I have to post. It is just way too long and the old post that shows up each time I go to my blog is grating on my nerves!
I decided that since I don't post much I will post a recap of the last few months. It's easier, dirtier and quicker.
* Dan continues to be an awesome husband. He continually shows his love for his family and always makes me laugh. December 4th he will be going to Gracie's kindergarten to talk about working at the refinery. He sat down and made an outline of what he will say and he got the students little chotskies to get them amped up! Gracie is so excited!
* I have currently dropped 26 pounds. Ok after Thanksgiving 24 . . . tomato - tomahtoe. It's not too hard as long as I stick with my diet. I love that I have some pre pregnancy clothes that I can wear again and can't wait to wear some others!
* Gracie is a level 4 training team gymnast. She is still enjoying it and will be going three times a week for two and a half hours. It will be intensive but it takes a lot to make a champion! =) She really enjoys it still so the plan as of now is to keep her in it.
* Bubba Auddie (Auddie girl) is doing well. She eats A LOT. She is saying mama and claps. She knows who Buddy, Mama, Daddy, and Sissy are and can pick them out in a room. My sweet baby has only one tooth still and is working on getting some more but is taking her time. I can't believe she will be one in such a short time. I was so blessed to have had such a wonderful time with my infant baby this time. I can't believe how smoothly it went and I would do it again in a heartbeat if they weren't so expensive. I think I may regret that when we are all older but right now it's what is best for our family.
* Buddy is slowly growing into senior citizen dog. He's slowing down but will always surprise us with a burst of energy every now and then. I love that dog. He is an amazing animal and has such a good demeanor. I did catch that naughty bird eating a turky carcass on the front lawn yesterday. NOTE: we did not have a turkey at home to have provided said turkey carcass so that naughty boy got it from someone's trash. Let's keep that on the down low.
We almost got another dog from the pound recently. It was a miniature pinscer and pretty cute but such a puppy. My house is so messy and hairy (you could blanket the upper midwest with the amount of hair that Buddy Lee sheds) that I just can't commit to another dog. They say that if you get a dog when you have another dog in the home already, the new dog will adopt many of the old dogs personality traits. I would love to have another Buddy Lee Gerten.
* Back to me! I'm doing well. I'm loving my job again and have come to terms with all the things I was complaining about earlier. I have a wonderful co-worker who is my mentor and has talked me down from many a ledge. She is an amazing woman, mother, teacher, and friend and I wish I could bottle up what she has and drink it every day. She keeps things real for me and I hope to have half of what she has as a teacher.
So that's me in a nut shell. No, this is me in a nutshell: "Help! I'm in a nutshell! How did I get into this bloody great big nutshell? What kind of shell has a nut like this?" Anyone name that quote.
Be good people and remember that as we grow older we grow wiser! At least that's what someone told me once.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
For Fun
Anne had this on her blog so I stole it and put it on mine!
Outside my window… the sun is shining and the leaves are coming off the tree
I am thinking… I really don't want to pluck my eyebrows but they are beginning to look like two furry caterpillars mating so I don't have much of a choice.
I am thankful for… My two beautiful girls who are healthy and happy. And sometimes a little too sassy!
In my kitchen… A fresh pot of Caribou Coffee.
I am wearing… A long sleeve black shirt and pair of brown sweat pants. I'm a hot mess.
I am creating… A blog post instead of spending quality time with my girls.
I am going… To the annual Gerlach/Gerten fish fry tonight.
I am reading… The Other Boleyn Girl. Again.
I am hoping… That things get better at school.
I am hearing… Bubba whining in her pack and play for me to pay attention to her and the scratch of crayons on the coloring book Grace is coloring.
Around the house… A freakin' mess.
One of my favorite things right now… Watching Gracie do gymnastics.
A few plans for the weekend… Tonight: Fish Fry. Tomorrow: Nephew's birthday party.
A picture to share…
Outside my window… the sun is shining and the leaves are coming off the tree
I am thinking… I really don't want to pluck my eyebrows but they are beginning to look like two furry caterpillars mating so I don't have much of a choice.
I am thankful for… My two beautiful girls who are healthy and happy. And sometimes a little too sassy!
In my kitchen… A fresh pot of Caribou Coffee.
I am wearing… A long sleeve black shirt and pair of brown sweat pants. I'm a hot mess.
I am creating… A blog post instead of spending quality time with my girls.
I am going… To the annual Gerlach/Gerten fish fry tonight.
I am reading… The Other Boleyn Girl. Again.
I am hoping… That things get better at school.
I am hearing… Bubba whining in her pack and play for me to pay attention to her and the scratch of crayons on the coloring book Grace is coloring.
Around the house… A freakin' mess.
One of my favorite things right now… Watching Gracie do gymnastics.
A few plans for the weekend… Tonight: Fish Fry. Tomorrow: Nephew's birthday party.
A picture to share…
Hi! I'm Negative Nelly. It's nice to meet you!
I've been in this weird place for about 6 weeks now. It's not an altogether horrible place where no fun can be had and everything is always crappy. But it's a place like an amusement park visit when you were younger. It's so much fun, you are so exicted to go but when you get there it's always sweaty freaking hot and the lines are so long you only get to go on about 8 rides the whole day. Not to mention that your inner thighs have major chafing because you went on the water ride and now are soaking wet walking through the park. Maybe that was just me. I have always had bigger thighs.
Anywho: I still deep down love life and am enjoying all the good parts but I'm just so annoyed with the things that are going on in my job. I feel so out of control with certain students that I have and the new curriculum that they threw at us for reading, phonics, oral language, and guided reading. Plus the amount of assessment that we had to do the first month or so of school has made me batty. Between PALS, and Words Their Way, Math, and Mondo assessing (which unforunately was double dipping the kids because we assessed them on the same things TWO times), I have not been able to teach much. We have conference prep day in a week and I have to write report cards for my students and I feel as if I haven't done any teaching. I certainly don't want to write their report cards based on their assessments from September but seriously, what the heck else can I assess them on??????
I won't go into the certain students that I feel out of control with. That would just not be fair to them and unethical but I would like to talk about things that are broken.
Like our education system. Seriously????? Really????? We are stuck in a system based on the 1800's. Yeah it makes so much sense that the kids get summers off still because I know they have to go and harvest all the crops in August. Growin' and plantin' season is over so let's make sure that these especially needy inner city kids have a summer off to go gather the life sustaining crops their families will need to get them through the long, cold Minnesota winter. It deesn't make sense but yet we stick to it.
Now I'm not saying I would be thrilled to teach school year round (no air conditioning at Frost Lake), and I'm not saying that I wouldn't be thrilled to teach year round school. I'm just expressing the ridiculousness of how we need our system to change and yet we are still stuck in a system based on a long time ago. That frustrates me to no end.
Although I won't go too deeply into my students I will say that there are two who require almost all of my individual attention throughout the day for various reasons. They are on their way to getting some other kinds of help in the school, but they are draining my time (and energy) of servicing and educating the entire rest of the class. How is that fair to those other children? I won't say anymore.
I feel so ineffective this year. I think about all that I could be doing with my students but feel like things are set up so that I am unable to maximize their learning potential. That bugs the carp out of me. I also feel (even after ten years) ill-prepared to conference with parents. We don't really get any training on it but yet we are still supposed to convey messages to parents that they might not want to hear and do it properly. That is such a crime that there is not training or in services to help new and old teachers deal with this. Most teachers do get it during their student teaching, but mine was such that we had goal setting conferences in August, not 'how your kid is doing' conferences in November. And even though student teachers might be introduced to it during their student teaching, they may not get a cross section of experiences for each child with whom they will deal the rest of their career.
Also, something that needs to be fixed (but not necessarily with comp. pay) is the tenure system. If a teacher sucks, they should be fired. Period. Not shuffled around to another school in the district year after year after year. And contrary to popular belief a teacher does not necessarily suck if their children do not do well on the standardized tests. That is not a great measure. There are many people who are paid to sit and discuss better ways in which to pay a teacher. Please (those people) find one that doesn't include a system of inept teachers who are unable to teach and reach their children. Please (those people) let this system not include standardized testing as the measure because it is not a correct evaluation with all the factors that go into that equation.
I'm hesitant about posting this post. It is so not normal of me to post my opine on the internet but I'm just so jaded right now.
Negative Nelly is signing off.
Anywho: I still deep down love life and am enjoying all the good parts but I'm just so annoyed with the things that are going on in my job. I feel so out of control with certain students that I have and the new curriculum that they threw at us for reading, phonics, oral language, and guided reading. Plus the amount of assessment that we had to do the first month or so of school has made me batty. Between PALS, and Words Their Way, Math, and Mondo assessing (which unforunately was double dipping the kids because we assessed them on the same things TWO times), I have not been able to teach much. We have conference prep day in a week and I have to write report cards for my students and I feel as if I haven't done any teaching. I certainly don't want to write their report cards based on their assessments from September but seriously, what the heck else can I assess them on??????
I won't go into the certain students that I feel out of control with. That would just not be fair to them and unethical but I would like to talk about things that are broken.
Like our education system. Seriously????? Really????? We are stuck in a system based on the 1800's. Yeah it makes so much sense that the kids get summers off still because I know they have to go and harvest all the crops in August. Growin' and plantin' season is over so let's make sure that these especially needy inner city kids have a summer off to go gather the life sustaining crops their families will need to get them through the long, cold Minnesota winter. It deesn't make sense but yet we stick to it.
Now I'm not saying I would be thrilled to teach school year round (no air conditioning at Frost Lake), and I'm not saying that I wouldn't be thrilled to teach year round school. I'm just expressing the ridiculousness of how we need our system to change and yet we are still stuck in a system based on a long time ago. That frustrates me to no end.
Although I won't go too deeply into my students I will say that there are two who require almost all of my individual attention throughout the day for various reasons. They are on their way to getting some other kinds of help in the school, but they are draining my time (and energy) of servicing and educating the entire rest of the class. How is that fair to those other children? I won't say anymore.
I feel so ineffective this year. I think about all that I could be doing with my students but feel like things are set up so that I am unable to maximize their learning potential. That bugs the carp out of me. I also feel (even after ten years) ill-prepared to conference with parents. We don't really get any training on it but yet we are still supposed to convey messages to parents that they might not want to hear and do it properly. That is such a crime that there is not training or in services to help new and old teachers deal with this. Most teachers do get it during their student teaching, but mine was such that we had goal setting conferences in August, not 'how your kid is doing' conferences in November. And even though student teachers might be introduced to it during their student teaching, they may not get a cross section of experiences for each child with whom they will deal the rest of their career.
Also, something that needs to be fixed (but not necessarily with comp. pay) is the tenure system. If a teacher sucks, they should be fired. Period. Not shuffled around to another school in the district year after year after year. And contrary to popular belief a teacher does not necessarily suck if their children do not do well on the standardized tests. That is not a great measure. There are many people who are paid to sit and discuss better ways in which to pay a teacher. Please (those people) find one that doesn't include a system of inept teachers who are unable to teach and reach their children. Please (those people) let this system not include standardized testing as the measure because it is not a correct evaluation with all the factors that go into that equation.
I'm hesitant about posting this post. It is so not normal of me to post my opine on the internet but I'm just so jaded right now.
Negative Nelly is signing off.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
July 20, 2002
That was the day I lucked out and married a great guy.
It was also extremely hot and muggy but I will save that post for some other day.
This evening after an emotional time of taking my 5 year old to Kindergarten open house my little family went out to dinner at Applebee's. Kids eat for $0.99 and they have a make your own sundae bar with awesome fixings!
As we were working our way through the appetizers (ok - Dan, Grace, Auddie were working their way through the appetizers. . .. I had to unfortunately pass on the ooey gooey mozzarella sticks), an older gentleman (who was very tall and somewhat heavy) and his middle aged son were paying for their dinner and getting ready to leave. The older gentleman had a difficult time walking and needed help from his son to assist him out the door and to the car.
They never made it past the lobby (which was a few feet in front of us). The old man was unable to continue walking and just collapsed on the floor. I was already an emotional wreck from Kindergarten open house (and knowing I'm sending my baby off to the wolves) so this set me over the edge.
My wonderful, thoughtful, strong muscled (yummy!) husband got up and proceeded to help the older gentleman to the waiting booth in the lobby. Remember he was a bigger guy and needed to be carried to the seat to sit.
Dan then helped him sit down and rearranged his body so that he was comfortable and not hanging off the seat. Then Dan waited with the gentleman while the son to got a wheelchair from his car.
As I sat back and watched this emotional scene unfold I couldn't help but think how freakin' lucky I am to have married someone with such good core values and good morals. What a wonderful model for Grace to see. Knowing her dad is someone who is helpful and caring will be ingrained in her forever now and just raised the bar for the guy whom she may marry. Good luck to that schmuck! =)
Why did I luck out like this? I don't know.
I just know that saying "I do" to Dan on July 20, 2002 was the smartest thing I've ever done.
It was also extremely hot and muggy but I will save that post for some other day.
This evening after an emotional time of taking my 5 year old to Kindergarten open house my little family went out to dinner at Applebee's. Kids eat for $0.99 and they have a make your own sundae bar with awesome fixings!
As we were working our way through the appetizers (ok - Dan, Grace, Auddie were working their way through the appetizers. . .. I had to unfortunately pass on the ooey gooey mozzarella sticks), an older gentleman (who was very tall and somewhat heavy) and his middle aged son were paying for their dinner and getting ready to leave. The older gentleman had a difficult time walking and needed help from his son to assist him out the door and to the car.
They never made it past the lobby (which was a few feet in front of us). The old man was unable to continue walking and just collapsed on the floor. I was already an emotional wreck from Kindergarten open house (and knowing I'm sending my baby off to the wolves) so this set me over the edge.
My wonderful, thoughtful, strong muscled (yummy!) husband got up and proceeded to help the older gentleman to the waiting booth in the lobby. Remember he was a bigger guy and needed to be carried to the seat to sit.
Dan then helped him sit down and rearranged his body so that he was comfortable and not hanging off the seat. Then Dan waited with the gentleman while the son to got a wheelchair from his car.
As I sat back and watched this emotional scene unfold I couldn't help but think how freakin' lucky I am to have married someone with such good core values and good morals. What a wonderful model for Grace to see. Knowing her dad is someone who is helpful and caring will be ingrained in her forever now and just raised the bar for the guy whom she may marry. Good luck to that schmuck! =)
Why did I luck out like this? I don't know.
I just know that saying "I do" to Dan on July 20, 2002 was the smartest thing I've ever done.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Please consider
I have just visited GoPetition and found the following page very interesting:
http://www.gopetition.com/online/26696.html
Last night I was touched by a story shown on the news in New Mexico. This horrifying story was about a 5 month old baby girl who died at the abuse of her parents and uncle. I will not go into detail about the abuse. I don't suggest you google this story either as it is horrific and ridiculously painful to believe something like this actually happened. I do ask you to sign the petition located at the above mentioned link.
I don't "have" many causes but this one has left an impression on me that I can't get rid of.
Thank you.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/26696.html
Last night I was touched by a story shown on the news in New Mexico. This horrifying story was about a 5 month old baby girl who died at the abuse of her parents and uncle. I will not go into detail about the abuse. I don't suggest you google this story either as it is horrific and ridiculously painful to believe something like this actually happened. I do ask you to sign the petition located at the above mentioned link.
I don't "have" many causes but this one has left an impression on me that I can't get rid of.
Thank you.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
EEEK!!!
We went up to our cabin this weekend. It was a great day yesterday. I had one of the most fun and memorable days of my life. Seriously it is probably in the top ten of best days ever.
Unfortunately today as we were over at the swimmin' hole I noticed Buddy sniffing and pawing at something and then jumping back every now and then. I couldn't see anything (because it was freakin' camoflaged). I searched a little more and it was a snake. A BIG. FAT. SCARY. SNAKE. BASKING. IN. THE. SUN! I have not seen a snake like that ever in the open.
I proceeced to freak out and screamed for Gracie and Lenny to get out of the water and go up the other set of the stairs opposite where lay the slithering, scary, serpent. I know. The snake was looking at me like "what? I'm just laying here". I was sooooo freaked out by the time I made it to the top of the stairs and by the time Dan figured out what was going on and spotted the snake that I was shaking and unable to move from my rooted spot. Thankfully Grace wasn't too scared about it all. I was horribly embarrassed! The snake then slithered on away (it was huge and must have taken 3 minutes to slither from it's spot 4 feet from shore into the water).
We ended up leaving the cabin for home at that point because I was a wreck by then.
After an hour or so of driving, we started joking about it all and named the snake "Roger". I was commenting that Roger was probably just on his way home from church and stopped to check out the freshly mown grass. Then his day went to pot as he saw Buddy and heard the screaming, crying lady who would not shut up!
I swear it was the scariest thing I have ever seen!!!
Here is a picture of Rog:
I photoshopped a picture of a crocodile in it for a comparison.
Seriously. ... it felt like it was that big.
Unfortunately today as we were over at the swimmin' hole I noticed Buddy sniffing and pawing at something and then jumping back every now and then. I couldn't see anything (because it was freakin' camoflaged). I searched a little more and it was a snake. A BIG. FAT. SCARY. SNAKE. BASKING. IN. THE. SUN! I have not seen a snake like that ever in the open.
I proceeced to freak out and screamed for Gracie and Lenny to get out of the water and go up the other set of the stairs opposite where lay the slithering, scary, serpent. I know. The snake was looking at me like "what? I'm just laying here". I was sooooo freaked out by the time I made it to the top of the stairs and by the time Dan figured out what was going on and spotted the snake that I was shaking and unable to move from my rooted spot. Thankfully Grace wasn't too scared about it all. I was horribly embarrassed! The snake then slithered on away (it was huge and must have taken 3 minutes to slither from it's spot 4 feet from shore into the water).
We ended up leaving the cabin for home at that point because I was a wreck by then.
After an hour or so of driving, we started joking about it all and named the snake "Roger". I was commenting that Roger was probably just on his way home from church and stopped to check out the freshly mown grass. Then his day went to pot as he saw Buddy and heard the screaming, crying lady who would not shut up!
I swear it was the scariest thing I have ever seen!!!
Here is a picture of Rog:
I photoshopped a picture of a crocodile in it for a comparison.
Seriously. ... it felt like it was that big.
Monday, June 29, 2009
DC baby! (parte uno)
We arrived back from VA on Wednesday, June 24th (my birthday if the date seemed familiar but slipped your mind).
It was a great trip with lots of busy-ness, fun, walking, eating, and just enjoying ourselves!
Connie's graduation was superbly pulled off and it was cool to be able to see and be places where most normal "civilians" aren't allowed to be! By the way: does anyone know about the deer at Quantico? They are crazy! They stand around and there are a ton of them. They let you get up close to them and graze and lie down on the grass in extremely close proximity to the parking lots. I wonder how the deer became so friendly and so right in your face.
Our flight out there was horrid! The turbulence was bad and there was weather over Reagan Airport so we couldn't land. We had to land at Dulles (about 40 minute drive) because no planes were landing at Reagan at the time. So because there were no runways open we were in a holding pattern for 30 minutes before we landed.
Since all air traffic was being diverted to Dulles we then had to wait an hour or so before we had a gate in which to park the plane. The 4 kids with us were saints! Many a passenger gave them compliments about how patient they were and how well-behaved they were. It can't be that hard though when you have a tray table to put all your cool colors on or you brought your DS or Bakugons to play with!
We finally got to the gate and then had to wait another hour so that they could clean the plane and do their required maintanence before take off. We really didn't want to fly again. Dan and I are both scared of flying and were not looking forward to an unexpected take off and landing that we were not mentally prepared for. We were told we could get off but we wouldn't have our checked stuff taken off with us. No car seats, no luggage. . . nada. So we sat through it.
These are pictures of how everyone kept busy. Good old Auddie Girl was so wonderful!Saturday, June 20, 2009
Traffic
So here we are in DC. There's traffic. Everywhere. Each way. All the time. Left right. North South. You name it!
We are actually in Dumfries. Not DC.
More later!
We are actually in Dumfries. Not DC.
More later!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Cake
It's not often I curse a bakery (never). It's not often that I curse Target (again never). But today I had to curse the Target bakery and I am so upset about that.
Bakeries are fun places to go to. Where else can you see 5 gallon buckets of fluffy, yummy buttercream frosting? Where else can you see frosting bags full of said colored buttercream frosting ready to be piped onto the nearest cake? Where else can you browse through decadent desserts that may include such goodness as chocolate/peanut butter, raspberry/white chocolate, red velvet cake, brownie mountains, cake for miles, and lots of different kinds of yummy cookies, not to mention all the fresh bread that's made in multitude different ways? It's a win/win right?
WRONG!
I ordered a retirement cake for my co-worker last Saturday at the Target Bakery. A half sheet that would say "Best Wishes Elaine". I went to pick it up tonight and they bring it out and it was only a fourth of a sheet cake. I was very polite but told them I needed a half sheet cake and so they totally accomodated me to no end. They refrosted the right size cake and then comp'ed me the whole thing. I was very pleased with the results but it took over an hour for me to get the correct size cake. The whole time I was waiting I kept thinking "Dan's gotta go to work. Dan's gotta go to work". I did make it home on time for Dan to make it to his night shift but man did I wait a long time. Target totally made up for the whole deal so I guess after some reflection I curse them no longer. Really. . . put a bakery in Target and it's the best place ever.
Hail Target for helping me out!
Bakeries are fun places to go to. Where else can you see 5 gallon buckets of fluffy, yummy buttercream frosting? Where else can you see frosting bags full of said colored buttercream frosting ready to be piped onto the nearest cake? Where else can you browse through decadent desserts that may include such goodness as chocolate/peanut butter, raspberry/white chocolate, red velvet cake, brownie mountains, cake for miles, and lots of different kinds of yummy cookies, not to mention all the fresh bread that's made in multitude different ways? It's a win/win right?
WRONG!
I ordered a retirement cake for my co-worker last Saturday at the Target Bakery. A half sheet that would say "Best Wishes Elaine". I went to pick it up tonight and they bring it out and it was only a fourth of a sheet cake. I was very polite but told them I needed a half sheet cake and so they totally accomodated me to no end. They refrosted the right size cake and then comp'ed me the whole thing. I was very pleased with the results but it took over an hour for me to get the correct size cake. The whole time I was waiting I kept thinking "Dan's gotta go to work. Dan's gotta go to work". I did make it home on time for Dan to make it to his night shift but man did I wait a long time. Target totally made up for the whole deal so I guess after some reflection I curse them no longer. Really. . . put a bakery in Target and it's the best place ever.
Hail Target for helping me out!
Monday, May 18, 2009
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