Mouse that seems backwards to me. If you cannot set up your room it seems like your coworkers should be ready to help instead of trying to punish you for coming.

Well today was my first day back. It went well. IT was hard to leave my baby. The kids were so excited to have me back. They even had a welcom back banner on my door. I am breastfeeding and pumping is going to be a challenge. My morning session is easy but in the afternoon I have to bring my kids to the Library to listen to a book on tape while I am in a back room. But on Thursdays there will be a class in there so I have to find someone to come sit with my kids. Ugh.. tomorrow we have a 7am faculty meeting. Welcome back!

It was nice to have my hubby and ds back. But while they were gone I started walking again. I have walked 2-3 miles everyday since Thur. I plan on going again today but Brantley is going to ride his bike with us. We'll see how that goes.

Chat with you girls later.

AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!Please tell me this is not so........school starts tomorrow. Had an inservice this am... very good motivational speaker this am.

Angela- glad your first day back was ok...so hard leaving a baby.
Trob- I feel your pain. We too are all out until October. (and we should all be basket cases by then)
Melody- when do you go back?
Casey- ouch......sore feet.Hope you can remember all the stuff you need to do to stay pain free.
Mouse-Glad you are getting better. Please go slowly....I know all about the work till you drop work ethic, I have it too.

Sorry to be so short..........the merry go round begins tomorrow.
See ya !
Ginny (did get a walk in today........woo hoo)

ECmom,

I live in Mississippi and in the south we start school early. We went back for inservice on Aug. 2-4 and the first day of school was Aug. 7. We are in our 5th week of school now. We get out for summer on May 25, which I guess is earlier than schools who start after Labor Day. We don't have another holiday until Thanksgiving, but we get a whole week out then. We do have one teacher-workday in Oct so the students will get a little break.

Hi All,
Mouse, hope you are feeling better. Good luck at the doctor's tonight. Hope you have stopped stressing. Things will fall into place. It justs takes some time though. Hope you had an easy start back to school with your kids.
Trob, I feel your pain with your small gain. But I am up two pounds too from two weeks ago. The weekends are the hardest for me, because my dh wants to eat out two or three times and sometimes the food choices can be a little unhealthly. You will take it right back off. Have you tried doing a search on-line for art ideas for your special needs class? There might be some wonderful projects that you could do with them.
Ginny, sorry to hear that you are back in the driver's seat again. Hope things get off to a smooth start for you. Glad you have been getting your walks in. Keep up the good work.
Robyn, hope all is well with you. Saw pictures on the news about the rain and flooding you had over the weekend. Hope you got your pine trees cleaned up without an further mishaps.
Angela, glad you have eased back into the swing of things at school yesterday. It sounds like you were so glad to be back. That was very sweet of your kids to make you a sign. I am sure you will be able to find someone to cover for you for awhile when you have to go pump.
Melody, sounds like you are keeping busy. I can relate with you on the eating at family get togethers. I tend to try and be good but sometimes that just doesn't happen when they have such yummy food that you don't get all the time.
Casey, sorry to hear about your feet problems. Hope you can remember not to do the things that will cause them to hurt. I have to wear Clarks or New Balance shoes for my feet. Do you have to wear special kinds of shoes?
I started working the afterschool program last night. Boy I am going to be really tired by the end of the days for the next couple of weeks. I work until 5 or 6 Monday through Fridays. Last night I was in bed by 9:30. I hope these doesn't become a habit, because then I wake up around 3 or 4 wide awake.
Well I need to go and get outside for recess duty. Just wanted to say hi.
Talk to you all later.
Take care,
Kerry

hey all, my weight is back down today do i am happy. i am going to start ww tomorrow and i am very excited about the possibilities. hope everyone had a great day today. mine was much better than expected. i had my special needs kids today and it went very smoothly. i don't think that we will be doing many messy projects though this year because the district has decided not to hire anymore help. with the nine kids (5 wheelchairs and 4 that are in diapers) they don't think that the teacher needs anymore help. i don't even know how she transports them from place to place without an adult for every chair. it is just crazy. i think that the TAs that they have are going to be great once they figure out what they are doing.
have a great night all!!
trob

Aw crum, one slip of the keyboard and the whole darned post is gone!!!!!!!

Trob- are you doing WW meetings or just online? (I do meetings- love the program). Hopefully your TA's will work out fine (ask Mouse about crummy TA's, she has had them all, I think!) Glad that your weight is back down too.. Congrats.

Kerry- gee, it is great that you can still sneak in a mid day post- I think you are the only other person here who can do that from time to time. Sorry that eating out is such a challenge, but we all understand. You would think that as fat as our society is, that restaurants would offer at least one or two healthy entrees. But I know many do not. Go for damage control- eat small portions....hope your sleeping straightens out!!!!

Melody- a whole week at Thanksgiving sounds great, just too bad that you have to wait so long for it. Somehow I missed that you had started so early (probably getting ready for my vacation). Of course I will be SO jealous in June and you are done in May.

Well, lets see, one day down, 179 to go! Me the eternal optimist......... today was ok. Intense, but ok. Still can't find everything in the new bus, but I am getting used to it. My elementary is FULL- and 15 out of 55 students are new, which means for LOTS of rules etc.........lots of new faces to break in. And one total handful I can see already. My HS is fine, so far.........and that one special ed kid is a joy. He chatted the entire way home, smiling away......it was his first trip on a big bus (most of our special ed runs use 30 passenger buses) so he gloated the entire time about being on a BIG BUS. How sweet. It really made my day. Got lots of smiles from returning students.....and I am tired. Do I really have to do this again tomorrow? Tomorrow? Lots of errands and a WW meeting........hopefully the darned scale will be down a wee bit. Nite!
Ginny

Kar-Yes, I'm wearing rockports now. Mostly I look for certain things in shoes. Box toe (not pointed), wide (size d wide), arch support, and rubber (not hard) soles. If they have air cushions or orthotics in them, even better (my tennis shoes do).

We had a kid just started today (a repeat, he just had a family emergency and missed first week) that showed up on his first day with NO medicines. What's fun about teachers having a full time aide or team teacher is when one is stressed out, the other probably isn't. Last Friday I blasted those kids (oops). Then today with this new student and trying to catch him up and dealing with his adhd and antics my teacher was ready to strangle (she didn't ) and I was calm as a cucumber.

I actually hope I never teach alone. I don't think it'll ever be a big deal but I'm bipolar and don't want to step too far. Most of the time, I'm highly functional. It's nice having backup. Today we played good cop/bad cop on this student. Poor kid. Really wasn't his fault at all. I was suprised even through all his inability to focus, he was maybe even brighter than most of our group. That's a plus. In any school setting, adhd is hard. To not be able to look at a teacher so she can SIGN is even harder. Then no information is getting through.

I noticed my moods affect my pedometer. I tend to clock at LEAST 10k per day easy just at work. On manic days I can clock 18-19k at work. Today I didn't make 9k. CALM and LOWKEY.

Hi Casey-
it is probably a good thing that you have up days and not so up days with the pedometer......don't want to wear those new Rockports out! I use orthotics too, well sometimes. Glad you handled that situation with the new student well. It will bode well for the long term.

Just got back from a 2.25 mile walk. Had some major baseball stress to burn off........nite all!
Ginny

Hi everyone,

Kerry, I bet you are tired now that you are doing the after-school program. We start up our program in a couple of weeks and I am considering applying. I would work 2 extra hours on Mon, Tues, and Thurs and get paid $22/hr. I think it would add up to about $400 extra a month, which would help since we have a bigger a house payment now. However, I do like getting home everyday before 4pm, too.

Trob, I am glad you had a good day today with your special needs kids. I will let you know if I think of any ideas for you. I can't believe they won't get more help for those kids. It's sad. I have 20 special needs kids and I am so busy everyday so I can sympathize. Good luck with WW...I am thinking of trying it again. I have gone before, but the last time I tried to join R.J. was just barely 3 and he didn't understand why we were there and he didn't understand that he had to be quiet so I didn't go back because it was too hard with a little one. Now he's nearly 5 and easily sits quiet and still when I need him to so I am thinking of trying it again. I have a friend/neighbor who goes so I might go with her.

Ginny, we are in week 5 of school and we are still getting new students! I can't imagine where they are all coming from. Last week we got a 7 year old who had never been to school! I am glad you had a good day back driving the bus and I hope tomorrow will be fine, too.

Deafinlysmart, I guess that was a challenge today with the ADHD student and no meds. I know how tough that can be. I understand about not wanting to teach alone. Before going into Special Education, I was a middle school and high school English teacher and I didn't like being trapped with all those kids. I have anxiety problems and I would worry a lot about having to get to a restroom since I also have stomach problems resulting from having my gall bladder removed when I was in my early 20's. Now I don't have to worry about those things since I go from classroom to classroom and take a restroom break whenever I need to.

Today was good for me. I ate ok. I had cereal and skim milk for breakfast, slimfast bar for lunch and since I was out running errands until 6pm I had Wendy's turkey/swiss sandwhich and baked chips. I thought I was making a good choice, but I checked the calores online tonight and it was over 600 for those two things! For a snack I had fat-free jello. Overall I think my eating was OK since I probably only ate a total of about 1300-1400 calories. I try to stay under 1500 when I can...I don't really count them up every day, but I just try to keep a general idea of calories in my head everyday.

Talk to you all tomorrow.

Let me just admit up front that I haven't read most of your posts. I'm sorry.
I just really need to vent. Like I haven't been doing that for the last week. I'll apologize for that later.

Okay... I'm STILL sick. I've STILL been unable to keep most food down. Last night's dinner was sugar-free frozen custard with honey and walnuts and a cheeseburger. And that was all I ate all day. :sigh:
And, when I got home ... finally... and feeling horrible... My endocrinologist, bless her heart, tried to get me to lay down on a couch she has in her office, but I was afraid I'd fall asleep or ... worse... just start crying because she really did care. Not like I didn't already know that...
I get home, and change clothes, take a shower... and have this strange looking blister on my foot, and one on my leg. Later that night, there were a couple of more. This morning, both of my legs and the left foot were covered... and there were more showing up as I watched! I was freaked, but went to school anyway: what else was I going to do? I talked to our nurse, and she thought there was a small change it was chicken pox, so I got packed off to my primary care doctor. If only it were that easy! No. Its something called vascularitis. Its when the small vessels close to the skin rupture, and bleed under the skin/on the skin... I had to have more blood taken, and go to a dermatologist... and I'm really upset right now. One of the only treatments for this is steroids... corticosteriods... which I can't take because I already have an elevated cortisol level at times! I ITCH.
And I am SO DAMN TIRED of all of this. Obviously, I can't swim till this clears up, so there goes my part-time job. I'm doing the doctor shuttle again: because of course my endocrinologist has to be in the loop on this because of the medication the dermatologist wants to give me.
This just isn't FAIR! Isn't a bad ankle enough? The endocrine disorder isn't enough? The fact that I will NEVER lose weight because of the endocrine disorder, and I'll NEVER have children... and I can't get anybody male to look at me twice... that isn't enough... now I have to have something new?

Mouse.......when it rains it pours. Big hugs......I am so saddened by your latest episode of health issues. Focus on getting well- I know you are trying to do that. One thing at a time, and try to relax. My heart breaks for you - as it just seems to keep coming at you (all the stuff of life). Try not to lose your focus.......try to do something to make yourself happy, to find some joy.
I will be praying for you.

Melody- I understand the issue with still getting new students. Our routes are not considered "cast in stone" until October (end of month) for the same reason. Can' t imagine a 7 yr old who had never been to school. At least not here in this country, although I know that happens. (especially after Katrina). We had an interesting event.........one student (kindergarten) fell asleep on the bus. Oh, the driver picked it up while enroute back- but the student did not speak a word of english, the driver speaks no spanish, the parents moved( and never let the district know the new address or phone #) and they speak no english either. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yup we do have a few drivers who are hispanic- and still speak spanish. Thank goodness for the student and the driver he had a bus tag- so at least we knew who he was. Beyond that it was pretty wierd.

Lost 4# at WW........had an ok week and my darned period is over. I will take a 4# loss anytime. Makes up for last weeks gain and then some.

I am so pooped, g'nite alll!
Ginny

ginny- we are having ww meetings at my school. it is great because we start as soon as the kids leave. we had about 20 people today and it is a really fun group. i did ww with another school last spring but it was really hard getting across town to the meetings. one member is the principal at the middle school and she is checking into having the athletics weight room opened for us every afternoon. i hope that i am able to stick with it. i am not much of a rule follower.

mouse- i am so sorry that things are so rough for you right now and you are perfectly right for feeling that it isn't fair. but just like ginny said, you have just got to take things one at a time. focus on feeling better and everything else will fall into place. just remember one day at a time and if you find that to be too much then take it one hour or one minute at a time.
you will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Good Evening everyone.

Mouse, I am so sorry you are having such a rough time. I don't know much about endocrine disorders, but I can imagine it's difficult. I hope the doctors can help you to get to feeling better.

ECmom, that would be really scary to not be able to get a kid home that couldn't tell you where they live. We have quite a few Spanish-speaking kids at our school so that could very well happen. As far as the 7-year old, that is not the first time I have seen that happen. It happened last year, too. Apparently there is a whole family of children who's mother just doesn't bother to get them in school. I can't imagine why unless they just don't want to have to buy school uniforms or supplies or they don't want to worry about getting the up for school everyday...I don't know. I work in a district where about 90% of our kids get free lunch and poverty is all around. One student I know has a mother who is about to have baby number 18...yes that 18 and not a type...can you imagine? It's sad because the kids don't have their own beds and just sleep where ever they can find a place at night.

I had a good day today as far as eating goes. I am so glad tomorrow is Friday! I hope I can have will power to control me weekend eating though. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Hi!
This will be short.....not much time here.

Trob- how awesome having your WW at work meeting! If you are not too much of a rule follower, I might suggest the core plan (as opposed to flex). As long as you stay within guidelines of what you can eat, there is no counting. I know of many who have been successful with core. (I fare better on flex). WW meetings are really the best part of the program- so much support. And to have a lot of coworkers on program too, well that should help keep healthy alternatives to junk food in the teachers lounge. Best of luck!

Melody- Baby # 18! Huh??? (oh, I know this happens........I can barely handle my 3, let alone 18) Glad your Thursday eating was good......hopefully all that good behavior will carry over to the weekend!

Got a walk in this am.......so far my eating is good. Got some difficulty with a new parent (just moved from Vermont). I am going to have to try my best to win her over. She has 2 sons, on in K the other (and he is a handful) in 2nd. The youngest is ok getting on the bus.....just does not want to get off at school . He is mortified. I think she is taking her angst at the situation out on me (I am the first representative of the school district she sees). Oh joy. I will have to work extra hard on this one. I don't bite. Honestly.

Gotta go.......its Friday!
Have a great weekend.
Ginny

I like the options of regular "reply" but I always use the "quick reply" option at the bottom of the posts just so I can scroll up and read the posts again so I know what to say to who. LMBO! If you get that sentence, then you are a tried and true poster!


Mouse-I spent the summer at the doctors. Yes, it pissed me off. As soon as I got one thing cured or under control, another one pops up. In fact, now I have a yeast infection in my EAR.

Ecmom-My son's teacher walked him home from school once two years ago because I forgot it was a half day. Ooops!! BTW, you have trouble handling your THREE kids because you take care of them. By the time you get 18, your kids are taking care of kids. I'm stereotyping, feel free to blast me.

I have a challenging class this year, but today was the first day I saw a "class." I could see some strategies emerging to deal with these students. Things that had postitive components instead of always negative components. I felt inspired and I saw some inspired smiles. We are adding another student next week who will be challenging in a whole different way. I will say it will be a year where they are teaching ME. What helped today is researching and reading practical classroom tips for these issues. I applied some of them today and some I made up according to what I was observing. FUN! I'm worn out though!

For example, I made the kid with adhd sit in a desk beside me close to the table where 2 other students were sitting at (instead of sitting at the table with them touching them and disrupting them). He didn't like it but compared to the beginning of the week, he accepted it. I gave him a reward dollar for accepting. The best part though was after I figured out that after 2 problems (first of all 2 of these type of problems on the same page was too distracting..lesson learned) he became restless and quit reading well or at all. So applying what I learned, I asked him to stand quickly and copy me. I did small movements (like touching my nose, touching oposite ears, etc) then told him to sit down (fast) and asked him to immediately read the next problem. EVERYTIME he did it fast and well! It was sometime during the second one that he would get jerky and slow. Lesson learned and he had fun jumping up and using his excessive energy. The other kids were not the least bit bothered and I was still helping them!