Halloween

Halloween is always a fun holiday. Especially in the profession I've chosen. Yesterday, I had two boys go home throwing up because they had already had too much candy (not from me, so I don't know how they got it...) and one girl with a migraine headache. I had another girl in tears because her wig had been ripped off and it was bobby pinned to her hair, so it pulled her hair. She wanted to call her mom to have her come fix her wig. I said no. Mean teacher, I know, but really?

I dressed up as Mulan. Well, to be honest, it was really a geisha costume, but I wore a sign on my back with Mulan written on it, because I didn't want any controversies spreading around the school. Everyone loved it!

Tonight, we went down to Doug and Heather's because they were going to go to their ward's Trunk-or-Treat. Emily was a witch, just like last year, and Colby was a pirate. Brady dressed up as the cutest Batman I've ever seen. Even Derek dressed up! Before going down there, we decided to go to Wal*Mart to see if they had any costumes left. They had a lot, but they were all XX-Large! We almost didn't buy one, and then Derek saw a Ninja costume. It was they same size, but we bought it hoping it would work out. Somehow, I'm not sure how, but it did work! He was able to tie a sash around his waist that made the tunic seem a lot smaller. It worked out! A ninja and a geisha. Perfect couple...:)

The best part of Halloween was definitely at the end of the Trunk-or-Treat. The whole time, the sky was black with thick clouds, it had already rained before, and we were watching as the clouds moved right over head. It wasn't raining so we just kept going. All of a sudden, it started pouring. And I mean POURING!!! Everyone started running for their cars. The water was everywhere, you couldn't see a thing and it was coming down hard! Right as we got to Doug and Heather's car, it started hailing. I had Emily by the hand and she started screaming because it hurt so I had to cover her with my body while Heather searched for the car keys. Kids were screaming and crying everywhere. And poor little Colby was definitely one of the loudest. We got them all into the car and everyone was crying. It was hard not to laugh after we had gotten everyone in. Colby, amidst streams of tears, yelled out, "I never want to go Trick-or-Treating AGAIN!!!" I was crying I was laughing so hard. Here we were, trying to make a great Halloween night for these kids, and they have been completely traumatized! For the rest of the night, Colby kept telling everyone that he hated Halloween and never wanted to go again! So funny! Once, I told him that I should get all of his candy since he hated Halloween so much. He didn't think that was that funny!

Overall, one of the best Halloween's I have had. It was fun dressing up, and it was hilarious with Doug and Heather's kids.

On Our Way

2:15 can't come fast enough. Why? Oh, I just get to leave school then and take a flight to my home state, good ol' California!

Derek's best friend Ryan, is getting married in Oakland this weekend and Derek is a groomsmen so we get to be there for all the major festivities! I'm very excited. Not necessarily because I love weddings (sometimes they can be rather boring) but because I get to have a 3-day weekend in California! That's not all! Megan and Reed now live in that area, so whenever there's some down time (which there always is in a wedding), we get to spend time with them! Yay!

So, this weekend will be filled with lots of dresses, pictures and fun times. I couldn't ask for more!

"You are the best teacher ever!"

I will never get tired of those words. Especially when they are spoken by a 10 year-old!

What A Week!

Last week was one of the longest in my life.

This week FLEW by.

Parent Teacher Conferences were on Wednesday and Thursday night. Overall, it went well. I only had a couple parents that weren't too thrilled about a couple things I was doing:

One dad was flabbergasted that his son had a multiplication chart on his desk so when he took his timed tests, "he has all the answers?" I tried to explain to him that it's good to understand how to use certain tools, like calculators, to help with certain things. I assured him that our timings would would have less and less time so his son wouldn't be able to use the multiplication as a crutch if he was going to pass them off in less time. That seemed to quiet him, but at first he seemed quite appalled!

Another mother left a facebook status after she talked with me that my principal Cami told me about this morning. She was just saying how upset she was about how her son was getting bullied at school and she was going in to talk to his teacher (me) about it. Apparently, I handled it just fine because according to another facebook status, she said that things had been taken care of. My principal was upset that she was posting about something that should probably be a private matter to discuss, but she was grateful to me for handling it so well.

Other than that, it went well. Besides the fact that I currently have NO voice.

I knew that would happen, so brilliantly, I decided to make today a Read-a-thon day! No teaching for me, the kids are still learning (they read the whole day and are using math to add and subtract the number of pages they read, and at the end of the day, we graph the results as a class to find the winner), and I have time to rest my voice, get caught up on things I need to get done and relax for once this week! Like I said, BRILLIANT!!!

Well, that's how my week has gone. Luckily it's over after today and I'll have a much needed weekend! And, I have next week to look forward to. Monday--field trip. Tuesday--substitute so I can go to a district meeting. Wednesday--last day of the week and the only day I have to teach. Thursday and Friday--UEA/Fall Break! Sweet!