Yeah, I took a hiatus...so what.

I was sick. I was sleeping for 11 hours a night. Give me a break. :)

Good things from today, and today alone (so notice how the attitude has changed to not be forced on a ton of things)

*A was AWESOME!
*SS brought me lunch :)
*Fridays are breakfast club (or at least that's my name for it now)
*I helped a student see the happy things in life
*Grades/effort are going up in my classroom
*Most of my kids know how to multiply two digit by two digit numbers! :) :) :)
*Good conversation with coworker/newest friend
*Voiced my opinion to someone. While I have a lot more opinions that should be voiced to lots of others, it was still good to do it at least once today. :)

I'm not sure which story to pick...

I had the goal of writing a short blip about my favorite part of each day but lately I've either been too tired or not had something interesting enough to write more than a sentence fragment about. Today I have two, and I can't choose which one I like better, so here are both:

First, today my mom called me earlier than usual, so I got a slight bit concerned. After exchanging the "hey mom, what's up? are you ok?" questioning she started her conversation and what she wanted to tell me with "So, I was talking to two morticians today..." She went on to tell me that they were people that I remotely knew and that they were telling her about someone I do know having a newborn, but still... I was talking to two morticians today?!?! Who else other than my mom starts a conversation, not a joke, with that?

Then, later on I was grading papers and on the question "Name some people who are in your generation" I got some interesting answers. Some answered correctly with things like "my sister" or "my brother" (which, in my town could get quite confusing when your mom is your uncle's mom too) but there were many wrong answers. I had a lot answer with pioneers, but my two favorite answers were Africans and my hamster. Creative kids. Creative.

Other great things from today:
I got my objectives changed on my board. GO ME!
I finished my lesson plans for this week before lunch.
I successfully changed my students' names today.
I graded social studies books and PROBE notebooks!
I had dinner and Sunni Sky's with two of my favorite people.

I guess overall, it was a productive day. Go me!

Catch up!

I haven't had time the past few days to post...mostly because I was out of town. Now for the catching up:

Thursday:
I packed. It all got done, along with laundry and a clean house. Yay for me!

Friday:

• I got to see the NYC skyline. It may have been from a plane window, but I still got to see it.
• No travel hitches at all. Met a BU guy in the airport and listened to his life story, which was actually pretty interesting.
• Got to meet the new cousin, who is just adorable.
• YUMMIEST burger ever! Created a pie and soup. Pie turned out delicious.

Saturday:

• Completed a puzzle in record time with one of my favorite relatives.
• Ran over 8 miles on a beautiful trail.
• Got a great orange hat to run on my trail in.
• Got to eat at Jimmy John's after a long vacation from them.

Today:

• Great flights back home.
• Great dinner with my Sunday friend.

Confetti party!

Take the bad things and make them good...while a kid throwing his small bits of paper around the room may seem terrible, we just made it a confetti party and it quieted him. Point me.

Great things from today:
*I woke up before work. It may have been later than I liked, but I woke up on my own without an alarm. WOO!
*My hair turned out cute today, which is great since it was picture day. 10 minutes to shower and get ready did me well this morning.
*My AP helped me take care of a kid's problems today. Go us!
*4th grade teachers are excited about science fair. This year's is going to be better than ever!
*KP and I had a great venting session. I think both of us are better off knowing both of us feel the same way. We went to dinner too. YUM!
*My kids did awesome on their math tests! Yes, there were a few mistakes, but mistakes happen. I told them I expected their best, and they showed me just how great their best is.
*I got a great email from a person I respect very much. I really am not a fan of writing long emails, but I responded to hers and I'm excited for her response back.

addition:
I got to talk to MDPSK.

YUM!

It's late, so no commentary, just the great things.
*The Tall One is my friend. (I know, this could be listed every day for the past 2 years, but sometimes I don't think I appreciate it enough)
*I ran 4 miles this morning before work. (a.k.a. the gym was open when I went)
*The weather was BEAUTIFUL!
*Someone at work appreciates me and knows that I'll be there for them no matter what. It became clear today.
*Someone else at work knows when I'm at my wit's end with a student and really helped me out today. I'm incredibly grateful to have her working at my school.
*Dinner was AMAZING! More delicious than ever.
*Soccer practice went really well. I think we had some learning experiences tonight.
*I saw one of my old students score a touchdown and some of my other students get really excited to see I went to the game.

Wow...there's more there than I expected. It's all good :)

Contractions--grammatical ones

Thought for the day: I am not a fan of contractions in people's vocabulary. I am wiping them partially out of my vocabulary, at least the n't ones and the third person pronoun ones. (Yes, in my head, that makes lots of sense) I feel like those are the ones that I hear the most and that makes me less happy, so they're going to become something I ignore.


Happy things from today:

• Yummy biscuit for breakfast
• I finished getting together science fair information to get to teachers, and I passed part of it on to the wonderful teacher who leads the other grade at my school to take care of. More importantly, I think she might actually do with it what needs to be done.
• Fun visit with Cynthia's driver. Somehow it made me happy to take a break to talk to him.
• Talked to Topher on the way to dinner. I heart my old friends.
• FABULOUS dinner with LDaug. I went into it not expecting much, but after not seeing her for a year and both of us having less than wonderful days, dinner was great (and yummy too!)

Nothing but the good...

Good things happen, but I'm finding that there are times when no one wants to hear them, everyone just wants you to be miserable so that they can feel better about being miserable themselves. Some people may be able to live like that, but not me. So, with all the green eyes I'm around, this is my outlet for the good...

One of the county administrators, DR, always speaks about what a good teacher I am, yet had never seen me teach. While it may be okay for most to have this happening, I wanted it to be based in something, so I invited her into my classroom. Two really great things came of this. First, one of the other teachers, K, needed to make up time for a workshop she missed, so came to help me get ready for Friday. It wasn't a huge deal, or anything that required tons of work, but just having someone to talk to while I got my Friday stuff together was nice. She also did some small things that are going to really help in my classroom, and I'm trying to make sure she knows how much I appreciate it.

Friday DR came and was an absolute part of my class. She helped a struggling student understand a concept, she sat on the floor and learned the lesson I was teaching a group, and she even gave permission to students to go to the bathroom. It was amazing. We spoke after my kids left for art, and she has big ideas for me. I shared with her some concerns that I had, nothing major but things that are nagging at me, and she eased my concerns. It was so great to have her there, and to have a moment to shine.

A family I work with invited me to lunch today, which, while small, was huge. We and another teacher sat around the table and laughed and didn't say one word about work. I haven't had such a good time in a while. I then volunteered to take the oldest girl shopping so that mom didn't have to. That, too, was just a fun adventure. I'm glad that the family has adopted me as one of their own.

Other small smiles from the past few days, that don't need stories but deserve a mention-
TL brought me lunch Thursday and Friday!
I had dinner and went to a football with great friends Friday night.
I ran over 9 miles on Saturday
I got Nike pants today. :)