Week in Review

This was a crazy week. Monday I was scurrying around making sure all the information I needed for my presentatin on Tuesday's class was done.

Tuesday work and class and my presentation went fine, thankfully.

Wednesday I woke up with a splitting headache and sore throat. It was a full blown sinus infection. It was only a half day for the students so I called in sick. I was wondering if the stress of my presentation played a part in me getting sick the night it was finished.

Thursday I went back to work feeling only half as cruddy as the day before, but the kids were fairly sympathetic and were behaved.

Friday, such an exciting night Don and I did nothing and then Brian came home and got in a heap of trouble. Needless to say, he's grounded and who knows for how long.

Saturday means homework. I actually submitted it about 5 minutes late. I should have done it on Wednesday when I was home, or Friday night when we didn't have any plans, but I just didn't. I did laundry all day.

Sunday..today.. we have my nephew's birthday party. My excitement level is a bit lacking these days. I need to do more laundry, and have already done some, but gosh it never stops piling up.

I have tried to use a bit of my creativity this week. I worked on two scrapbook pages. Here they are.





Off to get ready for the party. I still have to wrap the gift and shower.

A little redecorating

I added a new header. Not sure if I like it...there is a lot of blue and white going on. I think I'll leave it for a bit then create a fallish looking one.

Any suggestions?

Fun weekend, finally pictures

Over the weekend, we had family in from out of town.
Don's mom and step dad were here from Mississippi.
Also my aunt and two cousins were here from Ohio.

Thank goodness that no one was staying with us
because our house is so teeny, tiny.

On Saturday I drove my cousins to the Scarecrow
Festival in St. Charles, Illinois. We walked
a lot and stopped into a few of the antique
stores that are there too.

I took a few pictures of some of the better
scarecrows.

After we left, we were almost hit by some idiot
who turned on a red light. Then we are coming
up to the next red light with the idiot driving
beside us and BAM! He ran another red light and
hit a car that was in the intersection. He
didn't even slow down. Thankfully no one was
seriously injured, but what an idiot!

Ok, here are my pictures.

Down to the final 4

We've narrowed the senior picture choice down to 4. The final 4! It was not easy. We've looked, sorted, laid them all out and started narrowing them down and picking them off and although the formal one is in the yearbook, it is not necessarily my favorite. Don thinks we need a "formal" one.

I'm asking for all of your opinions one final time. Note, that the one that is black and white can easily be converted into color, which is what we'll probably do if we go with that pose.

Please leave me a comment with your most favorite and then your second choice.

Top left is #1, top right is #2
bottom left is #3, and bottom right is #4.

Thanks so much! I'll let you know what we finally decide upon when we go and purchase on Thursday night.

Was it the storm or is it a full moon???

Last night we had some awful, horrible storms.
We had storms for at least 6 hours last night.
Luckily we didn't have much damage, but what
we didn't know is that our crawl space holds water.
It is going down, but Don needs to call someone
to take care of that. Nothing of ours was lost
because of the water, thankfully.

My mom had about 3-4 inches of water in her basement.
She lost power around 10:30 last night and they are
saying that it won't be back on until probably
Thursday night. What is that about?? She has her
sump pump hooked up to the neighbor's generator because
we are due for some more major intense storms again
tonight. You know when you watch the radar and the intensity
is marked by colors? Starts at green goes up to yellow, orange,
red, pink then purple. Well the radar clearly showed Purple
over my area.

Now if you think that's weird enough, let me tell you the
rest of my crazy day story. Next crazy thing is that
my inlaws are coming tomorrow. They have stayed with us in
the past, but our house is too small now and they'll have to
stay elsewhere. We don't even have the slightest clue where yet.
They haven't told us.

My aunt and cousin arrive at my mom's house on Thursday. Let's
hope that there is electricity by then.

Finally, I talk to Don after school between work and going to
class and he said did you hear the news? I wasn't going to call
you unless it was serious. Ears perked???? Mine sure were.
He tells me they found a pipe bomb at the highschool where the boys
go and that the school was on lockdown. The police had to detinate
it twice because the first one didn't help it to explode.
This bomb was within 250 yards of my mom's yard. Probably 300-400
yards from the school building and about 2 blocks from my house.
Bomb sniffing dogs were in the building. The driveways were
all blocked by police cars. There were a lot of police cars and
paramedics in the area. Now this is serious. Not a joke and
the only thing you get from the school is that a "suspicious package"
was found and it turned out to be nothing.

Well the scary thing is was that the first two of my mom's neighbors
went to the police and they said pipe bomb. The third person got the
"suspicious package" answer. But if it was nothing, then why were
there 2 explosions????? Hmmmmmmmmm???? Why on lock down???? Why
so many police???? AND WHY ARE THEY HIDING IT?????????

I'm not believing their story. What if someone had intentions of bringing
it into the school and they chickened out? What the hell would they have
done??? Don called the school and the deans weren't talking. The
principal called and left a message after Don called, but of course
the boys deleted the message before we heard it.

You know it is one thing to find it, deal with it, and admit it but when
they do not have the odasity to fess up to the truth it really
irks me because there are well over 3000 people in that school and
the power was out in the neighborhood adjecent to it.

My next idea is to file for a freedom of information act
about the incident. I can't wait for things to get
back to normal. Oh wait...this is my life,

THIS IS NORMAL!!!!!!!

Senior Pictures

This is also another long overdue post.

Doug had his senior pictures taken in early
August and it took forever for us to get them.
Yes, their mistake because we told them to
change our address in their system and they
didn't. You may think these are good, and a
few are, but most I didn't even bother to scan.

We had retakes done last Monday and we're still
waiting for those to arrive. We've got to make
a choice for the yearbook and we are certainly hoping
that the retakes are so much better, and arrive before 10/5.

Anyway, leave a comment and let us know which you like the
best.

Long overdue update and I've been tagged

I've just got to say thanks Ange! Yeah right :)~

She tagged me to post 5 weird things about me or
my pets
Ok here goes...

1. I have a glitter phobia! Yes you read it right I
hate glitter, will not touch glitter, and will usually not
buy anything that has glitter on it. It also drives me
absolutely bonkers when girls put glitter in their hair and
cannot get it out after washing their hair. ((((shudder))))

2. I sort my m&m's into piles of color. I eat them in the
order of least to most. Sometimes I put them into color patterns
if I have the same number of different colors and then I must
eat all of the color patterned groups together.

3. My last three dogs have been adopted from the pound.
Coincedentially they all have been black cocker spaniels.
Now what are the chances of that?

4. I have never EVER been on a roller coaster. I will probably
never go on one either.

5. I guess the last weird thing about me is that my husband
owns a hearse and has nothing to do with the funeral business
yet anyway.

My class started 2 weeks ago and it seems to be going ok so far.
Each classmate is tutoring a student for 10 weeks. We'll be
doing reports and such about the progress that each student is
making.

School has been quite difficult to say the least. I've got
a group of students who are not used to being so structured
and two that I've been dealing with behavior issues.
Some nights I feel like I've had the life sucked out of me
and go home and literally vegitate, nothing else.

Now I'm supposed to tag 5 others:
unfortunately most of my blog
readers have already been tagged.

Nancy M.
Shellie J.
Cindy Simon
Douglas
Brian

Is it Winter break yet?

Yikes my class has just been difficult. Kids who are way below grade level, kids who need social work, kids who need speech, kids with behavior issues, kids who don't do their homework, and a smattering of a few good kids thrown in. All of that and we've only finished like the 3rd or 4th week of school. To top it off I'm getting a sinus infection and my Masters class began this week too.

I've been working on getting Brian a 504 instructional plan set up at the highschool. They were to have a meeting on Thursday and haven't heard any outcomes from that. He needs these modifications set up to help him have success. He's already on a downhill slide with grades. I'm supposed to not push about homework because he says I'm on his case all the time. Yep I am but I'm a mom and a teacher so where does it say not to push? It is more than push, it is fight. If the kid doesn't begin to take it seriously, he'll be putting himself on the 5 year plan by the first semester of freshman year. He needs these modifications, they'd better see it too; and fast!

Club team volleyball tryouts are tomorrow night, Doug for sure will try out and probably make it, Brian is undecided but Don said he'd like to see him play so he'll have been playing up until the highschool season starts.

Doug has senior picture retakes on Monday. I hate having to retake them, but seriously the first ones were just not good. The yearbook pictures were rotten. There actually was only 1 or 2 that I would even consider buying.

I've continued to go to water aerobics. I feel better when I go, but I'm getting a sinus infection and I with that and pictures on Monday I hope I don't miss the Monday class. I also have loads of homework. My next masters class started. UGH it's like tutoring a student for 1.5 hours for 10 weeks on Tuesdays. The class is worth 1000 points. I can't believe 1000 points it is quite extensive and I'm just ready to quit. I'm so tired of working and going to school. I know I can't complain it is a free masters degree, but this is my 3rd year in the program and it's just burning me out, me and probably the other 25 students too. It is to the point where it is about jumping through hoops. That is the one thing about college and teaching, how many hoops you've got to jump through. Continually there are hoops, do this, do that, document this, document that, blah, blah, blah; change my name to Teacup the Hoop Jumping Poodle and hold up the hoop! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh right now my life is just to crazy and out of control for me. Does that mean that I'm a control freak?

Well I'll just keep plugging along trying to keep my head above the water, holding on for winter break.

I feel great!

I really was concerned that I might be a bit sore after
yesterday's water aerobics but nope, not an ache or pain
anywhere. My joints actually feel a little less stiff and
I thought I should do some exercise today and technically
I did. I walked up three flights of stairs, down a flight,
around to the next hall and up or down again. It was
open house/curriculum night at the high school.

Don and I went to some together, some apart and to some
not at all. Found out how to use the online grades and
got the passwords. AAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhh now I'll know
all the grades with no surprises! Unfortunately there are
already a few not so good ones for one of my sons.

OK...stop right there Laura, you've been told this is no
longer an area you are to worry about.

Ok self, I know that but it's hard!

Ok, I realize that sometimes it might just suck to
have a mom who is a teacher, smart and very, VERY
Nagging and sets high expectations.

So I'm trying to work through this, he's getting older
and must do this on his own. Geesh, I could have
used another exercise class instead of the stress
of open house. Oh well, I'll be over it by tomorrow,
I hope.

Anyway as of today, I'm an advocate for water
aerobics. I almost can't wait to go back
for the next class.

Trying to be good

This week I've trying to be good and eat more healthy.
Don and I have been taking walks and I try walk a little
further each day.

Well we've had Y memberships for quite a while.
Maybe a year and a half.
Well we were gong ho for a while; then like most
exercise programs it went kaputz.

Well today we went back to the Y. Don and I took a
deep water aqua aerobics class. I was so proud of
going and of Don for going with me to support me.
Although Don was the only man there, we saw two
people in the class that we knew. One of our friends
even said her husband comes. Maybe that will encourage
Don to keep going. It felt very cool and envigoriating.
I think I'll go back again.

I also found out since the last time I'd been there that
they put in a quick workout like a 40 minute circuit
similiar to curves. Geesh a lot changes when you
don't go for a while.

Any and all encouraging words accepted on this weight loss
journey.

Did I mention...

I'm a mom to two high school boys? I know you're probably
thinking geesh you're so young to have 2 sons in
high school let alone one who is a senior. Well you know
you're absolutely right! I am too young to have two high
school sons. LOL I know your eyes are rolling cause I'm
having a little laugh myself. Although I truly can't believe
that the boys are in high school.

This is so nice to have them together in one school again.
Poor Brian though, he's going to have the Jan Brady syndrome.
You know "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha". It's already started.
Some of Doug's friends, especially the boys from volleyball
walk down the hall and say "hi little Doug!" I tell Brian
that it's not too often that seniors pay any attention to
new freshmen, so that's a good thing. Hey can I help it
that Brian and Doug look alike to a lot of people? Good genes
I guess. He also says Doug taps him on the shoulder. I say
that he's your brother and at least he's acknowledging you're there.

So as we deal with looking at colleges, back to school issues, open
houses, senior pictures (don't even ask about those, that's a whole
nother blog rant) football games, homecoming and such we are just
hanging on for the ride. Don and I will be empty nesters way too
soon. I can't even bare to think about that yet. I am way too young
for that.

So this is another short week of school so after this week, we're full-tilt
and headed into a school year of many changes. I hope and pray some are easier
and less traumatic, and the year goes smoothly for all four of us.

Peace-out

Today I saw something miraculous

Today in church I saw something I would have never expected to see.
We have a bunch of friends who are in our small church group. Some of these friends
are the reason we started going to church again. Some are friends we met specifically because of our small group. These are the people who will stop and pray for you if you need it. I truly believe this group to be a strong reason why I continue to go to church. Well one man who comes to the group comes because it is a social gathering. He comes because he wife is a believer. This man comes to church to support his wife, period. That's all. He's told our group that he's a self proclaimed heathen. A Heathen.

Well today I've seen it all. This man, who calls himself a heathen was baptized. A full immursion baptism. There are so many people who know him that it was a total shock to so many people. Only 4 people knew it was going to happen. I swear it caused many people to cry. Jaws dropped. It was truly a miracle. I wish I had my camera.

If you believe in the power of prayer, this man told Don and I that he needs a lot of prayers right now. If you possibly could say a prayer for Dave that he continue to believe and feel the spirit in his heart. I know he would appreciate that.

I have to say, God works in mysterious ways.

OMG how could I forget???

At our meeting today, we found out that our school met AYP!!!! We met with 100% test takers. We met in reading and we also met in Math!!! This was a huge undertaking, but we met in all of our 9 subgroups!!! We had been on "the list" of schools not meeting AYP, on year 4 of corrective action. Year 5 brings restructuring, so since we met this year, we don't move on to year 5. If we meet next year, or with this year's test..we come off the list all together!

Believe me...this was a schoolwide undertaking and a huge accomplishment. I need to tell all my Road Runner friends...CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the grindstone

Today it was back to the grindstone. Yep, today teachers had to report and students come tomorrow. First for one hour, then more meetings. Wednesday it is the full day and then from now on. Thank goodness for Labor Day! I'm sure I'll need it after this week.

This is where I teach. Roosevelt Elementary in Cicero. We are a very high minority school, and district. There is not any school in the state with such a high Hispanic population than our district.



I have to say though, for as many looks as I get when I tell people what town I work in, these are just kids. Many tear your heart out with some of their stories, but all in all, they're just kids. Many people don't understand that. They are usually the ones who have some prejudice and can't look past nationality. I really enjoy working here. I don't think there is any other district in my local vicinity where I would be getting a free Master's degree and for each year, ending with my fifth year, one of my student loans is forgiven. I receive a specific percentage each year, but I only have 2 years left. If I had not worked in this district, I would have never been asked to be on the Oprah Show when they did Oprah's Favorite Things for teachers.

After asking myself for years, "what do I want to do when I grow up?" I finally figured it out. It's amazing how much you can do and how things come to you when figure out God's plan for you. I have always felt like it took a while to find my calling, but now I'm there.

I guess reflecting on how much I've gotten from teaching, it's really hard to consider it "the grindstone".

Wednesday already??

Wow this last week of vacation is flying by. I guess I've put off way too many things and now I'm trying to cram them all into this week. All of that and the regularly scheduled stuff for this week too.

Ok, today I went to school, took Brian, to take some stuff in and started working on reorganizing my classroom. I am no where close to being done either.
I went to pick up my new glasses. I don't know that I'm happy with them, but thankfully Lenscrafters has a 30 day guarantee. I got transitional lenses, but I my old glasses were as thin as they could be and had an anti-reflective coating on them.



I'm working on my portfolio again. I also need to write out some postcards for my new students and also would like to work on a new scrapbook page.

So I'm going to finish eating my General Tso chicken with shrimp fried rice and try to get my stuff done. I guess I should consider laundry and watering the flowers outside, but they were calling for rain.

Ok, I admit I have a bit of a shoe obsession

But I'm not Amelda Marcos or anything. I just like to find some really cool and comfortable shoes and go with it. I'm certainly picky in heel height, color, style. You know like almost any girl is. Well in Vegas we went to the outlet mall. I walked into the Clark store and started looking. I've never worn Clark's before. I do think that my grandmother used to wear Clark's. She always wore clogs or mules. Well I was strolling through the 8.5's and I found a pair but they were too big. Wow these must either run large or true to size and others don't. I found a pair sitting on the endcap and thought those look cool. Well I swear they were made just for me. They fit like a glove. Like I stuck in my foot and they melted right onto my foot. Well melted is a good word, it was Vegas after all and it was about 105 degrees.

Well anyway I bought 2 pair, but this pair I would consider getting in another color. I've had so many looks and comments. I actually have a pair of pants that almost match them perfectally and I had a shirt that I had bought and never wore that looked super with the pants too. That was my outfit today!

Ok, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. The brand of my shoes is Privo. They write it like this Pr!vo.



Anyway I just got to say I LOVE these shoes!!!!

Vegas was Good!

We are home from Vegas, yes I know I didn't blog that we were going to Vegas, sorry, sometimes things get a bit hectic and the blog gets put on the bottom of the list.
We stayed at the New York New York. We had air conditioning problems and had the maintance man up and after it started blowing warm air, we called and told them move us and upgrade us too! We had a bigger room, so nice too.

We did not see any shows because I the ones the boys could see were very, VERY expensive and the one Don wanted to see was 18 and older. I just didn't think it was fair for us to see a show and leave them to fend for themselves. I felt we did that enough when we went to the casinos and they went to the arcade, pool, roller coaster, The Palms to get autographs of the tattoo artists on tv show Inked. That made them happy. I know they didn't get to see the Dizzle, the one person they really wanted to, but one guy was nice enough to come out and give them an autograph.

We walked and walked and walk several different days. We made it into almost every big casino on the strip. We didn't make it into the Aladdin. We didn't head much further north on the strip beyond the Wynn. That place is amazing. My favorites where I'd love to stay again are Mandalay Bay, Mirage or the Wynn. They all had lush plants, and seemed so relaxing not hyped up like some of the others. The New York was non-stop action, flashing lights and lots of walking around all the time.

We went to Hoover Dam. That is so remarkable. It was HOT! Hotter than almost any heat I'd ever expereinced. It was amazing to think there were men with belts hanging from ropes and had a few tools and a helmet and that was their equipment to work on building this. We rubbed the toes of the winged men, but I think it took my luck away. I was winning before we went and losing after. Don on the other hand, he turned into the big winner.

So were home. Don got an email from one of the casinos offering a deal with our member points and asked, "Can you take a couple days off in October?" Ummmm No not if we want to go on the 10 day Carribbean cruise over winter break. Not book but believe me, I'll keep ontop of that one.

So now that we're home, I have laundry to do and I have 2 days of training for school on Monday and Tuesday. We have a union meeting to go over the tentative contract Monday night. I should also get my classroom put back into some order, we'll see 4th graders are always good about wanting to help.

Ok way too much in this blog entry. I'm done.

Razr Bling

Ok, I've had this in mind for about 2 weeks. I made these three little bead charms one Sunday morning and had to find the cord. I found the cord late last week and after making a comment on Holly's Blog about my pink Razr or what my dad calls my "Sissy Phone", I mentioned I was putting some bling on my phone. Well today I got a nudge to get it put together from Holly herself. So I put the bead charms on the cord and the cord on the phone. Now I've officially pimped by phone! I'm sorry the photos stink, I used the point and shoot digital not the Rebel. You'll get the idea. Maybe I should sell these so you all can pimp your phones!

I've got a little bug in my ear!

It's not a bug, although it does look like a little silver beetle. It is my new bluetooth hands free device. Well I can't say it's exactly mine; Don got it, he couldn't get it connected with his phone. Well neither could I but since I'm a female I didn't mind looking up some directions. I found them and found out that this little ear piece needed paired up with my phone. I offered to fix it up with Don's phone but I don't think he really cares. Hey, I offered once I'm not offering again. This one has black, mine had a darker silver more peuter color than black. I would have LOVED it to be pink! Pink to match my RAZR. My dad calls my phone the "sissy phone" because it's pink! Hey I'm the only girl at my house I deserve a litte pink here and there!

I found out that if I record names into my phone, I wouldn't even have to dial, I could say something like "home" and it would dial my home number. Hmmmmmmm if someone really ticked me off I could record something quite obscene as their voice tag. Nahhhhh that's not too nice, I wouldn't really do anything like that!

So now I'll be one of those people walking around and it will look like I'm talking to myself. So just don't think I'm a bit wacko, I'm probably using my little silver beetle.

I've been working on adding some bling to my phone, so when I get it done, I'll take a picture and add that here too!

Spilling my secret

At the beginning of the week, I was honored to have received a p-mail or private mail at one of my favorite hangouts, DigiShopTalk. The email was an invitation to join Cindy Simon's Creative Team. I was excited! I cannot tell you how that made my day. I hesitated to toot anywhere because I didn't know if I should shout it to the world yet or not, so I quietly put up my little banner in several of my siggys at several digital boards where I hang out.





I thought I'd post my newest scrapbook page created with Cindy's Manhattan Loft digital kit. Thanks Cindy I am so honored and excited that you asked me to join your team.