Go!!!!!

RUN! Right now! Head on over to Ashley's Antics to register yourself for her giveaway. I know her in real life and she LOVES fabulous things... so this is sure to be a great giveaway. Be sure and tell her I sent you! :) And.. I don't think you need to be a blogger to enter, so go on.. you have no excuse!

Dear Medicine...

While I appreciate your ability to keep me less crazy, I do not appreciate that you have a warning label on the side of you that says I shouldn't drink while taking you. You have the ability to keep me less crazy, yet you make me feel as if I've downed 10 shots after only consuming one drink. After two drinks? Definitely feel as if I've downed 20 shots. You can imagine what drinks 3-4 felt like.

It's always fun when you have to face your parents and grandmother while being completely hung over like a 21 year old. I tried to blame you, dear meds, but they weren't buying it. Even though it really was true.

It's even more fun when you have to delay your 9 hour drive to the following day because you just can't seem to function.

Oops.

Confession...

I can't even believe I'm admitting to this, but I feel like I can't keep a lie and I totally want to make fun of myself (and the show...).

Okay, here goes... I've been watching "Paris Hilton: My New BFF"

Anyone out there addicted to reality t.v.? Especially television that doesn't make you think and is totally addicting, even though you want to make fun of it the whole time.

Hubby makes fun of me. But, he's the reason I got hooked! We were channel surfing one night and he jokingly said, "Paris Hilton! My New BFF! We have to watch it!" (In a totally joking voice that made him sound like a girl) We did. And now I'm hooked. I may or may not have watched all the previous episodes online.

Now? I have to keep watching to find out who wins. It's kind of like "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila". We were addicted to that over the summer. Lame, I know.

Dog Breath...

The dog? She licked up the garlic powder I spilled all over the floor.

Her breath? Disgusting. Even Zoey can't stand smelling her.

This gives new meaning to the term 'dog breath'!

Brown is the New Black?

If you know me in real life, you probably know that I have a sick obsession with anything black. I wear it pretty much everyday. To the point that even my father (who doesn't often notice what anyone is wearing) comments that I wear a whole lotta black.

Well.. I have a new love. I guess two new loves, actually...

brown and green

I cannot get enough green in my life right now and I'm slowly falling head over heels in love with anything brown. Especially clothing.

Anyone else out there change their trademark color overnight?

Public Service Announcement...

If you have a child with ADHD, it's not in their best interest to buy them light up shoes. Seriously.

I'm sure you can imagine what that looked like.

This was my inner dialogue: Please, stomp your feet and watch those lights. Do it while I'm teaching so I can get really annoyed with you and then make you go shoeless for the day. I don't care if your socks are going to get dirty. I only care that you are a) listening to me and b) not attempting to throw your shoes in someone else's face because you think they want to see your lights close up.

Seriously people, ADHD kids and shoes with lights? Not cool. Not cool at all.

Bathroom Humor...

Serious bathroom humor. Literally, it's about the bathroom.

Okay, so little guy comes up to me and whispers in my ear, "I have to go p-o-o-p!" (and he spelled it like that, too!).

Me: Um.. okay, you can go to the bathroom.
Little Guy (LG): I can't.
Me: Why not?
LG: It's not like a home toilet.
Me: Well.. what do you think we should do? I can't have any accidents in my room and I can tell you really have to go.
LG: I have to go home.
Me: Not an option. How about a more private bathroom? Like in the nurse's office.
LG: Okay.

We walk down there.. there happens to be a cricket in the bathroom. I suggest he kill it. He wants to save it. I didn't want an accident, so we saved it.

While he's in the bathroom he begins talking to me. Not thinking, I replied. Then I realize, "Seriously? You're holding a convo. with a child taking a crap. What is wrong with you?" I had to get out of there. I ran. Up to my room. And died laughing.

Seriously, I'm losing my mind.

Reminder...

Remind me to tell you the story about the little guy in my classroom who had to p-o-o-p and the drama that unfolded.

Gotta get to bed. I'm exhausted. Plus, I think I blogged three times today and I can't guarantee that a good story will come out of tomorrow's adventures in teaching.

Question...

Okay, I figured out the reader in Allendale, MI.

Now... I'd like to know who is reading in Ellicott City, MD.

I'm not going to give away my *exact* location, but I'd venture out to say you come to shop in my town quite often if you're going to Macy's or something.

If you don't want to own up to it in public, feel free to email me.. midmidlifecrisis at gmail dot com. I'd love to know who you are, how you got here, and if you blog! :)

Target Lied.

The snow blower? Not-so-much $15.99. Apparently there was an "error" in the listing and the actual price of the snow blower is $299.

I'm glad that Target didn't charge us the full price, but I'm disappointed in the way they handled it. They simply sent us an email stating there was an error. Um.. hello? If I was in your store purchasing this item and it was listed incorrectly, you'd definitely give it to me for the listed price. Why doesn't this work on the internet?

I'm thinking I'm going to have to think twice about shopping on Target.com.

Snow Blower?

Last night Hubby informed me that Target had a snow blower on sale for 95% off of $299... it was $16.

We don't really have that big of a need for a snow blower in Maryland, but for $16? We bought it. With shipping it will cost us $40 total. That's a steal!

And.. I should mention that there are snow flurries in the forecast for tomorrow! Of course, it's not what my parents have in Michigan.. you know, supposed to get up to 6 inches tonight.

Monogrammed Giveaway!

What could be better?

Go ahead, check out the giveaway Monogram Chick is hosting. Be sure and tell her I sent you!

Rookie Mistake...

What do you get when you take 6 kids, balloons, and a 1 lb. bag of sand to make stress balls?

A really big mess.

Why oh why did I think it would be a good idea to make stress balls in my classroom? Five out of six of the kids broke them within a half an hour. And two of them? Broken on the rug.

A funny little side note: One of my kids keeps insisting that I am his mother. It's deeply disturbing, but quite hilarious at the same time because I'm certain that I'm older than his mom. And I'm only mid twenties.

Blood Donation, Round 2...

Okay, remember when I donated blood the first time? Well, someone from The Red Cross called to let me know that I could give blood in a few weeks, but asked if I would be interested in donating platelets. At the beginning of the conversation I wanted to cut in and tell the woman of my passing out and feeling like an idiot. Apparently, she read my mind. She told me it was perfect for people who have negative reactions to giving blood. Because I have a hard time saying no to doing good things, I told her to sign me up.

So this morning I woke up, ate breakfast, and headed to donate platelets. I lounged in a comfy chair for about an hour and a half, watched a movie and had people wait on me while I was doing a good deed. Talk about feeling like a queen!

Do you think I could get hubby to cover me with blankets whenever I'm cold?

I'm not going to lie, I was a bit concerned about it. Especially when my friend Ashley over at Ashley's Antics told me a story about friends of hers who could feel the blood being returned when they gave platelets or plasma.

Good news, though.. I survived and I'm pretty confident I'll do it again in a couple of weeks. You should think about it, too. You could be saving a life.

Who Doesn't Love a Giveaway?!

I know I do!

Check out Monogrammed Teacher and enter for a surprise from Tarjay... be sure and tell her I sent you!

Domestic Goddess?

I started with these hideous dresses. Compliments of Goodwill. The hunt for them was mildly annoying, but I was pleased with the outcome. (The hunt involved parents not watching their rollerskating kids in Goodwill, while one little jerk decided to sneeze on me and didn't even react when I said, "Bless you!". In my class, that wouldn't fly. We say thank you for that.)

Those ugly dresses? Turned into these lovelies:

Behold, Exhibit A....

And now, Exhibit B...

Exhibit C? Both of them together. Turned out nicely, if I do say so myself. And all of this for less than $15 and about 20 minutes of my time.

Don't worry, I'll be stopping by Goodwill again to find some other dresses to recycle. After all, one man's trash is another man's treasure*.

*I did feel guilty buying these perfectly good dresses, as someone needier than I may need a lovely flower dress. But, I figure I'm doing them a favor... I reduced the out-of-style and hideous items they had to dig through to find what they were looking for.

The Life of a Teacher...

.... often involves some rather humorous events, with a mix of the truly sad. While I absolutely love the humor involved in my job, I have the hardest time with the sad events. Things like lack of food, dirty clothes multiple days in a row, and any story of abuse. None of these events are welcomed in my classroom, but I know that they are real and alive in the lives of my children.

If you've been reading for a while, you may know that I work with students with emotional/behavior difficulties. We're talking not able to maintain these issues in the regular school and thus thrust into my hands. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about my job because I love what I do. I have never enjoyed a school and classroom as much as I enjoy mine. However, knowing what these kids come from just breaks my heart.

If you have children or are involved in any way in the life of a child, take the time to tell them how much you love them. Embrace them a little longer and a little tighter than normal because there are children out there who do not have much. They lack homes that are caring. They have people in their lives who are not looking out for their well-being.

Sorry if I put a damper on your day, I just needed to reflect a bit and this makes me feel better just getting it out there.

Hi.lar.i.ous.

Is it horrible that hubby and I think it's hilarious that Little Dog can't catch anything and just lets it hit her in the face?

It's quite funny to watch her wag her tail in anticipation of the toy being tossed... then watching it hit her square in the face.

I promise we don't beat our dogs or anything.. we just think it's funny.

On the flip-side, Big Dog can catch just about anything. Especially if it involves food of any kind.

Oh I love these dogs.

Sunday, Funday?

You know you're trying to avoid working on a paper when you voluntarily rake and blow the leaves in the front AND backyard.

Yup, that's how much I wanted to work on my papers.

Even hubby thought that was a strange one for me. I'm not above surfing the internet for hours or taking a little snooze with a puppy or two. But the leaves? Weird. I blame the neighbors and the horrible sound of the leaf blowers all over the neighborhood. I guess I just wanted to join the fun.

Don't worry.. I'll probably never do it again.

How?

How am I supposed to get work done with this face staring at me? Seriously... that face melts my heart and then I want to cuddle with her instead of getting my work done. Damn.

Things I should be doing....

• progress reports
• grad class papers (all 3 of them...)
• cleaning the house

Instead... I am...

• blogging
• cuddling with the little dog
• avoiding all of the previously mentioned activities at all costs.

bummer.

Hmm...

Is it bad when you tell your students, "If I hear my name one more time without a hand being raised, I'm taking a self time-out?!"

If it is, take my teaching certificate away. I had one of those days.

A self time-out is a time-out that the kids ask for to take a little break when something is frustrating them or they need to be away from the group. Sometimes I wish I could take them.


This was after:

• a kid flipped me off (not too uncommon)
• a kid "bucked" at me (when you step towards someone like you're going to hit them)
• my room was destroyed not once, but twice
• I had to break up a fight
• I had heard my name seriously 1,992 times without a hand being raised
• a kid put 15 circle counters in his mouth and I touched them after he spit them out
• a 6 year old told me to "shut the f*ck up!".. only he used the real words
• I had white paint ALL OVER my classroom because someone decided to walk on their hands that we had just painted to create hand print snowflakes

I think I kind of deserved a self time-out.

The only thing that made it better? The little guy who came up to me and said, "You look like you need a hug. A big bear hug. Where I don't let go until your angry thoughts go away."

Seriously, dude? You read my mind. Even though just two minutes before I wanted to kick you out of my classroom for playing hopscotch from chair to chair.

Dear Readers...

I have a confession to make. I have a little tracker to see who reads my blog. It all started when I was averaging zero comments a week and started to feel like I didn't have any readers. So, a blog friend of mine suggested I get stat counter to see how many lurkers are really out there. It really isn't for the purpose of seeing who is reading, more to make me feel better that I actually DO have readers.

Well, I've been checking it here and there. It's pretty neat to see how many of you are coming from different places. I'm just a little baffled. I have a high readership in Allendale, Michigan. A very high readership. Who are the Allendale, Michigan readers?

If you don't want to identify yourself on my blog by leaving a comment.. or you don't have the ability to comment.. send me an email to midmidlifecrisis at gmail dot com (but put it together like a real email address).

Just curious, you know.

Vote.

I hope all of you have voted today. If not, Go! Now! You still have an hour.

All the cool people are doing it, duh! Check out who wore their "I voted" stickers with pride!

Little Dog is licking her sticker. She wasn't quite so sure she wanted to wear it. And yes, that's my hand trying to hold her head so I could take the picture.
Big dog posed very nicely, but it's hard to read the sticker. I was bribing her with a treat. That's the only reason she's looking at me.

See? All the cool people are doing it.

OH! And.. this is my 100th post! Happy 100th post to me!