Gift Card Date

One of the perks of being a teacher at my current school is the gift cards. I love getting them! My favorites are the ones to restaurants and to bookstores. Restaurant gift cards because I can share that with Doug. He deserves it for being patient with my long teacher work hours. Bookstore gift cards because I love buying new books for my students and getting them excited about reading! Thursday night this week, Doug and I had what I call a "Gift Card Date."

First, we went out to eat at Red Robin next to the Dulles Town Center. We only eat out once a month, even with gift cards, so its a big deal! Red Robin has some yummy burgers! I always get the Royal which adds bacon and eggs to a hamburger. It is delish! Doug got the 5 Alarm Burger and needed several refills on his water. We had a good time and didn't have to spend a penny since we used a gift card!


Next, we headed over to the mall because it would have been a nightmare to leave after dinner with the traffic the way it is on 7 at that time. I headed over to the Borders Express and tried to look at the adult books with Doug, but I was pulled away to the Children's Literature section. (I couldn't help myself!) I had a $25 giftcard from Christmas that I hadn't spent yet, so I started looking over all of the books there. I picked out some great ones! "Clementine" by Sara Pennybacker, "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan, and 3 "Dear Dumb Diary" Books. These books are by the same author who wrote the Franny K. Stein series. This is an excellent series that has gotten many of my "reluctant" readers into books. I brought them to my classroom today and showed them to my kids. I had three students with their noses in them for the rest of the day! I keep a digital library record of all of my books in the classroom. Today I went ahead and totaled the quantities of my list and I have 434 chapter books! I'm getting more from Scholastic this month. I love their $1 deals on books! I asked at the register and it turns out that Border's has a 20% teacher discount so I didn't even use my whole gift card!


Next, we stopped by a Starbucks to get one of the only things they have on their menu that doesn't have caffeine, a Caramel Spiced Cider. It was quite yummy! And OF COURSE, we used a gift card! Buying stuff at Starbucks makes us feel fancy.


After that, we headed over to Bath & Body Works to use up the rest of my gift card there. The foaming soaps have been on sale for the last while. Last time we went shopping, I only picked up "girly" scents, so I got one "manly" scent especially for Doug this time. It was some kind of rainwater scent. Now we have a whole bathroom closet worth of both manly and girly smelling soaps.


A little annoyance... the nicely manicured male behind the register asked for my phone number and email address. I said, "No Thank You" very casually and politely. He seemed almost offended at my response. It seems like everyone is trying to spam you these days! If I would like to get email or phone calls from you, I will look you up online and sign up for it, but don't bother me during every single transaction! It turns out I didn't actually finish off my gift card and I have 30 cents left on it. Is there some kind of charity that I can donate that to?

Yay for gift card dates!

2 Weeks Notice

Yesterday at work Doug gave his 2 weeks notice. He gave notice to his boss and luckily it went pretty smoothly. He went to his desk to sit down and get back to work. Within minutes he gets a call from the VP. Apparently his boss had called the director who called the VP who called the CIO. The CIO is some guy who heads all of information technology for his company (his boss's boss like 5 times over). Before the end of the day, Doug had a meeting scheduled with some pretty high up people. They gave him some counter offers to try to keep him. I'm pretty sure that he's made up his mind already about what he'll do.

So long for trying to make a quiet exit...

The Dog Ate My Homework

...literally

Here is a picture of an actual homework assignment that was turned into me the other week. The name wasn't on the paper.. apparently the dog got that part. I knew from the handwriting already though. Little Fact: Did you know that I can distinguish the handwriting of all students in my classroom(24 this year) by about 8 weeks into school? Teachers can even read doctor handwriting!

On the side is a note from mom. I scratched out their phone number. Mom and I had a nice chuckle about it. When I talked to her son, he looked at me with big worried eyes and said, "Well, it's done isn't it?"



Another funny story unrelated to this one. Yesterday in class we were playing a game where the students work on distinguishing nouns from adjectives. Two students stand up in front of the class, one says a noun and the other one needs to use an adjective to describe it. The can't say "um" and they have to think of it fast. If they can't, they're out and someone else from the class switches in.

During our game, one student supplied the noun "TEACHER" and the other student quickly replied with the adjective "HUMONGOUS!"

Needless to say, he was OUT. We had a good laugh as a class and I gave them some better ideas of adjectives to describe the teacher (intelligent, beautiful, etc...)

Oh, a day in the life of a teacher!

Location, Location, Location

So, I've been doing a lot of research on the housing market in the DC Metro Area lately looking for a place to relocate for Doug's work. It's crazy how just 15 minutes in a commute can make a HUGE difference in the price and quality of a home. These two homes are priced within $1,000 of each other. Crime rates and taxes increase as you get closer and the quality of schools decreases. We can't really afford anything closer than 30 minutes!

30 minute commute

60 minute commute

Update: Doug has some training that he needs to complete at the beginning of his employment out in Annapolis, MD. He thought that since it was 2 hours away from our house, his new employer might give him a stipend for gas money or housing. NO, that would be too convenient. So, we are on our own for this as well as selling our house... He still unsure some days whether or not he should take this job.

If you know anyone in the Annapolis area that would like to rent out a room Monday through Thursday cheap, let me know!

Darwin's Adoption Story

My parents have a crazy next door neighbor lady that just feeds tons of feral cats in her garage. None of them have been "fixed" so all they do is reproduce like crazy. They live in terrible conditions and about 5 or so cats freeze every winter. It's pretty terrible.

In September last year, Doug and I were driving over to WV on a Saturday to hang out with the fam. Johnny announced to me on the phone that a brand new kitten from house next door was following him around and they had started feeding it cheese. It was really dirty and skinny and seemed to really like people. This was different because ALL of the cats there run at the sight of any human. Immediately upon seeing Darwin for the first time I knew that he would be my cat. My dad would not allow us to bring him inside, so I gave him his first bath in a small tupperware container with Johnson's baby shampoo.


I then snuck him inside to blow dry him off. By this time, I think my dad had given up and let us hold him inside for a little while. I kept on begging Doug to keep him and Doug told me no because he didn't want me to get attached to something that might die. My parents allowed the kids to keep him in the shed on a towel and give him milk in a little bowl. He had every opportunity to leave the shed, but stayed on the towel unless someone came nearby and then he would follow them. He loved people from the beginning.


Doug was leaving on a business trip on Wednesday of that week and caved when he thought how lonely I would be in the house without him. We went over to my parents house on Monday night and picked up Darwin. Doug came up with the name "Darwin" because he is a survivor, not because we are fans of the scientist or anything. I loved the name immediately and it stuck. (My dad has since given him the "Greek" name of Darwinius Maximus.)

Darwin lived the first couple of weeks in our oversized jacuzzi tub that we never use and used the litter box right away, no accidents. One reason I love cats... He survived his first encounter with Lucky our other cat. Now the two of them are pretty good buds. Darwin has fit in quite well with the family. We're just working on training him to turn off lights and how to NOT sleep on our heads at night.

Update:
Doug and I picked up Darwin from his surgery yesterday. We thought it would be very minor, but it turns out that he hadn't gone through puberty yet. He's 6 months old, so we figured this wouldn't be an issue. They basically had to do a spay + neuter which is a full surgery, not just a few little snips. The poor guy has slept basically every minute since he got home. He just seems miserable. Poor guy! He's sleeping in this comfy chair with Lucky for now. Hopefully he'll be feeling better once I get home. It was hard to leave this morning!

Poor Darwin!

This morning I woke up early on my day off to drop Darwin off to be neutered. We are doing it through the service called "Spay Today" through the Briggs Animal Adoption Center (http://www.baacs.org/) in Charles Town, WV. It cost under $50 for the neutering and all of his shots. I called several vets in the area and most of them cost around $200 just for the neutering. I got there way early because I was nervous for Darwin. I knew it wouldn't be anything frilly with the low price. Doug and I don't actually have one of the pet taxi's, so Darwin just sat on my lap and purred the whole 45 minutes it took to drive there. I had pictured him frantically running around the inside of the car and hiding under the brake or gas pedal like one of Doug's previous cats. If he only knew what he was about ready to go through...

In the office, there were probably about 10 people there to drop off cats. Somehow all of these people knew each other. I waited with Darwin outside while they loaded up the back of the truck with the cages. He looked so scared. They told me that they haven't lost a cat yet. YET?

I go to pick him up at 5pm today. I don't think it can get here soon enough.

Oh and it's my birthday. I'm a quarter century old today and feel just as young as ever! Doug got me a BEAUTIFUL picture frame with 8 little 3x5 frames arranged all together. It will work perfectly for all of our engagement pictures that I still haven't put up.

Valentine's Day Celebrations

Doug and I went on two double dates with my parents on Saturday. We started off the morning with a nice breakfast at the new IHOP in Charles Town. We had a coupon for 20% off and my dad really wanted to try out the place. To reserve your place in line, they give you note cards with the names of famous people. Ours said "George Bush" and there were some comments from others saying, "You might want to trade that one in." My dad then announced to everyone within earshot that, "I like the guy!" and it became pretty quiet. My mom and I both had some yummy stuffed french toast and Doug and dad both got eggs. We had a blast just hanging out and talking with my parents. It was a good time.

Then we went to my parents house so I could use the internet to continue my research on houses. I've found one that I like a lot, but the taxes are pretty high. Here is a link to it. It's a good $33,000 less than our current house, but we need to find out more about the taxes which are very pricey and can make the difference in your mortgage payment. It will probably be gone by the time we are ready to sell, but I was excited to find something that I liked. At this point, Doug has pretty much decided that he needs to take this job for his sanity and will just do the commute for now. I'll continue searching to see if we can find a good deal on a house. He's not worried about pushing the sale of the house because he has some specialized training at the beginning of his employment that will last 5 months. That is even further away so he'll probably need to get a short term apartment or stay in a hotel for that. That will give us a little bit of time so we don't have as much pressure to sell in this market.

Doug and my dad surf many of the same websites and found a great Valentine's Day Deal on slickdeals.net for dinner for 2 at Texas Roadhouse for $30. The closest one is in Hagerstown, MD so Doug called ahead and we all jumped in my dad's Prius for the 45 min drive. We arrived to a VERY crowded restaurant, so crowded that we couldn't even find a place to park, so we had to park in a nearby lot. There was a line out the door when we arrived and it looked like we weren't going to get in. We waited in line for a couple of minutes just to get the hostess station and we getting worried when she told the couple in front of us that it would be over an hour before they would be seated. Doug went up, gave them our name, told them that we had called, and they told us we would have a table in a few minutes. One minute later, they called us and we were seated. It was nice! The meal included appetizers and some good sized steaks. The food was yummy and we left stuffed!

A good time was had by all. I told Doug that breakfast would count for Valentine's and that dinner would count for my birthday!

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm not an anti-Valentine's Day person or anything. I was looking for Valentine Comics and this one made me chuckle.

Doug and I were making chocolate chip cookies last night. He can never keep his hands out of the cookie dough. Anyways, I mentioned to him last night that if I was going to poison him, I would put it in my cookie dough because I could know for sure that he would eat it. But then I told him, that I would probably get poisoned as well because I can't really help myself either.

Lying to Children

I really HATE lying. ANY type of lie. On Friday, two parents of children in my classroom told me about lies they had told their children.

The first parent I was talking to told what she thought to be a "harmless lie." We had our Valentine's Day Party and she came in to chat with me. Her child had brought in cookies to share with everyone that were on a cookie sheet. The mom had told the child that they were "homemade" cookies. She whispered to me on the side, "I ACTUALLY picked them up at the grocery store and ONLY said they were homemade."

The second parent really surprised me. She is one that I've actually gotten to know quite well this school year. I consider her to be a good friend of mine and a very good person. I've known from the beginning of the school year that her student's father is in jail for a white collar crime, nothing violent. I always assumed that the child was aware of this. How could you not know that your father is in jail? Today she told me that the child just found out about a week ago. The family had been lying saying that the father was in COLLEGE, not jail. This has been going on for a couple YEARS. The child had no clue!

I'm sure it has shook this child's entire foundation and what he/she believes to be true. I've definitely noticed self esteem issues in the classroom lately when there were previously none. Fourth graders are not babies! I have seen many fourth graders handle situations well that are even difficult for adults.

I apologize for the rant. I will now get off of my pedestal.

Valentine's Day in the Classroom

February 2007 - My first year of teaching, I was actually deathly ill on Valentine's Day. Like any first year teacher, I didn't have everything figured out, so I was still at the school when the students were coming in trying to put together sub plans. I had been absent the last two days which was a new thing for my 2nd graders because I had never taken sick days before. All of my students were swarming around me giving me the Valentines that they had specially made for me.

One of my dear students came up to me with the proudest look on his face and handed me a Madagascar Valentine with two lifesavers taped on to it. He handed it to me and proudly boasted. "Your Valentine has two lifesavers and everyone else in the classroom only got one!" He smiled at me beaming, handed me the Valentine, and then continued to say, "because you're bigger and you eat more." ... Uh thanks. Don't you love little children, so honest.

February 2008 - In CAshburn where I teach now, classroom parties are like competitions. Which room mom can throw together the biggest production? Seriously, no joke, for an End of the Year Party one year some mom rented one of those huge blow-up jumping things for outside and they had hired clowns or something. Class parties in Ashburn are not your run of the mill, average parties. Administration now limits classrooms to 3 parties a year because I heard it got a little out of control. Most classrooms have a Harvest Party (Halloween), a Winter Festival (Christmas), and an End of the Year Party. Many classroom sneak in some sort of "Valentine's Snack" which is just a shortened version of a party. Luckily my room moms have done a good job of not going too crazy.

In 2008, my parents did a Valentine Breakfast with heart shaped pancakes, fruit, and orange juice for my students as they came into the classroom. It was actually nice because I love breakfast and eating in general, but I am so cheap and busy that I usually don't have breakfast because convenient food is expensive food.

February 2009 - I have given my room moms (there are three that work cooperatively to plan the hubbub) an alloted time of 15-20 minutes for Valentine Snack this year. I'm hoping for something rather simple.

Life Changes

...and not the ones my fourth graders are talking about in Family Life Education this week.

Through an unexpected sequence of events starting about 6 months ago, Doug was offered a job at a different company. This job just so happens to be his DREAM job. He was excited for just the invitation to get an interview. He interviewed way back in September (I think) and had to go through a lot of paperwork/other stuff. The process usually takes 6 months, but it seemed like an ETERNITY when your whole life will be changed by whatever happens.

So we waited and waited and waited, rather impatiently, and then last week he got a phone call. and... HE GOT THE JOB! Congratulations Doug, you are AMAZING... but I knew that when I married him! :)

Whenever he was being interviewed the first time, he asked about relocation benefits from the new company and he was told that they had "GREAT Relocation Benefits." This matters because the new job is about an hour and a half away from our current home which is too far in DC traffic. I love our current home, but I love a happy hubby even more. We decided that with the "Great Relocation Benefits" we would be able to afford to move since "the company" would help us with the sale of our home in this not so good housing market.

Yesterday the "Relocation Specialist" finally got around to calling Doug. It turns out that Relocation Benefits are ONLY for (1)People who are moving internally within the company or (2)People who are moving 50+ miles (which we would not be).

So what does this means for us... we're screwed

Doug's thinking about not accepting the job now... :( His DREAM job!

Doug doesn't think he can make the long commute EVERY day both ways and I don't blame him. What if he accepts the job and we try to sell the house, but no one will buy it? What if someone will buy it, but not for what we are asking? How long will he be able to deal with the commute (3 hours a day and 15 hours a week in his car)? Should he take the job?

I hate to see him this way. It is just killing him on the inside because it is something that he wants SO bad. Its like dangling food in front of a starving person. He really NEEDS this. He's not sure if its a risk that we can take. I want him to take the job and we'll figure out the rest, but I'm not sure if I'm being rational.

Anyone know anyone that wants a beautiful NEW house, barely lived in for $300,000 in the rural Northern VA area commutable to DC?


I think we need a realtor. I've never sold a house and this is a BAD market.

Any advice?