AAHHHHH Friday

Well the first week back to school with kids went well...for my kids at home and for my kids at school! My brain is a little fried so bullets it is!


* If my husband tells me one more time that Sophe "looooves daycare" I am going to kick him. I know it is good that she loves going to "school" I just wish I could stay home with her. I do have to confess that picking her up from daycare can turn any frown upside down.....she runs smiling towards me and tells everyone bye bye. She is so stinkin cute I could just eat her up with a spoon!

* Hannah is doing great on planet middle school. She has made some new friends and is enjoying all of her teachers.

* Ben is happy to back at school with all of his friends....oh and he likes his teachers too.


* Starting school on a Monday makes for a long a exhausting week for teachers and kids.

* I have manged to make it to school everyday on time. LOL! Those who have worked with me know I am a usually just a "little" late. Don't worry I am not the first person out of the building at the end of the day.

* I had to write a behavior plan for a kindergarten student his second day of school....*sigh* I am happy to report that he is doing great and just needs to have very little wiggle room until he better understands the rules and behavior expectations.

* I had one student start school Monday then transfer to another school on Wednesday. Why oh why do parents do this to their children?? I am sure he will be back in a few months.

* The parent of one of my students is dead set on pulling her daughter with autism out of special ed. I should clarify that I looove seeing my kids do well in school and enjoy exiting children.... But the truth is I am a k-3 special ed teacher, and that is the age that most children are placed in special ed. This student needs specialized instruction period.

* It kind of feels like I never left school and had a summer vacation.

* I am so happy to have an extra day this weekend to clean my house. Maybe I'll even go crazy and make a dinner menu and buy everything thing at the store that I need for the entire week, or maybe not.

* We have a big day coming up in a few weeks. Many of you won't even believe it!!

Have a great weekend everyone and don't forget to stop by Rebecca's blog (the link is below) check out her cool give aways as well as her blog design website. She is very talented!

Peace:)

It is not even Friday yet.....

Let the fun begin! Rebecca over at China, Baby! is having a spec-TAC-ular contest. Her beautiful baby and Sophie are from the same SWI in China. She has many talents and fabulous taste in contest prizes!!! So go run over there, check out her blog and new blog design site. Sorry you can't win the super cute purse she has up for grabs...that is MINE!!

I have a teen, a tween and a two year year old in my house.....could someone please get me a drink!!!

Time to get Moving......

It is Saturday morning for this working mom and that only means one thing....time to crank up the music and get cleaning! Look out laundry mountain here I come!

TGIF

This is Hannah's lunch box for you vera bradley girls out there.



* I made it through my first week back, Monday the kids come back. Since Monday I have picked up 4 kindergarten students, and one third grader. There is no telling how many more will register on Monday. It will be interesting to see how many of my kids moved over the summer, so far I only know of one. I'll miss her she was a sweet kid....she probably be back by Christmas:)

* I have a parent with a child with Autism who called today to let me know that "she was no longer interested in having her daughter receive special education services." Ya think??....her daughter is echolalic,she has limited communication skills...paired with an incredible memory. She can count like the wind, she knows all of her high frequency words etc, all of which mean absolutely nothing to her! I am really excited about working with her to make those connections.....sigh. I have never had to go to due process for a student, but considering how this year has started this just might be my year. I guess I will be able to add this to "experience" on my resume.

* I would post a picture of the mountain of laundry I have to do this weekend, but it is just too embarrassing.

* How are all my Florida peeps doing? I am sending dry weather thoughts your way along with lots of prayers.

* Have a great weekend. I need to post some pics of the kiddos.

Wednesday

Is it really Wednesday already??!?! This was my first week back to work. It has gone well considering I am still pouting about not getting my transfer.

*Monday I walked in to my classroom expecting a partition dividing the classroom I am sharing with the two NEW part-time special ed teachers. (fellow teachers are you feelin’ my pain???) instead there was crap everywhere! I used to share a room with the curriculum facilitator, but she retired and took MOST of her stuff….she left the crap she didn’t want…that combined with all my crap made for a nice mess.

*Sophie did Spec-Tac-ular on her first day back to daycare/school. Chris brings her everyday (we are well aware that I would be terrible at dropping her off each day). She was a little nervous, but no tears.

*Hannah is all set for middle school….all the way down to her Vera Bradley lunch box.

*Ben went to open house night and found out that he is in the advanced math class and will be taking algebra 1 this year in 8th grade along with advanced language arts….Chris met all of his teachers and he seems to think that his science teacher is going to be the toughest. ummmm I think I took algebra when I was in high school. He definitely gets this from his father...his smart ass attitude he gets from me:)

*Hannah’s open house is Thursday she is excited to meet her teachers, clarify the dress code, and see who she knows in her homeroom.

*Three quarters of my caseload is made up of first grade students....must have been a bad birth year in A-county, North Carolina.

*PMS and the first week back to work is not a good combo.

*My program specialist sent me a schedule of mandatory monthly meetings that I have to attend as the “EC Chairperson”. Being EC Chair is total bullshit. I do not get paid for the extra responsibility or aggravation. I could give two shits about the “title”

*We are still lovin the Olympics…although it would be nice to watch something other than beach volleyball.

*Getting up at 5:30 am is kicking my ass.

*I fell asleep last night putting Sophie to bed…..around 8:30:)

*I can’t wait to read what the winners of my contest have to say about their prizes. They should all get their gifts by Friday. It was fun..I’ll have to do another one.

*Have a great rest of the week…I can’t wait for Friday!

Good Morning Winners!!

I was up late watching the Olympics so I thought I would post the winners before I went to bed. I should have stated that part of the contest rules are that ALL winners must brag about their prize on their blogs :)

First prize and winner of the lovely camera strap is Sandra!

Second prize and winner of the beautiful china blue earrings is Bella's Mama!

Third prize and winner of the cute key wristlet is Buckeys and Eggrolls!

Just email me your full name and address and I will get your goodies out this week!!
(maryellen@otsports.com)

Thanks for playing and remember you are all winners to me!

(I tried to save the random page but I couldn't figure it out (I should be asleep) and linking it didn't work so you are just going to have to trust me)

You're All Winners to Me!

This is my LAST week of summer vacation, and to mark the end of my lazy days I have set up a little Beautiful Mess contest. This is to encourage you lurkers out there to leave a comment, you contest lovin' girls the opportunity to win something fab and for me to be able to spread some l-o-v-e! All you need to do is leave a comment and next Sunday I will post the winners. I am going to use this to determine the winners. You can only enter once...sorry girls:) I would like to take credit for this little scheme to see who is hanging out reading my blog, but I totally stole this idea from Jonni.

***Even if you are a regular reader of my blog please leave a comment! The more the merrier!

It is a well known fact that I love all things etsy. All prizes are hand made...by someone other than me:)

First Prize is this very pretty Amy Butler fabric camera strap. If you win this strap but don't have a camera to put it on...ummm you can give it away on your blog:)



Second Prize are these lovely Blue China earrings.



Third Prize is this very cute key wristlet.



Good luck and if you don't win don't worry.....remember you are all winners to me!

Political Shocker!

Yet another politician has admitted to having an extramarital affair. (I am not sure I would even call John Edwards a politician...he does not hold a political office nor is he running for office, although there has been chatter about him being a vice presidential running mate....maybe I should just call him a lawyer). I ask you this, what is the point of main stream media wasting time for him to explain what happened? (ummm he screwed around on his wife). We can all agree he is an asshole for cheating on his wife and children. But seriously for Nightline to take up air time rehashing an affair that John Edwards wife has known about since 2006!! Speaking of the lovely Elizabeth Edwards.....could the media please not air her family's dirty laundry...she is a little busy fighting freakin' incurable cancer!!!

Today is the Day!

The Olympics are finally here! I know that many of you will be happy to see them over and done with! The mantra of this crappy extending wait has been "Once the Olympics are over things will speed up!" I hope that this will be the case for all of you waiting to hold your babies!

I have to confess that we have always been total Olympic junkies. I can't wait to watch the "high profile" events as well as the not so popular competitions. We have been lucky enough to attend the summer Olympics when they were held in Atlanta. It was great fun! Maybe some day we will be fortunate enough to attend the winter games.

We are having friends and family over tonight to watch the opening ceremonies and to feast on some delicious Chinese food. Ben and Hannah have the Wii all set up to play their Beijing Olympic game.

I leave you with video of Sophie..... future Olympian?



* It is hard to believe that while we were in China Sophie hated the bath! It was horrible. She reacted as if I had dipped her in a vat of oil! I basically gave her sponge baths until we got home. Now look at her! She is such an amazing girl!

Miss Her TONS!!

One of the good things about my job is that from time to time I get to work with some crazy and talented people. My friend Morgan has certainly been a highlight! Unfortunately we no longer work together....smart girl got married to the man of her dreams, moved closer to her family and had a beautiful baby.

Morgan and I worked together for three years. We weathered the storms of related services people not having their shit together for meetings, an insane drunk ego maniac from Canada, stressful weekly EC team meetings, teachers who think every kid who has difficulty learning has "processing issues", and of course being micromanaged by the administration......add to that the drama of working at a school! I thank God she was there with me every step of the way. We would have surely killed someone if we didn't have each other.....and really cute shoes:)

Yesterday (before I received the aggravating news about my transfer) I headed to meet Morgan, her mom and her precious little boy Gabrielle. He is such a good baby and exactly what Morgan ordered from God! He looks a lot like his daddy, but he has Morgan's smile, chin and she obviously contributed to his beautiful skin color! She is such a good mom and Gaby has his grandma hook, line and sinker!

Not Happy

Need to win the lottery. Want a job closer to home. Sick of driving 25 minutes each way to work. Kids have places to go. Could have had a great job just around the corner.....but nooooo....current principal needs me to stay to support the two teachers she hired with no special ed experience. Hmmm probably not getting paid extra to "coach" the new kids.....Special ed director WAS more than happy to transfer me recognizing that this is something I have been hoping for the last two years..... Really does the crappy pay and summer off make teaching worth it???? (Gaaaw and please don't tell me the "kids" make it worth it.....I am not in the mood)

Just a Regular Day....

This is what passes for "Mom I'm bored" in our house. Where is Ben??? Out with his friends, eating lunch, meeting other friends etc. etc.

Non-Recurring Adoption Cost

Well thank you very much RQ special needs forum poster! Last summer as I was waiting for our LOA I came across a post about non-recurring adoption cost. Hmmmm this was worth looking into. As luck would have it NC will consider applications from families adopting internationally. Once we received our LOA I was off to our local social services office to drop off our application....that was last August. The trick for filing for the $2000 reimbursement is that you MUST file before you leave for China. I had to contact children services a few times to check our status and a year later I was happy to open my mailbox to find a $2000 check! (This is especially helpful since I am not getting paid this summer). It might take some doing, I had to call a few times to check on our status, and I had to explain Sophie's sn in detail to the county head social worker, but I think we can all agree that finding a $2000 check in the mailbox even a year later, is well worth the effort!!

Come on in, and please excuse the mess.....

Welcome to my new digs. It was time for a change of address. Sophie is home and to be honest it is hard to remember when she wasn't! I am hoping to continue to document the little things as well as the big things that happen around our house.... particularly since I can't scrapbook or even put pictures in photo albums! This blog will be a little less censored of my opinions:) with little more snark for your reading enjoyment!

I love the quote for my blog, I have been using this quote for years and it truly sums up my house! We all have cleaned the house and turned around and it looks like nothing has been done!! If you are lucky enough to be a SAHM with kids in school at least you get to enjoy your clean house until the little gremlins get off the school bus! I was talking with a friend who recently went to work outside of her home and she was telling me how tired she was....well of course she was tired! She works an eight hour day and comes home to start her "second shift"! Yup, time to make dinner, throw in a load of laundry and vacuum the living room all before your youngest has a snack and a story and it is time for bed. And whatever you do DON"T SIT DOWN! If your ass even hits the sofa and you can reach the remote....you will be watching reality TV and nothing will get done!!

I recently read an article about the new standard that workingwoman have set regarding housework . I am happy that the new "clean enough" standard will now leave me enough time to watch "The Amazing Race".