Hi, all. It's Junior Blogger again :-) Our little girl is growing up, *sniff*, and has bought a dining table and chairs for her apartment! I have a couple of pictures to share, along with the email telling about this feat. It must be known, however, that I was excluded from this email when it originally went out. Does anyone else wonder how this could happen? How, when going through one's address book, clicking on those important enough to receive the email, one could leave out a person one has been best friends with since first grade? For 27 years? And then one sends an email saying "could you post these pics and the email about my kitchen table?" There's an element of discomfort, like when someone says, "Oh, I'll see you Saturday at Susie's party!", only to see the look of horror cross your face as they realize you've not been invited to Susie's little shindig.

But I digress. Let's not get caught up in the details. Plus? LOL. Jen won't even SEE this part, unless I email it to her. I think I shall :-)

Now, my friends, on to the aforementioned email and pictures from Jen. Hers is typed in black. Because that's the color of her heart. I mean, what? Err. Never mind.

I wanted to take a moment and share with you a not so small victory.

I put together the table and chairs seen below--BY MYSELF. I had to do EVERYTHING, down to attaching the seat cushions to the legs. It took just under 2 and a half hours (because part of the time was spent disassembling something that I had just erroneously assembled--backwards, in the wrong place, etc). Most of it was done with one of those annoying allen wrenches (the L looking things), but I did borrow an electric drill from the maintenance guy here at school to help speed up the process. (Note: I'm totally buying myself a drill. SO MUCH FUN.)

Anyway, one of the legs on the table looks slightly crooked (you can't tell here in the picture) but overall I think I did a really good job. I've never undertaken a project like this all by myself before so I'm incredibly proud. And it looks really good in my apartment!! (And a neighbor has sat in one of the chairs and it didnt' collapse

Don't you wonder how Jen got this home in her little Kia? I do. Oh, I think I have a picture of that, too. And her caption, which cracked me up.


















This is how a Michigan redneck-turned-Florida cracker gets a dining room table home in a Kia.
Bahahahahahahaha! She used jumper cables! I love it. Congratulations, my friend, on your first major household project. Victory!!!

My life in pictures

Okay, not my whole life, but here's a couple that I thought you might find entertaining. (Note: the pics themselves won't be up until Renee gets a chance to post them for me....could be an hour, could be a week. So we'll see.) ;)

The first is a nomination I received for Staff Member of the Month. (I don't know who wrote it, either, which makes it kind of cool.) It says (in case you can't tell; I don't know how clear it will be when it's posted): "For always enthusiastic about teaching and showing her students that it can be FUN to learn." Awwww! If you're chosen as Staff Member of the Month, the only thing that really happens is that you get the good parking spot right in the front of the school instead of having to park way out in Siberia. Oh yeah, and the honor and the glory, of course. ;) Still, "it's an honor just to be nominated." (Heh.)

The second pic is the newest addition to our classroom decor. Unfortunately, one of my angels or another have been called down to the discipline office on almost a daily basis (gossiping, drama, etc). So finally, I decided to create an incentive plan; each day we go where we DON'T receive a call from the dean of discipline summoning one of my lovelies, we color in another notch on the meter. When we make it to 30, they get a reward (to be determined later).

And yes, in case you can't read it, it IS called the "Save the Drama For Your Mama Meter."

(I've had many visitors to my room, because the other teachers think it's hysterical and wanted to see it for themselves.)

So that's what's new in my world. Only a week or so left until Spring Break....and trust me, we teachers need it just as badly as the kids do.

Lots o' updates

I'm finally broke down and hit the library so I could update you all (not that Renee didn't do a fabulous job herself; I shall definitely use her services again in the future).

(That's what he said.)

Random bits of information:

1) I am working on quitting smoking again, and I dare say that this time, it may finally take. It will be 2 weeks on Monday. I'm making the supreme sacrifice of skipping my after-work meetings for a while, as it would be impossible for me to drink and sit with other smokers without doing it myself. So I'm a loser with no life, but I'm a SMOKE FREE loser with no life.

2) Speaking of which, I currently have a cough which may be tuberculosis (or, according to my kids, Valley Fever, which is the disease afflicting a character in a book we're currently reading--a 1930s Mexican migrant worker in California). I don't know if it's from the quitting or allergies or what, but I may break down and go to a doctor soon. Or not, since I'm relatively sure it's a combo of quitting AND allergies, which are particular horrendous here in Florida this year. I haven't gone this long without a cigarette in years, so Lord knows my lungs have to expel some nasty stuff.

(I'm sexy.)

3) Random story that I'm sure you guys will find entertaining: yesterday at parent pickup, one of my students was picked up in a different car. "Who's that?" I teased her, eyeing the driver's shaved head and muscular build. "Is that your mom's boyfriend?"

"NO!!" she giggled. "It's her friend."

"Uh huh," I said knowingly. "Her FRIEND." The word "friend" was accompanied by air quotes.

"It is!" my student said. "My mom has lots of friends."

"I bet she does," I said, grinning.

It wasn't until I opened the door for C, my student, that I realized the driver was a female.

Awesome. Not only did I just accuse her mom of being a lesbian, but a rather trampy one, at that.

4) Speaking of our novel (Esperanza Rising), we had to have an impromptu geography lesson when I realized that a large part of the class didn't know where Mexico IS.

It gets worse.

I also had students who:
1) thought Mexico and New Mexico were the same thing
2) thought Mexico was part of the United States
3) don't understand the difference between states and countries
4) don't understand the difference between countries and continents
5) didn't know that North America is actually made up of 3 countries, not just the United States
6) didn't know that Canada was right above us
7) didn't know that Canada and the US weren't the same country
8) thought that Mexico was part of South America (since it's south OF America...but hey, at least that's a somewhat acceptable mistake, although not at the 5th grade level)

Finally, I told them we had to stop for the day, since they were "making my heart sad."

I think that's about all for now. I promise to update again much sooner than last time, either myself or via my superfabulous proxy.

Have a great weekend, all!

'Sup, blogland? It's Renee again. Jen had the pleasure of Anna's company over the weekend and asked me to post these pictures of them boozing it up in the glorious sunshine!

Jen, enjoying a second of whatever that is... fuzzy navel? Hurricane? You couldn't have gotten rid of the empty glass, you lush?

*snicker*

That's what you get for asking me to post stuff :-)

The new mom, enjoying a well-deserved pina colada!

Ah, sunshine, sunglasses and short sleeves! I'm so jealous, but if any of us needed that weekend away, it's you, my friend! I hope it recharged you and will get you through til Spring finally makes an appearance in the midwest!

Jen still doesn't have internet at home, so she emailed this post to me and asked me to post it. Yay! Thought she'd never post again :-)
Renee

It's been awhile (again) since I posted, so I figured I'd better check in. This has been an incredibly busy few months for me, which is why my regular posting has slowed wayyyy down.

School is great. The big state tests that you hear all about each year are next week already (how is that possible??). I made my poor students do 5 hours of math yesterday. Our math FCATs are this Tues and Wed, and unfortunately, there's a LOT I haven't gotten to yet. (Partly because I have the low group and everything takes longer, but mainly because the FCATs are in March and they cover a full year's worth of material--so some of it we don't even get to until April and May. Yeah, makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?) We have mathapalooza again today....for 5th graders, my kids are holding up pretty well. I'm letting some of their misbehavior slide this week because hell, I"M getting cranky and bored and restless. =-) We also have reading next week, and then 2 days of science the week after that. I'm very, very nervous this time around. I think part of it is because my class last year did so incredibly well, and I feel the pressure to "deliver" again this year. We'll see what happens, I guess.

Shawn and I aren't talking (again). LOL. This time it's because his girlfriend found out that we'd been hanging out, and of COURSE she's incredibly jealous of my fabulousness. Anyway, she gave him the ol' ultimatum (get rid of her or else), so he did. He DID say that we could be Secret Friends, but that we couldn't talk on the phone anymore or even hang out that much, and while the old Jen may have gone for that, the New Jen, who is strong and actually has some pride, told him to go f*** himself. I'm hurt that he ditched a friend for a girlfriend who I know is not going to be a forever thing, but what are you going to do?

In happy news, our beloved Anna will be here in Ft Myers with me in about 7 hours. I'm so excited!!! I only have her for the weekend, and she'll be gone for most of Saturday at a wedding in Orlando (the reason for her Florida trip in the first place), but I know we're manage to squeeze in a lot of fun in between. Tonight, I'm having a dinner party for her with about 10 of my nearest and dearest (I, however, am not HOSTING the dinner party, mostly because 1) I don't cook and 2) I don't have a dining room table, but I did ORGANIZE the whole thing. One of my fellow teachers, Linda, is the gracious hostess, and what an extravaganza it shall be....) We will, of course, be visiting the great Ft Myers Beach and the Gorgeous Gulf at some point, probably on Sunday (she doesn't fly out until 6 pm or so). The weather won't be that great by Florida standards (high 60s, low 70s)--but at least it will be sunny and clear all weekend and it's a hell of a lot better than the current weather in Minnesota. Stay tuned for an exciting update (and possible pictures).

Okay my kids are coming up.....I hope you all are well!!!

And in a surprising turn of events, my Baby Daddy just donated $40 to my March of Dimes walk!!! Didn't see THAT coming. LOL. Yup, he's definitely still trying to get in my pants. ;)