An Update

I've been a busy girl since I last posted!

We've painted the baby's room. It's yellow, in case you were thinking we made it gender specific. As soon as I get the curtains up I'll take a picture. The paint we bought was AWFUL, but unfortunately, we picked a shade of yellow that is only allowable in a specific brand of paint. It was a nightmare and we could have probably painted a third full coat on the walls, but we gave up and are hoping no one can tell. :) Painting also included the ceiling and the trim. It now looks fresher and nicer than any other trim in our house. My mom came down to help and it was definitely greatly needed. Who knew how hard one tiny room would end up being to paint? Stupid Valspar....

So that was two weekends ago. We also got to go miniature golfing for the first time this year that weekend. We went to Young's Dairy. My mom enjoyed herself, she hadn't mini golfed in years.
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I've been heading into school quite a bit, setting up my room and getting lesson plans together for the 7th grade reading class that I am teaching this year. I am not thrilled about it. It means extra work for me now and later. All of my 8th grade materials are ready to go, even ready to give to my long term sub. I feel like I'm working twice as hard for one 45 minute period of 7th grade. I'm extremely stressed about having materials for my long term sub. By the end of last week my room was pretty much set up though and at least tentative plans have been set through December for my 7th grade class.

We learned last week that the state has made some changes in classroom safety that we need to comply with as a building. Now keep in mind that the EPA is probably going to condemn our building soon and that we don't meet code for like a million other things, including our furnace and our overhead lighting. It might give you some perspective on how ridiculous some of the new rules are for "safety". Here's just a sampling of two such rules:

1. We are no longer allowed to have curtains of any kind hanging around our room. Not on windows, bookcases, anywhere. They are flammable and unsafe. However, I am allowed to have fabric on my bulletin boards. And keep textbooks. And hang student work. And teach on hardwood floors. None of those things are flammable according to the new safety rules. Nor is it dangerous to stack 50 boxes of paper in the copy room, all on top of each other. Did I mention that each box has 5000 sheets of paper in it. It must be fireproof paper.....

2. We cannot have ANY type of cleaner out where kids can have access to it. This includes hand sanitizer. The kids might drink it. Or get it in their eye. It might cause them to die. I have to have it locked up in a cabinet at all times. But don't worry, the pointy scissors and pencils that we let them use don't have any safety issues. They won't kill anyone. Nor will the compasses that our 8th grade students use in math class. Completely safe. No deaths.
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We lent Dathan and Natalie our car for the last two weeks (the Expedition) to head out to South Dakota to pick up a trailer and haul a pool table home that belonged to the family. It saved them several thousand dollars in plane tickets and rentals. The only thing we asked was that they a) pay for an oil change when they came back from the 3000 mile trip and b) not wreck our car. They can only fulfill requirement A. While out there, they hit a deer. With my car. It's in the shop right now having its front end replaced. I should have it back by tomorrow night. I'm not upset with them for hitting a deer. It can't be stopped. The poor deer's butt must hurt like a MOTHER. What did upset me was that they filed a claim on our insurance without calling us first. Without checking to see if we had a deductible or if it would raise our rates. It's here nor there now, but it was just irritating. And I felt like they kind of gave us a hard time about getting them a rental car and letting me keep their car until mine was fixed. But I won't get into that here.
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My dad and family visited this past weekend and stayed over night for the first time EVER. We had a great time. We went to the Darke County Fair on Saturday and it is definitely one of the best county fairs I've ever been to. It was HUGE. It had lots of food, lots of smelly animals, and lots of interesting people to watch. We ended the night with a cookout at our place and ice cream. While at Dairy Queen, I got a chance to talk with Bill and Sara one-on-one (my brother and sister in case you don't know) about their upcoming school year and we also talked about their long term plans. I was happy to hear that Bill is planning on going to college in two years. I was worried. He's thinking some type of computer graphics or design. Right up his alley. My sister was more interested in talking about fraternities and sororities at this point, but there's still time- she's only going into the 8th grade. We made them homemade blueberry coffee cake, eggs, and bacon for breakfast the next day and my father was very impressed. He ate 3 helpings. :) I think he forgets I'm a grown up sometimes. I even showed them my belly button trick. They all laughed and I was only a little embarrassed.
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The last two days have been spent working and getting a hair cut. I'm pretty much ready for school to start with the exception of making photocopies. I'm planning on spending all day Thursday doing that. I also have an all day retreat tomorrow with my building. It will be good to see all of my coworkers again and find out how ugly our staff t-shirt is this year. I can't promise to write much over the next week or so just because work will be keeping me very busy. But I promise to try. Sorry for the long absence and equally long post. Oh, and I'm posting the cicada picture again, just to "bug" Stephanie every time she opens my blog. HA!