We Caved

We caved. It was getting to the point that neither of us wanted to mow the lawn, so I sent Brandon out to buy a gas powered push mower this morning. Our yard was getting really scary, so now I know it'll look good once more. I bet our neighbors will be like "thank god!" We also bought some blueberry, rasberry and blackberry bushes. I hope they'll give us some fruit. We also decided to plant a peach tree in the back yard and I think we're going to put two apple trees in the front yard. We're just turning into regular gardners huh?

Cutting Teeth Again

Colby is cutting teeth again. He woke up Wednesday night at 3am screaming. In the morning he just stood in the middle of the living room and screamed again. I don't really know how to help the little guy besides giving him some Tylenol and encouraging him to chew on things that are cool.

School starts for the ninth graders today. I already had a class. They seem interesting and only a few seem mildly annoying, which is good.

Fun times.

This Week

So, this week has been full of sucky parts and good parts. On Tuesday we had to work from 8:00a.m. until 7p.m. We had to be in our rooms from 1-7pm so that 9th graders could get the schedule and walk through it to meet all of their teachers. I really enjoyed getting to meet some of the 9th graders and their parents, they seem like a really good group of smart and pleasant children. The only thing I didn't really like was being at school for 11 hours minus lunch. Today was a day of meetings. We had to watch these videos and get into groups to discuss the main points and then present them to the entire faculty. We also had to go over the student and faculty handbooks today. We also had a presentation about dropout rates, which I'm proud to say has decreased a lot in my county since I've been working there. Tomorrow we get to spend some time actually working, which is exciting to me because I need to finish putting up a bulletin board, finish putting up posters and then work on typing some assignments sheets for the first few assignments that are coming up fast.

Brandon hung out with Colby a bunch yesterday. When I came home he'd been asleep for about an hour already. He fell asleep eating dinner because he was so pooped.

Brandy has been driving us crazy lately. This weekend she got out and ended up at animal control all weekend. Yesterday she got out twice and today some random little girl brought him back after I got home. She's been getting out of this teeny, tiny opening in the fence. We keep putting stuff in front of it, but she still manages to sneak through. I'm trying chicken wire tonight. See if you can get through those holes, Brandy.

School Crazed Zuchinie Bread

Today was my first full day back to school. Last week I worked a few flex days to get my room in order, but this week we have a ton of meeting and in-services scheduled. Today we had convocation in the hot gym on uncomfortable bleachers. I don't understand why they make bleachers curved as if anyone's butt could comfortably fit in the curve. Why not just make them flat so when we squirm around we don't end up on a point and therefore become REALLY uncomfortable. Today we also learned about our new gradebook system. It wasn't too bad. I'm actually excited that I can enter grades from home.

Over the weekend Colby was a little crazy. He pulled all of his wipes out of his container, threw a glass and shattered it all over the floor, and he opened the oven while it was on - thankfully he didn't touch anything hot, but I almost had a heart attack. And last night, he didn't sleep worth two cents!

I felt a little like Martha Stewart over the weekend. I made two loaves of zuchinnie (sp?) bread and they were delicious! I'll never understand how something with zuchinnie in it can taste so good, but it certainly does. I took a loaf to my next door neighbors as a thank you for bringing us corn last week. I felt very neighborly. Unfortunately I tried this recipe out of better homes and gardens too that didn't taste very good. Even more unfortunately, there was a lot leftover.

Food That's Not for Babies :-)

Today I kept thinking it was the middle of the week instead of Saturday. I don't know why, though. Maybe subconciously I don't want to go back to school so I start rewinding my week. As far as school goes, we finally got a schedule for next week. It's going to be crazy because we are learning a new software system to keep track of everything from attendance to grades. I think I'll catch on pretty quick, but I think it will be annoying at training. The people that read my blog are very computer literate - unfortunately a lot of the older teachers at my school aren't. We also have to go to this dumb thing on Monday so that our superintendant can talk about energy conservation. Now, energy conservation is really important, but I don't need my superintendant to talk to me for over an hour about how to do this. Really all I can do is turn of my lights and my computer - nothing else is within my control. And since I already do these things, what's the point in sitting in uncomfortable chairs for an hour learning about energy conservation! And some principals and superintendants wonder why their teachers are so frustrated. I have a bunch of things I need to do before students start wondering the halls, so I'd rather be doing those things.

Colby decided to try eating a baby wipe today. Apparently they don't taste good :-)

School Shoes

I spent Wednesday and Thursday at school cleaning up and moving things. Brandon came on Wednesday to move my filing cabinets and desk and stuff. While we were moving stuff I discovered that I do not have a CPU for my computer. If you're computer illiterate, that's the most important piece that contains the hard drive and software and stuff. I haven't heard back from anybody I've e-mailed about it, so I guess sometime next week it'll work itself out. If it doesn't work itself out next week, then maybe I'll get a new one by mid-semester. Yup, I'm really optimistic.

Today I went shoe shopping. I haven't bought very many really nice shoes lately, so I thought I was overdue for some. I bought two really beautiful pairs of shoes for school and a pair of slide on tennis-shoes (not for school). I'll look damn good even if I don't have a working computer. Ha! I thought Christiansburg would be crazy because of students moving in, but it wasn't too bad. I'm sure tomorrow will be crazier, so I'm glad I went today. Watching all the new students and their parents wander around Target was sort of nostalgic for me. I remember moving in back in the day. Sigh. That was like nine years ago! I'm getting old!

Coming School Year

Today I swung by school to talk to my department head about the coming year. Originially there wasn't supposed to be any co-teaching, but they changed their mind and I have three different co-teachers for the coming school year. One they apparently want to fire, but can't, so I'm stuck with her. The other two are really good people. I worked with one of them last school year so I'll know what to expect from her. Unfortunately I don't like how they did this. How am I really supposed to co-teach with three different co-teachers at the same time!? I know they all have their degrees in special ed, but by having three different co-teachers I'm going to be forced to treat them like glorified aides because I don't have time to plan adequately with each person.

I also took a peek in my classroom...it's a complete mess! I don't know how they could have possibly screwed it up more. I think I'll have to move every single piece of furniture because NOTHING is in the right place.

Colby had fun visiting school, though. He ran around the pod and visited with the few teachers that were there. At least it's a good place to visit right now because it's clean!

Extra Long Entry

Okay so my dad accused me of being lazy when it comes to my blog........ he's right! I haven't posted in forever! I've been too lazy to walk into the other room and get on my super ancient computer to type a blog entry for which I'm really sorry everyone! Now if you could talk Brandon into letting my buy a new laptop, I'd post all the time. So call Brandon and tell him I need a new laptop :-) And yes - I've tried to get the old one fixed, but it seems like that's a lost cause.

Oh, and the other reason I didn't blog for a while was because I was sick for a little while. I had a fever of over 101 for like two and a half days. I don't know what was wrong with me, but my fever broke on the Sunday before last, so I decided not to go to the doctor. What would I say? "Uh, I had a fever yesterday?" Lame. That weekend Brandon was working and Colby wen a little crazy while I was laying on the couch feeling pathetic. Colby shredded something made of paper all over the floor (who knows what!) and his toys were everywhere. Thank goodness he didn't get what I had, though. He would have been a really cranky baby if he had.

After I started feeling better I decided to read a book. Before I got sick I read The Skystone by Jack Whyte. If you like King Arthur legends, I highly recommend the Camulod Cronicles by Jack Whyte. It puts the Arthur legends into the realm of possibility by starting with Arthur's grandparents and the fall of Rome (which I also find interesting, so it's of double interest to me). After I was sick I decided to read Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. I think I'm pretty open-minded about books, but I didn't really like this novel. It was too intellectual. I know you're asking yourself how a vampire novel can be intellectual, but let me tell you, it can. And I'm sorry, but I don't really care about the philosophy surrounding being a vampire, I just want to read a good story. For a while in the story, nothing even happened! And I hated the ending. Right now I'm reading a book about all the lies I learned in American History class. It's super interesting to learn the truth about Christopher Columbus (came to the new world to get rich and ended up starting the slave trade), the Pilgrims (went to Plymoth on purpose and found the Indians decimated by the plague when they landed), the first Thanksgiving (wasn't created until the 1800's), American Indians and racism. It's a slow read, but really thought-provoking.

This past weekend was really good. Brandon and I went on our monthly date. We went to Olive Garden and then to see the Time Traveller's Wife. It was pretty good movie - It was what I expected. And Brandon was a trooper for going to see a chick flick with me. I didn't cry watching this movie (the director let us know what was going to happen long before it happened), but apparently some people took it hard. There was sobbing at the end from the back of the theater - Brandon looked at each other and laughed.

This week I'm going to school for a couple of days. I have to do two flex days before Monday, so I decided I'd go on the two days that Brandon is off. Monday is when we start back for real...sigh.

Up!

Colby is growing up so fast! He's doing new things every day like learning to say "up". Plus he has a new tooth, which brings us up to 8. I'm still trying to get him to say other words, but I'm pretty impressed that he learned "up" without too much trouble.

This past weekend was pretty lazy. We hung out on Friday, worked on mowing the lawn on Saturday and ate lunch with my parents on Sunday. My parents have gotten to see Colby every weekend for the last three weeks so they were pretty excited about it.

I didn't sleep too well last night so I was a bit lazy this morning, but I'll get back into the swing of things tomorrow I guess.