Update

I just wanted to do post a quick update. Last week I had to start taking allergy shots again. After not having them since I was a freshman in high school, it seems really asinine to have to go weekly again. Plus there isn't any place convenient to go get them, but they will help and I should be a lot healthier this coming year.

Last week I had an emotional week with my students. They mean so much to me and I wish I could take them all home. Sometimes I wonder how their parents miss the best parts of their child! Instead most of my students' parents are out dating, partying, working, and doing other things that keeps them from home with their child. It breaks my heart, that's for sure. I even have a student who lives with his grandmother and his other siblings. They live in a 1 bedroom home and he sleeps in the living room on an air mattress... how sad!!! It is also funny the amount of respect these students have for me. Parents will call as to behavior help and it is just funny how natural it comes to me and yet maybe if the parents would spend more time with the child it'd be a different story.

As for updates on Dustin... he is drilling this weekend and if he hadn't taken leave on Thurs and Fri, he'd be working 2 weeks straight. You see, Dustin is active duty in the Air Force, right? Well he works 5 days a week normally and then when the yay-hoos that work in the guard (1 weekend a month, 2 weeks a year) Dustin has to work those as well for no extra pay. On top of that, it is constant flying and busy busy busy! I guess whatever it takes to defend our nation. We've gotta train these boys some how right?

Nothing much else going on around here other than normal life. I've joined the Mona Vie company and am selling/promoting the Mona Vie goodness. You should check it out at http://www.monavie.com or http://www.buildthejuice.com or even http://www.brighart.com. This juice has changed my life and the business will provide me with financial security for those pesky student loans. So if you want to see healthy changes in your life, join the company to gain financial freedom, and/or just want to help me out, just let me know!

Tribute to Teaching

I just wanted to say that I had an amazing first week back to school since our spring intercession. The students were amazing and makes me want to have a gazillion teenagers around me all the time. I love them and they even keep me in line. Maybe I'm just an old middle schooler at heart? Students are such a blessing.

One of my students has become very close to me as she does not have much of a home life. She talked to day about how a student in her group was helping her with her hair. She is a biracial student and her mother doesn't know how to take care of African American hair. The student just wanted to thank me for putting her in the group I did because she started to feel a part of something and was learning things about life.

That brings up another point. I'm a middle school English teacher, right? While I do teach Literature and Grammar, I think what I teach most of all is social skills. I constantly reinforce the proper manners during particular instances. I love it!

Just a huge kudos to my fellow educators. Only we can understand how important our job is even though our days may be very long and draining.

Last day before reality...again

So last night I tossed and turned all night because I knew this was my last day to sleep in on break. I've been on spring break for the last 3 weeks and now I've got to get back to reality. We will be reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry for the next three or so weeks and then we will be reading Outsiders for the last weeks of school. I'm quite excited we've only got 9 weeks of school left. We get out on June 5th at 10:30am. Too exciting!

It is such a beautiful day today, I may go outside and do some Bible study or just knit and enjoy the breeze. We're going to go up to the butcher and get some steaks for dinner and grill out steak and shrimp. Today we've decided to have a no carb day and it's all veggies and meat. We'll see how that works out.

Funeral, Doctor, and Dinner

Today was the funeral for Dustin's family friend. He was asked to be a paw bearer. In that he was also asked to dress in his class A uniform. Men in uniform are such turn on's... here's a pic of him after the day's events:


The funeral was at 10:30 this morning and was over around 12:30 by the time we finished grave-side.

After the funeral, we ate at Cheesecake Factory. Dustin had some scrumptious fish tacos and I had chicken fettuccine. I am not sure why, but Cheesecake Factory always serves large portions, even at lunch. One time I ordered a burrito and it was as big as the plate and the plate was every bit of 14" wide! The lunch portions are indeed smaller, but still way too much. We opted out of cheesecake and headed straight to my doctor's appointment.

I've been having such severe problems with my asthma and allergies so my doctor wanted to run another skin test. So here Dustin was uncomfortable in his class A's and had to sit there for 2 1/2 hours! Unbelievable!!! The results: back to allergy shots every week. This time I have to have two shots every week as my symptoms have increased since I was 10...

Since we had to sit there for so long and Dustin and I were dressed up, we decided to go have a drink and an appetizer at a fancy restaurant. We stopped in to Sullivan's steakhouse. We haven't eaten there before, but man the menu was hot! We had a great time that's for sure.

Here's a picture of us after a really long day of oddness:


Now we're showered and relaxing in the living room getting ready to watch some television and call it quits for the day.