Next week will be better

Yay I had a full week of work. Haven't had a full week since before Christmas. Work means money and money means less ramen and mac n' cheese. Working is good, I should be thankful for work.
However........it was a week of stress and early teeny boppers who could care less about their impact they have on society. Stress means pimples. My skin doesn't like stress. Stress also means I get forgetful about normal tasks. I accidentally sent Collin to school without having his meds. Poor guy did most of his school work in the office so he could stop disrupting the class.

I went to Walmart yesterday to restock food for the week and I ran into the secretary of the school I am working for. She cornered me and asked if I could continue covering for the class I had last week. The teacher is still really sick and needs more time to recover. UUUHHhhggggg. I can not turn a person down when they ask me in person. If it was a phone call I could have come up with some reason to say no and that person would never see my face. But when someone is looking directly at me, I cave in. So starting tomorrow I get to go back to the 6th grade of doom.

Good news, I will be prepared for this. Bring along busy work and lesson plans in case the teacher forgets. I will bring bribery treats for those students who earned it. And lastly I am going to enforce a seating chart that I create. From knowing ahead I know this week will be less stressful.

Subbing Inhales Profusely

I have been subbing for 6th grade at a local school. Every morning is wonderful. The students really are a good group. There are only 2 of them where you wish they might be absent that day, but truly they are not that bad. I have had the same class all week and will continue to have them until their teacher can come back. He is out due to medical reasons.

However in the afternoon the classes swap for an hour and a half. This class makes me want to cry. They seem to not care about their futures and have no respect for themselves, for their peers,, and definitely not authority. I have had three days with them now. I have tried strict sub, fun sub, and patient sub. Tomorrow the mean and non-tolerant sub is gonna appear. There will be a new seating chart, emergency bathroom passes only, and an appearance by the vice-principal to check in on them about half way through. You know, I really don't like the mean and tolerant substitute. There are so many fun activities we could do but alas if I can't trust them to handle themselves, there is no way we are gonna try it.

I really wish I had my own classroom where I could establish relationships with these kids. Being a sub is hard. Everyday the kids try you to see if you are going to fold, everyday you have to make an attempt to learn new names, and everyday there is always a group of students that just treat you like dirt. Someday I am not gonna be a sub......someday.

Conversation with a 4 year old.

Me: Are you my good boy?
Quintin: Yes, Mama.
Me: Are you my big boy or my little boy?
Quintin: Hmmmmmm UHmmmmmm... I'm a middle boy.

The Windy Fair

It's that time of year again where turkey legs flow and bad but wonderfully tasteless jokes are told. The time of year where Joe and I get to go on our annual date. Ok, we have a date more than once a year but this is one is the most looked forward to. It was terribly windy and by the end of the date my hair and mouth were just full of dirt. Grodey but still fun.

Normally we have a plan and see almost the same people and same shows every year, but this year it was nice to watch almost all new shows and talents. This guy for example is the whipmaster Adam Crack. AMaZinG!

He had a chainmail bullwhip and sliced a soda can in half. I was totally okay with this due to the fact that it was a diet Pepsi. blehch.

These guys were sitting on the lawn. They were pretty entertaining to watch.

Oh, and then Mr. Crack "whipped" out is 15+ foot whip and cracked a rose out of Esmerelda's mouth. I highly recommend looking at these pictures in enlarged form, Here the whip is on the way.

And here you can see the whip slowly going to the ground right after the rose pretty much exploded.

And lastly what would a show be without a whip that is on fire?

Good news, we didn't have to leave the area for the next show. Time for the bird show where large birds are put on display. It was so windy the poor critters mostly stayed on the ground and every time they tried to fly or perform, the wind would blow them off course.

A pretty lady and her Eagle Owl.

This bird was gorgeous and is a type of buzzard. Sadly I didn't here what kind.

Very happy bird to receive his treat.

This silly Scotsman decided it would be a good idea to take away this vulture's chicken bone. The vulture decided it was a good time to chase the Scotsman until he got his bone back.

This is Franko the Hypnotist. He succeeded in hypnotizing a large group of people on stage as well several sitting in the audience. I thought it would be alright to do what he was saying while he was hypnotizing everyone. As I started to go under, it kind of freaked me out, so I shook myself up so I wouldn't be under his "spell."

Here are our volunteers completely out.

Now the group is convinced that they are really hot and needed to fan themselves to cool off.


This poor girl was told that every time she heard the word hypnotized she would believe the guy sitting next to her had pinched her butt. The guy next to her believed that he had pinched her butt and giggled in pride whenever the girl got mad at him. Later Franko convinced a man that he was pregnant and in labor. Sorry no pics of that one. I was laughing too hard to remember to use the camera.

Ahhhhh Dextre Tripp, why do you think it is intelligent to duct tape fire crackers to your body while standing on a free standing ladder?

Uhmmmm why would it be even more intelligent to light those firecrackers on fire?

And even better, why would you cool yourself off by having audience members throw 200 waterballoons at you? Sadly I did not understand this show.

Sorry Sorry, I should not have complained about Dextre Tripp's act. I will improve my morale.

Look it is the broom from Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Me and one of my favorite people, Don Juan.

Here are my other two favorite people, Joe and Miguel.

Don Juan and Migel are by far my favorite entertainers at the Ren Fair. Not to mention I got to see my favorite show they do where Migel plays the Queen of Spain and shows here lovely endowed "Baloobies."

Pretty Horsie.

The Green Man.

A pretty flower my date got me.

Lady Shagshire caught licking her nose on camera.

The night is coming and the Ren Fair is slowly closing. This lovely lady had a bottle on her head while standing next to the Prince.

Check out this guy's hands. He is carrying a rock and a roll. I will let you figure out the pun on your own.

Creepy but amazing mime.

A fairy gave me this glass sun and then glittered my with some magic fairy dust.

This is Twig the Fairy. She is the one who glittered me.

That is all that needs to be said.

County Fair

The turkey gobbled, Melody ran away very quickly.

Quintin loved the bunnies. We weren't allowed to pet them though.

This was truly a walk of faith for the little girl. I never knew she was scared of chickens until today.

Baby cows like to lick.

Vibrating chairs or practice potties for giant kids?

Since this was the one of the first mornings of the fair, very little was open and there was not lots to do. Sadly this fountain was the highlight of the day for Melody.

Getting excited to potty train!!!!

Baby goat!!!!!!! I am so proud of myself for not taking one of these home with me. When I was a kid we would always get a baby goat at the fair to take home and bottle feed. Goats are the funnest pets EVER!! Sadly, I don't think my HOA would approve......but my yard would finally be weedless.

Engine Show

My dad and brother are off to Cottonwood to go show off their working antique engines. I thought it would be fun to surprise them with an A-Frame sign to advertise. I left space open at the top to leave room for their statistic papers that tell all about the engines.

On the back I nailed a plastic folder to put all of the flyers and/or business cards they plan to hand out to the people who come see the engines.

The engine painted is a generic version of a Fairbanks Morse Engine in green metallic paint. Wood 1/2 plywood. Attached with two brass door hinges.

Another Wooden Cutout

Scooby Doo Mystery Machine. 3/4 Plywood and very bright paint. Polly needed this for one of the High School students.