The last day of school
Here we are at the end of another year.
There hasn’t been much about my work, because all year, I’ve had to endure a social media blackout because a few years back, a group of insane parents decided to go on Facebook and slam the school, administration and pretty much everything about it.
I can say that it has been one of the hardest years I’ve spent teaching. Hey-this year, I didn’t do much teaching,because of the way the boss wanted to do the technology curriculum. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what people wanted and doing things that were originally not in my job description. Like making slideshows on short notice for the school board. Doing the web registration because the people that were supposed to do it flaked out.
It was a job that became harder as the school year went on and was thankless from the start.
I’m not saying this school is bad-on the contrary, it’s a VERY good school. The academics are amazing.
But for me? Not the place for me to be, on a lot of levels. So, it was a mixed blessing when the enrollment dropped enough (the curse of the private school) for them to cut a position. Oh, that position?
Mine.
I’m ok. Seriously.
I’m really feeling about 10 tons lighter and not worried about how I’m going to survive next year at this place.
On the job front, I have some irons in the fire, and I’m not going to chat about any of them right now. I don’t want to jinx anything that could be in the works.
As for my darling Shrimper, I now have a 2nd grader!
He survived first grade and he now is happily situated in Mrs. Gr’s class, with a few of his friends and a good mix of the other kids from the other classes. This whole group of kids is very nice and accepting, so it should be a really nice mix. As for the TA, Mrs. P is going to be his TA. From what I hear, she’s almost just like Mrs. V, who we were completely in love with this year, and were so unopposed to having her glued to Isaac for one more year, but we understand…another child needs her special brand of love and sea of calm.
From the conversations that I’ve had with Mrs. F, the nurse (she has the BESTEST intel..) Mrs. Gr is a really nice, natural transition from Mrs. J.
So, we’re up for a good year.
And now,
LET SUMMER BEGIN!!
I went to the movies and…
I sat in front of some of the most obnoxious people ever.
I have this track record at movie theaters of getting in front of the most idiotic people on the face of the planet. I swear. I must have a “IDIOTS SIT HERE!!” sign over my head pointing either in front of or behind me at almost every movie I go to. I don’t know what it is. My knack for sitting in front of the idiots dates back long before movies were extremely expensive to go to. Doug and I still joke about the one time that we went to a movie and we sat in front of this group of ADULTS and they yakked through the previews (not a problem) and then continued their yakking into the first 10 minutes of the movie, where the final straw was when the one woman blurted out, extremely loudly, “I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THOSE LAMPS!!!’
That was when I lost my snot. I turned around and let her have it.
so, this trend has never stopped.
Saturday, Doug and I went to the theater to see Super 8. I needed to have a bit of a day off from a lot of things that have been swirling around here. From work to summer plans for Isaac to my conference plans for the summer, it’s been a whirlwind of intense activity. I was already on low tolerance, and I figured that Super 8 in all of its retro-ness, would be a fairly easy going audience.
Therefore, I was not in any way worried about the two teens and their adult guardian plunking down behind me.
Yeah, I should have been.
Now, the teens were teens. I was expecting their adult guardian to keep them in line. Yeah. No such luck. She was just as bad as the two of them. She spent time having conversations with both boys and then when she was asked nicely by the gentleman sitting one seat over from me to please pipe down, she got nasty, but got quiet.
10 minutes later, she decided it was high time to hand out the snacks she had brought with her to the theater.
Now, I’m all for bringing your own snacks, because theater snacks are massively overpriced. BUT, please do so in a quiet, non intrusive manner! SERIOUSLY!!
What I heard behind me was the sound of a TRIPLE BAGGED load of snacks from Hannaford being unleashed on the two teens. The sound of crinkling plastic in my ear almost overshadowed one of the key moments of the film.
It was then I lost my snot on this woman. I whipped around in my chair (and since you couldn’t see my glare in the darkened theater) I said to her:
“I didn’t pay to hear crinkling plastic bags. Stop it now.”
She stopped dead in her tracks, and got all snotty and put the bags down. One of the teens had the nerve to start talking to her and I whipped around again and shushed them.
Not even 3 minutes later, the gentleman one seat down whips around and says, loudly to one of the teens,
“SIT STILL.”
Yeah.
So, after that, we didn’t hear a peep or a movement out of any of them. I think they were afraid that we’d get the theater personnel to kick them out. One more thing, and I honestly would have gone and gotten someone.
See? My bright arrow shines down again. I hope it doesn’t do it the next time I’m at the movies.
But seriously-Super 8 -all I can say is OH MY. Very well done, awesome film! Go see it!
From the “You’ve GOT to be kidding me!” Files
Isaac’s school is awesome. The teachers, the principal and the support staff are phenomenal, even with the issues that I have with the OT and PT staff. It’s why I signed on to be a room mom for Isaac this year-I figured that it wouldn’t be too bad, and my co-room mom, Amy is a joy to work with. She coordinates the parties, I do the rest-like gifts, sending out all of the emails, ect. It’s an awesome team.
Last week, the first grade team sent home an “end of year” picnic form, and I got to emailing the parents to bring things in. Normally, Amy would handle this, but hey-she’s in the middle of a move (and I can totally empathize) and has a million boxes all over God’s green Earth in her house and she can’t find her way out! So, I took over on this one. No biggie!
The items on the picnic list:
Watermelon
ice pops
juice boxes
ice and coolers
(and the usual clean up items-they’re heading to a park!!)
No biggie! I got most the items signed up for in one shot. I ❤ the parents in my room this year!!
I figured we were all smooth sailing until….
this email came flying through from the “School Spirit Committee”
Hello Homeroom Parents!Thank you for all that you have done to support our school this year. On Monday, 6/20, in our A-Z countdown, the students will receive an “x-tra special treat.” As we have in the past, we are hoping to serve sliced watermelon to the entire school.If you are unable to purchase, and/or deliver SLICED watermelon to the school on this date, please feel free to “recruit” another parent in your child’s classroom to do so.Thank you in advance for your cooperation, and support of the Rosendale School’s A-Z countdown. Have a great summer!
That is the day the first graders are having their picnic with watermelon. I don’t know that the first grade is 1) going to want more watermelon and 2) we can ask parents to deliver a second, sliced watermelon. Do you have any alternatives to watermelon?
Ice pops?
*Guest Ringmaster!* Gamer Moms Don’t Suck!
Today, I’d love to introduce you to Lindsay! Lindsay is your Guest Ringmaster today while I go off to fight the good fight with Sears Auto. Again. Lindsay is a girl near and dear to my heart- Gamer, Mom, and all around fun person! Thanks for taking over the 3 Ring Circus today, Lindsay!
Okay, you all know Laura, yes? I’m Lindsay from Lindsay Blogs and I share a bit of a kindred spirit with Laura. We are both gamer moms. There are many different levels of “Gamer Mom”ness and I’m here to clarify a bit. There seems to be a bit of a misconception that “Gamer Moms” are, by definition, terrible mothers who neglect their children and have tunnel vision aimed directly at their computer screens.
The following paragraphs may contain statistics and certain claims that are in no way scientifically proven. All percentages are completely made up and should not be used for a research paper or anything.
Mario Moms
Our first group of gamer moms to explore are what I like to call “Mario Moms.” These moms are your moms who think that Mario is still the #1 game in town. They say things like Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side:
“Put away that PlayBox thingy and do your homework!”
These moms try to be “cool” with their kids and attempt to play with them, but they think that jumping the controller will actually make the character on the screen jump higher. These are the “gamer moms” who are not really gamer moms in any way, shape or form.
Friday Night Moms
While there is probably another level between Mario Moms and Friday Night Moms, I’m going jump right into it. This group of moms really enjoy playing video games (real ones, not Mario Kart) on the weekends every once in a while and might even have a game night with their friends who also enjoy video games. Based on what I know, I bet Laura falls somewhere in this category.
Casual Gamer Moms
This is the category that I used to fall into. I’m currently a Recovering Gamer Mom (more to come on that later), but I used to spend a few hours (or less) each night after the kids went to bed playing World of Warcraft. I didn’t play when my kids were awake and I still attended to their every need. These moms are the ones that gamer geek boys thing are super awesome (or sad, they might just think I’m sad) and most other moms simply can’t relate. There are varying levels of Casual Gamer Moms – some are more casual than others and some are more hardcore without being hardcore.
Hardcore Gamer Moms
That brings us to the epitome of gamer mom. These are the ones that give the rest of us a bad name. These moms spend hours upon hours every day chasing pixels on a screen in hopes of attaining gamer fame. These are the moms that neglect every obligation in order to keep playing whatever game they are addicted to. For the perfect example of this type of gamer mom, you will need to watch The Guild and look for the character named “Clara.” She is the absolute epitome of Hardcore Gamer Moms. Those poor kids.
Recovering Gamer Moms
This is my current categorization. I used to be a Casual Gamer Mom (I was a Hardcore Gamer before I was a mom) and finally overcame the addiction to World of Warcraft about a month ago. I have given up “the game” before (once for as long as a year) and always seem to relapse. This time, however, I have no desire to play again, so I don’t think there’s a worry of relapse this time around. Plus, I have too much other stuff taking up all my time! Now I might fall into the Friday Night Mom category.
Alright, so we’ve discussed the different levels of “Gamer Moms” and we’re clear that not all moms who play video games are negligent, right? I’ve seen far too many articles written about how bad “gamer moms” are and I think it’s about time we clear the air of the whole thing. It’s nonsense, really. Now, excuse me. I have some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to play.
Thanks again, Lindsay! Wanna come over and play Street Figher? hrm?
Sears Auto Can Bite Me.
Over the past month, my Adventuremobile needed a few fixes. AND, it figures, both fixes needed to happen on the weekend. I had to take my Adventuremobile to the only open repair shop, because this wasn’t a fix that could wait. Especially the first one.
That repair shop?
Sears.
The first time I went there, I called ahead to see if they did the work that I thought was going to be required. I had a nice gentleman pick up and assure me that they did the work that we thought my Adventuremobile required.
Well, upon having Doug open the hood, he noticed that the serpentine belt was completely shot. It as a miracle we had made it home from the hockey game the night before. There was no belt to be had, and the car was running directly off of battery-no alternator to drive said battery. I made Doug promise I’d make it from home to the repair shop to get the belt put on my car. We turned off the radio, any sort of fans or things that would drain the battery.
The car electric cut out about 4 miles from the repair shop. I prayed and coasted my car the final 4 miles to the shop. Navigating through some of the worst traffic areas that the Capital Region of NY has to offer. I pulled into the Sears parking lot, shaking from head to foot, ready to cry, because I had made it without getting hit or causing some sort of a pileup with my car.
I went in and explained to the gruff guy (who was NOT the one I spoke to on the phone) who began to treat me like I was stupid (and his name is Larry. Yes, I’ll call him out. You’ll understand why later.), and then demand that I drive the car around the other side of the building to get it fixed. STILL SHAKING, I explained to him that I could not drive the car to the other side of the building. His response?
ready for this one?
“if you can’t drove it over, We can’t fix it.”
Yeah. Seriously.
I was not impressed already at this point.
So, I told him he would have to push the car in, as there was no electric in the car as the drive belt had gone.
He then proceeded to argue with me about the type of belt.
So, finally, Larry stopped aruging with me when I demanded to speak with his manager and got a tech to help push my poor Adventuremobile in.
Larry continued to be rude to me from the word go. He even called me the dreaded “Honey,” which drives me crazy.
(I had this conversation with Mom earlier-She didn’t think it was a big deal. Being called “honey,” or “sweetie” by someone who is not related to me by blood or marriage is not a way to endear yourself to me. I chalk it up to generation gap. But that’s another post.)
So, the car got fixed. I figured Larry was having a bad day and he was just a jerk because he was having a bad day. All of the other employees were nice, so meh.
I’m all for second chances. I’ve had enough of them given to me in my life for me to give someone else a second chance.
So, when Doug and I decided that my Adventuremobile’s AC needed more repairs than we could do on our own, we took it to Sears auto, thinking that this would be a positive experience.
(please stop laughing now. Again, remember I was going with benefit of the doubt.)
I got there and was immediately met by…guess who…
LARRY.
And he was in Jerk mode from the word go. He was as rude as the day was long as I questioned his assessment of what needed to be done with my car. He even called me the dreaded “sweetie” again. Yeah. He did have a death wish.
I got so sick of dealing with him, I asked to speak to someone else. It was then that Paul (and I’m calling him out for another reason. Trust me.) intervened.
Larry tried to jump in and argue with me again,a nd when I stated calmly that I was talking to Paul, he threw the paperwork at me and Paul and stormed off.
Now, my car needed a part ordered. That’s the truth. I’m not cheesed about that. It happens.
But when you are told 3-5 days to get the part and on day 7 you call to see where the heck your part is, the following should not happen:
LARRY – “Sweetie, 3-5 days are business days.”
Me- “Yes, I know. This has been business days.”
Larry- “Umm..what’s the last name?”
Me- (I gave him my last name)
Larry- (yelling at someone in the shop) HEY! Where’s the ticket! I can’t find this ticket! She’s paid for the part, but where’s the ticket! (then coming back to me) “Umm, what’s the phone number that it would be under?”
Me- (astonished) “You’ve got to be kidding me-you can’t find my ticket or my part?!”
Larry- “DON’T YELL AT ME!!”
Me- “I’m not yelling at you. I’d just like to know where the stuff is! I’m giving you the information you’ve requested…”
then, the phone went to hold music…and 5 minutes later, Paul picked up.
I explained everything to him again, and he said he was sending someone to get the part.
I also explained to Paul about how I never wanted to deal with Larry again, and how he was extremely nasty to me every time I dealt with him.
So, that was 9 am.
at 11:30, I had heard nothing. So, I had Doug call, because at this point, I wasn’t going to risk getting Larry or even Paul, because if there was no part, there would have been some serious screaming going on.
Doug was put on hold by Larry for (not kidding) 20 minutes and then hung up on.
I grabbed the phone and called.
Larry (and his infinite jerkness) picked up the phone. I immediately asked for Paul and was told again that the part was en route. I told him I’d be there after lunch.
I got to Sears after I had lunch and watched a few things on the DVR.
When I got there, I was intercepted by Paul.
The part was NOT there, and it wouldn’t be there until Monday.
Why?
Because the dipsticks got the wrong line. I guess my car needed a bottom line and they got handed a TOP line.
I about lost it. I almost lost my snot because by this point, I had called several times, dealt with Larry and then this?
Yeah, no.
At this point, I think the word “Unacceptable” came out of my mouth at least 7-8 times in a 5 minute conversation.
They placed blame on the parts place which I called right in front of them, and my part magically appeared!
Hrm…
Paul is a gem, and fixed everything to the best of his ability, but I don’t think I’ll ever deal with Sears auto again. It’s just too much to ask when there’s someone who is condescending to women, treats people like trash when they disagree or even express shock and outrage.
So, Sears auto, except for Paul and the one guy who is really sweet and awesome, but I never got his name…BITE ME.
10 years ago today..
On a beautiful Southern California weekend, in the middle of an orange grove, I married my best buddy in the whole wide world.
Happy Anniversary, Doug.
The one who not only drives me crazy, but I know I couldn’t be without.
Love you.
Professional development, Fun and Geeking out
As a teacher, the bain of my existence has been professional development. The ongoing struggle is to get the required hours every year. Between regular hours and the “faith formation” hours I have to do because I do work in a Catholic School, it’s just a pain.
The other real challenge for me is that as a tech person, I have a hard time finding relevant professional development. I hate going to things and finding that there’s absolutely nothing for me. It just stinks.
So, it was with absolute glee that I found two conferences that satisfied my geek-ness and were actually applicable to my day!
Oh, and the super bestest part? They were both LOCAL. Not kidding. Usually, I end up travelling hours and hours for things (remember Hotel Tarmac?) .
The first one was a SmartBoard conference a few minutes away from me. I spent the whole day trying out new things for the SmartBoard. I love it. I took workshops that delved into google apps, playing with rich media among other topics. It was also amazing being among like minded people-varied in their skills, but all like minded.
Some people would say that spending a Saturday playing with “work stuff” isn’t a true Saturday.
For me, I was in geek heaven. These touch sensitive boards are so amazing. I even got to show off my elephant like memory when I was asked to answer a “Lord of the Flies” question.
Thanks, Mrs. Moscheo. I did remember that from 9th grade.
Monday and Tuesday of this week were mind blowing. Frankly, my information filled brain is still trying to process it all.
I spent those two days at the Technologies in Education Conference.
I went to 8 sessions.
I met amazing educators, technologists and just really cool people.
I got to hang out with the other Catholic Schools Tech Specialists.
I laughed.
I met Marialice B.F.X. Curran. She is a force of nature. She is amazing. She loves that I have a 3 before me rule.
I spent two days in the company of others who don’t fear technology but rather embrace it. It was refreshing, it was fun. It was me going all geek.
Especially during the session where we got to see a 3D projector and don the glasses and mess with virtual v8 engines, dinos and learn all about corrosion.
Best thing?
I get to do it all again next year.
Dare I say I’m loving this kind of professional development?
It’s a Mario!
Last summer, we discovered, thanks to Sheblogs, the wonder that is K’nex. Isaac has been asking me for the longest time to get another set of K’nex and build with him.
Plus, now, since the Yoshi Halloween costume, Isaac’s very into Mario.
Then, the perfect thing shot through my email. K’nex MARIO KART BUILDING SETS!!
The day the big box arrived, we were just about to go to OT, and we couldn’t wait to see what was inside our box! Imagine our surprise to see BOTH a standard Mario Kart and a Luigi bike! We couldn’t wait to start building. So, I had the best idea possible. Seeing as Mr. S, our awesome OT, is a video game, Star Wars and sci-fi goober (and we love him for it), we figured he’d want to possibly build one for working on fine motor skills!
So, off we went with both boxes, deciding to let Mr. S decide what would work best during the OT session.
(and now, you’ll have to deal with my descriptions of this one, because my camera on my phone decided to go all wonky. The learning curve on an Android phone is insanely low for most people, but for me…in a rush…not so much.)
Mr. S decided to build the Luigi bike and also decorate the box for a jump ramp, because what’s a bike without a jump ramp?
So, the two of them hunkered down and got to work.
As they built the bike, Mr. S commented on how awesome and easy the kit was and he was expecting it to be insanely complicated.
The two of them finished the therapy/bike building in about 15-20 minutes. Then, they set to decorating the jump ramp. That took them another 10 minutes, because, hey-it’s therapy, and Mr. S had some goals to accomplish!
The laughing that ensued with the built bike was priceless. It was a good unconventional use of a therapy session.
Then, the next day, Doug and Isaac dug into the Mario set!
They started with the chassis…
and then got Mario on and the booster
and finished it off, in a matter of 45 minutes!
Isaac was beyond thrilled. He spent the better part of the next few days driving them around jumping them off the ramp and trying to figure out how he could combine the two into a hybrid of kart and bike. Yeah, that’s my kid.
So, the verdict on these in my house?
TOTALLY AWESOME! K’nex struck it out of the park again with these building kits. Fun, easy, and hours of fun in a small pack. My belief that K’nex is just awesome again for both therapy and fun purposes was cemented with these sets. If you’ve got a Mario Kart freak like we do here, these are the perfect building kits for them. Oh, and there’s even our favorite here, Yoshi!
Thank you to K’nex for supplying us with these awesome kits for review!
(as always, the opinions expressed here are totally my own and in no way are influenced by anyone or anything.)
Routine, routine, routine
Thank the good heavens above spring break is over! I need to get back into the groove of things. With the way my schedule works and working for a Catholic school, I had today off. This amounted into (with having Good Friday off as well) a 10 day vacation.
Not that I didn’t need it…but now, I’m starting to get itchy and bored and (believe it or not) wanting to get back into my small space and get things done. There’s so much to be done from now until the end of the school year, not just for me, but for Isaac as well, but that’s normal. Thank goodness some of it can be accomplished from my couch. With a laptop.
This year’s IEP came and went.
It sucked as it always does.
It’s the same routine every year. I get the draft, I hate things, I kick them back, I get questioned as to WHY I’m not just blindly accepting the goals (some of which are just of the you’ve got to be kidding me variety-remember the coloring goal of last year? Yeah…a similar one resurfaced.) and then me asking the core team why the itinerant staff is using the ADHD as an excuse.
This time, I was so fed up, I circumvented the usual routine of asking our poor, sainted resource teacher and went straight for the top. Ok, so, I skipped a step. I think it’s warranted at this point. Second year, same questions, same non answers. Let’s see what the head hancho at the district has to say about this.
But I digress.
Then, there’s the routines that I so would rather not see return. Oh, like the one where as soon as the PE tubes in Isaac’s ears start to fall out, we get back into the routine of ear infections. We had our first one in 2 years (that was when the last set of tubes were placed) and it wasn’t pretty. It just sucked. BUT, we did have a good break in the routine. We didn’t have to play sick-kid detective to figure out that his ear was bugging him. He actually told us for once! Holy gazungas!
He registered some pain.
Whoah.
Even the team at school was flabbergasted.
So, we’re back trotting off to the ENT and seeing what can be done about all of this again.
Some routines I’d skip if I could.
Seriously.
Happy 7th Birthday, Monkey!
My Dear Monkey,
Here we are again. April 19th. You’ve been reminding us for a good week that this was coming. Your Birthday.
I can’t believe that 7 years have passed since you decided to show up on your own terms. Late at night and with a flair for the dramatic. It figures.
But I wouldn’t have you any other way.
This year, you have let us know in no uncertain terms that hockey is what you live and breathe.
From visiting with Devil Dawg (man, I miss Rowdy…)
to playing in your first jamboree
This has been the year of the hockey rink.
I must tell you that getting up early on Saturday and Sunday were not my most favorite moments of this year, but you know what?? It was fun. And seeing you play and improve and get better every single practice was the best thing that I’ve seen. Even the coaches noticed.
First grade has been a challenge, but you’ve done amazingly well.
Daddy and I have been so excited to join you for projects and as classroom helpers.
We’ve seen you grow and laugh and change into a Jedi loving, Superhero Squad playing, plan making, silly scheming hilarious kid.
I know I can’t wait to see what the next year brings. I am so excited about all of the new things yet to come, and know you’ll handle them with your usual excitement and love of life.
I love you.
Happy Birthday, my Small Monkey.
Mommy
My 3 Ring Circus of a Life 