Inspired by Carrie

Yup, it's her fault...I mean, inspiration behind the festive color change.  That, and maybe a bit too much free time on my hands.  Happy Holidays!!! :-)

Newlywed Bliss? aka Shaine, this one's for you

Oh yes, it happened. Today at church a sister touched my stomach and asked me when I'm due.

Now, I realize I've gained 6 pounds over the last 4 1/2 months, but that's not enough to make me look pregnant, SURELY?!? She was incredibly apologetic when I told her "I'm not.", and commented that so many of the young couples in our ward are expecting.....sure. I'm blaming it on my insulin pump. I clip it to the inside of my waistband, but it still pooches out. And yes, the return to the exercise regime has commenced (2 weeks ago, actually - but apparently it wasn't soon enough!!!)

The Magic of Holidays

It's not that people are kinder or more thoughtful, it's that children go on break for a few days and magically lose all of their ability to follow directions.  Which makes my job SO much more fun.  Really.

In other news, the first married Thanksgiving went well.  It definitely didn't feel like a normal TG to me - I mean, it was in the wrong state, with different people and different foods, but it was fun! We spent a lot of time with Robb's mom, sister, and brother in law.  And we spent an equal amount of time in the train coming and going.  That's another story, but my advice in the meantime:  Get a sleeper!!!  :-)

English Language Development

Teacher, why do you smell like the wind?

Hmmm.....perhaps all my communing with nature has paid off and we have now become one!  Or maybe not... ;-)

Analogy

YOU ARE is to WHAT YOU EAT as 

YOU ARE is to WHO YOU WORK WITH???

If the above is even remotely true, I'm turning into a 6 year old.

Fact 1:  I'm no longer able to pay attention to any one thing for longer than 10 minutes.

Fact 2:  I am unable to sit still AT ALL.

Fact 3:  I am increasingly impulsive.

Fact 4:  I like art projects a lot.

The above character developments came together recently as I attended a professional development session.  I spent the day being trained on a method of teaching English Learners, and Fact 1 made itself apparent 10 minutes into the 6 hour day.  Usually, I just draw (and color) pictures and/or write silly letters to Robb.  This time, as the urge to use the scissors in the materials box overcame me (see Fact 3), my coworker asked me if I knew how to cut out paper doll strings.  I quickly demonstrated the art of doll cutting, and we were off.

How was I supposed to know she would get so excited?  Seriously - she was bouncing in her seat with joy!  Her enthusiasm spread, and throughout the day we cut out enough shapes to create some "art" (see Fact 4). 

So yes, it was a great training meeting.  And yes, I kept myself occupied (clearly).  And this is what we ended up with:

Hey - even the presenter congratulated us on our creativity!  (After commenting that we MUST be lower grade teachers.....) ;-)

Way to burst my bubble

One of the perks of being a teacher is that - if you do even a half-way decent job - your students think you're the most amazing person in the world.  Consequently, I get a lot of "I love you, teacher."  "You're so nice, teacher."  "You're the best teacher in the world."  "You're so pretty."  etc.  Not too shabby, eh?

Yesterday my students wrote a paragraph describing the class.  They were supposed to tell me what they see, hear, and smell in our room.  (Yeah, I know - I really opened it up for craziness with that last one.)  Anyway, I discovered I'm not quite as awesome as I'd like to think when I read one of my student's paragraphs.  

She said:  "I want to describe my classroom.  In my class there's a lot to see, hear, and smell. Every day I see my second favorite teacher, the American flag, colorful baskets, and pretty plants. "

So not only am I the second favorite (which she explained to me in further detail, with much enthusiasm), but I'm also as exciting as the flag, baskets, and plants.

Sigh......oh, hello humility - it's nice to meet you again.  ;-)

Sick Discovery

Now, many of you are previously acquainted with strep throat.  I somehow managed to avoid it my entire life - including my first three years of teaching - until now.  Apparently someone, somewhere decided it's time for me to make up on lost time, and I'm now sick with strep throat for the second time in four weeks.  Sucks!!!

Headache, nausea, dizziness, listlessness, body aches, fever...not to mention the intense pain in your throat due to HUGELY swollen glands.  Sigh...I guess there is one bit of silver lining:  as a coworker who had it five times in one school year said, "If nothing else, it's very effective at making you lose weight!"  Yippee.  ;-)

Kids are funny

So a while back my students had to take a test to measure their proficiency in English.  (Remember, these kids are in a bilingual school program, and each year they get less Spanish and more English.  In second grade it's still 70% Spanish and only 30% English).

The students were shown a picture similar to this:

They then had to describe what they saw in one sentence.  Most kids said things like "The puppies are playing with their mom" or "The mom is giving the puppies milk", etc.  My favorite, however, came from one little boy who wrote:  "The puppies are teaching the true meaning of Christmas."  

Um.....if you say so! :-)

And our new calling is...

...nursery.  Yup, we finally received callings today and will be in charge of the nursery every other week.  Our bishopric said they felt STRONGLY impressed to put us there, so this could be interesting.  

Pray for us.  :-)

What everyone really wants from me.....wedding pictures!

We're alive!

I'm now able to understand why my friends who have been married disappear for six months to a year.  There's simply SO MUCH to unpack, set up, arrange, rearrange, learn, change, etc.  The weirdest thing is scheduling.  I live 5 minutes away from my work site, I'm no longer in grad school, I'm not new to teaching, and I don't spend 4+ hours a day on the phone with Robb (thank goodness - that would be odd at this point) ;-) Basically, I should have MORE time, not less - but trying to fit everything in is very difficult.  I suppose that's why they call the first year the adjustment period, right?