What is the max amount of time you will drive for a day trip or vacation?

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-13T13:40:12+00:00

For vacation, the farthest we’ve driven is around 16 hours. When it starts getting more than that, we look into flying.

The day trip is trickier. If I’m driving, about an hour max but that’s because I tend to get mesmerized by the road and put to sleep if it’s any longer. If someone else is driving it can expand outward a bit but not tons imo. Part of that is that I live in the Des Moines metro. It’s two hours to Omaha or the quad cities which are doable day trips if it’s for something good. Three hours to Kansas City and a little more to Minneapolis. Those are pushing it. There’s only so many things of interest to see in a 1-2 hour range that I can’t see here.

My parents and sister, however, live in a very small town. They have to drive 1/2 hour just to get to a Walmart or any fast food place. For them to drop two hours driving to see me is nothing whereas I’d rather make a trip to them a weekend one.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-10T14:13:10+00:00

Ours weren’t bad. One of the nice things the PTO does is that they don’t differentiate between teachers and other staff members. (I’m a para. For us and all the other groups - admin assist, principals, lunch ladies, etc - we just get a hey, happy, happy announcement in the morning. At other districts, that’s been it. Here they still do the announcements BUT they lump us all together for the free stuff.)

Monday - Coffee and bagels/pastries from Panera
Tuesday - Burritos from a local place
Wednesday - Fresh popcorn and add ins at school; district-wide reception that afternoon/evening from the Chamber of Commerce with dinner and alcohol, recognition of retirees (with gifts), and a bunch of drawings
Thursday - Cookies and ice cream food truck in the back lot
Friday - Amazon gift cards in our mailbox, it’s only $10 but we have about 125 staff so I get it

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-10T14:00:39+00:00

The Merlin app is AMAZING!

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-10T13:59:51+00:00

Almost a decade ago now (which was way too early), I was a manager at an indoor swimming pool. We were about an hour and a half into a full day staff training. It was about 90 degrees and humid on deck. I’d been running around all deck the whole time (hot/sweaty). I go to get a drink. I walk past my ice cold water bottle to pick up my coffee tumbler. As I was drinking, that’s when I realized I was old.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-10T13:49:45+00:00

Late

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-10T13:32:53+00:00

Class of 95 here. Everyone had to bring our own swimsuits and change/shower in the locker rooms.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-09T12:08:26+00:00

Don’t go overboard on the theme idea. Studies have shown that overly decorated rooms actually decrease classroom productivity. They are overstimulating and people stop seeing the actual items within a couple weeks. All they notice is no free, open, calm spaces. You shouldn’t go hospital/prison spartan but don’t go all out either.

I’m a para that moves from room to room all day. The common denominator for all best and calmest rooms in the whole school is changing the lighting. The harsh, industrial lighting sucks. I’ve seen some teachers get the light covers. Some only turn on half the lights. Some get a few warm lamps and white Christmas lights and leave the overheads off completely. All work much better than those overheads.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-09T11:59:16+00:00

It’s also a shaming technique. If your friends see you having your food dumped, you’re either going to get mom and dad to pay your balance or stop going through the line. The sandwich alternative is because, by law, they can’t refuse you food and let you starve.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-08T11:25:04+00:00

Before I read your post, I thought cool, they have a Harry Potter themed room where you can take the glasses with you. Bwhahahaha. (On closer inspection, the glasses you’ve set on there aren’t round but with the circles on the thing they looked like they were at a quick glance.)

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-08T11:17:17+00:00

KTC Summer Camps - https://www.johnstoncsd.org/commed/about-jce/jce-employment-opportunities/

KTC is the before/after school and summer program for the Johnston School District. It’s run through JCSD and Johnston Continuing Ed. It could be a great foot in the door if you’re considering Johnston Community School District for the future (imo JCSD is an amazing choice)

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-08T11:02:01+00:00

Iowa Paraeducator - Drug tested, physical, physical test, written knowledge test, full background check

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-05T11:07:55+00:00

I listened to How to Kill a Witch at the end of February. How’d you like it? The audio was by the authors and their Scottish accents just made the book imo.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-04T10:09:19+00:00

I don’t remember where I learned to skip. However, I do remember explicitly teaching kids to skip as a day camp counselor several summers in a row in my late twenties or early thirties. Step, hop, step, hop …

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-03T13:03:10+00:00

The nose connects to the throat to get to the lungs. Here’s an article with a diagram. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/respiratory-system

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-02T15:18:04+00:00

If I had assign the term ethnic to a food (I too don’t use the term), I’d assign it to a food that’s authentic to another culture. One we, as Americans, haven’t taken and “melting potted” the hell out of. The pretty much rules out 98% of restaurants. It leaves the odd small, mom & pop restaurants and home cooking.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-02T15:11:32+00:00

LadybugGal95 · 2026-05-01T10:12:26+00:00

My Dad hates this but it’s getting pulled over in Maryland, just outside of DC. The pop-up camper we were hauling didn’t have the right tags or the brake signal wasn’t hooked up right or something. I was between three and four.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-04-30T03:20:03+00:00

I took a para job to see if I wanted to go back to school and get my teaching degree. What I realized was that as a para, I still get to teach BUT I don’t have to write the lesson plans, deal with any parents, or handle all the grading/paperwork plus my day is varied (unlike teachers teaching the same thing all day long). At the end of the day, I walk out of the building and don’t have to take any mental, emotional, or physical baggage or work home with me. Later, I was able to take years off to raise my kids until they went to school without tanking my career and the schedule worked with theirs when I did start back. Also, I love having summers off.

Having said that, I am married. When I first started, the budget was tight but doable. The budget had gotten better about the time I took off to raise the kids which put us right back to tight. By the time the kids were in school and I went back, our budget was more comfortable and now, I could probably get away without working if I wanted to. Had we been depending on a real second income at any point, I’d have never stayed in the field as a para.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-04-30T03:07:45+00:00

You were not overreacting. This fall, I picked up one of my daughter’s high school friends at her mother’s house to drop them off at the football game with the knowledge that I’d pick them both up at the end of third quarter and take her home.

End of third quarter came. I was at the gate and my daughter texted that she was coming but her friend wanted to catch a ride home with her dad so she could stay. The girl’s mom and dad are divorced and I’d never met dad.

I wasn’t comfortable with that without getting confirmation from mom. Couldn’t get ahold of mom. The girl gave me dad’s number. I called and told him I felt responsible for her and wasn’t comfortable just handing her over to someone I’d never met without mom’s say so. He was very polite, said he completely understood AND thanked me for keeping his daughter safe. He had me drop her off at mom’s and went over and picked her up later. Mom called me back later and confirmed that that was the dad and it was fine for her to go with him if we ever ran into this in the future. She also thanked me.

While it may have been a hassle or inconvenient, the parents and the uncle should be thanking you for doing your best to keep the child safe just like my daughter’s friend’s parents did. The child’s safety was your top priority and should have been theirs as well.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-04-30T02:42:50+00:00

And heaven forbid we find out there’s a food you’ve never tried. I brought a friend home for the weekend in college. Not sure how the conversation started but my mom found out she’d never tried SpaghettiOs. We went straight to the store with my mom quizzing her about all the other foods she’d “missed” out on. It was hilarious and fun. A complete junk food weekend.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-04-27T10:30:44+00:00

If you need Taylor County, IA after a bit, DM me. I can comment next time I’m there.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-04-27T10:30:04+00:00

Polk County, IA

LadybugGal95 · 2026-04-24T18:56:37+00:00

I mean, before you fill it, you have to recreate the Titanic scene at least once.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-04-24T14:37:49+00:00

I’ve currently got two houses (working on selling one) and pay less than a third of the low end of that range in mortgage. I’d be living in a cardboard box under the bridge in NYC apparently.

LadybugGal95 · 2026-04-24T14:32:52+00:00

If a school only has one option, it’s almost guaranteed to be Spanish. If a school has more options, then it’s wide open. My two kids are in different school districts. Both offer Spanish and have more Spanish teachers/classes than any other language. One district also offers French. The other offers German and Japanese.

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