rainy day schedule

I am not a fan of rain.  Big time whiny baby about it.

 


Teaching on rainy days are insane but there are some perks to a crazy day!  1. Cute first graders in sweet rain boots! 2. Cozy reading time with shoes OFF!


Stay warm and dry, folks.

room 13 - project runway room

How is the weekend already over?!  It just flew by! ... yet again.

Friday was a very very very rough day with 3 kids sent back to Kindergarten for cutting up their own clothes and shoe laces, 2 in the office to see the principal, and 2 pee pee accidents.  My goodness, it was not a good day for us in first grade.  I was so angry at the end of the day but I did get a good laugh, thanks to one of the Kinder teachers.  She came into my room to yell at her old students.  She scared them straight by yelling, "This is not project runway!  You do not cut up your own clothes. Do not embarrass me like this!"  I had to turn away so the kids wouldn't see me laughing!

So tomorrow, I go back to the craziness that is teaching. Even with the craziness, I love my job. I mean, c'mon, what other job is there where you are greeted with a smile and hug every morning?! I'm extra lucky this year; I have a student that brings me flowers EVERY morning. I don't even have the space in my classroom vases anymore! The good crazy totally out weighs the bad crazy!

An added bonus, my student teacher starts tomorrow. Extra pair of eyes and ears!

I'm praying for a good crazy week! :)

father's day

My hubz is not a dad yet (he'll make a great dad some day by God's grace), and my biological dad and I have a rocky (for lack of a better word) relationship. So not much Father's Day celebrating is going on over here, besides the lunch we had today with the in-laws in the mountains.

But as a teacher, I can't just ignore Father's Day! I found this great Father's Day activity (here) and since I did something similar for Mother's Day, I thought it'd be something easy enough to do with crazy kids who are ready for summer break.

As usual, my kids had some funny things to say!

 

Amazing drawing, no?

I let them choose their dad's skin color from the special "skin color crayons".  I didn't have the heart to tell her that her Vietnamese dad was a little more of the peach color.

Whatever your plans may be this weekend, be safe, have fun, and eat lots! :)

random notes

I get notes from my kiddos all the time.  Here are two of my favorite ones from this week.

Thanks for the warning, kid.

     

She's even got my hairstyle right! My hair is always in a bun!

I have the sweetest kids, ever. :)

christmas break has begun!

The 2:30 dismissal bell on Friday sounded soooooo sweet! I get to sleep in, lunch with friends, have energy to go for a run, knit, overdose on peppermint goodies, and just enjoy some quiet time for 2 weeks!

Christmas break started with a excitement-packed Saturday and Sunday, but after knitting today my wrists are super sore and using my laptop is not helping. Oh wellz, I'll just have to update later this week. For now, I'll leave you all with a lovely letter to Santa, written by one of my amazing first graders.

Obviously, I need to review question marks with my kiddos... but I don't have to worry about that until January! :)

fostering adoption - chapter 1

Before John and I got married, we talked a lot about what we envisioned for the future, with regards to our family. We both agreed we wanted a lot of kids! John always said he wanted 5 kids and I never thought of a number, but coming from a family of 3 girls, I knew I wanted at least 3 kids. It just makes life fun.

On top of that, ever since I was in college, I wanted to adopt a baby from Korea! And so, when John told me that he was really interested in adoption too, I thought, "Perfect! We'll get married, have our 'own' kids, and then adopt in the future!" This was our master plan.

But, in His love and kindness, God began to patiently peel our fingers back from what we held on to so tightly, so that we would hold on to what was better - Himself. There are many times when the possibility of not being able to have our own biological children is extremely hard, for sure.

But, by God's grace, we are beginning to see that "ALL things" really do work out for those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). And though we don't know if this is the purpose that God had in mind, we're excited to announce that we've begun looking into the adoption process now!

We got the ball rolling a few Saturdays ago when we went to our first informational meeting with an agency called the Children's Bureau. We're still looking into this particular non-prof, but so far, from what we see, it's great!

Stay tuned as, God-willing, we'll continue to document our adventure in fostering/adopting (the highs and the lows). Please pray for us!

mr. park visits

Johnny finally came to visit my kiddos! As part of our marble jar celebration, I told them John would come and teach them a song. John was a great sport, he came to visit and brought his guitar along. The kids get such a kick out of seeing him in the classroom!

I always tease John that his voice goes up WAY too high when he talks to kids. And he was talking WAY too slow with them! It was the funniest thing! He'd try to answer a question the kids had, then turn to me and ask "Do they know what ___ means?" "Do they know the word ___?" "Will they understand ___?"

As I read the book, Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, John played his guitar so the kids could sing along. I don't know what's cuter, the song or my John!

pajama day

Kids come in all different shapes and sizes. My first graders sure do!

We celebrated Dr. Suess' birthday a few weeks ago by wearing our pj's to school! I have no idea how pj's and Dr. Suess connect... but every year, this is what we do!

The students are in disguise as to protect their identity! Even with their disguise, you can see how adorable they are. My favorite pj is the onesie smack dab in the middle of the picture. He was sweating profusely after recess, but he didn't seem to mind.

John and I still do not have our own children, so I am lucky to have 24 kiddos, ranging in ages from 6 to 8! It's even better that I can send them home to their own mommies at 2:40!