Still in IL. Still relaxing. :-)

Just some random thoughts for today:

*Happy Birthday to my Dad. He turns 59 today. Happy B-day Daddy!

*Hung out with my "peeps" from high school last night. We had a lovely time at The Maples Restaurant (they have no link or web site). Thanks for coming out ladies . . . had a nice time catching up! :-) Went back to Joann's house to hang out. She bought me some great gifts for Christmas . . . gift cards, stuff for school (paper, Post-it's, pens, etc) and my personal favorite, Western dressing! I love this dressing on my salads and you can't find it in New England so she loaded me up! :-)

*Christmas was low key. My plane ticket to IL was my Christmas gift and got some awesome gift cards in my stocking my Santa. My sis and I gave each other the same gift - The Third Pirates Movie on DVD! You can't tell we are sisters, can ya??? :-)

*My Godfather and his wife drove down on Thursday to spend the day with me. They've always been so good to me. I'm so blessed to have such great folks in my life.

*On Wednesday, the family and I went to Chicago for the day. I wanted to check out this museum. Very informative and gets ya to stop and think about our freedoms and rights. Ate lunch and then my sister got us tickets for Altar Boyz. It's a spoof on the Catholic Church. Oh my goodness, I laughed my ass off! Highly recommend seeing it. Sis went on line that morning and got us front row center tickets for half price! Good deal!

*Not doing anything for New Years. Just going to hang out at my folks house. Low key. I have some resolutions that I'll be working on. Do you have any resolutions or changes that you'll be working on in 2008?

Happy almost New Year and 2008!

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick shot out to wish all my family and friends a Merry Christmas on this fine day.

Hope Santa was good to ya! :-)

Hugs from M-Dawg! :-)

Personal Day for M-Dawg

Resting. Relaxing. Getting some stuff done today.

It's a personal day for M-Dawg. I tried to sleep in but was awaken at 5:45 AM by a text message for a two-hour delay for school (I signed up for a text message through one of the local Boston TV stations for delay or cancellation notice). Five minutes later - the school calls me. Ellie the Cat and I went back to sleep - she's soooo cute! She loves to cuddle with her Momma! :-)

Taking Ellie to the vet today for her yearly shots and check up. I swear it's more traumatic for me - putting her in the carrier is a huge drama! Ughy! She hates the carrier and she hates the ride in the car. Poor Ellie Mae! :-(

Probably will do some laundry. Bake some cupcakes for my department meeting tomorrow. Complete some correcting. Easy day overall.

Hope everyone survived the crazy storms -

Alive and kicking . . . barely!

I'm here. Overworked. Underpaid. Exhausted.

No news yet. Rumor mill states next week will be notification of cut teacher positions due to the budget. Merry freakin' Christmas to you too! :-(

Oh, the $1.8 million deficit is now $3.0 million. Joy.

I do know for a fact that personnel is going through every one's file to make sure they have their P's and Q's tied nicely in a red bow.

Taking Monday off as a personal day. A mental health day is needed for M-Dawg. The only planned activity: taking Ellie the Cat to the vet for her yearly shots.

Working all weekend at Paws. Seeing the doggies and puppies always cheers me up.

Enjoy your weekend peeps! :-)

Overwhelmed and overworked!

Just a quick check in.

Things in my life are really busy right now.

I need to send out an apology. I won't be sending out Christmas cards this year. I have NO time to fill them out. This is the first year eva! Ughy! :-(

Also won't be blogging a lot the next few weeks. Please understand that I'm working a zillion hours between school, my second job, advising the class of 2010, and advising Mock Congress. I have no life as it is right now.

I know I should be taking care of myself but that just ain't happening anytime soon.

I'll be on a plane to Chicago on December 22nd. I'll rest while I'm at my folks house. :-)

Happy Belated Birthday to Cheryl!

Cheryl caught a fish! Go Cheryl go!!! :-)

Happy Birthday to Cheryl . . . we've been friends since high school. Cheryl is a wonderful friend . . . she's always been there for me no matter what. She's a wonderful Mom and wife. She makes me laugh!

Enjoy your day with the hubby and the kids! Love ya kiddo! Can't wait to see ya in IL around the holidays!!!! --)

First round of budget cuts announced.

Opened the local paper this AM and the school committee announced the first round of cuts. Things like not hiring two new teachers (shouldn't they have been hired before the school year?), cut a SPED teacher (isn't this against a SPED law?), turn down the heat in all school buildings by 2 degrees (some classrooms in my building have no heat so how does the savings impact them?) and professional development money (according to Ed Reform of 1994, each school is supposed to provide money for professional development). There are other cuts of various programs as well. Total cuts: $515,458. The total deficit is $1.8 million.

It's the first round of cuts. We've been told by the Mayor and Superintendent that more cuts will occur soon.

Joy.

A rough commute this AM

The weather in New England can sometimes be a challenge this time of the year. Ever since I put my car into a ditch in NH about five years ago, I'm a big baby driving in snow/icky weather.

We had a nice storm (thanks to the Midwest) last night and today. My commute into school was a bit of a challenge. I live about 34 miles north of where I teach (I live near the NH border). Most schools in my area were either cancelled or a two hour delay. I would've enjoyed a cancellation since I really would like a day off and not be penalized for it but it wasn't in the cards for M-Dawg. :-(

The highway I take into work was horrible! At one point, it was dead stop traffic. I passed a few accidents along the way which didn't help the morning commute at all. The secondary roads were not great either.

I made it into school late. I teach a first block class so that was amusing. What can I do? A few of the schools in the same area as my school did do a two hour delay but not my school district. I sometime want to call up the Superintendent and say this: "Look buddy! A huge percentage of your faculty does not live in the city! So, how about accommodating us and giving us that two hour delay?" Oh. There were a ton of teachers out today anyway due to the weather. Nice.

How was your commute today??????

Oh, happy Monday! :-)