In this picture, I was squinting due to itchy contacts and bright overcast sky and blinding white garage and Matt taking his time getting the perfect shot. Although, since it's the end of school, I do usually look like this lately!
My gorgeous roses that bloomed like mad for a week and are now just a memory.
Green peas! I never have enough to eat as a side dish, so I just eat them in the garden. They are sandwiched between a butternut squash and green beans. The frame in the background is from our old futon. Very Asian, no?
Red hot poker (tritoma) that I got from my mom 2 years ago. I somehow planted all the yellow variety in front of the house. Hopefully some of what is in the backyard is the red kind.
Black-eyed susans or yellow coneflowers that so DID NOT bloom last year or the year before, if I remember correctly. They come up to my elbows.
The garden yesterday, after 6 days of rain. Think I have enough dill? The potato/tire experiment seems to have failed. It hasn't sprouted through the last layer of dirt and leaves I put in the stack. I will have to do some investigative surgery this weekend to see what's what. If all else fails, I can always dig up some potatoes that are growing INSIDE the compost bin.
I need to find some clever way to grow the cantaloupe and watermelons up a trellis. First, I need said trellis. Anyone have an old wooden ladder?One-half more day of school. Four long hours and then I am free! Teachers have to report for a half day on Tuesday, so I set aside a stack of crap to laminate that morning.
It has been a really tough year, with the death of my former student, family issues, the 2.5 month convalescence of my team's leader, all the infertility crap and the just rotten group of students we have. Sure, some of them have turned around, but the truly obnoxious ones have gotten worse as the year went on. I can only tell myself that they will be their mothers' problems for life, whereas they are my problem for 9 months.
I had a mother come up to school this morning because I wrote a referral on her daughter, who, freshly back from suspension, chased a boy down the hallway, grabbed the stapler off my desk and started shooting staples at him. The mother actually asked for the stapler to see how far the staples would shoot, which wasn't far at all. She was annoyed that I hadn't "investigated" why her spawn was chasing The Boy and that I made a big deal out of the stapler thing. She stomped out...this was all in front of MY CLASS.
I decided not to tell her that current rumor lists her house as The Party House ;)
So when you want to sit back and gripe about how unfair it is that teachers only work 9 months and get to loaf all summer, just remember the bullshit that I have to deal with on an almost daily basis. Just remember the stapler story.
And if I hear one more person say "you suck for having all summer off", I will punch them.
5 comments:
And those people deserve that punch 100%. I'll even hold them down for you. I think we'd have them pretty damn scared if you just have the same facial expression as the first pic. Man, do you look pissed!
There's an odd sort of comfort in the fact that your parent issues cross all sorts of cultural boundaries. Were I a stranger to your blog, I might think you taught in the Big C to the south.
Hi Allison, it's Matt Thenhaus here, Sarah Kate's hubby. Howdy! I just wanted to let you know about an event we're having at the Royale this Thursday from 2-6pm. We're celebrating the 1st annual STL Craft Beer Week by playing on the word 'craft' and throwing an afternoon party for local crafty types. Cuz nothing says 'Thanks for making St Louis more beautiful' like specials on local beer. Here's a coupla links:
http://www.theroyale.com/
http://www.stlbeerweek.com/events/
Hope you can make it!
Why would a parent ever think that defending their child's bad behavior would ever help get them ahead in life? Accountability, people!
I like the short hair. Be a flapper for Halloween!
BTW, I still have two weeks of school.
Your hair looks great!
You and all teachers deserve their time off. I could not do what you do and applaud you and all teachers for dealing with parents who question things like "How far a stapler shoots". Instead of making her child realize that no matter how far the stapler shot it was wrong for her to do it.
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