Triple T

Thanks to the gorgeous (and preggo) Laura Belle we have Ten Things Thursday!!

1. 15 total days until summer break, 9 more days to wake up to an alarm clock...but who's counting??


2. On the last day of school I have a ritual. As soon as I leave the building I call The Rockstar and sing School's Out (Alice Cooper). Then, as soon as I get home I unplug my alarm clock and hide it way back in the back of the closet...where it stays until I have to go back to work in August. I try my best not to set any doctors appointments or anything during the summer that would require me setting an alarm. I very rarely even look at the clock in the summer :)


3. I have to find a new doctor. My doctor affiliated himself with a program and if I wanted to stay his patient I would have had to pay the annual fee of over $1700 a year...plus still pay my copay every time I go in. It didn't make sense to me to do that since I only go to the doctor a few times a year. I have been with my doctor for 14 years and hate to get a new one, but that's what I gotta do.


4. My doctor will only see nonmembers up until May 22, so I went in today to get new prescriptions, get my vitamin B 12 shot, yearly girl stuff, and ask who he personally recommended for me as a new doctor. So the good news is he recommended a doctor he felt would match well with me. The bad news is, I have a lump in right breast and have to go in for a diagnostic mammogram next week. Normally I wouldn't even be concerned, but since my mother battled breast cancer 4 years ago I am slightly concerned.


5. My bff is coming into town next week for her nephew's graduation and I am sooooo way excited to see her. It sucks that I will still be working, but at least I will get to spend some time with her over the weekend.


6. Did you know that I have not had any Mt Dew in 3 days??? Not a drop. Yeah, I know, it's a miracle. Don't get too excited. I have been drinking sweet tea and lemonade like nobody's business. Probably just as much sugar, but lemons are a fruit so it's gotta be a little bit better for me...right??


7. Three weeks from this very moment my ass will be in the sun and toes in the sand. I look forward to beach trip all year long. The beach is my absolute favorite place to be. In the past we only stay 3 or 4 days because every year one of us had to be back for some other obligation. This year we made sure that we had no other obligations that week and we are staying the entire week.


8. I don't even have one pair of shorts that fit me. I looked for some shorts this past weekend, but every pair I saw were either down to me knees or they were coochie cutters. I need something in between.


9. We haven't even started opening our pool yet. I told my pool boy (The Rockstar) today that he better get on it. It was almost 90 here today. Ya know, I tell people that my summer job is an aquatic engineer :-)

10. There's a first for everything...and today was a first. For the first time ever I wore a dress to work. I normally only wear a dress to a wedding. But today, it was for no particular reason. Our custodian stopped me in the hall to tell me I looked very nice today...made me feel good :) It's hard to see in the picture, but the dress is white with little black polka dots. It is sleeveless, so I had to wear a cardigan with it to work.

Changes comin my way

So my principal walked in my room yesterday with a letter in hand. Usually this is not a good thing....it could mean that you are being fired, it could mean that they are transferring you to another school, it could mean a number of things that you usually don't want and are completely blindsided by. My letter was telling me that I, in fact, would be moving. But at least it is still in the same school. They are moving me to a different class. I will have fewer kids, but their disabilities are much more severe. As of now, all of the students in that class are nonverbal and in diapers. I am ok with it. I kinda feel like I can work with any type of student and I can always find the strengths in any student I work with.


When I walked in Monday morning this was on my desk...

 

 

If you can't read it, it says: For all your help and not being a B!

 

Apparently during stress week some people (ok, really only one) was quite the "B" because she was stressed out over doing the portfolios. It stressed me out too, but no sense in being a "B" to others.

 

 

I am so way excited that we are in the last couple of weeks of school!!!!! A couple of my kids have already left. One because her dad got stationed somewhere else and another because his grandmother died. I have two others who will be leaving next week because their mom or dad got stationed elsewhere. It's one of the hard parts of working with military children. You get close to them and then they have to leave. I guess they are used to it...I still am not.

 

 

Happy Tuesday y'all!

Stress week is O-V-E-R

Last week was the most stressful week of the entire school year for me. I have to do a portfolio on each one of my kids and they were due this past Friday. Each one takes hours to put together and I had 9 of them to do...more than any other teacher on post. But I got them done, and on time. I felt like a really crappy teacher last week because I did very little teaching. One of coworkers knew I was feeling the stress and she tried to make me feel better with this....

As you can see, one of the KitKats is missing. Yes, I ate it and yes, it is a full size.

Now that stress week is over, I have been able to have a very nice relaxing weekend. Yesterday The Rockstar spent the day with me shopping. Normally he doesn't like to go shopping, but yesterday he didn't complain one bit. Maybe it was because I was trying on swimsuits and I would open up the dressing room door and model them for him :). I had bought several swimsuits over the past few weeks and there was one that I just didn't love on me...I loved it on the model, but not on me. I liked the top, but not the bottom. Since it was so expensive ($75 for just the bottoms) I decided to return it. I did buy another one in its place, but The Rockstar still likes the cheapest one I bought (for like $20) the best. I love the colors of it, but I am certainly not used to wearing a real two piece suit. I have been in tankinis for the last 20 years. But not this year...I am actually going to be  brave enough to wear my 2 piece and not worry if someone thinks I look fat in it. Here it is...

I really should learn to take self pics during the day when The Rockstar isn't laid up in the bed in the background. I know my bed is always unmade in my pictures, but I promise I make it up every morning :-)


Today was a fabulous Mother's Day. Yesterday when I got home from shopping this was on my jewelry chest....

The Boy left it for me. He didn't stay at home last night, so I really had no idea what he had planned. I followed the directive and was ready at 1:00. He showed up exactly on time with a dozen roses in hand. He said he was taking me on a date for Mother's Day. We went to my favorite restaurant...just me and my date :)

 

 

 

 

After we returned The Big Boy came over and spent some time with me. He gave me a gift certificate for spa services. Yep, I did good raising these boys right :-)

 

 

I hope all of you had a great Mother's Day too!

 

Have you thanked a teacher today?

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day. Our PTA provide lunch for us today. Way too many sweets, but it was yummy. If you have kids, and you think they have a great teacher, tell them. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love getting a little note from a parent telling me they appreciate what I do for their child. It doesn't take expensive gifts or flowers, or candy....just a simple little note.

 A parent of one of my former students left a comment on my fb the other day telling me that I was wonderful teacher. Her son is getting married this summer and he sent me a message telling me how much it would mean to him if I was there. Now let me just tell ya....this kid gave me hell almost on a daily basis. There were certainly many days that I wondered if I was getting through to this kid. So happy to see that I did make some kind of impact on him. And I can't wait to be there on his big day!

This past weekend was very rough for me. My baby Austin went to puppy heaven. He had been declining since Kayleigh passed away back in July. He was 14. He was completely deaf and almost completely blind. I miss him dearly.

I have been super duper busy at work. My kids don't take standardized state tests. I have to compile a portfolio as an alternate assessment for each one of one kids. The portfolios are due Friday and I will be working on them up until the very last minute.


I am so stinkin excited about going to the beach next month. I bought 5 different swimsuits. I decided that I was going to buy any swimsuit I wanted, no matter what the cost, since I finally feel comfortable wearing any swimsuit I want. So, I ordered a Betsey Johnson swimsuit and let me just tell you....it was NOT cheap. Altogether I spent several hundred dollars on all the swimsuits. Wouldn't you know, the one that I liked the best was the one I found for $20.

Happy Tuesday! Toodles :)

Triple T!!

Thanks to the gorgeous (and preggo) Laura Belle we have Ten Things Thursday!!


1. I am taking my kids on another field trip tomorrow. This time we are going to a park and having a picnic. The Rockstar is taking his class too. How cool is it that I am having a date day with The Rockstar while I am at work. Nevermind the fact that we will have 24 kids with us :)


2. Tonight I went to dinner for the student teacher I had at the beginning of this semester that was hosted by the university she attends. It is also the university where I received my bachelors degree. The food was amazing. It was some kind of herb crusted chicken. As everyone finished the servers took everyone's plate except for mine. I then realized that I leave so much food on my plate that they didn't think I was finished. At first I didn't give it much thought, but then I noticed everyone at kept looking at my plate (or at least I felt like they were). It made me a little self conscious for some reason. Usually it doesn't seem to bother me, but for some reason it did tonight.


3. I will be getting another student teacher in August. She came by the school yesterday to have me sign some observation paperwork. It was the second time I have met her. I'm not sure this one is going to gel with me as well. She talks nonstop. Now you would think that a chatty girl like me would be ok with that. But, I have a feeling she can out talk me any day.


4. The Rockstar is going out of town this weekend to meet up with some old army buddies. I have no idea what I will do with myself for a whole weekend alone.


5. I ordered a 2 piece swimsuit online and it arrived today. I felt pretty good in it. I think I may need to send the top back and get one size bigger. I may have lost 83 pounds, but I swear I'm not sure that I lost one ounce of that in my boobs. The top size of my swimsuit is double the size of my bottoms.


6. I had told y'all a while ago that I may not get to go on my girls trip to the beach this year because my bff's son was coming in from Japan that week. Well, I am happy to say that we worked it out. We had an extra bedroom in our condo, so I just suggested that her boys (both grown and can drive their own car) spend the week at the condo with us. They are old enough that they will want to go off and do their own thing while we lay on the beach and she will still get to spend time with him in the evenings while he is back in the states.


7. I have Kohl's cash that I need to spend by this weekend. They suck me back in every single time with that damn Kohl's cash. I go in thinking I am only going to spend this $20 in Kohl's cash and not a penny more. Yeah, right. I end up spending another $100 and then get more Kohl's cash. The cycle is never ending.


8. Only 4 more weeks of school and the it's summer break!!!!!


9. I am planning on going to the beach a few days after we get out of school. Then, a week after I return I plan to go to Colorado to visit my other bff. Then, my German son is supposed to come back to the states for the whole month of July. This is going to be an amazing summer :)


10. Grey's Anatomy is on and finally is a new episode....so I need to go watch it :)

Feeling fatty fat today and tummy tuck reveal

I am feeling fatty today. I shall stay in sweats all day and sulk about it. Just kidding...I stay in my sweats every Sunday any way :) But I won't sulk about it, it is what it is. I ate way to much crap this weekend, so feeling fat today is the price I must pay.

Friday I took my kids on a field trip out to lunch. We had been working on how to order from a menu, money skills, tipping, restaurant vocabulary, etc. So, Friday we went to a restaurant so they could transfer those skills from the classroom to the real world. Not a hard concept for most kids, but the kind of kids I teach have a very difficult time transferring skills. Any way, they did great and we all had a great time. I did, however, eat too much. We went to a place that has really, really good rolls. And yes I ate one. And yes, it was loaded with butter.


If that wasn't bad enough, The Rockstar and I went out to eat yesterday. I may, or may not (ok I did) eat a big portion of one of these...

 

 

It was so yummy while I was in the process of eating it, but I felt like crap the rest of the night. However, that didn't stop me from eating these...



Yeah, not the best choices this weekend. But I won't dwell on it. Today will be a better day :)


So I know I have promised some "after" tummy tuck pics. Well, I had not taken any. But I snapped a quick pic last night. Some times I think I look good until I see myself in a picture and then I am like "oh my God, what the hell was I thinking". So, I was thinking maybe this summer I would wear a 2 piece swimsuit. But then I remembered that the mirror sometimes lies to me and I had better take a pic so I could see what it was going to look like. I still haven't decided if I am brave enough to go to the beach in 2 piece, but I will definitely have one on in my own backyard. Anyway, here is the big reveal of the post tummy tuck pic (and please don't mind the unmade bed in the background)...

 

I am still a little swollen and the pic is a little blurry and dark....sorry, that's all I got for now :)

Have a happy Sunday!

 

 



Swell Hell

You know how new bandsters go through bandster hell? Well new tummy tuckers go through "swell hell"...and I am right smack dab in the middle of it. In the mornings I am great. Full of energy, have a nice flat tummy, and feel on top of the world. At some time during the afternoon I start to lose my mojo, feel tired, and look a few months pregnant. I know it is completely normal after a tummy tuck, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

Today marks 1 month since my tummy tuck (if you go by weeks and not the date...4 weeks today). I feel so much better in my clothes. Even with the binder, my clothes fit so much better. I'm not sure how much longer I will have to wear the binder. I go back to the surgeon tomorrow. He said most of the time he wants patients to stay in it 6 weeks for 23 hours a day. I have followed that rule every single day. In fact, I don't really like having the binder off.


In unrelated tt news, it has been in the 80's here this week. I bought 3 new pair of flip flops over the weekend. I have been rockin the capri's and flip flops to work this week. Now that the piggies have been set free, they won't be contained again until at least October :) The Rockstar says I need an intervention for my flip flop addiction. I don't have room for all of my flip flops in one closet. They are spread out between two closets. Here is the unorganized mess of not even 1/4 of my flippy flops...

 

 

For those of you who have missed my duckface pics I will leave you with this...

 

Happy Tuesday Y'all!