Ready for that Green Holiday...

I don't know what it is, but I hate Valentine's Day. Maybe it was my years of chronic singleness. Maybe it was because the years that I wasn't single, proved to be nothing but a big let down. I don't know. Maybe it's because I decided when I became a professional that I had the right to promote whatever holiday I wanted. If we discuss Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas, why can't we talk about being Irish? Especially living so close to St. Paul, an Irish community? Well, I always thought that we should have a St. Patty's Day party instead of a Valentine's Party.

This leads to the fact that I decorated my classroom (decorated in the loosest terms) for St. Patty's Day. I made a calendar, and I don't know if I like it yet. It was all in silver, but you couldn't read the silver on the light green so I went over it in black. Now I think that I need to go over the dark green in black too, just so it doesn't look bad.

I remembered to pull one of the high schoolers today. Mostly because he saw me yesterday and asked why he doesn't come to see me anymore. It's funny because most of the high school students complain about having to come to speech, and in the last week, two have asked why they don't get to come anymore.

Well, I tried to get through many students today so I would have time for scheduling stuff, and I didn't get to it. I don't know what it is, but that seems to be the hardest thing for me to get to. i may never have updated lesson plans or a co-taught schedule figured out. I wish that I had the day for workshop that the rest of the building has in March. I could get a whole lot of stuff done.

Better get back to work, for a little bit anyway. Then I want to get my happy butt home to not do work related stuff.

All the Cool Kids

Had to stay home yesterday and go to the doctor because they are sick. Yeah, I was sick again. I am sick. I have three different nasal decongestants that I am taking at least two or three times a day. Are you kidding me? I opened a new box of Kleenex today and I swear that I have used at least an eighth of it already.

I wonder if Lukin is home with Daddy or if we have to go get him after I get home. I feel bad. I think I got little man sick. He had a bit of a fever last night. Carin thinks that he might be cutting some more teeth. I don't want him to because he looks so cute with the six teeth that he has. I love that smile.

I wish that I could get all the things that I want to get done done. I am tired of the same list of things to do following me around. I need to figure out some scheduling things so that if I were to do some co-teaching, I would have a time slot to work with. I need to stop spreading myself so thin by having these brilliant ideas and then not having enough time to make them come to fruition. Of course, if I really want to stress about something, I should probably say that I need to get better. That would probably be a good choice for a first thing that I need to do.

What to do? What to say?

I don't know how many of you are fortunate enough to have the luxury of devoting 8 hours to sleep every night, but I will say that my husband and I are not those people. I have a hard time going to bed before 10 pm because I am a night owl and therefore if I were to go to bed at 10 pm exactly, I would probably be able to get approximately 7 hours of sleep. This never happens. The only times that I would get to bed by 10 or before, would be when I am sick, as I am now.

On the flip side, my husband is lucky if he ever gets six hours of sleep a night. While I understand his desire to stay up and spend time with Lukin and me, it's important to his overall health to get at least 6 hours of sleep at least a couple nights a week. While I must confess, since it's my blog and I can say what I want, if he were to go to bed so he could get eight hours of sleep a night, I would be very lonesome on a daily basis. So from a selfish point of view, I am glad that he doesn't go to bed at 5 pm so he can get 8 hours in before work. But from the guilty wife point of view, I feel bad that he doesn't get enough sleep (in my opinion).

Which leads me to my title for today's entry. Yesterday, we took Lukin over to the in-laws so we could run a couple errands. These errands didn't seem that important to me because of the weather, but Sonny insisted that I would whine today saying that I didn't get to leave the house this weekend, if we didn't go, so we did. After we finished our errands, we returned to the in-laws where Carin had made dinner for us and we ate and then decided to play a game of Marbles. During the game of Marbles, I sat with a box of Kleenex beside me and a Target bag to throw the used ones into and a container of hand sanitizer so I could 'wash' my hands each time I used a Kleenex.

It was during this when my in-laws asked if we wanted them to keep Lukin overnight (because they love to have him) so that I could get some rest and try to feel better. Reluctantly, I agreed. I feel bad when we are always letting them keep him over night. (Okay, it's not always but at least once every two weeks.)

So we came home and Sonny went to bed pretty much right away. I stayed up and watched a movie and did some crossword puzzles. As soon as the movie was over, I was barely awake and I laid my head down on the couch and fell asleep. Around 1:15 am or so, I woke up and decided to head down to bed. I did, and about 15 or so minutes later, Sonny got up for work.

Well, time passes, and morning comes but because there is no baby-talk coming from the next room, I am able to keep sleeping. By the time I feel like I could get up for a while, it is noon. I have slept (on and off) for about 12 hours. That's a great amount when you are not well. However, I will feel bad if my husband asks me because he never gets that much sleep and he would be lucky to get that much sleep in three nights. (Now the skeptic might ask, 'Well, won't he read this and know?' And the answer is no because he doesn't really read this because he says that he lives it.

Maybe I shouldn't feel bad for getting so much sleep. Maybe it was necessary. Yes, I still feel icky, but not to the same extent as last night. I just feel bad that I got that much sleep.

Ready for a break and some Triaminic.

I got the report and the IEPs done that I was freaking out about yesterday morning. It was a relief to have them all done by 8 pm last night. Of course, that didn't help me get to bed any earlier than I would have if I hadn't had a bunch of stuff to do.

So I am at school and I am getting ready for the meeting, which is happening in less than 30 minutes and I am calm and I think that I have let everyone on the team know my thoughts about this student and whether or not I think she should continue with speech-language services, so hopefully it will all go smoothly.

As soon as the meeting is over, though, I am ready for the weekend. I actually may finish my list of things to do for this school before the end of Friday and then I would be 'bored', or just without a task. I was thinking that depending on how I feel after the meeting, I may go get my nails fixed. It will be my reward for making it through the meeting. Although, I would just like to go home and take some triaminic and take a nap. We will have to see. I'll keep everyone updated.

I make myself sick.

I wonder if this has ever happened to anyone else in the world, but I get so stressed out with things that I have to do that I end up making myself sick worrying about them. Currently, I am in the process of writing speech-language goals for two students that I should have the goals completed for before the end of the day on Tuesday. Then, I am working on a three-year assessment report for a meeting that will be tomorrow after school. I haven't even hardly touched the report. I have updated the information so that it is about this student, but I haven't put in actual results yet. I have this feeling that it's going to be a long night.

All that work related stress aside, I have no desire to do anything when I get home. Last night, I brought all my stuff home but then had no desire to work on anything. I got myself all set up to work on the report for the assessment meeting tomorrow, and then I got tired. It didn't help that I had this horrible headache. Sonny says that the headache is from being so stuffed up. It doesn't matter. It feels horrible. Even writing about it now, nearly 20 hours later, makes my head hurt.

All I can say is that I am glad that I came to work today, even if I didn't get all the things done that I was hoping to. I wanted to stay home and get some rest so I could feel better but I had all this stuff to do at work so that I couldn't afford to stay home and not get things done. It's weird how having a child changes that. I used to be able to stay home and rest when I didn't feel good, now it would probably just be more work to stay home when I am not feeling well. It would be okay if Lukin actually went to daycare. But it's like if I don't feel well then that's an out for Sonny's parents to not have to babysit. I don't feel good. Why would I want to spend the day playing with my son and cuddling him for naptime and getting him sick? I guess I shouldn't complain. This has only happened once where they left when I came home from school. I haven't really used a lot of sick days this year.

Okay, well that gave you something new to read and it gave me a break from my report. So I guess I better get back to work.

Another Day, Another Entry.

So for Valentines Day, we did go out. Granted, we went to Old Chicago for Calzones at 5 pm and then went to DQ and then went to the in-laws, but we still went out. We have only been married for over a year and already Valentine's Day wasn't as romantic as last year. Maybe it's because we have this little reminder of reality so we can't pretend that life at home is peaceful and relaxing and therefore spend a couple hours being all lovey-dovey.

Well, after coming home from the in-laws, boyless, we got to work making babyfood. Happy Valentine's Day. Nothing says 'I love you' like a fresh batch of strawberry/pear. I guess it says 'I love you' as far as Lukin is concerned. But my husband, not so much.

Today was a busy day at school. In fact, the next week will be busy. I'm not at school tomorrow but I have a 3-year re-eval meeting next Thursday and I have two IEPS that I have to compose goals for by Wednesday at the latest of next week. Yay.

Although I should really get going and go and pack a bit for me and the Little Man. We are headed North tomorrow night for the long weekend.

Take care everyone and have a nice President's Day weekend.

Quick Thoughts on Valentine's Day

So, everyone at work has been asking if my husband and I have any plans for tomorrow with it being Valentine's Day and all. I don't know how to answer them. I don't want to ask Sonny if we have anything planned because he will probably say that we can't do anything because we have a baby. I would feel bad asking the in-laws to watch Lukin because they are a married couple also. They shouldn't have to give up their Valentine's Day freedom to babysit our baby. I don't know what will happen...but I will keep y'all posted.

An out of Nowhere Grammar Lesson

Today, I was driving and I got to thinking about how much I dislike it when people use incorrect grammar. There are some things that bother me more than others and some things that just sound unsophisticated.

The two words that bother me today are when people use real and really incorrectly. Henceforth the vocab lesson for the day.

REAL: (adjective): not imaginary; actual or true

REALLY: (adverb): in fact; actually

Now, in reading the definitions, one might think that they are, in fact, interchangable. They are not. One is an adjective and one is an adverb. That means, that they both modify different things. An adjective modifies a noun. An adverb modifies a verb. They cannot be used interchangably.

For example, I am wearing a new skirt today. It would be appropriate for someone to say, "You look really nice today." Really is describing how I look. They couldn't say, "You look real nice." What are they saying? Do I look not imaginarily nice? Do I look actual nice? True nice? What are they saying?

On the flip side, a person could say, "That is not a real fur coat." Real is describing the fur. It wouldn't be appropriate to say, "that is not a really fur coat." I have never actually met anyone who has made this grammatical mistake. Thank goodness. However, they could say, "that is not really a fur coat." Confused yet?

Empathy is not a four letter word

Some may argue that the story that I am about to share has nothing to do with empathy. I think it does in my own weird way. So, here I go.

Today, when I was walking out to my car after Social Skills at Shannon Park, I found a toy lying on the ground. It was like a cross between those 'little people' toys I had growing up and the people that come with Legos. This was a girl one and she looked like a princess or something like that. Now, the lazy part of me was thinking, just leave it and keep walking. However, the mother in me couldn't let it lay there. I picked it up and took it back into the school and took it to the office. I told the lady that I found that in the parking lot in case someone was looking for it. She thanked me and said that someone was probably going to be looking for that person and then I left. I felt kind of stupid walking outside again because I was thinking to myself that as soon as I left, she probably just threw it into some random lost items box. That thought made me feel like I was stupid for picking up the toy.

However, the mom part of me thought about what it will be like when Lukin gets a little older and loses things. He might cry and be sad that he lost that one particular piece of something and it would be nice to think that there was someone out there who might have taken the time to pick up his toy, if it had fallen out of his bag, and turn it in.

And that's all I have to say about that.

This weekend, I got to spend some time with Naomi. We met up in Maplewood and went and got our nails done and then we went to Target, and then we went to eat at Olive Garden and then we shopped at Kohl's for a while and then went home. I had fun. It was nice to see my 'best cities friend' and have some girl time. That, and my nails look pretty now. :)

I can't remember if I had mentioned that I got a perm or not, but I did. And like Shayla said, it is starting to relax a little. Of course, it is still way curly. I have a feeling that even though she said this perm would last about a month, it will be here for quite a while. I am familiar with how well my hair holds curl. However, if it does decide that it will lose all the curl in a month, it's okay. It will have been nice to not have to style my hair for a month's time.

Changing Lives One Snow-Covered Car at a Time

I love when it snows. I love that it's white and pretty outside. I love the way the sky looks when the snow is falling. I love that when the snow is falling, that means we won't be having 80 degree weather that day. I love it.

So, yesterday, it was snowing when I came to work. Of course, as per usual, I have to leave work after an hour to go to another school. In that hour, my car got a nice layer of snow on it. So I decided that I would do what my husband does and take my snow brush into the school with me. A lot of my kids were asking me why I was carrying the brush. I explained to the kids that asked, as well as the couple adults that looked at me with the inquisitive look on their face. And now I will explain it to all of my loyal readers.

When you take your snow brush inside with you while it's snowing, when you go to leave, you won't have to brush snow off your car to open the car and have all the snow go inside so that you can get the brush so you can clean off your car. It's almost too simple. I don't know the guy that Sonny works with that told him about that, but that guy is smart to have thought of something so simple.

Now I have shared that information with all of you, therefore changing your lives, even if only in a very minute way. :)

I am so lonely.

I know this has been the theme of entries before but I almost started crying tonight. I need some interaction. I wonder if this is part of what makes adult life boring. I mean, you grow up being taught to be social but then you get married and have a baby and suddenly you don't have time for social interactions anymore. Or as Sonny would say, people don't include you because you are the old married one. That makes me sad. I am still just as fun as I used to be, just lonelier.

So back to my rant about my weekend. It was an alright weekend. I just feel like I want a vacation with just my husband. I know that as a mom that is probably really bad to say, but I would like some time JUST with him. This occurred to me as I was being bogged down with having to coordinate with 8 other people over the weekend. It was a headache. I just wanted to do something alone. (I think people forget how important alone time is when they are all together for a weekend or something.)

I'm feeling better now. I was so crabby this weekend and it carried over into my interactions with the students today. It probably showed because the students were asking me why I was being so 'mean' today. They were like, "Why are you all up on us today anyway?" PMS? I don't know kid. Why do you gotta ask me all these questions and get up in my business?

Seriously. I am really tired. I want to go to sleep but at the same time I don't want to do the things that I should do in order to get ready for bed. Does that even make sense?

I don't want to go to work tomorrow in the ice box. I do need to think up a fantastic plan to co-teach at my home school so I don't have to do pull out with middle and high school kids anymore. It's mostly the high school that I would like to try this theory with.

Okay, that's probably about enough for today.

Another Day in the Icebox

So for those of you who didn't know that I was in Texas this weekend, it was harsh to return to the bitter cold. It was even harder today to come to work, KNOWING that I was going to freeze in my classroom, since it's freezing when it's only 20 degrees out, so the -10 degrees was not going to be fun.

You can tell that we are from Minnesota when we go to Texas and the first day there I wear a long sleeve t-shirt and no coat. Everyone else gets all bundled up to go out to eat. Of course, the more we were there, the more we started to bundled up. However, wearing a sweatshirt on the Riverwalk pales in comparison to the layers we have to wear here.

I would love to go into detail about my weekend, however, I want to go home and unthaw. I will write more later or tomorrow.