Tony's House

I hope everyone enjoyed the beautiful fall weekend! We spent the day at Tony's house. He is having major water issues in the basement. So my parents and Tony spent yesterday digging trenches with the Bobcat and tearing apart the basement. Today we filled in the trenches attempting to get the water to run away from the house. Rosie and I cleaned windows. Laura came over after work and painted some of his closet and even gave Lexi (Rosie's dog) a nice black spot on the top of her head.

Trenching the gutters away from the house.

Hey guys....what's going on?

Filling in the area

Working Hard

Even Lexi was working hard and had to get a drink.

Goodbye Summer

I remember...

I remember when school pictures used to take months to get back from the photographer. Now two and a half weeks later and I am handing out school pictures to the students today. It is amazing how far photography has come.

Being a teacher, we get our picture taken for the yearbook. This then entails the photography company giving us our own packets of pictures. When I first started teaching, I thought it was a little weird getting pictures of myself like I was still in grade school. Now seven years later, I just hope that I took a decent looking picture. Also what in the world do I do with the packets of pictures I get every year? I get to share....

Now imagine I have seven years of photos like this. The only thing it reminds me of is that I get older every year. Blah!

Also I ask that you say a prayer for my Dad, he is going in for radiation treatment Thursday afternoon.

I feel like a child

I went to the Urgent Care place tonight. My ears were bothering me. My right ear kept making odd popping sounds all day and my left one just hurt. I knew that I had an ear infection. I wasn't prepared for having a double ear infection.

The doctor was amazed because she has never seen an ear infection in an adult. She only sees them in children. So yup my ears never grew up. It also appears that my left ear with the tube in it seems to have ruptured. It sounds scary, but I don't feel anything. The doctor just said that it looked black around the tube. Which only means that the dang thing tried to launch itself out of my ear and it did not succeed. Good thing for me, because I would have to go and get another tube put in.

I then went to Walmart to get my prescription filled and they proceeded to tell me that I do not have prescription coverage and had to pay full price for my meds. Instead of arguing with the dang technicians, she said I could have my prescription back and go to Meijer because it is free there. Well lets see...pay 22 dollars or nothing. Hmmmm...I choose nothing. I love Meijer! So now I have my horse pills and I am ready for bed. Nothing better than that!

Happy First Day of Fall!

My students were being thoughtful and making me leaf shiskabobs. Basically they take a stick and run around the playground picking up the leaves that have fallen from the trees and poke them through onto the stick. I must have had 3 or so in my hands within the first five minutes of recess duty. Well the next 10 minutes I spent itching my nose and sneezing. So I think that I am allergic to leaves, or it could be the Plymouth air because I swear there is something in that town that I am allergic to. So happy first day of fall to me!

Lets Have a Crazy Morning

I walked into my classroom this morning and all was a buzz. Apparently the students had saw a cat running around outside of the building when they stepped off of the bus. This small hysteria was then transformed into it was one of my student's cat. She was sure it was her cat and it followed her to school. I proceeded to tell her that there was no way her cat could keep up with the school bus. She seemed very satisfied with that answer.

Then one of the boys said that the principal was taking it to the humane society where they kill cats. Oh gee and it is not even 8:15 in the morning. He proceeded to tell me that they got their dog just in time before they were going to kill it. I had to rest assure the students that not all shelter's kill animals. They were all content with that.

I finally got them calmed down and working on the work that was on their desk. Then we have our morning announcements followed by our schoolwide prayer. Then just as the principal was getting off of the intercom, she proceeds to tell the school that there is a cat outside and when we are out on the playground that we are not to go near the cat or touch the cat. Gee lets just dangle the dang cat in front of them! Recess isn't for another two hours!

So needless to say they were hyped up again! When I finally got them calmed down again, it was time to take them to gym. As we were walking by the front doors there was the cat trying to get into the building. Argh! I just cannot win!!

However when we came back from gym the cat was gone. And all was forgotten about the cat until morning recess finally came around and when I heard some students on the playground yelling, "Here kitty, kitty, kitty."

System Error

Okay so my system error was actually an easy fix. The abbreviation for my assignments was too long. Linda told me I should have called her because she was at school at 9:30 AM on Sunday. Then she thought it was dumb that it really should just say what the specific problem was. Ugh...computers!

I thought I would be productive...

I have sluffed off most of my grading this past week because I have felt like crap. Now that I am starting to feel a little better, I thought I would be productive this weekend.

I graded papers last night while we were watching a movie and I entered in the grades in my grade book. (I know a very exciting Saturday night!) Progress reports are supposed to go home this week. This is what is causing me problems.

We got a new grading system at school that allows us to enter the grades in any computer hooked to the Internet. So this allows me to be at home and enter in my grades.

Well we just got the program up and running last week. We really have no clue what we are doing. That being said, I log into the program this morning and I am able to move around to the different subjects that I teach. However when I start to enter in assignments, the assignments cannot be saved because it says "system error contact your administrator". ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

I doubt that Linda would like me to call her up at 9:30 on a Sunday morning to tell her the grade book is not working. I guess that means I get to put in long hours Monday and Tuesday, so that my grades can be finished for Wednesday.

Sometimes technology can be a curse. So much for being productive today. I guess I will go read.

Happy Birthday

Happy 33rd Birthday to my Hubby!

It just stinks that we don't see each other during the week because of our opposite schedules. I might just have to surprise him tonight. :0)

At Least They are Concerned

I have a horrible sinus infection. I could tell something was up last Friday when I was getting a sore throat. I took it easy over the weekend and was feeling okay. Sunday I had a horrible sinus headache that just would not go away with any medication. Monday the pain was still there but it subsided a little. By Monday night, I was feeling totally crappy.

Tuesday I thought for sure that I was calling in but stupidity won out and I dragged myself to school. It is more work for me to be gone than it is actually being there. The students kept asking me if I had a cold and I just told them yes because try explaining what a sinus infection is to a seven year old.

So I made it through today and was totally wiped out. The other teachers saw it on my face. But this morning I had my second graders ask again if I had a cold. Then one girl said that her mother is a nurse and that she could help me with any disease that I had. Then another girl said that her mom can fill my medicine at Walgreen's. I had to chuckle, at least they are concerned. Then another student said that I should be resting at home and not teaching. I think she just wanted me out of the classroom. :o)

I am hoping that the weather starts to level out because that way my head will also level out. So in the meantime, I get to talk really funny, cough and blow my nose every five seconds. All while trying to teach. Fun times.

Annoyed

I get a note from a parent of one of my students today. It asked where their scrip order (gift certificates that help the school) was from Friday. They thought maybe that I didn't pull it out of communication folder on Friday. I do however remember pulling it out and having my messenger drop it off in the lunchroom for it to be filled. What I don't remember is getting the filled order back.

So I ask my messenger and she said that she did drop it off at the table on Friday. Then the next person I had to ask was the secretary because she is the one who puts the completed orders into the teacher's boxes. She assured me that all scrip orders from Friday were placed into the appropriate boxes. I went back to my classroom and started picking through papers on my desk. Then I get a phone call from the secretary telling me that she called the scrip lady and she did fill it and it WAS placed in my box and that I needed to check the student's backpack, desk, folders, and my desk thoroughly.

I hung up the phone muttering under my breath because I swear up and down that I did not see that blasted envelope anywhere. So I went over to the over 2nd grade teaching asking her if she had seen my missing scrip envelope. She had not.

So back in my room while sifting through papers, I get another phone call from the secretary telling me to send the student down with his backpack. I proceed to take his folder down to the office and here comes a 6th grade student with the envelope. Apparently it was placed in another teacher's box. All because we have two last names in our school that look and sound almost exactly the same but minus a letter. Plus the secretary was in a hurry to get out of school by lunch time on Friday because she was taking a long weekend.

At no point did I receive an apology. Grrr!

Meeting

We have a half day of school today. Usually this is a source of joy, however when the meeting was supposed to be at Marian High School, it was okay because it is right around the corner from my house. Then we get an e-mail from our superintendent stating that the meeting has been moved to St. Pius. Now this meeting is 20 minutes from my house plus the 30 minutes from Plymouth.

Why did it have to move you ask...St. Pius just opened up a brand new Catholic School last week. The only reason why we are having our 2 hour meeting is so that they can show off their new school. GRR!!

Yearbook

I found this great site called Yearbook Yourself. Basically you upload a pic of yourself and then transpose different styles on you. If you have some time to mess around; go and enjoy yourself. It is quite fun.

Aren't we cute!

Happy first day of September!!