Tonight I got my hair done. Colored and cut. Had her wax my eyes and lip! I'm a new me! Sorta!
I have 12 days left! (Thought it was 13...had to count...What a happy surprise! LOL)
Soooo much to do. Will get it done. My dearest school friend retired in March. My "next door neighbor" of 16 years is retiring at the end of the year. And another dear friend is leaving in December. WHAT am I going to do?! RETIRE!?! Like that will ever happen! LOL If I'm too young for retirement then why do I feel soooo old?!
I can't WAIT to just SIT STILL and not hear any little voices! Just a few weeks! IF I survive!
Kerry, I thought of you yesterday as I sat watching my ds play baseball! Soooo, what kind of spectator step mom are you? Are you that quiet one on the end of the bench? Are you the big mouth cheering everyone on? What kind of baseball mom do you think I am? hehehe.... T hit 2 doubles....REAL doubles...not BadNewsBearsDoubles! He played 3rd for 2 innings and he caught for 2 innings. He had a GREAT game! They lost 8 to 3. (His doubles brought home 2 of those 3, of course! hehehe!) 4 days...guess that THAT is 3 now! Lucky girl! Lucky girl!
Summer, sorry to hear that your sister is so bad off. I hope that she is healing and recooping. Doesn't it make you crazy about EKG's and Stress Tests prior to surgeries?! Hope that your dh does well! Pool!?! I can feel that water! What a great source of exercise!
Well...gotta run...phone call that I must take! You take care!
Meee
Good Morning Summer and Robyn,
I hope your days are going great today. My day is going great. I have all my classroom packed up. So now all I have to do is work on my paperwork. So all my teacher workday, I probably won't have anything to do, so my aide and I are going to talk about next school year's plans.
You only have a couple more weeks. But they will go by very fast. I am still trying to think of were my school year went. Atleast I am ahead of the game for a change this year.
I went to my TOPS meeting last night and gained 2 1/2 pounds. I think it had a lot to do with eating out this past weekend alot. Even though I tried to make good food choices, you never know what presevres are in the food. But I am going to try harder this week. I am also getting ready to start my monthly any day now.
I am only of those silent types that take in the game. I will clap and cheer on the kids but I am not a loud mouth. LOL
Well I better go and get ready for lunch. I am drinking my weight loss shake and eating an apple. Then I think I will spend the rest of my lunch reading a book.
Take care,
Kerry
Robin & Kerry: I am sooooo tired right now. My period arrived 2 days ago. It always takes a lot out of me. Yesterday, I hosted a parent breakfast...a full catered breakfast with all the works. It was an opportunity for the parents to fill out a questionnaire (I should call it a critique) for the state. I filled a wall with documentation (proof) of all that I do...things that would be asked on the questionnaire. I had our home/school coordinator (who speaks Spanish) and my supervisor there as well to answer questions. In spite of all the assistance we provided, some of the parents still had trouble filling out the questionnaire. Many said that I don't send out newsletters. I send out one once a month. Some said that I don't have parent/teacher conferences. I had one in November and another in April. Many said that I don't have a parent bulletin board. It is to the left of my classroom door. The list goes on and on. It is infuriating because I work so friggin hard. I am great at communicating. I send home a daily note. I send home a monthly newsletter. I have a bulletin board in the classroom and a white board right outside the door. I make phone calls. I greet each parent at drop-off, and speak with each parent at pick-up. If someone gets hurt, a note is sent and I speak with the parent about it when the child gets picked up. I've invited them to attend parent meetings, volunteer, observe, help with field trips, fundraise, etc... Yet, on many questionnaires, the parents say that I never asked them to do such things. Is it because they can't read? Is it because the wording of the questions is too complicated? AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! And my most involved parent who praises me to the extreme didn't check off many of the things I do regularly (that she is a witness to!) So, needless to say, I'm a bit frustrated. Maybe these people are just plain stupid. At this point, I just want to get them all collected, tally up the score, and send it in. Screw it!!!
I have a major desire to binge right now. I've got to get back to counting those points. The one thing I haven't slacked off on is exercise.
Oh, I forgot to tell you. On Saturday, I weighed myself at the YMCA. Guess what? The YMCA scale is the same as mine!!! I was right!!! My GYN's office scale was bogus!!! Remember how I beat myself over those extra pounds that I thought I had on my body?! Well apparently it was for nothing.
HI Summer and Robyn:
Today is the day! The last day of school with my students. As the week went on, I had less students. I started out with 5 and now am down to 3 a day. Yesterday I had 2 go home early and then 1 who laid on the front steps of the school and refused to get on the bus to go home. So the principal, a sub and the school deputy carried him to the bus. He thought it was funny. I was not a happy camper with him. Maybe that is why I had the desire to eat like a hog last night. But I was good I went to Curves and worked out, came home and made dinner for the kids, then I rode my excerise bike for 10 miles. So I went to bed early when my hubby made popcorn for the boys and him last night, or I would have grabbed the bowl and inhaled popcorn and bowl too. Well I better go and get my kids started for the last day of school. We are just going to play all day. I only have two kids today.
Summer I know how you feel about parents and their input and support. I think alot of it is that they don't know how to read or don't comprehend the questions. Hang in there. Your year is almost over.
Have a great day!
Take care,
Kerry
Hi Ladies,
I am done with the school year. I just have to go in on Tuesday for Teacher work day. Then I am on vacation. I was proud of myself at the 4th grade picnic today. I only had a hamburger minus the bun, a spoonful of macroni salad and two spoonfuls of seven layer salad. Plus a small spoon of nacho salad. Then I had a small brownie. Tonight after work I went to Curves and worked out with my friend. My goal for the summer is to lose 20 or 30 pounds. I am thinking positive thoughts. I think I am going to take water areobics at the city pool. I hear that it is suppose to be good for helping you lose weight. So do you have big plans for the weekend? I think we are just going to enjoy playing with my DH's children this weekend and relax some. Have a safe and fun holiday weekend!
Take care,
Kerry
Hi Robyn and Summer,
I am so pissed this morning. I was getting out of the shower to get dressed for the day when I heard my DH yelling and screaming. I hurried up and got dressed come out of the bathroom to him telling me that his one son almost didn't pass kindergarten and that he is so stupid. He is not going to let him do anything this summer but having me work with him to learn. He had him standing in the middle of the kitchen repeating over and over that 3 and 1 makes 31. I told my DH to get his butt in the bedroom so we could talk. He started yelling at me to just butt out and let him handle it his way. But last time I checked I was still a teacher and thought I knew what I was talking about on educational things. I realize that his son is a little slow on some things, but I think a lot of goes back to his twin brother doing a lot of talking for him and not letting him learn it on his own. Plus his brother and older sister are both smart and I really think my DH compares him to them. Which I think is wrong and I don't know how to polite tell him that. Their mom was suppose to sign them up for preschool two years ago and dragged her feet about it. So when she finally did go sign them up the preschool classes were all full. The only person who works with him to learn stuff at home is myself when I have the time and they are over at our house. It just pisses me off how my DH acted this morning. I am not talking to him right now. What a way to start my summer vacation! I love him dearly but he can be such a dumb *** at times. He doesn't think before he speaks and it gets him in trouble all the time. Guess what he is doing right now, sitting at the kitchen table helping his son with his numbers. Not even 20 minutes ago he was screaming at him that he was dumb and needed to stop being lazy. He had the poor little thing in tears and all upset. It will be a miracle if I don't lose my insanity by the end of this weekend.
Thanks for letting me rant and rave here. I am just going to stay away from the kitchen so I don't start emotionally eating for the heck of it.
Have a wonderful day!
Kerry
Hi!
I have been rather MIA these days. Spring is very hard in my household- 3 kids and 3 spring sports. (softball, baseball, soccer........) Well, life is finally a wee bit more slow- baseball season has ended, Ds's team was eliminated from extra season play.
That still leaves the 2 girls...never a dull one!
In case you do not remember me, I am the brain dead bus driver....we still have 18 days of school left, and these next few weeks are toughies. Finals, class trips...regents......aw I will get thru it. Been interesting on the bus too, had one wee monster who decided to "drop his drawers" to show a little girl (he is 6, she is 5) his genitals. Of course the mom complained.....but I got thru that one ok. And then a week later, he hit some major behavior problems- had to write up him and his brother (another misbehaving kid, both act out constantly because mom is too busy pampering herself, she is a competetive body builder who lives at the gym) and noone else will sit with either of the kids........Yes I will get thru this. Maybe I should take another route next year????
I have also hit some awful computer woes- I think I have been infected by spyware- and have to do something about that. The computer has been unpredictable at best.
Pfew....nuff from me!
Kerry, Robyn, Summer, I will try to keep up with you better now....forgive me for being a slacker. Kerry, I hope your woes with Dh and his son cool off.
Take care!
Ginny
Hey ya'll! Have you missed me???? I've been running around like the proverbial chicken without a head. 8 ...count them 8 more days! AND we are enjoying this long weekend!
Yesterday we all (EVEN the kids!) slept late! I worked on school paperwork Friday night AND on Saturday (when we finally decided to roll out of bed! It WAS wonderful to get some sleep!)
Last night, dh, ds12andds9, and I went to a concert that was about an hour from the house. Once we got over the two bridges and thru the backedup tunnel (we left very early as we know that at any moment those bridges and tunnel may prevent traveling any further and we were NOT going to miss the concert that we had been waiting for for MONTHS!), we ate dinner before the show at a terrific Mexican place that I had sworn off due to my fanny size. (It was VERY yummy!) The concert was absolutely WONDERFUL! RUSH is a family favorite! The boys were "loved on" hard by those sitting by us. They actually got interviewed for a newspaper article. For the 2nd set, the reporter stayed down by us and the boys told him the names of the songs as they were beginning. (The reporter didn't know too many Rush songs! LOL) The (adult) girls in front of us kept dancing with them and talking to them. The couple behind us bought them a giant pretzel and a soda because they were "so sweet and having so much fun"! As we were leaving there was NO one at the tshirt stand, so, of course, we got them tshirts....which they put on immediately! It was a great time! My legs hurt this morning from all the dancing and bopping about! After 1 bridge and 1 tunnel at 1 a.m., we stopped at IHOP....and I ate all the rest of the weekend's points! I really enjoyed the two meals out yesterday....and WILL get back on track. It was fun to be out with the family, seeing the band that we love...and eating without thinking of points for a change! (NOT the right WWphilosophy..I know...but well...)
Kerry, I'm sorry to hear of the stress with your dh and dss. MEN. MEN and SCHOOL STUFF. That is all I can say about it. Good luck. You are right... stay out of the kitchen! Food will NOT make any of this better or go away! Hang in there...and just flat out tell him that each kid is different, yadda, yadda, yadda. (Does he have any sibs of his own? Maybe you could use THAT approach to start the conversation!)
Ginny! Welcome home! I WAS wondering where you went! I hear you about the kids and the sports! My dh is baseball coach this spring...so he gets out of playing taxi...the creep! Sorry to hear...and I say this with a huge sigh of relief and a smile...that your ds's baseball team was eliminated from the extra play! Yahoo! 1 down 2 to go! ;P Hang in there with the bus.. I can NOT imagine what it is like on our buses right now! Things are crazy in the school! One of my own little dears got suspended because SHE will NOT stop hitting or kicking kids! "Dropping Trou" to show the world is old news at my school! We had a 5th grader do that in THE CAFETERIA of all places on a dare. He was suspended and about 250 kids saw his "package". As far as I know...no parent complaints! Imagine!
Kerry....Where are you, woman?! I'm sending my father to the post office on Tuesday. I'm never going to get there myself...sooooo.... watch the mail next week!
Hugs to all....our hearing will eventually recover from last nights fun...but in the meantime you might have to YELL at me to get me back on the RIGHT path! 8 more days and then I go HARD CORE yet again! ::roll eyes here::
Afternoon Ladies:
Welcome back Ginny. We missed you.
Things are better today with the family. I talked to my dh last night after we got home from watching his nephew win a demoltion debry. I just told him that his son was a just one of those kids who needs it repeated over and over again to him. I asked him what he would do if he had a learning disability. He took that better than I thought he would. He told me that he would get him the help he needed. I told him that I would work with my stepds over the summer, but he needed to stay away from us when I was working with him and his siblings too. He seem to respect those wishes, so we will see. Thanks for your prayers and advice.
I have a graduation party to go to this afternoon. I am hoping that I can stay on track a little bit. But I think I am going to eat a piece of cake though. I deserve it after yesterday's craziness.
Robyn sounds like your family had a wonderful family outing. Your boys must have loved all the special attention they got from everyone around you. So 8 more days huh? What are your big plans for the summer?
Ginny glad to hear that your life is slowing down a little bit. I know what you mean about the kids in sports. My stepdd is in baton and softball. Then my twin stepds' are in baseball. It makes for a lot of running around town. Hang in there and you will be about to enjoy your summer shortly.
Summer I continue to say prayers for your family. When does your dh go in for his surgery? Please keep us posted.
Have a great day!
Take care,
Kerry
Hi Ladies,
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was better after my DH and I had our little discussion. Today I sat down with my stepson and we worked for about 30 minutes out of his Jumpstart Kindergarten workbook. He did really well. I think he enjoyed the one on one attention. Plus the stickers he was able to put on his pages when he was finished. He even surprised me when I was listening to his brother read a story to me. His brother was struggling over a word and he just read it outloud for him. That ticked his brother off who is smarter than him. But I was very proud of him. That the update on my tutoring.
I had a nice time at the graduation party yesterday afternoon. I was good and only eat one plate of food. Then I had two little pieces of cake. One was white cake and the other was an ice cream cake from the Dairy Queen. I did make up for eating two pieces of cake by taking an hour walk with my family around town last night. Then this morning since I couldn't go work out at Curves since it was a holiday, I actually worked out at home. I rode my excerise bike for 10 miles, did my Gazelle Freestyler for 10 minutes and then used my ab roller and did a 100 crunches. So hopefully tomorrow night at TOPS I will have either stayed the same or went down some on the scale. I can always hope.
Well I need to go and get ready for my Teacher work day tomorrow. I have to lay out my clothes and fill my water bottle. I don't have a lot to do tomorrow, just carry over a few boxes to my new room, file some paperwork and socialize with my coworkers.
Take care,
Kerry
Hi ladies! I have been REALLLLLLY BUSY. I will go back and read all the postings I missed the past few days hopefully tomorrow. I must get my butt to bed. Miss you! Summer
Hi ladies,
Good news, I losed 1/4 of a pound last week. So doing my crunches must be working. Even though I hate them. I guess I will keep doing them. LOL.
I have been able to finish two books since starting my summer vacation. My sister works at a library and they are having an adult summer reading program. So I told her to sign me up for it. I have to read 6 books from 6 different catorgories. So I am curious to see what kinds of books I am going to have to read this summer. I hope I don't have to read any sci-fic. I can't get interest in those types of books at all.
My other sister who is a first grade teacher said they had a fire at her school yesterday. One of the 5 graders stuffed his locker full of papers and lit it. The fire was put out before any real damage could be done. I guess they had to keep the kids outside for about an hour yesterday morning, so the fire dept. could air the building out. What a nice way to almost end the school year. They get out next week sometime.
Well I am tired. I rode my excerise bike for 10 miles this morning. Then I went to Curves and worked out. Only to come home and mow the yard. We have a push mower and it took me over 2 1/2 hours to mow. So I am hoping for great results come Friday at Curves. LOL.
Well I am going to go take a little nap. I hope you are all weathering the almost end of your school year well. Talk to you all soon.
Take care,
Kerry
....reading books and getting to take a nap?!?! Kerry, I'm sooooooooo jealous! I'm 7 days away from my own napping and reading! LOL THAT and exercising! I'm dead tired tonight...it was a long dayyy....so I'm going to cut it short for today! Good going, Kerry! Keep up the great work! (If you have to read sci-fi...read The Hobbitt!)
Okay, I am back...for now. Last week was nuts! DD got injured at school. During the after school program, her friend pushed her and she fell landing on her head. Her friend got the "teacher" and she told DD that she was fine and to go play. That evening, I noticed scratches and dirt on her forehead, cleaned her up, and asked her what happened. She gave very few details saying that she fell and her "teacher" said she was fine. No note was sent home. Next day at 1pm, I get a call at school that I have to pick her up and take her to the doctor. DD's eye was swollen and red. I dropped everything and took her to the doctor. She told the doctor that when she fell the day before, she had gotten a piece of a wood chip in her eye. The doctor asked if the "teacher" rinsed her eye out. DD said, "No." 24 hours later, the eye was totally infected. We got antibiotic drops. When I got home, I called the after school program, and the "teacher" denied the whole thing. She basically said that DD was a liar! Nice. Well, I wrote a letter to the nurse, her classroom teacher, who shared it with the head person at the YMCA and our principal. Heads rolled. I don't think they will be so careless next time.
Duffy, the dog, was in bad shape by Friday. His symptoms were ignored while I dealt with DD. Anyway, we were at the vet on Friday with Duffy who was in agony. He sprained his shoulder and leg. He had tried to escape under the fence and had gotten stuck. Genius. He is on anti-inflamatories. Making him comfortable has been a drama.
No results of DH's stress test yet. Meanwhile, he is freaking out over difficulties at work (and I think he is worrying about the operation).
School has been insane. Would you believe I have to have my annual observation on Friday?! Imagining waiting until the last few weeks of school!!! Many teachers are already out of school, while I'm dealing with so much bull****, not to mention being observed and evaluated!!!
I'm so sorry to be awol, but I'm just really overwhelmed. I haven't even spoken with my sister in a few days. I just can't seem to keep up with things.
Kerry, I feel so sorry for your stepson. He is so young to be put under so much pressure. Children in kindergarten learn what they learn when they are developmentally ready to learn. I could understand coming down hard on a teenager, but someone so young needs loving encouragement. I shouldn't say anymore since it isn't my family or my business. It just makes me sad to hear about a young child's spirit being crushed. Thank God he has you. You may be the one person that little boy can count on. Good for you!
Welcome back Ginny! You have some very humorous stories to tell!
How's it hangin Robin? Who did you see in concert? We are supposed to see Chicago (the band) at the end of June. Hopefully DH will be well enough.
HI Robyn, Summer and Ginny,
Sounds like you are all hanging in there with the last few weeks of school. I can't believe that they would wait that long to evaluate you Summer. My school district's cut-off date for annual reviews is April 15th. Like you are not under enough stress right now. I hope you are taking care of yourself so you can stay healthy for everyone else. Sorry to hear about your DD's accident at school. How is her eye doing? I am surprised that she didn't complain about it bothering her the night it happened. I hope your family starts to get on the mend soon. When are you all going to Flordia?
Well I better go to bed. I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. I have to call and make appointments to be a new patient with a family doctor and a dentist. I haven't found one I liked since I moved out of my parents' house 5 years ago. I think it is time to stop relying on Urgent Care for all my medical needs. LOL. Plus our new VCR/DVD player quit playing and I need to see if the store will take it back and give us a new one. You all have a great week! I am thinking about you all still being in school and remember the days of going to school until about the middle of June when I was in school. Don't miss those days at all.
Take care,
Kerry
