Addition, my way...

3 hours outside + sun + fair skin = sunburn in March.

Now this wouldn't be strange if I lived, say, in Florida.. Aruba.. Hawaii. Someplace a little closer to the equator. Maryland? Weird.

So yeah, 3 hours in the sun today face painting and playing games for "Fun Day" at school really did give me a sunburn.

On a different note...Anyone watch American Idol? Lil Rounds? What was she wearing? If you have a booty (like I do) you do not wear tight things that only accentuate what your mama gave ya. I'm all about embracing your body and loving what you have. But please, ladies.. if you have a big booty, don't draw attention to it. Even my husband noticed. He's not even a butt guy.

I was too distracted by her booty to even think about her singing. Not good.

Blame the Blonde...

Um.. so this morning?

I lost my keys.

Guess where I found them?

In the refrigerator. Because isn't that where you keep your keys?

Didn't think so...

Busy day...

We had quite a busy day today. Let me give you the run down... Big Dog has a bladder infection. Bladder infection = peeing every two minutes. Not a problem when we're home.. but a huge problem when we're working. The dog room was DIS.GUST.ING. So, we laid new flooring!

The doggy room with the carpeting removed.

We had to Kilz the floor to get the stains out.

And here's how it turned out! (Don't judge the white paint in the corner)All in all, we were quite impressed! It is vinyl flooring and it looks SO real. Plus, it was easy to lay. The hardest part was tearing up the carpet and pulling up the tack strips. Laying it was a piece of cake. Seriously. The hallway is next up. Little Dog ruined that- ate the padding under the carpet. Are you noticing a trend? These darn dogs ruin everything!

After that, I made the menu for the week, grocery shopped, and cooked three meals to prepare for the busy week.

Whew. I'm tired just thinking about it all.

Girlfriends...

While I really enjoy living with my husband and I LOVE married life, I miss having girlfriend time. Girlfriend time disappeared when I moved to Maryland with hubby. Of course, it's difficult to have girl time if you don't know any girls.

So, I must know.. for those of you who moved to a new place in your 20's, how did you make friends? I have a few friends here and there, but it's just SO hard finding friends. Any suggestions? Do I join a club? AND.. the other problem is finding girls who want friends. I've found a few girls around here, but they know a million people already and don't want to add friends to their group.

Seriously, I need friends before I begin talking to the dogs all night and taking them with me to get pedicures. I'm not sure the spa would like big dog sitting next to me in the pedicure chair. Just a hunch.

Rainbows and butterflies...

... or just rainbows.

We made rainbows in class today. They were super-cute and I was so excited to see what they came up with to write about.

Until one little cutie raised his hand and said, "Mrs. L.... are you gay?" Um.. excuse me? Why do you want to know? "My mom said anyone with a rainbow on their car is gay."

I told him that it wasn't always the case and it was okay to like rainbows and butterflies. I then confirmed that I do have a husband.

Puppy Dynamics..

Little Dog is such an attention snob. She simply cannot get enough attention.

Tonight I came home from work and the Big Dog came up and followed me to change my clothes (she follows us EVERYWHERE we go...especially if we go upstairs). While we were in there, I gave her some much needed loving. She's not an attention seeker, so you have to give it while she's willing to take it. Normally she really only cares about you when you're feeding her or taking her outside. Well as I was loving on her, giving her a belly rub and playing, in flies Little Dog. She sits right on top of Big Dog and steals the spotlight.

They say dogs take after their owners... I'm pleading the fifth on that one. I'll let you form your own opinion about who you think Little Dog takes after...

Too Much Information...

On a daily basis, I often receive comments that fall into the TMI (too much information) category. That's what happens when you work with 5 and 6 year olds. They do not have a filter.


So during quiet time today I have a little guy dancing in front of me telling me "It's an emergency, Mrs. L! I have to go NOW!" I simply reply, "Go. Now. Run!". He comes back about twenty seconds later and I'm all like, "Dude, how did you go to the bathroom that quickly?" At this point I notice he's still holding himself.

I ask him what was going on that he had to go to the bathroom. He shouts, "Mrs. L! My pee pee hurts, it hurts a lot! And when I pee, nothing comes out!"

Um... wait... what?

My response: "Go to the nurse. It's not my job to help kids when their pee pee hurts."

Then... during science we're reading about pollution. The picture definitely has yellow water running out of some drainage pipe. Of course, the kids are all like.. why is pee in that water? Is it toilet water? Where does toilet water go? Ewwww! We drink pee and poo water!

Um.. how do you explain that to a kindergartner? No kids.. we don't drink pee water.. it's been filtered after many steps, yada, yada, yada.

For some reason nobody taught me how to deal with pee conversations in my teacher prep courses. Talk about trial by fire!

Veggie-gal...

Yup, that's me.

Some of you asked me about my confession the other day and wanted some specifics.

Let's get the run down of why a perfectly good meat eating gal suddenly makes a complete 180 decision to cut meat out of her diet....

...blame Sarah Palin.

So around Thanksgiving she was doing an interview* after pardoning a turkey (she saved one little guy from being killed) and in the background the workers on the "farm" continued to do their job. Their job consisted of taking a live turkey and putting it in some machine that cuts off its head. This was all going on in the background and from that day forward, I vowed I would not eat meat.

I hated (and still hate) that animals are bred just to be food. That's not a life to live. Never mind the torture and inhumane things that goes on at these "farms". I just can't eat something knowing that it had to die to be on my plate.

I'll jump of my little soap box and let you all know that while I don't consume meat, I understand that others do. I'm okay with that, I won't judge you because it's a personal decision.

On the flip side of that, I have a hard time with people who judge me and criticize me for my decisions. I have run into many people who try to change my mind by saying that it's not right that I eat eggs and drink milk because those both come from animals. You're right, but only partially... I eat eggs that are from free-range farms AND the animal did not have to die for me to eat it. Again, it's totally my choice and I just can't look at a peice of meat the same way after watching the turkeys die like that so I made the choice to cut meat out of my diet.

I did not used to like vegetables that much. Now I LOVE them. I cannot get enough of them. Which, I suppose, is a good thing because there wouldn't me much left for me to eat if I didn't eat veggies!

*I'm sure the video is on You Tube if you want to see it.

Award and more..

The Smart Daughter thinks I'm pretty neat so she gave me this award! Not gonna lie, I think she's pretty fantastic, too.

List 7 things that you love, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you love!

Things that I love...

1. I love, love, love teaching. I have known this since I was about 4 but secretly denied it until high school. (We're talking ADAMANT that I would not be a teacher because my parents had teaching degrees and heaven forbid I want to be like them...) I feel like I'm changing lives everyday when one of my kiddos learns something, especially how to read!
2. I love my family. I wouldn't be who I am today without them. My mother especially. Even though I curse her almost daily for some of the traits she handed down to me. Love you, Mommy!
3. My wonderful husband. He puts up with a lot from me.. you know the whole being somewhat crazy and all. But he loves me for who I am and makes me a better person. He's seriously the ying to my yang.
4. I love my puppies. As we speak (well, I type.. you read..) they are chilled out on the couch waiting for me to join them so we can cuddle.
5. I love reality t.v. It's a weakness of mine, but it's oh.so.addicting.
6. I love cooking. I enjoy creating new things from other recipes and making it my own.
7. I love clean sheets. Nothing is better than crawling into bed with clean sheets that are tucked in so nicely.

Now I have to pass it on to other bloggers I enjoy...

Kelly from Hamilton Happenings-- she's just too cute and she's a teacher, so I have to love her!

Little Miss Displaced Texan- she's living in Germany and always has funny stories to share. Plus she knows ALL about photoshop, so she's definitely creative!

Little Woman-- She has a list of things she wants to accomplish this year. It's been fun watching her tick things off almost daily!

Mindless Musings-- she thinks she has an average life, but she forgets that teachers are not your average person! Especially dealing with little ones and underwear!

America's Next Top Model is on.. gotta run!

Confession..

Okay, I have a confession for you all... I feel like I've been hiding it from you and it needs to come out now. I kept it a secret mostly because I didn't know how it was going to work out.

Anyway.. here goes...

I'm a vegetarian.

There. I feel better. I feel like I've been completely honest with you.

Anyone else have secrets they are keeping from their bloggy friends? Any other vegetarians out there? I'd love to swap recipes!

Perfect Strangers...

... are coming to my house. Tonight.



Let me explain.. a while back hubby and I decided to put our couch up for sale on craigslist. We LOVE the couch but it's just too big for our house. We waited and waited.. and nobody wanted to buy our couch.


So we re-posted it a few weeks later and we have someone coming over to look at the house tonight. As in.. an hour from now.



Normally this wouldn't be a problem. Except we were out of town last weekend and the weekend before that. The weekend before that? I was busy working like a mad woman on grad papers. That means my house hasn't really been cleaned in like three weeks (don't you judge me!). And? I'm babysitting. I won't get home until at least 9:00. They are expected to be at our house at 9:30.



I'm hoping hubby knows how to run the vacuum. On second thought, I better just take my anxiety pills now and avoid the panic attack. I'm sure he doesn't know how to run it. At least not up to my standards. Just kidding, honey. I love you.

Is it sad that I'm worried that they will judge me and not if they are going to be crazy masked murderers trying to kill me? Nah.

What?

Let me tell you about my extra-crazy day today...

First off.. one of my minis that ALWAYS has a runny nose had a little bit of a temper tantrum. About blowing his nose. He did not want to blow his nose. REALLY did not want to blow his nose. He then had a snot rocket coming out of his nose that touched.the.table.* That is one HUGE snot rocket.

It should also be known that when I told hubby the story, he was like "THAT is awesome! Did you tell him how cool he was? I wish I could ge t a snot rocket that big!"

Guess who had to clean it up? Yup. Me.

Then.. when I finally got that mess taken care of, the little one fell asleep (in school) and wet himself. After I convinced him that he should change his clothes before sitting all over my rug, he then came back walking kind of funny. I asked him what was wrong (afraid he pooped himself or something) and he informed me, "I hab a huuuuuuuuuuuge wedgie, dat's what is wong! All because of da stupid undew-weah you made me weah**" in his cute little speech impediment voice.

**Yes, I made the little guy wear tightie-whities. Apparently kids these days are all about the boxers and such.. he was absolutely disgusted when I told him the only extra underwear we had at school was of the tighty-whitie variety. It took me a good five minutes to convince him that the underwear were better than walking around with pee stained boxers. He then offered to not wear any. No way, not in my class.

Seriously, dude? How can I not blog about you when you make it so easy for me.

After that? A parent came in to celebrate her sons birthday. She brought in a cake to share with us. It was delish. Her little guy didn't want his. She then smashed it in his face and told me it was tradition. Um.. what? Tradition? To smash cake in his face? And then leave the mess for ME to clean up?

Thank you Friday the 13th. Thank you.

Still here..

... but barely.

I'm bogged down with papers, projects, and planning. Seriously, why on Earth did I think I should take two classes in my first year at a new school? To add to it, I just got a SMARTBoard in my classroom so all I want to do is make fun, creative lessons using it.

And.. I'm pretty sure I have spring fever. You know, don't want to do anything that doesn't involve being outside or driving around with the windows down in the car. I am in love with wearing my sunglasses, peep-toe shoes, and anything other than sweaters.

Still suffering from the post-weekend wipe out. I'm thinking I stayed up too late all weekend add that to the time change and I'm just a mess. It doesn't help that I drive to work in the dark.

I know this is kind of a whiny post.. but it's my blog and I'll do as I please.

An Open Letter..

Dear Small-town, MI Airport Security,

Let me tell you why I think you're obnoxious. First of all, it's common courtesy to reply when someone asks you, "how are you?!". While I was able to forgive you for that, I had a hard time when you politely rudely asked me to pay attention to you while your co-worker was talking to me. And that snide little, "This is a serious security issue!" when you got mad about my contact solution? Yup, that wasn't very nice either. The last straw, though, was when you told me that I needed to follow airport security procedures or I could risk being detained.

Let me explain to you what I think happened. I think you were a little jealous that the co-worker you were flirting with just moments prior to my arrival happened to pay a little attention to moi. Then, when you clearly realized that I had made a "security breach" (seriously? I had ALL of my liquids in a baggie except a chapstick and a juice box I had NO idea was in my bag) you felt like rubbing it in my face. I'm pretty sure that chapstick and juice box were going to start a fight or something.

Sincerely,
Moi

P.S.- The contact solution was clearly labeled TSA compliant with a little airplane on it and the TSA logo.. so I'm pretty sure you can shove it, missy.

P.S.S.- I know I'm probably going to upset a few readers with my snarky remarks about airport security, but the plane literally had 17 people on it and it was going to be in the air for 26 minutes.

Weekend recap

I traveled back to Michigan this weekend and had such a blast. As always, it was tears for a good twenty minutes in the airport after hugging mom and saying our goodbyes. I swear, it's so hard to leave! I had quite the full weekend...

• Traveled late on Friday night, got in around 1:30.
• Big day at the salon-- highlights, cut, eyebrows waxed.
• Family dinner on Saturday
• Daddy's show Saturday evening
• Drinks with the cousins after the show.
• Wii tourney with the cuz, Mom, and my other Mom
• Breakfast Sunday morning
• Pack up, headed to the airport, flew home.

Whew! All that in 36 hours.. well, 35 with the time change.

Speaking of that, anyone else out there completely thrown off with the time change? I felt like I couldn't drag myself out of bed this morning. I'm sure the busy weekend didn't help.

Oi.vay.

Seriously, I cannot contain myself sometimes in school.

We were sounding out the word nip. Of course I had to quickly explain that a nip was like a bite. My little guy who loves telling stories says, "Ohhh! Nip. Like nipple. Did you know nipples are for breast feeding? Babies drink from them. They drink milk from their mommies." Whoa.. dude.. slow down. I'm really going to get some calls about that one. Great.

I had to hold up a book to hide my laughter.

We then sound out wig. He loudly proclaims, "My mom wears a wig!"

Follow that up with sounding out "mass". We have to sound it out. Mmmm....aaaaa....sssssss. I then have three little ones breaking out into a fit of laughter screaming, "We just said @$$! We just said @$$!" No.. we didn't, but you did now. Thanks. That Teacher of the Year Award? Looking even more likely everyday.

During math... he called a peacock a pecker. Seriously? I.can't.take.it.

He also told me, "I'm a true gentleman. And? I'm sooooo handsome." and full of yourself?

Oh Kids...

Today the school nurse came in to talk about dental health. While she was in there? I'm pretty sure there were two f bombs in general conversation and one student who said, "My dad didn't brush his teeth and now he has gold teeth! I want gold teeth!". Um.. gold teeth? Not cool.

When she was leaving, she wished me luck. I can't imagine why she would think I needed luck with those little ones. Ha.

Another funny little conversation I overheard:

A: I have a headache because of all of your whining. You're a whine-a-saurus.

I'm glad they are learning something about dinosaurs...

Also.. why is it that when I'm playing rhyming games with kids the only words that come to mind are curse words? Think of all those naughty words you can rhyme with sit. Also, class? Yup.. I can think of one that rhymes with that.

Good thing I can laugh and pretend like I can't think of a rhyming word and they come to my rescue! :)

Brush your teeth, yo!

Went to the vet this week and they commented that Big Dog has wonderful teeth. Little Dog? Notsomuch. She's part beagle and apparently beagles are known for having bad teeth. As a result, we have to increase the amount of times we brush their teeth.

Normally we have cute little pups who do just about anything we ask them to, within reason. Except brush their teeth. Hubby says it's because I tortured them the first time I did it and now they just hate it. Of course, he nominated me to brush their teeth every time, claiming his finger doesn't fit in the finger brusher... Hm..

Good thing I got them new toothbrushes.

I think Little Dog likes it, don't you?
Yup, Big Dog, too.
(Don't you dare judge that horrible grin on my face AND the double chin)
(And yes, my forhead is that big ((five head?)) but I normally have it covered with the side-swept bangs, but I already changed into comfy clothes and took my hair down)

Now I will be brushing their teeth every other day. Because it's just that much fun.

Happy 200!

I'm blogging my 200th post!

Thank you for reading along on the adventures of my life. This is my therapy and I truly enjoy writing about my life. Thank you for sharing in the ups and downs in my life. Thank you for the advice you give and for sharing your lives with me.

If you're reading and haven't commented, yet, please do so today so I can personally thank you for being a part of my life. If you'd prefer to email me.. feel free, midmidlifecrisis at gmail dot com

Thank you again for joining me day in and day out.

Ugh.

Okay, so I have something I really want to talk about... but it's going outside of my usual snarky fare.. so I hope you'll all be okay with it.

Anyway, so there was this girl I went to college with. We were roommates. In fact, she introduced me to my husband. We had our ups and downs while we lived together. We both have pretty strong personalities and things just kind of went sour. I wouldn't place blame on either side.. sometimes things just happen. Plus, we were getting ready to graduate, I had just started falling in love with my husband, and I was getting ready to move across the world to Germany. So, I'm sure all of those things combined to hurt the situation.

Anyway.. I tried to contact her about a year ago. Just to see what she was doing and I think to kind of wipe away any hard feelings on either side. I am a people pleaser and cannot stand when people have hard feelings, especially towards me. So I reached out to her. No response.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I'm on facebook and it lists her name as someone I might know. I sent her a message to say hello, let her know I was thinking about her, and to sort of repair things. Didn't hear back.

Today? Facebook flashes her name at me again and says, you know her.. be friends with her. So after some thinking.. I decide to ask her to be friends. She declines. That's her prerogative.. but it still hurt. I sent her a message just saying that I understood the hard feelings, but that she did hold a place in my heart because she was a part of my life for an important phase in my life.

Husband thinks I'm crazy.. and probably I am. But for some reason I just cannot get past this. I don't know why.

Ugh.

An Open Letter...

Dear Maryland,

While I refuse to call you home (because someday I will live near family again), I much appreciate your silliness when it comes to snow.

Even though I spent 23 years of my life thinking that there was no amount of snow that could close down school, Maryland never ceases to amaze me. Of course there is a big difference between the budgets for snow removal in Michigan and Maryland, so I can sort of understand the problem, but I thoroughly enjoy the silliness that is sure to ensue when there is more than a half an inch of the white stuff on the ground.

I drove to the grocery store today at around noon and none of the fast food restaurants were open. I was surprised to see the grocery store open, in fact. And the cashier at the grocery store who just couldn't believe that I didn't plan ahead for the blizzard and get my bread and milk before the snow? She's just silly. Six inches does not equal a blizzard. But, again.. I appreciate your silliness because I got a day off of school and a two hour delay tomorrow.

So, thank you Maryland... thanks for the silly snow day.

...they love me, they really love me!

Look what I got! Lil Woman thinks my blog is fabulous! Not going to lie, I think she's pretty fabulous, too! Go check her out. Now.

Now, I must pass this on to blogs I think are fabulous.

Life with Hannah and Lily- she has the cutest stories about her little one, Lily who is absolutely adorable. She also shares sparklies each day and I just love her outlook on life. She's such a joy to read.

G.R.I.T.S she's just too cute. A true Southern Lady.

Mindless Musings- She always has fun teacher stories to share. I love reading about the other crazy kids out there!

Multi-slacking Mama - she has the cutest new puppy! Go check it out.