just a good ol' day

Can you believe that January of 13 is over?!??!  I wonder how all those people who thought we were ending in Dec. 12’ feel? I have to admit I had suspicions just b/c of what was going on w the peeps we know, but once it got closer it didn’t feel any different really.  I wonder if it’s supposed to or not?

Anyways on the way to work this morning I heard the horrible news about an amber alert out of Memphis.  A 24 yr old black male, black hair, and brown eyes stabbed the mother of his two month old, was nice enough to take her to the hospital (I think if I heard correctly) and then kidnapped the infant. 

I had a few minutes to spare b/4 clocking in and finally got all my late entries posted!  I can not believe that I’ve finally caught up!  The only thing I didn’t complete was link love and I did that on my lunch. 

The morning went really well.  In the 1^st room I chatted w the Metro SLP, I’d love to make friends w her, she seems like my kind of people.  Then in our room I was able to finish my basket drawings for our art and my CCT3 helped me cut out more (larger too) images for the kids to paste like they were packing a basket to take to grandma’s like Red.  Morning circle went really well.  It actually went for an extra seven minutes!  The best part was the kids telling the story of Red and The Pigs.  By the end of the The Pigs you would have thought we were having a party it was loud and involved. 

Some of the kids really loved the art, esp Dear Fussy.  She kept asking for specific foods to go in her basket so I was scrambling to find them.  She stuck w the activity for so long she didn’t have a chance to get in to a tizzy. 

Nap was a little rough, there were three aftercare children who just did not want to nap! 

The afternoon went smoothly too and we actually got paperwork time!  Not the full 1 ½ like we were supposed to, but good enough for me to complete my summaries!!! (I did the other half yesterday)  The kids enjoyed our math circle and majority of them got involved. 

Aftercare was pretty easy.  The kids thought my ‘game’ (really goal) was fun and then we danced until it was time for us to go. 

Pretty nice huh?!?!  The reason I do what I do. 

At home Sasha and I got to play outside for twenty minutes or so.  The guy two houses down asked if we had somebody taken care of our tree yet, funny thing is I couldn’t hear him so Sasha and I walked over there and he was scared of her!  She’s 4 ½ months tomorrow, can’t wait to see how much she’s grown in a couple of weeks.  BTW I still haven’t looked up that bug yet.  Aaron said it was a hair follicle bug that just makes her itch. 

Then I came in and marinated dinner, took care of cleaning, and then prepped my lunch and got dinner started.  I decided to make fried rice finally and took responsibility to make the rice yesterday (after two days of waiting on hubby to make it).  However DA me didn’t take it out of our fancy schmancy hold all the heat in pots so the rice on the bottom was still soft, damp, and easily mashed; so in other words made fryin hard!  By the third scoop I realized a little trick: get the skillet hot, pour oil in, and WAIT for that oil to get hot.  That was the greatest sound ever: little crispy rice poppin sound.  I made two separate batches of rice; the first had way more oil so I let Aaron eat it since he can have the extra cals and I ate the second which was just lightly fried IMO. 

For anybody who ever stumbles across this here’s what I did:

In advance marinate meat (we did country style ribs from Aldi’s – so frickin’ tender)

            dashes of: garlic asian spice (garlic, white pepper, and ginger)

                             wasabi powder

                             hoision sauce

                             soy sauce

            smaller dashes: fish sauce

                                      rice and apple cider vineager

We have these vacuum seal sucker containers that marinate in 30 mins, but I should have done this earlier, you too if you want more flavor. 

Sautee: ½ bell pepper (mine was orange for color contrast)

             3 leaves of purple cabbage

             ½ purple onion

Set in dish in warm oven to maintain heat

Working in serving spoonful batches now – heat skillet, heat oil, dump in rice and stir stir stir.  Once crispy place in warmed dish w veggies and continue w the rest of the rice. 

Now it’s time to prepare meat. 

Cook in reserved rice oil till nice and brown.  (I left the juices which made for softer bites, if you want crispier ones pour off marinate first). 

Serve in bowls and top w Sriracha and extra Soy, eat w chopsticks b/c it’s fun!!!!

Okay, now that I’ve gotten the silly bug out I’ll tell you about all my eats today:

Bfast – blueberry peach oatmeal

Snacks – clementine’s and a piece of cheese

Lunch – another new soup from Campbell’s (1 serving = 3PP) w cilantro, sriracha, and extra veggies

             IMO - will buy again!  Tasty and filling.  The rice is a bit strange, but love the beans in it.  Def good

                        good in a pinch.

Snacks – grapes galore

Dinner – fried rice served like Biz; she always puts a bed of spinach underneath her food.  I love that idea and going to try to incorporate it when I can.  It was really pretty: orange, purple, and green w a gorgeous glass of vino.  I also ate two extra bites of Aarons b/c I like to taste how he changes his and the 2^nd bite was b/c he just couldn’t finish. 

Dessert – 2 chocolate covered espresso beans and one chili truffle. 

Now onto the best part of the day, oh wait totally forgot to complain about the thing that pissed me off most today!!!!  Did I mention that I didn’t get paid for a half hour of OT last period?  Well I didn’t, not at all, not OT or even my regular rate!  I emailed the DR early this week; Mon or Tue and she never got back w me, but we have to hand in our time sheets tomorrow so I really need to know whats going on…. Sooo I went into her office and asked.  Basically the payroll lady said she isn’t going to pay me OT b/c she paid snow pay (we closed early one day during that week, but I didn’t get snow pay b/c I was to leave at 4 anyways), but she would pay me my regular rate for the half hour. 

My ? is – since I don’t get the OT time, do I get the snow pay?  If I don’t then I should totally get OT.  Does this make sense?  I know what I mean, hope she does too b/c I’m going to try and talk to her tomorrow.  Or I though about just adding in 1 hour snow and ½ hour of regular time and see what happens and go from there. 

Okay now onto the best part; the kids telling the story after circle time.  I really wish we could have video taped it. 

Can you eat with chopsticks?  My MIL can’t and it’s fun to try teaching her!  Thanks for letting me vent there in the end…

lots of IMO's today

I’m not sure as to whether to say today was a good or bad day.  It started out just fine; new to me yogurt while enjoying my book (which by the way I really wish I’d picked it up sooner or had more time to read so I can actually discuss it w Lindsay).  Aaron had the day off so I didn’t feel rushed when it was time to get ready in order to play with Sasha.  I got to work w enough time to check y email and pay our phone bill.

The morning itself went okay I guess.  Circle time wasn’t terrible neither was center time.  There was an accident from Jumping Tantrum, that’s right FROM; she bit a peer for no reason.  Got him good too!  Broke the skin and turned purple really fast.  Jumper also got some sassiness after lunch.  She had eaten all her meat and veggies and I had to help a couple of other kids so she had to wait on her fruit  well she stole a spoon and when I took it back (it wasn’t hers) she basically cussed me in her own language; throwing and shoving things w grunts. 

Nap was good though; there was maybe one or two kids awake at two when it was time to get em up.  My lunch break was productive.  I finally got some entries posted from last week, just two.  They were very link heavy and took a bit of time to complete.  I started my WW but the computer froze while I was copying the last image to publish. 

After lunch/nap is where I think it went all downhill.  I kind of blame these veggie straws.  They are very popular w lots of peeps.  I usually enjoy them, but went overboard today.  For some reason the green ones were super crunchy w a nice snap and I couldn’t stop eating them.  I think I ate too many b/c towards the end I actually felt like I was eating something fried and felt a littlie icky.  From then on out I just felt kind of crabby and impatient.  I should remember this and test the theory again.  (Later while talking to hubby about it he said I was probably crabby b/c I was berating myself rather than actually feeling icky from consuming them.) 

Again before going outside our new fund biter decided to bite just for the hell of it.  The ED was in to see her little one and get some loving (also to check out the mark) and she saw both bites, w/ in ten minutes of each other.  Biter bit one person, I cleaned wound and was about to be done filling out the accident report when biter bit another child!  I only mention the ED being in the room b/c she told our DR that it seemed to really stress us out.  Not too sure I appreciate that really.  I mean yeah we were frustrated, but there’s the whole he said she said business.  IDK how she said it or why or in what manner so it may be negative on us or it could be one of those moments ‘they really needed some help and I’m not sure what to do’.  The ED offered to take her out, but that’s almost rewards.  I removed biter helped her over to the safe place and gave her something to chew on instead.  Seemed to work till it was time to put her coat on and she tried to bite me!  She also tried to bite a peer outside on the playground.  I saw ED later and got her to sign the reports while talking about it.  She didn’t mention that she had said anything to the DR.  I also said I thought it might be due to biter’s cognitive level rather than sensory need and ED said it could have been just for the reaction.  Regardless the DR said it was okay to mention to mom so I did and it made the mom teary eyed.  I guess she thought we were going to kick her out; but I did my best to reassure her that I thought it was due to needs rather than being mean and just wanted to give her a heads up and see if she has any tips or tricks. 

My CCT3 said she was going to do paperwork when we came in but didn’t go straight to it.  I can’t remember what she did right away, but I do know that the kids were wild on the carpet and they shouldn’t have been left alone so I sat with them.  Well there was a bm hanging around and my CCT3 took care of that instead of doing paperwork.  Personally I think it was a bad mistake.  We were ridiculously understaffed today (luckily nobody asked me to close and we, admin team, figured out a way to cover it successfully) and I’m sure we won’t get our time for the rest of the week either.  (*NOTE TO SELF* put this on the calendar at school). 

Aftercare was a PITA.   The kids stayed at the table and played w table toys, but they made a huge mess.  Also the little gal who we are still taking responsibility for to go potty managed to pee her pants and I just couldn’t keep my cook w her.  She was doing all sorts f wrong decisions: playing with a paintbrush in the drain, pulling on her private, and just hanging out for over fifteen minutes in the restroom.  She really needs to work on speaking up and facing the speaker as well as taking responsibility for her own needs.  I also would like to take a minute to complain about another child, I’ll call him something soon b/c I’m sure he’ll come up again, he drives me bonkers.  Every time he gets into trouble he has to back talk, literally!  Always wanting to know why he’s in trouble, or why I said to do something, or to apologize or that he didn’t mean to.  And I know that I have to be nice to him b/c of his family situation, but man does he really need things laid out for him.  He’s so smart and knows what he’s doing!  BBBBEEEEAAAAHHHHHH

Okay, that might be out of my system.  On the way home it dawned on me (FINALLY) to just take control of the kitchen situation at home.  So I decided that tonight we were going to have a spinach artichoke like pasta and Aaron was okay w it!  He added crab and scallop to his dish, while I attempted to keep mine meat free.  More on that later.  I also decided that tomorrow we are going to have pork fried rice and took out the last two pork ribs to thaw and asked him to be responsible for rice.  I wanted him to make it while we were fixing dinner, but he said he’d do it later.  We’ll see.  If it doesn’t get done tonight guess I’ll eat his leftover pizza for dinner (that I discovered was still hanging out in there). 

At the house he did dishes and made his pasta w seafood while I made lunch and prepped the ‘sauce’ and made my own dinner.  I also forced Bella to take her meds.  I felt awful!  I’ve been trying to find ways for her to take the antihistamine for a while and finally broke down and smashed it and mixed it w tuna water and plunged it down her throat.  I thought the tuna water might make it better, but she didn’t take it willingingly.  I can’t decide whether or not to continue using the tw or just water.  Probably just going to use water so not to taint the tw for treats. 

While making dinner the shittiness didn’t end.  I had a glass of wine on the microwave and told myself not to forget about it.  However my self didn’t listen and I opened the cabinet and knocked the entire glass (minus maybe two sips) onto the floor.  The worse part is that it was the next to last pour of a bottle from NY.  However the glass I was using didn’t break!  I’m pretty sure it was from the tasting I went to w Carrie and should let her know!  After cleaning it up I finished off the bottle and started another one.  It was really one of those days where I should have just drunk from the bottle!!!

I ate:

Bfast – new to me Greek Lite Yogurt Kroger brand blueberry w a banana. 

            IMO – it was okay.  Only 2PPs, I’d eat again, but nothing to write home about

Lunch – new to me soup from Campbells 

            IMO – it too was just okay.  I still prefer the boxed one from Aldi’s that’s seasonal.  I think it smelled better than it tasted b/c my CCT1 asked if that’s what it was by name and I couldn’t remember, but it didn’t taste basily enough or hearty for me. 

Snacks – caramel rice cakes in the am, ½ banana, clementines, veggie straws, and an apple

Dinner – Spin Art Pasta w roasted onions and bell peppers over Shirtaki noodles

            IMO – once again just okay.  First time I had the noodles.  They weren’t terrible.  Aaron thinks they were to soft.  But if I can have pasta for no extra PPs more regularly bring it!  I kind of which I’d taken the time to actual create a sauce rather than just mixing it all in. 

            Mixed Art Hearts w seasoning

            Topped w peppers and onions

            Then topped w fresh spinach

            Next broke some LC cheese

            Added the noodles

            Baked in oven to get hot and melt and wilt

            Then nuked in microwave b/c it was gooey wilty enough

            Finished w nutritional yeast

            LOOKED like ASS, but decent enough to eat. 

Guess I should tell you that Aaron took Sasha to the vet today and she does have a mild case of demadex (sp?).  Now I’m going to have to look it up and figure out what it is for realz.  Her weight is 57 ½ I think, should double check but doubt I’ll remember to come back and tell ya. 

Ok I gotta go, but wanted you to know the best part of my day was coming home and having Aaron already here. 

Hope you were able to get through all that nonsense!!!