Lots of Fun and some questions

So today, I went to a baby shower for a lady at work and I have to say that it was the most fun I have had since I worked for this school. You see, whenever I think about whether or not I like working at this school, the answer is that 'yes' I do like working there, but 'no' I don't like that I don't have any friends there.

You see, I am a social creature. It kills me that in the 6 years I have been doing this job, in the 4 different districts I have worked in, this is the only district that I haven't had fun working in, simply because there is no social aspect of the job. All of the other jobs I have ever worked, in my entire life, had a social aspect. In high school, you drove around with the people you worked with. In college, you partied with the people you worked with (how many after bar parties did I have when I lived next to Amanda?) Each of my school jobs, brought school friends, and therefore people to do stuff with. This district (or at least the building I am currently working in) hasn't yielded that. It makes me kind of sad.

That is why today was so much fun. It was the first time that I felt like part of the group. Maybe it was because it was a baby shower in a home, and I was vicariously living through the gal (Megan, pronounced Meegan). But it was fun.

Side note: I don't understand why it's not supposedly okay to have showers for subsequent children. When Lukin was born, we never had a baby shower for him outside of the one the ladies at work threw for me. (I was also ripped off in the bridal shower department. I had one that my future husband's cousin (along with other family members) threw for me. But none from my side of the family. AND I never got a bacchelorette (or however it's spelled) party. But in my whining to my husband about all the things I never got to have, he did remind me that there was a bach party planned for me, but then there was a blizzard and so it didn't happen. That made me feel better.

But my question, because I don't really understand, is why can't you have a shower for the 2nd or 3rd or 7th baby? I mean, I guess I understand that it may come across as begging for free gifts, but why is it okay if there is a gap between children? I don't get it.

All I am really trying to say is that if I have a second child someday, I want to be able to do the shower thing. Even if we call it something else, like a Welcome Baby party. I don't want to do it for gifts. I just want to invite everyone over and have some food and drink and baby games and joy over the new baby. I don't know why that wouldn't be okay.

What a day!

I bought my first bathing suit that I have ever purchased since becoming an adult. The last time I got one was in high school or junior high. I am not super excited to own one, but now I can take my son swimming if need ever be. I got it for the trip we might take over Spring Break.

I thought that would be the highlight of my day but it's been really shitty. One kid broke down in tears during testing and another stole from me prior to dialing 9-1-1 from my classroom phone (which I hit the button so it hopefully didn't go through). What a day. I am going to go get my hair done now and that ought to cheer me up.

School thoughts

So I tried to create an entry yesterday but apparently, the computer didn't think that my entry was interesting enough to let me save it. It wasn't interesting at all so the computer was right.

My next class is doing a pre-test on the next chapter of vocabulary words. I didn't make the test because I didn't feel I had to. I have done all the work for our Q-Comp project so far, and Helen has just coasted off what I have done. I figured that for the last unit (singular, as in I had done four chapters worth of at least 2 units each), I could let her do the work and coast off her.

For those of you that know me, that will be really hard because I don't do well with letting someone that I don't feel to be as competent as me to get things done the way I want them done. So we will see what a train wreck it is in about 10 minutes. It ought to be interesting because I am going to assume that Helen probably thinks that I did the pre-test for her. But my part of the Q-Comp is basically done, so I don't need to teach her class for her anymore. I liked doing it as a supplement to her class, but it soon became her class and she stopped doing her thing and just let me do mine. I didn't like that very much.

In other news, I kind of feel run down. I don't like the idea of having to start thinking about what I will be doing next year again pretty soon, but I will probably have to start thinking about that soon. I feel bored with my job. Maybe because I am powerless to select what I like best about my job and just get to do that. But also because I don't really have a something that I like best right now. I feel like the kids could care less, and that rubs off on me. Working in education is hard, if you were ever wondering.

Steve Poltz live at the Nomad

So this weekend, Amanda came down to stay for the weekend. Unfortunately for me, Todd also lives in the twin cities, and she wanted to see him.

So, Todd invited Amanda (and me) to go to some live music on Saturday. At least that was the only information that I had about our Saturday night plans until Saturday night. So Todd gives us this vague address (which was the address for the Nomad, a bar in Minneapolis). We googled it and as my husband looked over my shoulder he suggested that it would probably be easier to take the train than to drive. That was fine with me. I know where to park with the train. I don't know where to park for some random bar.

Anyway, unbeknownst to either Amanda or myself, this bar happens to be near the building where that t.v. show that had Mary Tyler Moore in it was. Unfortunately, that apartment builiding that was apparently a nice apartment in the show, just happens to be the projects in Minneapolis now. That's where the train stopped, right beside the Riverside apartments. Yay. Sonny said he knew that, but didn't want to tell me because then we probably wouldn't have went.

But, knowing we were going into Minneapolis, I had Amanda text her friends and say that if someone wasn't at the train station to meet us, we were getting on the next one heading back to the MOA and we were going home. Thankfully, Jesse was at the station waiting.

As we were walking the three or so blocks to the bar, Jesse tells us that there is a $10 cover charge. I was thinking that I didn't get enough money out for the eveing and also I was thinking that I didn't think it was necessary to pay to see someone I didn't even know of. But I know we gotta pay that guy's wage so whatever.

The opening band was young and loud. I'm sure they were fine, but I couldn't understand a thing they were singing. I wanted them to stop playing the guitars and sing so I could hear them. Way to be old and at this bar.

Then, about the time our train tickets expired, the main act came out. We probably saw the Steve Poltz guy perform for 45 minutes to an hour before we had to leave to catch the last train of the night. He was pretty good. Pretty granola-y but, still good. My favorite song that he performed was 'Stay Away a Little Closer', but I can't find it online because it's new, but I also liked 'Silver Lining', and that can be found on U-Tube.

So all in all it was fun experience. It makes me feel old to know that most nights I am contemplating going to bed at 10:00 instead of getting ready to go out on a Saturday night but I guess doing those things once in a while is okay too.

F.A.P.E vs. F.A.D.

So where do I start to tell this story? Well, I will start with this: as educators, and especially as a special educator, it is our duty to provide education in the least restrictive environment possible for our students. We have an acronym for this: F.A.P.E. It stands for Free Appropriate Public Education. It basically means that all students are entitled to receive an education that is most appropriate for their needs in the (free) public school setting.

Anyway, last night we were watching the Battle of the JayWalk All-Stars on Jay Leno. One of the contestants was/is going to school at Bemidji State to be a teacher, and she wasn't very smart (probably why she was on). So, after a few questions, Jay asked her what she was going to be teaching (since she was getting all the questions wrong), and she said Kindergarten. Then she added, "Like coloring and stuff."

I looked at Sonny and said, "Kindergarten is not like it was when we were little. All the things that we knew by the end of the year, they have to come in knowing nowadays. Lukin has to know his colors and numbers and letters and stuff before he goes to Kindergarten or he will be behind."

Sonny said, "We didn't learn that stuff until 1st grade."

I asked him what he did learn in kindergarten and he told me that they played most of the time. Sometimes they were read stories, but mostly they played. I looked at him and asked if he had naptime. He nodded.

I got the giggles at this point. I said, "So what was it? Like free daycare? Instead of the F.A.P.E. that we have to worry about now, you were getting F.A.D. (Free Appropriate Daycare) at school?" I couldn't get over the fact that his 'school' in kindergarten really did sound a lot like daycare instead of education. I kept giggling as I thought of the parents dropping their kids off for an afternoon of 'learning' how to play and take a nap. Seriously. He said that his kindergarten teacher just retired a few years ago. I am not surprised. How stressful would teaching be if the kids nap and play all afternoon long? Sheesh.

Lunar Eclipse

It's on days like today that I don't mind going to my second school. The kids are wound up and bad today. I was organizing stuff on my desk getting ready to pull the first two kiddos and then suddenly, I could hear all hell break lose in the hall. I had to run to the office for something and when I came back there was muffin all over the floor and a screaming sound coming from one of the break out rooms. Lucky me. It was the break out room right next to my classroom.

Well, I went to grab those two students and then decided that I better go grab the stuff because we weren't about to be having our session in my classroom today. So we were going to go to the elementary activity room, but the other elementary class was already there (they are on the other side of the break out room). So we were wondering the hallway trying to find a place to go. We eventually wound up in a conference room in the office. Those kids were just as loud as, if not louder than, the kid in the break out room.

Thankfully, the next kid was a nice break. He came with his laptop and an assignment to type. He sat quietly typing, knowing hte deadline is tomorrow, and only occasionally asked me a question.

But the next group were middle schoolers and they were naughty too. They would imitate every thing the other kids would say. It was like that game "parrot". It was driving me nuts...and some of the other kids who were trying to request a break out room to get away for a few minutes to refocus.

And finally, as I was washing my hands, just moments ago, for lunch, a kid was bawling in the hall by my room. Yay. Like I said, it makes me glad to get out of this building and go where only one of my students is verbal.

My guess is that they are behaving this way because of the Lunar Eclipse tonight. They seem to act up when weather systems go through, why not lunar systems?

P.S. In case you don't know, there is a lunar eclipse tonight.

Friday night's adventures

So, this weekend, I got drunk. I don't know if I would necessarily call it that, but it was fun. I haven't let my hair down like that since, I don't even remember. Stacie says that she hadn't seen me that drunk since her 21st. She will be 24 in April. She is probably right. Ever since I have been a mom, that just doesn't really appeal to me. It's bad enough to have a hangover, let alone a hangover with a small child who will zap any remaining energy, just didn't have any appeal to me.

Anyway, Lukin was with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend in the cities. So that was out the window. I caught a ride from the Fargo airport to GF with my aunt Shell (Michelle) and uncle Mark. We did their usual pre-game routine of going to El Roco and grabbing a bite to eat and a couple beverages before catching a bus over to the game. That was fun, and coincidentally what got me started. I decided to have a Mike's Hard Lime. It was good. So I had another. Usually, by this time it is time to go and I don't usually drink at the game. However, I needed to buy a beer for my aunt and uncle because they paid for my stuff at El Roco. So at the game, I had two more Mike's, only they were the 'game-size' bottles. Then after that, I didn't drink anything for a while.

I left the game with my husband who had to take a later flight and drive up and meet me at the game. We left the arena and went and picked up my sister Stacie, and her fiance Mike and we went over to Overtime's for a couple beverages. I think we stayed there for either two or three before going across the street to the Down UNDer for a couple. Stacie and I had each had a shot of Hot Sex and a Chuck Norris and each of us had our normal drink of choice. My husband eventually cut me off saying the only thing I could have to drink would be a water. I ordered one, but never drank it.

It was a lot of fun. Really. Not that I am condoning that behavior, but I don't suppose I need to wait three years to do it again. Every once in a while cutting loose is okay.

(Oh and for the record, I was up and at 'em by 9:30 the next morning. My sister was surprised when she called me at 11:00-ish and I was up and moving. Oh and sorry to disappoint. There was no vomiting in the story, because none happened. I didn't even get heartburn.)

Damsel in distress much?

So, I will preface this by saying that I have never seen the entire movie, and last night was no exception, because I only saw portions, but, I don't think I like Gone With the Wind. Are you kidding me? Is the main character, Scarlett, supposed to be a victim or a self-centered character? I had a hard time knowing. Maybe because I didn't see the whole thing. But it gets to this point where I can tell it's almost over so I decide that I will sit and watch the rest of it. ARE YOU EVEN KIDDING ME?!? THAT'S HOW IT ENDS?!? I was so disappointed. If you ever took Mrs. Rusten's English classes, to me, it ranked up there with the machine gun ending. Either that or it was because the ending wasn't much of an ending. I was expecting some finality, and when it didn't happen, I went to bed annoyed. Grrr.

Happy Valentine's Day!

So, the kids are especially bad today. I don't know why exactly. Is it because it's a made up holiday? Is it because we are on the brink of a long weekend? I don't know. But they were naughty all day today. Every time I walked down the hall or into any of the classrooms, there were kids in break out room and there were kids that needed to be in break out rooms. It was actually pretty impressive, the amount of naughtiness. It's not even a full moon tonight...as far as I know. It may be the weather system rolling in.

So, it's that made up holiday and we are staying in tonight. I would like to have a husband who would do something romantic but I am not about to hold my breath for that (my readers would be too sad to see me perish!!) I know that it's a holiday with no real backing, but it still is nice to have a magical romantic day. I just wish that I wasn't the only one in our house who thought that. No, I live with Practical Man. Every day is Practical Day. Every once in a while I would like to have a romantic whimsical day. Love ya honey!!

Update

So, for those of you who read this pretty frequently, you have the option of going to kare11.com to check out the story, or the update from yesterday's entry. The newest information is that she had her own 4 and 6 year old children hold down Demond while she beat him. Fantastic. She has single-handedly fueled two more children (plus the 11-year-old that was watching) to think it's okay to beat people and kill them. I guess that's job security for teachers working in my building.

It just makes me so mad. I can't even say anything more about it.

I heard the news today...oh, boy.

So this is a horrible story. But it is a terrific example of how nuts some people are, and the sad news you hear on the news at night. No wonder Amanda doesn't like to watch the news when she comes down to our house. It figures.

Anyway, so on Friday, there was this story on the news about a little boy named Demond that had gone missing. I watched the story and the whole while wondered why the little boy's story was on the news on Friday, and that an Amber alert hadn't been issued, especially if the boy had been missing since Wednesday.

In case you don't know the story, here's what the news story was. This woman makes a 9-1-1 phone call to tell the police that a 4-year-old that is living with her has been taken by a family friend who had been watching the kids. The 4-year-old was a cousin, or a cousin's kid, I'm not sure, that had been living with her for like 6 weeks or something while the father was serving a jail sentence. The mom lived in Chicago, and they didn't mention why the mom didn't have the kid, but whatever. So the news people are interviewing the woman (I belive her name was Carla), and she is fairly calm and saying that she just wants Demond back. He's a fun kid and he talks a lot and he's a good kid.

So, according to Carla, the neighbor friend, whose name is Shawna Williams, was watching the kids while Carla had to leave and when she came back one of Carla's kids came out of the bathroom and when Carla asked where Demond was, the kid said that Shawna took Demond and left.

Now, that's pretty much what the news story was. So, the news reporter says that they will be posting the Amber Alert on Saturday. They said they couldn't do it sooner because they had to make sure that the child had actually been abducted before the alert could be issued. Whatever.

So, Sunday night, in the news, it comes to light that Carla has been arrested in the murder of Demond. The remains of a 4-year-old were found on her property, but the child had been dead prior to the 9-1-1 call on Wednesday. And, here's the kicker: in order to ID the child, they will have to use his dental records because, he was beaten so badly that he was unidentifiable.

If your jaw didn't just drop, then you either already knew the story, or you are a coldhearted person. I can't believe the nerve of this woman. I guess one of the things that tipped off the cops was the fact that there is no Shawna Williams. That was interesting because Carla had a physical description of her, right down to her tattoo, to give the news.

That's just unbelievable. I can't even fathom how someone could beat a child that bad in the first place, let alone have the nerve call the cops and claim that the child has been abducted.

If you have ever been around children, you know that sometimes they get on your last nerve. At least, I know that sometimes they get on my last nerve. Anyway, for as much as they have the ability to get on my last nerve, I would never think of hitting them, when they do, let alone beating them to death. It kills me when I say 'no' to Lukin and he gets the pouty lip. That's just saying a word, I can't imagine what would be wrong inside that you could tolerate the pleading to stop enough to beat a child to death. There is something fundamentally wrong with that woman, and any other person who could beat a child. I can't even imagine. It's horrible.

February Randomness

I have had so many ideas about what to write about today that now that I actually have the time, I don't really know what to say. I could comment on how these kids at this school are the kind of kids that can't be given anything. If you give them an inch, they will take a mile. That drives me nuts. For example, if I decided that I wanted to hand out Valentine's to the kids, instead of saying, 'thank you', they would say, 'why isn't there any candy in it?' as if that were a requirement for handing out valentine's. I guess my response could be, "I don't know you ungrateful brats. Probably in the same place as the Christmas gift you got me."

I mean, I guess that when I was in school, the teacher always did give us a Valentine. But it didn't ever have candy in it. I don't think it did anyway. But if it didn't, we would never have asked our teacher where the candy was. We were more respectful than that. Imagine that. I just called the students that I went to school with 'respectful'. That's a riot. They were mostly jerkfaces, but I guess they were respectful jerkfaces.

I get so mad at the behavior that we have to endure at school sometimes. My husband has to hear about it. He will bring up some point and I will always come back to the pitiful job that most parents are doing nowadays. Of course, those pitiful parents will say that it is our bad job as teachers that wrecks their children. Really? I didn't know that the 6+ hours a day we spend with your child was more influential to them than the 17+ hours you spend a day with them. Wow. We must really be something if we have that much clout with your children. Jerkfaces.

We can caucus if we want to, we can leave your friends behind.

So, my husband and I caucused last night. I had no idea of the time requirement that was involved. Or, I should say, the time that's required that is involved for caucusing for the correct party.

I believe that Democrats want the quick fix on everything and that is why they go in and vote and leave. On the other hand, the Republican caucus tooks nearly two hours. I had no idea democracy was so time consuming. So there we sat, listening to speaker after speaker talk. One of the speakers got up and was going on about not getting our voices heard by not showing up. Hello? We were there. In mass numbers. So much so, that they ran out of ballots. Hello? Why is he lecturing us. If that guy was running again, I wouldn't vote for him.

There was one 23-year-old running for a seat in the House for MN, I would vote for him because his speech was less boring that the lady running against him.

Then Governor Tim Pawlenty was there and gave a speech. Actually, because he is a busy man, he went first. It was interesting.

So I cast my vote for the candidate that I would like to see as Commander-in-Chief. I don't know that he is going to get there, but I did my part. Although, I hate to say this, after having spent the evening with a bunch of serious Republican thinkers, but I can't promise that I will vote straight ticket. That is why I didn't want to be elected to any delegate positions. I would love to help be an election judge, but that's about it. I don't want to have to swear to any one party, especially if I don't like a candidate in a specific category.

But one of the things I noticed that I had to comment on, was the fact that the Republican Platform includes a statement saying that (and I am paraphrasing) women who are able-bodies, should have to hold jobs in order to be eligible to receive any type of welfar benefit. I agree with that 110%. It's time to make people accountable for their actions. You can't just keep popping out babies and believe that popping out babies is your carreer and that is why you should receive free money. I just don't think that's right.

Financial Pity Party

Since I am pretty convinced that hardly anyone reads my blog anymore, I will use it as a journal today instead of something to entertain anyone who may have been a reader before.

I am sad. I don't like living in the twin cities. This is not something new. This is just something that I think about frequently. And until recently, I've just had to deal with that. I mean, there aren't a lot of options for Sonny's career choice in Grand Forks or Fargo (the area that I would like to move back to). I'm not saying that I could find a job lickity-split, but my profession has more openings than Sonny's. But the other day, in a moment of (I'm guessing) bad joking on my husband's part, he told me that we couldn't go to Target until payday. He has never said that before and I was stunned. So, I looked at him and couldn't help but ask, "We can't afford to go get toilet paper until payday!?!"

Now, I assumed that he was joking. I hope he was joking. The very idea of not being able to afford toilet paper scares the crap out of me...and that doesn't do anyone any good when there is no toilet paper. In college, it freaked me out when there wasn't any excess money for anything. I hated living from one of Greg's paychecks to the next. He was the one with the salary job while I was the one with the minimum wage hourly rate. It was scary. But it's more scary to think about that now as a 'grown up' with a family, and a degree. So, what you're telling me is that even though I busted my ass for my Masters, and we both work at least 32 hours a week, we can't afford to splurge once in a while?!?

But we do splurge once in a while. We try to have a date night or dinner out at least once per week. Sometimes on the weekend, it seems like we only eat out, even if it's just something quick like Quizno's.

I'm sure that my husband will read this and tell me that I shouldn't have written this, but I am sure that every family goes through periods where money is tight, or at least feels like it is. And I know that he did explain to me that it wasn't that we couldn't afford toilet paper, but that going to Target never equals just toilet paper. Think about it. Have you ever gone to Target and just came out with the one or two things that you needed? I understand his point. But the thought lingers in my head. Do I need to get another job? Does he need to get another job? Do we need to move somewhere where the cost of living isn't so high? I mean, I know the cost of living would be significantly less in ND, but so would the wages we would be working for. That's disheartening.

So, if you have ever worried about money, I hope you feel better after reading my financial woes. I don't know if my husband made his comment because we had gone to the MOA for the afternoon. But I didn't shop at any stores (except for Lukin) that I didn't have a gift card for. I don't need the lecture, so I tend to avoid fun shopping anymore.

So there you go: hardly any money, very few friends (none of which are in the district I work in), and no family. Remind me again of why I am supposed to like living in the twin cities?