Happy Meals

In one California county there is a lawsuit against kids meals going on. In short, the group wants fast food industries to be banned from putting toys in their kids meals unless the meals meet certain nutritional guidelines. If they meet those guidelines then they can have toys, it not the no toy.

From the article.

"This advertising is unfair to kids and to parents who are put in the position of constantly telling their kids no," Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which is threatening the suit, told CBS News."The meals range from mediocre to miserable," he said. "The calories range from moderate to high. Sodium is typically excessive, especially in the cheeseburgers and the fries, where a child is getting 3/4 of their daily intake."

Okay so I'll admit, McDonalds does have healthy choices. As for McDonalds they want them to agree to only give the toy if the happy meal has one of the healthier options included. Example: Child chooses milk and apple slices over a soda and fries.. SURPRISE you get a toy! They also want to make it a requirement that the employees as "What sides would you like?" because apparently 93% of the time that it was not asked, fries were given instead of a healthier option.

I work at a school with kids, and this is a hot topic right now. The odd thing is that I'm the only one in favor for it. I get that parents have an option to choose, but how often are they choosing the healthier option? Apparently not enough. As a parent you're in charge of what your child eats and IMO I would choose the healthier options without a heart beat but some parents just don't pay attention to that kind of stuff. This suit is to protect those kids... not to hurt those that already choose the good options. They are not saying "TAKE AWAY THE TOYS!!" they are trying to say "Hey, help protect the kids by rewarding their healthier choices, they'll get a toy and we both win."

Who could be against that?? McDonalds obviously. Anyways... I hope it goes through and starts a trend throughout the rest of the US, one other county already enacted the measure and it works there. I'm all for kids health, especially after working at my last school.

If you're going to feed your kids happy meals.... do it in moderation please... and for the love of food pick atleast one healthy option.

*http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20008571-10391704.html

Truths

• I keep a watch on my arm 24/7, even in the shower... it is the least girlie digital watch that you'll find at Target.... but I need it for teaching everyday. I've found that if I take it off, I completely forget to put it on for a good week and it throws me off at work. I'm thinking of finding a cute digital watch face and attaching it in a cute way to my work apron because somehow I NEVER forget that.
• I get mad jealous inside over others that have things that I want. So I have to slow myself down. We're still saving for a house, but it might be the spring/summer of 2011 instead of 2010 because while we could save for a down payment, I'd hate to save so much and then drain our savings because of it. So we're going to add a year so that we'll have a down payment and an equal amount of fall back money. The houses around here that we like would make a 40K down payment if we went with 20% of higher. It'll suck staying in an apartment longer, but it'll be worth it.
• I want kids but I think that maybe.... I want them sooner than later due to pressure. Our parents are cool about the waiting, but others are not and have commented that "We're getting old" and how we're close to 30 (I'm 25, he is 27) so it is easy to get swayed into thinking we're doing something wrong. But we're not and I need to be reminded about that every so often.

Budget Cuts

Well another sign has presented itself that makes me thankful that I stuck with the job at a private school rather than going to a public school despite the much lower pay grade. The news has started to back up the rumors that I heard last year. See in Texas last year there were a ton of teacher lay-offs. The economic recession hit our state quite a bit later in terms of education. Last year I went to a job fair for ONE district where 3,000 teachers showed up to. Now I get why it took two hours to stand in line to hand in my resume for simply one school only to have to go stand in another line to give my resume to another school in the district. This year the lay offs are going to be even worse according to rumors last year and the news that is starting to hit on tv again someone pulls up his big girl panties and lets outside help come in. Districts are going to have to cut 10% of jobs. UT is looking at cutting 600 jobs alone if this 10% cut goes through and right now that looks like what will happen.

I'm thanking my lucky stars that I have a stable job right now in a private school. I was thinking of still venturing out to public school in the next year or so but instead I think private school is the way to go until the economy stops beating on the door of public schools.

Day Two

I'm on day two of my placebo pills, with two more left until I start up my next pack of active pills. So far I've only had one moment of irritability but it ended as soon as I had some ice cream from Marble Slab. So technically it could have been hunger irritability which is a huge possibility because I slept from 4:30PM -7:00AM on Friday thus missing dinner. Yes, that's right 13.5 hours. Probably due to stress, and I can think of clear reasons of why I may be stressed, but it may be suppressed a bit.

Do I ACTUALLY feel stressed? Not really. The things I should be a bit stressed about are normal so I'm not stressing about them. Like teaching, they say the first year is the toughest and it is sink or swim. So I'm doing the best I can and that is all I can do. No use stressing when I know it is supposed to be like this. :)

Anyways, tomorrow is the real test, granted I'm still cutting myself some slack since the doctor said it could take a good 2-3 months for my PMDD symptoms to disappear. I'm still crossing my fingers that pack 1 is the one that does it for me :) I'll keep updating.

The importance of loved ones...

This weekend was a tough one, not for me but for my husband.  I hate when he gets his hopes up about how something will go and then it goes the complete opposite of that.  It breaks my heart and it is the very reason that I spoil him.  I understand that sometimes others have their own plans, but when the event is centered around another person then go with the original plans.  It is not fair to change the plans around to your own agenda because not only does it make the person disappointed in the plans they were excited for, but it makes it appear that you really don't care about anyone else's wants other than your own.

It hurts seeing my husbands feelings become seriously hurt.  It hurts more watching him get upset for the day, and then brush it off because this is nothing new to him.  That shouldn't happen, that is not something you should have to get use to.

Thus... why I make a huge deal out of spoiling him when I can, as do my parents.  Probably not the best response but I love him more than words and honestly I just want to see him smile.  Luckily he is an incredibly humble person and has never revealed a spoiled bone in his body otherwise we would have to stop spoiling him :)

Your family is your family for a reason... whether you think you were placed together randomly or believe that you are all there together as a group to help each other with your life goals and challenges... either way you're family.   If you love your family, then those are the people  you should be putting first. Those are the people that you sacrifice your own needs for just to make them smile, no matter how small or large the task is.   My priorities are as listed (all even, in no particular order) my mom, dad, brother, chris, max, priss, and snickers.   They are all my number 1 and while sometimes one person may need me more than the other, I do the best that I can to still be there for the others.  Everyone else should do the same.

My husband didn't even get to share his big news this weekend, which made it a double suck.

I understand that this post is a bit ranty... but I just really needed to get that out.

The Ultimate

I am clearly not the ultimate wife, daughter, or sister... but I can definitely say that I am getting better and better with my PMDD.  I kind of still hate talking about it to anyone but my mom and husband because I still feel like it means that I am broken but I'm feeling great right now so I'm a bit more optimistic about it.   The thing is though, I haven't reached the first testing point yet.  I still have two weeks left of medication before we see how I react.  I am crossing my fingers but also slightly dreading it even though I know it could take two months for it to fully be worked out.  So we'll see.

In other news I do feel like the ultimate teacher.  I have been frustrated lately because some of my extremely young kids are like blank slates... and I keep writing upon them yet they keep going blank.  They just are not ready yet.   So I went to my boss and told her how I'm feeling "a little lost and frustrated" and she asked about which kids were retaining and which kids were my blank slates.  It was obvious that it was my kids that are a good 6+ months younger than my older students that are turning four in the next month or so.  She explained that my younger kids will have two more years of pre-k before they go to to Kindergarten so that really for them this is just about exposure.  My older kids will move on to Kindergarten in one year (not counting this year) so for them it is about learning and retaining.

Big DUH moment for me, but I obviously did not catch that.  I was thinking about how there was only one class above mine before Kindergarten but in reality by next august there will be a 3 1/2, 4, 4 1/2 and 5 year old class.   I'll have the five year old class.  So okay I get it now and I feel better.  HOWEVER right after that she talked to me about how they feel that I'm doing.  That boosted my mood completely. :)  I have nothing to worry about.  So while I'm still working on becoming the ultimate in my personal life... I feel like the ultimate teacher today. :)

One of those days...

Today I was just fed up.   Fed up with making friends, fed up with my kids, and ready to just rip my hair out.   Lets start from the beginning.

I was excited about my job because I thought it meant that I would make some pretty good friends and everything would be great.  Right?.... well maybe not. I thought I was making one really good friend/coworker.  We decided to plan together so that we could be more effective as teachers and so that she could learn from me because she liked the style that I wrote my lesson plans in and I kept getting praises at work and in her own words she felt like she needed to grow as a teacher.

After being stood up for planning time and time again and again I am now fed up.  Week after week I've waited around for her so that we can plan because she kept telling me she wanted to plan with me because she needs help.  This Sunday she was a no-show and last sunday I waited around all afternoon for her to show up so that we could plan but instead of showing up she called over and over again with excuse after excuse about why she wasn't there yet.  Now I'm one of those people that give others chance after chance yet thankfully I'm getting better at learning this faster. So I decided I'd just not count on her anymore.

Until today...  I had to teach both classes today. Normally that isn't so bad but the change threw off my kids and her kids to the point that barely anything productive occurred.  Not to mention that I had a new student added that needed my attention to feel safe and secure in her new school.   Had the other classroom had a lesson plan in place then the classes wouldn't have had to join together, but there wasn't one ready and so the students came into my room.  It not only sucked for me, but it sucked for my assistant because she is pregnant and at that critical stage where too much stress can cause a miscarriage.   She was so stressed out herself that she had to step out of the classroom which I am 100% with but it stressed me out more to think that things were so crazy that we were both driven nuts and fed up.   My coworker not only let me down by not showing up on Sunday to plan meaning her own lesson plans were not ready and in place for her class but also let me down today by not coming into work and not giving me a heads up until after I had some of her kids.  As much as I don't want to depend on my coworker, to an extent I have to.  At the same time I'm not going to put any eggs in that basket so that when the basket breaks I won't lose anything.

I've been helped by those close to me to realize that I'm into this as a career, coworker is not.  I'll be the bigger person and allow her to plan with me if she wants but I won't go out of my way to make it convenient to her schedule anymore.  She'll have to work around my schedule.

 It also sucks that I know that this is not a friendship that will grow based upon what has already occurred.

Thankfully I was able to talk to my mom after work today and she let me talk about what was going on and even though it was a bad day talking to mom made me feel better.  She said that I sound optimistic again :)   So tomorrow is another day.... :)

I'll post the new photos of my room soon, I'm having trouble getting them to upload

Revamping the classroom

Part of me feels bad because once again I'm going to be sending the parents of my students a new class schedule, and information explaining how I am changing up what I am doing in my classroom.  These parents have experienced so much change in the past month that it is kind of annoying.  Some kids were placed in one class, then moved to mine, then they had to adjust to how I was, then last Monday I made a new schedule to fit what we were really doing.

Well on Tuesday afternoon I was surprised and found out that on Wednesday and Thursday I would be going to training to learn the "Best Practices in Pre-K".  So I quickly made sub plans and with another teacher we headed up to Huntsville.

 The first day of the training was horrible.  Don't get me wrong, the presentations were wonderful, we played a ton of new games, and we were given a lot of materials.  What was horrible was the feeling in my stomach when I learned how much I needed to add to my classroom and change.  While my school told me that I was doing great, I suddenly felt like a failure.  Why didn't I know to teach this way? Why wasn't I up to date on this? Why didn't I remember that from school?  My coworker and I felt like we sucked as teachers.  We needed to change our classrooms around and fast.

On the second day of training we actually pumped ourselves up first by saying that we were going to go in there positive, upbeat, and not dwell on what we were doing wrong, but focus on what we could do to improve.  Well it turns out that all of the things discussed on day two we were actually doing.  So now we knew we were not in a huge hole, but just needed to improve our classroom by half.  We can do this.

So tonight I created the items for a letter wall, figured out a new layout for my classroom so that I can incorporate centers, spray painted some furniture that was passed on to me, and bought some new furniture from ikea.   Tomorrow I'm heading up to my classroom to put all of the new furniture in, rearrange some things, and set up my centers the best way that I can.  I'll also take pictures while I'm at it.

I also no longer have that "I suck as a teacher" feeling.  I really needed that training because really I've never know what or how to teach 3 year olds in a way that is effective.  Better to find out at the start of the year rather than the end of the year. :)

Dates

Time has been flying by.  I JUST realized that today was September 11th.   What were you doing on that day?  I was out running around the track when the attack occurred so I actually did not find out until a class period later.  I remember my teacher FREAKING out saying that this would be another world war and we would go into a depression.  While everyone sat there watching the news I sat there writing in my journal about what was going on.  Back then I was constantly writing in my journal when I had free time in class or at home even though at that time I had an online journal too.  Writing was my way to get things out of my system back then.  I've tried to go back to writing my journal in a book but have sense failed to keep up with it.  The only way I write in a timely manner is when I have an online journal.  But anyways... keep in mind those that lost their lives on this day.

Another date that I glanced over in terms of writing about was our dating anniversary.  On September 5th Chris and I celebrated the anniversary of our first day SEVEN years ago.  It seems like eternity.  We still celebrate our dating anniversary because to me it is an accomplishment to have been together for so long when there are so many things in life that can cause a couple to break up.  So seven years ago on that date my now husband picked me up on my first date where we went to watch a football game, ate at whattaburger, and then played at Walmart.  Luckily our finances have improved since then, and we have more options available to us.  Instead of a football game we went to the movies, instead of whattaburger we went to Olive Garden, and instead of playing in Walmart we went to.... well Target.... but I really wanted some stuff from there so it is okay :)

Coming up next month: Mom's birthday, Dad's Birthday, and Max's birthday.
  

Letting it out...

     There have been tons of post that I've written and have either left as drafts to later be deleted, or posted for just a short time and then erased.  That is pretty much the opposite of what a blog is for, but part of me still feels like I cannot open up too much to anyone but my husband and my family.   There is so much judgement in the world that it is almost impossible to have a free space to let your feelings out without wondering if you'll be judged.  I guess I could have this blog be completely anonymous but at the same time there is always that fear of someone connecting it to me.  


It is tough.


    Last night I wrote a post about what I am currently going through.  PMDD.  I have had it for over 8 years, without really knowing what was wrong, and not really realizing that something was really wrong until maybe two years ago.  It finally got to the point where I realized that I cannot deal with it myself anymore, and I asked for help.  I'm lucky to say that my doctor is really working with me, and I'm trying Yaz for three months in hopes that it will work.  I pray it does, and I hope that it works quickly.  We'll see. For now I'm keeping this to my blog because it is kind of hard to talk about it to those around me.  I know this is something that is not my fault, and I know that it is something that can be helped but at the same time I still feel like as if I'm broken if that makes any sense.


    I look forward to going back to the Megan that I knew when I was younger, and not having the symptoms dictate how I react and harm the relationships that I hold dear to me.  I'm blessed to have a family and a husband that support me, and never gave upon me before we knew what in the world was causing this.  My relationships are still great with my family and husband, but now that I'm getting help for the PMDD I'm looking forward to those relationships getting even better over time.

Masters...

I feel like a lost college student again. I want to get my Masters... possibly in being a reading specialist but I find myself lost and not quite understanding what the website of the school that I want to attend. I want to go with SFA because I did get my bachelors there and the programs are created with the thought that the grad student is probably teaching. I understood as much that I'll need a 750 on the GRE which I am now ordering the book to study for it.

My other option is going with the University of Houston and majoring in Curriculum and Instruction for elementary education, Early Childhood Education, or Elementary Education.

I'll start with the GRE, and then try to figure things out.

Pee = Jeans?

I have the same caring heart that my mother has. So when one of my kids (students) woke up from nap crying hysterically I quickly hurried over and tried to comfort him thinking he had a bad dream like other kids occasionally had. Well it wasn't working so I did the only thing I could think of... pull him into my lap and just slowly rock with him in my arms to try and calm his crying down. I held him for a good 10 seconds when things started to calm down from hysterically crying to just a hard cry when I felt everything becoming warm.

... the kid peed on me. It caught me completely off guard. We quickly got up and ran to the bathroom where we changed him into his extra clothes and I went to get my co-teacher for help. Why? Because I too had been peed on. Oddly enough I cracked up laughing... like really??? I try to do a good thing and I'm peed on?? Great joke Big Man Upstairs! So I went to figure out what to do because 1) I didn't have extra clothes at work because I've never had something like that happen, and 2) my lap was soaked in pee and I could not only feel it but also smell it.

A coworker was totally awesome and ran home to get a pair of jeans for me to wear and in the end just told me to keep them because they don't fit her anymore. Sweet! Things ended up fine in the end. The child was a bit embarrassed after it but I turned it into a joke and we had a great day after that.

My husband however says he is totally NOT jealous of my job. I don't blame him after hearing that I was peed on, but even with the odd little things that happen I love my job more and more each day.

Mortified....

See that small text? That is part of my lesson plan. See the embarrassing typo that MS word did not catch?? Yep... we're not going to add 1/2 of grape juice... we're going to "ass 1/2 cup of grape juice".

It is Wednesday and it was just pointed out to me and I sent these home on Monday. I feel HORRIBLE... and I need to go let my boss know tomorrow morning. I hate that I didn't catch that :( I guess I read what I wanted it to say and didn't catch what it actually said. Let me sink down and crawl into a hole please :(