First week

My classroom is done! For the most part. I still have some organizing to do, but it's pretty much done!
Today was our first day with kids and it was good. I have some, let's say, boundary pushers...but, we'll figure out where those boundaries are real quick.

I was so tired this afternoon that on the way home I pulled my car into the gas pump going the wrong direction three times, then I came home to start eating dinner and nodded off a little, spilling my hot rice all over my arm where I now have some lovely rice shaped blisters. Needless to say, a three hour nap was in my near future. Now, I've finished my work and I'm going back to bed. Gotta love the first week of school.

Becky, I heard you had over 30 kids today. I'll be thinking about you tomorrow. Good luck! It's Friday! Woot!

August

So, August has been kind of blur so far. I went to Altus to see my grandparents, then spent a few days dog-sitting for this guy:He asserted his dominance in the house by doing things like this, so I stopped giving him treats. Who's the boss, now, huh? I showed him.

These next pictures are for Nancy and anyone else who cares about my classroom.

My classroom progress, day 1: Reading corner: check.

Front wall: check.Other walls, not so much. We're getting there.

And just because. Sweet Tekira and Quavy. And lastly, a funny story about my boy, D. I took him the bathroom at church tonight and we went in the stall that locks and then sticks, trapping you inside. I worked at this place for like 4 years, but tonight that fact slipped my mind. D figured out that we were locked in and scooted his tiny, little body under the door, knowing full well that I was still trapped. He took off down the hall running and laughing at me and by the time I got out he was all the way down and around the corner. He turned and saw me and burst into a fit of giggles. Toddlers. I have to be at school at 5:30 in the morning for a trip to Tulsa, so I'm off to bed. Not sure why I stayed up this late.

Hiatus

OK, when my dad told me today that it had been awhile since I blogged, I knew it was serious. Here's a few things that I've been doing, I'll even make it a little game for you:

I saw... with...Seriously, others may tell you that they have the best baby ever. Nope, E wins hands down. (Perhaps I have a slight bias) He is so laid back and sweet. He got in his pj's and snuggled up and slept through almost the whole movie.

Then I went to Tulsa to see this...

with...

I have had the soundtrack to Wicked for years and to say that this cast even came close to my girl Idina is a pretty big compliment. It was phenomenal. And the teachers had fun enjoying their last few weeks of summer.

And then I did some of this.. Yeah, I don't know either. It was a silly night at the Hill.

I saved the best for last.

There's a reason that God loves little children, isn't there?

So there's an update. Not a whole lot, but school starts in a couple of weeks, so I'm rushing a bit to get ready. Here we go again! I'll try not to go so long next time...yeah, right.

Ugh

I know I'm not usually all that serious on this blog, but I was outraged back in February by the Chris Brown/Rihanna incident. This morning, Chris Brown posted an apology video hoping that he could be seen as a role model again. The whole situation left me a little discombobulated: the support he got from other celebrities, how quickly she reunited with him after the incident, and his lack of visible remorse all left me scratching my head. This confusion was not eased when I got to school. One of my kids asked a questions about it and so we talked about it for a few minutes and tried to make sense of the whole thing. About 90% of my class were huge Chris Brown fans and while most of them agreed that he had made a mistake, I had a couple of male children who told me that they were glad that he was smacking Rihanna around because she had it coming for talking back to him. We discussed why it was wrong and what could have been done to have a better outcome. That situation has stuck in my memory and has challenged me on many occasions. Why do celebrities have as much influence as they do? Is it a lack of parenting? Teaching? Lack of spiritual guidance? His sentence was 5 years probation and some community service. How do we teach our children (males especially) to respect each other when they see their favorite singers, athletes, and actors behaving badly and having next to no consequences for their behavior? I don't have a solution, just needed an outlet to vent.

I Dreamed a Dream

I had a dream last night that Michael Jackson came to my door and gave me a T-shirt to thank me for being such a fan (which, really? I have your greatest hits album, but that's it, man.) I then spent the rest of my dream convincing my grandparents that he was still alive. I woke up very confused. I have a feeling the gossip rags will start up with the MJ spottings sometime in the next week or so. I can imagine the headlines now: Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Tupac spotted playing poker with Martians and the pig headed girl! Pictures inside!
I think the MJ media circus is getting into my head, now it's affecting my dreams too?!? I need my news shows back, pronto!

Prayers

I just wanted to ask anyone who reads this to say a special prayer this week for all the kids at Capitol Hill. Many of the kids are dealing with things so huge that it's hard to imagine their pain. If you have a free minute in traffic or waiting in line at the grocery store, just remember them in prayer. Thanks!

Best friends

Last night at the VBS kick-off these two were all over the place. They raced each other on the obstacle course, which was pretty hilarious. They ended up on the same side and when they got to the top of the slide, we cheered for them to slide down and they both wanted to wait to slide down together. This is what I got for "Cheese!"