A conglomoration of sorts

I suppose it's been a day or two since my last post! Things have been crazy insane here, as I'm sure they have been at your place. Travis has been home a few times & even one time that was an "extra" for us.

Caleb is getting so big! I need to video him & get it posted on here. He's talking a mile a minute & is turning into quite the big boy!

The kids are excited for Easter because we are going to Manti & they have been been missing their Grandpa Butter. I'm sure that knowing they generally bring home about 13 lbs of Easter candy helps (no, I'm not exaggerating).

My spring break begins on Thursday (Woot Woot!!) but Sam's doesn't start until Monday. That means we only get 1 day of spring break together. The bright side to that is Travis comes home Tuesday night so his whole week off the kids have off too! No exciting things planned, just looking forward to being home & vegging out!

My Relay for Life team has raised just shy of $300. We are getting a few fundraisers up & going. We are selling family cookbooks again this year as well as the Relay for Life cookbook we put together last year. I've bought material to make really cute pillow cases that I'm going to sell as well. A lady I work with is making watch bands to donate to our cause for me to sell as well. Relay is July 9th & 10th this year & I know it's going to be here before I'm ready. Unfortunately this year Trav won't be home that weekend, so the kids will be on campus with me the entire time. I also managed to become a committee member for the entertainment committee! So, if you or someone you know is at all entertaining (or has some ideas ;) ) let me know!

My car pooped out again so I'm driving my brother's car. I'm seriously ready to push that sucker off a cliff. I know we've gotten our money's worth, but honestly! I just want a car that will start EVERY time I get in it & try to start it! Is that so much to ask?

There are only about 8 more weeks of school left. Right now it's looking like I'll have the pleasure of staying home with the kiddos for an unspecified amount of time after school gets out. Not sure I'm going to go back to teaching. I knew there were politics when I got into it, but I just don't think it's worth it anymore. Guess that's some soul searching I have to finish up within the next 8 weeks.

Nothing exciting

Well, even though we haven't had much excitement, I decided I'd better put a new post up since it's been so long!
Here's what we've been up to since the last post.
*My computer crashed. Now you know why it's been so long since I posted! I decided I'd just reinstall the entire system. Yay. That's fun. Now I can log on & have internet, but I still don't have all my OS up & running.
*Travis came home. That's always a crazy time. We had fun. We did do Sam's family party at the ice rink. Did I post pix?
*I had the entire of the trimester grades to deal with. That's always fun...not.
*Caleb ran a fever off & on all week last week & I took 1/2 day off on Friday to take him to Insta Care (pediatrician was booked). Unfortunately (or fortunately) they couldn't find a single thing wrong with him. His ears were "perfect" and his throat was a little bugery. We did x-rays (again) b/c he's had a bit of a croupy cough. They said it just looked viral & gave him an oral dose of Dexamethazone. Unfortunately, he's done nothing but cry & want to be held for 3 days straight! I'm missing my happy baby!!
*Nash started not feeling well yesterday. I'm taking the whole day off tomorrow so I can't get them BOTH back into the pediatrician.]
*Oh! I found someone to fill in as daycare while my girlfriend takes a month off. The lady is just down the street from us, so that's nice. She even said she'd accept payment as what we're paying Laura....HUGE bonus for me! I also got told Samantha can go to After School Club that month - well, until they're done for the year (which we aren't sure when that is yet).
*Other than that, it's just been the same old, same old. We are enjoying the semi nice weather though & the kids are itching to get outside! Hopefully soon!

Any takers?

I'm starting a Relay for Life Team again. If you'd like to join me or just donate, let me know!

Apparently when you go to the site, you have to register under participant registration. Otherwise, it tries to get you to pay $100 & you'd actually be registering your own team!

A little more V-day & Sam's b-day!

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Life changing question

You know, I knew there were politics in the education field. However, it seems to be that I have yet to find a principal that I feel actually understands and appreciates my efforts.

I have been really struggling at work the last several weeks. I just don't know what to do with my students. They are from a totally different planet that what I have EVER worked with. They steal from each other and from me. They have foul mouths. They think they are entitled to everything on this planet and can't for the life of them figure out why I ever tell them NO. They think they are the most important thing on the planet and that the entire world revolves around them. Now, don't get me wrong. I've worked with kids that have bits and pieces of this attitude. However, the difference here is that the kids I'm working with this time have absolutely ZERO respect for anyone or anything. They never cease to amaze me in the crap they come up with and try to get away with. They are vandalizing things in my room and destructive with things just because they can be. I just can't figure out why.

I have a great mentor this year and I am sure that I have absoltuely driven her nuts over the past several months. I have continually gone to her for advice on what to do with this group of kids. Everyone has said since the beginning of the school year that this group of kids has been horrible since kindergarten (should have been a sign). Every time she tells me something, I've tried it with some or little to no success.

Today I got called to the principal's office. We use the 3 card pull system at our school as a school wide behavior plan. When a student pulls to red, I am suppose to fill out an incident report. In the last week or so we've gone electronic with these. Well, after their 3rd incident they are suppose to go to the principal. I have only sent 1 kid there the entire year for the number of incidents he had. Today I filled out 2 incidents that were 4th incidents so it resulted in an automatic office referal. I feel they were legitimate - the girl was smacking people all day & the boy is just increasing in behavior every single day since November. When I got to the principal's office I was told that "I'm not going to continue to deal with the behavior problems in your room." Now hold on. I'm not sure what behavior problems she's dealt with. In Oct. she told me my classroom management sucked and it resulted in my being placed on remediation. Then in December she told me I was doing great with it. Now, I suck again. She made the comment that "In order to be successful in this district, you have to be committed." Travis' response to this was "Tell her, politely, that the school only gets you for the 16 hours a day 5 days a week that you've been putting in all year." Yeah, right - I'm going to say that to my BOSS.

At this point, I feel that my best just isn't good enough and it never will be at this school for this principal. I told Travis that I feel that for the best interest of my sanity and the well being of our children I will not be able to return to this school in the fall -- even if my principal renews my contract. I just can't keep feeling like crap for doing what I'm doing when my own children are suffering the consequences. What really bums me out is that I thought this school was going to be "THE school." Guess not. In fact, I'm actually now questioning whether or not I should even stay in the field of education. It's gotten to be more about tests and test numbers than actually teaching the students. Teaching students is why I went into teaching - NOT NCLB.

What do you do when you feel like you've just wasted the last 10 years of your life going after the dream you thought you wanted to live for the rest of your life?