Ramblings

If you're in the market for a short but interesting read, check out the following articles about our "wonderful" education system in America.

Teacher Assaulted Over iPod http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/25/teacher.attacked.ap/index.html

Bus Drivers and Cell-Phones
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/13/schoolbus.phones.ap/index.html

Self-Centered in Massachusetts
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/07/student.lawsuit.reut/index.html

Teacher Kicks Kids
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/16/teacher.attacks.ap/index.html

Enjoy.

Wasting My Time

One of my pet-peeves is when people waste my time. Whether it be a meeting that doesn't start on time, an ineffective teacher, or the lack of effort from other people. Those who know me well know not to waste my time, and if you do waste my time, there had better be a damn good reason for it. For this reason alone, Thursday was a miserable day for me.

I was slotted to lead a discussion about William James' The Principles of Psychology as well as John Dewey's The Reflex Arc in my History & Systems of Psychology class. I put a lot of time into my handouts: Reading both readings three times, discussing the readings with my professor for over an hour, creating open ended questions to promote discussion, and doing additional research to give my classmates more information. All of these things took up a great deal of time and as a consequence, I missed out on having quality time with Brian this week. I went to class and for an entire 90 minutes all I got from my classmates were blank stares and sighs of boredom. It was like grasping straws that weren't there. I felt as though my time spent on creating the handouts and attempting to lead a discussion was a waste, and I still feel that way. As a result of this massive failure, I analyzed and agonized over what went wrong. I came up with nothing and asked my professor for advice on how to better my discussion leading for my next slotted lead day. He has no ideas. So I am back to square one. I am still feeling as though my efforts were a waste of time and I'm trying to find the energy and enthusiasm to put together another well crafted handout for next time. But wait, it gets better...

So after this wonderful class in which I talked for 90 minutes straight and felt like I was Thumbelina in Shrek's world, I went to my next psych class. The class with the professor who reads, page by page, from the book. I wouldn't go except for the fact that there is a 50-75 question exam every day in that class and missing an exam is just not an option. So he effectively wasted 2.5 hours of my time. The frustration built and by the time I got home I just wanted to sit on the couch and watch tv. But I couldn't do that because that would be just a waste of time.

So there you have it. My #1 pet-peeve. Silly, I know.

Stupid Things to Say to a Preschool Teacher

Stupid Thing #1: With the cost of tuition at this Center you must get paid a lot!
Sarcastic Response: Yeah, $6.00 an hour is GREAT.

Stupid Thing #2: I would love to have a job where I didn't have to work.
Sarcastic Response: I would love it too.

Stupid Thing #3: You look tired.
Sarcastic Response: DUH!

Stupid Thing #4: So when are you having your own children?
Sarcastic Response: I decided not to after working with yours.

Stupid Thing #5: So what do you DO all day?
Sarcastic Response: Ever spent a whole day with your child? Multiply that by 20.

Stupid Thing #6: Do you babysit outside of work?
Sarcastic Response: Hell no.

Stupid Thing #7: Anything interesting happen today?
Sarcastic Response: What do you think?

Stupid Thing #8: What do you do on your days off?
Sarcastic Response: Hide from children.

Stupid Thing #9: Can I send in hard candy for Halloween?
Sarcastic Response: Sure! I always wanted to see how much I remembered from CPR training.

Stupid Thing #10: She has a fever of 102. Can she still come today?
Sarcastic Response: What do I look like, a hospital?

A Day Off????

So I found out on Wednesday that I didn't have to work today. SCORE!!!! I was completely psyched about having a day off to do, well, whatever I wanted. Granted I am working at 10pm tonight but hey, that's not till 10pm!!!! So I woke up this morning all excited about not having to do anything. I should learn not to get excited, because it just makes reality that much harder to take.

On my way to have breakfast with a friend I checked my phone, and saw that my boss called me early this morning. I debated about just deleting the message and pretending I never got it, but my conscious told me otherwise. So I listened to the message. Turns out I do have to work today, at 2:30. My mood changed instantly.

Now it's not that I don't love my job(s), I do. But I rarely ever get a day to myself, a day to do whatever I want, a day to not have any obligations and have to keep track of the time so that I'm not late for anything. So to find out that I have to work at the last minute just sucks. It's 12:30 now, so I have 2 hours to get my happy face on and not be a depressing nanny.

Okay, I'm done now. Have a great day :)

So it's finally Saturday. I have been looking forward to this day since Monday. :) So why is it that on this particular day, 5-year old girl decides to have a Jekyl & Hyde personality? It was a very long 5 hours today, and quite honestly, I couldn't wait for it to be 1:30 so I could go home and away from all moody/sick children. Now I'm sitting here avoiding my homework.

In other news, aparently 3.5 month old boy doesn't have croup, he has bronchialitis. I would just like to point out that the ER at the local hospital diagnosed him with croup. So I'm still having to give him breathing treatments every 4 hours. He can absolutely not have tummy time and is only allowed limited back time, he hates his swing and carrying him around in the snugli all day is taking a toll on my back. He's currently 17 lbs and 29 inches long. It's not so much the length that's the problem, but the weight is just too much. In addition, he was getting SOOOOO close to rolling over before he got sick, now with no tummy time and limited back time, we're pretty much back to square one. It's frustrating really, but that's life I guess.

My step grandfather isn't doing to well. I don't really understand the whole thing but basically his pancreas is inflamed, his blood sugar is off the charts, and he is orange due to the excessive amounts of toxins in his body. His abdomen is distended and he looks like he's 6 months pregnant. My grandmother has been taken off of all chemo and radiation because she is bleeding somewhere in her GI tract but they don't know where. I think she's going in later next week to be scoped.

It's still snowing here, so I'm off to shovel, AGAIN. Have a great weekend!

Snow, Snow, Everywhere

*Note* I wrote this yesterday and just forgot to post it. Sorry!!!

And yet I still have school. The only school that is open today is the university I attend. All of the other schools in the county were closed yesterday and today. The university was closed yesterday because they couldn't get the parking lots cleared on time. Seriously, the only reason this university has EVER closed is when they can't get the parking lots cleared.

In other news, my step-grandfather is in the hospital with accute pancreatitis. The last update I got was at 8am this morning so I am vigilantly holding my cell phone at all times awaiting another update. My grandmother is having trouble with her chemo and radiation, so they've been tweeking that all week. My mom sounds extremely tired and I wish I could go down and help her out but the roads are so bad that I don't want to risk an accident by trying to drive down there. Of course, my family that lives an hour away from my grandparents is "too busy to help" and my dad insists on working even though he can take time off whenever he wants. Gotta love the priorities in my family!

A Little of This, A Little of That

This post has no real rhyme or reason, just a mish mash of random happenings in my life. Enjoy!

School was in session today, so I only had to work my normal hours :) 3.5 month old is doing much better, he only needed one breathing treatment today. I did sit in the steamy bathroom with him because he was starting to wheeze a little bit after a crying jag. Unfortunately, the weather has just gotten worse so they're considering closing school again tomorrow. In addition to a possible school closing-(which means 3 kids for me)-I agreed to work late tomorrow night. So I am quite possibly looking at a 14 hour day, with 3 kids, and no break. I should just open a daycare.

I have a take home exam to write before Tuesday. I generally like take home exams--they're easier to do and you can use your books. This professor has counteracted that however, he is still letting us use our books, but the exams can be no shorter than 15 pages. It has to be at least 20 for a B grade. Now in all fairness to him, this is a graduate level class, and he is a very fair professor in terms of grading and expectations. But seeing as how I am in 2 of his classes it basically means that I will be writing a 20 page exam every other week. Wish me luck!

The weather sucks. I did a 360 in my car today while trying to stop. I was going between 15 & 20 mph. Thankfully there were no children with me, and no cars in the opposite lane. Stupid town apparently doesn't know what sand/salt is. Add to that the fact that my landlord STILL hasn't come to look at the fridge and I'm really starting to hate this town. Anyone who wants the snow can have it--and all the shoveling/driving/bundling up that goes with it. Just show up and take it, nobody will care.

That's the news from the arctic. I'm off to venture into the blowing snow in order to clean out my car. Send a search party if I don't come back.

Snow Day

I remember when I used to get excited about snow days. It meant no school for the day and I got to stay home and play all day with my 3 siblings. Now that I am a child care provider, I dread them. Snow days now mean that I will be working a full day, and usually I am working for multiple families at once. The snow day today was no exception.

I got the lovely phone call at 6am, a whole hour before I would knock my alarm off the bedside table to get it to shut up. All schools in the northern half of Michigan were closed. After some fancy phone work, I figured out a schedule for the day. I took on 2 families who agreed to me watching their children at the same time and turned down 3 other families who call me once in a blue moon. So off I was for the 12.5 hour day with absolutely no break.

I picked up 5 yr. old girl from her house and took her to family #2's house. Family #2 have a 5 yr. old boy and a 3.5 month old boy. The 5 yr. old's know each other from daycare, where I used to work, and the baby is a happy little guy who absolutely loves attention. The plan was perfect, the flaws were minimal, and I was looking forward to a good, yet tiring day. Then we got there. I find out that 3.5 month old has croup. It's not mild croup, it's not even moderate croup, no---it's severe croup. Not severe enough to put him in the hospital, but he's about one step away from being admitted. So the doctor's orders were to NOT lay him on his back at all and not let him cry. Now, he's not a big crier to begin with, so that wasn't really a problem, it was the not being able to lay him down that created a problem. I basically had one hand all day, and with two 5 yr. olds who are both vying for my attention, it was not at all easy. The only time I had possession of both of my hands was when I put the baby in the Snugli to make lunch for the 2 other kids. It wouldn't have been so bad if the baby didn't weigh 16 lbs.

So yeah, my back hurts from the Snugli, my arm hurts from carrying a baby all day, and I'm just plain tired. I am hoping beyond hope that school is in session tomorrow, because if it's not, I don't know what I am going to do. I am already booked from 8am-6:30pm, but you'd be amazed at how pissed off and rude parents can get when you won't stop your whole life just to accommodate them. Anywho, here's hoping to a full day of school tomorrow--if nothing else, just to get a mind break!

Brrrrrrrrrrrr.....

We're in the midst of a blizzard here right now and it's a doozy. There's blowing snow, white out conditions, roads are closed, accidents at every major intersection, and the temperature is -16F. For those of you in the southern states the average freezer operates at -18F. Yeah, it's cold.

In other news, between yesterday and today I worked 25 hours with one 30 minute break. That's gotta be illegal! Oh well, it made for a nice paycheck at least. Tomorrow is a full day of studying, seeing as how I have had no time this weekend to do anything other than work.

I have decided that my family is the most dominant stressor in my life. Unfortunately I can't just omit them, so I've taken the easy route and now I just avoid them.
My sister and brother in law live in Florida and, if you watch the news, you know that the humid hurricane attractor had a bunch of tornadoes go through the other day. My sister and brother in law live in one of the counties where there were a significant number of tornadoes. Nobody has heard anything from them even though we've all called multiple times. I'm a little worried, but I'm trying to not get too worked up because they typically check their answering machine once a month.

My grandmother-(the one I wrote about in the previous post)-overdosed on narcotics early this morning. It wasn't an accidental overdose either. She has a history of abusing prescription medication and alcohol. So now my mother is handling the situation because she is the main caregiver for my grandmother. The upside to this is that my mother was a phenomenal nurse back in the day and is very effective with stubborn elderly people. The downside is that my mother has a history of abusing over the counter medications and has taken my prescription painkillers in the past. So my grandmother was in the hospital early this morning, I am assuming that she had her stomach pumped, though my mother wasn't able to give me a lot of information when I talked to her because my grandmother was in the room. The plan of action now is that my mother is going to keep all medications under lock and key and dispense the medication to my grandmother. Again, it's a double edged sword--my grandmother will not be able to overdose again but my mother now has complete possession and control over some very powerful prescription pain killers.

So that's the news from the blizzard stricken North. I just have one favor from all you southerners----Remind me what the sun looks like! :)