Singleness

This last Sunday, December 27, my sweet friend Jamie Lynn got married to Mr. Cody Bayles. It was a beautiful wedding! I danced my little heart out, so much so that I bruised the balls of my feet. Ouch!! The wedding as a whole was PHENOMENAL! I enjoyed meeting everyone there and seeing other people that I hadn't seen in a while.

All of this to say...there is nothing like a wedding to make a single person feel so stinkin' single. Are you with me single people? I think so. Don't get me wrong, there are some definite benefits to being single. On the other hand, sometimes it just plain sucks! So this is me being vulnerable and telling the whole world that I am ready to meet someone. I don't want to be setup with someone because that never works for me. The meeting is always awkard and just feels forced. I want to feel those butterflies every time I see him and I want to be swept away. What I want is a freakin' movie script and real life is not that way. Reality just keeps slapping me in the face. Real guys don't act like prince charming, but why do I want prince charming so bad? I blame you, Disney. for making me believe in those perfect happy endings. Ahhhhh.... What is the deal with me? Sometimes I just go through these cycles of feeling really insecure about the single factor, but other times I feel totally okay with it. Why so wishy washy? I do not know.

Well I know that sounds pathetic, but I know/hope that my turn will come. One day I will meet the man I am to marry....not the man who will complete me, because I know that no man will be able to complete me. Believing that will only lead to more heartache. Men will fail, just as I will. Well I didn't mean to become philosophical. My brain was just reassuring my heart and my fingers just kept typing. That's enough for now :)

2 weeks til Germany... OH HAPPY DAY!! :)

So.... I suck at blogging

Womp. Womp on my blogging skillls. Here is my first excuse. My computer had a virus and was being repaired for a while. Now the other large amount of time was me being lazy. Anywho, now is the time for me to give one ginormous update.

Number 1: My friend Ashley got married December 5. Yahoo!!! She was gorgeous and it was a beautiful ceremony. Everyone looked so pertty all dolled up and apparently we (as in the bridesmaids) rocked our watermelon dresses. Job well done :)

Number 2: I am in my last week of teaching with my kindergarten kiddos. I am truly goig to miss them. They can be the biggest stinkers in the world, but in the next second they morph into angels. They have this telepathic sense of when I am becoming frustrated and they will just walk up to me and give me the biggest hugs. Then I feel awful for wanting to pinch their little heads off and the world is just as it should be.

Number 3: I bought my plane tickets for Germany. YIPPEEEE!!! I leave January 12 and I am pumped. That's right. I said pumped and it is totally applicable in this sentence. :) My Uncle Paul, Aunt Lenae, and cousin Elizabeth left December 8 and already found a few roadbumps. First, I am only allowed to stay 90 on tourist visa unless I get a job and I can stay for however long I want. The good news is that I was going to get a job anyways. Now it is just a little more stressful because I MUST get a job to stay. My Aunt Lenae has already reassured me that everything will work out. She has been talking to some higher ups (yes that is legit lingo) and she feels confident I will have a job as soon as I get there. As I have said before, the worst case scenario is that I get deported. Traumatizing...yes. That's okay. I love an adventure!

Some more good news: I finished my Christmas shopping with a week and a half to spare. This could be a first :) Also, this weekend I am going to look at wedding dresses with my sweet friend Kristi and her family. I am soooooo excited! I pretty much demanded that she go dress shopping with me so that I can see her in a dress before I leave for Germany.

Hmmmm...what else? I know I am leaving a TON out, but I will fill you in as I go.

Birthday week

I had recess duty this week and it was very eventful. Tuesday was a day unlike any other. As I am walking outside I hear one of the other teachers yell, "Kailey open the door. Open the door!" Then one of my kiddos comes walking up to me with his palms up, and blood is dripping from his hands. I think when confronted with an intense situation, we do a couple of things. One, we flee or two, we fight. My mind does neither. I freeze. Once my mind caught up to speed with what was going on, I opened the door and let my kiddo inside and one of the other teachers took him to the nurse. As he is rounding the corner I noticed that the blood was not from his hands, but from a head wound. He had fallen off of the jungle gym equipment and hit his head just behind his ear. Blood was literally squirting out. Intense. The rest of my recess story isn't nearly as action packed, but it is much funnier.

All of the teachers and myself are standing together and a little boy comes walking over as if he has just gotten off of a horse. Upon closer examination we see that he has peed his pants. He looks at his teacher and tells her he had an accident, so she takes him inside to let him change his clothes. The second she comes back outside another child walks up to her and tells her he had an accident too. She takes him inside to do the same routine as she did with the other boy. Agian she walks outside and a little boy walks over to her with one hand held up away from his face and the other hand holding his jacket with just two fingers. He tells his teacher that he fell in poop. The teacher looks up to the heavens, holds her hands out, and says, "Why me?" We were all dying at this point because we never have this many bathroom issues in one day. There is the occassional accident at recess, but never three in one day. The best part is that she asked if it was human or animal. Does it make a difference? It is poop!

Later in the day we are picking the kids up from P.E. and the teachers are all huddled together looking at the ground. They are all looking at this piece of brownish yuck when a little girl comes over and picks it up to take a closer look. Suddenly a waft of air rises and the teachers all discover that this lump-o-nasty is poop. One of the little boys pooped in his pants, and the reason it rolled down his pant leg is because he wasn't wearing any underwear. Priceless.

Wednesday after school I headed to College Station. My great Uncle Joe passed away Sunday night and the viewing was Wednesday followed by the funeral on Thursday. I just about lost it as we were leaving the funeral home on Wednesday night. My Aunt Mable, wife of 60 years to my Uncle Joe, put her hand on Joe's chest and just started shaking with tears. 60 years. That is such a long time to be with someone. I can't even imagine the pain she is feeling. Thursday we headed back to Houston and got caught in the horrible rain. It was as if the skies opened up and let out months of rain at one moment. I was white knuckling my steering wheel the last thirty minutes of the drive. It was horrible, but I made it in safely.

Friday was my birthday. Yippee! My kiddos were so shocked that I had a birthday. It is as if they think of me as this surreal person who doesn't exist outside of the walls of the school. I got some really fun birthday stuff from kids and my co-workers, but it was weird this year. I think it was so weird because I knew that this was my last birthday here for a while since I will be spending the next three in Germany. Two of my best friends drove in from Dallas, Kristi and Ashley, to spend the weekend with me. It was really fun to have them here to celebrate with me, and it meant a lot that they drove here just for me. We did the family dinner on Friday night and then went to Kilburn's where they had an 80's band. It was amazingly fun. I am pretty sure that we were the only ones under 40, but that just made it even more fun! Saturday Jordan dressed as Alex Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place, a Disney show, and went to a carnival and trick-or-treating. Meanwhile Kristi, Ashley, and myself went down to the Woodlands to hang out and grab a bite to eat. It was a very lowkey Halloween weekend, but it was so relaxing. Just what I needed.

Today I did family birthdays with my dad and family at The Cheesecake Factory. I will now be able to afford a new digital SLR camera. I am so excited!!! I will have to save the rest for fun adventures that await me in Germany. I can't wait :)

Boy Oh Boy!

This week was crazy. Let me rephrase that. Friday was insane! We finished "journeying through the alphabet," so Friday we had alphabet celebration where each of the kids wore a crazy cap, a solid color, and brought a stuffed animal to represent a letter of the alphabet. My crazy cap had feathers and flowers hot glued to it. It was so hot! Those feathers don't allow much ventilation, so I was sweating most of the day because I couldn't take off my hat because after 20 minutes I already had hat hair. Yuck. The kids were so excited about the alphabet celebration that every activity we did took twice as long as we anticipated, so we did not get much accomplished on Friday. In addition to our celebration, every Friday we have a mother/father reader who comes for 45 minutes. Controlled Choas was Friday's theme.

Earlier in the week Jordan and I were having our nightly chat and she informed me she has a boyfriend. The pseudo mom in me wanted to say, "What?!?!? No boys. You are only 6. Goodness gracious." Then I took a step back and reminded myself that I am only sister and the more I discourage her to do something the more she will want to do it. I decided the best thing to do would be to ask her about it and what it means to have a boyfriend at 6 years old. She told me that she has a boyfriend who has two girlfriends. Oh Lord. Then I told her that she needed to tell her boyfriend that he needed to choose one because you can't have two. She then told me that they held hands on the bus today. Great; the next step will be kissing behind the jungle gym. It is all cute and innocent until she turns 13 and is not referred to as a lady but as a ho. Anywho...I am talking to her about being 6 and she is just a little girl. Then she tells me, "Kailey. What do you know? You have never had a boyfriend. You don't know what it feels like." Wow. The conversation pretty much ended after that. I just have high standards because I have seen what happens when you lower your expectations. You end up with crap.

Crazy Week

Thursday was the first day that I felt like I finally had control of my class. The kiddos are getting used to me being there everyday, I am getting encouraging compliments from staff members, and I feel like I am holding my own in my kindergarten team. Everything felt pretty great all week until Friday. There was an incident between two of my kiddos Thursday afternoon and I didn't see it because I was walking around observing my students, making sure they were making patterns with the math manipulatives and not just playing. Friday morning the principal comes into my room and asks me questions about the incident and I have no idea what she is talking about. I broke down into tears for a few reasons....

1. I felt inept that I didn't see it. I was already having a really hard time with classroom management and then this happens.

2. I was freaking out because I am not in a teaching association, so if anything were to go to court for any reason I would be screwed.

3. Finally, I am a people pleaser, and it was very aparent that some people weren't my biggest fan at that moment.

Moral of the story: I am a crybaby. Yes indeed. Oh well.

Friday night was good though. My cousin Devin came in for the weekend, so I went over to my aunt's house to hang out. We had a jolly time :)

Saturday I colored all morning and into the afternoon. That's right. Coloring. There is a lot of prep work in kindergarten because you have to model everything so that the kiddos can see every part of the activity. I colored everything that I need for this coming week. Yippeee! Then I took a break and had dinner with my dad, Aunt Lindsay and her family, and Uncle Scott and his family. Then my Aunt Lindsay, Derek and his girlfriend Hannah, Devin and his girlfriend Jaclyn, and myself all went to Rock'n Bowl. It was sooo much fun! I actually won a game with a score of 149. I am very proud of that, because the first game I bowled a whoppin 88. Giggidy Giggidy.

Today I went to church with the fam. Gotta love me some Jesus. Afterwards we went to T.G.I. Fridays and it was pretty delicious. Mediterranean Salad: lettuce, feta, chicken, pepperoncini, onions, and tomato. We came home and went to Kohls and bought a pair of jeans and a white top for $23. Amazing. After that I started conference forms for the parent conferences this week and next. Notice how I said started...meaning I haven't finished. I finished the ones for the first part of the week, but I need to finish reassessing some friends before I can complete their conference forms. It will be a crazy week, but hopefully it will be good.

Dallas

So this week has been trying to say the least. I think I wanted to walk in school on Monday and my classroom management would be awesome. My little friends would all instantly follow directions. Not so much. First, Monday I turned my alarm off in my sleep. No shower. Fantastic. Then I get into my car to go to school and it is raining, so there was no recess at school. Whomp whomp. The kids were crazy! Then somehow the rest of the week just happened. Wednesday I worked 11 hours. 7:30-6:30. I felt weirdly accomplished. Anyways, today I drove to Dallas to see my girls. :) Yay! As much as I was dreading the drive, it feels good to be here. Can't wait for the fun to begin!!

Weekend and Monday

Let me start with this weekend, because that is the fun part :)

Kristin and Rachel came into town. Yippeee!! I wish I had friends come into town every weekend, but every once in a while works too. We all met up Saturday for Kristin's dad's (Mike) 50 bday shindig. It was a complete suprise to Mike, so that made it even more fun. Kristin's family doesn't do anything lowkey...everything is extreme which is awesome. They hired a DJ who did karaoke for four hours. It was amazing! We (Kristin, Rachel, myself and a handful of random people) entitled ourselves the hot mamas and kicked off the night. The name sounded way cooler Saturday night than it did just now as I was typing. Anywho, we sang and danced the night away and it was fantastic! This weekend I actually felt like my 22 year old self and not the grandma I try to be most nights. I actually stayed up until 3:30, then my body shutdown and I fell into a deep slumber. It was nice until someone's cell phone went off forty bagillion times. Yes. Forty bagillion. It is real. Look it up. Sunday my dad and I met up and he showed me how to change my oil. A delightful skill for any person, but I do not wish to do that again.

Today was a Monday like most Mondays. I woke up wishing the weekend could start all over. My body begged for more sleep so I slept until the last possible minute, and somehow I was still early to work. Only by 5 minutes, but every little bit counts. Especially for me. I tried to leave school early, as in before 5 p.m.. It didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow :)

1st Parent/Teacher Conference

Today was interesting to say the least...

First, one of my little jewels was finishing her work at her table and she decided it would be a good idea to take my bucket of winning ways (This is our bribery system in kindergarten. If you are seen doing something good, then you receive a winning way. After a certain amount of winning ways you receive a reward; treasure chest, lunch with a friend...) I looked her straight in the eyes and told her to put down the winning ways, because they are only for teachers to hand out. She then looked at me and smiled, took the bucket and skipped away from me. The little toot deliberately disobeyed me. I was livid. I took her next door so I could settle down and she came back with tears and an apology. Crazy.

Second, at recess today we had a fight. That's right; kindergarten fight. All of the teachers are looking out and watching all of the kiddos playing, and all of a sudden two little boys take off at full throttle running straight for each other. We all rush over. In the meantime, one little boy (we will call him boy A) lunges and tackles the another boy down (we will call him boy B). Boy A sweeps Boy B's legs out from under him and then takes him by the collar and spins him around. It was crazy. It looked like he was a skilled fighter. It is one of those things that you would have to see to believe the insanity.

Third, and most important, I had my first parent/teacher conference. It went so much better than I had originally thought it would. It was one of those things that once we both were able to sit down and talk to each other, our nerves calmed and we realized we were on the same side. We both want what is best for the child, so all is well. I am so elated that I got my first conference out of the way, and that a potentially frightening situation was diluted and turned into a jubilee of sorts.

Whoo....I think I am getting sick :( That would just be awful if I made it through the entire week and waited to get sick on the weekend. I sure hope this nasty goes away!

Week 2....Oh Happy Day

I never thought it could be possible for me to get sick of hearing my last name, but today I did. It just seemed like every five seconds kiddos were calling my name and/or tapping me. Ridiculous. I don't know how many times I have said that I can only talk to one person at a time. I need to have a CD that says that on repeat for some of my little bundles of joy. It wouldn't be so bad except that everyday I am assessing my kiddos on things like letter and number recognition, shapes, sorting.....yadda yadda yadda. It makes it extremely difficult for me to accurately assess the kids when their buddis keep coming up and asking me ridiculous questions. I have told them numerous times that I cannot talk to them while I am testing, but for some reason that never sticks. I am trying to think of something new that will get through to them...

As much as I complain, I truly do love what I do. I couldn't imagine doing anything else, well... maybe nursing but I think I will save that adventure for a rainy day. It is the little things that make it truly amazing. For instance, I have a handful of kiddos who I get onto everyday for the same thing. I try to give them positive reinforcement by rewarding them when I see them doing something good (bribery ALWAYS works!). What is crazy is that at the end of the day, it is that squirly group of kids that I harp on all of the time who give me the biggest hugs as they leave. Most of the time I am looking at my kiddos trying to remember that they are just babies who are basically the same age as my sister. That often times makes me rejoice for their crazy ways, because I couldn't imagine teaching my sister. Don't get me wrong. I love her to pieces, but she is crazy!

Last thing. I have to tell you a funny story from today: I have recess duty this week and at recess we try not to let the kids go inside for restroom breaks unless it is an emergency. Today one of the little girls came over and asked to go the restroom, so we gave her the speech; emergencies only. Then she looked one of the teachers straight in the eyes and said in her most mature manner, "Excuse me, I have to poop." Needless to say we let her go.

Gotta love it!

Weekend...woo!

This was my first weekend after my first week of work and I was pooped! Friday I could barely keep my eyes open past 9:30. Lame. Saturday I picked up my bridesmaid dress for my friend Ashley's wedding December 5, and then went out to Kingwood to visit some family. Then I got home and my mom had a friend from high school over for dinner. It was great, but I am in that in between stage. I am not an adult who wants to talk endlessly about my kids, but I am too old to sit with the kiddos and talk about ICarly. Needless to say I escaped shortly after dinner and I was going to head to a coming home party, but I was so stinkin' tired I didn't make it. I can't wait for my body to adjust to this new schedule of a 10 hour work day. Yup. 10 hours. I arrive around 7 and leave around 5. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do. It just makes me exhausted at the end of the day. Anyways....

Today I had lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in a LONG time! It was fantastic. We caught each other up on our lives; what we had done since we saw each other last and then what are currently doing. Then we started talking about how everyone and their mom is married, engaged to be married, or has a baby. I am one of maybe 5 friends who is single. Oh the joys of singleness. I mean it is great to be able to do whatever I want, but a man would be nice too. Tall, dark, and handsome... Where are you?
:)

End of Week 1

So it is the end of my first week of teaching and I am pooped! My back hurts (kindergarteners are short), my feet hurt, and I am just plain tired. The good news is that despite that list of complaints I am still in a good mood. I had a few awesome components of my day:

1. I don't care how old you are, it always feels good to get an "I'm proud of you!" That little kid inside of you just wants to jump up and down and scream and shout. It just feels good. When I was leaving, Alison (my mom's best friend and my teaching partner) told me that she was proud of me. It made my heart very happy :)

2. Several of my kinder kiddos gave me a big hug and said, "I love you!" My heart melted. It just reaffirmed why I do what I do.

3. I had one of the teachers on my kinder team tell me that she wished I could be at Copeland all year long. Oh yes. I may be a newbie, but I am on top of my stuff!

Day 2: Much Better

Today was my second day....much better! I am so tired, hence my short post tonight.
Good night.

First day of school

Today I started the first day of a long term position at Copeland Elementary in Cyfair ISD, as in two or three months. Oh happy day! The teacher I am covering just had a baby two months premature. I know... sad :( On the upside, the teacher who is right next door to me is one of my mom's best friends, Alison. She is outstanding and has been teaching for 21 years! I am going to learn soooo much from her. Alison is basically the one who set all of this into motion. Let's go back Sunday, August 30....

Sunday I get a call from Alison saying that her partner at Copeland just had her baby and they didn't have a sub yet, and she immediately thought of me. Thank you Jesus! The only bad part was that I wasn't registered to take the sub orientation until October 1. Right. Sub orientation. Anyways, to wrap everything up in a nutshell (because I started typing all of the details and it was crazy long and frankly I am ready for bed), I was able to squeeze into a condensed sub orientaion on September 1, got all of my paperwork processed, and started my first day today! The only thing I still need to do is get my badge made so I don't have to continue to wear a sticky, paper visitor's badge. Not my favorite. It rolls up by the end of the day and acts as a collection thingy for any lose hair that falls out during the day.

Back to the present.... Today was my first day, and all in all it was a good day. Alison combined our classes this morning so that I was able to observe the morning routines and will be able to do everything flawless tomorrow. Right. I was watching her today and all I could think of was, "Wow. I hope I can be Alison when I grow up because she is stinkin AWESOME!" She was so on top of everything. It was ridiculous, and I mean ridiculous in the mose amazing sense of the word. After morning message, we moved back into our room and began working on our alphabet adventure. Alphabet adventure is where we discover a new letter everyday and practice writing that letter and thinking about the sounds that letter makes. It is pretty cute. The kiddos have three different books that they use to discover the different components of the letters. One book is for a journal entry about the letter, another is a collection of words that start withe each of the letters of the alphabet, and the last one allows the students to practice writing the letters. Needless to say, these kids will know there alphabet, or they schould if I do my job right. Then we went to lunch at 11:30, and I have lunch duty which consists of opening juices, applesauce, string cheese, and any other edible something that is stuffed into ridiculous plastic. Then Alison has recess duty and I eat my lunch at 12. Then we have PEAM (P.E., Art, or Music) and a fire drill. Yes. Fired drill on my first day, because it wasn't crazy enought. I felt like the whole world dumped on me and it was impossible to interpret all of the information at once. It's all good. I have thick skin. Big family. Lots of drama. After the fire drill, the day is winding down and I am explaining the different literacy centers to my kiddos and the kids are gone; their minds were totally checked out for they day. All of a sudden the principal walks in and sees me losing control of my kindergarteners. Fantastic. Eventually I regain control and she walks out of the classroom. I felt like I had a big LOSER stamp on my forehead. I know they are just testing me out, becuase they have had so many different teachers in such a small amount of time. Before me, the students had their original teacher and a weeks worth of subs. On my way home I reflected about my day and my overall thought for tomorrow was be consistent and try harder. Easier said than done I am afraid.

Like I said, all in all it was a good day. Tomorrow will only be better, especially after my 5:30 A.M. bike ride. I am kickin this lump of a body into shape! Whoo!

P.S. I am tired, so please excuse the typos :)