So Tired...

Well, we're a week into school, and I seem to be perpetually tired. I am hoping that I can fix this; maybe by exercising or trying to actually go to bed before midnight. My eyes are hurting really bad and making me more tired than I already am; I am promising myself a visit to the eye doctor (my first in 12 or 13 years) when my new insurance kicks in on the 1st.

We've had a whirlwind week! School started last Wednesday, and we had Zach's birthday party at our house on Saturday. I baked his cake and did some cleaning Thursday night, decorated the cake for 4 hours Friday night, decorated more of the cake Saturday morning, cleaned, and decorated. The party was a big success, and Zach got more toys than any kid should be allowed to have. Saturday night, Mom and Dad, my brother-in-law and his family all hung out and ate pizza. My nephew spent hours putting together a block playset that Zach received that day, which of course has already been taken down. Sunday, Mom and Dad left early, and I spent the day on the couch, first by reading an entire novel, then by taking a nap. Zach spent the day playing with his new toys, and went to sleep in his new tent pretty easily.

Monday night, I went to a Creative Memories meeting to find out about the new get-together format, which is really cool. My upline challenged me to hold a get-together within the next week, so I am having one Saturday at my house. Hopefully I won't be alone!

Yesterday was Zach's 4th birthday. He started gymnastics, which he loved. What I love about it is that he goes during the day at school. It doesn't take away from family time, and he's not spending all day at school. He was allowed to bake a cake in the Easy Bake oven at school, and we brought cookies for snack time. When Darren got home from work, Zach opened even more presents, then we took him to Johnny Rocket's for dinner. It's an old-fashioned diner place, and the waitresses sing and dance. They sang happy birthday to Zach, and he didn't react too much. After dinner, we took him to Target to spend his birthday money. He wanted the two Scooby-Doo movies, but they only had the second one. We decided to let him pick out a toy instead, and what he really wanted was this Ford F-150 truck that was motorized. What he liked best about it was that it had speakers in the back, and when you press a button, it plays "We Will Rock You", and the speakers light up and move. There was NO WAY that thing was coming to our house to drive us crazy! We settled on the Hot Wheels car transporter instead.

Today, Darren took Zach to the doctor for his FOUR shots, then kept him home for the day. He wasn't feeling well, and needed some TLC.

School is going fairly well for me so far, but the kids are very low this year, and seems like they are pretty immature. They work slowly, and ask zillions of questions. I am working hard to have patience with them, but it's hard, and the other teachers are feeling it, as well. Our kids are babied in elementary school, and intermediate school is a rude awakening! The kids suddenly have 4 teachers, an elective, and the dreaded lockers. Lockers and covering books are my least favorite part of teaching. Hopefully it won't take long to pick up speed, and the last few kids will learn how to open their lockers. Then, life will be good...

We Both Survived the First Day!

Today was my first day of school, and Zach's first day of preschool. He went into it with much more confidence than I did! His daddy had to drop him off, since I had to be at work SO EARLY, but he just went to the new classroom, found his friends, and sat down. He had a great day, took a long nap (unfortunately), and was in a great mood when I picked him up. He is zoning in front of the TV while I play on the computer, and his dad gets the yard ready for his 4th birthday party on Saturday.

Today was exceptionally long, especially when I kept the same group of kids all day. We had a break at lunch and fine arts time, but some of the kids were with me from 7:30 this morning until almost 5:00 this afternoon. It was time to get away from each other! The parents cracked me up this morning; they all had huge smiles on their faces, and were very excited to get their freedom back after the summer. I don't think most of the moms were worried about their kids' first day; they were too happy about having an empty house to let it bother them!

I think it is going to be a good year (I'll be interested to read this again in May); I seem to have a pretty good group of kids. There are a few who already seem like they will be a lot of work, and a few who can't sit still, but that is all part of the job. Most of them seem to be caring, kind individuals, and it will be fun to watch them grow this year. Fifth grade is such an important year for the kids; they come to us from elementary school, and suddenly have lockers, four teachers, and electives. When they leave us, they have usually grown several inches, discovered the opposite sex, and have a much more developed personality. It's always so much fun to see my students from the previous year in the fall; they grow up so much! I have four kids this year who are younger siblings of previous students, and it is nice to be able to "check up" on former students.

I am thrilled to be able to only teach Social Studies this year! I feel like I will really be able to go in-depth with the material, and maybe get through all of US History. We are starting with geography tomorrow, which is a necessary evil. The students need to learn how to read maps, but it is hard to make it exciting!

Four More Days of Freedom!

I haven't posted in a while, but there hasn't been much excitement to report, and I'm sure that no one wants to get involved in the mundane details of my life. We went to Louisiana for the last weekend in July, and it was a nice, relaxing weekend. We went out on Dad's boat that Saturday, which is something we hadn't done in a couple of years. We went to the big city of Delcambre, known for the apparel called "Delcambre Reeboks". If you aren't fortunate enough to own a pair of these beauties, you are truly missing out! They are sexy, white rubber boots that the fisherman and shrimpers there wear. When the boots aren't occupying the feet of their owners, they are displayed upside down, wedged between the toolbox and rear window of pickup trucks.

Anyway, we launched Dad's boat in the Delcambre Canal, and headed out toward Vermilion Bay. The weather was beautiful, and Zach didn't mind the life jacket too much, so it was a pleasant trip. If it wasn't so expensive for Texas residents to get a Louisiana fishing license, we would have loved to have fished that day. According to the fish finder on the boat, there were lots of places that would have been good fishing holes.

After driving around Vermilion Bay, we went down the Intracoastal Canal toward Cypremore Point. We passed tugboats pushing barges, as well as shrimp boats headed back in with their catch. We drove underneath the new bridge to Cypremore Point, which was weird, because you could see the cars and trucks driving over it. They had to build a new bridge because the old one was really low, and boats kept running into it. The new one is about 80 feet tall, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Zach napped in Gammy's arms on the way back to the dock, and we decided that seafood for dinner was a must. We stopped at the bait store/bar/daiquiri shop and bought some shrimp, which Dad barbecued for dinner.

Zach stayed with my parents until Thursday, when they came here. I missed him, but I had forgotten how easy it was to keep the house clean without a child around. It was so nice to be able to go wherever I wanted, and not have to worry about the nightly bedtime battle. I went shopping with a friend, went to a Creative Memories meeting, planned our sorority calendar for the year, worked at school, and Darren and I went to see a play. Freedom is so nice!