don't wanna go to sleep

First of all, I keep seeing "joy school" mentioned on LDS mom-type blogs. I think I must really be turning into a cynical wench in my old age, because I can't think of anything less joy inducing than having a bunch of three year olds over to my house and playing pre-K teacher. It actually kind of makes me want to gag. And why can't it just be called playgroup? Is that not "joyous" enough? Although, looking back on it, I'm pretty sure my mom did a short joy-school type of playgroup with me when I was a young child living in Utah and I guess I turned out all right. (Yes, little known fact, I'm actually from Utah originally). Whew, now that that's off my chest...

Today I took a personal day to be the mystery reader at Isaac's school. It was so fun to surprise him and help out a little in his class. Apparently no other parents have been mystery readers, so that was fun to actually put a check in the "things mom can still do even though I work full time" column, since the "things I have to say no to cause I work full time column" is filled with entries.

I also wanted to take some time for spring cleaning today. I'm pretty impressed with myself.

I:

• Did six loads of laundry including both of our sheets, comforters, duvet covers, dust ruffles, etc. etc. AND they are folded and put away.
• I vacuumed and flipped our mattresses.
• I moved my bed and night stands and vacuumed the carpet and dusted the baseboards. I haven't done that since I moved in and it was absolutely disgusting how much dust, etc. was back there. Also cleaned all the junk out from underneath my bed and found approximately 87 pens.
• Organized my jewelry, shoes and closet in general.
• Cleaned out my purse. I'm no longer hauling around 5 pounds worth of old receipts.
• Updated Google calendar with all of my events for the coming months.
• Found a whole bunch of cool online resources to use in my classroom.
• Went to the gym and ran two miles.
• Got some great books for my classroom at the used book store for supercheap.
• Cleaned out both cat boxes.
• Made cream cheese cookies.
• Called my sister (and nearly gagged the whole time. She and I have very opposite views on things like breastfeeding, vaginal deliveries and whether or not placentas are interesting organs [she is a labor and delivery nurse]).
• Finally called the builder about my leaky roof (Hello! My house is barely two years old! Why is the roof leaking?!) and completed some paperwork for the HOA to officially report my neighbors for letting their dog crap all over the place. They should be getting a fine in the mail shortly. Yeah, I'm that neighbor. And I don't like your freakin' dog.

I didn't get to most of what's on my list but I feel like spring cleaning is in full swing. Isaac's room is next. I will carry on Saturday hopefully after our first soccer game. Not sure what's going on for the weekend yet. I'm up for something low-key which conference weekend usually is. Have a fab Friday!

Inspired Apple

Linky party over at The Inspired Apple (have I mentioned my obsession with teacher blogs? Maybe someday I will start my own.. you know... in my spare time...)

You know you do 1/2 autistic support when:

• You find yourself writing social stories about every bodily function you can dream of. (You think I'm kidding? My flashdrive has stories for nose-picking, farting, hands in the pants, why you wipe, why you shouldn't eat boogers, putting your pees and poops in the right place, etc, etc, etc.)
• You can never have enough 3X5 cards, ziploc bags, post-its, white board markers or timers.
• When you bring your own kid into your classroom he keeps exlaiming "Hey! This is *my* book/toy/sweatshirt/game".
• On a date you find yourself asking the one you are with to slide his bottom over a little and he looks at you in complete horror (true story)
• I saw this one on another blog and totally cracked up. Teachers in the hallway use a slightly different tone of voice when asking about a student referred to as only "your friend". My poor co-teacher this year has several "friends".
• Certain names will now forever be off limits for your own children. They just instantly conjure up images of a certain student, for better or for worse.
• You crack up daily at inventive spelling. (My favorite ever was the girl who wrote about "titty bars" which we later found out were "teddy bears").
• The very first day on the job your assistant says "Do you drink?" and when you reply no, she says "Well you may want to start."
• You find yourself discreetly sniffing students to try to figure out which one is making the room smell like old potatoes.
• You consult with your OT like 489758475 times a day. And when she takes a sick day, you feel lost.
• You keep M and M's and Hershey kisses in your desk drawer and delve into them aggressively when your students are at special. And when you randomly appear in coworkers' classrooms to ask them questions they immediately assume you are there to raid their stash.
• You have to field questions from kindergarteners asking if "you've got a man".
• The honor system snack box in the teacher's lounge is out of chocolate the day after the guy comes to restock it (and the gross peanut butter crackers sit lonely in the box for three more weeks).
• There are never enough pencils. No matter what. And you discover that your student has been sitting there doing nothing for ten minutes because the one he has isn't sharpened and doesn't have an eraser.
• Your students think you and your assistant live together.
• You reflexively answer, "I don't know, can you?" every time a student says "Can I go to the bathroom?"
• You cringe when you see adults forming letters by starting at the bottom or making other "mistakes". You have to bite your lip to keep from screaming "Magic C! Up like helicopter! Down and bump!"

But I love it!

Tuesday....

So I get paid every other week. This means that about twice a year there is a month where it works out that I get THREE paychecks instead of TWO. It's like a fun little bonus. Saturday morning I was contemplating this while I was driving home from my parents. Maybe I would finally put the molding up I've been longing for. Or pay my parents for Isaac's plane ticket to Florida. Or get some paint for my bedroom, the only unpainted room left in my house. As I am pondering my extra paycheck my car, slowly chugs to a stop on the shoulder of the road. Because, really, isn't that exactly what I get for fantasizing about getting ahead a little in life? Grrrr
A 230 dollar part later, my (fabulous) brother had my car up and running again. But not until he discovered that my intake manifold (????) is definitely going to need work. Good bye bonus paycheck. I knew you were too good to be true.
In other news, I'm kind of becoming obsessed with Jessie J. I love her nails and makeup in this video. . So tomorrow is wacky hair day at Isaac's school. I find that my mom has bought him something to wear. He loves it cause he thinks he looks like this guy from his Warioware game: Upon closer inspection of the packaging though, I see that this is the Disco guy accessories kit wig not included
Wait-- what?
Turns out... he's wearing the gross chest hair patch on his head.....
And I don't even care. This is the same mom who sent him to school with a box of tampons for the food drive. What can you do? What's new with you??

so freaked out....

to log into facebook and see this in the "people you might know" thing:

yikes....

happies and crappies

Haven't done this for a while: Happies: * Overall things have been going really well at work. I'm caught up on things, I'm in the groove, I'm tackling things that have been lingering around on my desk for ages. Feels much better. * Isaac got his report card today and it was wonderful. I'm a proud mom. * I think I've gotten a handle on my spamming e-mail account. Sorry again about that. Hope no one clicked any links. Apparently one of the subjects was "I'm so depressed" and it was sent at 3 in the morning. I guess it had my parents a little concerned. Oops. * I have fun weekend plans: DJ DJ who exclusively spins Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna. Can't wait. * My powercord for my home laptop is on it's way. I can't wait to get it. I have been getting by bringing my work laptop home, but I miss my itunes! * My compromise with Isaac on school clothes has been working out well. We alternate who chooses outfits on school days and it has helped cut back on tense before school fights. I'm not thrilled that he wants to wear sweat pants and track suits exclusively, but my mom picked him up some cute ones, so it could be worse I guess. Crappies * I had a great lead on a summer job. I e-mailed my resume and heard back from the HR lady a day later. She sent me some info via e-mail and asked me to get back to her. I contacted her the next day (and several times since via phone and e-mail!!) but she hasn't gotten in contact with me at all. Not sure what to make of that. I thought it was a done deal but apparently not. And that was really my only lead. Booo. * A co-worker at my job was ridiculously rude to me at work. Like full on screaming at me in front of my students. It was so unexpected and out of no where, that, two days later I am still reeling from it. * For some reason I can't read any blogs with a "Shabby Blogs" template. I can only see their header-- none of their content. Any thoughts?

weekend update

I forgot to take out our (very few) St. Patrick's decorations thisyear. I did get out our (very few) spring decorations up this weekend. There were a few nods to our Irish side around though. Isaac made this cute little leprauchan at school. And we made these cookies from a recipe I found in a magazine my mom left here. They turned out cute I thought (not bad for a first attempt,) but the recipe was a little dry. Or I overcooked them. Could definitely be that too. A few seconds in the microwave before helped a lot. I had a lovely weekend. Friday I did a little shopping at the outlets. GAP/Banana frequently sends the teachers in my school 40% off coupons, so I couldn't resist. I didn't go crazy but I did pick up a few things including a 6 dollar pencil skirt from Banana that was originally 60 bucks. I love high quality clothes that are 90% off!

I also got this cute cardigan. It is such a pretty spring color. Saturday was a leisurely day spent with friends that I don't see too often. Sunday I went to my old singles ward in the city and then went to my brother's house for dinner. His girlfriend Kami was there and my parents came out too. It was a really fun time. We played Monopoly Junior (actually not too tedious for a kid's game) and The Game of Things which was quite fun. We took the dog out to play for a bit before we headed home.

It was a lovely weekend, and probably my last totally free one for a while because spring soccer starts up shortly. That keeps us busy for a while.

In other news, my computer apparently has some kind of virus that is causing my old Hotmail account to spam my contacts repeatedly. I'm sorry about that-- please don't click on any links in the e-mails. I've tried a few different things but hopefully tomorrow I can get the tech guys at my work to get it back in working order. I am using my work computer exclusively while I am waiting for a new power cord for my home laptop to arrive, so I don't want this one out of commission too. At any rate, feel free to add that e-mail to your block list. I will just use my g-mail one from here on out.

Anyways, I need to keep working on a few odds and ends for work and then get to bed. Hope your weekend was lovely and THINK SPRING!

who cares if you disagree?

Do you guys know about Meghan Tonjes? I just discovered her recently and I looooooooooooooove her. And she did this cute cover of one of my favorite songs.

The Blueberry Story

I've been asked recently, if I am in a teacher's union. I didn't realize that in other parts of the country there are teachers who teach in public schools who choose to not join one. The answer is yes, I am. I don't know personally know any teachers that teach in PA who are not in one. It's a crazy world out there and if some parent decides they are going to sue their teacher because they don't like the grade their kid got, it's nice to have some protection. At any rate, the president of our teacher's union passed this along, and I thought it was great. It's a perfect illustration of why the education world does not equal the business world and why, imo, people like Bill Gates have absolutely no place in it. The Blueberry Story A business leader learns his lesson. by Jamie Robert Vollmer 'If I ran my business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn't be in business very long!" I stood before an auditorium filled with outraged teachers who were becoming angrier by the minute. My speech had entirely consumed their precious 90 minutes of in- service training. Their initial icy glares had turned to restless agitation. You could cut the hostility with a knife. I represented a group of business people dedicated to improving public schools. I was an executive at an ice cream company that became famous in the middle-1980s when People Magazine chose its blueberry flavor as the "Best Ice Cream in America." I was convinced of two things. First, public schools needed to change; they were archaic selecting and sorting mechanisms designed for the Industrial Age and out of step with the needs of our emerging "knowledge society." Second, educators were a major part of the problem: They resisted change, hunkered down in their feathered nests, protected by tenure and shielded by a bureaucratic monopoly. They needed to look to business. We knew how to produce quality. Zero defects! Total Quality Management! Continuous improvement! A school is not an ice cream company: It can't send back its inferior blueberries. In retrospect, the speech was perfectly balanced—equal parts ignorance and arrogance. As soon as I finished, a woman's hand shot up. She appeared polite, pleasant. She was, in fact, a razor-edged, veteran high school English teacher who had been waiting to unload. She began quietly, "We are told, sir, that you manage a company that makes good ice cream." I smugly replied, "Best ice cream in America, ma'am." "How nice," she said. "Is it rich and smooth?" "Sixteen percent butterfat," I crowed. "Premium ingredients?" she inquired. "Super-premium! Nothing but triple-A." I was on a roll. I never saw the next line coming. "Mr. Vollmer," she said, leaning forward with a wicked eyebrow raised to the sky, "when you are standing on your receiving dock and you see an inferior shipment of blueberries arrive, what do you do?" In the silence of that room, I could hear the trap snap. I was dead meat, but I wasn't going to lie. "I send them back." "That's right!" she barked, "and we can never send back our blueberries. We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. We take them with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, junior rheumatoid arthritis, and English as their second language. We take them all. Every one. And that, Mr. Vollmer, is why it's not a business. It's school." In an explosion, all 290 teachers, principals, bus drivers, aides, custodians, and secretaries jumped to their feet and yelled, "Yeah! Blueberries! Blueberries!" Schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs, and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America. And so began my long transformation. Since then, I have visited hundreds of schools. I have learned that a school is not a business. Schools are unable to control the quality of their raw material, they are dependent upon the vagaries of politics for a reliable revenue stream, and they are constantly mauled by a howling horde of disparate, competing customer groups that would send the best CEO screaming into the night. None of this negates the need for change. We must change what, when, and how we teach to give all children maximum opportunity to thrive in a postindustrial society. But educators cannot do this alone; these changes can occur only with the understanding, trust, permission, and active support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs, and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America. Jamie Robert Vollmer, a former business executive and attorney, is now a keynote presenter and consultant who works to increase community support for public schools. He lives in Fairfield, Iowa, and can be reached by e-mail at jamie@jamievollmer.com.

survey

Favorite time of day: That hour or so after Isaac goes to bed before I fall asleep. Favorite season: Oh gosh...I love them all for different reasons! Spring for the all the flowers blooming and just that feeling of renewal and life. Fall because it is sooooooooooo beautiful. Summer because of vacation and minimal work and the beach and family memories. Winter because of snow days and the holiday merriment. Favorite month: August. We tend to take our family vacation in August and then there is all of the fun back to school stuff. I love the anticipation of a new school year. Favorite holiday: Christmas :) Halloween is a close second.

Favorite subject in school: In high school I loved English and writing. In college I loved psychology classes, especially abnormal psych. After getting my undergrad and Masters...I'm over school for a little bit. When I pay down my student loans perhaps more school is in my future! One of my longterm goals is to get my doctorate. Favorite channel: Probably A and E. I actually don't watch too much TV these days though. Favorite color: pink! Favorite song: Oh gosh, so many. Catapult by Counting Crows will always be a favorite.

Favorite movie: Lars and the Real Girl Favorite celebrity: I do love Adam Duritz Favorite kind of music: Depends. As a general rule, I like pretty much all pop. Favorite TV show: Rupaul's Drag Race,Obsessed, Pushing Daisies, Intervention, Hoarders, Heavy, Beyond Scared Straight, Project Runway. Favorite thing to do: spend time with family, read, run around Philly with friends, go out to eat. Favorite place in the world: Jersey Shore. I'm a simple girl. Give me a beach, a good book, some fudge, and a porch swing and I'm good. Favorite hobby: Zumba. Favorite kind of animal: the cats. I have one good one and one naughty one.... Guess which one is running along the top of my kitchen cabinets? Favorite place to live: I liked living in Oaks. After Isaac is all raised I would like to live in Rittenhouse in the city. Favorite place to vacation: I've never been anywhere too exotic but anywhere I can get a tan is nice :) I really enjoyed spending time at my parent's time share in Orlando. Favorite restaurant: Oh gosh. I don't know. Anything with really good mexican food. Locally, I like every Stephen Starr restaraunt I've set foot in. Favorite food: ice cream :) Favorite thing to cook: Ha! Me? Cook? I make a mean grilled cheese. Favorite drink: Diet Coke. Favorite chore: folding clothes...for some reason I really don't mind this chore! Favorite makeup: Still loving Bare Minerals. Favorite hair products: I like Herbal Essenses. Nothing fancy anymore. Favorite lotion: Bath and Body Works Moonlight Path :) Favorite perfume: I really like Victoria Secret's Pink with a Splash. Also can't go wrong with Candies... Favorite blogger: Sooooooooo many. I love blogs and spend far too much time reading them.

• There's people I know IRL (Deeva has Spoken, Because All The Cool People Are Doing It)
• People I barely know IRL whose blogs I follow and enjoy (not linking up for fear of outing myself as a creeper)
• People I know in IRL who's blogs are not super interesting to me, but that I read occasionally to be supportive (sorry Tushar, tech talk is Greek to me--- Technical Fowl)
• Education reform type blogs (Leaving Behind the PSSA)
• Classroom idea blogs (Sarah's First Grade Snippets)
• Blogs by moms I met when I was pregnant on a babycenter forum and we've been in touch ever since watching our kids grow up (Tea and Topaz)
• Single gal blogs(Pillow Talk is Extra)
• Single mom blogs(Single Mom Survives!),
• Single Mormon girl blogs (The Law of Chastity and the Modern Mormon Girl

I could go on and on. I'm sure I probably have at least 100 blogs in my reader. Favorite thing to blog about: oh about anything. I always get a good response to the "e-harmony reject pile" posts. Favorite books: Oh gosh. I don't know. I try to read most of the current "Best Sellers". Also a fan of fluffy "Chick Lit". Favorite thing to wear: Sundress, flip flops, huge sunglasses. Favorite kind of day: One where I can sleep in, eat lunch my mom or girlfriends, Zwahlen's, some kind of fun adventure somewhere locally, a long, hot shower, then bed! Favorite memory: How do you choose a favorite? Disney with my parents and sister last year was a fantastic memory...

What I Love lately...

This necklace from Lia Sophia. My friend is having a party next week and I was browsing around on their sight to see if there was anything I could afford that appealed to me. This one is so darling.

Celestial Seasonings in Lemon Zinger. I have been starting off my mornings at work with this and also sipping on it in the evenings. So yummy... Ulta Eyeshadow in Peacock. My friend's sister works for Ulta and she tossed me a ton of full sized eye shadows. I ignored this one for a while because I felt like it was too wacky but it's actually very pretty. I wore it Friday night to my friend's birthday party and today for church. It's highly pigmented but it blends nicely. This song by Tiny Vipers. (Disclaimer - I am known to like really depressing music). My friend dragged me along to see her at Burlap and Bean last weekend. Honestly, she is a little on the awkward side live but I've been obsessed with this song ever since. I think it's so pretty especially 3:14 on.

love you postsecret.com

another lovely one

from the local paper's Sound Off: "When teacher's sign a contract they take an oath of fidelity to do evil". yup. Good thing I'm just in education for the "amazing money"....

Saturday

Thanks everyone for the dishwasher advice and the budget software advice. I have heard a lot about mint.com but I've never checked it out. Things at work have been less stressful lately, and I am so grateful. I feel a lot better this week and ready to start excercising, eat better and getting my life in order again.

It's finally starting to feel like spring here and I love it!!! Although, I'm not going to lie, part of me is still hoping it's not too late to have one more snow day. There are no days off scheduled into March. Except for my personal day. Isaac's school does a "mystery reader" every Thursday. I secretly took off work to be one. I know he will be shocked to see me, and I am excited to get a peek at him in his classroom with his friends.

We have been fighting each morning about getting dressed. He has now decided he only wants to wear warm-up pants or sweat suits. He has about four pairs but he wants to wear them over and over again. And he only wants to wear short sleeved mesh soccer jerseys, which isn't so great for winter. He has sooooooooooo many really nice pairs of jeans and khakis but it's a fight to get him to wear them. I have read that fights over clothing are common with six year olds though. He has been rocking the Phillies cap he got for his birthday almost every day though, which I find to be very cute.

Last night my brother Tom came over so I could sneak out to my friend Becca's 30th birthday party. It was cocktail attire and very fun. I tried to curl my hair for the occasion. It was dirty and I set it in hot rollers and then went in with the curling iron and then sprayed the heck out of it. It was curly when I left the house. When I got to the party it was wavy and by the end of the night it wa spoker straight again. I give up. I will always be jealous of girls with curly hair who can wear it curly or straight.

Tom had brought Mario Kart over so I know he and Isaac were occupied with that for hours. When I came home, Tom was passed out on the couch sound asleep.

I'm only happy when it rains....

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately. I finally have some time to sit down and type because (insert angel chorus) it's the weekend!!! I've been under a lot of stress from work and it seems like when I am stressed everything in my life unravels. I start eating crappy (like Oreos for dinner badly) and then I don't bother to work out and I stop cleaning my house and pretty much everything falls apart. WIWW falls by the wayside. The vacumm cleaner goes untouched. On and on. Anyways, I can't write about it specifically (of course) but it is a terrible continuation of the stressful situation from about this time last year that caused me to flee to Florida for a while. Also the continuous stresses of never having enough money. I have been tutoring after school like crazy. It's still never enough though. I'm wondering if I might need to get some kind of weekend job to hold me over until summer. I feel like I am barely squeaking by with the monthly expenses. And then there's everything else. The dishwasher is not really cleaning the dishes anymore. I need rear brakes for my car. It goes on and on. I'm trying hard to look for the positivity, because I do have so many blessing in my life and so many people that help me. While we are on that topic, here's one I probably need to record for prosperity. Last week Isaac and I left to meet up with my brother Tom at Costco (mom got us a membership for Christmas and we never went to fill out the paperwork-- isn't that an awesome present?) which is a decent drive from my house. Afterwards we stopped at Game Stop because Isaac's birthday money was burning a hole in his pocket. Then we decided to stop by Zwahlen's for some ice cream, just to make a night out of it. By the time we drove all the way home we had been out for several hours. I opened the door for Isaac and went to bring in my trashcan from the curb. Isaac came running out of the house screaming "Mom, there is water everywhere!!!!" I came in and sure enough water was POURING out of the kitchen ceiling through a big gaping opening along the seam of the dry wall. There were puddles on the floor, and my work laptop was sitting in a pool of water on the counter. I ran upstairs to see that Isaac didn't turn the water off when he used the bathroom before we left. Unfortunately, the sink that was left on was the sink that has been draining extremely slowly for the past few weeks. Water was flowing over the edge of the sink and there were several inches of water on the bathroom floor, and soaked into the carpet outside the bathroom on the landing of my stairs. It was bad. I freaked out. Isaac was terrified. We turned into a two man clean up team. Water continued to pour of the ceiling out of the gaping crack in the drywall of the kitchen and in eight different spots in the living room ceiling for the rest of the night. I had to put out huge mixing bowls and pots to collect it all in. I was pretty much hysterical envisioning rotting drywall, mildewy carpet pads, tons of home repairs. But the next day after I returned home from work I discovered that everything was pretty much dry. All of the holes and spots in the ceiling that had gallons of water flowing through them were barely noticeable 24 hours later. The carpet that had been totally saturated with water was only mildly damp. My work computer still worked fine. Tons of water poured out on either side of my TV and TV stand but all of my electronics stayed dry. Even the kitchen cieling which was the worst was quite dry and the somehow didn't seem as gaping as the day before.

It was pretty much a little personal miracle and I'm not quite sure why it worked out that way but I'm so grateful.

So what else is new?

Not to get political, but why does it seem like everything in this country is going to hell in a handbasket? NPR and Planned Parenthood are being defunded. The Postal Service is in real trouble. I will refrain from posting a million links about terrible things that are happening in education locally and nationally. It can be so discouraging. I went to the movies last night and saw The King's Speech. We pretty much just chose that one by default. There are no good movies playing. It came down to that or the Justin Beiber movie (seriously). I had my doubts about a period movie about a guy with a stammer, but as everyone I knew who had seen it assured me, it was really, really good. Not too sure why it was rated R though. I guess because of all of the swear words. (He doesn't stammer when he swears and the speech therapist sort of runs with that).

I have had this book:

for book club for nearly a month and I haven't opened it. It is really long and my coworkers who have already started it aren't crazy about it, so I haven't gotten the motivation to start it. Maybe I will just skip this month. January I was tearing through books, but lately I can't seem to get interested in reading (see first paragraph about being in a funk). Anyone read it?

Anyways, I guess I should get out of bed and crank up the Lady Gaga station on slacker radio and get to crossing things off my to-do list. Happy Saturday everyone!

Well...

I survived... And it wasn't as bad as I anticipated.

Isaac had fun and so did his guests.

( This one turned out especially blurry but look how terrified Ilona is of Monkey Joe.)

I'm glad birthdays only come once a year. :)