The Fourth

Is it just me, or is having the Fourth of July fall on a Saturday completely confusing? I thought yesterday was Saturday, and I thought today felt like Friday...I'm just lost, I guess.

Last night (the 3rd), we took Amelia to see some fireworks. I'm not going to lie. I like some fireworks. (I'd like to clarify, though, that I'm not a big fan of backyard fireworks, which is apparently what our neighbors are enjoying as I type. Sheesh.)

Anyway, the weather last night was PERFECT. A couple of times, it felt downright chilly. Why can't the weather be like this every evening in the summer? Here's Amelia hanging out before the big show:


I also want to show you this picture:
I want you to notice that Amelia, completely uncoached by me or anyone else, already knows how to eat an Oreo. Sometimes she gets the filling with her teeth and sometimes with her finger, but she knows that you eat that goodness first before eating the cookie. Smart cookie!! (I know. I know.)

Today, we went to a parade. Darryl will never let me live it down because it was my idea to go, and it was pretty awful. It was long and drawn out, and it was pretty much an opportunity for politicians to shake hands and for businesses to advertise. Let me give you a sampling of today's festive parade:
Yes, folks, we had men dressed as Confederate soldiers waving Confederate flags. Because nothing says "Let's celebrate freedom" like the rebel flag.

And then there was this festive float. I think it speaks for itself.

But here's my girl, being a pretty good sport despite the dismal showing of floats and entertainment in the parade. A small football landed in her stroller, so that provided her some entertainment. (Please forgive me for the patriotic dress. Part of the fun in having a girl is dressing her up from time to time. And she rocked this dress, y'all.)

Well, as I typed this post, I just listened to Neil Diamond sing "America," so I guess my 4th is now complete. (I also think I freaked Darryl out a bit when it got to the "Today!" part and I joined in...because how can anyone stay silent when Neil gets to that part of the song???)

A sign

Feeling drained from the heat today, I decided that what I really wanted for lunch was a small Chick-fil-a milkshake. Yes, it's high in calories, fat, and all that other yummy stuff, but it was going to be my meal, so that assuaged some of the guilt. Well, when I got to the counter, I had a last-minute change of heart and ordered a "traditional" lunch of nuggets in fries. But when I got my lunch, I realized it wasn't really what I wanted, and I barely ate any of it.

But...

When I went to pick up my car from the repair shop this afternoon, one of the mechanics asked if I liked Chick-fil-a. Then he handed me...wait for it, wait for it...a coupon for a free small milkshake!! I told Darryl it was like the milkshake gods WANTED me to have a milkshake. I happily took my coupon and cashed it in. And that milkshake was delicious.

Of course, it could have been a test of tempation.

If that was the case, I failed.

A girls' weekend in Florida

That title sounds much wilder than what it really was.

Friday, Amelia and loaded up our rented Kia Rondo (long story there) and headed to Florida to see my parents and visit with Darryl's family.

On the way down there, Amelia was PERFECT. No tears, no whines, no meltdowns. She looked at books, bopped her head along to the music, talked on her play cellphone, ate snacks, and took her shoes off and on. And she napped only 45 minutes of that 6-hour trip. We even stopped at a McAlister's Deli for lunch so we could have a break from the car, and she was even good in the restaurant!

Over the weekend, we were able to visit with family, go to a farmers' market to get some watermelons, and chase Amelia around. Seriously, the girl doesn't stop.

One of the highlights of the weekend was taking Amelia to the beach. She absolutely loved it. Here are a few of my favorite pics:
The above pic makes me laugh because Amelia loves to do this thing--in the bath or apparently at the beach, too--where she "stirs" in a container and then tastes what she is stirring. I'm not too sure what she thought about the salt water and sand mixture.


You see those seagulls? Once they discovered we had Goldfish crackers, these birds were a captive audience. They were starting to creep me out a bit. Even when we left our post to swim, they were watching us, waiting for our return. A bit Alfred Hitchcock-ish, don't you think?

Anyway. Amelia and I made our trip home yesterday. While she wasn't quite as angelic as she was Friday, she was still pretty good, considering that she's confined by a 5-point harness in a carseat that doesn't offer a whole lot of cushioning.

We had a great time!

Reasons Why I Love Sesame Street

The only TV show Amelia has shown any interest in is Sesame Street. Now, I'm not a big fan of letting the TV babysit kids, but sometimes Momma needs to take a shower. Or cook dinner. Or just sit down. In those moments, Sesame Street comes to my rescue.

Amelia's obsession began about six months ago when, on a whim, I bought the DVD Sesame Street's 25th Musical Celebration. She loved it. Then I started TiVo-ing the "real" episodes on TV. Now she comes to me with remote in hand and says, in her pitiful voice, "Elbow [Elmo]."

And let me tell you, I think Sesame Street is a great show. It's educational. It's entertaining. Here are a few reasons why I love Sesame Street:

1. I watched it when I was little, and now I find it comforting to see the same people on the show: Gordon, Luis, Maria...they're there. And they look good!!

2. I like how the show repeats letters and numbers. Heck, if Amelia is going to watch something, at least she is getting exposed to some useful things. They still do this, too: "Today's show was brought to you by the letter _____ and the number ____." Love that.

3. They get some pretty impressive celebrity guests who are often hilarious in their roles. Neil Patrick Harris shows up as a "shoe fairy." (Y'all, he might have come out of the closet, but I've had a thing for him since he was Doogie.) Brian Williams is too, too funny as a newscaster reporting how everyone on Sesame Street has a case of the "mine-itus" and won't share. Kristin Chenoweth (love her!) plays Mr. Noodle's sister in the segment "Elmo's World." Ben Stiller, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kim Catrall (that last one surprised me) have shown up on the show. And Michelle Obama is currently doing a little bit before or after the show where she talks about fitness.

4. I like how the show includes kids who have disabilities. I don't know if I'm being PC in discussing this, but every episode includes these kids, often in scenarios where they are playing with kids who don't have these obstacles. I feel I should say something more profound about that, but I just think it is cool.

5. Many of the songs are the same songs I loved growing up. And I don't know why it is, but a lot of the slower songs have melodies that make me want to cry. When Burt sings "Imagination" or Ernie sings "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon," I seriously feel like I could boo hoo. Why is that??

So that's my little Sesame Street tribute. For the record, I hope Amelia never discovers Barney. He drives me nuts. I haven't really tried The Wiggles. Any thoughts on them?

For now, though, I give Sesame Street a mom's thumbs up! For your viewing pleasure, I leave you with NPH as the Shoe Fairy. Enjoy!

Father's Day Weekend and Waterslides

Y'all, I love water slides. I don't care that I'm 35 years old. I'm excited that having a child now gives me permission to ride waterslides again like I'm twelve years old. Let me clarify...Amelia hasn't been down any waterslides and isn't going down any in the near future, but in a few years, she will.

We spent some time at the pool where we have a gym membership, and there's a cool waterslide at the pool. It's not a big one, like ones you fine at "real" waterparks, but it's enough to whet my appetite. I was hesitant to ride it because I thought it might just be for the kids, but once I saw a few adults go down it, off I went. I loved it.

And goodness, Amelia loves the pool. (For my mother...Darryl was watching her when I took a break to ride the waterslide.) My parents say that when I was little and we took family vacations anywhere, all I was interested in was the hotel pool. Forget sightseeing--I just wanted to swim. I think Amelia might be the same way. The only not fun part is the meltdown that ensues when we leave. :)

We had a good Father's Day weekend. We mostly hung around the house except for pool time. We ate most of our meals here, which is actually kind of unsual for us. (We typically go out on the weekends.) I'm also hoping that eating at home more will help in my effort to lose a few pounds, ahem.

Anyway....

Busy, Yet Uneventful

This week has been a weird week of sorts. I feel like it has been pretty busy, but at the same time, I don't have much to report. Here are a few tidbits:

Amelia went an extra day to daycare this week. She typically goes Tuesdays and Thursdays, but she went Monday this week as well because we got a call Sunday night that someone wanted to look at our house Monday afternoon. (Our house has been for sale for a while...don't know if I mentioned that on the blog or not. We're not leaving the area; we're just running out of room!) Our house wasn't in "house showing" condition, so I took Amelia to daycare so I could do some heavy-duty de-cluttering. I'll fast-forward to the end of the story and let you know that the couple decided our house was too small. Bummer, but not surprising.

I've also been continuing with the sleep training. If you are a Facebook friend, you already know how it's been going, but if you're not...

--the first night took an hour and a half
--the second night took 20 minutes
--the third night took 5 minutes
--the fourth night took...no time

I'm pretty shocked. Honestly, I was mentally prepared for this to be a month-long battle. The real test came last night when Darryl was left at home with her while I had dinner with a friend of mine. (I had put her to bed every night so far.) She only cried a few minutes, Darryl said, and then went to sleep. I don't know that we've reached the finish line yet, but I'm at least convinced she has the ability to do it. Naps haven't gone as well, but we're getting there.

And between all of that, I was able to fit in a little scrapbooking (I know I was going to take a week off, but oh well), a lunch date with Darryl, a little shopping, ice cream with Amelia at Bruster's, and a little more cleaning.

So there you have it...not exactly a super-exciting week, but a full one nonetheless.

The Weekend...and Turning a Corner

This past weekend my friend Casi came to visit. We pretty much shopped, scrapbooked, ate, shopped, scrapbooked, and ate. And ate. And scrapbooked.

It really was a fun weekend. Amelia hung out with us some of the time and was (fortunately) well behaved, but I really appreciate Darryl for keeping her some of the time so I could have some "girl time."

And while I have enjoyed scrapbooking, I think I'm taking a week-long hiatus from it. I really need to get some stuff done at the house.

Tonight was a big night in the area of parenting...we made Amelia get herself to sleep. I've been rocking Amelia every night, and while I have enjoyed that time with her, it was getting to where it was taking an hour or so a night to get her to sleep. So after reading a book on this (a book that I actually agreed with, but can't remember the title of at the moment) and getting a big "you can do it" from the nurse practitioner we see at the pediatrician's office (I love her...if you've ever watched Everybody Loves Raymond, she reminds me of Robert's wife, Amy), I actually made it to "the end" tonight--it took her an hour and a half to get to sleep. My book (and the NP) told me to stick my head in every 15 minutes and speak to her in a soothing voice, but that seemed to make her madder, so I pretty much left her alone. She was actually calm a good bit of the time with a few screaming outbursts here and there. So, whew. I hope we get this knocked out by the end of the week.

I'll keep you posted.

24+ Hours

The last 24-plus hours have been slightly rough.

Yesterday
First, you need some background info for this to make sense. I'm going to 'fess up and admit that twice a month, a lady comes to my house and cleans it. Yes, I know that money could go somewhere else. Yes, I know I'm capable of cleaning a house. But about a month before Amelia was born, I made a hormonally-charged, tearful plea to Darryl that I really wanted someone to come in every other week because, as a working mom, I didn't want to spend my weekends mopping floors but would rather spend them with my daughter. And because no one should ever say no to a crying pregnant woman, Darryl agreed, and thus we hired this woman to clean our house twice a month.

Okay, so yesterday was house cleaning day. I never like to be home on those days because I feel awkward, so I took Amelia to daycare and then went to the scrapbooking studio and scrapped my heart out.

I picked up Amelia, and because Darryl was having dinner with one of his best friends who happened to be in town for a business trip, I grabbed Chick-fil-a drive thru and headed home.

When I went to unlock the door, I realized I had the wrong set of keys and that the cleaning lady had uncharacteristically locked the deadbolt. (I later realized that her daughter had actually cleaned our house that day, thus the deadbolt issue.) I called Darryl to see where he was, and of course he was dining about 10 exits down the highway. Awesome.

So I got back in the car to head that way. Amelia, who was not thrilled to be back in the car, began Meltdown #1.

The one fortunate thing in this whole debacle is that I made the super-mom choice of waffle fries for her CFA kids' meal (I usually try to force the whole fruit cup thing), and I was able to pass chicken nuggets and fries to her in the back seat. She was a little happier after a full belly.

I made it to where Darryl was and he gave me the key. Amelia realized that Daddy was not going to be joining us, and this began Meltdown #2.

People, there's nothing like a meltdown in rush hour traffic. There just isn't.

Anyway, we finally reached home. And Amelia took her sweet time falling asleep at bedtime.

Exhuasted, I decided to go to bed early, and I was OUT in probably five minutes. I was so out that I wasn't thinking when I locked the deadbolt.

I was awakened at midnight by a loud knocking on the window beside our bed. It is a miracle I didn't have a heart attack. It was Darryl, who had tried knocking on the door. I had locked him out because, you know, I had his key.

Today
Today I took Amelia to her 18-month appointment since she's going to be 19 months in two days. Anyway...

Darryl usually goes to these "milestone checkups" with me, but I had heard there was only one shot involved in this one (but there were two!), so I told Darryl he could bypass this one.

What a mistake.

I was hoping that by having a morning appointment, we wouldn't have to wait, but I was wrong. When we finally got in, I had to answer a million and one questions about Amelia's development: Does she throw a ball? Does she mimic sounds? Does she show affection? Does she take off her clothes? And on and on and on...

My favorite part is always the measurements. Apparently Amelia is tall. Really tall. Over 99th percentile for height. I'm sure I sound like one of "those" parents when I say I hope the girl can dribble a basketball. :)

All was going well until I was told that they would do a vision screening. I took Amelia to the special room for vision screening, and I'm told by the old lady that I have to keep Amelia perfectly still. She then proceeded to stick several sensors on her head and put an eyepatch over one eye. If you have ever met Amelia, you might understand how difficult of a task it was to try to keep her still, especially with all that paraphernalia on her head. Amelia was surprisingly good to have one eye tested, but by the time the woman did the other eye, Amelia was mad. And every time she moved too much, the test would cancel out.

The woman finally gave up and said she would try again at Amelia's 2-year checkup. (And Darryl will be going with me to that one.)

And when I say Amelia was mad, I mean she was MAD. The woman gave Amelia a Barbie sticker and Amelia threw it on the floor. When we got back to the regular examining room, Amelia was in full meltdown mode. And we hadn't even had the shots yet. I'll just let you imagine how those went over. :)

Amelia has been in a bit of a funk since the vision test. She didn't nap well, and has just been sort of grumpy all day. It's been fun. Really fun.

And Tomorrow???
Um, let's hope for a better day.

Pool Time and Scrapbooking

We had a really nice, relaxing weekend. We spent a lot of time at the pool, which Amelia absolutely loved. Here are a couple of pics:



I also finished my London scrapbook today, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

And really, that's all I have to report. But at least you got some cute pics, right?

The best laid plans...

Today was another daycare day for Amelia. Even better, it was supposed to be "water day," and Amelia LOVES water. So here is Amelia all dressed for water day this morning:


I know the picture is out of focus, but if you saw all my other attempts to get her to be still--especially while trying to prevent her from having a meltdown because I wouldn't let her have my camera--you would understand why this is the best shot I have. (Is there anything cuter than a little girl in a bathing suit? I think not.)

Anyway, we were optimistic that the weather man was wrong about the rain, but this was one time he was actually right. It started raining about halfway to daycare, and Amelia never had her water day. Bummer.

I was also supposed to spend the day scrapbooking with my friend Blayne, but she had a last-minute house emergency and was able to scrapbook with me for just a couple of hours. Oh, well. I ran a few errands and scrapbooked a little. Still a good day.

And in case you are wondering, I do plan to do other things this summer besides scrapbook. I just haven't been able to do it in several months, so I'm just kind of crazy with it now. I'm almost finished with my London book, though. :)

Summer Catch-up

I know I kept you in suspense with Post-Planning Days 2 and 3, didn't I?? I'm sure you've been chompin' at the bit in anticipation.

Those last two days of post-planning included meetings, counting textbooks, and, for me, some major cleaning and organizing. Oh, and we had a somewhat awkward end-of-the-year luncheon at which people whose contracts hadn't been renewed who were not returning next year were given parting gifts. (Is it just me, or is that odd?) The program/luncheon finally ended with a nice farewell to a retiring English teacher, so at least it ended on a not-awkward note.

So far, the summer has been wonderful. Amelia and I had a great day Friday, and it involved a somewhat hilarious adventure at the playground, where I ended up chasing Amelia down a really big tunnel slide. She thought it was hysterically funny, and I just prayed I wouldn't get stuck or flash anyone.

My mom came up for the weekend because for Christmas, I gave her tickets to see the musical Jersey Boys at the Fox. While the actual gift was a long time coming, the musical was great, and my mom loved it. If you don't know...the musical is basically the story behind Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. When I was in high school, my mom took me to see the real Frankie Valli and Four Seasons, so I figured she would love the musical. And as I already said, she definitely did. I really enjoyed it, too. I'm thinking I might even put it in my Top 5.

Yesterday my mom went back home after lunch, and Amelia and I took a long nap and ran some errands.

Today I had a "me day." I'm taking Amelia to her daycare two days a week this summer. Yes, it does give me some time to get things done, but Amelia is also at the age where she really seems to enjoy being in the company of her daycare friends. She practically ran in and hugged her teacher when I dropped her off today, and then her friend Addison walked up and they jabbered at each other. Too cute.

Anyway, I ended up going to a scrapbooking studio and scrapbooked pretty much all. day. long. I have finished up the photos with Amelia's "first year book," and I even got a little bit done on my London book.

Speaking of London, I finally transferred some pics from Darryl's computer to mine. At some point this week, I'll try to post some.

Post-Planning, Day 1

So today for post-planning, we had to attend a 3-hour (yes, 3-hour) seminar on school safety. And in those three hours, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know because...well, it was just common sense.

It's not like I didn't have grades to print, textbooks to count, and files to sort through.

Oh, and the tile and carpet are being replaced, so we got to listen to lots of industrial fans and floor sanders what little bit we actually were working in our rooms.

I'm not sure what the point is of this post exactly, but there you have it.

Cheesy

I cleaned out our fridge today.

For the record, we are not running short on cheese:

The Weekend...and "Good Nap" Hair

We had a good weekend...for the most part.

Yesterday we went to breakfast and took Amelia swimming at the gym we have a membership to. (I can count on one hand the number of times we've been, but their pool is pretty great.) Amelia took a really good nap afterwards, so that meant she was in a good mood to stay with my friend Kim and her daughter "Mac," who graciously agreed to keep Amelia for us so Darryl and I could attend a funeral. (Thanks, Kim and Mac...I'm sure she had a blast!) After the funeral, Darryl and I picked up Amelia and ate at Bonefish Grill, which was really good. (And, I might add, Amelia was wonderful at the restaurant. She's kind of been "iffy" with restaurants lately, but she was the perfect angel here.)

Today we went to church, and afterwards I started to tackle what I will call "Summer Household Project #1: Cleaning Out Amelia's Closet/Wardrobe." I haven't done this since last year, and boy, was her closet ridiculous. I'm about 85% done with it all and should finish tomorrow.

Darryl took Amelia swimming again, and while they were gone, I went to Target to get another storage box because I grossly underestimated how many clothes would be cleaned out of the closet. On my way back, I got in a fender-bender that involved four cars...one of those "chain reaction" things. I had some damage to my back bumper, but that was it, thank goodness. (Really, that was the only flaw in an otherwise great weekend.)

Here's an Amelia-ism: She calls Elmo "Elbow." Cute.

And I leave you with what I call "Good Nap" Hair. This is what Amelia looked like after a 3-hour nap. Girlfriend slept hard, and she was all smiles afterwards, as evidenced by the second pic.


And here's the smile:

I thought this day would never get here...

Everything is graded.

Graduation was tonight.

I can take a nap this weekend and not feel guilty.

I can catch up on Lost and The Office.

I can spend time with Darryl and Amelia and not think, "I should probably finish grading those essays."

I don't have to sit in a Starbucks, grading papers and thinking, "I wish I could be with Darryl and Amelia."

I'm done. D-O-N-E.

(Well, not completely...I have "teacher workdays" left, but who cares?)

Breaking Up Catching Up is Hard to Do

I realize I have been terribly amiss at blogging lately. Here are just a few highlights from the past few weeks:

School
I ain't gonna lie--school is running me through the wringer. We had our academic program Monday night, and again, I was disappointed with the turn out. I can understand--a little, anyway--why kids who know they are just getting a certificate don't show. However, what about the seniors who are getting at least $150 in scholarship money...they can't be bothered for an hour and a half to come get it? How do you fix apathy? I'm still trying to figure out that one...

The week has been full of unfocused students who are already on summer vacation in their minds, ridiculous tasks the administration has us do that consume a lot of time, and stacks of final essays that are waiting for me to grade them. Friday was the icing on the cake, as I had to deal with a situation (that I don't want to go into detail about) involving one of my favorite students. The only saving grace is that I know we have not even two more weeks of this stuff before summer begins. (One week with students.)

Darryl, the Awesome Husband
Darryl has definitely been earning points toward Husband of the Year by tending to Amelia while I try to get all my end-of-the-year stuff done.

When I came home from a pointless, stupid program Friday evening that is a "tradition" at our school, Darryl had bought me a new point-and-shoot camera that I had been wanting. (I felt bad because I was too exhausted to do the cartwheel that I should have done over this gift.)

Then, THEN he told me to check my email, and I found a confirmation email from where he had registered me for a scrapbooking retreat/workshop later this year. I'll tell you more about that when the time comes. (You know...because my mom thinks someone will follow me there if I put it on my blog.)

I asked Darryl (jokingly, of course) if he was planning to leave me. (No.) I asked if he was having an affair. (No.) I asked if he was about to tell me he was leaving for two months on a business trip. (No.) Apparently he just wanted to do something nice for me because he thought I needed it.

Now, I'm not one who measures love by the kinds of gifts that are given, but y'all, how sweet was that?

Mother's Day
My parents came up for Mother's Day weekend. In fact, they drove up in the middle of the night Thursday night/Friday morning so they could keep Amelia for us. We thought she was sick, but yet again, it was just the same runny nose and cough she's had forever.

Amelia didn't feel great and was therefore in a horrible mood all day. We had a very harried breakfast at IHOP and frozen pizza for lunch. We did have a good dinner that evening, though, when Amelia seemed more like herself.

TV
I'm behind on Lost, so no one tell me what's going on there.

Grey's has been gut-wrenching. I won't say anything else in case you haven't seen the finale yet. I had been disappointed with this show most of the season, but the last five episodes or so have reminded me of how good Grey's can be.

I'm also sad about the drama surrounding this couple. I'm going to confess...I just bought the People magazine with her on the cover.

Amelia
I can't believe how much she is growing. While she is definitely testing the limits (am I bad that I find some of her "meltdowns" comical? "Oh, I can't have an M&M because dinner is ready? Let me lie on the floor and cry about it!!"), her moments of sweetness and cuteness make up for it. The other night, after a rough day, I was rocking her and she sat up, kissed me on the lips, and settled her head back on to my chest. Bliss.

Here's a pic I took with my new camera last night. Amelia has learned to respond to "Cheese."

On a Blog Note...
Can you tell I'm excited that I finally learned to strike through words? I'm sorry...when I learn how to do something like that, I tend to go a bit overboard with it.

And suddenly, she looks three years old...

A couple of weekends ago, Amelia experienced a few important firsts...

--Her first Chick-fil-a Kids' Meal. (I didn't take a pic of that.)
--Her first pigtails made by Momma. (They lasted about 30 minutes.)
--Her first little table and chairs. She loves it!

Here's a pic to document the last two items on that list:

She's already a Mac girl!

And here's another pic of her just goofing around. Amelia loves to grab the remote and a blanket and get in the recliner. I have no idea where she has witnessed that behavior. :)

Yep, still here

I really don't want to become one of those blogs people never check because they think, "Well, she never writes on it, so what's the point?"

To my four or five readers, I assure you I will return to blogging soon. I hope within a couple of days, in fact.

I am caught up in the typical end-of-the-year craziness. I do have stuff to blog about. Finding time to do it...well, that's a different matter entirely.

Don't leave me! I'll be back soon! Soon!!

Dear Blog,

Dear Blog,

Oh, how I've missed you. I remember the days I used to write about cute things Amelia did, TV shows I was watching, teacher anecdotes (good and bad)...

But lately my life has been swamped with awards program preparations, papers that still need to be graded, End of Course Tests, a house that never feels "straightened up" enough for my taste, and the list goes on.

I have some really cute pics of Amelia to post, but I can't find the cable to do it. It's lost somewhere in the chaos of my life at the moment.

Maybe this weekend, blog, we can have some quality time. Maybe, just maybe, I'll find my camera cable, which I'm sure has a more technical name than "camera cable."

Until then,

Amy

Crawling out from under my long "to do" list...

Poor blog. I've been so negligent lately...

The past couple of weeks have been ridiculously crazy and tiring.

For a little over a week, Darryl was in Australia. That's right. Australia. And, of course, after he left all sorts of things came crashing down. Nothing tragic happened--and I'm probably being a wee bit melodramatic--but it was lots of little things just piling on top of one another.

Here's just a list of some of the things that went on:

--I help sponsor an academic club at school (we put on a program every year and give out money for scholarships and stuff), and we found out that a local business that gives us most of our money is having to cut their donation in half because of the economy. That's completely understandable, but what isn't understandable is that some higher-ups knew about this back in January and didn't tell us.

--My students started to have their typical attitudes toward work at the end of the school year. Need I say more?

--It seems that I had a meeting of some sort every day after school.

--I got brave (or stupid) and decided to take Amelia to Moe's by myself for dinner. It was AFTER I had gotten our food that I realized none of the high chairs had working safety belts, so I spent the entire meal trying to get her to stay seated in her chair. I finally gave up and took the rest of our food home.

--The same night after Moe's, I gave Amelia a bath and was putting her to bed, and she had her first puking incident ever...all over me, her, the glider, the floor. I had to clean that up and bathe her again. Good times!

--I took Friday off to--get this!--grade papers. More good times!

--I took Amelia to the doctor Friday afternoon to make sure she didn't have an ear infection. If you've ever had to keep an active child entertained in a doctor's office while you wait to see the doctor, you understand how that was stressful. (I had also been informed by the daycare that every kid except one little girl and Amelia had been sent home with pink eye, so I was fully expecting for pink eye to rear its ugly head over the weekend. Fortunately, we were spared.)

--Saturday night, Amelia acted like one of those horrible kids you see on Supernanny. There was kicking, screaming, shrieking, crying, hitting, scratching. I was really wondering what happened to my child. (Sunday, she was sweet again.)

--Sunday just involved a lot of coming and going.

It was just one of those weeks, you know? Now D is back safe and sound, and this week--though better--seems to be d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g by. The one thing getting me through, however, is that the end is definitely in sight.

And not a moment too soon.

I'm still around

I will probably blog some this week. Last week was just crazy, and I just didn't feel like blogging. I'm hoping things will get back to normal--at least somewhat--this week, and then I can blog about what's been going on. (Don't get too excited--it's mostly just overwhelmed working mom kind of stuff.)

Twenty more days of school, people.

Meltdown Time

I think I've written about 30 blog posts in my head last week but never got around to sitting down to type them out.

I was going to post about how I've been in a better mood lately and felt like things were going well.

And then today I became fully aware of everything I need to do in such a short amount of time. I have a stack of grading up to my eyeballs. Every time I knock a little off the stack, something gets added on. I want to say, "Okay, no one is turning in anything else until I finish grading what I already have!" But I can't do that.

I say I'm going to grade after I get Amelia to bed, but then I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open.

I try to grade in the afternoons, but interruptions--people, meetings, students, parent emails--keep happening.

Okay. I'm going now. It's ridiculous for me to post about how I don't have any time and then spend time blogging. :)

Happy Easter!!

Here's Amelia, enjoying the gifts left by the Easter Bunny:



And here she is outside the Smith House, where the three of us had lunch after church:

London, Days 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

Obviously my plan to update every day about our trip never reached fruition. Oh, well. We're now back in the good ol' USA, and we had a great time in London. I'll give you a very Spark Notes version of our trip, and if you have any questions about any of the things I mentioned, feel free to ask. (By the way, Jen is the only one showing me any comment love lately. What's up with that?? And thanks, Jen, for commenting!)

Monday, we...

...went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. It was pretty cool, but we didn't have a good enough place to stand to see/hear everything. We got the gist of it, though. Darryl and I would have been okay with it being about 20 minutes shorter.

...went to Trafalgar Square and ate lunch at Cafe in the Crypt.

...went to Harrod's. Y'all, that place is insanely ridiculous. Where else can you buy a 6-carat diamond and pick up a 10 pounds of shrimp at the same time? We had a dessert there (surprise, surprise) in a big frou-frou cafe.

Tuesday, we...

...went to the Tower of London. This was probably one of my favorite touristy places that we visited. So much sick and twisted history there. We saw the Crown Jewels, of course, but what I was fascinated most by was the exact location where Anne Boleyn literally lost her head.

...went to the British Museum. Darryl and I were both disappointed by this museum, but primarily because we didn't really understand what it was all about. We thought the museum housed collections from the ancient past to the present, but we were wrong. It is room after room of Mesopotamian pottery, Egyptian tombs, and such. Now if you're into the artifacts of ancient civilizations, you will love this place. If not (and I'm in this group), it is just like one long 10th Grade World History video. The building is impressive, however...and I did see the real Rosetta Stone.

...walked along the Thames to see Big Ben and the House of Parliament "lit up" at night. Beautiful.

Wednesday, we...

...went to Westminster Abbey. I loved this as well. I think you could spend a full day here and still not see everything.

...kind of saw St. Paul's Cathedral. The only reason I wanted to go there was that Charles and Diana were married there. (It was a wedding I reenacted MANY times with my Barbie dolls.) There was a long line, however, and we were both tired, so we pretty much just stuck our heads in the door, looked around as far as the eye could see, and ducked out.

...went to the area known as Piccadilly Circus and bought some souvenirs.

...saw the musical Billy Elliott at Victoria Palace Theatre. I love, love, love musicals, and this one was wonderful. The choreography alone makes this production worth seeing. It is based on the movie of the same name that came out about seven years ago. So, so good.

Thursday, we...

...did the London Eye, which is a huge ferris-wheel type contraption that allows you to see London from "way up high."

...took a train to Oxford. I really wanted to see the school (which is sprawling and all over the place). We also had "cream tea" at a little tea room called The Rose and had some awesome scones with clotted cream and jam. (I agree, Tim..."clotted cream" is a really gross name for something that tastes that divine.)

...did NOT go to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was in our plan all along to take a tour of Shakespeare's birthplace, but by Thursday, I wasn't up to it. Will my English degree be revoked because I was in London and failed to make that pilgrimage??!?

Friday, we...

...walked around the area where our hotel was, soaking in the last bit of London.

And then we left.

A little something extra that probably isn't covered in any tour guide manuals...The public restrooms in London are nothing short of amazing. Spotlessly clean, and, AND...you get your own little "closet" with floor to ceiling walls. (I really had nowhere to work that in earlier, but it is something I thought y'all should know.)


We really had a wonderful time. We missed Amelia terribly, of course, but it was also nice to spend time just the two of us in such an interesting place. I've wanted to go to London since I was in college, so I'm thrilled we had the opportunity. We're also very grateful to my parents, who kept a very, very active 17-month-old girl for a week. I think they may need weeks to recover. :)

London, Days 1 & 2

First, I need to assure my mother that London is so big and sprawling that I feel perfectly okay in revealing that's where we are.

Yep, Darryl and I are in London.  We left Friday evening and arrived in London late Saturday morning. 

Saturday-- When we arrived in London and got to our hotel and showered (because we felt nasty, y'all), we went to the Tate Modern museum, which features modern art pieces.  Darryl and I aren't necessarily art buffs, but we'd heard the museum was cool from a couple of people, and we wanted to do something that was interesting but not necessarily on the top of our list--we wanted to be more awake and enthusiastic for our "must see" attractions.  Anyway, I have to hand it to Dr. Hockett (or Hackett?), my one and only art history teacher, who taught me enough so that I don't feel like a complete moron in an art gallery.  We saw some Picassos, some Matisses, Rodin's The Kiss, as well as some images that were a little, for lack of a better word, disturbing.  There was also a room that reminded me of the episode of Designing Women when Charlene tries to make a phone call on a pay phone and is asked to hang up because the phone is actually an art piece.  (Seriously...a string of bars of soap...that's art?)

We also walked a lot around that area of London, primarily because certain lines of the Tube (subway) were closed, and here is where I'd like to add this request:

Dear London,

If a portion of the Tube line is closed, could you please post a sign at the bottom of the stairs instead of the top so maybe we could see it BEFORE we climb all the stairs instead of AFTER?  My quads are killing me!

Sincerely,

Amy, an American Tourist

Sunday--Today we did quite a few things.  We started out at the National Portrait Gallery, which contains painted portraits and some photographs of everyone important to British history, beginning with the Tudors.  Darryl was thoroughly bored with this (which surprised me, as he is such a history buff), but I enjoyed it.  (In his defense, I probably would have been bored, too, if I didn't teach a good bit of British history and literature.)  I particularly enjoyed looking at the portraits of the writers like Jane Austen (whose drawing is a small sketch done by...oops, I forgot...her sister? her niece?), the Brontes, John Donne, and such.

Afterward, we went to the Covent Garden Market area, which is basically a bunch of shops, street vendors, and a collection of various entertainers like magicians, living statues, and such.  After a leisurely lunch at a French cafe there, we headed to Kensington Palace and Gardens.  The coolest part of that, to me, was the exhibit of some of Diana's dresses.  At some point in my commentary on this London trip, I'll probably get into the mild obsession I had with Diana off and on over the years, but it was cool to see some of the dresses I recognized from over the years, like the black dress she is wearing in all the pics of her dancing with John Travolta when she came to the U.S.  She was obviously very tall and thin.

We also went into Hyde Park and saw the fountain that was built to memorialize Diana.  (Had we realized how far the walk was from the palace to the fountain, we probably wouldn't have gone.  I've noticed some of the London signs can be very misleading for how near or far something is.)

We stopped at a French pastry shop and I had a delicious espresso chocolate tart that was to die for.  We're walking so much that I feel absolutely zero guilt for anything I'm eating.

I know I should probably post pictures and links, but that takes more time, and I'm very tired.  Maybe later this week...

Nothing like a good scare

Last week at school, some teachers' contracts were not renewed for one reason or another, so there has been a feeling of ominous doom throughout the hallways. (We got our contracts the other day, however, so that's a good sign.)

During 6th period today, one of the assistant principals came to my classroom and told me the "main" principal needed to see me. Right now.

Let me add that our principal is BIG on not interrupting class time, so this had to be pretty important.

As I walked to the office, my heart was beating triple-time. "This is it," I thought. "They have found some reason to fire me." I immediately tried to think of what I had done that would validate my dismissal. (For the record, nothing came to mind.) Or maybe a parent had complained about me. I had no clue.

When I arrived at the principal's office, the superintendent AND the assistant superintendent were there.

I was about to wet my pants.

Fastforward to the end of the story...basically, they discovered that several employees had been overpaid or underpaid for the past five or six years. I had been overpaid by $100 a year. Apparently, the higher-up peeps had come by to apologize in person.

Really?

So for not even $10 a month, I about lost my lunch right then and there?

My theory is that it was one of those tactics where you make someone think a situation is really bad, so when you tell the person the "real" story, it's a relief, kind of like the teenager who says, "Mom and Day, I'm pregnant. No, just kidding...I failed my chemistry test today."

Breaking Dawn and Resolutions

I'm beginning to think that Breaking Dawn, the fourth (and right now, last) book in the Twilight series, is the book that simply won't end. I feel that for every page I read, two more are added to the end. While some interesting stuff happens in the book, it is REALLY drawn out. I want to finish it before our trip Friday so I can take something new to read with me, and I refuse to lug that huge book with me. (I have to finish one book before I can go on to the next. I'm weird that way.)

As for my resolutions that I proposed last Sunday, here's the report:

I give myself an A for walking. I walked Monday and Tuesday, even though I didn't want to, but then the rain came Wednesday and stayed for the week.

I give myself a C for Internet time. I did great Monday, but then I got caught up in a blog story (I'll mention it at the end) that compelled me to keep checking people's blogs all week.

I give myself a B for going to bed early. I did this Monday and Tuesday, and I felt great because of the seven hours of sleep I was getting. Wednesday and Thursday, however, I stayed up a little later to grade papers. Okay, I confess...Thursday I stayed up to watch Grey's Anatomy.

I give myself a B- for working diligently after school. I did get a good bit done this week, but I also killed a lot of time talking, mostly because of some school drama that I don't feel comfortable discussing here.

This week's resolutions:

Because of the trip Darryl and I are leaving on Friday, my main priority is to get stuff ready for the trip and to get some grading done. I don't need to worry about walking in the afternoons...I just need to get stuff done.

I need to go back to the 15 minutes of Internet surf time.

I need to work at school until I pick up Amelia.

And that's it as far as the resolutions go this week.


About the blog story that has consumed my attention...Several months ago, I mentioned a baby named Stellan who was a "miracle baby" who was having a rough time with RSV. Well, he survived that and appeared to be doing fine. Now, he's in the hospital again, this time for the heart condition that caused problems when he was in the womb. The doctors appear to be stumped. Anyway, if you are a praying person, keep him and his family in your prayers. You can read more here.

Long week

I kept meaning to blog some over the past week, but I never got around to it. Here's a quick recap...

• Yesterday, the 27th, was our 10th Wedding Anniversary. Darryl has been gone all week and was gone most of yesterday, too, so we didn't really do anything to celebrate, but...we are going on a week-long trip next Friday. I would tell you where we're going, but my mother is convinced a crazy blog stalker will follow us there, so I won't tell you now. We're very excited about it, but we will definitely miss Amelia. :)
• I had my teaching observation/evaluation this week. I was so glad to get that done. I hate being observed. It isn't that I'm doing anything that I shouldn't be doing, but you know how sometimes you have one of "those" days, and I always fear that I will be evaluated on one of those days. Glad that's behind me.
• Amelia has been spending some time in timeout at her daycare this week. Apparently she likes to pull kids' hair. My favorite account of this is that apparently one day she and her buddy Jake were playing in a playhouse on the playground. Jake tried to leave, and she pulled him back by the hair. Oops.
• I took Friday off as a personal day but still took Amelia to daycare. Unfortunately, I spent most of the time trying to catch up some on my grading. The pile never ends.
• I missed having Darryl around this week. I don't know how single moms do it. Amelia was pretty good, though, so I can't complain too much. Little else got done, hence the personal day Friday.

That's about it...

Bath Time=Fun Time

Weekly Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions apparently don't work for me. The weight I'd hope to drop by mid-March is still on my body. I kill a lot of time doing things like surfing the net and talking with co-workers after school instead of grading and getting work done. (I definitely think talking with co-workers is a good thing, but sometimes I probably do it because I'm procrastinating with the work that needs to get done.) On top of it all, I'm tired most of the time. Darryl marvels at how I start snoring (yes, I just admitted to that) within a minute of my head hitting the pillow.

I'm going to try these things this week:

• I am going to make an effort to walk/exercise every weekday this week, weather permitting. I've actually been pretty good with this lately.
• Along the health and fitness line...I'm trying these exercises that are supposed to minimize the "mummy tummy," which I still have 16 months after Amelia was born. Basically, the exercises--from what I gather--consist of repetitions of sucking in my gut (thinking belly button to backbone) 500 times a day. I think I've done 300 today and I can feel it. We'll see if it works.
• I'm going to try to be in bed, lights out, by 9:30.
• I'm going to focus on work in the afternoons until I pick up Amelia.
• I'm minimizing my Internet surf time to maybe 15 minutes a day. This is HUGE, people.

I'll report at the end of the week and let you know how it goes...

Standardized Testing :(

Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but I'm not looking forward to this week.

The juniors are taking the state graduation tests this week (and for you non-teachers out there, the reason the tests are taken the junior year instead of the senior year is so that students can have multiple chances to pass...). We've been required to review, review, review the tar out of these tests. Our pass rate, especially in Language Arts, has always been pretty high, but the administration wants us to have more students with scores that exceed the standards. These juniors are notorious for not doing that well on standardized tests, so I'm curious to see what the scores will be. Last week, I pretty much turned the review into a competition and awarded candy to winning teams. I'm not too good to resort to bribery.

Anyway, testing typically throws everything off kilter. Gotta love it.

I can't believe I'm quoting Forrest Gump here, but "that's all I've got to say about that."

LOST

I am finally caught up on Lost. I thought I had two episodes to watch, but apparently last week's was a rerun. (Am I crazy, or was the whole point of the show's starting in January so that they would not run repeats?)

Anyway...I'm completely confused. What do you do to make a show that is already confusing even more confusing? Have them jump through time, that's what. I'm glad they are finally stuck somewhere, though, even if it appears to be the 1970s.

I did enjoy the last episode, however. I may be in the minority, but (spoiler alert) I think I like Sawyer with Juliet instead of Kate. I thought the way they had kind of "joined" the Dharma Initiative was cool, too. I think we'll find out some interesting things...or in typical Lost fashion, we'll probably get some questions answered but then have a dozen more questions to ask.

One last thing: This last episode did answer a question I'd had this entire season, which was whether or not 3 years had passed on the island as was the case for the Oceanic 6.

Any thoughts from the Lost viewers?

Not a whole lot to report

Well, as the title of this blog post suggests, not a whole lot has been going on with us lately. We enjoyed some warm weather for a few days and Amelia and I went walking some in the afternoons, and then by the time I had gotten in the routine of doing it, the weather turned cool and rainy.

School has been hectic as usual. I need to grade but have no motivation to. My "bad" class has been a little better since the post I now will call the "post of despair." They're no angels, mind you, but they haven't driven me to the brink of insanity again.

I caved and bought some Girl Scout Cookies today--Thin Mints and, because they were out of Samoas, I settled for some Tagalongs. Then later we went to Barnes and Nobles, and lo and behold, the Girl Scouts there had Samoas. Now we have three boxes of GS cookies. This isn't good, y'all.

Let's see...I really have nothing to report. I'll end with a cute pic of Amelia. I was doing a couple of things in the kitchen this afternoon while she watched Sesame Street, and when I looked over at her, this is what I saw:

A little entertainment news talk

I haven't blogged about TV or celebrity stuff in a while, but two events this week have prompted me to do so:

--The trainwreck known as The Bachelor. Up until the finale Monday night, I think I had seen, oh, maybe 20 minutes or so of this season. I didn't even watch the whole finale, just the last 40 minutes. Then I felt compelled to watch the After the Final Rose special because it promised "the most dramatic twist ever." For once, ABC was right. This was the most dramatic twist ever. As I'm sure you've heard, not only did the dude break up with his "fiancee," but he then had the audacity to ask the girl he dumped to take him back. Are you kidding me?

There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been posted and blogged. I know one person who is probably glad how this turned out: Brad Womack, the dude a couple of bachelors/bachelorettes ago who dumped both finalists at the last rose ceremony because he didn't see himself with either one, and he got a lot of flack for that. Compared to Jason, Brad comes out smelling like a rose. (I couldn't resist. Get it? Smelling like a rose? Ha!)

--Oh, Rihanna. Seriously, you are taking Chris Brown back? Sadly, I know this is probably the case of many abusive relationships. Can someone talk some sense into this girl, though? She's cute, has an already impressive career...is this the best she can do???

Okay, time to get ready for school now...

A Day for Two

Darryl had to have an upper-GI test done early this morning (he's fine, no worries), and--thank goodness!--the daycare was open, so Darryl and I had kind of a nice day (medical procedure aside) just the two of us. I was able to get a good bit graded while he was at the doctor, and then we did a little shopping, had lunch at La Madeleine's, and came home. I was able to finish up laundry, fix dinner, and take a nap before picking up Amelia. It was a nice day.

In other news...I'm seriously considering watching the finale of The Bachelor. Y'all, the most "dramatic twist" is supposed to take place tonight. Tonight!!

Food, Glorious Food!

We've had a good weekend so far. Technically, this is going to be a 3-day weekend for me because I'm taking Darryl to have an upper GI test done tomorrow.

There's talk of a snow day Monday, and for once, I'm hoping it doesn't happen because that would mean that Amelia's daycare would likely be closed and I would end up trying to entertain a 15-month-old for probably at least an hour and a half in a waiting room. That would not be good.

We've been trying to be better about eating out so much lately, but we failed miserably this weekend. We went to three new restaurants, and all were really good and places we would go again.

Friday night, we went to Gladys and Ron's Chicken & Waffles. I had actually been to a different location before and enjoyed it, but this was Darryl's first time eating there, period, and it was the first time for all of us at this location. Darryl enjoyed some fried chicken with the "fixins," and I had the smothered chicken and while it was good, I think my arteries might still be a little clogged. Amelia gave their waffles and their black-eyed peas the thumbs up. That girl LOVES black-eyed peas something fierce.

Saturday morning, we got up pretty early (meaning we were out of the house before eight) to eat breakfast at a place called J. Christopher's. Darryl's office had a breakfast catered from there, and he's been talking about it ever since Tuesday, when he found out the name of the restaurant. The breakfast was super yummy. We both had their Blueberry Crunchcakes, which are these delicious blueberry pancakes with some granola thrown in the batter. Yum! I want to go back and try their Coca-Cola ham served on a bed of cheese grits.

Yesterday afternoon, we ventured out once again to eat, this time to an English pub whose name I can't remember. The funniest thing about this restaurant is that Amelia had some mac n' cheese that she rocked her world. She'd stuff it in with both hands and throw her head back and laugh and go "mmmmm." And it was super cheesy, so she had it EVERYWHERE. Our food was good, too, but not as good as Amelia's, apparently.

Then last night, I made chicken pot pie. After all out gluttonous eating out, I've decided to try to cook for the next four or five days at least. And it was good too.

Then last night, I decided to do the Wii Fit. Probably a good move, right?

I'm down from the ledge

So I got a couple of emails after my last post, basically from dear loved ones who think I may be "going off the deep end." (Now that I type that, does that expression make any sense? How do you "go off" the deep end?)

Anyway, I assure you I'm not going off the deep end. Do I have a bad class? Um, yes. Perhaps the worst I've ever taught. My plan is to start writing these kids up, and if that doesn't work, I might have to bring out the big guns. (I'm not really sure what the "big guns" will be. Too bad it can't be actual big guns.)

Some other questions I've been asked are these...

1. Have you considered a career change?
Yes, I have. However, before I completely change careers, I'm willing to try teaching in another, ahem, environment. But, hello, economy--hello, teacher hiring freezes. That kind of knocks out teaching somewhere else AND doing something other than teaching.

2. Have you considered being a stay-at-home mom?
I'm going to say something that I hope is not taken the wrong way, but I don't think I could be a 100% stay-at-home mom. I think I would go nuts. I love my daughter, and I really, truly admire women who are stay-at-home moms, but I also think I need a "task" outside the home.

It's also true that while I'm not really rolling in the dough, I do bring in a decent income to supplement Darryl's main income, and that has allowed us to do some pretty cool things. Could we change our lifestyle so that Darryl's income would be enough? Probably, but may I remind you...hello, bad economy. Not exactly the right time to ditch a career.

3. When did you stop loving teaching?
I don't think my love for teaching has stopped. I've told Darryl that if I could go in a teach a class like my fabulous 5th period (not to be confused with the horrible 6th period I wrote about yesterday) all day long, I would look forward to going in to work everyday.

There's an expression that I've heard teachers use on occasion that goes something like, "Teaching would be awesome if it weren't for the students." Sadly, there is some truth to that. I'm finding that apathy is reigning supreme with most of my students. And that, my friends, is a problem that I think originates at home, and there isn't much I can do about that.


So there you have it. I promise I'm better. Today is a new day. Even better, tomorrow is the weekend.

Teaching Woes

That's right, two blog posts in one day.

This one--I'm hoping, anyway--is more cathartic than anything else. Read it if you want. If you don't, I don't blame you.

Here's the deal: I have a class that is killing me. I would say of the 25 students in there, perhaps 3 of them actually care about their performance in the class. The others appear to hate my class and me and are even at the point that they are doing whatever they can to annoy me and take me closer and closer to "the edge." Some of them come in and immediately put their heads down on their desks before we've even started, so it doesn't matter what we're doing; they just simply don't care or aren't interested. And they have attitude..."this is stupid," and "why do you make us do this stuff," and "this class is pointless" are frequent comments. It isn't like I'm giving them busy work or anything like that; I try to make assignments meaningful. But I'd also like to add that we don't do a whole lot of "outside the box" things because they wouldn't do them. I had all kinds of cool things to do with the novel Huck Finn last semester, but only about 4 of them read the book...so what do you do? Punish the 4 who read by making them do all the work?

So this week, we tried something new. I divided them into groups, and each group looked at two poems by the same poet and had to do a tic-tac-toe-type grid that required them to look at lit elements, theme, and other things, and then each group would teach the poem to the class. The group time went somewhat okay (not as well as my other two English 3 classes, though), and I was a bit encouraged because at least they seemed to be working. Today for the presentation part, however, the first group went, and their presentation was, in a word, crap. Flat-out crap.

When they were done, I just berated the class, but my tirades have no effect because this now happens once every couple of weeks. I know a lot of this is my fault because I didn't follow the good ole teacher rule about starting out tough and easing up later. I think I'm going to have to start writing them up, but I honestly think it will do nothing except make them hate me more. But then again, what do I have to lose?

And here's the big kicker...at the end of the day, I use this class to evaluate my worth as a teacher. It doesn't matter if every other class has gone well or if I've had a great discussion the period before. I remember this class, and this class makes me feel like a failure.

Today it was so bad that when the bell rang, I went to the restroom because I could feel tears swelling up in my eyes. I spent my time in the restroom fanning my eyes so I wouldn't cry and then face my 7th period with red-rimmed eyes. I got my act together and finished my day (and thank goodness my 7th period is a fun bunch), but still...I'm dwelling on this 6th period class.

Oh, and with these feelings comes the thought that every day I take my daughter--someone whose life I can have a true impact on--to a daycare for someone else to keep so I can teach kids who don't give a rip. Yeah, that makes me feel golden.

So, I'm not posting this for a pat on the back and a "there, there...you're not a bad teacher" kind of comment. But if you've been there or know an obvious solution that I'm missing, let me know.

And I promise I'm not about to jump off a bridge or anything. I'm just kind of hating the teacher in me right now.

Emerging from the craziness

I didn't blog yesterday. At 9:00, I realized I could either go to bed or blog, and I chose bed. Sorry.

I'm realizing that I'm in a better mood and that things don't get to me as easily if I'm somewhat well rested, so I'm really making an effort to be in bed by 9:30. Anyway...

I mentioned in my last post that things have been crazy. As far as work goes, we've been getting ready for a visit from these people. Now, I don't know to what lengths your school prepares for these visits, but our extremely Type-A principal (and I feel okay typing that because I would say that to his face, and he knows it anyway) has been treating it as though President Obama himself were going to be coming into each and every classroom. Anyway, the visit was Tuesday, and apparently we "passed," so that's good news. I spent all last Saturday cleaning and organizing my classroom which is something that needed to be done anyway, but I felt I needed to do it before the committee came.

In addition, my juniors have been writing research papers. Any teacher who reads this blog knows what a painful process that can be. I was somewhat encouraged when we started the assignment and my students all acted that they were fully aware of what parenthetical citations and a works cited page were (they usually act as though I'm speaking a foreign language), but when drafts were handed to me with neither of those, I just wanted to bang my head against the wall. The papers are done now, thank goodness, but I realize that I now have 80 research papers waiting for me to grade. Yippee!

On the home front...Darryl's good. Amelia has been a little sickly and irritable lately, but we have discovered that she is cutting her molars, and a doctor's visit revealed she has an ear infection. For the record, I'd like to say the child never has an ear infection when she shows all the signs--pulling the ears, refusing to eat, etc.--but has one when she shows no signs whatsoever. Last night she really started seeming like her happier self; I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that she tried cheesecake for the first time. Man, she loved that stuff. Goodness knows cheesecake can put a smile on my face.

So anyway, add all that stuff to the normal routine of having to get up early, teaching all day, doing laundry, emptying and loading the dishwasher, trying to keep the house in a somewhat decent presentable fashion, spending some quality time with family, catching up on TV (which deserves another post soon), and such, and life has just been busy.

And this update wasn't really all that exciting, was it?

Super crazy

I realize I've been a bad blogger and that it has been over a week since my last post. The past week has been super crazy and hectic, and when I've had a free minute (and those have been very few), I've either wanted to sleep, catch up on the bazillion hours of TV on my DVR, or just spend time playing with Amelia.

Just wanted you to know I am still alive and maybe, just maybe, I'll get a chance to blog tomorrow. I know it will be hard for you to sleep now because of the excitement...

And just to prove that Amelia DOES smile for pictures...

She loves the piano. (I want to clarify that I am not suggesting that she is going to be a professional musician. I realize most kids love to bang on a piano.) It's all fun and games until the meltdown she has when we remove her from the piano. Anyway, I took these pics yesterday. Too cute!

Happy Valentine's Day...And What a Difference a Year Makes

Here's a pic I took of Amelia last year for Darryl's Valentine's Day gift:

And here's a pic Darryl took this year for my Valentine's gift:

Where has the time gone?????? Why do I feel the need to burst into "Sunrise, Sunset" right now?

Anyway, we had a really nice Valentine's Day. We spent a good portion of the day with Amelia, but then my parents arrived during the late afternoon (on their way to the mountains) and kept Amelia so we could go out to dinner. After dinner, we went to Barnes & Noble and proceeded to grab some random magazines and books and look at them leisurely at a table in the "cafe." We figured the theatres would be packed, and I haven't yet convinced Darryl that we need to see Slumdog Millionaire, even though my last movie pic (Benjamin Button) was far superior to his (the icky Valkyrie).

I should also add that Darryl fell asleep before 9:00, and I fell asleep watching The 50 Most Shocking Divorces on VH1...before 9:30.

It was a good day!

Scenes from a Toddler Valentine's Party

As you can see from this picture, a Valentine's party for one-year-olds is a pretty kickin' time:
There were four other children at the party, and their excitement level was about the same. (By the way, Tim, that's RM's kid who is "sweet as candy.")


Amelia is obviously annoyed with me in this picture. I think she just wanted to enjoy her Valentine cookie without the flashbulbs of the "mama-paparazzi."


This is when the Miss Crankypants part of her personality took over:


Here's Amelia receiving a valentine from her friend Tanner. While all the other toddlers were passing out their valentines (usually to the wrong people, but oh well), Amelia was perfectly content to sit and collect her spoils.

You see that cute little blond girl with the curls? That sucker in her hand...yeah, she TOTALLY snatched that out of Amelia's hand, ripped the wrapper off, and stuck it in her mouth. I've got my eye on you, missy.

And this shot is just so you can see her cute Valentine's shirt. With a large potato chip crumb at the top. (The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.) And yes, I'm aware her hair is in her eyes. However, Amelia REFUSES to wear a hair clip of any kind (she will pull it out in about 2.5 seconds), and I refuse to cut her bangs because she would then have a mullet. Some of my "been there, done that" mom friends told me to wait it out, so I am.

I would end by saying a fun time was had by all, but judging from these pics, do you think that would be an accurate statement???

Too much funk

I haven't posted this week for two reasons:

1. I've been busy.
2. I'm in a funk.

I do have some things to look forward to this week, however. Amelia's Valentine's Day party at her daycare is tomorrow, and those parties are always cute (and, I'm sure, just for the mothers' benefit). I'm having dinner with a girlfriend tomorrow night, and this weekend, my parents are coming up and Darryl and I are going on a date for Valentine's Day.

And oh, yeah...this weekend is a long weekend.

Love is all around.

Call me catty...

A girl I could not stand in high school (because she wasn't very nice to me) just asked to be my Facebook friend.

And I "ignored" her.

It felt good.

The dumbest conversation I've ever had with a student

I have a kid in my honors class who recently transferred from another school. He has done nothing so far to make me think he is remotely honors material.

We had our test on Julius Caesar today, and every student finished before the bell except for this kid. I noticed that during the quote identification/significance section of the test, he was writing something on notebook paper. I assumed it was his answers, and he just preferred to write on lined paper.

Well, he turned in his test and left the notebook paper on his desk. I asked him to turn in the notebook paper, too.

It was all the quotes from my test.

I took it from him. And here's the conversation that followed:

STUDENT: I can't take those home and study them?

ME: Why do you need to study them? THIS is the test.

STUDENT: Well, I know I would know them if I studied them. Can't I take it home and come back and finish the test tomorrow?

ME: Um, no. You've known about this test for over a week, and every quote on here is a quote we went over several times in class. You are supposed to study before a test, not after it.

STUDENT: Seriously?

ME: Yes. You should have studied for this test, and obviously you didn't. How is that fair to the people who studied, paid attention, and were ready to take the test today?

STUDENT: So there's no way I can make this up? Not even for half credit?

Seriously, y'all. Does this kid have a lick of sense????? I've never had a kid say anything this bogus to me in my life.

The Funny and the Not So Funny

Not So Funny: Yesterday morning, I was completely dressed, running ahead of schedule, and was about to walk out the door. I reached in the fridge to get my lunch and knocked over a jar of salsa, which fell to the floor and spattered salsa ALL OVER my pants. Fortunately, that did NOT set the tone for the rest of the day. Yesterday, salsa incident aside, was a pretty decent day.

Funny: Amelia was hilarious when I took her back to daycare yesterday morning. She had been gone since last Tuesday because she was sick. Anyway, when I walked in with her, she practically ran to her teacher and hugged her. Then she went up to each kid in there (at the time, there were only 2 or 3), as though to say, "Hey, what's up? Did you miss me?" Too funny!