Thursday, March 29, 2007

It's a bad day....by 8:00!

I knew the hardest part of taking over as Director of the Preschool was going to be dealing with parents. I have had my fair share of trouble parents this year, and another joined that list this morning, before 8 am.

First off, I don't mind parents calling me at home, but not at 7:45 in the morning.

So, background first. Our preschool schedule normally follows the school calendar of the district our school is in. Not all of our kids are from that district, but that is just how they have done it. Well, my boys are in a different district and when I was hired, one of the deal breakers was that we now follow my boys' schedule so that when they were off, so was the preschool. So, with Spring Break coming up, my boys are off next week and the other district is off the following week. This dates was in the handbook and has been in our newsletters the last two months.

So, this mom calls me this morning, asking when our Spring Break was? Hello, do you read the newsletter and handbook? She was iirate that her preschooler was not off the same week as her school-aged kids. Like this was a lightning bolt of information that I just let loose on her. I explained why it was done this way, and she yells at me that preschool decisions should not be made based on my children. Well honey, I am in charge, I don't make squat, so that was the one thing the board could give me in compensation. I will never apologize for choosing to spend time with my kids over work.

I am really thinking I can't do this job long term, just too much stress for not enough money!

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Spring is slowly creeping in!

Ah, 70 degrees and a little sun! We are so ready for spring around here. It has been a crazy weeks....who am I kidding....a crazy few months. The boys have both been sick the last two weeks, but I think are turning the corner. The nice weather is wonderful, but have probably let them both out more than they should be since they are still recovering. Strep is making its presence known at both schools, so I am glad they are both on antibiotics. It hasn't hit preschool yet, but we do have a lot of snotty, runny noses (nice visual, I know!)

DH took the boys to the park tonight and they loved it. They even helped clean the front room and JM dusted just to help their cause. SIL and BIL then showed up with my niece, extending their outdoor playtime a little more than I had planned. JC got the game Othello for his b-day last week and they played a game of that before bed. It is a good one for them to do alone. JM actually beat his big bro!

I am chaperoning a field trip with JC's class tomorrow. Twenty minutes on a bus with a bunch of 4th graders....better take my Excedrin Migraine before I leave! We are seeing some science show? I am then scheduled to volunteer in his room in the afternoon but am hoping they can do without me since I have some freelance to work on. My Buckeyes play at 10pm tomorrow night too....might actually need a nap tomorrow afternoon so I can last through the game and still function at work Friday morning!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Winter fun...



I finally uploaded some pics of the kids making an igloo with their cousins. It was after we had freezing rain on top of tons of snow. They picked up sheets of the ice and used them to build their igloo. The dads helped too. It was "T" shaped and was big enough for all 4 kids, one uncle and a dog!

Friday, March 2, 2007

Such a long week!

I started last weekend with a back ache and blood in my urine, and found out Tuesday that I had a kidney stone. By Friday I am now on the mend. Still having some pain, but not as bad. It was not as bad as I thought, I think I got off pretty lucky. I have a fairly high tolerance for pain!

I am buried in freelance...what's new. I so wish we would hit the lottery. I would love to focus more on preschool stuff. But, I am glad I have the opportunity to bring in the extra money, we would not be in a good place without it. They originally gave me 6 grades to do in a week...I could not even do one! The sickness did not help, but they sorely underestimated how long this job would take and what it entailed. It has been a real nightmare for everyone.

We have a busy Saturday ahead. JM has a birthday party from 12-3 and then an awards ceremony for basketball. I really wanted to skip the basketball thing, we did it with Jordan and it was kind of lame. There are no "awards" per say, but he really wants to go. They do have a great magician that comes in, so that is fun for the kids. It just lasts way to long and they start it at 4...making for grumpy kids when it goes way past their dinner time!

Such is life in our household. DH is extremely late getting home for dinner. He did call and the kids voted to wait until he got home to eat. Pancakes was their vote for dinner since it is a Lenten Friday! I hate Friday's in Lent...not the right attitude I know!!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Why...Why....Why are people messing with me today?

I am so tired of dealing with incompetence....well, more like stupidity!

First, the church calls me yesterday saying that they have a propane leak and don't know if we will have heat. I went to their board meeting last night and insisted that they get someone out to fix it....luckily we had enough heat today to have school.

The fog here was horrible this morning, could not see the mailbox in front of the house or our neighbor's barn....our measuring sticks that it is bad. Plus is was a freezing fog so the road and sidewalks were covered with ice. Do you think we had a delay this morning....NO! Our bus driver was looking at me like "I can't believe I am driving this bus in these conditions..." Yeah, just what I want as my children slip down the walk to board her bus! My SIL called from school (she is subbing) and said buses were over an hour late and kids were sliding under the bus from the ice. Tons fell in the parking lot too. They make dumb decisions and close/delay when it isn't necessary and then don't when the conditions are horrible!

Then, to top the morning off...one of my parents came in this morning yelling at me because I did not call her and tell her we were having our Valentine's party today.....Well, I didn't call ANYONE and they all figured it out. PLUS....I told everyone last week that if school was canceled on our party day we would have it on our next day of school. Geesh, is it too much to ask that you listen and retain information for more than 20 minutes. (No wonder her child is my most difficult one!)

Okay....I'm done. Just had to get that off my chest....maybe I will go exercise instead of hitting the bottle!! LOL!

Friday, February 16, 2007

Friday ramblings!

We have finally recovered from our snow/ice storm from earlier in the week. Still cold as heck, I think it only got to about 15 today, but it is winter! Another storm is coming and they think we will get another 2-3" tonight, not too bad though. The boys went out to play today and had fun despite the frigid temps. Now it seems JM has a bit of a fever, so will keep an eye on that...he has a b-ball game tomorrow, so we'll see!

The idiots that I work for are at it again. They sent me a rush job last week....that initially was to have been given to me the end of January. I worked my tail off to finish two days early and they screwed something up. Now it has to be redone.....all of it...all 6 grades! Uggh! Since it was their mistake, I will get paid for the rework, but I was literally just pulling out my scrapbooking supplies to work on my Cedar Point album when the e-mail came in....so frustrating. We need the $$ so that is the silver lining! I am hoping to finish by the end of the weekend....once they figure out what it is I am actually supposed to do......then we'll see!

Do you ever get tired of dealing with stupidity?? I sure do!

Monday, February 12, 2007

White Death is heading our way!

I just can't handle winter here in Ohio. They have been talking about this darn storm since the weekend. It is barely in the state and everyone is just carrying on like the world is going to come to an end if we get 8 inches of snow. Now, the newest is ice....and okay, my world may briefly become a very miserable place if we get ice...flashback to December 2004. An ice storm knocked out our power for 5 days....and it was during Christmas. The most miserable week ever, and my worst Christmas ever!

So, if we lose power, things could get ugly! If we lose power, we have no water and that is the worse part. No flushing of the toilet unless you manually fill the tank, no water for washing, brushing your teeth...it's like camping in your house! So it will either be 8-12 inches of snow, or 6 inches of snow topped with a few inches of ice.....praying for the snow!

We will see what tomorrow brings!