Yesterday my modem was on the blink and I couldn't get on the net except for a few minutes here and there. It was very frustrating because yesterday Ebay was having a $.10 listing sale, and I was only able to get 3 items listed.

Of the now 23 items I have listed, 17 of them are selling!! Woo Hoo!

Yesterday was an okay day. Main thing we did was get ready for Young Author's night. As usual, the worse the practices are, the better the performance is usually. They did a top notch job at the program. Especially since one of my students who defiantally refused to read his story (which of course was a pain and a half to get him to even agree to have me type it for him in the first place!) M was also not there, which was good in a way, because I hadn't had a chance to get a hold of his mom to warn her about his story's subject matter.

I ended up buying $25 worth of food for refreshments because NONE of the parents offered to bring anything!! I was more than a little bit annoyed, but it partly was my fault because I didn't get more notes sent home. The other child who didn't show up in time for the event, did eventually show up - after everyone else was gone, and my former aide and I were getting ready to put the room back together! I still had the karaoke machine set up, so I told her that we would be her audience and to go ahead and read her story to us (about 5 people in the room). She got up there and burst into tears, and wouldn't be comforted.
It turns out that her parents hadn't checked the Otter book (since at least last week!) and the little girl started telling her parents that she had to go to school! They were of course wondering what was up with her, but finally decided to look in her Otter book - and made it to the school over an hour late. It's the old story - parent's who are too busy to take the one or two minutes it *might* take to look in their child's Otter book and see if there's anything they just might need to know. Arghh! One reason I'm glad to be quitting teaching!

After work when I got home, my dad was here getting all of his things out to take to our apartment. Of course he *needed* me to help him do a zillion differernt things, just assuming that I had nothing better to do. Ya know, like get ready for my program!

Tuesday spending: $25.67 Kroger's (groceries for program)

Wednesday:
This morning we had our awards Chapel. All the teachers gave out certificates to EVERY child in their class or homeroom. Whoopdi Doo! Gah! I HATE these kinds of things. I feel so strongly that these kinds of things do NOTHING for a child's self esteem and can actually be detrimental. I gave all my kids either high honor roll or honor roll - not even sure what exactly I based it on. Walking back from Chapel, several of my kids asked me what the difference was between the silver(honors) and gold (high) and I really didn't have a good answer - at least not that I could actually say - which would be NONE! - at least for this particular age level. The other thing I hate about these things is that every teacher did a different level than the other teachers -which right away makes things unfair - which is what Vicki was trying to avoid in the first place by having us give EVERY child some kind of a certificate. One example: The pre-k teacher has 5 students. She called up the first student and than began to slather on the praise and 4 different certificates, a ribbon, and a sticker. Then the next child (who so happens to be Tammy's boy Nicholas) was absent, but she listed the certificates he had "earned" which were less enthusiastic than the first boy. The next three children also received 2 or 3 certifciates, a ribbon, and a sticker each. The ony reason I went along with all of this was because it seemed to be what everyone else wanted to do, and I guess I'm really at a point where I don't care that much anymore.

This afternoon I had the kids begin their cleanup of the room. It went okay I guess. They had fun tearing down the bulletin board decorations as well as other decorations. They didn't like the cleaning up of all the trash so much though. I assigned a couple kids to sorting out the books - two of my boys decided to basically dump ALL the books from two of the bookcases onto the floor - creating a HUGE pile of books on the floor. I pretty much spent two hours harrasing the kids to get those books picked up and sorted!! There's still a lot to do tomorrow. I hope we get it all done before leaving for the park.

I IM'd wth my brother tonight!!! He's been dating this wonderful girl for over two years. He was telling me that she's thinking of going to Spain for a few months, and that he's not sure if he's going to wait for her or not, even though she deserves to be waited for. MEN! He also told me that he thinks I shouldn't give Scott the time of day, let alone a second chance, because he thinks that Scott is playing me. Maybe he's right, who knows - guess I'm just gonna have to find out for myself.

M wrote me a really sweet note today. Essentially he said that he didn't want me to leave and that he didn't want me to move and that he loved me. Sometimes its the kids that drive you the most nuts that pull at your heartstrings the hardest. I guess he knows that even though I'm hard on him, it's only because I want the best for him.

My dad ordered something from overstock that was supposed to be delivered here yesterday. He missed the Fed Ex guy by five minutes. He called the headquarters and asked that it be sent to my school, and was told to leave a note with the same information on it. When I got home today there was a second notice of attempted delivery. He wasn't too happy when he heard that. Well, a few hours later (about 6:15) after I'd ummm, gotten comfortable on a *very* muggy day in TX, somebody knocked on my door. It was the Fed Ex guy! He had come back after his other runs were done I guess, because he figured that since I was a teacher, I'd be home by then. I was very impressed.

Spending Log: $3.47 Taco Bell (supper tonight, lunch tomorrow)
$1.40!! gas station (*1* 20 oz Coke! -- highway robbery!)

Exercise: 15-minute tape on Tuesday, none on Wed.
Water: 2 - liters on Tuesday, barely 1 L on Wednesday
Food: blah! late night eating both nights due to busyness and phone calls

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura