Long Days, Short Nights

The PIF offer is closed, we have 3 people participating, please email me your snail addresses at mariachiwife@gmail.com and remember to post the same PIF Exchange to your blog.

I will be working on your gifts this weekend, because I haven't had a moment to spare. I have accepted a long term subbing assignment for a special ed. K/1st class for the next month and boy, I'll tell you, nothing makes you more tired than 13 kinder/1st graders with various special needs. Last night I was in bed by 6:45 p.m. and tonight I'll be retiring early as well. I'm feeling slightly guilty about missing two weeks of yoga (last week's absence was ovary related)...but man, I was so tired last night I just couldn't drag myself out to the yoga studio! Today went a damn sight better than Monday...the aides helped me instill a little classroom management by way of a construction paper stoplight. All the kids start the day out on green...whether they end the day on green is up to them. Yellow is bad, red is worse. If they stay on green all day, they get a sticker. Remember the days when a sticker was enough of an incentive to behave well? Yeah, me neither. When I was in kindergarten, my mom had to bribe me to go to school with toys from the quarter machine at the front of the super market. That beat a sticker hands down!
I spoke to a women from the Special Ed. department who encouraged me to get the room organized (it's a mess) because they have no idea how long the teacher will be out. He had a stroke last Monday and is supposed to be back in 2 to 4 weeks according to the front office, but word has it, he'll be gone until February. I do not plan on subbing until February...but if it helps anybody else who comes in there after me, and it makes my life easier while I'm there, I will organize it. Today I created group seating for the first graders and set up the ELMO, which is this fancy overhead projector thingamajig. I moved the computers, set up a library area, and a desk for the main aide, who requested her own space so that she could use it for prepping and such. I would never have accepted the job if it weren't for her. She practically runs the joint. I have no idea what the previous teacher did, but to hear the aide tell it, not much. I figure if I make sure to show my gratitude toward the aides, they will keep helping me as much as they have been, because those are the ladies who will decide whether I make it or brake it.

On top of all this fun, I am still delivering pizza part time, and trying to get the house fixed up enough to have Thanksgiving at our house again. We started on the kitchen this week. Mark took down the nonfunctional microwave that has hung over our stove since we moved in a year and a half ago. The landlord left it up so that we could still use the exhaust fan part of it, but I got tired of answering the question of why did we have two microwaves in our tiny kitchen. I picked up a replacement hood/exhaust fan at a yard sale for $7.00 a couple weeks back, and Mark is working on getting it up. But first he had to rip out the old microwave...easier said than done, apparently. The neighbor came over on Friday to help him and earned a six-pack of Spaten Oktoberfest beer, then yesterday Mark painted the spot that was exposed when he ripped the microwave out...I made myself useful by patching the holes with spackle! The paint turned out lovely, and I can't wait to post pictures of my new kitchen with new-to-me range hood soon!

So wish me luck with the kiddos, and even more luck with the house! Your trinkets will be coming soon!!!

You better be startin' something...you gotsta be startin' somethin'!!!

I had been looking forward to date night on Thursday night all month. We were planning on trekking out to Fullerton for dinner and a movie. I wasn't able to go to Polite at the Barn last night because I had to get up early and sub for Kindergarten, and I consoled myself with the knowledge that we'd be whooping it up Thursday at Angelo and Vinci's before an outdoor screening of Ghostbusters at the Fox Theater in Fullerton...but alas, it was not to be, and we'll have to be content with something a little closer to home...perhaps sushi and a movie, then karaoke at the Falconer? Whatever, I'm flexible. I've got a book full of coupons and I'm not afraid to use them! Although, my heart mourns the fact that we aren't going to Angelo and Vinci's...at least a little. That place is one of the coolest restaurants I've ever been to. Anybody who knows me will tell you I have long been obsessed with Buca di Beppo's. There's just something about sharing a huge platter of spaghetti with your honey beneath a poster of Sofia Loren in lingerie that stirs the heartstrings...well, A & V's is like Buca...on crack. While Buca's is renowned for their kitschy decor and family style dining, they are a chain restaurant. Not so with Angelo and Vinci's. This place takes the kitsch factor of Buca's and ramps it up a million notches...they are like the holy grail of kitsch. There are Christmas lights everywhere, every possible surface is covered in pictures, statues, flowers, etc. It's a sight to behold. If you ever have the chance to dine there, it is an unforgetable experience. Someday I will return there...on that you can be sure!

Welcome back!

Well, helloooooo there!!! It's been over two years since I've even looked at this old thing. Blogging just didn't hold the charm it once did when I lived alone, and had no social life. Not that I am so busy leading a jetset life, really, it's all the pizza I have to deliver! Also, it's not so fun to be up in our office in it's present state, but more on that later. It's been on the list of To Do Things in the back of my mind to fix this place up again and guess what! I've refreshed this old forgotten blog...simply because I was inspired by one of Griselda's posts. So my return to the blogosphere can be blamed (or credited) to her! With no further ado...I give you the reason I am here!

Inspired by Griselda and her post of about this, I decided to participate, and I hope you will too!!!

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange.

I am not quite sure what my gift will be, I am thinking about getting out the beads and bottlecaps and coming up with some fun little things... and you will receive it before the year is over, that is my promise to you.

The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog, this will be like a seed of abundance of creativity that will bloom into many wonderful works of art.

Thanks Gris!!!