two other parttime jobs because she and her DH just built a half-million dollar home. Anyway, her DH is rather immature and doesn't really like spending time with me and my DH. But my friend and I have been through a lot and have been very close for a long time. Our dilemma has been when to see each other for Christmas. The holiday came and went because of our conflicting schedules and her frequent travelling. (They go on vacation about every 8 weeks...no lie! No, they do not have kids yet.) Because she works every other weekend, she invited us up to her house in the boondocks about 30 minutes away during a school night. I explained how DD has homework every night and goes to bed at 7pm. Not to mention the fact that I get home at 5:30 on Mon. & Tues., have a standing appointment on Thurs. leaving only Wed. when I get home at 4:30. Yes, we could get a sitter and get DD's homework done before we leave. And if that is my only choice, that would be fine. I just can't believe that my friend is completely booked the weekends she doesn't work. That is Friday, Saturday, & Sunday...not anytime at all?! I really think she is being pressured by her DH. Every time I suggest going out for dinner or whatever, there is always an excuse. If she wasn't so important to me and my DD who loves her like an aunt, I would just give up. And, she is my DD's guardian named in our will should something happen to us. No, there isn't anyone else that I would trust to raise my DD. I'm just so frustrated right now, because she is calling me selfish etc. I emailed her that we would just have to get a sitter during a weekday to visit. I just can't be friends with people who don't have kids. They just don't know what is involved. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

Summer

Summer so I take it I am not the only one who had a bad day. My best friend and I are in the same kind of situation. My husband and her husband don't get a long very well and so it is tough trying to get together and do things as couples. Usually it is just the two of us getting together when I go home to visit my family and we go shopping. It is very hard to get other non-teachers and non-parents to see how hard it is for us to balance school and home life. Plus still try to keep our sanity and not go looney.
I went to my TOPS meeting tonight. I lost another pound. I was happy with this. I have now lost a total of 16.25 pounds since last April. I keep telling myself that this is my year to reach my goal weight. I am thinking about trying Leslie Sansone's The Walk Diet. It is a 6 week "activity-based" way to walk off the extra weight. It starts Feb. 2. If anyone is interested in it, go to her website at www.lesliesansone.com Well I better go. I have to type some stuff up for my TOPS group. If I don't do it now, I will forget. Have a great Wednesday, everyone.

Hi all teachers, welcome and hi Kar. Between DH having all of last week off before the start of his new job this week and my kids being on the computer 24/7, I have had no time to post much less check my e-mail! My own sister probably thinks I've kicked the bucket.

Painting a classroom during the year? With kiddos still using said room? Many Robyn, and I thought my district was insane. Summer huge hugs and sympathy on the nose problems, I hope after all of this you feel better than ever and can say it was worth it.

Work has been hectic, and is only going to get worse as the dreaded TEKS season gets in full swing. I feel so sorry for some of the kids. And a little concerned about my own. Lots of shakeups and changes going on on campus, the ever-present fear that they'll replace me or do away with my position is rearing it's ugly paranoid head. On the food front I'm doing okay. The holiday damage came to about 5 lbs, (I told you it would show up sooner or later, you just can't play and not pay eventually--and I played hard some days!!). I'm back on track though, water water water, bike, taking good healthy lunches and avoiding the lounge, and the candy jar in our office. That alone is a major accomplishment. Oh, and journaling, I'm faithfullly writing every bite so I don't lose track. I'm hoping by spring to be back, if not at goal, then really close to it. No excuses, just gonna do it.

I don't know when my kids will let me back on so if I'm awol it's just that I can't get a turn. Keep up the good work ladies!
story

Kar, thanks for your input. It is nice to know I'm not alone.

After I posted here, I called my only married friend with kids. She also happens to be a real straight shooter. She tells you the truth whether it hurts or not, and I've always valued that about her. So, I told what happened, and she was very supportive. She told me that although I am really strict about keeping DD on a schedule especially on a school night, I'm not being rigid and selfish, I'm being a good mom. She also reminded me that my other friend has pointed out to me in the past that she admires the way DD has a bedtime and isn't dragged out to restaurants etc., late at night like her niece is. And now that it is an inconvenience to her, suddenly the trait that she used to admire she is calling selfish behavior. My friend who has kids has the same problem with her friends without kids. Is it so wrong to make your child top priority?! I am willing to get a babysitter for DD so we can visit my friend. DH will have to do her homework with her since he gets out of work earlier. It is doable on a weekday if I make special arrangements. I just find it so hard to believe that even though she works every other weekend, she doesn't have one friggin day or evening on a weekend that she can make plans with me. I really think her DH is behind this, and she is caught between him and me and doesn't have the guts to be honest about it. For my DD's sake, I have to make peace with her. She is her Godmother for Pete's sake.

It is such a shame to me that friendships that have withstood the test of time and other stressors begin to fall apart when marriage and children enter the picture. My best friend's husband isn't nuts about my DH, but has the maturity to be social with him knowing that his wife and I and our kids are really close. I'm so grateful that I have her because she is the only friend I have that really "gets" me and my lifestyle. I really need to make more friends with other parents!

Robyn, I forgot to thank you for your funny response for my adventure with the ENT. I want you to know that I blew my nose by mistake a couple of times today. It is such a habit. Nothing bad happened. Since I may need surgery, I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceburg.

Take care and enjoy hump day!

Summer

Yikes! Sorry to hear that everyone (Kar and Summer!) has had a horrid day! Well....
COUNT me in with the "WHAT A YUCKY DAY" group. The preparations for the painters is about to kill me. I was near tears all day today. (NOT the way to be with 23 6 year olds!) The kidlets were on the whole angels....considering what could have happened with the crap piled to the ceiling. It has been suggested to me more than 100 times that I need to throw away my stuff. I'm SOOO angry at the attitude of others. I agree and admit that my room is full of stuff that has out lived its usefulness. HOWEVER, January with a room full of first graders is NOT the time to go through the crap and pick and chose. AND the impending doom of the painters ...and the fumes from all the paint.... and the boxes everywhere...and the usual "issues" of my darlings... ARGGGHHHHHHHHHH

Today as the children were leaving my principal came down to the sty (my room) with a person from HR (in a full length mink coat no less) to photograph the scene of the accident that happened with the other teacher 2 weeks ago. I was mortified. The room is totally in an uproar. Junk EVERYwhere. There were 5 witnesses to the accident...they ALL "testified" that the room/piles/boxes were NOT an issue in the accident.

You all are talking about friendships and stuff.... I have not spoken to the "friend" who I considered at one point in my life, "my best friend" since May. I've not seen her in over a year. We live less than 30 minutes from each other. Things change. People change. It bothers me like crazy. BUT I'm done with trying to keep up the friendship. I love the memories of the times we had together. BUT... I've come to deal with (usually) that it is NOT how it was. The last time we talked we were strangers. It was the most awkward thing I've ever experienced. Especially since she was part of my life (part of my family) for 22 years. She was with my husband and I when both of our children were born...... I miss her. But the person that I knew and loved and "hung with" is no longer. Sighhhhhhh

Kar, I highly recommend the WATP program. (What is your current activity level?) I am searching for time to exercise regularly again.... I found that I "surpassed" the WATP tapes quickly....ie, they werent enough...BUT they were great for a while! Does that make any sense?

I've babbled ENOUGH! ...and Queer Eye is going off....time for bed! LOL
Hang in there!

Summer, your message cursing the Sunday School superintendent had me bent in 1/2 ROTFLOL! I'm sorry that the vision of the SS super. is soooo WHACKED! Did you try explaining it to her the way you did to us?! I got the message! LOL Maybe you just need to "splain it" to her! Hope your nose made it thru the day! (((hugs)))

ok...really...gonna go to bed....
take care
Robyn

Hey girls, apparently we were all posting at the same time!!! Great minds think alike! I don't have time to respond properly to all of your wonderful postings. I will check in tonite. Glad to see you back Story. You were missed.

Summer

Morning Ladies,
I just want to wish you all a wonderful day. I am getting ready to go to my workshop. My kids yesterday were cheering that I was not going to be there today. But watch as soon as they walk in my room tomorrow morning, they are going to tell me how much they missed me and love me. LOL.
I have been doing WATP videos for the last year. I do one every other morning. The other mornings, I ride my excerise bike, do ab excerises and workout on my excerise ball. Then three days a week since the end of Dec. I go to Curves in the evenings to workout. Plus one or two nights a week, I get together with one of my friends from TOPS and we walk at the local high school indoor track. Since I started incorprating excersie into my life and watching what I eat, I have lost 16.25 pounds (April 2003-present). I feel so much better and have energy for my 6 Special Needs students and my three step-children.
Well I better go and leave for my workshop. Talk to you all later. Have a great day with your students!

Hey Robyn. I don't know about you, but I think the book club thread is a bust. People aren't really posting very much. So far, it hasn't been much help for me. I feel like I get so much more right here. Oh well.

Kar, it sounds like you are doing everything right. Good for you!

I'm beginning to calm down from last night's fiasco with my friend. My current reaction is a lot of sarcastic comments to myself. I guess I'm feeling pissed off right now. I'd better not speak to her anytime soon.

My next door nightmare is trying to blame my 6 year old because she fell on ice walking her into school. Nice.

My DH is looking into a different position at work which would allow him to bring DD to school, therein saving me $100 a month and less aggravation with the next door nightmare.

My aide was out today, yet again. She hasn't put in a full week since she returned from maternity leave in November. I had to steal the aide from K because I have to have a ratio of 1:10 at all times. The K teacher was annoyed, but she knew it wasn't my fault.

Tomorrow we get our new principal. God help us. I have to go in 30 minutes early for her welcome breakfast. Oh goody!

One of the early childhood supervisors came in and discovered my students painting a cardboard box which we are turning into a puppet theater. Out of nowhere she told me to pick one out of the Lakeshore catalog, and she would order it for me. Stuff like this NEVER happens! Cool!

Oh, and I was very obedient today. I turned in my lesson plan to the Sunday School superintendent. (I hope I won't have to go through this every week.) It will certainly keep me following the curriculum. That way I can tell her where to look for the info herself.

Gotta go.

Summer

Hi Ladies,
I hope everyone had a better day today! I went to my workshop. It was wonderful and I learned a lot of new ideas to use with my students. The only bad thing about it was we sat for most of the day and I am use to being up and moving around my classroom and school building with my kids. But it was the needed kick in the butt to get over being on Christmas Vacation. For some reason this year, vacation mode just seemed to stick with me a little bit longer. I was a little bad today with my eating though. They sat out bowls of mini candy bars and I kept helping myself to them. I usually can resist the temptation. But for some reason today they just looked really good. Please give me words of advice on how to not give into my chocolate craves again. I think I had about 6 to 10 of them. But they were soooo yummy! LOL. Please give me a butt kicking for giving into my craves. Well I need to go and get well rested up for my boys tomorrow. I am sure I am going to have fun making heads and tails of what they did today. Have a great Thursday!
Love, KAR

Kar, the last time someone asked for a butt kicking it was Summer, and I obliged her but today I'm just too pooped! Forgive yourself, we all give in sometimes. I did stock up on a couple of boxes of Slimfast snack bars so I can have my chocolate and count it too, 2 points each and really really good. I'm glad to hear someone else rides and exercise bike as well. During the school year that's about all the workout I get. I ride 20 minutes every morning and try to ride the same or more at the end of the day, I'm not always as successful in the p.m. I like to wear my walkman and listen to the radio and read while I ride. If I'm not reading, that 20 minutes seems to take all day. Currently Maeve Binchey is keeping me company, Quentins, for the second time. Anyone else read and re-read and re-read books? I will read them over and over if I love them. Others, like the first in the "Key" series of Nora Roberts latest trilogy, I couldn't even finish. I can't waste time on less than wonderful reading.

The water is starting to work, I can feel it kicking in and flushing out my system. (sorry if that's too graphic!) I'm so ready to feel better all over, so tired of being tired and knowing it's this excess weight. But I'm so thankful that I can feel it this time, and not wait to feel it until it was 50 lbs, instead of 5. Been there, hated it.

Speaking of friends and the angst they can cause, DD is struggling with that very thing now. Friends who go for months and not call or write, then suddenly turn up wanting her undivided attention/support/loyalty. Why do they think they have the right to exclusive friendship with her, expect her to drop other people because they say so? At 14 she's learning, the hard way I'm afraid, to deal with these kinds of friends. I'm not telling her what to do, but offering my opinion if she asks. I don't think she'll let herself be used and discarded, yet again, but she'll be hurt by it just the same. When it comes to these kinds of things, I agree, boys are easier! DS just says like me or leave me, I don't care.

Work is, well, work. Tough time of year, no break until March. My classes today tried my patience to the limit. And that was before one of the boys decided to show his butt--literally!! An Anacin moment for sure.

I hope everyone is having better days and restful nights.
story

Well, it seems my friend has come to her senses. She took back that I am selfish and our friendship is one-sided. She is behaving more rationally now. STRESS REALLY TAKES A TOLL ON HER. So, it appears that the drama is over for now. I'm too old for this crap.

My new principal arrived today with a lot of fanfare, the superintendent, assistants and other bigwigs. There was an elaborate breakfast with all of the trimmings. My principal is a tiny woman, seems friendly, and appears to have a sense of humor. Give it a couple of months, and I let you know the REAL DEAL. The superintendent came to observe me during a special, (whoopie!!!) so I escaped dealing with her. :D

My husband got a new position at work which changes his hours so he can bring DD to school!!!!! Now my nextdoor nightmare will be less involved with my life. :cb: There will be still be drama with her, but at least DD won't be involved.

Have a great Friday!!!

Summer

Anyone know how to send / post a photo here? I would love to show you my classroom.... You all would DIE. ????? I know I am...dying...daily!

TGTomorrowF!

Story I just wanted to say Thanks for telling me it was okay to splurge with the chocolate. I love riding my excerise bike. I read a book too when I riding. That is the only way sometimes that I have the time to read something of pleasure for myself. I love to reread really good books over, too. I am right now in a Nicholas Sparks kick. I am reading Message In A Bottle. It is really good. Has anyone else ever read the book? He is a really great author. This is my last book by him, until he comes out with a new one. Any suggestions on any must read books? I really love to read romance and fiction books.
Summer I am happy that your next door nightmare is going to become less of a part of your life. I am glad that your friend came to her senses. It is sad when people who are childless, have the nerve to call people with children selfish. Especially when they are the ones who give up the most of their time and engery to do things for and with their children. Congrats to your husband how his new position at work. I know how it is to have to been observed today. My boss came in and observed me this afternoon. That is the only time he comes into my MH classroom unless my one autistic student is out of control and distrupting the whole school. It was a little nerve racking to have him watching me while I was working with two of my students teaching them a new game I just got. Plus it didn't help that one of the students had to become an actor while my boss was in the room. He sure acted up for me while the boss man was in the room. But when the guidance counslor came in later he was just fine. He was polite and on his best behavior. It is just irrating how he acted while I was being observed. Oh well, hopefully this is the last time I will be observed this year. I ended up coming home and taking a nap tonight. I really should have worked out but I was just drained from my day and didn't have the engery.
My husband did take me out for dinner. So that made my day better. I was very proud of myself, I ate a good sensible dinner. Then when he got dessert, I passed on getting one myself. I asked for a glass of water to sip on instead. I did ask the hubby for a bite of his pie though. I forgot how sicking sweet pecan pie is. Well I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and enjoy your weekend.

I guess this 'tis the season to be observed. I got it twice this week. Geesh. I worried and obsessed about it until today when starting first thing this morning the bottom fell out of the day. Murphy's law was in full force in my school: if it could go wrong, break, get out of control or screw you up, it did. We were just looking at each other and shaking our heads in bafflement. WHAT IS UP?? :?: Another full moon?? By this afternoon I just said screw it and did my lesson, let them observe me and my beloved little ones in all our gore and glory. If someone else can do it better, bring them on. Crappy days bread crappy attitudes, please pardon mine. I need to remind myself that just like when you eat bad fish "this too shall pass". Potty humor, man I am in bad shape.

Sorry to vent vent vent and then vent some more. I'll try to bring happy thoughts to the board tomorrow. Summer so glad the DH has the opportunity to help you out. The same kind of thing is happening with my DH's new job. He can get the kids to school 1 or 2 days a week, takes a good 20 minutes off my morning. Being teachers you all know what we can accomplish with 20 minutes to plan and prepare!! Bliss.
Also, the friend situation is a load off your mind, for now. Being in a similar situation with my DD and her godmother I feel I should caution you to start now to prepare your DD for a time when this woman hurts her through her careless remarks. She may be too young to pick up on things now, but that won't remain the case. DD's godmother told her once when she was 5 "Don't grow up to be like your mama, one smart *** is enough". DD has never forgot that and it is a sore spot for her even now. She asks how can I remain friends with some one so thoughtless and cruel. The upside? Those long talks are wonderful opportunities for bonding and passing on your own values. I still treasure this woman's friendship, though she can be thoughtless and cruel, and AWOL for months on end, because at a time in my life when I felt I had NO ONE, I had her to lean on. The very deepest secrets I told her she kept and never judged, never advised, just listened and propped me up. That's what I needed and that's what she did. When I was afraid my DS was going to die in infancy from the condition he was born with, she listened and held me while I cried and prayed with me when no one else would. Everyone else, save for DH was all full of platitudes and putting on a good face. So I defend her, to an extent, to DD, but have to let DD form her own opinion. Oh and by the way, I see her becoming such a beautiful young woman, she takes my breath away.

Forgive the ramble, happy Friday to all and to all a good night.
story
p.s. Robyn, are the paint fumes affecting your mental faculties yet, and if not, how will we know when they do? :dizzy: :dizzy: JUST KIDDING GIRLFRIEND. :D :D We feel your pain, hang in there.

I can't believe I've been AWOL for so long. We are back in full swing. I have 122 students writing expository essays. I read them and after awhile my brain shuts down and they all look the same. :dizzy: :dizzy:

Our school is being observed because we did not make AYP because of attendance. It's amazing that the state stupidintendant holds us accountable for something we have absolutely no control over. When the principal said that we are the kids' second parents, many teachers spoke up immediately and said we are not. I have only 1 child and I make sure she goes to school. (Actually, since she's in Kindergarten she wants to go. I'll enjoy this as long as it lasts. :lol: )

The state is coming in to do observations and give some feedback on how we can make our school better. (Sure, we all see how they run the state; be interesting to see how they can run the schools. :?: They're supposed to come in April; good, gives us plenty of time to arrange our sick days. :lol: ;)

On a lighter note, Ashley has learned how to ride her bike without the training wheels. One more giant step toward independence. :( She's growing up too fast. :stress:

Have a great Friday.

Cal

Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a nice Friday. My school was on a two-hour delay due to the low temperatures and wind chill factor this morning. So it was nice to sleep in, workout for an hour and still get a little school work done that I would not haven't gotten done during my work day otherwise. It was a little weird though starting two hours later, because it threw off our whole daily routine. But it sure did make our Friday fly by. I hope you all have a wonderful relaxing weekend.

I spent the day at school in tears. I am cracking under the stress. On Thursday, I ate a dinner of pork chops, bread and butter and mashed potatos.... That didn't seem to make anything better...so yesterday, I came home from school and got in the too tiny bathtub... stayed in there for 3 hours and then went to bed....I stayed in the bed this morning until 11 a.m. Dh understands what is wrong....and has the kids pulled way back! I hate this.

Now, my report cards are due on Tuesday. SO..... I can't avoid school all weekend.
Our oldest turns 12 tomorrow. He and I are going out in a few for a bit of "retail therapy"! A trip to Old Navy always cheers me up! :) I can fit in their clothes now!
THAT's very cheering! :)

I'm still trying to figure out how to post a photo of my classroom here.... If anyone knows how, please let me know... Until you see the mess that I'm working in, you can't understand what's wrong with me......

Oh, THEY decided that one of my kids is e.d. and will place him as soon as mom signs the papers...IF the mom signs the papers. I've offered to forge her signature...IT WAS ONLY A JOKE! Don't panic! :)

Call me,
Suzi Sunshine!

Robyn I am so sorry that you had a bad day at school yesterday. Please don't let the stress get to you. If you do, it will only make you more depressed. I hope your retail therapy helped you this afternoon. I went to Pizza Hut last night with my husband and three step children. It was nice having pizza, but after the 5th slice I was getting sick of it. I know why I only eat pizza only once in a blue moon. It doesn't help that the hubby likes to get his pizza with everything on it. Well I gotta go, my brother-in-law just came over for a visit. SO I hope everyone has a great day!

Kar, I love romance novels. My current author is Jayne Ann Krentz. I have read everything Judith Krantz has ever written. I love Rosamunde Pilcher and have also read everything of hers. Basically I keep reading until there is nothing left, then search for a new author.

Hi Cal & Story!

Robyn, I'm so sorry you are stressing out. I also have to get report cards done. I still have two kids to test...they've been out for two weeks! I have to tabulate attendance still, so I can't even start writing out the report cards yet. I won't get them done tomorrow cause there is just too much to do with comments and all. Plus, I have to teach Sunday School tomorrow.

I will be back to respond to all of you in more detail when I am finished with report cards...probably by the middle of the week! Pray that I have a snow day on Monday!

Summer

Thanks for the heartfelt sympathy! I'm feeling better....today is Sunday AND they are calling for snow tonight! LOL Soooooooo.......

Sorry to be such a nut case. I hope that you all can understand. I have found out how to post photos.... (LUCKY YOU! ;) )Sooooo....without any further whining...here are some photos of my classroom taken on Friday afternoon...ie, when I return to school it will look EXACTLY like this OR worse ...it all depends on IF the painters moved more stuff...

My oldest is 12 today. Sighhhhhhhhhhhh :)
We had a ball shopping last evening.... Nothing like a new OldNavy T to make me grin all over! I'm soooo easy!

here are the photos!
Next week, between dealing with the poor kiddos will be spent trying to get the 1000000 clowns BACK into the Volkswagen!

:) pass the mashed potatoes.......
Robyn

I cut out my dear friend who was standing in my room in the last photo....
I didn't ask if I could post her photo for the world...and well...ya know!

Snow day! Snow day! Tomorrow is a snow day! :) Report card writing with hot chocolate(low fat of course!) IN my jammies day! Yeeehawwwww!

Well....... where did everyone go?!

Hi everyone,
I had a snow day too. I went to get my taxes done with the hubby this afternoon. So that was my whole afternoon. Boring. Then we went over to my mother-in-law's for dinner. After I came home, I went to Curves and worked out. So that is how I spend my snow day. I am glad that it went better than yesterday. My hubby had me so depressed and on the verge of an emotional eating binge. After getting home from church, he started in on the house needed cleaned and that it was getting done today. I laughed at him and said sure with your three little one's here. The house wouldn't stay cleaned for long. But we or should I say I cleaned the living room, dining room, foyer, hallway to bedrooms, bedrooms and bathroom. He was able to help by making lunch and cleaning the kitchen. He feels that during the school year, I don't do my share fair of the housework during the week. I tend to let it go for as long as possible. That I only know how to come home and relax for the evening. I told him that he should come in my classroom for one day and see what all I go through with my MH students. Then he might understand why I am tired at the end of the day. Plus 3 out of 5 school nights, I stay after and help with the after school program. Ladies how do you balance work and housework? Please tell me, so that I can make this balance at my house too. So my whole Sunday is not ruined by fighting with my hubby. He always knows when to pick a fight with me. It is always when I am having my monthly. So I am already on edge and crabby, and it doesn't have to take much more to set me off. Sorry to be the depressing one tonight. Robyn glad to hear that you are cheered up again. Well I better go and get ready for school tomorrow. I think we might have it tomorrow. Have a great evening. Have a wonderful Tuesday. Tomorrow night I will see if I lost any weight last week. I have my TOPS meeting. So keep your fingers crossed that I lost some weight.

Another snow day! It is slushy, cold and yucky today. I'm glad that we didn't have to mess with it this morning! Tomorrow tho, we MUST get back to school...I've got
all that mess to clean up! :)

Last night I stayed up real late...ALONE! Just me and my report cards! I'm 1/2 way there! Today I need to finish them up! Yipppeee! They will be FINNNNished!

I'm slowly but surely getting my brain back in order! I woke up after 9 this morning thinking about exercise! I'll get there before 3! I will also get to my Dr.Phil chapter 2 this afternoon! I MUST do this! What a horrible funk this has been. BUT, I'm slowly unFUNKing myself! Slowly......before I'm too far gone! My head is out of the oven! :) I'm happy to report! LOL

School work and housework are NOT compatable, KAR! You've missed my rants about that! www.flylady.net is the answer! FlyLady is amazing! And...she will teach you how to do it one baby step at a time! Read her pages! Follow her rules! I had an amazing year with her.....and then SCHOOL started and I let it all go!) REALLY! Try it!
(ahh, I preach it...why can't I get my sh&t together enough to practice it???) (Oh, that's right...I'm getting OUT of the oven! Not crawling back in!) ;)

Where did everyone else go??? LOOK at those photos I posted! YOU will understand why I turned into a vegetable!

:) gotta love the snow days!
Robyn

Robyn,
Thanks for cheering me up. You put a smile on my face and made me laugh. We had school today. It was so stupid to go in, half the buses did not even pick up many kids. One bus driver came out started her route picked up two kids and then turned around and took them home. Said it was too bad to be out because of the ice and went home. One bus driver only brought in one student this morning. So needless to say that our classes were small in numbers today. Unforunately all of my students came in. My autistic boy cried all morning long and threw fits. So at lunch time he finally fell asleep. We just let him sleep until the bus got there. We did get out of school an hour early since we are to get more ice and snow today. So I came home and took an hour nap, hoping to get rid of my nasty headache. No such luck. Glad to hear that your report cards are done. Well I need to go and run a few errands before it gets really bad out. Enjoy your evening.
Take care,
Kerry

Hi everyone It was another snow day for me today. So I got up and made Atkin's muffins for the hubby and step kiddies before they had to go to school. They were on a one hour delay. They were not to happy that I had the day off. Poor Levi was crying asking why he had to go to school and I didn't. But the roads in the next county where I work at very poor. But in the winter time they are worse. We are talking out in the backwoods and people need 4 wheel drive trucks just to get around with. I hope you all have a wonderful day. I think I might try to sneak out of the house and go workout at Curves. Talk to you all later.

I'M DONE!!! (well mostly) If I didn't have a snow day today, who knows when I would have finished. I have four students who have not been in school for two weeks. I thought I only had two to test, but I forgot about the two newbies who have hardly been in school, but still need a report card. If they ever come back to school again, I will test them and should be able to finish their report cards quickly. I have logged in nine (9) hours in order to complete my report cards. Thank God I only have to do them twice a year.

Robyn, I can see why you are feeling like you are going nuts in that classroom. That is what most classrooms look like over the summer before being set up for students. This is probably a silly question, but why couldn't they do the painting over a vacation? 99% of the time that is when things like that get done in my school. I'm glad you are feeling more normal again. You must read Dipthong's posting for chapter 3. It is quite profound.

Kar, I was having the same discussion with a friend of mine this morning. Basically, if things are running smoothly at school, my house is a sh-thole. And when things are running smoothly at home, things are out of control at school. I wish I was an adult when ERA was passed. Yes I want equal rights, however, I would have much preferred to be a housewife. Now we have an economy that gives most women no choice but to work. And so when I went to college, I figured being a teacher would be a great job to have while raising a family. NOT!!! Who knew there would be so much work involved?! And because the pay sucks, I too have to work the after school program. I can never catch up with my housework. There is always laundry to be done or folded and put away. Dust collects rapidly. The dog sheds so much that I must vacuum daily. (NO WAY IS THAT HAPPENING) Look, when I am done teaching all day, then recreating in the early evening, I have to help DD with homework, cook dinner, clean up, get her ready for bed, and do school work. That leaves me little time to relax, unwind etc... Forget housework! I wish I could afford someone to clean my house, even just one day a week. My friend used to work full time and has a live-in nanny. That wasn't working, so she downsized the nanny (she stayed, but had to get a part time job) while my friend got a part time job to spend more time with the kids, a 3 year-old in half-day preschool and a 5 year-old in half-day kindergarten. She is happier, but broke. She goes to play groups where the women are "stay at home" moms who all have housekeepers. AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! Please tell me why these women who are home all day need someone to clean their houses? I NEED A HOUSEKEEPER!!! I work my butt off every day while these women play tennis, go shopping, and have spa days, then go home to sparkling clean houses cleaned by someone else!!! In other words Kar, I totally know how you feel. Oh, and by the way, if my husband dares to tell me to clean the house, he'd better be ready to get off his butt and help me or risk being sent to the moon!!!

Okay, that felt good.

See ya all later!

Summer

Summer glad to hear that you got your report cards done. I know that it can be a long tiring process. I am now trying to get the engery and desire to work on my kids 3 year re-evals. They are due the mid of March. I am trying really hard to get the desire to do them. I am almost done with one. I only have four more to do. Then it will be time to write their new IEP's. Yipppeee!
The hubby did take back some of the words he said on Sunday. I think he realized that he had pissed me off and that I would not do stuff with him or for him for a while.
So we have been sharing the tasks. Like tonight he fixed dinner, while I helped Kaitlyn with her homework. Then after dinner we cleaned the kitchen together. So I guess we might have found a balance that works for now. Or he just wants to be nice to me for awhile. Have a great day at work tomorrow.

Hi everyone, sorry to be AWOL so long. I read through all the posts and sympathize, empathize and understand all the frustrations. Except for Robyn's classroom, I don't think anybody understands that!

Just to toss my 2 cents worth in on home and work, I have to say that when I was a stay at home mom I did it ALL. I never expected or wanted DH to lift a finger to do anything. And now that I work full time again and the kids are older, they all help around the house, with little to no prodding. The only time I feel snowed under, so to speak is during our library's busy times, open house and book fairs, inventory. But for the most part I feel like we do okay. There again, my kids are teenagers and do for themselves for the most part. I can certainly remember the exhaustion and at times the resentment from doing everything myself when they were babies.

I'm not as faithful to staying on program as I wish I was, as I certainly need to be. Hit and miss is the best I can say for it for now. Tomorrow is another day, another chance to get it right. I'm tired of being uncomfortable in my clothes though, that much is certain.

Hope the rest of your week is good, no snow days in sight for us!
story

So. Here I sit. Today was a 2 hour delay... the ice is incredible here. STILL. My students came at 11 and left at 1:10 (don't ask...but that is the time they leave every Wednesday). We did not have time to do too much other than the lunch and exchange library books. I have to admit...I LOVED it! I got many boxes of "STUFF" put away. I will be able to have small group reading again by Monday. I have thrown away 2 huge barrels of garBaggge from all the stuff pulled out of my coat closet.

Summer, we have been informed that the painters don't work during the summer. One of the severe asthma students has had a horrible reaction to the painting (not my kid! hallalujah! Poor baby!) and has been hospitalized. Yikes!

Kar, glad to hear that your dh has been helping you! Mine doesn't complain OR help much any more.... arghhh!

I read and filled in all the blanks in Dr. Phil's Book's Chapter 2. I also read a LOT of Chapter 3... I stopped as it was a bit MUCH for me to "handle". I'm off to read that thread now. I STILL have 7 report cards to do before I sleep...sigh!

Ya'll take care!
Tomorrow is already Thursday! :) YeeHaww!

Robyn

Hi Story! Didn't see your entry until after I hit post.......
Didn't want to leave you out! :) I'm with you with doing my program hit and miss...
today I did great until dinner...arghhh....

:) Hang in there! We can get back on track! (and THANKS for not understanding my classroom....I walked in there today for the first time in 5 days..and nearly had a stroke! AND then the custodian came in to tell me that she can't be doing me any favors....um, THANKS...I haven't asked her for a darn thing! WHAT is up with the custodians owning the buildings? arghhh!) Okey...enough...

Hang in there! Tomorrow is another day!
Type to you soon,
meee again!

Kar, I'm glad you are getting more help and respect.

Story, I'm glad you are back. You were missed. I look forward to my DD being old enough to really help me out with the housework. She does help put away groceries, and cleans her playroom and bedroom (does a lousy job though).

Robyn, OH MY GOD...HOSPITALIZED?! In letigious (sp?) Connecticut, that would be a law suit waiting to happen. I just can't believe it. So, the painters don't work in the summer...nice. How about vacations? I suppose they get those off too! Custodians...My sister, a 30-year veteran teacher, told me a long time ago that the people with the most keys have the most power! She was right! She also told me the most important person in the building to be friendly with is the custodian. I took her advice, and I not only bend over backwards to be friendly with my custodian, I give him a generous Christmas present every year, and a check at the end of June. Needless to say, he treats me well. It doesn't change the fact that my classroom could be cleaner, but he does accomodate me more than the other teachers on my floor.

Well, I am unexpectedly home today. DD began to develop a rash on her face last night. I thought it was her eczema and applied Elidel. It was worse this morning, and I started to think, "allergic reaction to amoxicillin" and "scarlet fever." She didn't have a fever, so I pondered sending her to school knowing full well that I would get a phone call from the nurse. And when it came down to it, I knew that a good mother wouldn't send her child to school with an "unknown rash." So, I can add sick day #5 to my list. At least I will have a doctor's note to submit. Turns out that strep throat sometimes is accompanied by a "strep rash." I have to observe her to make sure it doesn't worsen, but otherwise she is fine. My school didn't find a sub, so my aide is alone with my class. They'd better hope that the state doesn't do a surprise inspection, or there goes my accreditation.

I've been looking at the new spring catalogs coming out. There are so many beautiful clothes that I am dying to wear. I've got to get my act together. These clothes don't come in plus sizes. REALITY CHECK.

Summer

Hi everyone,
It has been one of those days! I just kept saying silent prayers to God to help me make it through the day. My kids were somewhat calm today. That was until my aide left at 12, to go get her car that broke down on her yesterday. So that left me in my room by myself for an hour. I was not a happy camper, because one of my student's autisitc and nonverbal. He just kept running around pounding on stuff and crying for about 30 minutes. I asked one of my other students to go to the office and ask for them to send someone down to help. Did I get any help? I was told that after the office aide was done with her lunch, she would be down at 1:00. So then all my students started to act up to get my attention. I was never so glad to see their bus driver at 2:45. Of course, I had to call a parent just to get her son's socks and shoes on him. SO we were a little late getting to the bus. I thought that my day would start to improve with my intervention kids. Oh no, I ended up having to cover for another teacher so she could go to a staff meeting. So I was in my room with 24 5th and 6th graders going over Science questions on old prof. tests. It was a very long hour and half. Needless to say, I came home ate dinner and fell asleep for 1 1/2 hours. So much for going to the gym to workout tonight. I just got the phone call that there is no school tomorrow. I am getting sick of going for a day and then off for a day. The rate we are going we will still be in school in the middle of July. Sorry for ranting and raving. But, boy I feel a little bit better. Atleast I didn't go to the kitchen and find a snack of chips or something. Thanks.
Story glad to see that you are back.
Robyn I can not believe that the painters have the summer's off. I thought that was when they did most of their work. I have never heard of painting in the winter time. Sorry to hear that one of the students is hospitalized. How much longer do they have to be in your school? I hope not much longer.
Summer I hope your dd is starting to feel better. I didn't know that with strep you could develop a rash on your face. Learn something new everyday!
I think my pillow is calling me. I hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow.

Kar, I really feel for you. I was a special education paraprofessional at the beginning of my career 17 years ago. I worked with severe and profound teenagers. After two years of that, I began college, but because my mother had passed on and my father literally fell apart, I had to work full-time as well. So, I worked in a group home for mentally disabled adults while attending college. I had trouble getting a teaching job after graduation, and then I got married and had DD. Basically I have 14 years of experience working with the developmentally disabled. I've got LOTS of stories. I know how hard you are working every day. And I know how difficult it is to do your job without a decent ratio. I'm so sorry you had a lousy exhausting day. TGIF!!! Get lots of rest this weekend and hopefully you will be ready for more on Monday.

DD went back to school today and so did I. I tested the three kids who showed up today and finished their report cards. I still have one more left. This boy has been out for a total of 2 1/2 weeks! At first he was really sick. Now it is a transportation problem. Whatever!

Tomorrow DD has gymnastics. We practiced her back bend and cartwheel today. The back bend is improving, but the cartwheel just isn't happening. She (like me) doesn't like to do anything that she isn't perfect at. I really hope she learns how to cartwheel so she doesn't give up on herself. The last three years she loved gymnastics because she was the best. Now that she is the youngest and most inexperienced in her group, she wants to quit. She is soooooo her mother!

We have to go shopping this weekend. I need new pajamas for when I go to the sleep clinic at the hospital. My current bedclothes are not meant for public viewing. I also need new slippers. DD has a GAP gift certificate. I also want to take her to the movies.

I'm gonna go. Have a great weekend ladies!

Summer

Hi Ladies,
I had a nice relaxing day! It went much better than yesterday. I made the trek out to the county board office to pick up my paycheck. My friend and I went together. As we were walking out of the building, our superindent was coming in. This is the first superindent that I have had that makes a point to get to know his staff. He talked to us for a few minutes and warned us to be careful on the ice in the parking lot. The other superindent's I have had just kept to themselves and if they happened to come to my school building it was straight to the office and out the door again. I worked out to Richard Simmons Sweatin to the Oldies. I now know why I borrow it from the library every so often. I am just not coordinated to do all his steps just yet. I still have to take off a few more pounds and then I might be able to move a little easier to his steps. Tonight I curled up in the arm chair and watched the movie, Drumline. It was okay. So it was nice to have a day just to do the things I wanted to do and not what everyone else wanted me to do. I just wish I was able to have a few more days like that. I guess I will have to try to make time for myself more often. Well I better go to bed early tonight. My hubby made a shopping date with me tomorrow after I get back from Curves. He is even springing for my lunch, so I better get rested up to do some serious shopping. Have a great weekend ladies! I am glad that I am in a more postive mood tonight. Thanks Summer for the advice. It was greatly needed and appreciated.

I've been having a hard time trying to get into the site. Everytime I did, my computer would kick me off. Anyway, I'm Back!!!! Tomorrow I'm taking Ashley to see Disney on Ice; this year is Princesses. She'll love it.

At school we were told last week (Friday) that we have some new requirements. As if we don't have enough to do. Arizona is one of 30 states that use attendance as a measurement of AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). The attendance at my school is very poor. Parents don't care, kids don't care, parents use kids for babysitters, etc. The state has decided that our school is one of several in the state that needed to be put on corrective action. So we are being monitored to death all because our attendance is low; never mind that the testing scores actually went up!!!! We were told that we are required to have 97% attendance for the entire month of February or the principal would come down hard on us such as not offering new contracts for the fall. In fact, they are talking about not giving us any performance pay raises because of the attendance. We were told that we have to call parents then do home visits to tell them that their kids belong in school. Hello!?!?!! Isn't that what we have truancy officers and a parent coordinator for??? The liability issue alone is enough for this to NOT be a good idea. I spoke to our union rep and she got some action. They cannot make us do home visits, but they can deny us the raise. Amazing to be judged on something that you have absolutely no control over.
Sorry to rant, but I really needed to get this off my chest. Hardly any wonder that over half the teachers at my school don't plan on signing new contracts for next year. Sad really, for the kids.

I'm so tired now. It seems that so many things are going on (and going wrong) that I feel so overwhelmed not only with school, but life. I've learned tonight that my grandmother will not be with us much longer. The hospice nurse is not giving her much time. They put her on more morphine today. She sleeps all the time. I'm really feeling so down and depressed. :cry:
Thanks for listening.

Cal

Cal, I'm so sorry about your grandmother. I'm glad that they are making sure that she is comfortable. It is so hard to say "Goodbye." I wasn't with my mother or father when they died (Mom died in the hospital while I was asleep at home & Dad was in Florida.) but I was fortunate to be by my grandmother's side. The whole family gathered around her. I hope that you have a chance to be with her now.

I can't believe that this crazy world we live in makes teachers accountable for so much and parents accountable for so little. In my district, after 10 unexcused absenses, we do a "Student Assistant Team" referral. If the parents don't get the kids to school, we do a DCF referral. You can go as far as "Educational Neglect." Between DCF and our Home School Coordinator, we are managing attendance. Yes, it is still an issue, but we play hardball. I don't know if that helps you or not.

We saw Disney on Ice during Christmas vacation. It was fabulous!!!

I have had a real live "WAKE UP CALL" and I have been officially embarrassed and humbled. My DD gave me a lecture yesterday about being "big." She did not use the word, "fat." I don't think I could have taken that. By the way, she is 6 years old. Anyway, she told me how I need to eat healthier and exercise more. She went on and on and on. I am so grateful my DH wasn't there. I don't need both of them ganging up on me. The lecture continued today, and I told her that I am taking care of it and she needn't worry anymore. That's it. No more pussyfooting around people! When my baby points out to me that I have a problem...one of my worse nightmares...it is time to deal with it and be done with it.

Summer :o

Hello everyone! Happy weekend! :)

Cal, I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. It is so sad to lose loved ones!

Student attendance is another WHOLE school issue that makes me go nuts! HOW in the world can *WE* be held accountable for whether a child is sent to school or not!?! and....I can tell you right now.... I am NOT, flat out REFUSE, to make home visits! There is NO way............EVER........... I am NOT going to win Teacher of the Year.......and I don't care! GEESH......When will the insanity stop?! When will parents be held accountable for SOMETHING? ANYthing?! I currently have 2 first graders who have missed 19 and 20 days for the year ...so far.... the one who has missed 20 days missed 42 last year..and was promoted! 42 days was one of our marking periods...He missed the time spread out over the year.... but COME ON.... This year...I've got the kid on my retention list. The child can NOT read nor write (after 19 weeks of Reading Recovery no less...) and he has serious issues about math. He can't learn if he isn't attending school. He has serious speech and language issues. I've referred him to every one and anyone who will listen!

The 19 day absent kid is the daughter of a single mom who can't get her stuff straight... she is always over sleeping and doesn't bother to get her daughter to school ...... I've referred her to everyone...but until it is causing school progress issues...sigh.... The kid is reading on grade level and doing math on grade level.... So no one will listen to me YET. Poor kid...Imagine what SHE could do IF she attended school on a regular basis!

GEES....can I turn someone elses rant into my own or WHAT?!

I've got more to say...of course...but I've gotta go for now.....I'm about to freeze!
type to you later!
Robyn ...who is DARN sick and tired of this weather!

Cal I am very sorry to hear about your grandmother. I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. It is very hard to watch someone very close to you die. When you are starting to feel very overwhelmed with the situation, step back and think of all the happy memories you had with your grandmother. That is what helped me get through both my grandfather's deaths.
I can not believe that they are holding the teachers responsible for the attendance issue. When are the parents going to have to toe the line for their children. After becoming a teacher and seeing the lack thereof of parenting skills for some people, I have been a strong believer in you need a license to be a parent. To see what some of my students in my classroom and my after school kids go through at home with their parents , it breaks my heart. If I could I would adopt one of my students. Mom doesn't care about him and left him with her parents. She only comes around once or twice a month to see him. But she has full guardianship of him. He is crying out for positive attention and love that it isn't funny.
Today was the first day in over a week, that I actually eat very well. I didn't snack through out the day or eat anything bad for me. Even when my DH took me out for lunch today, I was good and got a salad. I fell off the bandwagon when it was that time of the month and just ran with it. But now I think I will be back to my good eating habits.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Stay warm and take care of yourselves.
Robyn I am sick of this weather too. I can't wait for Spring to get here.

Hi everyone. It seems as though we are all being bombarded, at this the hardest stretch of the school year with more unrealistic mandates from our districts, principals or state. Attendance is a huge issue, here as well, but I've yet to hear of them holding the classroom teacher accountable. Hopefully someone will get their head out of their rear ends long enough to realize that that is a stupid idea. Hang in there, Cal, we're with you in spirit!

Robyn, I'm with Summer in that if a student were hospitalized here from paint fumes in the classroom, it would be lawsuit city before the hospital doors closed. Poor kid. As a parent, I'd have to say yeah I'd sue, at least enough to cover any medical costs that my insurance didn't cover. That's the height of stupidity, painting during the school year. As for the custodians, yes they are the people to make friends with, and you don't want to make them mad. At my campus they too are hamstringed by the district, understaffed and probably vastly underpaid. So the cleaning is wipe and smile and call it good. I spent 2 hours last Thursday cleaning in the library, areas that they never get to or just pass a feather duster over. But the one person who has the most power? The school secretary. I've always heard that and it is definitely true here. Don't piss her off, you'll be out on your ear before you know what's happened. What's really sad is that the principals are so influenced by her.

Kar, I love Richard Simmons, have all his tapes. I took his oldies tapes and made my own, that runs longer but has only the songs and moves that I enjoy doing. It's about an hour but it's fun to do so it goes by fast. I was thinking last night that with DH gone the next two weeks I should get up and sweat with Richard every morning, give myself a jump start on getting off the fence I've been sitting on and get on track. I don't know what everyone else here is doing, WW, Atkins. I do WW, while paying close attention to the carbs, not to go overboard. I haven't read Dr Phil. I tried, but I kept falling asleep. Maybe I shouldn't have checked it out from the library while I was half sick and tired!

DH and I ventured downtown to a Super Bowl party Friday night. It was fun, crowded. I was glad the metro buses were running, parking is non-existent. I'll be glad when the game is over and all the visitors leave. Even out here in the suburb of Houston we are overrun with tourists. Good for business, but traffic is a nightmare.
Enjoy your Sunday, teachers.
stoyr

I'm back again for yet another installment of Robyn's gut/emotional reaction to any and everything....fasten your seat belts, girls! Hehehehe!

So far for TODAY....my eating is on track. Of course I have to get up and go fix lunch very soon....and while I sit here telling you that I'm going to behave....WHAT happens lately to my POWER and DETERMINATION once I cross the little strip of metal that covers where the living room carpet and the kitchen vinyl are butted up to each other?

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? Why did I / Why COULD I go from January to September with nerves, will and refridgerator of STEEL? WHY / HOW did I get a half ton of pounds off my lard *** and then just suddenly STOP?! Why am I comfortable at 170 pounds? Why am I comfortable in my 14's? WHY won't I make myself exercise? NOPE, I do not like what I see when I'm naked. (BUT it does look BETTER than it did last year...BUT THAT IS NO EXCUSE!) I'm not gaining....there is about 3 pounds that I fluctuate between...but GEESHHHHHHHHH...................

I must get my head together.
I must EXERCISE daily. NO MATTER WHAT THE SCHEDULE.
I must EAT correctly.
I must drink water...even if it is -20 degrees...arghhhh.
I must read Dr. Phil...and PAY ATTENTION to what he is saying.
I MUST get my head together.

I'm so pitiful. WHAT is wrong? WHY can't I get it all together?
School is just one excuse I use...a real excuse...but I did it with school before.

I know what to do.
I know how to do it.
I've even DONE IT BEFORE.

The decision is mine. FIGURE THIS OUT,ROBYN........ GET your **** together. GET your **** together and keep it together for GAWD SAKE! You are 20 pounds away from your goal. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??????? Do it. DO IT!

This concludes ME raking ME over the coals. Let me kick someone else....um..
Which one of you has the kid who is giving her lectures? I think it is Summer! SUMMER, read my ranting..and come with me! GET it together...... WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR????? Your kid is worried about you. FIX YOU! (oh that is so mean... ((hugs)) I'm not too good with kicking other people's butts!)

My goal for today: Water, food, and 30 minutes of exercise. WHAT are you doing? (Oh crap...I just realized ...I'm gonna have to put on a bra for the exercise...GEESH! Now am I dedicated to my goal or WHAT?!) GET UP... MOVE! DRINK some water!
...and write to me and tell me that I'm not insane.

Your fat friend who preaches one thing and then goes into the kitchen and eats WHATEVER.............sigh............

Robyn
who is in the kitchen as you are reading this doing battle with something that will make her butt bigger.....

Here...look at this for a while..... BELIEVE IT!

:)

Love ya'll!

Robyn, thanks for the entertaining rant, sermon, and swift kick in the butt!!! ;) Now, I shall pull out all of my psychology experience and give some back to you. (I got all A's in every single psychology course I ever took) :D I think the reason you are stalling the rest of your weight loss is maybe down deep you have some fear about what will happen when (not if) you reach goal. You've heard "fear of failure," could you have a fear of success? Ask yourself if there is some sort of payoff for you to remain 170 lbs., size 14 (which by the way sounds absolutely fabulous to me :yes: ). Maybe I am full of crap...probably I am. I could have Dr. Phil on the brain. But I would definitely say without a doubt, that whatever is stopping you, it is all in your head. Have you read chapter 4 yet? If not, do so. There is A LOT of good stuff in there. Also, I would bring up what you are feeling to Dipthong. She has a lot of wisdom about all of this. So, if I am wrong, and even if I'm right, check in with Dip.

Story, sorry the Super Bowl is invading your town. I guess I am lucky that it is only invading my living room! :lol: DD and I went to the movies just to escape all of the testosterone. We went to a chick flick, "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton." It was PG13, a risk I admit with a 6 year old. But let me tell you, there was no swearing or sex...nothing but kissing. I don't get why it wasn't rated PG, but whatever. It was enjoyable, and it got us away from "Super Bowl Sunday" television. Isn't Richard Simmons the best? I still do the original "Sweatin to the Oldies." The later versions didn't do it for me as much as the first. It is fun for me because I have known the routines for soooooooooooo many years and have no trouble doing it. I love Richard.

Kar, keep up the good work. Having a salad in a restaurant with all of the other available choices is quite impressive! Good for you!!!

Well, I did pretty darn good today myself...and it is hard because of all of the Super Bowl food in my kitchen right now. The family demanded pancakes for breakfast, so I made Bisquick lite and had only one pancake. For lunch, I had three spicy chicken wings. (I told you all we have is Super Bowl chow!) I ate popcorn and diet pepsi at the movie while DD ate m&m's...okay I had some m&m's too, but not a lot. Dinner is chili over rice. I will have a normal sized serving, no seconds. No nachos, no chex mix, and no more chicken wings. As far as the diet I follow, I loosely follow WW and keep an eye on my carbs as well. Dr. Phil preaches not to obsess over dieting, so I don't do any keeping track right now, just eating healthy.

Oh, I forgot to tell you all! I lost 3 lbs. this week! Duh, how could I forget?! It happened when I started really reading the book again and doing what he says.

Have an enjoyable Sunday ladies.

Summer

3 pounds? ! ? ! How on earth did you forget to mention THAT?!

I'm thinking that my problem isn't fear of success... I'm thinking that
I'm too damn lazy. When I get the chance I will look at Chapter 4...
maybe even mention all this to Dip....AND I greatly appreciate your
insight and expertise! (you know...all those A's and all! :) ) I hope
I wasn't too hard on you..... I'm not feeling nearly as ummm UP this
evening....BUT I'm not in the kitchen!

I'll be back!
Robyn

Robyn, you are so good for me. :lol: :lol: :lol: :rofl: That is how many times you made me laugh at your posting. At the end of each sentence, I let out a giggle. You reeeeeeeally crack me up. And no, you weren't hard on me. I hope you don't mind me trying to shrink your head with only a bachelor's degree!

Thanks for brightening my evening.

Summer ;)

shrink my butttttt and you've got a friend for LIFE! :) whoohooo, tomorrow is Monday! WHERE did the weekend go?! boohoooooo hissss...

"Rainy days and MONDAYS always get me down..."

Okay, it wasn't a rainy day, but it may as well have been.

1. My aide called out sick.

2. I got a new student prone to tantrums.

3. The Stupidintendent came for a visit with the director of early childhood in tow.

4. I've got one **** of a backache from trying to teach my DD how to do a back bend. Don't ask.

5. It was Monday.

I'm not really as cranky as I sound. I'm a little PMSing and my back is killing me. When the Stupidintendent came, I was at lunch, so I didn't have to be observed. It could have been worse.

See ya tomorrow.

Summer

Wow the weekend went by so fast! Where did it go? I was not ready for the alarm to go off this morning. Oh well, I still got up and did a 4 mile walking video before I got ready for work. So I was very well motivated for my students this morning. I think they just wished that I would shut up and leave them alone when I am in such a good mood, especially on a Monday. LOL.
Summer congrats on losing the 3 pounds last week. Way to go! I don't know if I lost anything last week. We didn't have our TOPS meeting due to the weather. I don't trust my scales at home sometimes. I will find out tomorrow how I did for 2 weeks. I am hoping to have a loss.
Robyn I think it might be the winter blues. I felt for two weeks like what you were feeling. What got me out of my lazy *** mode, was seeing a picture of myself at the end of December that my best friend took of me in workout clothes. God, it was really awful! I decided to kick my *** and get moving again. So we are in this together! We can and will reach our goal weight this year. Ya gotta move it to lose it! is my new motto.
Everyone have a great Tuesday! Keep up the good work ladies!

Hello Ladies,

I am feeling a bit better now. I still feel frustrated and a little depressed, but I am hanging in there. I had a long talk with hubbie last night and told him how I've been feeling. He was surprised, but very comforting. He said he's worried about me. Trying to get into losing some weight has not been easy. I feel so much stress right now that it is soooo difficult. I am so happy for all of you who have lost. I never weigh myself, but I've noticed that some things are not as tight. Saturday I took Ashley to Disney on Ice (Princesses) and the seat did not feel as tight as it did last year. I was actually comfortable. I'll keep going and eventually I'll be able to wear some of the things in my closet. (I have so many things that I haven't been able to wear for so long that it will be like having a closet full of new clothes).

Weather here is turning quite cold; not by Eastern standards, but cold nonetheless. Supposed to be only 55 tomorrow and Wednesday.

This information was in the paper last weekend. I thought everyone might be interested. It's the AYP requirements of the NCLB Act.

• Federal standards require entire districts to improve AIMS (the state-mandated test.)reading and math scores, a state test taken in third, fifth and eighth grades and in high school. The feds also measure the districts on attendance and graduation rates. But here's the sticking point: The feds require district students in eight separate student groups to meet the standards. The groups include five ethnic groups: African-American, White, Latino, Asian and Native American. The other three groups are students learning English, students living in poverty and special-education students.


• If any of these groups, in any grade, are lagging in test scores, attendance or high school graduation rates, the entire district fails to make Adequate Yearly Progress.

So, in Mesa, eighth-grade English language learners didn't score high enough on the eighth-grade AIMS math test to keep the district from failing. Paradise Valley testing director Roger Freeman said they're also struggling to improve eighth-grade AIMS scores.

"It does help us identify some of our weakest and strongest areas so we can target them," Freeman said.

FYI: Mesa District is the largest district in the state. They have over 60 elementary school, I don't know how many middle schools, and 6 high schools. Amazing that only one group of kids in one grade kept the entire district from making AYP. :shrug: :?:

Hope everyone has a great week.

Cal

Hi Ladies,
Hope everyone had a great day! I had a very trying day at work. One of my student's hates me. He sent a note to my principal saying how mean and rude I was to everyone in my class. That is how my day started, by being called into my principal's office to read this note. So I had a little chat with the young man and asked why he hated me. He told me because I make him work extra hard and he does not like that. Plus I am in charge and he doesn't like people telling him what he is to do. Have you ever had to try and reason with an MH student before? It was very hard to get my point across to the young man that I am preparing him for getting a job in the near future. Got that take care of. Then my severely autistic student decides to throw a full-blown fit. He ususally just cry's, screams and pounds on the walls, desks and filing cabinets. Not today he decided to throw in a few head butts to the other students. So I had my principal in my room trying to help out. He just decided to send the young man home. So I was really glad to see his dad show up at the door. The rest of the day went very well. In fact, the student that hates me offer to do anything I wanted him to do for me. He kept checking up on me during his recess. He would go to the gym awhile and come back to the room to see how I was and if I needed anything. So I am hoping this behavior continues with him. Enough about school.
Great news! I lost 3/4 of a pound. I was happy with this news. So since last April,I have lost 17 pounds so far. I only have about another 82 1/4 pounds and I will be at my goal weight. This is the sixth week in a row that I have lost something. I am happy that I finally am on a losing streak and not a gaining streak.
Well I hope everyone is doing great and staying warm. I can not wait until Spring. Then a couple of my friends and I can start walking together again outside.
Well I hope everyone has a great Wednesday!

Congrats to Summer and Kar--Great news on the losses!! :cb: :bravo:
Cal, I hope you're feeling better, how is your grandmother? When you are going through a stressful time I personally believe that you should just concentrate on taking care of yourself the best you can, and not add any more on to an already crowded plate (pardon the analogy!). There will be time enough to focus on staying on program later, when there aren't so many external worries going on. Thanks for the article on NCLB. That's exactly what I see happening in our district, and our school will likely be one of the ones to hold the district back. We are title one, a high percentage of economically disadvantaged, a high racial/ethnic mix. I don't understand it, we have excellent teachers, at least to me they seem great. Motivated and caring, really going the extra mile to teach the kids. But so many of our kids just don't get it. Kids in 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade who can't read. Not read above level or on level but can't read--period. And the number of kids in 4th and 5th who check out books way way way below what you would expect their reading levels to be, what's up with that? Is is ability or laziness, they don't want to challenge themselves in the least? It's worrisome, this testing business. This year we are being held to the 'no pass, no pass' standard and it isn't looking good for us in math or reading. Our principal talked to us earlier this year about the Adequate Yearly Progress thing, I think it's the topic of another meeting coming up soon. The tension at school is very high, feeling the pressure. And the kids, well, being kept indoors from all the rain and wet grounds for 2 weeks isn't helping their behaviors any. I was thinking to myself today that I can't remember ever working so hard for so little, satisfaction, money, anything except frustration, that I have in spades!!

My good news, down one pound. :cp: Finally some light at the end of the tunnel. Robyn I spent the last month tearing my hair out asking myself so many of the same questions you are asking yourself. Why can't I do this, when I know I can do because I did it before? The only answer I came up with was that, for me, getting back on track is and always will be harder than getting on track to begin with. It has something to do with the guilt and self loathing I feel at having undone all the hard work that made me successful before, so I let that hold me back. And to comfort myself, I eat another cookie! :shrug: I know I will struggle with this for the rest of my life. I can only hope that at I have learned to stop falling all the way off the wagon, and maybe learned to at least keep on foot on the rung. I wasn't truly on program over the holidays, but I didn't blow it entirely, either. I gained 5 pounds, of the 25 I'd worked so hard to lose since June. What held me back from getting all the way back on program like I know I need to be was the self pitying "think where I'd be if I hadn't stopped" thinking. And it is sickening to think, but it's also self defeating. So I made myself STOP. Sometimes I had to actually say, out loud, "Stop It!" Just like I have to sometimes tell myself to get the heck away from the candy jar and drink my water. Hey whatever works, right? ;)

Hope everyone has a lovely Humpday. Since I'm not sleeping (with DH away) :( I'm just counting down the hours till the weekend.
story

Well, remember my crappy Monday? Today sucked too.

1. My aide called out sick...again.

2. My supervisor did a surprise visit (inspection).

3. My back is still killing me.

4. I got my period today...I have horrible pain because of my endometriosis.

5. I had to clear up some conflicts between my some of my parents and my aide who called out sick today.

6. I have tons of work to do with the kids in the next seven days because of an upcoming visit of 80 big wigs and continue to be interrupted by meetings and "surprise visits."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HH!!!!!!!!!!

Kar, I know how difficult your job is. I've been there in the trenches, and I don't miss it one bit. Congrats on the weight loss!

Story, Congrats on the weight loss!

Cal & Robyn, take care.

Summer

Hey ya'll......
I typed a NiCE (well not :o really!) long FuNnY :lol: :lol: (it was! :cool: ) reply and some how LOST :shrug: it....

I don't have the UMPFFFF :cry: to re do it tonight! I'm PoOoOPed!
This week is KILLING me! :crazy:

I go to a conference tomorrow...."Disciplining the Difficult Young Child"!
I'll be back and TELL you all exactly WHAT to do and HOW to solve your
discipline problems after the conference!
:eek: :faint: :lol: :lol: :smug: :smug: :lol:

Ok...well I can dream can't I?! :yes: :rofl:

Talk to ya'll tomorrow....
til then...
:grouphug:

Robyn

Would you believe my aide was out again today?! She came back from maternity leave on November 17th. Because of snow days and vacations, we have only had 42 days of school since then. Out of those 42 days, she has been absent from school for 8 days! She has been out almost 1 day a week since she returned! Meanwhile, I've had 5 sick days out of almost 100 days of school, and I'm the one whose sick time usage is being scrutinized by the asst. stupidintendent. (Not to mention that I have a doctor's note for every absense.)

Okay, enough of that.

We had a so-called half day. I don't believe dismissing 90 minutes earlier than usual should be called a half day. Anyway, we had a 50 minute meeting and were then released to work in our rooms in preparation for the 80 visitors from all over the country. I used the time to clean out my closet. I tossed a lot of stuff I thought I needed. I also tossed a bunch of baby gifts and teacher gifts my aide received last June on the last day of school. She is too lazy to take them home. After numerous reminders to her to take her things home, I grabbed a dumpster from the custodian and went NUTS throwing away her crap! :lol: :dizzy: :p It felt really good. :smug:

I could have probably used my time more wisely, but getting rid of clutter felt really cathartic.

Supposedly we are going to be hit with yet another snowstorm tonite, turning into an ice storm tomorrow, and eventually becoming rain by tomorrow night. Then it will get cold again and freeze over. As much as I hate the cold, at least when it snows, it doesn't thaw and freeze. Now that we are experiencing a "heat wave" with temperatures in the 30's, we will have to deal with ice. I hate ice. It is so dangerous. I can drive in snow, but nobody can drive on ice.

If we have another snow day tomorrow, I will check in during the day. Otherwise, see ya tomorrow night.

Summer

Morning Ladies,
I tried twice last night to post and my computer would just go off line for me. So I am hoping that the third time is the charm and this works. Got woke up this morning at 5:15 to the phone ringing. We are under a 2 hour delay due to all the rain we got yesterday. I just hope that by the time we get out of school today it is not freezing rain or changing into to snow. I would must rather be safely at home when all that mess starts.
Sounds like everyone had one of those weeks. Just think ladies, the weekend is here. We can all kick back and relax a little bit.
Story congrats on your weight loss. You just need to remember to take it one day at a time and you will get back on the wagon. Once you are fully on the wagon, you would let yourself fall off again. I have faith in you. You can and will do it.
Summer sounds like you had a little burst of spring cleaning going on yesterday. Why is there going to be 80 visitors from all over the country coming to your school?
Robyn hang in there the weekend is coming and you can take it easy. Everyone at my school was saying how it has been a really long week. Everytime you turned around someone was going off to a meeting or meetings at the county board office. I just guess it is that time of the year.
Cal I am thinking about you. I hope you are doing okay with all the extra stress in your life right now. I keep saying my prayers for you and your family during this stressful time in your lives.
Well I better go and get ready to go into work. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Try to get some rest and enjoy yourselves.

Hi Kar. A group called the Cornerstone Initiative has been working with our school providing funding and in return, we have to follow their philosophy. For the upper grades, it seems to be a great thing. For me, teaching a developmentally appropriate pre-k class, it is a hardship. I am forced to teach academics to children who are not developmentally ready. And since I recently became nationally accredited, my classroom will be one of the "model classrooms." In other words, there will be large groups of people coming into my room to observe my classes and me. I will have to put on a show for them neglecting my students' needs in order to please them. I can't wait until it is over.

Hey ladies! I am so excited. A couple of weeks ago, there was an excellent letter to the editor of The Connecticut Post addressing literacy, parent involvement, and NCLB. I wrote my own letter in response. Today, my letter is in the paper!!! Isn't that cool?! :smug: Tee hee hee...

Got nothing else right now.

Oh yeh, yet another snow day. Anymore snow days after today, and it will come out of our April break.

Summer

Hi Ladies,
Summer I had see why you can't wait for the visit to be over. I had a long day today. My one student cried for the first two hours of school. My classroom is right next door to the principal's office. He called down and told us to get him in check or he was calling his parents to come get him. This afternoon I had my confernence with my principal over my observation. He gave me three Needs improvements and the rest were all mastered. I was a little upset about the Needs Improvement comments because we had a specialist come in and observe my one student whose behavior is out of control. She told me to make my room into different learning centers. It is a wonderful idea. Just very hard to do when you are giving very little supplies to work with. Plus when you have snow day after snow day, how is one suppose to implement a new project. Plus for the past couple of weeks, my one student has been throwing temper tantrums every day. My aide and I have to body block him from the other students so he does not hurt them. So how am I going to do this project? Wave a magic wand and sprinkle fairy dust on my classroom. Okay enough ranting and raving.
Happy news! DH, I and the kiddies went to hhgregg and ordered our new tv tonight. It is going to be delievered on Monday. So when I come home from work on Monday, I will have a nice tv to watch. No more wondering what color things are on the tv.
Well I need to go to bed. Have to go workout at Curves early in the morning and then we are going shopping tomorrow.
Have a great weekend!

Morning Ladies,
I would have said good morning, but it is not looking that way for me today. I am a little angry with the DH this morning. He told me last night we were going to go shopping with the kids today. So I set the alarm to get up at 7 and go work out this morning. I really did not want to wake up so early on one of my day's off. But if I did not get up early to get my workout in then I would not have gotten one in at all today. I come home to hear him say that we are not going now, because the place we wanted to go through to get a loan for the our furniture is not open today. So I guess the promise to the kids to take them out for lunch is out the window now too. If I would have know this earlier this morning I would not have gotten up so early. At times, it just makes me mad how he doesn't realize that I work really hard at school with my MH students during the week and am exhausted come Friday. I just want to relax on the weekends, but no we have to run run run. Oh well sorry for my little rant session. He just got to stay in a nice warm cozy bed this morning and didn't have to go out in the freezing cold weather and icy roads.
I think I am just going to curl up with a good book today and not do much. I might work on my lesson plans a little bit. But that is all I plan on doing today.
Well I need to go get a shower. Maybe that will improve my bad mood a little bit.
Have a great Saturday!

Kar, ranting and raving is a lot of what we do here. So, don't you dare apologize for getting your frustrations off your chest. Heck, between Robyn and I, we have cornered the market on ranting and raving. Robyn is always good at sticking in some sarcastic humor to make hers entertaining. So, my friend, no worries!

My DD is driving me nuts. Someone at school, probably the P.E. teacher, is really pushing healthy eating and exercise...but to the point of making DD obsessive about it. She is only 6 and is terrified that she is fat! This kid has to wear size 6 slims. She is tall and skinny. The only place I can buy her pants is at the Gap because they have slims and also adjustable waist pants. In August, she wore the slims and still had to adjust them by a couple of buttons to keep her pants from falling off. This past week was "Jump Rope for Heart," so all of the teachers probably included healthy eating and exercise in their lessons. The problem is that DD is a perfectionist. Now that they have put into her head that "fat is bad," she is obsessing over everyone's weight, especially herself. During the after school program, they split the kids into two groups for gym time. DD was in the first group. When it was time to switch, she said she needed to burn more calories, so she stayed for the second session.

If anyone has suggestions of how to handle this, I would love them. I don't want my child to become anorexic or bullimic. God help me.

On a lighter note, we are going to a hockey game tonite. That should take my mind off everything.

Have a good weekend!

Summer

Thanks Summer for your wonderful words of advice. I felt much better after I got my shower this morning. Then my step-DD and I went to Subway for lunch. I think this might turn into a Saturday habit for the two of us. Since we are the only one's who like it at our house. Then my brother in law came over to visit, so no school work done today. Oh darn! I am really torn up about it. Yeah right. So my day did improve. Now if I can just keep that good mood going on through tomorrow.
I hope you had a fun time at the Hockey Game. I will think about your problem with your daugther and get back to you. Have a great Sunday.

Hello PEOPLE! :) Miss me????

WHAT A WEEK THAT WAS! I hope that things slow down for this one! It even continued into the weekend....today..SUNDAY, I finally get to stay at home and clean and feel as if I'm on a VACATION! WhoooHOOOO...no I didn't bang my head on a wall somewhere during my busy week. I wasn't home ANY night this past week prior to 8:15. Sooooo, sitting in my pj's listening to the children fight and the washer spin and the dishwasher hum and typing to you all seems sooooo relaxing! YIKES! Maybe I did hit my head!

KAR, honey.... THAT was hardly a rant! If you want it to qualify for a rant it has to be at LEAST one whole screen long...and have at LEAST 2 words that would be bleeped if said on television....NOT the superbowl mind you....no, we don't go THAT far...just a regular NON cable NON superbowl show! ;) I hate hate hate hate hate when I *HAVE* to get up early on the weekends for some reason. I hate hate hate hate hate hate when I get up and the reason I got up is either canceled or whatever! WHAT a waste of perfect sleep! I hear you girlfriend! I hear you! :) BUT look at it this way...You got your work out in! The rest of us slept right through it! YOU made an effort in the right direction. The rest of us just turned over. THAT is not an effective workout! :) The thing I hate most is when my DH cancels a family outing cause it doesn't suit him ...without consulting / asking / confering with me! Know what I mean?! Anywho...practice on your ranting! I think with a little practice you will become a fine, fine ranter! :) Let me know if you need help with the proper bleeping vocabulary! Lately, I've become an expert! Too bad they don't give patches for that fete with CubScouts or BoyScouts! I'd have a new thing to sew on my nonexistant (I REFUSE to wear that crap!) brag vest! ;)

Summer, I'd try to talk to the teacher! Really I would. Just to let them know what they have done (and I know that they didn't MEAN to do this, but...well,) they need to know what some and maybe others are obsessed over now! I'm not too sure what to REALLY do about your DD...I'd be scared to death, so I'm right along with you!
ummm....Have you thought about checking into books at the library. (WHAT weak advice...but I don't know whatelse to tell you!) Is there a guidance counselor at her or your school that could guide you?! You are very correct when you are worried that these thoughts will lead her to other problems! My best friend in hs was bullemic. It was only a few years ago...more than 20 years AFTER hs that I learned this! You are wise to be worried! My son's advocate always talks about a book, QueenBees and Wannabees ...she is always telling moms of girls to read it. I'm not sure if you will find what you are looking for about this topic in it....BUT I bet you will find other stuff...I know she is only 6, so this book maybe a bit early for you to read. I'm just trying to think of anything that might help! (and noooo, I don't work for amazon.com! LOL)

Story, I'm hearing you! There are so many children who are falling through the cracks. Being left behind or not.... the cracks are NOT funny places to be. I work with a 4th grade boy who can NOT read on a 1st grade reading level. He comes to me to "help" my kids. EVEN my lowest group can read better than he can. It is incredibly sad...I can't imagine how he even survives in a 4th grade class. (Yes, he is up for testing...he came from another school division that evidently did nothing.....Guess who's AYP will be screwed up because of their lack of interventions!) I SWEARRRR, we have to do SOMETHING that gets parents to do SOMETHING with their kids. They hatch em and throw them at us and we have to fix em. ENOUGH!

Cal, dress warmly for those "cold" days! :P ...and doesn't it amaze and make you ill.... no matter how hard you and your collegues work....AYP wasn't met because of 1 group at 1 grade.... YOU are a failure due to the 8th grade! ARGHHH! Congrats on things fitting you better! Doesn't that make you feel great?! :) Keep it going in a postive direction! (I'm right with you regarding how to balance this junk and ME!)

Okey...ENOUGH of me for the day! I'm off to fix round 2 of breakfast. I hate hate hate hate when someone doesn't want to eat when I fix it and then wants his own little restruant open for his dining pleasure....ARGH!

Ya'll have a great day! I will check in later today!
(((hugs)))
Robyn

The hockey game sucked. :rolleyes: borrrrrrrrring! The other team scored and then for two periods, they skated back and forth pausing to fight here and there. It wasn't until the end of the third period while we were leaving that our team scored. The game ended with a tie in overtime. :(

I told DH several times that I wasn't going to church on Sunday, so I expected to be able to sleep in. Yeh, right! :lol: DD was in my room at 7:30, and woke me up from a verrrrry delicious dream (which didn't involve food if you get my meaning! ;) ) I pretended to be still asleep while DH and DD carried on a 10 minute conversation. They wanted me to make them breakfast. By the time I chased them out and locked the bedroom door, the dream was very much gone and sleep was impossible to achieve. :(

We did our taxes and got back enough to pay for Disneyworld! One less worry.

Robyn, thanks for the feedback re: DD. I want to see what will happen now that Jump rope for heart week is over. If they stop talking about it, she may stop obsessing. If she doesn't I will surely take action. What I would like to happen is for me to get to a normal weight, and for my entire family to exercise and eat right so that she doesn't worry about getting fat.

I have tons of schoolwork tonite and this week. You may not see as much of me as usual.

Have a great week!

Summer

Hi Everyone,
Just checking in before I go off to bed. I need to get enough rest for the upcoming week. Plus I have to stay after school tomorrow until 6:30. So it will be a long day. I did not sleep well last night since I had an upset stomach. So I am really tired tonight. Robyn my DH is really good about making plans with me and the kids and then changing his mind. I should be use to it by now. I just drives me nuts. My DH and I had a talk with his DD today about eating healthier and excercising more. She is 8 years old and already weighs 106 pounds. She just wants to eat junk food, drink pop and watch tv all day long. Not a good thing to do. So Summer I have a different fight on my hands. My DH's ex-wife is a very heavy and has many different medical problems. But she will not do anything about her weight. So it is going to be a long hard road for my step-DD. She did ask me if would do one of my Walking Videos with her this morning. So I guess that is a step in the right direction. But I am afarid the only time she will excerise is when she is over here every other weekend. Plus that will be the only healthly eating she will do. Her mom likes to eat fast food with the kids alot and meals of convience vs. health. I guess small steps are better than nothing at all. Well I better go and get ready for bed. Talk to you all later. Have a great Monday!

Well, my aide was back today. The Director of Early Childhood came to talk to her about her excessive absenses. She explained that when my aide is out, it negatively affects two classrooms. Now, I certainly know what it is like to have a sick child or be sick. But in my household, my DH and I take turns staying home with DD. Why can't her boyfriend take turns with her? Also, I really think that some of her "days off" are days that she just doesn't "feel like" working. I've had a rough year of being sick and with DD as well. But, I still have less sick days than my aide. I've used 5 since August, and she has used 8 since the end of November. So, I believe she is abusing her privilege. (I'm glad my boss spoke to her.)

My school is having a bake sale on Friday. :( I am soooooo weak in those situations. I was asked to bake even though the home school coordinator knows I am trying to lose weight. My first response was a rather indignant and pissed off "NO!" She bugged me later in the day, so I offered to make fat-free brownies. I don't really want to or have time to, but it will get her off my back, and keep me focused on eating fat-free rather than all of the fattening goodies at the bake sale.

For the first time in 2004, I EXERCISED. Yes, I got my lazy butt off of the couch, and for 20 minutes, rode my recumbent bike. :encore: You have to realize how much I HATE to exercise. So, I consider this an amazing fete!

Time to get back to all my school work.

Summer

Hi Ladies,
Congrats Summer on riding your bike. How did you feel after your 20 minutes were over? Is this something you might build into your schedule? I am proud of you girl!
I know what it feels like to hate to excerise. I was like that at one time too. Now I love to excerise. It makes me relieve a lot of stress and not go so insane.
The kids at school were wild. They were very loud and would not follow the simplest of directions. I felt liking banging my head up against a brick wall several times today. I solved that problem of feeling stessed and wanting to eat a lot of chocolate, by meeting a friend at Curves and working out. I can not wait until Spring, so the kids can run off their excess energy outside. I felt like such a ***** yelling at the kids in the after school program. But no one else was going to do it. They stopped walking all over the staff and myself after I got their attention.
After working out, I came home to watch a little bit of tv on our new tv. The DH left me a note saying that I had to figure out what was wrong with the digital cable box. Needless to say I didn't figure it out tonight. That is one thing I don't touch after a long day at work. If it already screwed up, I could really screw it up more. So I guess tomorrow afternoon when I get home from school I will have him help me figure out what is wrong. Two heads are better than one on things like this.
Well I better go to bed, 5:30 comes awful early. I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday. It is TOPS meeting night, so I am hoping to loss some weight this week. Keep your fingers crossed that I did.

Last night I was in bed...asleep...at 6:34....and I slept. And slept. And slept.
I guess my DH did dinner for the kids because I found evidence of it EVERY where in the kitchen this morning. I was not sick. WELL, I was. I'm SICK of SCHOOL!

Today I returned home announcing that I'm 13 years from retirement.
I fell into bed...DH went into the kitchen and began dinner. I followed him to see if he had bumped his head or something. He sent me back to take a shower saying that he was sorry that I had a horrible day. YIKES!

I love him dearly...but this is totally OUT of the ordinary for him.... Things at school are totally horrid right now. GUESS he has figured that much out. He KNOWS me! I only crawl into bed and disappear for 11 hours when I'm desperate.

I will survive. BUT, I've gotta figure out this emotional weight thing....OR I'm gonna
weigh 200 pounds again! I've come WAYYYYY tooooo far to wear fat clothes again!
Tomorrow is another day. (Waiting for the ED placement that will take place as soon as we get the placement letter for one of my cherubs! THAT will make life much more liveable!)

I *am* 13 years away from retiring with 30 years of service (JUST to clarify that I'm not THAT old! LOL)

type to you later........
Robyn

Hi Ladies,
I hope everyone's Tuesday was good. Mine was fine until about 1 and then I heard the same child who is 14 cry for over an hour and a half. I was so glad to see the school bus pull up and him run to get on it! LOL Then I had to go sit through a committee meeting that was a waste of my time. Oh well I only have about 3 months to sit through meetings until the end of the school year.
Robyn sorry to hear about your awful start to the week. I am glad that your DH is being very loving and supportive. You will not get back in fat people clothes, because I will not let you get that way. You can and will do this! Keep thinking pleasant thin thoughts!
I am only 24 years from retiring with 30 years of service. That seems like a lifetime away. LOL. Oh too think of all the problem parents and children I might encounter.
I went to my TOPS meeting tonight and I lost 1/2 pound last week. So that is the 7th week in a row that I have lost weight. I only have 1 3/4 pounds to loss and I will have lost 20 pounds since last April. I am hoping to get to my 20 pound goal by the end of Feburary. So just maybe by the time my birthday gets here in May, I can fit into a smaller pair of jeans and pants. That would be so nice.
My DH figured out the digital cable box, TV, VCR/DVD problem. He hooked up the wires wrong. I am so glad he figured that out and I didn't have to mess with it. So I was able to come home and watch more than just 10 basic channels this evening. YIPPPPPEEEEEEEE!
I better go and get my stuff ready for school tomorrow. I hope everyone has a wonderful hump day! It is going to be a long day for me. I am at school until 6:30 tomorrow night and then I am going to go met at friend and go workout. So maybe it is a good thing I am making the effort to work out after long days, that can be my reward for getting through the stress of the evening. LOL.

Well ladies just checking in. I had a really long and rough day today. I had a meeting with my boss. He observed me last month and then wrote up my evaluation. He went over it with me today. I have three to four weeks to make his recommendations evident in my classroom. I was a little upset because I have been trying to implement things. But it is really hard when you have a lot of snow days and then have to deal with behaviors from one student that affects the whole classroom. I guess I wouldn't have much of a life for the next two or three weeks. Since I will be busy working my regular day and then come home and try to get this other stuff done. It is right in the height of IEP and MFE season, too. I want to just scream, because I have a two year contract and it is not up until next year. I will just keep my mouth shut and see what he has in store for me. Well ladies, it has been a very long day. I am going to go to bed. I hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope all is well with everyone. Just wanted to check in. I am so glad that it is the weekend. Time for some much needed rest and relaxation. Well I need to run. I have a workout scheduled with one of my friends this morning at Curves. Talk to you all later. Have a wonderful weekend!

Hi everyone! I just found this group -- I'm usually on the Atkins threads -- and I'm not even going to take the time to read through all of these posts before I introduce myself.

I'm a special education teacher for MIMR/MOMR elementary students in Arizona. If you don't mind, I'd like to continue to drop in from time-to-time. Now, I'm going to get busy reading those back-logs so I can get acquainted!

Welcome Paula. I, too, teach in Arizona. I'm a 7th grade Language Arts teacher for an inner city school in west Phoenix. I enjoy my job, but this NCLB stuff is really killing morale. This is a great group of ladies from all over. Many of them are back East and their talk of snow days and ice makes me glad I'm here. :) I hope you stay around. Again, welcome. :wave:

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. :) I have been sooo busy this week getting progress reports out. Just not enough time. I refused to work on my own time and so it took me a little longer. I've also been putting together some work to last my kiddos 3-4 days because my grandmother is getting worse and I know there will be a funeral soon. I made sure I had everything ready yesterday in case I'm in California on Tuesday. What a week. :dizzy:
To top it off, we had several meetings this week during our prep time and yesterday they had a fire drill. One of the teachers finally told the principal that the drill was the last straw. She really told him what everyone else is thinking. Only 5 weeks until break.

Hope everyone has a wonderful 3 days off.

Cal

Phew! I just came up for air! What a week! Sorry I've been MIA, but I was in deep...way over my head in preparations for the VISIT OF 80 EDUCATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.

Even though I am not completely ready for VISIT the Monday after vacation, I can't control it now. At 4pm on Friday, the custodian kicked me out of the school. I cannot enter again until 7:30 (George won't open the doors any earlier) that Monday morning of the VISIT. It doesn't matter that I am not ready. George wanted to go home. I can't blame him. It has been a rough week for one and all in our building. Since we got our new principal, who by the way is fabulous (so far), things are a changin'. We all got a beautiful new rocking chair. Some of us got new desks (not me :mad: ) and other new furniture. Some of us got new rugs for circle time (not me :mad: ). A mural of the city is being painted in the foyer. The library is being relocated to a nicer room. Suddenly we have supplies (the old principal was hoarding everything). There is so much more, but I'm sure you get the gist of it.

I can do a little at home as far as tweeking my lesson plans and assembling the book of colors that the kids illustrated, and George laminated (even though he was overwhelmed with tasks). But on Monday, the 23rd, my *** better be in my classroom by 7:30 taking care of the finishing touches.

My room has been chosen as a model classroom. So, there will be no flying under the radar for me. Crap! :p Maybe next year. After I caved in and abandoned my developmentally appropriate philosophy (for this week only) and made the kids do writing pieces on the book, Guess How Much I Love You, the Director of Early Childhood gave me the "seal of approval," which is not given lightly by her. She dragged my new principal in my room who went nuts when she saw my criteria charts and rubrics. They decided that I needed to lead a professional development training session for the other teachers. That will go over like a lead balloon... :gossip: when the veteran teachers find out that a 3rd year newbie without her masters degree will be teaching them how to write a rubric. Again, why can't I just fly under the radar? Yes, I want to do a good job and please the administration, but why can't they smile and leave me alone?

As of yesterday afternoon, I am on winter break for a week. Thank you God. Of course, I have a cold...are you surprised?! Every time I encounter stress at school, I get sick. I'm lucky though, DD had strep throat earlier in the month, and the home/school coordinator had strep this week. So, a cold is okay especially since I won't have to take a sick day.

On Monday night, I have to stay overnight in the hospital's sleep clinic to have a sleep study done. My ENT wants to see if I have sleep apnea. Please pray that I don't. I don't want to wear an oxygen mask or have surgery!!! Hopefully I will just snore and get up to pee all night! :lol:

I have missed being in touch with you all, but I promise now that I am off school, I will be around a lot more.

Welcome Paula!

Summer

Calnative: Thanks for the welcome! So sorry about your grandmother. Sounds like you're under a lot of stress. I'll be thinking positive thoughts for you!

Summerlover: Thanks to you, too, for the welcome! Seems like you're learning a valuable lesson -- be good at what you do and someone WILL take notice. Don't worry too much about the old guard. I'm also a newbie (2 years - but I'm a bit older), and I've already found that there will always be those teachers who have been around for a while and grown complacent. These teachers absolutely hate new people coming in who are still filled with vim and vigor and love for the profession. Knock 'em dead and strut your stuff! Reinvigorate them!

I've been busy with updating my IEP goals for next week's parent/teacher conferences and standards reports. One of the regular ed teachers actually came up to me and said "I envy you, not having to do standards reports on your kids." I told her I'd switch with her any day. Then SHE can update over 200 individual objectives at report time, and SHE can complete 12 AIMS-A tests (the check-list from h***) per year, and SHE can.....oooooppppssss!!!! I'm venting again. It's just that I'm the only one at my school who does what I do and it's a very misunderstood program. After all, how hard can it be "handling" a bunch of MIMR/MOMR kids? Isn't it just like babysitting? ARGGHHH! Ahhhh....I'm feeling much better now! :goodvibes:

Thank again for welcoming me. I'm truly glad to have found this group and look forward to getting to know all of you!

Hello friends,

I've been so overwhelmed with all the demands of my time lately. I've been MIA for most of the week. I've missed the chatter with my online buds!

Welcome SpedMom! I too am a SpEdMom (my ds/12 is OHI with quite a thick IEP that requires my constant nagging for them to follow...to the point of only meeting with his school team with his educational advocate!)! I am also teaching my 17th year of first grade in the same classroom where I began teaching 17 years ago no less. Not sure if I'm complacent....but I am jaded after all the years of really living the life, dealing with the administration, trying to help the kids, trying to teach the parents how to parent, jumping through the hoops of the outrageous mandates / demands from administration at the building level, at the city level, state level, federal level! Hope you take time to look thru all the postings and see where I posted photos of my classroom. Seems that the painting couldn't wait until an appropriate time nor could our children be put in a temporary location for the paint to dry and the fumes to disappear! We made do........ Every space in our school has gone through this since returning from our Winter break (painting started in Jan & still continues). The paint fume headaches are a constant for the kids and teachers. One student was hospitalized. Meanwhile, one of the teacher's toilets broke. There is one toilet in the building for the over 100 adult staff members. It has been this way since before Christmas. Yeah, after a while...the old guard gets jaded! I just want to teach ....and have an adult sized toilet that is sort of clean! I look forward to "talking" more with you and getting to know you! Congratulations with your Atkins success! Keep up the great work! Glad you found us here!

Summer, Hope you feel better soon! You KNOW that I'd sit thru your inservice! I'd EVEN try using your Rubrics! I'll try anything that anyone suggests that might help my kiddos progress! I don't care how long you've been teaching.....IF you can lead me to the water, I'll drink!!!! :) Enjoy your time off! I'm jealous. We have NO time off between now and Spring Break (Easter!) Try to relax a bit! ;) Let us know how your sleep testing goes! Fingers crossed for no apnea!

My school's annual Valentine's Carnival was on Saturday. It was a wonderful and tiring success! The children seemed to be having a fun time! We have school tomorrow as a Hurricane Make Up Day....so I must sign off and get my newsletter, homework and plans for the week done!

Oh and the family is asking for dinner....the NERVE of them! LOL
Ya'll take care!
Robyn

Cal, your grandmother and your family are in my prayers. I'm so sorry that things are not getting better for her.

Our school also had a fire drill on the 13th ("valentine's day" for the kiddos!), right smack dab in the middle of the last hour of the day! Right smack dab in the middle of the Valentine Exchange! What a crazy time! We had kids trying to "save" their Valentine bags.... First graders flying high on Sugar can get a bit illogical! At least we won't be having another drill for at least a week! In January, our monthly drill was carried out in the rain! (At least it wasn't snow!)

Hang in there Cal!
Robyn

Robyn: I hate fire drills this time of year. I can't believe that you had a fire drill in the middle of the valentine exchange. I kept "feeling" like we were gonna have one at an inopportune time on Friday...and you had it instead of me! Do you think my intuition stretches all the way down south to you?! You never know! :dizzy: We haven't had one in a looooong time because of the old principal leaving in December. The interim principal forgot about it, and nobody reminded her. :lol: The new one is so busy getting acclimated and prepared for the VISIT, and we haven't reminded her either. :lol: So, pretty soon, we will be hit with a bunch of them in a row. I just hope it doesn't occur to her until temperatures get above 10 degrees! Heck, maybe she will even wait until spring! I'm a dreamer, huh?


Well, in a few short hours, I will be at the sleep center hooked up to electrodes and looking like a science experiment. I have always thought this would be a really cool thing to try (I still kind of do), but now the nerves are setting in...you know, that fear of the unknown.

I'd better go. I have to do a lot of stupid stuff before I go. Please pray that it is not apnea. Thanks!

Summer

Welcome SpedMom! Glad to have you on board.
Cal I am still saying my prayers for your family. I hope you are not feeling too much stress right now.
Robyn and Summer sounds like everyone had a week from ****. I am hoping when I go back to work on Wednesday that it is not a completely horrible day. I had a doctor's appointment today and tomorrow I have a workshop. So my kids are probably going to give the sub or sub's fits.
Nothing new here. Same old s*** just a new day!
Summer I hope your sleep study goes well. My brother-in-law just had one done. He is still waiting for the results. He was awake for almost all of the study. They gave him 4 sleeping pills and it still didn't faze him.
Well everyone have a great Tuesday!

Today was a snow day.....with very little snow! Just hung out around the house with DH. The boys both had a 2 hour delay! It was sorta fun! Felt like I was playing hookey! This week will be another busy one! AND there is more snow predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday.... I'm a bit concerned for JULY! We have so many days to make up now...from the hurricane and all!

Kar, hope your workshop is a good one!

Summer, are you sleeping?! ;) Hope it all is going well!

SpedMom, I saw a post of yours about an ab machine. Tell me details of the machine. I'm not familiar with this one! .....It really works???

Cal, you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers!

No signs of snow tonight! Soooo, I'm heading to bed early for a change!
Take care,
Robyn

Morning everyone!

I'm finally back on track after having a binge a week ago that would have put many to shame. I even finally summoned the courage to join a local gym (ladies only, thank you!) that has become quite popular with the teachers in my district. They offer a very hefty discount to our employees and there are plenty of teachers and aides in my school who have promised to keep badgering me about steady attendance. An extra bonus is that they pay $50 for referrals and I was able to help out a dear friend of mine who is suddenly finding herself single and struggling financially after many years of wedded bliss. Mornings work best for me, and there are 2 other teachers in my district that I've met during in-service days who are also early risers and will be there! I'm ready, I'm psyched, and I've already charged the year on my credit card, so I'm committed!

Cal: Still sending good thoughts your way and hoping all is well and that you make it through this most difficult time.

Robyn: The 6 Second Ab machine is a very light-weight piece of equipment with 2 handles that allows you to do crunches (and side crunches) from a seated position. This is extremely important for someone like me whose back never fully recovered from pregnancy and childbirth over 9 years ago! There are sets of rubbery "bands" (for lack of a better descriptor) that you use to adjust the tension. It's an excellent way to work out the abs without straining the back. I do find that it does an excellent job of toning the upper and side abs, but not as great for the lower abs unless you get on the floor, put your feet up on a chair, and do it that way. But....I've strengthened my abs enough now that I can handle that without having to use my back to get the upward motion. Is it a replacement for gym-style ab machines? NOPE! But it's a great way to work on abs when you don't have the time, money, or inclination to go to a gym and your back can't stand the strain of the roller-type or other other floor-based ab exercisers.

Summer: Good luck on the sleep study! Don't stress too much or you'll never catch those Z's.

Thanks again to all for the warm welcomes!

:yawn: I am soooooo tired. We left for the hospital at 7:15, got there at 7:30, and then found out I had left the very important paperwork on my coffee table. So, we turned around, and my very pissed off DH drove way too fast to get us back home to pick it up. I arrived at the sleep study 10 minutes late with an angry DH and a DD who was full of questions about how mad daddy was and what was going to happen to me in the hospital. Great way to begin!

My family left soon after, and the technician spent the next 30 minutes hooking me up to electrodes. The tech had no bedside manner at all. He harped about my weight contributing to my sleeping problem, and all of my risk factors...DUH! When these medical people preach about weight loss, they act like obese people are just stupid, and if we knew better, we'd be thin. If only they understood how complicated this all is.

He was unhappy with me because I was supposed to remove nail polish from one nail. I did that, but because I have acrylic overlays, he became irritated with me that I didn't have it removed as well. So far, I had pissed off two men. At 10:30, he told me to go to sleep. I kept having to pee which got on the tech's nerves because he had to disconnect me each time. I had to continually change positions because I couldn't get comfortable, and I was very self-conscious knowing that this rude guy was watching me try to fall asleep. It was a looooooooooong night with very little sleep...I would guess about an hour at the most. At 6am, he came in, turned on the lights, told me to wake up, and wouldn't let me close my eyes even though my eyes needed to adjust to the light. Before I was really awake, DD and DH were in my room to take me home. I was happy to see them and go home.

The best part was that I DO NOT HAVE SLEEP APNEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whatever else may be wrong with me, at least I don't have to deal with wearing an oxygen mask every night or having an operation. The funny thing is that apparently even though I do snore, I snore very quietly. The tech told my DH that he is probably keeping me up at night (what I've been saying all along) and is probably waking himself up with his own snoring! That jerk was good for something...he put DH in his place!

I wasn't able to go to bed right away, because I had a dentist appt. at 9:30, so I waited till afterward. DD only let me sleep for 45 minutes, so I guess I will have to catch up tonight.

I will check in with all of you tomorrow, and hopefully I will be my old self again.

Summer

I forgot to tell you the funniest part. I was worried about how DD would cope with me spending the night at the hospital, so I explained everything and she saw my room, etc. I figured everything on the homefront was under control with me gone. Well I was wrong.

The dog flipped! Duffy searched the house for me. He wouldn't go to his bed at bedtime. He tried hiding under my side of the bed and then proceeded to poop all over my bedroom rug, the playroom, and the stairs. I guess he let my DH know how he was feeling! :p :lol:

Summer

HI Ladies,
Boy has it been a long day today. I had to work until 6:30 with the afterschool program. It was my first day back this week. So I was going into work feeling like it was a Monday. Atleast I got caught up on some work. Plus my students were wonderful today. The one who is always giving me fits was so well behaved and calm today. I just hope this lasts for the rest of the week.
Summer glad to hear that you don't have sleep apnea. Sounds like you had the tech from h***.
Paula did you happen to join Curves? It is an all ladies gym. I love the one that I go to. I have a dear friend that goes with me and we motivate each other. I am sure you are going to enjoy your workouts.
Robyn my workshop was okay. The state of Ohio changed the forms for IEP's and we had an inservice on it. I wish I had brought my file folder game stuff and crayons. I could have sat there and colored while listening to the presenters and the video. LOL.
I went to my TOPS meeting last night and I lost another 1/2 pound. So I guess I am slowly getting to a thinner person. I am hoping to reach my 30 pound goal by my birthday in May. Well I am starting to fell asleep as I type this, so I guess I better crawl my way to the bed. I will talk to you all later. Have a wonderful Thursday!

Story, where are you?! Yoo hoo! Cal!

Summer

Where is everyone? I guess it has been a hectic week for all of you. I'm just blown away by how quickly my vacation is flying by. People make snide comments about how much time teachers get off. Well let me tell you, if it weren't for all these breaks, I would never get things done.

Since my vacation began I have:

1. caught up on laundry
2. had a sleep study done
3. recovered from a sleepless night during the sleep study
4. been to the dentist
5. had allergy testing done
6. shopped at Staples for school supplies
7. bound a book written and illustrated by my class
8. purchased paint and wallpaper for house
9. painted large cabinet
10. cleaned living room (and within minutes of DH coming home it was a mess again!!!)
11. attended play date with DD
12. organized play date with new friend for DD
13. bought hot pink, yes, hot pink rocking chair cushion for school

...and there is still a lot more for me to do in the next three days! How dare anybody criticize a teacher's schedule. They don't know what it is like to bring work home every night and try to balance this stressful job with family.

Summer

My friends...I have just had a breakthrough. I do not have time to detail it in this post. If you would like to read about it, you can find it under:

Book Club
Dr. Phil's book club, chapter 5, healing feelings

I can honestly say that my only hope for losing weight has been to read this book and apply all of it's principles to my life. I am currently on the second reading...this book requires time and deep introspection...but it is well worth it.

Take care, and be well my friends...inside and out!

Summer

Good morning. Something is wrong with my right eye. After I did the sleep study, I started having flashing streams of light go through my eye. It was very subtle, and I figured it was related to me not sleeping. Well, last night upon returning from a friend's house, I noticed a black dot in my line of vision. I thought it was a piece of mascara. But nothing was in my eye, and no matter what I did, the black dot (floater) remained. I opened up my DH's medical book and discovered that I have the symptoms of a detached retina. It is a medical emergency which requires surgery. What the **** was I supposed to about this at midnight?! And please tell me what opthamologist will be available to help me on a Saturday?! I don't know what to do. Do I go to the ER? And in case you don't remember, the VISIT of 80 people is on Monday, and they are coming to see ME. I swear, my life can be so friggin insane. So, just to be safe, I've just finished my lesson plans, gathered all of my materials, and placed them in a plastic bag, just in case the sh-t hits the fan. (You know I must be in a panic if I got up at 6:30am on a Saturday to write lesson plans!) Worse comes to worse, at least the sub will have the stuff I plan to do on Monday & Tuesday so that I will look organized to the group. I can't help it that my body won't cooperate. So now the goal is to find a doctor on the weekend who can treat me. Please pray for me. I'm really scared.

Summer

Summer: Go IMMEDIATELY to the ER. They have opthomologists on call and, although you may have to wait there for a few hours, it's better not to take the chance. It may be nothing, but do you really want to risk your eyesight? Perspective -- your eyesight is immeasureably more important than any visit by any amount of hot-shots!! Let us know how it goes!

KAR: I didnt' join Curves, but chose Naturally Women. Yes, it was a tad more expensive, but I get a discount through my school district and the hours suited my schedule to a tee. The Curves near me doesn't even open until 7:00 a.m., and I need to be showered and driving to work by then. The NW opens at 5:30, so I've been there at the door when they open, put in 45 minutes, shower in some really nice facilities, and get to work by 7:30. I don't like to do evenings as much because my husband teaches at the U of A and most of his classes are held in the evening. It's bad enough that I have to put my daughter in the after-school program 2-3 days a week for 2 hours (her school is 30 minutes away from mine and on a much earlier schedule). I don't want to miss time with her on the other days as well! Also, I'm nuts for Nautilus and Cybex machines and Curves couldn't help me there. The one here is pretty pathetic and very depressing.

Well, for P/T conferences I had only 5 students' parents schedule and only 2 out of those showed up. I was finished by 1:00 but still had to stay until 7:00 in order to get out early the next day (1/2 day). So, my aides cleaned out our supply closet, organized our physical therapy equipment, and I got a lot of paperwork and gabbing done! I called one parent whose appointment had been an hour prior but hadn't shown up, calling just to let her know that I was there and my schedule was free if she wanted to come in. She said "If I had wanted to talk to you, I would have come in." So, I asked her why she signed up for a conference if she didn't want to talk. She replied, "Well, until you showed up, it used to keep people off my a**!" Lovely. Just lovely.

Paula: WOW! That parent reminds me of some I had my first year teaching. I had similar response for p/t conferences. In my current school, things like that are better. Sorry you were treated with such disrespect when you had such good intentions. Don't let it get you down.

I have some news...good for now. I found an opthalmologist in the yellow pages who has Saturday hours, but was closed today. Then I found another 30 minutes away, and with much insistence with the extremely rude receptionist, managed to be seen today. I have a Posterior Vitreous Detachment. The vitreous gel pulled away from the back wall of my right eye. As of right now, my retina is still attached, so I don't need immediate surgery. :) However, the doctor told me that it may only be a matter of time before that happens. He gave me the signs to watch for, and I am to see him immediately because I could lose sight in that eye if I don't have surgery ASAP. :( I hate this hanging over my head, but what can I do?

I am scheduled to see him 4/3/04, if nothing happens before then.

Why did it happen to me? Because I am severely nearsighted, and MIDDLE AGED?! I'm only 39...when did that become middle aged?! So, is this what happens on the verge of 40...your body falls apart?!

Summer

Summer: I'm so glad you went to the opthomologist! Sorry about the news, but it probably could have been much worse, and now at least you know what to look for.

As to your body falling apart after 40........

At 42, I can't say my body is "falling apart," but there are a lot more dings, dents, and surface scratches. In addition, the old engine stops humming as quietly as it once did and when you look for some parts where they used to be, you find to your surprise that they've shifted a few inches down south!! When I start to look in the mirror with dismay at what I see staring back at me, I just try to remember that the alternative (not being around to make it to 43) is a **** of a lot worse!

Paula, thanks for the insight. I have also experienced gravity, but it happened with pregnancy and childbirth. I guess age had something to do with it.

Right now as I see 40 LOOMING (DOB 10-5-64), it helps me to get my priorities straight, especially regarding my health and weight. I wish I didn't waste 10 years being fat. But you can't change the past, only learn from it so that the future will be better. I'm planning on being around for a long time, so I must get my butt in gear.

The VISIT begins tomorrow. So, if you don't hear from me till Wednesday, you will all know why. If it isn't too hectic, I will let all of you know how it is going. Otherwise, Wednesday will be the day.

Take care one and all.

Summer

well......i'm getting good at this disappearing act....

another week gone! progress with ME? um, not even close!

what a state I'm in.... Someone tell me how to get my "HEAD" back
into this game!?! How do I focus on ME when everything else needs
my attention?! I've got interim report cards, two days of sub plans (I'm
on a system committee and must be out of the building for 2 days..in a row!
to attend meetings...), my weekly newsletter and of course plans and the kids
homework to get published.... and of course a moutain of laundry, a
nasty house, my parents want me to visit, groceries to purchase and a Sunday
dinner to prepare.... and I'm supposed to fit in an hour of ME time?! What is
so sad, is that this time last year, I was winning the battle! WHAT is wrong
with me?

summer, it was good chatting with you. take care of that eye! good luck with the
huge visit and all!

SpEdMom, thanks for the info about the ab machine. See, I did read it! When I
started my "quest" last winter, I didn't even HAVE abs! LOL It was hard to actually
locate them....and now, well, I think they are gone again! NO part of my body has
ever been the same after preganancy and/or childbirth....ABs included! When I get
my brain back in the game, I don't expect to have Abs "as seen on TV"...but knowing
that they exist will be good again!

I've got to make a plan....write it down and DO it! I know how to do this. I am just finding it overwhelming to DO IT! Sorry for the whining.... I'm going to get my school junk done so that I can get to writing a new plan of action for ME...

I know what to do.
I just need to do it!

30 minutes is where I will start! 30 minutes! (Gawwwd, ya'll have heard this speech before.....I know! Don't give up on me!)

take care...
the babbling, insane and insecure Robyn

Robyn, we've all been where you are right now. It will get better...I promise. The only reason I have any sanity right now is because I had a week off from school. It was full and busy, but without the school pressure, it was doable. Tomorrow morning, I will be right back with you in the loony bin. Take care, and don't give up! Read chapter 5...even if you can only do one page at a time before bed.

Summer

Thank you, Summer! How is your eye? How is your tummy taking the stress of it all?! I would be soooo ill right now if I was about to have that visiting team in my room... OOOH...duh! I'm supposed to be supporting you NOT making you crazier!
I am jealous of this thing you northern folk call "Winter Break" or "February Break"
OR whatever you call it. I' m trying to remind myself that I got a nearly two week "Isobel Break"....and what a break it WASSSSSS... Oh but WAITTTT!
I *AM* the one who went to Florida for a week and had the *T*I*M*E* of our lives!
And returned home to have 2 weeks off for Christmas....
So...go on with your February thing! :) ;) :D :p :D :smug:

and nowwwwwwwwww without further adieu....
........stand back people..............

BIGGG announcement..............

I exercised! :) For 30 minutes! Only had to deal with being "watched" by my ds for a brief period that ended with me sweetly threatening his life! :lol:

Tomorrow is another day. One day at a time. I can do this! Sometime I am going to post my fat photo...and my current photo...and leave room for my photo at goal! puke puke puke!

Tomorrow my mini goals are:
*drink my water
*control my food intake!
*30 minutes of exercise
*find....sad, huh?!...my journal!

I can do that! :)

Ya'll take care!
You KNOW I'll be back to tell you how I've done!
Happy Monday to you all! Summer...I'm thinking about you!

Robyn

GO ROBYN! GO ROBYN! IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY! IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!

(Now all you have to do is read chapter 5!) :lol: Sorry, I'll get off your case.


Today, after getting up one hour early and much preparation, not to mention, worry, dry mouth, and diarrhea...

The VISITORS arrived late because the hotel bus picked them up 25 minutes late. They missed my lesson. They proceeded to the next class, then popped in for a couple of minutes to explain what happened. They then asked sophisticated questions of my students who in turn glared back at them disapprovingly and quizzically :mad: :p :?: :dizzy: :( :p

Tomorrow they may try again. I hope not. I ended up having a decent day without them. I will let you know.

Robyn, I'm just gonna pass a subliminal message...chapter 5...nothing to worry your little head about...chapter 5...Have a nice day tomorrow...just read one page at a time...I will talk to you tomorrow...chapter 5...goodnight!

Summer

Hi ladies,
Sorry I have been MIA for about a week. I was either tired in the evenings or my DH was on the computer when I wanted to use it. But I am back now.
I had a really long week last week. My kids were very wound for sound and ready for spring. I think cabin fever was setting into my classroom last week. My kids begged me to walk them around the outside of the building a couple days last week.
Summer sounds like you got a lot of work done over your vaction. Sorry to hear about your eye. I hope it is doing okay. I think that would be very scary. I am glad that you were able to get into a doctor right away on Saturday. I will say my prayers for you.
Robyn we all get into a little slump where we just don't have the engery or desire to workout. But just take baby steps and you will get there. I have faith in you!
Paula, I have never heard of Naturally Women. Is it a nationwide chain, like Curves? It sounds nice. Your gym even has showers. Mine just has a bathroom and three changing rooms.
Well I better go and get ready for bed. I just wanted to check in and see how my pals were doing. Keep up the good work!
Talk to you all later.
Kerry

Hey Ya'll!

Guess WHAT?!?!

I exercised again tonight! 30 minute FIRM workout (can't remember the name of it!) with little baby 2 pound weights... MANNNNNN!

For my mini goals:
I did great with my food intake UNTIL I was cooking dinner...I've got to remember to pull out my carrots for those moments. I used to LIVE on carrots to fill the hole! My class eats lunch at 11:30 and so by 5ish, I'm dying! I've also got to remember to take a piece of fruit with me to eat on the ride home...4:30 to 5:00.... BRAIN TRAINING! REMEMBERING to do this stuff!

Got some of my water in. Our teacher restroom is currently not flushing and the other one is as far away from me as it can possibly be. I didn't want to risk filling the bladder without the promise of getting to empty it! Ahhh, the lives that teachers lead! ;)


I exercised! :) 2 days in a row! I will exercise tomorrow, but with a different tape. Thursday will be my day off. (Our ds has a band concert for use to attend! He thrives on this stuff! ahem! ;) )

I haven't had the chance to look for the journal. I sort of know where it is. I've got this annoying headache that keeps sounding like someone yelling at me to read Chapter 5....Once I go and do that (and write my interim report cards, of couse!) I'll try to write something in my journal......

I've just GOTTA get to my Dr.Phil book tonight.....Just gotta...Just gotta...
Chapter 5 is calling me! Over and over and over and over and over!

Summer, did you puke when they missed your lesson?! ARGGGHHHH! How is that eye?! How many fingers am I holding up?! Yeah, it is 5....for some reason! ;)

Kar, sorry to hear you have been so busy! I hear you! I know exactly what you're feeling! Today was, as all Monday's, CRAZEEEE! It seems that they forget how to act or treat each other all weekend... It takes me until Thursday to get them back...and then I send them off for another weekend! We've had cabin fever very badly! Good luck with keeping them engaged!

Thanks so much for the wonderful words of support! :) I'm on Day 2! Yahooo! I CAN do this! Tomorrow is another day! (said in my best Scarlett O'Hara voice!)

Ya'll take care!

Robyn

forgot to post this above...sorry!

Tomorrow my mini goals are:
*drink my water
*control my food intake!
*30 minutes of exercise
*read another page in Chapter 5! hehehehe!

Hello Ladies,

I'm sorry, but the past few days have been nightmares.
Last week our team lost a teacher. He was placed on administrative leave, but we've been told he won't be back for the rest of the year. Now we're down to 3 teachers on our team and 119 students. The district says that no one wants to come sub at our school because of the discipline problem. (Yet they were the ones who took away all of our alternative programs). We're going to do the best we can. (Only 4 more weeks until break).

I will be out of state for a few days. My grandmother passed away yesterday. I've decided to take the full 5 days this week because of all the stress of the past few days and weeks. We leave tomorrow for Calif.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Hang in there; we are the best. :grouphug:

Cal

Cal, So sorry to hear of your loss. I hope that the time with your family helps
with your grandmother's passing. Sounds as if you really need the time away
from the stressful situation at school as well. Hang in there! You remain in my
prayers!

Robyn

Cal I am so sorry to hear about your grandma's passing. Your family will be in my thoughts and prayers during this difficult time! Have a safe trip to California.

Cal, I'm so sorry for your loss. It is so hard to say, "goodbye" to someone you love. I hope your family gives you the comfort you need. Have a safe trip.

Robyn, KEEP IT UP GIRL!!! YOU'RE MY HERO!!!

Kar, thanks for the encouragement.

Story, WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU GIRL?! :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?: :?:

Hi Ladies,
So how is everyone fairing this week so far? I am doing fine. I am starting to stress out a little bit though. I have an alternate assessment due next Thursday on a student of mine. He is starting to get Spring Fever and is becoming a little stubborn as each day passes. Then I have 5 MFE's due by March 15th and 5 IEP's due on March 29th. Thank God I have to stay after school tomorrow night for Teacher Parent confernences. I only have one of my 5 parents coming in. One called to say that her boyfriend's father died on Monday and the funeral is tomorrow. Another one called to say that something came up and then one just totally ingored my note sent home. I should just count my blessings and use that time to work on my reports. I just hope that a few of my coworkers don't come in my room to chat all evening long.
I went to Curves tonight and lost another 2 pounds since last month's weigh in and measure. I have lost 1/4 inche in each arm too. I didn't lose any in my bust, thighs, hips or adobmen. I think that could be because I am being cursed with that time of the month. LOL. I just be thankful that I lost any weight or inches.
Summer how is your eye? Did you survive your visitors? Did they stop in to see your lesson on Tuesday?
Robyn How are you doing? I am proud of you for setting mini goals daily and sticking to them.
Well I better go and get some more school work done before I go to bed. Take care everyone. Have a great Thursday!

Hi Kar. My eye is very distracting. It bothers me a lot at night. It gets tired and just starts tearing by 8pm. It makes relaxing in front of the tube a little difficult. At this point, I'm learning to live with the "floaters and flashes." I just don't want my retina to tear at the wrong time, like when I'm in Disneyworld this summer. Because when there is a tear, it requires emergency surgery in order to avoid blindness in that eye. So, I'm kind of waiting for the "other shoe to drop" so to speak. The VISIT was a non-event. The transportation from their hotel was 25 minutes late, so they missed my lesson and moved on to the other class on their visit. So, I escaped without having to deal with 80 curious spies! A few came in my room for a couple of minutes and asked questions over my students' heads (they're only 4) while my kids looked at them like they were nuts. But thankfully, that was it. I was pissed at first because of all my work, but it's okay. Congrats to you on your progress!

I had cheerios, banana, and skim milk for breakfast. For lunch, I had a smoothie made with lemon yogurt, raspberry yogurt, blueberries, and cool whip lite, along with some low-fat cheddar. For dinner, we are having lean pork chops, mac & cheese (low-fat), and veggies. It has been a good day as far as eating goes.

My aide was absent for the 10th time. She was on maternity leave until Thanksgiving. So, these 10 days have been since Dec. 1st. Let's not forget all the vacation time and the 5 snow days we had. This girl can't get her butt to work!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!!

I'm pooped. Take care all.

Story, you are starting to worry me girl!!!

Summer

hey all TG tomorrow IF!!!!!

WHAT A WEEK! and I haven't even been at school since Tuesday...LONGGGG
story! Going tomorrow at 12:15....

lost 3 pounds tho! making a bit of effort goes a long way! big fat GRIN!
"enjoyed" our ds's beginning band concert for about an hour tonight....eeek! LOL

ya'll have a great Friday...and don't grade this one for my grammar, spelling or punctuation issues! :P

(((Hugs)))
Robyn

STORYLADY...WHERE ARE YOU??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :?: :?: :?: :?:
Summer

TGIF! :cheer:

My aide was out yet again. She is so immature and so self-involved. She has no sense of commitment to our class. When she decides that the sky isn't the right shade of blue, and she calls out sick, I have to steal a kindergarten aide in order to maintain my ratio of 1:10. I like the kindergarten aides because they are all competent. But, I feel awful for the K teachers who need them. It sucks.

The weather in the northeast is warming up a bit. It has been in the 30's and 40's! Practically a tropical heatwave! :cool:

You all take care and enjoy your weekend!

Summer

Hi ladies,
I survived confernences. But boy did it make for a very long, tiring night. I came home and tried to relax. But I couldn't since I had been working for about 12 hours straight. Oh well it is Friday and I am looking forward to the weekend.
So what is everyone's big plans for the weekend? I am going to meet my sister and her best friend for dinner and go to a play tomorrow night. I am trying to talk my DH in to going hiking with me on Sunday at the one state park close to us. Plus I need to sit down and do a little more work on my reports for school.
Robyn congrats on losing 3 more pounds. I am very proud of you! You go girl!
Summer I know how it is with aides. I have a wonderful aide in my room. But when she is absent, they put in aides that don't know how or want to help with the bathroom changes of three of my students. So it makes it a really long and tiring day when it is just me running back and forth to the bathroom with my kids.
Well I better go and get some housework done. Talk to you all later.
Have a great weekend!

It was a beautiful sunny day and in the 40's!!! I didn't have to wear my down jacket...I felt so "light" in a sweatshirt and fleece on top! This week is supposed to continue to be warmer than it has been in months. My hairdresser wants winter to continue so she can hide in her winter clothes. I'm looking forward to wearing lighter clothes, being more body conscious, and feeling more energetic. As the days get a little longer, I feel the weight of winter lifting off of me, and making me want to lose my body weight.

Gymnastics this morning...DD left house saying how much she LOVES gymnastics. I planned on signing her up for the next session. Then afterwards following a rough day with cartwheels (the instructor psyched her out) she decided she wanted to quit. We had "the talk" about how anything worth doing requires work and practice. (I don't want her to quit something every time she isn't perfect at it...that was my M.O. as a child.) I convinced her to try the spring session, and if she still can't do a cartwheel, she can quit and try something new in the fall. I don't want to push her, but I also don't want her to quit something she used to love so easily.

We played outside for a while and brought my summer bench outside for the warmer months. We went to B.J.'s (a huge store where you buy in bulk). I stayed away from the bakery and buckets of cookie dough. I found sugar-free jello and smart ones pizzas. We did buy m&m's in Easter colors, but DH was asked to hide them until the holiday.

I have to do invitations to my annual St. Patrick's Day party. We do it up big every year.

I am trying to ignore my eye. I'm sick and tired of worrying about it. I have put it in God's hands. I will trust that He will take care of things and make sure that I get medical attention if things get worse.

I feel a new sense of motivation. I think that I will be able to reach my goal by July.

Take care, my friends!

Summer

Hello Ladies,

I am back from California. I got back Saturday night, but I was soooo tired; still am. I was looking forward to going back to school tomorrow, sort of. I'm afraid to see what my room must look like. However, I got some news today that really floored me and now I dread going in tomorrow. We lost one of our teachers Friday night. She was out at a casino and collapsed. I couldn't believe it when I was told that she had died. The district will have psychologists and a crisis team at school tomorrow. I cannot believe some of the things that have happened this year. In fact, the year started with one of our teachers suffering a heart attack. Beginning March 8 the students are supposed to take the SAT9 test. I'm sure glad it isn't this week. :(

My grandmother's funeral was really nice. The service was short and sweet and we did have time to reflect and visit with each other. The funeral was supposed to be on Thursday, but it was moved to Friday because of rain. It was a heavy downpour. It's still hard to think of her not here anymore. It was strange to go to her house and she wasn't there. It was great to be together as family, though.

I will try to post more often. Only 3 more weeks until our break. It is sure going to be needed.

Cal

Hi Summer
Sounds like you had a nice day yesterday. For the last couple of days, it has been in the low 60's here in Ohio. It is kind of nice to shed the layers and start thinking about new smaller lighter clothes for the spring and summer.
Sounds like you had a nice weekend. I was able to relax a little bit and also do a little bit of school work. I started filling out the paperwork on my one student's alternate assessment. I am hoping to finish it tomorrow, so I can have my one coworker look it over and then make the final copy of it all on Tuesday and box it up and turn it over to my boss on Wednesday a day early. I drove to Huntington, WV yesterday to see my sister and some of her friends. We went out to dinner and then we to see A Lion in the Winter. It is a play about King Henry. Our one friend's son played King Henry. It was a very good play. It was nice to get out and enjoy myself after a long week at school. I have a really busy month coming up. I have my MFE's and IEP's due. So I have decided that instead of getting all worked up and stressed about them, that I would try to work on them each a little every day. I will bring them home on the weekends to work on, but I will also do something fun and relaxing and not work myself up into a good stressful situtation where I all I want to do is eat and sleep. So please encourage me to keep this goal in place. Well I hope everyone is enjoying the spring like weather. I looked at bikes today at Wal-Mart. I know that I want to get a new one. I just don't know when I will get the courage up to buy one. Everyone have a great week!

Cal
Glad to hear that you had a safe trip to Cal. I was wondering about how you were doing. Sounds like you are holding up quite well. I am sorry to hear about your coworker. That is always shocking to hear when someone you know dies so suddenly. My thoughts and prayers are with your staff, students and your coworker's family during this difficult time for you all. I hope your week at school is not too hard!
It must be nice to get a Spring Break. We were to have a very long weekend. We were to have Thursday through Monday off. But now we have to go Thursday and Monday due to the fact that our building was without heat for a few days. I guess it is better to make them up now and then get out on time at the end of May. But we will only have one day off until the end of the school year and that will be Good Friday. I guess I will just have to live for my weekends.

I WANT TO SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me back up and tell you why.

Today I had a half-day and was supposed to have a workshop for pre-K teachers only on cultural diversity. I was VERY EXCITED because most workshops don't apply to my class, and finally I was supposed to attend something relevant.

When I arrived, I found out that those of us that had the state inspection in December actually had to meet about that instead. :censored: F**K!!! While my lucky colleagues got to have fun playing multicultural instruments and making multicultural puppets, I had to listen to the state's criticisms and figure out how to correct them. :mad:

The list was rather short, but the things I have to do will take me away from teaching and add more documentation to my day. It is total paperwork bullsh*t. I hate bureaucracy. They don't care that my students love me and are successful. They just care about compliance with documentation. Some of the compliance issues have to do with things the director of early childhood needs to fix herself...we were only doing what we were told.

The other bad part of this is that I went from being in a fabulous mood from celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday and eating green eggs and ham, to taking my lousy rotten mood on everyone in my path, including my DD. F**K!!! It isn't her fault that the state is full of a bunch of paper pushers that piss mommy off. Yet, she got yelled at today for no good reason. F**K!!! :?:

I hope that now that I've vented, I will be nicer to those around me.

Summer :(

Vent away, girlfriend! You KNOW that we understand the frustrations of total paperwork bullsh*t! It doesn't matter that all but two of my students are reading ON gradelevel OR ABOVE.....(and the two are in the process of comprehensive assessements that I've originated!)......I must fill out paperwork DAILY regarding what book each child has read in a small group setting, what skills we worked on and HOW long the group met. THIS crap only takes away from my actual teaching! I hear you Summer! I'm so sorry that the "powers that be" didn't correctly identify the meeting that you were to attend. Bait and Switch! ...an old tactic....and a totally UNFAIR one at that! I swear I *JUST* want to teach my kiddos!

Feel better! (((hugs)))
Robyn

Hi Ladies,
Sounds like everyone's filling out more paperwork to document what we are teaching our children these days. But if we have all this frigging paperwork to fill out when are we to actually teach our students. I hear you Summer. I have to fill out all this paperwork for my alternate assessment on my one student and I am wondering if I am doing this for nothing and it will only be looked at if there need or question that arises.
I went to TOPS tonight. I turtled for the week. So I didn't lose any or gain any weight. I am happy about that because I went to dinner on Saturday night and treated myself to an appetizer and dessert along with my meal. I haven't eaten like that in a long time. But it was yummy!
I hope everyone's Wednesday is the best.
Take care!

Greetings to all!

Sorry I've been MIA for a week, but life has gotten a bit out of hand here. What should have been a relaxing 4 day weekend (we celebrate and get off from school for, of all things, Rodeo Days, here in Tucson) turned into a whirlwind of activity with no time for rest. I spent Thursday and Friday writing IEPs for 2 students who are almost out of compliance, but who are so new to my room that I haven't had the chance to properly assess them yet.

I'm chuckling as I'm reading about meetings and alternate assessments, as they've been the focus of my daily existence for the past month. I have 11 students on the alternate state assessment and it's an absolutely useless, monstrous, piece of documentation. And today is another set of transition meetings, taking place way too early, for students coming from the pre-school program to the elementary school. I've been forwarned that no additional hiring will take place so I need to "use my aide coverage wisely." What the **** does that mean? Am I supposed to gather my MIMR/MOMR class in a circle each morning, ask them who feels that they are going to have a bad day, and appoint aides accordingly?

I joined a gym about 2 weeks ago, and my husband, while supportive, wonders why I feel I need to go every morning during the work week. I tried to explain to him that this is the only time of the day that no children are grabbing at me. As a matter of fact, I get on that treadmill and envision myself running away from them, leaving them all in the dust for 40 minutes!!!!!

Hope everyone is doing well and doesn't mind my coming in from time to time to vent!

Paula

Paula, venting is what we do best! You have come to the right place!

It is helpful for me to know that I am not the only one wasting precious instructional time to fill out paperwork. When I tried to debate the point with my supervisor regarding a daily note home for each student, (I teach two sessions...my kids are only with me for 2.5 hours) and explained that I verbally speak with each parent providing details, her response was that I can't prove it. But, by writing it all down, I can save copies for the state to see. I have 32 students in all. That is 32 pieces of paper a day. We go to school 183 days. I will need to store and save 5856 pieces of paper so that the state of CT knows that I communicate with my parents. It doesn't matter that I send home a weekly newsletter. It doesn't matter that I post our daily schedule and special activities outside my room on a white board. It has to be on paper for each parent every f*cking day! My custodian is trying to hunt down another file cabinet for me since my documentation is taking over my desk area.

I've done pretty well staying on program and exercising despite the recent stress and the fact that I have my period right now. I am proud of myself that I have shown some restraint.

Take care one and all, and thank you for being my friends.

STORY, WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU GIRL?!!!

Summer

ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,

Here comes a rant from the MOM's side of the table.....

I have a special ed. kid (ds12) who has a very rare birth defect. I have fought like a wild woman to get an Independent Assistive Tech. assessment for this kid. We went thru a disaster pseudo AT assessment in December (wasted a vacation day on it!). Kiddo's school OT, who has known him and worked with him since he was 7, went with us for the disaster assessment.....ON HER OWN TIME (SHE also wasted a vacation day!) NOW we have the REAL assessment that I had to fight like a maniac in order to get it arranged.......tomorrow..... he and I are both missing a school day for it.... Anywho...the POWERS THAT BE have decided to send SOME woman who has never MET him with us instead of his OT. I talked to his OT tonight (on her own time!) and she was in tears over NOT being allowed to go.....AND since she has known him for years, currently works with him weekly, AND will continue to work with him thru his high school years......arggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh

BUT the other woman who knows NOTHING of OT....NOR has she ever EVEN met my kid ....NORRRRRRR does she *KNOW* his disability BUT she has been selected to go...

EVEN worse.......there is a horrible stomach virus going around.....and my kid's educational advocate's son has been vomitting like a maniac all day. She has no one to stay home with her kid so she can go "help" with mine. I'm about to vomit myself.

I did great with my eating UNTIL the very end of the day when I realized that the advocate's kid's vomitting wasn't stopping......(aren't I a selfish bi*$&) I am sooooo sick over this. I ate two doritos. (They tasted yummy!) I ate about 30 chocolate chips. (They tasted yummier!)

I've got a ton of junk to do prior to tomorrow.........ESPECIALLY since I'm facing it with my kiddo and strangers. (I don't go anywhere without his advocate!) Can you hear me hyperventilating?????

I'm off to get on the treadmill for a bit. THEN I need to get down to organizing the incredible load of junk that I'm taking for evidence, etc.......

...........5856 pieces of documentation..............I'd make copies for every committee member, every principal, every EVERYONE! WHAT A STUPIDDDDDDDDDDDD waste of your time...and 5856 pieces of paper! (Do you have time to write individual notes to 32 families daily??? and if you dooooo what are the 32 kiddos doing while you write? I'm lucky to write a coherent sentence most days! ....let alone LETTER!)

.........and I didn't EVEN get to rant about MY stupid day at school! and BOY do I have a list a mile long to rant about THATTTT!

I'm off before I break a nail typing like a lunatic!

take care,
Robyn

Hi ladies,
Sounds like everyone had a bad day today! I listened to one of my kiddo's cry most of the whole day. I told my aide that he would probably lay down and want to take a nap at 2:30 right before it was time to go home at 2:45. Sure enough he tried. I thought buddy you are not going to do it on me now!
Robyn sorry to hear that you are stressing out! Don't you just love how no one wants to listen to your vaild concerns and then a couple months later decide that maybe you had a point. Why are they sending another OT with him? Especially one who doesn't know anything about him. I will say my prayers for you and your son tomorrow. I hope you make it through the evaluation without pulling out your hair or doing bodily damage to the people in charge.
Summer I have trouble writing in two of my student's daily notebooks, I can't image writing 32 personal letters daily. My heart goes out to you and your hand!
Paula it is fine that you drop in when you can. We all understand what it is like this time of the school year.
I didn't gain anything or lose anything last week. So I guess that is a good time since I was on my period and had chocolate two or three times.
Take care!

Robyn I thought about you and your ds all day long. I was just wondering how your day went. I hope everything went okay. Please let us know.
So how was everyone else's day at school. I had a day from ****. My student cried 5 hours straight today. He was quiet the other 1 1/2 hour because he was taking a nap. Mom let him play outside last weekend with no shoes on and thinks he got a cold and that is way he is crying like this. He is nonverbal and his way of telling us his head hurts is to cry and bang it on the wall or head butt the other students. Makes me want to cry and bang my head off the wall. Thank god I took a personal day tomorrow. I really need it!
Everyone enjoy your weekend! Take care.

Hey! I don't have nearly enough energy to type too much....BUT I wanted to check in to let you know that I didn't kill anyone today! LOL I did end up growing a huge fever blister right in the center of my top middle lip....HERPES...my favorite way to deal with stress! GAWD bless those poor souls who have *IT* "elsewhere", I can NOT imagine what that is like to go thru. ANYWAYYYY I didn't log on to rant about my poor sore lips!

Today. Country girl takes kid and drives to big city. Follows very bad directions sent by hospital. Gets lost. Stress feeds lip "issues". Huge collection of VaMaps don't help country girl get UNlost. Did you know that an atlas is about as helpful as a dictionary?! Country girl calls Advocate who knows Richmond like the back of her hand. While Advocate talks Country girl BACK into the city, Advocate's ill son vomits in Advocate's bed. (AND this is the first 1.5 hours of my day!) :)

The Assessment didn't go as I'd hoped. BUT, it wasn't as horrid as it could have been. AND I think we did make some progress. Middle School age children make me crazy! My kiddos attitude and MOUTH drove me insane. Those we were meeting with complimented me on his behavior, attitude, willingness to talk, etc... What a difference of opinion! Actually, ds did well. The others from his school that went ended up being fairly helpful! BUT his real OT would have been MUCH more help!

...well, I guess we really need to wait to see what the report tells!
I returned home, changed my clothes and literally walked out and went to school for my scheduled night conferences. I returned home at 8:27. Only 1 family "stood me up". 1 other family cancelled today via a note...but since I wasn't at school, I didn't know until I got there....

I'm beat. That is the "Readers Digest version" of my story. Tomorrow, I will be leaving school at 12:15. It is THE last early release day between now and the end of school in June. They are "paying us back" for staying tonight. I am not sure what I'm going to do with my hours. BUT I can GUARANTEE I'm leaving at 12:15!

Thanks for asking about my day.... we survived it! :)
take care....Happy Friday everyone!
Robyn

Glad to hear that you survived! Enjoy your time off tomorrow. I know I am going to enjoy my day off. I am going with my dh to a fitness expo. I might get inspired to really blast off this fat. LOL. Have a great Friday!

Blast off the fat! You let me know what you find out! LOL I'm thinking that I'm going to come home, wash my face free of all makeup and head out to the Clinique counter and begin anew! ......It has been YEARS....

On the other hand....I may just come home....drop my clothes in a pile...set the alarm and SLEEP until I must get up to get the kiddos from school.......

What to do? What to do? I LOVE the thought of having the option!

Enjoy the fitness expo. again...let me know about the blasting! :) I'd consider blasting! hehe!

Well it was interesting. There was a lot of people there. My DH and I got a lot of free samples of stuff to try. I picked up a EAS Body for Life Challenge. I think I might try it out. What do I have to lose except some poundage. LOL I hope you enjoyed your early day off!

Oh I totally splurged this afternoon. For the first time in YEARRRS, I planted my naked face at the Clinique counter and said...."Make me beautiful!" WOW! What a bit of correctly applied paint can DO! I've totally lost my edge when my big afternoon out included sitting under a huge light staring at my pores in a mirror as the "BeautifulGirl" tries to convince me that my pores are really tiny... I know that I've lost it when I add to that that I had a simply wonderful afternoon! Really it was! AND I've returned home from picking up the kids from school, facing a week's worth of laundry, sub plans to write for Monday, exercising to be done and of course, dinner to cook....BUT DAMN, I look good!

I am soooooooooo glad that today is Friday! Off to face the chores and duties! The weather here has been unusually warm. Today was near 80! What a beautiful day! Spring...I've tasted it! It is gonna be good!

KAR, glad you had fun at the expo! I love free samples! Let us know if you found something as wonderful as my new makeup! LOL :) Justtttt kidding!

TGIF! Make the most of the weekend girlies!
take care,
Robyn

I want you ladies that I posted a long message to both of you last night, and before I was finished, AOL kicked me off the computer. I was unable to get back online, so I gave up. Sorry things have been so stressful. I wish I could remember what I wrote...just know that I was thinking of both of you and wishing things were going better. Now, all I can say is TGIF!!!

Summer

I am trying to post short messages so that I can get something down before I get kicked off AOL again.

I had a pretty good week. I exercised more than usual (usual is not at all!) and I stayed on program most of the time.

There is much drama at school, but I'm too tired to detail it. Let's just say that my supervisors and the state expect me to be a social worker and parent, when the job I was hired and trained to do is to teach. My aide came back to work today, and she is oblivious about the fact that my supervisors are trying to gather enough negative ammunition to discipline her about her extensive absences from school. I'm trying to act like nothing is up, because I don't want to deal with the fall-out. When all is said and done, I know she won't be fired because her mother is president of the paraprofessionals union. :(

I have to clean my house top to bottom because I'm having company at 3pm tomorrow. DD also has to get to gymnastics, and I have to go to the grocery store. So, you won't be hearing from me till Sunday. Take care one and all.

STORYLADY, WHERE ARE YOU?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Summer

Well, my friends, I was a naughty girl yesterday. I had several margharitas. I enjoyed the appetizers, coconut shrimp (YUM!) and hot wings. For dinner I made angelhair pasta with meatballs (pork, beef, & veal) and hot sausage with garlic bread and salad. For dessert, I made brownie sundaes with Haagen Daas chocolate ice cream and chocolate whipped cream! I really did enjoy myself, and honestly except for overdoing it with the alcohol, I didn't pig out like I used to.

Today, we will begin painting our living room. I need to write my lesson plans and pay bills too. I also am running to the mall alone. My DD is becoming impossible to shop with..."my legs hurt, when are we going to the Disney Store? I want to go home." I just want to do my thing without this kid bugging me. I miss the stroller!!!

Take care my dear friends! Enjoy the remainder of the weekend!

Summer

I was up at 6am to take my morning walk when I discovered that it was snowing outside! :( Yesterday, it was warm and beautiful, in the 50's. I was really enjoying the early springish weather. Then this morning it was back in the 30's, and it ended up snowing all day...it is still snowing! :( I know it isn't unusual...we've had many snowy Easters. I'm just so sick of winter...enough already!

Robyn, maybe I'm just hallucinating, but was it in the 80's :cool: where you live?! That is July weather up north. It will be months before we get anywhere near 80 degrees.

Anyway, even though I couldn't walk, I got on the bike for 30 minutes instead. I stayed on program for the majority of the day. I tend to weaken after school, but all in all, I didn't do much damage.

My aide was in today...amazing! And even more amazing was the fact that she decided to work! Holy sh*t! The planets must be aligned or something.

I am trying to accept the changes the state wants me to make in spite of the fact that the things I need to do have more to do with social work than teaching. But the fact remains that if I want to teach 4 year olds, and I do, I have to keep the state and the powers that be happy.

I have a couple coworkers who are dieting right now. We are trying to support each other. It helps that I'm not surrounded with people who are pigging out all the time like I was at my previous job.

Robyn, I'm so sorry that you are having bad memories or feelings about Isobel. I hope you can relax.

I'm gonna get going. I hope you are all well.

Story story story story story!!! Where are you girl?!

Summer

HEY YOU GOILS!!! WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!

I got up and exercised again this morning! I stayed on program.

Tomorrow will be a challenge. I have to be at school from 8:30am to 7pm. We have a faculty meeting after school and then a literacy night afterward. The dinner served at school will be fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, corn bread etc... I plan to eat small portions. Aside from bringing my own dinner (I don't want to draw attention to myself) I don't know how else to handle it.

Nothing much to report.

Take care.

Summer

Hi Summer,
Sorry I have been MIA. Everytime I went to go on the computer this weekend, either the DH, SD or SS's were on the computer. By the time it got to be my turn, I was either too tired or the computer would say that it couldn't find the server.
Sounds like you are staying on track with your excericing. It is also nice that your coworkers are losing weight too. I have several at my school that we share secrets and encourage each other. Just eat small portions tomorrow night and don't worry about it. You will do fine.

I went to TOPS tonight. I lost 3 pounds last week. I cut back on working out and only worked out 4 days instead of my 7 one hour long work outs. So I just might have to try going 5 or 6 days and take a day or two off for rest. When I would go into Curves that would be my second workout of the day somedays. So I will try this for a while and see if it burns off the fat faster for me.
I found this wonderful new coffee. It is called Java Fit. It has a weight loss suppressent in it and it also gives you an extra boost or two of engery. I love it! I drink two cups in the morning and geez my eating has really decreased. I love the feeling of eating less and feeling smaller. LOL
Well I better go get ready for school tomorrow. I have four reports due on Monday. My goal is to get them done by Thursday or Friday and to enjoy my weekend.
Take care.
Have a great Wednesday!

Once again...... I'm going insane. Tooo much of everything BUT exercise, time, and confidence...

* I'm on a committee that is actually meeting during the school day once a week...that means sub plans. This committee has been meeting for 3 weeks now. The first week, I missed 2 days of school. Yesterday was my 5th day of sub plans.

I worked on sub plans for about 2 hours yesterday only to have the sub NOT open the folder and do whatever the **** he wanted. Today, when I read the note from him that said that he couldn't find the plans, I hit the ROOF! He and I had a brief conversation during which I controlled my urge to choke the idiot. I have now talked to my students (ages 6 to 7) and told them to HELP the next sub. I am UNCERTAIN as to how else I can DO my job while I've been sent to do another job (BY THE SYSTEM). THIS IS MAKING ME CRAZY!

I've got more in me ...but I've got to get up from this machine!

Gotta go clean the kitchen. I NEED to get on the treadmill. I also NEED to get some sleep. DH is sick and coughs ALL night...for days now.... He has gone to the dr and gotten some meds...FINALLY!

Ya'll hang in there....
take care,
Robyn

Hi Ladies,
Robyn sounds like the sub was a complete idiot. I leave my sub folder out in the middle of my work table and tell my aide and students that the work is there. I have missed several days since Jan. due to inservices, sick day and a personal day. The sub is the same person all the time. Here lately, she has not been following my plans and then it is **** to play catch up when I get back. Oh well, I only have 53 more schools days to go. Yeah!
I have been busy working on my student's MFE's today. I only have one more to write and then I am done with them. I am ahead of schedule for a change and have them done 4 days early. Let's see if I can keep this pattern up when I have to write my 5 IEP's they are due on the 29th of this month.
Well I better go and clean up the dishes from today. Plus fold some laundry. I think the white's have been in the dryer since Friday or Saturday. Thank god it is just old tshirts and socks. Don't have to worry about the wrinkles. LOL
You all take care and have a great Thursday!

Yahoooo for having things done early! :) It has been eons since I was done with anyyyything early! LOL...Keep up the great work!

Today I was told that the speech teacher would be coming into my classroom to have speech lessons with one of my students. She is going to use the inclusion model. FOR SPEECH ISSUES????? She wants to come during my reading group time ...which is all fine and dandy EXCEPT I use a rotating schedule for my reading groups (that way NO one group is always first or always last, etc...). Inclusion for SPEECH???? This should prove to be interesting since I will be having reading group, the reading recovery teacher (also using inclusion theory...and having her own independent groups at a table in my room) AND now the Speech teacher having speech therapy....ALL at the same time....ALL talking at once....ALL in the room with junk still piled around since the painting....
I don't want to mention that these people and the concept of inclusion makes me giggle in fear and hysterics.... I don't think inclusion JUST means being in the same room as someone else...BUT...ahhh, I'm not going to push the Reading Recovery teacher since I'm now going to have a reading group with a nearly 40 year old woman joining us! (Speech therapy DURING my reading group??!!) Giveeeeee me strength!

Re: the sub plans. My two dearest friends/collegues came over and pointed out the folder and plans that were left for him. My very best friend is now "So sorry that she didn't open the folder and POINT to the directions."

My middle school ds has GOT to use the computer for his WW1 project!
until next time...
take care!
Robyn
P.S. My kids think that the dryer is where their socks are stored....sad ...but nearly true! LOL

You mean socks aren't stored in the dryer?! Oh, then they must be stored in the laundry basket...that's right. :p

I want you all to know that I had a HORRIBLE day and in spite of it, I behaved. Yesterday I was at school from 8:30am to 7pm because of literacy night. I had dinner there. I skipped the macaroni and cheese and the chocolate cake. I ate the fried chicken, corn, and cornbread. I wasn't perfect, but at least I didn't overindulge or eat everything put in front of me. So, after that loooong day, I was tired and wired. I ended up staying up late to wind down. This morning I was up at 6am to bike for 30 minutes. Good girl! For breakfast, I had cheerios with a banana. This morning, my supervisor asked me to fax over my lesson plans with the Connecticut Benchmarks aligned to each lesson. AAAAAHHHH!!!!!! The lesson plans were no problem, but aligning each benchmark to each lesson took two hours to hand write. My aide had to take over the class. As a result, the kids were very naughty, loud, and basically, I'm lucky they each went home in one piece. There were a few other assorted annoyances before AM dismissal. When I arrived in the teachers' lounge, I discovered pans of leftover fried chicken with all the eccoutrements. I controlled myself :smug: . For lunch, I had yogurt with blueberries and diet 7up. For dinner, I had three slices of cheese pizza from a small pizza (I could easily eat the entire small pizza, but didn't.) I am very proud of myself, because I was able to remember my goals and restrained myself from pigging out.

Robyn, Sorry things are so hectic in your room. I'm lucky that all the "clipboard holders" in my school don't bother to come into my room since we are ONLY PRE-K. If I was trying to teach guided reading and I had to deal with our literacy specialist and speech pathologist working in the room as well, I would be sooooo frustrated. GOOD LUCK SISTER! :lucky:

Kar, congrats on the weight loss!

Summer

Sorry I've been away. What a week.
We have 2 more teachers out. One had by-pass surgery on Tuesday (a very good friend of mine) and the other was hospitalized with a serious lung infection. The heart patient is doing great. He has a long road ahead of him, but he is in good spirits. The other one, we found out today, has mold in her lungs. So now they are testing her room and another one. The teachers are almost up in arms because they think EVERY room should be tested. Mold has actually been found in 3 classrooms and the 8th grade hallway. In an impromptu staff meeting today, we voiced concerns about the number of teachers who have been sick with asthma and allergy symptons (at least 3 have been diagnosed with pneumonia). We think it also explains why so many students are always sick with respiratory problems. The oldest part of the school is only 7 years old and the newest part is only 2 years old. We have one more week before we go on break. What a year this has been.

We had a nice little thunderstorm pass through here about 2 hours ago. We got only a few drops of rain, enough to dirty the car. Mesa, on the east side got hit pretty hard. It's nice now though, the temp has really dropped. It's about 75 now.

I feel so proud of all of you who are OP. I'm still trying, but I'm so tired all the time. Maybe I can do more during the 3 weeks I'm off. Although I will be teaching for 2 of those weeks, it's only for 4 hours a day and 4 days a week. Shouldn't be too bad.

We signed Ashley up for Tennis Camp next week. I knew daddy would go crazy having her home all day (Spring break is next week for her) so I decided the $100 was worth it. She'll go from 9-4 every day. Lots of activities for her and she will learn some of the basics of tennis. I love these day camps.

Only 1 more week; no more lesson plans; grades are done ; only testing and some fun time next week; and I'm done. What a great feeling. :cloud9:

Take care everyone. I'll try not to stay away so long.

Cal

Hey Cal! Sure have missed you! School sounds scary. Why ARENT they testing EVERY classroom for mold? I'm afraid I'd be right there with the rest demanding that MY room be included in the check!

I had to chuckle at you comment about the temp dropping to 75. Our "weather" issues are all relative, aren't they?? LOL We had 1 day of extremely unusually WARM weather....more snow was predicted for yesterday, BUT it only rained! Praisethelord!

Summer, Yahoo! Good job! Doesn't being in control feel great?! I remember how it feels! LOL Keep it going girl!

I worked with DS12SpEd on his WW1 airplane project last night UNTIL I thought I was going to go nuts! He has nooooooo concept of HOW to do these projects without me. It is sooooooo frustrating. I'll have to ask you "BigKidTeachers" for some guidance..eventually! Don't take time out now for it tho! Project is done! :) I know more about WWI and airplanes than a gal needs to!

OHHHH.... nearly forgot.... two of our MOTHERS got into a fist fight in the parking lot during dismissal (of over 700 students) yesterday....complete with swearing and pulling hair and punching and stabbing keys into the face.... It was quite a scene. It was "broken up" by two fathers who happened to be at our school in the parking lot coming to get their kids. The one father had to straddle the mother with the keys and hold her down. The cussing was sort of um..EYEOPENING...even for sailor mouthed me! The police blocked the only entrance...all 3 of the police cars...no one could get in or out of the school....There was hair flying around in the wind.... standing room only with parents trying to pick up their children.... It was totally sickening. What on earth are things coming to? I've got to GET OUT of this school....

actually, I've gotta go get dressed and GO to that school! LOL
Ya'll take care,
type to you later...
Robyn

Okey...I've lost my mind. It is 10 til 4 in the morning. I'm sitting here typing a resume and cover letter...I have decided very last minute to hit a job fair tomorrow morning..later this morning! I KNOW nothing about doing this.... and I'm a tad sleepy! Think they will hire an old bird with DARK circles under her eyes?

Wow! Old dogs can learn new tricks! I've returned home feeling that perhaps I'm NOT too old to roll over! :) I thought I was going to toss my cookies right then and there waiting for my turn at the JobFair....HOWEVER, I interviewed with a gem who put me so at ease that I literally forgot WHAT / WHY I was talking to her! She was very positive. She gave me wonderful feedback and HOPE! I've gotta get the youngest to Baseball practice...guess the snow has melted ENOUGH! heheheh...we don't really have any snow...we actually have a couple of daffodils blooming!

Gotta run.....
take care...Make the most of the weekend, ladies!
Robyn

where does the weekend go?

HI Ladies,
I will try this one more time and I hope that it takes. I have posted several messages over the weekend and none of them seem to have been sent to the forum page. It is a little nerve racking that I sat and typed replies to everyone and they did not go through!
I have been under a little extra stress this weekend. My oldest sister who is 42 went to the hospital on Thursday night complaning of pains in her right arm. She lives in WV and didn't call anyone in the family until Friday morning to let us know what was going on. She drove herself to the hospital that night at 1:30. She got admitted and they did all kinds of test on her and can't figure out what was causing her pains in the right arm. So she has to go for a stress test tomorrow morning at 6:50 a.m. Let's just say that I got a lot of school work done this weekend trying to take my mind off her health problems. I was able to put together about 30 some file folder games for my kids, made up a $4.800 wish list for my special education supervisior (key word being wish list I probably won't see any of it in this lifetime) LOL, typed up a note to my principal asking for a new filing cabinet and storage cabinet for next year since the one I currently have is pretty much beaten up by my one austic student who loves to run and bounce off them, and I even started writing my IEP's which aren't due until the end of the month. So I am pretty tired this evening. I am hoping that I can enjoy some of my week at school without having to bring home a lot of work.
So how was everyone else's weekends?
Robyn I will keep my fingers crossed that you hear positive feedback from your job fair interview. What made you decide to look for another job?
Well I better go and get some sleep. It is going to be a long day tomorrow I work until 6:30. Then it will be off to the gym to workout. Take care everyone!

Okay Kar...I'm having trouble posting as well. Let's try one more time, and then, I QUIT!

We've been painting our living room, so my computer was not hooked up for a couple of days. And just to add to the chaos, DD got a stomach virus and puked all over the newish couch and rug. :p So, as you can see, I've been a bit preoccupied. Sorry I have been MIA.

Back to school just in time for a major nor'easter, STORM ERIN. This is not your typical spring snow that melts when it hits the ground. No, no, no, this is like a midwinter blizzard! What really sucks is that once it started warming up, and there was hope for spring, (this Friday, yeh right! :lol: ) I got into exercising almost every day, and lost 3 pounds last week! :D But now with this horrible wintry weather, my body wants to drink cocoa :coffee: and eat chocolate chip cookies...I want to hibernate...sleep and eat chocolate...maybe I have that icky problem with lack of sunlight or something...doesn't matter, because I love where I live...I just want it to be summer all the time!

Okay that worked. If I post in small spirts, I don't lose what I've typed. I guess soon, I will have to start a new thread for us...#5.

Kar, I hope your sister is better soon.

Robyn, good for you getting out there to a job fair! Excellent!

Take care my friends!

Summer

HOW COULD I FORGET?! HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY TOMORROW!!! ERIN GO BRAGH!!! YES I'M IRISH, MY MOTHER'S FATHER WAS FROM IRELAND, AND I MARRIED AN IRISHMAN. :lucky: :lucky: :lucky:

What a day! We had a 90 minute delay today. We got a lot of snow overnight. Thankfully by 10am, the streets were melted and getting to school wasn't bad. Luckily I didn't have to do after school program today, because I got home before it all iced over. The temperatures are dropping into the 20's...you'd never know that spring was just days away.

My aide opted out today. She is such a waste of time...she has no right taking up space on this planet. :p

I only had two students in my first session, so for the short time they were with me, they had center time. Those two little stinkers made the mess of 20 kids...and they got picked up early so they didn't clean up! :mad:

My principal, who is new so far I like, came into my room and told me that I would be leading the professional development workshop this afternoon on rubrics and criteria charts. (Thanks for the prep time!!!) I certainly wasn't expecting the first time I led a workshop for it to be tossed in my lap at the last minute. I knew that I was going to have to do this eventually, but I pictured doing a power point presentation and having lots of handouts, etc. Instead, I had to rip my rubrics and criteria charts right off my walls, photocopy them, and use them for the presentation. It went okay, but not like I would have planned it had I been more in control of the situation. Oh well.

I'd better go...American Idol is on!

Summer

I HATE SNOW! I HATE WINTER! I AM SO FRIGGIN SICK OF THIS COLD, ICEY, SNOWY WEATHER! TOMORROW IS THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING...YEH RIGHT!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! :mad:

Well, so much for the diet and exercise plan. So much for the 3 lbs. I lost a week and a half ago. :p

Okay, enough complaining. I mean, it can't snow forever, can it?! Sooner or later it has to get above 25 degrees, right?! I mean really!!!

Do you remember that I told you that I was put on the spot by my principal to lead a workshop on Wednesday? Well, I was totally unprepared except for a couple of handouts that I ripped off my walls and copied at the last minute. Apparently, my presentation went so well that they want me to do a follow-up workshop...this time a "make & take." They want materials to make their own rubrics and criteria charts, and for me to show everyone how to do them. That I don't mind because I will have time to prepare. All I need is time to prepare. I'm just really surprised that this school has no clue how to do them. I was trained in this three years ago at my previous school...I thought all of the schools received the same time. I guess I was wrong.

Tomorrow is my St. Patrick's Day party. I will make use of this snow day to begin cleaning, etc.

I will check in on Sunday. Take care my friends.

Summer

I'm sick. I've been sick all week. I made it to school each day in spite of wanting to remain in my bed and divert all of my attention to attempting to breathe. Today, during the afternoon, I thought for SURE that my head was going to explode all over my little dears. I'm heading to bed. TGIF. :) Robyn....is there a little face with a box of tissues by it?! LOL

Robyn, take some Nyquil, vitamin C, echinacea, lots of fluids, and call me in the morning. Feel better my friend.

Summer

:) I am up and preparing myself for my 9 year old's birthday celebration! Yahoo! I'll be back later today to report how I resisted pizza and junk food! I am STRONG! ..and since nothing tastes good with this head cold thing going...hehehehe! ;)

Make the most of Saturday girlies! Not too much Green Beer, Summer! LOL

take care,
Robyn

Hi Ladies,
Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I spent the first part feeling like crap. I have a sinsus infection and it is working it's way out today. Oh joy! I went dress shopping yesterday. I was able to get a dress in a smaller sizer! Yipppeee on my hard work paid off finally. I have to start working on my IEP's again. They are due on the 29th. I just have to put in the goals and objectives and then I will be done. I just have to talk myself into getting busy on them again. Well I better go and get some housework done. Well I hope everyone has a nice week. I was able to finish a book this weekend. It only took me two months to read it but it was a good book. It was called Let's Roll by Lisa Beamer. It was about the life of her husband, Todd and the heroics of the members on Flight 93 on 9-11. It was a great book to read.

Oh Ladies I forgot to update you on my sister. She had a catarize (spelling sorry) done on Wednesday. The doctor didn't find any blockage and said that she was fine. He put her on a low sodium/ low cholestrol diet and told her to excerise more. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers for my family. It was greatly appreciated.

Kar, I'm glad your sister is going to be okay. You must be so relieved.

Robyn, hey girl!

Well, I had so much fun on Saturday. I invited some new people this year, and they turned out to be a hoot! We had all sorts of Irish beer, Bailey's, wine, and my personal favorite...green margaritas! I drank several!!! Yes, by 9pm, I was 3 sheets to the wind! I love to eat, drink, and be merry. I totally cheated, but I only eat corned beef once a year.

I am now back on program and I intend to stay there. I have set a mini goal for myself. Rather than pounds, my goal is to lose enough inches to fit into a linen suit that I bought three years ago. It is probably one size down from what I am currently wearing. I would like to wear it on Easter. That gives me three weeks. It may be an unrealistic goal, but I won't know unless I try.

This thread is getting mighty long. I believe it is time to start Teachers #5. So, when you post, post on our new thread, okay?

Summer