today.

I'm sitting on the couch watching tv, covered up in a blanket, typing a blog post at 10am on a Friday morning.

At 10am on a normal Friday morning, I'd be giving a spelling test. Or maybe calling the office to come and restrain a student who's hurling chairs across the room, and yelling at me that they hate me and I should die (true story).

I woke up this morning feeling like God is smiling down on me today. I don't think I even realized how much I needed this day off until I sat on the couch this morning in tears because of how grateful I am for this day of rest. I'm so emotionally exhausted that I feel like I'm constantly on the verge of a breakdown. So today is truly a blessing.

Everyone at work yesterday congratulated me on taking a personal day. They told me I deserve it. They told me that they can't believe this is the first day I've taken off all year. My TA even made me Chex Mix and got me a card to celebrate the occasion. I think everyone is starting to realize just how bad it is sometimes.

When I sat the kids down yesterday to tell them I would be gone today, two of my girls cried. They said their didn't want me to go. The "after care" supervisor even had to bring one of them (admittedly my favorite student, but "shhh..." don't tell anyone!) down after school because she was hyperventilating, she was so upset about it. I had to explain to her that sometimes grownups have to take a day off work, but that I promise I'll be back on Monday, and she'll be totally fine without me there.

I've found myself wondering a few times this morning what they're doing and how they're behaving for my sub. (Side note: The Assistant Principal told my sub that she'd pray for her today while she was stuck with my class. She's also told me that she prays for me every day.) But then I quickly make myself stop thinking about it. I took the day to rest my mind...to have a day where I don't have to think about school. So I need to do my best to NOT think about it. My teacher bag currently sits untouched. I'll work on grading papers this weekend, but today is for ME.

So thank You, God. Thank You for giving someone the bright idea of creating Personal Days. Thank You for allowing things to work out for my boss to be able to rework things to find me a sub for today. Thank You for allowing me to see and appreciate how much I truly needed this day. Thank You for being there for me every day when I pray on my way to work for patience, guidance, and the willpower to continue to stick it out and be the best teacher that I can be, given whatever circumstance may come my way that day. But most of all, thank You for the fact that I even HAVE a job...especially a job that has helped me grow into a much stronger person than I ever thought I would be.

xoxo, wife. 

i'm starting to lose my cool.

No...it's not deja vu.

It's yet another fit of destructive rage by that same student as always. 

He was suspended for 5 days today and cannot return until Tuesday.

Another one of my students was in In-School Suspension today. The principal suspended her for tomorrow WHILE she spent the day in the office because they couldn't keep her under control even in the office. 

So yet again, TWO of my kids are suspended at the same time. 

All this on TOP of the fact that it's almost Christmas and all the kids are crazy anyway.

I went to administration yesterday and told my immediate boss that I literally didn't think I'd make it the next 8 days until Christmas Break without having some kind of mental breakdown and that I needed to take Friday off...in order to preserve my sanity. Apparently everyone else wanted this Friday off too, and there were no more available subs. So I was outta luck. 

He came in this morning and told me that he'd moved some things around for Friday to be able to accommodate me having a day off. He said I've earned it and that I deserve it more than most.

So with that said, I'll be taking Friday off. I intend to sit my behind down on the couch and watch trashy tv shows all day. I may even wear sweats all day. I will refuse to worry about how they're behaving for the sub. And I will refuse to do any kind of school work. 

Then I will go back on Monday and make it the best darn "week before Christmas" that I can. 

xoxo, wife.

one down.

1. Make gingerbread houses. See who's is better. (Mine.)

2. Bake and decorate Christmas cookies together.

3. Watch a Christmas movie marathon in our jammies.

4. Donate a toy to Toys for Tots

5. Get all bundled up and go for a walk in the snow.

6. Drive around and look at Christmas lights.
7. Get coffee and take it to someone who needs a little Christmas cheer.
8. Actually send Christmas cards this year....
9. Take a picture with Santa.

Today I set out to get most of my Christmas shopping done. While I was out, I knew I wanted to pick up a toy to donate to Toys for Tots. I had a gift to pick up for my niece as well, so while I was in the toy section at Target, I started perusing for our donation. The local news mentioned that they were in need for toys for girls age 4-7, so that's what I was looking for. 

My cart was nearly full with all the Christmas gifts and wrapping paper I was buying. I knew my total was going to be astronomical, so I thought, "Well, I'll just grab something little that's like $5 or $6." But as I picked up a piece-of-junk toy that was $5.99, I became totally overwhelmed with emotion. I started thinking about the kids who would be receiving the toys from Toys for Tots. How that one toy would likely be their only gift this year. How they probably haven't gotten a "new" toy for quite some time. How Santa won't be coming to their house, because Mom and Dad can't afford to buy gifts from Santa. I stood in the aisle...now admittedly near tears. I put down the junky toy, and decided that even though I don't know the little girl who will get our donated toy, it doesn't mean that I shouldn't put thought and time (and maybe a little extra money) toward their gift. 

Suddenly, no gift was good enough for this little girl. I must have walked up and down the toy aisles 10 times. I picked up countless toys...and then put them down. Because they weren't the perfect toy for this child. Finally, the Lalaloopsy dolls caught my attention. Lalaloopsy is a show on tv. The characters (and therefore the dolls) are incredibly bright and cheery. I immediately knew that this is what I would get. I thought it would be a happy gift, because of all the bright colors. I looked through all the dolls and finally decided on what I thought was the perfect one:

It wasn't the most expensive toy on the shelf. But it certainly wasn't $5.99 either. And the fact that I put about 20 minutes of thought into this gift that I'll never know the owner of, instead of grabbing the first cheap toy I saw is what matters. 

So Ty will take it to work on Monday and drop it in the bin at his office. We'll never know the recipient of this toy. We'll never know what her reaction will be upon opening it. But we'll know that we did a tiny thing to make her Christmas special. And that's all that matters. 

What a great way to cross the first item off my December Manifesto.

xoxo, wife. 

december manifesto

Last year I made a December Manifesto; a list of all the things I wanted to do with my hubby during the month of December. Unfortunately, we didn't get to as many of the things as I'd like. So I'm attempting it again this year. Most of the items on this list are things that were on the list last year.

1. Make gingerbread houses. See who's is better. (Mine.)

2. Bake and decorate Christmas cookies together.

3. Watch a Christmas movie marathon in our jammies.

4. Donate a toy to Toys for Tots

5. Get all bundled up and go for a walk in the snow.

6. Drive around and look at Christmas lights.
7. Get coffee and take it to someone who needs a little Christmas cheer.
8. Actually send Christmas cards this year....
9. Take a picture with Santa.

Get ready Ty!

xoxo, wife.

is this considered animal cruelty?

Every once in awhile, we like to annoy the cat.

Last week, a friend made an owl hat for our new baby niece/nephew. Yes, I know it's only girl colors....Ty was convinced my sister-in-law was having a girl, even though we don't know yet. Anyway...

When I brought the hat home, I insisted that we needed a model to try it out. You, know...to see if it works.

Well, the dog's head would be too big, sooooooo....

We had to settle for Model #2. He's a natural.

One could gather two things from this:

1. The hat is clearly functional.

2. Our cat should be paid to model infant apparel.

xoxo, wife.

tonight we learned a new skill.

Ty has a business meeting tomorrow. We bought him a nice new suit the other day, and he wants to wear it to the meeting.

Dilemma: You should wear a tie with a suit. Neither one of us knew how to tie a tie.

Solution: Look it up on Pinterest, because Pinterest holds all of life's answers.

Exhibit A: The Diagram

I gave the directions. Ty followed them...and it worked!

We now know how to tie a tie. At 26 and 27 years old. So I guess you can teach an old dog a new trick.

And now my husband will rock his business meeting in his fancy new suit & TIE!

I promise I won't let him wear white socks.

By the way, this is what happens when you ask Ty to strike a GQ pose.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that teamwork is what keeps marriage alive, people.

xoxo, wife.

happy monday.

All is calm in my neck of the woods tonight.
I'm rejoicing in the fact that I only have two more days of work this week.
I'm enjoying our Christmas decorations.
I'm grimacing at the snow that's falling outside...
But I'm loving the fact that it's finally hot chocolate weather.

On the school front, we're doing a week-long pilgrim study this week.
I got a huge kick out of how much fun the kids had learning about them today.
They thought it was absolutely crazy that the pilgrims didn't have electricity, stoves, or toilets!
We had a 15 minute discussion about outhouses...it was so funny!
I've never seen this group of kids get so excited about something.
I had an Ivy Tech student observing me for one of her classes today, and we were both giggling at the kids' reactions to learning about how little the pilgrims had and how much work they had to do on their own.
Toward the end of the day, one of my kiddos said, "Man I'm exhausted." I asked, "Why?" To which he replied, "Cuz we've been learning about the pilgrims all day. They had to do so much work all the time that it's making me tired to keep thinking about it!"

We also talked about the Mayflower. We learned how crowded the boat was and that most people could only bring one or two items with them. So we wrote about what we would bring if we were getting on the Mayflower.

We're continuing the pilgrim study the rest of the week, but since they're having so much fun, I spent tonight gathering some ideas for our next unit: a 3 week study on presidents and american symbols, which will take us right up to Christmas Break. I found some really fun things that I'm pretty excited about. 

Happy Monday. Here's to 2 more work days before stuffing ourselves silly.

Cheers.

xoxo, wife.