Laine on a Thursday.

Thank you all for your lovely comments. Yes Stuart if this cough does carry on I'll go to docs. The thing is its so hard to get an appointment it could be gone by the time I do! Alot of people have said to me that this cold has left them with a cough for weeks!

OOOOOOOOH look at me blogging again! I feel all happy and settled. It feels like that little piece that was missing is now found and it feels good!

Thursdays is a good day! :) A happy day for me! See! I likes Thursdays! Thursdays I finish work at 1.15. Thursdays I go visit my friend Tania and her little 7 week old baby Isabella! (Obviously 8 weeks ago it was just Tania!). ~Awwww Isabella is such a cutie! Bless her. Thursdays I go to a course in the evenings with my bestest friends! It's a course called 'Parents surviving teenagers'. Its really good. There are about 12 of us on the course. I dont really know why Im going as my boys are good really. Last week our homework was to spend an hour with each teen, one to one. Joe was so excited about this. A whole hour uninterrupted! He got me to play PS3 with him, FIFA10! And he got to play it on MY PS3 too! He said to me that if Sam didnt want his hour he could have two! Made me feel guilty that maybe I dont spend enough time with him! Awww! Sam wasnt really so bothered about it, he said well we are going to my parent's evening, we could do that! He said he couldnt think of anything to do! Sam is 16 and Joe is 14 - what a difference two years makes! Sam and I did get our hour together though, after parents evening I took him out for something to eat. I think he liked that. You can never tell!

I think this course will be really good, its made me realise that my boys are angels - of course they get moody, they moan and they are lazy and they are untidy and they hate washing up and they hate getting up! They are teenagers! But they dont ever, ever, hit me, shout at me, abuse me, disrespect me or anything like the other parents have to put up with! My boys still like a good cuddle and some of the other parents said their teenagers wont even talk to them. So I am very, very lucky! I do want to understand my teenage boys though so I think this course will be good to help me understand them and their moods. The reasons why they lie and why they have to lay in and why they cant tidy up etc. etc.

Anyway, I'll let you know how tonight's session goes!

Laine xxx

Cough that wont go away!

Well I'm now on day 12 of my cold.

Horrible nasty cough now that wont go away! Its annoying! Its irritating! Its horrible!!!! When will it go?

Apart from my cough, Ive had an alright day today. Work was good, the children were good. Mrs Sayers had to get a bit cross sometimes, yes! I have started to get my confidence and get cross with the kids. I found that hard at first. Its easier when you know them though.

My little group of children were like little angels today. My little 'E' the boy with autism was my little star today, he was. He sat still and listened the whole way through group. I do like a sort of nuturing group with six children that, well, need nuturing basically. ~They find it hard to share, play properly, interact, behave etc. etc. I have a puppet, who is Ginger Bear and we call it the Ginger Bear group. I love my lil group.

I was chatting today to the TA who I will be with in September, she is preparing herself for the lil challenges I will bring with me into year two! I'm actually looking forward to working with her as we get on really well. But, thats not til September, long way off yet! One of the teacher's said to me the other day how great it was that they will all get me eventually as I move through the school with my boys. I hope I can stay with them to year 6 but Im thinking that I may only stay in this job for a couple of years. I want to either train to be a teacher or become a TA. I'll see how it goes.

Im sorry I havent gotten round to read all your journals yet. Ive visited a few and I will get round to you all in time. So good to see I still have readers after all this time. I want to enjoy blogging again, I am at the moment!

Had some good news today, My aunty Pat, my Mum's sister, had an aortar valve replacement today, I dont know how to spell it sorry! But its the main valve in the heart. The tried to do it before Christmas but she had a massive bleed so whe was very nervous this time. It went well though! So Im so pleased. All she has to do now is recover. She will be 80 next month! This valve will really make a difference to her life and things she will be able to do again. Im off to visit her on Saturday.

I bought an Easter Egg yesterday for a pound! A pound! Couldnt resist it!

Bye for now.
Love Laine xxxx

Im here again!

Wow!!!! It took me missions to get back into blogger! Missions!! I had to create a google account, thats how long ago it was that I last came in here! In fact the last time I wrote in here I had just been for interview and been told I had got my job.

Well, Ive now been at my job for like 3 months now! I do like it! Its had its ups and downs and its hard settling in to a new job. Getting to know people, getting to know the kids! The first obstacle is learning all their names - that seemed to come over a couple of weeks. Im now trying to learn every child in the school - as Im with the whole school at lunch times. Im getting there! I hate not knowing their names!

Why have I come back? Hmmmm? Well I've missed writing. I've missed reading! I've missed all of you! I do see a lot of you on Facebook. Im kinda bit tired of Facebook now though. Its annoying! Annooooooyyyyying! I feel happy writing again! I do hope someone reads this! This feels so much more personal than Facebook. Im not sure whether to advertise my blog on facebook tonight or not.

Now, Ive had a cold for the last ten days! It does not want to go! I had to take last Friday off work. Its been a very nasty cold. Ive still got a sore throat and loads of cattarh - where does it all come from?? ewwwwwwwwww!!!

Now to update you on my working days! I'm an Individual Needs Assistant and I work in a class with Reception/Year 1 children. They are age 4-6. Lovely kids! I look after a child with autism (E), a child with behaviour problems (c) and a boy with speech and language difficulties (cc). I best not put their real names! I love them all! They are a challenge but they are just such sweet little boys. (E), the boy with autism makes me smile everyday. I hate making him do writing and sums though when he's not feeling up to it, some days he is up to it and its brilliant but other days there are distractions and he just doesnt want to do it. I dont like to force him. I like it now that he trusts me, it took a while for us to get to know each other. He likes electricity and light-bulbs, they are his most favourite things in the whole world! He always likes to turn the lights on and off, he likes also to open the doors with my magic key. Im sure I will have some stories to tell you about E!

C has behaviour difficulties and can be a right little pickle! I do find it hard to tell him off because he is such a sweet little character and his sense of humour is brilliant! Im getting stronger with him now that my confidence is growing. We sometimes go and do jobs just the two of us and he loves that, we have a special dinosaur game we play if he gets his jobs done on time. (jobs are a way of getting littlies to do their school work!)

CC is just a little gem, he is a sweetie, I love my sessions with him. The other two boys I work with are year 1 but CC is Reception so he is the youngest I look after. I take him out for speech and language sessions and once a week I have a lady come in and help me. I met CC's mum the other day and had a good chat with her. It really helps to know the child's mum and it also helps the child's mum to know me too I think.

I found it hard settling in as the TA in my class is a bit wary of me, to be understood I think as I am a friend of the teacher! But she is coming round a bit now, Im giving her time and space and Im respecting her position in the classroom, I didnt want to think I was there to take over her job or anything like that.

Well I think Ive written enough for now, Ill write some more. Im not going to say tomorrow, coz I dont want to disappoint you if I dont do it tomorrow, but I will write again.

Love Laine xxxx

Oh what a day!!!

Hey everyone!! Im doing a hen tree - I am coz Sara said I shud!

I got me a new job today!!! Yay I did!! A beautiful lil country village school and they want me!! Me!!!! Whoooooo! Im so pleased!

I had the interview this morning - first of all two lovely children took me round on a tour of the school - I so enjoyed it. They were fantastic kids! Then I had to sit with a group of children, one being the little boy I will be supporting and we did an activity together for about ten minutes! The little boy that I will be working with tried to give me a kiss when I left him!! AWWWWW!!
Then I had the interview, lots of questions to answer and I was able to answer them all! I was so so nervous though and my mouth went dry. They kindly had water readily available - I thought that was nice - never known that before at an interview - coz your mouth does go dry with nerves!

It's such a lovely school - it's a teacher's dream of a school! It's only got about 20 children in each class and only has four classes! Its a very old victorian school and it is run by Church of England and the lovely church is just opposite the school. The school hall is the village community hall! It's just so lovely!

I know the teacher too! She is really lovely and I worked with her at Robsack Wood - and my boys had her as a teacher when they were little - they love her too! She said I was her first choice and that she has never seen little Callum try to kiss anyone before - she said that he has chosen me too!

I will be looking after two little boys - I didnt meet the other boy - he has autism, Callum has speech and language, communication problems. Awwwww he was lovely. Im so so pleased! I am, I am!!!

Oh, and I have a new hair do!!!!

Laine xxxxx

Part two - job loss

Anyway, what was I saying. Oh yeah, right so here I am at the office on my own as everyone else had gone home, feeling very sorry for myself. Anyway, I got packed up pretty early and I left the office just before six, or so I thought! I did meet some visitors in the car park and took them to the bar. They were happy enough. I was just glad to get home and tell John all about my horrible day.

So we get to Tuesday. My boss wasnt there when I arrived and she had left me a really long complicated booking to do. Probably to see if I could cope with it or not! Anyway, on her desk was a not to say I had left at 5.45pm the night before. I put a little yellow sticky on saying, I left at two minutes to six with an exclamation mark. Oh dear, I was in trouble again. Then I said out loud to Gill, I think it's get at Laine week! Then I felt a bit fed up and kept makng mistakes. Some Sales guy phones up and actually got me to stupidly buy labels for the franking machine, I thought that the franking machine had some sort of service where we got the labels! When the invoice came in on the fax I was like, yikes! Ive been taken in by the sales guy. So I immediately rang them back to cancel and guess what???? The office was closed! What a surprise! Anyway, I faxed back the company and asked them to cancel the order. Then I left it on another colleagues desk so they could see what I had done the next morning.

So Wednesday morning comes! Im at my cleaning job and my mobile goes, it's my boss. The gentleman I clean for said use my phone Laine and phone her back. Well, she let rip into me didnt she!! She had a go at me for leaving early on the Monday, apparently everything went wrong and she had to be called and I was in big trouble. She told me I was unprofessional and people were still arriving and I shouldnt have left early! I said, sorry I wasnt myself, I didnt realise the time, she said to me that's something a child would say! She then told me off for leaving the note for Gill about the labels order! I said I didnt leave it for her to do - I left it to inform her what I had done. Then I had a lecture about how we shouldnt be taken in by Sales guys, etc. etc. She then said that I was out of order for texting the other co-worker regarding the misunderstanding about the swapped shifts etc. I was then told that the office wasnt a playground and that Im not to gossip. Im to stop messaging people. Im to stop talking to house-keeping and that I had said stuff that she had told me in confidence. She said she couldnt trust me anymore!! Honestly, thats not all of it! It goes on and on!!

When I came off the phone I was in floods of tears and shaking! How dare she speak to me like that! Fair enough I had made mistakes. Oh and remember I had said I think its get at Laine week, well that was reported back to her!

Anyway, I talked and talked to John about it and my friends. I was going to go back in on the Friday and just ignore it all. But on the Thursday I broke down - I was shaking and I couldnt eat.
I could not go back there! Not after all that was said. And what if another interview came up. How would I go and I didnt want to go through all that again! So I phoned up HR Manager, I couldnt talk as I was too upset. But John took the phone and he spoke instead. We sent in my letter of resignation and it said that my position in the office had become untenable. And as for my notice I was ill!

I really thought I would get a phone call from them. But nothing! Not a bean! So there you have it! Im out of work!

Phew! Sorry that was so long.

Laine xxxx

Here I am again

Here I am again! Bet you thought I wouldnt come back. Not sure whether to keep blogging or not! But hey whilst Im here pull up a chair and listen to what's happened to me in the last week or two!

Been a bit eventful I must say! Since I last wrote Ive lost my job. Well say lost, I actually resigned. Was a bit of a shock as I have worked for the holiday village, on and off, for about 7 years. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I very stupidly confided in a colleague that I was looking for another job! Never do that! I repeat never do that! Even if you think you know the person really well!! I asked her to swap shifts with me as I had applied to a local school for Specials Needs Assistant and the interviews were to be held on 18th september, a Friday. She works all day on a Thursday and I did Fridays so it was simple we just swapped. Anyway, I didnt get the interview! I never found out until the Thursday so I couldnt swap back. So I took the opportunity to go visit my Mum and Dad. Very silly of me then to put 'looking forward to seeing my mum and dad tomorrow' as my status on facebook!! (oh, and the explanation I gave to my boss for swapping shifts was that I had to take boys up to London!)

Anyway, we gets to Monday and Im called in to the office to discuss my hours! Anyway, my boss asks me about Friday. Where were you really as if you swap shifts with someone you should be truthful as to why or they wont do it again! So I said I took boys to London then went to see my Mum and Dad. My boss said well it doesnt fit as lots of people saying you are doing different things. She then preceded to tell me that she didnt think I could cope with my work, especially when its busy in the mornings! I was devastated as I think of myself as a very efficient worker and consider myself highly intelligent! She then said that my hours could not change and I had to work afternoons and every other Saturday, I had no choice. (She had changed my hours a few weeks ago, by letter just before she went on holiday and not face to face!).

Anyway, on said Monday I had to work til 6.00pm - people were arriving for their holidays. I was not myself, I let down by my co-worker for spilling beans to my boss as co-worker had obviously seen my status on facebook then moaned about me to the boss. She knew that I was looking for a job but she still did it! Also that I wasnt very good at my job! Gosh are you still with me? Not sure I am! Anyway part two will follow - Im worried that this isnt going to save. Laine xxxxxx

It really is me!

Yikes!!! I havent been in here for sooooo long!!! I feel good to be here!

When times change in my life I seem to come back here! I really dont know why I stopped writing! It has never been the same since AOL times! But thats not really a good enough excuse! I feel like Ive come back to a long lost friend. A friend that knows you will always come back and doesnt get moody coz youve been doing other things.

Facebook! It seemed to take me over for a while! Ive got over that now. I only visit it from my iphone now! I dont do the app things and I dont play Bejewelled as much. In other words I dont have to rely on Facebook anymore! Phew!!! For one minute I thought that I had an addiction! May be I did!! Coz everytime I turned on the computer I was compelled to press that Facebook icon every bloody time! Sometimes I would just stare at it and wait for something to happen! I ended up hating it. I do hate it! But I like to just now and then see how people are. I now refuse though to tell the whole world about what's going on in my house. It's somehow better here! Here is where I should be! I actually went for 4 weeks without even switching my laptop on! I didnt miss it! I dont need it! iphone though - needed!! That novelty not yet worn out!

How are you all then? What you been up to? Im soooooooooo looking forward to eventually catching up with some of ya!!! Be warned though I could disappear again! I dont even know what Im going to do myself!

I mentioned a change in my life! Well Im hoping a change is going to occur! Im looking for a job in a school. Ive applied for one already and am applying for four more!!! The one I have already applied for, which Im waiting eagerly for an interview date, is at a school thats right next door to the boys school. Thats for a Teaching Assistant and Play Leader. 9.00 to 3.00 every day! Then the other four are all with SEN children. The one I really really want is a job with a child on the Autistic Spectrum and an child with speech and communication disabilities. Its at a lovely little village school and I know the teacher so it would be brill!!! fingers crossed!!!!

My present job has changed. My hours have changed and I wasnt really consulted about it. I do really horrible hours and have to work on a Saturday once a fortnight too which Im not impressed with at all! Its time for me to leave there and get on with the career I have wanted for so long, to become a teacher.

Anyways, Im gonna read a bit of my book before bed! Its actually 1.40am in the morning and I really cant sleep so thats why Im here! My book is fantastic and I recommend it! The Book Thief by Markus Zusak!

Night xxxxx