Happy Halloween!
My father has finally received the call from Houston. He is going to Houston for a promising new drug treatment that will hopefully slow the growth of his cancer.
He leaves on Tuesday with my mom and Nana in tow. They will be renting a car at the airport, driving and then staying at my Aunt Rosa's house in Montgomery.
This will be my parents first trip to Texas. It is probably a good thing that they are going in the fall time when the weather is cooler!
This has been an extremely wacky day of cold, miserable weather. I thought that we might have indoor recess all day because of the heavy rain that I drove in this morning. Then all of a sudden we have sunlight for the first recess. Yahoo!!!
Then during lunch recess it looked like it would start raining. It was spurting little rain drops here and there, but nothing major. So the students went out. About three minutes before recess is supposed to end they are lined up because it just started to downpour! Okay I can deal with the three minutes that we have left of recess. I just get to transition early into Math.
Then afternoon recess rolls around and the sun is shining and all seems well. That was the case for 11 minutes of recess and then the other 4 minutes we were being pelted with hail. Yup hail! Try lining up second and third graders in a hail storm. I have some students covering their heads, some opening their mouths, some screaming, and some picking up the hail off of the ground. Just as soon as I got the students inside, it stopped hailing and the dang sun came back out.
I just cannot win today!
My Dad said that Marigold was shivering when she was outside, so while they were at the farm store this afternoon, my Mom bought Marigold this dog sweater. This going to be one spoiled sheep!
Although she looks like she is pissy, she is actually enjoying curling up inside the bottle water case to sleep. After looking out of the window this morning, I feel the same way.
My weekend started today at 11:00. I am looking forward to a nice little break from school. It is also ultra nice that hubby has the day off tomorrow also. So I actually get to see my husband. :)
So what did I do to start my weekend off...I cleaned out my fridge. It was quite disgusting if you ask me. I think this is the first time in the 3 1/2 years that I have actually washed, wiped, and cleaned out the inside of the refrigerator. Kinda scary if you ask me. However I do have ubber space now! Just in time for all that holiday baking!
As if that wasn't enough, I also cleaned the rest of my house. It is nice to have a fresh start to the weekend. Hubby usually does the cleaning on Saturday morning, so I think that he will appreciate it that he doesn't need to clean now!
So tomorrow I am deciding what to do about my Halloween costume, frost my pumpkin-shaped cookies, and make some cupcakes. I love this time of year!
We have a Halloween party on Saturday and I still have no idea what I am going to wear. I always seem to wait until the very last second to decide on a costume. Last year I was a witch and the year before that I was a vampire. Not very original, but I was able to use the same costume for each. I just accessorized differently. :)
So here it is Tuesday night and I still have no idea what to do. Hubby said that we could do a couples costume. I was quite surprised by that comment. I suggested Raggedy Ann and Andy. He just rolled his eyes. So since I do not have school on Friday, I figured that would be a great time to think up a costume.
I am a frozen popsicle at the moment. When I arrived in my classroom this morning it was chilly. I thought once I had some heated bodies in the room, it would warm up a bit. Gee was I wrong. I am so glad that I brought my sweater this morning. However my fingers and nose were freezing, there is nothing that can help me warm back up.
The principal got on the intercom this afternoon telling the students to bring their sweaters and sweatshirts (uniform of course) tomorrow because the boilers were broken. From the news in the grapevine, apparently the boilers have been broken for quite awhile and it is going to cost a chunk of change that a Catholic school really cannot swing. I can see why the school hasn't fixed the problem already. As if 40 degrees in the morning isn't reason enough to fix it.
The worse thing is that my room is right next to the playground doors. So I have three outside walls and I just freeze anyway. This is not helping the situation. I am really contemplating about bringing in my space heater on Wednesday because the students leave at 10:50 and I am working on everything that I can so I can breeze out of school on Thursday at 11:00. However I do not want to be a frozen popsicle on Wednesday afternoon.
I even left earlier than usual today because I just feel lousy. My ear is hurting again and my throat is sore. I just feel another cold coming on or my sinus' are just insane.
Saturday was spent at my cousin Maria's wedding. Maria is a cousin on my mom's side of the family. My mom has 9 brothers and sisters. All 9 brothers and sisters and their families were able to make in for this joyous occasion. It was the first time that we were all together in years.
The photographer took a picture of all of us at the church with the bride and groom before the ceremony. It took about 10 minutes to get all of us situated and then he took 10 shots. Then he arranged all the cousins together with the bride and groom. It will be neat to see those shots when they come in.
Maria got married in Elkhart and then dinner was at Das Dutchman Essenhaus in Middlebury. They even got to pull up in front of the restaurant in a horse and buggy.
The Amish food was excellent and even hubby agreed because he usually doesn't like wedding food because it always too greasy for his taste. Even though there was no music or alcohol we still had a good time.
Hubby and I
I just LOVE this picture of my brother and hubby!
The sisters together, even with Laura's goofy smile!
After a day of rainy weather and 15 very energetic students with four walls surrounding them, I sure needed a laugh....
Never make your better half go shopping against his will......
This is why women should not take men shopping against their will. After Mr. and Mrs. Fenton retired, Mrs. Fenton insisted her husband accompany her on her trips to Walmart. Unfortunately, Mr. Fenton was like most men--he found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunately, Mrs. Fenton was like most women--she loved to browse. One day Mrs. Fenton received the following letter from her local Walmart.
Dear Mrs.Fenton,
Over the past six months, your husband has been causing quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and may be forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against Mr.Fenton are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras.
1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they weren't looking.
2 . July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.
4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, 'Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away.'
5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&M's on layaway.
6. September 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.
7. September 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told other shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department.
8. September 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'
9. October 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.
10. November 10: While handling guns in the hunting department , he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.
11. December 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme.
12. December 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by using different sizes of funnels.
13. December 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'
14. December 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed 'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!'
15. December 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here!'
Regards,
Walmart
After lunch today one of the aides from a classroom in the building came to me to talk about what she had witnessed in another classroom. As the aide was sitting in the back of the room, there were four boys launching pencils from their desks during the lesson. One might think that the classroom teacher would notice pencils being launched. Nope she was completely oblivious to what was happening around her and just kept on teaching the lesson.
She and the other aide were talking later about what they had witnessed. The aide that is in the room all the time mentioned that the classroom teacher told her at the beginning of the year that she has tunnel vision. Is that an actual medical term and why in the heck are you in education?
So needless to say the aide was completely frustrated because she is not in there to discipline the students. This is also the same classroom teacher's room that I went into a couple of weeks ago to drop off homework to a sibling and the classroom teacher looks up at me and says in an irritated voice, "What are you doing here?" Gee that was such a warm welcome!
I have become a coupon lady. I have a pouch that is sorted by different products in the grocery store. I usually can get good deals if I start to sort through my coupons. I have gotten in the habit of looking through my coupons before going to the store.
When I heard of a guy that touts himself as a The Coupon Guy on a local radio station, I had to investigate. He basically gets a ton of great deals with paying next to nill.
So I started reading his website and I signed up for a magazine called Refund Cents. After getting the magazine in the mail yesterday, I can say I am a bit overwhelmed. There is so much lingo to shift through it is unbelievable. So I am taking it by baby steps.
I got on the website and started reading through discussions about how everything works. I did find one handy piece of knowledge from Target. It was the Target schedule of markdowns. I am a sucker for just walking through the store and purusing the clearance aisles to see what good deals I can find. It will now be easier to know when certain departments will mark down items. So I just had to share:
Dr. Gary Marx was our speaker on Tuesday morning. I could have sat there all day and listened to him. He has a book entitled, Sixteen Trends...That Will Profoundly Impact Education and Our Future. He presented a lot of stats and interesting data that affects the way that we will be teaching our students in the years to come.
I couldn't help but start to think of the video from You Tube, entitled Shift Happens. I was shown this video my last semester before graduating with my Masters. The information just astounds me everytime I watch it.
As I was driving home from Indy today, I was taking in all the beautiful scenery that Indiana has to offer. There is one particular point on US 31 between Grissom and Peru headed north that is breathtaking. I marvel at the beauty of this point in the road. The road winds and the Autumn beauty of the trees looked absolutely gorgeous. It really was picture perfect. Too bad my camera was all the way in the back of the car and not up front with me. I actually contemplated turning around and doing the drive again just so I could get the picture. I then decided that I really needed to concentrate on driving. :)
I have a mini vacation from school. I played hooky Friday and the weekend was quite relaxing, and then I had to go to a two day conference at the Adams Mark Hotel here in Indy today and tomorrow. So technically I have had a 5 day vacation. It has been quite lovely.
It was a four day teaching week this week. Today was our diocesan wide meeting day. We had to pick one of 6 meetings we could attend a couple of weeks ago. I picked my meeting about something that had to do with using some computer program to help student achievement.
I get a note from my principal yesterday morning stating that the meeting had been cancelled and that the person in charge of all of these meetings was going to e-mail the principal again to let me know where I was supposed to go.
I never received anything from my principal later in the day telling me which meeting I had to attend. Then I come to find out that the principal left school before school was even out. So I had no way of knowing where I was supposed to go. I figured that I must go to my second choice that I vaguely remember putting down. It was some meeting about using rubrics in the classroom.
Fast forward to this morning....I had to call the doctor and get an appointment. They had an opening at 9:15 this morning so I took it knowing that the actually meeting part didn't start until 9:30. I figured I would be a little late...no big deal.
After leaving the doctor's office, I show up at the school I am supposed to be at and there are 5 cars in the parking lot with a plumber's van. I saw little old ladies organizing something inside the building. I really think that this meeting was cancelled also, but I kept driving not knowing what the heck is going on. So I went to Walmart to get my prescription filled.
So I am playing hooky. I'm sure there was a sign in sheet at these meetings, but I have a feeling my name was not on any sign in sheet because my first choice meeting was cancelled. This is the most disorganized I have ever seen the diocese. Oh well...I'm enjoying spending time with my hubby until he goes off to work.
