Just a short hello......other than the miserable $360 bill from the auto mechanic......why did I say I would drive this trip tonite????? Must have been insane.
I want my cat and a good long nap......and this cold is not helping me.
Kerry- great idea channeling all that stress into activity or something creative- instead of eating (hey, I can identify with that!) Good job getting that workout in.
Robyn- you go girl!!!!! I am so happy for you with the good evaluation??? (as if we expected any other than good news for you?!) You've worked hard and deserve this.
Mouse and Summer- how is your week going......
Someone please wake me up when it is Friday evening and this week is OVER!
See ya tomorrow. (if I survive this trip)
Ginny
Ginny, I think the Yankee affiliation comes from the fact that I live less than an hour from Manhattan. So, we are very much affected by all that is NYC, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It is great when we want to see a Broadway show, etc. I will definitely continue to give my ex-students the attention they need. (I have one who comes to me for bandaids on her boo boos rather than the nurse.) They all know that I love them like my own and will always be welcome in my room whenever they need to be there. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade teachers actually encourage my continued involvement. They send their students downstairs to read to my class, etc. They are all wonderful teachers themselves, so they don't feel threatened by my relationship with their kids. I wish pre-k was located upstairs with the big kids instead of downstairs with kindergarten since they have a lot more fun upstairs, and the teachers are much friendlier.
Kerry, so you have big kids in your after school program. It is so funny...3rd graders are big kids to me!!! How silly is that?! I am reading Fair Haven by JoAnn Ross. I just finished reading The Notebook. I liked the beginning to the middle until it switched over to the story about the couple when they got old. It was too friggin depressing. I would have liked to read about the couple's whole life and marriage together, not just the beginning of their relationship and then when she got alzheimers. Ick. Anyway, Fair Haven is set in glorious Ireland, and it is very romantic. I love it so far, but I'm still waiting for it to get juicy!
Robyn & Ginny, it is so cool (no pun intended) that you both like Hockey!!! Wow!!!
Robyn, sorry things aren't getting better with DS. Keep fighting girl. You know the law. You know what you have coming to you. Take it.
Mousie, miss you.
I can't wait for the weekend. I hope it lingers a little longer than most of them do.
WELLLLLLLLLL...........today was a tuff day at school BUT I gotta tell you... it was NOTHING compared to good days at the old school! Amazing but soooooo darn true! Tonight tho I'm exhausted! I think the whole WEEK has been difficult for some reason!
Weather was a bit unpredictable. We went from wearing shorts and having the air on to having the windows open and wearing shorts and freezing in the morning and thinking that we need long pants TO shut windows, the heat on, jackets and LONG pants daily! All in the scope of a week! Whew!
I'm sort of hoping, dreaming, heck PRAYING that it will be raining on Saturday so that we don't have to go to ds' baseball game. Bad mom, huh?! I want to, neeeeed to sleep!
My fabu review had one of the new teachers in tears today. She and I met at the beginning of the year. She teaches 5th grade. She is young. We have NOTHING in common EXCEPT.... she has a GREAT sense of humor! We've gotten fairly close. Which is hysterical as we are such polar opposites...except for the laughing in the middle! Anyway...her lesson and review were FARRRRRR from good. She has NEVER taught before. NOTHING went right with her lesson, yadda yadda yadda.... And so she asks if she could read mine. WHO knew she was gonna flip. It took me nearly 30 minutes to explain that while I'm new to the school that I've been teaching first grade for 17 years. YEARS. YEARS! I could have been HER first grade teacher!!!!
Poor thing...I felt horrible for knowing how to teach! I did my best to reassure her. She has a mentor....but I've been trying to give her "old dog pointers"...things you learn to do because of experience! Anyway. I was sort of taken off guard by her tears as a result of my success... poor girl!
I am in a very bad spot with my head and my fat. I have a LOT of deep thinking that must be done. I just can't seem to get it done right now tho. Which makes me sad so I eat which makes me sadder so I eat... DARNNN how do you get emotions undercontrol?! I was considering a shrink... my brain needs so much work!
Stephen's teachers have said that they can meet with me for a conference any time between the hours of 8 and 4. Those are MY work hours nearly exactly... AND I have 5 days of leave for the year.....and there are no flu shots ....... I'm petrified. and I'm angry that they have SUCH compassion for a fellow teacher. (We wont discuss the teacher's kid....sigh!) enough..
I'm off to get to my homework...yipeee skippee...
Tomorrow is FRIDAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Hope everyone is doing well.... Hang in there! take care,
meeeeee
Robyn, that new teacher is so lucky to have you. It is too bad that student teaching didn't prepare her better. But, she has you with your experience, your compassion, and best of all, your sense of humor!!! As far as the "availability" of the teachers you need to meet with...that is bullsh*t!!! They have to accomodate you either before school or after school. I can't tell you how many parents I've met with when it was inconvenient for me, but since it was my responsibility to meet with them, I did it. Then again, my district bends over backwards for parents. They clearly don't do that in your son's district. I understand the panic about sick time and the lack of flu shots. As you've read, I'm in a total panic right now. Basically, the only people getting shots in CT are hooked up to their own portable oxygen tanks or feeding tubes which makes me being an asthma patient look like small potatoes. I'm sh*t out of luck. Already my room has been flooded with sick kids whose parents drop them off saying, "he is sick, but he really wanted to come to school or she threw up three times before school, but she is okay now or he has a cold and is coughing a lot, so I will take him to the doctor AFTER school." Three of them arrived with fevers. I saw that glazed over look on their faces, felt their foreheads, took their temps at the front door of the school, and sent them home with fevers ranging from 101-103!!!. Each parent acted totally shocked that their child had a fever...yeh right!!! So, I know, like you and everyone else at our thread, I will be using every last sick day this year.
Hello, all. I'm here. I survived the week, but it was surely a minor miracle.
I gave the letter of acceptance to my supervisor yesterday, and it was like I set off a wet firecracker. No congratulations, didn't get told I did a good job, didn't ask me about plans or anything. He just wasn't interested. That started Thursday.
Mid-Day Thursday, I found myself scheduled for a "mediation meeting" with the database administration, her supervisor, my lead teacher and my supervisor. What a JOKE that was! I was told that I don't go the extra mile, that I try to evade the system by not following policy, and got blamed for at least two issues that I had no control over. One included a student that was assigned to my class, but his homeroom teacher got his schedule wrong when she gave him a student version... and although I followed procedures to find out where he was, I was blamed for not emailing the database administrator to let her know that he wasn't in my class. I emailed the lead teacher for his program and his homeroom teacher! For pity's sake. I was also blamed because the database administrator sent out an email listing the various report review meetings, and I went to the wrong one. She moved my name from the department I teach for, to the department that I case manage for. There are two teachers in the building that teach in the Industry/Vo-Tech area, but case manager for the traveling diploma program; me and the Tech Ed teacher. So I went to the review meeting for the group where my name was. Makes sense to you, right? Yea, well it didn't make sense to anybody else (although verbally it initially made sense to my supervisor when I checked with him and the lead teacher!!!!), and I was told if I didn't understand something, I should email the database administrator. What was there to not understand? You put my name under the lead teacher for the diploma program, not under the vo-tech program. I went where YOUR list told me to go! Somehow, though, that is my fault too.
Despite the fact that the database administrator was warned by HR over her dealings with staff and that other staff complained about how she treated me the last 2 years, it was all my fault. Right. Whatever. It was a pointless meeting that kept me from calling my endocrinologist when I was supposed to, and kept me from eating my lunch until nearly 2 pm since they took my entire planning period and another 20 minutes of a class.
I'm so tired of all the BS, really. They're expecting at least 5, possibly more, new students enrolled... and 2 of my classes are already at 9 and 10 students. I don't have that many desks! I asked for more desks in July. They didn't order them till August, and then other staff received the desks. I asked for 4-6, and received 3.
I don't go the extra mile, but I met after-school on a FRIDAY with somebody from the DC area Red Cross to set up a community service opportunity for our students who need hours to graduate. Those community service opportunities will, by the way, take place during my planning period... and after-school or on weekends. All this, from somebody who doesn't go the extra mile. What the ???????
So, my poor endocrinologist has been trying to talk to me for 2 weeks, I haven't been able to talk to her for more than 10 minutes. I'm waiting for her to call me now... we were supposed to talk at 4:30, but she was busy. Its 5:40 now, so I kinda doubt I'll hear from her... and she's gone all next week.
Sounds as though everyone has just completed a week or pure torture in one way or another. Thankfully, it is over and we get 2 big days off for good behavior!! Simply amazing.
Mouse- well, it sure sounds to me as though you notified all the right people for the situation you found yourself in.........I don't know, I HATE all those chain of command issues, where people get all hung up on "well you told so and so but you did not tell me.......!"- then the spitefulness and indignant stuff kicks in.....aw, it is Friday, Mouse.
Get some quality pool time in for yourself if you can this weekend!!!! And hopefully, Imp will be up for a good snuggle too (with felines, you never know!). Did the endocrinologist ever get thru to you?
Summer- try not to panic too much about the flu shot situation. There is little we can do about it, other than stock up on echinecia tea (save it for when you feel sick) take vitamins, drink lots of fluids and slather on the Purel! It looks as though none of us are going to get the shot- or FLumist or anything. Take good care of yourself. And try to get rest. BTW, I had one student march on my bus Thursday announcing (while he looked awful, glassy eyed, pale and weak) that " I know I have a fever and am sick, but my mom said to go home on the bus anyway!" (someone please tell me what to do with this kid if he pukes on my bus......is his mama gonna clean that up??? !) How many sick days do you get????? Somehow we will get thru this school year.......and hope and pray that CDC, FDA and all the other powers that be with the vaccine industry get it right next year!
Robyn- how nice to hear that even a bad day at the new school is still better than good one at the old one!!! Guess this was a great change for you. Unfortunately, I have seen that type of stuff all too often....where a fellow professional holds little respect for someone who is in the parent role (do they think that MAYBE you just happen to know when they might be bluffing it?????? Hmmmmmmmmmmm??????) Summer's advice to you was so sagely......keep fighting-you know what is right!As far as your eating goes, I am NO expert and surely have my own issues with emotional eating. WW does have some great literature that can be used for any eating plan- they give ideas on how to overcome some of the more common problems- very concrete instructions on how to get over lifes hurdles. If you can clue me in a wee bit (don't need the details, just a wee bit on what makes you stumble to bad eating) I can make a copy of the appropriate page(s) from the WW book and either snail mail or if it is short type and email. Some of their stuff is very helpful. You probably do not need a shrink...... this can seem so overwhelming. Go for small victories.....small improvements, empower yourself to get thru this.
Kerry- I did send the stuff to you yesterday. Ask away when the snail arrives......hope your week ended up well!!!!!!
I survived the trip. Got back late (10) with my bus muddy and smelly from the lovely football players. Oh, it was not too bad, and in a wee bit of a way I enjoyed it. The coworker that took the cheerleaders and I went out to dinner to a chinese place (district payed for that!) and we had a nice chat. She is not someone that I knew all that well, and I did get to know her a lot better. All in all, a pleasant evening. (except for the messy bus). I would take another trip now, being not too far from NYC, I would LOVE to drive to some of the historical destinations -Van Cortland Manor stuff like that. (not in the city, however). Maybe someday.......And the woman I went up with last night, well she is a designated "trip" driver- told me of how she got to go to Massachusetts for a state fair trip (don't know what/why the school went)- she trains horses as a hobby.....got to stay at a hotel for 3 days, the district picks up meals and lodging....she hung out at the equestrian event area. Tough trip,right?!
Well, me, I get dirty, smelly football games...... Maybe someday. Dd came home this evening for the weekend. (so Dh, who usually just comes home and tubes out suggests we all go out together to the movies~ what am I chopped liver????) But it is nice having her home and not in such a rush to go back. Guess she will return Monday am. Dd has a soccer game tomorrow,(if the rain does not cancel it). As for me, I might do some house painting (living room/dining room ceiling and walls) or possibly some sewing. It all depends on who has to be where and how involved I have to get. I am really looking foward to just staying home this weekend and next week.
It has just been a wee bit too hectic for me. My eating was so- so. Kind of went off plan mid day- then I went for a 2 mile walk and then did my newest Walk Strong tape (the one with the stretchie, Kerry) and found that now that I am used to it, I really like it. I have found ways that I can make it harder for me (some days I really like to push myself) or slow the pace down a bit. And I like having that flexibility.
So as long as I stay out of the kitchen for the rest of the night, I should be fine.
Guess I'd better go and put Dd in bed...poor kid fell asleep watching her mama venting here. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!!
Ginny
My Imp is almost always ready for a cuddle. He is very much a social cat. He gets upset if I'm not home when he thinks I should be or if I go away after coming home. He is right next to me asI tpe... half his body is against my leg, the head and paws are laying on the pillow, just like a human would. Its really cute, and if I thought I could get up witout disturbing him, I'd get the digital camera.
My weekend plans aren't that exciting: I will do my whole routine at the gym on Saturday morning, do some grocery shopping, and then go back to the gym to teach swimming. Lots of exercise on Saturdays. Sunday I'll do the laundry and maybe go see Ladder 49 with people from the Red Cross. They filmed one of the parades that the Red Cross marched in, and I can't remember if I was in the parade or not. I am thinking not, because I don't remember doing any parades since I came to Baltimore. There is allegedly a staff member from my school in the movie as well. It was filmed here in Baltimore, and going with people from the Red Cross should make it a bit moreinteresting. I saw Backdraft in the theatre with friends and associates from the Red Cross. I was a newbie to disaster services then, being a senior in high school, but it was fun to go with people who "did it". Even though we don't go in if the building is still on fire, I have done canteening for the fire fighters and talked to lots of them. In my area of PA, most of our firefighters are volunteers except in the City. Its very different here, since the City and the County have fire fighters and they're paid.
And yes, I did finally talk to my endocrinologist. She really is an amazing doctor: she called me at 7:30 on a Friday night. I'd been half out of the apartment to go get my mail and chat with the lady at our front desk (she and I have become friends over the last 3 years and went to see Les Miserables together this past spring... her first show.), but had paused to find something. I was glad I'd "lost" that Sharpie Marker! Otherwise, I wouldn't have been in the apartment when she called. She wants to check the liver enzyme levels to see how they are doing: the last several blood tests have shown elevated levels. One doctor, my gastroenterologist, thinks its "fatty liver", because I gained all the weight so quickly and haven't been able to lose the more damaging part that is under the waist line... but the bloodwork doesn't show any issues until AFTER I took Glucophage, and Gluc has warnings and is known for causing liver damage. It showed up RIGHT AFTER I went off the Glucophage, although we never did get the full bloodwork from that idiot endocrinologist at Hopkins I tried for a few months when I first moved before I went back to the one I'm with now, and was diagnosed by.
But, its not a fasting test and they have a lab near my gym, so I can go have the test done, and then go to the gym, without taking any time off school. I figured it out though: I have over 20 hours of comp time, probably close to or maybe even just over 30 hours. I have nearly 2 weeks of sick leave. I have 2 personal days that we received last January. But I don't go the extra mile and I'm never in school. Okay. That's why, probably, I'll get another 4 hours of comp time in November for perfect attendance for the quarter.
It just makes no sense to tell me that I don't go the extra mile or that I evade the system. Comp time is awarded for doing things for the students after school. That's the only way you can get it... I have 16 hours from the 40+ hours I spent writing all those reports this summer. I have 4 hours for perfect attendance, 4 hours for back to school night, 2.5 hours left from going in on Saturday to help with the Flea Market/Yard Sale, and 4 hours left from taking the kids to Hershey, PA last year for the Tech Expo.
We only earn 3 hours of sick leave per check, which is about 6 hours a month. You can't earn sick leave your first 6 months, so I've really only been eligible for sick leave for a 16 months. So, to have nearly 80 hours is really pretty damn good. I just don't get it. I really, really don't get it.
Today I identified a need in one whole class of students, possibly two... the daily drills are almost always vocabulary words and they copy the definitions onto their drill sheets. They get quizzed on the vocabulry once a month. Today's drill word was 'signature', and ended with the direction to, "Write your signature under your drill." And I discovered that over half my 3rd period class could NOT write their names in cursive. So I immediately scrapped the lesson plan for the day, ran off personalized handwriting sheets with D'nealian lines and a good cursive model of all their names. It would have been EASIER to do the planned lesson since my assistant was helping in another classroom, but the students benefitted, and were VERY VERY PROUD of being able to write their signatures. We've decided as a class that we'll work on cursive signatures every Friday morning for drill instead of vocabulary. How is this NOT going the extra mile??????
Last edited by Anonymouse; 10-15-2004 at 11:28 PM.
Mousie, if I didn't say it before, "CONGRATULATIONS!!!" Don't let your supervisor's lame reaction to your achievement "rain on your parade." You should be very proud of yourself. Sorry you had such a sh*tty day. That data person really "has it in for you." That really sucks. I'm glad you finally spoke with your doctor. She is clearly in your corner.
Ginny, that is nice that DD is visiting and rather adorable how your DH reacts. It is wonderful for her to have such a wonderful relationship with her dad. That would be pretty cool if you could become a strictly field trip bus driver! I have already begun taking echinacea and vitamin C. I always take lots of vitamins anyway. As you've said, it is out of my control.
Today, my church parent group (that I started last April to make new friends) is going pumpkin picking. Many people pulled out at the last minute, and right now I'm not sure who is going. But, since we like to do the whole hayride thing every year around this time, we would have gone on our own anyway. After planning countless activities over the last seven months only to have most of them get a small turnout, I'm hanging up my hat. The first meeting was pretty large and it appeared that there was real need for a group for parents to socialize knowing that babysitting would be provided or our children would be included. But, everyone is so busy...including me. So, screw it! It was a nice concept, but I'm not wasting my time organizing fun activities only to have five people come. Through DD, I'm meeting more parents anyway at her school. So, this church group may not be necessary after all.
Good Fall Saturday afternoon to everyone,
Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend so far. I went in to Curves last night between work and going to a football game. I got weighed and measured for the month. I didn't lose any weight according to their scales. But I did drop .20% of body fat, 4.50 inches from my abs and 1.50 inches from my hips. So I am pleased with my results.
I had to break up a fight in my room yesterday. I have two boys who act more like brothers than best friends. I have been on their cases since school started to stop horseplaying so much, because it will lead it's way into a fight. So what did they do, not listen to words of wisdom but kept it up. One end up hitting and kicking the other one and the other one took his pencil and stabbed the other one. I said to my two TA's what a lovely way to end the school day just an hour before it ended. I must be gaining more self-esteem and strength since going to Curves. Because I was not afaird to get in between them and break it up. The one kid said I shoved him and he was surprised how strong I was. If this would have happened two years ago, I don't think i would have had the nerve to get between the two of them.
Mouse, sorry your Friday was so sh@**y! I hope your weekend goes much better. My dh and I went to see Ladder 49 last weekend. It is a great movie. I grew up in a firefighting family. SO I go see all the movies that are about firefighting. My dad is the fire chief for my hometown's volunteer dept. My sister and brother are also on the dept. That would be so cool if you were in the movie. Please let me know if you are or not. I think that is one movie that I plan on buying when it comes out on video. You do go the extra mile for your students and keep it up. I have come to learn that the only people who get all the credit are the one's who kiss the boss' butt all the time. What you do could go unnoticed until you stopped doing one day and then that is when you would get your credit and asked to keep up the good work.
Robyn, glad your having a great time at your new school. Isn't amazing what a little change of scenry will do for your self-esteem and work ethnics? I was seriously thinking about changing careers three years ago, working in an inner-city school district. But I gave it one more chance and moved to a little county school system. The people are more like a family and do more things for the kids. The teachers at your son's school need to be more cooperative and accomdate your schedule. You should not have to take a day off just to meet with them. What does the special education supervisior have to say on the matter? Are they willing to work around your work schedule? Keep pulling for what is your son's rights as a student.
Ginny thank for the info. It came in today's mail. I plan on looking at it this afternoon. Glad you enjoy the Walk Strong video. I feel so much better after doing that video. I try to do the video twice a week. I feel more limber these days after using that wonderful strechtie band.
Well I better go and get lunch ready for my family. Since my dh is making dinner tonight. We are having steaks and baked potatoes for dinner. Talk to you all later.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Kerry
Mouse-hope your day goes well for you....you sure do go the extra mile for your students, giving them the skills they need. Don't let the creeps get you down. And I hope you enjoy Ladder 49. Let us know if you are a movie star, ok???
Kerry- and when your Dh is done making dinner for you....will he drive to NY and bail me out? How sweet of him...does he clean up after too?? (a major bonus in my book!)
I am shocked that the WW stuff came so quickly. Let me know if it makes sense to you. The big key to it is the quantity you eat. If a cup and a half of whole wheat pasta satisfies you, then do NOT go on and eat a whole pound of it. But I do know that the group leader I usually see has had great success on Core. A lot of others have too. Congrats on the great drop in body fat. That is wonderful news~ so you did lose fat!!! A non scale victory if I ever heard one. And you are feeling good too......strong enough to break up a fight. Keep up the good work!
Summer, I hope you enjoy your pumpkin picking outing.....sounds like fun, even if it is not too well attended. The whole experience is fun....hay rides etc....and there is nothing better than fall weather! Will this be your last try with this group???
Robyn........Robyn......you out there, girl??? Hope you are having a great weekend.
I'd better go. My activity was leaf raking with Dd (then she jumped in the pile).
So far the weather has held up for her soccer game and the sun is shining right now.
Enjoy your weekend! See ya later!
Ginny
Ginny,
Sorry my dh can't drive to NY to bail you out. The motor went out in his truck, so he is basically stuck at home until his truck gets fixed. He borrows my van, but then I don't like being without a mode of transportation. Maybe when his truck gets fixed he can. LOL
I just breezed through the info so far this afternoon. It looks like it will help me start losing weight again. I took a two hour nap this afternoon. So now I have to finish the laundry this evening, do one of my walking videos and then curl up on the couch to watch one of the movies I got at the library today.
Hope you are having a great weekend with your dd home from college.
Hi to Mouse, Robyn and Summer! Hope you are having fun today relaxing!
Kerry
Well, today was good for exercise... and I'm leaving in 20 minutes to go back to the gym for swim lessons. Even though I'm tired.
But getting HOME from the gym was a whole 'nother story! I was nearly arrested 3 separate times by 3 different police officers! The Baltimore Marathon was run today, and it was run on the street that the parking garage faces to. You would have thought, given this, and knowing this for the last 3 years, they would have CLOSED the Eutaw street entrance (using it for exit only), and opened the Fayette street entrance??? NO! And the traffic directors/cops/whatevertheythoughttheywere are clueless. I purposefully came down 95 to Howard Street instead of taking route 83 into the City as I normally do. I was able to go down Howard Street, and Lombard was open... but the traffic person wouldn't let me make a left. She refused to move out of my way. I had my signal on and everything.
So I kept going, and wound up on the only other street you can make a left to... did so, and discovered that I couldn't make the other left to the Eutaw street entrance. That was the first cop that tried to arrest me. He told e he didn't have time for me. what? Hello? I'm a citizen, I pay taxes, and you don't have time for me? Can you imagine if I'd said that to him and I had his child in my classroom????????????????
Two cops later, I finally got around the blinking block and headed up Fayette street to that left on Eutaw... took 40 minutes from the time I left 95.
And I'm not looking forward to having to do it again tonight because I know they won't have gotten all the roads open after the marathon. The department of public works never manages to do what they're supposed to do!
Well, we had two families show up to today's event. We waited 20 minutes for a family who called at 11:30 to say they were coming to the 1:00 event. After 20 minutes, we gave up on them. The drive up to the farm was beautiful. The colors of the trees this year are brighter than I believe I've ever seen...almost fluorescent! We began with a hayride and picked the largest pumpkin we could find for carving. Then we visited the gift shop where we bought apple pie, apple cider, apple crisp mix, apple cider doughnuts, and apple bread. DD slipped in the mud and was covered. Another little girl who was very inappropriately dressed in white tights, Mary Jane's, and a jean mini skirt, slipped in the mud, and they had to leave because she was so uncomfortable. After they left, we went apple picking with the other family. We brought home lots of Macintosh, Macouns, Granny Smiths, etc. All in all, it was a lovely fall day in New England.
To answer Ginny's question, yes this is my last try with this group. If people start coming to me and showing interest again, I might be willing to give it another try. But as it stands, all my efforts haven't been worth the results so far.
Besides school and finding DH a better paying job, my focus will now be getting ready for DD's birthday party on November 7th. We are doing a kid's karaoke/Lizzie McGuire party from 11am-1pm and a family party from 1:30-? She is sooooooo excited!!! Two weeks after that, I am hosting a Longaberger party. And, with Thanksgiving and parent/teacher conferences, November is going to be one busy month. Can you believe I'm talking about November? Can you believe Halloween is just two weeks away? Can you believe I've already been in school for 34 days?! I swear it was just August last week!
Kerry, CONGRATULATIONS on your outstanding progress!!! See? The scale is meaningless! You have accomplished so much that the scale doesn't show. You go girl!!!
Mousie, you've been having more than your share of unnecessary stress lately. What is going on?! I sure hope the universe eases up on you soon. It is good that you exercise as much as you do...it will help work off some of that frustration you must be feeling.
Summer: I really wonder about some parents. Mary Janes and a jean skirt for a HAY RIDE???? Really.
Last night there was an 80 car pile-up on 95 just north of Baltimore between White Marsh and Aberdeen. 11 separate accidents. Fortunately, there were no fatalities.
And when I did my grocery shopping, last night, it was kind of crowded: there was a gentleman behind me with a bottle of seltzer. That's all he wanted. So I let him go in front of me (I didn't hae that much either... lots of multiples of the same item, because they had the bottled water I like 10/10, etc). On his way out, he gave a $5 Bill! My plan was to donate it to a gentleman that had been outside collecting for one of the special education schools for the orthodox Jewish students... but he wasn't there anymore. The store was collecting for one of the many breast cancer awareness groups, but it wasn't a group I'd heard of before (it wasn't Komen, or the American Cancer Society), so I wouldn't donate to them. I don't typically donate money at all, and if I do, its only to groups where I know the money goes to the people... so I'll donate to the American Red Cross, but I won't donate to the United Way. United Way spends too much on overhead, and some of their staff make more than I do.
Strange. I made the store manager who had been called over angry with me. Her problem, not mine.
I'm going to the gym, and then I'm going to see Ladder 49. SEe you all later.
Afternoon Ladies,
Glad that you had a nice Saturday afternoon Summer. Summer your outing sounds like it was a lot of fun. My afterschool program went on a fieldtrip yesterday afternoon to a pumpkin farm and took a hayride and picked their own pumpkins. I was going to go but when I found out that we would not be paid for going, I didn't sign up. I probably would have went without being paid if my stepkids' attended the program. Then I would have had a reason for going. But it was a seven hour trip on a Saturday afternoon and evening. I know if I would have went I would have been stuck with the mouthy 6th grader girls. So I saved myself the headache and stress and stayed home. The family and I watched Kangroo Jack. It was a funny movie.
Mouse, boy oh boy your life is like a soap opera. What could we call it? Glad that you were able to get home finally and not get arrested. I am glad that you have your swimming to relieve your stress or you would be one unhappy person. Enjoy your outing to see Ladder 49. Let me know what you think of it.
Ginny and Robyn, hope you both are having a relaxing weekend.
I never did get my 3 mile walk in yesterday. But I was able to get one in this morning and then I walked to church. Came home and changed clothes and walked with my dh to the local Chinese restaurant for lunch. I think I might go for a stroll around the neighborhood here in a little bit. The kids have a soccer game this afternoon at 3 and then a make-up one at 4:30. So that is my exciting plans for the afternoon.
I know what you mean Summer about the year seeming to fly by. This week is going to be a busy one for me. I work the afterschool program every night, but Wednesday night. We are having a staff meeting from 4 to 6 at Damon's. Plus the school is paying for us to have dinner there. Then Friday, I have to go to Columbus,Ohio which is about 1 1/2 to 2 hours away from me for an all day workshop with a coworker. I am driving back home to pick up my paycheck and then cashing it and heading up the road to my parents house for the weekend. I think as the weeks progress in the school year, the busier we get. In November, I know of two weekends already that I have big plans for. The first weekend is my school's fall festival. Then the weekend of Thanksgiving, my family is giving a birthday party for my grandma who will be turning 90. So I look forward to having days off from school and just relaxing.
Well I better go and get my butt in gear if I want to squeeze in a quick stroll around the block before we are off to the soccer games.
Have a great Sunday afternoon!
Kerry
Anyway, Fair Haven is set in glorious Ireland, and it is very romantic. I love it so far, but I'm still waiting for it to get juicy!
Amazing but soooooo darn true! Tonight tho I'm exhausted! I think the whole WEEK has been difficult for some reason!
Somehow, though, that is my fault too.
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