Tough day at school. My kids are great, but they are 5th graders. They are in a difficult time and about to enter an even more trying time? Who doesn’t remember middle school? And not fondly?

I defiantly fall in that category.

At any rate, tough times. They are bickering, getting in cliques, and discovering the opposite sex. Most of these kids have been in the same class together for the last 3-5 years, so it’s a small community. One of the new additions is stirring up a lot and bringing a lot of animosity and contention into the classroom. Sadly a lot of it is directed to the one student probably the least able to handle it — although he doesn’t have a diagnosis I would bet he has something going on – unfortunately mom doesn’t want him tested. He reminds me of a gentle giant. Social skills are not his strength. He really doesn’t deserve the crap he’s getting, and sadly, it’s only going to get worse as he gets older.

It makes me so sad.

There is so much going on in the class right now. Spring fever. Field trips. Our Mission to Mars is coming up. They are about to move to Mid-School. It’s just a lot gong on. I’m wishing that I could do something to foster a feeling of caring and community.

I’m thinking about it but drawing a blank.

The new house is fantastic. I Love it! Every day. It’s so nice having your own place. Not just your own “place” – but your “OWN” place. I love it. Did I say that already? — Long rough day. Did I say that already too?

Sigh.

Aright, I have to go. I’m still trying to unwind.

Wish me luck.

Ugh. Lately I feel like I could sleep all day every day. I just don’t seem to have any energy. At all. Zip. Zero. Nada.

I know what it is.

I mean besides being insanely busy for the last 2 month – painting, packing, moving, unpacking, cleaning, painting, etc.

There is actually something else up. See I have a vitamin deficiency. I got it while pregnant with Ladybug. I had to get vitamin B12 shots once a month for years. After a few years I bailed on the shots – but still had the deficiency. I can usually manage it with OTC vitamins and diet.

A few days ago I realized I was having problems staying awake – all day. I’m tired when I get up in the morning. I’m tired all day. I find myself do all things at a very minimum energy level. Then brushing my teeth, I realized my tongue was hurting. I checked it out and yep – evidence that my B12 was low was there for all to see. I had an “aha” moment. So it sucks but I’m trying to boost my B levels with Korean energy drinks (loaded with B vitamins) and OTC vitamins.

It works for a little while. Usually I am up for the first half of the day and then pssssssshhhhhhuuuuuuuu….. CRASH!!!  UGH.

But I did manage to get some some stuff done on my craft room! Yay! I can’t wait till my craft room is all set up. I wish I could paint and recarpet in there right away – but at least I HAVE a craft ROOM!!! Yay again!

OK, so I’m going to go visit – hope everyone has a great night!

Question of the Day:

What’s your favorite room in your house?

Is it just me or does anyone else recognize  Bear Grylls as a complete and total tard?? OK, so his show is cool, and you can learn some interesting stuff – like how mud is a fire retardant and that deer droppings are like mini multivitamins (pronounced by Bear as VIT a mins, how cute is that).  But when someone leaves a perfectly good shelter, fire and roasted pig, to climb into a little tunnel inside a cave to “possibly”  find some fresh water and good cave fish – drops their torch and has to crawl blind through a crevasse to get out through freezing water  — that person is tarded.

As a claustrophobic – I wouldn’t go into that rabbit hole in a cave even if there was a cache of pirate gold at the bottom. And a million dollars. And a feather bed, 5 star hotel and fine dining.

Now – I’m not alone in this decision, but it’s not unanimous around here either. Several members of my family felt that if there was a good enough pay off, they would go down the rabbit hole.

They’re tarded too.

I’m just saying…

That’s it.

It’s official.

We are DONE with the other house. We have cleaned bathrooms, baseboards, oven and refrigerator. We had carpets cleaned. Mopped, patched walls, did touch up painting and cleaned windows. We replaced light bulbs, and removed every single thing we own. We swept the garage, the porch and did puppy patrol. The house looks beautiful and is move-in ready for new tenants. Of course, with this economy, she might have difficulties getting some, but it’s ready for when she does!!

It feels good.

On top of that, I can’t wait for the deposit back! That’s what we are using to but new bedding, new bathroom stuff and kitchen rugs etc. Whooo hooo! Shopping time! I love shopping. It’s right at the top of my list with reading, coffee and internet… life is good!

We are leaving today for Pinetop. Ski trip. Although I’ve decided not to ski this year. I am just finally getting well, my voice still resembles that of a drag queen and I still cough if move too much for too long, so skiing is probably not the best choice of activities for me at this stage. Instead, I will keep the fire burning, and relax with a book and catch up on some grading and lesson planning while they hit the slopes. This also means that I am the designated cook – sigh. Well it can’t be all benefits right? (Have I mentioned I hate to cook?)

I am also going to take my camera, although my CF card failed and I don’t have very big smart media cards, I’m still going to take it and try to get some good snaps!

Coralora will be skiing for the first time ever! For those of you who don’t know who Coralora is, she is the girl we took in during Ducky’s senior year. Right at the beginning of the year actually. Her parents had thrown her out – and she was moving from friend to friend, sleeping on floors etc. She’s a great kid – excellent student, helps around the house, cooks, follows the rules, works – really a good kid. She has truly become part of the family. Ducky and her attend UNM and both are doing great 3.85+ for their first semester! 

Anyway – Coralora will be skiing for her first time. I need to have Ladybug or Hubby catch that on camera! I think it’s going to be fun. Ducky is coming up on the 1st – with her own crew. We had the condo until the 7th, but Hubby, Ladybug and I all have to be back by the 4th. Ducky is bringing some friends and going to stay until the 6th or 7th. Hopefully that’s not a diaster! LOL

OK, well I have packing and organizing to do. Then there’s a 5 hour car drive to take. May or may not be back on in the coming days – but if I don’t make it on, everyone have a fantastic New Year!

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You know what I hate about moving? That you have to clean TWO houses. Oh boy… what fun! You get to clean the one you are leaving, and the one you are moving into. Both get to be cleaned during the whole “moving” process – which by definition creates mess and dirt. So you clean while you are making messes. Is there anything more pointless and less fun than that? I don’t think so.

I must admit though, that all those years as a military wife really paid off. We managed to move in just one weekend for the most part, without the help of movers, packers and all the other aid the military provides. Thank goodness the girls are old enough to have boyfriends that are old enough to work!!! All three boy friends and some of their friends helped with the BIG move. The day we moved all the major furniture and most of the boxes. We rented a big U-Haul and loaded it flat, took it, unloaded, came back and reloaded – and so it went. By afternoon the guys had most of the furniture at the house and the stuff that went upstairs up the stairs! We paid each one $50.00 and got them lunch and then took the ones who were still hanging with us out to dinner.  All in all a successful move.

Today we spent about 3 hours cleaning the old house. We will go back and finish tomorrow. Really all we have left is baseboards downstairs, sweeping and mopping the tile and wiping down the oven which self-cleaned today.

You know what that means? That we will get our deposit back soon and that we can go shopping for new bedding and bath stuff — Hooray!! This part of moving I do like — the decorating!

This time Hubby wanted to decorate a room. At first he claimed my craft room — but I was like – I don’t think so buster! I asked him what he wanted to do and he said a surf/beach theme room. I agreed to let him do our bedroom. Basically, he suggested the color scheme (which I modified and then picked the colors for) and the basic theme (which I modified again and made suggestions and have basically picked out the decorations for). The main focal point will be…. his surfboard! He’s promised to clean all the groudy wax and sand off before hanging it up. He’d better!  The walls are an ocean blue, the trim a light blue gray, and the accent wall and tray ceiling inset are a dark ocean blue. It actually looks pretty good. So far. I’ll post pictures when we get done. We haven’t painted the bathroom yet, but will continue the paint scheme in there.

One nice thing about moving without the military – I get to do whatever I want to my new home. It’s MINE. All mine. My precious.

Sorry, too much Lord of the Rings this week.

Ok, I’m off to get some rest. Went to the movies tonight (Sherlock Holmes, it was good btw) and still have to get up early so I can go get that house done! I don’t want to have to go back there — I want tomorrow to be my last trip. Since I’m still recovering from my sick, I need my sleep! So off to dreamland I go — I bid you all a goodnight!

QOTD:

If you could do your room in any style or theme you could possibly imagine — What would you do?

I apologize for my prolonged absence. I’ve missed everyone! I think once I explain though you will all understand. I know a lot of people have moved on to facebook, and after I visit here I plan on stopping there and saying hello. So let’s do a recap of the last couple of months…

You all know I finally got a teaching job, and that I love it. Here’s where that is at:

Had finals week (for which I had to write the finals – ugh.)

Then report card week followed by parent / teacher conferences. During that was some training and our second Mass (the one in which our class does the readings etc.).

During that entire time we were house hunting. YES! We were finally ready to buy a house – hooray. We looked at soooo many houses. We narrowed it down to two, one which needed the entire inside redone, the other needed the outside redone (yard etc).

We put in an offer on the one that needed the work on the outside (which was my favorite, my dream house really). After some negotiations we finally had a deal. They had a lot of work to do on the inside before closing (the house had been empty for over a year, I’m sure you can imagine the condition it was in). We were scheduled to close the week before Thanksgiving – but alas, it was not to be. We ended up closing the 11th of December.

We painted bedrooms furiously and ordered the carpet to come. Carpet was installed on Wednesday and Thursday the 16 and 17th. We began moving in Friday the 18th. We managed to get almost all of our stuff moved in by Sunday. Monday we did some more unpacking and some decorating. Tuesday we finished our shopping (yes, I know, I was late, I’d been busy thank you…) and Ladybug did some Christmas baking so we would have some goodies. Wednesday, unpacked some more, did last minute shopping, baking and some house cleaning. Thursday wrapped a gazillion presents and finally relaxed.

Friday was Christmas. We didn’t buy any “big” things for the kiddos – just lots of little things, so the tree looked like it did when they were little, with a thousand presents crowding the base. It was really nice and everyone really enjoyed it. Hubby made his first ever Prime Rib (and YUMMM) and we had two of the three boyfriends over for dinner. It was really a very nice evening/day.

We still don’t have cable (don’t ask how I’m connected right now – I’m not proud) because Comcast screwed up again. A long story deserving some righteous indignation, but too long to add to this already lengthy blog. We have been playing board games, watching dvds (Lord of the Rings marathon) and the girls have been enjoying Rock Band 2 which was a gift to the whole family.

Did I mention I got sick the day before we closed? I’ve been sick as a dog and not had any time to slow down, rest and recuperate. Figures huh? I’m trying to rest today – I haven’t kicked it yet and I don’t want to end up with pneumonia again. That really sucked! We still have to finish the last bit of moving (mostly garage and shed stuff) from the old house, clean and get it ready for inspection so we get our deposit back, and then we have a ski trip planned for the 29th through the 3rd. Some time during all this I need to do some grading, some lesson planning and finish unpacking.

See what I mean?

Very little free time.

On the upside, we had a beautiful Christmas, with everyone gathered around. We have a beautiful new house that we are going to LOVE! I have a great job that keeps me busy. And I have a wonderful family. So no matter how busy I am, there are blessing around every corner.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, and I wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

QOTD:

What was your favorite Christmas gift?

So yesterday my kids were out of control. OK, I may exaggerate a little. OK, maybe a lot. But they were out of control in comparison to what they usually are. They wouldn’t listen, wouldn’t stop talking and wouldn’t follow directions We ended up getting very little done and I was frustrated and my ears were hurting from the constant noise and how loud I was having to talk to get through to them.  Today was better but only marginally, as today we had picture day. With picture day they were in “dress up” which is nice dress of their own selection (but within dress code) and we were also out of routine. Ugh. To top that off it was early dismissal, aka throw another log on the fire….

So all that being said…

I LOVE MY JOB!

I love my class. I love my school. I love my coworkers. I am thoroughly having a blast!

I love planning lessons, I love teaching, I love interacting with my students. I don’t care too much for grading, but other than that, it’s all good!! I set up a class web page for my parents and students to access, put out my first newsletter, had open house and went to the HSA. We’ve established routines, and gotten a ton of work done. All in all it’s going really well!

My class is great. We are the biggest class in the school. I have 23 fifth graders. They are an awesome class. Most of them have been together for many, many years. Two new students recently came to the school. one is from a different private christian school. The other from APS. The one from APS may be a bit of a challenge. She doesn’t have the respect that is required for that school. She also tend to be lack in her school work and easily distracted. We’ll see. I’ve got 5 students with learning challenges. One who may be a real handful. The nice thing is that the school expects certain levels out of their students and will take action if the students don’t give it. It’s nice not to have your hands tied by bureaucracy. Really nice.

I’m tired – not used to getting up every morning at the butt crack of down. I’m also not used to working every single day. That aside I’m blissful happy to head off to my class every day.

And getting that check doesn’t hurt either!!

 So a week or two ago I was in the local teaching supply store and came across these great grouping pencils. They allow you to put your students in groups three different ways.

You put your student’s name on the pencils and can also use them for calling students randomly. I have used the random method of student calling for years, using Popsicle sticks with student names on them. Most of the teachers I’ve subbed for have a similar method for ensuring that each student gets a chance (eliminates playing favorites and calling only on the strong students).  At any rate – I saw them and thought… COOL!! I LIKE IT! Then I looked at the price tag and didn’t like it so much. While not extraordinarily expensive, I am on a budget and have already spent too much getting my classroom set up – but let’s be honest – how much is REALLY to much? lol  Back to the story – so I decided I could make these for a fraction of the cost. I bought a box of Popsicle sticks at Wally World for like 3.50. I used liquid watercolors I had for years, plastic baggies for coloring them in, sharpies and voila!

Basic supplies — total cost – about 3.75

 Here they are in their baggies, soaking up some color! I did six colors. Since I will have a class of 23, that allows for six groups of 4 or less.

Time to Dry! This is after the first batch – I ended up doing the whole box so I got 50 of each color.

Now it’s time to add numbers and shapes – I only used 4 numbers, so I can use those when I want to do larger groups. I did use six different shapes though, the tricky part was ensuring that the shapes didn’t conflict with the color or number groups!

The student names went on the back and TA DAH! Home made grouping sticks at a fraction of the cost (about 1/5 the cost – go me!)

I have had an exciting week. I had my orientation. Then spent yesterday in the classroom finishing up. Today was our staff meeting, followed by a potluck at the principals house. After that I headed back to school for some lesson planning. LadyBug came along and helped out by doing some cleaning, organizing and putting some of the name plates on desks. It’s starting to look good! Wanna see? Oh you know you do. Even if you don’t – I’m posting pictures!

First some before shots. And actually, these “before” shots actually came AFTER about a week of cleaning, organizing, decluttering, rearranging, painting, and stripping bulletin boards. Before that it was a REAL mess. The storage closet behind the bulletin board was filled to overflowing with junk! There was about 3x more teacher furniture than I could ever possibly need or want, and junk and trash everywhere. Ugh. A lot of work went into getting it to where it is in these “before” shots.

Plain and boring, but clean!

But now — much more welcoming!

This is the library corner. The bulletin board has logic/brain teasers/rebuses on it. Students can work on solving them when they have finished their work. When all the puzzles posted have been solved, I will replace them with new ones – either everyday or several times a week, depends on if they solve them quickly or not! The girls were getting rid of some fuzzy friends on garage sale day and I appropriated them for my classroom. I love the monkey hugging the Chronicles of Narnia set!

Here is my prayer table/corner. Yes. We have prayer in school. It’s a Catholic school so we get the pleasure of expressing our faith and learning at the same time. This area is not quite done. I need a table covering (green for ordinary time) and plan to put some silk plants and other pretty items on the table. I also am going to have the students make clouds to go on the board describing the things they give thanks to the Lord for.

This is the main white board with the 6+1 traits posted above it, as well as the small bulletin board next to it. This is right next to the main door and will be where all my parent info goes, but for right now, it has a copy of the dress code (I hope to ward of any detentions by enforcing this early!) Yes, their dress code is A LOT! My girls read it and about had a coronary. LadyBug immediately hugged me and thanked me for not every subjecting her to something like that…. hmmm… it’s not too late is it?

And the main bulletin board. I went with a tropical theme. I didn’t get a picture of them, but my bathroom passes are a surfboard for the boys and a Hawaiian hibiscus print for the girls. On this board we are going to have fish with each students name on them made out of a collage of things that they enjoy or are known for. I am going to put this in a school grouping with the caption “School is in”

I tried to get a close up of the posters above the board, my favorite is the one that looks like a shark. It is really a huge school of fish in the shape of a shark and has the quote “The sum of us is greater than all our parts” by Maya Angelou.

I also have some other posters that I didn’t take pictures of, above the doors, and above the other whiteboard. all in all I’m pleased with how my class is looking. BTW – notice that spiffy desk chair in the picture with the main bulletin board? That is a wonderfully comfortable, just perfect for me chair that was a gift from my friend and manager Carlos at SuperCuts. I think of him every time I sit down! And always, with a smile.

Question of the day:

Do you try to make things you’ve seen elsewhere, for less? 

I can’t believe it’s already August! And not just August, but the 9th of August. Holy cow how on earth did that happen? Did someone skip us forward a month while I wasn’t looking? It certainly feels that way!

I’ve had the best intentions to blog regularly, check and update my facebook and reply to emails. You know what they say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions though. I think my road is paved, landscaped, lighted and I’m now adding bike lanes and hand rails. Eventually, I will put in a moving sidewalk, to make the journey faster…

July was a crazy, hectic, fun, sweet, eventful month. Did I mention that it flew past? We had 3 birthdays (mine – now 42) Ducky and Coralora’s they are now officially adults (yikes) oh and my MIL who turned 73 I think. We also celebrated my parents 45th anniversary (well they celebrated, I called and wished them happy anniversary, that was the extent of my participation — ). Made a trip to Silver to visit the folks and my sister and finally got to see my gorgeous new nephew!!!! What a cutie!

July also saw my final days at SuperCuts. I miss my manager and buddy Carlos already. I’ve spent a lot of time in my new classroom, going through supplies, taking stuff in, cleaning and organizing. I’m SOOO excited! I can’t wait to actually start. The 17th is the first day of school. I start with orientation and staff meetings etc. this week. Finally a real job! Fulltime, full pay, full of responsibility, work and hopefully personal satisfaction!

Oh – I forgot to mention that Ladybug is now officially driving. That happened in July as well. She attended Driver’s Ed School, got her permit and has been driving me insane, and everywhere else with her constant demands to be allowed to drive every time we get in the car. Don’t get me wrong. I know she needs the practice. I know she’s a pretty good driver. I know she has to have 50 hours behind the wheel to get her license. But there are times when I just want to get to where I am going without having to give advice, watch for errors or pray for my safety and the safety of the others on the road. *sigh* It’s official. My baby is no longer a baby.

And here I was thinking that July went by fast…

Alright Question of the day:

There are two kinds of people: those that side seat drive and those that don’t. Which are you?

It’s hard to believe, but today I have some regular house-hold chores and work this evening. Nothing else.

It seems like my whole week, no – my whole month just opened up for me.

Why? Because finally, after 2 years of looking, I am done looking for a job. No more resumes, cover letters, emails, checking job boards. I’m done.

What brought on this feeling of finality?

I GOT A TEACHING JOB!!!

Woot!

It’s a 5th grade position at a Catholic School. I will be the only 5th grade teacher. They have one class per grade. The principal and the two assistants were fantastic and I loved the school! The interview went SOOOO well. I was hoping against hope that they thought so too. Evidently they did because they offered me the position at the interview – even though they still had interviews scheduled for later. Then after the other interviews they called me and offered again officially. I’m so STOKED. You don’t know how relieved I am to finally have a REAL job. It means so much for us. It means that buying a house is no longer a dream – it’s a time line. It means regular shopping for needed clothes for me and the girls. It means new bedding and bath stuff for the house. New furniture. All of this is eventually, but it’s all stuff that has been attached to “when I get a job…”.

Know what else it means? That the boxes and boxes of curriculum and trade books and misc. educational items that I’ve been lugging around for the last 10 years are finally, FINALLY, going to be out of my storage shed, my garage and my house! That right there is enough to get any sane person totally revved up!

Friday after the interview I called hubby to tell him the news – he said it was the best Father’s Day gift I could have given him.

All week end I’ve been wandering around just smiling randomly. I keep thinking – I want to do this in my classroom… I need to get this out of storage… I can use this for that…. etc., etc.. Then I stop and think “I HAVE  A JOB!” It’s awesome.

I was really starting to doubt myself. I thought maybe I wasn’t meant to be a teacher after all. I always thought it was my calling, but maybe I was wrong I thought. At the interview though I could see they appreciated all my gifts and talents. It was redeeming. I think God has been trying to guide me this direction all along, and I have been resisting. As usual I think I know what’s best for me, when the truth is getting out of the way is what’s best for me! LOL

OK – I have a LOT of cleaning and organizing to do. (I have to clean the garage first so I have someplace to bring out my teaching stuff and go through it – it’s a vicious cycle – )

I hope to be back on xanga more, now that I don’t have to spend all my free time looking for jobs.

Whew. You can’t imagine the relief and excitement I feel. It’s AWESOME.

I GOT A JOB!!!!!!!