I made it!!

One reason for the lack of blogs the last month or so? The amount of things that have been going on in my life. BIG things:

(1) I planned a three day field trip for the entire 6th grade. Daytime - not overnight. 337 students. 17 teachers. 9 busses. School lunches. Money. Scholarships for kids who don't have the money. Dealing with kids who act like morons while ON the trip. Yes. It was thrilling. I talked to parents who were concerned their children would get Lyme Disease, concerned over the alligators we held (baby's about 1.5 feet long under MASSIVE supervision), a parent who's wheelchair bound son had not been able to go on the 5th grade trip because there was no lift bus.... Only 9 kids were suspended out of 337. Not bad. All teachers made it alive and, I think, are looking forward to net year.

(2) My daughter's 2nd birthday party. It was this past Saturday. After Day #1 of the field trip. Before Days #2-#3. 27 adults. 12 children under 3. 50 black and red balloons. It was at the park, so that meant transferring coolers of ice and drinks food platters, making sure we had trash bags, hand sanitizer, serving spoons, etc. Thank goodness for good friends who helped set/clean up and remember everything. Except birthday candles...

(3) Conference night. It was last Thursday. One day before the big field trip. Conference nights are probably the main reason I ended up in therapy after my first year of teaching. I LOATHE dealing with parents. I've never had major problems, but I'm always so worried they'll yell at me 'cause I'm teaching their child wrong. I didn't get yelled at this year, but the anxiety makes me feel like I'm going to puke.

(4) My team leader's mom is ill. My fearless team leader, Debby, has an elderly mom living in the area. Debby's mom has had a series of mini-strokes and then had a 'bigger' mini-stroke about 2 weeks ago. Because Debby is the closest to her mom, both geographically and emotionally, she's been out of school dealing with rehab facilities, long-term care places, medicare bills, etc. Since she is not in school, me and my other team members are left to deal with her students. We had to split them as equally as possible into our already crowded rooms, make sure we kept track of attendance since middle schoolers are known to skip classes if given the opportunity, provide work to these students and discipline them when needed. This went on for five days. Debby came back for Day #1 of our field trip but was unable to go on Days #2-#3 so we, again, had to split her students, discipline them, etc all while away from school. Yay. I am glad to report that Debby's mom is doing better now that she's in a more permanent facility that was mutually agreed on by her family. Cross your fingers!

There are more, less exciting things going on too. Like the process of getting my 2 year old into a 'big girl room' but first we have to clear out the office, rip out shelves, put up a closet organizer, move the guest furniture to the office, paint the old guest room, buy 'big girl' furniture, assemble it in room, move all the other 2 year old stuff, get the old baby stuff out of storage, clean baby stuff, put baby stuff in baby room.... All before the March 12th due date of 'Ralph'.

What's nice about right now though, is all of these things (except for the big girl room) are done. Never to be done again - this year. Except for conference night, but the next one isn't until February. These few days that we have off fro school are pretty nice. I'm not stressing about much right now. Kinda nice.

Am I a follower?

My family members have vowed, or half-vowed, or are trying to blog every day. Me? No. Sorry. I will continue to blog as often as I can. I really would blog more if I could seriously find 15-30 minutes in a day that I wasn't playing mommy, teacher, field trip coordinator, party planner, laundry doer, dish washer, dinner maker, paper grader, toy picker-upper, sleeper.... You get what you get, so don't be upset! =)

I will try to post more often, but not sure what 'often' might mean...