a little complaining with some rejoicing

Every other week at school, I feel like each day should be Friday. Unfortunately, tomorrow is only Thursday and I have two more whole days with my motley crew. Group A, as Sonia and I refer to them is a HARD, tough group. I want so much to just love all of them, but some days I really have to have a big prayer in my heart that centers along the lines of "please help me be patient; please help me be patient." The kids seem to be improving in their behavior, but then I have days like today when Brayan cried so much I hauled him to the office and made him stay until he stopped. I have found his weakness: recess. Take away recess time and you've got his attention. I might have to endure more tears, but maybe enough lost recess time will make an impact on his behavior. I can only hope, right?

Truly, I hate being the witchy teacher, but sometimes I have to let the little ones know that I mean business. It seems in this group that none of the kids even know what respect means. We've talked about it, I've called them on disrepectful behavior, and we've practiced showing respect. How do I make it sink in? Being a teacher for just over a year has taught me that when I am a mom, I might not be perfect, but I can at least teach my children the fundamentals for playing the school game. UGH! Honestly, do none of my students' parents care about them showing respect?

Well, that's my compaining for the week. On a happy note: Amy helped my arrange my NEW furniture in my new classroom because I helped her arrange her furniture in her classroom. One bruised foot later, I have a room that's actually starting to look like a classroom. My new teacher desk is HUGE! No seriously, Amy and I figure out we had to angle it to provide for ideal space usage and comfort. I'm putting my camera by my school bag right now so that I can take pictures of my soon-to-be old classroom and the new classroom. You'll see how big my desk is and if you're a teacher, your jaw will drop. Hee hee! I love it!

School picture

This is a picture of our new school (it looks slightly different from this). My class room is the farthest right corner on the bottom. 9 more school days until we officially start, Oct. 20 at the new place. We're moving over fall break (2 days) and it's going to be wild. We got a grand tour of the school on Monday and it's absolutely gorgeous and fun. If any of you saw my facebook status, my classroom is the only one that is not finished. Diane said that when it came around to doing cabinetry work, my classroom got completely let off the plans. She has been so apologetic. I suppose I just have to deal with what I have. I'll try to take pictures of it and post them here soon.

School is just crazy busy. I have one group of kids that makes me want to retire every day I have them! Kory has even said he notices a difference in me when I have that group of kids. *sigh* I just don't know what to do. That's all!

What to say?

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't had much to say. Hmmm.....I love my husband. My nephew is super cute. 1 more month until we move to our new school.

That's about it. Though I continue to get parents writing me notes or emails about how their child is bored because everything is too easy for them. They are very understanding about my time constraints and preparing something else for their child to be engaged in while I teach the majority of my class that needs the instruction. It gets a little frustrating, but I'm glad that I'm able to work with the parents and have them be so understanding. They are great!

My principal won the Bilingual Administrator of the Year award. We are very excited for her. She totally deserves it because she is just fabulous and so patient, especially with me. :)

That's pretty much it. Hope all is well for everyone else.

Family

So, my mom wanted a family photo when we were all in Utah (there's more of us in Utah now than in Oregon) and whaddaya know? My beautiful Laura Johnson just happens to love my mama and me (and probably the rest of my family, I'm guessing) and said she would photograph us. Here are some of the pictures. Enjoy! For all the images, visit my facebook profile!

My shirt and addition to the last entry

So, this is what my t-shirt looks like. BYU puts out a new football shirt every year. Last year it said "Fully Invested" meaning you give your all to everything you do--sports, academics, religion. This year "The Quest" means the quest for perfection. So far I've only heard reference to perfection being a perfect 12-0 record in football, but judging from the culture at BYU, I'm sure it has more meaning than just a perfect football record. Getting my shirt was wild! They kept selling out of shirts, so my mom finally found out when they would be getting a new shipment in and ordered one for me on that specific day of the shipment (last Friday). They said they would have it for me at customer service. Last Saturday, I waltzed up to campus with Kory to pick up my shirt before the game. First, I hit the BYU apparel, they sent me to customer service. CS claimed they didn't have my shirt under my name or my mom's name. They tried calling the "internet orders" department--closed! So, next stop the clothing counter in the bookstore (different from BYU apparel dept.) and the same kid that sent me to CS came and talked to me again. He checked with his manager and they had zero shirts left. Annoyance is setting in; I go to the library, look up my confirmation number, take it up to CS and they say "sorry, we can't do anything with your confrimation number." The whole time I'm trying to call mom to find out if it's perhaps somewhere else or under some random name. She was working so she didn't answer. No shirt for the game. :-( I finally went and picked up my shirt today. YAY!

That same Saturday I went out to lunch with some mission friends. One of the members from my second area was visiting. She said the Spanish sisters are being taken out of that mission!! Thus ends our great legacy. Gosh, I feel so sorry for everyone. They don't get to bask in the awesome-ness that is Hermana's. Apparently too many hermanas were teaching single men who would join the church for wrong reasons and then go inactive. I understand the reasoning, but it's still sad.

Oh, and to add to my last entry, I was working on my plan book and I looked down--spider crawling up my leg! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!I flicked it to the floor with my pencil and Kory squished it. Gosh, he's amazing!

UGH!

Okay, I'll make this quick especially because there aren't pictures to make the story more entertaining.

I have this big yoga ball and I decided tonight that I wanted to bounce on it. So, I rolled it to a place in the Living Room that I deemed safe from destruction, should any accidentally occur. :) Anyway, I move the ball and behind it is this BIG, at least 2 inches long and probably almost 2 inch wide ROACH! UGH! EW! GROSS! YUCKY! KILL IT NOW!!! Oh my gosh it was so gross. I would have taken a picture as evidence, but it started to move and when it moves, that's the end of it all! Thank goodness for brave, knightly husbands who aren't afraid to squish roaches and spiders on the floor or on the wall. I'm just surprised it was such a clean squish--that thing was huge! I was expecting roach guts all over the carpet, but there was nothing. Yay for Kory! Many kisses to him.

Yeah, now I'm afraid one will join us in bed. EW!

Heartbreaker

Okay, so I totally got a heart-ripper moment today. We went to lunch and after my kids were through the line, the lunch secretary said she needed to talk to me about Jorge. I knew what was coming, but I had to listen to her anyway. The district has this policy where if a child is in the negative for lunch money to a certain amount, then they can't have lunch! DUMB, yeah I know. Anyway, Adriane (lunch secretary) told me that Jorge had a block on his account because he was whatever amount in the red that made it so he couldn't have lunch. So, I had to walk him all the way back to our office (we go to lunch at the school next door until we move into our new place), tell the office secretary and she gave him crackers to eat because of the dumb district policy. Oh my gosh I wanted to cry for my sweet Jorge. Just because mom hasn't sent lunch money doesn't mean you should punish him! AND it was pizza day! I felt so bad for him and his little empty tummy all afternoon. He even had to stay in the office for all of lunch recess too. I understand that the parents need to pay for lunches, but honestly!! This is ridiculous. Needless to say I felt horrible for not forking over enough for him to be able to eat lunch. I should have; I totally should have! Maybe it's not a big deal for anyone else, but for me it just confirmed how much I really do care about my students and that I can't ignore or brush off the fact that the majority of them are dirt poor! I feel so blessed.