So I was just opening some snail mail and got the invite to Andra's deal. It was last weekend. I was also finally reading my email. There were emails about it. I'm so very sad that I missed yall. But hot damn do I have some stories.

Some stories that I can not post on here because I am close enough to loosing my job as it is, that I do not need to post about it on the internet! Maybe I need some codes like Moe...anyway...I'm not really going to loose my job, but I've gotten my ass kicked (literally, with bruises to prove it) for the last 3 weeks and I've not been making friends while doing so. It's been horrible. Like horrible as in I have been instructed what to say to the media and have been consulting w/ an attorney horrible. But tomorrow a lot will be settled and it will be better because I will no longer get a beat down on a daily basis. But I probably won't sleep tonight and have been getting a tinge of the yackumup feelings when I think about it all....

Speaking of "won't"...We have been doing contractions w/ not and my kids are blown away by the fact that "will not" contracts to "won't." And come to think of it, so am I. Whoever decided that rearranging the word "not," throwing in an apostrophe, and attaching it to a "w" is the same thing as "will not" was on crack.

Other than that, someone told me today that it called a "cobweb" when one does not update their site regularly. Same person also told me that instead of calling someone a blonde, you say that they are a "404." Both of which made me giggle.

I had school pictures taken today. Teachers get a complimentary package. The first 8 emails I receive will be the winners of a super great wallet size school picture of Amanda the Great Teacher!

I came home from school tonight and part of my fence had blown down. But my parents happen to be in town for the 3rd time in 10 days, so my dad came over to fix it. Frank and Nancy had a great gallop through my 'hood before I realized the fence was horizontal in the yard.

In the past 2 weeks they have added: 2 student computers, TV, VCR, DVD player, phone w/ own phone line, overhead, and 700 bucks to spend on my classroom. It's startin' to be a super cool room now!

Oh yeah, and Carson is the cutest paperweight I've ever seen.

This message awaited me when I signed into my Yahoo messenger today. I just had to share. It gave me a good chuckle.

"(9/15/2005 6:01:42 PM): hi am Joe,i stay in state,i got ur profile from yahoo and was so interested in it.it was so impressive. i learnt from it that u r so down to earth. you got all the attributes i need in my dream woman. i want you for you.i dunt want u for just a chatfriend i want somethin more deeper.with you i feel the long search is over. please get on and lets tok. ive been searchin for someone with this attribute all these while and am so Glad that i finds you. May be God you in mind before creating me. hope to tok to you soonest.please email me back so i will be sure that u gets this messg."

Thanks Moe for this the rolling duffel project link! It's a very cool Dallasite Katrina helping site! I emailed them tonight because I wanta help!

Glad to be home from Vegas. I don't like it there much anymore. It's pretty gross...at least the people are...gambling, liquor, and sex...I'm just not that wild (anymore, at least...ha ha!). And I was sick the whole time...allergies, a cold, don't know...but very very happy to be home.

So I am reading on my various fat mailing lists that in places like Baton Rouge and Houston they are desperate for large/plus sized clothing. I have looked all around on the net to find where to take some in the DFW area. I just bagged up 11 big trash bags of fat chick clothes, many w/ the tags still on and 80% of it never worn. (Yes, I'm a clothes whore...there is a very wise fat woman in Lubbock that explains the psychology of why fat women horde clothing and that is because it's not so easy for us to just run out and buy stuff...there are limited shopping places, fat clothes are more expensive, etc. so most fat women have a great deal of anxiety about parting with their clothes even if they don't wear them and we buy stuff we don't need just in case we do need it in the future and can't find/afford it at that time...but I'm ready to part with this stuff because I saw a fat woman on TV wearing a trash bag because they don't have anything big enough to fit her at the shelter she's at!!!) SO, if any of yous' guys hear of any place in DFW for me to take my fabulous fat chick clothes where some trash-bag wearin' women can have it immediately...let me know!!!

We have "Windsuit Wednesdays" at school. I like that. I went and bought an outfit for it. Gray pants & hooded vest thing w/ lime green stitching and a lime green t-shirt w/ gray stitching. The shirt has 3/4 length sleeves so I will wear it year round. I wore it for the first time today and it's my new Wednesday's uniform.

Vic took my Carson cat to the vet yesterday because I don't have time during their business hours. Seems his eye is matted shut and his cough for the last 2-3 weeks has been due to allergies. He got an allergy shot. Like momma, like cat.

My new insurance starts tomorrow. I'm going to go back to my allergy dr. that I have no longer been able to see because they stopped taking my insurance about 9 months ago. I'm going to start taking shots again. I felt so so so much better taking allergy shots. I have more snot in my head than I would like and my throat hurts today. But I refuse to be ill because I leave in less than 48 hours to a long Vegas weekend.

Yeah for long Vegas weekends. I plan to do nothing but be brainless. Thinking only of outlandish drag queens, compulsive gamblers wearing the same clothes for 2 days, and women who've had more work than a car on "Pimp My Ride." I can't wait! And Big Willie is 21! Wowzers. That's so weird.

Ok, I'm going to bed. Notice the time. How things change.

You get a free ball of cool yarn. If you don't knit, you can get it and give it to a knitter :). Like me or Moe :).

http://www.bernat.com/getdown/

I did my first restraint today. We had a fire drill and the new autistic student didn't want to go back in. Wow. I'm exhausted.

Happy Birthday to William, Happy Birthday to William, Happy 21st Birthday dear Brother, Happy Birthday to YOU!

We are going to Vegas Labor Day weekend for a little celebratin' and I can't wait! Yeah!

I had my kids for the first time today. I would not be anymore tired if I had left the house at 7:30 this morning and just walked continuously until 6 p.m. when I got home. 11.5 hours of walking would not make me as tired as I am right now. And I didn't have enough prepared. It never occurred to me that I would have a group of second graders that don't like to color...so like the dot-to-dot that was supposed to be colored after being connected...took 5 minutes rather than 20. So for the last 30 minutes of class we did a Scooby Doo puzzle. And when I say the last 30 minutes, I mean of my 2.5 hour time period...hopefully tomorrow is better prepared.

And then I came home tonight and just taught myself, with Allison's help, to play "Monster Consonants" in the event I need it tomorrow. And now I'm going to bed to read "Ghost Beach" from the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine because I'm going to read it aloud for the next few days to them and want to know what's in it before I put it in their little not so innocent heads.

We talked about our "favorites" today...one's favorite movie is "The Seed of Chucky" and another's is "Black Hawk Down...because it's violent."

And my parents wouldn't let me see Dirty Dancing....

I'm still working on my room, but here are a few shots of what I have so far...including my grass skirt around my desk and Hawaiian flowers in my window :)! It was "Meet the Teacher" night tonight. I sat in my room for 1.5 hours and didn't have a single parent stop by. That makes me really sad for my little second graders. One would hope that special needs kids have parents that care enough to participate in such an event...especially since my school is only 2-4th grades...so all my kids are new to the building!!

I also had a final tonight. I'm so glad it's over. I will sleep easier tonight! Ok, I'm off to bed.

I have a new appreciation for elementary school teachers. Who knew how much frickin' work it was to decorate their rooms! And that THEY supply all the cool stuff in their rooms...like games, flash cards, etc. If I am this exhausted after a week of teacher training...I can only imagine what next week and the next and the next....will be like! My brain is fried and my whole body hurts and I have to get up in the morning (SATURDAY) and go work more on my room. But I really like it. I have some pretty great co-workers...and I'm getting less scared of the kids...but I think it's just because I'm so ready to have all the preparation done that the kids actually being here would be a welcomed change...

Did I mention that I only have paint on the walls and "Meet the Teacher Night" is Tuesday. Aye Crumba.