The other shoe has dropped....

I knew in the back of my mind, I wasn't going to be able to keep this bug at bay much longer. I'm a little surprised that it took this long to hit, but it makes perfect sense, since we have a long weekend. I seem to inevitably get sick every time we have a long weekend. It started this morning, but then really kicked in around 2:00 this afternoon. Thank goodness we were celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday, because we watched a Dr. Seuss movie for the last part of the afternoon. By the time I got to my son's school, all hell had broken loose. I could tell by the waves of light-headedness that I had a fever. Sure enough, when I got home and took my temperature, it was 100. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but my normal body temp is below 98.6 (one more reason I'm convinced I have a nearly-nonexistant metabolism) so for me, that's high. I literally can tell when my temp hits 99, which obviously is only .4 of a degree higher than "normal."

At any rate, I came home and went straight to my bed. As luck would have it, my son's father was waiting for us at my house to pick him up, which worked out phenomenally because Buster decided to shit and piss from one end of my kitchen to the other. My ex-husband cleaned the whole mess, right down to mopping the floor when he finished, all while I was lying down.

I managed to snooze for a while, but just a little bit ago, I had such a violent sneeze attack, the sneezes felt like they started down at my toes and took my lungs out with them. And, exactly like my darling friend, smileygirl, a managed to wet my pants. Oh, yes, I sure did! It's great that I've reached that late stage in my life where I can share these little things, isn't it? Anyway, since I had to obviously change my clothes, I was forced to get up and move around and I thought I would check in real quick.

I had intended to write a bit about our celebration today at school, but these few paragraphs have exhausted me, so I'm going to hobble back to bed. Let's just hope I don't wet it!! Maybe I'll use our day off Monday to actually write about my babies...

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. ---Buddha

"Your kids was OFF the CHAIN!"

No less than 7 adults said that exact sentence to me today. The first one didn't even let me swipe in before telling me. Apparently, both kindergarten classes decided to severely misbehave yesterday while Dori and I were at our professional development meeting. I even had two different parents come find me specifically to tell me how bad the class was. Pay no mind to the fact that one of the moms was drunk as a skunk and high as kite at the time.... Needless to say, both of our classes were on lock-down today. The last person to tell me "your kids was off the chain yesterday" was the Big Cheese himself. Professional, right?

I just came home from a lovely dinner with a friend I haven't seen in a while. We went to our favorite restaurant, Casa Margarita. Just as the name implies, they make a hell of a margarita. As a matter of fact, I'd say I'm more than a little tipsy right now. They serve their margaritas in a fish bowl, which is really nice! Luckily, the full effect of the tequila in my Cadillac Margarita didn't kick in until I was a few blocks from home. But now, man, I'm feelin' it!! I just made the mistake of chasing my drink with a few Hershey's Pot of Gold caramels. They are not mixing well in my belly right now :( On that note, I'm going to go lie down...

One reason I don't drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time. ---Nancy Astor

What a waste of time...

Today, Dori and I, and another coworker, had a professional development meeting at the Adler Planetarium. Sounds like it would be great, right? WRONG!! Today SUCKED ASS!!!

As you can see from the picture, the Planetarium is located right on the lake. Do you know what it feels like to be out in the winter, with freezing winds blowing in off the lake at you? Now, try imagining that while you're freezing in that blowing wind, you have to climb up and down three loonngg flights of stairs, covered in ice and snow by the way, before you can find an open door through which you can enter and escape the frigid temperatures. Ugh!! It smacked of a CPS event! I won't bore you with all the minutia, but let me just share that we spent the first 2 1/2 hours of the day simply introducing ourselves!!

After lunch (which actually was very nice since it was an hour of sitting and chatting while looking out across beautiful Lake Michigan at our gorgeous city. I didn't, however, enjoy the $12 price tag of my lunch!) we spent 30-45 minutes evaluating a bin of books, and deciding if they would be a helpful addition to the science program. So, basically, we were doing the work of the science people from CPS!! Isn't it their job to decide what books to use!? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it anytime we are given the opportunity to give input on curriculum. However, that's not what this was. The presenters had never even laid eyes on these books! They wanted us to basically decide if they should even consider these books. OK, stop, enough complaining, at least I wasn't at the Hell-Hole today, right?

For 60 seconds you are angry at someone you lose 60 seconds of happiness with them. ---unknown

You wanna do WHAT to me?!

Oh, my poor babies! Today, about half of my class took part in a lead-screening test at school. Their parents signed consent forms for this, oh, I don't know, back in SEPTEMBER!! I was told at about 10:50 this morning, while the kids were at lunch, that we would be taking the babies down around noon for this test. I wasn't completely sure until we got there how this was going to be done. I was hoping at the most it would be a finger prick, but alas, it was not. I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I have an absolute phobia about needles. I've had dental work, including a root canal, done without any anesthesia just so I wouldn't have to deal with the shots. I gave birth, for God's sake, without any drugs. And believe me, it was NOT an easy delivery! (I'll save that story for another day!)

Just my luck, I have to take nearly 30 5&6 year olds down to a room so half could have their blood drawn, while the other half watched!! Luckily, most of them were very brave about it. But, of course, there were a few that completely freaked! Two of the girls went absolutely ape shit. I had to hold both of them in my arms and let them sob into my shoulder while the phlebotomist drew the vials of blood. In the meantime, I'm ready to freakin' pass out myself!! I was really impressed with myself, quite frankly. I made a comment to one of the office ladies, who happened to come in to see me, that next year we need to have the parents come on test day. Immediately, the phlebotomist says, "OH NO!! It's even worse when the parents are here!" And I know she's absolutely right. I had a much harder time when my son had blood drawn when he was little. It may as well have been me having blood drawn. OK, enough, I'm starting to feel queasy...

"Before giving a blood transfusion, find out if the blood is affirmative or negative." ---anonymous child

Don't breathe on me!!!

There is some God-awful bug going around here. You may recall that my son was sick the week before last. He's still trying to shake the last of his cough. Well, last week my brother got it. As a matter of fact, my sister ended up taking him to the emergency room Thursday night. He's such a typical man, waiting until he sees The Grim Reaper coming up the driveway before he does anything about his sickness!

I had 7 babies out sick today. One of their moms came to pick up her homework and told me she'd be out for the whole week. My buddy D.J. came for breakfast before school, but one of the lunch ladies marched him straight to the office and called his house to have someone come and get him because he was burning up. Idiots! That's the kind of house he comes from! Knowing that helps me draw on that reserve of patience I often need when dealing with him.

Today was the 101st Day of School, so naturally, we watched 101 Dalmatians. Well, part of it, because the little hellions had a hard time behaving today. Tomorrow, we'll be watching 102 Dalmatians, which is the live-action movie starring Glenn Close. She's a perfect Cruella DeVille! Wednesday, Dori and I will be at the Adler Planetarium for a workshop. We might actually stay for this one! But, somehow, I doubt it. Ha! This week is going to fly by. Then, we're off Monday in honor of Casimir Pulaski. (I'm pretty sure this in only a Chicago thing.) I'll be going to what will probably be my last In The Loop show. I'm so bummed that it's been cancelled.

I wanted to give a "shout out" to Mary Beth over at Hey Teach. She and her very generous sister sent Dori and me some goodies for our babies to help us celebrate Read Across America. We're going to use the goodies to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday on Friday. Thank you, Mary Beth and Helen!! I've added a link to her blog, as well as the business, so please check them out.

Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You. ---Dr. Seuss

100 down, 73 to go!!

Yay!!! Today was the 100th Day!! I took pictures to share with you, but unfortunately, I downloaded them to my computer at school, and then I couldn't email them to myself for some reason. I'll try to take care of it on Monday. Overall, the kids were WAY too rowdy for me, and we ended up not even doing half the stuff I had planned. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I woke up in a great mood today, and believe it or not, here it is almost 5:30 and I'm STILL in a good mood. What's going on?! Even the kids driving me CRAAZZYY didn't ruin my mood. The sad thing is, as I was driving to school, joking with my son (THAT hasn't happened in a long time. Our mornings are usually very unpleasant because neither of us are morning people!) singing along with the radio, I realized that I used to feel this way everyday before the Hell-Hole sucked it right out of me. It's taken years of stress and utter chaos to turn me into the cranky witch I usually am when I arrive there each day. I miss being me :( I hope I can find me again. I suppose I'd better follow Dori's orders, and abandon ship, huh? Today really reminded me how much I truly love being a teacher, and why I've dedicated my life to "shaping the future of the world."

A little personal stuff to share....my mom had her latest check-up/bloodwork a few weeks ago (she has to do it every three months) and she went to see the oncologist for the results today. Once again, everything is wonderful! She's "clean." My dad gets such a kick out of telling everyone she's a "clean girl." As opposed to a dirty girl, get it? Tee hee! He started that after her last set of tests came back clean. Today, when I called to check how things went, as soon as he answered the phone, I heard, "She's a clean girl!" My dad is so cute! The doctor actually told her that she could go six months this time between blood tests. That, however, wasn't going to work for her because the six month mark falls smack in the middle of her time at her villa. (rough, right?) The doctor agreed to let her do it in October when she comes home, even though that's eight months from now. She couldn't be happier! That goes double for us.

Well, I'm off to try and figure out what the heck my son is going to wear to a wedding tomorrow. Now that he's lost 40 pounds, he has nothing that fits him. Leave it to me to wait til the night before the wedding to worry about it, huh? Have a great weekend!!

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.---Mignon McLaughlin

Welcome...

...to my friend, Leslie. Hopefully some of you have checked out the link that's been on my page for months for Leslie's online articles in Pregnancy.org. I just found out tonight from her husband that she, too, has a blog. I've added a link for that, as well. Check it out!

I was so happy to hear about this blog because now I can keep up on what's happening with my friends, The Klipsch Family. Jake and I used to work together at the Hell-Hole. We actually started there the same year. He, however, has managed to escape. Sadly, not only did he escape, but he has also moved alllll the way to Iowa!! Boo hoo!! I miss them, and their two totally adorable boys, Ollie and Eli. If nothing else, I can at least see recent pictures of my boys. I love Jake to death, but he really SUCKS at keeping in touch!! Although, I did learn tonight, as I read every single post on Leslie's blog, that Jake is now working on his PhD, so I'll cut him some slack ;-)