Potpourri

Here are a few pictures from my uncle's surprise party this past Sunday. This was the moment he walked in.
Here he is enjoying an after dinner drink with one of my cousins.

This isn't the greatest picture, but I wanted to get the four siblings all together. They're actually arranged oldest to youngest. My Aunt Marylou, my Aunt Lucy, my mom and Uncle Ed.

Yesterday was Report Card Pick-Up Day, which is Chicago's version of parent/teacher conferences. In a nutshell, it was fine. I actually had the highest number of parents show up in all the years I've been at the Hell-Hole. 23 out of 27 report cards were picked up. I'm actually shocked because it was rainy and miserable here all day yesterday, which usually keeps the parents away. AND, I had 18 parents show up before our dinner break, which is unheard of! Normally, I only have 3 or 4 parents before the dinner break, then I get about 10-15 during the last 15 minutes of the night. It was completely the opposite yesterday. I had promised the babies that if every single report card was picked up, we would have a pizza party. Man, they must have worked on their parents because it was pretty damn close.

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Today, I enjoyed a day away from the Hell-Hole. New Principal let 7 of us go to a conference today. SEVEN! I still can't believe it. That's a hell of a lot of subs. The conference was only from 9-1, which made for a nice short work day, huh? Unfortunately, the conference was really a waste of time. Yeah, that's right, I actually STAYED!! Pick your jaws up off the floor, people! There were too many other teachers there for me to ditch. Actually, all but 1 of them would have ditched with me had I asked, but that one probably would have ratted us all out. Anyway, the conference, it turned out, was just a 4 hour sales pitch for software! Ugh! But, on the bright side, we were finished before 1, so we all were able to chat for about 20 minutes before I had to leave to pick up Stud. I actually picked him up a little early from school because he had an orthodontist appointment. Even after all was said and done, I was still home before 2:30. Not bad, right?
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There are only 13 school days left with the babies before our glorious Christmas break. Woo hoo! The countdown above is the number of actual days, but the number of days that include the babies is so much more important! ;-) The only downside to this is that I only have a handful of days to do any kind of Christmas activities. I only have 9 days between Thanksgiving and the break to do what I usually do in a month's time. We'll just have to make the best of it. I'm willing to step up and take on for the team on this one. tee hee!

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Last week we had a bit of a heat wave here in ChiTown, and it hit nearly 70 for a few days. All of my planter boxes in front of my house sprouted new growth, and there are tons of new blooms. I was awestruck yesterday when I went out to get my mail. (I really should go out and takes pictures for you, because the flowers truly are beautiful.) Anyway, this week, the temperatures have been dropping rapidly, and there has been talk of some snow in the next few days. WTF? God, I LOVE Chicago!!!!

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I almost forgot! Here are a couple of pictures of Princess Sylvia! She is so damn cute! We had such a fun visit before going to work yesterday. I kept telling Mrs. F. that I was going to put her in my purse and take her with me to school!

The happy family!