Happy!! :)

Few things in this world can make me as happy as early spring!

The new, light green leaves, the flowers (lilacs anyone?!?!), fresh cut grass, the warm-ish sun, outdoor recess (thank goodness!!!)... even the smell of small brush fires in my parents backyard.  Instant smile.

Today was a rough day at school.  It was rainy all day, so recess was inside and the kids are always a little crazy when they're in all day (and who can blame them?).  Additionally, it was a Thursday-- Thursdays are always rough for me.  For some reason that is the day I have very little patience for them.  (I do intensely love the kiddos!)  Overall, it was a long, stressful day (I don't think a single one listened to directions!) but I walked out of the building at the end of the day and was greeted by warm spring air, the smell of fresh grass, and a fully bloomed lilac bush.  Perfect.  My mood increased exponentially in the matter of seconds.

My stomach has really been bothering me lately.  I read in my What to Expect book that at this point it's common for tugging and achiness as ligaments and muscles and who-knows-what-else stretch to accommodate the little darlings, so I'm not worried.  But it hurts to even walk!  Luckily it is usually fine at school... I'm a little run down at school, but at home is when things get rough.  It hurts to get off the couch, to roll over in bed... ouch!  But totally worth it!!!

School Related Tid Bits

Tuesdays my kids have 2 specials.  Gym in the AM from 9:30-10:10 and Library or Music in the PM from 1:55-2:30.  Usually during the AM prep time I try to get stuff done because Darcy is there and she can help.  Today, however, we were talking about my appointment.  Picture it.  I'm sitting at my desk with my feet up on a drawer and Cheeze-Its in my hand.  (It was part of my snack!)  Darcy is sitting on one of the kids tables and we're talking animatedly.  At approximately that time, the principal along with 2 people I don't know come walking in.  Oops.  Becky comes in and asks where the kids are to which I reply (as usual) "I gave them away!"  No one laughed.  :P   Becky then introduced the people she was with as visiting teachers from a Boston Montessori school.  They come in look around and Becky says "I especially love helping in Stacey's room while she's working on reading and writing."  Then they awkwardly leave.  To which I ask Darcy "When has she EVER helped in my room?"  A few minutes later we walked to the office to talk to the secretary who informed us that the two teachers with Becky were a part of her interview for the principal position of this school.   Oops.  I hope I didn't blow the interview for her!  But, seriously, WHY wouldn't she have let us know ahead of time that the interview was taking place!?!

Bits and pieces

I keep trying to start posts... I must have started a dozen over the past couple of days but then I run out of things to say.  I guess that's a good thing... things are pretty uneventful around these parts as far as baby-relatedness goes.  

I'm pretty overwhelmed right now... between teaching, my classes related to AYP, and then my grad classes... cooking, dishes, and my constant need to sleep I feel like I haven't been able to think straight in forever.  One of my classes is a Diversity class where I'm supposed to put myself into a minority situation for 3 hours and write a paper about how it makes me feel.  The initial "What I'm doing" paper is due Monday.  I have no idea.  Then in my other class I have to create a unit but I'm so out of my element.  The examples are for grad school and I am NOT writing a grad school unit.  So, instead, I'm thinking of doing one for K/1st grade.  Which is fine... except now I feel like mine is lacking substance in comparison.  (Because, really, you just can't do as much with 5 and 6 year olds!)

Speaking of 5 and 6 year olds... my kiddies continue to be cute.  The other day we were making a list of words that rhyme with "see".  I got tree and me and three.  Then I asked for a word that starts with "b" that rhymes with "see".  The answer my student yelled out?  "Sexy!"  Ha... luckily it didn't start with "b" so I could ignore her.  I also said "You should've" to a student in relation to something--- and he got mad at me thinking I told him to "Shut up".  As far as I know his parents weren't informed. 

Baby related... I can barely keep my eyes open any more.  I'm started to have bouts of horrible nausea.  Usually at very bad times... in the middle of reading a book to the class, while driving home... times like that.  But it does make me feel a little better... like something is still going on.

I'll have the pictures of the ultrasound soon... my brother scanned them all in on Friday night... he just hasn't emailed them to me yet.  As soon as I get them from him I'll post a few.

I guess that's all for now!  :)  Back to doing school work.

School Ramblings

Ah, school.  :)  It's nice to be back in the swing of things.  I have come home the past 2 days remarkably exhausted-- today more than yesterday though.  I had a class after school and with traffic, it ended up being a 12+ hour day.  Either way, it's nice to be back.  

One of the 1st grades in my school has selected me to be their All Star of the Week!  I know it sound silly, but I'm excited.  How cute is that?  That they selected me to be their Star out of all of the other adults in the building?  To be fair, more than 1/2 of the class is made up of my K's from last year... :P  The class might have been a little biased.  :)

Productive for once!

Woohooo!  

I finally registered for grad classes!  It took a lot of digging online to find the information that I needed to register for the correct classes, but I did it.  Unfortunately, however, I sent a panicked email to my advisor before finding the info.  :(  And I almost had a heart attack when I realized how much this is all going to cost!  But I should be done with the whole degree in 1 year!  :)  Yay!  And that will mean a nice little bump in pay AND I won't have to worry about recertification craziness for 6 years-- 1 year for my first recert covered by grad school and then another 5 for the second round.  :)

Principal

So, I've always been one to defend my principal for the past year and a half.  Pretty much everyone else has a problem with her... but I never really had a reason.  But today she did something beyond my comprehension... ha.  It's a little ridiculous, but it made me mad.

So, this AM I was in my room getting stuff ready when Madam Principal walks in.  She was holding something in her hand and I didn't pay much attention.  She then asks "Do you get Scholastic News?"  I responded that I get the younger version, Let's Find Out, but, yes, I do get it.  (I had the parents pay for some and I paid for the rest of it.)  She said that she had gotten things in the mail about the inauguration and she was trying to make a bulletin board about the inauguration/president and she wanted to know if I had anything to help contribute to it.  I mentioned that a few issues ago I had gotten a thing about Obama and that I'd look for it for her.  If she wanted it she could have it.  She said thanks and then walked away.

A few minutes later, I walked to the office to deliver the poster I had and took at look at what the principal had put together.  At that point she just had a poster of all the presidents.   I then checked my mail.  In my box was my newest issue of Let's Find Out... but it was unwrapped.  Usually the package comes shrink wrapped because it is packaged for my class specifically and is addressed to me.  I thought it was weird, but didn't think anything of it.  Then later, I'm in my room with Darcy (my aide) and I started looking through the package I had gotten to look at the posters and issues to see if there was anything else I could contribute to the bulletin board.  As I was looking, I noticed that my posters weren't there.  Now, there are typically 2 double-sided posters (so 4 in all)... 3 are "Big Page" copies of the 3 monthly issues and the other is a "Theme Poster".   So I looked at the packing list and it said that my theme poster was one of all the presidents.  So, I immediately went back to the hallway and looked at the posters in the hall and in the corner it says "Let's Find Out".  

She STOLE MY POSTER!  Not only that, but she opened my package without asking AND then played dumb and came and asked me "Do you get Scholastic News?"  YES I get it and you knew that because YOU OPENED MY PACKAGE!!!

I know it's ridiculous but I was just dumbfounded that she did that.  I would have given it to her if she asked!!   So, I didn't say anything because I don't want to cause any problems.  But Darcy wants me to email the whole school and play dumb and say something like "I just got my magazines and I can't seem to find my president poster.  Has anyone seen it?"  But, my 3 other posters are missing as well (well, 1 really because 1 of them is on the back of the president poster) and one of them is about George Washington and how things have changed since he was president.  If that shows up on the wall around President's Day I will flip out.  

So, what should I do?

Things are looking up!!!! :)

Today was a fantabulous day at school and to make things better, tomorrow is Veteran's Day so I have no school!! Woohoo! Then, Wednesday is a 1/2 day for conferences (though I only have one scheduled for the afternoon- the rest are all in a week or so). Friday night I'm babysitting, Saturday AM I'm getting my hair cut, Monday I have a conference to go to all day (no no kiddies for me!)... then the following week is Thanksgiving, so I have a 1/2 day Wednesday and no school the rest of the week!

I am very much looking forward to the next few weeks. Plus, I just generally love this time of year!

Tomorrow is *hopefully* the last blood draw for this crazy, crazy cycle. Then it's only the waiting until we move on!! :)

So, I'm feeling good. And, really, I just LOVE days off. (But I do love my kiddies more than anyone can imagine--- they made me cry today from laughing so hard. And we made the coolest family trees today out of actual trees... :))

Good weekend

It's Sunday night. The weekend is almost over and I'm getting ready to go back to school tomorrow. My mind is racing- I have so much to get through over the next few weeks. Four of my 15 kids are reading already. So I have to modify all of my Guided Reading lessons to challenge them. We still haven't learned all of the daily routines, so setting children up to independent AM centers is challenging. My behaviorally challenged child needs some sort of new behavior chart. But I'm not sure what to do. In short, I just want to get through the next few weeks with a little sanity.

But I am optimistic that this week will be a little better and a lot smoother than last week- each week will get easier. My teaching partner said she had the worst first day of school ever on Thursday. She's been teaching for 10 years. There goes my hope that the first days will get easier over the years. :)

But on a positive note, I was talking to the 1st grade teacher who has 1/2 my kids from last year. She was amazed at how polite, well-behaved, and advanced (in reading and writing) they were. :) So I have proof that the hard work pays off. It is just stressful in the beginning. (VERY stressful!)

The weekend itself was pretty good. Relaxing. Low key. Hopefully the start of something fabulous (I'll let you know in two weeks). It'll be our last relaxing weekend for a few weeks so I'm glad I got to enjoy it. :)

And so we wait some more...

So the IUI was this AM. Johnny went in at 11am and I went in at 12pm. Or, at least I was there at 12pm... I didn't go in until closer to 12:20pm. I was getting nervous sitting there that something was wrong. But finally they called us so all was well. We went in and a new nurse (new to me) did the IUI. I didn't like her at all. Since it was my second IUI she just got right now to business, which is okay, but there was no caring or anything. Last time I felt like the nurse genuinely cared about me and the procedure and it working. This time the nurse made me feel like she just had to do her job and be out. (And through the rushing she made it hurt- a lot. I think, though, it was just because I was tense about not liking her much and not feeling comfortable with her.)

When she went over the numbers from the sample, she only talked to me and kind of blocked Johnny out, so I felt bad about that. The numbers were okay. Not as good as last time... motility and concentration were both low. (bummer) And last time there was something like 98 million. This time it was only 16.6 million. But that was still 6.6 over what they were looking for, so I guess it was okay. :)

So the test is schedule for September 22nd. Of course I'll probably home test on September 21st. :) Even if it's negative, I always like to know so I don't get so upset when I get the call from the random nurse at the drs office.

So that's all about that. School yesterday was exhausting once again. There is one child in particular that I cannot stand. Or rather, I can stand him, but he tries my patience (to put it mildly). He also got sent to the principal's office because I couldn't stand him. So that is that.

Just heard my poor brother- who is 4 hours away in NY visiting his girlfriend- woke up this AM to a tree branch having fallen on his car and breaking the windshield & denting the roof. The insurance company can't have it fixed until Monday. So, somehow, he has to drive home from NY with the broken windshield. He has more problems with his car than anyone else I know.

Saturday it is!

I forgot to mention last night that we had gotten good news from the blood work I had done yesterday AM. Apparently my levels are A-okay (though I'm still personally a little concerned about the lining because it was so thin and they didn't check it yesterday... a few cycles ago they actually delayed me by a few days because of the lining... or lack there of). Anyways, I triggered last night (or, really, Johnny triggered me...). The IUI is officially Saturday! We don't know what time yet because they don't make weekend schedules until Friday afternoon, but we should know soon. Back to my life of not cage fighting and slam dancing.

The first day of school was ... exhausting! I got to see my old kids in the AM. Ahh they're so cute! All the moms came and gave me hugs. It was great to see them. My new group seems okay. I know they'll never quite measure up to that fabulous group of last year (plus I had 11 girls and 1 boy last year so it was a bit calmer... I have 8 boys and 7 girls this year...). I'll have my new kids whipped into shape soon. Once they are, I'm sure I'll love them to death as well.

That's all for now... off to finish getting ready for the day and then off to school for Day 2.

Sleeeepy

The first few days back to school (either starting or after a vacation) are always tough for me. I always spend the first few nights SO tired. And that's where I am right now. EXHAUSTED. It's only 7:25 but I wish I were in bed already. I have a little bit more work to finish up and then it's beddy time!!

Tomorrow AM I have a 6:30am appt. at RSC. I'm hoping and praying that those fabulous follies have grown fabulously. :)

Grad School

As mentioned a post or so ago, I got into grad school. Woohoo. I had been putting it off for a little too long, so it's good to finally have started the process. Plus, I love to learn. So I'm very excited about starting and accomplishing something. I can see myself moving on and getting my doctorate in the future, so I'm excited to move on. I am completing an online program thru UMass Lowell, but this is only because we don't know where we will end up in the next few months/years. Though it'd be very convenient to attend classes on campus right now, I didn't want to be tied down in the future should things finally move along. So there we go.

I'm set to start in Spring of 2009. I'm going to try to take one class this fall which will be applied to my degree when I start the official program in the Spring. This is just so I won't feel like I'm not doing anything this fall. :) Plus, the pay raise associated with having some extra credits will be nice.

My only problem is financial aid. I'm pretty much banking on it-- we don't really have the ability to pay for all of the classes up front. So I'm going to fill out the FAFSA, but I think that I probably should have filled it out way back in the late-winter/early-spring even though I hadn't even applied yet. Soooo I'm hoping that I can get aid for this spring. If not I will have to get aid for Fall 2009. And we'll have to either just take out a regular ole loan, or just ask my parents to help us out. (Which I'm not too keen on doing...)

So that's the update.

Back to RSC tomorrow and I must say... although I'm looking forward to moving on and getting stuff done, I am not looking forward to the blood draws! :)