Tomorrow is the first day back to work after Christmas break. It's a teacher work day, which is a great thing, but I'm only going in for a few hours and then I'm going to be homebound until Monday. I'm staying home to let the knee get a little bit better before I take a chance on going to work for a long day. I have my disability insurance, which will pay me for the days, so I decided to take it easy and not strain the knee. It's still looking pretty nasty and I don't go back to the doctor until Thursday.
I've got a lot of stuff to do around the house, so hopefully I'll be able to get a few things done without my three helpers under foot. For now, I'm going to sit around and watch some more Law and Order marathon on TNT and enjoy mynew flannel jammies, cozy slippers and fabulous down throw. I had a very lovely Christmas.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Please Join Me In A Collective Sigh Of Relief
I have finally found a style of underwear that I like. Yay me!! Turns out that I **do** in fact like Hanes Boyshorts--the ones I tried last summer were just too small. Now I wear them and they are super comfortable. I went out and bought myself two more packs of them because I was tired of having to wash the same three pair over and over.
I have a drawer full of underwear that looked like it would be comfortable, but isn't. I don't donate undies to Goodwill and I hate to throw things away, so I'm sure they'll sit there in the drawer until I have to throw them away to make room for my new comfy boyshorts. Now I can spend my money on something else--maybe jewelry? I need a good gold bangle--not real gold because I'm too cheap.
I have a drawer full of underwear that looked like it would be comfortable, but isn't. I don't donate undies to Goodwill and I hate to throw things away, so I'm sure they'll sit there in the drawer until I have to throw them away to make room for my new comfy boyshorts. Now I can spend my money on something else--maybe jewelry? I need a good gold bangle--not real gold because I'm too cheap.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas To All And To All A Good Night!
Christmas is almost over here in Middle Tennessee. The kids and W. are long since asleep. Me, I had to wait up until 11.30 so I could take my last dose of Demerol for the night--the knee is being partiularly ornery tonight. I did fine most of the day, and I suppose I overdid things--the back is has a nasty looking knot on it. I shudder to think what is inside that knot--it's looking a bit red and funky, so I think I'll be calling the doctor just to check in. I need this to heal, not drag out into some medical horror story.
Anyway, today was a very lovely, laid-back Christmas. W. was up around 4.30 to make breakfast before he went to work--he definitely has some keeper qualities. Steak, country ham and biscuits. Yummy. I had planned to get up around the same time, but since I was up in the middle of the night dealing with an asthmaticly coughing 8-year-old, I 'slept in' until 5.00. I'm such a bum, lol. Got up and puttered around in the living room getting things just right and then we woke the kids up around 5.15 or so. It took about ten minutes to get them up and going, but once they were awake, they were bouncing. It was so much fun to see Jay and Sam's reactions to their loot. Five was more subdued--it's hard when one of your presents costs two or three times what a brother's does. I tried really hard to make sure they each got three 'big' gifts and then supplemented. I got this idea from a friend--she explains to her kids that Jesus was given three special gifts and that's why we get gifts now. My kids have actually gotten much more into the whole list thing since I told them to just choose three things. They put lots of thought into it and shuffle stuff around as needed.
The Moon Shoes that Jay wanted are actually sort of cool. I'm sure they will just be a novelty, but I liked the idea that they required physical activity, so even if he plays with them once a month, that's better than sitting watching tv for that time. Sam got a scooter--he didn't ask for one, but again, I'm trying to push the outside activities. He said that Santa must really like him to bring such a cool scooter AND a red helmet (red is his favorite color). Five tried to be excited about the fact that he got clothes from Santa--I know he wsn't, but it was stuff he needed, so I decided to add it in to his very paltry looking pile of DVD/PS2 games and a huge Beatles Anthology book.
W. had to go to work at 6.45, so that left me and the boys home alone for the day. Our present to him was a clean house, so we played and napped (them and me) and then I organized a fairly effective cleaning of the dining room (the table had been buried for months upon months). We had to move loads of junk here and there--well, I say 'we', but it was mainly Five. Now there is a huge mess in the office, but I've decided that it makes more sense for one room to be a disaster than for six of them to be, so we started the offloading today. I had Jay on his hands and knees cleaning baseboards and Sam was dusting window sills. By the end of the afternoon, the dining room was shining, a bathroom had been cleaned, the hall had been swept (mostly) and the baseboards in the halls, dining room and part of the kitchen were clean. Floors were mopped and vac'd and everything just looked better overall. Tomorrow and Thursday are bedroom days. They will be painful.
Nice time at MIL's for Christmas dinner. I didn't take any cooked food this year thanks to SIL having pity on me being crippled and on my own. We didn't have any other folks at MIL's, so it was very easygoing and chatty. My boys were hell on wheels, but that's the norm when they get in a confined space without a television or other distraction. The fart putty (or toot in a can as Sam calls it) certainly didn't do much to calm them, lmao.
I went to pick up W. and took him back to MIL's so he could eat and do gifts--he'd worked a 12 hour shift at the hospital and was pretty dead. His feet didn't hurt as much and I am crediting the diabetic socks that I gave him. No, I don't know what makes socks 'diabetic', but I figured they would be comfy and easy on the feet, so I bought them. We'll do a comparison tomorrow to see if it was the socks or not.
So, another Christmas in the books. It's hard to believe that I've been doing the Santa gig since 1993...that's 14 times. It's even harder to believe that I'm over halfway done doing it...and just about to the point where I don't have a believer. Today Sam said, "Wow, Santa sure is a generous man." I almost cried it was so sweet. And while it will be nice, I suppose, to get the credit for the gifts in a few years, I don't know that they will be nearly as awe-inspiring as they are right now. That's a little bit sad.
I hope everyone (or three) that reads this has had an equally blessed Christmas. Take it easy this week and let's get ready to welcome in 2008--the year that I personally feel will be Kimmah's Year.
Anyway, today was a very lovely, laid-back Christmas. W. was up around 4.30 to make breakfast before he went to work--he definitely has some keeper qualities. Steak, country ham and biscuits. Yummy. I had planned to get up around the same time, but since I was up in the middle of the night dealing with an asthmaticly coughing 8-year-old, I 'slept in' until 5.00. I'm such a bum, lol. Got up and puttered around in the living room getting things just right and then we woke the kids up around 5.15 or so. It took about ten minutes to get them up and going, but once they were awake, they were bouncing. It was so much fun to see Jay and Sam's reactions to their loot. Five was more subdued--it's hard when one of your presents costs two or three times what a brother's does. I tried really hard to make sure they each got three 'big' gifts and then supplemented. I got this idea from a friend--she explains to her kids that Jesus was given three special gifts and that's why we get gifts now. My kids have actually gotten much more into the whole list thing since I told them to just choose three things. They put lots of thought into it and shuffle stuff around as needed.
The Moon Shoes that Jay wanted are actually sort of cool. I'm sure they will just be a novelty, but I liked the idea that they required physical activity, so even if he plays with them once a month, that's better than sitting watching tv for that time. Sam got a scooter--he didn't ask for one, but again, I'm trying to push the outside activities. He said that Santa must really like him to bring such a cool scooter AND a red helmet (red is his favorite color). Five tried to be excited about the fact that he got clothes from Santa--I know he wsn't, but it was stuff he needed, so I decided to add it in to his very paltry looking pile of DVD/PS2 games and a huge Beatles Anthology book.
W. had to go to work at 6.45, so that left me and the boys home alone for the day. Our present to him was a clean house, so we played and napped (them and me) and then I organized a fairly effective cleaning of the dining room (the table had been buried for months upon months). We had to move loads of junk here and there--well, I say 'we', but it was mainly Five. Now there is a huge mess in the office, but I've decided that it makes more sense for one room to be a disaster than for six of them to be, so we started the offloading today. I had Jay on his hands and knees cleaning baseboards and Sam was dusting window sills. By the end of the afternoon, the dining room was shining, a bathroom had been cleaned, the hall had been swept (mostly) and the baseboards in the halls, dining room and part of the kitchen were clean. Floors were mopped and vac'd and everything just looked better overall. Tomorrow and Thursday are bedroom days. They will be painful.
Nice time at MIL's for Christmas dinner. I didn't take any cooked food this year thanks to SIL having pity on me being crippled and on my own. We didn't have any other folks at MIL's, so it was very easygoing and chatty. My boys were hell on wheels, but that's the norm when they get in a confined space without a television or other distraction. The fart putty (or toot in a can as Sam calls it) certainly didn't do much to calm them, lmao.
I went to pick up W. and took him back to MIL's so he could eat and do gifts--he'd worked a 12 hour shift at the hospital and was pretty dead. His feet didn't hurt as much and I am crediting the diabetic socks that I gave him. No, I don't know what makes socks 'diabetic', but I figured they would be comfy and easy on the feet, so I bought them. We'll do a comparison tomorrow to see if it was the socks or not.
So, another Christmas in the books. It's hard to believe that I've been doing the Santa gig since 1993...that's 14 times. It's even harder to believe that I'm over halfway done doing it...and just about to the point where I don't have a believer. Today Sam said, "Wow, Santa sure is a generous man." I almost cried it was so sweet. And while it will be nice, I suppose, to get the credit for the gifts in a few years, I don't know that they will be nearly as awe-inspiring as they are right now. That's a little bit sad.
I hope everyone (or three) that reads this has had an equally blessed Christmas. Take it easy this week and let's get ready to welcome in 2008--the year that I personally feel will be Kimmah's Year.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Christmas Lite
For the past several years, it has seemed as if Christmas sort of snuck up on me. I haven't really been in the mood for it all. This year, though, I was determined to be ahead of the game and get the 'must-have' presetnts in plenty of time, have my house cleaned, etc.
Naturally, I ended up having knee surgery instead. This one was much more involved than the three previous ones, so it's meant a lot more down time than usual and much more than I can really stand.
So, instead of being ready at Thanksgiving for the Christmas season, I ended up leaving all the decorations in the attic and only put up a tree yesterday. I decided that we would do kid-made decorations, so we hung the things that were made at school, plus anything that a student gave me this year. I went out and bought a few strands of colored lights to make it more cheerful--normally, I'm a white light kind of girl. Sam and I made snowflakes out of coffee filters and put them up there and that's about it. Naturally, we have a HUGE tree this year, so it defnitely looks a bit bare, but I sort of like how homey it looks. We may make this a yearly thing--for the one tree. Next year I fully intend to be in mega-holiday mode and have all my trees out, have the garland and knick knacks out and the wreaths hung. This year was just not the year for that--and I'm totally okay with that. Sometimes you need to just step back and take a break. W. and I are really focusing on the kids this year and making Christmas about people more than gifts or hoopla. Sam, in particular, has really been full of Christmas spirit. He is quick to tell anyone who mentions gifts that Chirstmas isn't about getting stuff--it's about Jesus and love. He's a smart one, my Sam.
Because I have been hobbling around on one crutch in some questionable clothes (and in a Demerol-induced haze at times), I feel compelled to wrap up with the famous words of that little crutched boy, Tiny Tim:
Naturally, I ended up having knee surgery instead. This one was much more involved than the three previous ones, so it's meant a lot more down time than usual and much more than I can really stand.
So, instead of being ready at Thanksgiving for the Christmas season, I ended up leaving all the decorations in the attic and only put up a tree yesterday. I decided that we would do kid-made decorations, so we hung the things that were made at school, plus anything that a student gave me this year. I went out and bought a few strands of colored lights to make it more cheerful--normally, I'm a white light kind of girl. Sam and I made snowflakes out of coffee filters and put them up there and that's about it. Naturally, we have a HUGE tree this year, so it defnitely looks a bit bare, but I sort of like how homey it looks. We may make this a yearly thing--for the one tree. Next year I fully intend to be in mega-holiday mode and have all my trees out, have the garland and knick knacks out and the wreaths hung. This year was just not the year for that--and I'm totally okay with that. Sometimes you need to just step back and take a break. W. and I are really focusing on the kids this year and making Christmas about people more than gifts or hoopla. Sam, in particular, has really been full of Christmas spirit. He is quick to tell anyone who mentions gifts that Chirstmas isn't about getting stuff--it's about Jesus and love. He's a smart one, my Sam.
Because I have been hobbling around on one crutch in some questionable clothes (and in a Demerol-induced haze at times), I feel compelled to wrap up with the famous words of that little crutched boy, Tiny Tim:
God bless us every one!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Things I Love About Christmas1
- Baked goods
- Making lists
- Shopping at places I normally never go such as Big Lots or Kohls
- Being able to be lazy
- Watching my kids get excited over the smallest things
- Helping the boys send emails to Santa
- Eating on Christmas Day
- Wrapping gifts--up to a certain point
- Playing Santa
- Making cookies
- Seeing family
- Christmas lights
- O Holy Night
- Marathons on cable
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Dusting off the Blog....
I just had yet another knee surgery and am taking copious amounts of Demerol, so this won't be long--just to make sure I still know what I'm doing. I've been rather spastic at work and home lately, so blogging has really fallen to the wayside, which is a sure sign that I probably need meds for either ADD or depression or both.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Imagine me with a giant "L" on my forehead...or is that an "S"???
cause I? am a total and complete LOSER/SHIRT STEALER. OMG. See? I totally forgot about the t-shirt swap thingy, lost track of the date and the event all togeher and didn't even realize that one had ARRIVED for me until God-only-knows how late. Then I rushed out to purchase mine only to forget about it yet again this week in the turmoil that is the end of a quarter and the rush to pack for a trip to London with Five. And? someone threw my envelope that my shirt arrived in away, so I don't have an addy to send a thank you note to Augie and I feel like an utter heel and classless piece of trash.
I'm not going to say who my recipent is supposed to be because I shall surprise her with my spectacular shirt, plus one from London, when I return, but if you know who you are---I AM SOOOOOOOOOO SORRY!!!
I'm not going to say who my recipent is supposed to be because I shall surprise her with my spectacular shirt, plus one from London, when I return, but if you know who you are---I AM SOOOOOOOOOO SORRY!!!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
listes
things i enjoy:
- bananas
- whole wheat baguettey french bread from kroger
- max factor volume couture mascara in soft black or auburn
- cheese
- flip flops
- laminating
- sharp scissors
- cheap bottled water from aldi
- maroon 5
- muscle sculpting classes at the Y
- digital cameras
- pedicures
- cinnamon graham crackers
- short hair
- hot tubs
- boats
- banana boat sunscreen spray
- ipod
- dvr'd top chef and the closer
- a well written sentence
- london and new york
- hair straightening products and utensils
- myspace surveys
- stila tinted moisturizer
- cold zin
- lavendar and maroon
- blogs
- freshmen
- wedge sandals
- grilled chicken
things i hate:
- sweating in the car
- leg cramps
- yaz birth control pills
- protein shakes
- squash
- putting away laundry
- torturous undies
- shaving my legs
- 'pro' wrestling
- senior girls with attitude
- smelly middle schoolers
- frigging legos
- step aerobics
- bad local commercials
- morons on message boards
- spammers on myspace
- balancing my checking accounts
- being late
- being so far away from friends
- dog hair
- spider veins
- hangnails
- woody allen movies
- road contruction
- drunken neighbors
- cartoons
- arm fat
- run on sentences
- holy rollers
- getting old
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
we heart school
sam and me on the first day of school. this is before I took the reds out of my hair (and covered my atrocious roots).
Sunday, August 05, 2007
change is in the air
new school year=time to start from scratch:
1. i colored my hair today and did not use anything from the red family--i went with biscotti, which is dark blonde and a cool tone. i'm not sure i like it--it's not that dramatically different, really, just no red tones, but i think it's a bit ashy or cool for my skin. i'm going to give it a couple of weeks and then assess. i'd like to go lighter and blonder--not blonde, really--so i figured i'd just work my way there slowly. now i'm thinking i really do like the red, so who knows.
2. my desk is CLEAN. i can walk in my classroom and see the top of my desk, i can find pens and pencils and i can put my hands on files. it's my new promise to myself--clean desk at the end of every day. we'll see how long this one lasts.
3. i have faculty meetings every monday. by the end of this semester, i think we'll have had more meetings than i've had to attend in the previous 12 years. i'm okay with it, though, because they will actually have a purpose and we'll have goals. what a concept.
4. on a not as pleasant note--our teacher handbook says we can wear jeans on friday with a school shirt or school colors. um. no thank you. i do not want to be limited to school color stuff with my jeans--our school colors are black and gold. yucko. i also have a little bit of an issue with the idea that jeans cannot be 'professional dress' yet knit pants and top sets that essentially look like pajamas would be acceptable. i'm pretty sure that i'm going to wear jeans with whatever i feel like and see if anything is said and then make my argument. part of me thinks that the policy is just a holdover from the past regime and no one ever enforced it then, so i should be okay. technically, i don't think the principal can restrict jeans because it is a contract issue, so i'm hopeful that i will not be relegated to wearing wildcat crap if i want to wear denim.
5. w. has been admitted to the nursing program for the fall, so he'll be quite the busy guy and i'm going to really have to come out of my lazy mode and pick up the slack. i've gotten very spoiled having him around as needed on his own schedule to deal with whatever came along. 18 months from now, though. he should be looking for a job, so it's definitely worth it.
crazy week over and crazy one approaching---i'll be around more, though, i hope. the balancing act begins.
1. i colored my hair today and did not use anything from the red family--i went with biscotti, which is dark blonde and a cool tone. i'm not sure i like it--it's not that dramatically different, really, just no red tones, but i think it's a bit ashy or cool for my skin. i'm going to give it a couple of weeks and then assess. i'd like to go lighter and blonder--not blonde, really--so i figured i'd just work my way there slowly. now i'm thinking i really do like the red, so who knows.
2. my desk is CLEAN. i can walk in my classroom and see the top of my desk, i can find pens and pencils and i can put my hands on files. it's my new promise to myself--clean desk at the end of every day. we'll see how long this one lasts.
3. i have faculty meetings every monday. by the end of this semester, i think we'll have had more meetings than i've had to attend in the previous 12 years. i'm okay with it, though, because they will actually have a purpose and we'll have goals. what a concept.
4. on a not as pleasant note--our teacher handbook says we can wear jeans on friday with a school shirt or school colors. um. no thank you. i do not want to be limited to school color stuff with my jeans--our school colors are black and gold. yucko. i also have a little bit of an issue with the idea that jeans cannot be 'professional dress' yet knit pants and top sets that essentially look like pajamas would be acceptable. i'm pretty sure that i'm going to wear jeans with whatever i feel like and see if anything is said and then make my argument. part of me thinks that the policy is just a holdover from the past regime and no one ever enforced it then, so i should be okay. technically, i don't think the principal can restrict jeans because it is a contract issue, so i'm hopeful that i will not be relegated to wearing wildcat crap if i want to wear denim.
5. w. has been admitted to the nursing program for the fall, so he'll be quite the busy guy and i'm going to really have to come out of my lazy mode and pick up the slack. i've gotten very spoiled having him around as needed on his own schedule to deal with whatever came along. 18 months from now, though. he should be looking for a job, so it's definitely worth it.
crazy week over and crazy one approaching---i'll be around more, though, i hope. the balancing act begins.
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