Stress Eater Anyone?

I've never been one to stress too much....

In middle school & high school I would fly by the seat of my pants with tests and such. Never had a 'scholastic care' in the world.

College came around, and I got a little more serious because I wanted to work hard to get into A&M (and I did), but still, I didn't really stress out over things. I studied and prepared myself, and so I didn't stress much. Never been a big 'test stresser' like some people. Tests don't scare me...even though I don't consider myself to be an exceptional test taker.

When I got to A&M, I worked hard at first and prepared myself for tests. Towards the end I started 'flying by the seat of my pants' again, but still didn't stress. Did well enough.

Junior year I got engaged and started planning the wedding. 9 months pass, and I suddenly became a 'stresser' (but only for a season really). I would wake up in the middle of the night during the few weeks before the wedding with nightmares. I would either have on a regular, blue dress or it was completely ruined, and I didn't notice until I was about to walk down the isle. I would get to the church and find out that I was there on the wrong day. One dream I remember was that we were all snowed in (because I was worried about the wedding being in December). Some nights I wouldn't even fall asleep in order to have a nightmare...I would just lie awake and think of all sorts of details that needed to be done or were not going the right way.

I know that sounds like a really silly thing to stress over, but that was my first real experience with stressing (I am not just talking about worrying, but actually stressing).

Until now, that was the last real thing I stressed about. I went into student teaching....no stress. First teaching job....no big stress, just first day jitters.

HOWEVER, last night I woke up with what I would almost call night terrors. I woke up in a cold sweat, I woke up too hot, I woke up panicked that I had slept in and would check my phone over and over. At one point in the middle of the night I checked my alarms to make sure everything was set right. I woke up with horrible dreams about..................if you're a teacher you'll guess it: THE STUPID TAKS TEST. I know it sounds really silly, but I'm a first year teacher with a reading TAKS test tagged to my name. Today was also my very first time to ever administer the TAKS test. I have been to two TAKS administration meetings and have been told repeatedly what to do and what not to do, how I can lose my certification and all sorts of other stuff. Teachers have told me stories about a teacher saying the wrong thing and getting fired. And while I know I'd really have to do something wrong in order to get in trouble, I was really scared this morning when I woke up. Not to mention exhausted because of the lack of sleep.

When I first started handing out the tests, I seriously thought I was going to have to get my asst. principal to take over my class for a little while because my stomach was in knots, and I wasn't sure if I'd make it.

Everything went fine, and I know I was stressed for no reason. You don't have to tell me. I know it is just a test. It's not even a test that I have to take. I just feel like there is so much pressure on everyone. The principals, the teachers, and the students. It just trickles down the line. I know how I feel, and I wonder how the kids feel. Some of them have worked so hard in after school tutoring over the past 6 or 8 weeks, and I want so badly for them to the results of their hard work.

Today was the math test and tomorrow is my reading test (I teach reading, not math). Please say a little prayer for "Mrs. Coats' 6th grade students" if you get a chance tomorrow! I am really praying for 90% passing and over 50% commended, but we'll see.

Anyway...When I got home today I realized that I am a stress eater (most people handle stress a certain way, and I think I 'eat my stress'). I came home and immediately ate chips and queso and then went straight for the cookies and milk. That was my dinner. Talk about comfort food!

Luckily TAKS is only two days a year for me or I'd be sporting a chips-and-queso-milk-and-cookies body. Ha!

The End is NEAR...

TAKS test is tomorrow...........tomorrow is math, but my reading TAKS is Wednesday. That's the one I'm really worried about, obviously, because it is the one I teach. However, I am nervous about tomorrow because it is my first TAKS test to administer. I've never even taken a test like it in school...seeing as I went to a private school and the achievement tests we took were no big deal.

Anyhow, I can't wait for this week to be over! Right after school on Wednesday I am going to get a massage! We bid on one of the silent auction prizes at the Micah Johnson Golf Tournament and so I have a massage in Forney and I also have one from Casey's sister, Stephanie. She got me one for my birthday!! 2 awesome options. I'll have one now and save one til the last day of school! What a glorious day that will be! 6 weeks!! WOOHOO! :)

Here is a little clip about the kiddos, but I honestly feel like this, too. :)

If you can't read this...it says..."You can make my body go to school but my soul will be outside running through sprinklers." :)

Birthday & Easter Update!

It’s been a while since I really updated and told you all about my life! So I am going to go on blog overload here with the pictures.

First an update...
March and April have been severely busy. Over spring break we worked on the front yard a LOT and then we finished it off over the 3 day Easter weekend. It looks really good compared to how it was when we bought it. We had someone put the stone in, but then we picked out the plants and planted them ourselves.

Another home update is painting the lime green bedroom and switching out 2 light fixtures. We had a really ugly one in the kitchen and an okay one in the dining room. So, we put the 'okay one' in the dining room above the kitchen table with some new, cute shades that match almost perfectly. Then we got a new chandelier that Casey surprisingly put up in one night. We love it. He was proud of himself because he is normally not so handy. :) I will post pictures of all this stuff later because this post is mostly filled with birthday pictures!

At the end of March, Casey went with Charlie on a ski trip. I asked Casey to take the disposable camera that we had, but he wouldn’t. However, when he got there, he realized that he would like a camera, so he bought one. He should’ve listened to his wife. Oh well. When we get those developed I’ll put some up. He only took 12 pictures so if I got them developed now it would be a waste. Anyway, Casey was skiing on my birthday which was April 2nd. So that night I went out with my mom, Rachel, Laura, and baby Aubrey to Olive Garden. It was good fun.

Casey got back late on the 3rd and on the 4th we went to III Forks for my birthday. It was fun and he gave me a North Face jacket, Fireproof DVD, and Britney Spears’ newest CD. Good times!

We also had a little birthday party with both of our families. We went to my grandparents house—Momma Sheila & Papa Donnie’s. I opened presents, ate cake, and Casey and I had an Easter Egg Hunt! They are money-filled eggs, which makes it even better! I scored $26 of the $36 dollars and that tells you who really won J After the hunt we went fishing! We had Maddie with us and she loved running around and jumping in the tank. She even ate a minnow.

This is me with my Momma Sheila, Pappa Donnie,
and Uncle Russell!

...and here I am with my Mom and Momma Sheila

Casey & I with the cute cake!

hunting eggs with Maddie's help! :)


Me with baby Aubrey at Olive Garden on my actual bday

with Laura & Rachel! Good times!

about to blow out the candle all the yummy Olive Garden cake!

in the lobby waiting to be seated.

Since Casey was skiing, my Mom stayed with me and she took this picture the morning of my birthday!

Once Casey returned home we went III Forks and later opened presents! :)

I love this movie!! Thanks babe!


I was really stoked about the NorthFace jacket! Woo hoo! :)

We went to eat at Razzoo’s with Casey’s family on Sunday night (the 5th) for mine and Stephanie’s birthday (Casey’s sister). Her birthday is on the 23rd. April birthdays are truly the best J After Razzoo’s we went back to Casey’s parent’s house and ate Casa Linda Bakery cake! YUMMY! I got 3 of the candles for turning 23 and Stephanie got 9 because she turns 29!

Caleb helping us blow out the candles! :)

cutie boy! :)

Now onto Easter! This is cute Caleb hunting eggs! :)

very cute!

funny running shot! Casey & I on Easter!

Awkward Turtle...

In class today a kid was reading at his desk (let's call him Daniel), and then all the sudden sat up and blurted out, "Mrs. Coats, what's a virgin?" I sat there awkwardly for half a second while a couple of the other students laughed. It was obvious that only a few of them knew what it meant. I was a little caught off-guard because these are the same students that sometimes say really crude things and know some really crude gestures (they are 12 afterall), so I was naturally a little surprised that they didn't know the word virgin. However, I was also a happy to hear that they have some innocence and naivety left.

Anyway, before I could say anything, one of the other boys (let's call him Justin) says, "I'll tell him!" and he runs over there and whispers into his ear, but still so loudly that we could all still hear him. "It's a person that hasn't had sex." Well, at least he got it right. I didn't want to have to correct him, haha. Daniel's face got REALLY red and he put his head back down on his desk to continue reading. I asked him why he had suddenly asked that question. He said it was in the book he was reading, which was Twilight. I thought for a minute and really couldn't remember that part. I went over to him and asked to see it in the book. I literally laughed out loud for a moment.

The word was "aversion."

Say it out loud to yourself and you will see why I and half the class laughed a little. It definitely sounds the same.

Super hilarious and also a teachable moment. I wrote aversion on the board and told them what it meant. Not nearly as awkward :)

Horrible Monday.

I am posting this a few days late...

Several weeks ago I had a mouse in my room, so I got a mouse trap put in my room by my desk. It was a “glue trap,” so they get stuck on it and then can’t get off and eventually die….well, the mouse never came around, and I forgot about the trap and never threw it away.

Monday morning I got to school and the papers that were on the counter were strewn about on the floor. We have a class pet. She is a gerbil named Skittles. When I saw the papers, I suspected her because they are right by her cage. I looked in and she was not there. She has gotten out once before because a student didn’t leave the door securely closed. That time she was sitting in the middle of the floor looking at me all cute, and I was able to catch her in a box and put her back. This time I looked frantically around the room…then I remembered that rat trap…I walked over and screamed. There she was, the class pet, stuck to the glue. It was pitifully sad. I did not have enough time to “dispose of it” before I had to get my kids, and I did NOT want to be the one to do it anyway. I went and told Mr. Ed (the one and only man at our school--he's a parent volunteer), and he said he would come back when I had dropped my kids at PE in 15 minutes. I had to spend 15 minutes with the kids in the room and Skittles on the trap. I was petrified that one of them would look and find her, but they did not. After I dropped them off at PE, I came back to the class, and Mr. Ed pulled the mouse trap out from under the desk. When he did, he saw that Skittles was still barely alive. Barely hanging on. We thought seriously about trying to pry her lose somehow, but were pretty sure it was a lost cause. She had even gnawed through a part of her tail to get lose, but her entire back was still stuck to the glue trap. We then decided that somehow we had to put her out of her misery because it was so sad. She was making little screeching noises. ...And this is the part of the story that I walked out of the room for….Mr. Ed put Skittles inside of a plastic bag and used a hammer to “put her out of her misery.” I left the room and Mr. Ed did his job and then took Skittles out.

When I picked my students up, I told my them that I had found Skittles ‘passed away’ when I got to school this morning. They assumed she died in her cage. There is no way they need to know otherwise. Too gruesome. I hid the cage so they would not find the huge hole that Skittles gnawed in the plastic to get out of her cage. There was even ‘saw dust’ on the counter around the hole that she had made. Craziness.

All that to say, it was not a good morning.

RIP Skittles. 46 sixth graders miss you very much.