Happy Birthday, Grandma J!

Back home this weekend was birthdays, birthdays everywhere. I celebrated from afar.

Today is Grandma J's 96th birthday. Yes folks, 96. My 50-year-old dad still has his grandmother here.

She's amazing, and she's wonderful and I wish that we were in the same state.

Happy Birthday, Corbin!

Not Your Coleman Variety

I love that the tent-shirt is in. Love it. I love hiding under it.

Meet my new favorite shirt...

AND (and!) guess what! It's got just a wee bit of stretch.

It's the little things that keep me going.

Back to School, Part 2

I'm really trying to give you the RD Condensed version...

I answer to many people at work. Heck, I answer to many people when I'm not at work.

But at work I (ultimately) have two bosses. Lisa represents the program that funds my teaching, and John is one of the assistant principals. Both are wonderful.

After a very overwhelming 1st day, and a close-to overwhelming 2nd day, both bosses are working on getting my class to a normal size. It's very difficult to take the road of squeaky wheel. I want help and attention to the situation, but of course I don't want to seem wimpy, incapable and whiny.

Problem is that most of the other classes in the school are also jam-packed, and the school counselors are just dumping these extras in to my classes.

Some of these kids are angels, some full of personality, some charming, but some are down right obnoxious and I wouldn't mind if they never came back.

Tomorrow I get to make a phone call home to a parent in hopes that they will have a conversation with their daughter about what is appropriate to talk about in class. I opted to not hold this conversation while I was upset with daughter today. Let's hope that I can cool off enough between now and then.

Tomorrow is my day in special ed. Will it be easier? In some ways. Was yesterday in special ed easier? In some ways.

Either way, it's Friday. A much needed Friday.

Back To School (Only If I Have To)

These two grown kids and I headed back to school today; Maddie in 5th grade, Isaac in 3rd and me in hell.

Last year (my first) was maybe a little too sugar-coated. I worked in special ed with a great teacher, whom I learned A LOT from, I fell in love my little special ed students, and the regular ed students that I got to work with were absolute angels.

This year I will be dividing my time between special ed, and having my own classroom as a math and English tutor.

So far, the math and English students that I teach are making special ed look easy.

What was I thinking? AND Is it possible to hate someone after spending just one class period with them?

Of course, when I go to special ed tomorrow it could be horrible too. Last year's teacher moved and the new one has never taught before. I may been in for it. Again.

Just in case my plate wasn't full enough today, Aunt Flo showed up between 2nd and 3rd period. Seven minutes might be enough to get you from Geometry to P.E., but it's not quite enough time to deal with unexpected feminine issues. Lucky me.

If it hadn't been for the heart-warming start of my school day, I wouldn't have survived. On my way to my classroom, I stopped by special ed. Elisabeth and her wonderful mom were there, and that sweet girl, who I missed all summer long, was happy to see me, and even noticed my hair cut. I'm happy to report that her and I get to be together all day tomorrow, and even if she has a bad day, she'll still be more pleasant than a handful of my regular ed students that I had today.

(I hope I didn't just jinx tomorrow)

Wait, before I'm done barfing out today's events, the school's computer system had my class-size-limit at 32. There's only 15 desks in my room. Three out of my four classes are at 20 students. We're shoulder to shoulder in there. I shudder to think of how full classes would have gotten if my wheel hadn't squeaked. The system has been corrected, but not until we're full. Stuffed. Maxed out.

Okay. The verbal vomitting is stopping. For now.

We're All In This Together

Were you part of the record-setting audience that watched High School Musical 2 on Friday night?

I was, and I haven't even seen all of the first one yet.

With tons of popcorn and chocolate chip cookies on hand, we had quite the audience, which (I must point out) had more boys than girls. But the girls still did plenty of squealing and screaming at the end when the beloved HSM2 couple had their long-awaited first kiss.

And the kids have been singing ever since...this afternoon I was on the phone making adjustments to my cell phone service and the guy wanted to know what my kids were singing. He knew the movie. He knew the songs. Heck, you'd have to live under a rock to not know.

Happy Birthday, Paige!

Oh, how I wish we were there to celebrate with you. Tonight we'll be holding a HSM2 party in your honor.

I'm pretty sure that you're the most photogenic kid on the planet.

PS Your gift will be late because your lame aunt put said gift in the online cart but forgot to complete the transaction.