A glance

The past couple of weeks have felt super busy. (What's new.) I'm sure you all are feeling the same way. And that "busy-ness" has kept me away from the computer. So here's a glance at some of the happenings (in bullet points, no less).

• Dan reached his half way mark in school. Can you believe it? I sure can't. Time has flown by. And I am happy to report that Dan is LOVING Wyotech.
• While Dan has been doing the school thing, Alayna and I have been doing the Babysitting thing, among other things. But babysitting really does take up a lot of my week. I have had a little break for a few days, and I have to admit, I am LOVING spending one-on-one time all day long with my Layna. She is the best.
• When Alayna is down for a nap, after I have straightened the house, checked my email, and exercised, I have been crocheting. This new found hobby of mine really is quite addicting. I have been busy making baby hats and shoes. I promise to show off the fruits of my labor when I am done.
• On some of the mornings that I don't babysit, I have had a chance to help in my friend/former co-worker, Kathy's, kindergarten class. Oh, how I have missed teaching Kindergarten! But it has been wonderful to go and visit and re-live my Kindergarten teaching days. If there were two of me, you can bet that one of me would be teaching Kindergarten at Beitel and the other me would be staying at home with my little Layna.
• Prom was this last weekend in Laramie, and I was asked to be my little sister, Sarah's, hair dresser and makeup person. KaLee was my "assistant hair person" as she put it and also in charge of the manicure and pedicure. It was a blast. And I have to say, she looked stunning! Her hair was pretty darn awesome, if I do say so myself. In fact, I have decided that I will have to post pictures later so you can see the awesome-ness for yourself.
• One of the biggest changes recently is Dan was just made the 2nd counselor in the bishopric in our ward. I am now the single mother that has to fight to keep her child from running up to the stand to sit with her Daddy. You probably already know (because I have said it a million times), but Alayna is a BIG daddy's girl. I mean she love, love, loves her daddy. It was so sad to see her stand on my lap on Sunday and hold her arms out to Dan, saying in a very sad voice, "Dada. Dada." I have a feeling we will be out in the hall several times during Sacrament meeting for this first little while.
• I have a new (as of a few months ago) calling in our ward as the visiting teaching coordinator. I had no idea how much time goes into this calling. Especially in a transient ward like ours. This last week I made changes on visiting teaching routes since so many people were moving due to graduation. When all was said and done, we had to hand out 34 new visiting teaching routes.
• Mother's Day was fantastic! They just get better and better.

Kindergarten Funnies

It's about time for another Kindergarten story.

This story did not actually happen to me, but it is about one of my kids that I had last year. We'll call him Chad and his teacher Mrs. V.

Chad: Mrs. V., my dog died.
Mrs. V.: I am so sorry Chad. That is sad. Those things happen sometimes. (Then Mrs. V. went into a class discussion about death and how sad it can be.)

After school, Mrs. V. still felt badly about Chad's dog and decided to call his mom. When she reached Chad's mom, she kindly let her know how sorry she was to hear that their dog had passed away and Chad's mom simply replied, "We don't have a dog."

I laughed so hard when I heard this. I know it's probably not as funny to you as it is to me since I actually know this little boy, but still, you have to admit, it's pretty funny. :)

Needless to say, I think Mrs. V. has learned not to believe EVERYTHING Chad says.

School

Today is the first day of school, here in St. George, and I have to admit I am feeling a little (ok, a lot) "schoolsick". I know that's not really a word, but we'll just pretend.

I know some of you reading this are thinking I am absolutely crazy!!! Let me clarify that it's not being the student that I miss so much, but the teacher. So nonetheless, I am missing Kindergarten terribly. At the end of this last school year I was wondering if I would ever get to this point again because I thought the tattle-telling would NEVER end and I was beginning to feel like my name was being over used. (Mrs. Stevens he did this... Mrs. Stevens, so and so won't stop bugging me, etc.) I can just hear it now, but I am actually missing those little kidos something fierce.

Although I only taught for one year, I soon found out that I was in the absolute perfect profession for me. I knew I would like teaching, but I didn't know I would LOVE teaching Kindergarten. The more I taught, the more I liked it-which is what everyone wants to say about their career, but not many can. I was fortunate enough to work in the most wonderful school with fabulous co-workers. I truly was spoiled.

So now to end this walk down memory lane I will leave you with one of many of the humorous moments of teaching.

Background: My classroom discipline policy was based on a clip system. The kids each had a nametag that they would turn over each day for attendance purposes. (We also did a lot of work with the letters in their name, vowels, etc.) If a student was misbehaving and broke one of the rules, they would put a clip (a small clothespin) on their nametag as a warning. Two clips-they missed afternoon recess, and three-I called their parents. This was very effective in my classroom.

Me: Tom, if you do not stop throwing things, I am going to have to call your parents. You already have two clips on your nametag and if you do not make a better choice, you will get another clip.

Tom: I'm gonna call YOUR parents.

Me: Tom, I don't think they'd care. (As I am trying not to laugh, while I am envisioning my Dad answering that phone call.)

Kids. You gotta love 'em.

* I am trying to document all of my funny classroom stories (I know I should have been doing this as they happened) so that I can post some of them for a good laugh. Be looking forward to some more later on.

Here I am on the first day of school. In case you are wondering, the black thing around my neck is a microphone. Our school had some hearing impaired students. Although not every class needed a microphone, we all used them. I think every school should have them in their classrooms. They are awesome!