I Want a Flat Screen TV

I really want a flat screen tv. Well, lets just be honest, I want my house to look like a Better Homes and Gardens magazine- you know, clean, stylish, beautiful, clean. I would have walls painted something other than white, I'd have curtains that coordinated with the furniture, a couch full of pillows and a kitchen that made others envious with its tile and stylish accents. Wouldn't that just make my life perfect?

Actually I don't think it would. First of all, I have to remind myself that those pictures in Better Homes and Gardens are mostly staged. And even if they are really people's houses, well they probably clean for a week before photographers come with their cameras.

Second, if I had a beautiful house I'd be stressed about keeping up with it. I'd probably blow a gasket when Carter peed on the floor instead of simply cleaning it up and moving on with life. I'd be freaking out over the dishes Colby hasn't put away or the socks Brandon left in the middle of the dinning room floor. I guess a lack of stress is advantage to having a house with a "lived-in" look.

Third, none of those things would really be for me. It would be so that I would look good to others. I was reading Ecclesiastes today and Solomon likens amassing wealth to chasing the wind. Honestly, what does it matter that I don't have a flat screen tv? My old-school one works doesn't it? What does it matter that my car is not very stylish. It runs right? What does it matter that my house is decorated in a fairly bland way? It's filled with love isn't it?

If your house does look like a Better Homes and Gardens magazine, then more power to you. Enjoy it. If I'm going to be honest, having an extremely messy house is just as stressful as having a pristine house that is constantly under threat of becoming messy. I think striking a balance is key. The other key - being thankful for what you do have. Thank you God for my tiny, messy, non-flat-screen-containing, non-stylish, mismatched house, my wonderful family and my bill-paying job.

LEO's and Marriage

Last Sunday at our First Responder Married's Group one of our leaders read this article talking about what the male LEO (law enforcement officer) needs from his wife and vice versa. I so wish I had the link so you could look at it. The list of what the wife needs from the LEO was pretty decent - stuff like communicating with the wife, acknowledging her contributions to the family, not taking out your job stress on her, etc. The other list, the one concerning what the LEO needs from the wife, was sheer ridiculousness. It included things like waiting up for your LEO to get home from work, meeting him at the door wearing a nice dress, baking him cookies to take to work with him (no I'm not kidding), and other cheesy things. I decided that whoever wrote the blog was either a stay at home mom or a man. So I decided to write a new list.

What an LEO needs from his/her significant other

1. Hold down the fort while the LEO is working - I know for a fact that Brandon couldn't do his job well if I wasn't taking care of things at home. I do homework with Colby, I run the kids around to their activities, I clean (please don't think the house is spotless-it's not!), I cook, I take care of things like bills, grocery shopping and social/activity planning.

2. To not be crazy - LEOs need their significant others to be calm and respectful. They don't need their significant others flying off the handle about stupid things or have crazy expectations about things. They get enough crazy at work and they don't need it at home.

3. To show you care about them and support them and their job - now this can be accomplished in many ways and are not limited to waiting up for them to get home, meeting them at the door wearing a nice dress or baking them cookies. It really just depends on your LEO. For me, I like to make dinner most nights that he has to work. I think it shows a certain amount of caring that I make a hot meal for him before he leaves. When he comes home I always ask him about his night/day and I listen attentively while he tells me what's up. But what works for us, may not work for others. But lets be real, unless you're married with no kids, waiting up for them to get home is craziness. With two kids, I know a better use of my time would be sleeping so that I'm not cranky/crazy while awake. And I love baking cookies and would certainly be okay with making cookies and letting him take some of them to work (I mean I want to eat some too!), but I'm not specifically going to make him cookies like I'm some 1950s wife.

What a significant other needs from his/her LEO

1. Contribute to the household - your significant other is not the only one responsible for the house and family. Do some chores on your day off - anything would be helpful! What's that saying...oh...a man is one clean house away from the night of his dreams ;-)

2. Be thoughtful toward your significant other - buy her flowers, cook him dinner, stop at Cookout on the way home and buy a couple milkshakes. Anything unexpected and delightful will be appreciated.

3. Communicate - if something is bothering you at work or at home, then it needs to be brought up in a loving/respectful way. Trust you significant other to be a good listener and things will be easier.

So here's make take on things and hopefully it's not as cheesy as the other one. I'll post the link if I can find it!

Having a Student Teacher

So one of the biggest things affecting my work life right now is having a student teacher. I've never had a student teacher before so I was pretty nervous about it. I've seen pretty good student teachers come through our department over the years, but I've also seen some downright awful student teachers and the stories told about them are quite horrendous. Well, I'm glad to say my student teacher is amazing! She works really hard and has a lot of good ideas. I think the process of explaining to her how and why I do things has made me a much more thoughtful teacher. When you are trying to defend why you do a certain thing in the classroom, but you can't think of a very good reason, then it makes you think about improving what you do or eliminating it altogether. I've always known I needed to be harder on my honors students and she's helping me improve in that area. Also having all this time of doing nothing except supervising her (which is a piece of cake) has given me time to really revamp my nonfiction unit. I think the nonfiction unit is going to be pretty awesome when November rolls around! Watch out students, logical fallacies are coming your way! If I can always get an awesome student teacher, sign me up to be a cooperating teacher every time! And hears a weird upshot of having a student teacher...my students LOVE me...they think she's mean (she's not) and can't wait for me be back in the classroom. Maybe they'll be better behaved when I get back in there? Or if their not I can threaten to get another student teacher next semester...ha! Here's to all the student teachers out there!

I'm Back!

Earlier this year we discovered that the screen on our computer was going bad. Being the procrastinators we are, we spent a couple of months wiggling it around until it worked, I mean I didn't really NEED to type anything and could surf the web on my Nook. When the computer did work, I did a few things that were more convenient on it (like typing blog posts), but no worries right? Well, as things always do, things with the computer got worse and we couldn't wiggle it enough to make it work. Obviously we either needed a new computer or a new screen. Well, screens are less expensive (I'm getting cheap in my old age!), but again I procrastinated. But then I got to missing my blog and all the other things I could do on my computer and not on my Nook (like looking at PDF files) and finally bought a new screen. It probably wouldn't surprise you to hear that the box sat in the living room for about three days, but now Brandon has replaced the screen and now I'm back in business!

And I'm sure you're asking yourself what has changed since my last blog post in August and I'm happy to say not a lot has changed. Colby goes to school, Carter goes to daycare, Brandon goes to work, I go to work, the dogs bark, the house is messy, our extended families are doing fine (my parents are in Hawaii - lucky dogs!) and...oh yeah...I turned 32 last week :-) There's some other things going on in my life, but I just wanted to do a quick "I'm back" blog! So, I'm back!!

Starting the School Year With PKU

Friday was Colby's first day of First Grade! I know he was super excited to hang out with his friends again, go to recess recess and eat lunch with his cool new Spiderman lunch box. But as a mom, I'm much more concerned about what he's going to learn. In order for him to learn I have to manage his PKU. Here's a few basic steps I've learned I must do at the beginning of the school year:

1. Meet with the teacher. The teacher has to be made aware of his food restrictions. They also need to be made aware of how it works in a basic sense - no he's not going to throw up, go into anaphelatactic shock, or get a rash if he eats something he's not supposed to eat, but if he eats something he's not supposed to eat, I need to know so that I can adjust his protein intake later in the day. It's not a big deal if he eats something he's not supposed to eat once in a blue moon, but it is a problem if it happens every day.

2. Contact the cafeteria manager. Colby brings his lunch, but he can eat breakfast at school if he wants to. He's allowed to have cereal or graham crackers and fruit. If the cafeteria manager doesn't know this, then they might make him take something he's not supposed to have. In his school, a note will pop up on the computer screen when he checks out and they'll make sure he takes what he's allowed to have.

3. Send an emergency stash. Things pop up that are way beyond my control. A student might bring cupcakes for their birthday unannounced or something unexpected might pop up. It's important for Colby to have something he can eat in that event. I usually send a box of rice krispie treats for the teacher to keep in the classroom for these unforeseen happenings.

4. Don't forget about after school programs. Colby's after school program gives snacks every day. They need to be made aware of his dietary restrictions as well. Usually I suggest snacks that will work and they usually go with it. It's just a snack after all!

5. Don't be afraid to speak up. If an issue arises, then speak up. Thankfully I haven't had any major issues, but rest assured that if one pops up, I will speak up. Nobody else is going to advocate for him and his PKU, so I'm the one who must.

Sneak Peak Into How Teachers Spend Their Workdays

At the end of last school year, I decided that I was tired of looking at my walls and I decided to paint them. You see, our school, like many others, was built during this horrid phase of our education system called "open classrooms". Our school is celebrating it's 40th anniversary, so that would have been in the seventies. Picture this: a huge open areas in the shape of a circle, no walls, no windows. As you can imagine, that setup didn't work out so well so they spent the money to put up walls. Now there's a large open area in the middle and classrooms around the perimeter, but still no windows. And someone decided that they were going to put up walls that could double as chalkboards so they are magnetic (which is actually pretty great) and large portions of them were chalk-board green. That was probably not a bad decision back in the seventies when chalkboards were used extensively. I could even see writing on my green wall about two feet from the ceiling so obviously they were used. Over the years my room acquired an actual chalk board and then over that a white board. Technology has also lessened the need for chalk boards with the advent of overhead projectors and eventually LCD projectors. I can honestly tell you that I have never written on my walls. So at the end of last school year I got tired of looking at the green. Lets face it, it's ugly and since I have no windows, it made my room look like a cave. After my grades were turned in and my stuff put away, I painted my back wall light blue and my front wall coral to match my tropical poster fetish. It looks great! So the last two days, I've been putting my room together. I've decided to go pretty minimalist in my room and got rid of a table and a bookshelf and decided to store my teacher resources in an empty filing cabinet out in the pod (the circular area in the middle of the classrooms). My students will not be allowed to keep their binders in my room like they were able to in previous years, so now I have a bunch of empty crates to store somewhere (anybody need some crates to borrow?). Now I say I'm going minimalist this year and it sounds like I'm just doing it because I'm both stylish (ha!)and tired of clutter. But the real reason is because I have to house 35 kids in my room for one period. Right now I have 24 desks in my room. I know I can fit 8 more desks comfortably, I'm not sure where the other three will go...we'll see when I start actually putting desks in. I've never had a class this big, so it will be an adventure I'm sure! Oooooh! Maybe I can talk them into mounting my LCD projector on the ceiling instead of a cart so I can have more space for desks! Wishful thinking I'm sure, but who knows!

What's that? Oh, you want to know if I did anything related to actual teaching? Well, I've been talking, brainstorming and searching Google when I need a break from decorating. I have lots of ideas about what and how I want to teach this coming school year, but since not everyone was here these past two days I have decided to hold off on doing a lot of teaching/curriculum stuff until next week when the best brains in southwest Virginia will meet to help shape the lives and minds of young people. My theory is - if I can get my room straight this week, I can throw myself into planning next week! If you were thinking "Sheesh my tax dollars are going into the school system so she can decorate her room", don't fret! The real work is coming!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Today is my grandma's birthday...Happy Birthday Grandma!! On this momentous occasion I was thinking about how I'm SOOOOOO blessed to have known three grandparents and one step-grandparent for such a long amount of time. I even have vivid memories of three of my great-grandmothers! My grandparents were such a blessing when I was growing up. They looked out for me, supported me, loved me unconditionally, and were always very clear about how proud they were of me.

So now on grandma's birthday, here's some of my favorite memories of this very special woman:

Spending the summer at her house eating grilled cheeses (a smushed one for Michele) and playing outside.

Going to see new Disney movies in the theater including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King.

Grandma helped with snacks at Bible School and when I was too old for Bible School, I helped Grandma!

Grandma singing in the choir at church.

Seeing Grandma sitting in the stands watching softball games, though I'm sure it was boring at times.

Sitting with Grandma at Great-Grandma's house while we visited.

Grandma meticulously handing out Christmas presents to make sure all the kids opened one at the same time and all the adults opened one at the same time.

Watching Grandma cook in the kitchen during Thanskgiving and other family holidays.

I hope you had a wonderful day Grandma!!