Pain

Why is it that such an innocent little thing can hurt your toes/foot like nothing else? Especially when you are barefoot and cold? Uh, OW. It seems like it reaches out and grabs you as you walk by.

Happy Birthday to Hope!

Here's to old friends. And I do mean old. Hahahah.

Happy 35th girl.

Pic on top: me and Hope, May 1986. 13 years old.

On bottom: with her two boys last year

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sister, Karen, who is 37 today!

I'm Here to Taste The King's Mead

I made it through the Beowulf field trip. Yours truly took 115 students to the Rave (on three buses!) to see it and then to Buffalo Wild Wings afterwards. I had three other adults (two teachers, one parent) with me to help and I sure am glad! The movie experience at the Rave went very well. I have to hand it to the folks at the Rave---to Jill, who works at their headquarters in Dallas and the manager at the one here---they were awesome. We ended up watching it in 3D, even though we thought we were just seeing the regular version---there was some mix up of some kind, but that was okay with me. I was just as excited (but I kept that under wraps) as the kids were when the 3D glasses were handed out. They aren't the blue and red kind of yesteryear. They look like Clark Kent glasses.

There were a lot of moments in the movie that were funny without intending to be. Like when Beowulf told Hrothgar and his group that he was "here to taste the king's mead" and Wealthow said, "Lots of men have come here to taste the king's mead." Or something of that nature. My students howled.

I highly recommend watching the 3D version. It was fun. As for the tweaking of the Beowulf plot----I surprisingly didn't hate it. I guess because I'm not crazy crazy about Beowulf in general. If they had changed The Great Gatsby or another text I love, I would have been irritated, but it was actually kind of a neat twist I think.

The restaurant experience pretty much sucked--with only a few waiters, impatient kids, and poor planning on the restaurant's part (I did everything I could---would have helped them cook up the food and serve it if I could have!) and add a surly bus driver who wasn't my biggest fan. Yeah that part sucked hard.

Overall though, I give the experience a B-.

A Horse Named John

Luke wanted his pony out from the baby's room. I had moved it there because he said it was "scary."
Luke: Mama, you get it out for me?
Me: Okay. Here ya go.
Luke: Thanks.
Me: What's his name?
Luke: He doesn't have a name.
Me: Why don't you name it?
Luke: (Thinks a minute) Okay, John.
Me: John?
Luke: John.

He doesn't know any Johns. I thought that was funny. Where did he hear this?

I am Beowulf!

Say a prayer that the Beowulf fieldtrip goes well tomorrow!



Go here for something really funny---warning: language.

Sunday

While reading a bedtime story to Luke just now I realized...

MY LISP PROBLEM IS GONE!

I'm not sure when exactly it left, but thank God it's gone.

Whew. It had to be the Paxil.

In other news, I took Luke to see Bee Movie today. The previews lasted a good 20 minutes and my heart almost broke when he said, "Bee Movie isn't coming on" in a sad voice. I reassured him it was. It finally did and he lasted about 45 minutes.

"Mama," he said, warm and snuggly on my lap, "I wanna go home now."

"Okay baby."

Next time I will arrive 20 minutes late to the movie to avoid the annoying long previews.

Uhhhh yeah.

This must be some of the class I always hear about...


And what was up with the dog??? Crazy!

Some of my favorite parts of watching the game last night:
Tanner yelling, "It's a fulllllllllllllllllllll pullllllllllllllllllll!" making me giggle and Chris telling Tanner to "Take it back, take it back, man. Don't mess this up!" after Tanner kept saying we won before the game was over.

War Eagle!

Pictures!

Pics from early Thanksgiving with Chris's family and...

Home Improvement Pics here.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Where I Have Fun

From Eat, Pray, Love:
"Having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You really need to be certain it's what you want before you commit."

From yesterday's lunch table:
"Why are the worst students the best artists?" (An older teacher complaining over being drawn in a very unflattering pose by a kid in the in school suspension room.)

Today was fun---it's Dylan's birthday and we met up at one of those "big blow up inflatable bouncy things" germ factories. :) Meggan and I faced off at one of the obstacle courses. My father-in-law joked on me, said "his money's on Meggan."
Then Chris came up and said, "Meggan is my horse. What about you, Dad?"
"Oh, yeah, Meggan."
Fine. Sure she's ten years younger and used to run track. I still have spirit, right?
However, as we stood ready for the "go" from the men, I was worried I wouldn't be able to throw myself through one of those holes. I did though. Of course my low cut waist jeans slid down some after the "hurl myself through the hole" experience and I had to stop and pull them up. That's when I noticed someone else had joined the race---Luke.
He and Meg beat me.
Some random dude was standing at the sidelines watching all of us with an amused look.
It was fun. I never do stuff like that.

When we got to my MIL and FIL's house Chris hooked up Donna's new Wii and we played bowling. I beat Chris, much to his dismay. I couldn't believe how (here's the word again) fun it was. Big thumbs up!

Untea

I learned a new word today while grading journals.



Untea.





It's who your uncle is married to.

I love this guy.

Tanner gave me an idea for today's post.

Check out the best of Christopher Walken on SNL.

Sunday Night

What are y'all doing tonight?

Chris is "green eggin'" some chicken,

Frank is watching The Amazing Race,

and me? I think I have pink eye.

WTF?

In other news, we sure did love the series Tell Me You Love Me.

Serious Ranger

Dad took this on Halloween. Look how serious he is! He looks older than three here, doesn't he?

Irony

Okay guys, is it just me or is it really stupid to encourage germy highschool kids to all put their hands on the same sheet of paper pledging to prevent staph? DUMB!

35 and All is Well (Well, most things.)

*Photo from this talented photographer.

Today I thought about quitting my job. I sat on the front stoop (cuz I had the day off for the doc appt--more on that later) in the cold morning air, drank my coffee, and thought about how I would feel if I didn't teach at that school anymore. It felt good. I don't know if I will actually quit or not; I certainly won't do it mid year or without finding another school---a better school, but it felt good thinking about it. And it certainly felt good realizing I don't HAVE to teach there. I can do other things. Just allowing myself to think about leaving THAT PLACE gave me a peaceful feeling. The stress of my job is causing me physical problems (the slurring because of the anxiety drug that I need in order to handle the job) and general emotional distress. It seeps into my family life---my relationship with Chris, Luke, and even the baby. I give my job more than I give my family at times. But when I ease up at work, work gets more stressful... Vicious cycle. If I relied on worksheets, overhead work, and videos, my job would be somewhat easier. Should I dip my toe into that teaching pond? I don't wanna, but maybe I should try it a little bit more than I do at the moment. I'm too hard on myself to come up with "cool, different, more challenging" stuff. Maybe they need a break. Maybe (no, make that definitely) I need a break.

*****

Went to the neurologist today. I drove there listening to my new bday cd from Max. (Thanks, Max! I love it.) The song I listened to driving over there was Dead Can Dance's "American Dreaming". So good. I put it on my Myspace AND it's here. If it weren't for Max, I wouldn't be up on any good music. Or own any. Thanks, Bud. I especially liked the inclusion of the songs " The Man Who Turned My Mama On" by Tanya Tucker and "You're the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly" by Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty. Karen and I used to love to listen to that song when we were kids. That, and Gene Simmons' "Haunted House". But I digress.

So I went to the neurologist. I sat in the waiting room with an old woman who looked like she was in bad shape. I thumbed through a brochure about different kind of strokes. It freaked me out; tears came to my eyes and I put it back. I spent the next five minutes losing myself in a book I got for my birthday--Eat,Pray, Love. I was called back to the doc in no time. She (it was weird seeing a female doc for once, most of my doctors in the past year have been men) poked me with a swab lookin' thing (thought she would make me go ahhh with it, but no) all over my bod, asking me if I felt it. She made me close my eyes so I couldn't cheat, I guess. I had to walk a straight line like if you got pulled over for a possible DUI. She poked my toes with her little stick like Nellie did on Little House on the Prairie (anyone remember that episode?). Then, she said what I thought she would say, "It's the medication you are on." Yes, I had to get back on the Paxil cuz I was going ca-razy. And the slur came back. So I knew that's what it was today even before I went, but it's nice to know nothing else was wrong. I'm still staying away from Diet Coke with Nutrasweet though. Diet Coke with Splenda is a whole nother story. So, new meds for Jen. The End. (I hope!)

****

Shopped for the rest of the morning. Ah, retail therapy. It did wonders. It was so good just chillin' by myself in front of FOX NEWS. (Shut up, Max.) Regarding the OJ trial---what's the deal with the judge? I think that guy killed the real judge and is pretending to be the judge. Oh, and what's the deal with Marcia Cross in the front row? I don't know how I feel about that. It's like Deja Vu watching OJ sitting in that chair again.

Doctor Please...Some More of These...

What a drag it is getting old....

It's My Birthday! My 16th, for the 19th time!

My themesong of late: Mother's Little Helper Haha.

Darf Bader

Somehow Luke became a huge Star Wars fan when no one was looking.

Sure, he's expressed an interest in Darth Vader ("Darf Bader") before, but he went all out over the past week. Last Friday, he demanded to know where the Darf Bader mask was at Walgreens---the poor guy putting up Christmas decorations seemed befuddled at the little guy with his hands on his hips.

Then, Saturday he approached me with a Darth Vader action figure (that came from where? I have no idea) and said, "I wanna watch the Darf Bader movie."

Ummm okay. So I dug through the mess in the tv armoire and found Chris's VHS trilogy collection. I put it in. Empire Strikes Back.

"Where's Darf Bader?"

Evidently my Luke lacks patience.

"Give it a minute. He'll be here."

When the Imperial March came on, I got all excited for him---pointed out that that's Darf's music. Luke ate it up.

He seemed to be rooting for Darf and the stormtroopers (he calls them Darf's white friends) though, which freaked me out.

"Darth is a badddddddd guy! He's mean!"

That set him on course. He even got a kick out of making the connection that he and Luke Skywalker shared the same first name. "Like me!!!"

Of course now he wants the "red sword" that Darth Vader has.

I told him to ask Santa.
"I ask Paw Paw," he replied.

A Pea and a Power Ranger

CLICK HERE FOR MORE Pictures from Halloween week...

Take a look inside...

More pics to come...later tonight or tomorrow. My "witch" was kinda "80s hair plus 90s belt plus witch hat=kinda a witch". Chris was the clear winner this year. You really don't wanna know what was in the box.

What I Do

I picked up Luke from Mom and Dad's this evening (their usual mid week treat for us, them, and Luke). It was nice just driving along, listening to John Tesh's nightly "let's talk and play some tunes" show and hearing Luke drink from his sippy cup back behind me. Thought I'd engage my son in some convo. "Conversate" as the kidz say.
"Hey babe. Whatcha thinkin' about?"
"Batman." (Sippycup sucking sound.)
"Oh, really?"
He asks me, "What does Batman, Spiderman, and Superman do?"
(I sense this is a test) "Fight crime?"
"Yeah. And bad guys."
"Oh."
Time passes. I switch topics. "Hey Luke you know what Mama does all day?"
Silence from the backseat, then...
"Pee pee and poo poo?"
"Well...some of that but also I teach kids. I teach kids to read. Kinda sorta."
"You teach them to poo poo!!!!!!" (Much laughter.)
"Ahhh, no."
"They poo poo on the FLOOR!!!!" (More laughter. He's killing. He'll be here all night. Try the chicken.)
"No...well...some of them might."