Updates

Ok, it's been a bit busy around here since last I posted. After receiving that very exciting news yesterday, I had to get over to my Daddy's house, as he left for Italy yesterday. Stud needed to say his good-byes, and then I drove him to the airport. My niece came along for the ride, and we spent about an hour hanging out with Grandpa at the airport and had lunch together. When it was time for him to go to his gate, she was NOT happy. She kept telling him that he should sell his ticket to someone else and just stay home. Thanks to the NEVER-ENDING construction on our expressways and tollways, it took much longer than anticipated to get home. I had just enough time to get in the shower and get ready for an appointment with the "girly" doctor. Nothing like having your naughty bits poked and prodded to end your day on a high note! (Truth be told, without really putting all my "bid-ness" out there, I really did have a great appointment, and was able to by-pass a procedure that I was dreading.)

Ok, so my point is, I didn't get a chance to share the little updates I received throughout the day. On the way to the airport, my friend, who originally broke the good news to me, called to tell me that some of the staff were in a frenzy. The two LLTs, and a few other teachers (who have been there the longest) were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, cleaning out files, purging closets, one was even filling out report cards (WTF?!?!? Shouldn't that have been DONE already?!) The business manager (the woman in charge of all our money!) was frantically SHREDDING PAPERS AND FILES!! Seriously, WTF?! Perhaps there's more to this firing than we know. However, NONE of us are shocked or even surprised. We've known for quite some time that there was plenty of dirty business going on in our office. For example, what happened to $60,000+ in Special Ed funds that mysteriously disappeared? (Could that have something to do with the fact that we were under a microscope this year surrounding our Spec. Ed. dept. and practices?) Or, where is the monthly check we supposedly received for having a tower on our roof (for some mobile phone company)? We've always assumed it went straight into the Big Cheese's pocket. The business manager is one of the shadiest people I've ever encountered. I'm really hoping she's the baby that gets tossed out with the bathwater!

Later, I received a call from another friend (the one who is supposed to be moving down to kingergarten with me next year) who told me she heard that the new principal is a woman. That makes me a little nervous. I hate to even say it, but I don't like working for women! They tend to be very controlling and bitchy. Sorry, I know, as a woman, I have a lot of nerve even saying that. But, it's been my experience. Anyway, she supposedly also heard that as of right now, none of us have to worry about our jobs. This was a concern, as sometimes principals like to bring in their own people. Or, at the very least, change everyone's assignments and shake things up. So far, it doesn't seem like that's the case, but then again, she hasn't even started yet!! I plan to go up to the Hell-Hole and meet our new principal on Monday.

This past school year, many of us laughed every day because The Big Cheese had this placed on our marquee when school started - "Hell-Hole School - The Happiest Place on Earth!" It was there all year. And every time we saw it, we laughed. Well, I'm hoping that maybe now, that will be true! I'm determined to go into this new adventure with a positive attitude and just hope for the best. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst....

Ok, on a lighter note, I just totally stole this from Happy Wife, Happy Life. It made me giggle!

Fantastic Friday!!!

Mostly because it's a 3 day weekend!!! Thank you, Christopher Columbus!

One of my absolute favorite blogs is Cake Wrecks. (Notice the link over there on the side.) You really should check it out if you've never read it. It makes me laugh every single day! Today's post is especially funny. Enjoy!
My little buddy E.B. looks, to me, exactly like David here. Except for the crazy teeth, of course. E.B. is missing most of his front teeth, so he's even cuter!! He has the same round face, and cute little triangle-shaped nose, plus those cute ears. I'm telling you, just like David! So, from now on, I'm going to refer to him as "David." You may remember that David came to me from a therapeutic school. He has kept me thoroughly entertained for the past 5 weeks. He says and does some of the funniest things of any baby I've ever had in my class. Remember the day he let D.B. into the line in front of him? There are so many other cute stories, I could create a blog just to tell David stories. These are the things just from today that I actually remembered to write down:

• We received a new student today (I'll bitch, I mean write, about that in a minute). David is one of the most friendly kids in my class, and New Boy was having a difficult time, so I asked David to be his "buddy" for the day, and show him the way we do things. So David says, very enthusiastically, "I'll teach him EVERYTHING all day today!"
• At the end of lunch, I chose David and New Boy to be the table washers. (I know, sounds like a punishment, but trust me, my kids fight over the job everyday!) I watched from afar as David showed New Boy where to get the washrag, then how to wash the table (so cute!) and then after he shows him, he says, "Ok, you do it just like that, New Boy." After a few minutes, he actually turns to him and says, "Great job, New Boy!" I swear, my heart melted a bit!
• As we came out of the lunch room, we were making our way to the stairway to go up to gym, and there were a couple of guys coming in with some sort of construction material. I had to tell the babies to please move quickly and quietly because we were making them wait for us. The men waited to the side as we started up the stairs. Naturally, David and New Boy were at the end of the line since they just came out of the lunchroom after doing their job. As I was walking up the stairs, I hear David say, "Hell-O PEE-ple, how YOU doin'?" (I was trying to show you how he emphasized the words) I almost wet my pants! As did the men, I'll tell ya! He's so damn funny and cute! Thankfully, they answered him back, because I wouldn't have wanted him to think they were laughing at him.
• When we got up to the fourth-freakin'-floor to the gym, as ALWAYS, David turns to me and blows me kisses as I tell them all to "be good and have fun!" He is just so adorable and sweet.
• At one point this afternoon, D.B. tripped over a chair leg and fell down. David rushed over to him to help him up, and asks, "Are you alright, Little Buddy?" I could eat this kid up with a spoon!

For seven years now, I've been asking/begging/pleading with the office to please not send new students to our classrooms in the middle of the day. If the parents can't get in and get the child registered before school starts at 9:00, then they should have to bring the child back the next day to start school. But, of course, the Hell-Hole does everything ass-backwards, so they have no set times to accept new students, they just let people register at whatever time they walk in, and then they send the kids to their new classrooms. So, this morning, as I'm in the middle of our reading block, the office interrupts on the intercom and asks how many students I had on my roster. I made the mistake of telling the real number (meaning, I didn't include the two that go to preschool in the afternoon) and I just knew that meant I'd be getting a new student. Damn it!!! Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, there's a knock at my door, and standing there is a mom and her two sons. Greeaaattt!!!

So now, I have to stop my lesson, meet and greet the new mom and her son, have a freakin' twenty minute conversation with the mom, all while my other 21 babies are supposed to be keeping themselves occupied. Yeah, like that's gonna happen! Needless to say, it completely upset the peace in our classroom, and it took several minutes to get them back under control. By this time, we had missed a big chunk of instructional time. Then, to make things even better, New Boy suddenly started wailing, saying he wants to go home. Well, of course you do! You were thrown into this crazy room with kids who were already in the middle of a routine that they know, you have no idea how to follow along or what to do, your new teacher is sounding like a big meanie because she's trying to get the rest of the class back on track, gee, why would you want to go home?

Ready for the icing on the cake? Today we had people at school from CPS and from the state doing a walkthrough! Yeah, that's right. And, when do you think they walked in? Go 'head, guess! Yep, you got it! Right in the middle of this chaos! So, here I am, sitting with New Boy, who's crying, the other 21 are basically running amok, even though they really were given something to do. Unfortunately, we were going to try a new center today, which I was in the middle of explaining when New Boy and his mom showed up. Needless to say, they didn't really have a complete grasp on what the hell they were supposed to do, so it seemed like they were wandering aimlessly around the room. What they were supposed to be doing was "Writing the Room," which simply means they walk around with their clipboard and paper, writing whatever words they see around the room. Normally, this is one of the babies' favorite activities, but like I said, they really weren't 100% sure of what to do. Now, here come 5 strangers into the room, wandering around, watching them, looking into every nook and cranny of my room, and, I'm sure, wondering why the hell we were writing when we were supposed to be reading. Gee, guess I didn't make a very good impression, huh? Oh well, fire me!! PLEASE!! I could use the break!

I'm sure I'll be hearing next week from our LLT about what the Higher Ups had to say about what they saw. Ask me if I care. Oh, never mind, you already know the answer. Hell no!

Another cute thing I heard today...One of babies (the last new girl I received) was trying hard to tell me a "story" during our reading time. I tried to ignore her for a few minutes, but then I firmly reminded her that it wasn't time for telling stories, it was time for listening. Well, when we moved off the rug to start our next activity, I remembered that she wanted to tell me something that started with "My momma said..." (That's usually a BIG clue that I don't really want to hear the rest!) I asked her, "Now, what did you want to tell me?" Confused look. "Remember, you started to say, 'My momma said...'" "Oh, yeah! My momma said that you are the bestest teacher in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!" Of course, she threw her arm up to show me how big the world is. Awww....and for the 2,385th time...THIS is why I show up at the Hell-Hole every morning!! Of course I told her, "That's because I have the best students in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD!" She's another cutie patootie. I think a great nickname for her would be Sunny, since she's always got a sunny disposition. Always smiling, always happy, love her!!

Since I didn't work at the bar Wednesday because I had a Mothers' Club meeting, I'm working tonight, so I guess I'd better start getting ready. I hope you all have a great weekend. I know I will, although I'm not entirely sure what we'll be doing on Monday. For the past 14 years, we've spent Columbus Day at the pumpkin farm, since we were off from school. But, now that my son and niece are at private high schools, they don't get Monday off. Crap! For some reason, they'll be off on Friday instead. Weird. My younger niece IS off on Monday, though, so I'm tempted to just take her to the farm. However, the two older kids actually want to go, so I'm a bit torn. I've thought about maybe trying to go on Sunday instead, but I know I'll be really tired after working Friday and Saturday at the bar. I guess we'll just play it by ear. It's kinda buggin' me that I'm not even going to be able sleep in on Monday, since I still have to drive my son to school. Ah, the joys of motherhood, right? I hope the rest of you get to enjoy a day off with your families on Monday. Later!

My parents spent the first few years of my life trying to teach me to walk and talk. Now, all they do is tell me to sit down and be quiet!
-- (One of my boys wore a T-shirt to school today with this printed on it. So
funny!)

It's so crazy to me that I started this post at 4:51, like the time stamp says, but I'm just finishing this now, at 6:12. In between, I've done dishes, made dinner, fed my son, thrown a load of clothes in the washer, and had a snack. Women really are the superior sex, aren't we? ;-)

I need to put these in a book...

My Upstairs Neighbor was bothered by the fact that I didn't give up the scoop on our ridiculous staff meeting yesterday. Given my Alzheimer's, I can't really remember everything, but I'll share what I can remember.

First of all, I HAVE to share the survey we were handed when we walked in to the meeting. My table was having uncontrollable fits of giggles over this ludicrous document. (Be sure to click on it so it enlarges, and you can read it!)

As a group, we wanted to scratch out the word "different" in the last choice, and write in "some" or "any." One of our teachers was told a while back by our LLT something to the effect of "maybe you'll be happier at your next school." So, naturally, she was looking for the option that said, "Mrs. C. told me to look for a new school."

Another topic brought up in this meeting was teacher attendance. Big Cheese started to talk about it, and immediately says, "Well, I guess I'm preachin' to the wrong group." DUH!!! WE are all here! But, did that stop him from going on and on? Um...NO! He proceeds to waste 10 minutes talking about how we "muss be here everyday, teachers!" (no, that's NOT a typo!) Monday we had 8 teachers out. Far be it from me to agree with anything Big Cheese says, but that is irritating! Dori and I both missed preps this week because so many teachers were out. That sucks! I have yet to miss one single day in the Hell-Hole this year (outside of days that we are scheduled for professional development). Shocking, I know! I seriously think that's a major contributing factor to my unbelievably high stress level this year. In the 18 years I've been teaching, last year was the first year I had any sick days left at the end of the year to carry over to the next year. This year, like I said, I haven't taken ANY days off. I think I feel a sick day coming, though, cuz we don't have another day off until freakin' Memorial Day!!! (OK, all you non-teachers out there can stop rolling your eyes now!) And, just for the record, the main reason I never had any sick days left was because I'm a mom, and when my baby was sick, I had to stay home to take care of him, obviously. But, believe me, there were "mental health days" mixed in there, too.

We do have a teacher institute day coming up on April 11. Dori and I are scheduled to attend some in-service meeting somewhere, but I/we plan to sign and in leave immediately (I know, hard to believe, huh?) so I/we can enjoy the day with my daddy. April 11 will be his 65th birthday. He's officially going to become a senior citizen. Haha! I'm planning to drive up to his office with a cake, and maybe some balloons, just to irritate him. tee hee! We did that on his 60th, and all his employees were so excited. I actually got these giant number balloons, a 6 and a 0, and parked them in the breakroom along with a cake and assorted pastries. This year, his birthday falls on a Friday, so maybe we can make it an all-out party.

I'm sure there were many other things from the meeting that would make for interesting reading, but they escape me right now. If U.N., or anyone else, remembers any of them, PLEASE feel free to share! I'm just too tired to think anymore about it right now, and I still have tons to do for the big fundraiser I'm having Saturday night. I hope to see some of you there!

The man who doesn't relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on. ~Elbert Hubbard