Happy Birthday, Liam!

Today my friends Meghan and Ross had their first baby, a little boy named Liam. What a good start to a long weekend!

Congratulations, guys!

The Countdown Begins

According to my blackboard there are ten school days left this year. That's not counting today, but it does count Records Day, the day where all the teachers come in and just stay long enough to pack up their rooms and tie up their loose ends. Most teachers leave by noon to get lunch and a drink, but since I get paid by the hour I plan to spend all day there.

The last two weeks of school are unique in my district because all the therapists - the OTs, the PTs, the social workers, the psychologists, and the SLPs like me - stop doing therapy and just concentrate on doing their paperwork. They figure we can get it all done in a timely manner that way. It's a nice theory, but it never works out. Everyone knows we have the last two weeks off, so they schedule meetings and workshops. In the last two weeks of school I have four IEP meetings, an evaluation to complete, a department committee meeting, a mandatory department picnic, and two solid days of district training. That doesn't leave much time to finish up my stuff, so I've been busting my ass to do as much as I can as soon as I can.

Unfortunately there are things I can't complete until closer to the end of the year. For example, I have to wait until after graduation before I can finalize my caseload numbers for next year and send all of my seniors' folders to the district building to be filed. After all, if one of them fails a class and doesn't graduate (it happens!) I'd hate to go back and track down their paperwork and re-submit my new caseload numbers.

So portions of my day are spent staring at my to-do list, reviewing each item and growing increasingly anxious when I realize that I can't do it that second. I know that I'm going to have to scramble at the end of the year to get it all done, but I also know there's very little I can do about it.

So I just sit, and wait, and try not to freak out too much. On one hand, I can't wait for the school year to be over. On the other hand, I'm not sure how I'm going to survive trying to finish it all.

Pictures and Recipes

As requested, here's another photo of the lariat necklace I made yesterday:



And a close-up on the tassel:



There was a sale on beads at Michael's. I really need to start ordering some better-quality beads from Blue Mountain or something. I ordered a pack of beads from Etsy and those were really neat. It makes me wonder what I could make with more attractive beads.

Mike wrapped it around his neck yesterday to see how low it would hang on his chest, and I was shocked to see how much thicker his neck is than mine. I could barely get the tassel through the loop. Mike says he needs a strong neck to support his gigantic head, but I don't think his neck looks much thicker than mine. Weird.

The pot roast was awesome. Mike hates leftovers, so I've been going through it myself. Good thing I like pot roast. It's not a crock pot recipe, but it's still super-easy.

Ingredients:

1 quarter cup flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/4 tablespoon pepper
4 lbs beef chuck pot roast
1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup water
8 small potatoes, cut up (or 4 regular ones)
8 medium carrots, cut up
8 small onions (or one good-sized one)

Combine the salt, pepper, and flour and rub it on the meat. Warm the shortening in a deep pot. Brown the meat on all sides (it takes about 10 minutes). Add the water, cover the pot tightly, and let the meat simmer for three hours, either on the stove top or in the oven. Move the meat around periodically and turn it so that it doesn't stick to the pot. Add the veggies and salt and simmer the veggies and meat together for another hour.

Yum!

Man...

Cool necklace, unfortunate length.


It keeps flipping down the front of my shirt. The thing took me a really long time to make, too. Oh well.

Tomorrow...pot roast recipe!