What the?!?

I woke up (quite late) this morning to see this in our backyard.  I know they said snow in the forecast, but I didn't think it was going to accumulate into anything.  Three hours later and there is still a steady flow of falling snow.  It looks pretty, but isn't it too early for snow in the midwest?

Maybe we will get one of those classic out of nowhere snowstorms and I won't have to go to work tomorrow.  I girl can dream, can't she?  I shouldn't complain I did just have a 5 day weekend.  I think today is a good day to curl up with a good book.

Creative Juices flowing again.....

I am very happy to say that I have then next 5 days off of work.  Kick butt!  So what do I do with my time?  Get those creative juices flowing again.  Since I just finished my minkees, I needed something else to do.  So, I started making some magnets.  I won't be able to until the spring unless we have another nice day.  You have to make them in a well ventilated area or you WILL get sick to your stomach and have the worst headache in the world.  So with the high in the upper 40's it was the perfect time to do some massive crafting.

I had to start off by going through several magazines to cut out the little gems that I thought would make good magnets.  Here are a couple close ups.

Since most of my magazines are Yoga Journal they are all yoga inspired.

I'll drop them off at the local yoga studio for sale early next week.  Now I am off to finish some malas and the cutest little knit pink elephant for a friend's daughter.  I will defiantly post that one when it is done.  So far it is really cute!

I didn't like it, sorry...

So, I was sooooo excited to go see Twilight this past weekend and well..... I didn't like it much. I feel bad, but why? I felt it skipped too much of the backstory, the acting was shotty, and everytime Jasper was on screen he looked like a deranged Tim Burton character. Maybe I will blame it on the MASSIVE Adult Beverage that I had prior to the movie. That and the fact I sat by my friend Emily and we compared the move to the book the whole time.

Maybe when my mom finishes the book, I will go with her to a matinee. I may have to sit a seat or two away so I don't annoy her with the critiques.... And no tequilla drinks next time.

And, if I go again I can watch the eye candy that is Edward and my favorite topless James. I could have watched that for 2 hours.....

Friday Foto Fiesta 11.21.08- Twilight!

This weeks entryfor Candid Carries Fx4 is this lovely photo of Edward and Bella:

Tonight after work a bunch of us ladies are headed out to the local theater to see Twilight on opening night. We were geeky enough to secure our seats by getting tickets a week ago. I am going to try to get a photo of all of us on this momentus night and post when I get home. I am SO FREAKING EXCITED to see this movie. I know it will be awesome.

Great, I'm sporting a 'gang tat'

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I discovered today that the tattoo I designed for myself 8 years ago is in fact a gang symbol. A cresent moon with a star on my upper right shoulder (seen here).

Are you kidding me!?! Who knew?!? Well, apparently I didn't! I told the officer whowas at our gang presentation at work today and he laughed at me (we're actually kinda friends) Maybe I can get a photo of him "arresting me" so I can post. I doubt it, he's a bit too serious. I may have to try!

I must say, I did find the presentation interesting. I learned a lot of signs, tags, gestures, etc. I did find the part where they showed gang graffitti in our area a bit alarming. One of them was of the tunnel behind our school. We keep covering it up, they keep putting it back (no matter how many cameras are focused on the area)

Now, I am on the lookout for anything gang related. I will have to keep my shoulder hidden to make sure there are no Mrs. G's in a gang rumor get started. That would be funny though.....

I really hate being sick

Just venting, feel free to ignore.....

I as so glad these past 72+ hours are behind me!

Friday night I went to the open house at Indigo Wellness. Sold some items, things were going well for me, made some contacts. It was a good time. However, hubby was home sick throwing up with some bug or food alergy. He was much better by the time I got home, but he still wasn't the greatest and I slept in the spare bedroom.

I woke up Saturday morning really stiff and just assumed I was achey because of sleeping in a strange bed. I took a couple of naps but didn't think much of it. Then Saturday night things changed. I had a massive headache, migrane intensity but different. Every time I coughed it felt like the top of my head was going to blow off. My hubby tried rubbing my neck (which almost always works) but it didn't help. I ended up sleeping on the couch so I wouldn't have to move. Every time I did my stomach churned a little. I did crawl into bed around 5 when I got too cold.

Sunday morning I awoke to a 101.6 fever. I spent the day sleeping at least 30 minutes out of every hour, often times longer. I did absolutely nothing but sleep and run to the bathroom (oh, that part was fun too). Sometime during the day I called my mom because nobody can make you feel better when you are that sick. I told her I ate chicken noodle soup and she said "Oh, you must be sick!" (I don't eat chicken noodle soup, long story) It finally let up around 6 o'clock Sunday night, but I was still exhausted and had a high fever. I decided to take a shower and that is when my fever broke. The weirdest thing in the world is taking a shower and sweating at the same time. But, at least it broke! I was actually able to stay awake for a couple hours and watch some TV, but then off to bed early.

I decided I needed to take today off of work because I would be too exhausted to function. It was a good thing too. I had round two of running to the bathroom for a few hours. I took a 3 hour nap and now feel great, just a minor headache that won't go away. I can deal with that.

Now, I am ready to eat some 'real food' (maybe) and go to work in the morning. But, I have a question. Why is it that everytime I get sick, it is always on a weekend?!? I felt guilty taking today off, but there was no way I could have functioned.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose...Friday Foto Finish 11.14.08

This week's entry for Candid Carries Fx4 are my wins and losses over the last couple of weeks. I will start off with the loss. This is my door for the door decorating contest. I was really proud of the students who put in time before and after school to create this on my classroom door. Above teh diamonds was a foto of my students so it was a little more complete. We were sad we lost, but enjoyed working together as a team and creating something cool. (one of my neighbors saw my door and didn't even enter the contest. Oh yeah!!!)

No on to the winner. My class won the corn maze on our fieldtrip. We completed the 17 acre maze in just under 45 minutes and hit every checkpoint. We were actually the only group that found them all! We rocked it! So, what do we win? A giant, 100+ pound pumpkin to be displayed in the classroom! It was freaking huge, it took me and two football players to hoist it into the garbage dumpster!Thanks for stopping by and thanks for playing!

Is there a full moon this week?

This has been a really weird week. The time change has kinda messed with my head, but the kids at work are all kinds of crazy. We have had all out brawls between feuding families in which the parents became active participants when they arrived to pick their kids up. We had a male student simulate masturbating..... GROSS! We had a lock down due to a gun threat (however the kids did really well with it overall). One kid released his "animal instincts" and screamed into a class room full of students he didn't even know because he dropped his book?!? I don't know, maybe this is just a weird dream that I will wake up from soon. I am so glad I took tomorrow off!

Bitch Badge Has Been Attained!

You need some background information in order to understand the whole situation on this one.

If you didn't know already, I am a special education teacher. I went through school in Illinois, but I teach in Iowa. So, some things didn't transfer over as smoothly as I would have liked. (I have been teaching in Iowa for 8 years by the way) Not to mention thanks to that lovely No Child Left Behind I am no longer a "Highly Qualified Teacher" because it doesn't really recognize special education because we weren't trained in any one area. (I have high hopes things will change with the new administration coming up)

Anyway.... I have been trying to take this one particular class for 3 YEARS! It is only offered in the the Spring semester and I have been denied access twice! Very frustrating. You have to have special permission to take the ONLINE COURSE that only lets 25 people in per year. My license is up in July, I have to take it NOW!

So, last week I e-mailed the department head to get permission to take the class. Once again the answer was no. I am a special ed teacher, why would I need an elementary education class. My reply was "I have had my transcripts read twice and both times it says I need this class to fulfill my license". The reply was "are you sure you really need this course".

Here is where the bitch in me let loose. I don't like confrontation, but felt I needed to up the anti. My response (verbatim) was this: "If I am denied access to this course I will need an official letter from *** University explaining to the Iowa Department of Education explaining why I have been unable to take this course over the last three years." I felt like a bitch writing it, but it needed to be done.

My initial response to my e-mail "I am out of the office at a conference until Monday, I will deal with this matter then."

Shit, I screwed my chance to take this class again didn't I?!?

Nope. I think she didn't want to deal with me and now I am enrolled in the class. I hated to channel the bitch I used to be, but occasionally you have to in order to get what you want.

Oh, and the class consist of reading journal articles assigned and writing summaries. A trained monkey could do it, so why is it such a guarded course to take?!? So next semester my new name will simply be.... Monkey!

Friday Foto Finish 11.7.08

Ahhhhh, Fall.
These photos were taken of a maple tree in our yard. I love when it gets this firey orange.
Fall is my favorite time of year. All of the leaves changing color and falling off the tree. The deer that wander through the back yard. All of nature becomes so beautiful. Too bad its supposed to snow today. OK, just flurries I'll survive. If you are coming over from Candid Carrie thanks for visiting. If you want to know how to play along check out her site.

Check out my stash!

So, the other night all this arrived at my door.
I know it isn't the greatest picture, but I had to get all of the beads out of their packages, cut off the strings and sorted for storage. Most of them came in sets of 6 or 10, which made it quite the task. Almost 2 hours worth of work. I had to get it done before the hubby got home. I was afraid he would freak out when he saw how much I ordered.

Also, I got the lovely pink tote as a free gift. Apparently they thought I could use something to cart around all this stash. Now it is crafty time! I really wish I was at home beading instead of working/blogging....

Oh yeah, Blogger is no longer blocked from work (at least for now). Maybe now I can keep up with my regular reads. Awesome!

My Life Needs To Slow Down!

I feel like I have been seriously neglecting my normal duties. Blogging, knitting, yoga, etc. This past month has been so busy, I just don't have time. So, what have I been doing?

Since the middle of September I have held 9, count them 9 IEP meetings. For those of you who don't know the process, it takes a long time to do the call parents, set up meetings, reschedule meetings because the parent didn't show up, and the hardest part of all the paperwork. Each IEP in Iowa is at least 7 pages and that is if they only have one goal area. The state is also changing the way we have to do paperwork, so they often times come back because we have ONE WORD WRONG!!!! Very frustrating!

Last Thursday we had an awesome FREE field trip we took our 7th graders. So that absorbed an entire week both inside school and out to plan and organize. Thank goodness there are a lot of members on my team beacuse we all had to pitch in and do our part.

My husbands niece and nephew also have recently returned from India and are in the process of opeing their own yoga studio, Tapas Yoga Shala. My husband had been a critical component of helping get the space together. Within their studio they are also selling items from India as well as some of the products that I make. So, Jen has been spending a lot of time making malas for the shala. (I love to rhyme!). I have also been spending a lot of time making yoga inspired magnets in bulk. In the last month I have done about 200, and I am working on 250 more for Indigo Wellness as well. Tonight, I am finishing a frog for a friend, then working on 20 scented eye pillows for the shala as well. So I have been busy crafting, but it doesn't feel like I have been doing things for me. (If that makes sense).

I have also been working on a side buisness, Custom Creations. I have created a website, taken photos, written many posts explaining the properties of different stones. That alone took several days of research.

I have my own table at Indigo Wellness' open house next Friday, so I am making products and signs for that too.

Not to mention that I am an overachiever and on (I think) 5 committes at work which means I have at least 3 meetings a week before or after school. I get here by 7:45 and don't leave until close to 4:30 on an average day (an hour over contract time) and usually am here later working on things.

I am making an executive discission! I need to learn how to take more time for me!

Electon Day Maddness!

So I got up early this morning, on purpose! I headed out the door at 6:55 ready to do my duty as an American and vote. I got to the polling place down the hill at 7:03. The sea of cars was amazing. I had no idea that many people live in my small town! The polls opened at 7, right? Yes they sure did!

Going inside I saw a sea of people snaked around the room, there had to be at least 150 people. I stayed, looked around and noticed the diversity of the people there. The town I live in has houses ranging from the 300,000+ range to two trailor parks. People standing next to one another from completely different walks of life, all here for one purpose. It put things into perspective for me. Even in this small town there are so many different walks of life represented. I found it very eye opening.

After 10 minutes, and the line unmoving, I had to leave and go to work. You can't be late when you students waiting for you! After work I came back and voted. (Did you know in Illinois you vote with a black Sharpie?!?) I got through the line in under 20 minutes.

This time I got to meet a very nice young man named Ben. He was ther voting with his mother. He sweetly introduced himself and then to his mother. She looked embarrassed, but I shook her off. I think it is pretty cool to include your child in such an interesting election.

Now, I'm off to watch some CNN and see how things play out. I hope my candidate wins!

Daily Dose of Funny... A trip to the Gynecologist

So, I took a half day off of work on Thursday to go to two, count them two doctors' appointments. The first was a trip to the gynecologist...... Oh, what fun!

I got there a bit early, hoping I would get done sooner. NOPE. Took my information, gave them my card and I was off to the exam room. Of course you can't just go back there, you have to be weighed and blood pressure taken. My BP was a bit high, but can you blame me?

Back in the exam room I had to go over my family health history. Who has what diseases, diagnosis's, and ailments. Then I have to review my sexual history. Have you had any STD's? NO! Have you ever been afraid of your partner? NO! How long have you been with your current partner? 14 years..... holy shit we've been together for 14 years! Then comes "so you have had x (insert number here) number of partners in your life." I looked at her blankly, I honestly couldn't remember if that number was correct. I think I said "I guess so." Come on, when you've been with someone more than a decade you might forget one or two.

She leave the room and the real fun begins! I get undressed and put on my gown and 'privacy' blanket that covers a 3'x3' square and I sit there waiting for the doctor to come in.

.....and wait

.....and wait

..... and wait.

I look at my watch, nearly 20 minutes had gone by. I was about to put on my clothes and go search for someone when I hear a knock at the door. The doctor is finally there. YEAH!!! (there was an emergency ultrasound, which made her late)

Before the exam begins I get lectured on weight loss, and the importance of exercise. Yes, I know I am fat. I have been really aware of it over the last 20 minutes sitting naked in a strange room! But thanks for pointing it out!

The first part is the breast exam. No problem there. She was shocked when I said I do monthly self-exams. Heck, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a little over a year ago, it's in my routine to check. (FYI- Mom is fine, it was benign. Just a little lumpectomy and radiation and she was good to go.)

Next comes the every favorite internal exam. Scoot to the end of the table. Check! Feet in the thingys. Check! Let my legs 'fall open'. Check! Speculum in place. Check! Sample taken. Check!

Here is the best part..... Legs spread, speculum STILL in, doctor says "WELL, THINGS LOOK AWESOME!"

WHAT!!!!!

Did she just refer to my uterus as awesome?!? In my confusion I think I uttered a "Thank You"? Really, what can you say to that? What would you have said to that?