I'm a big loser...

...a big, fat, hairy, stinkin' LOSER!!!!

I dropped my program tonight. I dropped out of school. I quit. I quit like a big giant LOSER!! I am simultaneously feeling relief and disgust. Relief that I won't be killing myself doing the mountains of work for this program. Relief that I won't be adding more stress on top of the stress that I've been feeling at school since New Principal took over. Relief that I won't have to figure out how to pay for this program. Disgust at myself for giving in and giving up. I've NEVER quit anything in my life. I'm so disappointed in myself, even though I know it's the best thing right now. Ugh! I don't like being a quitter! (Hell, it took me over 12 years to 'quit' my marriage after I threw CSJ out of my house!)

Part of the reason I rushed into signing up for this program is that the tuition was supposed to rise by $2,000 November 1st. Well, now they've locked in the current tuition rate until the 1st of the year. That's two more start dates from now, so I can still consider starting again before the new year.

Another thing I've been thinking about (a lot!) this week is that if I'm going to put the time (and money!!) into another masters program, why the hell am I doing it for something I don't even want to do? Why aren't I doing it for something I DO want - my early childhood certificate!! I've spent a couple of hours tonight (that I would have spent doing work for the class I just dropped!) researching several universities and their early childhood programs. I actually found some good information. My alma mater has a program available that is just for certification, as opposed to completing another masters degree. It may be exactly what I'm looking for, since it's geared toward those who already have a teaching degree and have taught for some time. Oh, and I also stumbled across another certificate they offer for Online Teaching. Yes, seriously. It's only 4 classes! I'm seriously thinking about it. I have a friend who teaches online classes and it's great. You literally work from home. How do you beat that?!

My friend that started with me (although she was doing a different program - Curriculum & Instruction with an ESL endorsement) also dropped tonight. She was really overwhelmed, as well. But, she has FOUR children and a husband who also place demands on her. They are Greek, and her husband is the priest at one of the big Greek orthodox churches here, which means she also has many responsibilities for the church. She has hardly slept since we started these classes a week ago, and one morning this week, on the way to work, she fell asleep at the wheel. She ended up rolling into the car in front of her. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it was certainly a wake-up call for her. She decided she needed to put this off for a while. So, really, I just dropped out so she wouldn't feel bad about dropping. Aren't I just the most supportive friend ever?

Actually, she and I were both thinking the same thing about why aren't we at least working toward something we WANT and she's open to hearing about what I find out about early childhood programs. If you've been reading here for any length of time, you know that my ultimate goal is to open my own preschool/daycare center. When we were talking this afternoon, trying to make each other feel less like a loser for quitting, she said, "Hey, I know! Let's BOTH do the early childhood thing, then we can open a place together!" Great minds think alike!

Another factor that contributed to my decision to drop is that I just found out, almost accidentally, that the after school program that I've been working for for years was dropped as one of our programs this year. WTF?! When the hell was someone going to tell ME!? This is a HUGE blow to my financial situation, and was the biggest factor in my decision to drop my program.

In the whole scheme of things, I really didn't have to do much for this after school program. I was the site coordinator, so I didn't have any children to teach. I simply supervised, and took care of all the paperwork (student files, assessments, sign-in sheets, employee files, payroll, etc.) Realistically, I usually only spent one afternoon on that stuff, which left me the rest of the month to do whatever I wanted. I had to be there from 3-5 while the program was in session. I seriously figured that would be the time I would work on my classwork for this new masters program. Yeah, well, not so much now, huh?

I'm seriously nervous about losing the salary from this job. The were very generous with me, and the money I made during those few months each year covered nearly all of my share of Stud's tuition. There is no way I can lose the money for his tuition, and then ADD nearly the same amount for my tuition. It would be like losing $10,000 this year. OK, I'm starting to feel better about dropping now. Even if I do another program, I will be taking out a loan, as opposed to having the payroll deductions I would have had for this program.

Yeah, I'm definitely feeling better about this decision. If any of you have some soothing words for me, please, by all means, share them! Or, you can just call me a big loser. I've got it coming.

I'll be back tomorrow to update about school (you know, the actual purpose of this blog!!) and Parent Teacher conferences tonight (for Stud). I'm exhausted, both physically AND mentally! Night, night!

I'm afraid I'm being sucked back in...

I received an email today from a woman from the afterschool program that I worked for last school year. She wanted to let me know that they look forward to working with me again this new school year, etc... This seriously has been one of the things I've been thinking about when thinking about changing schools. This year I will probably be making $75 per hour to be the site coordinator, which is nothing to sneeze at. There's no way I'd be able to find another part-time job for that kind of pay. Hell, is four hours a week even part-time?

I don't make near that amount at the bar, either, unfortunately. Yeah, it seems like I've been making great money this summer (I have about 5 1/2 months tuition saved up. Yay!) but when you consider the hours I've been putting in, it's not so great. On average, I put in at least 10 hours, minimum, each night that I work, and some nights it's closer to 12. So, coming home with $150 doesn't sound so hot now, does it? Not to mention that ALL of those hours are spent on my feet. And, the commute is about an hour total each night. OK, I certainly don't want to sound like I'm bitching about working at the bar. I'm really not, I'm just sayin' - it ain't easy!

So, my point is, this position is definitely one reason to stay put at the Hell-Hole. There are a few more, but I'm too tired to go into it right now. This email I received today is just one more thing to throw into the mix. I'll keep you posted....

How many more times....

can I tell you what an asshole the Big Cheese is? The whole day today drove me crazy because the kids were all geeked up about Valentine's Day. Well, I held the "party" over their heads all day. "If you don't stop ----, you won't be able to participate." Well, J.H. and T.B. decided that not only were they going to be out of the room without permission, they were going to have a water fight at the drinking fountain outside our door. We actually were coming back from snack, and they were supposed to take a quick '1-2-3' drink, and sit down. Well, they decided to stay out there and throw water at each other, so they both were told they were out of the party. (They both had been given several other warnings ALL day. This was the last straw.) I had them sit on the floor in the front of the room and watch the rest of us celebrate. Everyone passed out their cards and treats, and they just sat there. They didn't know it, but I had taken both of their "mailboxes" and put a few treats in it for them, that I was going to give them tomorrow. Well, the end of the day came, I dismissed the class, and started getting things ready for our after school party.

What the hell does all that have to do with El Queso Grande you ask? Well, a few minutes after dismissal, he has the fucking BALLS to come up to me and ask me, in an irritated voice no less, "Why did you send that little boy home with no candy?" Umm...hello...it's called a fucking punishment!!!!! That pretty much sums up what's wrong with the Hell-Hole! The bad kids are given the same rewards/treats as the good kids. There are absolutely NO consequences for their actions! I could give a shit that J.H. went home crying, he should have followed the same damn rules the other kids in class did! Here's an idea, BC, mind your own damn business!! How 'bout you work on coming up with some discipline policies in this cluster fuck you call a school?! How 'bout you actually require these kids to EARN something, instead of handing them everything!!? Gee, there's a novel concept, huh? No wonder these kids all have this sense of entitlement. They don't have to work for anything! OK, my blood pressure is starting to rise again, so it's time to move on...

I did get some really sweet little gifts from some of my babies today. They're so cute! Of course, they ALL drew me Valentine's Day pictures in art class, too. That's why I love them so much!

My own baby stayed home sick today, so I'm going to go bring him some homemade soup I have simmering on the stove. Smells great, by the way! I can't wait to have a bowl myself. See ya tomorrow. Thank God it'll be Friday!!! Oh, and...

Basement smells bad. Look for cat poops, change litter. Happy Valentines Day. ---Martha Stewart, in a note to her gardener

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

Holy Moly!! There's quite a storm going on outside right now. This morning it was raining as I drove my son to school, then it changed to hail as I drove to school. Around 10 it changed to snow, and it hasn't stopped since. We're supposed to get anywhere from 12-14 inches by tomorrow. They cancelled all the after school programs for today, and I'm deperately hoping we can cancel tomorrow, too. I'm also hoping that most of my babies stay home tomorrow. I had 3 get picked up early today because of the storm. Personally, I LOVE it!!! I'd take this over a day in July ANYTIME!

My new girl came today. She's adorable! Despite being triplets, the three girls look very different. It won't be hard to tell them apart at all. Actually, they look like a kindergartner, a 1st grader and a 2nd grader. Wierd! I never put my kids' names on here because of privacy issues, but I just have to share their names (of course no last name!) I have Sierra, and Dori got Tierra and Kierra. Sierra, Tierra and Kierra!! Tierra is the smallest, so of course, in my head, she's Tiny Tierra. Sierra is the one in the middle, and I can remember her name, obviously. That just leaves Kierra. Piece of cake!

Mom warned me that Sierra was a little behind. She said she doesn't know her letters, numbers or colors. However, when I tested her later, it wasn't as bad as her mom made it out to be. She didn't know many capital letters, but she knew more than half of the lowercase. She only knew the numerals 0, 1 and 2. But, she knew all 8 basic colors, and three of the five basic shapes I asked her. She still way ahead of a couple of my "Cherries."

Well, I'm keeping it short tonight. Before I even pulled in the driveway today, my son and I got out and shoveled our entire double-width driveway (it's almost 100 feet long) and I did the sidewalk in front of our house and the neighbors', then we did their driveway. Unfortunately, John saw us and came outside to help us. He actually started to apologize for not having done it already! He's too much! The snow was very heavy and wet, so he couldn't use the snowblower. I actually was thinking to myself that it was like shoveling a slurpee. Anyway, bottom line is...I'm pooped! We just finished dinner, so I'm going to clean up, put my jammies on, and watch some TV in bed. Good night!

Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow,

Filling the sky and earth below,

Over the housetops, over the street,

Over the heads of the people you meet.

Dancing, Flirting, Skimming along.

---J.W. Watson

What a very productive day!

I managed to finally get all the progress reports entered into the system today for the after school program. Yay! I also managed to get my report cards entered into the system, as well. Double YAY! That takes a lot of pressure off me for next week. Hmmm, maybe I'll even take next Friday off....

Monday and Tuesday of this week, I went to school with "straight" hair. I just blew it dry, no big deal. But, of course, the babies all had something to say. Then, yesterday, it was back to normal, crazy and curly. Today, I clipped the top back, and it was extra curly because there was wet snow falling this morning. My darling little B.G. said to me "Your hair looks like roses!" Out of the mouth of babes! I took it as a compliment! Especially because she had just come back from Art, where she drew pictures of roses.

We'll be having another "apple party" tomorrow, and the babies can't wait. I'm bringing my extra large crock pot this time so the babies can get their fill.

Getting back to the snow for a minute (Laura, this is for you!), it snowed all afternoon. We're supposed to have a major cold front moving through in the next few days. They're talking about record breaking cold. It's supposed to hit 2 degrees Saturday. Yikes! I actually had to wear my hooded sweatshirt tonight when I left school. As much as I love snow, I'm hoping it's just more cold than snowy, because I need new tires in a bad way. I'm trying to not buy them, though, since my car is almost 11 years old, and I'm thinking of getting a new one this spring. It's already almost February, so I'm hoping my luck holds out!
*************************************************
(Ok, it's about 10:30 now, and I just watched the weather report. It's currently 6 degrees outside, with a windchill of -4! I know my ChiTown defectors remember the days of windchills, don't ya? The windchills are predicted to hit -30 this weekend. I suppose now I'll have to look for my damn coat in the morning!)

Snowflakes are kisses from heaven. ---Author Unknown

I'm in just under the wire...

This is the closest I've ever come to missing my self-imposed deadline for posting every school day!! It's 10 minutes to midnight, and I've just finished doing some gift wrapping. I needed a break, and realized I hadn't posted anything tonight.

Well, the Christmas assembly was exactly the cluster fuck I knew it would be. As soon as my class finished, we went right off the stage, and out the door! There was NO WAY I could sit there amidst the utter chaos that is the Hell-Hole. My babies were awesome, by the way. I'll download the video tomorrow, when I'm not so exhausted. I'm really proud of them.

These next 6 hours of school can NOT go by fast enough. I so don't want to even go tomorrow! My mother guilted me into buying something else for the babies for Christmas. I had my niece put the pencils and candy canes in their stockings today, and I was going to leave it at that. But, this afternoon, I was talking to my mom on the phone, and she asked if we were having a party tomorrow, to which I replied, "Hell no!" Then she asked what I got them for Christmas, and I told her nothing. I told her about the pencils and candy canes, and she got upset with me. "Is that the memory you want them to have of kindergarten?!" So, I ended up grabbing something else to put in their stockings. The fact that I wanted to put it in the stockings limited what I could get, but then I found the perfect solution. I bought a case of individual snack-sized bags of microwave popcorn at Sam's Club. Perfect! They'll slide right into the stockings, and I'll feel better knowing they all LOVE popcorn.

Only one more child brought in a grab-bag gift today. That only makes 6 children that will participate, I guess. I was going to pick up a few extra gifts for those who didn't bring one, but I'm certainly not going to buy 21 gifts! We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

I did get a few gifts today, which was really nice. One of my babies from last year came up to me this morning before school and flung a gift at me, along with her 10,000 watt smile. It was the most adorable coffee mug with my initial on it. Very cute! I'm so glad it was something different. You have no idea how many "teacher" mugs I have. This is so unique, I just love it!

Another of my babies brought me a gift today, but told me I couldn't open it until Christmas. But, once I got home, I couldn't resist. It's a really cute little gift set of shower gel, lotion, bath salts and a puff. Cute!

Mrs. M. across the hall also brought me a gift today. She put together a sweet little basket of goodies for me. I don't think I've ever mentioned this before, but I have this really sick, twisted obsession with penguins. (I'll elaborate another time!) So there were several penguin items in the basket, along with some great potpourri, scented candle and bubble bath stuff. I'm all set for a relaxing night in the tub.

I've mentioned Mrs. G., one of my parents, more than once on my blog, and she's done it again! She not only brought me a beautiful fruit basket, that she put together herself, but she made individual goody bags for every child in the class. She always makes very old-fashioned goody bags for the kids, with an orange and/or apple, and some candy. I think it's wonderful! The kids were all so excited about the orange she put in their bags, it was too funny! I'm bringing some gifts for the G. family tomorrow that I hope they'll enjoy.

I haven't mentioned this yet this week, but all week, I've had a Secret Santa leaving me gifts. Actually, the gifts have been delivered by someone different every day. Every gift has been some sort of penguin, so I've been elated all week! Monday, I received a door cover/decoration with penguins on it. Tuesday, I received a penguin ornament. Wednesday, it was an absolutely adorable penguin wall hanging/decoration. Today, it was a penguin figurine, complete with a glittery little scarf. Very cute! I'm curious to see what tomorrow brings. All week, I assumed my Secret Santa was Dori, but I found out today, it's not. I'm confused. I think it may be my assistant from last year. Although, I asked her yesterday, and she said no, but I still think it's her. Just to be safe, I made sure to pick up something for her tonight.

Oo, one more gift from today. The other day, I spoke to the man from the after school program I'm working for to find out where the hell our pay was from November. He told me it would be sent out on Friday, and then told me he would be sending everyone a little Christmas bonus. He swore me to secrecy, because he wanted everyone to be surprised. I thought it was the least they could do, since we waited almost a month to get paid, but I was appreciative, nonetheless. They gave the teachers $100 each, our parent assistant $50, Mrs. J., our clerk, $100, and they sent me $200! Yay for me! It was a nice little show of appreciation, don't you think? None of the other after school programs I've ever worked for did anything like that. They called yesterday to say they were overnighting the checks, and they arrived this morning. Very nice!

Please send good thoughts and prayers my way for tomorrow to go by quickly! Come on, Christmas vacation!!! Two glorious weeks away from the Hell-Hole! I CAN NOT WAIT!!!

Like fruit, children are sweetest just before they turn bad. ---Dena Groquet

Half-way through, yay!

Luckily this is another short week with the kiddies. Two days down, two days to go!

For days, we've been getting warned about a HUGE snow storm heading our way. They warned last night that around noon today, we were going to get hit with a storm that'll drop about 5 inches on us. While at school, I commented to Mrs. J. that here it was, 4:30, and no snow. Where's the storm they promised? She immediately said to be quiet, lest I jinx us! Well, lo and behold, as we walked out a few minutes after 5, there were the most beautiful, light, fluffy snowflakes falling! Yay! I just let Buster back in the house, and it's really coming down now! OK, I just took some video....

I can't wait to see what's coming! I love the snow!! Unfortunately, it'll never snow enough here for CPS to get a snow day :( But, that's OK. I can't get the song out of my head now..."Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

I really worked my butt off today after school. I certainly earned my money today. I made the timesheets for the whole month of December on my computer on spreadsheets that I saved, so from now on, all I'll have to do is change the dates, and we'll be set for the rest of the year. Yay! That will definitely take a load off the rest of the year :)

Wow, it's really snowing! I can see my neighbor's pool from where I'm sitting, and the cover is quickly becoming all white! Yay! (I've officially reached my 'yay' quota for the day. I'll stop now, I promise)

Well, I can't stop watching and focusing on the snow, so I suppose I'll just sign off for the night. I just made myself a steaming hot mug of my favorite treat these days. Swiss Miss No Sugar Added Hot cocoa with a shot of Kahlua syrup, also sugar free, from Da Vinci. Yummy!

I also always have their sugar free Hazelnut in the house at all time. Just as good in hot chocolate or coffee.

Nighty night! I think I'll take my cocoa to the tub with me, and take a nice warm bubble bath :)

LOVE this....

Sex is like snow, you never know how many inches you're going to get or how long it will last. ---unknown

Two down, one to go...

We spent some time making the most adorable little turkeys today. They have these crazy, curly tail feathers that made the babies laugh all day. Their favorite book for the past two weeks has been "Ten Fat Turkeys." It starts out, "Gobble, gobble, wibble, wobble, do a noodle dance!"

So, all day, as each baby finished their turkey, I held it up for the rest of the class to see. Then I shook it a little, so the curly feathers went nuts, and we all said, "Do a noodle dance!" It was precious. I had intended to post pictures of a few, but of course, I forgot my camera. Maybe tomorrow...

Today was Day 2 of the after school program. It went pretty much as smoothly as Day 1. I was busy today, though, with a lot of paperwork, which was good because those two hours flew by. I actually have more to do when I get there tomorrow. I'm putting together time sheets for us on my computer, which should cut down on paperwork later. It'll be so much easier to just go in and change the dates and a few numbers, rather than fill out the monthly time sheet by hand. Once those are formatted and saved, I should have much more free time on my hands after school. I may just feel guilty about getting paid to sit there for two hours each day. NOT! I'll have time to get work done for my own class, which will be great. That's an extra four hours a week for planning and preparing. I also started making badges for all the students in our program. These badges will serve as the students' passes to come to their after school classroom. It's been time consuming, though, because I'm doing them on the computer (so they look a little more professional) and each child's information needs to be entered for each badge. I'm almost done, and that's what I plan to work on in the morning. I'm going to laminate them, and put them on a cord so the kids can wear them around their necks. (WOW! Let me apologize now for making you read this last paragraph. BORING!)

Tomorrow should be a fun day. First of all, my beautiful nieces will be coming to school with me. They only had school yesterday, and are off the rest of the week. It's like that every year, so they usually come to school with me on Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. They are always very helpful. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I always have a "Charlie Brown" day. We watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving movie, and then go to the lunchroom to have our own Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Feast. For those of you who may not remember, it consists of popcorn, jelly beans, pretzel sticks and toast. The babies always get such a huge kick out of it every year. They think it's just so totally cool that we're eating the same thing that Snoopy and gang did. They are so easily pleased.

Enjoy!! The best part of this video is the fact that the original 70s commercials are included!

This quote seemed very appropriate in regard to my "easily pleased" babies:

A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm. ~Bill Vaughan

The after school program has begun

I was pleasantly surprised to see that yesterday's sub left me a wonderful note about my class. She said they were "excellent" and that my lesson plans were "the best I've ever seen!" She even 'graded' the work the kids did for her. It was so nice to have a sub who actually worked! I did, however, find one thing that bugged me. She let them destroy my library that is filled with brand-spankin'-new books that I haven't even read yet. There's now a huge sheet of butcher paper taped over the two book cases that reads, "Keep Out!" for tomorrow. I was more disappointed with my kids than her because they knew better. And you'd better believe they got quite the lecture about the whole thing this morning. They have a very clear understanding of what they can touch tomorrow. I'm actually hoping the same sub comes back. I left slightly more detailed lesson plans for tomorrow, so things should go even smoother.

After school was a bit of a, dare I say it, cluster fuck. I don't really want to go in to it, but our Reading Interventionist (RI), I guess, oversees all the after school programs. However, she wasn't even aware of our program, and got bent out of shape that I was asked to be the site coordinator. She said she would have asked the Lead Literacy Teacher (LLT) to do it,who happens to be her partner. Oh, well! Too bad, so sad! Mrs. J. in the office was telling me the whole story, and she said that when the man came to our school to pitch his program, the two of them didn't want to have anything to do with him, and called him a flake. He has been dealing with Mrs. J. since this summer, and has been working on getting his program in our school. She was the one who asked me if I was interested in the position, and the rest is history. Now she's ticked at the RI for being such a bitch. Well, guess what. I could care less. I'm being paid to do a job, and I plan to do it, no matter who doesn't like it.

On a positive note, this program seems like it's going to be a piece of cake for both me and the other teachers working it with me. It will be easiest money any of us ever made.

Buster report: The vet's office called and left a message on my cell phone earlier in the afternoon. They said that Buster was doing great, the surgery went well, and that he should be ready to be picked up between 5:30 and 6:30. Then, about 5:30, while I was driving home from work, they called again to say that he was doing fine, but his ear was still draining a lot, and maybe I could come later to pick him up, like closer to 6:30. Then Kathy went on to say that if I wanted, Buster could stay another night, free of charge, so that they could keep an eye on him, and so that he wouldn't be bleeding all over my car and house. Sounded good to me!! Actually, it was a much better alternative because I'll feel better knowing that he's at the vet's being looked after by a full staff and doctor, as opposed to being home alone all day while I'm at work. All in all, things are looking good on the doggie front!

Here's one of my absolute favorite pictures of both my son and Buster. This was taken the week we got him, so Buster was about 6 weeks old, and my son was 3 1/2. Immediately before I snapped the picture, my son said, "Look, Momma! I'm laying down like Busser!" (He had a bit of a lisp as a baby. It was so cute!) That was when I almost always had a camera in my hand, so luckily for me, I was able to capture this cute picture of them. It's been hanging on my wall for 10 1/2 years. (I just took it out of the frame to scan it for you.) Wow, time flies when you're going along with your life.

The dog was created especially for children. He is the god of frolic. ---Henry Ward Beecher

OK, that wasn't so bad...

For a Monday, today wasn't so horrible. As a matter of fact, my babies ended up earning some free time, and were able to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" at the end of the day. And by "earning it", I mean that I had work to do and didn't want to stay after school to do it. OK, that's not entirely true. The babies actually were pretty good today. It helped that I had one student transfer out today, and 4 others were absent, so I didn't have a full house. What a difference only 5 students can make! My day was so much less stressful than usual. We were able to get all of our work finished, so they legitimately earned the Halloween movie.


My good friend, D.J. was my only snafu for the day, and even that wasn't bad. I had to keep him back from gym because his hands just couldn't keep themselves off of other people. I put him to work helping me make the homework packets. He's actually a very good helper, when he isn't making me want to smack the crap out of him!!


Tomorrow is going to be a long day because we have a meeting after school for the new after school program. It's going to be a lloonngg day. The meeting is from 3-5. But, then I'm supposed to meet a friend for dinner, so the day will end on a high note.

Kind of a funny story about today - over the weekend, it was unseasonably warm here in Chicago. I think it hit 80 yesterday. But, right now, as I type, it's about 45. Needless to say, quite a discrepancy from yesterday. However, since I'm always hot, I dress to be comfortable. At the end of the day, I was talking to Mrs. J. and I suddenly started laughing because I realized that she was wearing boots, plaid wool pants, and a turtleneck sweater, and she was complaining about being cold, while I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, capri pants and flip-flops!

My classroom is directly over the boiler, and it's always way too hot in my room. I keep the windows open all year. There have been mornings when I've come in and the thermometer in my room (which I bought exactly for this reason) has read 110. No, I'm NOT kidding, I'm completely serious. I think I finally found I way to stay cool - my flip-flops!! I can totally regulate my body temperature through my feet. Sounds goofy, I know, but it's true. If I'm cold, all I have to do is slip on socks. If I'm too hot, I go barefoot, or at least sockless. I'm going to just have to keep flip-flops at school to change into, and I think this will be the first year I'll actually be comfortable all year.


Jeez, how did I get on this goofy tangent? Over the weekend, I submitted another proposal to Donors Choose, so I'll let you all know when it posts. This is a really small one, only $150, so I hope it gets funded pretty quickly. OK, I'm off to soak in my nice, hot bubblebath. My son is with his dad, and I have the night to myself. I plan to watch Dancing with the Stars from my tub. Ah, that's the life!

Remember that our nation's first great leaders were also our first great scholars. ---John F. Kennedy

Tuesday, Tiptoe...

How do you make a 32 year-old man cry? Have him come to Englewood and spend a couple hours in your classroom! My darling brother came to see me today at work so I could help him with something for one of his classes. Not only did he get the smallest little taste of what my days are like, I actually left him alone with my babies for a few minutes. YIKES! Luckily, my former assistant rescued him. All he kept saying was, "How the hell do you do this everyday?!?!" So, of course, I told him, "The next time you and your sister want to say I'm a bitch, remember this, and you'll know why!" He and our sister just don't get it. To be fair to my babies, they were a bit more wound up than usual because he was there. Whenever there's a visitor in the room, they have a hard time remembering all the rules.

I really want him to come again another day when he can just sit in the back of the room and observe. I'd love him to see my kids in action, doing their lessons, singing their songs, etc... All he could focus on today was the stressfulness of it all. It didn't help that I told him about the shooting going on this morning on the playground. AGAIN! One of the younger teachers drove right past it, and thought her tire had popped. That scared her enough, but when she heard 5 more 'pops' she realized it was shooting. Jeezaloo! I was already in my room, working, so I missed all the excitement. I didn't even know what was going on until my girlfriend came to my room, and then I saw all the cops. Never a dull moment around this place, that's for sure!

Unfortunately, my brother felt the need to mention the shooting to my dad this afternoon, so I'm waiting for my parents to call and try and talk me into leaving my school. It happens a couple of times a year. So far, I've been able to just ignore them!

Oo, some possibly good news! I spoke to our clerk, Mrs. J., last week about a new afterschool program that she's trying to get into our school. She asked if I would be interested in being the site coordinator for the program. Naturally, I said yes. Actually, it was more of a "Hell yes!!" I've always worked the afterschool program because I need the money. I'm still trying to pay off my graduate school tuition! By the time I finish that off, it'll be just in time to start paying high school tuition for my son. Whoopee!

Anyway, the site coordinator position is great because I won't actually have any kids or a class of my own. I simply will oversee the program. Plus, the position pays more than a teaching position. All in all, it's going to pay $14 more per hour than the other program I always work. So, bully for me! I still need to get all the details from the man whose program it is, but it sounds good to me!

Quote of the day:

Education is the transmission of civilization.

---Ariel and Will Durant

I thought this quote was especially fitting today because my brother went on and on about how my kids were acting like a bunch of uncivilized animals. He was going nuts with 26 5-year-olds, so he should see when I have over 30! OK, I don't want to jinx myself, so no more talk of more students! Have a great night!