the dress!

my dress came today. i tried it on and it is absolutely perfect. it needs a very very minor alteration (just tacking the straps up so they don't slide down....which my aunt can SO easily do) but the dress is perfect. ..and i do not feel like a satin covered rhino....which is a great feeling. i feel like a princess. i just love it and i love the fact that my ebay risk paid off! so now all i need are shoes and i am set for the klf/ipod wedding!

16

dear swine flu,

i understand you are on a rampage and would like to infect all of us with your little piggy germs, but please dear swine flu.... pass us by. we only have 16 school days left until sweet freedom. please do not push back our freedom by bringing us bouts of diarrhea and vomiting. have mercy on us, swine flu.

sincerely,

ms. f

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dear tv show "cops",

i could watch you for hours on end. your endless supply of early 90's mustaches and stonewashed jeans just are great! cops jumping over fences, police dogs, prostitution stings, cops beating up dumb criminals.... what a great show you are, cops. thank you for providing us with two 30-minute episodes of law enforcement entertainment.

long time viewer,

r

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dear world,

today was stinky...sort of. i had one student already on the war path from the moment he walked in and it escalated to a full on physical fight this afternoon. it is a straight up case of him being a bully and the parents are in denial. it is wearing me out. every time i correct him, he argues. he is never wrong (in his "oh so humble" opinion) and thinks i am just being mean to him. on one hand, i am counting down the days until summer....because he won't be in my class (or school) next year. on the other hand, my heart breaks because this kid has some issues...learning, emotionally.... and needs some guidance. i know i am not able to fix everyone or save the world. i am such a loss though with this kid. hopefully tomorrow things will be better. i take that back. tomorrow things WILL be better, i claim it in faith. :)

love,
r

promised lava

geez....it has been a week since i have written.

achievement testing week is over. it was insane and i am happy to be done with it until next year.

karen's wedding is 2 months away. i needed a dress. so i was thinking about when i would go again in search of a dress and was just checking around on the internet and i found a dress. on ebay. bear with me. the dress is from a reputable seller and i paid about 1/2 of what i would pay if i bought the dress new. the dress had only been worn once. the dress is unaltered and i may need to have it taken in a bit in certain parts, but i figured for $49 it was worth it to at least try it. and if it is awful and completely does not work, then i will buy a new one. so i took a risk...and in about 6 days we will see if it paid off or not. i have bought quite a few things from ebay and have never had a problem at all with the stuff not being what is advertised. i am anxious to get it and try it on! by the way it is david's bridal style number 8585.... i found a picture...it is kinda small though....

yeah...the picture doesn't show anything. there is a cute little bow under the bust.... i am kinda excited about my ebay dress.... :)

so it has jumped (off a steep cliff) from pleasant spring weather to summer. it is quite warm. i am quite red from being outside all last week playing kickball. i am not complaining about the warm summer weather...it is just a wee bit shocking. it went from being in the 70's to being in the upper 80's overnight. ...and that means that real summer is right around the corner (20 days left of school to be exact!) and i am very excited about summer vacay! woo-hoo!

tacden weld

hola world.

today i have been a cleaning machine. ma-chine. well...i went to walmart first to buy groceries and i wore one of my new shirts i bought last night from ross. it is bright yellow. i love it! ...so do all the wasps in the county (there was even one in my trunk!) :/ while at walmart, i purchased new cleaning supplies.

so i cleaned my bathroom using the scrubbing bubbles natural bathroom cleaner. best stuff ever. it worked better than the regular stuff and smells so much better too! i also used a microfiber cloth that i got for christmas from lsf to wipe everything down and to clean my floor. it cleaned SO well. my floor is WAY clean. i am so happy! then i cleaned out my cabinets and threw out all the boxes that had one thing left in them. i put away all of my groceries, made a grilled sandwich on my george foreman grill (yum! ...the sandwich, not the grill). i cleaned out my closet, organized my clothes, put stuff in storage boxes, cleaned out the vacuum, vacuumed the floor and that was about it.

now i am making dinner. i am making a recipe from my "hungry girl" cookbook (http://www.hungry-girl.com/). i am making chicken fingers that are 277 calories for 8 of them! they are breaded in original fiber one cereal that you stick in the food processor and make like a breadcrumb consistency and then you dip your chicken fingers in egg beaters and then in the cereal and add a little bit of garlic powder, salt, pepper and bake. they are baking now. we shall see how they taste! :) i like a lot of the stuff in the cookbook. some takes a bit getting used to, but all in all it is pretty tasty. OH! also while at walmart...another great find straight down from heaven... weight watchers ice cream candy bar things.... translated low-cal snickers ice cream bars. sooooo goood. :) :)

crinkly algorithm

achievement testing prep is kicking my tail. i have been doing pre-tests with my math and science classes and that means that i have to make the answer key...meaning i have done eight math tests and two science tests in the past 2 days. my brain is exhausted. the tests aren't hard per se, but they really do work your brain out.

next week is the achievement testing. ...after that school is really on the downward spiral swing and things are really going to be winding down.

my students are already pretty antsy...but i have been taking them outside to play group games for 10-15 minutes right after lunch. yesterday we did relay races and today we played frisbee in groups. only one frisbee casualty...it was thrown/got blown by the wind down a really steep hill into the back of a business. r.i.p. purple frisbee. *mental note: buy more frisbees this weekend. * i think tomorrow we are going to pull out some old school games...mother may i, simon says, and red light-green light. the kids are behaving SO much better in the class after that and they are really having fun. i think it is a success. :)

in the mornings the students have about a 1/2 hour before class starts and it is usually a loud, sometimes violent time. which of course adds to my irritiation (i haven't even started on my cup of coffee yet). the other day i noticed that in kindergarten and in first/second grade, they have little activities to work on before school. so i started on wednesday having little activities for them to do. wednesday was a mystery puzzle...like solving a crime. today was sudoku. and tomorrow is going to big a zig-zag pattern puzzle. they are SO quiet and they work on it until 8:27 a.m. (that is when i have them turn it in) and depending on the activity, they earn things...like 3 minutes of guaranteed outside time per puzzle done correctly. or computer lab time for the first group done correctly. they are kinda into it and it makes for a quieter class.

we also have time at the end of the day and i have been playing some old school games with them then too. we have done hangman...(millard fillmore, the underground railroad, crocodile rock...those were the ones i did...) and today we played twenty questions (i was michael jackson, snow white, a buffalo and charlie brown). it helps the time go by so quickly and they are into it. i like it too. i think tomorrow i may try mad libs with them. we'll see.

i don't know why i am talking about my class...but i think a light bulb has gone off and i really realize that they are bored just sitting there. waiting. that is when they get into trouble. so having simple, fun activities...they all get into it. they are good kids...they just can't be left to their own devices for very long. i saw on oprah today (i only watched part b/c i was waiting for gilmore girls to come on after judge judy...) but she had a lady on talking to two 14 year olds who wanted to have s-e-x and the expert said that until kids are about age 21 the front part of of their brain, the reasoning part is not developed. so they can't rationally think things through or reason things out the way people over the age of 21 are able to do. i thought that was interesting and made some sense. :)

lsf is back on the mainland. she is home tonight...i believe (that is what klf told me). i am really happy she is back. <3

tetchy tuesday

today i am really family-sick. not sick of my family...but homesick...for my fam. :(

in order to not think about how i miss my dear ones, i focused on things today that made me happy... the little things.

1.) trains. i really love trains. not getting held up by them for no apparent reason, but just watching them. i love the graffiti on them and to wonder where they are going and what they are hauling.... it all goes back to sitting on the bluff with the fam watching the trains and eating ice cream.

2.) i love the rooster that lives on the corner of maroney mill and burnt hickory. now, the reason why this is great and makes me happy is that it is the most random spot for a lone rooster to live. there is no house there...it is not farmland. it is just a four way stop and the rooster can be seen chillin' on the corner. totally cracks me up.

3.) as of tomorrow i only have 28 (!) days left of school. thankyoukingjesus! that is amazingly awesome.

4.) i was thinking the other day that i will not have to get another tetanus shot until i am 35. that seems so far away...and so wonderful that i do not have to endure the horrendous tetanus shot for 9 more years.

so there are 4 things that made me happy today and have made me a less family-sick.... :)

mabsoot monday

tomorrow is back to work. i am not sad or bummed about going back to work. i like my job even though the aliens do drive me nuts on a fairly regular basis.....

so on my last day of spring break, i am up at 6 because of the loudest, longest thunder i have ever heard. then i decided to sleep on the couch.... and then the power went out due to really strong winds. so what did i do...?? went back to sleep, of course. i woke up at 10:30 or so with no power still...and decided i could read by flashlight. i finished one book and started another and at 12:15 or so the power came back on. i have never been happier to have electricity.

i was thinking today what laura ingalls wilder must have done on days like this. my guess is she sat by the fire working on mending or something. then i thought about what they ate and how they didn't have refrigeration, but almost everything they ate could be stored in another way so they didn't need refrigeration. i used to (and still do) love the little house books.... :)

this is a lame, random post...but i figured i should write something while using my beloved electricity (ben franklin has redeemed himself from the whole daylight savings thing....)

facinorous friday

once again the bermuda triangle of the area where i live has protected me from tornadoes. this afternoon and tonight there were tornadoes non-stop to the north of the city...one after another. the whole time, the sun was shining here and it was windy. the whole time the meteorologist kept saying how this was the worst outbreak he has ever seen and the national weather service never issues the kinds of warnings they issued (part of the area was a high risk of severe weather and we had a potentially dangerous situation warning). so the whole time he is breeding fear. i understand wanting people to be safe and i get that people are bullheaded.... but the fear kinda just kept building. so about 7:30 they issued a tornado warning for my county. i live at the very bottom of the county and the storm in question was grazing the top part of the county. no biggie. i stood in the garage door and watched the clouds start to roll in...and they were so beautiful. how can something that is so dangerous be so beautiful? the lightning got more intense as did the rain, so i came back inside. we got a storm and it had the most intense hail i have ever experienced. no i am not being dramatic...it was intense. the hail was maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter...and it came down SO hard. the hail part lasted for a good 5-10 minutes or so and i was going to go out and collect some hail (you just HAVE to collect hail...no matter how many times you see it!) but the lightning was so bad and it was raining so it melted all of the hail. i just went outside to make sure that my windows weren't cracked on my car...i figured it would be ok, but i still get nervous. and everything looks ok on my car...no cracked windows at least, but it looks like someone dumped a salad all over my car. seriously, i think i saw some flora that i have had in salads before. :/ anywho, the weather is over and this time it really did scare me. i really think i would fail as a tornado chaser. i get so freaked out.

i am really grateful for god's protection and i am thankful we didn't get the weather that hit north of here. hopefully everyone heeded the warnings and was in a safe place when the storms came through.

quick question... why do the meteorologists say "if you have lost power, call this number." if you have lost power, chances are you will not be watching tv and probably won't be able to copy down the number. granted, you an anticipate a power outage and write down the number. or you could write it down for someone else who you know has lost power. or you could be out somewhere after losing power and copy down the number from ruby tuesday or wherever you are. i guess it makes sense upon looking at it a bit closer, but at first glance...it really doesn't make sense. granted, this is also coming from the same meteorologist who tells people to get out the bike helmets to put on their kids for dangerous weather....

...next round of severe weather--sunday night into monday. sigh.

teratoid thursday

i think today is the most beautiful day of the year thus far. it is one of those days that you want to just drive around out in the country with your windows down... perfect. tomorrow that all changes. they are predicting a moderate risk of severe weather. i am not holding my breath. no severe weather ever passes by here. not even a decent thunderstorm. i live in the bermuda triangle of severe weather...or the reverse of the bermuda triangle... it is like nothing can happen when you live this close to another county....

my computer is seriously headed towards the landfill. it is doing things a computer should not be doing without human input. :/

so today i went back to the used book store and it was a MUCH better experience. i traded in more books and added to my $14 balance. all together i had a $42 store credit and the way it works is with used books you can use store credit for 75% of your purchase and the other 25% you have to pay for. you can also purchase new books at 20% off their list price. so today i bought 3 new books and 5 used books and spent $16. i bought classics today...books that i have seen the movies of but have never read. i bought new pride and prejudice, mansfield park, sense and sensibility by my fav, jane austen. then i bought used the secret garden, david copperfield, wuthering heights, and the absolute cutest copy of little women. i also bought another classroom book. i was so happy it was a good adventure at the used book store.

after that i went through sonic to get a diet cherry limeade (yum!) and some popcorn chicken...then from there i went to the thrift store to drop off three bags of stuff.

...then the laundromat. while i was there, i realized most people do not know how to do laundry. it seems simple enough, sort your clothes, dump in washer, put money in, add soap/softener, then push start. there were two younger girls at the laundromat who had eight washers and they were about 1/2 through their wash cycle when the girls realized that they used fabric softener instead of laundry detergent. so in the midst of their freaking out, i let them borrow or rather, have some laundry soap. then there was this other lady who came in and had about 4-5 washers worth of stuff but she shoved it into 3 small washers. the stuff couldn't even move in the front-loader washer.... how clean do your clothes get when they are crammed in that tight?? i am not the laundry princess, but i do find it interesting to observe people at the laundromat and their clothes washing habits.

tomorrow lsf is leaving for her birthday cruise with my aunt c. lsf's birthday is on sunday and it is a bit of a milestone birthday....so she is celebrating in style. i think all who know of her trip are a bit jealous....

speaking of birthdays.....

today is ipod's birthday!! happy 31st birthday to him!!!!

and

today is also my bff-ever of life's birthday, sharon! happy 26th birthday to her too!!!

<3

whiggarchy wednesday

Bank-Robbing Dracula Sentenced

ATLANTA--A man convicted of robbing the same credit union wearing a Dracula mask and brandishing a semiautomatic handgun has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmais says the sentence "drives a stake into the heart of a simple yet dangerous crime: robbing banks."

part of a news article taken from wsbtv.com

i feel safer now knowing that i do not have to take my wooden stake and garlic strand with me when i go to the bank. dracula has been taken off the streets. you know that david nahmais was all proud of his witty comment that he made to the press. i bet he got a kick out of that.

today was an attempt at doing lesson plans. i got so far as getting my books out of my car and then typing up one sentence before i abandoned that idea. i am still hoping to get something done with science tonight.... i kinda doubt it though.

today i talked for a few with v and then for a long time with klf. it was good talking with both of them.

so tomorrow i think i am going back to the used book store. i have to do laundry tomorrow too. i am completely out of clothes to wear... i don't know what i am going to sport tomorrow to do laundry. hmm...i guess i'll cross that bridge when i get to it.

my whole movie a day thing isn't working out so well. today there was no movie. instead i talked to klf forever on skype. but that doesn't count as a movie. sigh. i failed in my movie a day thing. i hang my head in shame.

taliped tuesday

hi world.

today was a much better day. i ended up finishing a (very predictable) book that i started last night, went to target to buy shampoo and came home. i was going to watch a movie today, but nothing hit me. thankfully, good ol' mtv came through for me and i ended up watching an mtv documentary entitled "fat camp"....you guessed it about fat camp. i sat and watched that documentary for 2 hours. it was interesting.

it has been snowing here today. this is the most ridiculous michigan-type weather! it was nice on sun...then cold on monday and today. and there are snow flurries! no accumulation here...but definite flurries. and tomorrow it is going to be 62. oh the insanity!

on another michigan note....i watched the game last night... and poor michigan state just couldn't get their act together. unc was SO sharp and so good the entire game....there was no hope of state making a comeback. :(

maniacal monday.

i think i say this every time we have a break..... i *HAVE* to work. i love being on a break for the first day or so and then i go nuts. i am already at the going nuts part of spring break. all in all i am just in a general funk. it is a weird combination of allergies (yellow pollen!), rude people at the used book store, cold weather, not talking to klf in forever, lsf working this weekend, today i feel like i most certainly am going to be one of those cat ladies who gets eaten by her cats after she dies. i even made a genuine conscious effort to smile at people and be friendly today and people are just rude. their rudeness wore off on me. it has been just a weird/funky day.

on the productive side of things, i closed my one bank account today. they were not the friendliest there either... maybe one of the reasons why i took my $2.98 and left that bank. at home later i noticed a sprightly little spider running across my floor and i tried to kill it but it was too speedy, so i decided it must be killed...so i pulled out the couch. geez, louise... it was nasty behind the couch. so i vacuumed back there and found the spider, who got sucked up pretty quick...which did make me happy.

sorry for the debbie downer post. :/

**edit**

so things have gotten a bit better. i spent some time talking to lsf on skype. and i am so grateful to have such a great bff-mom. she makes my heart happy. :)

another side note (something i say ALL the time in my classroom) i have decided to watch a movie every day of break. over the weekend i put all of my movies into one central dvd holder thing... and there are a lot of movies that i have not watched in a long time...

today's move: little women
comments: i did not realize christian bale (batman!) was in that movie.

polly put the kettle on; we'll all have tea....

take a teapot circa 1970 or so...

and add some delicious tazo tea with a little bit of honey....

all in cute elephant mugs...
and it is a perfectly delightful experience!

my new recent love is tea. the obsession healthy appreciation began with a teapot that i found in my grandma's basement a few years ago when i was cleaning for her. i liked the orange color and she let me have it. it has been sitting on my stove for the past year and a half just because it has character. i bought some tazo chai tea (because i like chai tea lattes and figured i could try some chai tea) and i liked that too... but i was still missing something....something to drink the tea in (it doesn't work so well in plastic cups....)

lsf brought me some of her old coffee mugs...and she brought the ug-ly ones. they worked for the time being. i would drink my tea in my clark equipment or in my whirlpool 75th anniversary mug and it was delicious.... but i started looking for my own mugs....some with character. everywhere i went, thrift stores, ross, walmart, target....over the course of the past five months i would look for some unusual mugs, but nothing hit me. (i am like lsf, i won't buy something unless it hits me). today i went into marshalls and saw a mug that hit me. my elephant mugs. they are latte mugs, so they are a bit taller than a regular mug and they have elephants all over them (and peanuts on the handle!). they hit me. there were only two there and the best part...they were only $1.99 each!

so now, my tea drinking life is just about complete.... i have the teapot, the tea, the local honey i bought from a farm stand last week, and now my two elephant mugs. i feel very accomplished. ;)

...the old man is snoring

i think i may need to invest in a boat. it seems as if the rain will never end.... :/ really i am grateful for the rain. i know we have needed the rain and it is a much needed thing....it just seems (pardon the pun) that when it rains, it pours... but hopefully after tonight and then again on sunday the rain will be done for awhile.

not only is it raining and pouring literally, it seems as if every area is raining and pouring.

this week has been the most draining/trying week at work. there has been some things happening and i can't even explain. it is complicated. just if you remember, pray for my class. there are some situations that could turn for the worse... but i am praying and believing for the best. i *see* what is happening...i recognize it for what it is...i know that the fight is not against flesh and blood. still, it is tough being in it. god is still on his throne and he is still lord of all.

along with the crazy weather comes sick students. i am SO grateful that i have not gotten sick at all this year. today though, the weather was so super crazy (it was 65 this morning and then rained and got really really cold and windy with the rain) and that mixed with pollen has lead to a sore throat on one side. i gargled some salt water, drank some tea (with the BEST local honey that i bought from a farm stand...yum!), and now i am eating italian ice and thus far that has been the best. i doubt it is anything serious...it is most likely due to the extreme weather change...but still. it is not fun.

spring break couldn't come at a better time. i need time to recoup and prepare to finish out the school year strong. i am very much looking forward to a break. <3