i have tomorrow, mon., tue, wed, and thurs.... all with kiddos except thurs... no more resources, no more duty free lunches...WITH kiddos... and i must pack up every staple, every book, every paperclip in boxes that i can lift myself, marked with my name and new room number on all 4 sides....it must be done by closing time on next thursday. i am nearly done with my report cards. the rest of the paper work is done. finally. the school has provided us with 10 boxes and no tape. my feet are throbbing and swollen tonight. i am beginning to panic. i am beginning to panic. the kids were angels today...considering! that helps! i am beginning to panic...pass the chocolate.

type to you later...gonna knock out the last of the report cards!
take care,
meeee

Just a short hello.......too pooped to leave much else.

Mouse-what a bunch of major creeps to trash your stuff!!!! SOOOOO thankful you are outa there....it got very scary towards the end wondering just what they would pull next. enjoy your time off. It is well deserved!

Sue- yup, I have a tough time at times reigning in myself, especially when I know I have been really bad. think if I logged in all I ate on those days I would have an easier time of it......how about you?

To the dear sweet Southern Belle of the bunch here........yuppie, that means you Robyn!!!!!!! So glad to hear that your Suthern drawwwwlllll is doing fine..... you ought to practice it more, ok? Glad the trip went so well, sorry the house is trashed......but a well deserved break for you!

Pam- how was your date with Stephen King???? I got into Cornwell today while having my hair done (the hair appt I missed last week with Dm's surgery). Patience my dear with Ds's car.........oh, I feel your pain.

Not much new here.....trying to get Dd a job......she is declaring her major (double education and biology) and I am trying to get her a job as a bus monitor for the summer. She can sub teach when she has 60 credits - at the present has 30- but knowing how very political my district is, and with me being an employee......and if she can start out at the very bottom as a monitor.....monitors make almost as much as drivers do......but inspiring her is tough....driving me nuts......
better go get something done. Dd wants to play Monopoly......and Mom is pooped.
Nite! Ginny (sorry if I missed you......burned out Mom here)

Hey everyone!
Been a busy couple of days. I have been sooooooooo busy. Just cutting and weed eating grass, pulling weeds, I rearranged the living room furniture.
But, it has been fun too. We swam in the pool today, and then went back in tonight after a feeble attempt at tennis in front of the house. (It was getting to late to go to the actual tennis court.) I actually got some excercise in chasing tennis balls down the street that my nine year old hit. It was fun though. We all suck! Oh well I'm trying to get him moving without him actually think he is excercising.

Sue: I know what you mean about end of the year stuff. I did some major damage when my youngest son went to my mom's for the week. Not only did we eat out several times, but I tried bringing my lunch on workdays and people begged me to go to lunch with them, called me a snob, we had two luncheons. Gosh, it's hard being good........

Ginny: My date with Stephen King???? I think we're on again for tonight. I've spent a lot of time with him already today. I almost reread some Cornwell but opted instead for Stephen King. How's your mom?

Mouse: Aren't you glad to be finally free of those idiots? Should be sort of liberating. Glad your project went great. Good job!

Robyn: Hang in there you can make it. Then you can snooze away.
Next year we will be in the same boat. Our school system doesn't go back until the end of August this year, and we won't get out til sometime in June. You know I never thought I had a Southern Accent, until I lived in Vermont for a year. I heard that so often. Especially since I tend to say
tal instead of towel. (know what I mean?) I laugh a lot here at the phrases people use. Sometimes it makes me insane. For example, people will say Carry me to the store to get some drink.............. UGHHHHHHH or Who you lookin/or so and so was lookin you. THE BIGGEST THING THAT DRIVES ME CRAZY IS instead of bookbag, or backpack, they say BOOKSACK HERE. I could go on for days. Ha ..
Paisley, Kerry, and Summer..........HEY YA'LL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TAKE CARE!
Pam

Evening, again, all.
I had to come back and post because my friends took me out for my birthday, which was today. This is the married couple that I introduced. I've know the wife-half for 15 years, and the husband-half for 12. They had to be here in Baltimore since Tuesday for a trade-show, and left today. Although, I admit they had a tough time convincing me to go out because I am sort of down over the whole school thing. I know that I shouldn't be, but its hard... And its not getting much easier with having to look at what they did to my stuff, figure out what is missing, figure out how much comp time they shorted me off my check, etc, etc, etc. Telling my grad school advisor why I refuse to take classes with any of the staff of that without getting into sordid details or impunging the reputation of any of the staff he may know (ALL of them!) and work with. And knowing that I'm making his job that much harder because he has to figure how to get me the classes that I need, without assigning me to any of their courses.
I realize this will sound absolutely horrible, but I could REALLY use a 3-week national disaster assignment with the Red Cross. 21 days of working 12-16 hours a day with people who just lost everything would certainly cure me of my blues over that nasty place. I'd be too busy to think about them! Of course, I should be careful: I might get my wish if Tropical Storm Arlene continues the way she's headed! And then I'd feel seriously guilty because my mom and grandmother are going to Gulfport, MS to meet up with my Aunt & Uncle who live in Dallas/Fort Worth. If TS Arlene tracks as planned, their trip will be ruined.
Anyway... dinner... We went to the Melting Pot. Believe it or not, the place can be very diet friendly if you avoid the cheese fondu (which, since it was my birthday, we absolutely did NOT do!) and dessert (and, yes, we had that too!). They have 4 choices of cheese fondu: Cheddar, Traditional Swiss and Gruyere, a Wisconsin blend which is cheddar, and two others, and a mexican influenced one. The waiter makes it right at your table... and they were totally agreeable about substitutions! No issues with subbing broth instead of alcohol (my one friend is about 4 months pregnant), or giving us extra veggies that I could eat since I can't eat squash or carrots.
Then, for our entree, we had the vegetarian boullion broth which would have been an awesome soup all on its own! We picked two different entrees: one filet mignon, one vegetarian. I was kinda against the vegetarian one, but ... WOW! That one comes with tofu, artichoke hearts, potatoes, broccoli and squash. The tofu and the artichoke were REALLY REALLY good. And I frequently say that I can't stand tofu, but I've now had it twice where it has been prepared really well. This stuff, soaked in the broth, tasted like a matzoh ball (one of my ultimate favorite foods!). The artichoke and the broccoli were good as well. I'm wondering how sweet potato would have tasted. The filet mignon was good too, but you had to be careful to cook it long enough.
And dessert... ALL chocolate, of course, but choices! They even have white chocolate (which would have been the better choice for me, but what the ****!). We narrowed it to 3: Cookies & Creme, S'mores or Turtle. We went with the turtle because it was the only one that didn't really NEED to be flambed, and we wanted to avoid any alcohol. Though, I really want to go sometime and get the S'mores. I LOVE S'mores.
Anyway, the place could be expensive, but I think the total bill was like $70 for the 3 of us. And the filet mignon was 6 ounces, so not a small piece. 3 of us split the 2 entrees and the small dessert and couldn't finish everything. The waiter was awesome and funny.
I have NO idea how to put any of what I ate in my food log, though. I'm sure the broth doesn't count, and think that the cheese and the chocolate were the worst parts, but I got the impression I didn't eat much of either. I ate mostly vegetables, and that was mostly celery, broccoli, and tofu. I did have two marshmallows, 2 slices of banana and a strawberry in the chocolate sauce.
I know I didn't do badly, because I didn't get sick... and certainly chocolate, marshmallows, and bananas are among the foods that normally make me ill.
I highly recommend the restaurant if you go, but definitely do it with people you LIKE... and make sure you have time. They have fish as well. Single Entree prices are really reasonable: the most expensive was 9 ounces of filet mignon at $24 or the lobster tails which are market price (but its 2 lobster tails and 6 ounces of sirloin). I saw somebody else order that and the lobster looked really meaty.

Thanks Mouse: NOW I'M HUNGRY! HA
Happy Belated Birthday! I'm glad you had a good time. You needed to go out and do that after all the crap you've been dealing with.
Not much on my agenda for today. Just cleaning. Bluck. I've been trying to get up and get the inside stuff taken care of in the morning so I can go outside for the afternoon. But, our power went off again last night. We keep hearing transformers blow. It happened three times yesterday. Now, my little one is on the couch asleep so I can't vacuum or anything. Oh well.
Hope everyone has a good day today!
Pam

Good morning!!!!!

Mouse- a belated happy birthday!!!!! Sorry, I had really hoped to stay on top of everyones bdays here at the board, but recent weeks of drama in my life have scrambled my brains a bit. Sounds as though you had a wonderful evening- well deserved at that!! Congrats. Never ever heard of Melting Pot- maybe we will have one someday here in NYS. Keep your chin up~ all the nonsense you are going thru now won't even be a beep on the radar screen of your life long term. And I repeat, I am SOOOOO thrilled you are out of that abusive place. I know you are not Catholic, (and I am not either) but a nomination for sainthood should be made on your behalf for staying there.

Pam- well besides that you are making me sick.....hanging out reading, playing tennis.....gardening, having fun.......(someone please tell me what fun is????? I forgot!)
So glad you are relaxing and enjoying summer. And that Stephen King is treating you well. I had to skip to Potters Field in the Cornwell books, and will back track when I get the chance to order the other book from the library. Hope your day is nice and relaxing.

So, I get to go to the gastroenterologist today.....with Dm getting colon cancer that puts me in the high risk category, so lucky me, I get to go for a colonoscopy. Today is the first visit.....so just papers to fill out I am sure and to make an appt for the test.
Next week will be miserable....one of my schools is 1/2 day, so I get little time off.....and it is so hot out there....detest summer heat.....
Guess I'd better go clean up after the slob teenagers, both of whom are couch potatoing now.

Oh and I almost forgot.....to add to the odd language variations....some favorites from Indiana(where I spent one semester at Purdue)- "pop" instead of soda or coke or whatever....."finger nail polish" instead of nail polish, "ink pen", instead of just pen, and said with an awful nasal tone to pen so it sounded like pin, and paper sack instead of paper bag (at the grocery store). But then I live in New Yoawk (but really do not have an NY accent) so what the dilly to I know!!
See ya.
Ginny

Well....this note is really for Ginny...cause I KNOW how she loves baseball....
but I thought I would post that our ds's team has ended their season with 17 wins and
1 loss that came tonight with the *star* players making some HUGE errors...(it is safe
to add that "It won't my boy!" ..said in my best suthen voice)...that had them lose by 1 run. (2 of our guys were being rather fresh and stealing bases like lunatics...and getting called out at home....arghhh! ) anywho...will return as SOON as I finish those report cards that continue to NOT be finished! I'm doing them tonight before bed...or else...

so the only thing that is left is the awards dinner....Hey Ginny wanna be my date???

take care,
meeee

Hey!
Just me again. I remember all those baseball days. My son was in baseball from Kindergarten all the way through High School. We've done all stars.....It's a lot of fun though. Sometimes I would pray for a rain out. However, we'd still be sitting in the rain unless there was lightening. I was going through some stuff today, and ran across my son's letter for Who's Who in Baseball. He was in a book for Babe Ruth League that is supposed to be housed at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Maybe one of these days we will actually find out if it's true.

My legs are killing me. My son and I went to the tennis court this afternoon and then after dinner we all went and didn't come home til 9:45. It was so much fun. I wasn't too terribly embarrased either. My little one has decided he is going to be a professional tennis player. Won't that be great, I have one who wants to be a professional kicker in the NFL and one that is going to Wimbledon. (So what if it's only the second time he has played in his life.) I am so excited to find a sport he wants to participate in. We tried football, he didn't like it. We played T Ball for two years he didn't like it. It's been sort of depressing. I'm used to going to games. He wanted to try soccer until he found out it involves a ton of running, and then he ruled that out.

Ginny: Good luck with the colonoscopy. Yuck. My hubby had that done a few years ago. I skipped around on the Cornwell books when I first started reading her. I remember actually having to order From Potters Field off of the internet because I couldn't find it anywhere. I am going to read Isle of Dogs after I finish this Stephen King Book. It isn't a Scarpetta Novel, but it looks interesting anyway. Sorry I make you sick..... However, TOMORROW IS SATURDAY................... I actually forgot what the day was today. Kind of lose all track of time when you don't really have to be accountable to anybody. Ps They say pop in West Virginia also. Get me a bottle of pop.

Robyn: Get those report cards done yet? You are almost done........
I was laughing when you said "won't" The phrase of the century 'IT WON'T ME!" I hear that eighteen times a day in the classroom. It won't my fault...Ha!

Have a good weekend everyone.
Pam

YEAH ROBYN!!!! You are in the home stretch. Soon you too can talk about days on end of doing what you want to! Ain't teaching grand!!!!!!! So are you just moving classrooms or did you get a new school? I had to change classrooms about 4 years ago. It was amazing how much crap I had accumulated in the 15 years I had been in that room.

We drink pop in Michigan too. Soda is something you bake with! My sister married a man from New Jersey and they use to have great fun with some of those quirky language things. We also use a "kleenex" to blow our nose, no matter what brand tissue we are using.

I have lived in Michigan all of my life as has my parents and grandparents but when I went away to college (in Michigan) everyone thought I had an accent but they could never place where from. Must be small town hick!

Mouse - Happy birthday! Do you mind sharing how old you are now? I think a fondu restaurant would be hard for me as I really like cheese and chocolate (and marshmellows!). Sounds like you handled it very well though. As for the old employer getting you down, try to think of it as a blessing. I know it is hard but if you continue to dwell on it, they continue to win. Remember you are a great person and you deserve to be happy. They have done you a big favor by setting you free. Rejoyce! I am a Catholic so I can grant you that sainthood if that would help!

Ginny - Tracking definately helps. Especially if I do it as I go and not at the end of the day. Last week I used all my points plus about 30 extra! This week I have been much better. I made some of that 0 point veggy soup, so if I think I am hungry I eat that first. Now that school is out I can plan meals better and try new recipes. God I love summer! Good luck with the colonoscopy. I haven't had that experience myself yet but I can't imagine it is too enjoyable.

Pam - It's summer! The work will get done eventually. This was a real hard lesson I had to learn. I like my house clean but during the school year I have such limited time. It was getting to be all work and no fun. I was angry. My DH was feeling neglected (not that he would think to help with the work) and things got ugly. Finally I decided that it was okay if things weren't perfect. It still stresses me out a bit but I am able to let it go a bit and my life is much the better for it. Summer is so great because I can get the work done and have my fun too.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy summer?!?! Speak of which, where is Summer?

Sue

G'morning all.
I just got a nasty look from the fur-covered lump o' kitty sitting next to me because he had dozed while I was reading the messages. My typing makes noise, however, that disturbs his sensitive hearing. AWWWWW!

Robyn: Congrats on getting the report cards done, but how do you do them at home? Your report cards aren't computerized or do you use bubble-sheets and then that is how the grades are entered?

Pam: I'm 32... And thanks, although do they allow Jewish saints?
And yes, the food was good and it wasn't hard. I couldn't figure out how to put it in the tracker though... I still need to give that a shot. As for cleaning, I do understand that. I've pretty much given up at this point, but hope with my increased salary that I'll be able to find somebody to clean my place twice a month when I move. I'm seriously never home... even not working at the present time, I still drove more than 200 miles this week! I bought gas last Sunday, and did more than 200 miles by this Friday! I didn't leave the state, either! I am so thrilled and looking forward to driving back and forth from Hopkins to Virginia again.

Ginny: Yes, yes. I know, but I finally finished going through all those boxes of crap they shipped to my house. And half my stuff is still freaking missing! They packed up all the garbage but missed half my binders and lots of books, never mind the desk set and such. GRRRR! Now I have to go pay a lawyer (unless any of you have one handy!) to write them a letter so I can get my stuff back!

I meant to get up in time to go to the early water aerobics class, but I missed it ... and we have lessons tonight, so I'll just go swim before lessons. And tomorrow is my first shift guarding at that pool. Sundays are pretty slow. I'm kinda worried about Monday night, because there is a water aerobics class, and I dropped the class because the instructor was such a dork. She looks right through me when she sees me now, but last year made comments about how "glad she was that I was trying to do something about my weight". So, I will seriously have to so I don't say something dumb!
I'm not swimming as much: I can only do 20 or 30 minutes before my ankle hurts, and then yesterday I did it before I went to physical therapy and so couldn't do half the exercises very well!

I have to go to my new school district next Thursday to be fingerprinted, background checked, etc. Fun, fun!

Evening all...
I wanted to drop by and let you know that your local friendly swimming mouse is about to become a fully certified LIFEGUARDING mouse. I passed the first part of the test today, which is 500 yards combined of freestyle, breaststroke, and mixed... 200 free, 200 breast, and 100 where you alternate the two strokes. I can't kick for the freestyle, so I do it all with my arms.
All I have to do now is do that one more time (you have to do it for two different lifeguards so they can make sure you really DID it, not just had a friend watch you), pick a brick up off the bottom of the pool, and pass the written tests for that, CPR and First Aid.

Mouse:

Congratulations on passing the life guard test. I was a life guard and water safety instructor in my younger days. The last time I took the test I was pregnant for my first child (barely). After I had the children I didn't swim enough to have the endurance to pass the test. It is a tough test! Good luck on the rest of it! Your just a youngster still at 32!

Sue

Gotta be short......had to come online to attempt to get directions to Ds's baseball game (a wonderful double header and it is supposed to be 92 and humid today ). Robyn you swine....... aw you know how I feel about baseball.....do I have to do this?????
See ya later.
Ginny

Hey!
Hope everyone is having a great day. Mouse you sound busy as usual. When do you rest exactly? I have been a bum today. We played in the pool and sat in the sun. All I needed was a pina colado and a bronzed pool boy bringing me drinks and it would have been the perfect day. Alas, I got Mom are you coming in?????? Mom, the ball went out of the pool can you get that? it was fun anyway. I think I am burned. Oh well.
We have been playing tennis everyday. I could hardly walk last night. It's better tonight. I have been getting a lot of running in chasing the balls my nine year old hits down to the opposite end of the tennis courts. I think we're gonna pass on tennis today and just walk.
Ginny: It may take me from now until forever to lose ten more pounds. I am still sitting at 174. It's really pissing me off. I have been excercising more than ever. I haven't lost any inches either. So we went out for breakfast......................

Robyn: Congrats on getting those report cards finished. I hate doing that stuff. Although in Middle School, everything is computerized, so all we have to do is enter the grades, (on disk)there is a code for comments, then turn in the disk. Not bad. Unless, like me, your disk goes bad and grades are due at 7:30 the next morning. Thank God for back up disks.

Sue: I am trying not to stress about the cleaning, but I just can't keep this house clean. I spent three hours yesterday afternoon scrubbing the kitchen floor and cleaning walls and baseboards. One trip in and out and the floor is messy again. I think I will just swiffer this afternoon. Some days I just say whatever, then someone will call and say I'm stopping by......I become a maniac running around the house trying to clean up real fast. We have the lived in look around here.............Ughhhhh.

Mouse: Congrats on passing the first part of the lifeguard test. Reminds me of a joke I heard..........I was a lifeguard at the local pool until that blue boy got me fired.................Anyway............I was just telling my husband today that I could not be a lifeguard when it is so hot outside. I would die not to get in the pool. We would be having adult swim every fifteen minutes. Ha!

Kerry, Summer, Paisley: HEY YA'LL!
Pam