Apparently my loose fitting clothing is giving people who haven't known me before this year the WRONG impression - one that I am with child.
Now, I thought the first time I would let it pass. I was wearing a dress and my tummy did feel a little more jiggly than usual, so I guess one could assume I am of childbearing age and possibly carrying one.
Then, again, I was asked. This time I could not ignore that I must still look pregnant even though I delivered almost one year ago. I was dumbfounded both times and could not figure out what to say. Here are a few thoughts:
Mind your own business
I just miscarried
Dec. 1........2006 (which was really his due date)
What are your ideas on how to respond?
I guess I'm taking it as reminders to stop eating so much junk and exercise more. Although it does hurt my feelings.
I told my husband because when we married I was a size 6. I have kept just a few items when I was cleaning out the closet before we moved to remind me how small I used to be. I am now not a size 6. I am a 12 on a good day. Does that mean that I am twice as large?
I haven't actually measured myself nor do we have a scale for me to go by. I do know that the clothes I bought to wear when I went back to work after having Grant seem to be a little tight. Which means that I have GAINED weight since January.
Perhaps this is hard for me because I have been small all my life and have always been able to eat whatever I want. I did not gain much weight with either of my pregnancies - 23 pounds with Grayson and 18 with Grant.
I have always known that if I did gain too much weight I would have a hard time losing it.
And that seems to be holding true. Which is why I get asked - when's it due?
Since I will be spending larger amounts of time in math(courtesy o' my principal) my brain is thinking in different ways. What was once a twisted trail (ah, yes, alliteration) of words is now *sometimes* straight-forward and logical. Go figure! (no pun intended)
The new equation is: Quiet = bad.
This applies to children. I especially think it applies to those children under the age of 5. This weekend my husband and I both had many tasks which we needed to complete. I will tell you on a regular weekend when this happens it usually works out that we talk about what needs to get done and then I watch the kids after he returns from work so that he can do what is on his list. Never is the childwatching returned so that I may work on my list accomplished. I have to fight my way through one-handed to finish anything. Most things get started, and are then interrupted by little people who can't go to the bathroom by themselves or feed themselves. I digress.....back to Quiet = bad.
I guess the severe lack of uninterrupted sleep has caused my mother's intuition to be defunct because normally I can ward off some evil. Not this weekend.
will be by with her white glove. Grayson has gotten particularly good at going to the bathroom when she needs to. She doesn't tell us, just heads to the bathroom. This makes me oh-so happy to not have to change or spend money on diapers. She still has a few things to work on, such as wiping and washing hands afterword, but the pee-pee is in the potty 99% of the time. It is because of this that I did not suspect anything. I had a million things on my list I needed to do because next weekend is the family birthday party for my little people and super-perfect SMIL will be around with the white glove. ANYWHO, Grayson entered the bathroom and I got busy in various parts of the house and then realized
it's quiet.
Oh NO - TOO LATE. The first time it happened she had gotten in to her new Princess toothpaste -("Mommy it comes out like a heart") and had sucked a good portion straight out of the tube in addition to smearing a heavy dose on the bathroom counter because "It needed to brush its teeth too". When dh saw it and was amused, I told him he could clean it up if he thought it was so funny.
The next incident occurred during the hurried dinner making fiasco time.
ONCE AGAIN under the guise of going to the bathroom she disappears. In the meantime I am checking peas, listening for timers to go off, and then
it's quiet.
OH CRAP not again! She had emptied these shaped soap flakes; a few in the tub, the rest on the floor and her brother was scurrying to taste them.
So remember, in the future, if you are a new parent, a parent to be, or not yet a parent.
Quiet = bad. It could save you unnecessary cleaning up.
Sierra Mist has cranberry splash back - you know, just in time for the holidays. I remember seeing it advertised and not being able to find it last year. Well, just like with the orange-filled oreos for Halloween, one must strike early. Dh found this in the store and brought some home.(NOT DIET! this was the only picture I could find) It was delightful and as Grayson would say de-wicious. Pick some up if you can. The cranberry is not overpowering. Just a splash as its title would suggest.
For example - daylight savings time. Or is that what we just ended? I never can keep it straight. I just know to fall back in the Fall and spring forward in the Spring.
Anywho. Although we kept the little people up an hour or so later last night, their internal clocks have not yet adjusted leaving us(oops I mean me, dh is still sleeping) up at their "normal" time which was one hour earlier today. Hopefully, I'll get a nap later. (Yeah right with football on?!)
My once seemingly well-balanced plate at work has simply runneth over this past week. I don't think I've explained my job as it is a new position and we are somewhat ironing out the kinks while I work. I am a certified ( and certifiable!!) Middle School teacher. I have 4 areas of certification which one might say is overzealous.(yes, English is one of the areas) Someone else might say it is smart because that means I will never be out of a job. ( come on, I live in NC, we're CONSTANTLY short teachers - why do you think I moved here?!?!) But a third person could say is stupid to have that many areas because that means you will be switched every year.....which I mostly am, but I digress.
This year I get a fancy title - AIG facilitator. And since education is noted for its acronyms I will tell you that AIG = Academically/Intellectually Gifted.
That's right. As I comprehend from my interview last April I am to assist with the program AND (here comes my favorite part!) I get to teach WHATEVER I WANT!!!! That's right. Every Wednesday the top 5% of the school comes to my room to be "enriched". These kids are amazing. It makes my week. I don't feel worthy to teach them.
SO back to the story at hand (which is getting quite lengthy I might add). Besides teaching the STARS ( Students That Are Really Smart ) on Wednesdays I am supposed to be able to assist teachers by planning and/or executing lessons for the classes that they have AIG kids in. I was making my own schedule for the most part and coordinating with the 3 grade levels of teachers.
It appears my "services" are needed now in whatever classroom they receive the most parent complaints from. Doesn't matter if there are AIG kids in the room or not. Not that I have to exclusively ONLY teach gifted kids. I have taught all levels of students up until this year, so it is no skin off my nose. The problem was that by being in these other classes I was not able to "my work" which includes maintaining accurate files (close to 225) and I had a big report due yesterday.
I am being ping-ponged between two main classes - 6th grade math and 8th grade English. The 8th graders' teacher is on maternity leave and they need to be ready for Honors Freshman English next year. Having a substitute who just writes the assignments on the board will not do it. The 6th grade teacher is entering teaching from another position. This is his first ever teaching gig. Teaching my friends is not for the faint-hearted. This gentleman is mathematically sound, but has not refined his discipline or teaching techniques because this is his first teaching gig. Which is where I enter the picture. I thought I had raised him up enough in the six weeks I was going in there so I exited to handle the English because the two class times clash. However in the 2 weeks I was out of math the parents raised enough of a stink that I am now back in math
for the whole year.
My principal and I had a chat after I visited the director of Gifted Services for our county and attempted to set up a schedule.
My principal explained that this (probably meaning the parents who were complaining) is problem. While there were other solutions such as changing students' schedules he was not willing to do that. Which means that I am his solution ( which is what I said to him). SO the new math is
principal + problem = solution (me)
The other facilitators at my school are aware of the problem and so we joke that if they have any problems, I might be able to solve them since I am the solution.
Just let me know if you have any problems, I might be the solution to them too.
The leaves are finally changing colors here in the Southeast. This requires men to pull out the heavy artillery - jet pack leaf blowers. I was somewhat startled by the sudden whirr outside my classroom window today, so I leapt to the window to see the custodian
with his jet-pack leaf blower on
blowing
one
leaf
all
the
way
down
the
covered
walkway.
And thus the title of tonight's post.
