What’s Up?!?!? (Wednesday)

Can you believe that we are at the half-way point for October?!?!  Wow, this month is flying by!  I’ve had lots of changes in my work life in the past week, so I’m kind of thrilled they are behind me.  My school lost one special education teacher due to “numbers” not being high enough to keep the position.  There is a system in which school officials calculate the “need” of each student based on daily minutes provided.  All the teachers that I know go above and beyond those minutes, and I know that I certainly help all students who are struggling…not just those with official “minutes.”  You may guess that no one asked a teacher’s opinion at my school.  They have their budget and reality of how they have to do things, BUT it certainly made for a stressful mess for my school and teachers.

The short version is that I will not be working with my kindergarten students (They were so sweet about me leaving!  They made a card, and we had donuts on my last day!).  I will be working with both third grade and fourth grade this year.  English all day.  Yippee.  I really don’t mind teaching English, but it is nice to have some variety in life.  Two SOL TESTING grades is also a challenge.  In conclusion, it sort-of feels like the first day of school again for half the day.  I so don’t like the first day of school!  Getting to know the kids, revamping/doing lesson plans, and just adjusting to working with a new teacher can make one stressed!  In fact, I was so stressed this past weekend (although I don’t think I admitted how bad it was getting on my nerves!) that I broke out with a nice case of hives for my Saturday night fun!  Not to worry!  Those lovelies have faded, and hopefully things will start smoothing out at school as well.

We did get out of town this weekend to visit H’s Granny and for the Mr. to do his first fall hunting.  He’s slightly excited about hunting season.  🙂  (<-that may be the largest understatement of the year).  Although it sprinkled a bit on Saturday, Granny, H, and I did get a little outdoor play in plus a trip to the farmers’ market.  Granny treated H to TWO light sabers (one for his opponent who is typically Daddy).

I got to take two nice walks with Roscoe the doggie while we were there.  Aren’t these flowers growing in a soybean field pretty!

Sunday was a baby shower for an old friend.  The food was delicious, and I was so glad that I could make it there.  It’s funny how you can go from seeing someone so much to seeing them hardly at all.  As life has gotten busier for both of us plus a couple moves for her, it was nice just to catch up and do baby/kid talk for a little bit.  After the shower, it was back to reality for us!  Groceries, laundry, and prepping for my first day as a third and fourth grade teacher!  Another mountain to climb this week was to figure out why I’m sneezing and itching my face off!  I’ve never been one to have allergies, but I have been getting super sneezy and just miserable every night.  This has resulted in a lot of lack of sleep!  Not good!  Well, this week we went on the attack.  The Mr. had our home inspected for mold.  None present!  Yay!  We thoroughly cleaned our bedroom from top to bottom including under the bed and closet.  We even washed curtains and every single bit of our bedding.  After continued sneezing, we decided to throw money at the situation.  On Monday, I was feeling way tired from the lack of sleep, so I left work ASAP to buy an air purifier.  I know…it kind of seems like a hoax.  I can happily report that I’ve been sleeping much better since purchasing it!

I’ve also been using my Neti pot every night!  It’s basically a pretty snotty, gross event.  Whatever it takes to sleep through the night!  I’ve been feeling like a fussy infant or the princess and the pea!  Here’s a link if you want to buy…  I’ve always heard great recommendations about these things.  Seem to gross to try?  Here’s an article from WebMD about the benefits and who should give it a whirl.  Another recommendation is to wash your hair every night.  I know this stinks especially if you’re more stylish than me and like to do your hair in the morning.  I’m not at all hair-motivated in the morning.  My hair is fine, so I can easily curl, straighten, or put up my washed-last-night-hair.

So I’m happy to report I made it from 10PM to 4:40AM last night!  Victory!  Unfortunately, my nose got a little stuffy around that time.  This is a HUGE improvement!  I’ll keep doing what I’m doing!

Any allergies tips that have worked for you?

It’s beginning to feel like fall around these parts.  Do you have any favorite fall traditions or a fall bucket list?