1st Day of School

Today is the first day of school. I have a really sick feeling in my stomach. Can I call in sick?

I slept relatively well last night. Not good but much better than I thought I would. That is, until right before I woke up at 5:30. Can we say nightmare?

I was dreaming that it was the first day of school. When my kids came into the room, most of them were the size of 5th graders and a couple of them were as big as me. I didn't have my overhead projector set up so I was trying to get it right (it wasn't cooperating) while the kids were just milling around the room talking, moving desks and writing on the board. Of course, once you loose control of them like that, there's no getting it back, at least for that day and if you do get it back, it's very difficult. I finally gave up on the projector but that was how I was doing my warm up so I was having to go to Plan B. Since the kids were already out of control, every time I passed a student in my travels around the room, they would be up writing on the board or moving their desk. I put the desks back in order more than once. I had to leave the room a couple of times and each time, when I got back, the room was a shambles. Once, the ceiling (it was a chalkboard) was completely covered with writing. I finally resorted to yelling and pounding desks, the worst thing to do. At one point, the elementary principal came in, looked around my room, apologized and said there was nothing that could be done, they were all like that.

At some point, it occurred to me that I had rearranged my room to accommodate the overhead projector and I no longer have an inner loop to work so I need to go in early and redo the room. Since I was awake at 5:30, that should be no problem.

The day has to be better than my dream...doesn't it??

Yikes!

We were out and about today and Steven tried to pull a hair off my chin. Ummm, it was attached. I HAVE A CHIN HAIR!!!! I think this means I'm getting old....

Meet the Teacher

Today is my first Meet the Teacher.

I did sleep some even though I was sure I wouldn't sleep at all. It wasn't good sleep but it was sleep, much better than the alternative. :) My stomach is already churning and I'm really stressed out.

The good thing is that the 3 (I'm in a tripod) of us are talking to parents together and I don't have to talk first!! I don't have any problem getting up in front of kids and talking, peers don't bother me much any more but talking in front of a group of parents terrifies me. I know it will be fine but I'm really, really ready for 11:00 to arrive so it will all be over.

*UPDATE*

Of course it wasn't as bad as I'd worked it up to be. The 3 of us met together and each of us took 2 topics to talk about. I did fine - no throwing up or even stuttering. :) It helped that I have connections with several of the students that are in the 3 classes. Let's see if I can remember all of them:

• One girl is the cousin of one of Jennifer's friends. I remember when she was born. I was working in the office when her grandmother called to say she was coming to get her children because their sister was having her baby.
  
• One girl is the daughter of a girl Chris went to homecoming with one year. Her great-grandmother was one of my 5th grade teachers. I know her entire family.
• One girl is the cousin of one of my favorite male students and her great-aunt is one of my favorite people.
• One boy is the nephew of a guy in my class.
• One girl is part of the Bedias Smith clan.
• One girl is the sister of another of my favorite students. (I've been working with kids for 10 years now so I have lots of favorites)
• There were several that I've taught computer to their siblings.
• One boy is the son of a guy I gave recorder lessons to when I was a teenager.

I think I got them all and I'm sure I'll find more connections after I meet them all on Monday. I think I'm going to love teaching in my hometown.

Empty Nest

At 5:29 this afternoon, we walked out of Rachael's dorm and officially became empty nesters.

I was excited because after almost 28 years of parenting, I'm tired. After leaving though, I was sad because it's all over. Well, not over but the day-to-day parenting is over.

The good:
The TV and radio will stay on the channel (station) I put it on.
Any mess will be mine.
I don't have to share the truck or computer.
I only have me to worry about.
I don't have to worry until Rachael gets home at night.

The bad:
The dogs are all my responsibility.
The trash is all my responsibility.
I have to get the mail every day.
I'll find out how much of a slob I really am.

I think I can handle this...

I Guess I Really Was Tired

I worked late every night last week, till 10 two nights and almost that late the other 2 nights. I'm also officially at the "I can't turn my brain off and go to sleep" stage so I wasn't sleeping well even after I got into bed.

Steven came to help me do a couple of things in my room when he got home and I had some other things to do but was so tired I just left about 4:30. I was able to stay up until 6:00 and went to bed. Steven rubbed my back and feet and I was asleep well before 7:00. I got up at 8:30 to go to the bathroom; up again at 8:30 am for the same thing and then back to bed. I finally got up at 10:30.

I think I was tired. I don't think I'll work that late this week since it's in-service and I have to be up and at 'em early every morning.

One Word

1. Where is your Cellphone? - pocket
2. Relationship? - married
3. Your Hair? - brown
4. Work? - teaching
   
5. Your sister? - none
   
6. Your favorite thing? - grandchildren
   
7. Your dream last night? - none
   
8. Your favorite drink? - water
   
9. Your dream car? - Jaguar
   
10. The room you’re in? - office
    
11. Your shoes? - Asics
    
12. Your fears? - darkness
    
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? - retired
    
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? - husband
    
15. What are you not good at? - waiting
    
16. Muffin? - blueberry
    
17. One of your wish list items? - house
    
18. Where you grew up? - Texas
    
19. Last thing you did? - worked
    
20. What are you wearing? - clothes
    
21. What aren’t you wearing? - makeup
    
22. Your pet? - dogs
    
23. Your computer? - laptop
    
24. Your life? - changing
    
25. Your mood? - tired
    
26. Missing? - kids
    
27. What are you thinking about right now? - sleep
    
28. Your car? - truck
    
29. Your kitchen? - wreck
    
30. Your summer? - hot
    
31. Your favorite color? - blue
    
32. Last time you laughed? - today
    
33. Last time you cried? - dunno
    
34. School? - graduated!
    
35. Love? - unconditionally

Adios Motel 6

We stayed at Motel 6 for the very last time this weekend. It has served us well over the years but it's now time to say adios.

Now that I'll be making more money, we'll upgrade to Super 8 or something.

What were we thinking?

I told Steven that I wanted to go somewhere for the weekend, just us to celebrate the end of college. We needed to wait until after I got my summer school pay at the end of July but I still wanted to go. Originally, we planned to go to Alabama to see Birdie but that trip is so hard to make in a weekend (we couldn't afford to fly) and I wanted it to be relaxing and I wanted Steven to plan it.

He decided on Tyler, to see the Rose Gardens. A perfect trip for us. We love to do things like that and the distance is good. Not too far but somewhere we've never been together (Steven spent a year at Tyler Junior College). There was no rain forecast so we decided to ride the bike. We had a nice ride there, a little warm but not unbearable. Saturday we went to the cross stitch shop and the mall after we got up. So far so good. Today was a totally different story. Somehow we didn't think about having to check out of the hotel at noon and walk around the Rose Garden in the heat of August. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

We did the nostalgic drive through TJC for Steven and went to eat. I don't handle the heat well and by this time I was not feeling well. We decided to come on home and go back in the fall for the Rose Garden.

The ride to Palestine was miserable, to say the least. We'd planned on a break there and another one in Crockett. We downed 3 bottles of water in Palestine's Wal-Mart and spent about 30 minutes wandering and cooling off. We thought about seeing a movie to kill some time and let it cool off but decided we'd rather just get on home.

About 10 miles before we got to Crockett, it had rained so it was much cooler and the ride became bearable. It stayed that way until almost Midway where the heat came back with a vengeance.

It was a long, miserable ride home and put a bad ending to good weekend. Oh well, it will be a trip we'll always remember.

I can't KLUV my oldies anymore. :(

I *LOVE* music from the 50s and 60s. Terry introduced me to it well over 20 years ago and I've loved it ever since. One of the best things about going to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Austin was getting to listen to an oldies radio station. Not anymore. Quite awhile ago, the Houston and Austin stations both switched formats and now play 70s music. Not the good stuff like disco(that I also *love*) but the 70s music I don't like.

I went to Six Flags on Wednesday and was devastated to learn that KLUV has also switched to the 70s music format. There were occasional good songs thrown in but overall, it stunk.

I guess I'm going to have to break down and do the CD thing. I don't like CDs, I like the radio. I like that you never know what song is going to play next and you sometimes get to hear obscure songs you love. Those obscure songs as well as your favorite songs remain special and exciting when you only hear them occasionally rather than having them become mundane by hearing them regularly.

If I had a 5 CD changer in my truck so I could burn all my favorite songs and have them randomly play, I might be OK with CDs but as it is, I'll just be sad that all my oldies stations are now gone.

We were in Tyler this weekend and they had a pretty good oldies station there but we never go that direction so that doesn't help my quandary much.