Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Budget Blues
I wanted to change my background to blue to reflect my state of mind, but it burned my eyes. This seems softer, but boring. What are you going to do, nothing is perfect.
Monday, February 9, 2009
New Technology
Well, I went and joined Facebook. I mainly did it because my sitter was getting annoyed at my ignoring her requests. It also coincides with my 20 year reunion. I am getting pinged left and right by people that I don't recognize, or forgot about or (in most cases) are very happy to hear from.
The problem is that my technology skills are limited. By choice or by ignorance, I'm not sure. It took me two days to simply add pictures. Well, it's partially my fault. I had to label and catalog two year worth of pictures before I could even find them. I want to make an album and Rob's helpful instructions are "I don't know how I just did it." It's a good thing he decided against going into teaching.
There is hope on the horizon, though: my MANNYS are coming! Yeah, my awesome 15 year old cousin and my wonderful 13 year old brother will be here on Saturday. They are going to stay through Thursday and I can't wait. The girls adore them, and they keep me young. I'm lucky to have really neat teenagers in my life who enjoy spending their vacation with a couple of old farts.
Well, back to figuring out Facebook. This kind of seems like a digital version of will you sign my year book. It's nice to know that everyone I knew back in the day is still just as goofy. Technology can't change that.
The problem is that my technology skills are limited. By choice or by ignorance, I'm not sure. It took me two days to simply add pictures. Well, it's partially my fault. I had to label and catalog two year worth of pictures before I could even find them. I want to make an album and Rob's helpful instructions are "I don't know how I just did it." It's a good thing he decided against going into teaching.
There is hope on the horizon, though: my MANNYS are coming! Yeah, my awesome 15 year old cousin and my wonderful 13 year old brother will be here on Saturday. They are going to stay through Thursday and I can't wait. The girls adore them, and they keep me young. I'm lucky to have really neat teenagers in my life who enjoy spending their vacation with a couple of old farts.
Well, back to figuring out Facebook. This kind of seems like a digital version of will you sign my year book. It's nice to know that everyone I knew back in the day is still just as goofy. Technology can't change that.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
By the Way
I signed up for Facebook. I am much better at blogging because it involves words. Facebook seems very complicated. I'm going to try to add pictures tonight. Wish me luck!
Pressure
I have a dry erase calendar that I fill in every Sunday night in order to help everyone man their post and remember where they are going. As I transferred dates from my calendar to the dry erase, I realized that I done it again. I managed to over book myself. I had a week of hell to look forward to. Oh well, I decided to make the best of it and view it as blog fodder. I almost made it through, too.
Monday: It was a half day at school. I planned on meeting with teachers and writing my progress reports before my best friend's (our speech therapist) baby shower at 3:00. The computer could not read my files off of my flash drive and then I lost Internet connection. I spent the rest of the afternoon running between the library to help set up the shower and writing the reports by hand. I have wicked carpal tunnel and by the time of the shower I looked like a sweating lunatic with a shriveled hand. Of course I was the gift recorder at the shower.
Tuesday: Yeah!, it's our long awaited movie night with my friends from work. The last one was snowed out. The one before that was in August. But wait, my sitter has an observation for her student teaching, and Lily will be at the back up sitters and Caroline will be with me. Oh yeah, it's drum lesson night. Well, Rob saved me. He met me at the back up sitter to get Lily and take Caroline to drum lessons. I think he was tired of listening to me share my feelings and ask for advice about others' feelings. Clearly, a girls night out was over due. The movie was OK (New in Town). The company was great. After it was over (9:00 pm), I went to Michael's to get stuff to make swaps for our girl scout ceremony on Wednesday. When I got home, I took out the recycling and hummed "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan...." This week was turning out to be doable. I went in and made the swaps, but was too tired to fold the six baskets of sorted laundry left from Saturday.
Wednesday: I teach in the morning then go to an Autism training from 1-4. At 4:30 I go to a training on word study that is conveniently at the school where my troop meets. I get permission to leave the training at 6:30 for scouts. At 6:00 during our bathroom break I look in the cafeteria where we are supposed to have our court of awards and see it set up for a school play. Oh crap! I call my co leader and meet her at the door. She is almost in tears and I am ready to fall on the floor. Did I mention that we were having a K-9 officer coming as well to help the girls with their Bronze award project? There was no space for the officer, the dog, and my troop. I went into the principal's office and begged for a space. They gave us the story room, but we'd have to do the dog outside. It was 13 degrees and I was dressed in tights and a dress. No worries, though. As the girls arrived, I found out the K-9 officer wouldn't be able to come after all. It work out. That is until I sent Caroline out to my car to get her vest. It turns out that while rushing from training to training, I'd locked my keys in my car. Rob again came to the rescue (not without colorful language and heavy sighs). The ceremony went well and I finally got home at 8:00. I hadn't eaten since 11:00. I was still smiling, though.
Thursday: I didn't have anyone to take Lily to school or pick her up (my sitter is still doing her student teaching observations). I take Lily with me to school for an 8:15 meeting (I am able to do this because I take sick leave for the morning and am there unofficially), then take her to school at 9:00. Rob agrees to pick her up during lunch and bring her to the back up sitters. At 9:15, I meet with the autism specialist about a student of mine who is having trouble. I take four pages of notes about accommodations that I'm not sure I can possibly do. After school at 4:00, I have my bi weekly 2 hour testing training and then go to a PTA meeting at 6:30. I forgot to mention that on Wednesday night, the rabbit was acting very sick and appeared to be at death's door. We decided it was time to take him to the vet and have him put down. Before I went into the PTA meeting, I called the vet and made an appointment for Friday morning. I didn't expect to start crying and spent the meeting with a very red face. Luckily, I haven't had time to get my hair cut and was able to hide behind what is starting to look like a Mrs. Brady shag cut. I rushed home after the meeting to check on the rabbit. Rob had moved him into Caroline's room. The bunny was laying in the arms of a hysterical Caroline while she said goodbye. The next thing I know, the rabbit leaps out of her arms and starting hopping and jumping all over the room. He acts like he's two instead of eleven. I cancel the appointment for the next morning.
Friday: The day was normal until we got called into a budget meeting at the end of the day. I'm told that there will be no money for my position next year. I had a feeling this would happen and am interviewing for another position at the same school. None the less, I am heart broken over seeing my program being undone and start crying, hard. I pick up the kids and go home to make pound cake for the girl scout bake sale on Saturday. After the kids go to bed, I take the cake out and it is awful. I pitch it and decide to finally fold the laundry.
Saturday: Caroline had swimming at 10:30. We had the bake sale at 11:30. I took her to a party at 2:00 and then went across town to pick up our girl scout cookie order. I went back across town to pick up Caroline. It really wasn't that bad because we got to listen to The Voyage of the Dawn treader without listening to Lily complain.
I did get up early enough to put a pot roast in the crock pot, so dinner was easy. I can't understand why I've had the thumping intro from Queen and David Bowie's Pressure running through my head, though. I think that I might sleep in tomorrow.
Monday: It was a half day at school. I planned on meeting with teachers and writing my progress reports before my best friend's (our speech therapist) baby shower at 3:00. The computer could not read my files off of my flash drive and then I lost Internet connection. I spent the rest of the afternoon running between the library to help set up the shower and writing the reports by hand. I have wicked carpal tunnel and by the time of the shower I looked like a sweating lunatic with a shriveled hand. Of course I was the gift recorder at the shower.
Tuesday: Yeah!, it's our long awaited movie night with my friends from work. The last one was snowed out. The one before that was in August. But wait, my sitter has an observation for her student teaching, and Lily will be at the back up sitters and Caroline will be with me. Oh yeah, it's drum lesson night. Well, Rob saved me. He met me at the back up sitter to get Lily and take Caroline to drum lessons. I think he was tired of listening to me share my feelings and ask for advice about others' feelings. Clearly, a girls night out was over due. The movie was OK (New in Town). The company was great. After it was over (9:00 pm), I went to Michael's to get stuff to make swaps for our girl scout ceremony on Wednesday. When I got home, I took out the recycling and hummed "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan...." This week was turning out to be doable. I went in and made the swaps, but was too tired to fold the six baskets of sorted laundry left from Saturday.
Wednesday: I teach in the morning then go to an Autism training from 1-4. At 4:30 I go to a training on word study that is conveniently at the school where my troop meets. I get permission to leave the training at 6:30 for scouts. At 6:00 during our bathroom break I look in the cafeteria where we are supposed to have our court of awards and see it set up for a school play. Oh crap! I call my co leader and meet her at the door. She is almost in tears and I am ready to fall on the floor. Did I mention that we were having a K-9 officer coming as well to help the girls with their Bronze award project? There was no space for the officer, the dog, and my troop. I went into the principal's office and begged for a space. They gave us the story room, but we'd have to do the dog outside. It was 13 degrees and I was dressed in tights and a dress. No worries, though. As the girls arrived, I found out the K-9 officer wouldn't be able to come after all. It work out. That is until I sent Caroline out to my car to get her vest. It turns out that while rushing from training to training, I'd locked my keys in my car. Rob again came to the rescue (not without colorful language and heavy sighs). The ceremony went well and I finally got home at 8:00. I hadn't eaten since 11:00. I was still smiling, though.
Thursday: I didn't have anyone to take Lily to school or pick her up (my sitter is still doing her student teaching observations). I take Lily with me to school for an 8:15 meeting (I am able to do this because I take sick leave for the morning and am there unofficially), then take her to school at 9:00. Rob agrees to pick her up during lunch and bring her to the back up sitters. At 9:15, I meet with the autism specialist about a student of mine who is having trouble. I take four pages of notes about accommodations that I'm not sure I can possibly do. After school at 4:00, I have my bi weekly 2 hour testing training and then go to a PTA meeting at 6:30. I forgot to mention that on Wednesday night, the rabbit was acting very sick and appeared to be at death's door. We decided it was time to take him to the vet and have him put down. Before I went into the PTA meeting, I called the vet and made an appointment for Friday morning. I didn't expect to start crying and spent the meeting with a very red face. Luckily, I haven't had time to get my hair cut and was able to hide behind what is starting to look like a Mrs. Brady shag cut. I rushed home after the meeting to check on the rabbit. Rob had moved him into Caroline's room. The bunny was laying in the arms of a hysterical Caroline while she said goodbye. The next thing I know, the rabbit leaps out of her arms and starting hopping and jumping all over the room. He acts like he's two instead of eleven. I cancel the appointment for the next morning.
Friday: The day was normal until we got called into a budget meeting at the end of the day. I'm told that there will be no money for my position next year. I had a feeling this would happen and am interviewing for another position at the same school. None the less, I am heart broken over seeing my program being undone and start crying, hard. I pick up the kids and go home to make pound cake for the girl scout bake sale on Saturday. After the kids go to bed, I take the cake out and it is awful. I pitch it and decide to finally fold the laundry.
Saturday: Caroline had swimming at 10:30. We had the bake sale at 11:30. I took her to a party at 2:00 and then went across town to pick up our girl scout cookie order. I went back across town to pick up Caroline. It really wasn't that bad because we got to listen to The Voyage of the Dawn treader without listening to Lily complain.
I did get up early enough to put a pot roast in the crock pot, so dinner was easy. I can't understand why I've had the thumping intro from Queen and David Bowie's Pressure running through my head, though. I think that I might sleep in tomorrow.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Beauty?
When I was a little girl, I was all about princesses and fairies. I lived in an world of imagination and beauty. I outgrew that, but am still a sucker for a pretty dress.
All that glam and elegance came rushing back this summer. My hairdresser's daughter was crowned Miss Virginia. I have been listening to her stories about Tara for years and know that is a remarkable young woman. She played woman's ice hokey and was in ROTC. She started a foundation at her college to teach girls about breaking stereotypes, this became her platform as Miss Virginia. She came to speak to Caroline's fifth grade class about stereotypes and had the kids awestruck. They were enthralled with every word she said and completely related to her. At the end she gave out autographs to every kid. I don't think she has any idea what that meant to them. Some of these kids have very little good things going on in their lives.
All of this lead to me reconsidering my stance on beauty pageants. I have always been pretty anti-beauty pageant or any contest based on appearances . As a matter of fact, when I told Caroline that Tara won Miss Virginia, she asked "What's that?" That was a very awkward and lame explanation. I choose to focus on Tara's platform and the public service that could come from it. I am so naive.
Apparently, the Miss America Pageant is undergoing a restructuring. It is trying to move into the new millennium. First there is a reality show weeks before the pageant. The contestants all live together and are placed into teams. They have to under go various challenges such as a silly obstacle course, team talent skit, walk like model in a bikini etc. The judges award the winners of each challenge gold sashes and four of those girls (to me they are literally girls, no offense intended) will be chosen by America to be part of the final fifteen at the Miss America pageant. I taped the show and watched most of it in fast forward hoping to catch a glimpse of Tara and feeling really guilty for even watching it (I like mindless TV, but this was a bit much and felt like peeking in someone's window). I only saw a few glimpses of Tara. I didn't expect to see her much. To my dismay and shock, there seemed to be very little about these girl's platforms. Lots of what seemed to be coached answers, but not a lot about how thy wanted to really better the world (besides a sincere hope for world peace). It seemed to focus more on turning these girls into the Next Top Model. I don't find looking at a young woman in a bikini stomping down a runway and them standing at the end with legs spread wide particularly inspiring. No way would I let Caroline see it. I'm not a prude and I don't want to start a big debate here, it just didn't sit well with me.
I also taped the pageant. Unfortunately, Tara didn't make the final fifteen and we didn't get to see any of her participation (I wanted to see her sing). It all seemed so over the top. The opening act was all of the girls dressed the same (jeans and black tee shirts, cute enough) dancing. It was impossible to tell one form the other. I can't stand having woman all look alike. If I could I'd go back in time and let my bridesmaids wear whatever they wanted. The rest of it was like an over the top fashion show (not the Project Runway kind, either). The music was loud and techno and the stomping was over the top. I did enjoy the talent portion. I couldn't watch the question answer portion, though. First of all the questions were from "regular joes" on the Vegas strip and I'd had enough of canned, coached answers.
Overall, I saw nothing of what inspired our school and my daughter. Caroline left that assembly believing that she could stand out from the crowd and make a difference. I'm not letting her watch the pageant. I'd rather she keep the idea of uniqueness and independence in her mind, not how to be "fierce and work it." I am still so very proud of Tara and know that she will go far with her platform. I have a feeling that she will do amazing things after her reign is over.
All that glam and elegance came rushing back this summer. My hairdresser's daughter was crowned Miss Virginia. I have been listening to her stories about Tara for years and know that is a remarkable young woman. She played woman's ice hokey and was in ROTC. She started a foundation at her college to teach girls about breaking stereotypes, this became her platform as Miss Virginia. She came to speak to Caroline's fifth grade class about stereotypes and had the kids awestruck. They were enthralled with every word she said and completely related to her. At the end she gave out autographs to every kid. I don't think she has any idea what that meant to them. Some of these kids have very little good things going on in their lives.
All of this lead to me reconsidering my stance on beauty pageants. I have always been pretty anti-beauty pageant or any contest based on appearances . As a matter of fact, when I told Caroline that Tara won Miss Virginia, she asked "What's that?" That was a very awkward and lame explanation. I choose to focus on Tara's platform and the public service that could come from it. I am so naive.
Apparently, the Miss America Pageant is undergoing a restructuring. It is trying to move into the new millennium. First there is a reality show weeks before the pageant. The contestants all live together and are placed into teams. They have to under go various challenges such as a silly obstacle course, team talent skit, walk like model in a bikini etc. The judges award the winners of each challenge gold sashes and four of those girls (to me they are literally girls, no offense intended) will be chosen by America to be part of the final fifteen at the Miss America pageant. I taped the show and watched most of it in fast forward hoping to catch a glimpse of Tara and feeling really guilty for even watching it (I like mindless TV, but this was a bit much and felt like peeking in someone's window). I only saw a few glimpses of Tara. I didn't expect to see her much. To my dismay and shock, there seemed to be very little about these girl's platforms. Lots of what seemed to be coached answers, but not a lot about how thy wanted to really better the world (besides a sincere hope for world peace). It seemed to focus more on turning these girls into the Next Top Model. I don't find looking at a young woman in a bikini stomping down a runway and them standing at the end with legs spread wide particularly inspiring. No way would I let Caroline see it. I'm not a prude and I don't want to start a big debate here, it just didn't sit well with me.
I also taped the pageant. Unfortunately, Tara didn't make the final fifteen and we didn't get to see any of her participation (I wanted to see her sing). It all seemed so over the top. The opening act was all of the girls dressed the same (jeans and black tee shirts, cute enough) dancing. It was impossible to tell one form the other. I can't stand having woman all look alike. If I could I'd go back in time and let my bridesmaids wear whatever they wanted. The rest of it was like an over the top fashion show (not the Project Runway kind, either). The music was loud and techno and the stomping was over the top. I did enjoy the talent portion. I couldn't watch the question answer portion, though. First of all the questions were from "regular joes" on the Vegas strip and I'd had enough of canned, coached answers.
Overall, I saw nothing of what inspired our school and my daughter. Caroline left that assembly believing that she could stand out from the crowd and make a difference. I'm not letting her watch the pageant. I'd rather she keep the idea of uniqueness and independence in her mind, not how to be "fierce and work it." I am still so very proud of Tara and know that she will go far with her platform. I have a feeling that she will do amazing things after her reign is over.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Better Night
I just had to post evening highlights.
We finally finished Prince Caspian and sighed with contentment, but felt so sorry for Peter and Susan.
We watched the weather report for news on the approaching ice storm. We are pretty sure we'll be home again tomorrow...and are happy about it.
We gave Rob lots of hugs and love to help his frustration (didn't really help).
Lily plopped on the couch and announced "I can only stay up for a few minutes. Who wants cake?" (No I don't have cake, only muffins.)
We finally finished Prince Caspian and sighed with contentment, but felt so sorry for Peter and Susan.
We watched the weather report for news on the approaching ice storm. We are pretty sure we'll be home again tomorrow...and are happy about it.
We gave Rob lots of hugs and love to help his frustration (didn't really help).
Lily plopped on the couch and announced "I can only stay up for a few minutes. Who wants cake?" (No I don't have cake, only muffins.)
Realilty Bites
I get these ideas in my head of how things are going to go and, well, they never work out that way. Rob says that's my problem, I have expectations. Of course things are going to blow up in your face when you have expectations. He's joking, kind of.
We finally had our long awaited snow day. On a teacher workday! On a day that I had a million things to do at school. We tried to set out for school, but after skidding at the end of our neighborhood, I decided to bag it. It is not worth risking my children's lives for IEPs, progress reports, and copying papers.
We slowly went home, called everyone who needed to know that we were staying home and set out about our day. Lily was so excited. This is the first snow that she can remember. That excitement melted away as I put on all of her snow gear. "This is not comfortable!" she whined. I shoved her outside and got myself ready. By the time I had squeezed into my gear, Lily had snow down her back and in her gloves and Caroline had timeout to look forward to when she got inside. I managed to get the driveway cleared when I hear Lily wailing "I'm haaaaving tooooo muuuuch fuuuun!" I wiped off her tears, helped her make one more snow angel, and trooped back inside. After I pulled off all of the clothes and lined up the dining room chairs as a drying rack, I made a cup of tea and sat down to the computer.
That lasted the half hour Caroline was in her room for timeout. Next came a wrestling match and separate corners. Caroline decided to go back out and build a snowman. I asked her to bring in some snow so we could make snow candy (http://family.go.com/parent-to-parent/blogs/catherine-newman-blog/maple-snow-taffy-733915/). I decided to be domestic mom and bake muffins, while making soup, while boiling the maple syrup and butter for the candy. No description of the ensuing chaos needed.
By the time the syrup was ready to be poured over the snow to make the candy, Caroline was back in and she and Lily were enthralled with Maggie and the Ferocious Beast on Noggin. I could barely pull Caroline away (forget Lily) to make the candy. I got a half hearted "Cool , Mom" and then ate myself sick on very yummy snow candy, all by myself (Little Red Hen, I feel your pain).
Caroline and I sat down to try to listen to the rest of Prince Caspian, when Rob came home ranting and raving about his frustrations. So much for listening to the rest of the story.
After Rob left, I let the girls go out to finish the snowman. Now it was Lily's time to get into to trouble. Caroline stuck her head in the door to yell "I thought you'd like to know, YOUR daughter just knocked over MY snowman!" Lily came in for timeout and Caroline fixed her fallen creation.
Right now, I am on my fourth cup of tea with my furry best friend at my feet. The girls are peaceably painting with the new paints Uncle Ken gave Lily. How long do you give this moment of harmony?
We finally had our long awaited snow day. On a teacher workday! On a day that I had a million things to do at school. We tried to set out for school, but after skidding at the end of our neighborhood, I decided to bag it. It is not worth risking my children's lives for IEPs, progress reports, and copying papers.
We slowly went home, called everyone who needed to know that we were staying home and set out about our day. Lily was so excited. This is the first snow that she can remember. That excitement melted away as I put on all of her snow gear. "This is not comfortable!" she whined. I shoved her outside and got myself ready. By the time I had squeezed into my gear, Lily had snow down her back and in her gloves and Caroline had timeout to look forward to when she got inside. I managed to get the driveway cleared when I hear Lily wailing "I'm haaaaving tooooo muuuuch fuuuun!" I wiped off her tears, helped her make one more snow angel, and trooped back inside. After I pulled off all of the clothes and lined up the dining room chairs as a drying rack, I made a cup of tea and sat down to the computer.
That lasted the half hour Caroline was in her room for timeout. Next came a wrestling match and separate corners. Caroline decided to go back out and build a snowman. I asked her to bring in some snow so we could make snow candy (http://family.go.com/parent-to-parent/blogs/catherine-newman-blog/maple-snow-taffy-733915/). I decided to be domestic mom and bake muffins, while making soup, while boiling the maple syrup and butter for the candy. No description of the ensuing chaos needed.
By the time the syrup was ready to be poured over the snow to make the candy, Caroline was back in and she and Lily were enthralled with Maggie and the Ferocious Beast on Noggin. I could barely pull Caroline away (forget Lily) to make the candy. I got a half hearted "Cool , Mom" and then ate myself sick on very yummy snow candy, all by myself (Little Red Hen, I feel your pain).
Caroline and I sat down to try to listen to the rest of Prince Caspian, when Rob came home ranting and raving about his frustrations. So much for listening to the rest of the story.
After Rob left, I let the girls go out to finish the snowman. Now it was Lily's time to get into to trouble. Caroline stuck her head in the door to yell "I thought you'd like to know, YOUR daughter just knocked over MY snowman!" Lily came in for timeout and Caroline fixed her fallen creation.
Right now, I am on my fourth cup of tea with my furry best friend at my feet. The girls are peaceably painting with the new paints Uncle Ken gave Lily. How long do you give this moment of harmony?
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