projects

Andrew and I have been busy this spring getting the yard looking decent.  It's hard to do with limited funds, but it will be well worth it in a few years when trees start growing up and bushes begin to fill out along the front of the house.  My only contribution to the entire process other than love and support is one potted plant on the front steps.  The other was left over from a baby shower - beautfiul, but I can't take credit for it.  Even more sad is the fact that AB has to remind me to water my one pot and the ferns around the door.  Poor plants.  (I remind myself of the kid who wants a puppy, begs for a puppy, finally gets a puppy, and does a terrible job taking care of a puppy.)  Hopefully my greeen thumb will begin to sprout soon...I can't use pregnancy as an excuse to stay indoors forever! 

One part of the yard I'm really excited about is TCB's tree.  We got it as a present from my aunt and cousins at a baby shower last month, and I can't wait to see it grow up with our son!  Right now it's a little bit shorter than AB's shoulder.  I wonder if TCB will ever be taller than the tree - or maybe the tree will grow up so fast that it towers over us!  It will be easy to remember when we planted it...the spring before TCB's birthday :)

Hooter Hider

I wish I had a video camera set up in the back of my classroom.  By the time I walk to my desk to write down hilarious quotes and random happenings for the book I'm never going to write one day, I have totally forgotten what I wanted to remember in the first place.  And most people wouldn't believe half the stuff that happens at school without video proof. 

Today - in the middle a lesson on ::snore:: direct and indirect variation (which, by the way, comes with a great story about traveling with a baby and stopping at Dairy Queen) - one of my students blurts out that I should buy a Hooter Hider. 

Um...what?  Please tell me that this is something that has to do with math class.  Surely she doesn't mean a nursing cover. 

While I'm trying to come up with a clever response that completely diverts the attention away from my already-huge-but-pregnancy-is-making-huger chest, all nine boys have stopped writing and turned to look at me. 

Great. 

The student then proceeds to tell the class about her sister who just had a baby girl.  Apparently said sister has a Hooter Hider in every color and swears by them. 

Cue bright-red-faced boys.  One even manages to oh-so-innocently ask what hooters are. 

So after I let the conversation go one for about 30 seconds too long, I finally am able to get the class back on track.  Direct and indirect variation = success. 

I guess it's better than last week's class-wide conversation about whether I am going to choose natural or give-me-the-pain-meds-now labor. 

Oh, Teen Mom... I thank you for educating the youth of America.

wish list

As I sit down (yes, I've already paused in my long to-do list... lame, I know) and look around the house, I realize that I would really, really like: 

• a house cleaner - even just once a month - to do the things I hate - dusting, for example
• a laundry fairy (I will say though that AB did put on his laundry wings this week and got a lot of this week's clothes cleaned on his days off)
• 2 dogs that don't shed instead of 2 that do
• a magic landscaping button that I could press, look outside, and instantly have a beautiful yard

Is this too much to ask? ;)

what have we been up to the last 5 months?

what started out as a baby...

that looked like, let's be honest, a tadpole...

has grown into a baby...

that looks like....a baby! 

with boy parts ;) and all!

 

confessions

1.  I haven't written a post in 134 days.

2.  I've started several posts in said 134 days but never published them...mostly because they were all in my head.

3.  One of my favorite students came back today.  At the middle of last year he took an, how shall I say, extended vacation at the alternative school.  I'm sure whatever he did wasn't his fault...ha.

4.  I am in a wedding this weekend, and I'm nervous about tripping down the aisle or up the steps.  Are there even steps?  Why wasn't I nervous about this at my own wedding?

5.  I'm pregnant.  Oh right, I probably should have mentioned that earlier.  We find out what it is tomorrow, and I really don't care about its gender.  Is that terrible?

6.  I don't like being pregnant, but I'm hoping it grows on me.  Figuratively speaking...and literally, of course.

7.  I turn 25 in less than 3 weeks.  25?  Really?

8.  I can't remember the last time I cooked a really good meal.   

9.  I got a pedicure today, even though we're trying to save money.  See number 4 :)

10.  I dreamed last night that AB had an affair...with a 9th grader.  I woke up mad.  Really mad.

11.  I drank a cup of Pepsi today and now I feel guilty.

12.  I love chocolate milk.

13.  Chocolate milk makes my stomach hurt. 

14.  I love ice cream.

15.  Ice cream makes my stomach hurt.

16.  I was hoping that having a student teacher was going to mean I didn't have to work for three months.  Turns out, that's not the case at all.

17.  I really like my student teacher.  She reminds me of myself...scary.

18.  Drinks are way better with straws.  All drinks, alcoholic and non.

19.  I really want a strawberry margarita.

20.  I hate doing laundry.  I don't mind starting it...but I get bored and forget to put the clean clothes away.  Which results in massive piles of clothes all around the house. 

   

"My back hurts..."

Think back to your glorious teenage years.  What comes to mind? 

Staying out late?  Listening to loud music?  Driving too fast?  Maybe it's because I teach high school, but I have started to really notice the changes "kids these days."  I am constantly comparing myself to the next generation (which I currently classify as 10 or more years younger than me...what is the real definition of "generation" anyway?).  In my students' eyes, I'm old.  Like way old.  Waaaaayyyy old.  At least 30.  (ha)

But can I blame them?  Didn't I think that my teachers were 'over the hill' when I was going through school?  Did I ever consider that they might - just might - have personal lives?  No ma'am.  I just never really thought about it I guess. 

Looking through kids' eyes, I'm old.  But what about through my eyes?  Lately I've found myself making more tallies on my 'old versus young' list...in the old column. 

So I thought I'd share a few of the things that make me old.  (And no, I don't really think I'm that old.  But sometimes I definitely feel like it!  What is old though really?)

(cough cough)  Attention please.  Here's my TOMG-US (ha, that's a funny acronym) Why I'm Old List, Part 1. 

I'm old because I played tennis last night and now move like I'm 70. 

I'm old because I just went grocery shopping and bought hamburger meat and cream of mushroom soup.  Can anyone say casserole?

I'm old because I had just a conversation with myself about how listening to no music was better than listening to 'all the trash that's on the radio these days." 

I'm old because I actually enjoyed the peace and quiet of my silent car ride. 

I'm old because I cut off all my hair. 

I'm old because I'm amazed when someone doesn't know what's going on in politics.  (Even though I have to admit I'm not the best at following all the drama - there's just too much of it!) 

I'm old because I know of at least 10 friends (and not-so-good-friends) from high school that have kids.  Some have more than one. 

I'm old because AB is about to start planning his class reunion...the big 1-0.  Guilt by association. 

That's Part 1 of my list.  What makes you feel young?  Old?  Do share.

(Note: Do you remember the song that went something like "My back hurts, my bra's too tight, my hips move from left to right, to the left, to the right..."? No? Just me? Pity. It's a great song.)

North, South Carolina

If you're from the South - or if you have ever visited any state in this area - you know that we talk funny.  Some people more than others.  And, in my opinion, not nearly as funny as people from the North - but that's neither here nor there.

AB just showed me this video, and I think it's absolutely hilarious.  The woman in the clip has the strongest - er, best - accent I have ever heard.  Take a look...

(And yes, there really are places called Due West and North in South Carolina.)