It's back!

Yes, yes, it's true. The plague has followed me to Michigan. I woke up yesterday with the sore throat again. The congestion never left me, it's been a month now. And it's back in full force again. So I am going to try resting and Comtrex and hot tea (echenacia from my aunt and uncle) and drink juice and eat good food and not stress because apparently it's a virus and my mom says virus just go away when they're ready. Lovely.
I hope everyone's excited getting ready for Christmas. I know I am. I've wrapped the presents, the trees are up, we're going to make cookies today, well I'll eat them at least:-)
I'm just glad to be home and on vacation and although there's no snow (in fact it was 50 degrees yesterday) it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Reporting from Michigan....

I am back in the mitten state! My travels went as planned Saturday and after a day in the air I made it home. The flight was fine although I learned I cannot use my laptop in the air because my arms are apparently too long and the little table is too close to me. It was impossible to type. So I read. And read. And read. And ate my pb&j sandwich which luckily I had packed because we were offered no snacks on our flight and they ran out of the crappy food you can buy for fifty bucks (okay, not that much but still...).
Yesterday I visited the grandparents, went to the Christmas cantata at church and then went caroling to the shut-ins, it was just like the old days. Except it was warm! Crazy!! I wore gloves but it was still relatively warm for MI.
Today we're still in our pjs waiting for a call from Chicago to see if Ang is headed back to the hospital. She rebounded Thursday and has been getting progressively worse all weekend. So I may be visiting the windy city this week!

Leavin' on a jet plane...tomorrow

It's done! We survived this crazy pre-three-week-vacation week at school and it was pretty smooth. Today was the holiday assembly and we sang, we slimed a teacher (not me thank goodness), wrapped teachers in paper, heard the band, and sat through a lot of screaming. But the kids seemed to really enjoy it and there were no big to-dos!
I came home after and crashed, slept a while and now am getting ready for my flight tomorrow! Off to good old Michigan - woohoo!
Okay, I need to get some traveling rest, goodnight all!
TGIF!

Snowflake Bentley

Today I read a story to my kids, the book Snowflake Bentley about this guy who first photographed snowflakes. They were really into it which was pretty cool. Over half of them have never seen real snow. They couldn't believe snowflakes were a.)so small and b.)actually shaped like they are and c.)no two are exactly the same.
After we read it we began coloring this intricate snowflakes I copied from a book and they were really getting into it. I put on Christmas music and we were all in good moods. We're also decorating our classroom door for the door-decorating contest and I think we have an awesome theme (though the kids are a bit skeptical). I have them put blue paper on the back and then I printed out a sign that reads "Each of us in this room is unique, just like every snowflake." Then we're going to put our snowflakes up on it. I am not sure we'll win, there are some teachers with lights and wrapping paper and crazy chains of red and green but I love our door so far and it can stay up well into January!
So yeah, we aren't doing much in class these next two days which rocks. We'll finish our snowflakes (and our origin myths for those slower students), read a bit more, and listen to more Christmas music. They really like the James Tayor Jingle Bells I got free off of itunes last week! There was even some spontaneous dancing! And in seventh hour we played the song five times.
So yeah, today was a good day! We had a fun (gasp!) staff meeting during which we played a white elephant game (I got a cool wooden snowman) and then I had my monthly new teachers' meeting which even though I usually dread the extra time after work, was good today. Basically we just talked about what's working and what's not in our classrooms and that was pretty cool. Plus it's nice to catch up with the people I went through induction with and don't always see on a regular basis as they aren't in my hallway, on my team, or in my department.
So tomorrow it's bus duty, more snowflakes, maybe we'll read Stranger in the Woods, and then more packing because I head to Michigan in 57 hours! Woohoo! Oh, and Ang is home in Howell, released from the hospital. Today rocks!

Three days

It's getting to me and the kids - Christmasitis. I'm playing Christmas music at school and spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how to fold paper to make snowflakes. Tomorrow I will give up and just have us color some. We are all counting down the days until vacation. Me in my head, them on their papers and in their handbooks in big colored letters. And they have this weird obsession with wearing gloves all the time. Those silly little 99 cent gloves that really protect your hands against nothing (well in Michigan at least, here there's nothing to protect against really). I threw a pair in the trash today that I found lying in my room. When the owner came looking for them I denied knowing anything and did not feel bad about it.
Today I had my kids journal about what they'd like for Christmas that couldn't be bought with money. Some had a difficult time. Others surprised me with their thoughts. One girl wants a job for her grandpa because he's angry he can't find one. Another wants time with an uncle who died a few years back. Others want world peace and Osama bin Laden captured. Some want no one to be hungry on Christmas day others want boy/girlfriends and people who've moved away to come back. One wants to fly into outer space (I didn't have the heart to tell him you can now buy that). Another wants her mom and dad back together for good. One wants a mom off drugs. One wanted the mall. These are my kids and I love them. Even when they won't stop talking.
Sometimes they show such maturity. Today I explained that a classmate has pnemonia and a collapsed lung and will be hospitalized all week and that her dad would love a few visitors for her. Some kids were joking about it but a few others shushed them and reminded them this was serious. And that pnemonia was a spelling work last week. That's making learning relevant in my book!
And to top off this crazy Christmas week (the Christmas music still drifts through the halls) we are having a slime-the-teacher assembly on Friday yet I doubt my kids will shell out the money to move me to the top of the list (thank goodness) and we're supposed to decorate our doors for a contest and bring in canned goods and change for the veterans. And tomorrow is the staff potluck and white elephant exchange. Oh yeah, and we're supposed to be teaching them something this week.
Three days, I only need to make it three more days!

Random ramblings

-Today was one of those days where I got a lot accomplished and it feels good. I got the house cleaned, the beds changed, laundry done, candy made for the Christmas potluck Wednesday, calls accepted and made, trash taken out, a movie watched (Nine Lives which was very good if you like independents (i.e., not Angela) - it was like looking in the window at a moment in a person's life, well nine persons to be exact), some cross-stitch done (though doubtfully finished by Christmas like I had hoped when I started it less than a month ago), and even a little writing mixed it.
-Angela is still in the hospital. She was threatening to escape tomorrow, to give up but I think I persuaded her to stick it out with a stuffed pig named Beans delivered to her room tied to a balloon.
-For a while this afternoon I thought we were being attacked. Huge helios were flying overhead but then I remembered that this is the week of Desert Talon, the huge training drill here when soliders from all over the country come to train in preparation for deployment. According to the news tonight they come here because our climate is very much like that of Iraq's. Good to know.
-This is the last week of school before our three-week Christmas vacation. I am very excited. We're going to read Snowflake Bentley and cut out snowflakes to hang all over the room. We're also going to take a big unit test and finish writing our origin myths (inspiration=the Greek myth Echo and Narcissus).
-I got my hair cut yesterday and the stylist went a bit crazy. Well insane really. I wanted a few inches off and my hair is now just below my ears. I am still in shock. Tomorrow I'll wash it and see how it curls up (she straightened it yesterday) and see what the damage is. Figures, just as we go into a big family photo-op time.
-Christmas is 2 weeks away! I can't wait. I get like a little kid this time of year. Today I was talking to my dad on the phone about our annual Christmas shopping outing to buy mom's gifts and I got really excited. I watched Rudolph Friday night, and have been downloading new Christmas itunes. (By the way It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Sixpence None the Richer rocks. And it doesn't hurt it was featured in last year's Christmas episode of Grey's Anatomy.) The fact that it was 70 degrees here today was a bit weird as I am having a hard time remembering it's December but I lit candles anyway!

An amendment

So maybe I don't really want to be on myspace.com after all. After researching a bit I came across the pages of some of my cousins. Cousins who are young, still in public school. And now I know a little too much about them. I wonder how much they (in the collective everyone sense) realize that this stuff is OUT THERE. For everyone to read. Including my 80 year old grandmother. And college administrators. And parents. And the cops.
Just a thought. Guess I'll stick to my blog, which I "publish" and send out there.

So I guess I'm not cool enough...

I decided tonight to sign up on myspace.com - mostly so I can peep the pages of my friends who've set their's as private and require a sign-in to view.
But no.
I am not cool enough.
That's the only thing I can figure out.
I have tried and tried to sign up for an account. It doesn't seem that difficult. Enter an email address and some basic info. Hit enter. Bam - it keeps telling me that according to the information entered I am ineligible for an account. So I change my email address to a different one, yet still mine.
Same message.
So I am going to bed. I have cleaned off my desk. I have balanced my checkbook. I have paid my bills and figured out I will be in debt until I am 145 years old. I have eaten my dinner alone while watching Rudolph. And now I am going to bed.
Yeah. So not cool:-)

Mull this over

I belong to a daily listserv (www.mikeysFunnies.com) that supplies me with laughs and "thots" every day. This was today's offering and I thought it was very cool; something to ponder as we approach this holiday season.

CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS FOR ALL THE YEAR
By the Editors of McCall's magazine, December, 1959

CHRISTMAS is celebration; and celebration is instinct in the heart. With gift and feast, with scarlet ribbon and fresh green bough, with merriment and the sound of music, we commend the day--oasis in the long, long landscape of the commonplace. Through how many centuries, through how may threatening circumstances, has Christmas been celebrated, since that cry came ringing down the ages, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring yougood tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke2:10-11 KJV)

Christmas is celebration, but the traditions that cluster sweetly aroundthe day have significance only if they translate the heart's intention--the yearning of the human spirit to compass and express faith and hope and love. Without this intention, the gift is bare, and the celebration a touch of tinsel, and the time without meaning. As these attributes, exemplifying the divine spark in mankind, informed the first Christmas and have survived the onslaughts of relentless time, so do they shine untarnished in this present year of our Lord.

Faith and hope and love, which cannot be bought or sold or bartered, but only given away are the wellsprings, firm and deep of Christmas celebration. These are the gifts without price, the ornaments in capableof imitation, discovered only within oneself and therefore unique. They are not always easy to come by, but they are in unlimited supply ever inthe province of all.

THIS CHRISTMAS mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion, and replace it with trust. Write a love letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Find the time. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand. Flout envy.

Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Appreciate. Be kind; be gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence.

Take up arms against malice. Decry complacency. Express your gratitude. Go to church. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still once again.

These are but inklings of a vast category; a mere scratching of thesurface. They are simple things; you have heard them all before; but their influence has never been measured.

Christmas is celebration, and there is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning—with the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself toward the core of life. Then, only then, is it possible to grasp the significance of the first Christmas--to savor in the inward ear the wild, sweet music of the angel choir; to envision the star-struck sky, and glimpse, behind the eyelids the ray of light that feel athwart a darkened path and changed the world.

Weekday update

Just a little note to let all of you know the what's what and who's who!
Angela made it to Chicago safe and sound. She's staying with our cousin John who apparently has a kickin' apartment. She had an appointment at the Diamond Headache Clinic today, got a couple of shots and is awaiting admission into St. Joseph's Hospital. There's a waiting list so it will likely be tomorrow or Friday before she can get a room.
Not much else is going on. I am back at work after my 2-day hiatus for the upper respiratory infection. I am slowly mending though I still feel like I go through the days in slow-motion. And I come home and crash. Though tonight I did manage to write out all my Christmas cards. So that was an accomplishment. Though not much of one since it is now 9:30 and I am heading to bed, exhausted.
I did watch some Netflix tonight, The Aristocrats and Sarah Silverman's Jesus is Magic. Both were pretty funny.
Okay, off to bed. I'll try to be more entertaining tomorrow.

Solidarity, sister!

Angela is requesting I blog in support of her outrage and so I am. We just got back from the United States Post Office. Where, in big, bold, bright letters the sign proclaims you can do all your mailing 24/7. Yet, this is not true. It was 10:45pm when we got there and guess what - yep, that's right. We couldn't mail a darn thing. The computer that allows you to mail packages was down for daily maintenance. The machine that sells stamps was out of service. Now you might ask why in the world we were trying to mail things at 10:30 on a Sunday night. Well you see, we are both sick. And this weekend was trashed because of that. I have done little more than lie in bed the last 3 days and I will continue to do so tomorrow. But I did manage to get 2 Christmas packages ready to mail this weekend and they need to go out. And since the post office is only open 8am-5pm, the exact hours we work just about, we decided to go tonight. But alas, our plan was foiled.
When does life ever get easier?!?!?!
Angela fought with Sprint on the phone this morning over our wireless bill and still, nothing is fixed. They charged me 10 bucks for a roaming call from Tijanuana. Yet I have never been to Tijanuana. And that day when they said I called my parents from there I distinctly remember driving on a road here in Yuma county. Interesting! Oh yeah, and every month they forget our educator's discount and no, they certainly can't make it retroactive because then everyone could call up and claim to work for a public school. Even though they made us bring pay stubs in back in June! And then they keep tacking on this Sprint vision charge for the internet yet we emphatically said we didn't want the internet on our phones! Oy vay!!!
It's all a conspiracy to make our lives difficult.
So yeah, there you go. Those are my rants for today. I am heading to bed with my Kleenex and water bottle and homemade cough syrup. And I plan on staying there tomorrow!