Halfway Hip

Not quite so tired today

The weekend was really just shit.  My kids have been reacting in a normal fashion to such a drastic change in lifestyle, but it's still pretty hard to take.  Aidan has had some massive, angry tantrums.  It got really bad on Sunday, then it got better Monday and Tuesday, and today, just before bed, he threw another one. Poor kid.  I'm afraid that the demands of "real" school might be getting to him, even though he says he likes it.  It could also be the fact that I'm so distracted and that Matt's gone.  He says he enjoys school, but he's peed in his pants once and has already been to the school nurse for a tummy ache. I had to quickly make arrangements today to leave and go get him, but then they called me back and said he felt better all of a sudden.  

Evan started preschool yesterday, and that seems to have gone pretty well . All of our drop-offs and pick-ups are working well, too.  Evan loves our child care provider, and Aidan really seems to enjoy going there after school, too.  The annoying thing about Evan right now is that he's really, really whiney and doesn't want to do a lot for himself.  I'm trying not to cater to that too much b/c I don't want him to have baby-of-the-family syndrome.  At the pool on Sunday, I decided that I just couldn't carry him anymore.  So, of course, that meant that he was sitting on the hot concrete crying while everyone in the pool gave me the hairy eyeball.  I ended up carrying him a little of the way, and then I "encouraged" him along to the car.  Baby steps.

My classroom is starting to shape up a bit.  It's weird being at a school where students actually bring the supplies you've asked them to buy.  I found myself under a mountain of index cards, glue sticks, and colored markers.  That's in addition to 130 new, huge textbooks, 260 workbooks, and 130 copies of Night.  Oh, and we also got in our new handheld computers

. I have 26 of them sitting on a cart in my room in their original boxes. The kids are already freaking out in excitement over them, which worries me a bit b/c we don't have locking cabinets for them. Besides having to get organized and figure out how the school works, I'm really enjoying my days with the students. I'm getting to know them a bit, and I'm able to put more and more names to faces. They're pretty funny. One of them nearly made me fall off of my stool on Friday when he said he was born in 1994. The girls are all mostly developed, but the guys are still playing catch-up. They're very tall, compared to the 7th graders, and the voice-cracking has kicked in big-time. I heard a kid pass off his croaky voice today as "allergies." Hehe. I'm trying hard to remember what 8th grade was like for me. Overall, I remember starting out the year the same shallow girl I was in 7th grade and then changing massively around the middle of the school year. I'm sure being introduced to The Cure had something to do with it. :) I'm off to Zappos.com to do some shoe-shopping. My shoe wardrobe needs an overhaul, as even my "comfy" shoes leave me hobbling by the end of the day. I'm thinking all Dansksos, all the time.

Wiped Out

What a week, ya'll. This life change has left me nearly comatose this weekend. I'm so tired and yet I have so much to do, I'm almost stunned to the point of inaction, even though both of the kids have finally, mercifully gone to sleep early. This new life seems like it's all built on a delicately balanced house of cards. One false move, and it might all come plummeting down. Or, more likely, it will all stay up, courtesy of my shredded sanity. Who needs sanity when your job is to corral 110 13 year olds all day long and then come home to a needy 2yo, a hyperactive, emotional 6yo, and a neglected dog? I'm tired but can't sleep, hungry all the time but can't really eat. At school, I think I'm holding it together really well so far. I haven't even begun to grade or deal with parents or even learn most of my students names, but I've found that I can still get up and teach a class in a fairly entertaining, take-charge manner. I was worried that I had lost that ability, but it was like riding a bike. It will be juggling everything else that will be the biggest challenge, especially now that I've agreed to be a single parent for 18 days every month. Unfortunately, home is where I can fall apart. Well, I haven't totally fallen apart. I don't think I need restraints or even some good meds. Yet. We're only on Matt's second trip, and I'm left wondering why I ever, ever agreed to this lifestyle. I guess being able to pay the bills and keep our house was a pretty strong motivator, but still. I guess it's kind of late to change my mind.

Just in case you haven't seen it yet

See you at the debates, bitches!

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Death by Powerpoint

I've been meaning to post. Really, I have! I had a whole cute post about our 2 weeks while Matt was gone summarized using quotes from Project Runway's Christian Siriano all thought out and halfway scribbled on my planner. Now, the info's gone stale, so I'll have to find another use for Christian's gems. I'll find some way to work it, bitches! I spent last week halfway mourning my last few remaining days as a SAHM. Got to go down to Texas to see my great friend Sara, who was in town visiting from Denmark with her kids. Her friendship was my salvation when I was a new, lonely mama in the California desert. It looks like she'll be coming once a year to visit, which makes me so very happy. It was a great visit, Sara! The boys finished up their last week of the part-time summer program at their preschool. This was Evan's first schooling experience, and he just fit right in like I knew he would. Aidan is excited and nervous about starting first grade at "big kid school." My first day of work was Friday. Yes, August 1st. Insane, I tell you! It was kind of fun, though. The teachers at my school were all split into groups to develop common procedures/lesson plans for things we all have to do, like arrival, dismissal, lunch, recess, and assemblies. I was in the group who developed the recess lesson plan, and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. I had forgotten how much fun everyone has at a middle school as opposed to a high school. There's a very low crusty/bitter teacher ratio, which helps. I got to learn about some new middle school behaviors I hadn't previously known about, such as "corndogging." The description I was given, which involves a very memorable visual component, will probably crack me up for the rest of my life. Yesterday, I had a glorious 2 hours to work in my room. I got a lot checked of my "to do" list, but there's still so much to be done and there will never be enough time to do it all. My friend Jean had helped me put up fabric and borders on my bulletin boards a few weeks ago. I chose dark purple fabric with sparkly silver borders...very drag queen, but bright and cheerful. I unpacked my young adult literature collection and finally scammed a working overhead projector on the 3rd try. After lunch out with the boys and my MIL, who is in town for a few days, I had the first of many new teacher orientation meetings. Yesterday was violence prevention training. It's pretty much the same techniques I already use with my own kids; how to tell when you're angry, where to go for help, how to cool off before hitting, etc. Today, they herded all 150 of us into a theater at the high school for about SEVEN hours of straight lecture and Power Points over district policies. There will be more tomorrow. UGH! At least we'll be breaking up into groups instead of crunching ourselves into too-small auditorium chairs for an entire day. One of the things we were told was to go and clean up our myspace and other web presences. I don't have anything bad out there, but I do want to make my myspace a little more neutral. I'm also going to have to police it regularly to make sure no one's putting any weird comments or pics of me up there. Off to do that now...