Upskirted

This week has been INSANE!  It was supposed to be our first normal week to start off the new year.  Sunday night came with news of 12:30 dismissals for Monday and Tuesday.  Tuesday we got news of early dismissals for the rest of the week.  It has been hot and miserable in our classrooms.  Everyone must know that by now!

Not only have the dismissals caught us off guard, but we were integrating our students to specials with their grade level this week.  It was a little weird to not have all my students with me all the time, but it is a joy to know they are with their grade level peers.

I have worn dresses and skirts all week along with the majority of my female colleagues.  It provides a little bit of air flow to help cool a body down.  I tried to explain this to Dustin, but I guess men just don't understand...

Thursday we were one para short due to an emergency.  This para has my student who is blind.  I jumped up to volunteer to be with him for a good chunk of the day.  I greeted him at the bus, walked him in and we went to his locker.  From there, his walking cane fell when he placed it against the wall.  When he went to pick it up, the end of it caught the front of my skirt, but thankfully didn't give him a sight!  I was glad no one else was around to witness that! 

That was about the biggest bang of the week for me.  It has been a wonderful crazy week continuing to getting to know my students and learn their quirks.  I have also had to make a few parent phone calls.  I have really been getting to know the various adults in the building and have enjoyed getting my students out of our room and getting them involved with their grade level peers.  I have been learning so much about my district, building, and class that I could write novels!

I sat at the computer for a while after school today reading through my e-mails and filling up my planner.  I know it will be a busy year, but I am already loving my first year of teaching!  

Sleeping Single in a Double Bed

Many of you might not have heard the catchy country tune that comes to mind when reading this title, and I think you should go check out the Barbara Mandrell classic!

Anyway, the title has nothing to do with my relationship status, but rather my move up in sleeping situations when I moved out.  I now have a double bed.  The only kicker is the only double bed that came in the price range of taking anything my mother would let me was the air mattress.  It was a transitional piece in the guest room anyway and had only been occupied by Abbey and Tim for one night and Dustin a half dozen times since being aired up in February.

This is just one of the notable things in my new apartment.  I also have the bookshelf that Great-Grandpa Fauth made for Dad, the lamp/table that Dad made, the rocker that got moved to the guest bedroom, and many, many dishes from Grandma Goudy's kitchen that had been in our basement since Mom cleaned out their house 4 years ago.

I should probably back up and tell all about moving day, because it was sure eventful! 

Sunday morning Dustin and I went to church.  I cried after the service talking to Momma Jones and saying goodbye to everyone.  I seriously did that every year when I moved to college...  We went home and had a quick lunch so we could get started.  Dustin and Dad already had everything packed up in my car and Dad's truck.  We all took off in different directions.

I forgot to mention that I had a doughnut on my car because Dustin got a flat the day before.  We had to stop at his house so he could take my tire to the neighbor's to get it patched before coming to my apartment.  A big shout out to Dave for fixing my tire for me!

Mom and Dad arrived before I did.  I showed up about 5 minutes later.  Whit and Caleb were on the way.  Dad and I started unloading while Mom worked on stuff in the kitchen.  Dustin finally showed up when all that was left was a chair and a dresser.  Mom and Dad didn't stick around for too long.  Whit and Caleb finally showed up and amidst all the talking, Caleb aired up my bed, Whit took care of my clothes, and Dustin changed my tire and arranged my living room under my command.  It was a long day!

Dustin came over a couple of nights later and helped me hang some things.  Let's just say some things didn't want to go on the walls.  So for now, I have a few pencil marks and extra holes in my walls and plenty of my mini snow globe collection in their boxes!

I am still adjusting to the city life, but it is good.  I might not have a lot in my apartment, but it's all good and it's all from home.  And for now, I'll continue to sleep single in the double air mattress.

Loading Up The Lincoln

Written 8/19/13

Today was the first real day of work for everyone.  It started out with a building wide meeting.  I had to introduce myself since I am a new teacher to the building.  After that, we got dismissed to our rooms.  Cindy and I walked the hall with our 6 wonderful paraprofessionals in tow.  When we got in the room, we all got conversations and questions flowing!  They had plenty of questions and we had plenty of answers after all of our work these last few weeks to get the room up and running. 

Soon enough, it was time to head for lunch.  I got invited along with 4 of the ladies.  Cindy came too.  Ann offered to drive, but she warned us she had her mother's car.  Her mother is easily in her 80's. 

"Let's load up the Lincoln!  This boat is one smooth ride!"

We piled in like we were all back in high school!  So many giggles and reminiscing ...theirs were a little different than mine since I am the youngest of the crew by about 10 years.  We all compared where we used to sit in the family car when we were kids.

At the restaurant, we had just as much fun!  I can tell you that I will be laughing every day with these ladies!  I'm not sad about that!  They are a hoot!  We had oodles of fun and took a little long of a lunch break, but then it was time to head back to the room to work the afternoon away.

By 3:30, we had the room all but ready to go.  There are still a few things that need to be done, but it's not too bad!  After a quick run to my apartment and Wal-Mart, I was back in time for Back-to-School Night!  It was quite the crazy hour!  I meat 3 out of 8 students along with 4 out of 8 /parents/families.  Seeing the kids running around the halls got me so excited to start that I was practically crying happy tears!

I am excited to see what the year will bring with these students, a wonderful co-teacher, and 6 amazing ladies that load a Lincoln with laughs!

Hailstorm Hiccough

When Dustin and I first started dating, he mentioned that he put out a garden every year.  He's a pretty plain eater, so it basically only consisted of tomatoes, green beans and potatoes.  I added a bit of variety to his garden this year with popcorn, zucchini, cucumbers, radishes and peas.  It has been doing very well and we have been enjoying quite a few goodies so far this season.

I haven't been in a garden since I was a kid.  Every year Donna and Errol would put in a huge garden and share many of their homegrown goods.  I can remember helping plant the potatoes and beans.  Errol would give us short sticks to place in between seeds so we wouldn't over or under plant each row.  We'd help water, weed and harvest.  It was such a huge accomplishment when we'd dig up a giant carrot and Donna would exclaim over it.  There's only a handful of moments where I have smiled as big as I did in those moments of glory!

Donna would can like crazy about this time of the year.  She didn't see any sense of running the air conditioner when the kitchen was already so hot, so we all but boiled during canning season!  I am really now learning how to can because although I was there, I was just a kid and only interested in peeling the skins of tomatoes and not worried about slicing or mashing or canning.  I can still practically feel the stickiness of my hot sweaty skin on those days!

Errol would be out there every day without fail.  He would hoe and weed, water and harvest.  That garden had the straightest rows of any garden I have seen.  About every year he would try to grow something new.  He even tried his hand at grapes for a while.

This year I have almost cried bittersweet tears fairly often as we've worked in our garden.  Dustin reminds me a lot of Errol with the way he gardens.  He's tried so hard to make it a bountiful garden and to be able to share our harvest with our families.

The other night there was a hailstorm.  He told me our garden looked rough.  I went and saw it and my throat caught.  It's so hard to see something you've worked so hard at become green shreds overnight.  All the tomatoes have nicks and the plants have broken branches.  Some of the popcorn fell.  The zucchini got nicked pretty bad.  We were both bummed about this.

"At least we still have the potatoes."

"You always see the positive side of things, Katie."

It's a little disheartening to see our garden trying to come back to life after a pounding like a hailstorm, but it just has to, that's what it's made to do.  It's made to keep living.  Just like in our lives, we get hit with the hailstorms of life.  We need to come back and keep on living.