I heart snow

Today was almost as wonderful as yesterday. Only 12 babies trudged through the 12+ inches of snow to come to class today. The only downside - AM came today. Late, as usual, by the way! Believe it or not, she actually fell asleep during rest time, which is truly amazing, since she NEVER is still or quiet. I know it's terrible, but we just let her sleep, even after rest time was over. She slept through calendar time, bathroom break, and most of math centers. It was heavenly. (it's already been established that I'm on the express train to hell, so just let it go)

Rest time is usually the roughest time of the day with her for me. I expect a certain level of "noise" throughout the day, given that my room is filled with 5 year-olds all day. But, rest time is non-negotiable. I demand quiet. Like I said yesterday, this is usually the only quiet time I have to do assessments. Plus, my brain needs the quiet so it doesn't explode! They don't have to sleep, they just have to be still and quiet. It's only 20 minutes, for Pete's sake! AM just can't do it. But, today, praise the Lord, she fell asleep. That makes me think she must have been up late last night.

I'll be enjoying a 5 day break from the little rug rats, thanks to a professional development day, Lincoln's birthday, and Presidents' Day. Yay! The teachers actually get a 4-day weekend, which is pretty rare. In the past, I always took the professional day off, too, because the Big Cheese didn't care. He never had anything planned for us, so it was a waste of a day. But, New Principal always has these days chock-full of meetings. I missed a professional development day in the beginning of the year, because I legitimately was sick, and I heard about it for a month afterward. It's just not worth the hassle. I really wanted to take a trip somewhere over this long weekend, but I guess I'll have to wait until spring break. Hell, maybe by then, I'll be able to afford to buy tickets somewhere.

I assume by next Tuesday, this week's blizzard will be a distant memory, and all the babies will be back. That's good, I miss them. (yes, I know I bitch about them, a LOT, but I love them. I can't help it!)

I'm still working on posting the pictures I mentioned. Here's my dilemma. I downloaded the photos to my laptop, which has been dying a fast death. I started getting a message about 3-4 weeks ago letting me know that death was imminent. It literally said "imminent!" (it didn't actually say "death" but it did say the hard drive needed to be replaced.) I backed up most of my important stuff (like photos) to an external hard drive that I had bought around the holidays. Jeez, I hope I did it right, cuz I really don't have a clue what the hell I'm doing. The past week or so, it's been going south rather quickly. I tried to upload the pictures last night, and couldn't get it to do anything. I'm afraid I'm going to have to go computer shopping this weekend. Maybe I'll get a great Presidents' Day Sale deal. I think it'll be almost as costly to replace the hard drive as it'll be to just get a new computer. Plus, mine is already over 3 years old, so it's practically obsolete.

I better do something, Stud is starting to lose his patience with having to share this (his!) computer with me. Thankfully, he can surf the web, email, etc., from his IPod Touch. As a matter of fact, I just found out the he wrote his last two essays for school on his friggin' ITouch. WTF? Today's technology just amazes me! He typed it out like a text message, using some program (app?) he downloaded, then he emailed it to himself, and printed it out at school. Amazing!