My Pampered Chef Experience ... so far

August 2013 I jumped into the role of Pampered Chef consultant.  I had several motivating factors.  Money is always tight., I love the products, and I like parties.  A friend had a party and the consultant wasn't pushy or over the top, he was real, and I thought, well if I don't have to be pushy, I might be able to do this.  I went to the party knowing I could spend $20-40, and there were so many products I wanted.  One of the products I wanted most was the manual food processor ... and it was out of my price range ($50).

I am a teacher and I teach swim lessons in the summer for extra money.  It was the end of the summer, and I had been saving up money for two things: I wanted a Nike Fuel Band ($150) and the Advocare 24-Day Challenge ($150).  I did the 24-Day Challenge later and used $170 (with tax) to buy the biggest start-up kit ($500 value), because it had the manual food processor and a lot of other items I wanted.  

The way I saw it the only risk, is that I was "stuck" with all of the items I wanted anyway.  

I saw this on pinterest the other day it didn't have a good link to cite.  I am definitely a hobby consultant.  I make $50-$200/party.  I book or host 6-8 parties a year.  I have fun, but it doesn't consume my life.  I also think of this as my back up plan.  I know it is possible to make this a full time job if the want or need ever arises.  But when I added this to my plate I wasn't looking for a new path, just a little extra cash.   

I am currently a part of a huge direct sales holiday Facebook party.  There are two direct sales people per week and we are pooling our contacts.  It sounded like a great idea to me, my week is coming up soon and I am so excited about it. I have found so many new ideas, including an online party game.

I may start putting some of those ideas on this blog to help me keep track of/easily share these with my party people!   

I would love to hear from other consultants or anyone interested in pampered chef products or opportunities.

Good and bad of swim lessons

How many days does it take for the chlorine to eat your arm hair? I spend 6 hours a day, 5 days a well in chlorine in the summer. It took 7 days this summer before I noticed my arm hair was gone!

I do have great rewards, like my father babysitting Xman in his office. I get to swim with the little man when I have off classes and he is not sleeping. He jumped off the board today for the second time this summer. He thinks he runs the pool!

I also get the best ice ever and diet dr pepper thanks to Dad!

I get to hear the crazy things said at the pool. This year a little girl slipped and fell on her way into the pool. Her dad rushed over to stop her crying. He asked her, "where does it hurt?". "my butt" she cried. "do you want me to kiss your butt?" he generously offered. "no" she giggled and got in the water.

I have been doing this a long time, and though I hurt from carrying fighting kids in the deep end, and from being pinched, scratched and pulled at, I do enjoy what I do ... Even if I complain about having to go - kid's attitude's are contagious!

The naughty question of the day (yesterday)

One of my student was trying to get his pawn to ask me "where's your labia?" in front of two classes worth of students. Keep in mind i am hearing their entire conversation. The instigator told him is was a bone in your shoulder.

So the pawn, who is starting to learn not to trust the instigator, asks, "what are the bones in your shoulder?". So I list the bones of your shoulder. "That is not what you said." says the pawn to the instigator and the conversation gets quiet again, trying to convince the pawn again.

Finally, he asks the question, "What is Libya?". "A country." I say and move on. Silly teenage boys.

Drunk driving simulation

At school today we had a drunk driving simulation. The cops brought in cars, a kid was in the road playing dead, two students were in one of the cars who were playing hurt and did a great job acting. But the acting award goes to the drunk driver, he stumbled around and miserable failed his sobriety test, as you would expect from the number of beer cans that fell from his car as he got out.

We knew about this all week, but we're supposed to keep it a secret from the students. The initial shock if leaving for what you think is a fire drill and seeing that is what we are after. But some of the kids started noticing cop cars blocking off roads and things like that, and one asked a teacher what was going on. Without missing a beat the teacher explained that there was going to be a major drug search because it was 4/20. Best part - a kid in the class said he needed to go to his truck.

Silly bonus question

Silly bonus questions = sillier answers

Another one of my favorite reasons to be a teacher!

Ok today is kicking my butt again today - I need another two weeks off :). But the highlight of my day ... Seeing one of my favorites!!

This student graduated the year that Xman was born and I missed almost the last. Three months of his senior year in AP Bio.

As a freshman he was very impressive and inquisitive and loved biology. We spoke in the hall and he came to visit before and after school during those in between years of chemistry and physics.

During AP Biology just after we were learning about Bryophytes (mosses) he and a friend saw moss growing on a tree branch, broke the branch and brought it into class. Awesome! He actually pouted all of his senior year because I did not allow him to be my teacher's aide. Not because I didn't want him in there, but because he was so super excited about biology I thought he might interrupt class and participate with the freshmen too much, and because I figured I would be distracted by him and talk to him too much too. I felt so bad not having him as my teacher's aide. But I loved having him in my AP Bio class and NHS. He is a quality individual!

He is at A&M and not loving organic Chem but loving college - maybe too much, maybe at the expense of his GPA. I can completely relate to that!

A long day

Today was the first day back with kiddos ... I am tired! It doesn't seem like I should have to go back tomorrow. One of the joys of having seniors is they swap classes a lot at semester, so I have a different mix of kids in most of my classes. No problem in the morning ... but in the afternoon ...that is another story. I am sure it will be rectified in the next couple of weeks.

On the upside, I got a gift yesterday! From an ex-student. It was a whatchamacallit! So yummy! He is now my favorite. He is a kid from my first batch of freshmen I taught. I yelled at him in the hallway one day. It is good to see how students change in the four years of high school and after. He has really become an amazing young man, who seems to have excelled and matured into an amazing young man. I was worried he might get trapped in the silliness of his friends, but he has done well. He is my favorite (for a little while:).

Quote of the day (yesterday)

Life of a slug:

First your homeless
Then people pour salt on you
Then you die

How is this helpful?

CAST 2011

CAST is the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching, or as I call it science-teacher-nerd-convention.

I think every science teacher should be forced to go to this every year. I do not think real force would have to be applied. But I think there is a lot of districts who don't allow teachers to go, or limit their attendance. I understand that we are not cool like the math teacher who have their conference in the summer where subs are not required, but really?

There is more ideas and free lab supplies here than anywhere else I have been. This year I went to 10 really good workshops, got several free labs, lessons, videos, not to mention the ideas I got from talking to other teachers in my workshops.

What does it take to get schools to send teachers to CAST?

Shaken beliefs

My students were discussing ... Well, I actually can't remember. It's been less than 12 hours and I can't remember.

Anyway they were discussing something,and I heard one student say, "I don't even know what to believe anymore ...". So funny. Maybe I will remember, and do a new post then you can laugh too!

A glamorous job ...

Teaching swim lessons used to mean a couple of cute swim suits, a hat, a few bottles of sunscreen and an awesome pair of sunglasses.  I would teaching standing in thigh deep water, or teaching advanced kids from the deck, and attempting to stay as dry as possible for as long as possible.

That was 17 years ago.

Now swim lessons means Dad keeping Xman at the pool, packing books, food, diapers, & milk, cramming my body into a swim suit that would have fit well about 5 years ago, crawling on my hands and knees in a 18 inches of water, no sunscreen needed because we are teaching at an indoor pool, but it is also colder because the sun is not beating down on you.

We are three days in and I have raw knees, cut feet, and I think I am allergic to my swim suit and chlorine ...

I enjoy teaching little ones to swim and I am pretty good at it ... imagine that ... after only 17 years!  When we moved back I was teaching swim lessons to make extra money in the summer.  Since I have started teaching high school, every year I said it was my last year.  The last few years, it has been a necessity.  I am hoping that I will quit teaching lessons all day every week before I am 40!  (Notice how I am already giving myself some outs there!)  Pray for me ...

Most Awkward Question of Day

Most awkward question of the day during our abstinence video ....

"What is oral sex?"

day 3

Nervous System notes for Anatomy! You are welcome!  An english teacher @ my school tells the students that every time you use an exclamation point you kill a kitten! We need cats to dissect for Anatomy!  Please feel free to join  me inmy quest for lab supplies!

Graduation 2010

I have been to graduation ever year even when it was not required.   Graduation is my favorite ceremony of the year.  This is not because it signifies the end of the year and beginning of the summer vacation, or even because there are a few students that we are finally rid of (haha), but because it shows that the student's hard work pays off.  I primarily teach freshmen, and as freshmen many students are focused on school work, or even about graduating - it is a very long four years for many of them.  But seeing how the students change and mature over those four years is very rewarding and reaffirms the reason I teach. 

This year's graduating class was the second group of students that I taught.  The highlights for me for the ceremony:

• The counselor having to run under a closing garage-type door during the ceremony to keep open the path for The seniors to enter the stage
• The shoes
• The first year I sat among the students
• Jared, Morgan, Daniel, Danny, Katie, Cameron, Curtis, Travis, Shannon, Michelle, Haylee, Serafin, Jordan, Amanda, Taylon, Kevin, Miguel, Tyler, Danny, Brent, Jeremy and Zac
• The sermons, I mean speeches
• Being able to pick out Joe singing from the crowd - as usual
• Sneaking into the "after-party"
• The first year someone kept a stole that I will most likey not be paid for
• The first year of the ugly stoles
• BEING INSIDE!!! :)
• Standing on the couch with Chonte' to pass out diplomas

I hope all the seniors enjoyed their graduation, and I am looking forward to next year.

Heading back to work

After approximately three month out of the classroom I am heading back to work on Friday!  I have never really had a summer break, because I have always worked during the summers, so this was my summer break.  About half of it was spent in the hospital, but still it is a long time to be away.  I am such a control freak I am worried about what I will find when I go back ... but it has been nice to be able to take this time with the new little man in my life.  I am not cut out to be a stay at home mom, but wouldn't have traded this time for anything.

I am looking forward to next year.  It looks like we will have lots of changes in our department, and I am attempting to impliment lots of changes for both my classes, and I may be looking at taking on a new class for the upcoming year.

I was speechless ...

This week I was teaching a 3 or 4 year old boy this summer, and I told him he was goofy. He asked what it meant and I said "Silly." He said "I'm not goofy." Then I thought of the character Goofy, so I asked if he was Mickey Mouse? He said "No. Mickey Mouse has big ears and tail." I said, "You don't have a tail?" He said, "No, I have a penis."

The agonies of swim lesson instructors

The idea of teaching 6 hours a day as a summer job may seem appealing, but lets talk about the reality of being in the water that long and the wear and tear on your body.

At this point of the summer I have no hair on my arms, the chlorine has gotten rid of it for me. Unfortunately this does not work on your legs. Though the areas around my knees are hair free from the extensive time I spend crawling after kids in a foot-and-a-half of water. This part of the job also wears down my toenails, from the center out. After a couple of weeks, it hurts to wear shoes because they are so worn down. This year my toenail got caught in the non-slide mat on the ramp, and the the toenail fail off.

Don't get me wrong, I love teaching swim lessons, but I get splashed, scratched, hit, jumped on & pinched. And this summer, I have gotten my boobs grabbed and pinched more than any other summer I can remember (the other instructors have had this same problem as well).

Kids jump off of us and on us. I had one kid this summer that I couldn't let jump off the diving board anymore because I was afraid she would have bruises from my hands catching her right in the ribs to keep her from colliding with my face. But even worse is when they pinch your thighs with their toes when they are trying to jump off of you towards the wall. About the time that happened to me yesterday, I heard the female instructor next to me say "she got me right in the nuts," as her kid jumped off of her. I laughed so hard I almost peed in the pool.

Chlorine is not nice to your skin, hair, or your suit. My skin, especially on my face is raw, the rest always feels really tight. My hair is ridiculous. In the past I have tried every shampoo and conditioner known to man. I have tried putting watered-down conditioner in my hair before I get in the pool. I have tried keeping my hair dry (yeah right). My solution for the last few summers has worked, I cut my hair at the end of the summer.

I have to wear a polyester practice suit which is not attractive or comfortable. Why would I wear such a suit? Let's divide the answer to address the 2 main problems with the suit.

First let's address style: Because the kids can't pull it off of me, they are constantly pulling on the straps and the neckline of the suit, and I have had to fish a couple of kids hands and/or arms out of the front of my suit this summer.

The other problem is polyester. When you are in highly chlorinated water for 6 hours a day 5 days a week, it takes it's toll on spandex, they stretch out, and the elastic within the spandex breaks from wear and from being pulled on constantly.
Polyester does not stretch, add to that the possiblity that I may be allergic to it - as I am currently breaking out in a rash around the outline of the suit ... Let just say I am happy that we have one more week left. Hopefully my cheap-o, ugly, polyester suit I settled for half-way thru this summer will make it through the week!

At least now i teach indoors, and do not have the issues with the sun that I used to ... Be nice to swim lesson teachers