Week one...over and out

I had my first week of being a real live teacher. It was great the first day! The kids are awesome. I have a student who came into my room on day two that attempted to stab another student with a pencil, pushed and shoved the other kids in my class, sat on a child, cussed her head off, threw a temper tantrum and got right in my face and yelled "NO!" at me. The other students looked at me like, "you've got to be kidding me with this kid!". Yeah, that was day two. Day three wasn't a whole lot better with that particular student, either. But, the rest of the kids are so wanting to learn and eager to please. It should be a good year.

I am sure you have all seen that Fay is still here with us on the Gulf Coast :) HOLY WATER! My poor little kiddos in Immokalee have to take their socks and shoes off and trudge through swamp to get into their homes. It makes me very sad.

Anyway, I am glad to hear that my fantastic brother has joined my blog e-blog world. Thanks, Michael! I hope you are able to comment. (P.S. I have a friend here who wants to meet you!!)

Latest picture of Paige: (I am getting used to her hair and kind of like it, actually :)

The Unveiling....

Okay...the suspense is over...here is Paige.

I am really getting bored with this whole Fay thing! I have waited all day and the wind is barely enough to dislodge a hair. I was ready for some excitement....I think it is still coming though. Here is the front of our house with the shutters. We can not even reach the uncovered windows here...we have a huge ladder and even with Don's 6'5" he still can't get to the top. Sucks to be short. lol

Buckling Down for Faye

Hello, all my faithful viewers....thanks for tuning in! This weekend has been somewhat busy! This first picture is of Paige (actually from last weekend). She was so excited because when she re-wrapped her sandwich from Subway it looked just like a shark! (I wonder if that has the same religious significance as seeing the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich...)








Okay...about this weekend...the installation of our pool has begun!!! Here are a couple of shots of the progress. Our backyard is a flippin disaster area...but it will be worth it.












Holy Man....when they dug out our pool they actually hit water!!!

Then comes Saturday, August 16th. Now, everyone knows I am not much of a news watcher. So, I am sure you can imagine my surprise when I was talking to the lady across the street on the phone and she mentioned for me not to be to worried about the hurricane. "HURRICANE??" what the hell! I ran right to the computer to check out accuweather. No joke...hurricane Faye is scheduled to hit Tuesday. Don and I and the kids spent the afternoon today putting up shutters around our house. It is somewhat unsettling...I have shutters on the office where I am sitting right now (which, if you think about isn't too bad...I could actually pick my nose if I so desired and none of the passers by would even catch a glimpse). This shot here is a picture of our upper three windows shuttered in (keep in mind...we have 24 foot ceilings in our living room and these windows sit at about 23 feet high)



Now, we are all safely in our abode. The girls are freaking out because they start school tomorrow. Paige colored her hair. The before and after photos:





and after..........

OPEN HOUSE!!

Well, it is 9:41 pm. Don and I just got home from our Open House at Eden Park Elementary. What a full day! We got our class list today and I had 16 kids on it. I have mostly Hispanic children with some Haitian-Creole students as well. I have not seen a more respectful group of young kids! "Please" and "thank you" was all I heard. One little girl, apparently, was doing some "interviewing" of sorts. She came up to me late in the evening and said, "my mama picks you". I asked her what she meant by that. She said, "well, we are signing up tomorrow for school and you are our favorite! Can I come in your class?" OMG! How cute is that?
Also, the other big news of the evening is that I am going to be in the newspaper. The press was at our school because it was a new-open. Apparently, this photographer spent a little time in Kalamazoo. I told him a little about myself. While I was talking to him, the little girl whose mama "picked me" came up and was acting so excited because she was going to be in my room (little did she understand that those decisions must be approved in the office lol). The photographer started doing a photo-shoot (of sorts) as the girl and I were talking. I think it will be neat to be in the paper.
A sad story for the evening and one that made me get tears in my eyes: I have a little boy who wasn't even there tonight, but his grandmother came in to check out our room. I asked her if she was his mother. She said, "no, he is my grandson. His mother is deceased two years ago. She was killed in a drive-by shooting while we were all sitting on the porch."
Now, this grandmother is raising her four grandchildren on her own. She told me that her grandson is good in school and told her that "I haven't ever failed and I never will fail." Awesome. Hispanics have a very close knit relationship with their families.
I miss mine.
I have a feeling after tonight that I will have a lot to blog this school year.

Where does the time go?

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a week since I posted! Crazy. Last week is nothing but a blur. I have put so many hours into this classroom that I am mentally and physically exhausted. But....it's fun! I told Don that I can't believe I am getting paid to do this :)
Here is an interesting note...last Friday we had to canvass the neighborhood and pass out flyers door to door for our Open House that happens tonight. Isn't that funny? Most of the people were very nice but someone screamed out the window to me (and the group I was in), "get the F @#!$ off the streets....this ain't no neighborhood for you!"
I guess he could tell that I wasn't from around there lol
The homes we went to were mostly trailers and some of the people spoke no english whatsoever. Thank goodness I learned the words maestra (teacher) and escuela (school). Hispanic people hold the highest regard for teachers so once I told them that I was a teacher in the new school I was okay.
I will write more again later...have to go enroll Lindsey then I have to work until 9 tonight. :)

Where does the time go?

Drumroll Please....

I am in the process of putting my classroom together. Many of you have been interested and have asked about it, so I thought I would blog about it!


The theme in my room is SUPERHEROES. Of course, no superhero would be a "hero" unless there were bad guys (they might still be super, however lol). Therefore, I have created a bulletin board with one of my favorite villains ever....The Riddler (pretty much my favorite because it's Jim Carrey). Here is a picture I took of it. I am pretty proud of it. This is an interactive board. There will be a question of the week posted in the middle and the kids will be able to drop their answers in the purple box. I will draw one or two at the end of the week and if the answer is correct, that student will get to pull a prize from the treasure box. YAY!!!

I also have another board right above this that says Unleash the POWer of reading. The POW is inside and explosion drawing I made. I also have Captain America shields above the team tables. I'll post more pics later.

Have a SUPER day!!

I Miss My Babies!

Oh, the horror of putting your children on an airplane alone! I endured that a mere two nights ago and have been sad ever since :(
Paige and Lindsey hopped a plane north to Michigan to spend a week with Grandma. They are there getting spoiled rotten. Rotten, I say!
Like today, for dinner, they had Greek Noodles. My mother knows I love this meal which is precisely the reason she served it to my children. So they would call me and tease me. The visions danced through my mind....if only I, too, could have some Greek Noodles :(
Then, I understand that Grandma bought them not one, not two, but oh yes, FIVE outfits. And shoes.
The real kicker of this whole story is that Grandma bought not one, not two, but oh yes, EIGHT cartons of ice cream and a whole sundry of different cones that they could choose to suit their fancy. Hey, is there any spumoni or butter pecan for me??? And, yes please, I would like a waffle cone with the end dipped in chocolate and sprinkles.
I miss my babies. Only six days til they come home :)