I'm now into school work for this coming week well over my head.... I'm too old for this! starting my 18th year and beginning EVERYTHING NEW! EEEK! I'll live!
Someday I will sleep again!

I also am very distracted by what is going on in Florida.... I've not heard from my dearest friend since Saturday night. I have seen her school on the news... it was used as a shelter and had the roof ripped off of it....She was not there but...her school stuff is / was! She lives VERY near West Palm Beach.

I have read your posts.... I need to give everyone big ((hugs))! Hugs to congratulate some and supportive hugs to others...sort them out, would you! LOL Actually... everyone needs to take a few of each!

Well...... I'll be back later today.... and I'll try to post something meaningful or witty or something at least BETTEr than this!

take care

Okay let me try this one more time. I typed a long reply last night and it was unable to be posted. I was not a happy camper! Yesterday was a better than then Saturday. I started to have a discussion about how my dh hurt my feelings, but his kids kept coming in the room and wanted to listen to the conversation. So I guess I will have to wait until they go home tonight. We did play ball yesterday afternoon for about an hour. Then we went over to my sil's for a while. Our nephew ended up coming home with us to spend the night. So then last night we all went for a walk. Today I think I am going to go shopping by myself, after I do my walking video and get ready for the day.
Summer so how was your shopping trip? Did you get your wedding gift? Enjoy your day off!!
Mouse sounds like you had a nice visit at your mom's. Sorry to hear about your paycheck. That must have been very disheartening when no paycheck stub arrived at your house on Fri. and Sat. That happened to me last summer. The treasurer's office missed up on our direct deposit and we had to wait until Monday or Tuesday of the next week to get our money. But everyone else who got a normal paycheck got their money. I was not a happy camper, since we made plans to go to my sister's that weekend and had to watch our money very closely. So I hope you get paid soon.
Robyn, where are you? We miss you!! Hope you enjoyed your weekend!
Ginny, sounds like you had a wonderful time at the reactment. I have never been to one before, but have several friends who are involved in it. They are always saying what fun and new people they are meeting. How was your weekend with your oldest dd home from college? Enjoy your day off today!
Well I am going to go and do my walking video. Talk to you all later.
Have a great day!
Kerry

Well, I didn't quite spend the rest of the weekend as planned...
Yesterday, I did some school stuff, but not enough. I went to bed early, with plans to get up and go to the gym before they closed at 1:00. And at 10:30, my pager went off... we had a multi-unit apartment fire in the County. With only 6 people being currently authorized to write out our new financial procedures. Well, there are more if you count the paid staff, but I've NEVER seen our paid staff supervisor come to a fire if she can possibly (or even not!) get out of it. I happen to find the lady completely worthless, and since I've been doing Red Cross volunteer work since 1987 (started my 17th year in July!), and disaster action team since 1990, and National assignments since 1993, I guess I'm entitled to my opinion! I've worked with some absolutely fantastic paid staff folks who REALLY know what they're doing! This woman isn't one of them. Anyway, I can't go to many single family fires because most of the homes in this area are row-homes with lots of steps to the house or in the house, and I can't do stairs because of my ankle. But this being a multi-unit apartment fire, we set up a service center and helped clients there, and we had enough people to have others do damage assessment inside.
We started out with 42 adults and 15 children. Fortunately, most had places to go, and it was only the units most severely affected that we had to provide assistance to.
We have these new "gift card" type things we're using instead of the ancient forms that were like blank checks. But, like gift cards you buy in the store, they have to be activated or they can't be used. We can't activate our own cards, of course, as a precaution. We called them in, and ALL FIVE OF MY CARDS WERE ACTIVE!!! I hadn't been out, and hadn't used any of them! Not ONE of my cards worked. It was a, pardon the joke, disaster! It took many more hours to serve the clients than normal (we were on site for at least 4-5 hours just because of the cards). We finally got the card problem sorted out, but not before I had to deal with our casework supervisor. There are just two words to describe him: pompous ***! He's all yelling at me on the phone (or at least being very loud!), and ends with saying, "And on Tuesday, you need to get those other 3 cards over to chapter so I can kill them. They're dead cards." I told him I'd be happy to go out back and shoot the cards for him, but that I wasn't going to be able to get to chapter on Tuesday... Its the first day of school, for pity's sake, and the chapter closes at 4:30! My kids don't leave till 3:00, first day of school buses are always messed up, and we have a staff meeting at 3:30. He insisted a couple of more times that I had to get over there Tuesday. And you know what, I'm going to be snotty about it and not go over there Tuesday, even though my school isn't that far, and I can shoot straight up the road to the gym from the chapter. Yea, I know, I'm being bad.
But here's the other thing: I also dispatch for these people, and I'm the ONLY dispatcher that wasn't permitted to take the activation training. They only have so many slots for people to be activators, because obviously you don't want a lot of people being able to activate cards because it could cause problems. But, in order to activate, you need to be at a computer. To dispatch, you need to be at a computer. Remember what I said about our paid staff supervisor above... Yep, she's already pawning it off! She's told the other dispatchers that whenever I dispatch now, the back-up has to stay home too, so they can activate cards if necessary. So what is the point of ME staying home to dispatch the teams? The teams are going to have to call me to activate the cards, then I have to call the back-up dispatcher to activate the cards. And if the back-up needs to go out or something, they're required to notify me and the supervisor. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! I HATE stupidity! Especially when it makes other people's jobs harder! Why should TWO of us be tied to our computers for 72 hours?
She and I have tangled since I joined the chapter, and this is just another incident. We had a huge thing last year because she kept changing the dispatch schedule without telling anybody and I'd be out of town or in class, and not have any idea that I was supposed to dispatch... and of course, I'd come home to find half a dozen messages from the answering service. I don't wear my pager at school unless I KNOW I'm dispatcher, because administration has asked me not to. So, now I dispatch 1 weekend a month because she can't get her act together. I've considered going to another county chapter, where she isn't supervisor, because the supervisor for Anne Arundel and Howard County is one of those good people who knows what he's doing.
Honestly, the last two chapters I've been with... we have a good crew of volunteers here, at least, and they get the services out to the clients. The last chapter couldn't even manage that! Although their Youth Service staff are just fantastic. And I really do like the volunteer work: I like working with the clients, and I enjoy going on National assignments (I used to have a button that said, "Join Red Cross Disaster Action Team: See the World Through the Eye of A Hurricane.")... I've worked with some fantastic people all over the country.
Okay, enough of that. Sorry. The end of that whole story (as if you couldn't guess by my frustration) is that I didn't get to the gym today. I didn't get home till 5:30, and didn't get to bed till 6:15, then got up at 9, starving. And went back to sleep after I ate till 3:00.
Since 3:00, I've been doing school work... more coupons... I have one entire set finished!
Here's the latest update of what I need: .15, .20, .30, .40, .45, .50, .60, .65, .75, .85, $1.60

Thanks!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Please tell me tomorrow isn't the real beginning of the insanity!!!

Summer, Robyn , Mouse (sounds like you had an interesting weekend!!!) and Kerry, Hi!
Hope this week turns out good for all of us. Sorry not to get personal, I will be back tomorrow am so say hello.
G'nite!
Ginny

Let the chaos begin!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like my job.
I like my job.
I like my job.
I like my job.
I like my job.
I like my job.
I like my job.

Ok, Robyn~ I can't decide if the next line should be "there's no place like home!" or "Toto, I have a feeling we are not in Kansas anymore...." Personally, maybe Beam me up, Scottie is in order.......You make me laugh!!! Big hugs to you, though!! I remember the first few weeks of my new job, wondering if/how you will fit in, if it will ever make sense....all the politics, hoping you can see the back stabbers before they get to you and just trying to do your best with a smile on your face ! You're a professional and will do fine! They surely did not hire you because they thought you were a flunky. And you were not so well liked at your previous job because you were a flunky either. Its going to be ok....hang in there......take a deep breath!!! This year might be sticky at times (new staff, curriculum etc...) but honestly, it does pass quickly. BTW, how is your personal battle with your school district going? Did you hear from your friend in Florida?

Mouse-what a sordid tale!!!!!! Here you are trying to do something positive to help people and there is always some small minded person trying to mess up the works. My MIL did some work for the Salvation Army, and also encountered some similar situations. Hope your first week goes well!!!!!! And I will go upstairs later and see if I can help you out with the coupons you need.

Kerry- hope you got your walking video in!! Which one is your favorite??? (although Leslie Sansone has about 15 of them I think, it is unlikely that we have the same one). Any chance to chat with Dh about his kids? It was good to hear that things got a bit better for you.

Summer- thinking of you today.........and praying for you! Let us know what the test results were when you get a chance.

I just spoke to my SIL (she and BIL live in Spring Hill, Fla) and other than thay they do not have power, they did just fine. Their house is 5 years old and was built to meet some pretty modern building codes/hurricanes (not that any house can stand up to a Cat5 storm......). I'm glad they are ok- just a little water logged! It was tough this am getting Dd up for school- her first day. (public started last week, hers this week). She was a trouper- even asked if she held me up this am......what a sweet kid. I miss her, but will be seeing her soon as I have lunch duty today. The one nice thing about being at work again is I get these 4 hours off midday........mind you they are the shortest 4 hours under the sun, but I do get a bit of time for some peace and quiet, whatever that is. This afternoon all of my schools are open, so getting back ontime to my elementary route should be extremely interesting, if not impossible!!
Hey- I have a question....what do I do with the flasher and his brother??????
The flasher is in 2nd grade now, his brother a year behind him. Neither one can be trusted- both spend most of their trip on the bus making rude noises and generally tormenting other students. These are the kids who crawl under the seats.... and bring general mayhem to an otherwise sane bunch of kids. Several parents have asked that their child not be seated anywhere near them.....but that becomes unavoidable because they can't be trusted further back in the bus, (no matter how many rah, rah pep talks I give them about trust). Short of duct tape or strapping them to the roof rack (Oh, SO tempting!!!!) anyone have any ideas??
Guess I'd better go feed the neighbors cat.........see ya later. Chin up ladies!!!!
Ginny

WELL.... hope that everyone had a great day! My brother in law also volunteers with the Am. Red Cross. I call him "The Chief"....cause, well.... he doesn't miss a fire! I great intentions about the coupons..... forgive my lameness.... I've no good excuses except....I'm all wrapped up in MEMEMEME! Speaking of me.... Thanks, Kerry for missing me!

So.....about my day...cause I just KNOW you wanna know! hehehe...

All in all it was a successful day! I had perfect attendance. My clock was evidently 8 minutes fast which had me huffing and puffing and charging down the hall for lunch EARLY...which was a REAL hit with the principal! NOT! Unlike LAST year (at my old school) I was NOT cursed at by an irrate parent NOR was my life threatened by an irrate anger filled 6 year old! In fact, I only considered duct tape twice...and for the same child BOTH times! Ginny, thought of you this afternoon as I was having bus issues with one of my cherubs. Bus 5.... EVERYTHING said bus 5. His mother wrote bus 5 on the form. He said BUS 5. His grandmother writes Bus 5 on his agenda...yadda yadda yadda... so along comes dismissal FINALLY....and guess what...we've got lots of buses...but NO BUS 5. I confess my issue with the principal who calls the office....who tells us that he is to ride bus 5. THERE IS NO BUS 5. One of the "helpers" (I'm not sure of her capacity!) at the school asked me and I quote, "Who is this child's teacher? Where did his teacher go?" To which I calmly replied, "I'm the teacher. I've not left him!" To which she replied, "O". I had to tell them 4 times that there was NOT a bus 5....that I knew WHERE he went....it was just that it didn't exist! SOOO, they try to figure out where his grandmother, his sitter, IS and WHERE she lives.... all the while the rest of the school are looking at ME...the new girl....with the lost kid! The bus driver refuses to take him on her bus due to not knowing him.... AND then the bus driver yells at me.... "WHO is his teacher?" ARGHHH! You'd think a 39 year old hag like myself would kinda be obvious! WHAT AM I CHOPPED LIVER???
I hope the dear got home ok. I tried to call and there is no answer....this is why he stays with grandma whose address and phone we don't seem to have...sigh! BUT, no one threatened to kill me! YET!

4 of the classrooms very near (much too near for my liking!) to me had ceiling leaks caused by the renovation projects. They were literally ankle deep in the dirty water today. I'm scared to death as they begin working on my roof next week! The teachers were quite the troopers.... computers were ruined. even furniture was swelling due to the amount of rain.

Speaking of rain...... talked to my dear friend in Stuart Florida. Her school has been condemed due to hurricane damage. She doesn't know when or where they will get back to school..... EVERYTHING has been ruined... Their house is fine but they are still are without electricity, water, sewer, gas, phone, etc.... She is hanging in there.... but let me tell you....from experience....those ice and gas lines get mighty tiring AND cut throat after 3 or so hours!

I'm literally hoarse from all the talking that I've done today. Isaac.... THAT is the name of the year! BUT he didn't threaten to kill me! hehehe! I'm off to drink a glass of wine....whine....for medicinal purposes, of course! IF that doesn't help my voice... I bet some whiskey WILL!

ya'll take care!

I am so disgusted right now. But, I guess I shouldn't be at all surprised. I have no MRI results yet because of the holiday weekend, they didn't get around to it, and even if a radiologist took a moment to look at the MRI, they can't find any of the three mammograms that they did on me to make the comparison. I may not need to worry about cancer...I may drop dead of anger and frustration! Isn't it enough that they have already been hugely insensitive about all of this? Isn't it enough that I couldn't get my MRI's sooner? Isn't it enough that I had to wait during a three-day weekend?

Maybe I'm just selfish. Maybe it is more important for the employees to get a head start on a holiday weekend and just put off transporting my much needed mammos to the Fairfield office. Maybe their fun is more important than my diagnosis. How dare I worry about having cancer when they all need to think about partying. Shame on me! Naaah, maybe they are all insensitive, cruel, a**holes!

Tomorrow is my second MRI at 8am. I don't want to go. What choice do I have?

I will post again later after putting DD to bed.

Quick post from your resident Mouse:
I didn't kill any kids. I didn't kill any administrators. I didn't kill any other teachers. We only had one resource incident, caused by schedule confusion. The child was a special case last year, and refused school for nearly a whole quarter. But we worked it out, and I gave him lots and lots of make-up work for my class so he could pass (he didn't need my class again, he had the skills needed for the class because he's a computer nerd anyway). Now, I switched over to Survey... which he didn't finish, but admin excused him from it. He allegedly wanted Retail. Today, the mere thought of going to retail caused him tears and frustration, which led to cursing and the throwing of a binder down the hall. For some reason, he trusted me enough to walk without complaint to resource and answered all of my questions. Amazing.
Two of my other challenging children actually DID SOME WORK!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!

Mouse- sounds like you fared well today.... I am happy for you. No murders in the first day is a good thing.

Summer- if I were in your shoes right now, murder might just be on the top of my agenda. Can't imagine the lack of sensitivity in how your case is being handled!!!!!!!!!
Go tomorrow with my prayers (and everyone elses here too!). God is bigger than all of these morons put together......much, much bigger. And it's His world.......and He is in control of it. Hang in there, we love you.

Robyn- you still talking to me, Hon????? (seems as though you had a bad day with a bus driver!!!!! OPPS!). I am sure that somehow, that student got home......Bus 5 is out there somewhere. Just breaks your heart for the student (had a similar incident happen last year with me.....).
My afternoon went ok- only one student from the other school made it to my bus, so I was not horrifically late for elementary route. Of all of the 4 buses, I was the only one that did not get stuck too badly. But then tomorrow is another day........I will probably get hit with a load of kids tomorrow. (many drive, parents pick up, after school stuff).
Guess, I'd better get Dd in bed....she had a busy day (as did her Mama!)
Kerry, how did your day go?????
See ya tomorrow!
Ginny

Evening Ladies,
Let me try this one more time. I had a post typed out and it got lost somewhere. I guess I didn't really have anything important to say. LOL
My day was okay. My kids were wound for sound since it was three day weekend. It took me most of the day to get them settled down. I started to work my afterschool program tonight. So I am really tired. But I did manage to drag my body to TOPS and I lost a 1/2 pound. So I was happy. Now I just have 26 more to lose before Christmas and my dh said he would take me out for a nice dinner at Damon's just the two of us.
As for me getting to talkto him yet about his comment the other day. We haven't been able to do it yet. The kids were here after school tonight and then I left for my meeting and he wasn't home when I got home. So I am hoping he comes home before I go to bed or try for tomorrow evening to finish the conversation.
Summer, I can't believe what a run around you are getting. Those people are very rude and cruel to you to make you wait like this. I will say a special prayer that your 2nd MRI goes well for you tomorrow and you get some results soon. Keep your spirits up! I love you, sweetie. Here is a big bear hug for you. ((((((hug))))))
Ginny, glad that your day was good. As for the walking videos, I have Walk Away the Pounds for the abs (1,2,3 miles), Walk Strong, and Walk away the Pounds Express (1,2,3,and 4 miles). I love them all. Plus I use a strechie and the walk away belt. What ones do you have?
Mouse glad that you day went okay, despit that minor incident. Did you make it to the gym to workout tonight? Hope you got things straighted out at the Red Cross! Don't you hate it when you are doing a service by helping others and people have to belittle you.
Robyn, hope you enjoyed your glass of wine. That is the way to relax after the stressful afternoon you had of trying to find that little one's bus. I am sorry it had to happen to you the new kid on the block. Things will be even better tomorrow.
Well ladies I am going to bed. I am exhausted after my day. Talk to you all tomorrow.
Have a wonderful Wednesday!
((((hugs))))
Kerry

I didn't get any school work done tonight....starting out sooo wrong...

first my friend from Florida called.... her school roof is gone....they don't know what they are going to do.

then my son's advocate called.... we've requested an IEP meetin.

THEN another dear friend called.... his wife left him this weekend.

which one should I have told to call me back another day?@!

Didn't even get to my wine! or whine....

Summer, I'd complain like there was no tomorrow..... rant, rave, scream! This office is NOT very professional! And they act like they don't care! Are their results trustworthy?!

I'm off to bed.... will get up and try again around 4.... maybe I'll get something done then!

181 more days until summer.....but who's counting?!

Morning......my supervisor is also counting the days left......but who's counting!
See ya later.
Ginny

No results yet. When I arrived for the 2nd MRI, they still hadn't received my mammo films. I have finally narrowed down my problems with the radiologist to the Trumbull office. Fairfield is trying to do their job without the cooperation of the Trumbull office. They will be getting the angry letter when I am finished with this rollercoaster. So, the MRI was easier this time...surprisingly so since I was DREADING IT I guess because I knew what to expect, it wasn't as bad. Now I return to waiting. Ginny, you are right. God is bigger than all of this, and I know that I am in His hands.

Time for me to catch up.

Robyn, wow you sound overwhelmed. I hope your son's PPT is successful. I hope your friend is okay. Did you get hit with any of the storm? We are just getting rained on for a few days...nothing we can't handle.

Kerry, I'm working our after school program too. Talk about "easy money!" I help the kids with homework, then while they play in my centers, I get to work in my room. I love it. I hope you get to talk with your hubby soon.

Mousie, congrats on not killing anyone and for deescalating a significant incident. Re: Red Cross...I hate stupid people too. I hate wasting precious time. I hate inefficiency. I'm right with you.

Ginny, I'm going back a ways...does the flasher have a diagnosis? Is he special ed? Is the principal aware of the behavior? Do you think this is a DCF issue, i.e., what is going on in that home? I don't blame the other parents for wanting their children to keep their distance...I would give him a wide berth myself. Get yourself some support in dealing with him.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers, hugs, and support while I await my test results. You have all made a scary situation a little easier to bear. You are all the best.