the longest week of my life...

I was so thankful at 3:48pm today -- you can't even imagine. That's the time my last class period of the day lets out and it means I'm done till 8:30am Monday morning. I don't know if it's the fact that it was holloween week or what but the kids were crazy this week...and I'm not over-reacting about this at all! Today, for the first time in my teaching career, I saw one of my female students go completely nuts. I mean, she lost it, and to make it worse, it was at an administrator. I felt bad because it was about me - I wrote her up yesterday for refusing to do her work in class - but the administrator took it all in stride because she's used to being cussed at. See...that's so not me. I would not have sat there taking it with a smile on my face like she did. Anyways...let's just say that wasn't the only thing that made me want this week to be over with. Next week can only be better...I keep telling myself that.
and so I look forward to tomorrow...
Tomorrow I get to go to a spa with the "girls" and get a massage, facial, and pedicure!!! How cool is that?!?! I'm sooooo looking forward to the relaxation and special treatment. I never get pampered like this so I'm really counting on it bringing me lots of relief. That's at five. Earlier in the morning I have a coffee-Mary Kay - baby gift-giving - date with a friend I haven't seen in a very long time. I'm really looking forward to that. It will be a day for me to do some stuff I enjoy, with nothing demanding or requiring my attention. Hard to imagine...I know.
I don't know who all is with me on this but I'm SUPER psyched that Halloween is over and we are moving on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!!! This is my absolute FAVORITE time of year and I'm really looking forward to our first holidays as a married couple together. I really want to start some personal family traditions for the holidays that we can pass on to our kids and our grandkids. I'm not creative though so that might be a challenge and something tells me Waylon won't be a huge help in that department...Any ideas from my readers? I'm open to suggestions. ;-) I love the crisp air, the smell of holiday candles, fire-place smoke in the air outside, shivering in the car early in the mornings when I first get in (and therefore making me look even MORE forward to the coffee I will stop and get on my way to work) and all the other little things that become part of your life this time around. I love Christmas music and really want to find some great Christmas CDs to have playing my apartment at all times during December. I love setting the mood for Christmas. I'm also having my very first "dinner party" - only two of the guests don't even know about it yet. I should probably get on that. I'm going all out for it too...little Christmas gifts for everyone, decorations, cooking, baking...the whole nine yards. It's going to be so fun!
November is also my month for my Mary Kay "Holiday Open House" where I will be opening up my home as a gift shop for all my clients to come and do some personalized shopping with free refreshments, free gift-wrapping and free delivery AND at the same time, being able to avoid the crowds as it is by appointment only with no more than two people at a time so I can give them the best service and so they can relax without worrying that someone is waiting for them. I'll be having that on November 29th and hopefully be having all my clients show up to that. I will be putting a lot of effort into the decorations and hopefully my apartment will look like a winter-wonderland that day!
Another MK project going on in my unit this Christmas is our adopt-a-grandparent program. We pick a retirement home and go out getting businesses or groups of people or even just individual clients to sponsor a grandparent for $20. We give them a nicely wrapped gift with a little card on it saying who it's from, we deliver it to them, and we have banners that also will show everyone who provided a gift. If any of my readers are interested in this, please let me know and I can give you more details. It's a very self-less thing to do this Christmas for a small amount of money that will be making several people's day. For some, sadly, this will be the only gift they receive this Christmas. I hate to think about that.
I'm excited to see what this holiday season will be bringing. We do know that we will be going to Waco to spend Thanksgiving with Waylon's side of the family. I'm looking forward to that because it is always a good time with them. Hopefully Waylon can get more than just Thanksgiving off from his work...otherwise it will be a very short trip. I'll have the whole week off which will be nice. I need a break from school. I really feel like I'm getting burnt out. Next week is our last football game so I am going to be getting a little release from my crazy schedule, which will rock.
Well folks, I've now yawned about 7 times which tells me I've got to hit the sack. Check out the updates made to my page about books I've read and am reading. I'll have a little info on the Twilight series I just finished.
hasta luego,
Stephanie