Have any of you ever used a neti pot? Go on google and watch the youtube video. Mr. Ogata had mentioned it to me so I decided to try it since this stupid sinus crap hasn't gone away in over a week. The neti pot thing is so weird. I feel like a reet doing it, but I'm hoping it helps clear out the sinusitis cuz I can't stand that feeling like I've been punched in the eye every morning. I'm grouchy enough as it is, I don't need one more thing making me feel crappy.

Dave is yet again obsessed with his damn baseball game. Grr. What kind of works, though, is that he reads to me or stays in bed until I go to sleep (which is super early), then he comes back out to play. As long as he doesn't wake me up and make me not able to sleep again, I guess that works. Yes, I'm a pain in the butt baby, but too bad. That's what husbands are for.

How many of you think that kids in 8th grade should know that "desolate" is a synonym for "barren" without any context clues? Frick. This quarter one assessment, the more I look at it, sucks butt.

K-den, good night. It's almost 7:15 and I have to shower so I can go sleep. Pathetic, huh.

This is what Dave's bowl looks like when I try to give him vegetables. I dunno how he does it, but he can eat everything around the vegetables and just leave what he doesn't like in the bottom of the bowl. What you see here is the remnants of chicken/vegetable soup when we were sick. He insisted that green beans are gross and he would not eat it. Is this what I have to look forward to with Caleb too??

Pagoda vs. Kolohe Slice and the electives

Before we get to the main event, let's start off with the preliminaries. First, there was Meat Jun starting our committee meeting with her anxiety over the schedule for next week Friday. She hates it when she misses her Period 6, so she's asking our committee if we want to see our Period 6, too. She said that if there are more people who want the schedule changed she would have to change it herself according to Eric. So we took about 5 minutes trying to figure that out, since we had questions and comments left and right about it. Then, as we continue on with our meeting, we get to the point where we were discussing a survey. The survey asked about knowing the math standards, and that's when Kolohe Slice says, "I don't care about knowing the math standards." Then Pagoda says, "This might be offensive, but I don't think it's important for me to know your standards, but YOU should know the standards for social studies, science, english, (and math)." HOLY CRAP! What is wrong with her??

I gotta stop being grouchy just at the mere thought of having department and committee meetings. I can feel the grouchiness envelope my entire being when it's a Wednesday and those are the meetings I gotta go to. And then on top of it, we have Friday coming up, with committee presentations, and though I shouldn't even care about it, I just wonder if what our committee plan is is good enough and if people are going to turn around at this point and tell us to change it. Frick.

At least it's Leish and Deena presenting today for Student Work Review, so we can count on it being done and done good. Not so sure we have that to look forward to for the rest of our Student Work Reviews. I'm so dang pessimistic, huh?

All I know is we better have lunch today. Hehe.

IFC

You guys gotta check that channel out. I don't even know what it stands for, but it just shows movies back to back to back...AND it's uncut and unedited. Amy and I watched "Bully" and "Body of Evidence." That's right...Madonna justifying her love over and over again. Holy crap. It's just like watching porn. They show some "non-mainstream" movies here and there, but they do also show some HBO made movies. Interesting. Anyway, check it out sometime. Channel 675 on digital.

Thank FREAKIN' goodness this week is over. It has been a LONG one. Dunno why exactly, but I'm tired and sick and I just hope this weekend is a relaxing one, despite having a heckload of work to do. Two more weeks then a week of bliss.

I dunno if it's just our kids, but today was an emotional day for them. I had one kid almost crying just cuz he forgot to go take his damn picture and then realized he didn't have his order form and money, then another kid bled on not one, but two seats (girl issues), which wasn't discovered until the following period. Poor girl. How embarrassing is that? We had another kid full on crying cuz he asked a girl out and she rejected him. I'm telling you, all I know is that boys crying in 8th grade just throws me off...I mean, I'm all good with an emotional boy, but come on...for those reasons? Figure it out! Poor Kathy...she has to be sympathetic to all these "issues". I told Dave that's why I cannot teach the SPED resource...those kids always like talk to you about their random stories, and sorry, but I just don't really have the patience to listen to it. Dang, I'm a BAD teacher, aren't I? I should DARE to CARE. Dangit.

Weird...

After school today, Amy had to go to the C-Bldg. bathroom, so, like any good husband, I waited outside, just staring into space. Then, I hear someone say, "Mr. Colmenares..hey, dddddid you run cross country in high school?" It was the younger janitor guy. So, we have a little chit chat about what high school I ran for, and what high school he ran for, etc. Anyway, after a while, Amy comes out and the guy just leaves without saying anything. I really don't have any "history" with this guy, other than the fact that I saw him in church one time and he let me borrow the spigot key, but turns out that this guy graduated 1996 (same year as me) from Campbell. I don't know if anyone has ever heard him talk, but he's got a pretty strong accent. Anyway, I just thought that it was pretty weird to have him walk over all the way from K Bldg., talk to me, then as soon as my wife comes out of the bathroom he leaves without really ending our short conversation. Who does that? I wonder if he was actually waiting to have that conversation with me. I wonder if he's planning what to say to me next time. Anyway, it was pretty weird.

Just thinking about this upcoming week is making me tired. It's a full week again, plus there's a lot going on after school. Monday - baby shower, Tuesday - class, Wednesday - stupid meetings, Thursday - tutoring and dinner with family, Friday - doctor and dinner with friends, Saturday - better get a whole lot of work done, Sunday - gotta be at school at about 5:15 a.m. for Niketown 5K Run. Yuck.

Thank goodness for Dave...at the moment he's figuring out my grades for me because I am mathematically retarded. If not for him, I don't even know how I would figure out this whole formative/summative/overall grade stuff. The last time I tried, I did it wrong and Dave had to help me correct it all. Simply averaging stuff out is like Calculus to me. Please let our baby have his math brain and my reading brain.

Kay, I better get off this and go make like I'm helping him before he gets irritated and tells me to do it myself cuz it's not that hard. All I know is that this ENTIRE day minus the time for cooking, eating, and going to church has been spent looking at student work. Grrr. Yuck.

Real Men of Genius...

Highlands Presents: Real Men of Genius
(Real men of Genius)
Today we salute you, Mr. Special Olympics Gold Medal Wearer Guy
(Mr. Special Olympics Gold Medal Wearer Guy)
For sports day, you decide to wear the one thing that you are very proud of...
The gold medal from the Olympics....the Special one.
(Sooo special!!)
Sure you are proud to flunk kids, write them up, and like to make awkward small talk with everyone.
(I don't know what to say!)
But your 8-inch thick glasses lets you see the real world and not the world others see. But hey, you're a referee, so why WOULDN'T we listen to you?
(You're soo smart!!)
So crack open a cold one, Athlete of the Loveboat. 'Cause we all know that even if you suck at basketball, you will always be someone "special."
(Mr. Special Olympics Gold Medal Wearer Guy!)

My XC Team Kicks A$$!!..then shows A$$ too...

So there I was, watching my cross country team kicking butt when I caught myself thinking, "Wow..this team is going to be special." Boy, was I right.

The kids did well..very well. We had 7 of the top 10 finishers for the girls, and 5 of the top 10 for the boys. They ran smart; didn't get caught in sprinting in the start of the race like the other teams. They ran together, paced each other, encouraged each other, and finished strong. Most of them ran their best times. Some shaved 2-3 minutes off of their previous time. Everyone was happy and were asking excitedly when their next race was going to be. Then, it happened. As the kids were eating lunch, one of my girls decided to get up and change in front of everyone. We're talking about dropping the shorts, no shame, showing the panties in front of everyone type of changing. She had her jersey on, thankfully, but no bottom. I couldn't believe it. A.D. Popeye couldn't believe it. We just looked at each other in disbelief. I thought I saw his tooth fall back out. So, before any of my boys decide to get a dollar out and start waving it in the air, I tell her to go put her shorts/pants back on. While she's scrambling and trying to hide her bottom half with her jersey, one of her female teammate/friend got curious and decided to lift up her jersey to see what kind of panties she has on. What the hell???? Anyway, that was an interesting event. We got back to school, talked to the team about representing Highlands and one's self in a respectable manner (again) so that they can continue to go to these activities. Of course, I had to call up the girl's parents to tell them about what happened. Dad just said, "Whoa, what's wrong with her? So stupid, yeah?" Mom said, "I am so sorry that happened. I can't believe she did that. It won't happen again." It better not.

Now it's my turn to vent my frustrations and let it go. That's my hope, anyways. And if you going get offended, no read. Basically you will get offended if you are a person who is an excuse maker, think but no do-er, lazy ass. If you going get offended by my HONESTY, don't read. All of you remind me of my flying off the handle HONEST tirade at Alex's house...this might be similar. Beware. And there's no alcohol excuse to take the edge off of these comments...these are straight up my vents.

First of all...does Zoloft like any story? I really want to know cuz seems to me like every super interesting story I read with my kids has some kind of issue. And then she wonder why I make comments about anxiety and personality.

That wasn't really the big irritation, though...here goes.

I'm sick and tired of people making excuses. I'm sure I do it too, but seriously, if anyone says "I'm not doing anything that doesn't directly relate to student achievement" I'm going to kick them in the head. Especially if they're talking about standards walls...granted, we still have work to do with the standards wall and moving everyone to use it as a teaching tool, but just cuz you cannot see HOW it can be used as a teaching tool doesn't mean that it ISN'T a teaching tool and CAN'T lead to student achievement. It just means YOU don't know how. So don't get pissed off at peeps cuz they did what they were supposed to do...just do what you're supposed to do and do it well and shut up.

Secondly, the same way that one of our blog crew gets irras at peeps who think he doesn't do crap and gives him stupid comments, I'm tired of peeps who try to hold down those who are trying to do their best and working hard. No get mad and act stupid and sit there like a freakin' lump on the log and act like one baby just cuz you lazy and other people doing things. And don't be that irritating negative jerk who wants to find a fault or hardship in every little thing so that nothing can move forward.

Hypocrisy kills me. It kills me. And when I hear people saying that they won't let kids turn in late work cuz they're teaching them real life skills, I want to FREAKIN' scratch their eyeballs out of their heads then kick them in the face. Why so violent, you ask? Because these are the same damn peeps who ALWAYS do crap late, or not at all, and come up with a myriad of excuses to justify WHY they don't do crap. REAL LIFE? Your butt still has a job, doesn't it? So it's okay for you to do stuff late or never, but no way can we afford some slack to 7th and 8th graders who have way shittier home lives than you. Maybe it's cuz some peeps never had hardships so they can't empathize...lucky peeps who think either you're leave it to beaver or too bad for you.

Okay...I think I'm done. It must be full moon cuz EVERYBODY and their mother is getting nutts. Tonight I'm going to pray for peace and for help with moving past my issues into a happier, calmer, less judgmental, more forgiving place. I'm leaving these issues behind...until next week's department meeting. Just kidding.

Depart....Mental issues...depart.

Today's student work review went okay...but I thought it was funny that we had to have someone new to make sure that we did it correctly. We were all trying to make sure that we follow the agenda, be quiet, and share productive comments. Now, prior to this, it was Pagoda that talked about how we, as a department, needed to do the student work reviews well and come up with really good assessments (high rigor, high relevance) so that others will follow suit and also bring well made assessments. WHAT HAPPENED??? Pagoda comes in and gives us the stupid "stoned trees" worksheet as her student work review. Now, the assessment is not bad. It follows the benchmark, guides the students well, and it was a creative way of getting students to think about patterns...BUT...personally, I thought it was weak. Weak because it was exactly the same thing she had on her standards wall; weak because, in the back of my mind, she planned it that way so that she wouldn't have to think up of something better; and because it was low on the relevance scale (a 2, depending if you like to make your yard nice or not). I mean, what happened to bringing relevant assessments? What happened to "I'll be an example for my department so everyone will bring something worth talking about."? That wasn't the end of it, either. After our facilitator leaves, we go back to our normal loud-ass meeting, and the following discussion occurs:

Pagoda: "Let's not do the benchmark assessments anymore; let's just make the AIR tests a big part of their grade so we don't have to keep correcting quizzes. We have to correct those AIR tests anyway, why not just make it a part of their grade?"

Corky: "Sounds like a great idea!!" (THINKING: Great, I don't have to do those benchmark quizzes that we all agreed to do!! Hmmm...Pagoda looking real good in her dominatrix-like clothes...)

King Kong Bundy: .... (THINKING: I don't know what everyone else is talking about, but I'm digging on Pagoda right now...I don't care what everyone else says, she is my Goddess. Whatever she does is perfect...I will follow her, with or without the whip.)

Me/Jay: "Nah, we're going to do the benchmark quizzes because that's what we agreed to do in the beginning. Besides, aren't you going to have lots of failures if you just grade the AIR test?"

Pagoda: "Ok, up to you guys." (THINKING: I don't care about what we agreed on in the beginning of my reign. I will say one thing and do another. I got Bundy kissing the ground that I walk on and Corky who always wants the easy way out. Nobody will listen to Jay and Dave because who would ever believe THOSE guys can do anything? Jay needed help to make his standards wall and Dave can't teach because his kids that I have now in Algebra are getting Fs!! A true reflection of his teaching...tsk, tsk..)

Well...another day, another great example of how our DH continues to give us the feeling of being "united." Hey, at least I got to tell her to go down on all fours...

I have to clear my mind and get to a happy place. I wasn't unhappy when I walked into school today, in fact, I was surprisingly happy. But then I had to listen to people talk and that just made me irraz and I don't even know why.

Just cuz a kid has poor math skills, doesn't mean they're sped. It does mean that they lacked a good foundation in math, which could have been caused by many factors...lack of schooling, different program placement...and though testing could have been done last year, if it wasn't, and you think it's a big deal, do it now.

I realized that I'm an old jaded lady. Things that a newbie finds a "big deal" just don't phase me. Okay, so a kid who is often off-task was doodling instead of doign his work. I'm not going to make a big deal of it unless you make me make a big deal of it by bringing his artwork up to me and making like the world is ending. Now I have to go over there, bust him, and make like I really cared that much. So kids almost got into a fight...there were no blows thrown, it's all good. Talk to the kids, figure it out. No need make big hullabaloo. Jaded. That's what I am.

I'm just going to try to be thankful that today is Wednesday...it's a short day, it's the middle of the week already, and Dave and I are eating shrimps for dinner because the Endless Shrimps commercial for Red Lobster keeps playing and making me ono for shrimp but not ono enough that I will go there and pay for it.

Kay, let the wonderful day begin.

Can it get any freakin' hotter?

BTW, I hope you all are enjoying Dave's wonderful words of wisdom. He was given a book, THE SOUL WOULD HAVE NO RAINBOW IF THE EYES HAD NO TEARS AND OTHER NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERBS (I can't figure out how to underline, so that's why the title looks like that), from his dad last night and has been out of control with spouting off his proverbs. He does take time to write them out to you guys...hopefully he gets over his trip soon.

Right now I'm trying not to be irritated by the fact that our team has yet to figure out who is going on Incentive Day field trip next week Tuesday...and that I got a text message asking ME about the forms. What forms? Why you asking me? How about you THINK about these things ahead of time??? Grrrr.... I'm not going to stress about it cuz that's out of my hands.

Tomorrow we have our wonderfully educational class again. Yay. It would make it a whole lot easier if she wouldn't make us work in partners with people we don't know. At 3:30 on a Tuesday afternoon I'm at my least sociable (hehe...I HATE socializing)...especially when I have to listen to the stutterations of a mento-head. Thank goodness for friends and snacks in that class or I'd shoot myself in the head.

Good night...I'm going to bocha and get in bed with the fan full blasting at me.

I laughed out loud reading Mr. Man's post!!! It was funny because Dave woke up at 7:45, woke me up, and asked me what I needed from the store! Hilarious to read why he did it....

And I seriously did not think up all the chores because of football...consciously, anyways. I just felt like today was the day to clean the window screens and louvers...so why not wipe down the ceiling fan, rearrange our bedroom, vacuum, and do the sheets at the same time??? Heehee. Now that I think of how much chores we did it's freakin hilarious.

In response to Deena, yes, Meet the Browns was junk. Totally not Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Why Did I Get Married, which I really liked. A little part of it was that it was Rick Fox, who can't act to save his life and whose eyes bother me cuz they just look like he got them done.

Official Start of THE Season..
Okay...hope this new look for our blog ain't too gay. It took me a while to figure it out but got it finally.
Football is WONDERFUL. Our fantasy league is WONDERFUL. Being able to check if my team is winning on the computer, and watching football on TV is WONDERFUL...but it didn't come easy. Just like in the first game of the season when teams have a gameplan to win, I had to figure out how I was going to eventually get the chance to kick back, relax, and watch some football (without getting the stare down, or the feeling of guilt from the wifey). Keep in mind that I couldn't do any house chores yesterday because of the cross country meet and the night out with Tash. So my gameplan was to do all the chores and schoolwork way before even mentioning the word "football." Then, maybe she'll just say, "Okay, you deserve a break," or "Beb, don't you have your football thing today?" or "Beb, thank you so much for doing all the chores, but I think you should watch football for the rest of the day, okay?" So, first thing on the to-do list was grocery shopping in the morning for her so she can cook dinner. Then, do the chores...vacuum, windows, laundry, ceiling fan, rearrange furniture...and that's when it hit me. My wife, who of course is like GT in Marriage 101, has probably figured out by now that I am waaaaay too willing to do anything and everything for her today all because of football. So there she is, figuring out different things for me to do just to prolong the inevitable. A bit of trickery, but it was part of the gameplan so what could I do? Just like how football teams keep running it up the middle against a stacked line, there I was, doing what I had to do to open up for the "big play" later.

Then..it got worse. Amy, in retaliation of my "Netflix- hogging," decided to rent "Meet the Browns." It came in yesterday, but I was hoping (and praying) that she wouldn't want to watch it yet. But, of course, even after doing the chores, there we were watching it...instead of football. It's a good thing Lance kept me updated through text, otherwise, I would have gone mento. Amy watched the movie (which she claimed later on, "sucks") while I planned for the week. Then, after that grueling movie was over...she gave in. Thank GOD!

Anyway, the football season may have begun (YAY!!!)...but the "kiss-my-wife's ass more" season has begun, too (BOO!). We'll call today a tie..but next week, I'm going for the "big play" early and often...(that's what she said..hurr, hurr, hurr).

Thus begins the freakin football madness. Dave tells me last night that he doesn't think we're going to church tomorrow because he has a lot of work to do and we're having his parents over for dinner. As I thought this comment through, I realized that his desire to stay home today has nothing to do with work...it has everything to do with the fact that he believes that the tv will be filled with football today...and that the computer will be used for checking his stupid fantasy crap. Haha...guess what's on tv right now and who's dominating the computer!? That's right...queen of the castle/oompah loompah. I'm making him watch Paula Deen make some biscuits right now. But not that it matters, because just prior to this he was on the computer and his phone, "discussing" trades and pick ups with Lance. Frick. Now Lance and him are going to be text buddies and all I'm going to hear all day is his text buzzer going off. Whatever. Enjoy it while you can, hubby, because those days will end in three months and one week (hopefully).

This is how it works

Dave's posts are always going to be in this font and color (sorry Jay, you won't be able to tell).

Amy's posts are always going to be in this font and color (sorry Jay, but I think this will look like the same color to you).


This blog is going to be strictly for anything BUT the baby.