Thirty

I am 30. As of 12:13am, I became old. I loved my 20s. There was college, beginning teaching, my master's, finally being out on my own, building a house, and getting married. I accomplished a lot in a decade! In anticipation of this day, I had a lot of mixed feelings - most of them not exactly happy. I think of the Friends episode when they show the 30th bday parties of all the friends and Joey just keeps yelling "WHY GOD?!? WHY ME?!??" That's the one I related to the most!!! But now that it's here, it's not so bad. I'm still the youngest teacher at my school and I hang around with 8 year olds all day - if that doesn't keep you young, then I don't know what will. Although some days I leave school and I feel about 100!! T will always be more than a year older than me - and so will Mimi! :) So I'm still the youngest of my peer group! I'm expecting to have lots more big events and things happen in this decade. More fun to come! Even though the last time that I had my palm read, she said that something traumatic would happen later in my 30s. That was happy news. Whatever, hopefully she was high on incense or something and got my lines crossed. She also told me that I would have one child. That is happiness to me! I guess now I'm really an adult. I know there's lots of other October bdays out there in my circle of friends - happy bdays all around!! :)

Little Update

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I don't have much time to update tonight - but I'll try to get on again tomorrow and post pictures (just for you, Melinda!).

In the aforementioned post that will be coming soon, you will read about 1) my week of vacation in Ludington, 2) Tigers (the ball team, not the RAWR! kind), 3) my garden, 4) my subsequent day of baking because of the garden, 5) scrapping, 6) musical-viewing, 7) my last week off before summer school starts, 8) giving my classroom a complete overhaul before summer school, 9)ummm... I think that's it. I'll probably think about more to ramble about when I post. I'm sure you can't wait!! :)

Anniversary #2

T and I have now been married for two years. 2 doesn't seem like a very big number, considering it feels like forever that we've been married. I don't mean that in a bad way - we've been married forever! No, just meaning that it seems like our life together has just always been there. Last night we watched our wedding video when we got home. That's a tradition that started last year - some friends of ours gave us the advice of making a point to watch our video every year to remind us of what we're celebrating. It's so fun to see it all again. I don't think that I was quite bridezilla, but I was in charge of everything - because I didn't want to give up control of anything. When I would watch the video in the weeks after the wedding, I was annoyed at the little details that I saw that were not quite as "perfect" as I thought they should be - how my hair would not keep a curl (93 degrees with 80% humidity) because that was my fault, how the pastor forgot to light the candles for the moms to light and how T's mom had to go get him to light them while everyone waited, how the organist just sucked. Now, I just think how beautiful everything was. I'm so glad that my perspective has changed!!

For our anniversary, we went up to Glen Arbor to the Homestead for the weekend. We absolutely love that place. It's right on Lake Michigan and our condo was a stone's throw from the beach. We had beautiful weather - I have the slight sunburn to prove it. While we were up there, we hung out on the beach a lot, went canoeing, shopped, and ate really well. On the way home, we stopped at my favorite winery - Black Star Farms in Suttons Bay to do a little tasting. T isn't much of a wine guy so I have a DD - at 10:30am! It was great. After we left BSF, then we spent the afternoon hanging around Traverse City. It was a great little vacation- I turned off my phone and didn't check email for over 3 days. It was very nice.

This is one of T's famous "long arm photos". Too bad it seems to add some chins to his face. hee hee...













Black Star Farms - I remembered to bring my tasting glass from last time so I got free tastings this time! :) Because it was our anniversary, the guy who was serving us gave me another limited edition glass. Whoohoo - a set!

Summertime...

...and the livin' is easy. It's now every teacher's favorite time of year - SUMMER! Sorry for my lack of posts lately, the last few weeks have been crazy busy. A week ago today was the last day of school - it seems like I've been on vacation longer than that! I still don't have my classroom totally packed up and rearranged. I somehow have to find a way to put 14 more desks into my room since my class size will double for next year. It makes me want to throw up just thinking about it.

This is the first summer in like ever that I don't have major things going on. No wedding planning, house building, classroom moving, apartment moving, grad classes. I'm all done with all that! It's a great feeling knowing that I get to choose how to spend my days. I know that I'm very lucky - but I've spent the last 10 months earning this time!! :) On the agenda this summer: exercise, scrapbooking, stamping, and maybe reading a few books (grown-up books, not 3rd grade books). We don't have too many travel plans (yet) for the summer and I love that!! We're going away for our anniversary (#2!!) at the end of June and we go to Ludington for a week in July, but other than that, we're home this summer. T's parents have a cottage up north, so I'm sure we'll head up there a few times too.

I'm off to take my dogs for a walk - my parents' dog is also visiting today so I'll have 3 big brown dogs. Luckily, they all get along really well! :)

Life

Life is pretty much back to normal around my house again. My grandma was here from Daytona to see my show and to be here for Mother's Day. Speaking of mother's day, T and I hosted my family for a backyard bbq on Sunday. It was great - including the weather! My mom and my uncle have had some differences lately and this was the first time that they had seen each other since our spring break drama and trauma. Therefore, I kept the alcohol flowing! I made peach bellinis and they were very tasty, if I do say so myself!

Allergy shots hurt. I just had to say that.

My kids at school are starting to get a bit squirelly. They seem to think that since the year is winding down that they can just do what they want to. I'm sure as a kid I never did that!!! hee hee... My nice class has suddenly turned on me - don't worry, I'll get them whipped back into shape. They hate it when "grumpy teacher" has to come out for the day. As they should, grumpy is a real bitch.

This weekend is going to be filled with birthdays. My dad's bday is on Saturday, so we're going out with them and doing cake and presents at our house that night. Sunday afternoon, we're doing a bday celebration for some of T's family. There are so many of them, that we used to have bday get togethers like every month. Now, we're grouping them more and only doing like 2 per year. Sunday, we're celebrating T's mom, dad, sister, sister-in-law, niece, and 2 nephews. Do I have to buy presents for all of them? Yep. Those of you who really know me, know what the shopper I am, so I usually have things covered way in advance from previous sales. I'm still working on the nephews and t's dad. It has not been a normal winter/spring for me with the play going on, so I got a little behind on my shopping.

Flowers. I like flowers. I like looking at them. I like buying them. I hate planting them. I do not in any way, shape, or form care to get dirty. I never have, and I'm sure never will. Last week, my mom and I went to a greenhouse to pick out some annuals for out pots and hanging baskets, etc. Loved that. I bought some awesome stuff. Last year, my mom planted everything for me - I plead ignorance at flowers. This year, my grandma was here, so my mom was off entertaining her and didn't come to plant my flowers and I HAD TO DO IT!! Ugh!!! T is really good at planting other stuff - big stuff. So I put it off until of course the last minute Sunday morning before people were going to be coming. I was a mess. It was gross. But now it's done and things look nice. A gardener I am not.

Done!

The show is now over! We had an excellent weekend! The kids did a really great job and we had really great attendance. Meaning, we made some money!! We're the first high school show ever to have made money! Usually, they're either in the red, or just break even. Hooray!!! This means that we have a budget for next year. And yes, we are talking about doing another show next year. Despite the fact that we have a list of students who will never ever be in another show with us again, most everyone was quite committed. It's now all done, everything put away and taken care of - although my truck is still full of crap. And when I say full, I mean, I can fit in it and that's it.

Last night I had dinner at home with T for the first time in about 2 months. It was great! Then I went and took a 2 hour nap. Then I went to bed.

I hired a cleaning lady! I'm sooooooo excited!!! A friend of mine is adopting a baby soon and her parents are here for the summer. Her mom is looking for something to do to keep her busy, and she loves to clean! Perfect, because I hate to clean!! With the musical, I haven't been very vigilant in my cleaning regiment. Normally, T does all the floors, and I do bathrooms, dusting, and glass. If we're working together, it usually takes us the same amount of time, so I feel it's pretty fair. With the weather so nice, T is always working on projects outside, and I've been pretty much non-existent so the dust and dog hair have totally taken over our house. It's gross. If there were more hours in the day, then I could do it myself, but there's not. So now I'm almost excited to go home and start picking things up to get ready for her to come. We're having the Mother's Day celebration at our house again this year and I want it to look good. But I don't have the time to do it. I'm soooooo geeked!!!

I have flowers coming up in my flower beds!!! Last year was the first year that we planted anything and a lot of stuff is coming up. We built our house two and a half years ago and we didn't get to any landscaping until last spring. I'm totally loving not having to put in all that work again this year! Although I am starting a garden. T planted it for me last weekend and put up a big fence around it so the deer and other critters stay away from it. I had him plant summer squash, zuccinni, pumpkins, mini pumpkins, and gourds. A lot of fall stuff. Those of you who really know me, know that I am not good with growing things. Plants, flowers, anything basically dies in my presence. Hopefully something will grow. I'll try to post pics soon of some awesome double tulips I have blooming right now. Man, I sound like a total nerd.

Crazy!

I think my head is going to explode!! Way too many things bouncing around in there of things that need to be done before my show opens this weekend. There just are not enough hours in a day, so I will taking the day off sick tomorrow to get it all done. Next year, I'm going to delegate a lot of these responsibilities to parents or capable students!! We had our massive tech rehearsal yesterday and things went well. It was a very long day, but a lot got accomplished. On Satuday I learned how to sew. We had to sew some patches onto basketball and cheerleader uniforms. And they had to be sewn on by hand because next week we have to rip it all off! But, the kids wore all their costumes for the first time yesterday and it all looked really good. The end is in sight!!

Same Job!

Yes, I have kept my position at my school! It's going to be so totally different here next year, with only one of each grade level. Everyone else at my school who was displaced was able to "bump" into another position - except our newest teacher. She's only been here 3 years, but she's first in seniority order to be called back. It sucks. She's pregnant with her second child and now they have to put their house for sale because of the instablilty of her job situation. Sucks. I'm sure that there will be a job for her - over the summer, something always happens and someone takes another job, moves away, etc. After the meeting on Friday, 7 people left without a job. Oy vay. Terrible. I know that there are a lot of other school districts in a lot worse trouble than us, but it's still hard to see people that you know go through these things.

In other news, the musical is less than 2 weeks away. We had a work day on Saturday and got many things painted and finished. Good things!! Although some student left the top to a can of brown paint laying on the stage, which is the same color as the stage, and I didn't see it and stepped in it. I'm still trying to get the brown paint off the bottom of my foot. That was fun.

We watched Borat this weekend. I'm still not sure what I think of it. Yes, I leaughed out loud many times. But would I have felt satisfied that I had gotten my money's worth had I seen it in the theatre? I doubt it. I guess 'shock value' is more of what that show was about. But it was a nice form of free entertainment for an otherwise uneventful Saturday night at home. Plus, now I feel more "in the loop"! I've seen Borat! :) hee hee...

Speaking of being home, I got to be home for a good portion of the weekend! In fact I never left my house on Sunday. I used to hate having to stay home - now I love it! I'm never home anymore, although 2 weeks from today I'll be all done with the show and can be home again! I did mountains of laundry, totally cleaned my house, and my parents and my in-laws came over for dinner. It was a good day! Plus, it was gorgeous outside so I had just about every window in my house open. Loved that!

No longer displaced!!!

I just got some terrific news today! I am now officially NOT displaced anymore. I'm not totally in the clear yet for keeping my same position at my school, but it's a lot more feasible now! Long story short, my teaching partner was offered another position within the district (non-classroom teaching), which left me as the only 3rd grade teacher here, and since we only need one - that's me! Now, I can still be "bumped" out of my position, but I'm not sure why anyone would choose to come here. Generally people don't choose to come to my school - we're considered the 'bottom of the barrel' population. Yes, we have kids from very diverse backgrounds, and yes, they're a pretty transient and unstable bunch, but kids are kids. You just gotta love 'em. Anyway, our big bid/bump meeting is on Friday, so then we'll finally know for sure where everyone will be. It's a bit tense around the schools these days. One other good thing - our school board approved a buy-out for 9 teachers in our district. As long as they free up the right jobs, then no one will have to actually lose their job. The retirement/opening list still has not come out. What a wacky time! I'll for sure post again this weekend about what all happened - that is, after I sleep off my hangover - I'm actually going to drink on Friday. A lot. Can't wait.

Thanks for the idea, Jess... wow, this was an eye-opener!!

Your Dominant Intelligence is Musical Intelligence

Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes. You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time. You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it. Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds. You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

My mom's crack pipe

As promised, here is the story of my mom and the crack pipe...

In Daytona, there is something called the Flea Market. It's only open on the weekends and there is everything imaginable there. Mostly, it's t-shirts and hats, but also fresh fuit and vegetables, jewelry, purses, toys, cell phone accesories, etc. A lot of the vendors go up to Shipshawanna (sp?) in the summertime. So if you've heard of that place, that's like the flea market.

We're walking down the aisles browsing at all of the stuff and my mom stops at this glass case. Inside were all these colorful, blown-glass things. I was down a ways, so I didn't see at first what she was actually looking at. As I got closer, I saw that it was a place that sold "smoking paraphenalia". Great. My mom says, "I think I'm going to get one of these, they're so pretty!" Um, hello!?? I said, "Mother! Get away from there!" She said that she thought that they were fancy wine bottle stoppers!! I quickly informed her that those pretty things would not make good bottle stoppers and dragged her away from the case. Can you say, naive?

That's my mother. Gotta love her.

******************************************

We are now back from vacation. Overall, it went pretty well. We had some family drama and trauma - and it's very nice to be back home. We did convince my grandma to come up to Michigan in May for my show and for Mother's Day. That was a good thing!

This week we attended the funeral of my grandpa's brother. He was a little more than a year younger than my grandpa and died a little more than a year after he did. Crazy. 80 years seems to be the life expenctancy of the brothers. Weird.

The show is coming along. We're up to our armpits in rehearsals. I'm having a great time - a stressful time, but it's a lot of fun. We have a lot of really great kids in this show. We open in 3 weeks! I'm a bit nervous about that!!!

This weekend will be filled with more rehearsals and mountains of laundry. Somehow I acquired a bunch of new clothes on spring break. Unfortunately, most of it is for warmer weather so they're going to have to go in the closet for a while. I'm also going on a date with my husband! He's been crazy busy with this seed thing he's in charge of for pheasants forever, so we really haven't seen much of each other this week. Can't wait for the weekend!! Have a good one, everyone! :)

DTW sucks my butt

I am on Spring Break! Hallelujah!! It's been wonderful since we've been here - mid 80's and sunny every day. I'm getting tan!! No more pasty white!! However, we had quite an ordeal getting here. Let me fill you in...

We have had reservations on Spirit Air since October 30. I actually booked the seats using Travelation - cheap, everything good. Usually, we fly right out of Lansing (lovely little airport), but it was way more to fly out of there this time, so we had to fly out of Detroit. Yuck. Not a fan of DTW. Plus, it's almost 2 hours from my house compared to just over 30 minutes to Lansing. So, we had to leave school an hour early just to get there on time. Soooooo.... we did and we actually got to Detroit in record time! :) So we wait in a nice little line and then go up to the counter and give the girl our driver's licenses. "I'm sorry but we have no record of you on this flight." Excuse me?!? It was true- they had no record of us. All that I had was a printout from Travelation with a confirmation number. So, we stepped out of line and I frantically called Travelation (sucky site - good prices, but apparently some incompetancy abounds). I was on the phone with an agent for an hour and a half - to no avail. There was absolutely no way that they could get my mom and I out of DTW that night. Ugh!! This really sucked because we had this all arranged and my aunt and uncle were also on this flight and we had a car rented for us all to go to my grandma's. Therefore, we really needed to be on that flight. However, it was totally booked. So, we got on the standby list. Never done that before. The girl at the desk told us to come back up to her a few minutes before the flight was going to close to see if there were seats left. We did, and there were two!!! Home free!! Then some little fucker comes running up to the desk and proclaims that HE is a ticketed passenger going to Orlando. ARG!!!! Thus, leaving one. My mom and I argued about it, and I won - sending her on the flight. She's not incredibly independent and I knew that I would fair far better than her being stranded in the airport. Yes, I was totally stranded - my dad had dropped us off hours ago. So, I called my cousin who is in grad school at U of M (boo hiss - he's the total misfit in our family) right now and he and a friend came and got me. The next flight I could get out was at 6:20 the next morning. I stayed at his apartment and he called me a cab the next morning - since I had to leave at 4am. I'll delve into that experience later - suffice to say, his apartment was nasty. I realize he's in college and doesn't care - but there was stuff growing in the shower. I slept on the couch and didn't walk around without shoes on. Maybe it was also my avertion to everything U of M. Yuck. Ick. Gross. I have no idea how he got this way!! I was in college too, and have seen some really bad apartments, but I really think his takes the cake. It made me want to immediately start cleaning. And I hate cleaning with a passion. Although in order for me to have even gotten started, I would have needed a haz-mat suit and industrial-strength cleaner. Okay, time for a new paragraph.

I got to the airport way early only to find a gigantic line!!! I stood in line for over an hour and a half, only to get up to the counter 15 minutes before my flight was to take off, and have the girl tell me that since I was "so late" (hello? is it my fault that you don't have enough people working?), there was a good possiblity that I wasn't going to make the flight. WHAT?!?!? You can't make me go back to the filth hole in Ann Arbor!!!! So I ran. Of couse, my gate was the farthest away, and I ran. I got up to the gate, handed the attendant my boarding pass, and she told the guy that I was the last one and to close the door. Hot damn!! I did it! To celebrate, I slept most of the way to Orlando.

We're really not sure what the hell happened that we were even in this predicament. According to Travelation, it was Spirit who dropped our reservation. According to Spirit, it was Travelation that never booked the flight. Luckily, I had brought my itinerary that Travelation had emailed me, with the price we paid, and Spirit sold us our seats for the same price - even though they could have gotten a helluva lot more out of us. I must say, I am pleased with Spirit and how they took care of us on an incredibly busy Friday night. However, we will not be flying out of DTW for a long time. If ever.

Before I close, I also wanted to share our rental car experience. I had reserved a 'Standard SUV' for us - since there would be 4 adults and lots of big luggage. Well, there was a kind of an accident at the Sanford/Orlando airport (where we usually fly into BTW), and they had redirected all their flights to Orlando. I wasn't there Friday night (I was at the dirty AA bachelor pad, remember?), but this is what was relayed to me. My mom, aunt, and uncle got to the Dollar counter and because of all the extra flights, there were a gazillion people in line. They stood in line for 2.5 hours just to get the damn car!!! And, they weren't able to get the SUV, they had to get a little Sebring because they were all out of big things. My grandma lives in Daytona (approx. 1.5 hours from Orlando) so they didn't get to her house until 2:30am. Then got up at 7am and turned around to come and get me. Today, we went and exchanged the car for a Grand Cherokee and all is now okay.

What a mess. But, you know, it's been only a few days since all this happened, but it seems like a long time. It's been sunny and beautiful everyday. We have gone to the beach everyday and it's been great. I've also been doing a good job of catching up on my sleep. I don't wear a watch and we just do things when we feel like it. We already have our arrangements to come home all set - with printed itineraries right from Spirit, so there will be no more 'snafus'. From talking to T, it sounds like the weather is really really crappy at home. I wish I could send all this sunshine up there!! I sure would if I could!!

Have a great week everyone! Next time I'll tell you all about how my mom wanted to buy a crack pipe! Seriously.

Tick

I have an eyelid twitch. IT. IS. VERY. ANNOYING! It just started yesterday at rehearsal. Stress?!?! Actually, rehearsal went quite well - it's just lots of work. At one point, I was a bit frustrated and I just wanted to shout, "Lexapro, take me away!!!" Anyway, I have a twitch. It sucks. My eyelid is waving goodbye to you.

ho hum

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. The musical is going well - we finally got our scripts and the cd on Monday. We have a lot of work to do! But it's coming!

Hmmm.... let's see.... as of late, my world has been revolving around school, musical, and sleep. That's my day. Last weekend I did get together with M for a fun afternoon of mall walking and then of course, shopping! On Saturday T's sister, her husband, and 3 of their 4 boys came over. They pulled in at 9am - I was still in bed. Oops! No one told me when they were coming!!! The guys worked on framing up part of the basement!!! If you've been to my house, you've no doubt heard my grand plans for our basement - right now it's just a big open space full of all our extra crap. The extra crap drives T crazy, I'm not so bothered by it. Along one wall, we're installing 4 walk-in closets (9'x5' each) so that all our crap can go into them!! We also have one part that has all the necessities (furnace, water heater, etc.) that is being enclosed to have it's own room. That's all the framing that happened this weekend. We're going to work on the basement in stages. Eventually, there will also be another bedroom/craft room, a full bathroom, and an entertainment area with kitchen and bar. I wish we could finish it all off, but there's that damn $$$ factor working against us. The closets and the furnace room will all be finished off this year, and we'll also finish pouring the patio off the walkout. That's all for the home improvement this year. Last year, we focused our efforts outside - new house=no landscaping. I'm sooooo glad that's done!

This weekend I'm very much looking forward to sitting on my butt and catching up on the tv I'm missing this week. Thank God for Tivo. I'm also going to visit a friend who just had a baby. I swear, babies are just popping out all over the place. Since Christmas, I've known 4 people who have had babies - another teacher at my school is due next week and another one is pregnant. Sheesh... something in the water around here. I bring my own water from home! :) And that's the way it's going to stay for a few more years!!

Skiing and Cows

Odd title, I know. But I have to tell you about both! This weekend T and I went to Shanty Creek skiing with some friends. We had a great time - and I only fell twice! :) I don't ski very fast, so I don't fall very hard. I did my first night skiing when we got there Friday night. I took a wrong turn on the first hill and went on one that was a bit too challenging for me. I pretty much screamed the whole way down. But I didn't fall. :) After that terrifying experience, I stayed on my nice, slow green runs. My favorite up there is called 'Chicken's Choice'. I am not ashamed of the fact that I'm a big chicken. There were lots of people on the slopes Saturday - including many little kids taking lessons. That always freaks me out that I'm going to catch an edge and go careening into a group of innocent little people. I successfully maneuvered around them. Then, there was this very large group from a rehabilitation center who took people with disabilities skiing. Basically, the person would sit in this chair with a ski on the bottom, and someone would ski them down. And there would be about 10 other people skiing around them with bright orange vests. Well, I started going down my Chicken's Choice just as the person and their entourage went, and so I just stayed clear of them. Until one of the orange vest people thought I was getting too close and she threw her arms out and yelled 'STAY BACK!' Hello, yes, I'm not a very good skiier, but I do know how to stay out of people's way. Like I'm going to go gunning for the disabled person. Friggin eh. Anyway, it turned out to be a beautiful weekend. Except for driving home Sunday. Icky. T drove- I slept.

Okay, onto the cow adventure. I was coming home from school last night, when I hit the dirt part of our road, I noticed 6 very large black cows jumping a fence and start running down my road. Um... what the hell do I do now?!? I had never been in that situation before. So, I went to the person's house, but no one came to the door. I thought they might want to know that their cattle were hoofing it toward town. So I followed them for a bit and called T to look out the front window. He said "Are you driving a herd of cattle home?" Yep, I'm a cowgirl - I drive 'em around with my Explorer. So T said he'd call the police and told me to back up and go around the block to come at them from the other way so they'd stop running. Did I mention that we live out in BFE and rarely do cars drive by? So I went around the block and was able to stop them just past our house. As I tried to push them to go the other way, they decided to keep running, not down the road anymore, but up our neighbor's driveway. At least they weren't in the road anymore. What a surprise to anyone who would drive down the road! T went back to the house where the cows lived and was able to find the guy who owned the cows. He said the guy was standing out in his driveway, scratching his head wondered what happened to his black angus. So T ended up getting our quad and helping the guy round up the cows out of our neighbor's field and back down to their house. We never know what goofy things are going to happen out in the country.

More Vacation!

T and I are leaving Friday for an extended weekend up north. We're finally going skiing!! It's been 2 years since the last time we hit the slopes. Last year, the weather never seemed to cooperate with the weekends that we could go, so we had a year off. We're not big-time skiers. Usually once or twice a winter we'll ski for a weekend. Having the slopes so far away, and crazy lives, it makes it difficult to find the time/energy/moo-lah. I have packed all kinds of reading material and comfy clothes to hang out when not outside. I'm good for a few hours a day and then I'm ready to warm up and give my legs a break. I like to hit the smaller hills- I'm not much of a daredevil. I just love the shush-shush of going down the hill. Not a big thrill-seeker here. We're going up with some friends that we haven't gotten together with in a long time. They are leaving their son (who is 18 months) for the first time with grandma and grandpa for a whole weekend. He'll be fine- I just hope mom and dad aren't too preoccupied with thoughts of him instead of being able to enjoy themselves. Hopefully I'll have some pics from the hill the next time I post. Have a terrific weekend everyone! :)

I'm back!

After I typed that title, I realized that many of you probably didn't even know that I had been gone, due to my lack of posts recently. And I will apologize for the negative tone my last few entries have had. It's just been kinda crappy around here. Anyhoo, I went to Florida for the weekend! This was the first time that T had been down to visit Grandma in Daytona. It was sooooo great to wear shorts and t-shirts everyday. It was on the cool side, but hey, it's winter there too! When we left Lansing, it was 10 degrees, when we landed at 9pm, it was 60. Much better!!! Of the 3 days we were there, it was generally in the low 70's. It was great to show T around town and go beachside. Although, we never were able to go down to stay at the beach. Ugh! That's the best part!!! There is absolutely nothing like being at the ocean - it's probably my most favorite place in the world. We ate down there at our favorite restaurant right on the pier yesterday (we're on the pier in this pic). Wow, it doesn't seem like it was just yesterday!! We also went inland a bit to Blue Spring to see the manatees on Sunday. There were gators there too! Very cool. Anyway, it was great to get away from the drama and trauma around here.

This is T and Grandma before we left Monday. They're standing by the plant that T's family sent for Grandpa's funeral last March. It was what we would call a house plant in Michigan - in Florida everything grows crazy fast outside.

Pissy

I am very pissy today. Namely, because there is school. Yes, I am quite pissed because I had to get up and come to school this morning when I had many things already planned for my snow day. But I'm mostly pissed because my superintendent wants to push her own agenda instead of keeping our students' safety at the top of her priority list. I had a lovely day on Monday. I got a lot of things done at home and I was looking forward to just one more day!!! It was especially nice given the piece-of-crap week I had last week. When I drove in this morning, it was negative 9. NEGATIVE NINE! On the news, Terri DeBoer the weather whore said that exposed skin can freeze in 3 minutes. At my school, all the kids walk. A lot of their parents do not have transportation - and if they do, usually it's not very dependable, especially in sub-zero temperatures. If I was a parent, I wouldn't send my kid to school if they had to walk! Right now, I have 3 kids gone. I thought I'd have a lot more than that. Ugh. PISSY!!!

Displaced

This will be my last year teaching 3rd grade at my building. Due to budget cuts, 5 positions at my building are being cut. Me, being the lowest in seniority at my grade level, is that position. We knew that some things like this were coming down, but we didn't know for sure until the school board meeting Monday night that it really was happening. Therefore, I will be in search of another position within my district. I have 7 years seniority and there are plenty of places for me to go. Unfortunately, I'll most like have to do a "bump" and take someone with less seniority out of their position. It's a not nice thing to do, but it's part of our system and that's the way it works. I am not a layoff or a pink slip, but unless 5 elementary people retire this year, then the people at the bottom will be. This is something that I never imagined would happen in my district. However, students moving out of district or out of state, have had a huge impact on us. Our economy sucks. We've had a really good fund balance up until this year, so nothing major (like staff) has had to be cut. Right now, we're in the position that a lot of other districts have been in for quite some time. I think what upsets me most is that my school is awesome the way it is. We have 5 good elementaries in my district, but this building has the most flexible staff, the most challenging students (behaviorally and academically), and we make it work. Our MEAP scores are great, we all go way above and beyond what I know others within the district are doing. Plus, we're all great friends and get along so well. I truly love coming to work everyday. Today was the only day in the 5 years that I've been here that I didn't want to come to school. Unfortunately, T said that I couldn't stay home. Our superintendent came and talked to each of us who have been displaced individually. That was a fun meeting. I was so upset by just the thought of the meeting that I couldn't eat this morning- not good for my stress level, but great for my diet. We have our bump meeting sometime in the next few months. I'll find out for sure then where I'll be. Everyone at my school is trying to stay positive and enjoy these last few months we have together. It sucks. A lot. But, life will go on and sometimes change can be a good thing. At least, that's my stance as of now. In the meantime, I'll be collecting boxes to pack up my classroom.

In other news... the party we had for our theatre group this past weekend was a roaring success. Lots of people, lots of food. Everyone commented to us about how great it was. And it really was! Party planning is one of my favorite things to do, although I'm really looking forward to not having theatre-related things to do this weekend! Oh, and BTW, I didn't win, but it was an honor to be nominated. Maybe next year... :)

Finally Friday

No, I have not been on one, continuous snow day since my last post. I wish! This week I took my class to our local YMCA for water safety/swimming lessons. The kids had a blast (it's usually a third grade highlight). Every other year, I just sit and watch - take pictures and get caught up on paperwork or take my phone and check email. This year, they didn't have enough volunteers to help out, so I went in the pool too. I love to swim and I had a great time. I'm always amazed at the amount of kids who have never been in a pool before. My parents have home movies of me jumping off the diving board when I was 2 and a half. No swimmies either- they were for wussies! Every summer we spent at the cottage and I was always in the lake. I had a little blow-up boat that I used to row all over. When I was little, my grandpa was worried I'd go out too deep and he'd tie me and my boat to a tree in the yard. I hated that damn rope. Anyway, swimming is great, and if you don't do it- try it! Or the lifeguard will just throw you in. Either way.

I did receive one oddball comment from one of my goofy kids. The first day that I walked out to the pool deck in my swimsuit, the kid says to me, "Wow, you're Mrs. R. PG-13!" I really wasn't showing that much cleavage! I never ever know what's going to come out of their precious little mouths. :)

This week I have been hard at work on a dvd for a little celebration that b and I are planning for our theatre group. Scanning sucks. Scanning poor-quality, older than dirt newspaper clippings sucks even more. I think that I am finally done scanning and can now put the thing together. BTW- I do that- make fun dvds for parties, anniversaries, weddings, etc. T thinks I need to start a little business doing it - if interested, give me a call. :) Anyway, the party is Sunday and I really hope it goes well. This is the first major function that the board has trusted us with. Plus, it's the first giving of our new awards. Like the Tony's - we have the Spiro's. Named after one of our longtime directors. I'm even nominated for best supporting actress for my portrayal of the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. I don't think that I'm going to win - but it was an honor to be nominated! :) ha ha... I'll keep you updated next week of the results.

In other news, I was saddened to hear of the passing of K's grandpa. Much love goes out to her and her family.

In more other news, I don't know what the deal is lately with all the people around me having those 'come to my party and buy stuff' things. They're everywhere! So far, just this week, I have purchased from Stampin' Up, Creative Memories, and Lia Sophia jewelry. Why? I have no idea? Moments of weakness, I presume. Will I have enough in my checking account this month to pay my mortgage? Maybe. Will I have some kick ass new stamps and scrapbooking stuff instead? Definitely. :) BTW- I'm thinking of hosting a CM party soon. Anyone interested? shameless plugs all over this post... sorry!!

Okay, it's Friday. It's after school. My report cards are done. My papers are (almost) graded. I'm whipped. Going home. Have a good weekend everyone!

ring ring (part 2)

Love those 5:30am phone calls! :) Yes, I do have another snow day today. It's been a great weekend and now I get one more day of it! Why was it great? We had nothing planned. I got things done around the house when and how I wanted to with no time constraints. Awesome. I can't remember the last time that had happened. A long time.

I have been doing some experimental cooking lately. Since I've been on this diet/health kick I've been trying to find recipes from weight watchers or lowfat cookbooks. I've never been much of a cook (why? because my dad is a professional chef - he always cooked and I just enjoyed the ride, I never really paid attention), but now I'm feeling better about being in the kitchen. I even planned out our week of dinners. I feel so much like a grown up. :)

TTFN...enjoy our snow-covered world! It finally looks like Christmas!

Update

Just a quick note - the Z pack really helped and now I'm feeling much better. Our washer gets fixed today! hooray! We're going to see my cousin play basketball at Hope tonight (he plays for Albion). I'm on a new diet/excersize plan and have lost 3.8 pounds in the past week. I get to really eat tonight though- Johnny Carino's. Love love love that place. :) Our weekend was not very eventful - until sunday. We had our final Christmas, with my Aunt and Uncle and 2 cousins. Afterward, down came our tree. :( I was sad to put it away, but it's about time. The "wintery" stuff I left up. I doubt that will come down until the end of January. The house always seems so bare after I take down the Christmas stuff- so I try to leave it up as long as possible without becoming one of those 'crazy holiday ladies' who leave that stuff up until the fourth of july. The copy machine at my school is broken. It is a horrible thing. I hope the copy machine near you is still working, I might come over and run some things. :)

I'm back!

To work, that is! Sorry it's been so long since a post, but I had quite a lengthy one I was working on last weekend and then by some strange phone line twist of fate (we have dial-up at home -bleck), I was booted off without rhyme or reason. Pissy is how I felt the rest of the day. So much so, that I didn't get back on and type it all again. I think it was a recap of our Christmas(es) and New Year. Long story short- Christmas- awesome, busy, long long day. Day after- shopping! and then napping and putting away presents. New Year's- we were supposed to visit some friends and then they all came down with the flu. Ew. We stayed home and had a nice dinner with my parents since they didn't have any plans this year. On to new things going on: 1. I came back to school on Tuesday. 2. I have a sinus infection which has now traveled down to my lungs so I have a nice, smoker's cough. 3. I hit a new blood pressure low at the doctor's yesterday - 82 over 60! The nurse said "Wow, you really ARE sick!" 4. The enter key doesn't seem to want to work so I have to continue typing like this. 5. Our washer broke. We now have solved our lack of places to ski problem- we have mountains of laundry in our house!! The motor seems to have died. It was making this funny clicking noise, and the clothes came out more wet than usual. T tried to take the cover off to look at it. That was disaster #1. The repairman came yesterday and has to order parts for it. But he hooked it back up so we could at least use it. Last night T was doing some laundry and the motor totally died. That was disaster #2. We spent a good 45 minutes getting all the water out of the washer, with cups. 6. I get a massage tonight! 7. I think that's it.