My name is...

(or has been)...

"Anita"

"Anita Jean"

"Neet"

"Anita P"

"Mom"

"Aunt Anita"

"Mrs. S."

and most recently added to the list...

"Luke's Mom"

It feels strange walking around school being referred to as "Luke's Mom" by the littlest people in the building and not "Mrs. S", but it also feels really nice! :)  Luke never attended a 'daycare' and the kids he always played with were either cousins, friends' kids, or kids from church...all of whom called me by something else on the list above so this has been a new experience for me.

It's a name I am very proud to carry! :)

The Darndest Things!

Yesterday at school...
While checking on my kindergartners at the bathroom one of my girls comes out of the bathroom and says "[name removed to protect the not so innocent :)] said 'sexy'!"
Out comes the boy from his bathroom and when I ask him if he said a word that he shouldn't have, he responded, "NO!  I said 'I'm sexy and I know it!'"  (It's a line from a song just in case you are unfamiliar with it-ahem, my mom & dad ;)  I reminded him that it was still not appropriate and that he shouldn't be saying it.

Fast forward to today...
As my second graders are walking out to lunch recess, one of my boys comes walking up to me as he was walking through the gym singing, "I'm sweaty and I know it!"
I couldn't help laughing and now that version has been stuck in my head all day! :)

********************************************************************************

This evening Luke wanted to play in the sandbox so we trotted outside.  Grandma and grandpa's dogs wandered over as they always do anytime we happen to be outside.  This always results in our puppy, Chester, going completely crazy!  He cannot wait to get loose so that he can wrestle, chase, play with the other dogs.  Unfortunately, Chester is also a boy dog and despite being fixed, he does still like to act like a boy dog and do that thing that boy dogs just love to do when one of the dogs is around.

Well, tonight he started to do what boy dogs love to do to the other dog and Luke looks up from his sandbox and says...

"Look mom, Chester is getting a piggyback ride from him!  He sure is holding on tight!"

"Hmm, yeah, a piggyback ride" was about the only response I could give at the time. :)

Happy Leap Day!

It only comes around once every four years and this is my first one as a blogger.  For the most part, it was just another day.

I did get up and run before school today...that was a first in several months.  It felt good and I am easing back into it.  I have been running on the weekends and am now working on getting back to it during the week too!

My kindergartners got to enjoy some GUM today, since Leap Day doesn't come around very often.  Their teacher let them do something that they never get to do, since it was such a special day! :)

My second graders enjoyed a Dr. Seuss Leap Day (and I'm sure that there will be more celebrating in the other grades as the week continues!)

My classmates breezed through their presentations and then my professor breezed through her lesson tonight, which resulted in getting home at an earlier time tonight. Woo-hoo!

Luke has been asking each morning to go see Baby Kyle (instead of going to school), since our recent visit this weekend.  I'm not exactly sure if Baby Kyle is really the big draw or if it's the idea of seeing Uncle Neil and Aunt Beth and being able to visit their farm, basement, chickens, and swings that is actually the bigger draw (even though this isn't verbalized!)  Don't get me wrong, he loves Baby Kyle and he likes to say "I love Baby Kyle and Lucy", but I haven't seen him pay him THAT much attention to him as of yet either.

I can't say that life has been super exciting as of late, but it has been good for it to just be normal. :)

Hope your Leap Day was nice too!

A Full Mind

A full mind is never a good thing, well, at least in my case anyway.
In my case, when my mind is full, it becomes all "swirly" and focusing on any one thing becomes very difficult.
My brain feels like it has been bombarded over the past two weeks with both ongoing and completely new things.

My family is always my top concern.
I am constantly thinking about my child, his well being, the judgements of others, and the relationships that he holds so dear yet struggles so much with because of some things that I believe are not always completely under his control.  And he is only 4 years old...
It makes us very grateful for those in his life who are patient with him even when it is VERY hard and for those who try to understand and help, instead of walking away from him.  We are so very grateful for an understanding teacher/school staff and for those close to us who do make time for him, despite the challenges that can bring at times.
He is and always will be my little man and I love him beyond belief and will always want to do the best by him! And I hope that those closest to him will never give up on him.

School is becoming a new priority too.
I began "the grind" this week.  Two days a week of driving an hour plus each way for class.  Sitting in class two hours plus each night and getting home after bedtime makes for some long days. 
Luke and I have made the most of our morning quality time.  I try to get most of the stuff I would usually do in the morning done before I go to bed.  Then all I have to worry about once I'm dressed and ready to go is eating breakfast (drinking coffee too, of course!) and playing with Luke before leaving for the day. 
Scott has done a wonderful job of adjusting to it all this week!  We'll see how he's doing by the time Week 16 rolls around ;)
Somewhere in the midst of all this, I will find time for homework and research papers too!


I am very much looking forward to a night out with some very dear friends next week!  It always does a mind good to get its "rants" out  within  a "safe zone" and these girls are DEFINTITELY a huge part of my sanity keeping! :)  I am also glad to be a huge part of THEIR  sanity keeping too! ;)

I trust them with my family, my "issues" and my life! And I'm more than happy that they trust me with theirs too. Thanks, in advance, girls!

Read This

"Mrs. S. what did I write?"

This was the question I heard from a kindergartener on one of the last days of school before Christmas break.  The students had been working on writing Christmas lists when I came into the room for reading time.  The teacher had me helping some of the students "read" their lists.  Here's a little pop quiz, see if you can guess which answers were mine and which answer was what the student actually wrote.

The paper said,...

"trngl kosoo"

Your choices are:

A. "triangle kazoo"

B. "tangled kozoo"

or

C. "Tinkerbell costume"

If you chose C, then you did a much better job than I did of trying to read what she wrote as you witnessed in answers A and B.  At least my messed up attempts at trying to decode her words DID help her to come up with the answer to her question at the beginning of this post! :)

Bad Joke

I have been helping the 2nd grade classroom that I work in with their Thanksgiving play and poems for the past week (& today.)  On Friday, they had a substitute teacher so I was the "director."

Being it is a Thanksgiving play, there are two groups of characters...the pilgrims and the Native Americans.  The teacher and I had been working with them on staying seated and quiet anytime they were not "on stage."  Needless to say, a few of them were having some problems remaining quiet, especially on the side of the room where the NA's were sitting.  I looked at the sub and said...

"The Natives are getting restless!"

Hardy, har, har, har!  Hope you all don't have too much picking yourselves back up off the ground from laughter after reading that one! ;)

Back to Work Monday

It had to come to an end sometime...summer is over & I'm quite okay with that!

I'm ready for some routine to be put back in our lives. I enjoy the free "do whatever we want" ability of summer, but much like a toddler...I thrive on routine! :)

I'm ready & I'm ready to see my school "kids" again...not so sure that those same kids will all be ready to go back again though ;)

Going for my first day today and then I have one last reprieve tomorrow (due to a last minute change that I don't have to go tomorrow.) Luke and I have plans to enjoy the day, but after that BRING IT ON! Let school begin!

Let summertime begin,...

but I always can't help thinking...

"Is there someplace that I'm supposed to be?" :)

The residual feeling that lingers for a week or so after school is out of thinking that maybe I should be at work instead. Thoughts like, "Did I mistake the schedule?" "Is everyone at work and I forgot to go in?" and "Is school really out?"

Of course, the answers to these questions are obvious, but that doesn't mean that I won't have to keep answering them to myself for just a bit longer yet! ;)

Out with a Bang!

Today was the last day of school for the kids (& me! :) It was a typical last day of school...excitement that the end was here, sadness that the end was here, kids WOUND up! Pretty typical, until...

15 minutes before the last bell would ring & the kids could begin summer!

A huge storm blew up & a wind drill (for real!) had to be done. Everything went smoothly, everyone stayed safe, and the kids remained calm. When all was said and done, everything was okay. Thank Goodness!

Reportedly, there was a small tornado just outside a nearby town-no injuries, little damage, good news, except for...

the 20-30 extra minutes of school for everyone on this, the last day of school!
(Which is every kids' dream come true! ;)

One week to go...

until school's officially out (for me anyway! :)

It's only been within the last week or so that it has even really sunk in for me though. Many others have been in countdown mode for far longer than I have been, but I've officially caught "summer fever" & am ready to be off for a while!

Instead of counting down days, I've been counting down all of the duties I have left to do. With lunch recess duty every.single.day plus 3 other before/after school duties, this number is actually quite large still. As of tomorrow, I still have 8 duties (5 days) left to go, but by the end of the day Friday...I'll be down to only ONE glorious recess duty left (and if you have ever experienced one of these, then you know that they're not always so "glorious"! :)

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about it! Bring on the summertime! ;)

What's in your foture?

I was assisting a 2nd grader with her spelling words today. We were working on a list of "-tion" and "-ture" words. We talked about the endings and the sounds that they each make. We talked about how, for the most part, you could hear all of the sounds of the letters that come before the endings too. So, basically, once you knew how to spell the ending, you should be able to figure out the other letters in the word by listening for their sounds. Here is the conversation that followed...

Me: "Spell 'future'.../f/ /yoo/ /chur/...remember that you can hear the 2 letters in front of the ending../f/ /yoo/.../chur/."

The student proceeded to write f-o-t-u-r-e.

Me: "Good job, you got the ending! Now let's look, remember I said that you can hear each letter before the ending. You wrote 'foture.' What letter needs to change to make it 'future?'"

Student: (smiles) "Oh Yeah! Well, at least I smelled foture right!"

Me: (hesitantly) "Umm...yes, you did."

Student: "Oh wait, foture isn't a word, is it?"

She smiled again and then changed "foture" to "future" :)

Classroom Help Rocks! :)

"(insert name of helper here) makes me rock!"

A couple of the kindergartners that I work with wrote this line in the class book that they gave to the student helper on her last day of working with the class this year. It was cute, but a bit confusing to all of us adults in the room, until she read a little further and some of the other students had written,...

"(insert same name here) Rocks!"

It was definitely a cute twist on that phrase, although, the meanings are just a tad bit different ;)

Odd Math

Student: "Mrs. S how old are you?"
Me: "Well, how old do you think I am?"
Student: "I don't know...28?"
Me: "Oh I like that, Thank You!"
Student: "How old then?"
Me: "I just turned 30 last year."
Student: "Wow! You're tall for 30!"
Me: "I know I am."
Student: "My mom is like twice as old as you."

(Now I know his mother & she is NOWHERE near being twice as old as me :)

Me: (laughing) "Oh, I am going to have to talk to your mother!"
Student: "Well, she is like 44!"

Maybe I should try to throw in some math lessons along with my reading lessons sometimes ;)

Life right now...

is SUPER crazy at the moment!

*Volleyball practices officially started this week. We held tryouts last week (on the one day we didn't have a snow day :) and one day this week.) That is always a tough thing-not enough spaces and too many sad faces-I didn't sleep very well that night :( Unfortunately we have also had to work around remaining basketball seasons at the moment so getting gym time has been a little tough & very unconsistent. We're able to practice everyday, but the time has been different each day...confusing for us as well as the players...it should settle down soon though...

*On top of volleyball, this week has been filled with places that I need to be either almost immediately or immediately after practice. Monday=parish council meeting and Wednesday=teaching PSR so both of these nights were fairly late nights where I wasn't home at all (maybe an hour on Monday) during the course of an entire day, which makes for a looong feeling week...

*I have also officially signed up for an official running event (I will probably have more on this in a future post) this spring so have been attempting to train around all of these different practice times and places to be as well...

*I am definitely going to be in need of some quality time with my little guy (& the big one too I guess :) since we've gone from "Snow day=all day together & lots of them" to maybe a good hour a day spent together in just the past 2 weeks...

*Outside of the lack of family quality time (which I was well aware of when I stepped up for the coaching postition), it has been a good experience & worth it! And, last but not least,
THANK GOD FOR A WONDERFUL BABYSITTER!!!!! :)
We're definitely blessed that she doesn't seem to mind spending some extra quality time with Luke during this time of year!

"Voicing" Laryngitis's ups & downs

Since this past Sunday, I have been suffering from laryngitis, which means that my voice comes & goes as it pleases & when it does come, it isn't very well. Here are some pros & cons I have been experiencing...

Con: I either can't talk or if I can, it is very forced & my throat ends up hurting anyway :(

Pro: Students think that they need to whisper because I am whispering :)

Con: I had to attempt working in a school with small children all day long :(

Pro: I only had 2 days of school this week & the schedules for both days were fairly lax due to the holidays :)

Con: My 3 year old does not understand why I can't talk at times or why I won't go along with his bedtime song request to "sing louder Mommy!" :(

Pro: Baking cookies with my 3 year old is one activity that does not require a lot of talking :)

Con: I HATE not being able to talk at will for however long I want :(

Pro: I at least still get to go to bed each night with the hope that my normal voice will have returned by morning~when there is nothing else, there is still always hope left, right?! :)

Here's to hoping it's mostly back to normal by Christmas!

Reasons it's great to be me (well at least for today anyway! :)

1) I woke up & stepped on the scale where I was finally rewarded with seeing the number that means I have lost 10lbs!!! (since I first started 'trying' again in October)
This felt really good, especially since I wasn't quite expecting it to be this morning & because I had been hanging around the same pound or two for the last 2 weeks. The combination of calorie counting & running are finally starting to show their results-Thank Goodness! :)

2) I can easily say too that I'm confident that the changes I have been making are for good this time around & I have developed a phenomenal 'will power' as a result. Yes, that was me last week at the ALL DAY meeting (with the donut holes, M&M's, some sort of delicious looking homemade Mississippi Mud Cake brownie things, & other candies sitting on our tables the entire time) who didn't even have one little nibble of any of these things-ALL DAY LONG.

3) I was reading & discussing a book about the Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving with a group of 2nd graders today. The book mentioned how the Pilgrim children did not "go to school" during their first year in Plymouth, but that the children did learn things like manners. These manners included standing at the table to eat, wearing their hats while eating & not speaking unless an adult had spoken to them first. As one can imagine, my students found all of these quite preposterous ;) I singled out the one who I know has the hardest time "not speaking" & asked him if he would have liked being a Pilgrim child...he said "No, I don't think I would handle that very well. I like to talk!" then he proceeds to say..."But I would like to adopt a child someday so that I could teach it to be a Pilgrim child!" ;)

4) I was walking a kindergartener (who had gotten in trouble during lunch recess) inside to the cafeteria & on our walk (which he wasn't very happy about as you may gather) we had the following conversation...
Me: "Was yelling at the other kid a good choice?"
Kndgter: "No! I'm going to get some fertilizer and spread it all over you!"
Me (thinking how I had never yet been threatened with fertilizer): "Fertilizer, huh? Well what good would that do-fertilizer wouldn't help me any."
Kndgter: "I'm going to get some fertilizer and spread it all over you. You won't like it and it will be bad!"
Me: "Well, I just don't see what good that would do. I don't need any fertilizer & doing that won't help you out any...so that just doesn't seem like a very good idea now does it! Maybe we can come up with a better idea."
-Not sure that he cared about any different/new ideas, but at least he made it into lunch & I was still clean as a whistle! ;)

Out with the old & in with the new

The Old:

Last night was the end of our volleyball season...the 8th grade girls played there hearts out, but just couldn't quite pull out a victory in their regional game. It made for an exciting game though!
I am so proud of my 6th graders (whose season ended last Thursday)! They made so much progress this year & even learned some things that hopefully put them at a better starting point than where the 7th graders had to start from this year. If they continue to improve this much each year, they could be very good someday (& much better than our district's vball teams have been in the past. :)
I will miss it, but it's end does leave room now for...

The New:

Tonight, I (Scott & Luke too) got to go see my brand new niece, Lucy Ann! She was born early this morning, but due to work & travel distance, we didn't get to see her until just a few hours ago. She is beautiful (as are all of my nieces & let me tell you~that is getting to be quite a few these days! ;) I am so happy for my sis & her husband & can't wait to spend more time with their beautiful little girl. Luke was quite smitten as well & kept saying "HOLD LUCY! Lukey HOLD HER!"

Don't be such a 'baby hog' son! ;)
(Not sure where he gets that from...please don't look too closely at his mother or most definitely his grandmother!)

Actually, he did a great job with her & even smiled/posed for the camera :)

We are so happy to have you as part of our family, Lucy Ann, & wish all the best to Beth & Neil as they embark on this journey called parenthood!
Good Luck! ;) [insert evil laughter here~just kidding!]

Randomosity

You like that word...I just made it up :) Anyway, right now headed your way is one completely random post due to my long absense~many thoughts have been storing up inside my brain & you my lucky readers get to share in it!

*It's March-my least favorite month. Why? (I know you were all just thinking that, right?) It has to be the looonnnggggeeeesssttt month of the whole year-you know we teachers hardly ever get a day off in March (my sis the nurse loves to hear me complain about this ;) This year in my school we get a whopping 1 hour early dismissal on the last day of March this year-it might be a long 23 school days this month, especially once spring fever officially sets in over the next few weeks.

*Also, March can be such a tease-it's late enough into the winter season that everyone is hoping for spring, but if it turns nice in March-watch out for April! So just give me a nice cold March, if it means that spring can officially start in April & then stick around until summer.

*I have yet to suffer from 'spring fever' this year. I have heard many of my family & friends' complaints/wishes for winter to be over, but I haven't really felt that way until maybe the last 2-3 days. Up until this point I have actually been hoping for maybe one more good snowfall, now not so sure, unless it will get us a few snow days right in the middle of the week in the middle fo March... ;)

*My 6th graders won their first game last week & we're hoping for a repeat tomorrow evening.

*We only have a few weeks left to this volleyball season (& it feels like it only just started!)-I think I'm "hooked" & have actually been surprised by how much I have enjoyed it!

*It's Lent, which means Fridays=fish/no meat & our "Pizza Fridays" have gone by the wayside here at our house-I really miss them...

*I have had several great blog post ideas, but have not written any of the down or typed any of them to be posted-now I can't remember what they were...

*I realized that if you spell the word "chidren" backwards, the first half of what it spells is the word "nerd"...it makes me wonder if this means anything...

Could that thought have been any more random for all of you? :) Until next time...

Put me in Coach!

It has definitely been an interesting last week or so.

First off, I do believe that I have fully survived (it was never confirmed but...) my bout with the flu. Last week was a bit rough getting back into the swing of things, especially since it was my first full week back since Christmas break due to a few well placed snow days/school holiday days since break.

It was truly an exhausting week trying to get back into the swing of things, oh wait, did I forget to mention that I am helping out with our middle school volleyball team as a volunteer coach & those practices also started last week!

Yep, that's right, not only was I trying to just make it through a typical day while getting my strength back, but I was tacking on an additional 1 1/2 to 2 hours of volleyball practice each day too!

It was exhausting & I was quite exhausted!

I did discover though that so far I have really enjoyed this coaching thing-it is amazing to see the amount of progress that my 6th graders have made in just a few days! Oh we're definitely not Olympic material (yet! :) but I have seen definite improvement in all of them & their eagerness to learn & improve has been so nice to work with too.

So...I may have been exhausted & I may or may not have come home/ate supper/put Luke to bed/fell asleep on his bedroom floor & then was out for the night by 7:30 one night last week, but it was definitely one very good week!

And, yes, after being inspired by my 7:30 bedtime last week-you can call me "Superwoman" if you like because I obviously handled it all so well & was brimming over with energy all week long! ;)

Wise beyond his years

A conversation held yesterday between myself & a 2nd grader...

2nd Grader: (in a real serious voice) "Hey Mrs. S! Did you know that I will have to move to China when I turn 16?"

Me: (pondering what in the world he is talking about-military? No, you have to be 18 for that & then why China if that was the case. Family relocating? No, I know of this family & that would seem very odd, especially looking approximately 8 years into the future at this point. So I decided to ask...) "Why will you have to move to China?"

2nd Grader: "Because I will have to get a job when I turn 16 so I will have to move to China."

Me: (looking quite confused at this point) "Why would you need to move to China to get a job when you turn 16?"

2nd Grader: "Well...I really want to get a job where I can make toys and all of the toys are made in China, so I will have to move to China."

Me: (laughing) "You're right, many of the toys are made in China! Good luck with those plans, but maybe you should at least try to graduate before you move to China." :)

Somedays these kids just make my blog post ideas sooo easy ;)