Sweet Sixteen

I have sixteen days of school left. It should be ten, but thanks to the million and one days (okay, six) days we've missed due to ice, cold, snow, and flooding, our school year is now stretching into eternity. In the grand scheme of all the days I will spend in school, sixteen is a heartbeat. But from my vantage point, it also seems like an eternity. I feel that people who haven't known me for long probably think I dislike teaching because I've done nothing but complain this year. I promise that's not so, this has just been a rough year. I always tell my students that I can either be the nicest teacher they've ever had or the meanest teacher they've ever had. Last year's students got it, and I was able to be the nicest teacher ever. I loved last year. This year, though, I've had to be the meanest teacher. If I give these kids an inch, they take a mile. Not to mention all of these other issues at work that I can't really blog about, but I will assure you they are tiresome and troublesome and, well, sucky. Suffice to say, I will not miss this year at all.

This weekend was one of those times where it was like a rollercoaster. Strange as it seems, I kind of like those times because they make the high points that much better. Thursday, I went to the dentist with a horrible toothache. The tooth in question had already had a root canal, so she determined it was an infection and treated it as such. It felt better all day Friday, until about half an hour after the dentist closed when it started to HURT. Funny how that works, right? It got progressively worse, until I was awake at 3AM crying with the entire right side of my face swollen. I was actually wishing that I was in labor because it would have hurt less! Saturday morning, I got into the dentist first thing, and she made it all better, though I was still in moderate amounts of pain. Thanks to my awesome midwife, I was able to score some painkillers, because I had to be pain free to go eat amazing burgers and ice cream with my girls. And you can't eat a bacon cheeseburger with a toothache!

(What up, toothache induced undereye bags!?)
But the truth is, I may not have needed the painkillers because I didn't really chew this burger. No, I pretty much inhaled it. Then after inhaling the burger, I ate two scoops of ice cream (chocolate cake batter and peppermint patty!), plus a brownie.

Oh, and I laughed and basically had the best belated birthday celebration ever because these girls are wonderful, and truthfully, I couldn't ask for a better birthday present than having them in my life.

CE, Sarah, Arianne, Beth, Steph
My usual Wednesday bump day post may be a bit late because Beth is doing maternity shots for me tomorrow afternoon, and they are bound to beautiful (her pictures, not me), so I want to make that my 32 week bump post! 32 weeks! Can you believe that if we take a group photo in two months, I'll be holding a baby, too? Because I kind of can't believe it.