The school year is wrapping up. I will be teaching summer school this year. *Thank you, Dr. G. for giving me that opportunity* There is an emptiness that comes with not being with my students. They are special people. Some of them have no one at home that truely cares about them, or at least this is the way they feel when they get to me. I will miss them this summer. Many of them will go on to summer school, while other must serve the rest of their suspension at home. Some have learned many lessons, others a few, and for a couple, they have taken nothing from this experience. That saddens me. I wish them all well.

The summer will go by fast. Friday is the last day for my afternoon group. Monday is the last day for the morning group. The week of June 2, I have a teacher work day to close out school and one to open up summer school. I am not sure what to do with the other two days that I have off. I do have a hair appointment on one day and a doctor's visit on another. Summer school will last until July 11. I have two weeks off before I volunteer at Girls Scout Daycamp for a week. The first week in August will be spent interviewing parents and students of the new semester.

We hope to take the kids to Six Flags once. Emma earned her free pass from reading 6 hours this winter. The rest of us get discounted prices. As long as the kids can stay with a grown-up, it should be fun. I have not been there since I was in high school. (20 year reunion next year--what does that tell you?--Joe is getting old.) hee hee hee

Emma begins 1st grade summer school in two days. That blows me away. Still. Proud of her.

James got a lesson in truth telling tonight. Caught in lie number one. Go to your room. Busted for number two. Wash your mouth out with soap. Let me tell you, I never had that done to me when I was a kid. He HATED that. I bet it tasted aweful. But, you know what? If he REMEMBERS the taste he won't be doing that again.

He is doing very well with keeping his thumb out of his mouth. Gummie Bears work great for motivation. Keep it dry. Get a bear. Love you, Bubba.

Family Update

James turned 4 years old today. Hard to believe. I mean it is not like this is a suprise, we have been talking about it for a year now. It did not sneak up on us or anything. There are many milestones that come with your youngest child turning 4. For us, it is limiting the thumb-sucking to laying down in bed or on the cot at school. (Of course, I realize, I cannot control what goes on at daycare, but they are usually pretty good with follow-through. Don't get me wrong,, this will be easier for us than for them.)

Giving up the thumb is BIG in his world. The milestone for me, though, means that in barely over one year from now, James will be going to Kingergarten summer school. Holy Crap. Where has the time gone? And that only means one thing--Emma will be entering Second Grade summer school. SECOND GRADE??!! She was just born.

The little smart-### found his birthday present. Daddy was supposed to have it wrapped before we came home. Life happens, and it did not get done. Well, as it was still sitting "hidden" in the garage, James found it. I am pretty sure that he knows what it is, but he was not 100% convinced. His reaction opening it tomorrow at his birthday party will be fun to listen to.

Emma had her Kingergarten graduation today. OMG. She got her little diploma. I know that this is a big deal, or is it? Who decided to hipe this up back in the day? I guess at one point it was a big deal to adjust to 1/2 day Kingergarten to full day 1st grade, but nowadays don't most kids go full day in this grade? Anyway, we got her report card. Pluses all the way down. (Nope, not bragging at all.) This is an improvement in many ways. She is now keeping her mouth closed at appropriate times, and has improved in her reading and writing skills. What I am most impressed with is the checkmark next to "exceeds grade level expectations". We are so proud.

Kevin is still doing well. We went with his mom to a celebratory one year anniversary of his sobriety meeting together. I am very proud of him. He is doing a great job. We continue to thank God daily for his sobriety, and pray that it continues.

And the laughs continue....I/we just bought Kevin a car from my brother. Paid lots of money. Kevin wants a birthday present. Humph. Doesn't he drive it everyday? hahaha.

Work is still going great. I helped put together a new handbook for my program. I also revamped the discipline policy. I am excited to have things in writing and to watch the implementation unfold next school year. If you don't already know this, I am proud to tell anyone who will listen that I have the BEST job in the world. I will do this until I retire.

I have spoken minimally about this, but I am a bit excited to keep it in. I have an appointment with my plastic surgeon in two weeks. I am fairly confident that I am going to get the surgery that I have been wanting for YEARS. If I get my way, it will happen on Dec. 19 so that I have my entire winter break to recover. This will give me the time off that recovery demands and I won't have to go back to work and move/lift heavy things as I would if the surgery happened over the summer. I will be recruiting people to come help take care of the kids(me), so watch out.

Any of you who read this and know me well, know that I started this approaching my bedtime. And since I have to get up and work a WW meeting in the morning, I must close.

God bless.

Can Santa Fix the Gas Prices?

I just got a phone call from Katie, my sister. Brian is coming home from the hospital today. (Most of you may know that he had heart issues and was in ICU after an open-heart operation.) It was nice to get a personal call, despite how busy she is with everything that is going on. Thank any and all of you who have said prayers for them. God Bless.

I have been in a state of denial/depression all week. It was discovered Monday that I lost my digital camera. At first, I was in this place of "oh, it will show up." Which slowly moved to, "I think a janitor or someone wandering around school must have picked it up." Now, I really don't think it is coming back. The ironic part is, I am not upset about the few picutres I lost of my kids. I am more mad at myself for losing the start of our "yearbook" for the kids in my class. In the scheme of things, this is really NBD. I just...the rest does not matter.

James' behavior has been improving a ton lately. I think he is crossing a maturity line. Twice this week some kid at school DID something to James, and he did not retaliate. Today, some boy peed on James. Boys will be boys. Apparently, they were both standing on the stool to reach the urinal at the same time. The boy just turned at the wrong time and squirted James across his shorts. I was actually a bit surprised to hear that Bubba did not aim right back at him.

We had James complete the P.A.T. screening yesterday. Despite my thinking the boy could be a bit ADD, he passed the Dial-3 with average to above average scores. The educator giving the test said she did not think he would be ADD. Let's hope not, but he also took the test one-on-one without any distractions. The boy is smarter than most people know. He scored as a 6 year old on a couple sections. He failed the hearing test in his left ear. We will have that checked out tomorrow.

Not to leave Emma out: She has had great behavior days at school since the day I shadowed her at school. Ten days without having to turn her card. We took her to get her ears pierced tonight. These were actually a gift from the Easter Bunny. I thought we would have to brace ourselves for the crying that would ensue. She did better than me. Not a tear. Her biggest worry is when am I supposed to turn the earrings? How many times a day?

Emma told me in bed the other night after prayers that, "Santa does not exist." Ouch. How does that happen? And why is she telling me this NOW? Four months later she is telling me about how some punk kid at daycare is telling people this story. How rude. She asked me what I thought. Of course, I told her that I believed in Santa. Who else had the power to do all of that work? She answers, "God." Duh, mom. How do you resond to that? She remembers Uncle Paul with the getup on last Christmas. He pulled at the beard enough for my observant little girl to see that there was another beard underneath. oops. oh well. "Well, Emma, you see. These are Santa's helpers. Santa can't leave the North Pole to go to everyone's Christmas parties and to the mall to listen to what the kids want. Santa made them all Santa costumes to wear in order to help out Santa.....it is only a matter of time....my little girl will no longer be a little girl.

Do your kids play on those playgrounds with equipment buried in the miniature rocks? So small they get caught in your shoes like sand pebbles? Everyday, James comes home from school and takes off his shoes. I hear ting, ting, ting. Little tiny rocks all over the floor. Everyday I sweep them up and throw them in the trash. Then one day out of a joke, really, we started counting how many he would bring home in one day. The highest we go to was 64. Sometimes we still count the rocks. Now we are keeping them in a glass jar. At the end of the summer, we will either make ourselves a pit of some kind or give them back to the daycare in exchange for partial payment. (hee hee hee) How much do you think they pay to have that rock put back there? Right now the circumference of our jar is full; not much volume to it yet though.

Here is a question for anyone who can help me:

Last year and the year prior, I received emails from people saying that we should boycott all gas stations for one day to really sock it to them. This year, the email says that in order to put the hurt on the gas companies, we should boycott Mobile and Exxon. With these being the two major gas companies, wouldn't that be hard to do? Where does QT buy from? How about Phillips 66 and Seven-Eleven? And who has researched this? If everyone were to really take part in this, would that really lower gas prices?

I was telling my students not too long ago how when we were kids, we would station hop to find gas that was under .90/gallon....I know some of you have better stories than that. What is happening in America when my tax credit (thank you for that boost) has to go to pay for me to get to work or to feed my kids? No wonder the obesity problem is rising. Junk food is cheaper than healthy.

Healthy eating. Happy May.

Starting to Settle Down

Since about the time of my last post I started working out at Curves. I enjoy the time being in my own little world with nothing to think about except the sweat on my brow and whether or not I will attain my ideal accelerated heart rate. My point was supposed to be that I have been so tired with that plus my already busy schedule that I can hardly stay up late enough to post anything....not that I was doing a great job of keeping up on it before.

I am not sure how/when to get past the weight issue that I have. I continue to stay just above my Weight Watchers goal. This has been going on for over a year now. Even with the added exercise, I just can't seem to shed the pounds. I realize that I am not fat. I just want to be comfortable in my own clothes again. At one point, I was 10-15 pounds lighter than I am today. My freind, Kerri, who is also a member of Curves tells me to stick with it. She went from...doesn't matter...she is down 4 pant sizes. She also says that it took her 3 months for the pounds to come off, and that she shed inches first. That has been true for me also. I lost 4.25 inches and decreased my BMI by 3%. I wish I could feel it in my waist.

The crazy part is when I got measured this month. The very kind weigh-in lady had me step on the scale. No big surprise. Only down one pound. Although, I did express my discontent. She tried to make me feel better throughtout the weigh-in. After she measured my bust which is about the only part of me that did NOT lose inches, she says, "oh, good news your bust is the same." When she looked up at my "frown", she asked, "you want that to go down too?" I just wanted to say to her, "HEY LADY! when a woman has a breast reduction, she never wants to be LARGER than her pre-surgery size!!!" Then she tried to reassure me that, if given time, this too would decrease. I just kept thinking about having the surgery again. Before I am 40.

I have been praying lately that God would give me some income for the summer. I need to replace the money I stole from James' daycare account that I used to buy my brothers car for Kevin. When I got to work yesterday there was a message flashing on my vm button. The recording lady had me scared with the time of 4:33pm as the only message. The 8th grade principal is the one who will be running summer school at NWV this year. She has been really great to me.

Anyway, Dr. G. left this message saying that I should call her back if I want to teach this summer. I, of course, called her back that instant. Still don't know WHAT I am teaching or to whom. But here is the fabulous news....

With only 105 students enrolled for the summer, this would only allow for 1, maybe 1.5, teams of teachers for grades 6-9. Seeing that I don't teach a core subject on a regular basis, and I have not been at the Valley for as long as many of the others who applied, I was shocked that she wanted to hire ME. What a compliment!!!!!!!!!!

I am scared to ask anyone else if they have a summer school position. Even though I did not make the decision, I just don't want them to be mad at me. I really enjoy the people I work with for a change. (No offense, Kerri.) I am very curious as to why she did chose me, and with whom I will be working. Maybe it will come up tomorrow at the party.

Karen is coming over to give a Passions Party. Many of my co-workers will be there. This is my second annual. Anyone who could not make it this year, is more than welcome to come next April, if my sister-in-law continues to have me.

Emma and James start swimming lessons tomorrow. James will be on a t-ball team starting in June. (I guess I did not take that into consideration when I started planning a trip to Chicago or Texas. Rethink.) James is sooo pumped. He askes everyday, "when can I play baseball?" The other daily question from him is, "when is Halloweeng?" Not altogether sure what the 'g' is all about, but it sure is cute.

Emma has been "in trouble" at school for talking at inappropriate times a lot this month. She is my social butterfly. This is what becomes of those she'll-go-to-anyone babies. They go and talk to anyone who will listen, even....Her latest question is, "how old will I be when I can read as fast as you?" I am not sure why that is important, but it is, at least today.

Kevin is still sober. He as an important anniversary coming up in a couple of weeks. Sobriety has been incredible for our family, life, marriage,....

With my Wednesday night WW meeting probably not renewing, and the Girl Scout Leader retirement things are starting to settle down around here a bit. AAAAAHH.

Goodnight.

End of Spring Break, Random thoughts...

Today is my last day of SB and I did not get as much done as I had hoped--at least not for myself, anyway. Monday, I did have lunch with my Festus freinds. I had running around to do before I picked up James from DC. Tuesday, I did some needed girl scout shopping with my co-leader. Rain, rain go away. Kevin skipped out on the last half of his work day to take his driver's tests. We (I) sat in the waiting room doing sudokus for about 2 hours. After driving to the place where they actually GIVE you the lisence, we had a late lunch together. Wednesday, I finished my Easter shopping and took Emma to a pediatric OB. No worries--she is fine. I was supposed to work a WW meeting in Festus, but we ran too late. Had dinner at mom's. Today I am working my WW meeting from yesterday. I will also clean house (no time for regular weekend cleaning this weekend), and file a bunch of papers from like last year at this time.

Tomorrow both kids will be with me as each of them is off school now. Taking them first to my dentist and hopefully, then home for some R&R (yeah, right). Saturday is my cousin, Anne's, wedding and Sunday is Easter. Fun. fun . fun. Whys is SB always busier than a normal week?

Speaking of Easter, why is it the only holiday that does not have a set day on the calendar? The first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, are you kidding me? Why not just have that baby on the second Sunday in April? And why is the vernal equinox not on the same day evey year--March 20 or March 21--your guess is as good as mine. humph.

Emma has it stuck in her little mind that we hunted for eggs at our house last year. Gee, speaking as the Easter Bunny herself, I would think that I would remember hidding those suckers. Now she has James convinced that they will be searcing for eggs inside the house this Sunday morning. How come the Easter Bunny never hid eggs at my house when I was a kid? He always hid ours at our Grandparents' houses.

In the last two years, I have tried to avoid giving a ton of candy in the baskets. Toys, movies, etc,...I guess that is how Easter ends up to be almost as expensive as Christmas, huh? Emma told me not too long ago that she wants the Easter Bunny to bring her an alarm clock. "I want to be a big girl and get up by myself in the morning." So, when do I get to kiss on her to wake her up?

She does not want to stay with us after school--gotta go to the friend's house. She does not want me to wake her up with kisses anymore. When does the mommy torture end? Who said it was ok for her to grow up? Speaking of which, I am not sure that I ok'd them to teach my kid to read. Easter and Christmas lists MUST be hidden now. How dare them!

I might have a hard time 8 inches from now, when Emma does not need to have a booster seat. Which will be harder--fighting with James, because he still is not tall enough to go without, or knowing Emma is growing up so fast?

James got his first taste of soap Tuesday. I made him lick the bar of soap so he knew what it would taste like if I ever had to clean is dirty mouth. Orbit does not clean the mouths of dirty words like it says in the commercials. When I asked him last night at dinner, "what happens when you use mean words?" he sure did remember the nasty taste. About cried right there. Inside my head, that was pretty funny.

Parenthood has it's moments, but it is also pretty funny.

Happy Easter.

More time off work

I cannot remember the last time I had SO much time off of work. Maybe because I don't remember actually loving my job as I do now. Yesterday was day 7 off for inclement weather. Today, I am off half of a day, because Emma began the day with a fever high enough to keep her home from school. Of course, she couldn't have done this yesterday or the day before when we were home anyway. lol Her last dose of meds was 6am. Seven hours later, she is fever free. Glad for that, now 'go to school little girl.' JK.

We are now into June for our last day of school for the 07-08 year. THis has not happened since I worked at Bayless. Unfortunately, NW does not schedule snow days into the calendar. One day off equals one day more at the end of the year.

None of this would be bad except that means that summer school is pushed further into July. They are talking about ending summer school on July 11. Again, normally NBD. I was hoping to make our trip to Chicago an annual trip (surprise, Joe). THe kids had a great time. And like I was telling my brother on the phone the other day, between summer school ending late and me volunteering for a girl scout camp the last week of July, it only gives me 2 weeks off this summer. I will have to get back right after GS week to interview my new students and parents for the new year.

Tomorrow is a teacher grading day. Next week we work with students for 3.5 days and have Parent/teacher conferences for 2 of those nights. THen Spring Break. Emma (and consequently, James) will have school for 4 days of my 5 SB days. This will be a nice reprieve. Spider Solitaire, bring it on. I like those days. It gives me a chance to meet up with my old Festus freinds and bring them lunch or just stop by for a chat.

Let's hope it warms up, stays that way for a while.

Everyone is growing up around here

Everyone around here is getting older. Emma celebrated 6 years of life. James will be 4 in May. Don't tell him that though, he REALLY wants to be 5. Something to be said about ridding the school bus. Kevin will be taking his drivers test in a couple of weeks. They all make me so proud. lol....

Life is going to be so different around here with two legal drivers. Kevin will be able to transport the children around. THis has been a real obstacle for all of us. He can also drive when we go out on dates. Sorta sucks that he doesn't drink, but I do occassionally. He can't be the DD when we go out, b/c the law does not allow him to do so.

Be even better when his DWI debt is paid off. Don't get me wrong, I am not on a pitty pot right now. EVerything is just happening all at once and it is like WOW a fun reality is about to hit.

We will have the car we bought from my brother paid off soon. THat is soooo exciting. It will be totally amazing what we can do when we don't have to save so much for daycare. WHew. THe 08-09 school year will be the last of the major DC expenses. Then the kids will just be $25 a week per kid for morning pick up for the bus. They will both take the bus home from school.

I do have a long term plan for what to do with all of that freed up DC money. This year we pay for a car for Kevin. Next year we get a deck. The following year, I have plastic surgery (ask for details if you want--I won't post it online), and then Disney. The deck and the surgery may be switched, we will see. It will happen before I am 40 though. (the surgery, that is.)

My job is GREAT. I got renewed for another year with Northwest R1 school district in House Springs Mo. I LOVE it. I could not have asked for a better job.

Not much else going on around here. I will have more free time in the future. I am giving up the girl scout leader thing. I want to be there when BOTH of the kids are involved in activities. And I do enjoy picking up shifts at Weight Watchers.