Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Silly Kids...

Overheard today...

"No, no. The quarter is the one with the guy with a pony tail on it." "Yo! Ms. L.. why does that man on the quarter have a pony tail? Who ever heard of a white guy with a pony tail?"

"My boo boo smells funny. It...smells...like... (whispers) boogers! Stinky green booooooooooooogers!"

"You know what? I think I'm going to be a bird. I want to migrate to Africa, too! But I'll come back in the spring because I don't want to go to fourth grade in Africa."

"Why do they call fall autumn? Why not just call it fall? That's it's name. Fall. Because the leaves fall. Not autumn because leaves can't autumn. Autumn is not an action word."

"Sometimes I get so sick of Lil' Man. He's just so annon..anno.. annoying. Annoying? Is that right? Ugh. Never mind. I get sick of him because he bugs me."

**I know you're jealous that I get to talk about boogers, migrating, and action words. All in the same day.**

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Poop..

Poop, poop, and more poop.

I had a poopy (I want to say a stronger word but this is a friendly place..) day at a meeting, then back to school for complete chaos due to my absence in the morning, and home to poop and lots of it.

Little Miss Zoey decided she would get into a homemade fudge kit I received as a gift. In that fudge kit was a bag of chocolate chips. Chocolate and dogs don't mix. Someone had a bit of a tummy ache. She threw up in the middle of the night, so I assumed (wrongfully) she was in the clear. Apparently not. Came home to a poopy mess in the living room. So after cleaning up the "poop" in my classroom, I came home to clean up more poop.

All of this on the heels of the anniversary of my separation from my ex. It was around this time last year that all of that poopiness went down. I'm a bit emotional and that just put me over the edge. I shed a few tears, ate a lot of pizza with the Maryland BFF (who is pregnant, so she was totally cool with devouring an entire pizza between the two of us and joined me in the tears) before taking my anger out on the kickball field.

Zoey's better. I'm better. And tomorrow is a new day. Oh and my birthday is Saturday. Booyah.

for those of you counting, I said poop 10 times in this post. bet you can't beat that.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Cartwheels

I may or may not have done cartwheels all the way down the hallway today.

Apparently way back at the beginning of the school year (when I was desperate, I'm sure) I made the bold statement that I would do cartwheels all the way down the hallway if all of my kids had a level 1 day. (Levels are part of our behavior program and level 1 is the best) And yes, I'm fully aware that rewards for an entire group of students is really a bad idea, but our kids get lots of positive rewards for individual behavior and I was really hopeful that something so off the wall would really encourage them to encourage others to make good choices. Either that, or, I was losing my mind and I was really desperate.

Either way.. today, we all earned level 1's and I did cartwheels all.the.way.down.the.hallway. We're talking about 50 yards. That's a lot of cartwheels.

My kids watched. My principals watched. Everyone cheered. It was awesome.

Except when I thought I was going to puke when it was all done because I was dizzy as a .. well.. whatever is something that is super dizzy.

But, I'd do it all over again to see their faces. I really am proud of those little kiddos. We've come a long way together and I'm glad we were able to celebrate. Wonder how many parents are rolling their eyes thinking, "No way your teacher did cartwheels down the hallway."! Ha!

Monday, October 18, 2010

One of these things is not like the other...

Why is it when one part of your life becomes organized, another one slips through the cracks?

Because Maryland is having so much fun debating between fall and summer weather, my house looks like a tornado blew through. Seriously. I have fall clothes and summer clothes battling it out over which season is going to stay in style. I live in approximately 600 square feet, so you can imagine that space is at a premium. It just isn't enough room for two seasons of clothes to be out and about.

I'm drowning in a sea of clothes! I know it's not the worst thing that could happen, but for someone who is a wee bit neurotic, it's a little difficult to manage.

So I have to know, ladies, how do you organize your clothes for in between seasons with limited space? What am I doing wrong here?

Saturday, October 16, 2010

White House

Proof that I was, in fact, just inches away from the White House.

WITWAI?

Where in the world am I? Notice those white columns...that bright green lawn. Ah, yes. The White House! I was fortunate enough to take a tour of the gardens today.

Not only was it a beautiful place to be, but the weather was AMAZING! It truly was a once in a lifetime thing to do. And I followed up the tour with drinks and lunch at The Old Ebbit, which is rich in DC history.

All in all? A fabulous way to spend the afternoon!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Nerd.

If you know me in real life, you know I'm pretty much a closet nerd. I read for (gasp!) fun. And not just your typical run of the mill chick lit. I also enjoy educational books, books on behavior interventions, and books on how to improve teaching. Everyone I work with knows this. In fact, I often get volunteered to read books that my principal is thinking about for book studies because she knows I will a) read them and b) devour it quickly and probably talk about it for hours. I also get volunteered for many other things because people know I will do them and do them well.

I've now added to my nerd credentials because I was super excited that my school district was paying for me to attend the NCTM conference in Baltimore. NCTM is the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, in case you were wondering. When asked what I was doing for the professional development day this week, I happily replied, "I get to go to the national math conference!" I was met with some eye rolls because they knew I was going to come back with lots of staff development for them. I can't help it, teaching math just really excites me.

As I was digging through my purse today, I realized how big of a nerd I really am. Not only did my purse contain a pencil, pen, highlighter, and post-it notes (seriously, those have come in handy SO many times.. I often thank God for that invention) but it also contained my math conference stuff, a book on Higher Order Thinking, a book on assessment in the primary grades, and it also contained "Breaking Dawn", which is the last book in the Twilight series. Because I often freak out about emergencies (you know, like making sure I have on clean underwear in case I get in a car accident and have to be rushed to the hospital in just my undies...) I began to wonder what the emergency personnel would think if they rummaged through my purse to find identification. I assumed the conversation would be something like this...

"Dude, look at what she has in her purse!" "What's that?" "Three books and a math conference badge." "What a nerd. I beat up kids like her in high school"

I may be a nerd, but I'm an educated nerd. Oh, and I'm prepared. Post it notes and all.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Fall.Is.Fun

Seriously, there is nothing better than Michigan in the fall. The colors were in full bloom this weekend and I was able to enjoy the leaves while I was home. The car rides with my family included lots of "oooohs!" and "aaaaahs" over the colorful leaves and we even took the golf cart out (yes, I'm from a rural area) to stake out the property and get some close ups with the beautiful changing leaves.

It's always quite funny when I go home, because home is such a stark contrast to my new home in Maryland. For one, I would never wake to the sound of gun shots in the woods. The only gun shots I would hear in this area would be from a homicide. In Michigan? Just the hunters. I probably wouldn't be wandering through a dress shop and hear the woman comment that she just ordered a wedding gown in camouflage. Ah, the joys of living in an area where hunting is truly a religion. I often comment that I feel like Reese Witherspoon in "Sweet Home Alabama" when I travel home. I leave the hustle and bustle of a big city to live a quieter, slower paced lifestyle.

And that's why I love my life. I get to enjoy city living most of the time and can also appreciate rural America when I travel back to see my parents. There's just something special about looking in the backyard and seeing sand hill cranes and deer, with the colorful leaves poking through and a combine or two with the irrigation system in the field.

Have I told you lately that I love fall? The only thing that would have made this trip would have been apple picking and pumpkins. Because that? That's fall in Michigan.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

what i wore wednesday...

Very few pictures this week.. I either didn't remember to take a picture or I was running behind when I left for work. So... you get only two this week. But one of them was from Date Night and I totally need your opinion, so make it count.

 I don't have a case of the Mondays....

Ivory cardigan with black bow-- The Limited
Black flare leg trousers-- The Limited
Black patent leather ballet flats with rhinestones--Tarjay (this season!)

Monday Date Night...
or the "I'm-not-sure-i-can-pull-this-off-but-i'm-going-to-try" Look.

Black long-sleeved t-shirt with detail at the collar--Tarjay (forever ago!)
Dark wash skinny jeans--Ann Taylor Loft
Black patent leather with rhinestones ballet flats-- Tarjay
Black and pearl necklace-- pretty sure it's The Limited, but from forever ago.

And that's the outfit I'm needing some input on. I know it's blurry, but you get the idea. For some reason I feel like my @$$ is too big to pull them off. You know, at second look, it's not my boo-tay, it's my hips/waist. I feel like it just goes out too much. And really, it's not the jeans I'm worried about. I'm not sure how I feel about skinny jeans and flats on me. I pink puffy heart how it looks with boots, but these size 10 feet are a wee bit awkward in tapered leg jeans and flats.

Which reminds me. They are essentially our mother's tapered leg jeans and we go around calling them skinny jeans. Weird.

Thoughts on the skinny jeans with flats look OR why we insist on calling them skinny jeans when they are really tapered jeans?

Discuss. Go.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Out of the Ordinary..

The Boy is a police officer who works alternating shifts and has a completely different schedule every week. It really cramps my style because I work Monday through Friday and have every weekend off. Plus some random holidays thrown in there, too. What it really means, though, is we have to make the most of the time we do get to spend together because it can sometimes be a struggle to get our schedules to mesh.

As a result, this neurotic teacher has had to step out of her comfort zone and embrace the spontaneity in life. It's tough because I have a hard time going away from the "schedule" of life. Which sounds really depressing if you think about it. My life is scheduled. Yuck.

Anyway.. the whole point of this story was to tell you all that I actually went out ON A SCHOOL NIGHT. This is huge. And not just any school night. A Monday night. Where did I go? Dave and Busters, ya'll! They aren't joking when they say it's Chuck-E-Cheese for adults. We had a blast! We played some skee-ball, challenged each other in some racing games, played some hoops, and more.

I'm no longer going to turn down invites for things to do on weekdays because I truly believe it was good for my soul to break out of the routine and have some unexpected fun.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Hand Check...

Me: "No! We do not put our hands in other people's pants! Keep your hands to yourself, please."

Little Mister: "But, but, he told me to feel how long his pocket is. It's really long! Try it!"

Me: "Um.. No. We do not put our hands on anyone else for ANY reason. Even if they have long pockets. We only touch ourselves."

Oi vey.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Life of a Teacher

In bed by 10:00 pm on Friday night.
Lesson planning/chores Saturday. Coffee date with my Instructional Assistant at 7:00pm. All we talked about was our classroom. In bed by 10:30pm.

Sunday? Lesson planning, baseball game, probably in bed by 8:00pm.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Hypocrite.

Yes, I just realized I'm a hypocrite. Not in an extremely bad way. But a hypocrite nonetheless.

One of my signature lines in my classroom is, "Ignore them. The only person you can control is yourself. You can't control what others do." In fact, it's such a signature that I've actually had kids repeat it while I was saying it. We've dissected what it actually means and what we can do to help a situation, even if we can't change what others do.

That being said? Why on Earth do I think I can control what others do? Maryland drivers drive me crazy. But I can't change them. I can only control my reaction to them. My kids drive me crazy. I can't control what they do. I can only control my reaction to them. (I can encourage them to make better choices-- but I can't change the choices they make).

This is particularly frustrating to me because I'm such a rule-bound person, except in the case of the speed limit because I'll be darned if I can actually drive it. I follow rules because they are rules. Not because they even make sense. Simply because someone has said it's a rule.

And that's why I yelled at some driver who was talking with their cell phone to their ear. The law changed October 1st in Maryland: you must use a hands-free device. I paid $60 to get a bluetooth so I could follow the rules. For some reason, it just didn't seem fair that if I couldn't drive with a phone to my ear, he shouldn't be able to either. I may have yelled at him and pointed to my hands free device while "encouraging" him to get one, too.