Undead

Before you start thinking that this post is going to be about Zombies, which I love by the way, I'll just tell you right out that what I really mean is that I'm still alive. It's been almost four weeks since my last post, which is just crazy, and as much as I try not to, I feel guilty about staying away for so long.

Everything is good though. In fact, quite great. I'm having a good school year and I love my students. Not in a creepy way, I just think they're pretty awesome.

I've been buried since school started though, and I can't seem to catch up. I feel like the hamster in a wheel, except that I'm running the wrong direction and maybe it's really a gyroscope.

Whine whine, though. I didn't come here to be a buzz kill. Changing the subject to unicorns and rainbows.

Before I forget, this is my last chance to remind you to enter the giveaway for the Monster headphones, here. It ends this week. As a matter of fact, I have mine on right now. My noisy family is in the middle of watching a Grimm marathon, and I'm satisfied having watched most of them at least once peripherally. Much like second hand smoke, except it doesn't kill or maim.

In other news, I'm loving the beautiful fall weather. The tree in the picture above is in our front yard and it makes me happy every time I look at it. I gaze longingly at it when I pull in and out of my driveway on my way to and from school.

As many people experienced earlier this month, we were faced with Peanut Head going on furlough as a result of the government shut down. Although it was scary, we didn't really panic or lose sleep over it, because it's one of those things that you can't control and you just have to hunker down and deal. We've been poor before, so we tightened our belts for a couple weeks and I cancelled my nail appointment with tears in my eyes.

Thankfully, Peanut Head avoided furlough by the skin of his teeth, and I was able to reschedule.

Isn't my mummy Cee-UTE?

Not only was I able to keep my nail appointment, but I didn't have to cancel my already overdue hair appointment. My grays were getting very sproingy and in your face, and they needed some TLC.

I can't believe I'm talking about hair and nails. Geesh. Allow me to change the subject one more time.

I want to talk about some of the fun I've been having with my co-workers at school. We have this one teacher in particular who has the nickname "Peppy" because she's super ADHD like Tigger on Winnie the Pooh. In fact, she's so hyper that I've told her that she's like a hummingbird on crack. I'm totally not kidding.

We have conversations and I have to snap my fingers at her and say "Get to the point, Peppy!" It doesn't phase her a bit. You have to love her though. She keeps things interesting.

For example, we went to an iSTEM conference in June, and at lunch our Principal walked in with his iPad Mini tucked into the back of his pants. Like his pants were a holster or something. It was so funny. Then Peppy waits for him to sit down and get comfortable, and then she stands up and stuffs her iPad not-Mini into her size 0 trousers, stuffs a coke in the back pocket for good measure, and then walks up to our Principal's table and circles it three times. Like she's in a traffic circle and can't decide if she wants to exit because she's having so much fun.

Our sweet Principal, bless his sweet little heart, is completely oblivious to the whole show, in spite of our entire table laughing hysterically across the room. I was laughing so hard I dang near had an asthma attack and I did wet myself just the tinsiest little bit. No lie.

Peppy wasn't able to get his attention with her runway trick, so she saunters up to the treat table and puts together a little sampling of treats for him, and then she walks back and offers it to him.

Still no reaction.

I think I need to frame the picture above and give it to him for Christmas. I can feel an asthma attack coming on just thinking about her circling his table. It was seriously so funny.

I take great delight in hassling Peppy. She has this cute little stuffed monster that I covet, because I heart monsters, and I'm always stealing it and hiding it from her. One day he was in my filing cabinet with just an arm sticking out, waiting for her to rescue him.

It's gotten so bad that her students have taken to assisting me in my shifty dealings.

Last week one of her students tossed the monster to me across the hall and then I duct taped him to my door looking out.

I also torture Peppy by sending ransom notes over to be taped to her door. 

One day I tried all day to acquire Peppy's monster so I could stick one of his legs in the back of my pants and ask Peppy "Does this monster make my butt look big?" I never could get him though, because a pair of her students took him from her. She was accusing me of stealing him and I kept telling her that it wasn't me. Finally the two students relented and gave the monster back. The best part of that was that they escorted her over to my classroom to apologize for accusing me of stealing him. 

It's all very immature, I know, but this is middle school and I firmly believe that you have to be a little bit crazy and immature to work with this age group anyway. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Monster

So, funny story. I got home from work one day and there was a package waiting on the doorstep. I didn't think much of it because Peanut Head has been shopping on the internet, acquiring obscure little pieces and parts to make this or that thing work most spectacularly.

Sometimes don't ask don't tell is just a good policy for everyone involved.

It simplifies things.

And keeps innocent parties out of long drawn out conversations that perhaps they don't want to get into.

Nothing creepy, just the Peanut Head factor, in that much of what comes out of his mouth flies right over my head, leaving me unconscious in the process. And I love that he's smart, it makes me swoon, but sometimes having a conversation with him requires a substantial amount of background knowledge.

And then here's me with the attention span of a gnat, already getting off topic.

Anyway, so there's this box and I didn't even bother to look to see who it was addressed to, because I know I didn't order anything. So of course I ignored it, and Peanut Head came home and was acting all surprised that we had this box. Like he hadn't already had three of them that week.

I tell him "You must have bought something and you're doing so much shopping that you don't even remember what you ordered. You're pushing buttons and not knowing what you're even doing on that Internet, Peanut Head."

So he opens it and . . .

"SQUE-E-EEEEE-A-A-A-L!!! My headphones are here!" maybe came out of my mouth in stereo surround sound.

Peanut Head looks at me sort of startled and wants to know What Up with all the accusatory accusations I be flinging at him.

I explain, maybe too fast for him to follow, that I forgot that I took the BlogHer survey applying to review the Monster headphones. And they picked me!!!!

How lucky am I?

So lucky, let me tell you. 

So the deal is that I get to review the headphones and I get to keep them. These headphones are sweet too, so I'm way happy about it.

I don't do many reviews so I'm going to tell you straight up that this is genuine. I wanted to review these headphones because I use headphones a lot on account of I need to block out my noisy family so I can concentrate. Because I use them a lot, I've had a few pair and by now I really know what I want, need, and like in a good set of headphones. So here goes.

First of all, they are Monster N-Tune Headphones from the Candy COLOURS Collection, valued at $150.

Isn't the box pretty? It's so pretty, and the headphones are even purtier.

And they come in all these yummy candy colors.

They're not just pretty, they are super durable and well made. The box has a picture of the headphones being twisted, and a blurb stating that they are virtually indestructible. That very well may be true, but you won't see me testing that out. I'm going to trust that the team of middle school boys they must have had as quality control testers were thorough.

Personally, they caught my attention with the pretty, but next up on the importance scale came this.

The ControlTalk feature is one that I really appreciate in a good pair of headphones. I usually listen to my music on my phone, and with these headphones when a call comes in, my music stops and I can press the ControlTalk button to answer it. Plus, the microphone is built right in so my phone can stay in my armband. When I'm done with my call I press it again to hang it up. Not only that, but when listening to music I can adjust my volume with it, select play, pause, and go forward and back.

It's the neatest thing, really, and I would never buy a pair of headphones without this feature. It's that handy.

I also like that the cable jack can go in either earphone, so if you want the ControlTalk on your right, it can be on your right.

And I'm not going to irritate you and tell you how many shopping days there are 'til Christmas, but I'm thinking these would make an awesome gift for someone special. As you can see in the picture above, Zoe Bug thinks she should be getting these for Christmas.

Is it wrong that I want to keep them for myself though?

But then I really should give them to Peanut Head since he's my One True Love.

Only I'm having a hard time letting go now that I've bonded with them. After hours upon hours of wearing them in solitary bliss. Well, I wasn't alone, but it sounded like I was.

I hope I don't get pulled for my unprofessional, not technical review. But be honest, you know you want them now, right?

To win your very own pair of N-Tune headphones (valued at $150),  read all about the Monster headphones here and let me know in the comments of this post which color you prefer. The comments on this post will be aggregated with the comments on the posts from the other bloggers participating in this review, and 25 pairs will be given away. This giveaway will close on Nov 1.


Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

• Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
• Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
• Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post.
• For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winner  will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
BlogHer will pool entries from participating blogs and select a sweepstakes winner at random and will contact the winner with details about fulfilling the prize.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 10/2/13 – 11/1/13.Please let me know if you have any questions.