This Was Funny

Today while we were painting Ryan told me the following, I am glad I had the camera handy.

Andrew's Room & Rainy Day Fun

Andrew's Room Before:Andrew's Painted Room:
Look how perfect, it matches wonderfully & will be hung soon!
Andrew painted first while Ryan got ready, then Ryan came to paint. Andrew's pictures are on Nick's new phone...we'll get those soon. I love this next picture, it is very super hero like:
Andrew's stuff is on the left hand side. Ryan's stuff is on the bottom on the sheets that you can tell were added later. My stuff is on the far right-I was just having fun. :)

Clean, Clean, Clean

At 8:30 I said NO MORE CLEANING for tonight anyway. :)

I borrowed Nick's stepmom's Rainbow vacuum cleaner because it is supposed to be the best vacuum out there in vacuum world. I went to town in Andrew's newly painted room (pictures soon) and I about fell out when it was time to change the water, it was NASTY! So I vacuumed it again...it was NASTY! So of course I rushed over to Ryan's room and started moving stuff around and his room was awful. Dog hair, dog hair, dog hair, dust, dog hair. I did Ryan's room two times then went to Andrew's room again. I pulled out the stove & fridge vacuumed & cleaned, vacuumed the couch including the cushions. With the cushions you put them in a garbage bag and shut it and your whole cushion melts down, it is cool! Anyway, today was a cleaning day and I am tired. My thought on our room, if the kids' rooms were so gross and she wasn't supposed to be in there then what is our room going to be like, she lived in it for five years! I told Nick he had to help with our room because there was too much stuff to move around.

Life without Maggie is an adjustment I keep looking for her, I am so in the habit of walking her, but believe it or not, Andrew seems to be doing better already. Crazy right? But he didn't cough nearly as much and he wasn't near as runny today. Hopefully, hopefully this is what is going "fix" him. I talked to my mom today while she was at work, Maggie was there with her, Maggie was having a great time. Hopefully this will be a happy move for her and Andrew (& Nick) will feel better. I miss my puppy though, she was awesome to snuggle with each night. :)

A little dance, jump, & hop

A little dance...on the way to pick up the fat kid from the nursery on Friday I ran into one of my parents. She didn't want me to stop to talk to her because I was with another teacher, but I pressed. Did I post about this already? I don't think so...anyway. I asked whatever came with Sylvan, since they just had her tested, and it was like music to my ears, "They found she did have a gap in math, just like you have been saying, things she should've mastered in second grade." Do a little dance, don't make a little love, but YES, YES, YES! It has taken months for me to get them to take her some place, I even quit tutoring her because I was like you have to get her professional help, finally they did it, and I am one happy teacher.

A little jump...we had to take a little jump on the home front this past week. Roo has been sick, sick, sick for the last three weeks, easily the last three weeks and after his allergy test and finding he is allergic to dogs we made a tough decision. Maggie is now living with my parents as of this afternoon, and I thought I would cry, and maybe I will, maybe I know that she is going to be one spoiled & happy dog and that keeps me from crying. We've had her for five years, that is a long time, but you never choose your pets over your children. So the little jump is seeing if this is the ticket to him getting well. We've borrowed the Rainbow to clean, clean, clean this weekend, hopefully it will help him out. What I am afraid we will find out is that Nick will feel better too.

A little hop...nothing to hop about other than we decided on going candy less again this Easter and we are doing a Marvel themed basket for Rhino. We will be hopping at Monkey's for a bunny photo shoot soon, so we'll hop for that. :)

"What the Hell?"

So you have to love when you go to pick up your three year old, who is staying in the staff daycare for maybe the third time this school year with new people who kind of know him, tell you that he said, "What the hell?" not once but twice. Oh, a staff daycare in a church makes this story even better. A staff daycare, in a church, with a girl that on that very same day accepted the babysitting position you offered her, which will include watching that very same, "What the hell?" three year old. Nice! I know my face said it all, that deer caught in the headlights look, which she said, I know he didn't hear that from you, I was like you are right he didn't! Now his dad, maybe, but me, no way, atleast not in front of him. :) So I said, "I don't know where he would get that!" and she said, "He said he heard it in the Spiderman movie." to which I said, "You just told me more information than you realize."

Yes, the Spiderman movie, all of them, isn't there three? My three year old has been able to watch these movies after repeated requests for him not to watch them at Nick's stepmom's house. This is the same lady that told my mom, "It doesn't matter what Nathan says, Nanny over rules dad." (She was talking about Nick's brother & his son-he didn't want his kid going down the slide at Roo's party). So, does it surprise me that after the last few requests I have said for him not to watch it that he was allowed to watch it? No, but does it make me angry? Yes, does it anger me even more that they allowed him to watch the Hulk movie, that Nick said is very violent? Yes, what do I plan on doing about it? Not sure yet, but it will involve a long conversation including the words, "outright disrespect."

See the use of the period in the quotation mark right there, I taught that to my third graders, and I forgot that I taught them that and we were reviewing the other day and I said, "Why is that sentence wrong?" -they were editing-and three kids at once bust out, "Because the period isn't inside the quotation marks, and it must be inside to be correct." At which point I thought, hell yeah, I mean that's right! :)

Best Meatloaf song ever...sorry, I am on a huge music kick right now. I remember my mom & dad singing this song all the time when I was a teenager...such a good memory, because times weren't always happy, but I turned out just fine and my sister and I joke that if anything we learned how a marriage doesn't work.

Wicked Game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKlJU6ehuPU

Still love this song, heard it today for the first time in years and I was thankful I was the only one in the truck so I could turn it up. All the way up!

I love music, I do, I love all types of music. Saturday night we were in Nick's truck and he was flipping stations, each station was a different genre (is that what you call music...variety I guess is more fitting to music) and I sang a section of each song as he flipped with passion, Nick said you really do like a huge variety of music don't you?

Which leads me to a song I texted to my oldest friend this morning...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe9eXEGqi8U

I am not picky, if it sounds good, then I like it.

I listen to Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" when the mood strikes, I am not sure why I love it so much other than it was in this movie. I remember watching it and the main characters are dancing around in the living room and then this part of the song, the part with a sax (?) hits and I fell in love. I remember I was like ten and it got me and I had to find out about "that song", turns out my dad had it on record, I was hooked.

I could fill about 200 hours of songs that I like and the reasons why I like them, but this might be my most favorite...ever....possibly...it ranks in the top 5 for sure!

He's a Winker

Atleast that doesn't say he is a wanker, which I am not sure of the actual meaning of that word, but based on the number of movies I have seen based out of the UK, I know it isn't a good thing. I just Googled it, it means "one who masturbates" so one day he will be a winker and a wanker! Today I was folding towels, everyone's favorite thing to do in the whole world, I know you don't have to pretend you don't enjoy folding towels. :) So, I was folding towels and I winked at Andrew and that kid winked back, with both eyes, but none the less he winked back. SO CUTE!

Last night Ryan spent the night with his "grandparents" as he likes to call them, he calls all of them that now, I guess everyone having a different name is too much, he returned today around 11:00 a.m. a much more grown up three year old. After his grandparents left he asked if he had to take a nap, I said yes, after Andrew eats. Do you know what happened next? He said, I have to go potty and five minutes later he came out in his Pull Up and said, "I am going to take my nap now, you don't have to put me to bed, I am going to do it by myself." Well okay, you grew up over night. He did, he put himself down, now it did take an hour for him to actually go to sleep, but he did it all on his own. The funniest part of him coming home today was Nick's dad telling me that Ryan slept until 8:00 a.m. Now, this is unheard of, he always is up before the sun. His dad said he got up at 6 and they told him to go back to sleep, so he did until 8. When he got up he said, "Why are we up? The sun is up, we are supposed to get up before the sun comes up so we can watch it." Funny statement, but it totally explains why he gets up so early, he enjoys watching the sun rise. He does announce it everyday now that I think about it, and on the way to school each morning we do discuss the morning sky, perhaps this is something he will treasure as he grows up and it will always be his thing.

"...out of great failure can come great learning..."

Wow, almost a month since I posted? That seriously says how busy things have been around here. I noticed the other day that I hadn't commented or checked blogs in so long!

I have learned a lot in the past month, I have lost two students in the last month too. One because my room was too challenging and that she would have it easier in public school. Two things about that statement bother me; 1. why is a challenging room a problem when your child is making, excuse me, EARNING straight A's & thinking for herself; 2. Why is a public school easier, when I was a public school teacher before this stint in my life and I teach the same stuff the same way I did before with the exception of S.S. and math? The curriculum changed for the whole state, last year for math while I was teaching PK4 and this year S.S. is new-that isn't the point, the point is WHY DO YOU WANT TO MAKE THINGS EASIER FOR A CHILD THAT IS SUCCESSFUL IN A CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENT? and the kicker, they paid for the whole year and you don't get reimbursed for that my friend. The second child is a battle won, hear me out. This child came to me in August with everyone else and in September came in with a heavy psych evaluation that said several critical things one of which is slow learner, has a slight learning disability, is ADD, & some other emotional stuff. We can't service her, I did everything I know to do just short of actually writing for her and she was still struggling. Her guardian took her frustration out on me and after her yelling at me countless times and yelling at our director last week she FINALLY took her to a public school so she would receive services. In my opinion everyone wins in this one, most importantly the girl who so desperately needs someone who knows how to help her more than I could with limited resources & I am not afraid to say it experience with her needs.

Everything else is going good in case you wondered. :)