It is what it is

OMG My neighbor directly across the street took her Christmas wreath down today!! PTL I thought I would have to call the association on her. Not as bad as neighbor kitty-corner that took his Christmas crap down LAST WEEK. I mean the reindeer, tree, snowflakes etc. Some people! What a nice walk with KC! As much as my degenerative arthritis in me feet will allow...Dear God, I sound like my grandmother!!! I washed all the windows inside and out on the ground floor today. How special is that on the next-to-last day of March. Waiting to see if we go out lion or lamb. Came in like a lamb......today was the best for weather. Otto on way to Grand Rapids for a food show. Spending night alone, well with Casey! Subway...eat fresh! Had mock interview for state audit today. Had to have a sub for the day and she sat on her ASS all day. I can't believe she took a 20 minute break and told me she was in the baffroom. I had to have her paged. Other staff said she was on the phone....

Not a bad day! Sunny but cold. School went fast today. One of my students wrote a story that was chosen by Brainstormers to act out. It was very cute. What is with these stupid militia people? What a stupid cult. Do they really think they can get away with this dumb-ass thinking???? "DUH...lets take out the government"...and then what..have these morons run it??? Only 5 days until Phoenix. About the same time it warms up. I still don't have a clue about which car to lease next. Have to have the carpet cleaned, the sink replaced in the bathroom and new windows. Then we have to choose a new mattress and ....it is too much! Too many decisions. It is what it is!

Gosh it could not be any worse. It has been dark and dreary all day. Got all my stuff done today. Matt left for Chicago, celebrated Otto's mom's 108th birthday or maybe it only seems like that. I think she is late 80's but don't really know. Did my shopping, errands, nails etc. Cooked like a crazy fool yesterday. Wasted my afternoon trying to do dinner and desert when take-out is just as good. Palm Sunday today, enjoyed the service. Wish I could enjoy the week, getting up early and working with the ones I work with. Glad to be leaving on a jet to Phoenix a week from today. I am armed with books, dvd's etc. It is already getting dark at 7:00 rainy pm. Hate these kinds of day....it is what it is

We really need to do this in the fall. Long day. It was my job to ride the bus as we picked up parents thru the neighborhoods and took them to the middle school. Glad for Angela riding with me. We had fun at dinner. I didn't realize I was presenting a homework help spheel! We had a good turnout but 13 hour days are too much. Tomorrow is Family reading night. My dog does not know who I am! Better days at school. Could restorative practices really be helping. Could positive comments outweigh negative???? Wrote a great piece on spring today. Did writing circles with my class. They LOVED it. Give me more of loving stuff. Gotta go practice. I will try and get the time to put my recital piece from Creative Inklings on FB. It is what it is.....

Two math meetings, restorative practice workshop, piano lesson, bell choir, parent meeting, Family reading night...oh and I still have to find time to teach! Yikes, no wonder I overslept this morning! Spring is passing before my eyes and I am too busy to get out there and see it. I love this time of year but why is there always sooo much to do??? Time to go to bed and I just got home. Oh well, it is what it is!

Today was a fairly normal day if there is such a thing. My clothesline that has been up for 5 years had been pulled down while a sub was in the room...go figure. Sorry I blabbed the loser in Idol yesterday, I forgot that Pacific time is 3 hours behind me and my girls read who was axed before they watched it and were not happy. Oh the drama at school. Recital practice tonight. And tomorrow on the big piano at the big church. Hopefully I won't get all freaked. It is what it is.

Spent the day in Lansing for our HFT Lobby Day. BEATUtiful day and good trip but feeling is pretty hopeless for school funding this year. Hopefully they will pass a .05 decrease in the sales tax and add a service tax to find the disparity in funding for next year. We are missing money from all the industry that has left town. Ok, enough, it was not very happyville talking to our legislators. Happy St. Patrick's Day....please don't drink and drive...off to bells

Liking the longer days but still not enough time. Went to St. Edith to practice again, I love the sound of that concert grand in that place. Took KC for a short walk, did schoolwork and chatted with Matt. Going to Lansing tomorrow on the big bus with the HFT. We have to beg on hands and knees to get funding for our schools. It is so wrong. Our sports and entertainment idols make millions and we can't fund basic programs in our schools. What message are we sending? The only worth is entertainment....how sad. It is what it is!

Showered, dressed and ready to dry hair when I realized that Otto wasn't up. Went to wake him and he told me it was only 5:30, not 6:30! Don't know what happened to my bedside clock but it was an hour forward! So instead of spring ahead 1 hour, my clock was 2 hours. I am already tired thinking about how tired I will be! Couldn't go back to bed! I will be in bed by 9:00 ha ha! It is finally 6:30 and still very dark! and cold! and winter! It is what it is!

After church this morning, we had brunch with Mike & Jan and had a few mimosas sans orange juice, ha ha great fun. It was another sleepy dusky dreary rainy dark day. Cooked the corned beef & cabbage for Wednesday, made chicken tortilla soup for today and used fake crab for a seafood salad for tomorrow. Did a lot of "stuff" all day, April flowers for church, watered plants, that kind of stuff. This daylight savings time sucks when it is rainy & cold. Now we are 3 hours from Arizona. Amanda is in Las Vegas, which is always 3 hours different from us. Andrew is home from Minneapolis and the weekend is nearly over! It is what it is!

Wow, will it ever stop? It has been the gloomiest day! Raining, dark, windy, cold....it is sooo march. We got spoiled for a couple days. Spent the day getting nails done, laundry, errands, shopping, on the phone with the kids and finally home! Want a fire and want to light candles but it is already 10:00 because of the daylight savings time change. Amanda is in Las Vegas, Andrew was in Minneapolis and took most of the day to fly back to DC thru Wisconsin with a 2 hour lay-over. Had a shoot with a client but didn't know he had to go until late Thursday. Hmmm I get to go to ......the administration building...hahahaha...no glam for me in my job. Enjoyed my shopping day as always......never long enough!!!! It is what it is!

My new little hamster has to spend his first weekend alone in my room at school. Probably will relish the quiet!! Day was uneventful except for the basketball game after school. Our Holbrook team won the first game of the playoffs and went into the final round. Well with 16 seconds to go they pulled ahead after being behind the whole game, by one point and won the championship! What a game.....I will never be able to live with these boys after this! Amanda going to Vegas for her spring break with roomie Emily's family, Andrew flew to Minneapolis for a 2 day work assignment and I am sooo home this weekend as is Matt! No plans except brunch with friends after church on Sunday. Weather has been very spring-like. Progress reports for week 5 of 3rd quarter are mailed, looking forward to recital next weekend and Easter trip to Phoenix in 23 days and Lansing's Lobby Day for our HFT Union next Wednesday. Cancelled the Wicked Witch sub for next Wed and put in for someone new. ...

Does the drama ever end???? I was out all day for writing workshop and received a phone call about a half hour ago from our Restorative Practices person letting me know that my sub suspended 6 students for 3 days. Hahahahaha! As much as they get on my nerves, these were all my 6th grade girls that have never been in any trouble! Evidentially she thought she had "power" to suspend. Katie and I had to call all of them and let them and parents know they are not suspended and the witch has no power in Holbrookland. Who does this woman think she is and why can't we get any decent subs? Oh wait, I know, they pay crap and you get what you pay for. Good piano lesson tonight. Things were going very well today until......geeze loueeze, what could they have done? Ok Katie said the sub said they told her I had written the wrong page on the board (which when teaching 2 grades is VERY possible! If I get distracted or don't do something right away, I am often wrong) but...

Enjoyed the dinner tonight with my math coach and a couple others from Hamtramck. We all use Everyday Math and love it! Home late and poor KC was overdue for a trip. Need to mail out progress reports but they will get done! Need to go practice and, and, and! Off tomorrow for writing workshop and will be helping in the afternoon. Oh the guy on this program was killed by a bus on Grey's last season! Don't know what it is though. Our custodian's wife has responded to her radiation and he received the good news today. Happy to hear that! Now we need to get our kitchen lady well! Went all day yesterday with a minute tear in my left contact, it was 1 day old and I didn't realize it until after school and could not stand feeling like an eyelash was in my eye all day. The previous lens went 6 weeks and the new on 1 day...I don't get it!!!!! Better go practice before Idol is on. I have a list a mile long to do but it is now 8:00 and too late to start any of it...

Finally got a chance to go practice at St. Edith's on the Grand Piano!! Recital songs sound grand! Now how do I stop from being nervous??? The acoustics are something else and the sound is like nothing I will ever have in my house! I would love to practice there every night!!!! Matt, Amanda and Cindy all called tonight so I have been talking forever! Not a bad day today. Time to go realax....I cooked tonight...Costco chicken....yum! It is what it is!

Sorry to Meryl after 17 nominations. She won in 1985 I think but deserves more. Sandra was unbelievable in Blind Side though and appreciate her recognition of Meryl. Did my first literature circle (book discussion) with my class today and they asked to do more. We read "Bud not Buddy". Good read. Made turkey chili tonight....good. Way better than the fish I cooked in the oven that stunk up the house and still lingers.....yuuk. Took KC to vet tonight for all her vaccinations and left $140.00. She had arthritis...big surprise...just like her owners. Ok now what???? Doggie steps to the picnic table??? A doggie walker with tennis balls on 2 of the feet?? Dr. C recommends glucose supplements and a special dog food to help her age gracefully. What about me???? LOL I need all that but after leaving $140.00 I can't afford it....our friend at school is still in ICU and needs our prayers and support....it is what it is.

Done in!!!!!! Haircut, nails, shopping, people over for Trivia, did snacks, and the best dessert from Kraft Food & Family magazine. Bottom layer crushed oreo cookies. 2nd layer was cream cheese, sugar and cool whip, 3rd layer was vanilla pudding, cool whip followed by a layer of cool whip.........everyone LOVED it. I have to go to bed, my eyes are heavy, I am very tired. Oh our staff member that collapsed is holding her own with a weak heart and a collapsed lung...hoping she can make a full recovery!!!! It is what it is.

I wish with all my heart that I didn't have to write this....today started with an incident I am still not able to deal with. We had one of our staff members who fell and had a seizure. I happened to be in the office when someone who speaks very little English come into the office, and was very distressed because one of the other ladies in the kitchen had fallen. I was standing there dealing with a student who came into the room where I was working on the computer with another teacher on a school improvement survey. I had walked the student to the office to find out what what going on and this woman that works in the cafeteria was very distressed saying....."Ms. Dobos, Ms. Turner fell...she is in the kitchen...come....come...help...Ms. Jeannie (person-in-charge in kitchen) not there...please...help." Thank God, I turned to our secretary of 2 days and said " Call 911" I thought this person had fallen down the stairs. I followed her to the kitchen...

Oh geeze what a day. You would think after my self sacrifice of Tuesday in Lansing and being out for School Improvement yesterday, the kids would have been decent today. It started out ok but I have a proverbial liar/cheater that will be absent tomorrow. Add to that the 6th grade that is louder than a twice as big 5th grade. They so tick me off some days. They can be real pigs and very disrespectful. Part of the problem is the lack of consequences. The parents are all too eager to make excuses and deny their child's behavior. After tomorrow I will be down to 30. This boy has fooled away the year and is always behind. Mother wanted time for him to make-up assignments and I said "No, not again." Homework policy clearly states, 1 day per 1 day absent and he hasn't been absent, just fooling around. Sorry and goodbye, going to other 6th grade where he will find the teacher gives way more homework than I do. Hahahahahahahaha! I am so sick of my class' beh...

Worked all day on updating reports to the state that we just turned in. Honestly, they get sooo nit picky! Recovering from trip yesterday. The kids were dragging also. Hard to get out of bed. Forgot the part about the frozen fog about Howell to Lansing. It was beautiful on the trees but made visibility even worse. GPS's don't hold a charge long enough and busses don't have cigarette lighter plugs to charge them. Oh well! The fog miraculously lifted almost exactly at 10:00 am at almost Lansing city limits. The field trip from hell will never be forgotten but has already turned in to a laughing tale. We will journal our adventures tomorrow! It is what it is! Thanks Z for your support!

OMG!!! We just got back from Lansing after an 11 hour field trip. We left Hamtown at 8 am, got lost on the way, was a little late, walked about 5 miles, climbed the steps twice to the 3rd floor of the capitol, was escorted on the floor of the House of Representatives, met with Representative Burt Johnson, met with former Representative John Stewart, was escorted on the floor of the Senate with Senator Martha Scott, saw everything we went to see and were ready to leave at 5:00.....no bus. The battery died and they had to send a replacement bus. We had to leave the capitol as it closes at 5:00. A very nice lady directed us to Lansing Community College's cafeteria which was only 3 blocks away but....it seemed like 3 miles! Anyway, we called all the parents, fed everyone again and waited. At 7:30 we finally climbed on the replacement bus for the hour and a half trip back to Hamtramck. Talk about an adventure. It is what it is. Kudos to all the chaperones and the kids who held i...