Knocked on my butt

With a cold. I think I have slept 26 out of the last 48 hours. For someone who generally sleeps an unhealthy 6 hours a night that is a clear indicator. I even sleep while the littler ones crawl all over me.

Felix asked when I would be done being sick. I wish I had an end date scheduled.
Relia seems to think I get to have all the fun, staying home from school and resting on the couch during dinner time.

I think I'm on the road to recovery. I don't sound quite as disgusting as I did yesterday. I really do hate missing school. Especially this early in the year.

Another Mama bear moment

Today while I was getting fitted in my new glasses at MOA, FP was entertaining the children out in the hall (walkway? concourse?) hanging out with another family who happened to be there. Relia, being her not shy self, told them all about how her brother bit her on the nipple this morning. She was getting ready to lift up her dress to show them her injury when a completely uninvolved stranger (male) who happened to be walking by told her something like "No, girls don't do that."

I wasn't there, but FP said it scared her a little bit. He was so surprised that a stranger would be so bold, that he was dumbstruck, as I would have been. When FP told me about it, I kinda wanted to go chase  down the guy and explain to him the difference between a developed woman and a little girl. Also that he is not responsible for our child when we are standing right there.

GRRRRRRR!

She's 4! She can take her darn shirt off whenever she wants. If her hair was in a buzz cut, no one would think twice. She has plenty of time to learn about the crazy obsession/fear society has around women's breasts. I don't need anyone jumping the gun on that particular hang-up. Even if it had been a woman, I would have been upset, but for some reason a guy telling my daughter what girls "don't do" angers me even more.

Arrrrrrgh

I HATE that my employer has 31 days to get me my W-2s. AND that they will take every last second of that. I just want to get my taxes done. I LOVE getting my taxes done. I'm weird that way.

Mama bear

I'm pissed. Yes. Yes I am. FP told me he got a ticket today, but that is not what I'm pissed about. The ticket was legit. he did do the wrong thing in a situation they set up to catch people doing it. I could have happened to anyone, Whatever.

What I am angry about is what I heard from Relia at dinner tonight. That the officer lectured FP on how the kids could be hurt if there was an accident. When I asked FP about it he told me the officer explained that the car could have a blow out, the officer could be killed and the "beautiful children" could be hurt. All as my 4 year-old sponge child is listening intently.

There is no significance to the kids getting hurt in an accident other than to try to lay shame on FP. The real concern is for the safety of the officer and that is legit. However, they could be hurt because of a blowout whether there is a car on the side of the road or not. The only f'n reason he brought the kids into it was for dramatic effect and that is NOT cool.

If he really had concern for my kids, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to scare them with super unlikely scenarios.

I have never been able to understand this

One of those days

Sigh. It started out okay. I woke up in time to get a shower, got to work slightly early with everything I needed to start the day....

But then, one of my APs told me she'd been looking for me. HR wants to know if I'm at work. Seems I never turned in my "return to work after leave" paperwork. Eek! Scrambled to get that together -well, I had it, but this summer I had called to ask a question about something on the form, never got a response, and then promptly forgot about it because I was waiting for a call back. So it is really their fault, right? -and wasted my whole lunch driving home to get a letter from my doctor, which I couldn't find.

The rest of the day went okay until I got home and got to experience Relia's 2 hour post nap meltdown.

Then after supper, I slipped on a piece of waxed paper that had fallen on the floor, hit my knee, and broke a mug.

Finally, I was cooking on the stove, and Relia was watching on a chair beside me. I asked her if I could give her a kiss she said yes, I leaned in, and just then, she decided to jump off the chair. My forehead hit her head. OUCH.

1. We picked up the new car tonight
2. Don't ask me if I like it yet because I don't know. It is difficult to drive home in the dark in an unfamiliar car with the constant chattering of a toddler.
3. I admit now that for over 2 years I have been driving with no drivers side mirror. It broke off. My previous car had no passenger side mirror. I now have no idea how to use the side mirrors while I'm driving.
4. It didn't help that all the crazies seemed to be out -Driving the wrong way on a one way and darting out to cross against the light.
5. If I sound grumpy, It's only because I am. I had a difficult day for no reason at all. I just couldn't concentrate on anything at work, and felt strongly like I needed to lie down. Eventually I left work early. It didn't help.
6. They gave us about $100 more for the trade in than we'd even hoped. So that is good news.

Gridded response

These things are insane. I had never seen one in my life until my 5th grade students opened the state test last spring. Nobody warned me. So I am confident that all that one question tested, was my 5th graders' abilities to decipher the concept of which bubble to fill in. I wasn't allowed to guide them in any way, and I was faithful to that, as wrong as I thought it was.

So if the answer to the question was $5.12, my students had to figure out that they had to fill in the dollar sign, and put the decimal point in as its own column.

The most confusing thing is that there are almost always more spaces than are needed, which is disconcerting for those of us that are used to traditional ABCD bubble test, and makes us question our own judgement. Should we put the answer to the left, or to the right? Does it matter? I don't think so, but I'm not 100% sure.

I'm told that these have been in use for over 10 years, and are used on the GED and the SAT. Well then, we should certainly use them with 10 & 11 year olds!

My suspicion, is that they need to have something kids can't just guess at. They are in the process of eliminating all of the written questions because they cost too darn much to grade. So I guess this is a compromise for now.

So for the next few weeks we are spending about ½ an hour a week on State test prep. That is, teaching students how to take a bubble test. And this one...sigh. Well, at least this year they will have seen the format ahead of time. Next year everything will be on the computer -a whole new set of issues we get to face.

What kind of

no-kid having idiot designs a car seat that takes twenty minutes and removal of 8 (8!) screws to remove the cover to wash it?

Why is this sooo hard?

I wish I had some kind of super exciting project planned for this week so we could all get excited, but I don't. Instead we'll be fighting through to friday with the same old stuff.

Laying down the law

We are now living under Toddler property law:

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine, it must never, ever, appear to be yours in any way.
6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks like it's mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first, it's mine.
9. If I can see it, it's mine.
10. If I think it's mine, it's mine.
11. If I want it, it's mine.
12. If I "need" it, it's mine.
13. If I say it's mine, it's mine.
14. If you don't stop me from playing with it, it's mine.
15. If you tell me I can play with it, it's mine.
16. If it will upset me too much when you take it away from me, it's mine.
17. If I (think I) can play with it better than you can, it's mine.
18. If I play with it long enough, it's mine.
19. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it's mine.
20. If it's broken, it's yours (no wait, all the pieces are mine).

We are staging a revolution to overthrow her majesty, but we are expecting a long, drawn out conflict.

One more day

of boring yet exhausting state testing to go. You'd think it would be easier not teaching all day. But it is harder.

And it's over

Unless we want to/can refinance. It really shouldn't be this hard. It took a good 20 minutes on the phone for the W(T)F people to figure out exactly why I can't cancel the PMI. Seriously, shouldn't there be a note somewhere summarizing the "research" they did? Because my investor is Ginnie Mae, and I apparently got my loan under a 530 condo program, and condo is an acronym that has nothing to do with actual condominiums, I have to keep the PMI.

I still don't understand, and may look into it further, because I can find zero references to the investor in my closing docs (I guess WF has 90 days from closing to figure out who that is gonna be) and there is also no info about "530 condo" on the Ginnie Mae website.

1 blessing, 2 blessings...

From Buzz.mn:

File this under the bulging file marked “Things are just so much better today, period, and don’t give me any of that Little House on the Prairie Crap.” [on this day] In 1888:

"A major blizzard strikes the state, hitting western Minnesota especially hard and causing the deaths of between 100 and 150 people, many of them children on their way home from school."

Nowadays a snowstorm is an inconvenience. We may run to the grocery store for milk and bread, because for all we know the storm will slay every cow and cause the bakery roofs to collapse statewide, but for most a snowstorm is something we survive, provided we hunker correctly. (See mn.gov.com/weather/positions/hunker.pdf for more instructions.) In the old days the weather was far more lethal. When your horse-drawn carriage went in the ditch, you couldn’t start stabbing the OnStar button.

It isn't that bad ♦ It isn't that bad ♦ It isn't that bad ♦ It isn't that bad ♦ It isn't that bad

It's quarter to 0ne, and I am up screwing around with my blog.
What is wrong with me?

I definitely had a too much of a nap this morning.

Maybe you have heard about this.

Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children's clothing.

The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven't been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead.

I understand where the law was heading, and it really is a risk. Hopefully, the new regulations will make almost all toys safe in several years, when most of the toys have been worn out. But in this case, the end does not justify the means. As many of us seem to be working harder to be "greener" or at least more frugal, this is a move in the wrong direction. For example:



I don't know anything about this, but couldn't the government can collect toys and test samples? Can't warnings be posted? I bought my house and had to sign off on a lead warning, saying that my house may contain lead. Couldn't that be done with used, or handmade toys? At least as an exemption for companies of a certain size?

There is nothing on TV for me

on Tuesday nights. I'm hoping my hubby will be amenable to snuggling on the couch with me and watching a Christmas-y movie.

I didn't bring any work home with me on purpose. I just left my teacher bag on the floor in my room. It is hard enough to like teaching this week without thinking about how sucky my kids did on the last math test. Geometry is hard. Apparently. Though it was my favorite math area. So many great formulas and rules.

It has been a while since I posted a photo, because our daughter just stopped being cute all of a sudden.
Of course I'm kidding, since we have one of the current top five cutest kids in the world.
(You do too? What a coincidence!) And just to prove it:

It's my turn

FP's turn was yesterday. Now all that fun is mine mine MINE



yay.

Some people don't get it.

I just left a huge ranting comment on a post that I'm sure FP meant to be funny. Sorry babe.

I was talking with my teaching teammates about a new curriculum piece we are being asked to somehow fit into our already overstuffed days. Someone commented that it may just have to wait until next year. I replied that meant I didn't have to worry about it. I don't know how to think in terms of next year, unless it's "I wonder what I'll be doing next year?" she asked me why I thought that. Because, as I'm sure I've said numerous times on this blog, I have know I have a job, and what that job would be for exactly ONE summer in my 10 years of teaching.

Now this: Minneapolis schools expect $28 million shortfall

It exhausts me. It saddens me that I now simply look forward to taking free classes while I receive unemployment income. Maybe I shouldn't sell my cameras.

temporary insanity.

That has to be it.
I know better.
I've had this happen before.
Why did I do it?
Why?!

I got my hair cut.
I have been trying to find time to get it cut for months. My regular place was all booked up, and when I went to meet a friend for lunch...

I decided to go early
dun dun DUN!
I walked past a Grate Clips
dun dun DUN!
I walked in to the Grate Clips...

the rest of the story comes with a whole lotta cursing.
It isn't horrible, I can work with it, but it isn't good.
I don't have that nice feeling you get when you get a new 'do.

I think I need some pretty hair clips or something.