Ben the Babysitter

Chris and I ran out for a drink last night and left Sophie with Ben for about an hour. Our insturctions to Ben ..."where ever you are Sophie has to be with you." Easy enough. When we got home around 9:30 this is where we found Sophie, asleep on the end of Ben's bed while he played a video game. He "said" that she played with him for awhile and then climbed up on his bed and when he turned back around to make sure she was still with him she was out cold! Not bad....baby to sleep by the time we got home plus Ben works for free....I think we will keep him!!

Saturday School

I survived working on a Saturday. We (my student teacher and I. Who oddly enough looks like a younger version of me!!) planned a fun activity, using the book "Mud", a sequencing activity and making mud pies...yum! The kids used a recipe to make pudding mud pies. The marshmallows were the chunks of "melting snow", and crunched up oreo was the soil:) I am not sure of the final attendance but more than one classroom had all kids in attendance! You special ed teachers our there know that all of my special ed kids came to school. I did not have one kid out! Most of the general ed teachers had lots of fun things planned too, so I really only had kids first thing in the morning. I should add that it was beautiful here today....sunny 78 degrees! (warmer than my weekend in paradise)

My Little Artist

Are Ya With Me?

Hmmmm interesting that only these two girls got my headline joke....guess the rest of ya are too mature or teachers who were distracted by the fact that I will be teaching on Saturday. You gotta pay attention sometimes my snark can be a little subtle.

Now let me explain WHY I have to work on Saturday. NC is a free to work state....so no unions, and the law in NC is that schools may not start before 8/25 and not go past 6/10. In the school system in which I work we have "optional" teacher workdays. There are 15 on our calendar. Anyway those days are usually reserved for staff development etc. When we have a snow day and school is canceled it is usually only canceled for students with the day being switched to an "optional" teacher workday. The system will then swap a optional day on the calendar for the snow day. The catch this time is that there are no days left and since we end school on the LAST possible day to end school they could not tack a day on to the end of school without petitioning the state for a waiver. So I will go to work on Saturday. Sucks. The only good thing is that at least it is not an entire day of school, we dismiss the kids 2 hours earlier. Still sucks though...

Looks Like I'm in for a Busy Weekend.....

*snort* This was the headline of my city newspaper today! Are they not called speed BUMPS???

I will be having no such fun this weekend....due to our school system canceling school on Monday, teachers and students will be making up the day this Saturday!! We will dismiss the kids 2 hours earlier than usual, and don't you think for one minute that the school will not be full of students! Free babysitting. I have only one question.....who will be cleaning my house and doing laundry at my house on Saturday???

Thanks for showing me some love in regards to my last post....you are my BFF. That's right YOU are:)

Keepin' the Snark Under Control

My name is Maryellen and I am a wise ass. Some may find that to be my best personality trait...others maybe not so much. Last night I posted, then removed a post about a comment left on a March Y*hoo board. This particular member tends to be "alot of work". C'mon you know the type. In high school she was the girl who ran out of the party crying with a group of dorks...I mean friends running after her begging her not to leave. Anyway this particular gal tends to leave backhanded comments. With all the latest referrals instead of saying "congrats" she just HAD to mention that she was envious. Gaaawd shut-up already. Envy is a life sucking emotion. I may be a wise ass but she is a pain in the ass.

So why I am I posting this again? I removed the post last night because I was trying to keep the snark under control. Especially after I called her bemoaning the over use of BFF in blogland. Seriously I stopped using BFF around the same time I stopped signing my Valentine's TLA. Well I second guessed myself....I was trying to trick y'all into thinking that I am some sweet soccer mom. But after she confessed to loving a good train wreck, I thought to be fair I should let you know the real me. I am a wise ass, mom to three great kids, who has a low tolerance for drama...save it for your mama I say, who loves to laugh and drink a good beer with friends.

Snow Day...with an option to go to work

We got about four inches of snow today. They cancelled school last night waaay before 11:00...well cancelled school with an "optional" teacher workday. Optional is such a loose term....teachers can risk life and limb to get to work, take a sick or personal day if they have one or take a day without pay.....kind of doesn't seem optional does it?? Sophie's daycare was closed so I "opted" to stay home.


This is Hannah and her friend enjoying the snow day. I guess this is how you play guitar hero when you have played standing right side up too long....