Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays!

For a Monday, this one wasn't half bad. For some reason I went to school in an incredibly good mood and therefore had a good day. I rushed out of school as soon as the kids left so I could make it to the gym before my dinner date with Allison tonight, but when I got home to change I noticed something odd... there were NO STAIRS going up to my apartment on the 3rd floor! Supposedly we were "notified" of this last week sometime, but today was the day that they were ripping out all of the front decks with the attached stairs that led to the parking lot. Now I live in an apartment building where my door is on the outside... there is no inside hallways or anything like that. So I came home, got out of my car, and then said very loud so that all of the workers could hear me "ummmm, how am I suppose to get up there" Of course the only person that speaks English says to me, "oh, we need another hour" WHAT?!?!? It's 97 degrees outside and this guy expects me to sit out here for another hour. Hmmmm, I don't think so... So I go to the main clubhouse where they call the foreperson's cell phone and say "this lady has to get into her apartment!!!" He tells her to tell me to come back and they'll help me out. So what they do is put a bunch of wooden beams together that I'm suppose to tight-rope walk on floor by floor until I get up to my door. I do this. It was freaky... and I do this while 10 Hispanic men are trying to make sure I don't plummet to my death. It was seriously one of those moments in life where you're like "Am I being filmed?? Really. Because if I'm not, I should be".

Anyway... I'm suppose to go out to dinner with Allison tonight, but have not yet heard from her... after my half bag of pretzals I'm not feeling so hungry anymore. My sissy sent me some new pictures so I will post them including a few new people that I haven't posted pictures of before! Whoo hoo! I'm sure you're all overjoyed. So this whole entire post is basically pointless... so here are the pics :)

Natalie with her Grandpa... my Dad!

Natalie and her Daddy STEVE! I finally post a picture of Steve!! I miss him.

Natalie painting, wearing the smock I bought her from Paris before she was even born!!!

Aimee's post

What a good post, check it out: http://www.aimoo99.blogspot.com/ the one from Friday, August 19th entitled "Being a Teacher"

2 down 190something to go...

So, the second day of school is over... it went much better than the first. The first was CRAZY! I called my Mom after and was like, "ummm... Mom? I was just wondering why I went into teaching considering I HATE children. I mean really, hate children. I want to lock them in closets." I feel better today. I had a lot more planned out so things went more smoothly (and I don't really want to lock children in closets). So, I am addicted to the show 24! Where have I been for the past 4 years?!?!? I consider myself the TV show connoisseur, but I totally missed the boat (more like ship) on this one. I rented season 1 from Blockbuster last week and have been going back like every other day. I am psychotically obsessed. Actually, I recently read the definition of psychotic, which states: "Psychopaths are manipulative, charming, glib, deceptive, parasitic, irresponsible, selfish, callous, promiscuous, impulsive, antisocial, and aggressive individuals who have no concern for the welfare of others, experience little remorse or guilt as a result of their injurious and antisocial behavior, do not tolerate delay of gratification, and persevere despite punishment." I guess I should stop using the term psychotically obsessed. I mean, I guess I do not tolerate delay of gratification in a sense considering I go every other day to 1-3 different Blockbusters to actually find the episode DVD I need, but if I hurt someone in the process, I'm sure I'd feel bad about it.

Ms. Beavers' Second Grade :)

New Natalie Pictures

I had to do a lot of threatening but my sissy FINALLY sent me some new pictures. I'm so jealous that they all get to be together! I MISS MY FAMILY LIKE CRAZY!!!!! P.S. Where is Steve? Doesn't he want to be posted on my blog? I bet if you show him he's not on here he will be very sad... this is not my fault, I cannot take pictures of him all the way from Georgia.

My FAVORITE girl!!! I miss her SOOOOOOO MUCH!

Natalie and her Grandma... I miss my mommy :(

Natalie and her Mommy! RACHEL your hair is getting LOOOOOOOONG!!! I totally LOVE this picture!

TGIF

Thank goodness the week is over... it was a tough one... I'm so tired! I was going to come home right after school today and vege out the whole night, but I decided it wasn't such a great idea because I wasn't done at school til 5-5:30ish and if I left the city at that time I wouldn't get home til around 8 because of traffic... so, Jennifer, LaVasia and I went to Applebees for happy hour :) I had ONE drink and I was quite tipsy, I was shocked at this, but then realized that I really haven't drank in like 2 months so my once strong tolerance is now GONE, which I don't really mind all that much, it's way cheaper to drink only 1 or 2. After Applebees I met Meghan from MSU at her friend Matt's and we went out for a bit. Matt and I talked for 2 hours straight about politics and some on religion (mostly God) we basically didn't agree on anything... but it was nice to have some intellectual stimulation. Now I am home and I just wanted to post so you could see pics of my classroom!! IT IS FINALLY DONE!!! I still want to add stuff to the walls, but it has vastly improved. I'm excited for the kids to come on Monday.

My classroom BEFORE!

These pictures don't even justify how DISGUSTING this room was... I should have taken pictures of the roaches I found living inbetween the papers on the shelf... that was fun.

My classroom AFTER! :)

My reading center... I still need bean bags and/or big comfy pillows, but I'm BROKE so that will have to wait!

It's purple! :)

Are you kidding me?

So I haven't posted in like 5.3 million years now... probably because I have NO SPARE TIME TO DO ANYTHING! The only reason I am procrastinating at this precise moment is because I am waiting for an email from a colleague so I can actually attempt my lesson plans, that are due in less than 12 hours. Ok... so, I thought Detroit Public Schools were bad... IT IS CRAZY DOWN HERE! THEY DONT EVEN HAVE UNIONS! And if you are thinking... Shauna, why are you typing in CAPS, CAPS means you are yelling... well yes people, I am yelling. Also, if I see ONE MORE ROACH, I feel I am going to commit suicide. They are EVERYWHERE here... luckily not in my apartment (well, I haven't seen one lately), but I saw one the size of my thumb yesterday in the girls bathroom at school... I ran away. You can't step on the bastards, they have an exoskeleton, damnit. Anyway, my classroom was a DISASTER when I got into it. First off, it literally hadn't been cleaned in a good 5-6 years... although people have supposedly been teaching in it. So, the first thing I did was clear EVERYTHING out of EVERY cupboard which took FOREVER, then I cleaned. Then I proceeded to throw about 1/2 of the stuff that was in the cupboards in the garbage. I found things that belonged to teachers that retired 10+ years ago. Everyone at my school thinks I'm this crazy organized clean freak... which, for those who know me, is quite laughable. They should see my apartment. ANYWAY... YES YES YES I realize I am babbling beyond reasonable thought, but I have not been sleeping much, and... I have not been sleeping much. Ok, I will post pics of my classroom when I am FINISHED with everything in it... which by the grace of God will be tomorrow. I have before pictures, but I don't think those will do the justice in which it deserves... and I don't want to post them until I have AFTER pics to compare it to. Some teachers are ALREADY gossiping about me... but that's probably due to my striking beauty and amazing intelligence. It's no big deal, I just can't BELIEVE school drama has started already... and THE KIDS AREN'T EVEN THERE YET!!! Whatever... Ok, I just re-read this post, and it seems that I am on some kind of drugs... I promise I am not. But because of this, I will end it! I will write again this weekend when I've gotten a bit more sleep and can actually form an intelligent thought in my head.

Something to Ponder on...

"A high school dropout is more likely to go to prison than a smoker is likely to get cancer" Hmmm... as a teacher, this tid bit of info is pretty motiviating.

New Friends

So, FINALLY I am finished with teacher training... it has been killer the last few days, but I've made it through. I'm actually SO LUCKY that although the training has been boring, the social interaction has been awesome. I've met some wonderful people that I hopefully will keep in touch with ALL YEAR LONG! I am hoping to get a group of us together this weekend to go out... Tomorrow I FINALLY will be in my classroom! I'm so excited... I can't wait to get everything situated. Friday I'm going back to school voluntarily, then next week I'll be there all week for meetings and such, the kids come the following Monday. I'm really excited to be teaching 2nd grade! I think it's going to be a lot easier than 1st because most of them can already read and write (hopefully). Ok, this is a pretty boring post, but I wanted to post a few pics of my new friends. I don't have any of the boys unfortunately because I haven't been in training with them for the last few days AND I skipped out early yesterday... shhhhhhh, don't tell. I'll post more tomorrow when I have new pics of my classroom!!!

Me and Jennifer... She's AWESOME and the closest friend I have here so far. She's going to be the one who keeps me in check this year :)

This is Samantha and LaVasia... They are also new teachers at Kimberly Elementary this year! I was super pumped to find out that there's going to be a lot of new or young teachers at my school!

My new favorite city! I took this while driving on I75/85 yesterday... probably not a great idea now that I think about it...