Fadedwords

If it’s not one thing
it’s another.

I have nothing else to say.

Slowly but surely I am beginning to gather a circle of students that know me and come to see me on a fairly regular basis. These kids are ones that have several things going on; many have some problems dealing with and controlling their anger, some have problems with friendships, some are struggling with other things all together. My first few weeks at the school I barely saw anyone, but lately I’ve seen more and more. I have a list of regular visitors, students whose names I know and who smile when they see me in the hall. One of my boys made some fantastic progress with his anger, and today I got to reward him for his good decisions. I had a great conversation with one of my girls today about a situation she’s dealing with right now. Every day I see these kids… whether it’s in the hall or they’re coming up to me asking me, “Ms. M when can I come see you?”

These are the things that make all the bad days worth while.

I taught my first lesson today, in Courtney’s fifth grade classroom. I had been nervous before that they’d be out of control and disrespectful… mainly because that’s why I was going in to talk to them. The lesson was supposed to be about respect and responsibility because they’ve been struggling with those things. And that’s an understatement. The lesson went amazingly well; the kids listenend, participated, and seemed to have a great time. Hopefully the lesson helps Courtney out with some of the problems they’ve been giving her. We set up an idea that every week she can nominate a student from class that has been most respectful and responsible, and that student will be able to come to my office and pick candy from my stash. They seemed very excited about that. We made a giant poster in class today, along with some great pictures that I now have hanging up in my office. I’ll have to take a picture on Monday.

Today I began making Drew his care package. He’s had kind of a rough week or so, and I owed him brownies for sending me a stuffed beaver dressed like a Canadian Mountie. I’ve owed him that since last fall, so I figured I’d just send him a care package to cheer him up. I made chocolate chip cookies tonight, and tomorrow morning I’ll make brownies (the ones I made the other day that turned out so awesome), another batch of cookies (swirl chip ones this time) and maybe some sugar cookies. I’m still trying to decide if I have the gusto to go through that whole production. The sugar cookies are outstanding, but man is that batter hard to work with.

The past two days at work have been very good. I’m still stressed out about a couple things that I’m still… left in the dark about. Hopefully those things get cleared up next week.

Jake will be here tomorrow. There was a battery recall on every laptop that Red Hat has in their office here, so he’s spending five hours tonight after his regular work hours trying to get all of the batteries ready to ship back. It’s tedious and awful, but he’ll get it out of the way tonight and we’ll enjoy the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow we plan to go to the fair, which I’m exceptionally excited about. This is just the local county fair. State fair is in another two and a half weeks.

Tonight I will sleep early so tomorrow will come quicker.

yes, you see that right. I work at the home of the MIGHTY BEAVERS!!

Anyone who knows me knows I love football. Last night was my school’s first home game. I went out to dinner with my two friends (and coworkers) Lecia and Courtney, and then we went to the school for the game. We were a little bit late, but that didn’t stop us from getting right into it. It was a great game, and I was genuinely impressed with the talent of many of the boys playing. Coach Spencer has done a great job getting these boys in top condition. We won the game 36-0. I took a lot of pictures, because I had told Coach I would. My boss saw me, and he was very excited… he said that we could now have something to send to the newspaper.

I emailed my breeder last night just to see what the process from here on out will be. She said I could come meet the puppies and Gidget when the pups are 4 weeks old (yay!). She said that she will continue to send pictures as they grow and start developing their own personalities.

Unfortunately, one of the male puppies died on Friday. This is fairly common, and I was actually surprised that I didn’t get an email saying this sooner. It’s still sad that one of those cute little boys didn’t make it. That still leaves four to choose from, so I know that I still have my pup. I also know that I am one of the first on the list for a reserved pup, so I shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

So… Three weeks from Wednesday I will be able to go to Benson and meet the pups, and hopefully pick mine out.

Random sidenote: Thanks to my Mom for her info about the Greenies dog bone. Any of you out there who have dogs, don’t use these. My Mom says that they make dogs sick. I have replaced those treats with a doggie dental kit on my puppy wishlist. Soon I will begin shopping for puppy stuff, so any of you who plan to donate to the cause send stuff or gift cards

I’ve added some new albums in my photo gallery. You can get there by clicking the “My Pictures” link in the right sidebar under the heading ‘All Mine’. I added all the pictures I have to date of Gidget, Joey, and the litter of puppies? I also added two new albums in the Jake and Kate area… one for our 6 month anniversary, and one for his 29th birthday. So prance on by and enjoy them.

Today I have already done my laundry… and even though I got hit on by a dirty old man at the landromat, it was good to get the laundry clean. I’ve also cleaned out my car and swept out my car port, both extremely necessary. It’s good to have that done. I just have to do the dishes and fold the laundry and I’ll feel much better about the state of my house.

I finished my ‘German Shepherds for Dummies’ book, and I have to highly recommend this type of book for anyone who needs to learn about something but hates the typical reference book. I enjoyed reading this book, and while I could’ve just looked up the points I was immediately interested in (which is how the Dummies books are meant to be used), I liked it so much that I read it cover to cover. I’ve added a couple more Dummies books to my amazon.com wishlist, all about puppies. I think one is on puppy training, and one is on housebreaking. I want the puppy training book because it’ll be about a month and a half before I actually start taking Merlin to training classes after I get him. I want to have a solid foundation before I actually go to class.

I got a check for the balance of my contract from Alfred. The timing of getting this check couldn’t have been better. Now I can petition to get my NYS retirement money, which should be another fairly substantial amount. This helps me feel much more secure in my savings account, and also looking ahead to Christmas. Not to mention… I will be getting a dog in two months and that will require several series of shots, plus an operation to fix him. I have a great deal of money set aside for this already, but it’s good to know that I have another cushion of money in savings. I’m hoping that I can also invest in a couple bookshelves and perhaps a dresser sometime soon. We shall see though.

There have been no more late night attacks from mysterious predators, thank goodness. I do check the bed thoroughly every night, but thankfully I haven’t seen any creepy crawlies. My cat has taken to sleeping with me again, which just tells me it’s been cool enough to encourage such behavior. He also continues to wake me up at ungodly hours in the morning… even during the week when I’m up at 6am he starts trying to wake me at about 4:30. Little monster.

Tomorrow my car goes in to the shop to have the damage from the accident repaired. The estimate says it should only take three days, and the insurance company is paying for my rental car. I will meet Enterprise at the repair shop at 9am tomorrow and then go and sign the paperwork to have the rental. Hopefully my car will be done by Wednesday… it would actually be convenient for it to be done on Wednesday because our first home football game is that day. I could have a coworker follow me to Enterprise and then drive me back to the car repair place to get my car before we go to the game together.

I’ve become fairly good friends with the two new fifth grade teachers (hey Lecia if you’re reading), and I’m not too sure what I’d do without them there to talk and vent to. I’ve also come to really love going to see the special ed teacher and her assistant; they’re just as excited about my dog as I am and we’ve already talked about my bringing Merlin in so the kids can meet him. I’m very excited about that.

The past two weekends have been downers for me. I’m trying not to focus on that too much, but it’s hard not to. Hopefully next weekend will be better. I have a busy week ahead of me, so I’m hoping that helps take my thoughts to another place.