hello

just checking in :) saying hi and that i'm alive ;)

Am I Garbage Today

I have a Spanish speaking student in my class this year. We (my assistant and I) were told that she knows very little english- but actually she understands a lot. Sometimes if she is telling me a story she will say "I'm now going to tell you in Spanish, yes?" It's pretty adorable. But of course I dropped out of Spanish the third week and know basically nothing- so then we try to use hand gestures to get the story across, but if that fails, I just go get my assistant (my Spanish speaking aid). Sometimes I'll pick up a few words from my aid, but that's about all. We have classroom jobs and one of them is "garbage helper." I assigned this task to her, not thinking about explaining it to her. She went up to the classroom grandma and said "this is a garbage, yes?" and grandma replied "yes it is." confused look. thinking look. her reply "does this mean I am the garbage today?" A big smile from grandma "no sweatheart, it means that you get to help pick up the garbage and carry the garbage can around when Miss Fawn asks for help." So cute. It was also a nice reminder (spanish speaking or not) that I need to make sure that my students are understanding what I am saying- sometimes they just don't know what certain things mean- such as a garbage can :D

what a year already

for those of you who have not lost faith in my blogging ability ;) i'm going to try and post more. i think this might be a good outlit for me this year, seeing as i am going to need jesus and a little venting room. to go along with erin...this year has been rough- well actually more than that- borderline hell. i've never delt with people like this in my life. 3 bio-polar parents, a dad who is a sex offender, parents who hate each other and aren't afraid to say it infront of their children, psr workers, ect...the only conclusion i can think of for God saying to work here again is that he is going to take me to such a deep place of loving people where they are at. it is far too easy to look at these parents with "wordly eyes," and say "hey they are bi-polar; they are crazy!!!" i won't make it through the year if i look at them with my eyes. god help me. the amount of drama that has already taken place in this classroom is insane. i seriously thought about quitting and finding something else. all i know is that i need God and the love and prayers of those around me. i will post some pictures soon of my class :)

nice job

I have spent most of the weekend home alone.  Today I went shopping, bought a few things for school and then decided to come home and enjoy some lunch.  After lunch, I decided to finish brushing my dog.  I went outside and shut the back door.  When I was finished I went to open it and some how the latch locked- so weird.  I tried to shake the door, but nothing worked so I ran around front and that door was locked as well.  Yesterday I brought the spare key inside because I get a little paranoid to be alone in this house. I'm cool I know.  So I walked over to our neighbors directly in front of us- nothing.  Then I went to the neighbors beside us- they were home!!! After I explained my situation they let me use the phone to call the locksmith.  While there they saw my tattoo and asked what church I went to, they said they went to Rocky Mountain :) yeah, christians next to us!!  Well the locksmith said it would be at least 2 hours until he got to the house, this turned out to be fine.  I picked up some dog doo ;), mowed the front and back yard, and did a little weeding.  When the locksmith came, I recognized who it was and we made some small talk- he said that if I needed to get the whole lock changed that he would give me a deal ;) but luckily he picked the lock and I was able to get in.  Lesson learned- don't be paranoid and bring the spare key inside. 

lesson #231

we are doing our current theme on "farming." i thought it would be fun to read a "big book" (an oversized book that is rather large and fun for the kids to look at). this particular book is called "who will be my mother?" i thought it was a shorter version of "are you my mother?" no. it was not. it is about a little lamb who is looking for a new mom. the first and second line reads: "mother lamb DIED." "Lamb had NO mother." what a way to start a book! the kids had this sort of confused/horrified/sad look on their faces!!! what was i reading!? so we had to go into a discussion of death, which isn't a horrible topic, but not one i was ready to teach about. if i would have pre-read this book i would have been prepared!! my assistant said "whoa! that's a rough book." crap. lesson learned- next time pre-read and be ready for any possible questions that may arise from lines such as "mother lamb DIED." sorry kids, my bad ;)

kids

i have some interesting kids that i work with. some days it is a lot of fun and some days i want to rip my hair out, crawl under my covers, and not move for a couple of months...;) today was a good day. we went for a nature walk along the back fence, which has a nice garden and lots of bugs for them to discover. they had a lot of fun with their little bug jars, chasing bugs, collecting grass or flowers, and actually catching a few bugs. i had to get over my fear of flying insects when a children captured a GIANT moth. i wanted to die. BUT instead of telling him he couldn't bring it into the classroom, I just closed my eyes when he asked and told him he could. i love when kids make disoveries and get excited. it was really cute watching them all. it was a good day :)

stolen identity and heartattack all in one night

The past few days I have been trying to buy a song off itunes. a little note keeps popping up saying "zip code does not match with credit card." what the heck? So I thought it was a problem with their computers, so I tried again today. Same problem. So I check to make sure the address on my card is the same on itunes. it is. So then I decide to check my bank account. I see 15 charges for itunes that I did not purchase!!! (here is the heart attack). So I immediatley call the bank to see what is going on. The problem is that I kept clicking "buy" and the bank was letting the charges go through but not itunes. There are two addresses on my card and they were using the other one. Then I asked why it would happen now, even though I have had the account for 4 years. I guess they are cracking down on their security (itunes) and called and the USBank person gave the other address for verification. Whew! Solved problem and no more heart attack!!!