The day I turned 27

My birthday is around the corner.  One reason I love this blog is it allows me to see what I was doing a year ago, two years ago, three.  To see how I have grown and changed.  This is what I wrote almost a year ago- the day I turned 27.

Today I am 27.

The age feels good on me.  Like it fits.  You know when you try on a terrific new pair of jeans, and they fit just perfectly over your hips and button up so comfortably and look just totally stunning on every part of you?

That's what 27 feels like.

I liked 26.  I really did.  Probably the happiest year of my life.  It was fun and playful and involved making lots of big decisions about our future.  In a way, I suppose, 26 feels like the end of the play years.  27 feels like a time to buckle down and grow up- a time to think about retirement plans and buying a house and babies.  And it fits.

I feel so incredibly blessed on this birthday.  I don't say that to show you how great my life has been compared to all of your sub par lives, but because the truth is I think we are all so incredibly blessed.  I feel like there are blessings beyond measure, beyond counting, beyond what we will ever have the capacity to recognize.

So for my birthday I present to you, 27 things I am grateful for today.

1.  My husband and his playful attitude.  He makes me laugh every single day and I adore him.  I'd be so lost without him.

2.  My mom who has taught me about incredible strength, faith, and the power of serving others.  I learn from her every day.
3.  My dad who taught me to work hard, to recognize God in my life, and the simple joy of a cherry coke.
4.  My seven siblings who never stop teasing me but never stop looking out for me either.
5.  My body that lets me run and play and doesn't get tired.
6.  Writing and the power it gives me.  The ability to rest my thoughts, to understand the world through writing, to record my life.
7.  My niece, Josie, who has round, chubby cheeks and asks me to paint her toenails.

8.  The belief I have in a higher power and the strength and peace that that has given me in my hardest moments.
9.  Ghiradelli's milk chocolate.
10.  My mind that never rests, that wants to do everything at once, that has big crazy ideas like writing on a blog every day.
11.  This blog and the people who read it.  The people who leave thoughtful comments and send love, and even the lurkers who read but never say a peep.
12.  My students and their sassy attitudes and their crappy papers and their great big hearts.

13.  My voice that is so totally awful- that couldn't carry a tune if my life depended on it- but that will perfect to me when I belt a song alone in my car.
14.  Running water and clean water and hot water.
15.  My time in Argentina and the people I left there.  Their faith, their courage, and their constant teasing me over my American accent and my bright blonde hair.

16.  Books and books and more books.  To travel to another world, another time by turning pages.  To understand a culture, an idea, a lifestyle.  To read something that is so profound and beautiful and that you swear you have thought before, just never knew how to say it.
17.  In laws who love me like their own daughter and sister, who accept me into the family, who raised a fine red head for me to marry.

18.  People who stop and ask you if you're okay when you're pulled off to the side of the road.
19.  Friends that are as close as sisters- that will do anything for you, that you know you can count on no matter the situation, that practically share your heart.

20.  Handwritten notes.
21.  Cuddles and hugs and kisses and handholds and backscratches.
22.  Summer and long, hot days and campfires and vacations and chocolate that melts in the car.

23.  A country that lets me wear what I want, wake up when I want, work where I want, marry who I want, worship how I want.
24.  My mom's home cooking.
25. The ocean and the mountains and the trees and the sunsets and the beauty of the world we live in.

26.  Skinny jeans that make you feel like a million bucks.
27.  The people that surround me, that love me, that make this life worth living.  That put up with my crappy moods, my crazy schemes, my fits of anger.  For love and charity and peace and beauty and all those things that make life so great.

For my birthday, I would like nothing more than for you to leave a comment telling me what you are grateful for today.  Mounds of happy, grateful comments will make this day complete for me.

Mwah!

Scams and vacation mishaps

Turns out preparing to leave for Germany is only the tip of the iceberg for how stressful it can get when you're preparing for vacation.  How could I forget about this that happened a year ago?

Originally written and published August 2013.

I got scammed out of $1,100.  That is money I worked my butt off for and it is money I will never see again.  It happened in mid June and I wanted to write about it.  I wanted to let my blog feel how devastated I was, to share with strangers my story, to let my fingers heal the experience through the writing of it.

But I couldn't.  I don't know why, but I can't write well when I am highly emotional.  I have to be in a calm state of mind.  To some extent I have to detach myself from the experience to be able to write about it.  The first time I mentioned my dad's death on this blog was two years after he died.  It took me that long to be emotionally ready to write about it.

That is why I haven't written yet about how I got scammed.  I decided to give it a couple weeks before I was ready.  Then a couple more.  And maybe one more.

Now I feel ready.  Mostly I need some kind of closure on the experience- to tell it in its fullest and then move on forever from the experience.

There are two versions of this story and I'm not sure which one you want to hear so I will tell them both to you.

Version #1:  The short version-

I got scammed out of $1,100

Version #2: The long version-

In March, Greg and I decided to go to Hawaii with Greg's family.  His brother and wife would be moving out of state and it seemed like a good opportunity to gather us all together for some quality bonding time before they bailed on us.  I didn't want to get ripped off on some crappy hotel in Waikiki, and since I had lived in Hawaii before I figured I would take it upon myself to find us a place to stay.

There were three couples and no kids-  a condo would be perfect.  I googled "rent condo on Oahu" and went to some classic safe "rent a condo" sites like airbnb and homeaway.

I clicked on this link and thought the place looked nice- especially for $1,500 for the week.  That would only be about $500 a couple.  Score!

Looks, great, right?

So I pushed the little tab on airbnb.com that says "Contact me" to send a message to the owner.  I stated I was very interested, would like to know more, yada, yada, yada.

The next day I got an email in my personal inbox.  The owner stated the condo was available the week we were looking at but another family was also looking at it.  She also told me we would get a 30% discount since it was during the "off season" making the total $1,100.

"Freak, guys, I'm a genius!" I thought.  "I'm so good at this people should pay me to do it for them!  Less than $400 a couple to stay the week- yes I am amazing and people are lucky to know me!"  You know, normal stuff you think when you find a condo at a great deal.

I emailed back, said we would take it, and she said she would send us over a contract.  Her email looked super legit.  Just so you believe me how legit it was I'm going to copy and paste some of the details.

We have a special offer. The breakdown would be as follows:

$ 1,560.00 ( 7 nights )
$ 0.00 (Departure Cleaning Fee)
------------
$ 1,560.00 +
- 30% (Discount for special offer only)
------------
$ 1,092.00 (TOTAL/Tax included)

Cancellation 100% refundable 15 Days prior to arrival.

Rate is inclusive of:
- Hawaii tax
- Airport transfers, round trip (one time from and one time to airport)
- Wireless internet access (unlimited internet usage)
- Free Laundry service
- Daily housekeeping
- Car - Ford Galaxy (excludes petrol cost)

For this special offer payment of $ 1,092.00 must be completed within 7days (to secure
this booking).

If you would like to proceed I will just need your home address for the contract and I
will forward as e-mail attachment.

Airport Transfers:
Through popular demand we are offering Round trip airport transfers by our private driver
to pick-you up at the airport upon your arrival (he will be outside with a
sign that has your name on it) then check you in and bring up your bags and groceries. Upon your agreed
departure time, he will return to the villa, load up all your suitcases and bring you back
to the airport for your departure flight.

Check in & check out:
Check in time is 3 pm and check out 11 am (there is a flexibility  in case your plane
leaves or arrives at different times) to give the cleaning person a chance to properly
prepare the villa for my next guest.

Please let me know if you have any questions and how I can further assist you.

We look forward to being of service to you.

Kind regards,

Melissa Randy
Owner/Manager

She sent us over the contract with all the details.  I've never signed a contract for staying anywhere for a week, but I figured, whatevs.  Can't hurt.  The contract gave us all of her bank account info and stated that to reserve the condo we needed to wire the money over.

I realize now that this should have alerted me.  But I was innocent and naive and too trusting.  Anytime I've ever booked a place to stay, a flight, bought anything online I've always paid for a credit card or paypal so I should have known this was off.  I guess I just figured that since it was independently done and not by a big business they required the money just be sent directly over.

So that week I headed on down to Chase, my bank, and wired the money on over.  Not just my money, but my mother in law's money and my sister in law's money.  I took it all and sent it over and even paid the $40 fee to wire money internationally.

Yep.  She was having me send the money internationally.  Obviously this should have been my red flad number two.  Why was I sending the money to London?  But everything still seemed super legit.  The owner had signed a contract, there was a number to contact her, it was through airnbnb, a safe and trusted site.  I was fine.

So I sent that money on over, Greg at my side when we did it.  We smiled thinking about where that money was going- a condo for a week in Hawaii!  We were so lucky.

And that was it.  The money was sent in March along with the contract and we were good to go.

Three months later, Greg and I were getting ready to head out to Hawaii.  It was a Wednesday.  We were going to my cabin for a family reunion from Thursday to Saturday and then Saturday we were to drive to Boise (6 hour drive) where we would catch our flight to Hawaii on Sunday morning.  Who doesn't love summer and vacations and road trips and cabins?  Everything was great!

Tuesday night I sent an email to Melissa with our flight plans and asking if there was anything else we needed to take care of before we got there.

Wednesday morning I sat in my classroom at my new school.  I tried to be super productive and get everything taken care of before we left town for 10 days.  I organized books, tried to figure out the layout of my new classroom, and also looked for a place of silence for a few hours so I could answer emails, schedule blog posts, etc.

Ping.  From the corner of my eye I saw that I had gotten a new email.  I clicked over, my mind always happy for a distraction, to read this:

Hello,

I'm the manager of the resort.
Melissa is not available for the moment.

We want to inform you that the resort suffered a fire and is destroyed 70%.

The persons that was there, forgot something deteriorated plugged in and caused the fire.

I am sorry to announce you that the booking will be canceled and the money will come back in your account + the money that you paid for the fly tickets.

Please reply with the sum that you pay for the fly ticket and your bank account details so we can give you all your money back.


Thank you for your understanding.
Frank

Now I might have been stupid enough to wire money internationally to book a condo, but I was smart enough to realize that there was something majorly wrong with this email.  I emailed back right away, demanding to know why we were not alerted of this sooner, but in the back of my head I knew the money was gone, knew we were going to Hawaii in three days and had no place to stay, and knew I had been totally scammed.

I called Greg right away.  He thought I was playing a prank on him.  Because that sort of crazy, dramatic stuff doesn't happen in real life, right?

At that point I knew I wasn't going to get a thing done in my classroom, so I grabbed my stuff and headed home.  I didn't cry on the way home, just focused and concentrated on finding solutions.  I'd fix this. My mom was at the cabin already where she couldn't get service. I didn't feel like we could tell Greg's family yet because we had just totally lost all of their money. I was desperate for a responsible adult to talk to, someone to talk to me rationally, to calm me down, someone older and wiser who would know what to do in this situation.

I called my brother.  No answer.  I called my lawyer friend in Arizona.  No answer.  I tried my mom even though I knew she wouldn't answer.  A desperate attempt.

Once I got home, it took both Greg and I several minutes to start thinking rationally and calmly.  Panic mode sets in and it's hard to get your brain to act, you know?  I had emailed back "Melissa" about three times and received no response.  I knew I never would.  I called airbnb to report the scam and to see what they could do. They basically replied that they could do absolutely nothing as I was not a registered user of their site. They had no record of any of my correspondence with "Melissa".  Yes, because she emailed me at my personal email I told them.  We went in circles for close to an hour with no solution.  When it came down to it, the guy basically told me that they couldn't help me because everything was done off the site. They didn't even have a record of my first initial attempt to contact her within the site.  As far as they know I could be making the whole thing up so they couldn't help me.  I understand that if I don't have an account with them there isn't they can do to help me, but the fact of the matter is a scammer successfully used their site and information I gave on that site to get my money.  They didn't seem too concerned.  (I talked to them again this week- they won't even take the page down as they continue to claim it's legit...)

Next I called Chase to see if they could help me out.  I had transferred the money from my Chase account, after all.  (Looking back and realizing what happened, I am a little frustrated that the Chase banker helping me to transfer the money didn't warn me at all.  I was sending $1,100 internationally to reserve a week at a condo?  Shouldn't bankers of all people know that that is suspicious activity?)  Chase basically washed their hands of the matter, saying the money had been gone for months and there was nothing they could do.

"Can't you figure out whose bank account it went into and demand the money back?"
"No, ma'am.  Their bank will protect them."
"You didn't protect me!"
"Ma'am, I'm sorry.  We can't access someone else's account who doesn't bank with us.  Besides the account has probably been closed for months by now."
"So you're saying there's nothing you can do about it?"
"I'm sorry, ma'am."

I don't blame Chase, I suppose I am just confused.  Anyone I have told this story to with two bits of sense has replied, "Why did you transfer money directly?  Never do that!  Pay with a credit card or something that will protect you.  NEVER TRANSFER MONEY DIRECTLY FROM YOUR ACCOUNT!"  So why wouldn't a Chase employee have told me...?

I called the resort where the condo was supposedly located to ask if there had been a fire lately. Naturally, they said no.

I called the number on the contract for "Melissa."  I called internationally, not caring the extra fees, the extra numbers to dial.

Dead end. Dead end. Dead end.

And just like that, the truth dropped heavily into my lap.  In the back of my brain I had known for hours what had happened, but now my heart accepted it too.  Accepted that I would more than likely never see that money again, that I had been taken advantage of, that I had willingly given my money to a crook.  I buried my head in the bed and burst into tears.  I had been stoic up unto this point- not a tear, not a crack.  Now the walls came down and I let the emotions and the stress and the feeling of utter stupidity and failure wash over me completely.

"I'm so sorry, Greg.  I'm so so so sorry," I cried into the pillow. "I lost our money.  I lost our family's money."  He hugged me and put my hair behind my ear and told me that we would be fine.  But I couldn't help it.  I felt so defeated, so stupid, so naive. I felt like an idiot as I thought back to this post where I made fun of people who fall for scams. I was embarrassed to have lost his family's money, to have allowed them to put their trust in me when I clearly didn't know what I was doing.

I pulled myself together enough to face the immediate future.  We were leaving to Hawaii in three days and had no place to stay.  We surfed the web, found a couple of expensive rooms in Waikiki, paid with a credit card, and tried not to wince as we looked at the extra thousand plus dollars being added to our monthly credit statement.  It ain't no thing, right?

With that done we were free to leave the computers and the phones and get away from the madness for a minute.  We stepped out of the house and into the blazing hot afternoon, as if the heat were mocking our pain.  We drove to Maverick and bought a soda and drove aimlessly around town.  I don't know why the house felt so oppressive, so heavy, but we couldn't stay there.  We had nowhere else to go so we drove.

More than anything else I felt vulnerable.  Taken advantage of.  Scared.

"It's not a tragedy," Greg said as we drove.  "It's just money.  Money comes and goes and you can always make more money.  But we have the most important things in life that can't be replaced.  We have a happy marriage.  We have our health.  We have our families.  It's just money."

Yep.  Just money.

Still, it might make me feel a little better if you could all tell me all the money you've blown on scams and schemes.  Even if you haven't, maybe you could just make something up.

Wanna meet my sister?!

Well folks, do I have a treat for you today.  Of all the guest posters in the world, who would I most want to guest post?

My older sister, of course!  While I'm visiting one sister in Germany, you get to hear from my other older sister!  Aren't I nice?  This is the sister I talked about in this post- who pushes me and motivates me and makes me get off my butt and do stuff.  She is a terrific writer and a lot of my drive to be more active about my writing has come from her.  I hope you love her as much as I do.  

Hi, I am Bon’s older sister, Becky. I was the first born in the family while Bon was number seven which means that Bon was the party girl while I was good at cleaning bathrooms. 

I don't know why you would read the blog of a first born child.  We are known as the boring, responsible ones, while the number sevens are far more entertaining.  Still, there are a few things Bon and I have in common. We both read like crazy, we both are a little ADD, we both deal with rowdy kids, and now that Bon’s seven months pregnant, I'm guessing we both weigh about the same.  Hoping, at least.  

Come on over to see me because I’m a strong believer in community.  You read my blog, and I’ll read yours.  Just leave a comment or follow me and I’ll be sure to reciprocate.
  

I know you are all nuts about Bon, and so am I.  Bon has always had such a tender heart.  She cried before I left on my mission to Guatemala, and she wrote to me every week, her letters often between eight and ten pages long.

Bonnie was sad when I left.  

My mom, who made me a wonderful scrapbook, wrote this next to the picture of the four girls.  

But when I invited Bonnie to come live with us in California after her freshman year in college, she had changed.  Really changed.  I loved having this high energy girl around, but why was she always looking for a party, and why did she always want to borrow my car?

But I became especially concerned when she came downstairs late one night wearing a pair of short shorts, a tank top, and her tennis shoes.

“Where are you going?” I asked.    

“Out on a run,” she said. 

“Right now?  It's 10:30.”

“Yep.”

“You know you’re not in Utah anymore.”  Since she was Bonnie, she went out anyway, looking super cute and really vulnerable, and I got to wait up for her.   Except I didn’t.  I promised myself I would only lie down on my bed, but I was asleep in about five minutes. 

I woke with a start after midnight.  Where’s Bonnie? I went upstairs to check her bedroom, and she wasn’t there.  I cased the house and still no Bonnie.  I called her cellphone only to find that she had left it at home.  The car was still in our garage, and that’s when I started freaking out. 

And for the rest of the story . . . .   

Germany and France Part 1

Welp we've made it to Germany and we're alive and well, although totally tired.  Jet lag!  The worst!  It's our third day and so why are we still feeling it?!  I wake up at 5 am raring to go and at 1 pm I'm exhausted as can be.

But we're pushing though it and hoping by tomorrow our bodies should be officially adjusted.  It makes me feel for babies, you know.  Poor thing comes screeching into the world and they're supposed to sleep at certain times and be awake at certain times, but their bodies want to do something totally different.  No wonder they don't sleep through the night.  Who can blame them?

The flight over was not nearly as bad as I anticipated.  We watched movies and slept, and I got up to walk around the plane every two hours and both me and baby inside me were just fiiiiine. Yea!

The weather is gorgeous, (Albeit a bit hot.  High 80s! Low 90s!  In the beginning of June!) and my sister and her husband are as hospitable as ever.  It's much more comfortable to visit a new country when you've got someone to show you the ropes, you know.

And now, pictures!

Day 1:  Stuttgart, Germany.  Home of my sis.

^^ My niece, Caroline.  She was still kind of warming up to me.  It had been a year and a half since I had seen her.  She is so grown up!

Day 2:  Strasbourg, France.

^^ Sunblocking it up.

^^Little French girl with dirty underwear swimming in the public fountain.  I thought about taking my feet out of the fountain at that point, but it was just too hot.

^^ Lunch at a French cafe.  

^^ Pistachio ice cream.  There is nothing better.  (And obviously painting my fingernails has been a huge priority lately.)

^^ Greg got a sweet picture of my backside.  Husbands do these things, you know.

^^ My niece, Caroline.

^^ Don't mind the man in the bright orange shirt going to town on his nose back there.

^^Playing in the fountains with my nephew, James.  This trip is the first time I've ever met the dude.  I approve.

Tomorrow it's neuschwanstein castle.  Boo yah.

If you're reading this...

If you are reading this post then I am successfully on an airplane to Germany to see my long lost sister.

If you are reading this post then I survived my last day of school, completed all my grades, successfully checked out, and left my room clean and organized.

If you are reading this post then I got all the documents to the loan guy he needed, including Greg's mysterious transcripts that are nowhere to be found.

If you are reading this post then I ran all my errands, found everything from Target I needed, bought the camera chip from Best Buy, and the books from Barnes and Noble.

If you are reading this post then they let me on the airplane 33 weeks pregnant.  Gasp!

If you are reading this post I successfully picked out granite and tile options the afternoon before the plane left and I liked my choices, dang it!

If you are reading this post I am alive and happy and well.

I hope you are reading this post.

See you in Germany!

(I'll be visiting my sister until June 24.  I have some blog posts planned during that time, but posting will be sporadic.  In addition to a few scheduled posts, I'll post when I can while I'm on my vacation, but frankly, it won't be a huge priority.  You'll get what you'll get and you won't throw a fit.  I'll be back to the normal blogging grind for shizzle on June 25.) 

Yo Yo someone help me decorate!

As we get closer and closer to closing on our house, naturally my thoughts have turned to decorating the place.

Here's the truth.  I'm a terrible decorator/ interior designer/ make-a-room-look-nice person.  Just the worst.  I've got no vision.  In my head lime green walls with burnt orange accents looks good and then when I roll forth with the whole plan it looks awful.  Just awful.

People like me need help.  Enter: pottery barn decorator help.  This site will literally do all the work for you.  Here you can find beautiful bedding, make the place your own with lamps, beanbags, etc, and create a room that fits you perfectly at an affordable price.  (Oh, and you can see it all before you actually go through with it so that you can make sure you're not about to embark on a lime green wall fiasco!)

This site is specifically for a dorm room, but at the top of the page there is a tab where you can find any kind of room decorator help there- for baby, teen, family etc!  (Click black tabs at the top left of the page.)

Let's see here... if I were to redo my dorm room, exactly what would that look like?

THIS maybe?

I'm definitely into more of a simple and clean look than I was when I was 18.  The great thing, though, is that Pottery Barn has got it all- you want hot pink polka dots?  Covered.  You want a classic white duvet cover?  They got that too.  You can decorate any room in the world to exactly fit your own style here.

Go here to design your own dorm room- or whatever room in your house you're fixing to redecorate!

Thanks PBdorm for sponsoring today's post and thanks all of you for reading sponsored posts and supporting the companies that support this blog.

No title because that would require thinking.

These are six of my nine AP students.  I adore them.

It is 9:12 and at not a minute later than 9:30 I am hitting publish on this bad boy and then I am turning off the light and going to BED even though it's not even all the way dark yet.  I'm going to write and write as fast as I can and vomit up all the stress that's floating around in my head and make you internet-ians read it and hopefully I can just give all my stress away to you.

It turns out that there is a limit to how many things you can do at one time.  I didn't think there was.  I thought it was possible to:
1) End the school year and give grades to 200 students including 150 seniors who need to graduate and who need the fourth quarter credit in my class specifically to graduate.
2) Close on a house and therefore qualify for a loan and therefore somehow conjure up from out of the dust every inane semi official document I have ever had in your life. (Like Greg's transcripts... why in the world do they need a copy of Greg's college transcripts?  To qualify for a loan?  I'll tell you this much- he didn't make money while sitting in those classes!)
3) Prepare to leave the day after school gets out for a trip to Germany to see my sister.  Greg and I decided last week to ditch the idea of sneaking away to Amsterdam for a few days and instead we're going to go to Prague.  Yea!  How fun!  But now someone has to plan it!  And book a place to stay!
4) Keep a blog and business up and running.  If I never returned an email to you, this is my official apology.  I am trying!  And to everyone who ever reads my blog, this is my apology for crazy posts that I am typing as fast as I can and not even reading through.  Sometimes mediocrity is good enough.
5) Be eight months pregnant and go in for extra doctor's visits and ultrasounds to make sure baby is growing like she's supposed to.
6) Have Greg's brother and sister-in-law come in from out of town to visit for four days and try to sneak in some quality time with them.
7) Make necessary arrangements for long term sub in the fall and fill out all the paper work for sick leave and fmla all that exciting jazz.

I thought it was possible!  I thought all of that was possible!  All seven things!  At the same time!  Let's do this!  It's going to be fun!

It's not.  It's not fun at all.  It's insane and exhausting.  I am running myself into the damn ground this week.  I hate the glorification of busy.  I hate everything about this insane, out of control busy.  I need it to stoppppppppppppppp.

This afternoon I realized I had officially taken on more than any sane person can reasonable handle when I was trying to get a copy of my 2012 W2 form from my old school district.  I called them and asked if I could have a copy.  They said yes, come pick it up.  That's half an hour away.  I have exactly this afternoon and tomorrow, which is also my last day of work, to get all documents to the loan people and to get ready for Germany.  There is no hour to spare to run over to the district office to pick up a stupid W2 form from 2012.

"Can you email it to me?"  I asked.
"Well, yes, but it costs $5."
"That's totally fine.  How do I pay it?"
"You need to come in and pay it."
"I can't pay online?"
"No.  We don't have that option..."
"So that makes emailing it totally useless so I have to show up in person anyway."
"Yes.  I suppose so..."
"So there's no way I can get a copy of that without showing up in person with a five dollar bill to get it from you?"
"I'm afraid not..."

I almost started to cry.  Almost almost almost.  But I held it together because I've cried over some totally stupid things in my day, but crying over having to drive to pick up a W2 form might just take the cake and I couldn't stoop that low today.  I just couldn't.

I almost cried again when the loan guy emailed and said the copy of Greg's transcripts weren't clear enough and he needs a better copy.  (TRANSCRIPTS?!  Why, loan people, WHY?!?)

I almost cried when my fax didn't go through to the home owner's insurance people.

I almost cried when I went to pay rent and the lady said we were being slapped with a $35 fee for not switching the electric bill over to our name.  To which I said "You never told us" to which she said, "I have a copy of the paper we gave you that said you are required to switch the name on the account." To which I said, "Yes, but you never once said we would be charged $35 if we didn't and so you can't give us that fee if it does not ever appear in writing."  To which she said "Fine.  We'll take off the fee."  Sometimes it pays to be assertive and just a tad bit grumpy.

I almost cried when I had to be back at the school tonight at six for graduation.  They made all the teachers wear black robes and march on to the football stadium and sit for two hours in the hot sun while students gave speeches about how the best years of their lives were ending.  They're not the best years of your lives, I can promise you that.  It was miserable, but it went two hours instead of the three I was expecting and so I guess that's the silver lining?

Those are all the times I almost cried.

Then when I got home and collapsed into bed and started to write this post, just minutes ago, I got a text from our realtor.  "Can you meet tomorrow to finalize the decisions on the tile blacksplash and the granite?"

And that's when I did cry.  Real crying.  I am officially so busy I am crying.  That is pathetic.  I blame the child inside of me and the 200 seniors who made me grade all their writing and who asked me three weeks after the deadline if they could still make up a test/ write a paper/ read a book so that they can graduate.  I blame them all.

Now it's 9:32 and I'm going to sleep.

Oh, and if one more person has the audacity to ask me if I checked with my doctor and/or the airline if I can fly at this point in my pregnancy I am going to strangle them with their own hair.  Yes!  Yes I did! Of course I did!  What kind of an idiot do you think I am?  Who in the world books international flights at 33 weeks pregnant and never thinks to ok it with a doctor!?!?  I am smarter than this, people, and I am insulted by your question!

Rant over.  Sorry I'm grumpy.  Good night.

All pictures of students are used with written consent from both parent and student.

End of the Road

Today the students got their yearbooks.  Tomorrow they graduate.  Wednesday the faculty checks out.  Thursday I fly to Germany.  It is a whirlwind of a week.

Last Friday, on our last official day of class, I had the students fill out some surveys for my class.  Every year I tweak my class a little bit, and so I always ask the students for end of the year input.  I ask them to rank the books they did in order of their favorite to least favorite (Least favorites for the seniors: Hamlet and Frankenstein.  Least favorites for the juniors: The Crucible).  I ask them to tell me what assignments they liked best, which ones they thought were a waste of time or busy work, etc.  Then I ask for them to answer three additional questions:  1) What they liked best about the class 2) What they liked least about the class and 3) What they would say was the number one thing they learned in the class.

Of course, I got a lot of great responses- things that helped me to evaluate my teaching priorities and also helped to validate a lot of the things that I choose to teach. There are already things I know for sure I want to change next year as a result of their answers.

But of course, there's always the fair share of ridiculous answers.  I tell ya- these gems are too great to keep to myself.

What do you like about this teacher?
+ She let us eat in class. (One of the most important qualities in a teacher, you know.)
+ She got a little crazy as she got more pregnant.  It was hilarious.  (Referring to how I called everyone in that class the wrong name the last month.  Too many Emmas and Austins, people!)
+ She can be very understanding.  Other times, not so much.  (Ha!)
+ She never took my phone.
+ She's very wise and intelligent.  I thought she always had something wise to say. (Yes, I paid that kid to say that.)
+ Mrs. Larsen is a pregnant freaking stud.  (Can you a woman be a stud?  How about a pregnant stud?!)
+ She made a boring subject a tad bit more interesting.  (Well.  What can I say...)
+ She is really outgoing and I like her energy.  Especially for someone who is going to be having a baby- she is not angry all the time which is REALLY good.  (Makes you wonder what kind of pregnant people this student has encountered...)
+ She really fit in with the students.  But not by height though... (Is this a short joke?)
+ Usually when teachers get pregnant they turn into mean people.  But you didn't.  (Again, you gotta wonder...)

What things could have gone better?
+ Her understanding my feelings. (?!?... I'm not empathetic enough?)
+ The people that would play cards in class instead of listening and waste our time when the teacher had to stop teaching to tell them to put it away.  (I understand your pain, student.  This annoyed me too!)
+ I hated Death of a Salesman.  Didn't learn anything from that book except for that Willy was suicidal.

What is the most important thing you learned in this class?
+ Mrs. Larsen is funny when she says b****.  (I apologized to the class that day for being a b**** the day before.  Hey, you gotta apologize when apologies are due!)
+ Honestly, I've learned nothing in English for years.  (At least it's not just my class that he thinks is useless?)
+ That a seat change really changes your outlook.  (Really?  That's the most important thing you learned all year?!)
+Spelling and Puntuation.  (Oh, the irony.)
+ Mrs. Larsen taught us to really try to use protection.  (I honestly have no idea what this is referring to.  I racked my brain, and nothing is coming... I've concluded that all it means is that students want to hear what they want to hear.)
+ That my handwriting sucks (?!?)
+ Don't bite the hand that feeds you.  Mrs. Larsen is very generous and helpful until you burn her.
+ English.  (They certainly don't win awards for their details.)
+ I used my phone every period and only got caught once.  (Glad I could teach him something useful.)

The perks of pregnancy

Pictures taken by Aubrey Zaruba

My very favorite piece of maternity clothing is this striped red maxi skirt that I got from PinkBlush Maternity last week.  It is so comfortable, perfect for work or casual wear, and doesn't make me feel frumpy or gross like so many maternity clothes.  If you are expecting a baby or know someone who is, I will recommend Pink Blush Maternity in a second for the best trendy maternity clothing.  It is far and away the cutest place to go for maternity clothes.

Dress:  PinkBlushMaternity 

Belt: Gap 

Shoes: Target 

Sunglasses: H&M

My hair is thick, my boobs are big, I haven't had to worry about a period for months and everywhere I go people open the door for me and offer to help me with my bags.

This pregnancy thing ain't half bad.

No one ever told me ahead of time about all the good stuff.  Oh, I knew all about every pregnancy inconvience, let me assure you.  I heard plenty about first trimester nausea (it sucks!), how fat you feel (it's true!), how you always have to go pee (seriously. Twice a class period now), but why didn't anyone tell me about the perks?  Because seriously, there's some pretty rocking perks!

The period thing to start with.  It is beyond awesome that I no longer have to track days and carry around tampons just in case and deal with the whole mess.  Periods are inconvenient and gross.  Not having a period is AWESOME.

My hair!  My thick, gorgeous hair!  Seriously.  My hair is more rocking than it ever has been in my life.  I know it's all going to fall out the second I have my baby, but sheesh, am I enjoying it now.  I can go four days without washing it or curling it, and it still looks stellar.  STELLAR!

And there are other perks.  Like the fact that I no longer make people feel bad about doing things for me.  Mostly Greg.  He gets me glasses of water at night or runs to the car for the gift I left there or goes to the garage to try to find a board game.  He does it willingly as can be and I don't feel a bit guilty for making him run my errands for me.

Oh- and not only is my own husband  more willing to help me out, but so are perfect strangers!  I was in Smiths the other day for a couple of quick items.  Well, I'll be, they were having a sale on powerade so somehow I ended up with eight big bottles of powerade in my little basket and with my other hand I was unsuccessfully trying to balance a dozen donuts. (Powerade and donuts- winning!)  A man came out of nowhere and said, "Ma'am!  How can I help you!  Let me carry your basket for you, please.  Or better yet, take my cart.  Here!  You want my cart?"  And he practically shoved his cart at me.  I took it, naturally.  It was the darndest thing.

Also, everyone is always asking me how I feel.  Which I think is just a really nice thing to ask anyone, pregnant or not.  I feel a lot of things right now!  How nice that people want to know!

And last not not least, Greg said he thinks I have never looked more feminine than I do right now.  Well, sheesh, now I'm blushing.

I figure if you want to know about all the inconveniences of pregnancy, there are plenty and plenty of websites you can go to find them.  But these here, my friends, are the perks!

Oh, and while we're talking about awesome things about pregnancy, PinkBlushMaternity is giving away a $25 gift certificate to their store.  Enter to win on the rafflecopter below.  If you have won a giveaway from PinkBlush within the past six months you are not eligible to win this giveaway.  Boo. :(

a Rafflecopter giveaway