Sunday, April 29, 2007

Calming Sunday

Such a busy weekend.........

Friday after school my auction committee and I spent HOURS getting things ready for Saturday, then Saturday was the auction and we were there at the crack of dawn. Let me just say how wierd it is to be in a school without the kids. Ya know, after they go home every day I stay and get things ready for the next day, but there's always something going on and there's always kids around. But there weren't any! Wierd! Anyway, the auction went well and I was RELIEVED it was over, and the Kenny and I whisked ourselves away to the next thing he had on his agenda and then by the time we got home it was 11pm and we were both EXHAUSTED. So what time did I wake this morning? Wait, I forgot to mention that we never made it to bed last night. Nope. He slept on the couch and I was in the recliner. That's how tired we were. Anyway, 8am, I sit straight up and he's starting at me, asking me why we are up so early. I had no idea. I got up and started running around working in the house. It was a beautiful day, and we did house stuff all day long. FINALLY unpacked the kitchen (we're still trying to decide what kind of floor we want to do in the kitchen) and then Kenny mowed the lawn for the first time and only had 1 small asthma attack. I told him it was my job, but you know men, they can't wait. So he suffered the consequences, but it looks great! I got things straightened up in the house because my dad was coming over to bring a few more things for me, and before I knew it, it was 9pm. Ah! But it was such a great day, and just to be at home for once.....

There are still a million and a half things to do, but one task at a time! Kenny is working on getting me a new camera. And I'm working on getting my hands on his so I can get some pics on here!

Today is the first day I really felt like we live in our new house. What a feeling. I'm still basking in the delight of owning a house. I know along with the responsibility comes a ton of work and I'll probably bitch about it some times, but right now, it sure feels good to come home and see the progress.

Oh yeah.....Tasha got married this weekend! Yay! And she posted about her wedding a little bit, so keep checking her site for the upcoming pics! Congrats! You are now a Mrs!!!

Friday, April 27, 2007

Already Friday Again?

Another Friday!

I'm feeling the same way I felt last Friday....overwhelmed. I keep thinking I just need to get through Saturday and I'll be good. And it's true, I'll be fine. I'm not as unnerved as last week, but I'm still looking forward to just not having any HUGE responsibilities hanging over me, and after our school's benefit auction is done on Saturday, it'll be a GREAT BIG relief.

And we finally got the internet hooked up! After all that, I'm soooooooooooooo glad to be sitting in my orange office in my new house typing! Pictures are coming very soon.

My good blogging buddy Tasha (and soon to be real life buddy because we are having dinner this week!!) is GETTING MARRIED tomorrow! If you haven't already visisted her site, go now and wish her good luck!

She was concerned with the weather here in Michigan because it tends to be so nutty all the time. It WILL be beautiful for her day!

Monday, April 23, 2007

A little bit relaxed......

First let me say that I feel TONS better than I did on Friday!! And second, the wedding was a blast! And I actually enjoyed wearing the dress too! I had my doubts, but it ended up being a perfect fit and the girls stayed in their place all day if ya know what I mean:) Bekah's wedding was so fun! Everyone was laid back and relaxed and I danced and danced and danced and just let loose and forgot about all the stress for the day. What a nice thing to do! And on Sunday we slept in (first time in a LONG time) and then went out to breakfast and then shopped a little for things for the house. Then we just drive around for a while.....a couple hours actually. It was such a beautiful day and we were getting to know our new neighborhood. I SO needed a weekend like this to unwind. And I got it:)

I still have one huge event coming up on Saturday, and I know it will be a very stressful time, as will be the whole week preparing along with teaching every day. But I'll get through it....last Friday was just a rough day. Thanks for all your kind words. They really help!

The weather here is supposed to be good, so maybe I can steal Kenny's camera and get some pictures taken outside, and inside of course. We'll see...he's just as attached to his camera as I was to my own.

I talked to Tasha last night.....her wedding is only 5 days away.....click over to her blog and wish her luck! The weather is supposed to be good, as I'm sure the whole day will be for her!

PS-One more day until we have the internet at our house FINALLY! Yay!

Friday, April 20, 2007

TGIF

Is it really Friday? I think it is. Somebody pinch me cause I can't believe it really is.
I get to leave early from work today!! Yay!! I'm in a wedding this weekend on the other side of the state and the rehersal is at 6pm, so I'm leaving work early, going home and packing, and on my way. AND I get to stay with my life long girlfriend Amanda tonight too!! So I am excited. I'm a little (okay, a lot) stressed out with the amount of money/time it takes for a woman to be a bridesmaid because this is the busiest I've ever been in my life, but the bride is COMPLETELY worth every minute and every pretty penny. And when that reception rolls around, I will be a dancin' machine and just let loose.
I feel like this is my diary entry today. So I will keep going. Caution-lots of venting to come!
My stress level at work (and everywhere else too!) has been monstrous lately. All the extra activities, all the end of the year testing and pre-preparation for next year, conferences, our charity auction (guess who put it together?), fund-raisers, our last 2 field trips (guess who plans most of them?), oh yeah, and then there's the teaching part. I forgot to mention the phone calls from parents asking questions about activities that were explained MULTIPLE times on notes sent home to AVOID the confusions and questions, and also all the complaints about not having enough homework for their kids, having too much homework for their kids, not understanding their kids' homework (hello-every single child in my class takes home homework that is appropriate for them)....the list goes on. I'm sure I'm not a perfect teacher, but I'm human, and I need a freaking break! On Tuesday, as I was dismissing my students, I felt shakey. Not the kind of shakiness where you need to eat or lay down, the kind that builds and builds and builds and is powered by endless amounts of obligations, responsibilities, and stress. I swear I'm being pulled in every direction and there are so many people depending on so much from me that at that shakey moment I was starting to have some kind of attack. So I went back to my classroom and sat back in my desk chair and spun around toward the window and just stared out for a while. I drank some diet Coke, maybe not the best choice, but it was what I had and I love it, and ate some crackers, and thought about nothing. And then I stopped shaking. So I think I warded it off, whatever the attach was, but I am pretty sure it was anxiety or stess. Or both. Since Tuesday I felt that a couple more times, and each time I stopped and chilled out, but nothing is resolved. All the committments I've made can't be broken, they just can't. So I'm trying to just do what i have to do to get by, which is hard because like so many other teachers, I'm a perfectionist with everything. If there's one thing that buying a house in the midst of the busiest time in my life/career/year has taught me, it's that WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT PERFECTION??? Really? Who cares? When I die, is anyone going to remember how perfect anything was?? HELL NO. So this is the self talk I've been engaging myself in all week. And it's working a little bit. After this weekend and next weekend, I think I will be so relieved. That's the goal, and it's what I keep focusing on. Well, I vented enough for now. I hope to have lots of fun crazy wedding stories for you when I get back.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Whew! The last couple days I have been one hot working momma, and I'm not talking about my job. I'm on my last 2 days of spring break here, and really, they don't count as spring break because it's the weekend. But anyway, today is MOVE IN DAY! Did you hear me?? MOVE IN DAY! I just may be sleeping in my own bed tonight for the first time in almost 2 months. Hello? That is AWESOME! We actually went to set the bed up last night, and discovered that the movers (his friends) "misplaced" the wheels and bolts for our bed frame. Nice, eh? The one thing that we could have set up late last night, and there was no way. So I'm on a mission this morning to get us new ones, and if the originals show up in a box I'll take the new ones back. But NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, is going to get in the way of me in my own bed tonight. The hard wood floors were sanded and stained a little darker, now they are a golden oak color, and then polyurethaned a couple times, and they are GORGOUS! There will be pictures of it, don't worry. And I have curtains going up today, some I made, some I bought. I even repainted all my purple flower pots to match the livingroom colors, which have ended up being a dark red and a golden/brown color. I re-did the pots in the last two days since it was pretty nice outside, and they turned out great. That's the best thing about those terra-cotta pots, you can always repaint them because they aren't fired. Now I'm just rambling on and on. Can you tell I'm so happy though? I can't wait to be living in my own house, even though things will be messy and in boxes, I don't care. And we can grocery shop for OURSELVES! I won't bitch about that anymore. I used to hate grocery shopping, and now I can't wait to do it!

We finally got most of the internet/cable issues cleared up in the new house. The old lady who lived there didn't have her cable shut off because she has alzhemiers and her attourney had to have it shut off, but that wasn't happening because....we have no idea. Anyway, it appears that someone came out and shut it off, so now we have an actual date to get our's turned on. Yay! I'm one step closer back to blog land on a daily basis!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

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Thirteen Places My Beloved Camera Might Be
1. Under my car seats
2. Under Kenny's truck seats
3. Under furniture in the garage
4. In a drawer in any dresser in the garage
5. In a box that I didn't look in yet
6. Smashed on the side of the road after falling out of the moving truck (oh, how will I ever recover from this one)
7. Hanging from a rafter in the garage
8. In his parents' house, buried under "stuff"
9. In my classroom (no wait, not even possible)
10. In the inside of the moving truck, not found yet
11. Mixed up inside towels and bedding in a garbage bag
12. Hanging from a hook behind the mattresses (still in the garage)
13. ANYWHERE!!
Here's the reason I'm so obsessed with finding the camera right now, aside from just MISSING it like crazy! A while back my grandma asked me if I had found it yet, and I told her no and that I didn't want to talk about it because it makes me sick to my stomach. She told me not to worry, that I would have a dream about where it was and then I'd be able to find it. Okay, well, life went on and then BAM I had the dream Monday night. Just like that. So yestereday, I couldn't be in the house while the stuff on our newly finished floors dries, but I kept thinking that it had to be somewhere UNDER something like a chair or a seat, because in my dream, I pulled out the backpack that it's in from under my driver's seat in my car. So is this a sign that it's under something?? What do you think? It's too cold and wet to be looking for it today, so hopefully tomorrow I can get in there and start looking like a madwoman. If you have any insight on what the dream means, let me know!!

Friday, April 06, 2007

Spring Break Blues

Today is the first day of my spring break. And I'm starting it EXACTLY like I did last year: sick. This blows. I mean, it really sucks. Last year, the ENTIRE break I was fighting off a sinus infection, and it really took the whole break because I was given an antibiotic that didn't do crap for me the first time. Then after 4 days of facial pain, I went back and got the right stuff. This time, I went to the doctor on Wednesday hoping to get the right meds quick enough and still be able to function for my last day of school, which was yesterday. Let's just say that I was at school. There wasn't much functioning though. The kids did math, science, and 2 movies. That's it. They loved it. I just muddled through. Last night and this morning I feel horrible. I thought I was being smart by going to the doctor before it became a full blown sinus infection, but I'm not sure what's going on now. I just know that I feel awful and that I have so many things to work on in our house that I can't afford to be sick.
I know my health is more important than finishing things in the house so we can move in, but when we're this close, and I have the time off, it's so hard to concentrate on anything else. I am only up and functioning this morning because I have to take a bridesmaid dress to get fitted and I can't put it off any longer. Nothing like waiting till the last minute! And then I'll be back on the couch, no doubt.
The good news about being sick is that I'm around Kenny's computer more to read blogs and update my own:)
Happy Almost Easter

Thursday, April 05, 2007

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Thirteen Things I Shouldn't Have Eaten In The Last 2 Weeks
1. Donuts
2. Jellybeans
3. Chocolate (more than the daily amount!)
4. Chicken nuggets
5. Pizza (school lunch)
6. York Peppermint Patty (while sitting in the urgent care for another sinus infection....BAD timing)
7. Another donut (stop bringing these to school and putting them in the teachers' lounge!)
8. OJ (too much sugar)
9. Dum-dums
10. Cadbury Egg
11. Dinner roll (wasted calories)
12. KFC (just 2 pieces of boneless chicken and cole slaw, no potatoes or bread, so it's not ALL that bad)
13. Pie at my family Easter party last weekend (homemade blueberry, can you say YUM!!)
We have been eating out A LOT because we are still not living in our own house. I know, there's no excuse, but still, it's so much easier this way. Despite these sins that have gotten into my mouth, I still am maintaining the minus 32 pounds...I'm not sure how, but I am! I still have quite a ways to go with the weight loss....what a process!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Yay spring!

Spring means one thing......BASEBALL!
Yesterday was Opening Day at Comerica Park. I was green with envy when a couple of my coworkers left in the morning because they had tickets to the first game of the season. I turned on the TV in my classroom long enough to see the first inning, and I can't even tell you how happy it made me! I have missed watching baseball so much! The kids sat very patiently watching the game too and asking me a million and one questions....
Why don't we have any numbers yet?
They have numbers (runs) so why don't we?
Why are you cheering? (then they cheer too)
What is strike?
When can our guys bat?
It was cute. I could only take about an inning of the questions though. Then I got them working but kept the TV on, although I hardly could pay attention to it. There were so many distractions yesterday...the phone in the room rang constantly, someone was ALWAYS at the door, it was just nonstop and very frustrating. I'm teaching my favorite science unit (animals-it's the only one I can do without using the teacher's edition because I STINK AT TEACHING SCIENCE) and I have the kids actually make an art project for each part of the unit. They get to make an amphibian, reptile, bird, fish, and of course, a mammal. So that's why I almost went crazy with all the interruptions. Sometimes it's impossible to teach. You'd think that I get lots done every day, but seriously, on days like this, it's nearly impossibly. People just don't realize what they are doing when they call or come to the door. Ahhhhh! Enough bitchin....
We are getting closer and closer to being in the house! I can't wait. My dad brought the refridgerator yesterday, and it was a story getting it in the house. I'll save that for later.