Happy Birthday

See how hard I'm holdin onto this man??? Today is his birthday... I wanted to take the day off to celebrate but it falls in the same week as this guy's high school graduation...

 but I didn't want the day to go by with out telling my three readers how special he his... Chris and I met in a very different way... When I was 20 a guy I went to high school with was in Desert Storm... so my high school wrote a letter saying that he wanted letters from classmates...so I wrote him a letter and told him that if anyone else was lonely or wanted letters, I would write to them....so he gave my letter to Chris... he wrote me a letter and  I wrote him back and we correspnded for about 7 months... we sent pictures back and forth and he even called me once from the desert!! You could tell he hadn't been on the phone in a long time... so then in June he came to Chicago and we met and it was pretty much it... I had to get a hubsband through the Persian Gulf... God works in mysterious ways!!!!! But from 1994 to now  we have spent ALL of his birthdays together... it is a VERY special day... so today's Pookapookapooka is dedicated to Chris... I'll hold on as tight as a I can!!!

 

G DAY

Today in our end of the year countdown we are on G... G stands for GO KLH!! Thus, my highly enviable t-shirt... I feel like I'm wearing pajamas....

your girl Pooka's got 5 more wakeups until summer.... PRAY FOR ME!!!!  The three day weekend has put me in a summer mode and I'm like, " SLEEP NEEDED!!!" 5 more wakeups.. we CAN DO THIS!!!!!!!

Have  a great day!!!

The Other side..

Good Friday!!! and you know what I'm going to say: its been a five day work week and I worked every damn one of em.....My reward for this is a three day weekend!!!! 

Last night my girls and I were texting as ussshh...and we were talking about a friend we work with and his dad... now my one friend has a special power to connect with the other side.. shes seen things and felt things that other people don't... so I asked her to talk to my mom.... she said she has talked to  my  mom and that my mom said she was with Chris right now and is supporting his desire to be closer to the church...she also said that she knew I didn't need her approval in life to do things.. She felt bad about not knowing more about what grade I taught and where I worked... but she was proud of how far I've come...I was really happy to hear from her...So it gives me not a sense of peace, but a sense of excitement... that she can be reached....

Have a WONDERFUL holiday weekend my friends!!!

Imaginary Wife Swap

Sometimes when I can't sleep at night I imagine that I had my own reality show... it would have to be one where theres a confessional and I would give the details there... So I was watching the new "Wife Swap" last night and while I was tossing and turning, I was trying to imagine what it would look like... Ok..
* The day starts at 6:45 when the alarm goes off... at this time you will  hear a small dog whimpering to get out of his crate...the whimpering may happen earlier, but we're sleeping, so we can't hear it....
When alarm goes off... DON'T get up right away... curse the sun and the alarm for waking you up and question why school has to begin at the brink of dawn????
* Let dogs out and brush teeth/ take a shower... leave dogs outside while this is going on... they will spend at least 15 minutes of this time barking at young schoolchildren who are unfortunate enough to have a bus stop right outside our gate... Sorrry... but once they are done barking, they will need to poop... give them ample time to do this OUTSIDE
*When shower is over, let dogs in and put on makeup, do hair, and get dressed...
*When all ready, get your picture taken for this blog...
*Throw a lean cuisine in your bag and take off
*Once inside the classroom (which will take you like 15 minutes to get to because its in the BUFU part of the school) open your computer and set up attendance on the smartboard...
*Before the bell rings, write blog....
*Once bell rings, walk the mile and a half to the gym to get students
Bring students to room.. try to listen to 13 children telling you stories of what happened to them since you've been apart...
* once your in the classroom.. yell out, "Attendance do your job... chairs do your job... bookbags do your job....
Then sit and check  any emails while students are mulling around....
Start asking students, "Are you done?? Are you done with everything???" as they are sitting and talking and NOT working.....
Next, get up and take the class to the bathroom.. avoid the dirty looks you will inevitably get from other teachers because your students will be talking in the hall....and you will try to shush them... they don't care   they can read the writing on the wall.. they know there are only 8 days left of school....

When you get home from school your "husband" will ask  you what you want for dinner... now you've had to make about 345,000 decisions today... so whats one more???? There will hopefully be something for dinner... then depending on the day you will watch TV until bedtime... the bed will be the sweet relief you need to get through another day...
Now you'll also have a 17 year old to deal with.. he'll need you to drive him to work
You'll also have these two beasts to deal with...

and love on them as I would.... so with the exception of 22 6-7 year olds who will be talking to you incessently and interrupting your every thought, a hubsband who is wiiiiiiiiiiiiildly indecisive, a teenager who you'll have to monitor 24/7, oh.. and a house that is in DESPERATE need of TLC... you should do great!!!!

WIWW

It is once again, freezing today... high of 50.. that is the reason for this warm outfit...but hey... I switched it up...Today marks 9 days left of school... today in our end of the year countdown is the letter  J.. J stands for Just for fun... the kids in my class get to play games in the classroom... wish me luck... and go link up with thepleatedpoppy.com tuckerup.blogspot.com andcappuccinoandfashion.com

Oh and don't forget to just have fun!!!!

Three rubberbands...

The reason I look crazy in these pictures is because:

1. I forgot to lock little Cooper (seen here)

in his crate last night and at around 12 am he comes out like," oh.. is this door open??? I'll just slank out and see.... " and then proceeded to click clack around all night....

2. it is sooooooooooooo cold today.. like 50.. and my hubsband was like, "hurry up!! I want to go back to bed!!".... 

So I had to rush over to the fridge to get the pic....

So if you are on facebook, which all of you are.. you may have heard about the 3 rubber bands... its kind of a challenge I guess... you put three rubberbands on your left arm... (pick three that are thick and loose) then every time you say a kind word to someone, you switch a rubber band to your right arm...the goal is to have all three rubber bands on your right arm by the days end... its not as easy as you think... yesterday I switched two rubber bands... I'll keep you posted on my progress:

My FINAL Mad Men recap...

Well.. it had to happen... "Mad Men" ended their series last night..and I have to say... (the opinons exrpessed by Suzanne do not in any way reflect the opinions of others) I was wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiildly disappointed.... This whole week on facebook everybody is commenting up down and sideways that "Mad Men' is not a mystery for us to solve, but a story to be enjoyed.. that is the recurring message I've been getting... stop trying to figure it all out and just go on  journey with these people... so why oh why was the ending a huge mystery... Now if you didn't see it.. there were no breakthroughs... Joan's new boyfriend wants her to quit all jobs and basically just be his little concubine while he is occastionally dabbling in cocaine and riding horses.... Joan picks her career... good choice Joan... I have said it before.. any man who can give up those boobs..has GOT to be an idiot....

Next.... Sally tells Don while Don is apparently working in some garage as a grease monkey that Betty has cancer and the drs have given her 6 months to live.... Don then calls Betty and she tells him she wants her brother and his wife to raise the boys (baby GENE!!! HEs sooooooooooooooo cute!!!!so don is all like, "no.. I"m coming home..." Betty says no.. she doesn't want to spend her last days on earth fighting with Don.. so Don says ok and in typical Don Draper fashion.... gets drunk, passes out and forgets about these two kids he agreed to help...

so he asks them to drive him to the airport to go to California.... He lands at Anna's (The real Don Draper's deceased wife)house and her niece who, last seen was about 9 months pregnant and touring the country.... She sees him and asks if this was kind of intervention.. Don asks for booze and she  tells him shes on her way to a retreat...They end up going to gether and its basically like a commune, but with therapy... 

Back in New York things are pretty much wrapped up... Peggy and Stan admit their love for each other..they are now a couple...

Pete moved to Kansas with Trudie and their daughter in a private jet... just the way Pete likes it...

Back at the retreat... Don and his traveling companion are at a  group and its revealed that Anna's niece had her baby with some lowlife, abandoned it, and now is trying to figure out a way to kind of bounce around without raising her child... a theme wiiiiiiildly covered this season (Dawn, Megans Mom, Joan, ) so someone in the group said that her kid is going to be looking at the door every day waiting for her to come home and she knows because her mother abandoned her and she knows how  it feels... Niece then runs out of the group crying.. Don goes after her and says, " Thats not true... you can get past this.. I can help..." (translation: I walked out on my kids YEARS ago... I don't even know the little one's name anymore!!) 

So niece leaves and the next morning, she takes off.... Don sees that shes gone and he wants to leave, but we're at like a commune and hes going to have to wait @ a week for a cab... so he tells the girl at the counter, "So thats it?? People just come and go? Noone says goodbye???" so he goes outside and uses the pay phone to call Peggy... Peggy is PISSED... "Where are you?? Where have you been???" so Don  then gives as much of a confession as I've ever heard him give and says, "I've done so many wrong things.. " and Peggy says, "What have you ever done that is so bad?" so then he goes into all of his wrongs, he divorced two women, he abandoned his kids, he took another mans name and did nothing honorable with it...Then he says, " I just realized I never said goodbye to you... I wanted to say goodbye"... Then Peggy says what we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for Sally and Betty to say, "COME HOME!!! YOU CAN COME HOME!!!"So Don hangs up and goes into a breakdown.... He can't even move... Now comes the part when Don becomes human...he goes to another support group and a guy there goes to speak and says he  has felt invisible for years.. his kids and his wife dont' even look up when he walks into the room...He says hes been put on  a refridgerator shelf in his dreams and whenever people open the refridgerator they look right over him... This moves Don to tears and he gets up and hugs the man.... 

After this, we move ahead 3 months... Betty is still alive.. smoking at the table.. Don is still on the resort and doing yoga... Peggy and Stan are are finally a couple... Joan is running her business out of her house.. Roger and Marie, Megan's horrible mother are living in Canada....and then we end with this...The coke commercial... NOW... my facebookers out there are telling me that this is supposed to tell me that Don made this commercial after being at the commune....maybe... but it doesn't explain what happened to Sally, Bobby, and Baby Gene... I was so disappointed in this ending... I have no idea what happened... So was this a good episode??? NO!!!!!!!! I've seen so many season enders that really truly moved me... this did not... it angered me..... no more "Mad Men Mondays"..... What will I do now??? Onto " Game of Thrones!!!!!

Something nice on a crappy day....

Hey friends.... I have been like the worst blogger, I swear... I don't even know how I even still have a blog... Today has been an uphill day.a.. like I'm trying to climb uphill, with the wind in my face in the pouring rain....
Then I check my little blog and see a comment from...http://www.sydneyfashionhunter.com/
this is her... shes cute right??? so go to her blog and linkup... I will try to be a better blogger next week... Next week will be a better week...  I believe that... Have a WONDERFUL weekend my friends!!!

a technically difficult WIWW....

 

Good Morning lovelies...I know I have been off the grid lately..its not my fault... my computer had a virus and my people told me it was from Blogger... WHAT??? Blogger?? NOOOOOO!!! So I'm risking life and limb just posting this... but DO go and linkup with thepleatedpoppy.com, tuckerup.blogspot.com, and cappuccinoandfashion.com

Why ruin it with words??/

As my three readers know.. I have had like a mourning or an acceptance or an awakening of my kids being old now and I won't have any more kids and I have to just sit around and wait for a grandchild to nurture my nurturing needs.... So to that end I am having my uterus microwaved (aka an endometrial ablation) done... this will end my period for good... So I decided to do it for sure last week... I have been contemplating it for  about a year and I finally talked to my dr. about it and its a go... Now...with yesterday being Mothers Day and all... I think I got confirmation that I'm not too shabby at this Mom thing... My son signed his card like this:

and I knew exactly what he meant!!! Its literally the nicest thing he could've said to me.. by not saying anything he knew it meant everything... 

My daughter wrote this:

Knowing she stressed about what card to pick... she is so funny!! But so sweet!!!! 

I hope you all had a GREAT Mothers Day... Mine was in a word: perfect...

(A verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry disapponting) Mad Men Wrap up...

I know these pis are jenky... Expect jenky pics for the next 11 days... thats how much time Jack has left of high school... Once hes done, we won't have to make sure he gets his butt up for school.. THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!

Now..onto "Mad Men".... I have soooooooooooooooo many negative thoughts on last nights episode which I don't think I can hide during this recap....

Ok... We start with Sally... back at school talking to Don on the phone... Don, apparently has gone off the grid (again) and is driving cross country in yet another vision quest to find his purpose in life....Hes in Kansas City this time... his car breaks down and hes forced to stay at this no tell motel....    So then we move onto Betty... shes at college, studying to be a psychologist...all of a sudden, she is walking up the stairs and is winded... she falls down and has to go to the dr. because she has a broken rib... the dr. then says he found something more serious and she needs to call her husband... ok... lets stop here.... long story short, Betty has lung cancer... W......T.....F!!!!!!!!!! has "Mad Men" ONCE in this season or last even HINTED at this??? NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!now.. you're all going to say the same thing.. "she was a smoker"...  Don't give me that!! I know plenty of smokers.. it would have come on slower and  there would have been more signs before it got really bad... and now its totally stage 4, shes got a year to live... if the writers had hinted to this even a little, I wouldn't be so mad... but shes just got cancer, its bad, shes as good as dead....The ONLY redeemable part of this storyline is Sally, who Betty trusts probably more than anyone is put in charge of what Betty will wear...  

Back to Don... hes still on his little trip, but he can't leave this little podunk town because his car is getting fixed (looks like someone was watching, "Doc Hollywood") so he asks this bellhop to get him some alcohol in which the guy swindles him out of 10.00... so  hes in the town, fixes a typewriter and now hes like the new handyman.... so why doesn't he come to the VFW dinner tonight??? Come on!! It'll be fun... So he goes.... and the only thing to come out of this is a drunken pow wow in which old  veterans are giving their accounts of the war and Don tells how the real Don Draper died... he had brought out a lighter while the unit was under fire and the flame from the lighter lit him up... so he took his dog tags... 

Now... later that night in his room, the vets he was sitting with come in and start roughing him up because the money collected at the dinner for a fellow veteran has gone missing...(Do we need this ridiculousness??? Do we need to have  this side story with ONE episode left???  Do I need to care about these people?? NO NO NO and NO!!!!!)So it turns out the crooked bellhop took the money!!! again.. do I care?? NO!!!   I am so diisturbed by the writers treatment of Betty, just throwing cancer at her with NO  forwarning whatsoever... 

there was also this stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupid story about Pete and his wife getting back together, Pete getting a great job offer... WHO CARES??? It was like half the episode!!! It could have been wrapped up in 10 minutes!!!

With exactly ONE episode left in this series... the writers are not giving us enough... I am cautiously optimistic about the ending, but with last nights episode, I need ALOT more!!!!

Senioritis... First Gradeitis....Mothers Dayitis...

Hey Friends... no pics today thanks to Jack Bruce... my senior in high school who has exactly 13 days left in high school and is going to press my nerves every last one of em.... As my three readers know, Jack cannot take the bus... its beneath him... sooooooooooooooooo... what he does is wake up late and have hubs drive him to school... hubs is also my photographer, so no pics.......

I can't say I'm too much better... I have exactly 18 days left of school...... the kids in my class are going to work my nerves every one of those days.... now... my thoughts on the school year of 2014-15

....We started off this year in a new room...room 704....

I was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper excited to be in a new room because I had been in my old room for like 8 years... this room is smaller, but it at the waaaaaaaaaaaaaay end of the building so no one comes down and bothers you...
In September my next door neighbor told us she was expecting... which was nice because she had been trying for a little while... however... this would mean subs on top of subs on top of subs.....
This year was an evaluation year for me... so pretty much from October to March that was my obsession....
This year I had a class of kids that were all above the benchmark... kinda like the challenge class... I LOVED it!!!! I got to really challenge these kids, go at a faster pace, have kids that were basically all at a level where they could read.... it was great!!!! This class is really smart, really funny, and really sarcastic.... (Example: yesterday a kid told me  joke: "what snake loves desserts??? a PIEthon!!!"... So  he just said it like python and I didn't get it.. my girl Dani goes, " get it pie?? like dessert???"... I literally needed a first grader to explain the joke to me!!!)
Not that they didn't come with challenges... when you have kids that are this smart, you expect them to be mature too... they're not.... so when they do things like wrestle in line, and touch one another, and yell... I expect more than they can do at times...
I have to say, this was a GOOD YEAR!!! My hubsband was home and that was key to my happiness... having him there when I got home really was sooooo comforting.... Plus I know it comforted my son too even though hes a big bad hs senior...
This year has been challenging too... My neighbor having a baby stirred up some feelings in me about parenthood, My evaluation was a challenge, but I proved I can work hard and speak up for what I want... Having set the bar high for myself set the bar high for my class and I'm sure they weren't ready for some of the things I threw at them... but I do think they have grown and thrived in first grade... with the combination of good parents, rules, boundaries, and limitations ( I watch Cesar Milan on a loop)

Now..  next topic: Mothers Day... I just had a conversation about Mothers Day with my girls and I was all like, "Mothers Day will be all about ME... I won't have to do anything!!' Then I get an invite for Mothers Day with my family... love my family... but gotta sit this one out...   Mothers Day is about going to lunch, going shopping, and watching "Mad Men"!!!!
For my moms out there... HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

its all in a name...

Good Morning Friends...Its only Tuesday.... Your girl Pooka has exactly 20 days of school left.... that sounds like hardly any.. .but its alot... 

Alot of my blogger friends out there seem to be doing this thing that I hate.. they are changing the name of their blog.... 

Everyone knows me and the pooka but alot of people ask me what Pooka means... I would love to tell you I made it up, but I didn't... I used to have a friend named Octavia and she had a little girl named Sydney who was two when I had Casey ;... every time she called her she would call her Pooka... then she went to pookapookapooka.... Octavia made up the word Pooka.. I just kind of took it on... but I've been using it ever since... Anyone who is special to me is Pooka... Pooka is a term of endearment... so if you love someone, they are a pooka...My blog will always be named pookapookapooka... love love love....

Mad Men Wrap Up...

Remember when I said that I would be ok with "Mad Men" ending?? I said we would get through it and recover??? Well that was a lie!!!! I cant' do this!!! I can't say Goodbye!!!! "Mad Men" should just go on and on and on forever!!!!!! WHY????? WHY MAD MEN??? WHY?????????? This is my apocolypse!!!!!!!
ok... while my tantrum is taking a small break....Heres what happened last night....

1. Last week the big kahunas over at McCann told Sc&P that their days at their offices were numbered and they needed to be over at the Time/Life building where they are... I think McCann wants to have a hands on (in more ways than one) relationship with Sc&P...McCann is a juggernaut... it is a conglomerate of many firms and they are BIG and POWERFUL.... The big fishes in the little pond that was SC&P are now tiny little minnows in the ocean of McCann.... So we are moving.. Peggy doesn't have an office ready for her yet and it seems that she doesn't really have a position either... Last week Don made it seem to everyone that they were just moving... not the case... they are moving, they are being demoted, they are being... most importantly... separated...... So Peggy never makes it over the McCann...
2. Don on the other hand is literally greeted with OPEN ARMS!!!! Don is en enigma wrapped in a delicious looking riddle... hes a mystery... noone knows what hes going to say... thats why everyone loves him... and the big guys at McCann LOOOOVE him.... they tell him he will be working on their next big account, Miller Beer (Diet beer aka lite beer) So  the head of McCann is just what you'd expect from a corporate exec in the early 1970's... sexist, chauvanistic, dominant, no questions asked.... Don is like his beauty queen girlfriend that he wants everyone to see!!!
3. Now Joan on the other hand is not getting so warm a welcome.... She brought in about 4 accounts to SC&P before McCann bought them out.. she wants to keep handling those accounts and McCann can give her a liason person to ease the transition... this proves difficult from the start...While Joan is talking to her account Avon, the person who is there to help her keeps butting in, acting rude, and asks the man if he wants to go golfing... an uncomfortable goodbye later, Joan tells the blowhard that her account man is in a wheelchair... So Joan reprimands him and he says, "Who do you think you are giving ME orders???" which startles Joan, but she recovers quickly and says, " Perhaps you can read the brief before we make any more phone calls".. to which he replies, "Do it YOURSELF!!"... so Joan goes to his boss, and tells him that the client is not responding to the new person... This boss, a big boss says he'll take care of the whole thing!!!! So later, he goes to Joan in her office, says he talked to the liason and they decided that Ferg  will work directly with Joan... like over a looong lazy weekend... like in  no tell Motel  "working" on Avon...(more like working on Joan!!) He tells Joan, "All I'm looking for is a good time"... which Joan who is no fool recognizes and tries to nip in the bud without offending him... "oh, no Avon corporate is right down the block, we won't  need to go anywhere!!" but the vibe is out there... Joan is a piece of meat!!
Meanwhile, over at the Miller beer account... the new way of advertising is now in full effect... and heres a news flash... McCann has its own "Don" who can string a story together pretty well... Don goes into a conference room with about 20 guys in it.. no women and gets a box lunch... (oh, when you said roast beef, I thought you meant filet mignon... this is a.... sandwich... in  a ..... box.....) so Don sits down at the conference table and begins listening to the person at the head of the table... this sounds hauntingly like Don and then he mentions Wisconsin... Wisconsin... Diana... waitress... lost... Don.... McCann... so what does Don do? He leaves the meeting... goes to see Sally and drive her to school.. oh, she already left? ok.. well Diana in Wisconsin.. here I come... so he goes to Wisconsin... 8-9 hour road trip.. whatevs... he gets to her ex husbands house and sees another woman, tells her hes looking for Diana because she won a  refridgerator full of beer..... she lets him in... (side note: if someone as good looking as Don came to my house in 1973.. I would probably assume he was a serial killer and I'd be dead)
NOW... BACK TO JOAN....
Joan goes to McCAnn himself to tell him                that Ferg   is a letch and she can' t work with him... then she says how her level of seniority has not really been recognized at McCAnn... McCann... who is wiiildly less than impressed by Joan... (my guess? he knows she got the partnership by having sex with a client) and tells her that her "seniority" as she calls it is NOT recognized here and if she thinks she is anything more than a cog in a wheel, she is sorely mistaken!!!!!! Joan, God love her, holds her own... she does NOT back down.. she tells him shes got the ACLU, the Womens Rights Attorneys, The Equal Employment Act.. all ready to go... McCann is unphased.. he says shes got to go!!! So she says, "Sure, just pay me my half million dollars.." McCann says he'll give her .50 on the dollar.... oh Joan!!!!! McCann has lawyers, ad departments, magazines, this battle is too big for Joan and in the end she knows it... she takes the deal.... 1 out, 4 to go... (And lets not forget Peggy.. oh wait, McCann did.. Peggy who?? )
Now we are down to 2 episodes.... of course NOW its getting good!!!! Good thing summer is coming.. I'll need time to recover from this betrayal.........      

A shout out!!!

Hey all... no pics today.. but I have a good excuse!!!! I was getting ready for work listening to my favorite podcast, "Watch what Crappens"( available on itunes) or here
https://soundcloud.com/watch-what-crappens/181-at-the-mall-talking-about-kim-richards

and Ronnie ( seen here)and Ben Mandlekerhave this great podcast that is FREE on itunes and all they talk about is Bravo shows... so yours truly (seen here)was mentioned on yesterdays edition!!!!! I was soooooooooo excited that I had to tell everyone and by the time I played it like 10 more times, I was late for work... sooooo.... no time for a pic... sorry:( but on the bright side....I am famous now... spread the word....