E.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d.

Ay, ay, ay.

I can barely keep my eyes open. And I really want to keep them open for about 30 more minutes so I can watch Ba-ba-wa Walters grill the "pregnant" man on 20/20. Can you believe (s)he is having ANOTHER kid? Not because (s)he's really a woman or anything, just because I personally cannot fathom being pregnant AGAIN so soon after giving birth. I'm pretty sure (s)he just gave birth around the same time I had Baby B, and I definitely do not want to be pregnant again any time soon.

Anyway.

After making chicken fried rice for dinner, we headed to the neighbors to watch the Cats lose to VMI. Sad face. It was a dissapointment, but it was fun to catch up with Josh and Beth (who we tend to lose touch with during the colder months, despite the fact their front door is literally ten feet from our own). I came home to put Baby B to bed and B is still hanging out with Josh. Actually, he just walked in the door, empty Tanquerey and Tonic in hand.

The weekend will be uneventful as we gear up for the holiday travelling we'll be doing starting next weekend. We'll be in Pikeville for Sarah's wedding...Cumberland for Thanksgiving...and then Christmas the second week of December in Michigan. December 25th will be here in NO TIME.

Hopefully Baby B will sleep through the night. I could use a good night's sleep.

Why I Heart My Husband Reason #472

Bet that pic caught your attention, huh????

If you read my election day post, then you probably know that I voted for McCain. I wasn't that thrilled with him or Obama, but McCain's values align more closely with my own so he took my vote. In the end, I'm kinda excited about our new president and I look forward to him taking office. Regardless of his party, I know he needs our support. (I'm only telling you this so that you can understand the rest of my post, and hope that my readership isn't based off of political affiliation. )

Anyway...

I ended up going to school last night from 8pm to 10pm to finish up report cards and get my room ready for today. Don't worry - I already got the lecture from my mom telling me how unsafe this is. I was talking to B as I came home and as I'm pulling in the driveway I notice that there is a sign in our front yard.

MY MCCAIN/PALIN SIGN HAD BEEN TURNED INTO AN OBAMA SIGN!!!!! Now, mind you, the sign had already been sitting by the garbage can for days. Since I am still talking to B on the phone, I'm like HAVE YOU BEEN OUTSIDE?! He says he hasn't, and I'm all ripping out the sign only to discover that there's paper plastered all over I front door too. YOU HAVE TO COME OUTSIDE, I declare. THE NEIGHBORS HAD TO HAVE DONE THIS! (You know we have a very joking bunch of neighbors.) So I'm carrying the disgrace of a sign to my front door when I realize that the papers on the door say this:

HA HA HA. I was laughing hysterically only to find the culprit waiting all a-smile behind the door. It was much needed comic-relief after a very long day, and I so appreciated his effort to cheer me up. It was pretty funny.

Thanks, B. Love you :)

A little off balance

First of all, thanks to all my new BFFs (that would be Blog Friends Forever) for posting on my site! I am sooooo excited and flattered that you read. You can never have enough friends, right? And to all the family members and friends that I already knew read, thanks for leaving me some love too :)

Second of all, I know that many of my readers must be shy. Using my site meter, I can tell all of the locations where my readers are from. So, curiosity is totally killing the cat here - who's reading in Honolulu, Indianapolis, Brockport, and Minneapolis? Come on, just tell me!!!! Okay, well, you don't have to, but I'd love it if you would!

So, let me update you on my week. Now, I am so totally an optimist. A glass if half-full kinda gal. Unfortunately, my optimism isn't doing much to help out my crummy week. I hate to be a whiner for even a second (especially since I spend my morning with a room full of them), but I just can't seem to get shake off the blahs. I'm going to blame them on report cards. Maybe I'll feel better about life in the morning when I click "post grades" on the computer.

I think that one of the reasons I feel so supercalifragilistically crazy right now is because I can't devote all of my time and effort into my job. I am a perfectionist and organizational queen when it comes to school work (you wouldn't know it by looking at my house), but I have more important things on my mind these days. Namely, this little creature:

When I first started working, I created a little mantra to help keep my priorities straight. BCF = Baby B Comes First. I really do repeat that to myself. So, if it comes to school work or a clean desk/house or perfecting lesson plans, I'm going to opt for the Little Man over any of that. His happiness and well-being are the most important thing to me, so I would rather devote 110% of my attention to him. With that, though, I'm left feeling only half perfect at my job. Which really isn't perfect at all. And that bothers me. A lot.

So, if you didn't know before, I'm a bit Type A Personality-ish. It's a great thing to have at times, and a major flaw at other. It doesn't seem that you can balance home and work because then you'd probably only be doing a mediocre job at both. Either you're heavier on the home side, or you're heavier on the work side. And I guess I'm out of balance in favor of my family. I'd rather be known as Baby B's mom than recognized as Little Miss So and So's teacher.

Well, I don't think this post solved any of my working woes, but I feel a little better. Sigh.

Baby B and Daddy having a moment when B got home from work.

A case of The Mondays

Yes, I am suffering from a bad case of The Mondays. It was a two-Diet-Cokes-by-9am kinda day.

The day started off with me unable to find anything to wear. This is too tight. This is too muffintop-ish. This is too black. This is too big. This shouldn't be worn after Labor Day. This is from 2001. This is inappropriate. This makes me have unnecessary cleavage. This isn't clean. I think Baby B spit up on this. You get this picture.

947 outfits later I decided that anything warm and clean would fit the bill, and I left the house in a sweater and skirt that I borrowed from Katie Allen for Keeneland when I still lived in Lexington three years ago. (Katie, if you're reading, you can totally have the skirt back. My sincere apologies.)

Since B was taking Baby B to his mom's, my goal was to be at school by 7:30am. The clothing disaster had me leaving the house at 7:30am and then arriving at school 22 stoplights later. I caught every darn one. Not even kidding.

When I got to school I was greeted by a blinking light on my phone indicating a voicemail. Another indication that The Mondays were coming on. The parent was on her way to school to meet with me. I should have just left sick at that point.

So, I conferenced with a parent for 10 minutes (which may not seem like a huge amount of time, but when you're a teacher every precious nanosecond counts). Fortunately, said parent wasn't a tyrant and we had a very nice convo about her child.

Moving on...

Then came the addition of the new student to my classroom. Plus the other new student I got last week. Plus the student that comes from first grade to my room every day. I now have 25 students. And it's crazy how one tiny person can change the whole room dynamic. They've gone from a manageable bunch of eager learners, to a hyper bunch of whiners. Is it the time of year or what? So, nevertheless, I pretty much need to reorganize EVERYTHING about my classroom to accommodate new students, new behavior, and generally the chaos that is my classroom from 8:15-11:41am every day. Are you allowed to muzzle kindergareners??? Totally kidding. And where am I going to find the time for these alterations?

Oh, and the copy machine was out of order, report cards are due in 72 hours, conferences are next Thursday, and my house is a hot mess (big surprise there, huh?). I swear I cleaned this weekend, but I just can't seem to prevent the clutter from spewing everywhere. I'm not even a pack rat. We just have lots of stuff. Everywhere.

The best part of the day so far is that Soph and Baby B are both snoozling. I should be cleaning, but Soph's spot is on the couch in the living room where most of mess is. Arggggg....

You know what would make my case of The Mondays go away? (Well, besides hired help and some extra hours in the day...) I would love to know that you actually read BabblingAbby. Even if I don't know you in real life. Just leave me a little comment that tells me who you are and where you blog at so I can come visit. Please? My ego could use the boost :)

Oh, and here's the boy child at 4 months old. Love him, love him, love him. He's the cure for the chaos.

Tweet, tweet!

To the left, to the left...

Yup, look over there. In the corner. I'm twittering.

That's where I'm going to tell you what I'm doing. And because you're nosy you'll be constantly refreshing my page to see if I'm doing something different.

Ugh.

It's the end of the first grading period at school. And you know what that means?

REPORT CARDS.

And you know what that means?

PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES.

And you know what that means?

I HAVE LITTLE TO NO LIFE FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS.

Ick. Ick. And double ick.

Being a newbie, I'm expecting the worst - long hours spent hunched over my compter entering non-grades into the dinosaur of a program we have...coordinating schedules with demanding parents...time spent away from Baby B since I can only access the report card program from school...overtime without pay...the general crankiness that comes with spending too much time away from home...discussing "issues" that parents are in denial about...you get the picture.

Sigh.

The good thing is that I will still love my job in the end because I am, in fact, doing what I love. I will come out alive.

In other news, the 30 days of Nothing is going well. I like spending cash rather than sliding my card all the time. I'm a more conscientious spender when I sit and think about how much I'll have left after I make a purchase.

This past week I spent $37 on groceries, $5 on a prescription, and $27 on gas for B's car. Oh, and then the random $25 last night on a new coffee pot. For some reason the $60 new age machine we got for our wedding decided to spit out liquid energy that tasted like mildew. Ewwww. And this was after I ran vinegar through it twice.

I was actually going to use some of our grocery money to hit up Starbucks last night, and then I realized that two grande whatevers would probably cost half of what a whole new machine would cost. So, instead, I did the smart thing and went to Walmart at 9:30pm. B and I were both pulling late-nighters last night on various work projects, so we needed the caffeine boost.

Happy Saturday!

10 Fun Facts about the Babbling Family

1. I am addicted to Diet Coke. B is addicted to milk. The man could consume an entire cow's worth in a day, I kid you not. We would be wise to invest in a Bessie or Annabelle. I, on the other hand, am probably rotting away my insides by consuming excessive amounts of phenalalynine by 9am every morning.

2. I heart, I mean HEART, Ugg boots. I don't care if the trend expired with shiny lipgloss and Amy Winehouse, I could wear them every fall/winter for the next 50 years. Not even kidding. I own two pairs - a classic tall sand colored pair and a classic short brown colored pair. They are so comfy and warm. I could wear them with skirts. I could wear them with jeans. I could wear them on a boat. I could wear them with a goat. Sam I am, I could wear them anywhere! Whoa, the kindergarten teacher in me was coming out...

3. We have a tea kettle sitting on our stove. Do I make tea? No. But doesn't every stove just need a tea kettle sitting on it to look complete? I do, however, use it to boil water for hot cocoa and instant coffee. My stove also complained that he needed a decorative trivet to mask his Harvest Gold hue. Hate to tell you Stove, but nothing can hide your 1970s good looks.

4. B works for a company that manufactures centrifuges. Don't know what they are? Maybe you should Google it in the search engine to the left to find out.

5. We have family all over the country - from Vermont to Arizona. My parents each have 6 brothers and sisters, plus spouses and children. B's mom has 10 brother and sisters and his dad has a brother and a sister, plus spouses and children and children's children. Isn't that so fun? Family reunions are the best.

6. B and I scored Red Wings tix for March. Woot, woot! At the Joe, lower bowl, row 11. Hotdog!

7. B drives a VW Jetta. I drive a Nissan Pathfinder. Neither are new, and we will drive them til they die because we're all Dave Ramsey-ish like that. I'm up for a new car next. I want a VW Passat Wagon.

8. B has the most incredible sweettooth ever. His faves - Hot Tamales, Sour Patch Kids, and Lemonheads. I prefer chocolate, chocolate, and occasionally chocolate.

9. We never make our bed. Ever. Not even when company comes over. Maybe some day I'll grow up and it will be a priority. Made or unmade, the bed still sleeps exactly the same.

10. Me, B, and all of our siblings have attended at some point or are currently attending the University of Kentucky. They should name a scholarship after our loyalty.

Wasn't that fun?