Just a quick hello.

Elana- great to hear from you again. Sorry that your share of sickness has shown up in your house. I hope everyone feels better soon and most importantly, that you do not get it!!! Let us know how you fare adding the extra points to your day. You are going to do just fine!!!! Sounds as though it is in your best interest to at least look for another position to cover your bases, but then you can never tell what will happen or who might also have to leave. Stuff like that happens where I work all the time, and when you least expect it someone is leaving unexpectedly.

Kerry- congrats on some healthy stress relief and maintaining!!!!!! Glad you like the kickboxing workout, sister in sweat!!!!! :)

Mouse- for your mom, have you ever considered the books on tape web site? You can purchase a "subscription" and get so many tapes/CD's a month. We thought about getting it for my FIL- so I did do some research checking it out in December.
Glad you got some gym time in! 2 days in a row, must feel so good. BTW, as far as your weight goes, I still buy the water theory- also with us being female, there are just so many variables regarding TOM/ where in your cycle you are- PMS constipation- and so on.....(not trying to gross anyone out there, but we all know it is reality). I think I would believe the gain if it was there the following week. But stuff like that does happen... Hang in there. There has to be an answer to this.

Pam- how is the tamiflu working??? Ds feeling better, I hope! And you, you pain in the butt.......(sorry, I could not resist!). Are you feeling any less sore? Hugs to you.....and if you are that sore, you should probably get some medical attention too.
Let me know if we need to send FEMA down to your classroom after the hurricane subteacher came in. I will bet it probably felt good to be back- gain some normalcy in your life. Good job drinking all that water......and I hope you can get at least a short workout in soon.

Got to WW yesterday, I was down 1.2#. Finally.......now I just have to behave myself the rest of this week. I am walking with a coworker for a few minutes during a layover, it is only a few minutes, but she is good company and it is a pleasant change.
I was hoping that the snow/rain would force an early closing today. No such luck. Pray for a blizzard Monday- when I hear the next system is coming thru.
Gotta go- tons to do. See ya later.
Ginny

Hey everyone!
The first day back was quite interesting. The rumor flying around the campus is that I was out for two days because I am going to sue the boy who knocked me down. Geez! My room. OH MY POOR POOR ROOM!!!!!!!!!YES GINNY SEND FEMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:
I had my desks arranged in ten groups of three on Monday when I left. I came back there were desks everywhere. I have a calculator missing, one calculator broken. The sub apparently let two students into the closet who took a broom handle and pushed the ceiling tiles up, the broom was still hanging out of it. I bought a lot of new pens which were in my top drawer, most of those are gone, half of my erasers are gone. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. The sub sent two of my fourth period girls to the lunchroom to get her chips and a drink during the middle of class because she was hungry. We are not supposed to eat in class. I finally got my room into semi-order before I left today. Oh well, what can you do?
Ginny: My son is feeling better. The tamiflu is working great! He is going back to school tomorrow.I feel a little less sore today, so hopefully by the weekend I can start excercising again. I was hoping to be at 185 by Valentine's Day. It doesn't look like that is going to happen. I was at 188.5 this morning.
You know my Pepsi addiction? Well, I had a Pepsi sitting on the table in my room and the lid was loose. I looked over and there was a puddle. It had seeped into my bookbag, all over all of my papers, all over the floor. No, i didn't lick up the puddle. ;)
Hope everyone had a good day today. My first period started with a girl sitting in the wrong seat. I calmly asked her to move to her correct seat. She just looked at me and then went back to work. I asked her again, she started screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO at the top of her lungs and still refused to move. Well, this pissed me off. The assistant principal came to get her out and she still refused to move. After asking her five times, she still sat there. He went over and whispered something into her ear and she finally got up. She will be back in my room tomorrow! Ughhhhhhhhhh!
Have a great Friday everybody!
Pam

I can only hope the weight gain is gone in a week: next week is my week off the one set of meds, and if I had a monthly cycle that is when it would happen. But this wasn't 1 or 3 pounds, it was like TWELVE! Geez!
Pam: Here's one for you... I have a kid who will swear BLIND that he didn't do it even when we sit there and watch him do it. Today, he swore to Gd at least 8 times during class that he did this worksheet or did that piece of work and only the blank undone ones were in his folder, so he tried comparing the date on other student's work to his sheet to prove that he hadn't been in class when it was done. He then called my TA and myself 'turds'. As in, "You're a turd." I sent him to resource, and our behavioral person proceeded to call me on the carpet saying that I shouldn't have sent him down there (in FRONT of the child!) and should have done planned ignoring. You see, calling me a turd isn't a curse word, so it should be ignored. The day ended with the child changing his point sheet, so his teacher checked with us TWICE on the sheet. I keep a record of what I write on their point sheets in my gradebook, so we were easily able to look up his point total for our class today... and the idiot used blue ink! My TA and I both used black today.
My first period class was also exciting. One of my autistic students has a cold, and spent the period picking his nose... and he REALLY went after it, let me tell you! Not trying to disgust anyone, but you need to be able to picture this to understand the reaction... He has a picture prompt card to 'blow your nose', and when one of the 1:1 staff caught him the first time we flipped his prompts over to that one... and then boy howdy... he went right to town! First one nostril, one finger, in the mouth... then the other hand, another finger, other nostril, in the mouth. It got so he had one finger in the nose and one in the mouth at all times... And obviously, he's getting squirted with a lot of hand sanitizer because we can't take him to the bathroom to wash everytime! We'd spend all day washing his hands! So then it was one finger, one nostril, mouth, squirt the hand sanitizer. We'd moved it off his desk, but he managed to reach it. THEN the pattern became nostril, mouth, squirt, lick hands. He was EATING the hand sanitizer. I just started laughing and could NOT stop. I did manage to keep it silent, but I had tears running down my face, and so did the child sitting next to this boy because she saw it too. I had to make a quick trip to nursing to ask if the stuff was poisonous! We decided he hadn't ingested enough of it, but nursing said not to use it anymore.
To top all THAT off, we have entered our hospitality unit and are dealing with proper handwashing techinque. WE actually have 2 videos on handwashing!!
And, I'm not feeling so hot myself. I broke down and bought some cough syrup tonight. I swallowed some water at the pool yesterday (4 days in a row!), and I think I aspirated some of it... I woke up in the middle of the night stuffy, and kept wanting to cough during the day but couldn't. There are lots of colds and we still have pneumonia and stomach viruses going around. I don't have time to be sick!
:mouse:

Hi!
Mouse- well, Hon, you (you turd you!!!!!) get the golden patience award from me. OK, I get where turd is not really a curse, but then it is totally offensive and this student should not be calling his teacher or assistant it. Interesting thought- you would not be allowed to call a student a turd, so why can he call you that???? Well, your story did have me laughing....just sorry it had to happen. I hope you feel better too. Take care of yourself....some of the upper respiratory bugs are pretty tenacious.

Pam- so you had a good day too, eh???? Want to borrow my calculator???(sorry that was below the belt). Sorry that your room was in such shambles- yes I can relate to that. Our buses are dedicated to a driver, and if you are out and a sub uses it he/she is supposed to clean and fuel it. Typically, most do not and leave your bus in a miserable state. Very frustrating. Sorry that you might not make your mini goal, but you can still keep focused and give yourself an extra few days to make it (I would add the # of days that you were impacted by the accident to 2/14 and use that as your new goal date.). And pretend when you get to that date that it was Valentines Day. See if that works! (hey, you did legitimately lose a week with all that has been going on). Ok, it is sort of a mind game......

Anyway, my day has ended peacefully. I think. Ds is crabby......so what else is new.
Guess I'd better go and help Dd study. See ya later!
Ginny

Mouse That Is Hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Hey Me again!
Just sitting here reading while I run off a test for tomorrow. Omigod Mouse I needed that laugh. That is hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
Ginny: YES Love to borrow your calculator. The Math Department Head is a bear when it comes to those precious calculators! Fate worse than death if you know what I mean. Our driver's complain about the same thing you were talking about. Especially when the busses are used for after school sports.
Mouse: Get better! Drinking water is important, but you should only drink it from a glass! ;) Kidding! But I hope you feel well. It's just awful to go to school sick! Going to watch some tv. Isn't that productive?
Pam

Hey, Pam sometime some down time is needed!!! Hope you relaxed a bit while watching the tube. Yes I agree, Mouse's tale of that kid going up to the third knuckle was a hoot. We can all relate to that.
1/2 day today for public, so I got off early (no break in between though!). I thought of my friends here- several of my kids boarded this pm wearing "100" crowns for the 100th day and counting to 100. Made me smile thinking of my friends here.
Gotta go get dinner on.......hope everyone is doing great. Thankfully it IS Friday!!!!!!!Take care,
Ginny

okey... WHAT A WEEK THAT WAS!

......I'm going to bed.... I'll wake up and type more later!

Today was the 100th Day of School.... we ended the day by popping our 100 balloons! They loved it... BUT the 5th graders that are near us aren't exactly accustomed to 1st grade parties! hehehehe.... AND Thanks for getting the kiddos home, Ginny.... They wore their crowns home with pride! :)

I've got soooooooooooooooooo much more to tell.......I can't even begin to type it all out now! Geesh!

take care.....
meee

Happy Friday!
 

Hey everybody!
Life is a little more normal today! I finally got to walk tonight. Still a little sore, but I managed to walk a mile. The uphill parts still hurt, but that is ok!
Made through several temptations today at school. First, one of the teacher's was passing out cupcakes to her kids at lunch. I passed. Ate my grapes and fatfree chocolate pudding instead. :D Also, the ladies from this church near the school are always bringing cakes and leaving them in the teacher's lounge. Didn't have a single slice. I'm sorry to say I'm saving mine for Valentine's Day. We are going out for Seafood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Glad to see you back Robin! Sounds like you had a pretty good day. We started school here the second week of August. So, I'm not exactly how many days we've been in school, but I think we only have 67 more days. Seems unreal to me. I think our last day is May 22 or 25, not too sure. I say that only because everyone is talking about the hundredth day. Teacher's reported back on August 1st! They are talking about changing us to going back after labor day. I'm all for that. However, there are so many counties petitioning to be able to start in August. Our tourism industry is complaining that the beaches are losing money because everyone is back in school and they lose a lot of workers. Anyway, hope they change it so we can finally have a nice long summer!
Hope everyone else had a good day today. Mine was quite uneventful.I happen to like that!
Take care!
Pam

Good Saturday Morning!
Hope everyone survived the week ok.......mine was wierd, and I am about ready to strangle Dh, but this is par for the course. He suffers from SAD a bit and him being somewhat more moody than normal this time of year is something I am used to.

Robyn- happy 100th day to you too!!!!!!!!!! I can imagine a party with you, my friend must be quite a hoot. Wish I could have been there to share it with you. Perfect idea- you give the party at school one day, and then I can drive the kiddies home (when I am in my Christmas mode, playing the Chipmunks Christmas songs and singing them along with the kids, yes I am a nut case.....). They would surely get home all wound up for their parents. Hehehehe!

Pam- glad you are feeling better, even a little bit! I know you go back early, my family has always tried to take advantage of that for planning our vacations. THe rentals at the Outer Banks (we usually stay at South Nags Head) are usually cheaper and a LOT cheaper the last week of August, all the southern schools are back and us yankees still have another week of break. So we get a great house and save a bundle and it is a bit less crowded. Congrats on having all the willpower.....good job!

Gotta take Ds to practice and then shop for a dishwasher. Probably a good thing that I am not near Dh, as he is so irritable. And I hope to get a walk in today. I should say I WILL get one in.
Gotta go.......have a good one! Hi to Summer, Elana, Mouse and Kerry. We miss you!
Ginny

Hi, all. I'm disappointed today because I started with a slight temperature (a Mouse fever: I never run 98.6, I'm normally 97.something so when the thermometer says 99 for me, its a real temp!), so I can't teach swimming tonight. :( I have the parent-infant group this session and then Level 2... and we're down a whole lot of staff tonight because one of the instructors had surgery on her leg again, I'm sick, another guy can't work this session, etc, etc, etc. But, the manager in charge of the program is right, I shouldn't be around little children in a pool if I have a fever.
Good news is I got to see my mom and my grandmother earlier: she came down to the commissary at Aberdeen to do some shopping, and I drove up to meet them. I haven't been home since Thanksgiving, so it was nice.
Friday just.... sucked. I have two kids that are very autistic in my 1st period class. The one child tends to be more violent, and atypically, has a normal IQ. His tested IQ was 96, so you can imagine what it REALLY is without the autism impacting the testing! Most children with autism as severe as his is typically score in the moderate to severely mentally ******ed range. But that just makes all the sensory issues even harder, and he's not a lightweight. He usually has two staff with him when he comes to my class, but his teacher is a good sort, always makes sure to keep me and my TA in the loop... and she looked so tired Friday morning. I tried to work with him a little more, and so I held the doors he was trying to slam shut and get him to stop slamming his head into the wall. It worked for a little while, and he did give me some answers to questions by pointing to phrases on the worksheet I gave him, but he eventually lost it. I'm black & blue all over my torso (mostly stomach area), because he whacked me good. I had no idea he'd gotten me so good: I was wearing a huge polo shirt and a turtleneck sweater, but it obviously didn't do any good!
They wound up having to restrain him and get a mat. We don't restrain kids the way a typical behavioral program does... we actually MOVE the child, and/or use a mat if we have to put them down. Its much better than many of the other physical management techniques I've been taught... its a bit more respectful of the student.
Pam: I forgot to offer, and you probably don't need it anymore, but I'm with Red Cross disaster services. Our job is to hook clients up with FEMA, so if you need them, just let me know. I'm a mass care specialist, so my job is to make sure you have the necessary and appropriate food, lodging, clothing, and hygiene supplies as well as the tools to clean up the disaster area. ;) I also do family services casework. Does your room need a disaster action team assigned?
Paisley: I am glad you like my stories. People tell me I should write a book, but really, who's going to buy a book with stories about kids farting, and picking their noses? Does the public REALLY need to know what happens when a cortically blind child spills jell-o powder all over your sweatshirt and you wash it? For those that must know: the jello powder turns INTO JELLO in the washing machine! Its the perfect conditions: 1 cup of boiling water, 1 cup of cold water, stir, and sit! I could title it, "Jello, Boogers, and Farts: Stories of a Special Ed Teacher". :P
Oh, lord. Please chalk that up to the cough syrup! I don't THINK I'd ever do something like that. And Paisley, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE your quote. I'm pretty sure that my mom is the author of that quote. ;) She's always telling me, "You don't need to DRIVE me crazy, I CAN WALK!"
:mouse:

Mouse- I love your sense of humor.......yes, you should write a book. A great description of the kid up to the third knuckle.......sorry you are sick but glad you took the day off from swimming. The viral thing going around is NASTY! Please take care.
Glad you got to see Dm and Gm too.


Paisley- glad that you are doing ok and have recovered a bit from your week. Not to sweat it if you did not have such a great week staying OP. Start a fresh next week- even today. It sounded as though you had a great morning, I hope that you got everything accomplished that you wanted to.

Ran around a lot today- and only got a 15 minute walk in. The good news is that I bought a dishwasher... and it will be delivered tomorrow. It ended being a bigger ordeal than I thought it would be- my appliances are all bisque (almond) and it seems as though white and stainless are in. And I am not about to go and buy a new stove and refrigerator (although it is old and will most likely be replaced soon) just to match a new dishwasher. Ended up in Sears and got what I wanted there. Dh is in a better frame of mind. Which helps.
Gotta go wash dishes.....have a great nite.
Ginny

Third time is the charm! I hope this works! I have typed up two long posts and lost them in cyber space! So here I go again.
I am so glad that it is the weekend! Hopefully I will be able to recharge my batteries and gear up for another beating next week. I had a parent call and complain about me to my special ed. super. She doesn't like how I treat her son and the other students in my room. She feels I don't challenge her son enough and should send homework home with them every night. So needless to say I was not a happy camper on Thursday. I came home and took a nap and then went to the pub for pizza, salad and a few beers that night. Yesterday my kids were hyper all day long. Made it through the Valentine's Day party. Should say I eat my way through it. TOM need I say more. Today I did my gazelle for 30 minutes and my walk/jog video. Then walked to the gym and worked the concession stand for the basketball games. Then walked to Subway for lunch and back to the gym. Then came home and took a nap before going out to dinner and grocery shopping with my dh. We just got home when our one friend pulls up and asked my dh to go out with him and a buddy. So instead of taking me out to the local bar like he had promised me 30 minutes earlier he went with them. So I went to the store after putting the groceries away and bought me some Low Carb Green Apple Bacardi Silver and plan on drinking one or two and going to bed early. Then tomorrow working on some school stuff and then going shopping after I go to church in the morning. So he can spend some time by mimself. Or better yet he can call up his buddies and spend time with them for Valentine's Day. I work until 6:15 on Monday and then plan on going to Curves,so I don't mess up my routine for the day. Well enough babbling from me for now. THanks for letting me vent!
Kerry

Kerry---Wow! You exercised a TON today. That is SO cool. BTW---I HATE it when people who aren't in education tell me how to teach or run my classroom. That must have been so frustrating!!!

Mouse--I would SO buy a copy of any book with that title! Plus, it would be the perfect gift for any education graduate! (both humor and a warning!)

I'm not a very nice person sometimes. But I am so sick and tired of people telling me or implying that they know how I feel because they have some similar symptoms... Or making suggestions about procedures that I should have or that worked for them...
I'm just so damn tired of people suggesting that if I had gastric bypass surgery, I'd be all cured and things would be so much better. I just don't see how that type of surgery would do anything for the endocrine disorder. I'd certainly lose weight, but I can't imagine what else it would do.
I'm sick and tired of seeing all those shows on TV about gastric bypass surgery, Oprah and people losing weight. I exercise, I don't eat more than I should (c'mon, most days I'm well under 2000 calories!), and I eat healthy for the most part. But everybody knows what my problem is... that is, everybody except me and the one doctor I almost completely trust.
:cry: