Santa? Is that you?!!

Home improvement sure does get interesting...

Jason and I have been doing a little remodeling lately. Thanks to my parents, we got a lot of work done in our living room/kitchen/dining room last weekend. This weekend, we are still working to get everything put back together.

Our fireplace has one of those enclosures with the little glass panes. It just so happens that it is gold. NOT my favorite. So Jason and I planned to paint it. Jason wanted to see what the fireplace would look like without the enclosure at all, so he unscrewed it this afternoon. We were standing there admiring the fireplace when we heard some weird noises. INSIDE the fireplace.

Now, Jason tells me pretty much every day that it's almost Christmas. But it's still a little early for Santa to be coming down the chimney. So we were standing there talking about what could be making those noises. Jason noticed that the flue was open, so he got down in front of the fireplace to close it. More flapping noises came from the chimney when he tried to pull the lever, so we thought maybe the wind was blowing it somehow. He started jiggling the lever, and the sounds got louder. Jason laid down to try to look up and make sure the flue was closed, and I started walking to the kitchen. There was a loud crashing noise and Jason screamed...something had fallen out of the chimney into the fireplace...a bird!

The poor thing was terrified (as were we!) and we were trying to figure out what to do. Claiborne was stalking towards the fireplace from the couch and Edgar was trying to hide behind me. There was ash all over the place. The bird couldn't seem to fly back up and out of the chimney, so I told Jason he was going to have to grab it before it got out into the house. He went and got some gloves. I think he was more scared than the poor bird! ("I just know it's going to bite me! It probably has Avian Flu! You'll feel bad when I'm dead!") He had to poke it several times before he finally worked up the nerve the grab it.

Jason cleaning up the ashes before getting our little friend.

Poor little bird...

Be free!

Mission Complete!

That was definitely the highlight of the day! Now I hope we don't get any more birds in there!

I know it's been forever since I wrote on here. I should be able to write a little more often since I only have one class for this eight weeks of school! More about that and my Head Start classes soon!

New Job Jitters

I. Am. Exhausted.

This was the longest week of work EVER. And I am not even getting paid for it! I really wanted to go to all the staff trainings though, and work in my classroom whenever I got the chance. It was nice because I got to know some of the other ladies at work, but it was just plain-ol' tiring!

The maintenance guys were painting the classrooms this week, and they didn't finish until today, which means that we only had today to get our rooms in order. And I was lucky because they finished my room first and everyone helped me move my furniture. The room, however, was a horrible mess, and it took me all day to get it straightened out. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but the room is looking decent and is pretty clean now for the most part. I'll finish the rest before school on Monday. (Well, what has to be done anyway. I hope!)

I'm a little nervous. RLCFCC is very different from Head Start...in a good way, but it's a big adjustment for me. The teaching style is pretty different. And, from the very first day of class, there will be practicum students working in the classroom with us for their lab assignment. Yikes! I'm not a bad teacher, but I don't know if I'm good enough to be teaching teachers! This is only my second year, after all. That's what has me worried the most I think...knowing that someone will be there analyzing everything I'm doing. It's stressing me out. And I really want to do well so I get the job.

So this weekend will be spent trying to prepare for Monday. I'm praying it's not a complete and total disaster. But, in the words of my mother, "It can't be any worse than the first week at Head Start!" And I hope she's right!

Pour Some Sugar On Me...

Yikes!!! It's been forever since I posted! Sorry about that, but in my defense, I have actually been sorta busy. Since the last post, I have:

-gone to FOUR doctor's appointments

-subbed THREE times

-gone to a CONCERT

-and lots of other IMPORTANT things that I can't remember right now...

Me and Jason

Jason and I went to a concert at the Verizon Amphitheater in STL, which turned out to be really nice. We had lawn seats, so we just camped out on a blanket during the concert. We went to see Def Leppard, but the opening bands were good too: Cheap Trick and Poison. It was a really fun evening. Of course, my pictures are not good yet AGAIN...just like when we went to see AC/DC, there were no cameras allowed in, forcing me to take pictures on my phone. Which doesn't have a zoom or a flash. Hence the terrible pictures. *Sigh* Next time I am going to sneak a camera in...other people had theirs! I just need to figure where to hide it... Anyway, Def Leppard was AWESOME live, and Poison was really good too! I was disappointed that I wasn't close enough to see Brett Michaels up close, but oh well...I got to see a lot of people dressed up like him! Maybe I can come up with something cool to wear to Crue Fest next month. Hmmm....

This is Def Leppard performing...but I'm sure you could

see that from my awesome photography skills...



The subbing has been great too. The other teachers at the school are great and I'm learning a lot from them. Everyone is so positive there, and you can see how much everyone cares about the kids. A little bit of a change from some of the people at my school. And the results I see in their students are impressive. I'm hoping to use some of what I've learned in my own classroom...who knows, maybe we'll turn this Head Start around yet!

[Blog Note: Sorry for all the crazy formatting....Blogger is not letting me do what I want today! ]

The Waiting Game

"How much of human life is lost in waiting?"

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is a very good question, Mr. Emerson. It seems like a lot of my life is spent waiting for something. Waiting for Jason to come home, waiting to find out where we're moving next, waiting for a doctor's appointment. Right now, it's all about waiting for an interview.

I have applied at 10 different school districts this summer, for multiple positions. And so far I have gotten zero interviews. It's frustrating. And the school districts don't even notify you when you are no longer being considered. Which means you have to call them. Here's how a typical phone call goes:

Me: Hello, I applied for the ____ grade position and I was wondering if you had selected candidates for interviews yet?
Secretary: Oh, no, not yet. We have had so many applicants. It will take us a while to go through all of them. We aren't really sure how we're going to do this. So you can just keep checking back.
Me: Ok, thanks.

After 3-5 similar phone calls over a month's time....

Me: Hello, I applied for the ____ grade position and I was wondering if you had selected candidates for interviews yet?
Secretary: Oh, we filled that position yesterday.
Me: Thank you. Click.

[Note: Yes, multiple school districts have told me that they are unsure how interviews will work. Have they never hired anyone before? Do they not have a set procedure for such things??And why does no one send out rejection letters?! I WANT A REJECTION LETTER!!!]

Anywho, all this waiting for jobs that I don't even get interviews for is getting old. But I really want to work in a "real" school. So I'll keep trying. In fact, I just applied for a job on Friday...

In the morning, I called the school (where the superintendent works because the towns around here are so small that the district office is often just in the school) to make sure someone will be there for me to hand my resume to. After the secretary assures me she'll be there until 3:30, I get everything together and jump in my car to drive out to the school. I was pleased that I found the place easily (you wouldn't believe where some of these schools are hidden) but as I drove through the parking lot I was unsure about where to go. This is the problem with these small districts...there isn't just a central district office where you go in the main door to the counter. Instead, you have to try to find the office of a school which is closed for the summer. Luckily, this school had a big sign on the office, which was in a small building adjacent to the school itself.

I approached the building, carrying my resume, debating what door to go to (there were four choices). I walked up to one with a sign that read "Office". Good choice, huh? But when I pulled on the handle, the door appeared to be locked. Ok. Walk to the next door and repeat the procedure. Locked. Go to the back of the building. The doors have signs saying to use the front door. I head back to the first door, and try it yet again. No luck. I thought about leaving, but I remembered that the secretary promised she would be there, and I knocked loudly on the door.

After a second, I can see a woman coming towards the door, mouthing that it was unlocked and I just needed to press down on the button with my thumb while I opened it. (Well, duh, what did she think I had been doing all this time??) She opened the door for me, and explained all that again. (Maybe I just have incredibly weak thumbs? But I am telling you, that door was not budging and I did understand how to operate it!)

Anyway, I handed her my resume and she recognized me from the phone call to the office earlier. She promised to get my application to the superintendent on Monday and then asked me to be patient because it would take him a while to sort through all the resumes. Great!

And then I headed home. This is how these things go for me. (Although I can usually open the door myself.) I really hope she didn't think I was a total ding-dong. "Uh, Mr. Superintendent, we can't hire this one. She couldn't even figure out how to open the door! She just needed to push that button..."

Or maybe that will make me stand out. You never know! And if I get an interview, I'll make a joke about it. If I can open it successfully by myself that is...

So, here I am, waiting to hear something.

The Little Darlings

I thought I'd post a few pictures of the "fur-babies." (Isn't that such a weird name? But I see people use it all the time online. Go figure! )

Edgar loves to nap on the floor in the office.

He definitely believes he's a person. He loves to sit on our laps!

It's hard to get a good picture of Eva, so this is what you get.

Claiborne got a haircut recently, and he's enjoying his new-do.

He's always so happy with short hair!

See? He's completely comfortable!

And hopefully in a year or so, the pictures I post will be of much smaller cats! Their diets seem to be working...both cats have lost a little weight already. Thank goodness they aren't begging so much anymore either. I don't know how many more 5AM wake-up headbutts I could take!

I'm Going Back!

I have been officially accepted to graduate school! I'll be starting my Master of Arts in Education to become certified as a reading specialist this fall. This will mean that in addition to teaching in the general ed classroom, I will be able to teach reading classes, as well as providing technical assistance to other teachers.

Everyone knows what a book nerd I am, so the idea of working with books and reading all the time is very exciting to me! I do still want to teach in a regular classroom for several years too, but teaching children to read is such a key part of early childhood education that I think this degree will definitely be useful immediately.

Oh, and another good thing about it is that I shouldn't have to pay for much of it at all! Since Jason's in the Army, I am eligible for a spouse tuition assistance program. All you have to do is set up an account online and talk to a career counselor, then they send the money to the school. Good deal, huh?

So, yippee!

As for the job hunt, I...........am..........still...........waiting. There are some possibilities out there, but these school districts are in NO rush to make any decisions! So, I continue to wait and call occasionally (without being a bother, of course!). Hopefully I'll get "The Call" soon!

I'd really like to start planning for next year, since I have way too much free time on my hands these days, but that's hard to do when you don't know where you're going to end up or what age of children you'll be teaching! Oh well. I guess I'll try to enjoy this time while I have it.

Right now it's time to enjoy folding some laundry. Let the fun begin!

Home Improvements (It is better, right?)

This took forever!

Jason and I have been working hard to make improvements to our yard. Jason's taken a liking to trying to grow things in pots, so as you can probably see in this picture, we now have pots covering a lot of our patio. We added mulch around the edge of the patio; the grass there was sparse at best in most areas, and there is a place that floods right in the middle. Jason is going to build a little "bridge" over the mulch directly in front of the door going out into the yard. It may not look like we've done much, but this is actually the product of several weekends' work.

Along the side of the house, we've planted strawberries. They've been growing well and producing berries, however we haven't gotten to eat any of them because some nasty white slug things keep eating them before we can pick them!

R.I.P

Originally, we planted azaleas on either side of the area where the bridge will go. They died. (Remember how I said one area flooded? Yeah, it still does when it rains a lot, even with the mulch.) So, after the drowning of the azaleas, we decided to plant these rhododendrons instead. Of course, we failed to notice when we purchased these beauties that they are low-light plants. Since they were planted out in the open, all that's left is burnt-to-a-crisp twigs. Oops...

Edgar always enjoys our pursuit of lawn perfection, because he gets to play with all kinds of cool new toys, like this giant piece of mulch he discovered. I'm glad someone gets to have fun!

We also bought a new grill, since we left our old one in El Paso when we moved. Jason was determined to get a charcoal grill (I think he's scared of the gas ones, though he claims it's just because it's annoying to fill the tank). At least it seems to be functional and we haven't destroyed it yet.

So, there you have it. Our new-and-improved backyard paradise. It's a little better, right?

The Imagination Library

While reading an article online, I discovered a wonderful program that was created by Dolly Parton to promote literacy in young children. She calls it the "Imagination Library."

Taken from the website (http://www.dollysimaginationlibrary.com/), here is a little background on the program:

In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort to benefit the children
of her home county in east Tennessee. Dolly wanted to foster a love of
reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted
children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can
create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books,
regardless of their family’s income.

So she decided to mail a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under 5 in Sevier County. With the arrival of every child’s first book, the classic The Little Engine That Could ™, every child could now experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mail box. These moments continue each month until the child turns 5—and in their very last month in the program they receive Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come.

I think that is such a cool idea! Any community can adopt this program now. (On the website you can see if your area participates). The community raises the money to pay for the books through donations, and they are sent to all the children in the area under the age of 5. It costs about $28/child/year to cover the books and the postage. What a great way to promote reading and a love of books from a young age!

In my class, there are lots of children that don't have any books at home. Head Start sends home a bundle of books to any child whose parent actually admits to this (it's a question on our first home visit interview), but they are old, second-hand books....usually not the greatest. With this program, the kids get beautiful, brand-new books that are chosen by a board of early childhood experts to help build a solid foundation for the children and prepare them for school.

I think it's a fabulous idea! Kudos to you, Dolly!

A Father-Son Weekend Project

If you know Jason and me at all, you know we both love to read. Because of this hobby of ours, we have a lot of books. I mean A LOT of books. Currently, all of our books are still in the boxes from our move. This is for two reasons.

1.) From moving so frequently in the past six years, two of our three
bookcases were barely hanging on after this last move, so we got rid of
them. This leaves us with only one small bookcase.

2.) Jason insisted that he wanted to unpack the books so
he could catalog them into a spreadsheet to keep track of them. Since he
buys such boring nonfiction books, he can't remember which ones he has and
doesn't have, which makes it difficult to buy more books.

Of course, he kept putting this off, and we didn't have anywhere to put them anyway, so we still have all the books in boxes. They take up quite a bit of space, as you can imagine.

Anyway, last weekend when we went to Columbia, Jason and his dad worked really hard to build us some bookcases. They got three of them built and they are beautiful. I got a couple pictures (not very good ones though. I am so horrible about taking pictures!

My father-in-law, Keith, working on the bookcases

Two of them bolt together to look like one

They turned out so nicely, much better than the ones we found at the store! (Not to mention WAY cheaper!) Now, Jason and I will stain them to match our other living room furniture and then we can FINALLY unpack our books!

A Graduation

Hickman High School Class of 2009

My youngest sister, Shannon, graduated from high school on Saturday, so Jason and I went to Columbia for the weekend. (I believe she's the blonde without her cap on in the picture above. Notice the beach ball....the teachers literally took about 30 of those from the graduates during the course of the ceremony!)

It's hard to believe that Shan is out of high school now and starting college this summer. Seems like only yesterday she looked like this:

However, she's grown up a lot since then! She's a very talented photographer, and she's studying digital media in school. (I'm honestly not really sure what that means...other than it has to do with computers??? But I'm sure she's good at it.) I have a feeling she'll do something pretty neat with her life.

Congrats sis! You made it!

Email Subscription Now Available!

I have finally figured out how to set this thing up to notify you by email when there is a new post (I think!). All you have to do is type your email address into the box on the upper right-hand corner of the screen under "Subscribe via email." As long as I did everything correctly, new posts should be automatically delivered to your email account after you submit your email address.

Let's hope this works....I know it will be easier for you than checking this website all the time!

Six Years and Counting

Today Jason and I are celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary! I can't believe that six years have gone by since we got married. In some ways it seems a lot shorter than that, in others it seems like we've been married forever!

In honor of our anniversary, here is one of my very favorite poems:

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

I love you x3 Jason!

Keeping busy...for now.

Ok, so now school is out for the summer. I'll try to do a little better about posting more often. I really have no excuse not to write now, since I have very few things on my calendar for the next few months!

I've been keeping busy this week doing things that I didn't have time to do before:
-Cleaning out the cars really well
-Going to the dentist
-Applying for jobs (well, I did that before, but now I can do it anytime!)
-Took the recycling to the recycling center
-Cleaning out closets, drawers, cabinets, etc
-Cleaning up goo that exploded from my shower drain and toilet (yeah, how's that for excitement!)
And lots of other equally exciting things!

Let me just say that I am very upset about the recycling situation here in Mount Vernon. First, there is no curbside pick up, which I think is ridiculous. I would pay for that if it was even available. But it's not, so I have been saving all the recycling to take to the center. This has become a problem though, because the center is closed, and has been closed since January. Now their phones are even disconnected, so I'm beginning to doubt their reopening. I drove half an hour to Centralia to take the stuff to recycle. There are some places here in town that take a few things, like cardboard and plastic, but what about everything else? A lot of people here know nothing about recycling...it's weird. I just don't understand why there isn't more available. I feel guilty just throwing the stuff away.

I would like to do something about it, but I don't even know what to do. Obviously there wasn't enough support to keep the not-for-profit center open. Maybe I could write a letter to the editor or something. It would help if I actually knew some people in town!

Anyway, that's my rant for this week. I should probably try to do something more productive with my day now.

End of the Year Madness

This school year is winding down quickly. Next week is our last week of school already. I've learned a lot this first year. I have tons of plans for next year; ideas for improvement. If I end up staying in the same position I'll be able to start the year with a plan and some experience behind me. I'll even know about half of my students already, since my little ones will still be in my class. Right now I'm going down my checklist, trying to finish everything that has to get done before summer. It's a long list, but I'm making steady progress and I think I'll get it all done just in time!

On Thursday my kiddos will have a little graduation ceremony. Everyone gets a certificate of completion, and we are making some special awards for each child too. They're going to sing some of the songs we've been working on in class, which is always cute. One song we're going to sing is called "Rock and Roll Body Parts," which involves a lot of dancing, and playing an air guitar of course! It should be a nice little program. It scares me a little to send off some of the kids...a few of them aren't ready for kindergarten. I know I did my best, but I still worry about them.

After the program, all I have to do is turn in my files and final paperwork on Friday. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself all summer, but I think I'll manage to occupy my time somehow!

A work in progress...

As you may know, we recently got new furniture for the living room, since our couch was damaged in the move to Illinois. We're still working to get things set up the way we want, but I thought it was decent enough that I could take a few pictures.

The view towards the hallway.

From the dining room. See how we mounted the TV on the wall?

Looking in from the garage door.

(Yes, our DVD player is currently sitting on a box in front of the fireplace. )

View of the sectional from the front door towards the garage.

View from the hall.


Our old TV is still sitting on the floor in the living room.

We don't have anywhere to put it yet!

You can see that we still have some finishing touches to take care of, such as hiding all the wiring to the TV and removing some old stuff from the room, but I'm very happy with all our purchases thus far. It sure beats me and Jason squashed together on the love seat for all those months!

(Oh, and don't worry Michelle. That super nice TV stand is still in the room, next to the sectional with the cable box on it. We just couldn't part with it so soon! Ha!)

And Two Shall Become One

Jason and I were lucky enough to visit El Paso for Ben and Danielle's wedding. I was a bridesmaid, which was a blast. It was great to meet up with our old friends and see how the Sun City has changed since we were there last. Here are some pictures from the wedding events:

Us at the rehearsal dinner at Cattleman's Steak House

Me and Danielle at the rehearsal dinner

Getting ready for the wedding ceremony

Ben and Danielle in St. Mark's

Jason made me dance in front of everyone!

Enjoying the last of my dessert from the chocolate fountain!

Me with the bride

Me, Danielle and Lauren at the reception

Me, Jason, Ben, Danielle, Lauren and Julio after the reception

As you can see, I was not having a very photogenic weekend! Nevertheless, the trip couldn't have been better! Congratulations Ben and Danielle!!!

May All Good Things Be Yours

By Joanna Fuchs

Your happiness begins

With your wonderful wedding day.

You’ll share everything together;

Through it all,

your love will stay.

Congratulations to you,

As you begin your happy life.

May all good things be yours,

As new husband and new wife.

Blogs to come...

I have several things that I need to write about (and pictures to post) on here, like our trip to El Paso, Jason's new truck, our new furniture, our office makeover, my kiddos Easter egg hunt, the AAR concert on Thursday, and our trip to Missouri this weekend. But I simply don't have time to write about it tonight. Or maybe until next week.

Hold on a little longer...things are just too crazy around here at the moment!

The Cat in the Hat

If you don't teach young children, you may not be aware that Dr. Seuss' birthday is March 2nd. Luckily, I am a shaper of young minds and therefore, know such things. This is why I decided that this month in my classroom was really going to focus on reading and books. (Even more than usual!)

Of course, when most people think of Dr. Seuss, they think of The Cat in the Hat. We decided to start the month off with a bang by reading this classic, even though I thought it was too long for my preschoolers VERY short attention spans. Much to my surprise, they loved it and hung on every word! This doesn't happen very often for a lot of the kids in my classroom...many of them are rarely read to and have little appreciation for or interest in books. Since Monday, we have also read other Dr. Seuss books like Hop on Pop and There's a Wocket in My Pocket! I'm so happy that the kids seem to be picking up on all the rhyme from the stories. Honestly, I have never been a huge Seuss fan, but after this week, I'm jumping on the train because my classes love the books....and they're learning from them too!

We have been working on an art project this week to display in the hallway. Here's how it turned out:

"Spring into reading with Dr. Seuss!"

A close-up of some of the cats!

And yes, we did make "springs" out of pipe cleaners!

Reading Magic

I am reading yet another wonderful book that I wanted to share with you. Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox is all about the importance of reading aloud to children.

Here are a few interesting points that I took from the book:

** Experts say that on average, a child needs to hear a thousand stories read aloud before they are ready to begin reading. (This sounds like a lot, but reading just three stories a day easily covers a thousand books. You could read the same book three times, or try reading a favorite book, a familiar book and a new book).

**It is important to allow a child to talk back about what you read. As you read, make comments and ask questions about the plot, characters and pictures to engage the child in conversation.

**Read to your child from all sorts of print: signs, cereal boxes, newspapers, catalogs...

**Reading to a child from birth can help to increase a child's attention span. Children who are never read to have a hard time sitting through an entire story because they do not have the required listening skills or desire. (Look at the kids in my class if you don't believe me!! You can tell which children have been read to which haven't!)

Some of the topics in this book seem common sense, but maybe that's the teacher in me! I'm sure there are many parents who don't know how to make the most of the time they spend reading with their child. Reading aloud WELL is a skill you have to work at, so any one can benefit from practice. I would highly recommend this book to any parent or teacher. It's easy to read and well-written. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I feel that I learned some valuable information from it.

Home Visits

If you are unfamiliar with the Head Start program, you probably don't know that Head Start staff members are required to visit the homes of all of their students twice a year. February is the time of year that we are doing the second of these visits. Basically, it's a parent-teacher conference at the child's house instead of school. Since HS students are low-income, this gives us a better idea of what type of conditions the kids are living in and helps us to get families the help that they need.

As you may imagine, these visits are quite a little adventure. You have not smelled the things I have smelled in these homes anywhere else. Many of them are dark, dirty and cluttered. My visits at the beginning of the year were shocking. I had never been in such rundown homes before. I couldn't believe people actually lived in some of the dwellings I entered. Thankfully, this time the homes have been much improved overall from the first of the year.

Still, it is a bit scary to go in some of the homes. There was one with a huge pit bull right outside the door. The family actually had to meet us in the yard so they could hold down the dog on its back and cover its eyes as we walked into the house! The dog was growling the whole time, and the mother (who was holding the dog down) couldn't weigh more than 9o pounds. That was a little scary. I am nervous around big dogs anyway, especially ones that want to kill me. Then we went into another family's home that was filled with these little gnats. They were circling my head the whole time I was trying to fill out the paperwork. Sadly, these home visits were pretty good overall though. At the beginning of the year we went into some houses that were so filthy we couldn't even sit down...the furniture was black with something that looked like tar. Since then, that family has moved, so I can only hope their new home is cleaner! Don't get me wrong, there are parents who keep their homes clean and do a lot with the little money they have, it's just that the majority of my families are not like that. I still have another full day of visits this Friday.

I love the kids in my classes, and after seeing the environments they face when they go home from school, I understand their needs much better. I wish I could take them all home, so they could see what it's like to live in a nice, (usually) clean home where they get regular baths, clean clothes and attention. There are kids all around us that don't have the basic things we take for granted and most people will never notice. My job has opened my eyes and my heart to those kids. I will never forget the things I have seen this year and I will be a better teacher in the future because of it.

Will you be my Valentine?

This week at school we've been getting ready for Valentine's Day. We decorated our mailboxes for our cards, sang Valentine's Day songs, and read books like The Night Before Valentine's Day.

Today was the big Valentine exchange, and the kids were SO excited! They were all so proud of their cards and they couldn't wait to share them. Unfortunately, they were also so excited that they were having a hard time doing pretty much anything we asked of them. We had a LOT of fighting. We survived (pretty much in one piece) and got all the Valentines delivered. We had three children who forgot to bring cards, but luckily I had bought extras, so I just wrote out the Valentines while they were playing in centers and everyone had something to give. We got tons of candy...I may have gotten more stuff for Valentine's Day than I did for Christmas! The cooks made the kids rice crispy treats with Valentine sprinkles too, so they were thrilled. Anyway, the week is over, since we have tomorrow off for Lincoln's birthday (a definite perk of living in Illinois!) I have to work on Friday, but the kids don't come back to school until Tuesday, so it should be a restful 5 days.

NOTE: I bought the kids those Nerds Valentines, the ones that come with the candy. Just an FYI, I did not care for the messages on the cards once I opened them. I wouldn't have bought them if I'd known I would be giving the kids cards saying "Love the nerd you're with" or "Here's looking at you, nerd." What kind of teacher says that to a kid??! I guess this one does!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!

I haven't written in a while, but if you don't know, last week we were hit with around 8 inches of snow. Here are a few shots I got on the one day I was off work:

Our house

Jason clearing off the driveway


Edgar getting ready to go outside (Yes, he has booties!)

Playing in the snow!

One happy puppy ready to come inside

School was cancelled from Tuesday to the end of the week. I still had to go into work every day except Wednesday, when we got the bulk of the snow. We still have snow on the ground, except it's all a huge sheet of ice now.

Today was the last day of school for the kids this week. It was our first full week of school in I don't know how long, and it was a rough one. Teachers were sick; kids were sick. I had tons of fighting, crying, screaming, running, vomiting, snotty noses...you name it, we had it. One girl even ripped a fist-full of hair out of another child's head. And I got pee all over my leg (no, it wasn't my own pee). It was a nightmare.

Now I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend!