An interesting day at CAE

As some of you may know I teach.
I get the privilege to teach English at the Center for Alternative to Expulsion.
It is a unique school that services students with behavioral issues (to say the least). I don't talk much about the students and their particular situations because of the confidentiality that surrounds many of their individual reasons for being assigned to our facility.

So, having said that, I don't teach in a typical school setting. We don't have a PTA, just PROBATION OFFICERS, we don't have teacher appreciation week, just be glad you made it through the school year emotionally breathing!

The only field trip our students ever get to go on is to the Limestone Correctional Facility. They take them to that to show them that if they continue on their path of self-destruction, this is where you will end up!
Today was supposed to be the big day for the field trip. It was botched until next week. The students were actually disappointed.

Instead of the prison, Mr. Bruce Jones with DYS, brought over the EXTREME team from Calvary Assembly and they performed motor bike and BMX bike demos in our parking lot. It truly was the most exciting thing that had ever come along to CAE. Five of our teachers lay down in the parking lot only to have a Honda motorbike jump over them.

I actually felt like a real public school teacher today with the "assembly event."

Five years and counting...

I will see if I can get some pics.

We made a joke that the teachers looked like a double stuffed oreo laying on the ground because the two white teachers were sandwiched in between the four black teachers on either end!
Too funny...

The future is inevitable

This morning I turned on my computer to find that the country of Peru has offered a hairless puppy that is allergen free to the Obama girls. YAY! Bring out the ticker tape and strike up the band! The future leader of the free world found a puppy for his kids!

Excuse me, I think that the economy, the tanked housing market, the bailout for Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, the WAR, the stockmarket and people's 401 Ks that are now 201Ks are so much more important than what kind of DOG two of the most priviledged little girls in America are gonna get.

Makes me sick.

Pray for your Country.
That is the need for concern, not a dog for two little future debutants. Come on America, get your priorities in order.

Feeling better all ready

It was definitely the daily medicine that I began taking about three weeks that was causing me to itch.
I have not had any of that medicine since Sunday morning and the itching finally subsided yesterday morning after about three hours of agonizing itchiness all over my hands and feet.

Glad that is over!

Please pray that this new medicine they are going to try me on will work!
I took one of the new ones last night and I had weird psychodelic dreams and periods of nausea and insomina! That is not cool.

Why does it have to be so hard to just get straightened out?

To all you mothers of boys

Crash! Broken glass shattering all over the marble fire place and carpet!
That was the sound of one of my lamps breaking about a half hour ago.
I run into the living room to find my Sammy behind the couch and Tristan running around the house shouting, "Jessica, Jessica, Jessica" as loud as he could.
I acutally thought it was the curio cabinet in the kitchen that had maybe just had a toy or something launched into the 7 feet of glass that displays all of my beloved Willow Tree figurines and the kids' first hand prints of plaster of paris.

No, thankfully it was just a beautiful, tall, elegant lamp that I had a cow for when we moved into this house three years ago. Things have changed so much in three years. Since we have moved in here, Tristan has morphed into a young man, no longer a little curly headed baby bouncing around the house and we have also been blessed with Sammy since our move here on Carpenter Drive.

My boys are the epitome of the saying, "They are all boy!"

We have had black eyes and ears (Sammy is the only human being I have ever known that bruises his EARS!?), a busted lip that required stitches, broken toes (me), lost fingernails, chipped teeth, busted noses (me and Jeremy), fist fights, bruised knees, and skinned up elbows, along with a few broken hearts in this house!

Great memories for those that have ever lived with boys as brothers or sons. They truly are a unique breed of human. My boys will go from antagonizing each other one moment that then leads into a pushing match to only be a hugging and giggling fest the next moment.

We like to get dirty with anything that will be messy and has to be cleaned up in excess!


Without Tristan and Samuel, life just would not be as bright and sunny as it would be without them.

Truly I mean this when I say it, "Thank Heaven for Little Boys!"

More pics, just couldn't resist!

My two handsome boys

Today while my man was busy breaking down the church at the movie theater, I took my boys to the park and took some pics for our Christmas card!
See what you think!
I am a little biased, but I have two of the most handsome little angels around!

By George I think we have an answer!

Okay,
It is the medicine I started taking a few weeks ago.
Today I have had severe itiching just on my hands and my feet and then this evening, my scalp and neck are now broken out. My right armpit has now turned into one big hive!



It has to be the medicine.
I will be calling my doctor first thing in the morning and getting a new med!

P.S. Does anyone recommend a general practioner in Decatur that is good about phone call returning, quick on the visit, seems very understanding, and will get you in quick if you are sick?
I am in the market for a new GP. Mine has awful secretaries, never returns a message that you leave, no personal touch, and hang up on me after they have had me on HOLD for 10 minutes!
Let me know!

About to go crazy, (well, I have already been there)

Three days of nothing but itching hands and feet. I went to the emergency room last night because I just could not take it anymore.
They gave me pepcid and a steroid to take by mouth and shot me full of something to keep me from going into shock. This morning, I feel worse. I am shaking all over, itching the welps that are on my hands and feet, my fingers and my toes~

This is driving me crazy...

Itchy, Itchy

I have this weird prickly rash that is only on my feet.
My hands feel itchy too, but no visible signs there.

I am going insane. Benadryl helps slightly, but oh my goodness, this is weird.
I think it is stress.
I think this is a weird stress rash that is bugging the pee-doodle out of me!
I sat down and made a list of all the reasons I could be suffering from stress and here is what I came up with:
1. My grandparents are out of sorts, one in a nursing home as of last week and the other one being tossed to and fro amongst her three kids.
2. My job, enough said...
3. My kids. They are on full throttle all the time!
4. My house. I want to sell it so that I can get the cool house in Trinity.
5. My house has to be clean all the time in case a realtor wants to show it.
6. My job, enough said...
7. My OCD. I am constantly thinking about what needs to be changed, done, or fixed.
8. My weight. I hate being fat.
9. My friends. I worry about them constantly.
10. Our church. My hubby spends all Sunday morning serving the Church and its mission which leaves me to entertain the two boys by myself.
11. I want to be exercising, but I don't have enough time.
12. The desire to do perfect all the time, it just ain't gonna happen.
13. Tristan is in trouble a lot at school, am I being a horrible mom? What's the deal?
14. Pleasing Jeremy. He needs a lot of TLC!
15. Being a good daughter.
16. I haven't gone to see my grandfather yet in the nursing home. I am a bad grandchild too.
17. Money.
18. The economy.
19. Our country's decision of the new pres. Don't like it one bit. Sorry, that is why I get the Freedom of Speech.
20. Laundry. I hate it and it gets on my nerves.

Crazy day

This morning at 5:20 am I rolled over and remembered that I had a two year old snuggled up under my arm and then I also thought of the crazy day that I had ahead of me.

Being OCD and possessing a strong desire for every thing to be perfect, I had to fix a casserole for work, stew a crock pot chicken for the Bible study group we would be hosting that night, make sure my kids were dressed, fed, and in the car, my house was clean in case anyone decided to show it today, and get to the polls before seven to cast my vote.

Well, I did well on some of those things and in the process I forgot Tristan's lunch and the line for voting at 6:45 am was stretched about 100-200 people deep at Julian Harris, so voting was out at 7!

It did all work out in the end because my boss was kind enough to let me go get T-man's lunch and vote all in the same time. It took me 30 minutes in line and ten minutes once I got in there. It was an hour trip total.

We still have our study tonight and we plan on praying for God's hand to be on the candidate that is elected tonight. The tension is thick and people are on edge. I will be glad for this crazy day to be OVER!

A time to change

Last night I went and "babysitted" my grandma. That is so weird to say out loud. It is ironic how life changes and we revert back to an infancy stage.
My grandmother is old.
She is near the end of her life and it is sad to think of it that way.
But, on the flip side it is joyous and celebratory to think of the wonderful life she has had these 89 years.

89 years. Wow! Think of all you see in that many years...

I sat near her and just breathed in her same oxygen that she did. I soaked up her time that she spent with me. I have not had much time to just sit with her, just the two of us. We read the Bible together, we did a little small town gossipping and then we just sat quietly. As I sat there saturated in my own thoughts about my day, my week, the election, and many other non-essential things, I wondered what she was thinking about.

What do you think about when you are 89? I have some days where I have literally burned up every bit of energy I could have possibly been given and I just can't form a coherent thought. What do you think that you will think of when you get to be 89?