DEBlog

Married life is....

2009-10-25T21:13:00.002-05:00

sweet. Much better than I could have ever imagined!

Job, Wedding, Life Update

2009-05-21T09:10:00.002-05:00

Okay, I haven't posted because my life is really crazy right now. Why, well here goes:

1. Job - I basically told my boss I wasn't stupid enough and they couldn't pay me enough to do this at risk position again next year. So, they thought about putting me in a 6th grade classroom. I was fine with that. Then they told me they were going to put me back in Title I. I was fine with that. Then our librarian announced unexpectedly that she was retiring. Holy Cow! The craziness began. My boss wanted me to apply. I did. Then I had to interview. Then the school lawyer said he didn't want the school to hire me because I wasn't certified yet - could I get certified over the summer? SURE - let me just add that to every other life changing event I'm dealing with right now! Okay, talk to DESE - always a ton of fun. Go take the PRAXIS - sure 2 weeks after the wedding. Oh, you can get certified provisionally with all of your classwork - you don't have to take the PRAXIS (but I already paid for it). Anyway, it's official. The Board hired me last night as Clark-Vitt's new librarian. So, I finally made it. I'm a librarian (albeit one without any experience besides "book learnin").

2. Wedding -Still on. If you're coming and haven't let us know, please do so we can have enough fried chicken. 9 days and counting. Lord help me!

3. Life - Status report: crazy as usual. I'm not sure I would know how to function without craziness!

Just a quick reminder....

2009-05-14T23:12:00.001-05:00

If you haven't returned the reply card for the wedding, please email me or Kenny and let us know if you're coming to the wedding. We're trying to finalize everything for the reception and need a count for the caterer.

How to freak me out....

2009-04-14T20:42:00.003-05:00

My boss calls me in to his office today to tell me that he thinks my wedding invitation is wrong. He says the wedding invitations say May 13th, not May 30th. WHAT! I immediately call Kenny. He's just had the same phone call from one of his scout leaders. Are our invitations wrong? Both of us panic and call our moms (what else do you do in a panic, you call your mom) because neither one of us have a wedding invitation on hand. What we've discovered is that apparently people don't know the difference between the 13th and the 30th when written in words.

thirteenth = 13th

thirtieth = 30th

So, if you have received an invitation to our wedding, we're getting married on May 30, 2009, not May 13 or June 13! If anybody else asks, please pass along the info that it's the 30th, not the 13th.

I will go back to normal breathing and heart rate now that the mystery has been figured out!

Here we go...

2009-04-09T14:09:00.001-05:00

Invitations went out last night. Here we go! Keep an eye on your mail.

Wedding Update

2009-03-31T18:01:00.002-05:00

1. We should have went to Vegas and gotten married by Elvis. It would have been simpler.

2. I have yet to figure out a way to not be in the spotlight on my wedding day. If I could get married by proxy, I'd probably do it because I don't want to be up in front of people, especially in a freakishly huge ivory gown (definitely not my customary black or navy blue garb) that in no way allows me to fade into the background.

3. Realizing that my last name will change is oddly disturbing. Believe it or not, one of my fellow teachers thinks I'm suffering some depression from it. They never tell you that when you sign up to do this whole marriage thing.

4. I feel guilty about registering and having people throw showers for me. I hate having people make a fuss over me and it was downright weird picking out things for people to buy. Yes, it still feels weird even though several people have extolled the wisdom of registering to me. What's even more weird is seeing it in the Delta News for The Victorian and Overturfs. That seems to make it more real and kind of feel like a rollercoaster that I can't get off of, no matter how much I might try.

5. Cake is expensive! GOOD GRIEF! And nothing I've found is sugar free. What about those of us who are sugar challenged?!? Come on people, if they can make awesome sugar-free peanut butter cups why can't we have sugar free wedding cake?

6. For all of my friends who are devout Catholic, please be advised that coming to my wedding may potentially be "formally cooperating with evil". Kenny got his letter, supposedly from Rome, and they told him his petition was "completely without merit" even though Burke wrote a letter, as did a psychiatrist, and others in the know supporting and advocating his laicization. He's been told to re-apply when he's 40, because I guess that's some kind of magic number. Unfortunately, we've been told - per my doctor- if we want to even entertain the notion of becoming parents, we need to get busy (sorry, no innuendo intended), so we don't feel like we can wait three more years to get married until he turns 40. As a result, we're getting married at St. Peter's United Church of Christ here in Washington, MO. And, to further guarantee my seat on the 747 to Hell according to Bishop Herman, we're getting married by a female pastor. My parents and family are totally cool with it. His family, possibly not so much. I'll let you know if a nuclear blast ensues when they find out.

7. I'm going to totally break with "proper etiquette" and not hand address our invitations. Sorry people, I'm so stressed out right now that my handwriting has devolved to practically unreadable. Be glad I'm typing this!

8. That show Bridezillas scares the crap out of me! I'm terrified that I'm going to turn into one of them and then please, somebody just shoot me! Those crazy women need to be slapped repeatedly until they calm down.

9. Our reception is kid friendly, so for all of you out there getting invites with small children, please don't feel like you have to find a babysitter or you can't attend our wedding. I'm trying to figure out stuff to put together for some "kid tables" so they will be entertained. We're not serving alcohol and we're not having a dance, so there won't be loud music blaring, people getting stupid and arrested, etc. If you have any suggestions for things to keep the kiddos occupied (like your child's favorite activity), let me know. Our wedding and reception isn't going to be an all day affair. We're still getting married at noon, reception to follow at Beaumont Scout Reservation at 1:30, and hopefully it will all be over by no later than 5:00 or 6:00. At least this is the plan unless I end up in the funny farm first!

10. Yes, you're reading our Target registry correctly: we registered for garden gnomes and Farkle. The gnomes are awesome! They're cast iron and vaguely resemble my dad dressed up in a gnome outfit. We want to use them to prop the doors in our house open when we turn on our attic fan. Farkle is a dice game and the name just cracks me up, especially when Kenny's mom asks me if I want to Farkle at family gatherings. It's actually kind of fun, sort of like Yahtzee. Yes, we registered for a Wii, not that we expect anyone to purchase it for us, but we can go back and purchase stuff off our registry with a discount, so that's our plan. We're not crazy enough to think anyone else would be crazy enough to buy us a Wii. However, if any of you win the lottery, feel free!

Funny Sign Sighting

2009-02-03T21:53:00.002-06:00

On Sunday, Kenny and I travelled to Clarksville, MO to view the Bald Eagle population that winters along the Mississippi River here in MO each year. Clarksville was definitely the place to be to see the eagles. We figure we easily saw 50-100+ near the lock and dam and roosting in the trees along the river banks. Having such good luck at seeing the birds at Clarksville and since it was such a great day, we decided to continue on into Illinois and travel down the Great River Road to see if we could find some more. (Remember, we specialize in nerd outings, so what's fun to us probably is boring to others!)

As we crossed into Illinois, we came upon a very small town with a General Store/Convenience Mart and that was about it. I think the town was called Pleasant Hill and the I'm pretty sure the sign said it had a population of 140. The store had a sign out front and here's what it said, "Eat Here". There is nothing unusual about that, however the line below it kind of ruined it: "GET WORMS" Yep, the sign read, "Eat Here. Get Worms." Clearly, having someone proofread the sign would definitely have come in handy. As usual, we didn't have a camera and I didn't think about taking a picture of it with my phone. Kenny and I were laughing too hard to think clearly and opted to go a little further down the road before stopping for a snack!

Merry Christmas, I guess...

2008-12-18T22:52:00.004-06:00

Christmas isn't exactly my favorite time of the year. My feelings have been like this pretty much since 1990 when my granny died right before Christmas. It continued three years later when my grandpa died right before Christmas. Two years ago, I lost a good friend, Sandy, right before Christmas in a horrific car accident. I don't know, to me this time of the year just gets depressing and nothing seems to go right.

This year has proven spectacularly disastrous for my family and friends. Late Saturday, the husband of one of my best friend's at work lost his long, hard-fought battle with cancer. Mrs. Summers, a friend of the family passed away on Tuesday. My friend Clint lost his grandfather on Tuesday morning. This afternoon, my Aunt Sue passed away.

And if you live anywhere in the Bootheel, you've heard about the accident my father was involved in and the resulting death of Mr. Downing. What makes matters worse is that I occasionally visit a hateful site called Topix and read the Malden forum. I've read posts that are funny, posts that are ridiculous, but overall, the posts are downright hateful. Anyone and everyone can be targeted from school teachers, to business owners, council members, principals, firefighters, police officers, you name it. To me, it seems that the primary purpose of this website is to destroy reputations and lives. Here for your reading pleasure is a lovely little post I copied and pasted directly from Topix concerning the ACCIDENT on Saturday. Yeah, it kind of got under my skin.

Paid Firefighter
Saint Louis, MO
Reply »
|Report Abuse |Judge it! |#8 Yesterday
Judged:
1
"Another case of a Vollie Firefighter running his blue light thinking he's a real professional firefighter. I hope the Downing family sues the hell out of this guy. Nine chances out of ten the guy was flying to a grass fire or some call that running code 3 was not necessary. My family has known the Downing family for years, Mr. Downing was a good bussiness man he will be missed. My condolences to the family."

I tried to respond on Topix to this individual (not exactly the term I'd like to use to describe this individual). Unfortunately, either you have to be a member - which I refuse to do because unlike most people who get on that site and run their mouths, I'm not a coward and will own up to words that are my own- or my post was too long. Either way, there are some things I'd like to say.

1. People in Malden should be grateful there are a bunch of "Vollie Firefighters" who are willing to serve. Without them, there wouldn't be fire protection. Currently the only full time employees of the fire department in Malden are 4 drivers. Only 2 are on duty at a time. The last time I checked, it generally takes more than 2 people to fight a fire or perform an extrication.

2. It's easy to critizice people when you sit behind a computer and won't use your real name. As a matter of fact, I think it makes people much bolder. They will say things about people that they wouldn't have the courage to say to their faces. Interesting how the computer age has inspired this kind of "courage". Out of all the posts on Topix concerning the accident, only one person, Ken Ozbun, used their real name. I tried, but like I said, my post never appeared. I did use my real name - I guess I sometimes am a little bit courageous, or a little bit pissed off, if you want to know the truth. Although he'll probably never read this, I'd like to tell Ken thank you for what you posted. You basically got to the heart of what I had to say. Maybe coming from a "professional" ems person, the point will be taken more seriously.

3. Yes, my father is a volunteer firefighter. Most small towns in the Bootheel rely on those volunteer firefighters. My father has been working for the Malden Fire Department in one form or another for 40 years come February. During those 40 years, he's responded to and fought countless fires. Most of my memories of holidays, family occasions, church services, and yes, even some family funerals and visitations involve the tones dropping and my dad leaving to go help someone else out. He would come home tired, dirty, sometimes disturbed by the burned and mangled bodies he pulled out or a house or a car. I'm sure his memories are more grusome than most of us care to know. I can tell you there are things he can't and won't talk about. But here's the thing, he gets out there and does it, for much less pay than "professional firefighters" make (to the tune of $65,000-$70,000 as starting pay in some districts up here in the St. Louis area). Yes, he didn't attend the academy, but he has taken numerous classes and training seminars. He has 40 years of experience fighting fires and more years of experience working on automobiles which has definitely come in handy where extrications are concerned. I learned a long time ago that a diploma from a college, a university, or even a Fire Academy doesn't make you a professional. It's just a pretty piece of paper that you pay a lot of money to get. Professionals are created from the baptism by fire that is only learned through real world experience.

4. When the fire or emergency is at your house or concerns you, the first responders can't get there fast enough. I lived in Malden a long time, and while I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, I did observe some things. If the police and firefighters drive at a necessary speed to respond to an emergency, they drive too fast and are criticized. If they don't get there in what people consider to be an "appropriate" amount of time, they are criticized. As a matter of fact, there are several posts on the Malden forum that say that the police department and the fire department are financial drains on Malden and that the city would be better off without them. Here's the funny thing, without the fire protection currently offered by the Malden Fire Department, citizens of Malden would see their home insurance rates increase. Who would be critiziced for this -the city and the fire department. It's easy to sit an criticize and not be a part of the solution. The last time I checked, there wasn't exactly a long line of volunteers or professional firefighters lining up outside Station 3's doors on fire meeting nights to sign up to provide fire protection for the citizens of Malden.

5. " I hope the Downing family sues the hell out of this guy." Well, you can't get blood out of a turnip. My father worked in auto body shops and as a driver for the fire department and then as a teacher - none of those jobs get you rich in this lifetime, especially in the Bootheel. Any "extra" money he made as a "Vollie Firefighter" was spent long ago trying to make ends meet. My parents aren't exactly rolling in money and I seriously doubt anything they have would be worth what they would be sued for. My family is poor, plain and simple. I'll be honest, my grandparents were sharecroppers. I'm the second generation away from sharecroppers! I wonder if this comment would even be posted if my family were one of Malden's elite, supposedly wealthy families. I sincerely doubt it. But we're not one of the wealthy families; we don't belong to the country club; we're just pissants, as my mom and dad have fondly described my family's status in the popularity contest that comes with living in a small town. No matter how hard you work, it doesn't make any difference. Nothing ever changes. I don't know the Downing family well, but I hope they are not as vindictive as "Professional Firefighter" (yes, insert dripping sarcasm here in reference to his "name") hopes and apparently believes they are.

6. Here's the truth. IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!! My father was responding to an emergency call with his lights on, his headlights flashing, the siren going, and probably blowing his horn. For whatever reason, Mr. Downing didn't see or hear him coming and pulled out into the path of my father's vehicle. You can't stop on a dime. I've been involved in a couple of accidents in my life and you don't have to be "flying" as Professional Firefighter puts it to cause quite a bit of damage. Was I there? No, I was up here in Washington. But I have read the comments and heard quite a bit about what people who did see the accident have reported. All have said that my father didn't have anywhere to go and didn't have time to stop. I do know that he tried to miss him. If you don't believe me, take a drive past Charlie Cooper's house and check out his yard and flagpole.

7. I am especially angry that some people are implying that my father was being negligent or apparently has no concern about what happened. Yes, the rumor mill even reaches four and a half hours north to Washington, MO. For those people who are implying this and spreading these rumors, it is obvious they do not know my father or my family. I have sometimes been in the car with my dad when he has had to respond to a fire or another emergency. Yeah, he didn't just pull over and kick me to the curb. The first thing he'd tell me was to put on my seatbelt. The second thing he would do was to do everything he could to alert other drivers that he was coming through. The third thing he would do would be to drive as fast as he felt was safe without endangering other drivers, himself, or me. Keep in mind that my brother was in the vehicle with him. If I know one thing, my father would rather hurt himself than hurt one of his children. Obviously since he has volunteered for years to fight fires and pull people out of mangled cars, he has more concern for others than for himself. Firefighting, even just "volunteering", is a dangerous vocation, and yes, I believe it is a calling. You have to be a special breed to run into a burning building when everyone else is running out. Yes, even in Malden, they go into the burning buildings. For anyone to say my father and my family hasn't been affected by this is lying, plain and simple. I would have no trouble telling them that to their faces. Unfortunately, having the last name of German often means that we tend to speak our minds. What I do know is that when the word came that Mr. Downing had passed away, my father and my family was extremely upset, and continue to be so. Having lost so many of our family members at Christmas, we in no way would ever wish this on anyone, especially not someone as fine as Mr. Downing was. How dare people spread these hateful lies, especially in this time of supposed good will toward all men. Right now, I'm having a hard time feeling that for some of the gossips in Malden.

8. While I grew up in Malden, had great friends (and still do have a great number of friends in Malden whom I love and respect), and received the start in education that has gotten me where I am today (THANK YOU Mrs. Rascher, Mrs. Blough, Mr. Blackiston, Mr. Carman, Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Powell, Mrs. Bess, Mrs. Bachelor, Mrs. Roth the list could go on and on), I thank the good Lord every day that I left. All I feel when I go home is an abiding sadness and depression at what my hometown has become. It is slowly, but surely dying, for a number of reasons. While I'm sure the lack of industry and the resulting lack of jobs has a great deal to do with this, I can't help but wonder if this attitude of sit back and complain about everyone and everything instead of working to make things better isn't part of the problem.

By the way, I'm not afraid to use my real name. Sincerely, Debra German

I'm Stuck....

2008-10-02T16:51:00.002-05:00

....at school. I have a flat. I can't even begin to get the tire off. I know this from past experience. So, I've called Kenny, who is now probably thinking, "Curses! Why didn't I put her on my Triple A so she could just call them and I wouldn't have to mess with this!" Oh well, the best laid plans....

Saw Vince Gill on the 19th of September. It was outstanding. Him, about 8 guitars, and songs that I haven't heard in years. Yeah, he's still my get out of marriage free card. Kenny keeps telling me he really enjoyed the concert. I'm always surprised that he enjoys himself when I drag him to some crazy concert. He did in fact draw the line at 311 and Snoop Dogg though. I didn't really want to see Snoop Dogg in concert, but I would have loved to see 311. Sometimes I miss my college years.

Speaking of college years, I can say that I know someone who has won a reality show. I was still around the Music Department when Neal E. Boyd showed up. I happened to catch his audition this summer. I was flipping channels, saw him, kept flipping, and thought "That looks like Neal Boyd." Sure enough, it was. Kenny and I caught last night's performance and win while flipping back and forth between Criminal Minds and America's Got Talent.

Wish me luck. I'm going to buy my wedding dress this Saturday. My mom, my sister, possibly 2 aunts now, Sebrina, maybe Andrea, maybe Carmel, 2 assorted friends who've known me for a long time, and Robbie and Mellissa (yep, young kids are coming along - this should be interesting) are headed to the bridal shop at 10:30 on Saturday morning. Robbie's big request for this weekend - Cheesy Chicken, Fruit Roll-ups, and chili dogs. That's what I call the meal choice of champions! Kenny's making a small batch of Cheesy Chicken and a large pot of chili since it's turned cold and we'll be feeding a bunch of people. I'm in charge of the corn muffins, buying the fruit roll-ups, and making sure we have enough breakfast food to feed everyone. I'll let you know how it goes. Right now, the big debate is veil or no veil. I'm not sure what I want to do, or how I want to wear my hair, etc. I guess I need to start thinking about it and figure it out. It just seems weird to do so in October when we aren't even getting married until May.

Speaking of October, I can finally break out all of my Halloween decorations in my classroom. Our school still lets us decorate for Halloween and I wore my first pair of Halloween socks yesterday. I'm getting quite a collection and it always helps when Target has a whole bin of them in the dollar spot. Teachers love the dollar spot - believe me, I hit it every time I go to the store. I'm considering picking up some pumpkins from the Farmer's market here. I know I'll have to wait until closer to Halloween to carve them, but there are some really cool pattern books available at Michaels for pumpkin carving. Halloween is probably my favorite holiday. It doesn't stress me out like Christmas, it falls on a Friday this year, and it is mostly about having fun.

Now, I've got to get out there and figure out what I'm going to do about my car. Hopefully it will be an easy fix, and not cost too much. Oh well, life goes on.

The Countdown Begins

2008-09-15T21:42:00.003-05:00

Okay, mark your calendars for May 30, 2009, High Noon, St. Francis Borgia Church, Washington, MO. Why?

I'm getting hitched!

That's right, Kenny and I are making it official. These are tentative plans so if anything changes, I'll post. We're still waiting on a letter from Rome, which should be here any day now, so we're just going ahead and planning like it's going to be here. We're planning on a Mass, but if the letter doesn't come through, we're getting married one way or the other. By the time we are able to get married, it will be 18 months since his paperwork has been in Rome.

I'm a little overwhelmed. I seriously considered the convent. He left the priesthood. Neither of us ever thought we'd get married. I'd resigned myself to ending up like the crazy cat lady from The Simpsons. He'd resigned himself to wearing the sin fighter suit forever, regardless of how miserable he was. Sometimes it takes God a while to smack you upside the head, get your attention, and say, "HEY! YOU! Look what I've put right in front of your face!" Of course, we can be a little slow on the uptake, too.

I have finally found a bridal shop, Chatfields, that specializes in rather unique bridal gowns. They cater to pregnant brides (which I'm not), Mormon brides, Orthodox Jewish Brides, and folks like me who are of the Weeble People variety and want sleeves. The lady is really nice and when I went to check out the shop and see what they had, she had me trying on tons of dresses before I knew what hit me. I've narrowed it down to 3. My Mom, Sebrina (Matron of Honor), Andrea (Bridesmaid), Carmel (Friend that Rocks), and Abby (my 13 year old Goddaughter who looks way too mature for 13!!!) are headed up here to help me narrow it down.

Without being too cheesy, because I hate mushy stuff, when I saw myself for the first time in a wedding gown, I burst into tears. I had been cracking up in the dressing room because it was more dress than I'd ever been in. All I could think of was the line from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" - "I look like the abominable snow beast." Then she put me up on that stand thing, fluffed the dress, and told me to look and I completely lost it. Why? I'm not sure. I never really thought I'd get married, so I had kind of quit planning for anything or even visualizing anything. Even after we got engaged, I guess I kind of figured something would go wrong and we'd split up or it really wouldn't happen. Then it hit me what we were really doing and I guess it kind of freaked me out. That whole "till death" thing is a really long time! I love him, I'm sure I want to be married to him, but it hit me how serious this is. Weird, I know, but there you have it.

In any case, friends, mark your calendars for the 30th of May. I'm sure much hilarity and stress will ensue between now and then, so I'll be posting.

Game ON!!!!

2008-09-10T21:06:00.002-05:00

Okay, for people not from Malden, and specifically that didn't run around with my friends from High School, this post probably won't mean much to you. However, for all of my friends from Malden and their parents, you'll get it. My mom just called me, cracking up and said, "Game on, I just found Jackie Nalley!" Let the games begin! Apparently he's out of prison and back in town.

Where has the summer gone?

2008-09-08T20:53:00.003-05:00

Not too long ago, it seemed like I would have enough time to catch up on my blogging. Unfortunately, I went on vacation, came back and went to work, and school is kicking my butt. What else is new.

The new job is more than a challenge. It's only week three and I've already spent more hours than I care to count sitting at my desk, crying, and trying to figure out how to teach these kids the GLE's and lay the foundation that they're lacking. It's taken us 5 days to write numbers in word form. They have trouble recognizing numbers and they don't know the words for numbers. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to teach them exponents - but we don't even know basic multiplication facts. I'm trying really hard to stay positive, but tonight is the first night I've been home from school before 6:30 PM or later. I'm getting there at 7:00 AM. I'm tired and getting ready to go to bed. Yes, I have my own homework to do, but I can barely organize my thoughts to type this post.

Before I sign off for the evening, here are a couple of highlights from the end of my summer:

1. Nashville - We got to stay at the Opryland Hotel which is just insane! The beds in our room were amazing. I kept asking Kenny if we could figure out how to get four matresses down the elevator, strapped to the top of my car, and back to MO without getting caught or noticed. The hotel was neat to stay in, but very expensive. If it hadn't been for his having a conference there, we wouldn't have ever stayed there. We did a lot of the nerd stuff (plantations, historic tours), we did a bit of the tourist thing (we escaped to the Wild Horse saloon one night - I was hungry for "real food" instead of the "gourmet fair" being offered at all of the dinners at the conference - a barbeque sandwich and fried pickles did the trick - plus it was free admission with our room key) and of course, we did the country fan stuff. The Grand Ole Opry tour, a show, the Ryman, the Country Music Hall of Fame - I had a blast. Kenny was more diplomatic - his comment was it was nice to finally see pictures of all these people whose strange music I force him to listen to.

2. Dolly Parton - Yep, I finally got to see her at the Fox. It was by far one of the more bizarre concert experiences I've ever had - even stranger than CSNY with the clouds of pot smoke wafting through the night air. The Fox was packed and the crowd was mixed. There were people with oxygen tanks and walkers along with young families. Teenage girls and drag queens. Beside Kenny was a young teenage girl who spent most of the time crying and yelling "I love you, Dolly!" To my right was a drag queen who was of Latino origin, singing all the songs along with Dolly in accented English (think Hank Azaria's character in The Birdcage), and then there was Dolly. I love Dolly (not as much as my friend Kevin) and the first record I ever owned wasn't Alvin and the Chipmunks, it was 9 to 5 - and yes I love the movie too. She definitely still has it. Kenny was impressed with how many instruments she played and seemed to enjoy himself. This is great strides from someone who basically just listened to Classic 99 for the first few years I knew him. Then he moves in with me and it's Dolly Parton, Pink Floyd, Bill Monroe, Aretha Franklin..... Let's just say he's getting an education!

3. Having been to Nashville several times, I have always been disappointed that I have never been able to catch Vince Gill in concert. Any time I've been to the Opry, he's either been there the week before or the week after. However, that's all about to change. He is going to be here in the St. Louis area on Sept. 19th and Kenny got me tickets. Okay, I love his voice and his musical talent, but I think he's cute too. As I told Kenny, if I could have one get out of marriage free card, I'd have to reserve it for Vince Gill. I'm sure Amy Grant wouldn't appreciate that, but oh well. I'll post about the concert. Reviews have been positive. From what I've read, it's mostly acoustic, with him telling the stories behind how some of the songs came to be. Since I'm a die hard fan, I'm hoping for quite a bit of his bluegrass offerings. Yeah, I'm a nerd, but what can you expect from someone who grew up listening to Bill Monroe with my Grandpa and the Opry on Saturday nights? Now, if I can just convince Kenny to let me go to Bluegrass at the Ryman next summer, maybe I'll get to see Allison Kraus and Union Station.....

YUCK!

2008-07-16T22:56:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted any pics or more stories about having the kids up to visit. I promise I will, things are just kind of crazy right now.

I have been busy this week with our PDC University, a series of workshops our District PDC puts on each summer, and with beginning the process of trying to put my room back together. I had to wait until I could get back in due to the yearly waxing of the floors. What I have discovered is that my new classroom has been the dumping ground for papers, files, unwanted supplies, etc. that any teacher who has retired, been fired, or left for greener pastures for the past few years. I have gone through more junk each night this week (think at least 3-4 hours a night after meetings) than I care to think about. Added to that is the fact that when I have went through boxes of papers, filing cabinets crammed through with ditto books, old student discipline logs, old notes from parents, I have been inundated with dead and live bugs. My skin is literally crawling as I write this. I'm assuming they have been drawn to the boxes and cabinets due to substances I'm sure were candy at one time stored in the boxes or stuck to the papers. I've managed to sort, recycle, and shred what needs to be shredded. I have to put some Science and Social Studies together for the 5th grade teachers to go through and my plan for tomorrow night is to thorougly clean every surface in the room and vacum up all of the bug carcasses littering my floor. I can't believe people would just dump their stuff. I'm truly disgusted and grossed out right now. I refuse to unpack anything of mine until the cleaning is complete. Believe me, I'm going to let my administrators know about this because people need to take care of their own messes. Our cleaning staff is chronically shorthanded, plus it's not their job to clean out teachers' closets, boxes, and files. I just had to vent and now I'm off to take a hot shower and scrub off real and imagined filth!

Wow, I'm tired!

2008-07-09T22:06:00.002-05:00

Okay, Mellissa stayed with us for 11 days. We kept asking her if she was ready to go home and her response was always, "No." We took her home last Wednesday and proceeded to spend the 4th of July with my family, as is becoming our tradition. We had her with us for most of those days as well. To make a long story short, Mellissa, Mom, and Robbie returned with us on Monday. So, by the end of this week, Mellissa will have spent approximately 3 weeks with us this summer. Pretty amazing for a 2.5 year old, I think. She's having a blast, but the cats may not forgive me for this. I'll post more on that issue and pics later.

We went to the zoo yesterday (translation, 8 hours at the zoo- I think I'm half dead as I write this) and it's off to the Magic House tomorrow with Kenny's side of the family (Mike, Michelle, Ethan, Lucas) and (Lynn, Allison). Nothing like starting to blend the two families together. Hopefully we'll have fun.

Good Grief!

2008-06-17T20:57:00.003-05:00

Pardon the expression, but Patches blew out her butt again. We had surgery number 2 yesterday morning and so far everything seems okay. Apparently the massive poo was a bit too massive and undid all of Dr. Stoltz's handiwork. Luckily, he charged me nothing for the surgery, just for the drugs to knock her out and a refill of the antibiotics. The antibiotics always crack me up since it is the same stuff they always gave me as a child for ear infections, you know the pink bubblegum liquid.

When we picked her up yesterday afternoon, she was really out of it. When I looked at her, all I could think of was she looked really stoned. She spent most of the night looking at us like she had no clue who we were and attempting to walk around while veering wildly from side to side and falling down quite frequently. We had to put up the baby gate to keep her from falling down the stairs. She ended up laying down on my bed around 6 last night and apparently slept off any negative aftereffects of the medicine. Luckily, her appetite is returning and we are continuing all the medicine to make sure she doesn't get constipated again.

Speaking of baby gates, my niece Mellissa is coming back with me this weekend from Malden. My mom (who babysits for her) and her parents need a break. When your brother and his wife threaten to FedEx your niece to you, you know it's time to go pick her up. I'm sure much hilarity will ensue in the next week and a half. She comes back with me on Sunday and we keep her until July 2nd. I am going to get a taste of what life was like for my mother - taking classes, trying to do homework, and keep up with a kid who apparently feels like about 3 kids due to her curiousity and energy level. She's already packing her bags according to my mom. Mom says not only do they need a break, she probably needs a break from them too. I'm just glad I can keep her, or at least I'm crazy enough to keep her!

On a more historical note, if anyone makes it up to St. Louis this summer, I would highly recommend going the see the Lee and Grant exhibit at the Missouri History Museum. It's free on Tuesdays! It was really cool to see the artifacts on loan from the Virginia Historical Society. The exhibit does an excellent job of telling the stories of these two men, how their lives were intertwined, and how both were a product of the time and cultures. They have the originals of Grant's letter to Lee outlining the terms of surrender and Lee's farewell to the Confederate Troops from Appomatox Courthouse. Very cool, especially if you're a history buff. Kenny and I joke that our idea of a vacation or something cool to see can most often be described as "Nerd-tastic!" If there's a Civil War battlefield within driving distance, you can bet we're plotting our route. Plan on hearing of more of these trips in the future. We're planning on a trip to Shiloh this summer as well as a trip to Ft. Pillow. In August we'll be headed to Nashville for a Boy Scout conference. What am I most excited about (okay, besides going to the Grand Ole Opry)? All the historical sights. I plan to explore The Hermitage and Belle Meade to my heart's content. I can go on a guided tour with groups from the Conference, but I'm afraid I'll be rushed and won't get to spend as much time as I'd like going through everything. I know, pathetic, but at least I'm a cheap date. Give me a battlefield, a sandwich, a soda, and a numerous historical markers to read and I'm as happy as a clam.

It's been like ER around our house....

2008-06-15T23:04:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted because I've been too busy with a sick cat this week. It all started last Saturday afternoon. I noticed my cat Patch was walking funny. When I took a closer look at her, I noticed her rectum had protracted. This started happening with her about 2 years ago. The first time it happened, I literally freaked out. After a call to my vet, I found out that this sometimes happens in cats and that it typically goes back in all on its own. He told me if it didn't, I should rub some Preparation H on it and that should do the trick. Right.... my cat has claws, don't think so, doc! Anyway, I thought it would take care of itself in due time and let her hide like she always does when this occurs.

Unfortunately, it didn't go back in. By Monday morning, I was starting to panic. I called the vet and immediately got her an appointment. When we got there, Dr. Stoltz looked at her and said, "Uh-oh." Those are words I didn't want to hear. Instead of just a protracted rectum, we had now moved into the prolapsed rectum and that meant surgery. He then looked at Kenny and me and said, "I hope I can do the conservative surgery. I'll put her rectum back in her body, attach it inside with stitches, and then stitch up her anus like a drawstring to prevent it from coming back out. If that's not feasible, I'll have to amputate and that's the more extensive, drastic surgery." I'm sure the look on our faces was priceless. Hence I left Patch in Dr. Stoltz's capable hands and went home to wait by the phone.

The surgery went fine and he was able to take the conservative route, no amputation required. He told me I could come pick her up late Tuesday afternoon because she was a little lethargic and he wanted her to be more alert before she went home. I went to pick her up that afternoon and she was really out of it. He told me to continue her Duralactin medication that she takes for chronic cystitis, put her on soft food, and sprinkle said food with Epsom salts to make her poo soft where she could go without undoing his handiwork. Instead of Duralactin pills, they gave me liquid Duralactin to mix in with her food. She refused to eat her food. I tried tuna, but she wouldn't eat much of it with the Duralactin and the Epsom salts on it. In a fit of desperation, I tried to give her the Durlactin with a dropper. This made her foam at the mouth. Eventually, she started to nibble at the tuna, but we went from Saturday to Friday with her barely eating anything at all.

Yesterday morning, we took her in to have her stitches removed. When we got there, the news wasn't good. She had managed to chew out the stitches. While this wasn't the problem, Dr. Stoltz informed me that she was CONSTIPATED! His solution was that we needed to get her to go poo, but she was going to need some help. My first thought was, "OH GREAT! What's this going to involve?" While it wasn't as drastic as I was imagining, it still didn't sound fun. Dr. Stoltz put her on a product called Cat Lax (I'm not making this up). He told us that hopefully she'd lick it off our fingers or her paws if we smeared it on them. He assured us that this stuff, which comes in a tube like toothpaste, was stickier than peanut butter so the only option she would have for getting it off her paws would be to groom herself. If that didn't work, we were supposed to pry open her mouth and rub it on the roof of her mouth. Have I mentioned that she has all her claws and teeth? Envisioning being shredded and maimed by my pet, I reluctantly agreed and told him that we needed to switch back to powdered Duralactin. I was to increase the amount of Epsom salt I put on her food and even give her some mineral oil to "lube things up"( his words, not mine). He also proceeded to tell us that if she didn't go poo by Monday, we would have to try another option, such as a suppository or an enema! While I love my cat, this is something he would definitely be the one doing, not me or Kenny! We draw the line at administering some treatments.

We got her home and I braced myself for being soundly bitten while trying to administer the Cat Lax. I read the label and it has carmel and molasses in it and Patch loved it. I guess it's better than fish flavored cat treats because everytime we go to give her the daily dose, all we have to do is put it on our finger and she licks it off with no problem. I ended up giving her the mineral oil in a syringe that you use to give babies medicine. I expected she wouldn't take that well either, but she calmly lets me give her this and walks off like it's no big deal. While I was afraid that she wasn't eating soft food or tuna because of the Epsom salts, I discovered it must have been the liquid Duralactin that she didn't like because now that we're back to powdered Duralactin sprinkled on her food, she's been eating like she's starving (which she probably is after not eating for the better part of a week).

Dr. Stoltz told us that we were obviously going to have to check the litter box everytime she went in there to see if she did the deed. So, yesterday and today, Kenny and I have been checking the box on a regular basis and as much as I hate to admit it, it was like we'd hit the jackpot when she "worked things out". When I called home to wish my Dad Happy Father's Day and he asked me what we'd done today, I told him, "Oh, we just stayed around here waiting for Patches to poop." At this point, he got completely cracked up and then went on to ask me how things were going. Before I knew it, I was describing, to my father, what happened when Kenny discovered the results of her effort in the box! That's when it occured to me that my life has sunk to a new low and that we need to get out more often! Hopefully things will calm down and get back to normal around here, or at least as normal as things ever are in our house!

Some Resolution

2008-06-09T16:10:00.003-05:00

As of right now, I know what I'm supposedly teaching next year. After I wrote my last post, I parked myself outside my principal's door and waited until he would see me. Actually, he tried to escape but I told him he had to talk to me sometime and if he wasn't supposed to talk to me because Central Office didn't want him to talk to me, then I was signing out and heading to central office to wait until someone would talk to me about my position for next year. He decided to talk to me and let me know what was going on with the whole situation/fiasco. Here's the main highlights of what transpired.

1. I'm no longer teaching Title I. I will be teaching academic at-risk 4th and 5th graders Communication Arts and Math all day in a regular classroom setting. I will have small groups of 10-12 students at a time, responsible for teaching all the GLEs, meeting with the parents, planning lessons, grading, etc. This is fine with me. Honestly, I think I need a change from what I've been doing for a while.

2. Here's where it gets interesting. The remaining two Title I teachers were informed that one of them would have to go teach Title I Reading at the Middle School for one hour. That went over like a ton of bricks. When one was told she would have to go, she stamped her foot and absolutely refused to do it. The other one informed them that she didn't want to do it and started scheming to find ways to get out of going to the Middle School. Her first idea was that the girl who took my place which was transferred to Central should have to do it. She was promptly informed that that young lady (who decided she wanted my Title I job even though I had more seniority) has to go for two hours to the Middle School (which she isn't happy about either). Her next idea was that the Art Teacher could go do it. She was told that the class must be taught by a reading specialist. Her next idea was that she didn't have the correct certification because her elementart degree only went to 6th grade. I took just a little bit of pleasure in informing her that she was certified to teach middle school because like me, her reading specialist certification is K-12. She then decided she wanted my academic at-risk job and fired off several rude letters to the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, and apparently a couple of School Board Members. This was on Thursday. By Friday, she decided she no longer wanted my job because it would be too much work, but the damage had already been done since she went ahead and e-mailed the letters.

3. As a result of the letters, she and the other Title I teacher in our building were called in for a special meeting last week where they were read the riot act for not being cooperative about meeting the needs of students, for being so hateful, for being insubordinate, for not following the chain of command by not talking to our principal, etc. When the demanded to know where I was (I'm not stupid, I made sure I was out of town when this meeting went down), they were informed that I wasn't required to attend it because I was no longer a Title Teacher and besides, I hadn't pitched a fit to get my way.

So what have I learned throughout all of the drama? One, be careful what you ask for because you just might get it, both good and bad. When all of this started in January, both of the Title teachers I worked with refused to leave Title I. My attitude was that I needed a job and would be willing to consider other teaching positions. Two, even though someone else may sometimes pull the "I'm a Schroeder and my mother was a Lakebrink, you know prominent founding families here" trick to obtain what you want (as did the young lady at Central who took my position in Title I), it sometimes backfires on you and you get more than what you bargained for. Three, you are more apt to come out ahead if you act in a reasonable manner and don't throw hissy fits and tantrums to get what you want. Oh, they got to stay in Title I all right, but now they have to go to the Middle School which is totally out of control. Four, I really need this summer. I need the summer to plan for the upcoming year and to not spend time with anyone from school. Quite frankly, I'm sick of the fighting and the backbiting and am enjoying not seeing anyone that makes my blood boil!

Limbo

2008-05-28T11:22:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the silence, but I'm still in limbo. As of today, I still have no idea what I'm teaching, which building I'm going to be in, anything. To say the lack of professionalism is getting on my nerves is an understatement. What's even worse, the principal is avoiding me and won't make eye contact or speak to me on the rare occasions I do happen to encounter him in the hall. I want to go up to him and say, "Just grow a pair and tell me what's going on with my position." I hate all of the political crap and avoidance tactics that go on in schools. On the plus side, they offered me a tenure contract and I signed it (yes, I kept the duplicates at home), so they have to pay me a salary even if they can't find a position for me. Unfortunately, all of the other positions I'm qualified to teach they have already filled. I'm a little ticked that they can manage to tell the new hires what position they will have but they can't manage to figure it out with me who has worked here, doing a fine job according to all of my evaluations, for 5 years. I'm not happy, not happy at all.

I'm a what???

2008-04-24T13:25:00.003-05:00

I'm a dominoe, or so I'm being told by the powers that be at school. They still haven't told me where and what I'm going to be teaching next year! They were supposed to tell me by the 28th of March. They were supposed to tell me by April 4th, 11th, 18th, and now they're telling me the dominoes are still falling and they're not sure where I am going to land. This has been hanging over me since January. Now the other two reading teachers are kind of freaking out because they've just realized that if I'm not here next year, all of the paperwork I've taken care of for the past 4 years will now be up to them. When asked about what forms I planned on revising for next year, I informed them that if I was moved into a regular classroom in another building that I wouldn't have time to do the paperwork next year, that it would be their responsibility. I just want it decided before the middle or the end of July so I can start preparing over the summer, especially if they move me to first grade with a curriculum I've never taught. More importantly, I just wish the rumors would stop flying and everyone would leave me alone and quit asking me a hundred times a day, "Have you heard anything?" I'm just a lowly domino. They're not going to tell me anything.

Why Bother?

2008-04-20T21:50:00.002-05:00

I had class yesterday and I found out that the group project isn't going to be that bad. I was a little concerned until I found out who was in my group. We quickly made a task list, assigned each one our jobs, and set up our next meeting.

One interesting piece of information came from one of the other group members. All of us in our class got to comparing grades. No one in the class has higher than a low B average. Then we got to comparing our scores on individual assignments as well as the "notes" the professor (the minion of Satan) had made. Amazingly, we all had the same notes which read: "Not specific." That's it. What's not specific? Is it my examples? Is it my sentences? Is it my information? What? When one of my fellow group members, Sean, e-mailed the professor and asked him to elaborate and give him some pointers or examples of how specific he wants us to be to get an A, he wrote Sean back and told him that if he was truly capable of graduate level work, he wouldn't be asking this question. What? The last time I checked, there were several students in my class, including Sean, who are card carrying members of MENSA. I'm not one of them, but I'm not the dullest tool in the shed either. I hold my on and do quite well, even in difficult classes that are a lot of work. I've never been afraid of working hard. Then the e-mail went on to state that he starts grading at a B and goes down from there. Then why bother putting forth an A effort if all that's possible is a B? At least if I do B work, I'll have earned my B. To say that I'm looking forward to the end of this class is an understatement. Once again, I'm going to have to write a very negative evaluation. I hate to be that way, but sometimes it has to be done. When I taught in a regular classroom, I didn't run my class this way. If you did A work, you earned an A. If you did B work, you earned a B. I didn't grade easy either, but I was fair. In my mind, that's what a good teacher or professor does, but apparently not this guy. It just ticks me off that I've spent an entire semester struggling along with my fellow students, not getting any help from our professor, being made to feel stupid everytime we ask questions, and we paid over a thousand dollars for this class. I don't think I'm getting my money's worth.

Freedom is close...

2008-04-15T23:14:00.002-05:00

There is light at the end of the tunnel. I only have one more project due for this semester. What is not so cool is that it's a group project and according to e-mail from my professor who is a minion of Satan, everyone in the group will get the same grade. Translation: one or two of us will do the work, the rest will slide and get the same grade. I thought I left this kind of crap behind as an undergrad. I'm wanting to rebel, but I need my grade first!

In this season of severe weather and MAP testing....

2008-04-08T18:32:00.003-05:00

For all of my teacher friends out there, here's a humorous addition to all of those pesky testing protocols we're supposed to follow, courtesy of our school counselor.

With the possibility of sever weather ahead of us I am forwarding you some additional test security protocol. Please read carefully, as you will be held accountable.

Severe Weather Testing Protocols During Testing*

1. Should a severe weather situation occur during testing,
please remain calm. To display any kind of anxiety would be
a testing irregularity and must be reported.

2. Please do not look out the window to watch for
approaching tornadoes. You must monitor the students at all
times. To do otherwise would be a testing irregularity and
must be reported.

3. Should students notice an approaching tornado and begin
to cry, please make every effort to protect their testing
materials from the flow of tears and sinus drainage.

4. Should a flying object come through your window during
testing, please make every effort to ensure that it does not
land on a testing booklet or an answer sheet. Please make
sure to soften the landing of the flying object so that it
will not disturb the students while testing.

5. Should shards of glass from a broken window come flying
into the room, have the students use their bodies to shield
their testing materials so that they will not be damaged.
Have plenty of gauze on hand to ensure that no one
accidentally bleeds on the answer documents. Damaged answer
sheets will not scan properly.

6. Should gale force winds ensue, please have everyone stuff
their test booklets and answer sheets into their
shirts...being very careful not to bend them because bent
answer documents will not scan properly.

7. If any student gets sucked into the vortex of the funnel
cloud, please make sure they mark at least one answer before
departing...and of course make sure they leave their answer
sheets and test booklets behind. You will have to account
for those.

8. Should a funnel cloud pick you, the test administrator,
up and take you flying over the rainbow, you will still be
required to account for all of your testing materials when
you land so please take extra precautions. Remember, once
you have checked them out, they should never leave your
hands.

9. When rescue workers arrive to dig you out of the rubble,
please make sure that they do not, at any time, look at or
handle the testing materials. Once you have been treated for
your injuries, you will still be responsible for checking
your materials back in. Search dogs will not be allowed to
sift through the rubble for lost tests...unless of course
they have been through standardized test training.

10. Please do not pray should a severe weather situation
arise. Your priority is to actively monitor the test and a
student might mark in the wrong section if you are praying
instead of monitoring. I'm sure God will put war, world
hunger, crime, and the presidential primaries on hold until
after testing is over. He knows how important this test is.

Good News!

2008-04-07T22:22:00.003-05:00

Sebrina found out today that she got the job! As of May 12th, she'll be working and living in Springfield, MO. Keep her and Joe in your prayers as they make the move out this week and she makes the flight back to finish out the school year.

My fate is being decided this evening at the school board meeting. Hopefully I'll be able to post what I'll be teaching next year. In a way, I really am hoping for the 1st grade position. I think it may be time for a change and once again being on my own in a classroom. I'll keep you posted as the news comes down the line.

Life Update

2008-04-03T07:58:00.003-05:00

Sorry for no communication. The month of March roared in and out like a lion for me! I'm still not caught up on all of the stuff I'm supposed to get done, but I'm gradually learning to live with this perpetual feeling of futility!

1. Job: I'm not sure where and what I'm going to be teaching next year. In January, we were informed that it might be possible that one of the reading teachers in our building would be moved to a lower elementary building. One of the other teachers pounded her fist on the desk and basically said she wasn't moving and they couldn't make her move. The other one slapped me on the back and said, "It's been nice working with you." My response was, "I need a job." I hate to tell the other two, the boss can tell you where you're going and even if you're tenured, there's not a whole lot you can do about it. As a result, things have been a little tense. Our assistant superintendent has met with me and asked me what I'd be willing to teach. I told her I've gone as high in the grades as I need to go. If I've learned anything from teaching 7th grade PSR it's that I do not have the gift for teaching junior high students. There may be the possibility of me teaching a 1st grade at-risk classroom. Everyone thinks I'm insane, but I figure 15 at risk students with a teacher's aid is nothing compared to the 100 at-risk 5th and 6th graders I deal with every day right now. Up here, at-risk would pretty much be my entire class in Matthews. At least in 1st grade I doubt any of them would be stealing their parent's car to go to their gang initiation. (Yep, that happened with one of my 4th graders when I was teaching in Matthews.) So, in my opinion, at-risk is a relative term.

2. School: Why do technology classes have to be written in a language that at first appears to be English, but is really a foreign language? Why do the professors who teach the technology classes think their class is the only class that is worth anything and assign copious amounts of homework and readings that leave you with very little time to devote to another class or things like laundry and bathing? Why do male, Chinese professors have to be butt-heads to American females? Why do deans do nothing when a professor's completely unprofessional behavior is pointed out to them by the teaching assistants and students? Translation, I'm slogging my way through my latest technology class and asking no questions of the professor since I don't enjoy ridicule he dishes out to any woman in my class who asks a question he feels is, "OBVIOUSLY CLEARLY STATED IN THE ASSIGNED READINGS, if you'd bother to read them." Guess what, we've read them and the information is still as clear as mud. I'm just waiting to vent on the class evaluation. Maybe someone in an office at the University will pick up that this guy is a major tool.

3. Good News: My best friend, Sebrina, will be moving back to Missouri in a few short months. Her husband, Joe, has been hired to work in a TB lab in Mt. Vernon, MO. She's applied for a position at SMS (I think they call it Missouri State now), but hasn't heard back. As of right now, they are planning to pack up the entire contents of their house, load the truck on April 9th, and set out for MO on April 10th. Joe starts work on the 16th and Sebrina flies back to finish out the school year in North Carolina . At the end of the year, she'll drive out and join him in their new home in Springfield. WHOO HOO! It will be great to have her back in the state, especially only about 3 hours away. It's a lot better than the 10-14 hour drive to North Carolina! Send good thoughts and prayers their way that she'll get the job at the University and everything with their move will go well and that they'll both be safe during all the trips.

Avenue Q

2008-02-23T23:48:00.004-06:00

For my Valentine's Day gift, Kenny got us tickets to Avenue Q at the Fox. Just let me say that if you want a good laugh, I hope you get the chance to see this show. For those of us who grew up watching Sesame Street, it's a riot. Just bear in mind, it's definitely an adult show so leave the little ones at home, no matter how much they beg and plead to go see "the muppets" as my nephew referred to them. Here's a link to a little bit of info on the show if you're not familiar with it.
Avenue Q

ARGHH!

2008-02-20T09:35:00.002-06:00

"If metadata is data about data, then meta-metadata is data about the data about data." p.150
The Organization of Information
This is a quote from my textbook for one of my classes this semester. This is my second time through Chapter 6 and this sentence is an example of the writing in this book. My brain is about to explode!

Valentine's Day Gifts

2008-02-12T21:55:00.003-06:00

Kenny and I are not the "into" Valentine's Day thing. For most of our lives, both of us celebrated this holiday alone, so I guess you could say we were more of the anti-Valentine's Day kind of people. But now that we're engaged, everyone has been asking me at school, "What are you two doing for Valentine's Day? Are you getting him a "special" gift?" They can't believe it when I respond, "We'll be cleaning house since my parents and niece and nephew will be visiting this weekend. I'll probably be doing some homework. We'll be trying to get everything done before 9:00 so we can watch our favorite show Ace of Cakes." Then they look at me like I'm an idiot. One even went so far as to say, "Oh, I guess getting engaged killed the romance."

No, getting engaged didn't kill the romance. Kenny and I kind of laugh about our tendancy to buy each other practical gifts for any occasion, or at least gifts that the other one really likes or wants. For instance, our main gift to each other at Christmas was an exercise bike. I did get him the final season of Hogan's Heroes. he got me a cover for my Kitchen Aid mixer and a salad spinner (this gift is a blast to use. I try to fix food that lets me use the salad spinner frequently.) So for Valentine's Day, there will be no silk boxer shorts or lingerie or stuffed animals. I may get flowers because he knows I love flowers but won't buy fresh flowers for myself because it's a frivilous expense. We might get each other a package of our favorite candy because it's a treat, but no diamonds, no frou-frou gifts. Kenny received his gift on Sunday because he was sick, I figured he could use a pick-me-up, and we were talking about what a drag it is to always drag out the vacuum cleaner to vacum up small messes in our kitchen. So here's his Valentine's Day gift:

I got him a Dustbuster. Instead of being bummed out, he couldn't wait to charge it up and try it out. When I told the people I eat lunch with what I got him on Monday, they all looked at me like I was crazy. One said, "But that's not romantic!" No it may not be romantic, but it is something he wanted and we both appreciate it. So on Valentine's Day, do what makes you spouse or partner happy. He's had way more fun playing with the dustbuster than he would with a stupid pair of boxers with bright red lips on them!

Super Tuesday and Fat Tuesday

2008-02-05T18:33:00.000-06:00

It's Super Tuesday and I have already done my civic duty and went and voted. It was the first time for me voting in town and not in the little village of Krakow where I lived for the first 3 and a half years since moving to the Washington area. One of the things I realized when I went to vote is that I've apparently moved into a Republican neighborhood. When I walked to the table to pick up my ballot, the older lady sitting there didn't ask me which ballot I wanted. She automatically handed me the Republican ballot. I saw the elephant on the top of the ballot and said, "I need the other one please." You would have thought I'd grown two heads right there in the polling place. Oh well, there needs to be a rebel in every neighborhood and if I'm the rebel just because I voted for "the other party" so be it. In any case, I figure it's just a matter of time before our lovely Archbishop makes the pronouncement that if you voted for a Democrat to not present yourself for Communion, as he did in 2004. I enjoyed casting my "scandalous" vote and plan on continuing to go to Communion because I voted my conscience on multiple issues not jut one.

It's also Mardi Gras. While I didn't have time to make my King Cake (a fact noticed by the teachers I work with at school), I ate a big old hamburger tonight for supper. I also indulged in a bit of after school tv watching that I usually Tivo, namely Ellen's Mardi Gras show. Last night, I watched Anthony Bourdain's show No Reservations. He was in New Orleans talking about what the restaurant trade has been through since Hurrican Katrina. Two years later, I found myself fuming at the pictures taken then and now in a city that holds a special place in my heart. Like Brooke over at The Four of Clubbs, I tend to not publicly voice my political opinions. However, I find what has happened in New Orleans and Mississippi reprehensible. While we can spend billions of dollars in a foreign country that we invaded even though our leaders were told that there was no credible link to Osama Bin Laden and there really weren't weapons of mass destruction, we can't seem to get real help, without tons of red tape and hoops to jump through, to AMERICANS who truly need help to get their lives and homes back together. If you feel moved to contribute to the rebuilding and cleanup efforts going on in the area (and face it, a lot of the work and money is coming from volunteers) there are several worthy ways to get help out. Check out Habitat for Humanity along with Make it Right and the Musician's Village. Even a little bit helps and the need is still great.

Jeep Liberty |

2008-01-31T20:58:00.001-06:00

I must say, this is my favorite commercial of the past six months. I howl (no pun intended) everytime it comes on TV.

Karma

2008-01-31T20:36:00.000-06:00

This is my ex-sister-in-law's car. While I usually don't take joy in other people's misfortune, I had to chuckle over this one. It's usually someone in my immediate family who is the wrong place at the wrong time. As my brother said, he should send this in to Mastercard for the following commercial:
Divorce: $1200
Bills left over from the 1st marriage: $38000 (That she walked away from without helping my brother pay for; yeah, I kind of have a problem with that one.)
Seeing a tree fall on your ex-wife's car after she dropped the insurance: Priceless
Don't worry, she has a new car to drive, so I'm not totally heartless. She was selling this one because the computer went out on it. I know, I know, I need to go to confession for even thinking perhaps this is some sort of karmic justice. But after watching my family go through the hell their marriage and divorce has put us through, especially my parents, it does make me wonder if what goes around comes around in one way or another.

What's Wrong with this Picture?

2008-01-31T20:15:00.000-06:00

Our school counselor e-mailed this picture to me. Notice the power strip floating on flip flops? Here's the picture that should be by the definition of "idiot" in the dictionary!

What's In a Name?

2008-01-25T21:08:00.000-06:00

Well, I think a lot is in a name. It is a common practice to name a child after someone in the Bible or after a saint, with the hope that the child will become someone of faith themselves or exhibit the good qualities of the person they're named after. Names, in a large part, end up defining who we are. I'm a Debbie; I can't imagine being named anything else. Our names are one of the first words we learn. We learn to respond to it before we know how to talk. It's one of the very first words we learn to spell and write. Whether we like it or not, we're stuck with our names for life, for the most part. Our names aren't like a pair of shoes; if you don't like your name, it's not easy to get rid of it As a result, I think parents give a lot of thought to names. Well, most parents that is.

I've been doing quite a bit of paperwork at school this week, and I've come to realize that some parents may not view naming a child with the long term consequences of giving their child a particular name. Either that or they were completely on drugs, both legal and illicit, when choosing their children's names. How do I know this? Here is my proof - names of students either I have now or have had in the past:

Chiquita (as in the banana)
Campbells (as in the soup)
Boston (after the band, not the city) (Okay, maybe I can let that one slide.)
Nutter (Don't ask! This is a boy's given name in our school- I checked out the copy of his birth certificate in his permanent file. Perhaps after Nutter Butters?)
Tiass (I have no idea, but you can imagine how she got made fun of the year I had her in class.)
Tarantula (Yep, like the spider.)
and my last two personal favorites
Diamond
and
Desire

Honestly, I think the parents of the last two girls didn't realize that they were giving their daughters stripper/hooker names. At least I hope they didn't. Unfortunately, their preteen daughters come to school every day dressed like women who practice those professions. So, maybe our names help give us a sense of who we are or at least a sense of style. I don't know. I just hope I'll stop and think about the names I give to my child and don't saddle them with a name that is cheap or brings about lifelong taunting by their peers.

Fun on TheraFlu

2008-01-18T21:18:00.000-06:00

I've managed to catch the flu from the rugrats again this year. As a result, I'm at home, drugged up, watching stuff on the TV during bouts of being awake and going back to sleep. During the day, there's this show called A Haunting on the Discovery Channel. Here's a handy piece of advice for you. Don't take cold medicine, lay down, and go to sleep watching this show. You want to talk about messed up dreams. I have enough messed up dreams when I'm feeling relatively normal, so you can only imagine what my dreams are like when I'm sick, on drugs, and fall asleep watching some tv show about a house that's possessed by demons due to the previous owners being devil worshippers holding black masses and the demons are now attacking the new owners. WHOA! Not fun, not fun at all.

On the other hand, I fell asleep later on this afternoon after another bout of medicine with the TV on CMT and they've got this show on alled 20 Greatest Redneck Moments. As I'm drifting off to sleep I hear the song "Convoy". Now, since I've been awake, this song is stuck in my head. All I need is to switch to a movie channel and fall asleep to reruns of Smoky and the Bandit. I love being on cold medicine.

Warning, Teacher Rant in Progress

2008-01-16T14:45:00.000-06:00

I wouldn't call this a kicking, screaming rant, but more of an "I don't get it" rant. We are required to do mid-year reading tests in our program. The test we have to give takes 2 days, 20 minutes for Vocabulary, 35 minutes for comprehension. We have found that before Christmas is not a good time to take the tests - the kids are hyped up on way too much sugar. The first week back isn't good either, we're dealing with slugs. Literally, my students slink into my room that first week in January looking like slugs. So, we give it the second week back to school.

Okay, here's what I don't get. In every class, I heard some variation of I don't want to do this. The lady I team teach with finally lost it yesterday afternoon and told one of our more obnoxious students, "I don't recall asking you what you wanted to do." Then one of our more difficult students said, "Can I flunk this? What happens if I flunk this? I'm not even gonna try because they don't give me a grade for this." I wanted to tell this student, "No, you don't get a grade, but this is recorded on your permanent records, so if you want to look like a moron, go right ahead." I didn't say that but gave the you-need-to-do-your-best speech with helpful hints on what to do if you get stuck. When I was a student, I can't remember saying to a teacher "I don't want to do this," and it making a big difference. I got to thinking about saying something like this to Mrs. Rascher, or Mrs. Blough, or any of the other teachers I had in High School or even my professors in college. Yeah, that would have went over like a ton of bricks in any of my classes. Heck, it would go over like a ton of bricks now at my classes at MU. Where do these kids get the idea that they just don't have to do anything they don't want to do? What's going to happen to them when they have to get a job and the boss tells them to do something that they don't want to do? Does telling their parents that they don't want to do something get them out of chores at home? It would have gotten me a blistered backside and I still would have had to do what my parents told me.

So we do the vocab part. The student who said he wasn't going to try didn't. We kept telling him to slow down, check his answers, blah, blah, blah. I graded the vocab part last night and he bombed it. When I handed the answer sheet back to him today to complete the comprehension section, he yelled at me, "Why did you make me miss all of these?" Excuse me, I didn't make you miss all of them. I should have sent him to the office, or assigned him a detention. Unfortunately, that wouldn't make a difference or change the behavior. In our school, it's like a badge of honor to see how many detentions you can get assigned. What I would really like to do is smack him upside his head and tell him to wake up, not everything in life is easy, and he's going to have to do a lot of things he doesn't want to do or he'll find himself living in a van down by the river (sometimes Chris Farley said some relevant things)or living in his parents' basement. I wonder if his parents plan on supporting him because he won't be able to hold down most jobs with the attitude that he has. He didn't try on the comprehension section, so even though we've worked our tails off this semester to show improvement in his reading level, when I finish scoring his test, it's going to stink. That low score is what will be recorded and quite frankly will be the bottom line when the adminsitration looks at how effective our program is.

To add insult to injury, last night I happened to be glancing through the want ads in the local paper. The St. Charles County Sheriff's Dept. has an opening for a dispatcher. This job provides full benefits and requires only a high school diploma. When I looked at the salary, I wanted to cry. Starting salary for this job, which only requires a high school diploma, is $500 less than what I earn right now with 10 years of experience and a master's degree. Yet people wonder why teachers are leaving the field and you're considered a veteran after 5 years. Reading something like that and dealing with the kids I deal with on a daily basis makes me wonder why I am doing this job at all. But days like I've had this week make me more worried about what our country is going to look like in about 20 years.

Fun TV Watching

2008-01-14T15:25:00.000-06:00

Okay, by now you all realize that like every other bride-to-be, I am slowly becoming fascinated by wedding shows. Well, I've found a new one. If you happen to be sitting at home on a Friday night, may I suggest checking out CMT's "Redneck Wedding". It's hosted by Tom Arnold (there's a joke there, I'm sure) and on this show, you will see some of the most messed-up folk on the planet. Consider it a primer on what not to do if you want to plan a wedding that is normal. Kenny and I sat there and he kept asking if this was for real, which I told him I'm sure it probably was for real if not a little hyped up for the cameras. It's pretty sad, yet funny in an "I know people who would do this" kind of way. It comes on right before or right after Country Fried Videos (which Kenny fondly refers to as my family videos). I retalliate and find shows about gangsters and The Godfather and ask him if this looks familiar. While my family may seriously consider putting a picture of the buck that was shot during deer season on the front of their Christmas cards, I can honestly say that no one in my family blew up their home making illegal hooch during Prohibition. This is the claim to fame one of his ancestors has apparently. In any case, the show is good for a few laughs, but don't expect ANYTHING like it from us.

Oh My Lord! What Have We Done?!?

2007-12-31T21:05:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of the ring I picked out. His family got to see it for the first time this weekend. Everyone seems genuinely happy for us, but then they started asking questions. Are you going to get married up here or in Malden? What church are you thinking about? Sacred Heart (Kenny's home parish), Borgia (our parish), St. Ann's (my parish in Malden)? How big is the wedding party going to be? Who's going to be your attendants? What about a reception? Have you started looking for a dress? What about catering?

And that's when it hit me. This is really happening, and I have absolutely no idea what I want, what I should do first, where to go for the dress, anything! Honestly, I never thought I'd get married. I watched all of my friends go through it, but I never really put myself in this position. I guess I didn't realize that I was starting to freak out until this morning at approximately 1:00 AM. I was STILL awake watching a marathon of "Say Yes to the Dress" on TLC. Kenny comes in and says, "Are you still up?", to which I sort of wail, "There is not one dress on this show that I would wear and I've been watching it all night!" The only dress I would feel comfortable even considering was the one picked out by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi's daughter. One dress out of 6 hours of watching this show! First of all, all the brides are sticks (in case you've forgotten, I'm not), and apparently none of them have any thought to modesty. There was this one dress that several of the brides chose. It cost $6,600 and the top of it was shaped like a corset. While the part that covers the breasts had a lining, the rest of the top didn't, so you could see their skin through the dress. I compare it to Madonna's attire in the "Like a Virgin" video. I don't want strapless, I don't want a ballgown, I want sleeves. Are sleeves too much to ask? What I really want is Paula Deen's wedding dress from when she recently got married. It was simple, but pretty and it looked comfortable. But, she's Paula Deen, I'm not, and I'm sure I couldn't even afford it.

So, if there are any suggestions from all of you former brides out there, I'd appreciate it. Right now, eloping to Vegas and getting it blessed when we get home is starting to sound much less complicated. I could handle getting married by Elvis!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T17:53:00.000-06:00

I'm in Malden at my parents' house for the holidays! The insanity has already started and the living room is full of presents. Every year we say we are going to limit what we buy for each other, and honestly, we don't buy that much in the way with gifts, but as the family is expanding, so is the amount of gifts brought to the folks' at Christmas.

Speaking of the family expanding, I have some news that many of you may be a little shocked to hear. I'm engaged! Kenny has asked, and I've accepted. It happened a while back, but we agreed to keep it quiet until all of his family was told. I picked out a non-traditional engagement ring. Instead of diamonds, I chose sapphires. While picking out your ring may not be romantic to some, Kenny wanted me to choose my ring because as he said, "You're going to be wearing it from here on out, so you need to get what you want." I did some research and found out that it's only been recently that engagement rings were only thought of to be diamonds. Sapphires were a traditional choice due to the symbolism of the stone, namely fidelty and honesty, both essential qualities of a good marriage. Kenny is spending his first Christmas with my family and is in the living room doubling as a jungle gym for my niece. "You're funny Kenny!" was the quote from Mellissa, so he's fitting right in.

I hope all of you have a blessed Christmas. Enjoy the time with family and friends and keep safe.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-26T21:41:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm not trying to be critical here, but Thanksgiving was, hmm....interesting. I took Bob's advice and went ahead and made my mom's broccoli cheese casserole, along with 2 of the Etter broccoli cheese casserole. One was completely eaten, the other one was thrown away. I made it, they all said it tasted good, but after reheating it for the third time and only a small corner being eaten, I pitched it. Sorry, I don't enjoy food poisoning to start the holiday season. Next year, I'll follow my own inner Food Network Star and make one of theirs and one of mine. I hate wasting food.

Another highlight included the grease fire before we got there. As I stared at the black soot on the ceiling and cabinets, all I could think of was the song "Burning Down the House". The food was okay, but it was served on Kenny's mom's wedding China. I know my limitations, I took a Corelle plate from the kid's table. Some things I refuse to leave to fate.

The incident that killed Thanksgiving was Kenny's brother Greg and his bag of rocks. Greg is an environmental engineer. He lives in Atlanta, is super smart, and goes to these panning for gold places in the mountains of northern Georgia for fun. He brought up two big bags of rocks and forced everyone to pan for gold and gems in the kitchen sink. It created such a mess that no one could get out food for the traditional late evening snack. Since he coopted everyone, no games were played, no holiday movies were watched, very little conversation was had. I read through the Black Friday ads from the paper about 3 times. Needless to say, this ranks up there with some of the worst holiday experiences I've ever had. On Friday, we all met at Kenny's brother's, Mike's, house to eat some more and head to Washington's Christmas parade. Greg got mad because we refused to do more rocks. I'm just glad I get to be home at Christmas with my family. We may be insane, but at lease we always have a good time!

Yay for the Chili 5 Way!

2007-11-21T11:10:00.000-06:00

Kenny and I made our first trip to the newly opened Steak and Shake here in Washington last evening! The food was yummy Steak and Shake fare and the service was surprisingly fast and efficient. Finally, I was able to purchase my all time favorite, the Chili 5 Way, without having to drive 25 miles away to find a Steak and Shake. More and more, it's the little things that make me happy.

My First Thanksgiving Away from Malden

2007-11-19T19:24:00.000-06:00

It's finally hitting me that I won't be in Malden this year for Thanksgiving. This is my first official "big" holiday away from my family. Having never expected to find myself in this situation, I'm now embarking on what all of my other friends have had to adapt to: deciding which family to go to on the holidays. So, I'm spending Thanksgiving with Kenny and his family. Christmas will be with mine, Easter probably with his, and so on and so on. How weird and it's making me somewhat melancholy.

Obviously, I'll miss my family the most. However, I'm afraid at what kind of strange Thanksgiving fare I may be subjected to. I've been assigned to bring 2 broccoli and cheese casseroles. No problem, or so I thought, until I found out that I have to make Kenny's family's broccoli and cheese casserole, not my mom's broccoli, cheese, and rice casserole. They don't want the kind with rice in it. I didn't know there was any other way to make it. Strangely, I feel a little resentful that not only do I have to spend the holiday away from my family, I now have to give up one of my favorite casseroles, which I know is completely petty. I'm just going to miss some traditional German-family Thanksgiving grub, like my dad's fried turkey, dressing in a pan not stuffed inside the bird, cherry delight, and yes, broccoli,cheese and rice casserole. I just don't want to have to give up everything that I love about the holidays with my family and lose a connection to them. Plus, Kenny's family is so big and I guess I just feel a little overwhelmed and uncomfortable still yet. Any suggestions on getting over blending family traditions and foods?

I've been tagged!

2007-11-16T10:18:00.000-06:00

Rules: Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.(I've been tagged by Brooke).

1. I have a day off from school! YAY! It's always nice to get a bonus day off (Thank you MSTA Convention) to sleep in and get some laundry done.
2. I am a member of MSTA and attended the convention yesterday as a delegate. I was three rows away from the govenor as he made his speech, and no, I didn't throw anything at him. I did think about it though. If you can't tell, I'm not a big fan of our present governor, due to what I feel are some poor social justice decisions he's made during his term in office.
3. One thing that calms me down and relaxes me is the sound of my cat, Mackie, purring loudly as she sleeps next to me. Never underestimate the power of a pet in making your life better!
4. One of my favorite drives in the St. Louis area is the Great River Road between Alton, IL and Pere Marquette State Park. Beautiful!
5. Speaking of the above post, I'm always surprised by the number of sail boats I see on the Mississippi when we drive the Great River Road. Are these people insane?!? There's no way I'd get on the Mississippi in a sailboat!
6. I'm addicted to Pasta House Salad. Sorry, I'm sure it's not healthy for me, but it's my go to meal when nothing else tastes good. (This would probably not be my go to meal if we had an Indian restaurant here in Washington. I keep dreaming!)
7. Speaking of food, I'm excited to announce that Steak and Shake opens this weekend here in Washington. I'm hoping to convince Kenny to go out to eat so I can get the chili. I may spluge and get that chili three way thingy. It's cold here today!
8. I'm finally taking the time to read Return to Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani and The River Wife by Jonis Agee. Sometimes, you just have to make the time for relaxation activities, something I too often forget to do! Plus, how can I preach to my students to "Read, Read, Read" when I don't take the time to read myself for pleasure!
Unfortunately, I don't have eight people to link to! The ones I could link to have already been linked (see the list on my blogroll)! Oh well, here's my 8 random things about mysel

Parent Teacher Conference Totals

2007-10-28T23:28:00.000-05:00

Out of my 103 students, I talked to 6 parents. There's some great parental devotion! Of course, the 6 parents I talked to were the ones I didn't need to talk to because their kids are good kids (yes, I do have some good kids) and are working hard to graduate from my class. Oh well, the ones I did need to talk to would tell me that their kids' problems are all my fault, or the school's fault, or last year's teacher's fault, or my personal favorite, their ex wife/husband's fault. I love the faulty gene pool rationale! But, having seen some of the exes, I generally have to agree. Here's a loveley scene from the city park I witnessed last Wednesday:

One of my students was at the park with his father. Dad had a long, long mullet, ala Achy Breaky Heart Billy Ray Cyrus circa 1992. Dad's clothing consisted of jeans that were shredded, (not because they can't afford them but because he still thinks the acid washed, shredded at the knees look is still "bitchin")and a wife beater. When I drove by, he was sitting on a bench, drinking a beer with the remaining six pack sitting beside him, eyeing the high school/middle school girls walking past while his kid was throwing rocks at the ducks in the pond. He returned reply note saying he couldn't come to parent teacher conferences that afternoon because he had to meet with his parole officer that afternoon and then his son had to meet with his (the son's) parole officer after that and he just couldn't make it to conferences. What he was doing the other 4 days is anybody's guess.

I'm not the only one who had fun at conferences. One of our parents showed up in her nightgown for conferences. This is not the kind of hot mom you want to see in her nightgown. She weighs approximately 450 lbs. is a chain smoker who smells like a stale ashtray, and I'm thinking she hasn't showered or shaved in quite a while. Now imagine that in a sheer, stained nightgown. In the words of Ron White, "Things that make you go buhhhh!" Another parent showed up with cans on their hands painted black with orange jack-o-lanterns on them and wouldn't take them off to shake the teacher's hands. A particularly crazed mom accused one of our teachers of "peeking through the crack in the bathroom stall at her son" even though the teacher is a female and to my knowledge sends in our principal to check on her male students when things get crazy in the bathrooms. And the winner in this year's annual Parent Teacher Conferences (aka Parade of Freaks) is the mom who showed up in a ripped up t-shirt, with no bra on, and one of the rips was right in the nipple area, so the teachers she talked to were given their own peep show. One of them likened it to the scene in the last Austin Powers movie where Fred Savage played the "mole" and had a very noticeable mole on his face. No one could look away from the mole and apparently, no one could look away from the nipple! I'm not making this stuff up and in the world of teaching, reality is WAY stranger than fiction!

Boredom and Other Random Thoughts

2007-10-23T15:10:00.000-05:00

I'm bored sitting here waiting at the futile task also known as Parent-Teacher Conferences. I'm required to put in 6 hours. No parents ever come to see me. Let's face it, the kids I work with, their parents should have been voted "Most Likely to Forget They've Spawned Satan's Seed" in High High School! I'm not kidding.

On a more fun note, I went to see an actual play last week, one that had professional actors, in a theater, and had a script that didn't come from a 5th grade Reader's Theater book! OH JOY AND ELATION! The play was "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change", a musical exploring the high and lows of love and relationships. I laughed til I hurt. I love good comedy, and this must have qualified because there was some lady a couple of rows up from us who kept snorting like a pig. If you make it to St. Louis before November 10th, it's at the Westport Playhouse and is worth the price of a ticket. There was this song, "Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride" that had me howling. Let's just say, it expressed every thought I've ever had about every wedding that I've had to be in, well, maybe with the exception of one or two. If you've been in a relationship, married, divorced, or watched all of your friends get married and have kids, you'll find something to relate to in this musical.

I'm glad fall has finally descended upon us. I'm loving the cooler temps and the opportunity to wear sweaters and sweatshirts. Now if we could just get some more rain, life would be good. I've managed to make it into the home stretch for my first semester of classes for my library science degree. I've counted three more assignments and a final that have to be finished by November 30th. If I can make it till then, and I manage to get all of them done, I'll have a breather before classes roll around again in January. Regardless of whether we want it to or not, time marches on!

On a gross note, if you like to gross out your children or the children of your siblings, Target has some lovely candy to purchase. My personal favorites included the suckers that look like severed human fingers, the Box of Boogers, and the gummy frog you disect(sp?) to get to the candy on the inside. You've got to love Halloween!!

Things I Do in My Sleep

2007-10-13T20:41:00.000-05:00

Okay, don't be too scared by the title of this post. I promise it will remain reader friendly! As you all know, I've started my library science degree. To sum up my progress, I'll relate my experience from Thursday night. I had a midterm, a 20 question midterm, that took me 4 and a half hours to complete! This is one of the hardest things I have ever attempted in my life. The result of this is I'm just a wee bit stressed out. (Honestly, most of the time I feel like I'm rocking back and forth in a corner inside my mind!) Apparently, this stress is starting to manifest itself in strange sleep behavior. Here's three of my latest bizarre sleep escapades.

1. Apparently last week, Kenny heard some strange sounds coming from my bedroom late in the night/early morning. He thought something was wrong, so he came to check out the noise and see if I was sick, needed help, etc. Apparently I was wandering around my room. He said he asked me "Deb, what's going on?" and I didn't even respond. He watched me pace for a couple of more minutes, ala Children of the Corn or zombiesque, and he says I just abruptly walked back to my bed, crawled in, and that was it. I do remember having a dream about shelving books and looking for stuff, but I don't know if the dream is related to the sleepwalking.

2. This week, I fell asleep while watching TV and trying to organize notes for a paper. Kenny is a big fan of The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson and if he doesn't have early morning meetings or need to be into the scout office early, he'll stay up and watch at least the monologue. According to Kenny, part of the monologue was about funny names. He started listing funny names of politicians, celebrities, etc. One of the names he mentioned was Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Again, according to Kenny, I sat up, yelled out "Boutros Boutros-Ghali! That's funny!" laughed for a few seconds, lay back down and was dead to the world. Again, I have no memory of this at all.

3. Again last week, Kenny came upstairs really late from the family room where he had been working on reports for work. It was about 1:30 am, I should have been in bed sound asleep. He noticed that there was a light coming from my bedroom. He again thought something might be wrong so he came in to check. I wasn't in my bed, I was sitting on the commode in my bathroom, in my pajamas, completely asleep. Keep in mind I wasn't going to the bathroom, I was completely dressed, and I was asleep sitting on the commode with the bathroom light on. He said my name, told me to go to bed, and I apparently got up on command and went back to bed. I didn't say anything, respond in any way, or even really look at him. I have no memory of this at all either, but I'm a little concerned about just doing whatever I'm told to do without question!

I'm pretty sure I'm creeping Kenny out. I think he's afraid that I'll try to cook a meal in my sleep and catch the house on fire, get turned around and fall down the basement stairs in my sleep, or get out of the house and wander around the neighborhood or into traffic in my pajamas. Either way, I know that I dream about work, doing homework, or other school related activities or house chore activities every night. As a result, I'm exhausted all the time. My brain never slows down and I'm a little creeped out myself about the sleepwalking stuff. I'm pretty sure this is a sign that I need a vacation. Bubble baths and relaxation candles don't seem to be doing the trick!

HTML Success

2007-09-29T15:22:00.000-05:00

I finished my two webpages. The final product hasn't been approved by the professor yet, but initial feedback seems positive. I don't know if I'll ever get them to a place where you all can view them. Apparently, the IT department at Mizzou isn't sure that I'm really enrolled, no matter what the Registrar's Office and my professors tell them. As a result, their server refuses to recognize my password on the Bengal server, so I'm unable to access my server space. Oh, well. At least I'm registered with the Registrar's Office, the professors know I'm in class, and the Bursar's Office definitely knows I'm enrolled, so overall, all is well! I'm just glad this assignment is over. On to the next assignment/hurdle!

There are Days I Hate My Job.....

2007-09-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

and today is definitely one of those days. Why do I hate my job today? Well, to make a long story short, one of my students threatened to kill me and another teacher today. Why does he want us dead? The other teacher told him to get to work on an assignment instead of harassing a classmate. He wants me dead because I told him to quit poking the girl next to him with a sharp pencil. I don't know, I have this thing about students keeping their hands to themselves and respecting others' "phone booth" of personal space. Also, I have a problem with a student poking another student with a sharp object. Call me crazy!

I did the right thing and reported the threat. What does this get me? A whole bunch of paperwork and the chance to "process" with the student. I have enough paperwork with my regular job and with the homework for my library science classes. Quite frankly, the only "processing" I want to do with this student involves my foot being firmly planted in his nether region! How about someone else "processes" him. I really don't have the need to sit and listen to some lame excuse/apology from this student that everyone knows he really doesn't mean. That's the new thing this year at our school. When a student does something wrong, they have to fill out a think sheet about what they did until they are ready to process with the teacher. Here's an idea, put him in in school suspension until he "gets it" that harassing a female classmate, poking another one with a sharp object with the intent to break the skin and make her hurt so he can laugh, and threatening to kill teachers is unacceptable behavior that will not be tolerated in school. But that might damage his self-esteem. Forget the good students he constantly harasses on a daily basis and what effect he has on their self-esteem. By the way, he targets female classmates and teachers. So, that's why I hate my job. Today, it has sucked.

A Dilemma

2007-09-13T19:48:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm looking for suggestions here. Anyone and everyone feel free to chime in. As you all know, I agreed to teach 7th grade PSR classes at my church. I'm responsible for covering morality (Beatitudes, Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, Social Justice, etc.) and Jesus in the New Testament. We've had two classes and let me put it this way without seeming sacreligous- I'm not sure these kids would be impressed if Jesus was teaching the class. They just SIT THERE! It's like they're waiting to be entertained. I've been scouring the Faith First website for ways to make the lessons more interesting, but no matter what I try from cooperative learning, artistic projects, role play, you name it, all I get is either A: "This is so boring, I'm only here because my mom/dad is making me come so I can get confirmed next year, I can't...(fill in the blank with draw, act, pretend, etc.)B: blank stares, or C: no response at all. Now granted, there are two students who are consistently responding and appear to be interested in what's going on and what we're covering, but two students does not a successful class make. I'm digging into my bag of teaching tricks now and trying to figure out ways to adapt it to the subject matter and nothing seems to be working. To say I'm frustrated is an understatement. I'm a big believer that you get out of faith what you're willing to put into it. I also believe that these kids need a good base because the things I hear them talking about in the halls before class shock me. I think they think I'm deaf and can't hear what they're saying in the hall. What they don't realize is that I've been a school teacher for 10 years and eavesdropping on students is a particular speciality of mine. How else am I going to know what's going on? So any thoughts and ideas on what I could do to get them involved would be greatly appreciated. I'd like them to meet me half way at least. Would food work? Maybe feeding them would help. As you can tell, I'm starting to get desperate. We're not supposed to have food, but I've got to do something. In any case, if you have no suggestions, at least say a prayer for us. I borrowed a phrase from Star Trek when I stopped to pray last night after class at church, "I'm giving it all she's got Captain." and like the Enterprise, I'm not sure how much more I, or the students, can take.

That Wasn't So Bad

2007-09-10T19:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I survived Saturday class and even surprised myself by how successful the day turned out to be. I created three basic, very basic, pages that had several tables, images, links, and lists on them. I have to make them more elaborate in order to get all of the points for my assignment. When I get all of that finished, I'll post a link on the blog so you can laugh at my kindergarten pages! I now have a snazzy little book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to HTML and Blogs. Hopefully, I'll learn some tricks that will jazz this page up a bit and help me make the grade.

Reality Sets In

2007-09-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is HTML D-Day. Wish me luck and pray really hard since I still have no idea what I'm doing! Added to the reality of having to do something totally out of my league tomorrow, I received a lovely e-mail from MU Direct this evening. After welcoming me to the program, it launched into this depressing paragraph about how proud I should be for continuing my education, how they realize this is a trying time for me, and how as an ADULT LEARNER I have special needs! I was momentarily confused for a moment, "Adult Learner? Special needs?" and then I had a rare moment of clarity, "Holy crap, I'm the Adult Learner with special needs!!!!!" I'm finding it a little disconcerting that I'm now classified as an adult learner, that apparently being an adult learner means that I am now also classified as special needs, and that I really don't feel much older than I did my first go-round in college! When I read it to my mom, she cracked up and said, "Welcome to my world!"

Hmmm

2007-09-03T16:48:00.000-05:00

I have just spent my entire Labor Day holiday reading about designing a web page. What have I learned? Not a whole lot. I compare it to trying to figure out Latin. It's not like Greek because I can recognize the letters. However, the words created from those letters, while they may look like something I do have a clue about, are impossible to make sense of. Start laughing because I have to be able to do this by Saturday. I think this is going to be the most difficult class I have ever taken in my life!

Hilarious Commercial - Air Action Vigorsol

2007-08-30T22:17:00.001-05:00

I have no idea what this commerical is for, but it cracks me up, evenif it is gross.

Flashbacks of SEMO Days

2007-08-28T21:23:00.001-05:00

I'm surviving week two of classes, but it's getting harder. Two of my classes are sticking to their respective syllabi very well. My technology class, not so much. Along with the lengthy articles assigned each week, our professor keeps adding readings to each week. I know all professors, and teachers for that matter, always have the little "This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor's discretion..." statement and I'm okay with that if they add something relative. I just was forced to read the transcripts (not well written ones at that) from a tv show from 1997. Many of the things mentioned in the program have already happened and are no longer "cutting edge" or the predictions of doom and gloom (Apple won't make it another 5 years) have definitely not come to pass. I was reading this as I was watching a student, yes a student, play with their new Iphone today in class. While I realize that this class is important, I wish the professor would remember that none of us are full-time grad students. Everyone in the class has a regular job, plus we're all taking multiple classes in addition to his. I guess I'm just getting a little worried since I feel like if I devote time to my other class, this one slides and if I give this class all the time it seems like I'm going to have to devote to it, the other class will struggle. At least I finished the 1 hour class last week and it's out of the way. I'm having several flashbacks from SEMO, or Southeast as it is commonly known now, from classes where the professors thought their class was the most important class you'd ever take and in order to do well, you had to let other equally important classes slide a little bit. I survived those classes and I'll survive this one as well. Unfortunately, I'm not finding it as easy to do this now as I did 10-15 years ago!

What Would You Like To Be When You Grow Up?

2007-08-23T19:09:00.000-05:00

How about a "jobber"? That's right, when you grow up, you can be a jobber. In learning vocabulary for one of my Library Science classes, I found out that jobbers fill orders for libraries by stocking them with materials they have purchased directly from the publishers, getting huge discounts which they then pass onto the libraries. I just think the word is funny: jobber, jobber, jobber. Now I know I've lost my mind!

In a related note, I have to come up with a topic to do a major paper on in my technology class. It has to be related in some way to technology, so if anyone has any possible ideas, feel free to pass them along.

Pressure

2007-08-22T15:07:00.000-05:00

Okay, so school has once again started up for me, both as a teacher and a student. Once again, I find myself succombing to pressure and I keep hearing the Queen/David Bowie song playing over and over in my head. To say that I'm a little stressed is an understatement!

School - teaching, is always busy and hectic at this time of the year. There is just so much paperwork to get together along with testing and screening. Luckily for me, my partner in crime (the lady I co-teach with) is back this year after a scary bout with cancer last year at the beginning of school. As a result, I am definitely further along than I was at this time last year! I keep reminding myself of this fact and counting my blessings. I just hate all of the meetings and paperwork.

School - student: OH MY LORD!!!! Okay, I was stupid enough to take three classes this semester. The first one is a one hour, do it on your own agenda, just get it done by December 8th, web-class. At first this appeared to be no problem. Then I found out about my other classes. One is a Reference and Resources class, and while it appears to be okay, I'm waiting for the hammer to fall. The other class is Intro. to Technology Services. The key word for me was "INTRO". Apparently, at Mizzou, this really means "Advanced". I have to build a webpage from scratch!!! OH MY LORD!!!! I have no idea what I'm doing, no I can't use Dreamweaver, yet I have to pass this class. After our little quiz Monday night, I did feel a little bit better because I realized that I was light years ahead of the lady sitting next to me who didn't know what a cell or spreadsheet was. However, victory is somehow not as satisfying when your victory boils down to not being the most retarded individual in the class. But hey, I'll take what I get. I think they should offer this class as one "for Dummies" and count me in!

If you don't hear from me for a while, I've been buried under a pile of books and papers in some unnamed library in the St. Louis area. Send help or at least let my parents know of my demise!

The Funniest Sign from the Vacation

2007-08-16T22:06:00.001-05:00

Just so you know, the priests at the cathedral in Atlanta have decided that we humans have given the Lord too many responsibilites. When we saw this sign, it cracked all of us up and we decided that it was definitely the funniest sign of the trip.

Day 5,6, and 7 Atlanta and Home

2007-08-16T21:52:00.000-05:00

After Andersonville, we returned to Atlanta late Thursday afternoon. Kenny's mom had travelled with us to Atlanta to visit with his brother while we were in Savannah and we all went to dinner that night at the Louisiana Kitchen, which is an expanded version of Popeye's. It was really good, but by this point, I had eaten so much fried chicken I told Kenny I thought I was about to start clucking and laying eggs.

On Friday, we all got up and went to the new and improved World of Coca-Cola. It was really neat, especially the tasting room. If you go, stay away from the European drink called "Beverly". It is the nastiest soda I have ever tasted. I can't even begin to describe the flavor. However, make sure you visit the Asian dispensing area. There is a green apple soda from China that is fantastic. I really think they should sell it here in the U.S. I could probably make it worthwhile to bottle it here. After touring the World of Coca-Cola, we found the Cathederal for the Atlanta Diocese. Being used to St. Louis and the Basilica, it was kind of weird to realize that their cathedral was smaller than St. Francis Borgia, the church we attend here in Washington. That evening, we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner. Yes, this is a restaurant with a Jimmy Buffet theme, much like Margaritaville. It does have excellent hamburgers and if you get near one, and you love a good burger, I would recommend this restaurant as well.

On Saturday, we all went to play a round of mini-golf, a favorite Etter family pasttime. Kenny's mom has won several gold medals in the Senior Olympics for her golfing skills in St. Louis. Needless to say, no one in my family plays golf, mini or regular, and I felt a little inept, but I did beat Greg, which made me feel better.

On Sunday, we started the long drive home. We made it in late on Sunday, where all of us crashed until late Monday morning. Last week was spent recuperating and getting ready for school to start this week. Summer is officially over, and it seemed too short for me. I started school today, I start college Monday, and the students come in on Tuesday. I guess we're off and running!

Day 4 Andersonville Prison Site and National Cemetery

2007-08-16T21:32:00.001-05:00

The vacation wasn't all mindless fun. My cousin Sarah has started researching our family tree and found out that we had a grandfather, Nathaniel Green Henderson, who was a POW during the Civil War at Andersonville. Since we were so close to Andersonville, Kenny and I thought it would be a shame if we didn't go get some pictures of the tombstone and do some rubbings. Having been to Andersonville before, I was prepared for the eeriness of a Civil War Battlefield/Prison site. Knowing that you have a relative who was there and who died from a totally treatable disease today lends the place a whole new level of sadness. I did a little bit of research before we went to find out more about how our ancestor landed in Andersonville. He was from Tennessee, but fought with a Union Calvary Regiment. He was captured by General Forrest, the founder and first grand wizard of the KKK, at the Battle of Ft. Pillow, TN. Apparently, Gen. Forrest captured Ft. Pillow and took all of the Union soldiers there as POWs, except the Union regiments made up of African Americans. These he ordered his troops to slaughter, while the other POWs watched, by running them through with bayonets. From the accounts I read about this battle, it became a pivotal battle because it spurred the African American soldiers to fight even harder during battle. Apparently one of their rallying cries became "Remember Ft. Pillow". After reading about the battle and conditions at Andersonville, it was sobering to see how close the headstones were and realize just how many men of all ages lost their lives during the Civil War. It also made us reflect on how we humans never seem to learn, what with the headlines from today. On the day we visited, there was a funeral going on for a soldier. Unfortunately, the more things change, the more some things remain the same.

Historic Savannah - a photoset on Flickr

2007-08-16T21:28:00.000-05:00

Historic Savannah - a photoset on Flickr

Here is a set of pictures from Savannah with some descriptions of what we saw while we were there. Enjoy!

Savannah Day 3

2007-08-16T21:13:00.000-05:00

We devoted our entire third day in Savannah to touring a couple of houses that I definitely wanted to see. First, we made our way to the Mercer-Williams House, the scene of the "incident" in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. While I was unable to take any pictures inside the house, I was able to get a pretty decent picture from across the street. It was really cool to see the inside of this house. In a little bit of movie trivia, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil wasn't the only movie shot in this house. The parlor of the Mercer-Williams House was used as the study of Matthew Broderick's character in Glory. They say that if you pay careful attention in several scenes from Glory, you can see a palm tree growing outside in the yard. Palm trees would definitely not survive in Boston! We continued on with our touring of historic houses by touring the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. It was neat to see where she grew up, and I was a bit surprised that her family was considered "middle class". To me, it seemed that they were pretty wealthy. After that, we went to the Telfair Museum of Art, where we were lucky enough to get up close and personal with the statue of Bird Girl, the famous statue from Midnight in the Garden. Originally, this statue was in a family plot in Bonaventure Cemetery, but idiots in search of the statue started disrupting burial services and destroying and damaging graves by tromping through them to see the statue, so the family donated the statue to the Telfair for safe keeping. In a related note, we did go to Bonaventure Cemetery just to see it. There were some pretty amazing tombstones and statues in the older plots of the cemetery. I'll be sure to link pictures that we took in Savannah. After a long day of touring around Savannah, Kenny and I headed back toward Central Georgia where we spent the night just south of Macon. All in all, Savannah was a pretty amazing place. It kind of reminded me of New Orleans before Katrina, although much less wild and bawdy. Much to my disappointment, I didn't get to see the Lady Chablis. She wasn't performing again until August 11th, and Kenny had to be back to work by August 6th. Oh well, I guess I'll save that for my next visity.

Tybee Island - a photoset on Flickr

2007-08-16T16:09:00.000-05:00

Tybee Island - a photoset on Flickr

Savannah Day 2

2007-08-16T16:05:00.001-05:00

The first thing I need to say about Day 2 is Paula Deen, baby!!! We arrived at The Lady and Sons Restaurant at approximately 9:30 AM and were able to put our reservations in for 11:00 AM. There's a tip for you if you go, get there early and put in your name. The young ladies working taking reservations told us to make sure that we were back by 10:45. At 10:45, the head cook comes out and rings the dinner bell and yells, "Are Ya'll Hungry?". Of course the crowd has to yell back that they are. Keep in mind that people are lined up on both sides of the street and she's in the middle, so all traffic stops on this street for about 5-10 minutes. After this, they begin calling names and directing people to which floor you're going to eat on. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for our name to be called and be heading up to our table. When you go, you can order from a menu or you can eat from a buffet. Figuring that we'd get to sample more from the buffet, we chose that route. Also, if you go during lunch, it costs less than if you go at night; again, another helpful tip. The waiters were all very friendly and helpful, so they definitely get a big thumbs up for service. As we were waiting for our waiter to return and bring our drinks and take our order, there were other waiters who came around offering fresh hoecakes and cheese garlic biscuits. I'm still dreaming about those biscuits! The hoecakes weren't bad either. As soon as our waiter took our order, he invited us to head toward the buffet. When we got up there, we couldn't believe the amount of food! Just for lunch, there was fried chicken, Jerk pork chops, collard greens, grits, mashed potatoes, lima beans, baked beans, green beans, squash, and macaroni and cheese. There was also a salad bar, but I decided to live dangerously and forgo the salad. I was saving room for important stuff, like dessert! Trying not to be a complete pig, I made my way down the buffet until I reached my prime destination, the mac and cheese. I had heard while walking around downtown before the restaurant opened that the locals thought Paula Deen makes the best mac and cheese in Savannah. Just as I was about to reach for the spoon, this lady whips around from the other side and grabs it, taking most of the little-remaining mac and cheese. Following her is this older lady who also takes the spoon. While I love my mac and cheese, my momma taught me better than to take out a senior citizen for the last spoonful of mac and cheese. Kenny, who had returned to the table by this time and had a full view of the goings on with the mac and cheese said I looked like someone had killed my cat. Even I have to admit I was pretty distraught about missing out on Paula Deen's mac and cheese. Irrationally, I thought what if they don't put any more out, what if they serve dishes on a rotating basis during lunch on the buffet. While standing there about to leave, I see a young waiter heading my way with a covered dish. He walks up to the buffet and places a gleaming, steaming, fresh batch of mac and cheese on the buffet. As he places the spoon in the dish, Kenny compared me to Mr. Burns on The Simpsons. He said he could just see me almost tapping my fingers together, mentally of course, and saying "Excellent". The lady behind me said to me, "You got rewarded for being so nice and letting those other people have what was left, but you got fresh!" All I can say is that I ate the BEST mac and cheese and fried chicken that I have ever had in my life at The Lady and Sons. I want to go back just for the mac and cheese alone. If you ever get the chance to go, I definitely recommend going to eat there, whether or not you love Paula. After sufficiently stuffing ourselves, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to eat dessert, but then our waiter brought around the dessert tray. Kenny and I selected banana pudding and gooey butter cake, thinking that we could each take bites of the other's dessert and get to enjoy two desserts instead of one. The bananna pudding was good, but once I took a bite of the gooey butter cake, I realized that just by watching her shows I had no idea how much Paula Deen loves butter. After eating that gooey butter cake, I can assure you that she doesn't just love butter, I'm pretty sure she has a shrine to butter somewhere in the restaurant kitchens! This was by far one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. Unfortunately, she was doing a book tour and neither Jamie or Bobby were there either. Kenny said he's glad Jamie wasn't there, since he's pretty sure I'd run off with him, or Duff from Ace of Cakes, and leave Kenny high and dry. If he'd guarantee me a steady supply of Paula Deen mac and cheese or bake me outrageous cakes that explode, I might reconsider leaving him for one of these guys! Seriously, I left with a full stomach and a new funny t-shirt from the Paula Deen store that says "Our Hoes are Complimentary!" While I can't wear it out in public, I can wear it to sleep in while dreaming of fried chicken, mac and cheese, and garlic cheese biscuits!

The rest of the day was spent walking around Savannah and kind of picking out which sites we definitely wanted to tour on Day Three. There are so many places to see that you have to be kind of selective on what you want to pay to tour. Savannah is a great city to visit and the historic district is relatively compact so walking around is no problem. However, it was REALLY hot and HUMID. If that kind of bothers you, I would suggest going in the fall or winter seasons. But it is a great place to visit.

Savannah/Tybee Island Day 1

2007-08-13T00:02:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's taken me about one week to process all that we say on vacation. On our first day in Savannah, we headed straight to Tybee Island and the ocean. I absolutely love the ocean and spent so much time swimming in the water that I looked like a prune by the time we left the beach. The lighthouse can be toured and you can climb all the way up to the top. I unfortunately didn't make it up to the top. I made it about half of the way up when my absolute fear of heights got the best of me. I was doing pretty well until they tour guide had to help a man who jumps out of planes in the Army down because he got woozy at the top of the lighthouse. I figured if it made him woozy, I'd probably get frozen at the top and either fall off or be stuck until someone tranquilized me and carried me down. In any case, I didn't make it to the top, but at least I climbed farther than I thought I could.

While we were at the beach, we got to watch a huge cargo ship come in. Savannah is one of the busiest ports in America, and it was really neat to experience the waves this ship created close to shore even though it was several miles away from us. Hopefully, here are the pictures from Tybee now!

On the way to Savannah

2007-08-02T19:20:00.000-05:00

Okay, for those of you from Southeast Missouri, you are very familiar with the towns of Dexter and Dudley. Guess what, they are also apparently close to each other in Georgia as well. As we headed to Savannah, via I-16, we came across this road sign and I thought, how ironic that I'm all the way in Georgia and come across a parallel universe from where I grew up. Even stranger, if you take away the spanish moss, the crops and the land look almost identical to the area back home. How weird

First Vacation Post

2007-07-29T17:33:00.000-05:00

Okay, we made it to Atlanta late last night after driving in the car all day long. Things went fine until we hit Chattanooga, and then there was a wreck and a bridge shut down that had things really messed up. I think I slept through most of Chattanooga, so I missed most of that action and only have that to report second hand. In any case, all of us crashed when we made it to Greg's apartment and slept straight through to this morning. We got up, went to Mass at Greg's parish, ate lunch at Bahama Breeze (which closed while up in St. Louis), and then went with Greg while he purchased a new car. He is now the proud owner of a red, 2007 Kia Optima. It is very pretty and very nice. I was intrigued by several aspects of car buying in Georgia. First of all, the sales tax is figured into the price of the car so you don't have to come up with that. Second, all of the dealerships here are open on Sundays and apparently do quite a bit of business on Sundays. While we were there, I watched them sell four other cars besides the one Greg bought. Third, you apply for insurance while you are at the dealership and the dealership, not the DMV, gives you your temporary tag. Fourth, when you go to get the official tags for your car, you have to wait at least a month for the VIN number to be entered into the DMV system, you then just show up, show them an id, and they give you the tags for the car. Tags here only cost $20 and are always up for renewal during your birthday month. I must say, it seems much more streamlined than it is in MO.

Of course, it wouldn't be one of my vacations if there were not funny sites to take and share with my blog readers. Here is the first funny site I have seen on the trip so far. Greg refers to this street as Paris Hilton Road, which I'm sure you'll understand once you see the name. In any case, enjoy and let the jokes abound. Tomorrow morning, it's off to Savannah and totally blowing my diet! Oh well, what are vacations for. I plan on eating some of Paula Deen's fried chicken and I figure it's fried in butter!

Target has arrived!

2007-07-26T09:11:00.000-05:00

Okay, now Washington is a pretty darn good place to live. Our Target store finally opened yesterday. Kenny and I were there right after supper last night and were really pleased at how well stocked the store was. I cannot tell you how happy we are to finally have an option for shopping right here in town besides Wal-Mart. Before yesterday, if we wanted to shop at a Target, we had a 35-45 minute drive to either O'Fallon or Fenton. For quick trips and things you need, that's a little out of the way, so I was subjected to Wal-Mart on a regular basis. It has a huge food department and a lot of Playmobil figures (This is a highlight for Kenny, who even though he's an "adult", loves the Playmobil. When Christmas rolls around and he pulls out the Playmobil nativity set that takes up about four tables, I'll take a picture. I'm not kidding). In any case, it's nice to have options. They also have the walls up on the Steak and Shake, and there are walls going up on what looks to be like another restaurant. I'm hoping and praying that it is a Bread Company. Please, oh, please!!!

Viva Viagra

2007-07-24T23:28:00.001-05:00

Does anyone else out there find this commercial plain wrong? It makes me cry out and do a tv coaster toss every time it interrupts one of the few tv shows I watch!

I've been tagged by Bob!

2007-07-21T23:10:00.001-05:00

Okay, I have been really out of touch this summer with the blogging, but my friend Bob of The Four of Clubbs tagged me with the challenge to come up with 8 random things about me. Here goes, but be warned, I'm boring!

1. I swear I'm earning frequent flyer miles at Lowes! Kenny asked me what I wanted to do tonight after church. We kind of try to pretend we have a life, and I said "Let's go to Lowes!" One hour later, I made it out with a new Hunter ceiling fan to replace the one in my bedroom that sounded like it was about to self-destruct plus lots of ideas about how I'd like to repaint my room and redo a chest I have had for years. Sebrina and Joe warned me that once we bought a house, we'd be at Lowes or Home Depot all the time, and she's right!

2. Speaking of things for the house, I just got my couch in that I purchased for our basement. We had two chairs down here with our TV, but the couch has officially made it our favorite room in our house! It's a sleeper sofa, so feel free to come up and visit.

3. I feel like I have spent the majority of my summer somewhere besides my house. I've spent quite a bit of time with my parents down in Malden and when I have been home, it seems like I have had company (translation my niece and nephew, along with my mom, an aunt, and a family friend). The more the merrier! However, I really need to repack my bags before my next trip.

4. Speaking of my next trip, I'm headed to Atlanta and Savannah next Saturday! Kenny, his mom, and I are headed down there to visit his brother Greg who got a job and moved to Atlanta this spring. Kenny's brother is an environmental engineer, is crazy smart, and loses me in most conversations after the first two sentences! We're headed to Savannah as a side trip. All I can say is here I come! I plan on eating at "The Lady and Sons" along with "Mrs. Wilkes' Boarding House". If I could just catch a show by The Lady Chablis, my trip would be complete.

5. On Friday, Kenny and I went to see the Napoleon exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum. If you love history, furniture, china, or textiles, it's definitely worth the trip. Plus if you go on Fridays, it's free! Can't beat free!

6. I'm reading a children's book called "The Kingdom Keepers" about a group of kids who have to save Disneyworld. If you've ever been to Disneyworld, or if you love The Mouse, I highly recommend picking up this book for a quick read!

7. Along with deciding to go back to school, I have completely lost my mind and have agreed to consider teaching a 7th grade PSR (Parish School of Religion) at my church. I say "consider" because I haven't officially said yes yet, but I know I will. Will I never learn!?!

8. Two words: Banana Pops. I absolutely love these frozen treats! There is nothing better on a hot, humid, summer day than chowing down on a banana popsicle! If you get the sugar free variety, they're only 35 calories! YAY!

Sesame Street Rocks

2007-06-24T21:34:00.000-05:00

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them!
You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you
You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil
How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

http://www.blogthings.com/thesesamestreetpersonalityquiz/">The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Why I Haven't Posted

2007-06-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

Here is why I haven't posted. This is my niece. Yes, that's a pull-up on her head. No, the cats and I will never be the same. I kept her for a week so my mom could get ready for Vacation Bible School at her church. This was a learning experience for Kenny and me. What are some of the valuable lessons we learned? Here is our list.

1. A one and a 1/2 year old is fast, lightening fast!

2. If there is a metal object within reach, a small child will find it, pick it up, locate the nearest electrical outlet without a guard, and attempt to fry him- or herself.

3. Sleep, what sleep? When they go to sleep, you better go to sleep too, but make sure you wake up first. The result of not waking up first equals a pull-up on their head and a trashed house looking like they had a toddler kegger full of milk or juice with about 50 of their closest toddler monster friends.

4. The contents of your kitchen cabinets are more enticing to them than all of the toys they have to play with, especially if they are all over the kitchen floor.

5. Make sure the knives are WAY back on the cabinet. If possible, toddlers will attempt to juggle with them.

6. If you have pets, especially cats who are your "children", and you introduce a toddler to the mix, your pets will retaliate for this introduction, specifically by peeing in your shoes. This retaliation can last for several weeks, even after the toddler has returned to their parents of origin.

7. You finally learn sympathy for your younger brother when you realize that he is SO paying for his raising with this one!

8. When toddlers find something really intriguing, they become strangely silent. Consider it the calm before the storm. I wish I would have had a picture of another humorous, yet silent, incident with the baby. While I was doing laundry, she managed to get into my bathroom, get under the sink, and I apologize for this, but she found the maxi pads, emptied half of the package, and managed to pull the paper off and stick them all over herself. All this in the space of time it took me to empty the dryer, pull the clothes out of the washer and put the new load into the dryer, and put another load into the washer, 5 minutes tops!

9. When the Infant of Prague statue in the back of church doesn't respond to a toddler offering it one of his or her highly prized, Flavor Blasted Extra Cheddar Goldfish, they get really angry and express this anger by screaming "FISH" repeatedly at the offending statue in the middle of Mass. Now I understand the value of a cry room.

10. Even though both Kenny and I have college and post-graduate degrees, we're not smart enough to outsmart a toddler. We are now seriously considering not having children.

After keeping her for a week, I was home for a week and a half helping Mom with VBS and babysitting during the day. After getting back up here last week, I attempted to return the cats and the house to normal. I've also been unpacking more of the boxes I didn't get to in the spring when we moved and getting in some valuable career ladder hours for next year.

Additional fun included being rearended this morning with Kenny and his brother. His car is kind of messed up, but thankfully not totaled. Unfortunately the other two cars that were rearended and pushed into us aren't so lucky. I figure both of them are totaled. We were stopped while another car was trying to turn left into a parking lot on Gravois with two other cars stopped behind us. An older gentleman, about 80 years old, slammed into the cars and caused a chain reaction accident. He never even hit his brakes. No one was hurt, but Kenny's car is definitely going to have to spend some time in the shop. In a weird twist of fate, I was rearended in a parking lot last month. Parmentier Autobody just loves us right now! Oh well, the damage is just to cars and that's why we have insurance.

Upcoming highlights for the summer include going to my parents for the week of the 4th, having my niece and nephew up for some annual visits to such exciting places as Grant's Farm, the Zoo, and the Butterfly House, and an upcoming trip to Atlanta and Savannah to see Kenny's brother who just moved to Atlanta in May. Pictures will be on the way. And I will be sleeping, reading all of the Harry Potter books again to get ready for the movie and the new book, and continuing to set up the house.

Becoming Older

2007-05-23T19:06:00.000-05:00

It's official, I'm getting old. This morning on my way to work, I heard the local "semi-oldies" radio station play Love Shack. As the dj introduced it, he said, and I quote, "Here's an OLD classic from the B-52's." Then they followed it up with "classics" from U2's The Joshua Tree. Needless to say, by the time I made it to school, I was starting to feel a little blue. In a fit of desperation, I quickly turned it to The Point, the alternative station, to see how out of touch I really was. Ah, sweet relief, a song from 311 followed up by The Urge! I'm not so old, they're still playing the music I listened to a few years ago on 105.7! Yay!! Then the dj comes on and refers to the selections as "classics"! ARGHHH!!! Fast forward to later this morning. A student who is shall we say, a bubble-gum chomping, hair-twisting, preteen comes into the room to deliver a note to us. We have the radio on to a "current" station that is playing Gwen Stefani. "Um, who is this?" (student) "It's Gwen Stefani." (Me) "OH MY GOD! You know who Gwen Stefani is?" (Student) "Yes, I know who Gwen Stefani is." (Me, very patiently) "Isn't this song, like, from some, like, musical-thingy?" (student) "She sampled and changed a line from a song from the musical Fiddler on the Roof." (Me, to a student who has that glazed look in her eyes) "Oh, are you sure this is Gwen Stefani?" (student) "Yes, I'm positive." (Me) With a puzzled look, the student responds, "But you're OLD!"

In the movie Parenthood, there is a great scene where Diane Weist's character is dealing with her rebellious children who just don't get that she used to be a teenager. In the scene, she says a fabulous line that goes something like, I was at Woodstock! I peed in a field! After today, I can relate!

Corn Nuggets

2007-05-05T22:02:00.000-05:00

If you attended Southeast in the 90's, you may remember the restaurant Mr. B's which served a late night breakfast buffet that we frequented regularly. Many was the night that I sat down to a plate of scrambled eggs, corn beef hash, and the ultimate- CORN NUGGETS!!! As if creamed corn wasn't bad enough for you, the corn nuggets were like battered globs of creamed corn deep fried. Unhealthy, yes; delicious, you bet! As we all know, all good things must come to an end. My college career ended and I moved back home, Mr. B's went out of business, and the corn nuggets were no more....until this evening. Kenny's brother, Mike, told me that there is a restaurant in Marthasville called The Outfield where you can order the corn nuggets. As a matter of fact, he was about to order some to have with his burger in place of french fries. We were invited to stay, but Kenny and I wanted to come home and finish pulling all of the ivy from underneath our deck. However, Mike and Michelle assure me that the corn nuggets are like I remember them from Mr. B's. I think I will be making a trip over that way again shortly to procure some of the corn nuggets. It will mean more time on the treadmill, but for that creamy corn goodness, I'll put in the extra time.

Good News (For a Change!)

2007-05-01T22:17:00.000-05:00

In education, they always tell teachers to sandwich bad news between good news. In keeping with my profession, here's the good news! Congratulations go out to Kenny's brother Mike and sister-in-law Michelle on the birth of their second son today! Lukas came into the world via c-section today. Both mom and baby are doing well. Congratulations and welcome to the world!

Update on Sebrina

2007-05-01T22:11:00.000-05:00

More prayers and thoughts are requested for Sebrina and her family. She just received word this evening that her Uncle Ray passed away tonight. He had cancer and had been very ill for a long time. As she said, "You get finished crying for two and another one hits." In case any of you from Malden are wondering, this was Diane's husband and Pimpa's son-in-law. They were living in Florida. Diane was unable to come in for Pimpa's and Janice's funeral because Ray was so sick. Please remember them. She appreciates all who came to the visitation and funeral as well as all of the kind gestures, prayers, and cards the family has received.

Yard Work and Busybody Neighbors

2007-05-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

Okay, we have officially met our busybody neighbor. Here's a brief synopsis: Finally got to mow the yard yesterday afternoon. It was getting tall b/c we have both had meetings on nights when the weather was good and were free on the days it was raining or too wet to mow. Due to the excessive length, there was quite a bit of grass clippings. Before we had the chance to go to Lowes and buy a rake, here comes the neighbor across the street, who is elderly, with a lawn bag. I went in to shower and change to go buy a rake and a weed eater and before I could get finished, she's back wanting to help us rake, looking in our windows and talking about how she hopes we're more friendly than the last people who lived here, who apparently didn't socialize much. I guess I now know why they let the hedges grow so large. She might be one of those neighbors who watch EVERYTHING that's going on in the neighborhood with binoculars. I guess everybody has one of these neighbors in their neighborhood. To be more charitable, I think she lives alone and is probably lonely, but it's a fine line between friendly and letting them invade your life. We'll keep you posted.

On a funnier note, I think the kids who live next to us fit one of the following descriptions: 1)brave 2)very talented on a skateboard or 3) not too bright. These boys are always on their skateboards. The other day as I was coming home from work, I saw one of them skating down the hill between two houses, jump off a retaining wall, and go flying over three of his friends who were sitting in a line below the retaining wall. They are always doing stuff like that, so I guess I've found my entertainment in the neighborhood! I really have no room to talk. When my brother and I were kids, we managed to flip my dad's riding lawnmower. But I can still laugh and prepare to dial 911 if they get hurt!

Sad News

2007-04-24T10:21:00.000-05:00

For those of you who know Sebrina Allen Glenn, please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Her Grandma Kemp, better known as Pimpa, and her Aunt Janice, Pimpa's daughter, both passed away last night. It's going to be a tough time for all of them. Pimpa had been in failing health for a while and Janice had suffered a stroke and had cancer. Still, to lose two family members on the same day is hard, and I know she would appreciate thoughts and prayers for all of the family.

DESE and Stupidity

2007-04-12T13:58:00.000-05:00

I am currently feeling the need to vent some frustrations with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, so please bear with me.

MAP Testing is the tool of the devil! I swear to God, the ultimate stupidity of the supposed "educated" educators that seem to occupy the jobs to be found in DESE never ceases to amaze me. I want to make it clear that I have no problem with the idea of a test that measures how well are kids are able to think, encompassing performance events with a variety of passages and response possibilities, but I do have a BIG problem with how DESE decides to set up the test, how they seem to throw us curve balls every year, and how they use the test results.

First of all, I have just completed the first two days of scribing for one of our students on the Communication Arts Test for 5th grade. Without breaking FERPA, you need to understand that this child is a non-reader. Yes, he has an IEP, but just barely since it seems to be almost impossible to qualify for any help anymore. Everyone knows he can't read. He was born with serious health problems and his doctor wants him to see a neurologist, but his parents' insurance won't pay for it, but I digress onto a topic for another rant. Even though he can't read, I can't read the test to him, just pronouncing one word per sentence. His comment to me was, "If you could read this to me, I bet I could answer these questions." I wanted to say, "You're right, you probably could." Also, since he's in 5th grade, he has to take the 5th grade test. Here's a thought, how about testing kids on their level! Instead of frustrating them with material that they expend all of their energy trying to figure out what the words are, why don't we give them tests on their own level so they can expend their mental energy on crafting quality answers and showing the powers that be what they are capable of doing. By the way, what we keep hearing from our district's curriculum people is how we should be instructing kids at their ability level, doing small group guided reading, leveled non-fiction sets, adapting to their level. Isn't it funny that we are to follow best practices in instruction, which calls for material on individual level, but the state-mandated test is a one size fits all approach.

Second, in the whole balanced literacy push, we've been told to teach our students to highlight and underline important information in passages they read to help them craft quality answers in performance events for testing. In writers workshop, science, history, math, etc., we've been highlighting and underlining like crazy, telling them this will help them give better answers on homework and on the tests. We have a MAP training session about 3 weeks ago, and guess what! We should not allow our students to underline or highlight passages because it doesn't work too well when they go to scan the tests into the computer. If they highlight or underline, it had better be done lightly. Don't you think they could have figured this out BEFORE now?!?

Third, the way DESE set up the testing days was idiotic to say the least. We have to follow their testing procedures to the letter. God forbid you happen to not read something word for word, or paraphrase to help a student better understand what is being asked of them and to feel more at ease with the whole testing situation. Instead let's stress them out to the point of pulling out all of their eyelashes! Yesterday's test was supposed to take anywhere from 40-60 minutes. It had one passage to read with two small sections of questions to answer. Today's test was supposed to take 96-111 minutes. It had 5 or 6 reading passages that were of considerable length along with numerous multiple choice questions and in-depth written response questions. Imagine if you were a non-reader and this task was placed in front of you. Oh, and by the way, even though you have problems, severe ones, because you're not in the bottom 3% of the state's population you have to take the test on your grade level, regardless of your ability, and you can't have an adapted test. Oh, and even though you're not stupid, you just can't read, you can't have someone read or explain things to you like you have on a regular basis because you have an IEP. But I guess this is the one time that IEP's that we are to follow to the letter every other day of the school year don't count on the 4 days we do MAP testing. We started testing today at 8:30 AM. This student and I finished at 1:40 PM. We did stop for lunch, but that gives you an idea of how this test was for him. Why couldn't the test have been split more evenly? After the second passage, he was brain-fried. By the end of the test, I was right there with him. This wasn't a complain from just me, the other teachers who had the "normal" students said the same thing. It took our kids so long to finish the test today that our lunch schedule got screwed up. In the regular classroom, according to the directions, you were only supposed to take one break. That is just stupid! We do good to get them to sit still and stay focused for 15 minutes but they were to sit still and stay focused for 40 minutes!

Fourth, the way the test results are used is stupid. Instead of comparing apples to apples, the results are used to compare apples to oranges. In most districts, these tests are used to supposedly measure teacher performance. I have yet to land in a district where the pressure isn't put on the teachers and their performance instead of on the students. Don't get me wrong, I am not a big fan of the push for highstakes testing. For that matter, I'm not a big fan of the huge emphasis we put on testing period. I believe that the work I observe from my students on a daily basis is much more accurate in evaluating their performance. Any test is a very small snapshot of what is going on with that student on that day, even the tests that are supposed to test student's ability for problem solving/critical thinking abilities. However, the results are used most often for comparing the performance of the teacher's classes from year to year. The students scores aren't looked at and compared to their scores on previous tests from year to year to see if the students are progressing. So we compare the scores of different groups and say that indicates the teacher's level of competence without taking into consideration that some groups are smarter than others. Some groups are more serious about testing than others. Some groups have more behavior problems than others. You can have a sharp class one year and the dumbest class on the planet the next year. Oh and by the way, your job and your district's accreditation depends on keepin those test scores up and meeting AYP. Even though I honestly believe that teachers want to keep learning at the center of all that we do, we are being pushed into focusing more and more on testing. We know this is not a best practice, we know being an educated individual is more important or broader than being able to pass a test, but with NCLB, it seems to me that the bottom line is no longer a quality education, it is having high enough statistics to get funding. We've lost our focus and future generations are paying the price.

I wish the general public would wake up. When is common sense going to prevail? What's even more disturbing, we have to do the Math test next week. The student said, "I'll do pretty good in the math part." Then he found out that there will be word problems and that I still can't read those to him and he looked at me and said, "Well, I guess I'll flunk that one too then." Since I can't help you, I guess you will. What burns me up is that I have to sit by and watch him fail, when even though I'm a teacher and could explain things to him without giving him the answers or doing the work for him. He's not stupid, DESE is.

Happy Easter!

2007-04-08T12:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Easter, everyone! Go eat plenty of ham, find lots of eggs, and make sure to find a solid chocolate bunny. Don't get ripped off by the hollow ones! However, as a friend of mine pointed out yesterday, hollow bunnies are worth it if you shove them full of peanut butter after you bite the ears off. Plus, our theory is that the peanut butter makes them healthy! Enjoy the day.

Residents of Apartmentland No More!

2007-04-02T13:46:00.000-05:00

We are now finally out of the apartment. My family and Kenny's family descended upon us early Saturday morning and moved us out in one day. Luckily, the rain held off until the very last load was being unloaded. As they moved the washer and dryer off of the trailer, we heard the first raindrops start to ping on the metal. By the time they had them in the garage, it started pouring rain. My cats spent all day Saturday in the basement storage room traumatized. We took them over to the house early in the morning before anyone got there. In the short distance from the apartment to the house, Mackie managed to go to the bathroom and throw up twice. She just works herself up any time I put her in a car. When we unloaded her at the house, she took up residence in the litter box and refused to come out. Patches just stayed in her tube in the cat condo and hissed and swatted at anyone who came close. It was not a fun day for them, but they are slowly adjusting to the new house. They are still having trouble navigating the stairs to the basement. Going up, not a problem. Going down, they look like rabbits!

We haven't unpacked yet though. After my family left yesterday, Kenny and I went back to the apartment and cleaned it from the ceiling to the floors. I know we aren't going to get the deposit back, but I believe in trying to leave things cleaned up and better than it was when I moved in there. No one bothered to clean it up for me, and if someone after me needs to move in quick like I did, at least it's clean and ready to go. Unfortunately, I don't think the apartment manager has enough sense to do a thorough cleaning. Perhaps I shouldn't say he doesn't have enough sense, he's just too lazy to do his job. As we were moving out this weekend, there were four other apartments being vacated. Our neighbors upstairs are planning on moving out as soon as their lease is up. As they said, things that they have reported needing fixed since they moved in this fall are still not fixed along with the general condition of the apartment complex itself. The playground slide is being held up by one bolt and someone has stolen all of the chains off of the swings. You would think that Trident Corporation would recognize a red flag when 5 apartments are vacated in one weekend even though rent has been paid on the apartments and other people are breaking their leases to leave. If I was working in a supervisory position, I'd be out there wanting to know what's going on and why we were losing customers. To my knowledge, no one ever comes to check up on James, the apartment manager, and the condition of the apartment complex. Oh well, not my problem. At least he can't come back and say we left the apartment trashed. It's as clean as we can make it.

I did notice something interesting this weekend. This was the first time our families have officially "met". It was like a clash of two different worlds. Kenny's parents came to help us move after their golf lesson. My dad drove up after a night at the races in Malden. It was awkward and I'm not sure either family likes the other one. Oh well, I guess what's important is that Kenny and I like each other. Our families don't have to live together! On the other hand, it was a stressful time and perhaps if they spent more time together things might be different. We'll see!

Weekend Update

2007-03-22T14:58:00.000-05:00

My brother's wedding went off without a single hitch on Saturday. Other than the fact that it started snowing and was really cold (which resulted in my developing a lovely cold), things went really well. My sister won the award for the most messed up wedding gifts. She found some really tacky goblets covered in bling that said, and I quote, "Pimp" and "Ho". Good thing Roy and Jen have a sense of humor. At least they laughed in front of us when they opened them up. Don't worry, that wasn't the only thing she gave them. We all gave them money for their honeymoon. They are currently in the Smoky Mountains and from everything they have said, they're having a lot of fun.

Kenny and I left Malden after the reception on Saturday night. We made it back to Washington in the wee hours of Sunday morning and I got up and left for the Show Me Professional Development Conference at Tan-Tar-A. It was a very informative conference. There are several topics that Triola and I want to present to our faculty here at Clark-Vitt next year during PD days. Unfortunately, the chances of them listening to us and actually trying out our suggestions are slim to none. I think it's really sad that even though we take the kids they don't want to deal with off their hands for a considerable chunk of time everyday, most of them have the attitude that we're not "real teachers", therefore what we have to say has little to no value. Luckily, what I'll be presenting on, the better answers formula, has data to back it up from schools that are actually using the formula. I made quite a few contacts with principals and other teachers who said they would be most happy to share their data to help me get my point across. I find it's always nice when you can come at people with numbers from teachers in the field who are actually practicing what they preach. Hopefully some people will be willing to try it out.

My parents have come up this week to help pack up my apartment. I tell you, all of the boxes stacked everywhere are starting to stress me out! I am eternally grateful to my parents for coming up and helping. When we offered for the house, we were sure they would counter, at least on the closing date, and we'd have plenty of time to pack. Oh wrong! With the wedding, my conference, coming home feeling like I've been run over like a truck, parent/teacher conferences, and tutoring this week, I haven't had time to get all of the packing done that my parents have managed to do this week. As they said, it also gave them time away after the wedding. They have been a huge help. Big thanks go out to the folks! I'll just be glad to be in the house where we'll have plenty of room for visitors.

The Purchases We Make

2007-03-15T08:37:00.000-05:00

Here is a funny story/warning to those who impulse buy. Triola, the lady I co-teach with, came in yesterday absolutely livid. A couple of weeks ago, her husband and his brothers travelled to Jupiter, FL for a week-long spring training and golf trip. When he returned home, he said he had a special surprise for her. He had purchased a swimsuit for her, which she said was a pretty two piece, but was nothing spectacular and nothing she would wear outside of their own home pool. Fast forward to Tuesday evening. Her credit card bill came in and her payment had jumped substantially and there were some charges on the bill from Florida that she couldn't figure out. She figured the swimsuit had cost around $30-$75, like most average swimsuits. Her husband finally 'fessed up. The swimsuit cost $300!!! My first response was is it made of gold? Kenny wanted to know if it was diamond encrusted. She said at first she laughed because she could think of no other response. Then she said the more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She said she kept thinking about what she's wanted to buy but didn't because she thought the items were too expensive. I haven't seen the suit yet, but if I do, I'll try to get a picture so we can all see what a $300 swimsuit looks like! Needless to say, her husband is working overtime for the next couple of Saturdays to earn enough extra money to pay for the suit (they won't take it back). Everybody is calling the overtime "Swimsuit Saturdays".

Muscles hurt that I didn't know I had....

2007-03-14T09:49:00.001-05:00

I am in the process of packing up the apartment. I did a marathon packing session last night, packing up and selecting books to take to our last IRA meeting of the year to give to our Habitat for Humanity bookcase that we're donating to one of the new houses being built this year. First of all, I know I'm a bookworm, but I never realized how many books I have! Good Lord! You would be surprised how heavy these books are. I am still not finished, but hopefully I will be this afternoon.

The downside of this packing adventure is that I felt about 100 years old when I got out of bed this morning. I have a feeling that Bengay and those Thermawrap heat thingies are about to become my best friends. I hurt from the top of my head to the soles of my feet! I don't remember moving being this painful the last time around. Maybe it's like childbirth. Everyone tells me you don't remember the pain once you have the baby, at least that's what all of the older teachers here keep telling me when I express doubts about whether or not I want to even go down that road. Somehow, I'm not believing them! I have a feeling I'll definitely remember how painful this move is!

Live Theater

2007-03-13T13:01:00.000-05:00

This morning, most of our school went to see the local community college's production of Beauty and the Beast. Since it was most of our school, and some of the comments heard from the backward bumpkins riding my bus was, "This is gonna be stupid, this is so dumb, this is gay....", I was pretty well prepared for mass mayhem during the performance. I was already planning out my apology letter to the drama department as we all took our seats. What I forgot to take into account was that even though our kids are pretty jaded, there is power in live performances that can calm the most savage beasts. All of the students around me were mesmerized for 2 and a half hours. I couldn't believe it. From talking to the other teachers, the kids around them were speechless as well. I had to smile on the way back to school; some of the earlier naysayers were the ones who were talking about how cool all the costumes and sets were, how they liked the explosions, and how in the world did the actors not fall into the hole in the middle of the stage (the pit). For all of my drama and theater friends, your field of work and study gave me hope that maybe some of my kids are human, or have the capability to appreciate the finer things in life, after all!

Charlie Brown Christmas - Performed by the Cast of Scrubs

2007-03-09T19:33:00.001-06:00

Even though it's way past Christmas time, Kenny found this online and since Scrubs if my favorite TV show, I figured I'd share the laughs.

Check out this link!

2007-03-09T19:15:00.000-06:00

I just happened to stumble upon this link and it cracked me up. Check out Celebriducks, I guess for the person who has everything!
http://www.celebriducks.com/shop/newducks.htm

Birthday Meme

2007-03-09T19:04:00.000-06:00

Events:
1820: Missuour Compromise signed into law by President James Monroe allowing Missouri to enter as a slave state, but making the rest of the Louisiana Purchase Territory slave-free
1981: After 19 years presenting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
1853: Guiseppe Verdi's La Traviata opera premiers in Venice

Births:
1475: Michelange, Italian artist
1806: Elizateth Barrett Browning, British poet
1946: David Gilmour, British musician of Pink Floyd fame

Deaths:
Louisa May Alcott and John Phillip Sousa

Holiday/Observance:
Feast of Saint Colette, founder of the Colettine Poor Clares

March 6

House Pictures, I hope!

2007-03-09T16:38:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm going to attempt to add a link where people can go see the pictures of the new house. If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll try againhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/7231400@N03/

Deb's about to kick some apartment manager butt!

2007-03-08T15:12:00.000-06:00

Get this- I went yesterday to tell my stupid, jerk apartment manager that we were moving out at the end of the month. First of all, this idiot was standing outside while there was a worker using some kind of sander that sounded like a lawnmower when I walked up to him. I had to yell to be heard over the thing and when I told him I needed to talk to him, the idiot ROLLED HIS EYES! If you are a teacher (or the parent of a teenager), you know this is the one thing that makes most of us crazy. He then very rudely said, "What?" I had to yell again that perhaps we should go inside the office so I wouldn't have to yell at him. I went in and told him, "We've bought a house, so we'll be moving out at the end of this month." He looked me straight in the face with a little smirk and said, "Well, you can't." Wrong thing to say to someone whose last name is German. Now, I'm generally a calm person when dealing with idiots (after all, I teach school and a class where people regularly poop their pants), but this guy has ticked me off one too many times with his condescending attitude (translation, I usually have doormat written on my forehead). For some reason, I saw red and wasn't able to censor what came out of my mouth. My first thought was, "Oh hell no, you did not just say that to me." I managed to not say that, but I put my hands on my hips, did that head roll thing that all of the African American girls I went to high school had down to a tee, and said, "Watch me." His response was, "Well, you can move out, but you're going to have to pay the rent for the entire month of April." I'm sorry, when I signed my original lease, I had to sign for the entire first year. After that, rent was on a month to month basis. It said that they liked a 30 day written notice of moving out, but that rent would be prorated if it was under half of the amount of the month left. He says the company doesn't do that now, and I'll have to pay for the whole month. I wanted to tell him that I should only have to pay for the first week since I went for three and a half weeks without hot water at the end of November and into the coldest part of December. I guess they don't think it's necessary to "prorate" hot water. I will be so glad to out of this place and never have to deal with this complete a**hole again. I'm seriously considering contacting the main office and telling them I'll pay them for the first couple of days, but no more since I went without a hot water heater and because I'm sick and tired of dealing with this jerk who does nothing to benefit the residents who aren't his "party buddies" and who never cause him problems. The only thing that I've ever had a problem with was the hot water heater. I am always early on my rent, usually to the tune of about two weeks. Right now, I'd like to take my rent check and shove it where the sun doesn't shine on this guy. So, if I get put in jail for going postal on this guy, it may be a while before you all hear from me. I have a feeling that I'm going to still have to end up paying for the whole month since it's corporate America, and believe me, customer service has went down the drain with Trident Corporation, but still, I'd like to kick this idiot's butt. At least it would make me feel better.

Update

2007-03-06T12:57:00.000-06:00

I have a ton of things to tell you guys, so bear with me on the long posting.

1. Dad: Dad's surgery went great. He was sent home the next day and is doing very well. All of your prayers and thoughts were really appreciated by all of the family. In true German spirit, there were many moments of hilarity, even in the hospital. On the way down the night before in the lovely snowstorm, Kenny and I decided to take a trip, ala a ride on the Tilt-A-Whirl for all of you carnival fans, in his car. About 5 miles south of St. Genevieve, we hit a patch of black ice, he lost control, we spun across the median, and ended up facing north in the northbound lane. Think of the scene in Tommy Boy where the deer wakes up in the backseat and they loose control of the car. I'll leave it up to you to decide which one of us resembles Chris Farley or David Spade. Luckily, there was no deer in the backseat! Dad saw all of us before he went into surgery. When he came out, they had him on a wonderful drug cocktail of Fentanyl and something else that was going through his iv. He didn't remember seeing any of us before surgery, and he kept asking things like, "Where's your mother?", "Did ya'll just get here?", and our personal favorite,"How's the food here? I'm hungry." He kept dozing off and waking up, at which point he'd ask the same questions. We thought about making up different answers each time, but Mom said that was just mean and that we should behave ourselves. We also had a dramatic reading of his new "instruction manual" that comes with his defibrilator/pacemaker. We learned such tidbits as he can no longer weld things (Thank the Lord!), he can still use the microwave to pop popcorn and heat up contraband honey buns, and that if he and my mother are having "relations" and his defibrilator goes off, my mother may receive a shock. Only my family could find humor in an otherwise humorless situation. In any case, he is doing well, but he still needs to quit smoking. He's been smoking since he was 13, and I've watched him try to quit numerous times over the years, but he never manages to stay quit.
2. Life in Apartmentland: Our days in apartment land are numbered. Kenny and I have just joined the adult world of being "homeowners". We have purchased a home here in Washington. We've been looking for about a month. We've seen so many houses that they're all starting to blend together. Our closing date is March 30th, so once again, it will be a moving marathon. The new house has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a large kitchen with ceramic tiles, a finished family room in the walk-out basement, new berber carpet throughout the house, french doors in the main level kitchen that go out to a deck, french doors out of the family room in the basement that go out to the underside of the deck that has been made into a screened porch, and a two car garage. Needless to say, we're excited, but a little sick at the same time. As long as we don't think about what we've done, we're happy, but this is a huge committment. It's saying not only am I committing to living in this place for quite a while, but when you buy a house with someone, it's a big committment in that you're saying, yes, I'm going to stay with you for the long haul, which sounds really weird coming from me since I've always been the one who wanted someone to commit, (not to a mental hospital, but that may happen if they stay in a longterm relationship with me!). Sorry about the run-sentence there! It's just that now I'm at that point, where we've bought a house, are considering getting married, etc. and I'm kind of freaked out. I'll be okay, but it's like a cold slap in the face from reality. I'll try to figure out how to set up a Flicker account and upload the other pictures so you all can get an idea of what the inside and outside looks like. Don't worry guys, I'm happy about the purchase, but it's taking some getting used to.
3. The slap me in the head part of the post: As if all of the above weren't enough to make me insane, I've decided to return to graduate school and get my degree in library science, which is what I originally wanted to do anyway. I had to get reading certification to keep my job and it was only another three classes after all of the certification classes to earn my master's degree. I went that route so I could move up on the pay scale. In any case, I'm in the process of applying to Mizzou and will only be taking 1 class per semester. I'm trying to avoid taking out any more student loans, plus finishing a master's degree in four semesters is the definition of stupid. The new degree is a total of 42 hours. With taking one class per semester, I think it will take me anywhere from 4 and a half to 5 years. Keep in mind that math is not my strong point! Wish me luck!
4. Since I'm going to be meeting people about a mortgage, getting inspections and appraisals done on the new house, and packing like a crazy person (hopefully we'll find enough boxes), posting may be spotty for a while, like it typically is. I'll try to get pictues uploaded so you all can see the house. We'll send out new address and phone info in the near future as soon as that all gets straightened out.

Prayers Appreciated

2007-01-31T13:57:00.000-06:00

Please keep my dad in your prayers, along with my stressed-out mom, for the next few days. Dad will be going into Southeast Hospital in Cape at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning to have a pacemaker/defibrilator put in. I guess all of those years of smoking like a chimney are finally catching up with him. He's never managed to stop, no matter how many times he's tried. We're all headed to Cape. Yes, we know it is routine surgery, but we would all feel awful if we weren't there and something happened and Mom was alone. For all of my Cape friends, sorry I won't be able to see you all, but this isn't a fun trip. If you feel the need, stop by and see us at the hospital. I figure we'll be there most of the day tomorrow.

Christmas Comes Early in the Etter-German Household

2006-12-22T09:35:00.000-06:00

While Kenny gave me my big present earlier in the week, he had another much-wanted present to give me away last night: the Little Mermaid DVD! This is possibly my favorite Disney movie of all time, yes, I like it even better than Lion King. I now feel really bad because I gave him socks and undershirts. When you do laundry, you kind of notice things that need replacing. Don't yell at me, he also got a leather coat and the box set of the 5th season of Hogan's Heroes. I guess the coat and Hogan's Heroes don't make it a total drag of a Christmas. There is also one other thing I got him, but since it is a gift for a person who reads this blog, I'll have to tell about it later. Let's just say it was on Jay Leno, it cracks us up, and freaks out the cats.

For all of you old school Jim Henson fans, I purchased a little gift for me last night as we finished up our Christmas shopping: Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. How many of you remember this movie? Being the Jim Henson nut that I am (box sets of the Muppet Show play a big part of my DVD collection), I had never seen this movie on DVD. I remember seeing on TV when I was really little, but I haven't seen it in years. It's headed home in my bag for Christmas to introduce it to my nephew Robbie who loves the movie Kermit: The Swamp Years. The next generation is discovering my sister's, brother's, and my love of the Jim Henson characters. I miss those shows, especially Sam the Eagle, Pigs in Space, Animal, Beaker, etc. Good times.

For everyone who is traveling this weekend, be careful. Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy spending time with friends and loved ones.

Update

2006-12-21T11:38:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't posted in a while, but it's been a crazy month. December always seems to be a crazy month and things just kind of get away from me. However, while not amusing, here's what's been happening.

1. I now have a new water heater. It took almost three weeks, but they finally managed to put one in. The new water heater was installed the same day Kenny returned from Dallas. Coincidence, I think not!

2. Interesting holiday ornaments. We recently had our Title I Parent meeting. Since I hate talking in front of large groups, and I especially hate talking to parents (I know, kind of weird since I'm a teacher- that's kind of where that phobia began!), I ended up staying with the kids and setting up one of the activity stations to keep them busy. I made dog biscuit ornaments with the kids. Naturally, I made up one before hand for them to use as a guide, but as kids will do, they "didn't need no stinkin' guide". I have never seen more one-eyed reindeer in my life. Christmas trees across Union, MO are decorated with cyclops reindeer. Strangely enough, they were kind of cute. One of my students gave me a truly creative, many-eyed reindeer. I'm calling it the Reindeer of God, since it has so many googly eyes it is all-seeing!

3. My early Christmas gift from Kenny was a new Ipod. WOO HOO! I have wanted one for years, but as you all know, I'm too cheap to buy one for myself. He assures me that it didn't cost too much money since he bought it at the Apple Outlet store and plus he's been saving up to buy me one. As he told me though, it's kind of a Christmas present for the both of us since we'll both enjoy taking it on trips instead of CD cases. He gave it to me earlier in the week because he thought it would probably take me that long to figure out how to work the gadget. Unfortunately, I'm not very technologically adept, so I'm still working on it. However, I have discovered that I need to update my USB port card. So, like an idiot, I'm going to Best Buy today, read off the paper what Alice (our family computer whiz) told me to write down and buy, and then hopefully install it without blowing up my computer. She swears it's so easy a monkey could do it blindfolded. We'll see!

4. Today, I get to visit with my friend Clint, whom I haven't seen in a while. Tomorrow I head home to Malden to spend the Christmas holiday with my family. Then on Thursday, I'm headed to North Carolina to spend a week with Sebrina and Joe. I'll have the digital camera with me to hopefully take pictures of the crazy places I see. This time I'll try not to delete the pictures I take, as I did with the turkey pictures at Thanksgiving! One day I'll have a handle on technology!

In any case, if I blow myself up replacing the card on the computer or I run out of time before I leave, here's wishing you a Merry Christmas!

Life in Apartment Land

2006-12-06T12:55:00.000-06:00

Let me start this posting by saying that I am thankful everyday that I have a roof over my head. Having said that, I will now begin my mild rant on the "joys" of living in an apartment complex.

1. Non-soundproof walls! If I can hear my neighbors and EVERYTHING they do in their apartment, surely they can hear me as well. I simply assumed that they would figure out that if they can hear me, I can hear them, thereby adapting their behavior accordingly! I miss sleeping and lack of sleep makes me a very cranky teacher!

2. A new apartment manager who is a complete jerk: my water heater started going on the blink Thanksgiving weekend. Phone calls were made on Monday and I stopped by the office where he wasn't keeping his scheduled office hours, repeatedly, to get maintenance there to see if it was the element or the whole water heater. On the Wednesday following Thanksgiving, the apartment manager says that he can't get the maintenace man into my apartment because he doesn't have a key, and that if I don't give him a key, he's going to drill my lock, replace it with a new one, and says to me, "You'll get the key at my convenience." Approximately 20 minutes later in a rambling, one-sided conversation, he says to me, "I didn't think anyone was living in your apartment (what - are you incapable of reading the lease I signed in August?) so I was really surprised when I unlocked the door and saw all of your furniture and your pets when I was showing a prospective new tenant the vacant 2 bedroom apartments." To which I pointed out that he said he didn't have a key, so how could he have opened the locked door? He became really angry and rude and said he'd be over at my apartment by 5:30p.m. to check the water heater himself. I go home, move everything away from the laundry closet, and Kenny and I about throw our backs out trying to move the washer and dryer. 5:30 comes, no apartment manager. 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, 9:30, no manager. We move everything back because we both need to get out the front door to go to work the next morning. At 10:30, the manager knocks on the door and says he's there to check out the water heater. Okay, let's pull everything out again! He just turns the water heater temperature up, so now instead of having 2 minutes of warm water, we have 4 minutes of warm water. We also make sure that he has a key to get into the apartment and ask him to let us know when he's going to come in with the maintenace man or another repairman so we can lock up the cats. By the way, in my lease, it says that the apartment manager is to give us at least 24 hours notice that they are coming into the apartment, unless it's an emergency, and we are allowed, and encouraged, to be there when the manager comes into the apartment. Cut to last night, my phone rings again at 10:30. It's the manager who informs me that the maintenance man will be at the apartment at 5:00a.m. today to look at my water heater. He says that he'll probably turn off the electricity to the water heater, see what's going on, and hopefully will get it fixed by this afternoon. I get up at 4:30 this morning, get dressed, and move as much as I can out of the hall. 5:00a.m. comes around, no one shows up. Since I had early morning duty, I locked up the cats and left at 7:00 to go to work. I have absolutely no idea if anything has been done in my apartment or not. The manager also implied last night that I should have let them know the water heater was going out as soon as I noticed it, but he wasn't surprised that I didn't "being a female, and all." I guess not being able to perform a mind meld to notify him that my water heater would start going out on Monday from my parents' house in Malden on Thanksgiving is a particular flaw that I would not have if I were a man. For all of my intelligent male friends, ignore this next comment and don't accuse me of being a male basher. Just remember, I only bash the idiots and in that respect, no gender is safe. Save me from stupid, egotistical males who have short man syndrome and think that just because something goes wrong in my apartment, because I'm female, I am too stupid to let them know in a timely manner. Personally, I would like hot water from my faucet that I don't have to heat on the stove to do such things as dishes and take a bath! So would Kenny, my male roommate!

3. The drug dealers living in the apartment across the street: I yearn for the days when the tenants across the street only had affairs on their significant others! In the summer, I was able to watch a real live soap opera being played out when a woman came home and caught her husband/boyfriend in bed with his other girlfriend. Let's just say, the girlfriend ran out of the house half naked, the guy wasn't far behind, and the wife began tossing all of his worldly possessions out the door. Now, I get to watch all of the deals going down, which freaks my dad and brother out.

I can't wait to get a house!

Passings

2006-12-05T20:27:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of my friend Sandy Compas. Sandy was tragically killed in a car accident Sunday near her Little Rock home. When I first met her, Sandy was an Ursuline nun. She later left the convent, but continued to work as a director of adult religious education for the Little Rock diocese. In a strange twist of fate or timing, whatever you wish to call it, I received the phone call about her death as I was returning home from the post office where I mailed her Christmas card. Like so many of us do with friends and acquaintances, she and I exchanged e-mails, Christmas cards, etc. but we hadn't spoken on the phone in quite a while. As usual, it was something both of us were going to get around to, but just never found the time to do. Unfortunately, now there will be no phone calls ever again.

I'm not sure what I can say, or should say. I go between being shocked and numb, to crying, to questioning why this had to happen to such a good person. I know we, as Christians, are supposed to believe that God has a plan for our lives, but I'm not sure I can find a rhyme or reason to this in God's plan for Sandy. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the fact that she is gone, a person who devoted her life to bringing others to Christ, while others who tear the the image of Christ and religion down are left. When I told my mother last night, she said something that I've been struggling to accept, "Mayb e God leaves the others to give them another chance to become the kind of person that Sandy was." I just hope that I can learn to accept this and become more like she was.

Please keep Sandy, her family, and those of us who were blessed with the joy of her friendship in your prayers. We're all going to need it for a while. While I was looking for this photo, I found a letter from Sandy where she was giving me some ideas to use in the freshman religion class that I used to teach at St. Anns. In the letter, she had included a copy of a poem by Christina Rossetti called "Remember" that I think expresses the essence of what she would say to those of us she left behind if she could.

"Remember" by Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no longer hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more, day by day,
You tell me of our future that you planned.
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterward remember, do not grieve,
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Turkeys and Pumpkin Pies

2006-11-21T14:48:00.000-06:00

Thank God it's Tuesday/Friday!! The past week and weekend have been extremely long and I'm glad today's the last day of school for this week. I left last Thursday morning for the Missouri International Reading Conference at The Lodge of the Four Seasons at the Lake of the Ozarks. While this is always a good conference and I learn so much when I attend, the pace of the workshops leaves very little down time and I'm always exhausted when I get home on late Saturday evening. On the plus side, I was able to meet the authors Patricia McKissack and Marc Brown, so my niece and nephew are receiving signed copies of Flossie and the Fox as well as Arthur's New Puppy, Arthur's Chicken Pox, and Wild About Books. The authors were great. Patricia McKissack did a dramatic reading of part of Flossie and the Fox while Marc Brown talked about traveling on Air Force One with the First Lady to attend the first Russian Children's Book Festival. Apparently there is a separate compartment on Air Force One where she can go in to smoke, even though no one else is allowed to smoke on the airplane. Isn't it interesting that the rich and famous do not have to follow the same rules as everyone else - like there's a big shock! Also, the choice of food on Air Force One, according to Mr. Brown, appears to be Dove Bars, since that was in big bold letters at the bottom of the menu for the plane. There is some random trivia for you, whether you needed it or not.

Tonight, I will be baking pumpkin pies. I have finally convinced my mom that one of us needs to bake the pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas. For several years, my mom told my cousin Donna (who has two masters degrees, yet can't seem to hold down a job and has a tendancy to walk into walls in my parents' house that have been there for 30 years while exclaiming that she didn't know that wall was there- go figure) that, "Of course, you can bake the pumpkin pies!" She has difficulty seeing, but apparently, she mixed up the sugar with the salt. As a result, we routinely had two beautiful pumpkin pies sitting on the counter and when my sister, brother, and I would cut into them and load them up with half a can of RediWhip (honestly, is there any other way to eat pumpkin pie), we'd take our first bite and promptly spit the pie out in unison. For about 3 years, we were jipped out of pumpkin pie. It got to be a joke, so much so that Sebrina's mom once fixed us a contraband pumpkin pie that we sneaked into Roy's house so we could eat good pie! According to my mom's decree, one of us now has to make the pie since we didn't appreciate Donna's efforts. It's not that we didn't appreciate the effort, it's just that we all really like pumpkin pie.

Tomorrow night, I will be heading home to help Mom shoot up and rub down birds so my dad can fry turkeys like a crazy man all Thursday morning. I'll try to remember to bring home the digital camera so you can see the carnage that my mother's kitchen becomes on Wednesday night. There are so many turkeys in the house that night that we could make the German family version of that Peter Gabriel video with the dancing chickens! Oh well, fried bird is excellent.

In any case, I hope you all enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, even all of the crazy preparation that goes along with the feast!

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!

2006-11-04T10:43:00.000-06:00

Last night, some friends and I went to see Spamalot (http://www.montypythonsspamalot.com/) at the Fox (http://www.fabulousfox.com/). All I can say is if you are a Monty Python fan and you love musicals as well, try to get tickets to see this show. We laughed until we hurt! I'm still humming tunes this morning. Funny, funny stuff!

Fun Fall Roadtrips

2006-10-31T21:13:00.000-06:00

This past weekend, Kenny and I decided to take a much needed road trip. We forgot the digital camera, so unfortunately there are no pictures to share. However, as usual, we always seem to encounter wonderfully stupid people and find ourselves in such exotic locals as Iowa. But I digress, so without further ado, here are the highlights.

We left Washington on Friday afternoon, hoping to make Quincy, IL before nightfall. Around Troy, we decided we were hungry and found a Burger King so we could purchase the lovely Italian Chicken Sandwich. We placed our order without any complications until we pulled forward to pay for our meal and obtain our food. The payment part was no problem. A very polite young lady took our money and gave us our change. Then she disappeared somewhere in the back of the restaurant. Meanwhile, we are patiently waiting in the drive through lane for our food. Approximately 5 minutes pass. She finally returns to the window, pops her head out and says, "Are you all waiting?" Kenny and I look at each other, then I'm sure we gave her a look that said, "Surely you can't be that stupid." In a strangled voice, Kenny told her that we were waiting. Then she wanted to know what we were waiting on, and we once again repeated the order. Then she said, "Did you guys pay yet?" Keep in mind that she was the one who took our money and we were the only customers at the restaurant, so it's not like she had 50 customers to wait on. Again, Kenny told her, slowly, "Yes, you took our money." We finally got the sandwiches and left without cracking up or making a mean "Here's your sign" joke ala Bill Engvall. However down the road, Kenny said he wanted to say, "No, we're just driving real slow." in response to "Are you waitin?"

We made it to Hannibal where we decided to stop and make some purchases from the Fresh Ayre pottery shop. While browsing in some of the other stores along the main street, we noticed that the Mississippi Queen was docked at the river front. Having not really paid much attention to the news lately, we didn't think anything about it until we were in one of the stores and this guy comes in looking really panicked and asked the sales lady if the Chamber of Commerce had called her yet? She told him she hadn't recieved any phone calls from the chamber. He told her, "Well, they're calling everyone telling them to disinfect anything the boat people touch because the ship has docked because they're all sick and throwing up!" They both turn and look at me and Kenny, to which we both yell, "We drove up in our car!" Deciding that with our luck, we'd catch whatever the cholera steam boat had carried into town, we quickly leave and as we're driving out of town, we see store owners everywhere armed with cans of Lysol spraying everything in sight.

We made it into Quincy with plenty of day light left. We had read an article about a month ago about scenic fall drives to take and it listed Quincy as a place to visit, due to it's six historic districts and approximately 2,000 homes/buildings of architectural and historical significance. Neither of us have ever visited Quincy, so our plan was to visit the visitor's center to pick up a city map and information about what to see. The visitor's center was closed. No problem, we decided to check into a hotel and then find somewhere to eat and make it back in time to catch the baseball game. We figured we could come back in the morning and pick up the info then in time to go exploring. After an exciting World Series win, we had a wonderful night's rest and breakfast. Heading out at 8:45 for the visitor's center, we hoped we would find the information we sought. No matter what time we tried to go to the visitor's center, it was always closed. Our hotel had no brochures or information about the historic buildings either. We drove around for a while, and saw some interesting buildings but since we weren't really sure where anything was, we decided to head out to Navoo and check out the restored Mormon settlement.

I assumed the restored Mormon settlement was run by the Illinois Conservation Department, much like historic sites in MO and other places around Illinois, such as the Old State Capital or New Salem. OH WRONG! This place, while very pretty and neat to visit due to it's historic nature, is completely run and staffed by Mormons and apparently the majority of visitors are Mormon. We have decided that Navoo is like Mormon Disneyland. Approximately 90% of the cars had Utah license plates. The elders and their wives were very nice, always answering any questions and were very friendly and welcoming. However, they kept asking us if we had found our ancestor's in the family and land records and as we were touring some of the buildings in the old settlement they kept talking to us about Mormon history and religion and asking us questions like we knew what they were talking about! Outside of what we learned about the Mormon exodus to Utah in some history classes, neither of us know the detailed history of the Mormon faith. We weren't really sure whether or not we should tell them we weren't Mormon, just keep our mouths shut and play dumb, or what to do. All of the people who worked there and all of the other visitors were Mormon and they automatically assumed that we were Mormon too. But as we had both had a deer in headlight look, you could kind of see some of the elders and other church members trying to figure us out. Basically we think they thought we were the worst Mormons they had ever met! As Kenny said, he now knows what non-Catholics must feel like when they go to Rome! However, if you're interested in history and historic preservation sites, this is a neat place to go. The rest of the town was apparently bought and settled by a French Icarian community when the Mormons decided to head west to Utah. So, on the west side of town, you have the restored Mormon settlement where all you can buy to drink is spring water or root beer. On the bluff heading into downtown Navoo, you have the Catholic Church and the restored Mormon Temple side by side, separated by an alley. On the east side of town, there is a Casey's and a winery. Kenny and I figured out that if you want to get hooch and caffiene, you have to head to the east side where all the French Catholics settled! Still, it's a neat place to visit.

After an afternoon of dodging religious questions that we had no idea about, we decided that we were hungry and quickly found out that Navoo only has two places to eat and nothing opens up until like 5:30 in the afternoon. We decided to venture into Keokuk and find food since it's really close to Navoo. We finally found food and drove around Keokuk, finding the statue of Chief Keokuk, which has his remains in the base, in a park overlooking the river. Keokuk is kind of a sad town. You can tell that it was once really prosperous, but it's kind of depressed now. We did find a lovely Catholic church, All Saints, which is on the national historic register, and attended Mass there. Since we were tired, we decided to spend the night in Keokuk. After checking in, we decided to go find supper and quickly realized that outside of fast food and a questionable looking Chinese restaurant, Keokuk has very little in the way of restaurants to choose from. We decided to venture on to Fort Madison where the information in our hotel room said that there was a casino. Neither of us like to gamble, but casinos typically have a buffet. Since Kenny is fond of buffets and I like to have a variety of vegetables to choose from, we figured this might be a nice change from a burger and fries. Once we got to Fort Madison, we couldn't find the casino. We finally stopped at a gas station and they told us that the casino was up in Burlington for six months. Northward to the buffet! We found the Catfish Bend Casino, and the best thing I can say is the rolls and the scalloped potatoes were good. Plus there is a Wendy's in Burlington, so I was able to purchase a Frosty which I haven't had in a long time since most of our Wendy's in the St. Louis area have closed.

On our way back to Keokuk, we saw the funniest sign of our trip. It was a large billboard advertising "Visit the Hellmart in Farmington, Iowa for all of your gift needs!" What a name for a gift store. On Sunday, we returned to Washington after enjoying another one of our nerds unite road trips!

In the spirit of road trips to find strange, weird, or just unique things to see, my friend Joe Glenn sent me a wonderful website for locating the many oddities and roadside attractions to see in every state! Good fun, it sucked up about an hour and a half of my evening last night. I'm now wanting to plan a trip to North Dakota, since they appear to have a large number of large homemade things like a giant turtle riding a snowmobile and people made out of bales of hay! Here it is for your time-wasting pleasure: www.roadsideamerica.com Enjoy!

Compromise

2006-10-17T21:27:00.000-05:00

Wedding planning, much like marriage, is all about compromise, or so I hear (about the marriage part that is)! While Jen and my mom felt the dress I picked out was too casual, they did like the Alfred Angelo site, (thanks Brooke!). Here is the one Jen chose along with going for a darker color. Now comes the heinous measuring and fittings! Oh well, this is the last bridesmaid's dress I'm wearing, ever.

Being Mute

2006-10-17T10:43:00.000-05:00

I have lost the ability to speak! This is day two of an unscheduled vacation due to some bug I have managed to pick up from the 110 rugrats that sneeze and cough on me regularly. On the plus side, I woke up this morning with only a very low fever, not the hallucinating kind that I've been experiencing for the past two days.

What I hate the most is missing school. I think this is a particular mindset of teachers. I know that I am replaceable, believeme, I sometimes think a trained monkey could get as much accomplished with the kids I work with as I can. What I hate most is the mess you come back to along with the snide comments from other teachers in the teachers lounge (lounge, right, I tend to call it the complaint department, but it has the best microwave in the building to heat up my lunch) which will go something like this, "Well, did you have a nice vacation?" I'm sorry, actually going to a beach and being warmed by the sun, cooling off in the waves is my idea of a vacation, not sleeping for two days, unable to breathe, smelling like Vicks vapor rub, feeling like my throat is on fire, and running a fever while experiencing the alternating joys of sweating and then having chills. Not my idea of a "vacation".

What finally pushed me over the edge was the faculty hayride. This annual event is always a fun time. I had not felt too chipper for most of last week, but I just kept eating cold medication and kept pushing. I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty good, and decided to go on to the hayride that night since I had to bring the chili cheese dip. I went and had a good time, but I have a feeling it was just a little too chilly, even by the bonfire and my body decided to put the smack down and go, "That's it, you're going down!" I managed to make it to Mass the next morning, but I can't tell you much about that. Nothing like going to church while being out of your head! Some people would say it makes the whole experience less painful! Upon returning home, I went to bed, where I have been for the past two days. There is my exciting life. I wish a plague on all the rugrats and the makers of Lysol. I guess I got the one germ that missed the 99.9% germs killed! I'm going back to bed, I'm feeling kind of woozy.

Alternatives in Bridal Gear

2006-10-12T18:43:00.000-05:00

Many thanks go out to Brooke for providing me with a link to another site for bridesmaids dresses. I have managed to pick out a much better dress than the one that was originally chosen. Keep in mind these are separates, so use that wonderful thing called imagination and put the two together.

In any case, I find these options more appropriate. Plus, I could actually see myself wearing the top again. Put it with a pair of black pants and it will work. Keep your fingers crossed that Jen will go for this outfit.

There have been more encounters with the store I originally went browsing in to check out the dress options. Our counselor at school, who generally tells it like it is in no uncertain terms, found out what had happened. She found out what I did and asked me when I was going to stop being so nice to people. I told her I guessed I would continue to be a doormat for stupid people for the forseeable future until I managed to develop a spine or finally went postal. Unbenownst to me, she went on an internet mission to find out the contact number of the store's headquarters. While she was unable to find any way to contact the store's headquarters, she was shocked to find numerous websites devoted solely to relating horror stories from people who had dealings with this chain. Still miffed about what had happened to me, she proceeded to call the store and talk to the manager, relating my unfortunate encounter with the sales bimbo. She came to tell me the manager wanted me to call so she could personally apologize. I told her I couldn't believe that she had called the store, that it wasn't that big of a deal, and that I figured the best way to get revenge was to not give them my business and discourage other potential patrons. She looked at me and said, "People have no right to treat you like that. If you continue to let people like that get away with bad behavior, they will continue to treat people poorly."

I just don't want some stupid girl to lose her job because she had a bad day. The sales bimbo was awfully young. Who knows, she may need this job. At the end of the day, the incident wasn't really that big of a deal. It was just another example of how rude and stupid people can be. While telling Kenny what the counselor had done and how I hoped the girl hadn't been fired because she was rude to me, he responded, "Quit making excuses for people who need to be held responsible for their behavior!" Would her getting reprimanded or even fired teach her a lesson. I doubt it. You can't fix stupid, well most of the time. Unfortunately, as comedien Ron White says , "Stupid is forever!", usually.

Another Bridesmaid Dress

2006-10-10T21:11:00.000-05:00

Yes folks, here it is, another bridesmaid's dress that I will once again purchase and never wear again! Someone always assures you that you could shorten the skirt and it will be nice to wear for formal situations (like I attend so many formal functions)! Yeah, right! Be that as it may, take a look at this dress and then try to remember what I look like. For those of you who can't, rest assured that I definitely do not resemble the model. I might more accurately resemble a pale green, extremely large Nerf ball in this dress. Actually, I think the Nerf ball would be more attractive in this dress than I will be.

For those of you who are wondering, my brother and his fiance have officially set their wedding date for March 17th. I had never planned to be in another wedding, but Jen has this brilliant idea for my sister Carol, Jen's cousin, and me to be her bridesmaids. When she announced her plan this summer, Carol and I were gritting our teeth and agreeing to be in the wedding. I promptly began planning how I could step in front of a bus and end up in some cast to get out of being in the wedding. Heck, I don't even want to be in my own wedding, so why in the world would I want to be in this one! A look from my mother, even if I am over 21, can still instill the fear of God into me and I have resigned myself to trying to fit into this stupid dress and trying to hide as much as possible from the camera!

Without sounding too bitter, I must now relate the incident that occured when I followed Jen's suggestion to go look at possible bridesmaids dresses here at a national chain of bridal/formal stores here in St. Louis. They guarantee on their commercials that you'll love them, but I quickly found out that they love skinny people, not fat people! On a Saturday two weeks ago, I decided to go get this initial look over with and see what was available. Dressed in shorts (hello, it's Saturday and I have to dress up all week) I went into the store to have a look at the dresses. I quickly realized that nothing had sleeves. I decided to ask a sales lady if there were any dresses with sleeves available in the color Jen wanted. When I finally got the airheaded sales lady's attention, she acted quite put out that I was bothering her. I guess discussing the latest conquest she brought home the night before from some club was more important than answering a customer's question. Here is a paraphrased transcript of the conversation:

Sales bimbo: "Can I help you?" (bored inflection)
Me: "I have to be in my brother's wedding in the spring and his fiance wanted me to come look at the bridesmaids dresses? Do you have any dresses with sleeves?"
Sales bimbo: "Does she have a particular style of dress picked out?"
Me: "I have no idea. I assume that's why she wanted me to come look." At this point, I have figured out that I'll probably need to speak slowly to cut through her hangover and intelligence void.
Sales bimbo: "Well, I don't think we have the size you'll need to fit in any of our dresses."
Me: Complete and utter speechlessness. Imagine a deer in a headlights. Finally, I am able to respond "Okay."

At this point, I had a sudden vision of me snapping this skinny, blond, former cheerleader in half. Then I envisioned myself sitting on her and turning her into a grease spot of her former self. I decided that she wasn't worth going to jail over, so I ended up simply saying "Thank you." (for being insulted, mind you) and leaving the store. Once I reached my car, I quickly calculated the distance to Ted Drewe's and the comfort only frozen custard can provide. I ended up getting a diet soda instead since I was still smarting from the whole "We don't have your size" comment.

As I drove home with my tail between my legs and crying, I got to thinking about how you can never really escape the changing room in gym class because you encounter the same situation just cloaked in a different setting at various points in life. Think back to gym class. You always had to dress out. For the skinny girls, it was no big deal. For the rest of us with junk in the trunk and pulling a trailer, you tried to shrink as small as possible and change as quickly as possible. At some point in your PE career, one of the skinny bimbos in the class would make a snide comment about the size of your thighs, butt, arms, etc. or laugh at you and whisper to her friends. You were totally humiliated and wished the floor would open up and swallow you whole. That's how I felt after my encounter with the skinny saleslady in the wedding store with all of the dresses for the beautiful, skinny people. What's really sad is that even with all that I have accomplished, even though I know I am a person of worth and value, it still hurt my feelings. I would love to be one of those people who can come up with a really good response when encountering idiots like this person, but I don't think quick on my feet. Also, you don't want to stoop to their level of stupidity and hatefulness, but sometimes I wish that I had a tazer or cattle prod and could shock some sense into people!

I'll keep you posted on how the dress situation goes. I hate this dress, so I'm going to try to find an alternative. Maybe I can convince Jen to let us wear the same color and pick out different styles of dresses. I will definitely not return to the store from whence I was sent away in humiliation. If anyone has any suggestions about stores between St. Louis and Memphis that would be better to check out, I'd appreciate the information.