Stress Relief

You know, in my non-pregnant days, when I was stressed I would sit back and drink a beer... or two.  But now, because I am forced to take into consideration my 24-week-old fetus I can't partake of the sweet brewed nectar.  Instead I eat a candy bar or imbibe a BigGulp.  

Unfortunately, although these are delicious things, they do not relieve me of my overwhelming stress and anxiety.  I'm teaching tomorrow and I'm trying to write up next weeks lesson plans and I am going to EXPLODE.  I can feel that I'm on the edge of a full blown anxiety attack, and I don't really know what to do about it.

I know, you're saying, "Get back to work, yo.  Finish your lesson plans and get it over with."

Well, yeah.  Duh.  However, my mentor teacher threw me some curve balls this last week, like how she thinks it's important that I include grammar lessons.  Yes, I am going to be an English teacher, but I HATE grammar.  My mother-in-law tried explaining some grammar foundations to me yesterday and I just stared at her in blank horror.  I had to tell her twice that I had no idea what she had just said.  Something with the phrase "nominative predicate," whatever that is.

Ugh.  So, I would really love to have a beer right now, but for Brian I won't.  He does love the candy bar's and BigGulp's, he kicks/punches/moves like squid after I pig out.  Poor kid, I'm probably setting him up to be an obese child.  I've been watching too many programs on TLC titled "Half-Ton Teen."  Believe me, any program dealing with really fat people, Alex and I record it and watch it... invariably when we're eating dinner in front of the TV.  

Puh.  Okay, back to trying to be optimistic with my week.  Have a good day, if you can.

I am Sick

Booger. I don't get sick very often (other than the three months spent with that AWESOME morning sickness). So, when I do I kind of turn into this whiney mess of a person who can't quite comprehend what's going on.

How did I get sick? What is this aching feeling in my legs? Why on EARTH do my ears feel like bees live in there, and my throat like cavern of burning spikes? Damnit.

I can only attribute this to how long and exhausting my first week of student teaching was. I came home Monday night and took a two hour nap. A nap that, unfortunately, did not satiate my need for sleep. I didn't really sleep through the whole night until Thursday, so I was sort of discombobulated and confused any time I was not in the Jr. High. Somehow, my brain managed to keep my senses in fantastic shape whilst working, then I would come home and go utterly brainless.

Friday night Alex and I watched Princess Mononoke. What a great movie. Then I think we were both in bed and asleep before ten. Remember the days of staying up until 2 AM because, why not? What else is on TV? Now I'm so tired I fall asleep on the couch before nine o'clock rolls around.

So, I'm sure due to my exhausting week, I'm sick with what could turn into laryngitis. Which is what happens to my voice when I get this kind of sick. It's not really conducive to teaching, but I'm only observing this next week. I did teach four or so classes last week... and they do have a microphone ...

Booger. I hate being sick. Any other student teachers finding yourselves in the same predicament?

HEADS!

When it comes to creating something, I deliberate like crazy.  I finished making more heads for the doll clear back in November, but then I had to figure out how to do the faces.  Paint?  Draw?  Leave blank?  Make silly/ugly?  Finally, after drawing one face (which I really wasn't crazy about) I decided to tackle embroidery, just to see if it looked right.  Amazingly enough it did, so this is what I did over Christmas break:

You can see the drawn face in front -- doesn't it look too "sweet?"  Yuck.  Then my first embroidered face is in the back with the blue eyes. It turned out so nicely that I moved on to practice on the face on the left, with the strange yellow eyebrows. 

Hey, I only had crochet string to work with at that point, so I didn't have many color choices.

What did I learn from that one?  Well, pink is a far too light of color to try to make a face with-- it looks sort of too "I lack pigment in my skin, therefore you can barely see my features."  Her mouth is funny too, but for practice sake it's not horrible.  

Finally, the head I will actually be using for the doll is on the right.  I really like how it's turning out... except now it needs a mouth and I'm not sure how to tackle it.  I should just bite the bullet and do it.  Booger.

Next post will be on hair for the head.  The one I've done has turned out pretty nicely, so that makes me happy.  Joy.

Snow Walkin'

My husband, Alex, likes to make me go walking.  He insists that it helps to keep me "fit" and is good for "Brian."  I generally go along with this, as it gives us time to talk, and gives us the added bonus of helping our dog, Stella, be less of a freak at home.

She's the kind of dog who will stare at you, paw at you, wet-nose you, until you finally throw up your hands and say, "Fine!  I will take you on a walk!"

We do torture her by making her wear sweaters, which she despises.  However, on this particular day it was somewhere around 20 degrees, and since she's practically furless we didn't give her much of a choice.  HA!  If you make the photo bigger you will see it's a chicken sweater that Alex made.  He is quite talented at the sewing machine.

Next post will be about DOLL HEADS!  Oh the gore!

Ugh

I start my ten weeks of student teaching tomorrow. I won't actually start "teaching" for another two weeks or so, but I am so nervous about going in. I've never observed my new mentor, Mrs. G, so I guess I'm unsure of what to expect.

I know I should go to bed right now to wake up at 5:30 AM or so, but I don't think I can sleep. Booger. But, anyway, Jen tagged me a while back to "post the fourth picture in your fourth file."

Drum roll please, here it is: The two banana (or whatever) slugs we found in our tomato's last year. Little bastards.