Life keeps going!

We are nice and busy around here lately. We got Jack's professional pictures done and they turned out wonderfully! I was really worried because like always our weekend was busy and Jack didn't take his nap! So, by the time we got his picture taken he had been up for four hours! That is a long time for the little man! He ended up doing a good job, however.
I am keeping busy too! I am busy at work with teaching my students and a student teacher. I am excited about this because I may want to teach teachers in the future and this is my first experience with it! So far, so good. We are learning together! I am also keeping busy with my last master's class and my portfolio. It is a LOT of work and takes a lot of time - which is the one thing I never have enough of! The good news is that I have a good vision of where my project is going and there is an end in sight! I will graduate on May 8th and I am very excited!

31 Weeks!

How could I possibly have only 9 weeks left until I have this baby? Yikes! We went to childbirth class last night again and I think it freaked Chad out a little. It freaked me out a little for sure. You know on a Baby Story they don't show everything and I think they try to make the mother look cute. The women in the movie we saw were looking ROUGH, really really rough. Of course, they didn't have the beauty of the epidural, which I know doesn't always work or I know I may encounter a circumstance where the epidural isn't an option, but after watching that video last night I hope to become very close friends with the anestsiologist.

Of course the childbirth instructor is quite ANTI-epidural but whatever, she isn't having this baby, I am, so she can go fly a kite for all I care! Anyway, I just wanted to check in and show off my newest pic. I got my haircut so it was a good day for a picture! I hope everyone is well. I am continuing to work on my classroom to get everything ready for a new bunch of little darlings! I hope they don't tire me out too much, yeah right!

SCHOOL'S OUT!

School's out for SUMMER! School's out for EVER! Well, maybe not but it is out for two and a half months! I know I will be busy this summer but Mouser (our baby) and I will get to sleep in soon and I couldn't be more excited! It was sad to say goodbye to my kids. I love them all so much and it is amazing to see the change they go through each year. I also love the end of the year because parents take the time to send such kind notes to show their appreciation. I always save the notes because there are plenty of days that I need a reminder that all of this hard work is for something important. It is so nice to hear that parents are happy and it makes me want to work even harder.

Ahhh, but for now we are going up to our parents' houses for Father's Day. I am going to do a bit of homework in the car but mostly it will be a nice relaxing weekend! Hooray!

Kids say the darndest things

So I told the parents of my Kindergarteners on Friday that I am pregnant. Honestly, I couldn't really hide it anymore and I was getting tired of people staring at my bulging stomach since no one should ever ask if someone is pregnant!
So yesterday and today my kids have been talking about it amongst themselves. It is funny to hear what they have to say about it.
At the end of the day, however, I had my purse with me because I had to go right to the GI doc after work. One little boy in my class said, "You have to go to the doctor so he can take your baby out!"
I said, "no, my baby has to cook a little longer in my belly."
Then he said, "are you going to eat your baby?"
I guess it was a valid question. I forget that they are very literal about everything and many of them are not developmentally ready to understand double meanings or jokes. It was just such a funny response!

Still pregnant now school too!

Well, my next round of classes start up today. I am taking an online master's class from May 12-June 30th. It is about literacy assessment and I am very excited about the prospect of updating and changing the way I assess the kids in my classroom! I am also taking a professional development course that really picks up after school gets out. Then I am taking 2 more classes Starting July 1st. One of them meets two afternoons a week and the other meets once a week and then has an online component. SO at least I will keep busy this summer! The problem is that being pregnant, working full time as a Kindergarten teacher (they are NUTS right now), taking a class, and doing all the house adds up to a VERY tired Amy. Oh boy, it didn't take long to get me tired before but add a fetus, laundry and making dinner and I am all but spent. Oh well, I am sure I will make it through, I always do! I hope you are having a restful day!

Sick of Winter!

I am so so so sick of winter. Yeah, I know I live in Michigan but give me a break! February seems SO long. I am just getting a bit bogged down at work with lots of testing and trying to keep up. We have had several 4 day weeks and it seems that I have to do the same amount of stuff in those four days. I didn't send home the weekly folder I generally send home on Fridays last week because not only did we not have school on Friday but we also had a Valentine's Day party and a whole bunch of other junk and still trying to catch up from all of the snow days from the week before. So now it seems that people are all up in arms about not getting this stupid folder home. There was a note to go home about the Daddy Daughter Dance (which is as big as prom at my school) and it isn't due for like 3 weeks. Well, I am going to send it home this Friday. It isn't the end of the world people!
Okay, enough venting for now. Work is just making me a big batty right now.
Anyway, everything else is going well. I can't wait until we go to Florida. And until then I will just keep dreaming of my VERY favorite day of the year. You know, that first day that you can drive around with the windows of your car rolled down, sunroof open, music blaring with the smell of Spring in the air. I LOVE that day, seriously. I mean, its probably like 55* when I do that but it feels like 85* when we have had such cold days! I hope everyone can keep dreaming about Spring to get them through those cold days we have left.

We got a little snow

Well, make that a LOT of snow. By Chad's estimation we got about a foot (though I am sure it looks like a bit more when you are snowblowing it). I had Friday off of work for a snow day, a two hour delay on Tuesday due to fog and today off for snow and ice. Yikes! It hardly feels like I am working anymore. I love it, don't get me wrong, it is just throwing me off! Oh, and now our table isn't going to be delivered until Monday. They are delivering it from Omer which is way up north and the guy said he was going to have to leave there at 6:30 a.m. since he has 6 deliveries down around here. He was worried about the roads and I don't blame him. Oh well, so we will just enjoy our table on Monday instead! I hope everyone is nice and safe and staying off of the roads if they are bad where you are.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

So, I had a blast in South Carolina. It was a lot of fun to visit with sis and aaron and to just relax for the weekend. The weather was not as hot as I was hoping for but it is SO cold here that it was still an upgrade.
The big news is going back to work. My kids are SICK, SICK, SICK. They are getting sicker by the day. I had 10 kids gone on Tuesday and 8 kids gone today. I have had a couple of kids gone for over a week now. The big problem is a weird flu that seems to be highly contagious. It is weird because it is a wet, wheezy cough for a day and then a quick fever and the kid is out of commission for the better part of a week. I had two parents try to send their kids to school today sick as dogs. WHY oh WHY do parents insist on sending miserable, fever ridden children to school? I don't want to get sick and I don't want to get the only well 12 children in my class infected. STAY HOME. I am sorry if you have to take a day off of work or take your child to Grandma's but honestly, I am so FREAKING tired of getting sick needlessly. I anti-bac-ed my classroom about 100 times today and each kid had to wash their hands if they so much as touched their face (which in Kindergarten is constantly). It is very, very difficult for me to miss work, especially when I am sick and I can't plan ahead.
Enough venting for now. Tomorrow is Thursday, which is awesome. I have enjoyed watching Idol all week and Project Runway is on tonight too! I hope everyone is enjoying their week!

Quick Week!

Well, tomorrow is Friday and it has been a quick week. It is amazing how differently time can pass when you are busy or bored. This week was like most during a regular week of work, with one awesome exception, no classes! I don't have a bunch of homework or papers. It makes it pretty lazy around here once I get home. Of course when Chad gets home each day we take a high quality nap for like 45 minutes. I think its my favorite part of the day. I know I should work out during that time but we sang about 4 jump and dance songs at work today so that should count for something. There was a new Grey's Anatomy and ER tonight, so that was cool. I basically sat like a lump for a few hours today. Ahhhh, how nice. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Back to work!

So I have been back to work for two days and it hardly feels like I had a two week vacation but not necessarily in a bad way. I have realized lately that although my job is a LOT of work, and I mean a lot of work, I love it. A lot of people think that Kindergarten teachers must be crazy. They are probably right. Usually people say that just as everything in a classroom is falling apart. For example there are generally a few parents lingering outside of my classroom door at the end of the day. This is one of the craziest times of the day, imagine getting 22 children bundled up in coats, hats, boots, gloves, etc. Imagine that only a few of them can zip their coats, they can't get anything else in their over-stuffed back packs, there is always a last minute note to send home, and one of the kids gnerally doesn't know if they are getting picked up or riding the bus and they are crying about it.
So, also at this time the parents outside the door are looking at me with a look of, well, I'm not sure. Sometimes I think it is judgement (too much yelling, too much chaos) and sometimes I think they are feeling pity for me. One parent said to me just before Christmas, I think we should get you a bottle of Jack Daniel's for Christmas. I didn't know how to take it so the next day I asked her. I figured she thought I needed to relax like I am too stressed and I couldn't handle my classroom. She told me that with the job I have I deserve a stiff drink at the end of the day.
I guess sometimes I feel a bit self-concious about people watching me teach. Most people don't understand what it is like to manage 22 children at a time. It is MUCH different than 2 or 3 kids at a time. I know that I am not a mom, that job is much harder than mine, but I just always feel like people are judging me. That is understandable since I spend 6 hours a day with their children. I think I am so sensitive because I take my job so seriously. I love my kids so much and I want to be a nice, calm, caring, put together teacher all the time but admittedly there are times that I raise my voice, have you tried to whisper over 22 five year olds? And there are times that I lose my patience but with that said, I still LOVE my job. I love my kids and I am always trying to improve. I think it is good for me to keep self-evalauating. Any teacher who won't self-evaluate is the one to worry about as far as I'm concerned.
Enough rambling, I hope everyone is getting back into the swing of January. Post holiday time is always a bit sad for me but I have a trip to South Carolina soon to see my SIS! YAY!

No work until Monday!

Well, I am still on vacation until the seventh and I have to tell you that I miss my Kindergarteners! I was very busy with Christmas and New Year's and Chad had most of the time off with me but now I will be home alone for the next three days. Oh well, I found the Harry Potter series to fill up my time. I can't put them down. I have three left and they are HUGE. Oh well, I have nothing but time on my hands.
Enjoy all of the posts below to see what I have been up to!

SNOW DAY - sort of

Well this weekend we got about 8 inches of snow and the back roads were still pretty bad this morning. Most of the districts around us had the day off and even the charter school in our town was off of school for today. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. hoping for the most joyous phone call that there was no school but alas, no call. I drove into work. The highway was fine but most of the side streets were still pretty rough.
Then, during the kids recess my co-worker came in to tell me that we won't have school TOMORROW! What? I thought she was full of it. Then she told me that the water main outside of our school (which has been on life support for months) has finally gone and they are cancelling school tomorrow to fix it as we wouldn't have any water in our school at all, which means no toilet flushing, yuck!
So, now I will have time to go shopping for the schools giving tree and have lunch with my friends but most imporantly . . . SLEEP IN! WHOO HOO!

So much to do, so little time!

It seems as though there are SO many things to do around this time of year. We have been making SO many Christmas crafts in our classroom this week it is starting to get ridiculous! We have been reading LOTS of Christmas books. Yesterday I read my favorite Christmas book which (embarassingly) is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love that book and I love the movie. I am always sure to share both with my Kindergarteners each year. Today I read The Polar Express which is a wonderful book. Many people now know the movie but the book is really well written and beautifully illustrated. The kids all sat there listening to the story in complete silence. They were hanging on every word and hardly interrupting the story, which is a Christmas miracle in itself this time of year!
I think tomorrow I will read The Night Before Christmas. I have found that the old fashioned wording in that books makes it harder for my kids to attend to but they still enjoy it. This class has been really into The Twelve Days of Christmas book/song this year.
On Monday we are making gingerbread men (wish me luck) and at some point we have to make parent gifts! I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas season and are making many happy memories. :)

Ultimate Fall Snack

Around the Lansing area it is a known fact that the most delicious fall snack out there is Cider and Donuts from Quality Dairy. Oh MAN are they good. We bought some on Sunday night and tonight Chad bought even more. We like the sour cream glazed donuts. I think they are the best slightly heated, same with the cider. Oh yeah. Tomorrow I am going to the pumpkin patch with my Kindergarteners and we always get cider and donuts there too. It makes the whole trip better. Oh wait, I mean I love going to the pumpkin patch with 22 Kindergarteners. It is not hectic or stressful at all! :) Honestly, it is a fun trip, it is just exhausting. I love field trips though, they take a lot of prep but are always worth it in the end! The weather should be beautiful tomorrow so I am happy about that!

Getting my classroom together!

I love going into my classroom at the end of the summer to get things put together. It is so fun to get a fresh start, a new classlist, and a new setup in the classroom. I am going to have my classroom set up in a new way again this year, as I do every year just to mix things up. I am not sure about my boards or posters as I like a bit of a change there too. I haven't had a lot of time to spend in my room yet so we will see how much gets done before we have to take off to see my sister for her WEDDING on Labor Day weekend!
I am happy to get things going. As Chad always says, I always look forward to the summer but I am actually a lot happier when I am working. My job is NOT easy and it is exhausting but I do love my job. I get very bored, very quickly in the summer. This summer I was extremely busy with classes and workshops and everything else but I still got bored on the off times. I will be happy when I am a bit busier.
I can't wait to meet my new kids. Well, I met most of them at Kindergarten roundup in the Spring but at that point they aren't my kids in my classroom yet. It is impossible to get to know all of the future Kindergarteners at round up but when they start coming in for back to school night and orientation, they are my kids. I can finally open myself up to them and get to know more and more about them. Generally I learn all of their names by the second hour of the first day. I have their pictures from roundup so it is easier for me to remember them a bit but it will be fun to get to know their personalities and how they will interact with each other.
Oh well, that is enough musing for today. Have a wonderful day one and all!