Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?!?!

Okay, Here's My Deal...

I go on this website called Christian Mommies...there is link to it on here...and anyway, I am just amazed at how naive and downright uninformed some people are!!

One lady began a post on something and it has evolved into something else. Here is the skinny on it...this other woman on the boards is not the brightest crayon in the box. When someone mentioned getting PAP smears, she did not understand why she needed to continue to get one every year when she had only had two sex partners, including her husband and neither one of them has an STD...

Well, DUH...it is because PAP smears don't test for STD's, they test for changes and abnormalities in your cervical cells, to help prevent cancer!!!!

So, when I replied to her and expalined that, as well as that she needed to have them every year as well as do self breast exams every month...she said, quote, " I would NEVER do that, if what you mean is a mammogram, because, don't they hurt when they squash your breasts? If I think I might have a lump, I will just go have the doctor check."

Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!?! You are an adult woman who has one child and another about to pop out and you don't know the difference between a breast exam and a mammogram?!?!?! That is what I wanted to say, but didn't. I just explained to her the difference and then asked her to please learn how to and then do them each month...also saying that most of the time when a woman feels a lump, it is too late and the cancer has already spread. I asked her also if avaoiding the temporary pain of a mammogram would be worth it to her if she later had to go through the pain of chemo and radiation. This was just a few minutes ago, so no reply from her yet.

Holy cow...in this day and age, how can people be so ignorant about their bodies?!?!?!?!?! How can a woman in her 20's like this not know why PAP smears are done and how important breast exams and mammograms are?!?!?!?!?!?

Oh, and I also told her that her husband should do self testicular exams and have a testicular exam done every year by a doctor to check for cancer, she put a little smiley face that rolled around on the floor laughing and said, "oh, I doubt he'd ever agree to that!! LOL" WHAT?!?!?!? When did cancer of any kind get funny?!?!?!?!?!

Now, is it just me, or does SHE have a bigger deal than me tonight?!?!?!?!

Easy as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and NSEW

Okay, Here's My Deal...

With the help of the message by my pastor on Sunday, Jesus has spoken to me that I do not do enough sharing of the gospel with others. I make no secret of the fact that I am a Christian..but I do not step out of my comfort zone with other, whether they are saved or not. Here are the five things that I want to convey to others through my words and actions:

• God LOVES you...absolutely nothing will ever change that.
• God FORGIVES you...so take it easy on others who may ahve hurt you.
• God has PLAN for you...It is what you were born to do and it will satisfy you.
• God NEEDS you...your place on the team is irreplaceable.
• God WANTS you to live with Him...Just accept the invitation.

Also, there is a definite place where north meets south...See, there is a North Pole...and every direction you step off the pole is South and vice versa at the South Pole. Spiritually, these are the places that separates sin from not sin...believes from nonbelievers and Heaven from Hell. However, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12. As long as we walk in the path God has given us, we will always be forgiven. If you start to walk east and keep on that straight path (toward God), you will ALWAYS go east...you will never go west unless you purosefully turn in the opposite direction (away from God). How cool is that?!

What? Less than a month?!?!

Okay, Here's My Deal...

There is now less than a month before I go back to school...officially anyway. I was back today to get some things organized. Am going back either tomorrow or Wednesday and then the following week I will try to be there a couple days. I alsways like to go in on the first day we are supposed to be back with the first week or two already planned and my desk cleaned off so that I can relax and ease into the start of the year. I don't see how people who come in the very first day survive, but I guess that is just their deal. I could not do it at all.

It will be weird in my building this year with so many new faces and people to get to know. We lost about 38% of our staff to retirements and new positions and reassignments. Crazy. Now I just found out tonight that we are going to hire a new teacher for a brand new class...

Hmmmmm...new class, no curriculum is written and there is no room at the inn--we just took a third of our library to make a classroom so the reading teacher could get out of teaching in the cafeteria and I am teaching in an old storage closet--where are Earth are we going to put a new teacher? In the cafeteria...or else traveling from room to room during other peoples' preps.

Yeah, sign me up for that deal.

Retraining in Progress

Okay, Here's My Deal...

I meant to add this to the Bud post, but forgot.

A week ago today, my son's paternal grandma and stepfather left after being here for two weeks. Of course, he was spoiled rotten and there was no resemblance to any sort of routine we had established...however, they only get to see him twice a year, so that was just fine.

The hardest part has been bedtime...but it is coming along. One night, he woke up at 3:00 a.m. and decided it was time to get up and he was in fact wide awake. Between then and 5:30 a.m. I am sure we put him back to bed in his room at least 15 times--there are times when I exaggerate to make apoint, but I assure you this is NOT one of them--finally, I got up and laid down on the floor in front of his bed...which I know I should not have done, but I was desperate. I woke up at 6:30 and he was sound asleep. He did not get up until almost 10.

Since then, we are slowly but surely getting back into a routine that works. It won't be much longer and I will have to go back to teaching and a whole new routine will need to be established. Great fun.

A Dog Named Bud...

Okay, Here's My Deal...

There is a new addition to our home...a dog named Bud. He is one year old, housebroken and a full-blooded Golden Lab we got for FREE. He has his certified pedigree and he has both field and arena champions in his blood. Right now he is intact, but we plan a trip to the vet for snip-snip sometime soon.

How did we manage a full-blooded lab for free you ask (and even if you didn't, I will answer) There was an add in the paper for 7 labs free to a good home. We called to find out this was a breeder and we looked them up on the net and asked around to see if they were legit. My husband asked why they were free if they were healthy and pure-blood. Seems a man bought 7 labs so he cold train them for drug and bomb duty. He got the training to train them and then could not for some reason get a federal license to do the job, so he surrendered them all back to the breeder. And, since most people who want pure-blooded labs want puppies and they were already a year old, she felt it was not right to try and sell them, but rather find homes for them. By the time we got there, Bud was the lone lab left, but he did well with our son and we liked him right away. After two visits, we decided to bring him home.

He is fitting well into a home with a 2 year old and a cat...in fact, I think the cat scares him, but she is completely declawed, so no harm except for hissing.

CRAN-tasic and BERRY duh news.

Okay, Here's My Deal...

CRAN-tastic News: Sonic, a drive-in/through fast food place, in case you are unfamiliar, has a new Slush (think DQ's Mister Misty--only better) flavor!! It is CRANBERRY!! And it is awesome...well, I suppose only if you like cranberries. I suggest you try it. They also can make it a creamslush for you by whipping in ice cream!!

BERRY duh News: I got my school schedule in the mail the other day. Heres' the thing...my job is supposed to be the middle school gifted education teacher and math teacher. Last year, out of 7 periods a day, I only got to teach gifted for 3 because I had to teach three math classes. Well, this year, I knew I was only going to teach on math class, which gave me much more flexibility to schedule my gifted kids in five periods. Well, not going to happen--I am still only getting three periods for gifted because I have been assigned to monitor two study halls!!!!!!!!!! HOWEVER...this is not the duh part...read on my friend, read on. The one math class I will be teaching has 22 students. My room has a capacity of 12, so I will be needing to go to another teacher's room during thier preparation time to teach my class--something I have done for all of the years I have done this particular job and something I have no problem with. Except this year...as I perused the schedule, I noticed that the hour I am scheduled to teach this class, the only two teachers who are on their prep are the gym teacher--no desks in the gym the last time I checked...and the chorus teacher--again, no desks in that classroom. Genius scheduling, there Ace.

For My Ohio Friend's Husband...

Okay, Here's My Deal...

I know...my site says I am a Christian--and I am--but this may be a little off color for some. If sophomoric bathroom humor is not your deal, I suggest not reading any more of this post.

I thought of my friend's husband yesterday morning. I was in the bathroom. See, my friend's husband was in the service (I won't mention the branch, for security purposes) and while he was on duty he had to use the facilities...the necessary room...the head...the WC...pick your favorite here...and when he was done, he had amazed and impressed himself and even called a fellow in to verify and witness his, ummm, product.

Well, I think I would have made him proud yesterday and maybe even brought a tear to his eye. I know, I know, thanks for sharing.

You're welcome.

I've Never...

Okay, Here's My Deal...

No, the title does not refer to the drinking game "I've Never..." (if you've never palyed it, the rules are simple: you make a statement starting with "I've never [for example...skydived] and if someone has, they have to drink. You can really get someone if you get specific with things you KNOW they have done but no one else has) But, I digress...

As I said, this post is not about that. I used the graphic I did because we were flipping through the channels the other day and the original "Blues Brothers" with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd came on and for as many times as I have seen parts of it, I've never seen the whole thing from start to finish. Not once. Nada. Zip. Zilch. No Way, Jose.

As I sat down to write this, I thought that I would list the many other things that fall into that same category, but now, I can't think of many. Here are a couple that I can list:

Dazed and Confused

Scarface

The Princess Bride

Edward Scissorhands

Cocoon

Pet Cemetery

American Pie

Steel Magnolias

I am sure there are more, but I am having a brain cramp right now. I hate that when it happens. Oh, well, an almost 40 year old brain tends to do that once in a while I guess.

2 & 3/4" My A**

Okay, Here's My Deal...

The phrase from the title...and a couple of more colorful ones were uttered today by my husband and stepfather-in-law. They were putting together a swing set--one of the wooden ones from Wal-Mart as a belated birthday present for our son.

The directions said "two people three hours" YEAH...They started a little after 1:15 and just finished at 9:15 which is "two people eight hours" in the real world!! They even had to go to the local hardware store to get the bolts that were NOT included in the kit and then still had to improvise on some towrds the end...luckily not enough to cause concerns over safety.

But, to their credit it is AWESOME looking and pretty sturdy considering our lawn is nowhere near being flat in too many places. And the important thing is that our son had fun playing on it once it was done...that is what counts in the long run.