Not a Maternity Dress (anymore)

    Once upon a time, I had a favorite brown dress.  It was soft and comfy, and an absolutely flattering shade of chocolate.  It had one major flaw that ended up making it unbearable-  every time I wore it, someone asked if I was expecting or when I was due.  Now I do understand that before I went gluten free I had a bit of a belly, and knew I looked about 5 months pregnant on a bad day, but I found it completely unacceptable to be asked this on such a regular basis.  Complete strangers, friends, family members- when I wore this dress They all thought I had a bun in the oven!  Not cool.

      Therefore, this dress was thrown into my storage unit never to see the light of day again.  It was to spend it's life in a tortuous existence deprived of food, water, and light (I do realize my clothing is not living, but it's a metaphor, people!)  This was until I went there to drop off work supplies at the beginning of summer (who wants to store notebooks and craft supplies in their hall closet?) and it was peeking out of a box.  I rescued it with the thought of making a dress for one of the girls.  However, when I removed the bodice, the idea of turning it into a skirt came to me.  Though this photo isn't the most flattering (are any pictures taken midday in 90+ degree weather?), the skirt is cute and comfy- everything I had hoped it's previous incarnation was!

Sometimes they just make my brain hurt

I have two female students that I have had for several classes- they are both quite boisterous and often jokingly make fun of each other.  They both feel that one of them has a bigger butt, and the other has bigger breasts- and these often become the focus of their jokes.  This was the most recent debate that occurred for about a week, and it seemed like I was the only one who heard the unintended implication.


"Your booty is the size of Saturn!"
"Well at least my boobs aren't the size of Uranus!"


The frequent back and forth of the "Saturn Butt/ Uranus Boobs" (yes they were calling each other that) lasted for about a week until I finally interrupted the argument in class one day.

"Do you not realize the innuendo of that statement?"
"What's that mean?"
"An innuendo is an unintended statement, usually with a less than wholesome meaning."

One of the girls said it out loud slowly one more time, paused, and her face turned pale.  Then she broke out into an outrageous laughter.  Slowly, a couple other students realized what she had said and joined in.  After explaining it to the first girl, who finally got it in when they said it slowly and with extra emphasis.



I don't know if it is worse that I was the only one who heard what they were saying as raunchy, or that they didn't recognize how their statement sounded.  No one in the school had said anything about it and it was said many times over the course of the week!

Math class quote 9/23

"She's a math teacher- all she likes to do is math."
"Yeah, math is her destiny or something."
"Yeah she's like Pokemon!"

Wine on a Wednesday

   I reached my breaking point today at work...the point where I wanted to slam my head into the wall and just cry out of utter frustration.  I had to explain to a student why I would accept him writing only the answer, but couldn't give him credit if he just wrote the question.  I don't think he was trying to drive me to drink on a weekday, but really truly didn't understand where I was coming from.  I even had done the problem on the board; all he had to do was copy the answer down.  He was driving the other students bonkers, too.

"Mrs. V, this boy is the reason I couldn't be a teacher- I'd want to smack some sense into him!"
"Boy, Mrs. V is being patient with you, but if you don't copy that number off the board and stop irritating us all, I'm gonna pull off this belt and teach you a lesson."


We all made it through the class, and I survived the rest of the day (and no blood was shed by anyone).


I don't know why, but today just made me question everything I have taught so far- whether I am really a "good" teacher.  I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better day, and if not, maybe I will just run away and bang my head against the wall!

"Off to Join the Circus" Shoes

Once upon a time, I had a favorite pair of black heels- perfect height, super comfy, and best of all cute!

Problem was, they quickly became my dog's favorites and he chewed on the heel leaving teeth marks all over.  It wasn't so bad that anyone would really notice unless they looked closely, but I teach high school and bored students notice everything!

I couldn't bear to toss them, so I came up with a brilliant plan- decoupage!  I found an awesome paper that featured French circus poster postage stamps at Scraporium (owned my my long-time friend's mom). *squeals with delight*



I think this incarnation of my shoes is even better than the original, but I won't lie- this project took much longer than expected.  I haven't worn them much because there has been awful flooding rain, and I don't want to test the waters (so to speak) yet.