nokturnal23 | Recent Entries

I am dealing with a work issue that has me feeling helpless and those of you who know me will understand how rare that is. The person involved has been bullied into resigning. They have written a letter addressing their concerns and sent it to the higher ups. Those people have come to meet to discuss the concerns here at the workplace! Which I feel is highly inappropriate. Also, the person who did the bullying was included in the meeting. Now those of us in the know are just dumbfounded. How in the world can we continue to work for a place that in no way supported or at least attempts to value its employees. Not sure what option are available and also not sure if pursuing any of them gets our name on a shitlist? what options are out there? this person has also been told if they discuss their concerns then disciplinary action will be taken against them!!!!! WTF?

Just sick to my stomach and absolutely floored about this situation.

Current Mood: distressed

Am struggling through a class that I must self teach myself the material. I am not forking out money to do it all myself. It should not take me 5+ hours to finish half a mid-term. Too many tangents in class keeps him from actually instructing. UGH! Just bitching out of frustration. That is all.

In reading my last post in LJ from 5 years ago, I seemed to be on an upswing. We just got the cats who are doing remarkably well. The super skittish one finally sits with us and lets us pet and play with her. It did take 1 1/2 years but worth it.
Kids are good. Oldest is pursuing drama more and more. He was cast as the Pirate King IN Pirates of Pensance. I much prefer hearing those songs everyday as opposed to Fiddler (last year's show). Youngest is still the sports kid. I'm reluctantly learning about basketball.
Steve and I celebrated or 20 year anniversary. Not sure how that went by so fast. Moved to a new place and I started grad school again. So far I am not regretting this choice.
Frustrated with my job and the ever increasing scrutiny we are coming under and the increase in the dog and pony show aspect. I have difficulty with the whole collaborative approach for everything. I am not the poster-child for teamwork. I can work with others but I do not like having group work shoved down my throat. I will definitely be using this area to vent about education and the school system. Too many prying and brown-noser eyes watching my every move on FB etc.

Current Mood: calm

We adopted 2 new cats last week. We got them thru a rescue. They are 2 1/2 yeas old and both black. I was finding myself missing pets after 5 years of being cat less. The boys were asking and finally the hubby got on board. Of course I wanted 2 black cats who actually like each other and are well trained. Figured that wouldn't happen. But it turns out people generally do not want black cats, let alone 2 who are already adults. We lucked out. I can see why these 2 were in the rescue for so long. One is super outgoing and friendly while the other is super shy and skittish of people. We knew this when we went to meet them. They are a pair although not related. They get along with each other. I talked with the boys extensively about how we would have to be patient and talk calmly to the more shy one ( Shadow). After just one week, the outgoing one (Midnight) is out and about playing with the whole family. Shadow is even coming out and will hang in the room and play. She just doesn't want anyone to approach her directly. But still, way more social after 1 week than we expected. All in all, a great experience so far!

Joined the gym, now I have to go right? That's the hope!

On a different note, am exhausted from the first week of work. No planning time and lunch on only 2 days. At least one of them is Friday.

So I have been using the free week pass. So far not awful at all! Only 4 people in the step class including me. Then 6 people in the weight training class including me. I am doing the combat class tomorrow.

Current Mood: hopeful

Catching up on movies/ netflix.
Dark Shadows was very pretty to watch but just an okay story.
Jack Reacher- booooorrrrring. Really bland acting. I think they were going for a style but missed. I had higher hopes for it.
Orange is the new black- pretty good, I'm halfway thru and intrigued.
Next on to Copper. Have to finish season 1 then go thru season 2.
Silver linings play book was okay.
I also sat thru Turbo (amusing) Smurfs 2 (painful), Planes ( cute) and the Lone Ranger. I thought Johnny Depp was fine but the movie jumped the shark once the horses kept running on top of buildings and moving trains.

So I have doing a boot camp class for over a year. I went religiously. I saw results. Now my instructor is raking a break until spring. Ugh. Now I have to find something new. I am thinking of joining the gym across the street. It can't get anymore convenient than that really. They have classes I could do at times I can go. Sounds good right ? I HATE gyms. Leftover panic from younger days. Gyms are for cute skinny people who already are in shape and just instinctively know what to do and the right way to do things. I'm not a fan of new and unknown.
But I will suck it up and head over tomorrow to check it out and see what it's like. I get a free week so I think that means free classes as well. We shall see.
Wish me luck.

So we are finishing off the last thing in the house. Hope is to have it on the market by march. Then the anxiety will spiral up. Need to get an offer (not really worried about that) and also find something we want to live in. Of course we have a list of deal breakers. We shall see. Goal is to come out of this breaking even or ahead.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

So it's been a while since I was here last.
So much has been going on. My bro made it back from the sandbox all body parts accounted for. As soon as he touched down at a friendly base, I had the talk with the boys. I am glad I didn't tell him where he was while he was there. The oldest was very concerned and I know that he would have been for the whole tour just like the rest of the family was.

At work, surprise! The big cheese retired! Now to get the person we all want into the principal position. Hopefully that will mean less stress from the job do I can feel relaxed again.

Started boot amp in the mornings. Need to get myself kick started again. Hit a plateau and lacked motivation to push myself. Boot camp will hopefully do the pushing for me.

I have 9 weeks off and need to get things accomplished. Am going to try to finish some projects that have been hanging over my head. Have books to read. I am so far behind. I need to catch up. Most nights I just am too wound to read. Then I start to feel guilty about not reading. Ugh . Am trying to have quiet family reading time to get the children reading on their own. Also makes a little time for me to read as well. Need to read the dragon tattoo series and the hunger games series as well.

Now back to enjoying the kids. Sitting at a playground in the shade. Trying not to watch or even think about the kids over on the swings. I know it's weird but swings really give me the heebies. Even thinking about swings make me slightly nauseous. Don't know why but I HATE them. Used to love swinging as a kid but now..... Old and irrational I guess.

Until later....

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

So it's summer vacation. Thank god. I get fed up by the end of the year and the county bs and need to be gone and recharge.
I am increasingly frustrated by education and the people making the decisions. It's not about actually teaching children and having them learn and grow. It's about assessment and numbers. Of course I don't take this quietly and am very lucky that it is super hard to fire a teacher. Of course, I also do teach my students and they do grow in their skills and knowledge. But I am also not a rule follower. I do have 13 years of excellent teaching to show and back up what I do. I want my boys to have a good base in their education. I know the teachers at my school are excellent and that right now both my kids are excited about school and learning. I will have to stick this out for 7 more years until little D is out of elementary school. Then it's on to something else. But that's a long time and maybe the pendulum will swing back to real teaching. Who knows?

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Spellbound was amazing! I saw so many people I haven't seen in the flesh in a LONG time. Adam rocked on the Djing. Go West was certainly the highlight for me! Brought back Tracks memories as well. Had a blast dancing and talking to everyone. We had to use up major babysitting points to get out all night but it was well worth it!

Current Mood: giggly

So here is my question... If I buy some videos from itunes can I then burn them on to a DVD? If not legally is there a way around it? I want to make a DVD of kids things but don't want to buy the videos if I cant put them on a DVD. Thanks for all your help!

Current Mood: thoughtful

I am sitting in a training that is SSSOOOOO boring. I had this information 10 years ago. It hasn't changed. Yet I must still sit through it to get to the actual new information. Ugh. This could have been done in 2 hours instead of 8 hours. Must we all be treated like we are idiots? And if they have to do this because there are some of us out there who can't do it yet, should they even be in this field? UGH UGH.

Current Mood: bitchy

There is nothing worse than being 7 months pregnant and catching the stomach flu from your 2 year old. Not the way I wanted to spend Sunday and Monday. I hate germs!!!!! I thought I would be OK since I wash my hands every time I work with kids but those little germs managed to infect me anyway! BLECH!!

Anyway, just ranting cause I can!

Current Mood: cranky

sk8rsteve and I are happy to announce that we will be expecting a new little Walsh in May!
Currently we are 2 months along. We are very excited, but part of me has gotten very used to full nights of sleep!
Hopefully this new one will be as good a sleeper as Colin is!