MIA...

So sorry I have been off the blogging grid for the last week.  It was only semi-intentional.  I meant to blog more at the beginning of last week and then....I didn't.

I went to Ohio over Memorial Day to see my BFF!!!!!!!!  It has been way, way too long since I have spent time with her and, though we were there for a different family function, we did find ways to spend time together.  Bonding and Barfing.

Yep, you heard read that right.  We bonded and barfed.  Sorry for the TMI.

I guess we all ate something that didn't agree with us because believe me when I tell you it hit us all...hard.

I will spare you the gory (and disgusting) details.

I did have a wonderful time, ate too much of her awesome cake, and drank too many iced cappuccinos.  They were good, though.  And calorie-laden.

I must walk a lot.  And eat much salad over the next few days  weeks  months.  And I will.

Anyway.  I have much to do over the next few days.  Here is a list:

1. Walk
2. Eat salad
3. Plant veggies (tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers this year.)
4. Laundry
5. House cleaning
6. Drink blueberry iced coffee

Enjoying my summer vacation will also be in there because, as you know, I am on summer vacation.

On a completed unrelated, and extremely random, note...I have rediscovered jello and I love it.

That is all.

Good night.

:)

SV SV SV!!!

And so begins my SUMMER VACATION!

Well.  Technically speaking, I haven't actually started SV yet.  Almost, though.

I had to go in today and finished cleaning up my classroom.  Tomorrow I have to go in to finish getting my report cards ready to mail out.  Thursday I have to go in after 12:00 so that I can mail in the last AP test of the year.  (I am still the AP Coordinator.  Don't ask how that happened.)

I did get to leave at 2:30 today so that was nice.  I am hoping that I get to leave even earlier tomorrow.

;)

I did something on Facebook today that I rarely do.  I entered in to a semi-controversial conversation.  Someone started a conversation about giving teachers presents at the end of the year (or at any time during the year).  Most of the people responded positively and gave ideas for gifts but there were a few seemingly self-righteous responses that really yanked my chain.  Basically, they were saying that teachers don't deserve to get anything.

Now mind you, I never EXPECT anything and am ALWAYS thankful for whatever I receive.  I never, ever make a child feel inferior for not bringing in something and all of my students always receive a gift from me, no matter what.  For the little bit of money that I make and for everything that I do, you are darned right that I appreciate when a parent chooses to acknowledge my hard work with a token of their appreciation.  I am even thankful for the coffee mugs, though, I must confess, I have about a BILLION of them.  :)

miss raven and I are excited about SV.  Not that we have a ton of things planned, but it will be nice to not have to WORK this summer!

To celebrate this momentous occasion we are currently drinking homemade iced coffee and playing games on the computer.  And by "we" I mean "me".  She is asleep next to me.

Goodnight!

:)

Crying myself a river...

I'm kind of a mess right now.  I've been crying since about 11:30 this morning and, with graduation only a few hours away, I will be crying until about 11:30 tonight.

Today was the last day of school for us and some of my babies aren't coming back next year.  When the first one left at 11:30, her mother practically had to pry her off me because she didn't want to leave.

Things went downhill from there.

To the point where even the boys were crying.

As was their teacher who is a BIG baby.

I received several gift cards today which was so nice.  I won't have to buy my own coffee for quite some time and I will also now be able to take a few follow-up knitting classes should my first one prove to be successful.

I will leave you with the following note that I received yesterday (and yes, it made me bawl like a baby):

Dear Miss Olsen,
Thank you so much for everything you have done.  Thank you for teaching me well.  Thank you for loving me.  I want to thank you so much for believing in me in English cause that really helped.  I love you so much and I don't want to leave you but I hope you teach 5th grade next year.  Hopefully we can stay in touch by writing each other.  I love you so much and I'm going to miss you.
Your Student,
M** H******


sniff, sniff.....

It's raining, it's pouring...

oh, wait.  No it isn't.

Sweet mother am I tired!

It was *supposed* to rain ALL DAY TODAY.  It *was* raining at 7:00 this morning.  We made the call to move the picnic from the park to the school about seven-ish this morning.

And then the sun came out, the humidity was UNbelievable, and nary a rain drop was to be seen the REST OF THE DAY.

Sigh.

I had prepped the kids yesterday for the fact that we would probably be at the school today for our end-of-the-year picnic and I worked hard to get them to see that it wasn't the end of the world.  I had them finally convinced and they came in this morning with relatively good attitudes.  I was so proud of them.  :)  Even when the sun came out and they realized that we probably could have gone to the park they still didn't complain.

We played games in the gym all morning and then ate.  And ate.  And ate.

As an aside...I will be starting Weight Watchers again this coming Monday.  I am serious and will be blogging about it.  I have goals set and am getting everything in order for the big day.


After lunch we went back to the classrooms.  We designated one room as the movie room and the other two rooms as the "gaming" rooms.  Fortunately, my room was the QUIET gaming room.  This pleased me greatly as I was working on getting rid of a headache.  Towards the end of the day we handed out the awards to the winners of the contests and then went back to our homerooms to await the blessed arrival of the blessed end of the blessed day.  Can you tell I was more than quite ready to go home??

So.  I am TIRED tonight.

I just finished an extremely satisfying glass of homemade iced coffee.  The recipe I used is a total keeper (from the Pioneer Woman) and I will be using it ALL summer.  I am currently deciding if I can eat a Popsicle  and count it for dinner.

One more thing before I go.  Last week was Teacher Appreciation week.  I did get a few lovely gifts that I neglected to share:  gift cards to Target, Old Navy, Dunkin Donuts, Barnes and Noble, and Olive Garden, a lovely bouquet of flowers, and a very unique set of colored pencils.  I also received some wonderfully sentimental handmade cards from a couple of my kids.  I will cherish those forever.

I wish I could show you pictures of my class so you can see the little urchins that stole my heart this year.  I have a thing about posting their pictures on my blog, though, so you are just going to have to believe me when I tell you that this is, by far, one of the best classes I have ever had.  I am going to cry a river this Friday when I have to let them go and have already informed my principal that I am MORE than willing to teach them again in fifth grade.  :)

Have a great night!

Pity-party for one, please...

I feel pretty much like crap today.

Sorry.

I've had a cold all week but it intensified Thursday night.  Add to that the, ahem, "visitor" that arrived last night and you can imagine how I feel.

Oh.

And did I mention that today is the 12th and tomorrow is Mother's Day?

Crap = me

I am indeed having a pity party for myself today.  You are welcome to attend if you'd like.  The only requirement is that you bring something ice-cream related to share.  Or chocolate.  Or Dunkin Donut Blueberry iced coffee, cream, no sugar.  Large, please.

I'm on my second cup of coffee, my bed is not made, my bathroom house is a disaster, the mountain of tissues beside me is growing at an alarming rate, and I am in a crochet funk.

Do you feel sorry for me yet?

I have an English test I need to make (a final exam), History projects to grade, and awards certificates to fill out.  All of which I could do as I am sitting here whining on the couch.  Currently I am planning on putting them off until tomorrow because, at the moment, that sounds like a reasonable plan.

Given my mood, I am highly tempted to shoot off a snarky, mean, b****y e-mail to a certain someone.  I'm not going to, though, because that is one of those things that feels good when you do it but then you IMMEDIATELY regret that you did it.

I'm off to heat up pizza for lunch.

And sneeze.  And blow my nose....

Ugh.

Have I mentioned...

• That I am taking knitting lessons this summer?  I am stupidly excited about it.  Since I signed up for the class on Monday I have perused Ravelry endlessly looking for "easy" knitting patterns and have fondled my purple wool yarn and bamboo knitting needles, dying to use them.  Of course, I don't really know how to knit yet, so pretty much what I am currently doing is useless.  I kind of feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.
• That I can't stand hypocrisy?  Especially when it hits close to home.
• That I am sad about the end of the school year?  I love my kiddos so much and really don't want them to leave.  Graduation next Friday night is also going to be hard for me.  I have been through A LOT with those seniors and will bawl like a baby at graduation.  Come to think of it, I will most likely bawl like a baby all day next Friday. I should join Costco now just so I can buy an industrial size box of tissues.
• That I have a cold?  I hate being sick.  I have this annoying cough that is not at all productive.  It is only annoying and dry and hacking and rather painful at the moment.  My left nostril is also clogged.  TMI?  Oh, sorry.  :o/
• That I want to learn how to spin?  Spinning wheels are crazy expensive, though, so I settled for a drop spindle.  That I can't figure out how to use.  Luckily for me, there is a class about how to use a drop spindle at my LYS.  Once I have mastered the art of knitting (lol!  I couldn't even type that with a straight face), I would like to take that class.  There are several knitting classes that must come before that, however.
• That Survivor annoys me?  I am addicted to it, though, and can't see myself giving it up any time soon.
• That I miss my BFF?!?!?

And now, because of the above stated cough/cold, miss raven and I are headed to bed.


Nighty night all!

T-minus...

8 days and counting.

Every day the girls get mopier.  And, I must confess, so do I.

Today I heard rounds of "I am going to cry so hard next week and I NEVER cry on the last day of school."  Half of them looked ready to cry today so I tried to get them to focus on the happiness of the next few days instead of being sad.

Secretly, though, I was a big, mopey, baby.

I meant to take pictures of the yarn yumminess I purchased at the S&W but the light wasn't great today.  I'll try again tomorrow.

Sorry, but this is going to be a short one.  I am fighting a cold off like mad and I can already feel the nighttime medicine kicking in.

I will try to talk about senseless nothingness tomorrow.

good night!

What I did this weekend...

Isn't that very "teacherish" of me?

1.  I went to the annual Sheep and Wool Festival in these parts.  It was lovely.  I spent money.  I pet sheep.  I drooled over yarn yumminess.  I was crazy jealous of all the spinners I saw.  I had a wonderful, wonderful time.

2.  I registered for my beginning knitting class.  I have the book, the yarn (purple wool), and size 9 circular needles.  Bamboo and not metal.  I am seriously nervous but the nice older lady at the shop told me that if I can crochet, I can knit.  I want to believe her.  The other (much younger) worker person told me that she had a student take beginning knitting last month and is taking a beginning sock making class tonight.  There is hope for me, I think.

3.  I. Finished. Babette.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;)

See:

I am very, very happy with her, although the border is a little wonky.

Anyone wishing to leave me lovely comments about my Babette may (please) feel free to do so.  :)

I took the day off today and I realized that I only have nine, NINE more days with my kiddos.  That makes me sad.  I predict many tears on May 18.  :(

miss raven is doing well.  she has been very playful of late and this pleases me.  I am looking forward to spending much time with her this summer.

Now.  I am off to make coffee and to try to figure out what is going to fill the void left in my crafting life with the completion of Babette....

Try to recover from your shock...

I *am* blogging TWO days in a row.

Not that I have much to say today but, here I am! :)

I really should be winding down right about now but I'm a little wound up.  I'm sure that it doesn't have anything to do with the rather large iced coffee I just consumed....along with the four other cups of coffee I had today.

It feels like it should be later in the week.  It feels like it should be Thursday or Friday.  It's only Tuesday.  Well...almost Wednesday, but really, still Tuesday.

miss raven got fed up with me a while ago and has since retired to the bedroom.  I think she doesn't like me yelling at the TV.  I'm watching politics.  We won't discuss that now.

My students are brilliant.  Have I mentioned that lately?  Would you like proof?  Here are the results of their latest history test:

14 A's
1 B
1 D
2 F's

Not happy about the D and the F's to be sure.  Those three students do struggle mightily, though, and I wasn't completely surprised at their grades.  Sad, but not surprised.

Ok.  Time to finish the English test for tomorrow and go to bed.  Perhaps I will have something with more substance to say tomorrow.

There's always that hope!

:)