This is more of a rant than a random, but our school district sent out an email to staff to let us know that we would not get any unused snow days back at the end of the year (we've had 0 so far, and it looks unlikely that we're going to get snow any time soon). This wouldn't be a big deal, but they build in 15 days (FIFTEEN) because they don't spend the money on good tires or engine blocks for the buses and because there are over 100 schools in the district and it's impossible to get them all cleared in time. So, we're essentially working for 3 weeks for free. Which probably wouldn't irritate me so much, except that I'm going to have to come back for the last week of school because that's all of the unpaid leave I can afford, and if they gave us those days back I wouldn't have to. BAH.
@SnarkasaurusRex Excuse my ignorance. I have never lived somewhere where it has snowed, let alone had the possibility of snow days. I just thought all schools had their school year "set" and then if there were snow days, they would tack on extra days at the end of the school year. Is this really not how it works? HAHA! Again, I'm ignorant.
@SnarkasaurusRex 15 seems really excessive! My last school did something really similar to us. We were on an innovative calendar (4 day weeks) during the winter so they extended our school day to make up for those. Then when they discontinued the innovative calendar they never took out the 9 extra days that were added in as minutes. We were quite unhappy as a staff, so I understand your frustrations
@KirstinH88 Some districts do it that way. I think that ours just knows that we're (usually) going to get snow and we're (usually) not going to be able to have it taken care of in time for schools to open, so they added the extra days in as a preventative measure. The last school district I worked for did it this way too, but we always got our days back at the end of the year.
@wagnerw It's so obscenely excessive and stems from an overreaction to the number of snow days we had to use 4 or 5 years ago when we had two super significant snowstorms that shut schools down for weeks. Back then they only budgeted 10, and that year we wound up using 20, so they took days off of our spring break, took out all of our remaining teacher workdays, and extended the school day. Then they figured out that the extended school day would add 5 days worth of time if they left them there all school year, so they left the extended school day (without extending our contract hours...in fact they actually cut our contract hours last year, which is part of why they don't have to give us time back if we don't use them). Whoever is in charge of scheduling our school year is a whackadoo...we go until the back end of June (when all of our testing, state and national, has to be done mid-May, so it's a waste of time for high school since our curriculum HAS to be done by then, and it's ridiculously hard to motivate kids to do stuff "just for fun!" for 6-8 weeks), and it's not like we have long holiday breaks in there...it's just a bunch of random days off here and there. It's so dumb. I miss my old district where we started in August and got out at the end of May like the rest of the country seems to.
@SnarkasaurusRex that sucks. The town I live in tacks snow days on the end of the year, up to a week. If they go over 5 snow days they take away other days off, like professional development or February vacation.
My Amazon welcome box finally arrived. The swaddle it came with has hedgehogs. Hedgehogs! Since we haven't had a shower yet this was the first thing of my baby's that she'll use and I started sobbing on those cute little hedgehogs like an idiot.
@HGRich mine should arrive tomorrow.. I've been hoping to get one of those swaddles and really hoping not to get a dud box (I spent a little too much time looking at reviews lol)
@HGRich We got our welcome box back in December and we got the same hedgehog blanket. I was super impressed because it was so cute and really me. We also got that little bag with the diaper I see peeking out and DD1 was obsessed with the tiny newborn diaper and wanted to talk for hours about how baby sister would wear tiny diapers and about how we need to go get more diapers for her, etc. It melted my mama heart so bad!
Me: 28 year old SAHM/Birth Doula DH: 30 year old pneumatic electrical engineer
Married: October 8, 2011
DD1: September 24, 2013 BFP: June 25, 2016 and MC: July 3, 2016 DD2: April 16, 2017 BFP: November 30, 2018 EDD: August 14, 2019
One of my favorite diaper prints is hedgehogs and it came in a bamboo swaddle too, so I had to have it. I plan to get baby brother a matching hedgehog diaper. (From Nicki's Diapers if anyone is interested)
My husband has had a man cold for the last 4 days. He's been doing the laundry because on the weekends I have a hard time getting it done and carrying it up 2 flights of stairs. We are now about 10 loads behind. Gaaaah!!!
My random for the day.... just realized that I'm wearing my underwear inside out, and have been since I put them on last night after my shower. Also, I have 2 pairs of flats in brown and black--almost left with one of each on this morning on my way to work.
Three pregnancy announcements at work this week. From a staff of 35, mind you. I had three people say to me "look what you've started!" Yeah because trying to get pregnant in summer of 2015 and finally getting my little bean in 2017 really has an effect on the ladies now due in August of this year.... haha. Super funny. I'm really excited for all of them though. One I know has been trying for ten months. I'm just irrationally irritated by the comments toward me and the stupid comments about "don't drink the water here! You'll get pregnant!" I guess it irritates me because it seems disrespectful to those who have lost or have been TTC a long time. But I know that's just me being sensitive and hormonal. Still, I'm stoked for all three of them. Two are staff and one is the wife of a staff member. And what are they odds they're all due within five weeks of each other?
@HGRich we had dinner plans with DHs friends one night and DH ended up sick so we canceled.. both couples that went conceived that night so were due the same day.. they kept joking I missed out on some good water.
@SnarkasaurusRex that sucks! My district will just take days that we currently have off and make them school days ( like spring break) and tack days onto the end of the year. We are already scheduled to finish the year late so I am really hoping to not have any cancellations because it will force me to take more unpaid time off at the end of the year.
My random is I want to buy new shoes but my feet are already swollen/huge ankles and I want to wait to see if my feet will get any bigger again... Last pregnancy I went from 7 to 7.5 and had to purge my shoe collection.
My random is DS finally slept through the whole night in his big boy bed! We finally kicked him out of our room and my husband kept insisting we needed to do it now, rather than later when the baby arrived. I guess sometimes he can be right
Jury duty. Cross your fingers that a) I don't end up on something long. my students don't burn down the classroom while I'm gone...I've gotten 3 new students in the last week. One is named Rowdy. The odds of something going awry are high.
Me: 31 DH: 36 Married 5 years DD born 8/30/13 #2 expected 4/25/17
Couldn't find the deals thread that we used to have, but...
This Saturday at 12:00pm, Lillebaby Carriers is having select styles on sale for 35% for 24 hours. www.lillebaby.com
I was originally looking into getting one of these carriers, but found an ergo on clearance about a month ago, so I bought one of those, but I'm still going to be eyeing this deal.
Yesterday at Target there was this mom that was a total hot mess. Her kid didn't have any socks or shoes on (but it was like 40 degrees outside!) and he was yelling nonsense the whole time, and when she finally got to check out she didn't have her wallet and they had to go back out into the cold to get it and she had to wait in line all over again. What a wreck!
It was me. I'm the hot mess mom. FOREVER AND ALWAYS.
@SnarkasaurusRex Oh my! The whole time I was reading that I was thinking, "man, poor mom, she must be having a hard day." HAHAHAH!!! @cafedisco I used to work for a state department that saw a lot of baby names come by my desk. I've seen quite a number of crazy names. And yes, I side eye them all. How is Baby Chica going to feel when she is no longer a baby, but a 30 year old woman trying to find a legit job in the world?!?! Some people just don't use common sense...
@SnarkasaurusRex Oh my! The whole time I was reading that I was thinking, "man, poor mom, she must be having a hard day." HAHAHAH!!! @cafedisco I used to work for a state department that saw a lot of baby names come by my desk. I've seen quite a number of crazy names. And yes, I side eye them all. How is Baby Chica going to feel when she is no longer a baby, but a 30 year old woman trying to find a legit job in the world?!?! Some people just don't use common sense...
LOL, I was thinking the same thing too! The stories will only get better having a 2nd one!
@HGRich I'm on a client team of 10, with three women...and ALL are pregnant! We discovered the third one when she was supposed to backfill for me while I'm out. Not anymore. My boss is so excited for all of us, but it's pretty hilarious. The client even made sure to get gender neutral baby shower decorations because she's so psyched to be throwing three in 4 months.
@HappyAnjel and @HGRich I got that same hedgehog swaddle too, so cute! My box looked identical to @HappyAnjel except instead of the giraffe I got an OBall helicopter.
@SnarkasaurusRex 15 days sounds outrageous! I would be annoyed/pissed about that too! When I was teaching in Alaska we only had two per year built in.
My random today is that I am STRESSING about arrangements for my parents to come to town when the baby is born. They have to fly from Seattle to London so we have to plan it in advance, which is fine, but my dad is in a wheelchair because he has ALS so I have to ramp the front entry to my house, find an accessible vehicle, and get them an extended stay accessible hotel because he can no longer get upstairs to the guest bedroom in my home. Its even more complicated that my mom doesn't feel comfortable driving over here on the other side of the road, and I just can't even today haha. I do not want my dad's needs to get in the way of him being able to meet his grandson or having that time with him, but its just a lot right now on top of having a baby.
To be fair, the only reason that he didn't have socks and shoes on was because he was napping when I picked him up from daycare, and they told me that his socks and shoes were in his bag. I didn't realize that they weren't until we got to Target. I hope no one called CPS on me.
1. I didn't go to bed until past midnight last night. I'm soooo tired. I thought about just not going to work today but I really need to save all sick/vacation time I have. Think they will let me get away with a nap?
2. All our NJ moms, did you see TB article about baby boxes? Looks like baby boxes started in Finland (?) and now NJ has caught on board with it. I'll edit and attach the link once I get into work.
@KirstinH88 The baby box thing is really interesting, actually, especially from a public health perspective. Here's an article from a few years ago explaining the history of the Finnish baby boxes:
I know that Scotland is starting it this spring/summer, and I want to say I read something about some hospitals in Texas trying them out? Kinda cool if the US can introduce them, but I doubt we'd get the full benefit as so many people are against any sort of welfare state here
KirstinH88
member
Re: Randoms 1/23
My random for the day is that I took out my belly button ring last night and it is so weird and creepy to see those holes!
Married: 5/30/2013
DSS #1: 5/25/2007
DSS #2: 1/22/2011
DS #3: 7/8/2012
BFP: 3/14/2016 ~ MC: 3/19/2016
DS #4: 4/21/17
Married: 5/30/2013
DSS #1: 5/25/2007
DSS #2: 1/22/2011
DS #3: 7/8/2012
BFP: 3/14/2016 ~ MC: 3/19/2016
DS #4: 4/21/17
@wagnerw It's so obscenely excessive and stems from an overreaction to the number of snow days we had to use 4 or 5 years ago when we had two super significant snowstorms that shut schools down for weeks. Back then they only budgeted 10, and that year we wound up using 20, so they took days off of our spring break, took out all of our remaining teacher workdays, and extended the school day. Then they figured out that the extended school day would add 5 days worth of time if they left them there all school year, so they left the extended school day (without extending our contract hours...in fact they actually cut our contract hours last year, which is part of why they don't have to give us time back if we don't use them). Whoever is in charge of scheduling our school year is a whackadoo...we go until the back end of June (when all of our testing, state and national, has to be done mid-May, so it's a waste of time for high school since our curriculum HAS to be done by then, and it's ridiculously hard to motivate kids to do stuff "just for fun!" for 6-8 weeks), and it's not like we have long holiday breaks in there...it's just a bunch of random days off here and there. It's so dumb. I miss my old district where we started in August and got out at the end of May like the rest of the country seems to.
Baby Boy due 04/07/17
DH: 30 year old pneumatic electrical engineer
BFP: June 25, 2016 and MC: July 3, 2016
DD2: April 16, 2017
BFP: November 30, 2018 EDD: August 14, 2019
Married: 5/30/2013
DSS #1: 5/25/2007
DSS #2: 1/22/2011
DS #3: 7/8/2012
BFP: 3/14/2016 ~ MC: 3/19/2016
DS #4: 4/21/17
I'm off to a successful start to my day so far.
DS--N14
Baby #2 EDD--4/16/17
Baby Boy due 04/07/17
Baby Boy due 04/07/17
Baby #2 due April 2017
Married: 5/30/2013
DSS #1: 5/25/2007
DSS #2: 1/22/2011
DS #3: 7/8/2012
BFP: 3/14/2016 ~ MC: 3/19/2016
DS #4: 4/21/17
DH: 36
Married 5 years
DD born 8/30/13
#2 expected 4/25/17
DS--N14
Baby #2 EDD--4/16/17
This Saturday at 12:00pm, Lillebaby Carriers is having select styles on sale for 35% for 24 hours.
www.lillebaby.com
I was originally looking into getting one of these carriers, but found an ergo on clearance about a month ago, so I bought one of those, but I'm still going to be eyeing this deal.
Married: 5/30/2013
DSS #1: 5/25/2007
DSS #2: 1/22/2011
DS #3: 7/8/2012
BFP: 3/14/2016 ~ MC: 3/19/2016
DS #4: 4/21/17
It was me. I'm the hot mess mom. FOREVER AND ALWAYS.
In the past week, our school has also welcomed Bunny, Society and Baby Chica. I'm not one to side eye names at all, but these are pretty special.
DH: 36
Married 5 years
DD born 8/30/13
#2 expected 4/25/17
@cafedisco I also lol'd at Rowdy. Oh my lord. Bunny I've actually heard before, but as a nickname. Society and Baby Chica....just no. Nooooooo.
@cafedisco I used to work for a state department that saw a lot of baby names come by my desk. I've seen quite a number of crazy names. And yes, I side eye them all. How is Baby Chica going to feel when she is no longer a baby, but a 30 year old woman trying to find a legit job in the world?!?! Some people just don't use common sense...
Married: 5/30/2013
DSS #1: 5/25/2007
DSS #2: 1/22/2011
DS #3: 7/8/2012
BFP: 3/14/2016 ~ MC: 3/19/2016
DS #4: 4/21/17
I hope she didn't really leave since we started the FB group. Most people are still active here.
Married: 5/30/2013
DSS #1: 5/25/2007
DSS #2: 1/22/2011
DS #3: 7/8/2012
BFP: 3/14/2016 ~ MC: 3/19/2016
DS #4: 4/21/17
@SnarkasaurusRex 15 days sounds outrageous! I would be annoyed/pissed about that too! When I was teaching in Alaska we only had two per year built in.
My random today is that I am STRESSING about arrangements for my parents to come to town when the baby is born. They have to fly from Seattle to London so we have to plan it in advance, which is fine, but my dad is in a wheelchair because he has ALS so I have to ramp the front entry to my house, find an accessible vehicle, and get them an extended stay accessible hotel because he can no longer get upstairs to the guest bedroom in my home. Its even more complicated that my mom doesn't feel comfortable driving over here on the other side of the road, and I just can't even today haha. I do not want my dad's needs to get in the way of him being able to meet his grandson or having that time with him, but its just a lot right now on top of having a baby.
To be fair, the only reason that he didn't have socks and shoes on was because he was napping when I picked him up from daycare, and they told me that his socks and shoes were in his bag. I didn't realize that they weren't until we got to Target.
1. I didn't go to bed until past midnight last night. I'm soooo tired. I thought about just not going to work today but I really need to save all sick/vacation time I have. Think they will let me get away with a nap?
2. All our NJ moms, did you see TB article about baby boxes? Looks like baby boxes started in Finland (?) and now NJ has caught on board with it. I'll edit and attach the link once I get into work.
Married: 5/30/2013
DSS #1: 5/25/2007
DSS #2: 1/22/2011
DS #3: 7/8/2012
BFP: 3/14/2016 ~ MC: 3/19/2016
DS #4: 4/21/17
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22751415
I know that Scotland is starting it this spring/summer, and I want to say I read something about some hospitals in Texas trying them out? Kinda cool if the US can introduce them, but I doubt we'd get the full benefit as so many people are against any sort of welfare state here
DD1 born 3.2014
DD2 born 4.2017