Is it that time again?

After a very trying day at school today, I walk to my mailbox and discover that our intent forms for next year are already in our boxes. Uggh! I asked the secretary if they were early and she assured me that they were on time because tis the season! So I have to turn this menacing little piece of paper in by March 15. Granted I turned mine in last year around May because I said I would stay if I got the 3rd grade position.

I really would like to stay where I am at but that means next year I will more than likely be teaching 2nd grade. A grade that I thought I would LOVE to teach 6 years ago and now I am not so sure if younger is better for me. I really do enjoy the older ones. However I do love 3rd grade. I'm so confused!

There will be more than likely 3 positions that I have heard of opening up in another corporation. This was the same corporation that I had interviewed with last year and the final selection was between 3 of us. Needless to say they went with the cheaper person. Grrrr.

But back to the stupid intent form. I guess I can always check "It is my intent to return." Because let's face it, I do intend to return unless I get a better offer. Does that count?

When life hands you snow....

you make a weird looking snowman named Edgar! I obviously have too much time on my hands!



Here is a pic of him welcoming people up to the house.



This is why my sisters tell me we need children.

Tuesday, June 3rd

Yup that's the day we will be in school until, considering we were supposed to be out May 22nd. Thanks to the wonderful lake effect snow, we are closed today. I was just hoping for a delay. That way I could get my head under control because at the present moment it hurts to even close my mouth. My sinsus' are wacky because of the dip in temperature. I went to bed last night with a headache and woke up with an even bigger one. So I took some pills and I need to find something to eat otherwise I will have an upset stomach also! I need to move to a climate where it stays the same all year round. I would be happy with a constant 60 degrees! Well at least now I can catch up with all of the grading that I missed from Friday. That is after my head stops pounding!

Update

Hubby's scope went good. Although the doctor didn't find anything wrong with his throat, stomach, and intestines. I even have the pictures hanging on the bullentin board, even though hubby says we can take them down. So I guess that is good news, it just doesn't explain why he gets nauseated. So he has some super duper nausea pills and he sees the doctor in three weeks. So we shall see what happens.

Hubby did go out last night with my parents, Laura and I to the Four Winds Casino. It was so packed you could hardly get on a machine to play. Hubby and I spent the time wandering around looking for a penny machine to play. Needless to say we didn't come home big winners. Although Hubby did double his forty dollars into eighty on a dollar machine and I did double my twenty into fourty on a dollar machine. Laura always comes home with a big win and she is ahead at the moment. I strike it up to beginner's luck since she just turned 21 back in November.

When we got home around 11 o'clock last night, this is what we were greeted to:



Lucy is a strange kitty and loves going underneath covers. When we make the bed it is heck because she likes to beat up the covers and refuses to get out from under them! Apparently last night was no exception. She found a way to get under and viola here she is enjoying a peaceful sleep. Darn cat!

Endoscopy anyone?

So hubby gets to go for an endoscopy tomorrow at 10:30. I think that endoscopy is a big fancy word for lets shove a tube down your throat with a camera attached and see what we find! At least he will feel no pain. We have to get there at 9:30 tomorrow and the procedure is at 10:30. From the literature they gave us to read it looks like it will take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The 1st grade teacher told me that they will give the results when it is all over because her husband went through the same procedure 2 years ago. She even had pictures! Hey something to show the cherubs at school. :D

So needless to say, I was at school late tonight preparing sub plans for tomorrow. I just feel bad because they had to pull the librarian to sub my class because we have no subs. The principal really wants to sub for me (which I think would be freaking hilarious) but I think she is going to stick with the librarian. I am just a little weary about my class because on Tuesday when they had the sub in the afternoon, I was told the next morning that one of my little cherubs told her that she was "Evil and mean". Lovely words coming out of a 9 year old's mouth! Hopefully they will be good tomorrow. I just hate having sub's because it is so much more work for me. I am still playing catch-up from Tuesday afternoon. Uggh!

Dang it!

I open up my internet broswer and the the dang headline read "Blu-ray wins DVD format battle"! This means that the HD-DVD player that we have is going to be non-exsistent. Dang the Best Buy people who sold it to us back in August who assured me that the major studios would be using this type of format! I guess we just start saving for the the Blue Ray which probably we will not get until it comes down considerably in price!

Numb

I just got back from the dentist and the right half of my face is very numb at the moment and I think I am drooling all over myself. How fun is that! When I got my teeth cleaned two weeks ago, I mentioned how I was cutting my tounge on a tooth and low and behold I am in the dentist chair today getting my chipped tooth filled in. So no longer do I have a chipped tooth and my smile is somewhat straight! I could however do without the numbness of it all.

Today was a very productive day in terms of school. Yuppers we went on President's Day because it was a snow make-up day. So that leaves only 6 more days to make up at the end of the year. Which means we are in school until June 2nd. Which really kills me because I usually work ND reunion weekend for the extra cash and this year I will not be able to because we are in school that Friday of Reunion. Blah! Oh course I could always work the children's program Friday evening and then Saturday from 8 am until midnight. But on second thought why do I want to put myself through that kind of torture!

I had two students absent today, so that meant I was left with my charming 11 students. So needless to say we got through the full schedule today and I was quite suprised. But I chalk it up to the fact that the students were tired because it was Monday morning (they didn't give much grief) and we have actually gone to school at 8 am for the past 5 school days!

I have a sub for the afternoon tomorrow because hubby gets to see the gastronologist. His CT turned up clean, but he is still not eating and his stomach cannot seem to settle itself down. He is nauseated for the most part of the day. So we shall see what the gastronolgist says. Lucky us!

I am now off to lay down because I got nauseated this afternoon after lunch. It took everything in me not to lose my lunch in front of the students during Religion. Uggh, I just hope I am not getting what is going around the school. Ick!

Update on the House

I am ready to fall into bed after a day like to today. We worked at the house today installing a cermanic floor in the bathroom and pulling out the ceiling in the attic. Rosie and my dad worked in the attic while my mom and I worked in the bathroom.

The attic was a disguisting mess. I was up there at the most four minutes and I came down hacking up a lung because of the particles floating in the air. I quickly ran to the hardware store and picked up some masks for dad and Rosie. Also while my dad was cleaning up the ground outside and stuffing the pieces that didn't make it into the large dumpster outside, he decided that it needed to be pushed down. So he gets on the ledge of the dumpster and tries moving stuff around, needless to say he fell in and hurt his leg. Then when he was bringing down the trash can from upstairs, he fell going down the stairs because he had both the broom and the trash can in his hands and the stairs are steep. Because of that fall he hurt his ankle. When he got home tonight, my mom put a bag of frozen peas on his ankle because it had swelled. Poor guy!



My mom laid the majority of the floor while I worked on priming up the trim for the bathroom. When it came time to cut little pieces to fill in spots, I was the one laying the floor while she was cutting the tiles. I think the floor looks pretty darn good!



So sometime during the week Rosie is going to paint the trim black and my mom is going to grout the floor. So that way next Sunday we will install the vanity and toliet and actually have running water in the house!

I feel that the end is in site and I will no longer be cat lady with 7 cats living in my house!

TED

I remember this site from a grad class that I took last spring, but since I was so busy with finishing my Masters I didn't have time to get into the site and essentially forgot about it. Now fast forward to two days ago when the librarian at school mentioned about this great talk she was directed to about schools killing student's creativity. She emailed the site to me, and behold I am now navigating myself around the site learning really interesting ideas and expanding my knowledge.

The site is called TED. Rather than sum it up in my own words I will post what their mission is: TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

The talks are very interesting and mind provoking! Click here to view the site! Enjoy!

Cream cheese please!

I found a receipe online for frosting. Thank you Morgan for yours, I will use it when I make another batch of sugar cookies. I already whipped up the one that I found before I read yours. It figures!

The frosting that I used was a cream cheese frosting. It tastes great, but I don't know if I would use it on cookies again. It was a little thick, but I could have helped that with the addition of more milk into the frosting while it was getting made. Here is the frosting receipe:

Cream Cheese frosting

1/2 c. butter
8 ounces cream cheese
4 c. powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Whip all of the ingrediants together until it is creamy. I also added milk while it was whipping to make it a little creamier.

Here is the final product:



Now I just have to remember the pencils and my Valentine cards for the students and the day will be complete. Even though after a day like today, I don't know if they deserve a party on Thursday!

Cookie update!

I thought I would find a new receipe for a good sugar cookie because I have yet to find a great one. Well I think I found one! The dough by itself is really yummy! I thought I would share, in case anyone else is looking for a yummy sugar cookie:

Easy Sugar Cookies
2 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. margarine
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla (I also added a smidge of butter flavoring). Stir in the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. I also put the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes for it to chill.

Shape or roll into one inch balls.


Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.



Cool and enjoy!!


I will ice the cookies tomorrow or Wednesday night, just in time for our party on Thursday! I now just need to find a yummy icing frosting to go on the very yummy cookies!

Cookies anyone?

I'm being bad. I didn't work out last week at all because I was overworked with things from school and tonight I was about ready to fall asleep on the way home. So needless to say I do not think I am going to the gym tonight. I am however going to make cookies. Since a student transfered to another school at the end of December, my room mom also left because it was her son. Well that means I have no one in charge of getting things organized for our little parties that we have. So that means I am providing the students some little treats to have on St. Valentine's Day. One of which is going to be sugar cookie cut-outs shaped like hearts. It is a lot of work for me, but I am most calm when I bake. It is what I do when I get stressed out. So after my brocolli and cheese casserole is finished in the oven, I am off to bake some yummy sugar cookies. Plus the heat from the oven warms up my house!

And the delays keep on coming...

I am starting to wonder if we will ever have a full week of school again. Ever since we have been back from break, we have yet to go to school for a full 5 days wihtout being interrupted. So yup we are on another two hour delay for the morning! It was announced at the end of the school day today. We had a two hour delay yesterday because the fog was unbelievable due to the fact that it warmed up Monday during the day and just continued to rise during the evening. We even had thunderstorms last night! I thought I was going nuts seeing flashes of light outside.

Then today the temp dropped again and we have a lovely mixture of ice, sleet, and snow! Everybody raced out of school today and I was the only one left. Only because my principal announced that progress reports are due out tomorrow or Friday by the latest! Gee it would have been nice to have been told this Monday not the day before it was due! So I spent an extra hour and a half at school in addition to the normal hour I spend. I even left after the janitor went home for the night! She just made me promise to lock my door when I left. Gee what a comforting thought. However I did get my grades entered and the little cherubs will have progress reports for tomorrow! Go me!!!

We also had a very eventful mass today for Ash Wednesday. One of my students threw up all over the pew and the ltitle second graders jackets during the Gospel. Gee that was fun. I had to frantically gather the well students out of the pew and stick them into another pew and some were wondering about their jackets and if they should take them. I just wanted them out of the pew so I could get to her. Luckily the teacher's aide from the other third grade grabbed my sick student and took her out and to the office while I did damage control with the rest of my students. Needless to say, Father did his best to get the attention back once he was doing his homily. I think it kinda sorta worked. Oh well, that's one mass I will never forget. Along with the mass at the beginning of the school year two years ago when I fainted in front of my junior high students. Gee that was memorable. I even had the 8th grade girls so upset that they were crying. Gee It is so nice to feel loved!

Coming along

So yesterday was spent painting the last major room in Rosie's house: the living room. We thought it would take forever but low and behold it went the fastest and it only took one coat! Valspar paint from Lowes rocks! The last things we have to paint is the bathroom, paint the back entry way, window trim, and trim along the bottom of all the rooms. However we cannot paint the trim on the bottom until the wood floors have been refinished. So next weekend we are painting the bathroom, entry way, and ripping down the ceiling in the finished attic because it is falling down and insulation is being put up there. So here are some pics of the progress...enjoy!

Kitchen:






Living Room:



Rosie looking happy painting trim!



Bathroom:



Mom and Dad cutting and hanging wallboard for the bathroom:

Closed...yet again!

Yup, that's right we are closed again. So this means that I will have a wonderful, relaxing three day weekend. I am starting to think that maybe someone from the corporation would have thought to put snow days into the calendar because this happens every year. Are they not seeing a trend? Come on people we live in northern Indiana with a huge lake on the western edge that tends to drop snow like it was nothing. Duh!