Another Five on Friday

My brain is so addled lately, I actually had to start this list on my iPhone while on recess duty. 

1.  This afternoon was glorious. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I have no agenda this weekend. I could stay at school and work as long as I needed to, and I was able to get a few things done. (Don't be fooled- no papers were graded in this process). 

2.  Weather has been exceptionally bonkers, as is weather in Texas in the spring all year round. What was initially touted as some mildly strong storms turned into a vicious tornado outbreak. Since then, the weather has been ridiculously humid and thick and disgusting. I was going to dry my hair this morning, and the weatherman said "It is so muggy outside, you will start sweating the minute you walk outside."

3.  My mantle is perfectly decorated. For Valentine's Day. This weekend, I need to go summer or go home. I have some playful ideas, and hope they can come to fruition. I've been very interested in hand-lettering lately, and I want to explore that in my summer mantle. It could be interesting and perfect.  (spoilers- it will not be beach themed.) Otherwise, I've just go to go neutral.  P.S. When inspiration strikes on a Friday night at 8pm, you know it's going to be a long night. 

4. KC has convinced me to embark on the 21 day sugar detox with her. Holy carb withdrawal Batman. I've cheated like a champ through the whole thing, as I would like to retain my teaching certificate and arrest-free record, and I can't guarantee that would take place without caffeine in the morning. How's it going? Well, on Tuesday night I fell asleep on the couch at 5:45, woke up at 7:50, and called it. Headed to bed and woke up at 5:45. AM. And did that leave me well-rested and of a pleasant attitude? Ask my Wednesday night dinner crowd. One word: lowercase. 

5. Project Life. Still happening. Got my 6 x 12's from Persnickity, and it adds an awesome element. Maybe, just maybe, this weekend I'll get some work on it done and some pictures may appear here on the blog. 

For the moms on Mother's Day.

Saturday Morning Silliness

I'm finally done with sitting on babies for a while, and may or may not stay on my couch all the livelong day today.

I did, however, find something this morning that it would be criminal not to share.

Warning: the tag line on the site on which I found it said "If you didn't already like John Krasinski, be prepared to fall in love."

And it was right:



Oh, and add Jimmy Fallon to that list too.

Two things I'm allergic to: cats and the treadmill

I'm sitting on babies AGAIN.

I drove clear out to another town to pick up big brother, only to find he had a ride home. I thought he said that he wanted to just ride home with them. What he actually said was "just a second, let me get my stuff." So, I drove clear out to another town, only to leave my kid standing in the private school parking lot. (He was able to catch his original ride and make it home before me. Hmmm...)

Upon being home for 52 minutes, I had to break up a fight and google "signs of concussion in a moody teenaged boy".

All I do is win.

I've got mounds of projects and papers to grade, an application to fill out, and about 140 name tags to create, so naturally I'm on the Pinterest, looking up funny ecards and videos.

I leave you with this. It's titled "Cats trying to understand the treadmill."
It's damn near the funniest thing I've seen in a while.




As always, you're welcome.

The Teacher Appreciation gift that keeps on giving

Dear Tuesday: WHAT THE HELL?!

Y'all. 

I was going to write about my new Mac, and how once you go Mac, you never go back. 

I was going to write about Project Life, and how I've fallen semi-behind. 

I was going to write about how I've been sitting on babies so much I've given my mother the clicker. 

I was going to write about how I've been sitting with mostly teenaged/tweenaged boys and it is slowly escorting me to an early grave. 

But then Tuesday went and kicked my a$$, and now I'm even staying up past my bedtime to write about it. 

What's even worse, is that Tuesday led me to believe it would be a normal day. We're working on some classroom/computer projects, which is pretty funny, but not too terribly taxing. All was normal and routine, and then...

3:45 Tuesday came and smacked me in the face!

My eye started itching, which happens every 37.4 seconds because I am allergic to air and children, two things I'm around all the time, so I didn't think it was too big of a deal. Until 15 minutes later when I looked in the mirror and diagnosed myself as having pink eye. 

Called the dr. office, and they couldn't fit me in. Couldn't fit me in?! I didn't need the doctor, nor the PA for that matter. I'm fairly certain that the receptionist, or any of the other patients in the waiting room for that matter could look at me and say "yeah. That's the Pink Eye." From there, all I needed was a script for some drops and I'd be on my merry way. But no. They couldn't see me until tomorrow. No copay for you friend. 

Go to the Rapid Med clinic, where the receptionist actually did take one look at me and say "I'll fit you in." The doctor came into the room and asked what I was seeing him for, and when I said "I'm a teacher and I think I have pink eye," he looked at me all squinty-like and said "Yeah. That's the Pink Eye." He left me with a script and sent me on my way. 

I sent it to the Target, as I had a little shopping to do. I thought it probably wouldn't be ready, so I did my shopping and waited in line. They told me they got it and it would be filled at 6:15, which was 45 minutes later. Paid for my items and went home. 

Came home, greeted Daisy, sat on the couch for a minute, and the princess asked me for water by batting her bowl across the floor. Pick up bowl. Turn on faucet. 

No running water. 

Like, at all. 

Seriously. 

I called the emergency maintenance and left a message. I did a quick survey of what else I needed to get at Target because Oh yeah! I'm supposed to make a cake for a luncheon tomorrow at school. This will be super fun without running water. 

Go to Target, leave the dog barking in the car. Run get milk. Get butter. 

Eggs? Well, they're no where to be found. There's a ridiculously large EMPTY SPACE in the cooler aisle where the eggs were supposed to be, but the only thing left were organic, cage free eggs. I'm so NOT organic, or really cage free, but that was what was to be had. I even took a picture, but am too tired to load it here (see above reference to it being past my bedtime). 

Go to the pharmacy counter. They have my prescription, but it will be 15 MORE MINUTES before it is filled. It's a full hour and a half after it was sent. Sigh. 

Go sit in car with dog. Drive through somewhere for dinner because at this point, my tummy requires more attention than my eyeball. Eat in my car. Go back into Target and wait in line, composing the following tweet:

Jennifer Owen ‏@gatorphimu3hTarget. This is my third time to try to retrieve my Rx. If you tell me 15 min one more time, I will unleash a pink eye pox upon your house.

Finally my medicine is ready.

Now I get to cook. With no water. Sigh.

Finally, after KC offers to let me come stay at her house, the water comes back on and we all live happily ever after.

Except for when I try to put eye drops in my eyes.
I take after Rachel (Friends) when it comes to eyes and eye drops.

I don't know. I think Britney's got a better shot than I do at this point. 

Five Things on Friday (sitting on babies edition)

Five things on Friday 
(plus or minus a few more)

1. I’m a teen mom again this week. By that, I mean that I am the mom to three teenaged children. Little brother is in 7^th grade, and was in my class when he was in 2^nd grade. Sister is in 8^th grade and was in my class when she was in 4^th grade. Big Brother is in 10^th grade and was in KC’s class in 4^th and in BFF’s class in 2^nd. (side note to BFF: Dude. We’re old.) Their parents are off in some far off tropical island, and I’m in charge in their absence. I’ve done this a couple times before, and it was pretty magical then too.

2. Little Brother has an 8am lacrosse game tomorrow. He has to be there at 7:15am. I fully intend to sleep in my car from 7:16 - 8:00, when I have to be up and cheering. Incidentally, I have no idea how/why the game of lacrosse is played, and have no doubt that my cheering

3. This is the family I was sitting on that one time I backed my car into a ditch during a particularly gnarly thunder and lightning storm. Good times. This time, Big Brother drives. He’s taken on the roll of “man of the house” while the parents are away, as my teenaged boys often do. He’s deemed it his responsibility to drive the “younger kids” to practices and such, while I just sit at the kitchen table and read books and play on my iPad. I keep having to remind him that it isn’t an inconvenience for me to take Little Brother to Lacrosse. It’s kinda what I’m here for. Sister is a doll, and she’s precious and I love her. She’s taken on the roll of Mom while the Real Mom is off on the beach with their Real Dad. She reminds Little Brother that it’s trash day and that they have piano practice, and that they pray before they eat.

It’s absolutely magical.

4. Their entire family is centered around two things: God and Music. I could very well be a member of this family. They have a piano room off the entrance, and a baby grand piano that has an image of John Lennon on it that looks like it may have been drawn by Quentin Blake (Roald Dahl's illustrator). While this means that I'm continuously shuffling (or asking Big Brother to shuffle) kids back and forth between The Piano Teacher With the Ditch, it also means that there is constantly piano music being played, as I play Name That Tune with what they're playing. It is so calming and beautiful. 

5. There are two other members of this family (and continuously under my feet). Fergie and Bono (see musical note above). They are Golden Doodles, and have the most hilarious quirks. Fergie loves to be outside/Bono loves to be inside. Fergie requires immediate attention- and will paw at my hand to get it, and knock my elbow off the table if it means my hand will land on her back for petting. Bono likes to play fetch but will not give the ball back once he has it. There's a chance I'm going to try to fit them into my Vera Bradley duffel to take home. 

+ This may very well be the last post on this wretched old computer that I'm using. The new MacBooks are in, and I'm on the list to get one. They are trying to get it to me before I leave school for the weekend. I've got fingers and toes crossed. 

+ Now that my computer knows it's being replaced, it's decided to be on its best behavior. Nice try computer. Nice try. 

*cough*sniff*cough* Repeat.

Remember how I said that we had field day and it was supposed to be ridiculously cold?
(see #14)

Well, it was. And now I'm sick.

And all SORTS of pissed about it. I couldn't take the day off of work today, and I certainly can't take it off tomorrow because of the freaking STAAR test. Sigh.

 The best part is when I try to unclog my head and relieve the pressure, I get extreme bouts of vertigo. Like close my eyes and sit down and put my head back, no matter what I'm doing. Even when I'm on lunch duty. Good times.


(As I was writing this, Daisy was teetering on the edge of the couch and almost fell off. When she realized she was about to fall off, she shot up like a cat that had been stuck by a pin. And it was about the funniest thing I've seen all day.)

When the teacher is sickly, things like this happen:

In the computer lab, I was grading a paper, and a kid asked for help. I went over to her and said "well, what the computer is asking you is this. You need to look at the problem like this, and break apart the numbers." She said "thank you" and the girl next to her said "Actually, I was the one that needed help."

 Tomorrow, I'm going to sit on three teenagers for a week, then taking three days off and sitting on my other almost-permanent children for a week. In between, my three boys' mom is thinking about taking a trip up to St. Louis, and may need me for those days. I'm at her beck and call. I'm her beck and call girl. (Name that movie).

And then, when I get back, I have about 3-4 days, and then another family may need me. I'm basically giving up my apartment and living in other people's guest rooms and watching their kids and their cable. And getting paid for it.

I'm basically giving up my life, but it's a pretty sweet gig, nonetheless. 

And finally, I wore a black dress last April.  Today, that sweet mother had a baby boy, who was perfect in every way. (Except his name. I don't get what some people name their kids nowadays.)