Revisiting Toxic Relationships

Today's prompt at Your Life Spelled Out is revisiting Toxic Relationships. And it comes at a good time, because my toxic relationship person is trying to revisit me! My problem is that the toxic person won't leave us alone. She is trying to sneak back into my life through other family members. She tries to tell anyone that will listen that I am just being mean. I am ungrateful and horrid.
I can't have this woman in my life. She damages my relationships with my children, she damages my self-esteem, and she never has a nice word to say about any one! She even critized my grandson - a 3 month old baby!! (Her great-grandson.) She doesn't critize her child. Even though he is supposedly homeschooling his 10 year old son. I say supposedly because the poor child is being taught by his mother who has a sixth grade education who will just throw a worksheet at him occasionly. This poor boy is told that "he isn't funny; he is just strange" so many times that he repeats it to others! They are having their 3rd child. I must say that finally the man has a job but it isn't going to last. The man has had easily 5 jobs in 5 years and major stints of unemployment because he thinks he is smarter than the rest of the world. Oh, and he told my daughter that her newborn son had jaundice because he was fed too much sweet potatoes. Duh? Newborn jaundice is cause by an immature liver, moron!

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What's your style?

Your life spelled out has another great prompt today. What is your style? So, I started thinking about what my style is. I am not sure what it would be classified. I am not a diva, country or tomboy. What would you say my style is?
The big thing in my life is casual. And comfortable. Also right now, many of my clothes are loose fitting. It seems that I have finally stepped off of the plateau of size 10. Everything is hanging off of me. I think this fall I will need to buy some new khakis in size 8. woowhoo! I wear mostly khakis because they are easy to wear and comfortable. I don't wear a great deal of skirt because they are a bit difficult in my school setting. lol, you never know when you will need to get on the floor or climb on something. My students can be quite a handful.
At home my clothing choices are made with the idea of comfort. Most of my clothes are yoga pants and tops in purples and blues. For shoes -- sandals and flipflops. Casual footwear is a must for me.

Loving Summer Break

I am loving summer break, but we are already planning for Christmas Break. We are planning to go back to California again for Christmas because Gerry's mom is in declining health. It is hard for Gerry to be so far away but he says that their relationship is better than it was when he lived in Elk Grove. We have thought of moving to CA but the economy would make it impossible. The cost of living is so much higher than it is here in San Antonio. Teaching in CA is also less stable than here in TX. We have been teaching for 13 years (Gerry) and 10 years (me) in our school district which means that we don't have to worry about layoffs or cutbacks. We are in the middle of the salary scale and have contributed to retirement for 13 years in Texas. Texas has its own retirement state fund for teachers, and we are not sure how it would transfer financially to CA. We would probably loose a lot. We both have about 15 years or so before we are eligible to retire. If I retire at the first opportunity, I would only be 55. I doubt that I will retire before 60 just because I like being active. Summer is enough lazying around for me.
Yesterday's prompt on Your Life Spelled Out was about the effect of technology in your life. I know that I really adore my iPhone. I am fond of saying "there's an app for that". I have really started enjoying reading books on my phone. I am going to get an ereader this summer. I am trying to decide between the kindle or the nook. I have played with a nook so it is in the front right now. I would really like to try out a kindle. Target is selling them in Florida now and is expected to have them in all of their stores soon. There is also rumors that there is a Kindle 3 in the works and a Nook Lite. But the big thing going on now is an offer for a $50 gift card with purchase of a nook. If I do that, I have to get my nook before the end of the month. ::sigh:: So many decisions!
We picked up a swing for Robby at a yard sale yesterday and he is loving it. His momma loves it too. Kelsey has been tied to him for a bit and she likes being able to do things without holding the baby all the time. We also got an exersaucer for when he is a bit older. He is a bit young for it now.
Lola has been having some stomach problems. I am worried about the pooch. I may take her to the vet. She is eating something she shouldn't but I don't have a clue where she is getting it. Daisy is chewing her nails again. That dog is so neurotic! Gerry went fishing today with a friend and she had a cow when the unknown person was in the house. She had met Patrick before but she was not thrilled with him in the house in the middle of the night. She is a good watch dog, no one could ever sneak into the house with that dog! My 2 labs really could care less until the person attempted to get their food.

Oh FUN, not!

I spent four hours in the dentist's chair. We finished up my root canal and cut down my two teeth for the crown mounts. I have TMJ and it was very painful. They use bite blocks to hold open my jaw, but my muscles started cramping anyway. We had to take a few breaks. Now, I am trying to recover with some pain meds. My gums are also inflamed with all their poking. During the whole thing, I kept thinking that my tattoo was less painful. I had novicaine but it really wasn't very effective.
Enough complaining. I am going to relax for a bit. I am a little down because of some stuff going on but I don't know enough about it. I know just enough to be upset. I have tried to get a toxic person out of my life but she keeps worming her way back in. I wish that I could move very far away. I so tired of the drama. Why does she think she can hurt people and never be accountable for it? She lies, she betrays and she pits people against each other. Just for her amusement. I just have to protect myself and I will.
I think the pain is depressing my moods or maybe it is just everything from the weekend. Sigh. Maybe I will do some scrapbooking or reading to cheer myself up.

Big Week

This was an incredible week.

On Monday, Jay HS Class of 2010 graduated. The blue gowns are graduating from Jay while white gowns are graduating from the Science Academy at Jay.

On Thursday, O'Connor HS Class of 2010 graduated. Holly was number 17 in her graduating class.

On Saturday, Gerry, Tim and I headed to Lake Amistad in Del Rio. Tim caught 3 fish and Gerry caught a limit.

This week, we have  Football Power Camp with workouts 4 days a week until the middle of July. Tomorrow, I have my more crown work on my teeth. yeah, fun! ;)

Toxic Relationships - Just say NO!!

The prompt from Your Life Spelled Out. today is on Toxic Relationships. My husband and I  were in a toxic relationship with my first mother-in-law and finally had to tell her that we would not have a relationship. Her actions were causing terrible problems with our relationship with my daughters. My husband and I finally stopped the damage by breaking off the relationship. We, as my daughter has explained, divorced from our relationship with my daughters' grandmother. And this divorce has made me so much happier in my life. I am so much happier that everyone has complimented me on the changes in me. I have always been a happy person but now I am truely happy. I have lost weight, my complexion looks better. All of this is due to letting go of the baggage. It isn't healthy for a person to be in a toxic relationship; it really hurts your health.
It is very hard when there is someone trying to influence your children with ideas that don't agree with your personal values. It is very hard when they talk about you negatively to your children about you. I have been torn apart by words by a person that really doesn't have the same values that I have and I want my children to have.
I value education. Education is the only way for anyone to succeed in this world. My husband and I both have a master's degree and my husband is working on his second master's degree. I believe all of my children should go to college to be successful.
I value independence. A woman should not rely on a man for support. They may not always be there. A woman needs to be able to take care of herself first. When she can do that; she is better prepared for taking care of her family and her children.
I value postitive relationships. If a man is negative and demeaning to you; he doesn't really love you. Women have so much negativity focused at them - they don't need any extra. A man who supports you and encourages you is the type of man that you should marry. Men who don't like women should not be allowed in your life. They will try to tear you down because they are too insecure to be happy with and for you.

My last day of school

Today is the offical last day of school for me. I have to finish cleaning my classroom and packing up for the year. I have boxes packed and pushed in the corner. My desks need to be packed up and I need to commit to what I can part with (throw away! lol).
I got some good and bad news yesterday. I don't get to be in CMC/CR next year. :(  I have 6 classes of LC English next year. I really enjoyed having a light teaching load. The good thing is that I am teaching all of the LC English and I don't have to lose my students. I will be teaching all of them next year. My classes are getting much smaller because we are pushing all of the students into regular English, which is going to fail. Some of my students can't read well enough to survive in a regular English class. My students read at a 4th/5th grade level. They can't cope in a regular English class and they will get lost. I can just hope for my babies to survive long enough for the pendulum to swing back. Because it will, it always does.  Nothing in education is really new, it just gets introduced with new titles.
Well, I better go to the meeting and get my last signatures on my clearance sheet. Then I will be cleaning the rest of the day.
Have a wonderful day!!

My one little word for 2010 is complete

I had a really hard time figuring out my word for the year, but I finally settled on COMPLETE. Mainly because I am so bad at follow through and getting it done! I need to work on completing things in my life.
I blame it on my ADHD. I am very distractible, I just can't help it. I get started on something and get half way through. When I put it down, I forget about it for a while. And it never gets finished.
Today I am completing something today. Today is the last day of school. I have been at Jay for a full year! Woo-Whoo! I love this school and my students. I have some great students that I just adore. My year has been awesome and I am so glad to be here.

My Personal Dictionary

Justice – the bad are punished and the good rewarded.


Love - the immense feeling of warmth and happiness when you see your child feeding her child

Faith – the belief that there is something more than just you

Hope – believing that you can handle all that life throws at you because it will get better

Temperance – tolerance and patience for those who drive me nuts

Character – the ability to do what is right

Charity – helping out those who need a little help

Virtues – believing there are things that you can do, should do and better not do.