Friday, December 29, 2006

Blogging Chicks


I've joined a new blogging community, Blogging Chicks. There is a link to it on the left, check it out, it's pretty cool!!

Newscasters



My uncle works at a local TV station, and earlier in November Little Guy and I were watching the news and he wanted to know how it all works. So I told him that Uncle works at a TV station and he could take us down to see how it all works. You would have thought that I'd told him he could watch Power Rangers all day, he was overjoyed. So at Thanksgiving we asked if Uncle would show us, and he happily agreed. (This is my bachelor uncle, or at least, was a bachelor until he got married six months before hubby and I!)

So the day after Christmas when the station was officially closed, the four of us headed down. We got the grand tour, and it culminated in the news studio. We got pictures behind the desks and we are newscasters extraordinaire! Little Guy is sitting behind the 'Live, Local, Late Breaking' desk, Hubby is sitting in Kent Dana's chair and I in Diana Sullivans chair. It was quite fun!

OMG, Too Funny!

I found this on Desert Songbirds page, you gotta check this out!

http://deserticebox.blogspot.com/2006/12/cheers.html#links

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

One Rough Week

This year the season has been hard on me. I'm pregnant with my second child, and this pregnancy is nowhere as smooth as my first one was. I also have my four year old, and while he is a joy, there are times where life can just get plain crazy. I don't remember Christmas being this hard for me while I was pregnant with the first, but my husband points out that I had a desk job where I sat all day and I didn't have a child who demanded the attention that I give him (and I am by no means complaining!). Not to mention I'm five years older than I was before. (And it's not only the Christmas season that I feel that I was behind on. The whole school year has felt like that so far.)

I find that I just can't do the things that I used to be able to do after leaving school. And with school getting out just three days before Christmas, that didn't leave a whole lot of time to do any shopping. And since I didn't want to hit the mall or Wal-Mart the Saturday before Christmas, I did all the shopping for my husband on the 16th. Little Guy and I spend about five hours between MacFrugals, Wal-Mart and Boot Barn. In the interest of self preservation, after seeing the parking lot at the mall I decided to forgo that plan and have my husband go and get the gift cards during the week. Little did I know that was the best decision that I had made all month.

On Sunday, I hit Michaels looking for some ornament kits so that my kids could make presents for their parents. When pictures are taken, the teacher gets a strip of about five pictures of each child. I wind up using them for gifts or something for the parents. Well, it seemed like more than a week before Christmas and already things were out of stock. Great, I really didn't have a plan B for the presents, and I had made up my lesson plans with this activity in the forefront. Crap, what was I going to do?

On Monday I emailed my mom (who is also a first grade teacher in the district that I work in) and asked her what she was doing, and if I could steal her ideas. No problem, was the reply, stop by her school on the way home from my school and she'd have the stuff ready for me. Great! I was saved!

Stopping by my mom's school meant taking a different route home. No big deal, turn right here instead of left, left up ahead at the light, and I'd make Grand Ave a mile up the street. However, it turned into a nightmare.

I got into the left hand turn lane and as I was about 150 feet from the light I hit something. My first thought was, "What the hell..." as I hit the brakes. Then I saw it was a person. I freaked out. Totally freaked out. I didn't know if I was coming or going. I tried to call 911, but someone else already had them on the line, and I was left just standing there and I was getting hysterical. I HAD JUST HIT SOMEONE! Not good. And as the wife of a PPD employee, really not good!

Thankfully, the people who stopped to help (this was a busy intersection and one under construction at that, traffic was backed up for at least a quarter mile just for the red light) were wonderful. I had so many people trying to comfort me and supporting me. I don't know if they felt sorry for the pregnant lady or what motivated them, but faith in my fellow man to do good when put to the test was somewhat restored. I was starting to move from hysterical to terrified. How many times on the evening news do we hear about something like this happening, and I was scared that even though this guy stepped out of nowhere in front of me, I would be arrested or something. I called my husband (who was off that day, thank God) and he got there as fast as he could. That was the one thing I focused on, get hubby here, he can help me.

The cops got there really fast, and as it turned out, Vehicular Crimes was the first on the scene. The officers couldn't have been nicer. But I was still scared silly. The ambulance had come and gone, taking the guy with them. He hit the truck hard and the ground harder. His leg was broke and he wasn't responding. While all the witnesses were adamant that there was nothing I could have done to prevent this accident, I still wasn't sure about what was going to happen. Thank goodness hubby showed up then, and I had him to lean on. The first thing he asked the detective was if anyone had looked at me because I was six months pregnant. Uh-oh. In all the excitement(?!?) I had forgotten to mention that. But the baby was kicking still so things were OK.

I talked to the detective some more, the detective talked to the witnesses and it turned out the Sergent on Duty was one that hubby knew and quite a few officers were aware that I was the wife of a PPD employee. Turned out that hubby called the office to find out what they knew, and word spread rapidly that I was involved. Hubby is well liked and respected so everyone was keeping an eye on things for us.

Finally the detective released the witnesses, but we had to wait for a tech crew to come and take pictures of the scene because at the time, the guy was in critical condition, and it didn't look good for him to survive. Great, just what I needed to hear. But that news was tempered by the detective telling me that from what he heard from the witnesses, the statements I had made and the scene, that I had done nothing wrong, there was nothing I could have done to prevent it and they were not going to cite me. OK, I guess I could breathe again.

But no, here comes Channel 5 with a newsvan... Nothing ever aired, the guy didn't die and there was no dirty laundry to air. But it's still unnerving. I had a girlfriend whose baby died when she accidentally left her in the car, and I know the court of public opinion can be deadly. The last thing I wanted was to be smeared all over the TV.

Finally the tech crew showed up and got pictures of everything and we left three hours after I left my mom's school. The detective promised to keep in touch with us with what he knew and not to worry. I made hubby drive the truck and I drove the car home. I DID NOT want to try to get behind the wheel, but what else could I do? I had to get to and from work, it didn't make sense to delay and just get more jittery about it. So I drove.

While I didn't have any immediate reaction to the accident with the baby, over the next couple of days I had some tightening of my tummy, so when I called hubby at work, he said that I should probably go to the ER. (He was not the only one to encourage me to do this, but he was the deciding factor!) So Wednesday night I spent about four hours in the ER with a stress belt across my stomach to monitor the baby. Baby is fine, I am fine, it was probably just a reaction to all the stress and the fact that my water intake is really bad. Boils down to dehydration. And apparently dehydration will cause early labor. So now I'm drinking water like it's going out of style.

Needless to say, it was a hellish week. The kids were squirrely and didn't want to be at school, most of the teachers were right there with them, and I spent two nights in places I really didn't want to be. But we are all safe and sound now, and counting our blessings.

**Note: At last communications, the guy was still in critical condition, on life support. Things still aren't looking well.

Many Christmas Blessings

I love Christmas. It's my favorite holiday, both secularly and liturgically. There is just something about walking into a hushed church and seeing the advent candle burning and the Nativity Scene up and waiting for the Baby Jesus to be placed in it. I've always loved it, since I was a little girl. Now that I'm a mom, I find that I like passing on that reverence and love of the holiday to my son.

I keep on trying to be a good role model and reminding him of why we buy presents for other people and why we get presents and why we celebrate Christmas at all. Try explaining to a four year old that we get gifts for other people because Jesus was born. But he accepted that, and actually came home and told everyone that we came into contact with.

I also try to teach him that we have a lot of blessings to be thankful for. Each year we get a Christmas Angel (or two) but this year we had to do it without Little Guy's help. It was sooo much easier not having him along, but at the same time, I want him to understand that not everyone has as much as we do and just getting a doll or a truck means the world to them. He gets it now, I just hope that as he grows he'll remember.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Whoo Hoo, Score One for ME

I just had two of those door to door salesboys come to my door. They were young twenty somethings I'd say, and I was in the back of the house when superdog started barking wildly. Little Guy was totally immersed in the TV, so he didn't even bother to go see who it was, even though we had the door open with the screen. I don't think I've ever seen two adults so wary of a little 15 pound dog. It was quite funny.

Anyway, then wanted to sell me some cleaning product. First they told me the neighbors told them to come over to my house for dinner because I cooked a mean dinner. **SNORT** I don't cook. I told them that my neighbors didn't know me very well. Then they started in asking me if I liked the rust stain on the driveway. I told them it wasn't my thing, it was my husbands. He deals with it. Then they started in on the cleaning, and I told them I didn't clean. They asked if I married Mr. Perfect, and I told them that I had cleaners. Then they tried the young child bit, because they saw Little Guy. They asked if he ever wrote on the walls. That got a quick "NO!" and they were stumped. All of a sudden I got, "Well, thank you, Merry Christmas!"

Score one for ME!






This is superdog!

My Christmas Elf Name

Actually, it kinda sounds kinky....



Christmas Elf Name

My Christmas Elf Name is
Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Christmas

OK, we have our decorations up, and it's time for me to be a proud Mama and wife...


This is what the house looked like when we were all done. You will not believe the trouble we went through to get the lights on the garage just so. We wanted to have lights on the bushes on either side of the garage, but wouldn't you know, the big lights had the safety prong, and the little lights didn't. Humph! So no lights on the bushes this year.




Little Guy just wanted to help...





And climb the ladder...





And this does a Mama's heart good... Daddy and Little Guy setting up the Nativity.

Egads!

Last night was the staff Christmas Party and hubby and I had a blast. It's only the second year that our school has gotten together to do a party, and I thought it went pretty good. We had it at the Elephant Bar up by Arrowhead, and I'm not sure what I was expecting, but when I saw that we were (kinda) squished on the outside patio, I had some doubts. There were about fifty to sixty of us (teachers and spouses) and while it was a tight fit, we did OK. There wasn't a whole lot of room to move around, but we managed to visit who we wanted to visit. Of course, it doesn't matter where we end up, we wind up segregating ourselves by grade level. The cool first grade teachers showed up and we had a blast. Or, at least, I did. It was a great deal too. For twenty buck we got drinks (soda), an appetizer to share, an entree (and there was at least eight entrees to choose from), desert AND it included tax and tip! There was some discontent within the staff about the choice of venue and cost, but man, hubby and I thought it was the deal of the century. We would have wound up spending at least twenty more than that had we gone by ourselves.

Of course, being a group of teachers, we ate early and were done by 7:30. Whoo-hoo, we know how to party! My mom was watching our son, so we decided to take the opportunity to go and get some Christmas Shopping done for him. It's hard for us to find time to do this, mostly because I work days and my husband works a swing shift. I see him three to four days a week, on his days off and in the mornings of my weekends. So when Mom offers to take him overnight for something like this, we jump at it. And shop we did. This Christmas will be just as successful for our little guy as previous ones. We just love to shop for him. We just took stock of the things we've bought (and stockpiled!) and it'll be a Power Ranger and Cars Christmas.

The EGADS comes in when we went to pick up little guy after church this morning. I had turned my phone off during church (proper etiquette, you know!) and Mom had called me to let me know that little guy had been throwing up since three thirty in the morning. Yikes! In the four and a half years since he's been born, little guys has been throwing up sick a grand total of ONE time. And that time it was projectile vomit and so bad we went to the emergency room. I was (and still am) a little scared. Thank god hubby will be home the next couple of days. He's so much more level headed than I am in situations like this. Since we've been home, though, little guy has been able to keep down some crackers, some Dora Chicken Noodle Soup and Pedialite. He then conked out for about an hour or so. Knock on wood that things stay down. I'm not good with vomit...


Saturday, December 2, 2006

I So Need A Vacation - Part 1

I'm in one of those moods lately. I think it started at our weekly Tuesday meeting with the grade level. I sent out an email to the team asking if anyone wanted to go in with me to get Christmas presents for our principal, intervention specialist (that's what they're calling Vice Principals these days) and the three secretaries. I figured that we could go in on something nice and not break us all. I only had three replies (there are ten of us in first grade) and that was fine with me. I wasn't going to bring it up again, just reply to those who gave me a positive feed back.

Well, it got brought up in the meeting, and there is only lady on our team who is just... well, difficult I guess could be a good term. If it isn't thought of by her, or approved by her, it's met with frosty disdain. Well, her response was that you only gave down (ie the secretaries), not up (ie our principal and intervention specialist) and that was the way it was done in the business world.

Then another one piped up that she wasn't going to do it because they had enough and she can get more presents for her own kids instead of spending on the secretaries. A sentiment that I don't agree with but can respect.

The thing that bothered me the most though, was the tone in which all of this was said. Kind of like I was twelve and they were trying to explain to a moron what was going on. And I'm not good at comebacks. I lived in a household where you NEVER talked back, no matter what. In fact, you still don't to this day. So I'm not good at that. Or at defending myself. And I don't like conflict, so most times I'll just keep my mouth shut. As I did this time.

I was appalled at some of the attitudes displayed by my colleagues. Especially as they are educators. We're supposed to be teaching our kids to be kind and have respect. Yet here they were voicing some rather nasty opinions. Prior to teaching I worked in the business world. I spent three years in a Corporate setting. And we ALWAYS passed the hat for our boss' birthday, boss' day and Christmas (and in the case of one boss, who didn't celebrate Christmas because she was Hindi, we just made it a 'Holiday' gift). To me it's just crap to say that you don't 'give up'.

Also, my Bachelor's Degree in in Hotel Management and I spent about a year in a Vegas Hotel, first in Housekeeping then as a secretary in several different departments. Secretaries and maintenance/housekeeping run things. You're in deep doo doo without them. No matter what industry. It upset me to hear our secretaries being talked about like that. Our secretaries work their butts off. None of the first grade teachers speak Spanish, and I would say that we only have about 4 students (in each class) whose parents speak English. I rely heavily on our secretaries, who are bilingual, to communicate for me. Plus, being new, I am always going to them for something or another. Plus it's just common courtesy.

Needless to say, as I was walking back to my classroom, I was fuming. The teacher in the room next to me said that after the 'that's the way it's done in the business world' she expected me to get upset and say something. Well, I got upset, but I didn't say anything. I did talk to the four teachers who said that they'd go in with me, told them that I didn't realize it would be such a to-do, and if they didn't want to go in, that would be ok with me. But they all said they were as shocked and disappointed as I was at the attitude shown that day and they were still in on the presents. OK, we'll keep on trucking. Next year I won't ask anyone else, just those who I want to. My neighboring teacher told me not to get too discouraged, I'm doing the right thing and I have good intentions. So I try to keep that in mind.