idontbelieveingrammar

I have been dating Shaun for almost 11 years now. It has been a long time since I have had a first date. The first few days of school are as close as I get ( or want to get). It is like a week of 150 first dates. It is an odd comparison I know, and no bad jokes about "dating" my students please... ( ick and I want to keep my job). Bare with me and I'll try to make the connection. They stumble in on that first day. We are all shiny and new and wanting to impress. There is an awkward eagerness( even from the teacher). Some of the kids ( just like some first dates) are trying too hard to impress, a few......the ones sleeping are not trying hard enough ( actually I think they might be trying to appear like they are not trying.) Some are too wrapped up in themselves to care what I have to say. Others are just trying to see how far they can get. (use the metaphor here...not literally of course). For the most part we are on our best behavior. All teachers are really go...

Less than one month to go on the baby countdown. ( let me preface this rant with the fact that I am super grateful for this gift and thankful for a baby.....just not a fan of the belly or the attention that it brings). Now that school has started though I kind of want to draw less attention to it. I mean, random people rub my belly. Kids I don't know walk by and point it out. And everyone wants to know how I "feel". I say fine or good....which is no where near the honest truth......but I don't think the secretary really wants to hear about my hemroids ( nor, probably did anyone reading this). People stop and tell me how "cute" I look .....but when they say cute they don't mean that my hair or outfit looks great -- but that my belly button is sticking out. Some of my kids look on in fear.......not because I am lighting the desk on fire but because they think I might drop this baby any second. Right there on the lab room floor. And sometimes I feel l...

27 pounds has been on my mind lately. A welcome heaviness. No that is not the amount of weight I have gained in this pregnancy ( at least not yet). It is the weight of my blonde three year old little boy. This is on the small end for his age ( as in we are still under the 10% percentile), but it is starting to feel like a lot. My c-section is scheduled for almost exactly one month away ( Sept. 25). Owen is starting to get harder and harder to pick up and hold. Not that he usually wants me to or anything. He tries to be quite the independant one, which is usually good. But there is occasional required lifting. Like when he falls asleep in the car after swimming and I hope and pray I can get him inside to actually take a nap. Like when I lift him on the counter so he can help me cook dinner. Like when I lift him into the shopping cart at the store. Like when he is hurt or scared and I want to hold him. Like when I set him on the toilet in the morning because he is too tired to stan...

This summer has been hot, with only smoe minor releif ( thank you tropical storms) in the last few weeks. Playground equipment is too hot to touch. Most of our time has been speant indoors or at the pool. Normally I like hot. I have a pretty high tolerence for it. I am usually cold. I am the girl that keeps a hoodie in her car for restraunts, movies and other public places that think below 80 is an acceptable room temperature. If I am hanging out at your house, and you happen to have a throw blanket on a chair or the back of your couch......I will probably cover up with it. I have all the AC vents in the car pointed away from me ( or closed). I sleep with multiple covers even in the summer. This summer has been a bit of an exception. Maybe it is the extra baggage I am carrying around. When I was pregnant with O, I just felt normal ( as opposed to my usual cold). That was before very pregnant meets Texas July and August heat. I wake up sweaty. I sweat in the shower. One night I...

1. Make only what you need for that day ( or in this case for Monday). Do not make copies for 2 days from now or 2 weeks from now or 2 months from now. 2. Have your stuff together. This is not the time to cut and paste with your scissors. White things out or copy multiple single pages from a workbook. 3. It better be useful, like your syllabus. Not 175 cartoons or color pages or recipes that you just happen to want to try. 4. Packets of more than 5 pages will have to be made later. Like in the middle of the night or something. 5. Sure you can sneak out of line to pee, or buy a soda from the machine. NOT go to Starbucks and come back adn expect your place to still be there. 6. Be kind to the copier. Use it gently, make sure the paper is straight ( and loaded). No stray staples or taped up originals. Nothing that can potentially jam the machine is allowed. If it breaks on your set, be prepared to run. Fast. 7. Do not under any circumstances walk away from the machine while it ...

When people talk about highschool and/or teenagers they often mention peer pressure. Like this is something we grow out of. Like we hit college and suddenly people can no longer talk us into things or influence our decisions. We are grown ups and can make good rational decisions for ourselves. Right. Not so much. I like to think that I am pretty confident in who I am and can think for myself. And then school starts (at least for the teachers). It is like I am back in high school rather than teaching it. No one is trying to talk me into smoking anything, spiking the punch,or to make out with them in the backseat. (well not yet at least). But........ I find myself complaining, making jokes and sighing along with the rest of my crowd. Go to an elementary school the week before school starts and you will find teachers about to explode with excitement and positive warm goodness. Go to a high school and you will find a bunch of whiners. Most school districts start the staff year with a...

I love love love office supplies. Usually back to school means trips to Office Max, Office Depot, WalMart, Target and of course Staples. I buy good pens, pretty colors of dry erase markers and all things to get me pumped up for a new school year. This year, I have managed to avoid the school supplies.....so far. I am only going back for a month or so at first anyways. Last night, however, I bought 2 very expensive staples. They didn't come from one of my favorite office supply stores.....but instead the ER. O had a run in with a chest and lost. We were up at a sunday school party and I had just left him playing upstairs with a few other kids. I told Shaun to go check on him in about 5 minutes..... 30 seconds later we here a big crash from upstairs followed by some screams and crying that I am sure are coming from my kid. I take off running upstairs to kiss whatever boo-boo he has. I pick him up out of a slightly scared teenage girl's arms and start consoling him when her...

I am almost olympic-ed out. That being said, I have to force myself to go to bed every night.....usually well past my usual hour and the first thing I do in the morning is check the medal standings. Owen watching the olympics is my favorite part. While watching archery, he stood on the bed and pulled back his pretend bow and arrow every time someone on TV did. During swimming, he plopped down on the floor and swam madly on the wood. Diving was a bit scary as he poised himself perfectly on top of a table and "dove" (feet first thankfully) into the chair and crumpled like he had hit water. Last night when track started he just took lap after lap around the living room. My second favorite part of the olympics are all the personal back stories. You know where they are killing time between heats or races and focus on one athlete. They give you their history, tell you about their hometown or struggles that they have overcome. Suddenly, I find myself pulling for this athlete...

One of my friend's little girls needs a helmet. Ok, that isn't the technical term. It is a DOC band or cranal technology or whatever.....but it is basically a helmet. It helps to reshape a skull that is no where near round. Both of our kids came out this way, and was probably due to some muscle tightness and positioning in the womb. Most kids heads get a little bent out of shape in the birth canal ( O never made it that far) or slightly flat on back before they can sit up. But turns out your skull is pretty flexible and usually rounds itself out. What can I say, my kid even came out hard-headed. Owen wore one for four months. Four long months of doctors visits in North Dallas, physical therapy, stinky sweaty helmet head, stares, stupid questions, unwanted sympathy and a little boy who barely noticed after a few days. Looking back....I almost forgot. It was about less than 2 years ago but feels like eons. Owen's head is mostly round again. People only stop us in th...

confession, I am not very green. I am not even yellow. I want to be. I want to shop at whole foods, recycle and ride my bike to work. Whole foods is too expensive, my town doesn't have a recylcing program, and my bike has had a flat tire for at least the last 2 years. I realize all of these excuses can be amended with only a little bit of effort on my part. I admire my green friends who have composts containers in their kitchen, belong to a local co-op and braved the icky icky world of cloth diapers. I, on the other hand often use paper plates when we have company because I dispise doing dishes so much. I recognize that I am wasteful in most areas of my life....natural resources included. I do occasionally do my part by skipping a shower or wearing dirty clothes. I do have a pet peeve though and it is shopping bags. Today I was with my mom and she bought 2 bottles of nailpolish and they put it in this huge giant shopping back. When I rent a movie at Blockbuster ( I know ... j...

1:12 am pee 2:47 am awake, might as well pee agaian. 4:01 am wide awake and not alone. some hard jabs to my ribs and I realize I won't be going back to sleep anytime soon. 4:15 am O cries for mommy from his room. Hop up ( well, more like a throw all my momentum to one side and roll out of bed). O wants in our bed. I don't feel like fighting it. Make him pee first. I of course pee again. And both of us crawl into bed. A queen size is not big enough for me, Shaun, O and the dog ( and occasionally the cat). Reconsider a king size bed. 5:00 am my watch beeps like it does at every o'clock. damn this means I have been awake for over an hour. sometime around 5:30 am i manage to go back to sleep. 6:30 am the alarm goes off. elbow shaun to deal with it. pee again. 6:39 am alarm goes off again. fine by me, i never went back to sleep -- but I don't want owen (who is now occupying more space than me and shaun combined) to wake up just yet. the good cartoons don...

I took my car in today for it's "regulary scheduled maintenance”. 30,000 miles. 347$ later I have a car with new fluids, sparkplugs, rotated tires and probably some other things. Paying that much money for something that was working just fine was painful, but I suggested it. We want to keep this car running in good condition as long as possible and I understand that it will take some time and money for upkeep. Plenty of things around the house get their regularly scheduled maintenance. Owen never misses a doctor’s appointment. Heck even the pets usually get their shots on time. I on the other hand am lacking on the maintenance end. Superficially, I haven’t had a haircut since February. I haven’t had a pedicure since at least last summer. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in what feels like years. Physically, I am about 6 months overdue on my dental appointments. I am down to my last pair of contacts, and have avoided calling for more because I am afraid they will ...

I have never been much of a baker. You have to follow the rules when you bake. Usually when I cook, I see a recipe as more of a suggestion. I never follow it exactly. I often don't even refer to it as I cook. I read it as kind of background knowledge. If I don't like something, I don't add it. Sometimes I add extra ingrediants or make unorthadox swaps. More often than not it turns out fine. Sometimes even better. Usually the only problems that arise are when I try to repeat it or someone asks me for the recipe. Baking is different. There isn't much room to venture off the beaten path. There are also all kinds of extra rules to follow......ones that aren't even in the recipe. Preheating the oven is actually expected ( I never do this, I don't wait for water to boil either). There is all kinds of lingo I'm not sure about. It isn't a fast frenzied a little bit of this, a little bit of that kind of affair. Details and ingredients are important. La...