Oh Where to Begin

Last Monday....was a day. It started off horrible. I woke up late, realized it was dance day and I hadn't packed the dance bag....I was throwing things around frantically looking for tights and skirts and everything else that goes with that. I went to wake up Alexis for school and she took one look at me and said "I need to sleep in my own bed Mommy...leave me alone" so it took me 10 minutes to get my teenager...umm....toddler out of bed for the morning. We left 15 minutes later than normal, and she cried when I dropped her off at pre-school which she never does. When I got to work I realized I hadn't finished my lesson plans for the week...which were suppose to be turned in Friday before I left for the weekend, and definitely no later than 8:00 on Monday morning...it was 8:10. The bell rings at 8:15.....it was a morning.

Then things started turning around. Everyone else's lesson plans were untouched and right where they were last Friday, I was able to slip mine in unnoticed. It was teacher appreciation week, and there was a huge buffet breakfast laid out for us in the lounge, my kids came in with sweet gifts and attitudes. After my kids came back from activity I got a call saying that I was being recommended to the school board for a position that I interviewed for the previous week! I called Michael right away, and we decided to go out to dinner. During dinner Alexis got choked and puked all over the table, and then for some reason that only God knows, she stuck her hands in it and started flinging it everywhere. My husband (with a very weak stomach for vomit) was telling me to take her to the bathroom, and I was saying "No she'll puke all over the place and on people!" I realized after it had all happened that he almost lost it too, but I couldn't move her. Then the college guys that were waiting on us had to clean it all up, and they were gagging as they were running to the back. We left a big tip...... It was such a weird day. Full of ups and downs, but overall it was good!

I guess all of this to say that I am employed!!! The school board officially hired me this Monday, and I go next Tuesday to meet with the principal and start my paperwork. For those of you that don't know, or forgot the school that I am teaching at is closing due to decreased enrollment and finances. So as of May 27th I would have been laid off. Luckily this job came around. There are very few elementary teaching jobs in this area, and these schools are not too keen on a young teacher with only 1 year experience in a private school. So I feel very blessed and lucky that I have a job at all this early in the year. (for teachers anyway) As far as I know I will be teaching Kindergarten! I'm very excited to be switching grade levels, I teach 3rd grade now. It will be a complete fresh start, after this horribly stressful year. I did my student teaching in Kindergarten at the beginning of the year, and I hated it....until November when my kids got into the routine of everything and it was so much fun! I'm going to love having a chance to build up my own Kindergarten classroom, but that means that I have a lot of work to do this summer. I can't use anything from my classroom now! And, I will have more to do at work next year because let's face it, it's tough running after 20 5 year olds vs. 8, 8 year olds! Anyway, I'm excited and I will post more when I know more!

Sally,Simon, and Polly

Alexis has conjured up an imaginary friend...or siblings. Tonight she told me that she wanted to go push her sissy on the swings. I said okay and out we went. She stood behind the swing and was pushing it back and forth and talking to her "sissy". Then she told me that I had to play with her "sissy" I asked her if her sister had a name and she said, "Her name is Sally Mommy." In such a tone that told me that I should have definitely known that was her name. Then she decided to go and push her baby brother down the slide. " I thought you had a baby sister on the swings?"
" Mommy, I have a baby sister and a baby brother. Her name is Sally and his name is Simon. I'm the big sister and I keep them in my pocket." Awesome. " That's sounds good." "Yep and this is Polly my puppy." "Of course it is...."

This almost 3 stage is hilarious. Long ago we had an unfortunate encounter with Polly the puppy. She was holding her puppy ever so carefully at dinner. I finally got her to set it down on the table so that she could eat. After dinner, she ran over to Michael and said, " Daddy eat my puppy." Michael doing what she asked and thinking that she was being funny "grabbed the puppy" and "popped" it into his mouth.

"BLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! MOMMY, MOMMY DADDY ATE. MY. PUPPY."

She was bawling the biggest crocodile tears in the world! She was so sad that Daddy ate her puppy, even though she asked him too. So I said, " Well, it's okay Daddy hasn't swallowed him yet so we can get him back. (Michael was quickly nodding his head and took the puppy out of his mouth and set it back in her hands...) "

Once the puppy was "set" back in her hands she immediately stopped crying and said, " I think my puppy needs a bath..."

One more dog story. We have a Pomeranian. She weighs about 10 pounds and about 4 pounds of that is hair. Poms have an undercoat and a top coat, and once it starts heating up I shave Piper down every year so that she doesn't get too hot during the late spring and summer. This year I did it really early, the beginning of March because it was hot for like a week before it decided to be winter again. Anyway, I shaved Piper down after I had put Alexis to bed. The next morning Alexis woke up and saw Piper in her house. She started screaming at the top of her lungs..." WHAT HAPPENED TO PIPER MOMMY?!?!" I couldn't help but start laughing, and I told her that she was fine I just gave her a hair cut. First she actually started screaming like something had bitten her before she could get those words out. Once I realized what she was screaming about...it was priceless. This was funnier in person than in writing, but I didn't want to forget it, because I can still see the whole scene clearly in my head. :)

Bird Calls

Tonight was a little bit crazy around here. Alexis had gymnastics tonight and after school we went and bought her an actual gymnastics leotard so her dance leotards would stay clean. Then we ran another errand, and it was time for gymnastics. After gym we grabbed dinner at McDonalds, and took it home. Alexis asked me to open her toy, it was a bird and Alexis has been studying birds at school in science. Here is how our little conversation went.

Me: "Alexis look it's a bird!"

Alexis: " No Mommy, it's a macaw! It's a pirate bird, and it sits on the shoulders of pirates. It doesn't go tweet tweet."

Me: " How did you know it was a macaw?"

Alexis: (shrugs) " We are learning about birds at school."

Me: " Well, okay then."

I was completely shocked by all of this. First, we have always just called them parrots so that was as complex as I thought she would go with the name of the bird. Second, we are girly girls around here, there are no pirates or mention of pirates at our house ever. I was definitely proud of her though! She surprises us all the time with things, but this was very unexpected. She's picking up so much from school, and not all of it is good. In the past few weeks she has started to get very sassy. She's trying out all the bad manners she sees at school to see how far she gets with us, and let me tell you it's not very far. So it's been especially rough the past few days. But, I knew this was coming. I talked to her teacher and asked if Alexis had gotten sassy with her, but she told me that she's had no problems with her. That made me feel a little better. I can take care of it at home, but I didn't want her to start being rude to her teacher, or any adult for that matter so I'm very glad that it is only a problem at home right now.

Spring Break

Spring Break was great! I love being a teacher. You still get all kinds of breaks like you did when you were a kid. :) Alexis and I went to my parents for a long weekend the Friday I got out of school. (Michael, unfortunately doesn't still get a spring break) We didn't do too much, but I got a lot of rest, my parents kept Alexis entertained and vice-versa. Monday, we went to Branson to do a little shopping at the outlet malls. Tuesday, we went to visit my grandparents in Conway, on my way back home. Wednesday, I started cleaning like a crazy person and I got my house closer to being back in order. I had to stop cleaning though on Friday because I was busy getting my clothes ready to consign in the local consignment sale that has been going on this week. I had to wash, iron, tag, and enter my items online, and it took longer than I thought. But, I finally got it all done and checked in. Then it was back to work. I can't believe I am 7 weeks away from finishing my first year. I hopefully will start getting interviews soon. The school I am working for now is definately closing, and the Catholic school we were "merging" with decided that they didn't want any of the teachers at our school, or any teacher's for that matter.(Well, actually the bishop decided for everyone... )It's not a total loss, I didn't really want to work for that school anyway because of the way it was ran,the meeting we went to was a big mess...they couldn't answer anyone's questions, and of course I'm not Catholic and I have very little knowledge about it so I probably would have felt a little out of place, but it would have been a job. So, now it's a waiting game for interviews, which I hate, but this job this year fell into my lap so hopefully I will find something by August. Most schools don't even start hiring until late May or June so I have a while to worry :). Oh, and I passed my Praxis III!!! I now have my standard 5 year license, as opposed to my 3 year initial license, or at least I will once I give the state $100! I am so happy! That will make me much more marketable going into these interviews!

Baby Ballerina

Alexis had her first dance audition, and didn't even know it....neither did I. We went to the dance studio to ask how to get her enrolled...I had called and left messages for about 2 weeks and never got a reply. So I interrupted class to ask. It turned out that we had to register by November because that's when they ordered costumes for the recital in May. She told us we could sign up in May and begin classes in June. As soon as she said that Alexis started bawling...so the teacher asked her if she would like to stay and watch the girls dance. Alexis said "Yes please..." in a sad little voice and we sat down to watch. Then she asked Alexis if she would like to do some exercises with them. Alexis jumped off the bench and ran to her mark. Alexis was so good! She was picking up on the dances, and paying attention. Several times the teacher looked over at me and said, "She should have been in here a long time ago." I didn't know there was a registration deadline, and I didn't think that she could start before she was three. I thought we were pushing that by her not even being 3 for another few months. During the whole class Alexis kept yelling at me, " Mommy, I need ballet shoes...Mommy I need tights....Mommy I need a skirt!" She was just dressed in jeans and tennis shoes, and I guess she felt a little out of place. I thought this whole thing was a bad idea. Don't get me wrong I was glad she was having fun, but since we couldn't start until June I knew dancing in this one class would just make her want it more, and I would have no peace until June. So, after class was over the teacher asked me if I would be okay with having her join class and just not being in the recital as it was too later to order a costume. She was impressed at how ready Alexis was to dance at such a young age, and she was good. So I told her that would be fine, and she gave me a registration form and said see you next week! Alexis was so happy when I told her that she could keep going to dance class. The next day we went and bought her shoes, and tights and she wanted to put them all on (of course:) ), and she decided that her ballet shoes made "soft noises", and her tap shoes make "fun noises". I am also excited. Dance is something that I always wanted to put my daughter in. I loved to dance when I was younger, and I still sometimes wish I could be a ballerina. Spring Sing at Harding was some of the most fun I had while I was there. Unfortunately for me....I looked a little ridiculous while dancing. :) So, I think I can safely say that Alexis got her love for dance from me, but her talent is all from her Daddy :).

Funny Bits

Alexis was particularly hilarious today. While we were shopping for her ballet shoes today (more on dance later!), she was dancing around the store to the music, and yelled out " THAT'S MY JAM MOMMY!" And continued to hop around the aisle. Tonight, while we were playing I let her drink juice out of a small but still open cup. She begged for it. I gave in, but I told her she could not under any circumstances leave the kitchen with the cup. She (just like I thought would happen) bent over and spilled her juice all over the kitchen floor then said, "What in the world?! I need to mop this mess up!" As I was putting her to bed she asked for a drink. I told her that she could have a few sips, and I would go and get her something. "Leave the door open Mommy!" She likes to remind me of that, she knows when the door closes I'm not coming back. So as I was leaving she yelled out, " M&M'S!" I walked back to her and said "What? We don't even own M&M'S!" She burst into a hilarious fit of giggles. Then I heard, "GUMMIES!" And didn't even wait for me to respond before she about fell out of her bed laughing.I turned to leave again, and she yelled "POPSICLES!", and again started giggling. Then I heard, "FRUIT!! I TRICKED YOU MOMMY. THAT'S HEALTHY!" And started laughing again. It didn't make too much sense, but we understood it anyway. Above all, it was a great stalling tactic on her part. Once she started laughing hard I couldn't help but join in and play her game. I also kept the laughing going by tickling her every time she yelled out some sort of junk food....and then I tickled her for tricking me :)

Preschool Bound!

Alexis is in preschool now! I truly can't believe it!! She got moved to the preschool class 3 months early, because she was potty trained and has surpassed the 2 year old curriculum! We are so proud of her! She loves preschool. She brings work home everyday, and she is already learning so much! She already knows all of her colors, shapes, and several of her letters so her work is pretty easy for her. Today she made an egg, and a rainbow! She has also made a baby chick that is hanging on the wall of her classroom. She also likes daycare because she get to eat Cheetos. She only occasionally gets to eat them at home. But, boy does she love them! I've already got a box to collect all of her work in to keep and scrap book with. So, congratulations Alexis for moving on and moving up! Daddy and I are so proud of our little girl!