I Never Promised You A Rose Garden.....

I am going to apologize in advance for this post. It's been a tough weekend for me and I'm not really in the best state of mind. This state of mind may be more pervasive than I thought when I look back at how often I haven't been posting lately. Trust me, if I don't post, you wouldn't want to hear what's on my mind. Two of my readers (not sure if there's more than that :P ) left messages indicating that it was time to come back and blog. Not wanting to disappoint anyone, I am complying. I'll try not to sound too melodramatic, but I'm not promising anything.


I have to start out by saying that I enjoy the time leading up to a holiday, more than the actual holiday. There are many reasons for this, but none of them interesting enough for me to lay it all out in public. Suffice it to say, I'm ready for Valentine's Day and its weekend to be gone.


Some of you wanted to know how things went at school. I'll tell you....crazy! I believe that Valentine's Day is more stressful for the teacher than Halloween and Christmas put together. Most of those holiday parties involve eating and some candy, but Valentine's Day has the added bonuses of ALL CANDY and the never ending traffic jams in the room while students take all day to pass out their cards. Then there's always the yelling "Thanks!" or "I don't know who this is from!" across the room as they wade knee deep in their holiday sentiments. You can almost tangibly feel the excitement emanating from the kids. Add to that the stress of trying to actually teach earlier in the day, and you've got a recipe for disaster. I didn't have a nervous breakdown, but I felt that one could have been close by.


My attire was festive, as always. I've got about 20 pairs of Valentine inspired earrings and have been wearing a different pair each day. Over the years, my mother has purchased several Valentine sweaters for me and I wore those this week too. On Friday though, my extras included pink glitter eyeliner, iridescent glitter on my cheeks and brow and a fun feather and sequin heart headband. You couldn't see it, but I also had socks on that were decorated with red hearts. I was a sight to behold.


My students gave me cards ranging from Spongebob, High School Musical, to Cars. A couple of kids gave me chocolate (always a good thing) and I also got various stuffed animals, silk roses, and a red and pink throw. That evening, I went to eat with my husband, daughter, in-laws, and niece at Huddle House. The guys went to the rodeo and the girls went to Dandy Doodlez. I didn't paint, I graded papers while they painted. We then came home and watched a movie before I fell asleep. (The guys weren't back yet but I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.) It was an interesting day.


Valentine's Day was spent sitting on my couch writing lesson plans. David had a big project due so he spent the day at the college library. That evening, we went to the rodeo with my parents, my nephew, and some friends. Today, we went to church and then went to a wake for David's uncle. Before the wake, we ate with my in-laws again. The trip there and back (an hour each way) was spent in the car trying read a research article and then writing an annotation for it, which is due tomorrow. It's still not done and neither are my lesson plans. I also think there's going to be a test in my class tomorrow--I'm not prepared for it.


So really, nothing much to shout about. I've been in a crummy mood most of the weekend and I'm just looking forward to Tuesday, when my class will be over and I'll have a few more days of work-related stress before the weekend gets here again.


Oh, and I still need to wash and dry clothes, go to the grocery store, wash and dry Raelynn's Rapunzel length hair, and get stuff ready for tomorrow.


Yeah....I warned you about this post. Hopefully the next time you hear from me, I'll be in a better place and no holiday will be anywhere in sight.