Yes, I'm crazy!

But, I'd like to explain my reasonings.

I'm having an actual birthday party for my dog this year ( family is coming over to my house and bring presents).

My dog (great dane) is turning 7. And the average life exp. for danes is 7 1/2 years. So just in case it's his last birthday, I though I needed to do a little party.

Yes, I know it sounds totally nuts. I'm not getting him a cake. Well maybe I'll get something special for the dogs to eat. The main reason is that my dog LOVES to open presents. He gets excited when he sees a pile of presents. It actually is entertaining to watch.

So I know this sounds crazy but in a few weeks their will be a dog party at my house. ;-)

I'm not complaining!

Really, I'm not.
How in the world is it almost fall break? Less than 2-weeks until break begins. 7 school days (not that I'm counting). I still feel like school just started. Or maybe that's my clutch for not having things done that I wanted to have done. The time consuming stuff in the classroom - that most people have no clue takes up a lot of teachers time(organize centers, figure out where things got put from having to move classrooms, move some shelves around - to list a small fraction of these things).

All I know is I cannot believe that the break starts at the end of next week. For break I wish I was being a bum. Staying up to a ridiculous hour. Sleeping in and doing whatever lazy unproductive thing I felt like doing. Instead I'm driving with my mom and sister to Texas. She had a stroke a few months back. So, where going to help with things around the house and then my mom wants to bring back some of her stuff.

And after break. I think I'll have some very exciting news to share!

Just take my money now....

So, I forgot to return some library books that I checked out awhile back ago. I finally returned them over the summer. I hadn't made it over to the library district to pay my fine.

Well, I got a letter in the mail from a collection agency. And I totally freaked. Drove the 30 minutes to the library and paid my $43 fine.

The lady looked shocked that it was so high (I didn't tell her that I didn't learn my lesson the last time I checked out books and the fine was almost double).

Someone should just revoke my library card now. Please?

Funny (ironic is probably a more appropriate word) thing is I use to get so annoyed with an ex boyfriend who would always be checking things out from the library and then having $20 and $30 fines. I always thought it was ridiculous and how could he let it happen. And now I'm doing the same thing.

Hopefully, I have learned my lesson!

Schools Out For Summer....

oops, I'm a little bit early for that mantra. A few more months, right? :-)

This years class is a lot more challenging. I have a lot of behavior issues. I also, have a student who is lower than any other student I have had before.
My last years class was so much easier.

Like with everything there are positive and negative things. While my class is challenging I have a lot of characters who have big personality. I also have some funny kids.

And over all this group is higher and it's amazing to see what they are able to handle. This years "challenging" class can handle 10 minutes of free time on Fridays. Last years "easy" class could not handle free time. This years group is a lot more organized and responsible. As a teacher, I love that my kids aren't losing their packets and a lot of them are doing their homework.

I just need a little bit extra sleep each week to keep up with this group -or- maybe I'm just getting old!!!

It can't be the age it must be the group! lol

This to shall pass

So I try to usually be a positive person and tend to see the good in things or find a positive spin. This semester is not so smooth sailing. I have a difficult class this year. They are getting better. It's just a lot of work to get the behavior under control. I'm taking college classes and after reading the syllabus for each class I have determined that these teachers are homework crazy. I just love the double standard that they have for education classes in college. They preach have a variety of different activies to accodomodate student's stregthens and not to send home lots of homework. That activites should be meaningful and not just busy work.... nice double standard grad professors! (okay, some do not do this but some are horrible). Okay, I'm done whining now.... Hopefully!

Houses and School

I am still in my rental with no place to call my own. The house I was buying turned out to be a huge mess. The house appraised for less than it was worth. Which was good for me. But, a week after I learned that the person who owned the house is deceased and an estate attorney is taking care of things. The amount owed on the house was slighly more than what it appraised at so they changing it into a short sale. I'm thinking about walking away. I'll be out some money but I'll get my earnest money back. There is a house that I really like in Casa Grande. So I might go look at it. I didn't want to look at any short sales from the beg. so it's diasppointing that it turned into a short sale. However, maybe Maricopa is not where I want to be. The utilities are so much more compared to other cities. Guess time will tell.

My students started on Monday. I have a wild class. I have a crazy boy (he should be in a self contained classroom but we don't have those at my school - so he has an aide sitting with him). It's been very tiring and at times a little frusterating. Becuase they just do not listen. Last years class was not like this. Of course we were told that this years class was very wild. Now I guess I see what they were talking about.

Road Trip

We we're about an hour and half away from home on our trip. We listen to my sisters mix on her ipod. It was a wide variety of songs.

My sister was sleeping.

The song It's Raining Men was playing. As the song was going on

"It's raining men......Hallelujah"

My sister wakes up and says, "What did you just say?"