My Simple Life?

So Friday at work was awful. I had a parent yell at me, and several of my staff, because her daughter fell and scraped her face. We didn’t call her, it was a scrape. Apparently we should have called because, in this mom’s opinion, her daughter had a “head injury”. I sympathized with her, I apologized to her, I justified her feelings and all she did was yell at me and tell me I am a poor decision maker. I thought about it all weekend and decided that I would do nothing differently. Pretty confident in my decision making skills. I felt complete gratification when the Dad dropped off that girl today and she had no marks on her face. I hope the reason mom didn’t drop off has a lot to do with the fact that she is so embarrassed about the way she acted and treated everyone involved.

I thought today couldn’t be any worse. I was wrong. After several Monday morning hiccups, I realized one of my lead staff members was not at work. This is unusual (we have already fired the girl who made a habit of not showing up ). I left a message on his cell, hoping that he had just over slept. No luck. Seems he was hit by a car while riding his bike to work. I don’t even know how to process that information. He is okay, well…okay with a few staples in his head. But thankfully he is okay. I would rather be yelled at by crazy parents any day.

I will say the highlight of my day was the mom who called to let me know her boyfriend would be picking up her son. She said I would definitely know who her boyfriend was because “he is really hot”. Who says that?

Sign posted in the principal’s office at the school I use to work at:

“If you don’t like something – change it.

 If you can’t change it, change your attitude about it.

 Don’t complain”

In the past I have mentioned that I can’t stand the clash between my auburn hair and the red staff shirt that I am required to wear Monday through Friday. So in June I dyed my hair “medium brown”. It looked exactly the same.

Flash forward seven weeks… same red hair, same red shirt and now add red skin into the mix. I do not tan. I know this. However, despite every attempt to block my skin from the sun it ends up red. I apply SPF 50 every hour,  I am  50% Italian, for the love… and yet I burn. It is inevitable.

So last night I took matters into my own hands. You see, I will have to wear that ugly red shirt for the rest of the summer. I can’t change that. My skin WILL burn, I have tried, I can’t change that. But my hair…that I can change. Since medium brown had no effect on my follicles, I opted for dark brown. Dark brown is no joke.  My hair is DARK brown. We are talking brunette Brittany Spears brown.

I like the color or at least I think I will. It is still startling to look in the mirror. And it will fade. I am sure once it hits sunlight those crazy red highlights will reappear (there is no holding them back). But right now it seems so dark.

Unfortunately I promised someone I wouldn’t do anything drastic and that someone comes home today.  

First: Anyone who read Kendra’s blog( www.madeofmagic.blog.com)  should know that I never said Loha-ha went to jail. I said she “nt in jail”. Kendra interpretted my lack of typing abilities as “went to jail” instead of the intended “not in jail”. I don’t know much, but I know my Lohan gossip.

Second: Shoot, there is not a second.

Things here have been slow. Dave comes home in a week. I am VERY excited. I can’t wait until he is home and I can chat with him again about random everyday things instead of trying to remember everything I NEED to fill hm in on during our brief evening talks.

I don’t want this to be a complete waste of your time. So.. for your enjoyment I will pass along a little conversation I heard a few weeks ago at work.

Camper to Counselor: Are you in love with me?

Me (thinking- oh no here comes a lawsuit)

Camper: I heard you say ‘I love that girl’ when I walked by

(camper approximately aged 6)

Counselor: I think you are pretty great

Camper: Will I have to marry you?

Counselor: That is completely your choice.

Camper: Good, ‘cuz I wouldn’t want to have to kiss you

Counselor: Completely understandable

Me (thinking- situation averted)

Kids are great…mostly

I have heard that the mom of a friend of mine had stroke today. I know very little, except that she is in stable condition. She is not only a mom of a friend, she is the aunt of one of my dearest friends. Please keep her in your prayers. Her son is planning a wedding for next spring. I can’t even begin to imagine…

 I hope our Moms (Dads and siblings too) know how much they mean to both of us. We are truely blessed to really feel a part of two families.

I took the last of the teaching certification tests today. We’ll see. My heart was not in it. You see, I signed up for these tests because I was sick of being a glorified babysitter for spoiled, over privileged kids. Since then I have decided to switch departments and be a lead teacher in a toddler classroom. I am very excited and now would rather see this out then pursue a teaching job in a school system.  I guess with the tests under my belt I can hold off on applying for a teaching license. I really feel like this new job is going to be amazing.

I bought the new Harry Potter book. A couple of things baffle me. I mean, I walked into a store at 3:30 pm this afternoon and grabbed one of about 10,000 books just sitting there. However, people stayed up all night to get this book…wha? I understand it is all the rage, but come on…for real? These same people will then stay up all night reading the book from cover to cover just because they have to be the first to know what happens. I say this every time a Harry Potter book comes out, but I will say it again: When a book is good usually you do not want it to end. Reading is relaxing and it is fun to get lost in a good book and sad when it ends. These people don’t get it. They end up having to reread the book immediately so that they can enjoy it. Inexplicable.

I know this blog has strayed from wedding plans, but Dave will be home in 10 days. I just feel like I should make nothing public until I discuss it with him. We talk everyday, but never about the wedding. Sorry it will be more informative in August.  Until then I will continue to give McCain staffers a break from their  seemingly bleak reality.

I have been told I need to blog more. My question is should I blog more or should said person work more… ?

I wish there was enough excitement in my life to warrant a daily blog, but let’s face it…nothing. If you doubt that statement -  I will overview my day. Wake up 6:15, shower, get ready for the day, watch six different weather reports (thunderstorms are bad when your camp is outdoors), go to work, listen to parents complain that it was raining and their child has no sweatshirt or rain jacket (this is somehow my fault and not poor parenting at all), deal with homesick DAY CAMPERS, put out fires among kids and staff, move everyone inside when it inevitably starts to storm, get snack, set up for sign out and go home. Once I am home the fun begins. I usually am good for a two hour nap and then stay up too late making schedules or waiting for Dave to call ( I swear he knows when I am about to fall asleep). I have realized that I would get more sleep if it wasn’t for Facebook and the 11:00 showing of Sex & the City. Evil

That is my life, in a nutshell. This weekend I think I will mix things up with a teaching certification test (don’t you think three tests is a little bit of overkill?).

Okay, Craw be careful what you wish for…

So I spent the weekend with the most amazing guy. I met him three months after I met Dave and it was love at first sight. He is cute, smart and funny. He came to visit this weekend. It was fabulous.

Okay, okay, he is my nephew. I spent the weekend at the playground, at the pool, McDonalds play place…you know the usual haunts for a three year old. We made play-dough and watched “Chicken Little” a couple of times. It was a blast! Hopefully we will have more special weekends soon.

Dave is away now until the end of July. I have decided that when he gets home we will make official decisions about our wedding. So all of you waiting for a date…I want to have that set by the middle of August, we will keep you posted.

Now I should sleep, I have to deal with all the other kids in my life tomorrow…

I got the results from my teaching certification tests today (unofficially, they were emailed to me). I was nervous, because I had the start of strep throat that day. I felt awful, in fact, I dozed off a couple of times mid test. Turns out it was no big deal. I passed, by a lot. One more test left and I can apply for my THIRD teaching license. I might just try to get one from all fifty states…kidding. Anyway, last test date: July 21.

I had an amazing weekend at camp. I am so jealous of Dave. I would stay there forever, I swear. Well, forever… if I owned a fleet of owls to eat all the mice.

After many conversations that begin “… I don’t know if you remember, but at my wedding I had…” I have realized that people (or maybe just me) don’t remember any details from your wedding.

I couldn’t tell you what one centerpiece looked like. I have no clue what any bouquets looked like (including the ones I carried), no lasting impressions of ceremony flowers, lines or cake.  I basically have zero recollection of any of these details. This is not due to excessive drinking (well, that may be the case for Bridget’s, but we were young). I don’t even think it has anything to do with the fact that I was not in a place where a wedding was on my mind.

I have realized that at each wedding I have cared so much for the couple and have been so happy for them that nothing else really mattered. This is a relief. We are only inviting people we love AND most importantly they love us enough to notice if everything is not perfect. So back to the original plan…less stress more fun.

Work has totally kicked my butt this week. Something about feeling responsible for 130 kids and 20ish staff is killing me. Work 8 hours, then come home and spend a couple hours trying to figure out the best way to disperse all these kids around the limited grounds that is “camp”, then sleep and dream of kids getting hurt. It is crazy. Only 9 more weeks.

I am no longer stressing about wedding locations. We have decided to revisit this whole mess in August. The thing is we didn’t hate the one place, so it is still very much an option. I having been conversing with my married friends and beginning to realize that maybe Dave and I actually care more about this than we are supposed to. No one else remembers searching for a “perfect” location. They settled. I don’t want to settle yet. Oh well, in the meantime,  it is more fun to focus on the fun things like flowers and favors.

Spending next weekend at Kingswood…I can’t wait.