ONE MORE WEEK of school

I can almost see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. I am indeed gonna make it to the end of another year without totally losing my mind!

Let's see. Tyler has had a good week I guess. He got an award from his teacher in Internet Research class. He said he was dozing in class and suddenly heard his name called to the office. He had no idea what was up - thought he was in trouble. But when he got in there he received an "Outstanding Student" award from his Internet Research teacher (who happens to be Coach Williamson lol). I, for one, was thrilled! But on another note, the same teacher that sent Tyler to the office last week called me on Monday to tell me that Tyler is just not doing work and being rude and sleeping all the time. I assured her we would fix it! When I talked to him about it he said she was lying, he doesn't sleep. He says she's half crazy and whines all the time in class about how her fiance dumped her a few weeks ago. And says she goes off all the time over crazy things. There is probably something to what he has to say about her, but I tried to remind him that the point is - crazy or not - she's the teacher and he has to be respectful and he has to do the work. So the next day she told him......"I spoke with your mother yesterday and she was not pleased with what I told her!" And what does my darling son say? "Really? Why, she didn't even MENTION it!!!! Are you SURE you called my mom cuz like, she didn't say a WORD to me..." Smart ass. lol. I hope he can make it through just one more week.


Tanner managed to stay out of trouble this week to my knowledge. He had me go and buy him some of this plastic craft string stuff that all the kids are playing with. They put them together and do all these neat braid things. Well, I bought it, then tried to follow the directions and show him how to do it. The stuff is HARD I tell ya. I tried to teach myself so I could teach him, and I ended up cussing and throwing the string down. Tanner laughed at me. We finally worked through one of the sets of directions, but neither of us can get it right every time. I think he's about lost interest in it now.


Tanner had to go for his very first filling that he was awake for. He had 7 teeth filled when he was 4, but they knocked him out to do that. This was his first time being awake and experiencing the shot and the numb mouth and all. I tried to talk to him and prepare him for it on the way there and he was a bit worried. They wouldn't let me go back with him, that worried him too. But he did great. He just milked it a bit. They had given him the laughing gas and were waiting on it to wear off before he got out of the chair. He would start to get up and say......"Oh, wait a minute, I'm still a tad bit dizzy....." and lay back down. He'd say his legs were too weak to move. And his head felt funny. And he didn't think he could walk. And so on and so forth. He did that for about 15 minutes. Finally I told the lady.........I believe he's putting a bit of this on for show here. So we made him get up and he struggled his way to the car. He was completely intrigued with his numb cheek. He went on and on and ON about it. Then he told me he thought that I should give everyone a phone call to come over and celebrate. I asked him celebrate what??? He said....."Well, my tooth getting fixed, of course!" I told him that getting a filling was just kind of an everyday sorta thing, everybody does it now and then and it's not a special occasion lol. He just didn't understand why not.


Last weekend was grass cutting weekend. Tyler was dreading it as usual. And he told me at dinner Friday night that he would PAY someone to cut it if I would let him. Rusty overheard him and got kinda irritated. Rusty said, "I'LL cut the grass and you can pay ME!" Tyler said.....ok cool! So Rusty, for the first time in YEARS, push mowed the grass and Tyler paid him $40. Tyler thought that was a good deal. I tried to reason with Tyler about exactly what he was losing here. He makes $50 every 2 weeks working for Rusty, and I pay him an extra $10 or so to cut the grass every 2 weeks. So he's losing the $10 I pay, and he's paying Rusty $40 of the $50 he makes. So now, instead of $60 every 2 weeks, he has only $10 every 2 weeks if he continues to pay someone to cut the grass. He STILL thinks that is a good deal. I just don't know about him. I have somehow failed in teaching him the value of money I think lol. I started to take a picture of Rusty cutting the grass but I figured I wouldn't press my luck. Rusty, yardwork, and humor do NOT usually go together lol.


I got my kindergarten program over with on Tuesday. We did the morning performance and it went as well as can be with 5 year olds. But then Tuesday night at the PTO meeting, I had 15 out of 73 students show up for the night performance. It is just NOT worth my time to do these night time programs, I try to make my boss see that. Parents aren't like they used to be.


I've started doing my end of the year cleaning in my classroom. I've decided to get rid of everything that I never use. I have so many books and junk that I keep laying around thinking I might some day need them. I've cleared out 4 shelves full already. I found this one old, purple, first grade reading book and I wondered why in the HECK had I been keeping it???? I opened it up and I remembered. It was an old, old reading book I found back at Cedars School when we were cleaning it out. And inside that reading book was the sock puppet play "Three Billy Goats Gruff" - the exact same one that I did in my first grade class at Curry lol. It was the same reading book we had used there. So I had kept it for sentimental reasons I guess, and I'm still keeping it now lol.


We had a nice visit from Mickey this week. And then Ken and Connor on Thursday night. Tyler had come home Thursday afternoon asking me if I would "teach him how to do geometry real quick tonight". I came unglued. All year long he's been barely getting by in there, and he wants to ask me to help him CRAM for the final test????? I knew I'd have to spend at least 2 hours studying and brushing up on it myself before I could even begin to help him. But, thankfully, Ken came over. And within about 45 minutes, he had Tyler caught up on just about everything. Tyler thinks he made in the 90's on the test today. I sure hope so, and I'm sure grateful for Ken!

We watched two movies this week: Rocky Balboa, which was good, and The Prestige which was an AWESOME movie. I love movies with great plots and that is definitely a great one.

Our first show with the band is next weekend at a class reunion. I expect it to go ok, but not terrific just yet. We seem to be beginning to get quite booked up. We have another show booked on June 1 now. And 2 more in June but I don't know the dates just yet. Then we have 2 in July set as well. I guess I'm just gonna go with the flow on this and see what happens. I hope I like it and have fun lol. The thing that I am looking forward to doing is booking shows in Jasper, in Florida, and on a cruise ship! lol. Dream big huh? Get a free vacation by "working".

An odd thing came up this week. Some cannas that I planted years ago (I think that's what you call them) always grow and sometimes almost have a flower or two, but usually screw up somehow. But right now, in May, already I have the best flower on one of them that I ever had. I can't grow much of anything, but cannas seem to just grow themselves with no help.


I was checking out the football boosters web site this week and found a picture with Tyler in it

from the jamboree last weekend. Good thing I saved it because it was gone by the next day. But here he is, #33 wiping his eyes lol. Speaking of football, it's been a good week for Tyler. He had evalutions today and he got two 9's, two 8's and a 5 from the coaches (out of 10). He said he got the 5 on knowledge of his position, but he's just been moved to linebacker so he's brushing up on it. Kyle is back on the team too, woohoo!!!! I picked them both up from practice today and bought them McDonalds. Felt guilty for not buying it for Blake and Tanner - I'm starting to be like MOM lol. Tyler said his coach is grooming him for his position and told him today that he wanted to see him start showing his leadership skills and being the "alpha male" that he is on the inside! (boy, if he only KNEW). After practice a couple of older guys were picking with Tyler and had him pinned up against a locker and pretending to whoop on him. Tyler was squealing and screaming and laughing. The coach said "Gardner!!!!!!!" Tyler looked up. The coach said.........."ALPHA MALE, Gardner!" So Tyler said he bowed out his arms and made a mean face and started yelling at the guys "Get OFF ME, BOY!!!!" They all thought that was pretty funny.

If anyone knows any good books to read, please send me the name of them. I'm looking very forward to reading some books this summer. I haven't read since Christmas and I'm dying for a really good book.

I feel like I've rambled some this week lol. Ah well. I'm just getting excited I guess. One more week of school, and then I can start thinking and doing things besides work and band! And I can visit folks in Alabama, and read books, and swim, and sleep in sometimes, and watch movies, and watch stupid talk shows, and daydream, and clean house, and paint my bedroom and Tyler's bedroom, and thousands of other things........

Those new lakehouse couches are calling my name.......check 'em out on mom's blog.

I still haven't forgotten the concert list posting.....I"m STILL waiting on Rusty's list. Didn't get one from Susan or mom yet either. But I'm gonna have it done by the end of the weekend.