Jane Austen Book Club

I just watched The Jane Austen Book Club and I enjoyed it. I did keep yelling at the teacher the entire time to keep away from the teenage boy. That whole thing was too yucky for me. High school boys are not cute! They are stupid, hormonal, yucky high school boys! Everytime I hear about a teacher seducing a student, I get very angry. I mean, seriously, that relationship isn't about love; it's about an abuse of power. Yuck.

Okay, I didn't mean to go off on that rant. What I really wanted to say is that the movie made me want to read Persuasion again. I loved that it was my favorite Austen book that really brought people together at the end. It's nice that someone else sees the value of that book. Persuasion is always overshadowed by the more popular Pride and Prejudice, but I think Persuasion is actually a better story and it isn't bogged down so much by all of blah, blah that one finds in Pride and Prejudice or even Sense and Sensibility.

So, now I just have to find my copy of Persuasion. That might be the real challenge.

My Big Huge Feet and I'm looking forward to...

Usually, I like my feet. So, yeah, I wear a size 10 and I usually have to have a wide shoe, but, other than that, my feet aren't the worst looking part of my body. But now I have entered the dreaded "last month" and by the end of the day my feet look like elephant hooves (I think elephants have hooves. Hmm, maybe I should do some "inquiry"). And it's been worse the last few days of school because we're testing and I sit much more while testing than I usually do during the day. Yet another reason to get this baby out of me!!!

Things I'm looking forward to:

• No more elephant feet.
• No more heartburn.
• No more coughing caused by acid reflux.
• Sleeping in my own bed.
• Being able to sleep on my stomach.
• Clothes that fit!
• Not needing to go to the bathroom a million times a day.
• No more "leakage" when I cough.
• Bleu cheese dressing.
• Fewer evil mood swings.
• And, of course, a new baby.

A Cure, Perhaps?

I went to my doctor yesterday. I don't know how much weight I gained (I forgot to ask), but I've only grown a centimeter in 2 weeks! Yay! Maybe this baby won't be Gigantor! I asked my doctor if there was anything I could take for the nights that I can't sleep and he said I can take Unisom or Benadryll. I then asked if it was okay for me to keep taking the cough syrup he prescribed for me (I had read something online about it, and I wanted to make sure) and he said that it was fine to keep taking. Then I asked him if there are other people who end up with eterna-cough when they're pregnant. He said I was not the only one and that a lot of times it's caused by acid reflux, which I can take Pepcid AC or Zantac for! So, the next time you see me, I might not be coughing like a lifelong smoker! Another Yay!

Top Ten Worst Excuses For Not Doing the Dishes

There was an article in the Teen Impact magazine about the Top Ten Worst Excuses for Not Doing Homework. I had my students read it and then they wrote their own top ten excuses. They didn't have to write about homework; they could write about anything. After I gave the assignment, I decided to require myself to do it too. So here are my Top Ten Worst Excuses for Not Doing the Dishes.

10. I decided to save the planet by not using our precious water resources.

9. I saw something moving in the sink.

8. I thought doing the dishes was your job.

7. I told myself, "When Law and Order is over, I'll do the dishes," but after Law and Order there was Law and Order: CI and Law and Order: SVU, and Law and Order was never over!

6. I couldn't wash dishes and text my BFF at the same time.

5. I want to buy some new dishes, so I saw no point in washing the old ones.

4. What's the point of doing dishes? They'll just get dirty again.

3. I'm waiting for the producers of Wife Swap to pick me for an episode so someone else has to do the dishes.

2. I'm allergic to dishes.

1. I couldn't do th dishes because I was too busy doing my homework.

For Nicole

This post is mostly for Nicole, and she'll know why. While I was working on the previous post, Daniel and Andrew were in the same room with me playing on the PlayStation. Daniel had a very wet, well, a wet fart. I asked him if he was pooping in his pants and he said, "Yeah," not even turning away from his game. I yelled at him to go to the bathroom. The whole incident was very messy and I went through a lot of wet wipes and I now have clothes in the wash, even though I did their laundry just the other day. I'm more than a little irritated because he doesn't usually do this, but he just gets distracted by the video games. So, I guess he'll have to be grounded from video games again for a while. *whine*

Political Top Tens

I heard Mitt Romney's top ten reasons he dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination today on NPR as I was driving home today.


And when I heard that I was, of course, reminded of Barack Obama's Top Ten Campaign Promises from Letterman. They're my all time favorite Top Ten.


And, of course, if I'm going to have any of Letterman's top ten lists, I need to have the Top Ten Signs You're Not the Most Popular Guy in Your High School, as presented by Napoleon Dynamite. (I share this at the beginning of the year with my students!)

Feeling Better

Well, I've been feeling better the last couple of days. I slept almost the entire night on Monday in my own bed! Last night I couldn't sleep in my own bed, but I did sleep on the couch most of the night. And although I'm still coughing (and getting that sharp, stinging in my abdomen when I do), it hasn't been nearly as bad as it was for the last several weeks. Yipee! Maybe I'll get some rest before this baby comes. I hope that this trend of sleeping and feeling a little better continues!

Round Ligament Pain, Anybody?

So, last night, after posting, I decided to surf the web to see if I could find out anything about this pain that I have everytime I cough and I found out about something called Round Ligament Pain. And the symptoms and the placement of the pain were exactly what I've been having. So, it's nice to know that it's not just some random pain, that there is an actual name for it and that it is harmless (although everytime I cough, I feel like someone has stabbed me), especially after waking up coughing and then almost screaming out loud. Yet another reason that I'm glad I'm done with having kids. I don't care that the number is uneven or that I don't have a girl; I just never want to do this again! The first two were pieces of cake compared to this one. That makes me a little nervous about delivery, since the first two were so easy as well.

Well, a month and a half and I'll be done and I can start complaining about not sleeping at night because of a newborn. I'm actually looking forward to it.

The Cough that would not die

It is now 3:30 in the morning and I haven't slept yet. My body and mind are willing, but everytime I cough, which now seems to be to be everyother minute, it hurts part of my stomach and then I just want to cry because it hurts. So, if any of you have some ieas for a pregnant-lady cough please let me know. I hope this post makes sense becuase I seem to start to write gobble-ldy-gook everytimeI close my eyes

I*'m going to go sit on the couch now and pray for sleep.

I Wish I Could Bottle That Comment!

I love when I get a warm, fuzzy feeling at work; it happens so rarely. Today, a student came in with some of her friends to get the work she missed from last time. One of her friends said that all she does in her English class is read books and watch movies (which she liked because she admitted that she rarely read the book). My student said, "Not us. In my class, we learn stuff." Hooray! Someone actually thinks that we learn in the classes I teach.

Now, I wish I could take that comment, put it in a bottle, and have it on my desk so I can open in anytime I feel like I'm a crappy teacher and my students aren't learning anything.

I love the DI!

I went to the DI after I had blood drawn on Friday and with my mom yesterday (Saturday), and I got so much good stuff!
The above books are all for my classroom library. My books tend to disappear over the year, so I need replenish it for next year.
These are books that I bought for myself.
Books I bought for the boys.
Random stuff I found that was too good a bargain to pass up.
Pretty random stuff that cost less than $3 for everything. I went back to get more of the little glass bottles when the cashier told me she'd give them to me for 25 cents, but they were gone when I got back there. I guess I should have taken them all when I first saw them.

I'm looking forward to more DI hopping once I have this baby, because it was hard doing just one DI a day.

Scones and Screaming

I like to do something other than cereal when I am here during the morning, since I'm very rarely here in the morning. Yesterday I made French Toast Sticks (Okay, I actually cooked frozen ones from Evil-mart.) and today I decided to make scones (I have the world's easiest recipe and they're just as good as any restaurant: You buy one tube of jumbo fridge biscuits, flatten them out and then cook them in hot oil. Seriously, they're that easy and they are sooo good).

So, back to the scones. As I was making them, I asked Buddy to leave the kitchen because the oil was hot and I didn't want him hanging out right behind me and getting splattered or something. Well, he acted like I had just shot his dog and he started screaming and crying. I told him to stop crying. He didn't so he got sent to time out. That, of course, made things worse. I went in to talk to him and told him if he stopped crying he could come out. Before he came out, I asked him if he wanted honey or jam on his scone. He said, "Jam!" So, I fixed him a scone with jam, picked him up and told him that I loved him and got him to calm down a little more, and gave him the scone.

Well, then he acted like not only had I shot his dog, but I had just handed it to him on a plate and he started screaming again! Before I lost my temper, I told him to go to his room. When I went into to talk to him, I asked him what he wanted. He then told me that he wanted honey on his scone! Grrr! I can't do anything right with that kid sometimes!

The New Banner

I got this banner for free from Jack and Cat Curio. Free stuff rocks!

A long morning

I had a long morning today. The best thing about the morning was that I got to sleep in until 7:00! But I had to be at the "lab" to have blood drawn by 8:30. So, first they pricked my finger to check my glucose level, then they drew blood, I got to drink the sweet, sweet red drink and then I got to sit for an hour. After having blood drawn three more times (one time really hurt and the place where the gal drew blood from still hurts now) and 145 pages of a fluffy romance novel read, I got to leave and finally eat something. It made me laugh that when I finally got to leave, everybody at school was already in 7th period. The day was half over for them.

I went to Panda Express with the husband, then I headed over to the DI, bought a bunch of books for my classroom and some other doodads, went to Michaels (bought a whole basket of stuff, including several Martha Stewart items that were on clearance), and then made a quick stop at Walmart to get a phone card for the husband (I didn't even get a cart and I still spent over $60! That must be a record).

And, even though I didn't do hardly anything today, I'm exhausted. I don't have a whole lot of patience for my children tonight. I think it will be an early to bed night...for all of us!

My Cousins and I ROCK!!!

Watch me dance!

Arrrghhhh!

I think I need a vacation, because I totally flipped out tonight. I don't know what did it; it was probably a combination of several things. It was partially the husband calling while I was on my way home from work to ask, "Are you hungry?" which I took to mean, "What are you going to do for dinner?"; partially finding out that the children had found my Girl Scout cookies and opened one of the boxes (and then me wondering, "What was the husband doing when this happened?"); partially being told that I couldn't talk to the husband very long on the phone because he only had 15 minutes left; partially coming home to the 2, almost 3, year-old crying because we didn't have a fish spoon like Grandma has so he could eat applesauce; and then, partially, the child spilling the applesauce all over his clothes and the floor while I was trying to make dinner.

And I flipped. The profanity probably is burned in my children's minds forever. And, to top it off, I really needed to go to the bathroom and my bladder control is not the best right now, with this huge boy-child inside me pushing on my bladder all the time and my temper was not the only thing that was lost when I yelled.

And I can't go anywhere now, because the husband has to go to work soon and I'll be left alone with the children after spending all day with teenagers who looked at me like I was crazy when I gave them the new project we're going to start.

I'm so tired. Can I go to bed now?

Strangle the Children or the Husband?

I started a new class tonight for my reading endorsement and one of our assignments is to keep a regular journal. I decided to blog mine.

And then I came home from class (after an hour long drive from Happy Valley) to find that my lovely children had gotten into my paints and helped me paint my art journal, and the couch, the table, and their clothes. I, obviously, was not very happy with them and told them that they were not allowed to touch my stuff when I wasn't there.

I then asked my dear husband what he had been doing while the children made a mess. He confessed that he had been in bed until 10 o'clock in the morning! I think I was more angry at him than I was at my children.

So, really, here's the question: Do I strangle the children or the husband? Who is more at fault?