'Morning!

Kerry- that lousy pound will be off by next week! Love your great attitude, and trying harder next week. It is so tough to stay motivated to move in this miserable hot weather. Great idea to save up some $$ for a getaway. Even if your plans to go with your sisters and Dm do not materialize, you still have something set away for something special anyway.

Summer- Bravo to you for keeping a positive attitude about your friends less than kind one. Did she ever think that your Dd's response (to play even more imaginatively) was a backlash to an attitude that she was telegraphing?
As you said, your eyes are open now. I have little experience with the cheerleading crowd- but have heard from others that it is extremely competitive. Glad that Dd is enjoying it. Guess if this became her "life passion" I'd look into lessons. The science museum sounded like fun....with the ages of my kids it is hard to do something together like that.

Well, Dd's crummy old bf (the one who dumped her right before 3 finals and Christmas.....my Dh's favorite guy........ ) has decided to control her life again. She wants to go visit an old friend from elementary school who is in the Navy. She would be going to some sort of "Crabfest" (help me out here, Mouse, I hear it is in Maryland) and driving down with his mother- a woman I know fairly well and trust. So Dd would be palling around with this friend (and that is all he is- he is a nice guy and a hoot to be with but I doubt that Dd would ever be serious with him), his navy friends and his mother. Just over the weekend. So Mr Magnamous.....the ex tells her that he will never speak to her again if she goes (no big loss....as a matter of fact when can I start celebrating?). Mr Wonderful,aka Mr Magnamous, aka the creep dumped on her lap that now he thinks she is the girl for him......forever and ever.....but he feels so strange making such a big decision at the age of 19.
Perhaps this bozo needs some time in the Navy.......me thinks he needs to grow up a ton and leave my Dd alone. I hope she goes to Md despite the moron.
Got my walk in this am.....some of the humidity is gone, but it is still hot.
WW today and then my hair cut. BTW- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was great, I love Johnny Depp was great.
See ya later.
Ginny

Hey Good Morning!
Well, we finally got some rain. Boy did we ever. My dh and i just finished fishing part of a tree (it took two of us to lift it) out of the pool. Half the water is gone, and I hope the pump still works. Now, the pool is full of leaves, sticks and evil little gumballs. For those of you not familiar with the sweet gum tree let me just say they suck! Guess I know what I'll be doing this afternoon. We are refilling it now, then this afternoon I'll have to get all the other garbage out. Oh well.
This morning jumped on the scale to weigh myself, and had lost twentytwo pounds almost overnight. Promptly after, the battery died. Darn! It was nice seeing 151. ha
Ginny: Did you enjoy the movie? I asked my little boy if he wanted to see it, but he said no. He said I already saw Willy Wonka. I guess we won't be going. I want to see War of the Worlds myself.
Summer: Sorry about the whole playdate thing. It sounds to me as though your friend is a little overprotective. Do you think you all can still be friends?
Kerry: Summer school! Sounds like a bummer. I will be sitting in class the week of August the eighth. Then, I'll have four days off until we have to report back to work. It's beginning to fly by now. Before I know it I'll be crying every morning when the alarm goes off.
Sue: Camping? I haven't been camping since Girl Scouts. I think I am too accustomed to ac and tv! Sounds like fun though.
Mouse: Have you found out exactly what you will be doing this year?
Robyn: How's it goin?
Oh, yesterday, my brother in law called to tell us that he and his fiance have decided to get married on the celibrity cruise lines. Well, since dh is best man, (hmphhhhh) he is going to pay for both of us to go on this four night cruise! The only problem, is that they are getting married in early March. Not only will I have to take four days off from work, but have to either beg my mom to come and stay with my nine year old, or pull him out of school and take him up to Virginia Beach. The cruise leaves from Miami, and goes to the Keys and Kazamel (no idea how to spell that). The only think we will have to do is pay for the airfare to get there. So, he needs to know by the end of August what are plans are. I know my husband will be able to go, but I will have to see what I can do. I would love it. I have never been on a cruise, and believe it or not, I have never even flown in an airplane! So, that would be quite exciting. Might give me some motivation to lose more weight. We'll see. I can honestly say that I will be pissed if my husband gets to go and I don't! It always works out that way. I have personal days, however, we are charged half a days pay for those days.

Brother just got out of the hospital yesterday! I guess there will be a home health care nurse coming in for a week or so. He still has some infection in this incision site, and they had to put wicks in to drain it. So, she will be coming to clean and repack the dressings. I know he is so glad. It was a long three weeks.

Gotta get busy!
Pam

Hello people......

Well.......we are back online at screaming quick dialup rate! (NOT!) You know, with Dh having worked for NASA as a computer geek for 1 month shy of 23 years.... we are not accustomed to having computer problems (of any sort) that he can not solve. Our friend who works as a field tech for Verizon cable came over last week with his Verizon $$$$ laptop that he uses multiple times daily to solve Verizon problem in the field. He was unable to solve our issues AND told us what needed to be done on THEIR end. Even with this information, Verizon was unwilling or unable or just plain old UN ...... Enough on the subject! Sorry.

Tomorrow I go to the hospital to have some tests done. I go back on Friday for more.
This isn't exactly the way I had planned the summer....

BEFORE I go outside.... This is when I've decided that I need to put on sunscreen. Duh! Thanks for the pointers! LOL

Gotta run.....
take care,
meee

Pam, congrats on getting some rain. I hope your pool is okay. We haven't gotten any yet, but it was breezy and less humid today. However we got the better air quality, I don't know, but I'm surely glad. My friendship? There is no such thing as a perfect friendship or a perfect friend. Some are worth keeping, and some need to end. I've eliminated all of the toxic relationships in my life except family. This new friendship needs to be further explored before I would end it. I will avoid leaving my child at her home in the future. I will try to have play dates that include me being there so that I can intervene. They are on vacation till August, so there won't be too many more opportunities for them to play anyway. I will instead pursue the friendship between the adults. I have a VERY BUSY life particularly during the school year, so if need be, we can return to being friends at school only. Oh, and if I were you, I would move heaven and earth to go on that cruise. You can make it happen with determination.

Ginny, you are correct, cheerleading is VERY COMPETITIVE. My niece got a full cheerleading scholarship to attend ASU. We get to see her on tv during games. If DD ends up being really good, her college could get paid for as well. She has been in gymnastics since she was three. And because of the competitive nature of cheerleading, as soon as the clinics were available for first graders, we enrolled her. By starting early, hopefully we will give her a headstart. And, the thing is, she loves it. The moment it stopped being fun, we would stop. Your DD's old BF is sick and twisted. I hope your DD is smart enough to see how scary he really is. She really needs to stay away from him. It is a shame he hasn't done anything to allow you to get a restraining order against him. Emotionally controlling and abusive boys like him are training to be even more dangerous men. He clearly has no self-esteem, and needs to manipulate your DD to make himself feel better.

Kerry, congrats on the great attitude about everything.

Nothing new, just another day of cheerleading. I have to clean the house and do some gardening when it cools off a little. Take care one and all.

You guys REALLY get talkative when I can't make it online!
I'm not even going to try to respond to 2.5 pages of personal notes, sorry!
Let's see if I can't break down my last couple of days for you all.

Trip to Virginia Day:
Left here at 7:00. Reached the personnel office with TWENTY MINUTES TO SPARE (I had to be there at 10). Yes, it took me 3 hours to drive 65 miles. I nearly didn't make it, either, because Mapquest didn't send me to the building, it sent me to the center of Ashburn VA. It couldn't find the street address (too new, I guess), but let me think it had. As if that weren't enough, the session was ACTUALLY scheduled for the old office, and I could have gotten there much faster, much easier... and gotten to have lunch with my new Red Cross friends since they are right down the street from the old office!
Next up: The Interview.
Made it to the school, showed off my Powerpoint presentation, sans music because it wasn't cooperating still, and then asked 3 specific questions:
1. Jewish holidays: District policy is they'll let me off, but I'm required to use sick leave for the hours (I didn't realize that fasting and going to temple made you sick??). Hwoever, the principal has the option of just asking you to make up the time, and since I always do clubs and stuff with the kids, I try to do this. If not, I'll start the year with 5 sick days. I joined the sick leave bank, and that costs 2.
2. Grad school: All the high schools are from 9:00 to 4:00. I was able to get 2 classes back to back at Hopkins this semester, which means I'll only have to go one day a week instead of having to decide if I want to drive there 2x a week or just getting 3 credits. I'm told that school loads my students on buses at 3:15... so I could leave after I get them on the bus, and MAYBE make it on time. Principal couldn't answer me, but he's in charge of attendance, and special education.
3. Hiring decision. I wanted to know when they would make their decision about the placement. I was told that the prinicpal likes to interview at least 3 canddiates, I'm the first one, and he hadn't notified personnel yet that he wanted to interview. Today, when I emailed personnle to ask for a list of the other open MR positions, I was told they wanted to hire me for that building. Well, place me. I'm already hired.
I did get the SD position thing straightened out, too. I've worked with and taught that level of student before (mostly in summer school), and we have had students that level at my last school because of a traumatic brain injury (we had a new student come in just before I left, in fact that is really seriously low functioning due to being hit by a drunk driver). One of my summer students was a master at moving his wheelchair to get what he wanted! One memorable day, he ate glitter glue! He wheeled himself over to the table, and grabbed it from the center, then proceeded to down 1/4 of the bottle. I wrote a polite note home, and the response back was, "we'll be on the look out for 'glitter poop'."
The Gym: I went to my new gym yesterday since I had some time, and discovered that I'm not all that fond of the swimming pool. Its too shallow. I can swim laps, but I won't be able to do water aerobics. The "deep part" is the center of the pool, and its barely five feet. I am not sure what I'm going to do, but I don't think I'll stay there past the first year... sooner if I can find another place. The weights are awkward too, because you have to go down steps. They have an elevator, but its not in a good location and may not be available when I'm at the gym.
The Doctor's Visit: I'm not sure what miracle happened, but my endocriologist was actually on time! She's great, though, so I don't mind waiting. She said that I look much "healthier" and she can see some changes, even if the scale hasn't changed. That was nice to hear... she said my hair looks a lot thicker too, which is great. Other than the lump in front from the disorder, the thing that bothered me most was my thinning hair. I used ot have very, veyr thick dark hair. It was so thick it didn't braid or curl or anything. Its still pretty thick in back, but it looks better up front now, too. Not as nice as it was, but better.
She was pretty pleased with the food logs too... I figured she'd be upset because I couldn't get it as low as the Atkins or South Beach Phase 1's... but she wasn't! She said that I'd done a good job cutting stuff out, and my diet looked a lot healthier. I am allowed to add some bread as long as its high fiber and/or reduced carb, and multigrain. So, I found a multigrain low-carb bread at TraderJoes. Its 7 net carbs per slice, which is pretty good.

And that's about it. I'm still working my way through Harry, we were asked to work over-time today, so I stayed till 5:00. We finished our 3 set of prompts, and are on to the last one. We might actually finish on time! Which is amazing, because we were supposed to have 11-14 assessors, but only have 7. I read 57 cases today between 9:00 and 5:00.

Glad you're all here and doing moderately well. Kerry, I want to remember to talk to you about the HQT stuff. After I finish my certificate at Hopkins, I'll be highly qualified in Virginia, but PA and MD are mysteries to me. Especially since I'll be teaching functional life skills in all academic core subjects!

Quick update.....
Pool is back to normal after hours of leaf removal and vacuuming. Atleast I was able to work in the water when it was so hot. Tomorrow we are going to saw the rest of the crap up. Yuck.
Summer: I understand about the friendship thing. I sort of pick my friends. I have several close friends at school, my best friend happens to be the receptionist. Most of the teachers will stab you in the back after they promise you their trust. So, I'm very careful there. I try to get along with everyone and most everyone tells me their troubles, but usually I just listen...
I am going to try to go on this cruise. I really really really want to go. Did I mention I was excited about going? Keep your fingers crossed.
Ginny: You and I must have been posting at the same time this morning. I certainly hope your dd will go on that little trip. I see to many girls following these boys around. My son's girlfriend is the perfect example. She would move heaven and earth for him, he on the other hand I'm sorry to say, "hangs out with her" when he isn't busy. It's sad, I really like her. I have even told her she needs to grow a backbone, and tell him how she feels about things. She just says I know and goes right back to the same old thing. Then, I have to hear her complain, if something doesn't go right.
Mouse: We get one sick day per month. Five personal days, which we have to pay for the sub on those days, and so many annual leave days, which we can only use when the kids aren't there. We don't have a sick leave bank in this system. I think it's a good idea myself. I hope you will find something out definitely soon. It's hard getting used to new things, ie..pool etc... when you are used to something completely different. I hope it will work out. I'm impressed, power point for your interview. Way to go. You make me feel like such a lazy slacker.
Nite ya'll
Pam

I'm moments from heading out the door ....I've got an appointment over at the hospital to have my innards checked out... I couldn't sleep due to the anxiety of it all....and then got up a full 1/2 before my alarm went off...

I was making another doctor's appointment for August 1st and dh heard me. When I finished, he told me that I had to call back and rearrange it. I gave him THE look....and he went on to explain that we're going to Hatteras on July 29th and wont be home until August 3rd! He was going to surprise us! We will be staying at our good friends' brand new house in Avon! I'm so darn near excited I can't see straight!

Gotta run..... people are waiting to prod me!
Take care,
meee

Robyn, I hope your "innards" aren't sore from being prodded . Are you okay? Congrats on the surprise trip to Cape Hatteras!!!

Pam, glad your pool is back. In this kind of weather, it is a must.

Mouse, I have to say, mapquest has steered me wrong or taken me the longest way to places a couple of times. I try to only use it in emergencies.

My friend, DD's godmother, came to cheerleading camp to watch DD. DH had the day off and filmed it. It was the least eventful day of the week! So, they didn't get the full show. Tomorrow is the last day when they will do their big presentations to the parents. My friend went out to lunch with us at a diner. Boy I was wanting to eat some junk, but instead I had a chicken caesar salad. We spent the afternoon in the pool. It was a nice day.

Evening.
I finished Harry. I can't say anything. Don't ask.
We have .93 of a day worth of reading to do at the National Board job, so they've been giving us some overtime... That's nice.
Robyn: Hope you're insides are okay, and have a GREAT time on your trip!
Summer: Awesome... sounds like you're having fun at the pool and with your daughter's camp.
Pam: We don't even get annual leave type stuff: we're off when the kids are off. Most places don't have sick-leave banks, and this one won't be much good to me: you can only draw on it AFTER you've been out 30 consecutive days, and if you're out of your own sick leave. I can't imagine being out 30 consecutive days... You're talking to the women who worked with a broken hand, her foot in a cast, and in between out-patient ankle surgeries. I've also worked with multiple cases of bronchitis and pneumonia.
(Yet, how telling is that I had over 100 hours of sick leave saved at my last placement, but when I got sick in April my supervisor reported me to HR? Whatever).
Oh, yea... the decided not to give me the rest of my stuff back. They swear they can't find it, and if they could, they'd return it. We all know that is utter BS.
I will talk to you all later: my projects for Saturday are buying boxes to pack my stuff in, and starting to clean out the bookcases.

Mouse, I can't believe they won't return your things. That would really get me where I live. I don't know about you, but my first year teaching, I spent $3000 on supplies. Over the last four years, that number has dropped to more like $500-1000 a year. But, half of that classroom contains my belongings...books, games, furniture, CD's, art supplies, etc... If my school system pulled that bullsh*t with me, I would go freakin' ballistic . I'm really sorry they stabbed you in the back but continue to turn the knife. Let's hope that it is true that "what goes around, comes around."

Take care.

Well, this is a good sign. Nobody has been here all day so hopefully that means that the majority of you enjoyed this beautiful summer day.

Today was DD's cheerleading camp finale. SHE DID SO GREAT!!! When it was over, she asked me to sign her up next time. I'm so glad she found a physical activity that she loves and is self-motivated to do. I have friends who keep signing their kids up for stuff but haven't found the activity they love. Maybe they are overbooked and have trouble deciding.

Afterward, I took her shopping and found some BEAUTIFUL fall clothes at the Gap. She looked so cute. I couldn't resist.

The insurance person at my chiropractor's office said the insurance denied my appeal, so the only way I can receive treatment is by paying cash. Yeh, right!!! What are they nuts?! The insurance company sent me a letter requesting current documentation which the nurse was supposed to fax over. I don't know if this chick actually followed through or if she just bullsh*tted the doctor and me cause she was too friggin lazy. Or, the insurance company may not give a sh*t and deny me no matter what they fax over. Who knows who is telling the truth?! I left a very angry message on the machine of the claims person who makes these decisions. Then, after realizing that I'm most likely screwed, and still in a lot of pain which is preventing me from getting much exercise, I called my internist to get the name of a good orthopaedist. The one who treated me when I broke my foot was a d*ckhead, so I want someone competent this time around. I called, and they gave me an appointment with their podiatrist on Thursday. My concern is that they will either try to just give me pain meds or want to operate. I refuse to do either. I am hoping that they will do physical therapy. Then, I will get the same treatment I was supposed to get from my chiropractor, only it will be covered by insurance. (Let's hope!)

We swam in the pool, gardened, and read today. Outside of the horrible insurance problem, it was a great day. I hate when the real world invades my lovely summer days...

Evening.
We finished the scoring today... We actually finished fairly early! Pretty amazing.
I have to take the picture of they took of us off my digital camera and send it to some of the others.
Good news is that the gym needs me to guard Saturday and Sunday, 7 hours total, plus swimming lessons. Changes my plans for Sat/Sunday, but that's okay. I'll get the boxes and stuff figured out.
As for my stuff: Yes, Summer. When I was in my inner city school in Pennsylvania, I bought everything myself. I didn't get anything from them except some tables, chairs, and my desk plus a carrel for my teaching assistant... And those I had to drag out of the basement and clean myself with the help of some friends! I left that district still owing Citibank at least $4500. That included buying my own whiteboard, but didn't include the money I spent on gas when I had to go pick up items that I wrote grants for (like the classroom computers... which were pretty non-functional and went to a friend of mine's print shop where they donated time and materials to fix them for me), or when I went around to local places trying to get them to let us come in for free. The bowling alley, the gym with the indoor pool, all the grocery stores, the mall, McDonald's, Pizza Hut.
ALL of it is stuff that I owned and had taken super good care of so it would last ... like paying an office-supply store to drill holes in and cut the bindings off of books and put them in a archival-use binder so that the originals would LAST. I just can't believe that they "can't find it". It was all there the morning I left my classroom.
There is no way that somebody stole all of it out of my room without also being an employee of that place because the classroom is right off the main lobby, with lots of traffic in the hallway and security cameras! I know the stuff is either still there or they divided it up and parceled it out to other staff. Quite a bit of had my name on it, so I'd like to see them explain that (like the math textbook. The school had the same book, so I wrote my name in mine; I bought mine when I was in Fairfax because I wanted to use that book with my kids instead of the standard textbook).
If it was stolen, I want them to file a damn police report so I can report the stuff stolen to Allstate... I have so much stuff that I had a rider added to my renter's insurance to cover my school belongings; it made sense when I was in low-income and inner city areas! And Allstate would have a damn field day with those people especially when I give them a copy of the letter saying they aren't responsible for the protection of my belongings, and tell them how I wasn't permitted to take it with me when I left.
In fact, that is exactly the route I would take if I hadn't just hit the renter's policy for all the stuff in my gym bag.
The school is counting on the fact that the amount of stuff is around $400. That puts it squarely in small claims court, and I have to file in Baltimore City. That would take forever to come to court, and there is no parking, plus I won't be anywhere nearby.
But some of the stuff "missing" that they "Can't find" was cataloged by their library. I have half a mind to ask one of my friends to try and check the videos out and see if they are really missing or it they are there. I'm sure they are there, and I'm being told a huge freaking lie.

Morning,
Just a quick drive-by to say hello. I hope everyone has a great weekend! I finished my Social Studies class yesterday. I just have to go for follow-up classes, one in Oct. and one in Dec. I have to babysit our friends little boy today, so I got out of going to the ball games. Than tonight I will probably have the evening to myself since my dh is taking the boys to the demo. derby at the fair and his daughter is going to spend the evening with her grandma. So I will have the house all to myself and I plan on getting an adult liquid beverage and curling up with either a good book or a good movie. Well I better go and get ready for the day. Talk to you all later when I have more time to be personal.
Later,
Kerry

Hey!
I tried to post yesterday but in the middle of the post the power went off and so I never came back on. I am pissed off. Two people had called me saying that I was moving to the sixth grade. I have been in the seventh grade for eight years at this school. So, I tried to call the principal and couldn't reach him. Finally, I emailed him and this was his reply.



You are moving to sixth grade math. You are certainly welcome to a math
book(TE) and what other materials you need. Both rooms are ready.
However, the sixth grade hall has not been shampooed yet. I am not
sure when they will get on that. Call......... next week and I am sure
she will be glad to accomodate you and let you know when you can move
your things.
Hopefully, you will enjoy the sixth grade. I know you will be very
effective there and will strengthen the program in that grade level.
I am looking forward to this year. Get some rest.


I feel like I am being separated from my family or something. We all got along so well, and I really loved the people I worked with. We all tried to help each other. The thing is, my school feels everything is so top secret, they don't tell you anything until a couple of days before you go back to school. They moved four of us. Two went to eighth grade, I am going to sixth, my friend is having to teach 6, 7, 8 Social Studies, so she will not have a common planning with anybody. It sucks. I'm going online to see if I can get the standard course of study for sixth grade Math. Iknow it's a lot of fractions. Bluck. I am used to higher level......

Something scarey happened here day before last. My husband was outside cutting up that big tree branch that fell in the pool. He had just hauled all the debris to the curb for the trash. Some guy walked up the driveway, and said "Sir, can you help me? I have an emergency. " My husband went through the house, grabbed the phone, and out the front door. Well, the guy just kept standing on the driveway and my husband was standing at the bottom of the front steps. He asked the guy again what the problem was and the guy said come over here I need to show you something. My husband said what? Do you have an emergency and need me to call someone. The guy kept telling him to come over to the driveway. He didn't go. So, this went on for few minutes, and the guy started reaching into his pocket my husband acted like he was gonna call the police and the guy took off. He actually did call them, and about thirty minutes later they came, and said they were going to look for him. Normally he is at work, but had a day off. That just shook me up. They think the guy was trying to lure him away so he could do something to him and go into the house. I was gone to a friend's house, and my little boy and his friend were asleep on the couch. It really made me so nervous. Gosh, anything could have happened. So, I have been very paranoid for the last couple of days. WEIRD!

Well, I am going to run to Office Depot, because they have pencils on sale for a penny a piece. I am going to take advantage of that.
Have a good day.
Pam

Wow, Pam! Glad everything is okay and nothing happened!
Pencils for a penny, folders for 10 cents. At this point, I'm refusing to buy anything for my classroom. I know I shouldn't take it out on my new students, but ...

I need to get ready to go to work. My t-shirt I need for lifeguarding and my name badge were both in the gym bag that was stolen. I didn't get enough warning from the gym to buy a new one. And I know that we don't have any extras as the gym itself.