something good, yeah

First of all-- a word about joyschool. I didn't realize it was a formal thing with copywrited curriculm, which raises it a few notches. The name is still cheesy as all get out though. My weekend was lovely. Friday night was low key. I had Isaac with me even though this was my weekend "off" because of his 9:30 Saturday soccer game. Which ended up being cancelled because the fields are a mess due to all the rain. Then we tried to meet his dad and a Hibachi place to try to salvage the afternoon... only to find that the place opened an hour later than the website said they did. We ended up just grabbing lunch at McDonald's.

Isaac's grandpa on his dad's side will be here soon to visit once all of the greencard stuff goes through. Isaac's dad M is from Sierra Leone (which is a country in West Africa. [Jay Z Kanye West rapped about it but blogger won't let me put in a link....}) Anyways, it will be the first time we will be meeting one of M's immediate family members, so that is kind of exciting. Isaac knows that his dad is from Africa but I want him to start having a better idea of what that means.

I made the trek out to my parent's house to watch Conference there. It was lovely. I had to straight from there to meet Isaac at the meeting spot, so I went a different way than usual, through Intercourse PA (go ahead and giggle!) .

I was a little low on gas and was relieved to find a Wawa (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-- who knew they had one in Lancaster County?!). It was bad enough last weekend to tell the AAA lady I was broken down on the side of the road in Blue Ball. If I had to call again to tell them I was stuck in Intercourse, they might think tag me as some kind of weirdo.

So Isaac is a huge Michael Jackson fan. We were at the grocery store recently when he was like "Hey mom! Watch this!" He did a little spin and then attempted this move: I almost peed my pants.

Anyways, I'm out of things to say, and I have to make sure I am out the door on the early side tomorrow to prepare for an IEP meeting at 8. Hope you had a nice weekend!

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!