Is it Friday yet?!? While a few of my friends have had quite the rough week, it does not top the story I heard after school. There was a sub next door. She turned her back to to write on the board. A little boy decided he would stand up, pull his pants down, and pee on his desk! DISGUSTING!!! Poor substitute. I wouldn't blame her if she never wanted to come back. Looking at the positive side of this: It wasn't one of my kids! :)
Here is a picture of our caterpillars the day we got them
I have been reminded that "I'm stuck on 112." So these quick school days are for you old man. I'm sorry "my skirt hasn't touched my ass" in a couple of weeks. [Did I get that saying right?!]
Days 114-116 wrapped up the conference days and last days before spring break.
Right around this time, a middle school student, and son to a principal and teacher in my district, was diagnosed with brain cancer. In a few short weeks, they have already moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to be at St. Jude's Hospital. Please keep Isaac and the rest of the Walsh family in your prayers.
Days 117-121: These days entailed trying to get back in the swing of things. It is so hard to play catch up when you go on vacation for spring break. {Spring break will be another post or two of their own!}
122: A case of the Mondays happened today. It's never a good sign when you have to tote a kid up to the office.
123: We've got caterpillars! Our caterpillars came in today! Now we watch and wait for them to turn into butterflies! How fun! I sure hope the weather warms up by the time we release them.
124: Today I was reminded why I do not teach upper grades. My kids were pretty good all day. Then I go to bus duty for 15 minutes and want to scream! Who do you think you are, 4th grader, talking to people in such an ugly manner? Some day you will be treated like dirt, which is how you were treating people, and you will not like it one bit. Then you go and trick a poor kindergarten kid so you can get on the bus one person sooner. Real cool. You also won't appreciate being bullied either. However, this was further proof as to why I need to make sure my little babies learn to respect others now. I just hope they don't forget it.
I know this isn't a great update but hopefully it will get my Pal by for a bit. I do have other stories to write about, such as John Wilkes Booth, being hit in the surgery, and spring break, of course!
{Please forgive the horrible spacing... I tried to fix it but blogger wasn't having any of that. Did I mention I tried to post this earlier but the pictures weren't working? Well, I did, before Pa had a chance to complain. :) }
Packing comes first! When I was finished, I had to give Hubby a hard time because my suitcase had less in it than his (and I felt like I took too much)!
And we’re off….. We left around 6 on Friday night. I am lucky enough to have a Daddy that loves his granddog and was willing to drive over to pick her up and watch her for the week. We got to St. Louis (halfway to our Ohio destination) around midnight and called it a night at the Drury Inn. The driving resumed on Saturday morning. We are officially Ohio bound and not stopping until we get there! [By the way, Nina, our Cyber Monday purchase worked nicely the whole trip.]
On the road to St. Louis
We're almost there!
We spent Saturday night with Cody and Jessica. We had dinner and then went home where the boys indulged in a few beverages.
Two peas in a pod. They have missed each other so much!
Doesn't this just look like sparkly trouble?! It was.
Monday, we went to an outlet mall to exchange a shirt for Jessica. Preston isn’t much of a shopper; however, if Missy had been with me, we may not have made it to see Claire that evening. We went with my brother to pick her up from pre-school. When he walked in to get her, she got this pathetic, “I don’t want to go” cry face until I poked my head around Jeffrey. Then she got smiley and shy all at once. As soon as we got to the car she was chatting with us. We headed out to her grandparents house for dinner. While eating, Preston was threatened with being turned in to the ‘Peeking Control’ for peeking around me to see her. Apparently, leaning around a person is not acceptable in Ohio. I guess Uncle Preston is lucky he wasn’t sent packing to OK, where the Peeking Control is. We headed back to Jeffrey’s for the night and did a tiny bit of playing before going to bed. Claire said, “Can Aunt Jennie spend the night?”
Coloring with Uncle Preston
Tuesday was a day full of playing. We had a tea party with lots of customers, played school, rode a roller coaster and even had a brief visit from a pirate… all before lunch with Dana.
Claire with all of our tea party customers
Riding the roller coaster
Pirate attack!
After lunch, we had a tour of Oakwood. There are some HUGE homes there! Later, we played some more and crafted with her craft kit. After a spaghetti dinner we headed out for ice cream. We came back home and played some more. [Do you see what we did a lot of when we were together? I loved every bit of the time I got to spend with that little cutie!]
Wednesday morning, you will never guess it, but we played some more. And crafted. The teacher in me was teaching over spring break so we learned a new word: mural.
Our mural: Claire made the fish on the left, mine is on the right and Uncle Preston made the start and the rocket
Around 12:30, we went out for lunch with Dana while Jeffrey was at work. I love riding with her in the backseat! We had a good time.
Claire and her spider, Barbie
After lunch we did a little more playing before the dreaded good-bye. (Claire was heading to her grandparents before they left for vacation and we were heading to Cody and Jessica’s to watch American Idol and head back home on Thursday morning.) Holy cow. It broke my heart. I had to leave the room because I did not want her to see me upset but I also wanted to snuggle her to pieces. Poor thing got a double dose since she had to say bye to us and then her grandparents. I did my best to keep it together for her but had my own little cry in the car. [It makes me sad thinking about a week later too!]
I have been racing around trying to finish up report card testing before conferences. **bonus to kindergarten= no grading papers. the down side to that is the testing that has to be completed with each student for their report cards. It's not like I can bring the kid home to test them like I could with grading papers, recording them in the grade book and averaging. Wouldn't Hubby just die if I came home with a 5 or 6 year old saying, "I brought them so I could finish up their report card testing."?!?!
On the plus side--- one conference night down, one to go!!! WOOHOO!
In my mind, I have stuff that I want to blog about but am too lazy to do it. It involved putting pictures up and lately the picture loading has been a pain in the rear. Here is my list of things: Girls weekend in Dallas and Baby Horton's party. Oh what the heck, maybe I can mark it off tonight...
So, I went to Dallas with 2 of my girls and another flew in from KC. We did this all to hang with a bestie before she moves to Australia. {I know, cool huh?!} We had SO much fun! It all started as soon as we got to the Cheddar's parking lot. We met Missy and Erin there for drinks before heading home for the evening.
We didn't stay out too late because we had a busy day of shopping, silly pictures and pedicures planned for Saturday.
We ended the evening at a yummy pizza place a few blocks from home. It was a super funny,10 minute, ride home which some may recall better than others.
Sunday, we did lunch and a tiny bit more shopping before we headed back to Oklahoma.
It was such a great way to send Missy off on her Australian adventure.
Next up is Baby Horton's gender revealing party. My little is expecting her first child in July. They hosted a party to reveal what type of baby they were having. The rules were simple, wear pink if you thought it was girl and blue if you thought it was a boy.
I win! It's a girl!!!
Their cute little family
I need to start thinking about packing only 3 days until we leave!!!
Read Across America week is through. We were fortunate enough to have a guest reader 4 out of 5 days! On Tuesday, a 3rd grader and sister to one of my students read to us.
On Wednesday, a high school student read The Cat In the Hat
On Thursday, Hubby's Aunt Nancy took time out of her day to come read.
I am sure she left with some chuckles after being informed that she "could go to a doctor to be made into a boy if she wanted." I do not even know how this conversation was started but sure did chuckle while it was happening. Nancy was great with the kids and read until she almost lost her voice. As soon as she finished one book, they would ask for another, and another, and another.
And, on Friday, our ELL (English Languange Learner) tutor read Green Eggs and Ham in Spanish to us.
When Mrs. Montgomery was finished, I asked the kids if they knew how to say thank you in spanish... "THANK YOU IN SPANISH!" was the response. :) I guess I shouldn't have asked. Then we learned how to say gracias.
After that, we had a celebrity come read to us!
That's right! Eat your heart out! It's Justin Beiber!!! {insert 5 and 6 year olds saying "Justin Beaver! I love Justin Beaver!" or "(in a grumpy voice) I don't care about Justin Beiber."}
We even got out the water colors to paint some fish bowls
Playing with ooblek
After making a list of important things they may need to say, here are a few of the thank you cards that were made for Miss Nancy:
This artist was very concerned with what color shirt Miss Nancy wore. She wanted it to be perfect.
How adorable! She is standing on a rock to be the same height!
"Your the greatest" It's true Miss Nancy, you are pretty great!
It is crazy to think back to where these babies started and how much they have grown! At the beginning of the year, I could not have put words up for them to copy without lots of cries out for help. My little babies are growing up!
Time for a new countdown? I think so! 5 days until spring break!!! However, two of those evenings consist of parent teacher conferences, which means 2 at least 11 hour days. ick. Then we are off to visit the CUTEST niece!! WOOHOO!!!
I was reminded today that I am behind. Thanks Pal, like I didn't already know. I was waiting patiently by the phone fo you to call and tell me. {wink, wink}
I do not even know where to start. Clearly, since I didn't come home and immediately blog (or at least write it down somewhere) there must not have been anything too memorable. We are one person away from everyone being off of 1-25!!! The previous child is starting to see more of the pattern of a hundreds chart while working on 1-50 too.
This week is Read Across America week. We are celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday with lots of silly dress up days. For example, today was Wacky Wednesday. Here is me being Wacky....
I needed the world to see that I had two different color shoes on so I had to squat.
Bad side = you can't see my fairy wings.
Tomorrow is pajama day! Yay! I also have a guest reader coming in to read. Preston's aunt is so kind to come read to us. Surprisingly, they do much better when a stranger is reading than me. AND, without being prompted, they thanked one of our other guest readers this week! Someone has taught the those kids to be polite.
