Life as a Musical

I'm watching GLEE right now; a show David completely hates and a show that's completely irrelevant to actual public school (at least to any I know of!). But for some reason, it draws me in. I think it's due to the fact that I've always wanted life to be a musical. You know, where at any given moment everyone around you will burst into random song and dance that's entirely choreographed and on pitch? Soemtimes a song just says it so much better! Plus, I would l.o.v.e to have the pipes some of the GLEE cast members have!

Soldier writing update: administration was not nearly as excited as I was about the idea as I, but my principal offered another idea: pen pals. So I'm on the hunt for another middle school teacher who'd like to connect with about 145 7th graders and their horrible penmanship and grammar. But, hey, it could be fun, right? Right?

Escape!

All I can say is this: I walked into Hayden's room to find him playing with toys. The problem with this picture is that when I left him originally, he was in his crib to take a nap! Oh boy.

The "Write" Direction

I am so excited about an idea I have; I can only hope it takes off with my students!!

A few weeks ago I thought about having my students write letters to our troops. Tonight I took the first step in emailing "Soldier's Angels" about getting my students started. It will be great if soldiers respond and the kids really get into writing to them. I'm hoping my excitement will carry through to them!

If things go well, I'd love to get care packages together around Thanksgiving/Christmas and mail to some units. Even if we don't get much, we can at least send some things with our thoughts and prayers. I know I'll have to be careful how I handle jumpstarting this idea, as I have some parents who think nearly everything we do is "rubbish," but my kids need to write and I want them to feel like they're writing for a purpose, not just to please Mrs. Ainsworth!

I've been bouncing things off Pia all afternoon about this idea. One of my thoughts was that if someone from our area returns home before school is out, we can have him/her come speak to my classes. Maybe something one of my students says will touch one or more of our troops. How great would it be to get 147 letters from some random middle schoolers?! Oh, I really hope this comes together!

Mrs. Aniston

Yep, that's right...apparently I'm no longer Mrs. Ainsworth. I've become Jennifer. The afternoon worker at Hayden's school calls me Mrs. Aniston every day. I've yet to correct her hoping she'd notice. I've also been Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Armstrong, too. Whatever.

On a funnier note, here are some Hayden stories from school:

1. Yesterday he hugged me good-bye then promptly pushed me away so he could play when I dropped him off. I'm glad he's settled in well.

2. A few weeks back a kid bit my son's shoulder and left perfect teeth marks. Hayden was taken care of and the other child was isolated from everyone else. However...the next day I went to pick Hayden up and couldn't see him in the room. Finally, I spotted him at the table with a toy. He was happy as a clam. I just looked at the worker and said, "What'd he do?" She smiled and said, "Well, Mrs. Aniston, we had a bit of a problem. He took a toy from another child and then hit the child, so we had to isolate him." Aah. Gotcha. So we had a "talk" on the way home with Pia as a witness, then I made Hayden tell Daddy what he'd done. When he paused for a breath, I said, "Go on, tell him everything!" We laughed after he went to bed, but I want him to know he will be held accountable for his actions.

3. Then this most recent Friday I picked him up a little earlier than normal. Everyone was having snack, but while all of the other children were at the table, Hayden was in the high chair. Now I know my son is a beast so I figured he had gotten too big for the table. But no. He was in the high chair because he apparently likes to steal others' snacks! Yep, that's my son. And he's usually so good about sharing too. The joys of toddlerhood.

4. His favorite body part is the belly button. He doesn't give a hoot about his nose, eyes, ears, fingers or toes! And watch out! He just may try to find your belly button by raising your shirt!

I love my son. I get so excited when I get to pick up up at the end of each day. And Elmo is his latest obsession. Thanks to a co-worker of David we have a ton of new videos to watch!

Busy Bee

I'm not even sure where to start with the past few days/weeks. I don't have any exciting revelation to post or any awesome news, but I felt like I needed to update with what's been going on.

There was a mix-up with soccer at school, so I don't know if Pia will play and I'll be a true "soccer mom" or not. Long story.

Hayden is BUSY! He's loving school and this morning, even pushed me away after he gave me a hug. That was my cue to leave!

David is coaching PeeWee football and is practicing 3 nights/wk right now.

School is, well, school. I don't have my Promethean (it's on backorder), and the kids don't give a flying hoot about actually trying. Makes days very interesting. We're also having parent conferences pretty much every day, then I stay after my final bell until Pia gets out of school and we grab Hayden and head home to fix supper, do laundry, etc.

We've kept Pia pretty busy, especially on the weekends. This past weekend for Labor Day we decided to take her to Lambert's. She l.o.v.e.s bread, so we thought it would be perfect! It was (and it was a beautiful Sunday...we went post-church) perfect. Her only complaint was the amount of food we saw as we passed tables when we left. A few pictures below...