Wow... It's May!

The May/June schedule came out today. It's exciting, yet scary to think that another school year is coming to a close. In some ways, thank goodness. (That is in the 'I'm ready to be done with keeping track of 28 kids all the time') Otherwise, I think, already? (Most are fun, including my four-!- ADHD students.)

I've already started on some of my summer projects. The office is being painted a milk chocolate brown. DH isn't fond of it, but I'm working on him. I think I can get him to come around. We're also working on replacing the temporary paper blinds in our windows with actual blinds. (It feels a little surreal when you've had leather furniture for a while, but not real window treatments.) Little by little, bit by bit.

OK, I'm officially old...

My DH and I have been discussing the new vehicle purchase for a while now. As I said in my last post, we've been discussing the MDX, Pilot, and Suburban. Phil test-drove the Pilot and Ridgeline, and his general impression was, "Meh."

We talked about buying my parent's Suburban and driving it out here. Then they traded it off for a Yukon Denali on Wednesday night. (Yes, my parents are blingin' in a Denali. It's a strange world, folks.)

So, DH and I went and made a major purchase today. So what was it?

A John Deere.

Yes, people, I own a John Deere. And it's actually pretty cool. We had looked online at 'our lawn and gardening needs,' and my assessment was that we needed more than the basic riding lawnmower. We have two acres, part of our property lies on a slope, and I want to be able to haul bags of mulch, topsoil, and compost around. DH wants to be able to till, aerate, dethatch, and push snow with it. So we went with an upgraded X540 from 2006. We would have paid roughly $2400 more by going with the '07 model. (And it's a tractor, not a car!) I was relieved that we finally had a riding mower, so DH would quit whining about the push mower.

Then I rode it. Wow. Powerful and quick. It used to take us about 3+ hours to mow our lawn. Now it will take an hour. My husband's honey-do list is going to get longer!

Oh, me of little sleep

I'm a tired pup lately.

Mark, my dear overly mobile boy, has been cutting his canines. Just when I thought that our human alarm clock days were over.

I also am taking a grad class at school for recertification credits... as well as finishing a distance learning grad class for recertification credits. I'll be happy when they are over and I will be happy when I am bumped to a new pay lane (yes, based on the number of recertification credits I have).

DH and I have been occupying our free time (late night, of course) researching new vehicles. We saw an Acura MDX we fell in love with. Love the leather, DVD, etc. Don't love the lack of room for the luxury price. Looked at a Pilot and decided that we'll just bite the bullet and get the MDX which is a nicer package if it comes down to that. Drove my parents' Suburban and loved it. Drove a Pacifica (with transmission issues, I swear-- the engine shouldn't rev and pull back when you're at highway speed) and we were disappointed with the space. (Which is exactly why we want an upgrade from our two-Accord present situation.)

Then we rode in our friends'... minivan. And I really liked it. 'Cause I'm a mom. I didn't want to like it, and I really liked it. It has space, you can get leather and DVD, it has better gas mileage than the Suburban and the MDX, and you can even get ski attachments for the top.

God, I'm getting old. I'm going to go to sleep.

Catching up on a good thing...

I tend to join a bandwagon after it's begun.

Case in point: Harry Potter. The second book was out before I caught on. And I'm a teacher. (Yes, that is the ASL letter L I am holding up to my forehead.)

I also caught on to the Sopranos late. When the DH and I were first married and po' as po' can be, we went to the public library and checked out Sopranos videos for free. (What can I say? I was po' and white.)

Well, my most recent late jump on a bandwagon has been Weeds. It's been quite fun in a guilty sort of way. If you knew me in real life, you'd know that I am the sort of person that would NEVER do drugs. Ever, ever, ever.

In fact, the summer before I became a Momma, my girl friends and I went on our first annual girl trip. They decided to torture me and made believe that a bag of oregano was marijuana. Of course I did the total white girl scream. I'm such a sucker sometimes.

The show is fun as it shows the facade of suburbia. The only thing that isn't realistic is that people in this show actually know their neighbors.

Tired of the tears

I'm sad, but also angry about the shooting at Virginia Tech today.

I immediately called my elementary school to see if my paraprofessional's son was involved (he's a VA Tech senior, as is his girlfriend). He was okay, and I haven't heard about his girlfriend. I hope she's okay-- I know her because she's subbed for me several times.

I also talked to my friend, who told me that one of my former co-workers had to rush to get her son because he witnessed a firearm at his high school.

It continues to make me furious, especially as I look at my precious little munchkin, that this is still happening. I'm pissed that I have to do lock-down drills and have eight-year-olds look at me and say, "Mrs. AAK, are we doing this so we won't be shot?" How do you answer that question? My answer is always, "We do this to make sure we're safe just in case something dangerous happens."

Are gun laws the answer? Background checks? I'm not sure.

Having just watched 'This Film is Not Yet Rated' this weekend, I do think that we need to stop enabling bloodless violence to be in PG movies.

I grew up in a house with guns. They were unlocked, but I knew full well to keep my hands off. I knew what the consequences of a gunshot were. And I want my son to know the same.

To all those that died today, may your souls rest in peace in the heaven that you're now in. To the families of those who died-- you are all in my prayers. I grieve with you.

To all those that were wounded, I pray for a speedy recovery. I pray for healing from the madness that you experienced.

I'm tired of crying for murdered students. How do we solve this?

Spring (?) Break

My DH had oodles of frequent flyer miles that were supposed to expire on the last day of 2006. He forgot until during the first few days of January, and figured that he'd give it a shot and see if he could still book something. He decided to shoot for Spring Break. What was the destination? Florida? California?

No way. We were off to the sunny climes of... Minnesota?

Well, there was a reason. We both have family there. The golden boy needed to see both sets of grandparents. There were aunts, uncles, and cousins to see. And then there was my personal favorite, the Twins game. (Mmmm... Joe Mauer, yummy...)

However, Minnesota was not the warmest destination. It made me long for next year's destination: Orlando! I'm pretty excited-- I'll be going down with my folks, my sister and her boyfriend, and my DH/the boy.

I really am excited. I need to thaw out from my vacation.