Monday Minute 11/29/10

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving break! I know we did. It was great to see family and friends, and really special to come home and decorate the house for our first Holiday with our beautiful Liliana. She LOVED it when we walked outside and she saw the lights in front of the house. Anyway, here is our weekly Monday Minute!

I always put this, but since we have new people participating all the time, I want them to know what's going on: if you guys ever have any suggestions of questions or want to host your own Monday Minute one week, just email me!! To play along, just grab the button below AND link up at the linky at the bottom of this post! Then, encourage your readers to follow suit. Also, if you don't want to do your own post but want others to know your answers, feel free to do so in the comments!




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Questions

(1) What's your favorite fast food establishment?
 (2) What's your favorite sport to watch on TV?  
(3) Do you like mushrooms and onions?  
(4) If you had to get a tattoo tomorrow, what would you get done?
(5) What are your thoughts on the female proposing marriage to the male?

Answers

(1) I LOVE me some Taco Cabana! Unfortunately, those aren't around much...mainly in Texas. If you're ever driving and you see one though, stop in. Aside from that, I LOVE Jack in the Box. They have delicious tacos for 99 cents. And, the commercials are pretty damn hilarious. HERE, take a look.

(2) This is a rather difficult question for me to answer. I am a die hard fan of two teams:

 The Texas Aggies (who played a fabulous game on Thanksgiving by the way) 

AND

The San Antonio Spurs (who played a fabulous game today by the way).

So the big dilemma...do I like College Football or the NBA better?  And ultimately, I must side with College Football.  I'll watch just about ANY college football game as long as it's a decent game.  I just love college football season and get giddy for it to start every year.  I could watch football all day Saturday every week and be beyond content.  I hate how other girls claim to be huge college football fans, but it's just a fashion show or social hour.  I sit down, comment (or rather scream) at the refs, and get right out ugly if necessary.  Also, I could be a commentator.  Seriously, I always say something just to have them say the same thing a few minutes later...I think they have a mic in our house.  Can't wait for the bowl games! ; )

(3) NO!  I think all recipes could do without both, especially mushrooms.  The texture is so slimy...eww.

(4) Believe it or not, this one was easy for me to answer, because I've considered it before.  Never really seriously I must admit...I mean people, I fainted when I got my second hole in my ear remember?   Anyway, this is what I'd get if I was forced to get one tomorrow:

I love music and it's shaped like a heart which would signify the love I have for the most important people in my life.  I dunno, I think it's pretty, somewhat unique, and could be made really small (the #1 criteria I'd be looking for).  What?  I HATE HATE HATE and DESPISE needles. I think the farther away I stay from them, the better.

(5) I'm fine with it!  As long as both people want to get married, I don't see how it matters who asks the other person.  In fact, if memory serves me correctly my godsister proposed to her husband, and they are amongst the most sound and put together marriage I've ever seen.  Evan and I strive to be just like them in so many ways.

Now link up and join in on the Monday Minute fun! 

Monday Minute 11/22/10

Wow, I feel like it's been forever since I hosted the Monday Minute last.  I hope you guys enjoyed having some fun questions last week over at Powdered Toast Man.  He'll be hosting one for me in December while I'm out of town, so I can't wait to see what silly stuff he offers us then.  But, for this week, we're back to my questions! : )

As always, link up below and encourage your readers to do the same!



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Questions

(1) What's your all time favorite book?

(2) What are your pets names?

(3) What kind of undies do you prefer (thong, briefs, boxer briefs...choose depending on your sex)?

(4) If you could go back in life, what would you now chose to do for a living?

(5) Do you hit snooze in the morning?

Answers

(1)  This one's easy for me ... The Last Lecture.  I don't know if you guys have read this book, but I highly recommend it.  Evan and I read it out loud to each other every evening before bed.  He had to read the last chapter because I was bawling.  It's a book that a Dad (Randy Pausch) wrote to his children because he had terminal cancer and wanted to pass along the lessons he wouldn't be able to teach in person.  The lessons aren't just for children.  They were so insightful, meaningful, and inspirational. In fact, now that I'm a Mom, I think I'll read it again. Watch this video.  It's what made me buy the book.

(2) We have one doggie and her name is Linda Mujer (Pretty Woman in Spanish).  Normally, we call her Linda.  When she's in trouble, it's the whole name.  She's the cutest little beagle mix you've ever seen.  At the law firm I worked for last year, one of the partners called the clerks his legal beagles.  So, since then, her nicknamed has been Regal Legal Beagle.  I think just calling her Linda would be shorter.  Seriously though, she's freaking adorable...

 Linda when she was a puppy.  She was 3.5 pounds of adorableness.

Linda today: still adorable, but now she's a whopping 14 pounds (yeah, a tiny beagle, I know).

(3) None of your bees wax. But, if you most know, I wear slacks often and I HATE visible panty line, so think about it... And, for you gross minds out there, no it's not going commando.

(4) This one's really tough for me.  The answer is ... I don't know.  There are so many things out there that I wish I had thought of.  One is having gotten my doctorate in Political Science instead of Juris.  The other thought is going in to Architecture.  That one is completely uneducated though.  However, the poli sci thing?  That would have been great.  That being said, no regrets is the way I live my life now, so I'm very happy where I'm at.

(5) NO.  I HATE snooze hitters.  Really, I do.  This was one thing I made very clear to Evan when we got married.  If he hit snooze, this would just have me stay up, thus leaving me with less time to sleep.  We let the alarm ring once, and only once.  Darn you snooze hitters of the world!!!!

Have a FABULOUS Turkey Day guys!  Link up and go check out others answers, especially to the favorite book...I can't wait to hear of some new reads I have to buy!

Stuck in ISS

Today I was SO excited for school.  As you guys know, I'm the interventionist at my school.  And I do all subjects.  Yep, apparently I'm supposed to be a pro at each subject.  And I'm sure that sounds like a breeze to you, but let me give you a tiny little quiz to show you what I had to quickly review this week so I wouldn't sound like a complete and total idiot in front of the kids while I was TEACHING them the material ...

(1) What parts of an atom are located inside and outside of a nucleus?
(2) What is the mass of a particular element from looking at the periodic table?
(3) What are the stamp act and intolerable acts?
(4) What is the equation to find the slope of a line?

If you knew the answer to all of these, then more power to you and I guess I'm dumb.  However, if you're normal and not a total geek like me, you know what I'm talking about.  I know these aren't technically difficult, but I've forgotten everything I've learned from school!  But today, not today...TODAY I knew my stuff ... I was giddy about my lesson for today. Today was ... wait for it ...

CONSTITUTION DAY!

Yesterday afternoon I spent an hour thinking about the lesson plan I would give for Constitution Day.  I don't think you understand, the opportunity to teach the constitution is like crack for a law school graduate.  I made this fun flash card game and I found great reading material full of informational and interesting little tid bits.  I was ready.  I was stoked.

Then...

"the substitute for ISS cancelled just now.  We have nobody in there.  Would you please go in there?  All day."  So, that's what I've done.  I've sat in a room with all the trouble makers and have had to say "be quiet" "stay seated" "you may not speak to an adult like that" etc etc...all day long.  It has been frustrating to say the least.  And, it was my constitution day!  (I say like an over dramatic baby)

But, my ultimate goal, why I wanted to teach is because this is all supposed to be a team effort.  This is where the team needed me today and obviously, I was incredibly needed.  Somebody has to be in this room constantly.  They aren't even allowed to get a drink of water by themselves.  We all get in a single file line and walk down to do it twice a day.  It's very structured.  However, for some of these kids, it's their 3rd time in here, so I wonder "does this work?"  "Is this really punishment to them?  Or do they actually kind of like the peace and quiet?" I don't know the answer to these questions, but I do know that even though I'm glad they trusted me enough to handle this responsibility today, I needed something positive to happen ...

Bank of America SAVED THE DAY!  Do you know what I ordered today, and completely for FREE? 

Behold our free Holiday gift to ourselves.  With our credit card we get points for every dollar we spend.  Normally we have to use them for something boring that has broken around the house, but this year we were fortunate and nothing happened.  So, we built up enough points to buy a RED WII!  And ain't it a beauty people?  I know you're thinking, "the Wii has been out forever.  You are a loser."

But, as I've repeatedly told you guys, we are cheap.  Very cheap.  The only other gaming system we own is a Game Cube that I bought used for Evan three years ago for $30.  This is a very special treat for us and we can't wait to play together.  Yippee!

Don't you just love the irony in this post?  I start off being mad at children for not acting more like adults, and I'm an adult that can't wait to play with a kids toy.  Shh....don't tell them.

Monday Minute 11/15/10

This week's Monday Minute is actually not hosted by yours truly, but is over at Powdered Toast Man.  He wrote me an email expressing interest in hosting and I thought "sure why not?"  And let me tell you something...it's a good thing I said yes.  I have been disgustingly sick this weekend.  Evan, his Mom, and I all got a stomach bug this weekend and it was horrbile.  I have to admit, I think I got the worst of it.  I threw up 14 times yesterday, and in between those throw ups was about 3 to 4 other runs to the toilet, if you catch my drift.  I must honestly say, it is the most sick I've ever felt in my life.  Not even child birth was as painful.  I am doing a little bit better and haven't thrown up in over 24 hours, but I am still extremely weak and even tomato soup had me running to the bathroom again.  Let's just hope that I'm feeling much better before work tomorrow morning!

ANYWAY, you guys didn't need to read all that, sorry.  I just had to cry like a baby for a second.  On to the Monday Minute questions!!  If you want to link up, just go HERE and do so!  His questions are hilarious, and go through some of his old archives...some of his answers will have you rolling on the floor.

(1) Would you rather be stuck on a bumpy roller coaster while having to pee extremely bad OR be stuck on a crowded elevator with really bad gas with co-workers?

- I had to think about this one long and hard, but I've decided I'd rather be stuck in the elevator.  That way, I could look around and act like "who the hell is farting" and nobody would know it's me!  But if I peed myself on a roller coaster, everybody would know it was me since I'd have a pee stain all over my pants.

2) What is the one thing you miss most from your childhood?
- waking up with no real responsibility or money, I suppose.  But that's kinda a boring adult answer huh?  So if I'm going to go all fun on you, I'd say playing sports!  I was really in to basketball and volleyball and I miss playing.  I know I could join a team now, but who would watch Liliana and even worse, then I wouldn't see her on those days.  It's just too complicated.

3) If aliens exist, what do you think they look like? (describe)
- Good golly, I really don't even know where to start!  I don't think they're as funny looking as the movies make them out to be.  In fact, I think we'd be awfully disappointed when we find out.  I would say more like this...

 than this...

ewww...creepy huh?

4) Would you rather discuss your body weight or your salary with people that you know?
- I'm a pretty open book here.  Both are on the internet.  You can see what people make in schools.  No surprise here, it's basically nothing.  As for my weight, I chronicled my baby weight loss on this blog!  I'm fortunately down to my pre-baby weight and hope to stay there.

5) If you were stuck in a predicament like in the movie Alive, could you revert to cannibalism? If so, how would you feel about eating your deceased friends and family?
- this depends on whether Evan or Liliana were still alive.  If they were, I'd be willing to revert to cannibalism just to see them again.  Otherwise, this would be difficult, chewy, and rather bloody.  Fortunately, I like my meat medium rare so this wouldn't be too far off.  

6) People that are born blind, what do they dream about? Sounds?
- I guess they dream about what they imagine things to look like?  I don't know!  We know so little about dreams already, so this just complicates the matter even more!  GRR, these questions got me all worked up and my stomach was already in agonizing pain anyway, darn you Powdered Toast Man (but thanks for hosting.) ; )

Now go visit Powdered Toast Man and link up people!

The Place Where I Try To Make Myself Pretty, and Where I Poo

It's been a long while until I've done some more house tours.  And, believe it or not, this week on Kelly's Korner is Show us your bathroom!  I'm going to be quite honest with you, our bathrooms ain't that darn interesting.  But, after all, lots goes on in a bathroom.  In our master, I get ready in the morning , we shower, we take baths, and as the title says...we do our business.  You don't understand, I have a VERY shy bladder and even more shy intestines, so the bathroom is my safe haven! haha...way too much information, huh people? As for the guest bath, the main thing that happens there is that Liliana gets her bath every evening!  When you have the cutest baby ever in a bath everyday, it becomes the best bath you've ever seen.

I've got some before, during, and after photos for you!

Before

 Our master bathroom.  Evan insisted on separate sinks and separate closets in our house.  I insisted on a toilet that had a separate door (remember the shy bladder and intestine thing?).  It was pretty typical and boring, but I had plans...

Guest bathroom.  That LONG counter top has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, but I enjoy the  storage under the vanity area for Liliana's stuff!

During

Our master bathroom was decorated in green and purple, so I wanted to paint around our jacuzzi tub in a light purple.  I was a little concerned that the husband would be vehemently opposed to it, but fortunately, he gave me the go and when my best friend came in to town to help us move, I took advantage of the extra hands and we got busy painting!

 Two girls saying "DANG we made this look good!"

All done and happy with our finished product!

After

So here they are...the bathrooms today!

Master Bathroom

 One of my favorite things to do is light those candles and sit in our jacuzzi tub with bubbles all around us! 

So romantic and sweet.

Our sinks (and my private toilet in the distance)!  

As you can probably tell, I LOVE candles. ; )

Guest Bathroom

 My favorite part about our guest bath is my little goodies basket for guests.  I have body spray, lotion, bubble bath, and shower gel in that basket.  People love it!  

When my husband asked me why I have that there once, I took the bottles out and he looked shocked when there was only about half left!  Always treat your guests with little luxuries. 

Well, that's about it!  Hope you enjoyed seeing the bathrooms, and if you weren't interested, sorry you've read all the way to down here! : )  Have a fabulous weekend!  We'll be home enjoying a weekend with company: Grammy has come to town to enjoy quality time with her grandbaby.

Our First Family Vacation

About two weeks ago, we went to Oklahoma City.  Evan had an interview there, starting at 6:45, but it ended at 2.  Since we were able to drive from Lubbock, we splurged a little and got a nicer hotel.  The hotel was only $10 more a day than the cheap discounted rate that the medical centers find for the resident interviews, so it wasn't THAT much of a splurge financially, but what an upgrade it ended up being!

I don't know if any of you have ever been to Oklahoma City, but I strongly recommend it.  We had an amazing time there, just us three.  And though Liliana is quite the seasoned traveler at her young age (4 states in 5 months of life!), we had never been anywhere as a vacation with no purpose but to have fun with her.  It was our first family vacation.

 Our view from our hotel room.

The night before every interview, Evan has to attend dinners.  This left Liliana and I trapped in the hotel room without food!  What do to?  I called the front desk and they told me to call...

858TOGO.

In Oklahoma City they have this neat business where you can order food from ANY place and they'll bring it to you!  They do charge $5.95 to do this, but I was left without a car and with a huge appetite.  So, 45 minutes later, I had yummy bread, baked ziti, and bread pudding in my hands.  Evan came home, still hungry after his dinner (surprise surprise, this guy can eat like nobody else I know), so he had my leftovers and was impressed as well!

The next morning, I woke up slowly and had a great morning with my baby girl.  While Evan was at his interview, I researched like the dork I am and found out there were a bunch of fun things I wanted to do!  Right after Evan got back to the hotel, we headed out to what's called Bricktown.  There at Bricktown, they have a riverwalk that reminded me a lot of the one in San Antonio.

 Bricktown has a really pretty baseball stadium.

 The Bircktown riverwalk.  Gorgeous.  I believe it's a mile long.

Along the riverwalk, there are a bunch of restaurants.  We went to a little Italian one (that kinda stunk unfortunately).  But, there was also a couple neat ones that were just a little out of our price range: Toby Keith's grille and also a REALLY cool place that was a restaurant and bowling alley all in one!  Had we not had Liliana with us, I think we would have tried that place.

 Liliana and I on the riverwalk. 

If you look closely, you can see that her right cheek is red.  She got wind burn poor thing! I put lots of lotion on there for a week and it got better.  I had to Google it to see what the heck it was.  Thank goodness for Google.  It's an essential for a new parent.  Aw heck, isn't it essential for any human?

 Daddy had a different picture in mind in front of the river.  

He puts Liliana in the tub all the time and dunks her to get her accustomed to the water, but geesh, throwing her in to the river?  A little over the top don't you think? : )

 The two of us, happy to be together.

It had been quite a few months since we got a picture of just us two, which truthfully is very sad.  So here we are, enjoying our family vacation so much and I'm so glad we took this picture.  The truth of the matter is that we're more in love than ever, so we need to make sure our children see these pictures too.

After going to Bricktown, we went to the Science Museum, but unfortunately were only able to stay for an hour because closing!  We made the most of our hour though.

 The Oklahoma City Science Museum. I highly recommend, for all ages.

 Evan sweetly posed for me.  He's such a good sport.

 Ok get this...that thing in the middle of this tree house is the nation's longest spiraling slide!  So, naturally...

 Hee hee...I had FUN sliding down!  It was a blast, but I was diiiiiizzy when I got off.

Evan was concerned, for a whopping 0.2 seconds that he was too big to go down the slide.  Then, he forgot about it and decided to be a kid at heart, which is definitely Evan.

All in all, our trip was wonderful.  It was quick and I wish, obviously, that I wouldn't have had to eat by my lonesome in the hotel room, but it was perfect for now.  Absolutely perfect.

Monday Minute 11/08/10

Can you believe it...we're well in to November already! I hope everybody is enjoying this Fall weather!




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Now on to this weeks questions! Please link up and encourage your readers to do the same!

Questions

(1) What's for dinner tonight?

(2) Have you ever been stung by a bee or a wasp?

(3) What time do you go to sleep every evening?

(4) What's your favorite ice cream flavor?

(5) If you could have one power, what would it be?

Answers

(1) Well, tonight (as in Sunday) we're going out with some friends for dinner to a new restaurant here in town.  Tomorrow though (as in the Monday for this Monday Minute) we'll be eating meatball subs.  That's an EASY and INEXPENSIVE dinner.  These are the two requirements when I cook!

(2) I've been stung by both gosh darn it!  I'm unlucky I suppose.  The bee got me on the bottom of my foot once and the wasp got me on the arm at the lake house last July 4th.  I think the wasp was much more painful than the bee.  The scorpion that got me??  Well that one was easily #1 in pain.

(3) We start getting ready for bed around 11.  We really should get to bed MUCH sooner than that most days.  Whether Evan is supposed to be at the hospital at 5:30, 6:30, or even 7:30, we always go to bed at the same time which is silly and irresponsible of us.  Somehow though, every evening, things come up.

(4) If I have to buy ice cream from the grocery store, I usually prefer Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  Cookies 'n Cream is obviously a good choice too.  At Cold Stone Creamery, I get the best tasting thing int he whole wide world, so follow along closely and go order if you'd like: sweet cream ice cream, banana, caramel, and graham crackers.  Deliciiiious!  I had planned on eating plenty of that when I was pregnant, but I threw that up once and never craved it again.  Darn.

(5) I would be able to grow money.  I know that sounds shallow and materialistic, but try living with a 6 figure debt on your mind and you might say the same.  I'm not a materialistic person, I mean that.  I think it's stupid when people get a bunch of name brand items: expensive sunglasses, watches, shoes, etc..  Evan and I have $50 limits on all our gifts.  Anyway, enough complaining.  We'll be fine in time, that's why we both focused so much on our education.  It's just a long process! : )

3 VERY Useful Parenting Tips...

Although I've only been a parent for 5 months, I can say I've learned a few things.  None of them are very insightful.  I can't tell you how to raise good caring children, because clearly, my daughter is the best baby ever, so you guys don't come close to having a baby nearly as awesome as mine.  Wowza, this Mommy is a LITTLE biased huh?

In all seriousness though, I have learned quite a few VERY useful things.  Unfortunately for me, I've learned these things because I've had to learn the hard way to get them right.  Lucky for my readers though, you can read these and never make the mistakes I've made ...

So after being a Mommy for 5 months, here are the three most important tid bits of advice and lessons I can pass along:

(1) Borrow the hospital's nasal aspirators forever.
As I wrote about in my last blog post, Liliana got pretty darn sick last week.  She had a fever, a NASTY cough, and a crap ton of boogies.  A crap ton of boogies made us actually USE the nasal aspirator that you always see parents using.  They sell these in first aid kids.  Those suck.  They even sell similar, knock off ones at Target for 3 bucks a piece.  Those suck too.  The ONLY useful ones are the ones from the hospital.  So when you're leaving the hospital, make sure a family member distracts the nurse and you can just throw that thing in your diaper bag.  I can't tell you how much better this one is.  The ones in the first aid kit come apart.  Why you would make a two piece nasal aspirator is beyond my level of comprehension I suppose, because the thing just falls apart.  As for the Target ones ... it would work, if the thing actually sucked the boogers out. Really, they stink.  So, borrow one...forever.  I'll actually be asking Evan to "borrow" another one now that I know how much I love them.  I would die if we lost ours.

(2) Stretch your butt.

Let me explain because this sounds awfully naughty.  When I was pregnant, I thought my back hurt.  Oh I moaned and got massages from Evan on a daily basis (seriously, he's the  best husband ever...he OFFERS every time.  I NEVER ask...so nice).  Anyway, fast forward to being a Mother and holding your 16 pound baby for a few hours.  Now THAT my friends, leads to a SOOOOORE back.  And the worst part about it is that you can't just lie on the couch like when you were pregnant.  When the baby wants you to hold her, you have to actually get up and hold her.  No breaks, sorry buddy.  Now when I was pregnant, I figured out (with the educational medical help of my husband) that ALL those back muscles are attached to your glutes.  So, every evening before bed, I stretched my gluts and when I woke up in the morning, I did the same thing.  Within a week, my pregnancy back pain went from an 8.5 to a 3.5.  Now I'm doing my stretches again and that's helping because let me tell you...WOWZA it gets SORE.  On the plus side, thanks to Liliana, I now have the most toned delts you've ever seen.

You probably STILL have no clue what I'm talking about.  Here...I took this off of Google.  This is what I mean by 'stretch your butt.'

 p.s. DO NOT Google "butt stretches."  

It will scar you for life. 

(3) Pack a shirt in your diaper bag.

Remember how I wrote this post about what to pack in your diaper bag?  Well, recently I learned that I forgot a pretty essential item.  We were at Target and had to go in really quickly to buy two items.  I had  Liliana in my hands and Evan had a little basket.  Before I knew it, I felt a bunch of liquid on my shirt and heard it hit the floor.  Oh no, she had spit up.

Well...does THIS look like spit up?

That's right guys, your kids can pee ALL OVER your shirt in Target, even if their diaper had been changed less than an hour ago.  And when you realize your daughter just peed all over you and the floor, the only thing that comes out of your mouth is...

"Shit Evan.  Go buy me a shirt."

And I walked ran out of the store.  See that little shirt in my left hand?  That was my new shirt.  The shirt that I SHOULD HAVE packed in my diaper bag.  So remember, both the kids AND YOU need an extra shirt.

Have a GREAT weekend!  I hope nobody goes pee pee on your shirt!

A Message to the Bad Parents of the World

I feel like lately my blogging has taken quite a back seat to life.  I apologize to anybody that does actually read my posts.  Saying I've been busy would be an understatement.  Two weekends ago, Evan and I went to Little Rock for a residency interview.  We had an amazing time there and spent a great weekend with so many of his family members.  When we got back, the week went from tiring to flat out bad.  Liliana started running a fever and I couldn't get it to go down for over 48 hours.  Evan took her to the doctor and she has an ear infection!  That week was obviously not restful, but there was no break in sight because right after going to the doctor, I drove home from work and we went straight to Oklahoma City for another interview.  Oklahoma City was a blast as well.  We are FINALLY back in Lubbock and here to stay this weekend, thank goodness.  Our house is a freaking pig sty.

Anyway, I've had a couple people e-mail me asking what I think about my job.  I love it.  I really and truly do, but I haven't written about it much because I didn't want to upset my readers.  And so, I didn't write my blog the way I WANTED to the last few weeks.  And today, I thought about it and realized, "wait a second...I started writing this blog for ME, not for others" (no offense guys).  So, I'm writing what's been on my mind.

If you are going to be a crappy parent, stop having sex.  Flat out simple.  I don't even want you to use protection or do it at the perfect time of the month so you're for sure safe.  I don't want you to take any chances.  Because if you are going to be a crappy parent and if you're not going to care about your kids lives, you shouldn't get the privilege to have sex without having to face the consequences.  Because if something goes wrong, you are going to start a cycle of problems.

The school I teach at is known for being the toughest school in the district.  This particular school has more fights than any other school.  My first day, I was simply observing classrooms and I immediately noticed there was gossip (surprise surprise) in first period.

When I was in eighth grade, our gossip was about how we had received our first kiss.  This gossip, however, was that a girl was pregnant.  And she was devastated not because she was pregnant, but because he had broken up with her the day before she found out.  Granted, I hate to tell her, but he probably wasn't the man of her dreams anyway...

After talking it over with teachers, I heard that this was the second eighth grade pregnancy for this family.  Apparently, the day that they found out the sex of the baby, this girls Mom bought everyone in the class little socks.  The Mom was THRILLED about this pregnancy.  See, this Mom shouldn't have had kids.  Under no circumstance should you be PROUD of your children for having kids when they're 13.

Last week, all children had to watch a video about how bad the behavior is and how they need to stop getting in fights.  After the video, the football coach came in to talk and he told me that a few weeks ago, he heard rumors about a fight that was going to occur on a field after school.  He went out there to try and stop it.  You would never BELIEVE what greeted him...10 cars with parents inside CHEERING the children on to beat the crap out of each other.  THESE parents shouldn't have been allowed to have kids either.

  During the day, whenever kids are defiant, of course I do lose my patience.  But at the end of the day, it's this never ending cycle.  Bad, young parents raising children when they're not ready...and the cycle repeats.  I suppose my heart should just break for everyone involved, like it did today when one of the biggest trouble makers confessed that she just heard her Mom was going to jail for 3 years for drug possession.

I don't know what we, as a society, should do to fix the problem.  It's not the kids fault, but how can I blame the parents when that's probably the same way they were raised as well?

It's my job, and I'm not entirely sure I'm being successful at all, to do my best to try and show them not only discipline, but positive reinforcement.  Whenever I tell them "see!  You ARE smart!  You got this,"  I get a better response than when I say "I'm writing you a pink slip."  I just hope I'm doing the right thing, and I hope I can help, even if a tiny bit.  By 8th grade though, I think we're too late.

Again, I'm sorry if I offend some of my readers.  This post is full of A LOT of emotion.  I do love my new job, but it elicits a lot of feeling.  I refuse to give up.

I realize I'm being fully one sided, and I suppose that's what happens when you're full of anger.  Thanks for letting me vent it out.