i'm a bad blogger

sorry i haven't had time to write lately. i am a bad blogger. the crocodile hunters, butt sniffers and abused children are keeping me busy.

i am counting down the hours until the Biggest Loser premiere tonight. i want Ken from North Carolina to win. i'll have to write more later... i have to go get a student now.

my job just keeps getting more and more interesting.

in addition to talking to the crocodile hunter's mother, today i have had to:

1. "babysit" two third grade girls who were late to school and couldn't walk into the EOG Pre-Test late
2. get deoderant for a student who forgot to put his on this morning and was worried about smelling
3. talk to a second grade boy, because he was caught by another student sniffing another boy's butt while they were in the bathroom

crocodile hunter

oh my. oh my. oh my!

a few weeks ago, a parent came to me and said "make sure you are careful talking about the news around my son. we have tried keeping the news about the crocodile hunter from him, but he accidentally heard part of it. we just lied and told him he got hurt, but he is going to be so upset when he finds out!" i just sort of laughed to myself and pretended to empathize with her. well today, she came in to talk to me about her son again. in the middle of our conversation, she exclaims, "oh, he did find out about the crocodile hunter and he was really upset. he's decided that he's going to go by hunter now. that's his middle name, you know, because he was named after the crocodile hunter."

it was all i good do to not laugh in her face.

painfully frustrating

yesterday was a painfully frustrating day. it started off when i woke up feeling like something ran over me. my throat hurt, my head hurt, my nose was running and i was sneezing. on top of that, my entired body was sore from monday's workout). court and i did our thirty minute walk anyway, because we are motivated to stick to our goal! when i got to school, i really did not want to be here. i had to wait around on the other counselor to finish with her testing so that we could meet about something. as i was waiting, my assistant principal called me and asked if i would cover one of the exceptional children's classes for thirty minutes because the teacher had a meeting and the assistant had something else to do. i was a little dumbfounded that i was asked to do this. subing for classes is not part of my job and i don't really feel qualified to help with that class especially. a lot of those kids have extremely special needs that i am not trained to help with. besides, this messed up my schedule even more and required me to do more waiting. however, i was not going to say no to my boss, so i did my duty. as i was almost to the classroom, i ran into the teacher who was coming back from her meeting- she said "oh, i don't know if asst. principal told you or not, but we aren't going to need you." so i had walked all the way up to the other building with my entire lower body screaming at me "STOP MOVING!" for no reason at all.

on my way back down to my office, i saw asst. principal and she said "i guess you figured out that we aren't going to need you, but could you cover this 1st grade class at 11:40 instead?" and what did i say? "yes, i think i can do that" (even though i do NOT even have 1st graders this year and i am NOT a substitute teacher) so up and down the hall i walk with muscles aching that i never even knew i had. and remind me again why i decided to wear heels yesterday when i felt like crap all over?

so... at 11:40 i march myself up to the 1st grade hallway (which is again in the other building) only to find that the class is not in the room. i walk back down to the gym to find asst. principal and she claims she does not know where they are either. i walk back up to classroom...still aren't there. i find out they must be outside on playground. in my lovely heels, i walk across the school and out to playground. not only do i find the class ready to come in, i find the substitute teacher clueless as to why i am out there (she thought she was helping until the real teacher got back). it turns out i was not needed anyway!!!! i could rip any of the kids' heads off by this point and of course they are acting like lunatics. the substitute teacher ends up staying with me and the class as we walk them back inside the building, back down the hallway to the bathroom, and then back to class. as we are about to head to lunch, real teacher comes back and i hobble my way back to the other building to crash in my office and take a breath before i have to go BACK to the other building for my 2 second grade classes of the day.

by the time my two classes are over, i am about to melt and it is time for me to rush away from school and make it to the doctor on time. my doctor's appt. is at 3:00. i am still sitting in the waiting room at 3:50 with snot running out of my nose, my head spinning, leaned up against a pole almost asleep. in the hour that i have been sitting there, i have observed a lady on crutches faint and the EMS workers come to take her to the hospital. at least that kept me occupied for awhile. i have a physical therapy appointment in the same office at 4:00pm and i had it at this point so i decide to walk up to the counter and ask. the lady who i thought was nice before, informs me now that my dr. is running 45 minutes behind today (remember, it is now 3:50 and my appt was at 3). she also so kindly informs me that i have been sitting in the wrong area of the waiting room. um, hello, if she has been sitting there watching me for the last 50 minutes, why does she feel the need to tell me this now? so, i ask her what i should do and she calls over to the physical therapy desk. they decide that i should go to physical therapy and then my dr. might be ready to see me.

thank goodness my physical therapy person was waiting for me in the waiting room. i could've given her a hug! i do physical therapy for an hour. it is the most painfuly session i've had yet. she did some major deep tissue massage that felt like someone was ripping at my muscle with dull scissors. she increased my weights. she made me stretch in places that haven't been stretched in a year since my running stopped. she told me i would need to ice it right away. i could barely get up off the table and walk away.

when we were done, she took me to my dr.'s side of the building, where they sat me in a chair and i had to wait some more. key point: it was 5:00pm now and my appt. was at 3:00pm. they said "oh, you'll be next" and i waited 15 more minutes. the nurse took me in the room, asked me questions and said the dr. would be right in. she came about 5 minutes later and talked to me for about 5 minutes. this is the dr. i praised last time on my blog for being so nice and genuine. i will NOT do that today. all she wanted to do was get out of there and to be honest, that was all i wanted too.

after i left the dr.'s visit from hell, i decided i needed to get some soup from panera to sooth my throat and hopefully make me feel better. i waited in line behind some lady who was ordering for her office of 15 and they were out of basically every other thing she wanted. she was really rude. the girl at the register beside hers ended up helping me, but then the lady's cashier could not figure something out, so my cashier left in the middle of my order to help the lady. i was standing there waiting patiently until another cashier came out from the back to help me.

i then waited for what seemed like an eternity to get my food
1. because the lady with 15 orders was in front of me
2. because my 1st cashier who left me for the lady with 15 orders had typed my name in as "wieni" instead of "whitney" and the guy calling out the orders had no idea how to pronouce that (do you blame him?) so he kept calling out the number "355" (and of course my ticket did not have a number on it, because the 1st cashier did not give me the correct ticket). i even questioned it when he called out "355" and no one was coming, but then another guy came up and read the ticket and called out "freeman" (i have no idea where that name came from)

once i got my food it was cold, i was tired, and i needed to get home before i did something harmful. i iced my hip/groin, took at warm bath and went to bed at 7:00.

it was a painfully frustrating day.

sore muscles: day two

i had just started writing this blog when seth called from his hotel in detroit to ask me how to start a treadmill. hehehe. i doubt he has ever run on one before, but i still found it hilarious. and, it tied in perfectly with the theme of this blog...

exercising

i went to the ultimate conditioning class again today with the teachers. i also signed up to join for $18/month, so i guess i'm in it for the long haul (or at least this year). i've been feeling better now that i've started exercising again. i have more energy when i get home and i feel more productive.

also, courtney said she would walk with me tomorrow morning even though they did their run this morning. i stayed in bed because i was sick. isn't she nice? i am so proud of them for starting to run again. it is such a difficult form of exercise, but it is so good for your heart. i want my family to be healthy so that we will all live long and happy lives.

bad parenting

the hardest part of my job and perhaps one of the main reasons i don't want to have kids is bad parenting. i've seen what it can do to kids and it makes me furious, overwhelms me and breaks my heart. at school, i see it over and over again. i see it happening in my extended family. i see it happen in public. last night, i definitely saw it babysitting.

anita and ben had all of the pastors and their families over from their church, which meant that i was in charge of watching three boys in addition to the usual rachel and joe. they ranged in age from 9 years old (4th grade) to 3 years old (pre-school). the two brothers and their parents made my night incredibly frustrating. i think the older son who is in 1st grade (but much bigger than Joe) has some special needs. both children had marked trouble with their speech and the older one seemed to me like he had some autistic tendancies as well. he was scarily aggressive and incredibly annoying, but mainly he was just a terrible listener! he kept taking joe's gun and running all over the house. i gave them all fair warning to stop running through the house or else they were going to have to quit playing with the weapons, but he was non-responsive and then proceeded to argue with me when i caught him running again and explainged that he had broken the rules, so he would face the consequences (he could not play with the weapons anymore). he continued for the rest of the night to ask me if he could practice his aim and then to pick up the gun every time i was not looking, even though i repeatedly told him NO.

the worst part of the whole night of course happened when i went downstairs to check on rachel and to use the bathroom. as i come out of the bathroom, i hear screaming and crying from upstairs. so, i rush up there to see the younger brother crying and joe standing there with his weapon (a plastic stick) saying "all i did was turn around." upon closer observation i realize that the boy's lip/teeth are bleeding. then after further evaluation, i find older brother hiding in joe's closet with tears and an evil look in his eyes saying over and over "i hit him because he hit me first." he refused to go apologize to his younger brother or even talk to his mom about what happened. then for the next thirty minutes he kept saying things like "someone needs to help me attack my brother and get him back because he hit me." by that point his aggressiveness and odd social behavior was really starting to freak me out.

but that's not even the worst of it... back to my topic of bad parenting. to say the least, his parents made me very angry. from my first interaction with them, when anita introduced me, they were very cold. all of the other parents/adults were so kind and welcoming to me, but this mom acted like it was a burden to shake my hand, would not even speak to me, and ignored me when i was trying to talk to her son. my first encounter with the father was when the older son was running around the house. he came around to "discipline" him, but i was already in the middle of it (the second warning i was giving him to stop running). he said something like "you need to be respectful in someone else's house" and then walked away as his son ran away from him. ugh. don't even bother saying anything to a kid if you aren't serious and/or aren't going to follow through with a punishment.

then when the whole lip bleeding situation occured, the mom came upstairs to see what was wrong. she ripped the younger son out of my hands as i was trying to comfort him and yelled at me "where's the bathroom?" then she sat in the bathroom with the younger boy as i talked to her older son about why he hit his brother. she kept asking the older boy to come in there with her and he kept refusing asking her to come in there where we were. instead of doing or saying anything about his inappropriate behavior, she left him in there with me still making those aggressive comments and took her younger son downstairs to sit on her lap (as if she was proving to me that i could not handle taking care of her awful sons). then she made some comment about how they fight and hit each other every day and he was bleeding in the same spot from where older son hit him yesterday. well, dang it, lady! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! now is it me, or is there an obvious problem here? bad parenting, bad parenting, bad parenting. i just wanted to scream it at her! i attempted to talk with the older son about how hitting is wrong, but he completely ignored me and i decided there was probably no use anyway since his parents have taught him there are no consequences for bad behavior.

now i don't want to sound self-righteous or even pretend like i know what parenting is like. i do not have children and i am not an expert, but i certainly have learned a lot of techniques for working with children through my training as a school counselor. alfred adler was a psychologist who did some research on children, birth order, parenting, and early recollections. i really like his work and if you're interested you can click here to check out some good tips on working with children. too often i see the negative impact of parenting styles on children and i wish i could give the parents a lesson on this. another simple thing i would like for all parents to understand is something that adler's colleague rudolph dreikurs took from adler's work. he said that their are four reasons why children misbehave- for attention, power, revenge or because they feel inadequate- and there are appropriate ways to deal with that misbehavior.

i think that's enough for today. i'm getting worn out even thinking about how many kids are disadvantaged because their parents don't have the basic education necessary to raise a child. it's time for me to get off my soap box :)

MISS WHITNEY...

last night's babysitting adventure:

Rachel, Joe and I are upstairs doing homework while their mother has a Bible Study downstairs.
Me: "Joe, where are you?"
Joe: "Miss Whitney, my poop won't come out!"
Me: "Ok, keep trying"
Joe: "Can you please come in here and help me?"

Rachel and I walk to the bathroom door.
Me: "Yes?"
Joe: "Will you sit in here and read me a book to help my poop come out?"
Rachel: "Can I read him a book?"
Me: "Yes, go pick out a book to read."

Rachel and I sit in the bathroom reading to Joe so that he isn't screaming loud enough for his mother's entire Bible Study to hear.

ouch

my body is sore from yesterday's class. i guess that is a good sign. it was fun, but difficult. we did 20 minutes of aerobics, 20 minutes of step, and 20 minutes of strength and yoga. by the middle of aerobics, i was already dripping sweat. by the middle of step, i had to slow way down and get water. and by the middle of the strength (sit-ups, push ups, lunges, etc.), i thought i was going to die. i can already tell i am going to have a hard time lifting weights today at physical therapy and tomorrow i probably won't be able to walk. like they say though, no pain, no gain.

so, i fell asleep at 9pm last night only to wake up at 10pm, turn my alarm off and go back to sleep until 6:15 this morning. i had set my alarm so i would wake up and watch project runway, but when i turned it on i was half-asleep and there was no way i was going to make it through the whole thing. i didn't even have enough sense to tape it then, so now i need to figure out when they are going to play the re-run. whatever you do, don't tell me who was out!

wildcats everywhere, wave your hands up in the air

Together, together, together everyone
Together, together, come on lets have some fun
Together, we're there for each other every time
Together together come on lets do this right

Here and now it's time for celebration
I finally figured out (yeah yeah)
That all our dreams have no limitations
That's what its all about

Everyone is special in their own way
We make each other strong (each other strong)
We're not the same
We're different in a good way
Together's where we belong

We're all in this together
Once we know
That we are
We're all stars
And we see that

We're all in this together
And it shows
When we stand
Hand in hand
Make our dreams come true
Together, together, together everyone
Together, together, come on lets have some fun
Together, we're there for each other every time
Together together come on lets do this right

We're all here and speaking out with one voice
We're gonna rock the house (rock the house)
the party's on now everybody make some noise
come on scream and shout

We've arrived because we stuck together
Champions one 'n all

We're all in this together
Once we know
That we are
We're all stars
And we see that
We're all in this together
And it shows
When we stand
Hand in hand
Make our dreams come
We're all in this together
When we reach
We can fly
Go inside
We can make it

We're all in this together
Once we see
There's a chance
That we have
And we take it

Wildcats sing along
Yeah, You really got it goin' on
Wildcats in the house
Everybody say it now
Wildcats everywhere
Wave your hands up in the air
That's the way we do it
Lets get to it
Time to show the world

We're all in this together
Once we know
That we are
We're all stars
And we see that
We're all in this together
And it shows
When we stand
Hand in hand
Make our dreams come

We're all in this together
When we reach
We can fly
Go inside
We can make it
We're all in this together
Once we see
There's a chance
That we have
And we take it
Wildcats everywhere
Wave your hands up in the air
That's the way we do it
Let's get to it
Come on everyone

i'm pumped. this morning we had kernersville elementary's first-ever pep rally. we got to sing this song from Disney's High School Musical which i believe is one the best movies ever made. and this song has the perfect words to kick off our new character ed program. every child and staff member got a free t-shirt to wear with our pledge and our new character words respect, responsibility and caring. we also said our new school pledge and sang our new school song (which the kids don't know quite as well as the song's from High School Musical, hehe). our skit about respect was not the greatest (we had never practiced so we had to totally wing it), but i think the kids got the point anyway. we even got the glenn bobcat to come in his mascot uniform (not quite a wildcat, but the kids don't really know the difference). the funniest thing by far was the kids holding up the signs spelling W-I-L-D-C-A-T-S. they ran down the aisle spelling it out, but then when they got to the back they got in reverse order so they were standing there spelling STACDLIW for half of the pep rally.

oh, how fun my job can be.

mind over "fat"er

this weekend seth came up with this name for an exercise program. he is such a dork, but i have to admit it is kind of funny. i'm trying out a new exercise program myself today. since i started here, i've been asked several times to come to a class at first christian church in kernersville with some of the other teachers. last year i was dealing with all the mess with my hip and i was never able to go. i've decided to try it out this year though and the new classes start today. the class is called "ultimate conditioning" and the description says "this class gives those who want to get in shape a fun, fast way to do just that. this class integrates cardio, weight training, step, aerobics and yoga." i think it will be a good thing if (1) my hip cooperates and (2) i stayed motivated enough to go. it only costs $18/month to go to their family life center and there are classes all the time and you can use the weight room, the pool, etc. my other option is to do yoga at school twice a week for $18/month. that starts on monday. there are pros and cons to each and i keep going back and forth. i guess i'll see how the class goes today and then make up my mind. i'm also paying $24 twice a week to go to physical therapy and lift weights and walking with court and jonathan three mornings a week. i would like to get back in shape so that i can fit into my clothes and i would like to live a healthier lifestyle. i am ready to make my move after a year of complications with my hip. i'm glad i have court and jonathan around holding me accountable for walking in the mornings and i hope the teachers will do the same with these afternoon exercise classes. team work is such a good thing :)

the calm after the storm

that saying really does ring true. i have been sitting out on my balcony since 10 'til 7 this morning (my body cannot adjust to the fact that i do not have to get up before dawn on the weekends) and it is absolutely beautiful weather. i am at emerald isle this weekend with seth's family. we could not have asked for more perfect weather. yesterday morning it was cool enough to walk on the beach without breaking a sweat and then in the afternoon it was comfortable enough to lay out and throw the frisbee. ernesto did do quite a bit of damage this past week, bringing 70 mph winds to this island, but it is difficult to tell unless you are looking for it. on our way down, we did have to take a detour because the road was flooded.

it is nice to have a relaxing weekend away to mark the end of such a great summer. i think after this weekend i will be ready for some fall weather, football games, colorful leaves, sweaters, and some of mom's famous pumpkin crisp. mmm, mmm, mmmm.

Happy Labor Day!