Ready, Set, Go!!!!

Tomorrow the kids come!!!! All 880 of them!


What will I be doing tomorrow?


I have no idea!

I think I'm going to miss teaching. I feel so out of the "back to school" loop. I didn't do one bulletin board this summer. I don't have my classroom rules posted. I haven't been practicing my "Be super tough in the beginning" speech. Basically, it doesn't feel like school is starting. I will miss having an agenda. I will also miss the control I felt within the walls of my classroom. I mean I had a plan. My kids knew my expectations. I knew what was going to happen from the beginning of the lesson to the end. Now I don't have a clue what's going to happen. I've given up that control, and I don't like it.

I do know that I'll be in the library in the morning creating schedules for new kids who are registering. Wait, come again? Yes kids will apparently be registering tomorrow for school. I don't get it. How do you wait until the first day of school to register your child? I mean, do parents wake up and say "Hey, look the school zone lights are flashing, I guess we should get little Sally to school." Or, "Look a yellow bus, school must be back in session, load up kids. Let's get you enrolled."

Other than visiting with the kids during lunch, I have a feeling my plan of action tomorrow is creating and changing schedules.

Why must I have a plan of action you ask?

Because I must. It's how I roll people.

Highlights

Do you remember Highlights? That magazine that every kid "reads" or only flips wildly to the hidden picture page. Man, I loved the hidden picture page. I was always so ticked when I would visit the dentist's office and the little terd before me had circled everything. My awesome mother bought me my very own subscription after all of that frustration.

Well we are going to play a similar Highlights game now entitled "What's different?"

A picture of our mantel.


(Yes, we have a family picture with our dog. What? What?)

Find what's different.





Oooh what is that thing? Let's take a closer look.




Any guesses?

Well let me help you out because you'll never guess. It's Pooh! Like in Pooh Bear with the jar of honey. I came downstairs yesterday morning, and I jumped when I was putting my makeup on in front of the mirror. Why did I jump? Let's go back to picture 3. Did you see Pooh? Yah, it's not even a close resemblance to Pooh.

This Pooh is not just any Pooh, but Randy's beloved childhood toy. Now when I say beloved, I mean BELOVED! I love to hear about Randy's childhood stories. He was such a beautiful child. He was one of the magazine babies. So I just ooh and ahh over stories about him when he was little. I've heard all about his Pooh. His mom told me, "He slept with Pooh every night, and if he didn't have it, look out." Randy throw a fit? No way, get out of town!

Well Pooh holds a very dear place in his heart. He found Pooh when we were cleaning out his dad's house last weekend. I was shocked when I saw it. It doesn't look like Pooh. It looks deformed. Now I know it's been patched a couple of times, like a gazillion. But it's kinda scary looking. And he has a problem with Dr. Seuss....

Well now that Pooh has been resurrected, (this is an appropriate term based on the state of Pooh) he has found his new home, our mantel.

P: "Randy, your "Pooh" toy scared the daylights out of me the other morning. Why is it on our mantel?"

R: "Why wouldn't Pooh be on our mantel?"

Ummm let's all go back and revisit picture 3, shall we?

Pooh will need a new home like upstairs in a spare bedroom.

good-bye summer

Well it's official. School starts on Monday. This summer has been a tough one. I'm not going to be little miss debbie downer and reminisce on all the ups and downs. Because for some reason there are way more downs lately than ups. But God gives us what we need to grow. If it was easy, everyone would do it. We find our true selves in the face of adversity. Being brave is not facing a challenge, but getting back up after you fall down. Could I list any more cliches? I've officially become the chicken soup lady.


I am going to talk about all the things I'm proud of that I've accomplished in the last 2.5 months.

-wisdom tooth removal (this sucked!) However, I am still thoroughly enjoying the curved syringe that I use to flush out the pockets aka big fat holes in my jaw. I know it's gross, but it's so satisfying to see food pieces after you spit. Yuck but rewarding at the same time.

-my prayer journal!!! Blogging helps when I'm trying to express myself, but I do have a filter. My filter is my prayer journal. (Some people need to learn that the Internet is not a dumping ground for all of your biz. I'll probably need to write about this in my prayer journal because this little jab is probably not very nice.)

I love that my prayers are becoming more personal. He knows me. I'm a real person, and not a remote prayer-er. Sure I love the whole "now I lay me down to sleep" vibe, but it's not me. I even told God a joke in my journal. I'm pretty sure He laughed!

-figuring out the master schedule....I've changed a gazillion schedules in the last month. My brain hurts so badly at the end of the day. It's like one of those awful LSAT logic puzzles. "This kid can't be in 2nd period band because of Spanish. Spanish is full. Let's look at 9th period. Well if you look at Athletics. Maybe I can cross-team them." Barf! It's such a mind game. But I'm getting faster at it every day. I've learned so much in a month. I have a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG way to go, but I'm celebrating my small success.

-I now have a big grown up "city-fied" bank account. I opened up an account at a big-girl bank. Sure I love my small town bank in my hometown, but do they have debit cards that allow pictures? That's a big fat no. My sweet little Mopac smiles at me every time I swipe my card. She's practically wagging her tail at me to buy things.


Off to bed! Busy week ahead....tomorrow night is 6th grade open house until 9pm. Whoa!

randy=funny

So, I'm not going to lie. Randy gives me most of my material for my blog. I mean I write it, but he lives it. He seriously is one of the funniest people I know. All of my blogging followers keep telling me, "Man your blog is hilarious. It cracks me up." I promise it's not me. It's Randy. He's funny money. Someone once told me that together we could have our own sitcom. Hey does this mean I can quit doing schedule changes? Just a thought.

Well life is crazy busy...what else is new, right? Are you feeling the buzz of back to school? Even if you don't teach, drive a school bus, or scoop up mashed potatoes, it's easy to get caught up in the hoop-lah. Brace yourself for the school zones and traffic if none of it excites you. But really? How could you not be excited about 20 cent erasers and 30 cent boxes of crayons? Seriously? Sales are happening on the school supply aisles.

Randy is on book two in his riveting work book club. This month's read is "How to Deal with People You Can't Stand." Now I know what you're thinking. "How can I get a copy of that?" Well get in line avid readers because this one is going to be on my shelfari next. This book is going to be a very useful little read. I'm more excited about it than he is.

His progress....hasn't opened it yet. Discussion tomorrow....should be good. Stay tuned.

Thank you Lord for blessing me with a husband as cool as Randy. He's amazing and always has me laughing....even though he's laughing at me sometimes. He's lucky I can take a joke....see below.

Conversation on the way home last night:

P: I think I have the perfect pictures picked out for my office.
R: no response---this is completely normal folks.
P: You know, I really love that picture of me you have framed at work. (toot, toot, Can a girl get a compliment?, sheesh:)
R: Yah---still completely typical. I'm not even sure if he knows what we're talking about at this point.
P: Do you ever look at it and think of me when you are at work? (I'm fishing for that compliment...)
R: I put my phone behind it to hide it from being seen.

See how cool I am? I didn't even get mad. I was laughing my head off.

I can't even look at it!

* Go see "The Other Guys!" It's hilarious! Will Ferrell, I love you!

* I'm a professional student schedule changer. It's like working at HEB. You check one person out, and 30 more in line behind them.

* Randy is teaching Mopac a new trick. He's teaching her how to pray. When we say "pray, pray" we want her to bow down. Yah, we love Jesus over here. Is your dog going to heaven? Not sure? Well I'll have Mopac pray for them when she masters this new trick.

* I have not cooked dinner all week. This has been amazing!

* The work exhaustion is kicking my butt (hence the no cooking and blogging)!

Peace out yo! (Gotta get back into my middle school slang!)

still employed?

Randy hates to read. He just does. I don't get it. I mean there are "Sports Illustrated" magazines in his bathroom that he "reads" (or looks at all the pictures,) but that is about as far as we get with reading.


He is also one of the most head strong people I know. If he says he's going to do something, it'll be done. Well it works both ways as well because when he doesn't want to do something, man look out....complain city!!!!


Exhibit A





Doesn't this book look like a page turner?

Okay, okay I'll give him some credit. This book looks horrible! It has been sitting on our kitchen counter for about 2 weeks now. The president of the company Randy works for has started this initiative to better employee relations. I know what you're thinking, so I'll just say it. "Engineers talk to each other enough to have relations?"

Apparently so because the president has required all employees to read the book.

Well, when you tell Randy he has to do something he doesn't want to do, he ummm...throws a fit. He has done more complaining about the book than anything else. He'd be on Chapter 3 by now if he would just read it. He even offered me his lovely book, so I could read it and give him a synopsis. I don't think so! This book is anti-drama, and I only enjoy reading drama.

Instead he and other resistant co-workers googled a summary because "reading books aren't in their job descriptions" and "they can't charge their reading time to any projects."

So they had their little book discussion earlier this week. He came home and reported that it wasn't a discussion but more of a book club. I have no idea what this means? I didn't even know Randy knew the words "book" and "club" could be combined. Randy even got called on to answer a question. hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Boss: "Randy can you tell the group what you got out of Chapter 1?"

lol

lol

lol


oh how I wish I could have been there for this....

Are you ready for his brilliant, "I'll try hard to convince you that I did read this book" response?

He said "Umm something about smiling at people."


crickets, crickets, crickets


bahahahahahahahahaha

Way to do your homework Stubborn!

I miss you Blog!!

....And I'm back! I took a two week break. I was just overwhelmed and mentally drained. But now, I'm back to running my mouth....nonstop. Aren't you in for a treat?


Did you miss me?


Well, I missed my blog. I have no idea how many people read this thing. Heck I'm shocked I have over ten followers. And it's exciting to see a new follower or have someone say, "Hey I could totally relate to what you said in that post." But this blog is more than that to me. I really love how I can look back and see where I was in my life at this point or during that event. I love that Randy reads it, and we have conversations that maybe wouldn't happen because we're both so busy we forgot to mention something in passing. In fact, Randy has been really encouraging me to get back on here. He thinks it makes me happy. Maybe it does!

More importantly, I use this blog as a journal. In a weird way it forces me to stay positive. Who would want to read my blog if I just moaned and complained all the time? I'd rather talk about how my dog would win the "Most precious animal ever" award, or the crazy thing Randy did the other day. So I'm back on the positive reflection circuit. Oh, now don't get me wrong, you can feel free to leave me blog comments. Those make me smile:)


2 more things....

We have been busy....I mean my new job starting, keeping Mopac modest about her good looks, trips to visit family, more prepping for my job, and working on the Giddings house has been time consuming. Lots of posts regarding all of the above in the near future.


Funny Randy comment (because I know you missed these)....

(We were passing a garage/yard sale in Giddings this weekend.)

R: I hate garage sales.
P: Really? They're so fun. You can find real treasures sometimes.
R: It's a bunch of junk. If I went to that garage sale, I'd swipe everything off those tables and ask "How much for these tables? I don't want your crap. These tables are the only thing worth my time and money here."

And last but not least I love this youtube clip mocking the Twilight movies. I totally ripped this off my friend Anne. It had me laughing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHkPJ1ACLrg&feature=youtube_gdata