Tired

Boy am I tired! I can’t wait for Friday to be here! This year has been a rough one and I am glad to see it end! This last week has been the week from, well you know…

Monday: I forgot to bring the movie for PRIDE (program at school that I’m in charge of in addition to Student Council) and order the pizza. With the help of my sister, I was able to get the movie there in time and with the help from my friend Kim, pizza ordered! Lets just say from 8 – 10 I was freaking out! On top of that, I had students coming and going to be prepped for the awards ceremony on Tuesday!

Tuesday: My birthday, but it didn’t feel like it! I was at school from 8 – 9:30! YUCK! I didn’t get to see Abbi at all. She was asleep when I left and when I got home. :O( Long day. I am, however, 27! Yippee! My favorite 2 digit number. I know, weird.

Wednesday: Hung over from Tuesday. Students naughty! Trying to get ready for substitute and dance. Crazy!

Thursday: Tryout for Wheel of Fortune. Apparently I wasn’t annoying enough. I did really well on the timed test and thought I did well when it was my turn and won another bag. Blah… People that made it were over the top annoying, screaming each contestants name like three times when it was their turn, cheering them on. A few times, not bad, for 60 -75 people, shoot me in the head. Oh well, I’ve stopped recording Wheel of Fortune in protest. I’m actually glad I didn’t get called back. There was yet another call back in LA and I just don’t have the time or energy right now. Maybe in a few years.

Friday: 9th Grade Dinner Dance. The most stressful thing of the year. Student Council plans this for an entire semester. We decorate the cafeteria, feed them food, they dance, get yearbooks… a lot of work. Well early Friday morning (I’m talking 3am), Josh brings Abbi into bed with us… she threw up… GROSS! Thinking it was just a fluke, took her to the babysitters. About Higley, Abbi proceeds to throw up all over herself. SUPER GROSS! I was on the phone with Josh and he called her babysitter and then made arrangements for her to stay with the Nortons (thank you so much)!! So I get her home, give her another shower in the sink (she looked like a Jew during Nazi Germany, I felt bad). Took out the carseat, she managed to get throw up on the upholstery (SUPER GROSS AGAIN), cleaned the carseat (started balling, I HATE throw up), cleaned inside the car (swear I still smell it) and dropped her off.

Get to school, everything going good, students working on setting up for the dance (I took the day off to set up) and about 11:00 we run out of helium; only half the balloons have been filled. Great. Quickly call a place that fills up helium tanks; back about 12:45. From 1:30 – 4 our Student Council kids worked really well. It was amazing to see how quickly everything came together. We did run into a slight light situation, but one of our student’s parents kinda does weddings and she had them readily available. We also decided to do an impromptu balloon arched that turned out really good. I forgot to take pictures of it. We sent most of our kids home to get ready. 5:00 – there is no one in the kitchen. Years past, they cooked the entire time we were setting up, but no one to be found. I’m freaking out, Emily Miller is thinking rationally, we tried to get a hold of cafeteria workers, no luck; plan B. We talked to Rigatony’s and they can get us the food for what we were going to pay for, sweet! 5:30 – oh the cafeteria workers show up; they were told to be there at 5:30 and no one told us!! Cancel Rigatony’s. Finishing touches, good to go! Once the dance started, it was really nice. The kids were the best behaved out of the three years I’ve done the dance. However, I didn’t get home until almost 11. YUCK!

Saturday: Woke up at 5:45 to get milk for Abbi! Josh was gone to school from 6:45 – 7:15. This is the stack of papers I had to grade.

Lots fun! I was sore the entire day, but about 5 I started feeling sick. Threw up, not fun; Josh called the Relief Society person over lessons and told them I wasn’t going to be there to give my lesson! Nice husband.

Sunday: Still sick, slept a lot. Better by Sunday night.

Monday: Pool Party for 9th Graders. Kino's pool just got redone and we were able to secure using it furing 5th-6th hour. The problem is, we needed 1 adult for every 12 students, which means I needed to con 24 adults to give up their prep time or class time to come out to pool. It actually turned out pretty good and the kids had a good time.

Josh got sick, just like me. He also is dealing with an ear infection he’s had for a week and a half and starting to get one in his other ear on top of it! He came home from work and literally went to bed around 6:30ish. I had to take care of Abbi and get her to sleep, which means I finally got to bed at 10:30. Not fun!

So here it is Tuesday night. Josh is still sick. Abbi is wound up. Looks like I’ll be up late again… two more days… two more days… Josh has school tomorrow night, Thursday night is his last Thursday Night class for a while and then Saturday he’ll be gone again from 6:45 – 7:15.

Plan for Saturday: Sleep in, followed by some naps, maybe some cleaning, followed by more naps... we’ll see!!

12, 13, 14, 15, 16

12
more days until my call back for Wheel of Fortune! I received an email this last week saying they are holding call backs at the Biltmore! My time to report is at 9:00am and if I do well, then I’ll be on the show in the next year!! They are going to have various simulations of the game and I have to take a 5 minute timed test! :O)

13
the number of hours I sometimes wish Abbi would sleep at night. She still wakes up once to have a bottle! Luckily Josh wakes up with her and takes care of her while I’m still teaching. I’m hoping to get her sleeping through the night during the summer. 13 is also the number of hours of sleep I wish I could get right now. I’m just worn out and wouldn’t mind being able to just sleep!!

14
more days left of school. I know it sounds a little bad, but I wouldn’t mind having the Swine Flu hit Mesa Public Schools! The students are becoming more and more awful and just having a week off would be nice! It was great to hear the other schools that closed in Arizona do not have to make up the time! Lucky!

15
Abbi is 15 months today! CRAZY!!! She’s is so quirky! She loves containers! We can give her a basket or box and she is entertained for hours. She takes her smaller toys and puts them in the basket, carries them to another location, dumps them out, puts them back in, moves to another location and so forth! Calie showed her how to take her lovely (little blanket) and wrap stuff it in. Abbi understands the concept of spreading it out and putting something on it, but she quite doesn’t get that you need to pull up all four corners (instead of the two she grabs) in order to transport the item! It’s also like having two kids between her and Baxter. I find myself getting after both of them for bugging each other! She likes to steal his football to try and throw it. He likes to steal her food and eat it!

16
If I counted right, this is Josh’s 16th week of school. It’s amazing to see the change in attitude about school in general! He actually likes being there and comes home happy! Josh has a few more weeks left, then he starts block two!! I’m excited for December 2010! He’ll be done and I can stop working! I also have a picture of him in his cute little nursing outfit, but I can’t find it on the computer… How convenient!

WHEEL... OF... FORTUNE!!!

Okay, so those who know me, know I LOVE puzzles! We found out a few weeks ago that the Wheelmobile was going to be here in Scottsdale at the Home and Garden Expo Center. I tried getting a group of teachers at Kino to go. Why not have teachers in the spotlight for something positive? No one really wanted to go. I was going to beat up people in my family and make them go, but everyone had plans.

I had a very, very, very long week and still have TONS of papers to grade, a Relief Society lesson today (which I’m taking a break from) and decided not to go. Josh retalked me into going down, by MYSELF, because it’s our “financial plan” (haha). After my sister’s baby shower, I left Abbi with my mom and head down.

Mapquest showed a very easy way to get there: 60 to 101 North to Cactus to Scottsdale. Not so easy. The 101 is closed. So I had to wait in traffic FOREVER! and almost came home. The first “show” started at 1:00. I got there at 1:10 (darn traffic). So I had to wait in line for 50 minutes, before being let into this room and put in the raffle (that’s how they picked their contestants). I was not about to sit there in silence for 50 minutes, so unlike my normal shy self, I start visiting with people around. Just small talk, like on a first date, but it worked! I made several friends who I will never see again!

Round two show started at 2:30. They drew 5 names at a time until hour is up. Its similar to the Final Spin. The contestants introduce themselves, the host asks a few questions. You get the category for the puzzle and take turns guessing a letter and the puzzle. Just because you solve the puzzle does not mean you are chosen to move onto the next phase of getting on the show. They’re looking for personality.

After standing around for 2.5 hours (from basically 1:00-3:30), I was tired and hungry and decided to leave. I drove through Burger King, was sad that I didn’t get picked and talked to my wonderful husband. He encouraged me to go back since the next one started at 4:00. I took my food and went and filled out another form. Found some other friends and waited with them.

First round drawing: name, name, name, name… Julia SeLer, jr high math teacher! THAT’S ME!!

So I had to watch several PAINFUL people on stage and I decided this was my time!! Here’s the dialogue:

Marty: So what’s your name?

Julia: Julia SEITER, like apple cider

M: Okay, okay, so what do you do Julia?

J: I am a junior high math teacher whooo!! (corny I know)

M: And what do you do in your spare time?

J: Well I love to spend time with my beautiful 14 month old daughter, I’m learning to cook for my poor husband and I’m writing a book!

M: You’re writing a book? About what?

J: I am putting together a book about how to make math fun for the kids!!

M: Really? And how do you do that?

J: Well, you incorporate lots of fun activities, but you also have to stand up and act like a goof and entertain them for 2 hours (remember I teach block).

M: Would you like to give us an example of what you do?

PAUSE: I almost crapped my pants. I hadn’t prepared for this question. So I thought EXTREMELY quick!

J: So how many of you have heard of the quadratic formula? (People raised their hands and shouted). For those of you who don’t know, its this big ugly nasty formula that the students have to memorize. So I teach it with song. I then SANG in front of EVERYONE the song for the quadratic formula!

And I took a bow and returned to my spot! I didn’t end up solving the puzzle. Someone in the crowd whispered loudly and another person guessed it: DUDE RANCH DRESSING!! I got a duffle bag, t-shirt, hat and an awesome fanny pack!!

So I’m hoping I did well enough to get a call back! I’ll know in the next month if they want to see me! If I get called back and do well at that audition, I will be on the show. I can’t believe my dream of being on Wheel of Fortune could come true!! YIKES!!

Gross

So I started cleaning the house this morning and Abbi was playing with her toys, watching Handy Manny and trying to "help" me. Well I look over and notice she is chewing on something. I hadn't given her anything to snack on and her toys are big enough that I can see them if she's chewing on them (remember she's teething). So I walk over and she plays the game of moving it around in her mouth so I can't fish it out. Then she smiles and on her bottom lip is a small object. Then I realize its a BUG, possible a LADY BUG!! GROSS!! I was glad to see it was dead and that I didn't throw up, but I'm still grossed out that she was enjoying it. She must get that from her dad :O)

Dear _________

I notice that a lot of people like to write letters to various nouns (i.e. person, place or thing) and post them on their blog. Now my next post is not to mock anyone. I’m sorry if it comes across that way. I’ve just decided that maybe I need to write a few letters of my own and get some things off my mind…


Dear Michigan State Spartans:
Please win your game on Saturday against Connecticut. It would help me greatly in winning some money that I could use to buy food storage and possibly a new skirt to wear for my lesson in a few weeks. Plus I would like to have bragging rights against my brother Michael and possibly a few other men that I work with.
Love,
Julia

Dear North Carolina Tar Heels:
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I would really appreciate you losing your game on Saturday against Villanova. Now, there is no shame in a #1 seed losing to a #3 seed that has been playing really well in the tournament. I also don’t have anything against your school, I just would like to win some money! Thanks for your understanding!
Love,
Julia

Dear Facebook:
I’m not sure how I let my friend Sarah talked me into signing up with you, but I have become extremely annoyed at everything you have created for people to do on your website. How do people find the time to do everything you have to offer? Do they neglect their children? Are their houses messy? Do they stay home? Or do they work for companies who haven’t figured out how to block the website? I just would like to know. Oh and if it requires taking time from sleeping, count me out. Please consider downsizing some of the applications you offer.
Love,
Julia

(Sorry if I offended avid facebook users… I’m just jealous you have extra time.)

Dear whoever decided Arizona needed to have an assessment tests for their students, (a.k.a. AIMS):
Now I do understand that many parents, students, educators and principals are not happy with the amount of stress that you place on them. After all, students need to pass the AIMS in high school in order to graduate. Parents are upset when their children are not performing to your standards. Educators stress out because it determines if they are a “good” teacher. And finally principals are nervous about how their school performances compare with other schools.

I however am extremely grateful for you. You see, I managed to get one of the best jobs during AIMS week. I sit in the library with another teacher and monitor 7 students taking the AIMS test. These are students who have been suspended or referred to an alternative school. Occasionally I have a few students who are late to school and consequently are testing with me. But for the most part, I am able to sit back, relax, grade a few papers, plan a few lessons and enjoy time away from some of my more “exceptional” students.
Love,
Julia


Dear Yo Gabba Gabba:
I would like to thank you for being able to entertain my child for 23 minutes! I’m able to do a quick chore whenever you are on the television. I don’t know how you do it, but we are excited to see new episodes of you this week! I am envious that you manage to make money off of songs that are kinda ridiculous and wish I would have thought to make my own show with the ridiculous songs I sing to my daughter and make lots of money! Keep up the good work!
Love,
Julia

P.S. Keep me in mind if you are hiring!

Dear Women of FLDS:
Recently, you have been on the Oprah show discussing your life style/religion. While I feel bad about the raid on your community and the trauma it may have cause your children, but would it kill you to put on a little mascara or make-up for your interviews? Also, please consider changing your hair and going to JoAnne’s and buying a new pattern for dresses. I’ll chip in money for it! Thanks!
Love,
Julia