The two best things about this Christmas were 1) Getting to spend tons of time with my family and having Kayla back home and 2) Getting to talk to Marisa!
Oh how I miss her laugh!
We had dinner at Osaka. Don’t worry Marisa, we will take you when you get back.
Made lots of goodies to share:
Had a wonderful relaxing Christmas day…
And it looks like we have ad date she will be coming home- not that we are counting down or anything…
Oh what a week! 1st of all we are SO glad Kayla made it home. After several delays and flight changes, she still made it in time to see Tyler perform! AND Alayna is taller than Kayla!
Bob woke up Monday morning throwing up. Lovely. Was out 2 full days of work from this awful stomach flu that is all over CR. Yes, we got our flu shots, but apparently this is a different strain. Lovely. On Friday at work I had a migraine and was starting to feel yucky- hoping it was just exhaustion. I laid on the couch, couldn’t sleep, starting throwing up at 3AM. You know its bad when you wish you were just back to bad fibro pain and utter exhaustion.I was out all day yesterday. Better today. Glad its all out of the way before Christmas!
Well, I made it through 21 science presentations this week and they were a HUGE hit! Teachers kept coming in to find out what was going on because that’s all the kids talked about! So, a special thank you to Hal and Corey for teaching me this stuff and to my parents for cultivating in me a string love of learning…
My daily oobleck making crew:
Always lots of fun with dry ice:
A cute tidbit from the week:
Student: Mrs. Hart, are you chaperoning the dance???
Me: No You wouldn’t want me to- if I came I would just be crazy and out dancing with you.
Student: Exactly! You would be the BEST chaperone!
CANT WAIT TO TALK TO MARISA THIS WEEK!!!!
We all had a pretty tough week. I didn’t see mine coming for sure. I won’t go into too much detail except to say I how frustrated I get when I try so hard to do everything right and people don’t see it.
1. I got an unkind email from the HS principal upset that I am not at the HS school more and that if my contract states 50/50 sharing, then my butt better be there 50 % of the time.
2. I called central office and got a copy of my contract. No where on it does it say I am 50/50 or that I am even a teacher librarian being shared by 2 schools!
3. As I look at it, I notice in tiny print at the top BA+12. Does that mean what I think it means? I called central office. Apparently some idiot lost ALL my paperwork up there and they didn’t know I had a masters degree, which is crap- they wouldn’t hire me without one. I was jipped over $6000! I went to a union rep (who really wont help me because I didn’t pay $700 at the beginning of the year to be a union member. After many calls and meetings I was told I don’t have a case since in essence I was too stupid to notice the small numbers on the contract. An important lesson for me on contracts. They will go back to August and pay me from there but I deserve the extra pay from my first year too! Why do we have to suffer sometimes because of other peoples mistakes?
4. I met with the middle principal and she basically says she supports me but isn't willing to fork out the money for me to be there full time. No mention of the huge difference I am making there.
5. Felt something weird was up with my para at the high school. Long story short, she finally broke down sobbing and admitted that the principal approached her several weeks ago and ordered her to spy on me. She is supposed to be documenting when I walk in, when I leave, and what I do there. I was beyond livid. If she wanted to know what I did and what hours I was there, why didn’t she just ask me. Im my opinion this was EXTREMELY unprofessional.
6. So I took that to the union and they once again said I am on my own.
I am not sure what I will do now. I DO know that my health can’t take this kind of unrelenting stress especially with this weather. Ok, venting done.
Alayna got the flu…fever, upset tummy, etc. Missed 2 days of school including her long showchoir rehearsal 
She is better now but her tummy has hurt all week.
Then when she got back to school, she pulled a muscle in her leg during basketball.
Then, we have been having some issues with the guineas. Daisy (the fluffy one) was raised alone for a year so she is an alpha female and Rosie has been our Alpha female. Alayna has been trying so hard to make it work because she loves all 3. However, they keep fighting. So, we have kept them in separate cages where they are much happier. Then yesterday, Rosie needed to pee, so Alayna stuck her in Daisy’s cage and immediately they attacked, Alayna tried to stop it and was bitten hard twice in her hand and 3 fingers. It was not a good night. She was crying as she realized she is too tired to take care of 3 piggies as well as 2 cages. So, we are looking for a good home for Daisy. She is so fluffy and sweet and loves to be held. She only attacks when around Rosie (and Rosie is the one that bit Alayna). So, if you know a good loving family who would love a super easy pet to take care of…I think it was a good learning lesson for her.
Tyler took the ACT then had many hours of show choir practice.
I feel like I am in survival mode. Spent 6 hours cleaning just to try and get to a point where I can function. Then, like an idiot, I planned science fun presentations all week.
Now the fun stuff:
Our school celebrated National Ugly Sweater Day on Friday. Apparently that’s the new hot ticket item so even goodwill was sold out of ugly Christmas sweaters. So, I had to do some improvising…
Kayla comes home in 6 days!!!! We can hardly wait to see her again!!!
It was a normal busy week, nothing big happened- weeks like that are really nice!. Less than 2 weeks til Kayla comes home and only 98 more days until our ultimate family cruise!!! (I found this written by Alayna on the family calendar)
We got the tree up early- be impressed because last year we didn’t even get one up! We played the Osmond Christmas, but it just isnt the same without Marisa and Kayla 
Alayna and Rosie have enjoyed hanging out under the tree.
I went to the Scholastic Warehouse sale and was able to get 122 books for the middle and 42 for the high school all for free (from money we earned from the book fair!)
We got to cover the high school principal in Silly String since we met our book fair goal.
Tyler auditioned for the high school production of South Pacific and got the part of Captain George Brackett! He is pretty excited about it!
Alayna started basketball this week.
I made the epic ice cream sandwich cake to celebrate Bob’s birthday. Bob had to work but we went shopping and started cooking for Thanksgiving.
We had a perfect, quiet Thanksgiving. We watched fun movies together and I made a super awesome dinner. We watched “Earth to Echo, Maleficent, Arrow, Flash, the Giver (which we LOVED). I also slept…a lot…
We got to Skype with Kayla and Corey…We sure missed Kayla and Marisa this year. It’s not the same without them 
I got to spend some time reading…with my buddy…
I worked on my science experiments for my Science Fun library days… (Thanks to Bob and Alayna for agreeing to play along with me and figure it out)
We made Dancing OObleck on a subwoofer…
I was asked this week to speak at the state-wide Iowa Reading Conference this summer. (I am not the keynote- thank heavens). I am honored but terrified. Here is a cute note I got on my HS survery…
We FINALLY talked Tyler into a haircut after 3 months. So much hair came off and we were able to shape it into the shape of a dog…a shaggy one
They are both heavily involved in show choir, Tyler auditions for the school musical tomorrow, and we are hopefully getting up the tree tonight.
