my 39th first day of school...

so today . . . it has been 146 days since i last blogged.  i'm sorry...

blogging is sort of like exercising--if you miss a few days, it is awfully hard to get back into the habit.  and if you miss 146 days... well, let's just say my blogging muscles have become flabby and perfectly happy sitting on the couch.

but here i am.  i apparently took the summer off... and most of the spring as well.  a lot has happened during that time.  i found out i was going to be a grandma (i know, it is hard to believe since i still look like i'm about 30... ok, you can stop laughing now...) school ended.  diandra and i went to portland for a week, and then rollie and i drove up to brookings to check on our house and then went on a cruise to mexico.  i found an awesome new house sitter (thank goodness, because it seems like we were gone a lot!) and switched classrooms... again!  we went to lots and lots of angels games, and made new friends (it's amazing how yelling at... i mean for... a team can unite you.)  i got a new car (pretty much like the old one, only better.) we went to denver for some meetings, (which meant i had to miss the first week of school,) and then school started.  for me.  today...

i was not late for school.  well, ok, i was one minute late, but i don't think one minute counts.  actually, i don't think five minutes counts--that is part of my problem!  but this year i am committed to being on time.  every day.  i just give myself a five minute grace period :) hopefully the person calculating the time cards will also give me a five minute grace period...

so i was on time.  i walked into my teeny tiny classroom (i forgot to mention that the new classroom i moved into is about the size of my kitchen.  my kitchen is a decent size for a kitchen, but pretty small for a classroom,) and groaned!  i had had to move all my stuff and organize the room three weeks ago, because i was going to be gone at the end of august and the beginning of september, so i had spent a couple of days trying to whip things into shape.  the truth is, it wasn't really up to my exacting standards, but i ran out of time, and so, there it was... 

however, changes had taken place since i left it.  some of them i expected--all the papers and stuff from last week--but there were other things that had been left in there that just had to go!  there is no space in my teeny tiny classroom for clutter (and by clutter, i mean anything that doesn't belong to ME!)  and since i was on time, but not early, i had to do some serious moving while still watching ten kindergarteners...

... and then i got the word that i was getting another student!  under normal circumstances, this would be a good thing, but these were not normal circumstances.  our space was already pretty well maxed out!  and all the workbook pages had already been organized for the whole year.  and the seating was ok for ten, but was going to be awfully tight for eleven...

...and then i lost two workbooks.  two.  i know i had them.  i know they were there.  but when i got ready to add them to the other workbook pages, they were gone.  i looked everywhere, but those two books were nowhere to be found!  and i need them, because as i just said, i am getting a new student and she is going to need those workbook pages...

...and then last week someone had let the kids bring blankets and pillows for rest time.  big pillows.  and blankets.  now i can't complain too much since i was gone, but there is no room in our teeny tiny classroom to store big pillows and blankets for eleven students--not to mention what pillows and blankets to do rest time!  does anyone rest?!? of course not!  all they do is play with their blankets and pillows... especially if the pillows are pillow pets...

...and then i had one little dumpling who brought all of his own food today.  no allergies, he just wanted to bring his own food.  this created issues with the other kids who would rather have his food than the school's food.  ok, i'll admit there are days when i would rather have his food too, but today his food was almost exactly the same as the school's food!! and yet, there it sat in his brand new, totally unnecessary lunch box, calling his name, while his mean teacher (that would be me,) made him eat what everyone else was eating...

my desk is a mess.  there are stacks of papers everywhere.  the children are having to adjust to quiet voices and walking feet and holding a pencil correctly. i am having to adjust to not having an aide, or a bathroom in the class, or a sink, or space to move around.  i had kids trying to cut their plastic pencil box with their brand new scissors, i had kids asking "but when do we get to play?" over and over and over again, i had kids falling out of their chairs and coloring their hands with their markers.  it was not the best of first days...

...but in the middle of all of that chaos, i laughed.  i was explaining about echos and how i wanted the children to "echo" what i was saying as we were learning a new sound.  so i finished explaining and found the song that i use to teach the vowels, and reminded them to "echo" me... and then before i could start the song, i coughed.  which resulted in... you guessed it... a whole chorus of coughs!

oh well... they may not have mastered the short vowel sound of "i", but at least they were listening and trying to follow my directions...

tomorrow is another day :)

now if i can just keep the chinese teacher's materials from taking over my space...