The end of Summer

Labor Day weekend historically marks the end of summer and the wearing of white, however, since we now live in Florida, summer NEVER ends and one may wear white all year long.....woo hoo.

For those that still live up North, it means that school is going to begin-yet I have been back in school since Aug. 8th.

I am still trying to get acclimated to a new grade level, new team, new building, new classroom, new reading series and a few new students. The most difficult aspect for me has been my new schedule. It is far from ideal and squeezing everything in just isn't happening yet. However, I am confident that the kinks will get worked out and that I will stop bringing work home with me.(fingers crossed on that one).

Despite my best efforts, I have been suffering from some SERIOUS insomnia lately. I am talking, I have been WIDE awake since 1am. I have watched infomercials on more products than I care to. Did you know that you can try not one, but TWO new flat irons for your hair TOTALLY for free(plus shipping) for 30 days????? One is ceramic thru and thru and has gems inside that keep it hot and the other one uses steam? Why would u want to steam the frizzy hair you are trying to flat iron, I don't know, but this one does it and Carmen Electra swears by the first one.

There are new pieces of exercise equipment that guarantee to give one the perfect abs for another unknown amount of money, vitamin pills that will make you lose every ounce of fat you have and the very best part is:

I will NOT be losing any weight with vitamins, I will stay fat with no new gym equipment AND my curly, kinky, thick hair will STAY curly unless otherwise blown dry by my most amazing former sil the hairdresser :)

I think that I will start taking some of my newer meds in the am as it seems that my sleeping patterns have changed since starting them and even my Ambien isn't working. NO sleep is NOT a good thing for me as I NEED at least 6 hours and I am def. feeling deprived.

Hope that everyone has a great long weekend. I hope to.

Lost and FOund

so, last night I was going thru my email and somehow or other found a tab that I had never seen before. Low and behold, I FOUND ALL MY MISSING EMAILS. yeah.

our Board meeting never happened and Junior Mint took a very LONG nap(of course, he had Daddy up til 1am afterwards but I went to sleep). I got a bunch accomplished including some lesson planning that needed to be done. Our new reading series is daunting, but I am hoping to get the hang of it before school ends. LOL.

Joshy was thrilled to see the airplane take off yesterday............YEAH.

The Board Prez. came by last night to have me sign some checks and informed us of something that blew me away. Ready for this? Let me tell you how VERY lucky I consider myself for many things, but for this for sure: Our fabulous pool company, NOT, Capital Pools and Spas was featured on Channel 8 not too long ago as the owner and president idot of the company, Greg Luce, had closed the business and taken off with MANY people's $$. THANK GOODNESS our pool is complete. I am not sure where that will leave us with NO ONE to take care of any warranty issues, but I am so very thankful. So many of these poor people lost their money, projects incomplete AND now have liens on their homes. JEEZ. The FL laws really do protect the contractors and NOT the homeowners.

What a mess. I researched this company and they had two complaints at the BBB but both were resolved in a timely fashion. Now what for these people?

I can NOT even imagine what I would have done if I had paid what I did and had NO pool. JEEZ.

It looks to be a beautiful day here, although HOT. Have a fantastic Tuesday and be thankful. I know that I sure am.

NIGHTMARE

so, for the last week, I have been reading my inbox FULL of emails(this morning there were 127 of them). I minimize the box and come back to it and POOOOF, the inbox is TOTALLY empty.

I have decided that this is considered a NIGHTMARE ON VISTA Street(thanks Jules) and I am HATING Vista. You see these emails are just GONE. not deleted, not in outbox, not in my docs, GONE.

Sooooooooo, with that said, if there is anything that you would like me to read, PLEASE send it to scrapnfla@hotmail.com cause tad is not being good to me.

PS Miami Dawn can u please resend what you sent on Fri cause I never finished reading it and it is among the missing :(

spoiled rotten

So, I got a phonecall last week from one of the MS Society girls, they were having a continuing education class for PT/OT's this weekend in Orlando and due to the crummy weather going on, several people were forced to cancel.

However, the NMSS had already paid for the rooms and had to guarantee a certain number of them, so they were being offered to the volunteers. I am happy to report, that I was spoiled rotten by them on Friday.

I met dh in Lakeland and dropped off my car and we headed over to O-town. OMG was this hotel beyond fabulous. I was very fortunate as a kiddo to go on my dad's insurance conventions twice a year and we stayed is some magnificent hotels, but the ROSEN SHINGLE CREEK has them all hands down. WOW. Absolutely phenominal. The welcome reception on Friday night was great and dh and I enjoyed a night of being spoiled without anyone tagging along. However, ds spent the night at Aunt Sue's going to Chuck E Cheeses on Fri and Celebration Station on Saturday. So, who was spoiled more?? LOL.

All in all a great evening, super nice day yesterday and then time spent in St. Pete with Nanny.

Not sure what is on the agenda today, but good to be home and ds was so happy we came home.
ps, for those of you who "know", the houseguest that overstays her welcome every year is leaving a WEEK early and flying out tom. morning. Just a few people here are VERY happy!!

shout out

I am hoping that Melanie reads my blog lately as I REALLY need to ask you something. So, Melanie, send me an email please, pretty please.
Jackie
tad64@verizon.net

Go away Fay

So we have been fully prepared for some NASTY weather today and so far(thankfully) not even a raindrop. I sure hope that others are fairing as well. Prayers for everyone.

Yesterday was the student's first day of class. I had 22/24 show up and I knew that the other two were not going to be there. Dismissal and the bus situation were CRAZY and car rider duty that is typically over by 2:35 at the latest, ran til nearly 3:15. At that point I was HOT and completely over it.
It usually gets better by the end of the first week and although I don't officially have that duty this week, we are all asked to come to the cafeteria and assist in any way that we can. FUN TIMES I tell ya.

I was surprised by a nice email when I got home from the walk ms manager. I have been invited to and graciously accepted the invite to a glamorous hotel in the Orlando area this Friday evening. There will be a cocktail reception and I chance to meet other volunteers and chit chat.

I used to adore hanging out with my school friends etc, but since meeting all of the amazing MS peeps, I realize how much I luv to gather with them and share ideas and fundraising stories. Someday I WILL be a professional fundraiser. My former principal used to tell me that all of the time and I do not disagree. I LUV it and especially love doing it for a cause that is so near and dear to me.

So, we are hanging out at home today, basically doing nothing. Johnnie is working from home which leaves us pretty much confined to the upstairs of the house and keeping lil man entertained up here isn't exactly the easiest of all tasks.

SO I am off to try to find something cool we can do up here. Stay safe everyone and hug yours a bit tighter.
Jax

Among the MISSING

I have been completely among the missing for the last week or more and that is all due to going back to work. I have one word to describe the last six weekdays and that is EXHAUSTED.......

Now most people would so, "big woopdiedoo you worked a whopping six days, who cares", but it has been REAL physical work. I am talking moving furniture, unpacking nearly 100 boxes and up and down off of chairs and tables. I am BEAT.
I now totally understand why it is that I am only allowed to work part time and I can't wait til Monday.

We also had Open House last night, which made for a 14 hour day for me. YIKES. Today, we literally got thrown out of the bldg at 5 :30 pm. I don't think that in 18 years of teaching that has ever happened to me. I am typically outta there when I am supposed to be. But, the room is as done as it is gonna be(however, if given the opportunity, I would go in tom, but that wasn't offered to us), planning will get done and Monday will go off without a hitch for us I am sure.

We have 24 on our roster, but I KNOW that they aren't all coming back to our school. We will see who shows up when Monday rolls around. Open House was BUSY. I didn't expect to have so many as I have had 16 of my kiddos before, but they came to meet their new math/science teacher and to check in. It was fun, but I am so paying for it today.

Joshy has had a very hard time this week without me, esp. the last two days or so. Aunt Sue has called a few times and spelled out how much he is missing me. He came to school to visit yesterday, which was super nice.

So, for those of you wondering where I have been, the answer is BAY CREST or bed. LOL.

I am excited for Monday and NOT going in until 11:30am.

Nothing on the agenda for the weekend, but catching up.
Have a good one all.

BLAH

I have been feeling a bit BLAH for the last couple of days and it isn't a good feeling.

Friday was a LONG HOT day back to school. Good to see everyone but somewhat, okay, VERY overwhelming. I am so sick of moving, unpacking and setting up a classroom each and every year. It would be so nice to just begin decorating and not unpack and have to figure out where everything should go first.

Tomorrow should be better as Charlotte and I moved most of the boxes to where we think they should go and then I can start organizing tomorrow. All my stuff made her feel totally overwhelmed I know but it will all come together and the sooner the better.

Joshy appears to be fighting a cold......ugh. Poor lil guy. He gets mopey when he is sick and he is all snuffly.

I am desperately trying to put all my scrap crap away. I am not buying another thing until I use up half of the stuff in here....................or have one year of NON stop cropping time to use it up. Like that is gonna happen.

Crop 4 Hope is getting FULL. woo hoo. Not too many spaces left..........yeah.

Okay, break time is over. Happy Sunday

What time is it?

Well, by the time that I hit PUBLISH POST it will be pretty much 8pm exactly on 08-06-08.

Exactly six years ago right now I was excusing myself from table #64 at Outback Steakhouse on N. Dale Mabry to go to the ladies room and make a phonecall. You see, I was on a blind date(courtesey of an email that I sent in response to a certain someone's personal ad) and I had strict instructions from two of my nearest and dearest friends(Helen and Elissa) that if I went on a blind date with any guys from there, I had to let them know where, when, with whom AND check in precisely ONE HOUR from the beginning of said date.

Thus, the phonecall from the bathroom at 8pm. On Aug. 6th, six years ago, my dh and I were eating our first of a gazillion meals together. Who would have "thunk" it?

You just never know where life is going to take you. So buckle your seatbelt and sit back for the ride, for now matter how bumpy it may be, it is TRULY an experience and so much better to have someone wonderful to share it with.

Happy Anniversary Froggie. We luv you,
The Tadpoles

It's the FINAL Countdown

I can not even begin to tell you that I am sitting here and that song just keeps playing over and over in my brain. THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. How can that even possible? I have recuperated from my weekend away scrapping. I had such a great time and although my body has caught up on some much needed sleep, I am not completely unpacked just yet. I figure there is no great hurry since I won't be scrapping for a bit now anyway.

DS has been WONDERFULLY behaved since I got home, which is very nice. We went to Wal Mart today and I told him that it was a "Grocery buying day and not a Joshy buying day". He "got" it and told Aunt Sue that he couldn't get the Thomas waterfall he saw because it wasn't his shopping day. YEAH. No meltdowns, helped load and unload the cart FULL of nothing but groceries. WOO HOO. Some of you would not completely understand this, but it is a tremendous feat.

We spent a really nice afternoon at Aunt Sue's in the pool. He and Brianna totally got on each other's nerves(for a change) but I got to soak in some sun and just relax. It was very nice.

So, I am hoping for a day trip to the beach tomorrow and then on Thurs. I have my back to school hair cut appt. Friday morning at 7:30 am I must report to school for 6 days of pre-planning, meetings, trainings and unpacking and setting up my room.

It is still unbelievable how quickly this summer has passed and I am happy to see it end and sad at the same time. I am oh so looking forward to being back in 4th grade and I miss my kiddos. I should have 16 out of 17 of the same ones and I have missed the lil buggers a bunch.

I have two pirate-y projects to complete before going back to school so I am going to go and put dinner in the oven and see if I can squeeze one in before dh gets home from work and ds wakes up from his snap.

Have a great Tues night...........two more mornings and back to work as Joshy would say.(that is how he counts days...........by the number of mornings).

another ducky day

so yesterday was a total washout as well. gotta luv living in the SUNSHINE state when it never seems to shine. Dh was working in Sarasota yesterday and it never even rained where he was, yet it didn't seem to stop here. Our front yard is about an inch or more deep in water and the side yard is even worse. Trying to get the mail is a squishy icky mess. LOL.

i finished packing my scrappy stuff and my car is packed. just need to get some clothes thrown into my duffle bag and i am good to go.

ds slept for 13.5 hours last night. WOW. I am guessing he TRULY needed it, I know that I sure did.

have a great weekend. I am off to the Kenilworth today and will check in on Sunday if not before. I can NOT wait for a weekend with the girls.
Jax