Halloween Preview

We celebrated Liam's birthday today then went out to "Trick-or-Treak" with the kids. We had a great time and got some great pictures! I'll post more later! I'm pooped!

Playing in the "graveyard" at Dusti and Gordons.

Here's Mr. Liam, apparently the party was a little much for him and he needed a rest.

Cold, Wind, and GLAD

I finally decided to upload some pictures from our weekend in Spokane two weeks ago and just hanging out this past weekend. Monday I took my class to Shadow Lake Bog for a field trip, so I prepared by taking Eli and Jess through on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and Eli enjoyed walking the boardwalk and Jess was a good sport and let me share my wealth of knowledge with him.

Here we are at the bog. It wasn't very easy to get the picture, but this is what we have! Something with the three of us at least - that's a rare occurrence.

Unfortunately, due to bus constraints, when I took my students, we were on limited time and I had 20 minutes to take each of my two groups through the bog. It still worked out as it was pretty cold and windy (thank goodness there wasn't any rain though!). I didn't get to share anything close to my collection of facts, but the kids seemed to have gotten a lot out of it and enjoyed their visit.

Today I was out of the classroom while I participated in a GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition D.....something) training, basically better techniques to teach for ELL students, although it's totally how I am as a learner, and it is designed to push all students, not just English language learners. I am lucky and will get to see more of these techniques first hand come the end of Nov., when there will be a 5 day demo in a classroom - in MY classroom! I'm really excited for this opportunity.

Here are some pictures from the past two weeks:

Our sweet niece, Kendra, waiting patiently for her turn to go back into the game.

Our fabulous nephew, Cameron. He is a great QB!

(What are the odds that they would both be #7 on their respective teams?! They did not get the choice in numbers!)

King of the tumbleweed at Cam's football game. Who knew tumbleweed was so much fun!

Eli had so much fun playing in the weeds!

Patiently riding in the car.

This is what happens when you aren't paying attention to your quiet toddler in the backseat. He puts fruit snacks in his toes.

We had so much fun watching Eli and Cam play together.

Three totally cute cousins.

Here he is playing on the toys at a local elementary school - not mine.

A week from...well...there.

It seems like forever since I last updated on here. I guess that's because it has been! Really not a lot has been going on around here, we've all been doing our normal "jobs" and doing what do. Although, in the last week, the excitement has been in abundance.

It started with a trip to Spokane to see Jess's family. Sadly, I can't remember the last time we were there, other than last spring sometime. Brooklynn, our niece, was just tempting the 'walking waters,' which means it was either April or May as she was an early walker. Before her first birthday in June. We spent time with Jess's grandma which was very nice. She is trying to get used to her new living arrangement at the Waterford, but is having a difficult time adjusting. She seems to be in good spirits though, and I know we all felt better knowing she is making progress and healing in all the ways she needs to. Eli enjoyed seeing "Geeet Gamma Weeeenkey" and getting his piece of chocolate (which he held onto the half he hadn't put into his mouth for probably half an hour before he'd give it up).

This time we stayed with my fabulous sister-in-law (Jess's sister) and her family. It was fun having the opportunity to go to both our nephew and niece's games and cheer them on. It's amazing how much they've come into their own. While one was playing during their game, the other got to play with Eli. I love the way they both truly enjoy playing with Eli despite the age differences. Kendra is in third grade and is such a girly girl, but the smile she wore while being clobbered with tumbleweeds at Cam's game was incredible. And Cameron. Oh, that boy is the most thoughtful, caring young man I think I have ever met. Being the macho sixth-grader that he is, he absolutely loved letting Eli "tackle" him, play cars with him, and watch the airplanes together. I wish they had more opportunities to play together and know each other better, but it is what it is.

As our weekend came to a close, we loaded the car and headed home. Unfortunately, when we reached Ritzville our plans were suddenly thrown to the wind (haha, literally!). I-90 had been closed due to horrific (black out? white out? sand out?) conditions and numerous accidents, as were the other major routes west. We came to the conclusion that we were not going to chance our safety and headed back to Spokane for one more night. After talking with another teacher that I work with who made it through the storm several hours before us (by taking 395 south then across) she said it was a horrible trip and they were scared to death. They wished they had turned around as they could barely see the semi ahead of them and the one behind them. They thought about pulling off the road, but because of the limited visibility, the chances of the semi running them over because he was just following their lights was more likely, they kept pushing through. NO THANKS. I would rather take an extra day off work and be safe and not put anyone's lives in danger. So, we made it home safe and sound Monday afternoon.

This is when the excitement REALLY started.

While I was gone, it was decided that I would be getting a new student (I already knew this). I needed to go in and get some things done to prepare for his arrival on Tuesday, so after Eli went to bed, I headed in to work in my classroom for a bit. When I got there, I noticed my rolling easel wasn't in its typical place, but assumed the sub or my class needed to move it for whatever reason. As my eyes moved across the front of my room, something jumped out at me. A roll of duct tape and a black garbage bag were on my dictionary/word finder bookshelf. This was totally not right. These were not my things and why in the world would a sub have those in my room? There is no reason. Then my heart just about stopped. Where my projector, Elmo, and laptop should have been sitting was the empty top of my computer cart. I grabbed my phone to call another teacher and ask if there was any reason why my things would be gone, trying really hard not to believe the inevitable. Of course, they should have been there. Feeling absolutely horrified, I grabbed my things and went to find our custodian. (All I had done to prepare for my new student while on the phone was put his name on a nametag)

I spent the next 45 minutes talking with our custodian and dispatch for the police department. After this, I was to wait in my car in the parking lot for the police to arrive. After sitting there for about 35 minutes, I noticed a familiar truck going through the parking lot, so I tried calling her to see what she was up to. She had been there looking for me! She came and sat with me while we continued to wait for the police to arrive, and we called our principal and building manager. On a side note, I was a little, ok, a lot, nervous to tell our principal what was going on. She was shocked at the news, but understanding and very supportive.

After waiting for an hour, I finally called the police department back to find out if anyone was coming (I was told the wait would be 15-20 minutes, maybe a little more). It was then that I was told that something came up and they wouldn't be able to make it until after 10:00. I had the choice to stay and wait, or meet with them the following morning. I chose the morning since I didn't want to wait for yet another hour in the dark and foreboding parking lot. I went straight home as I was not going back up there after dark. Yikes. No thanks!

So Wednesday morning comes and I have to get to school early so I can meet with the police before my students arrive. Did that (didn't do any planning again by the way), and all of a sudden students were arriving. I hadn't changed the schedule on the board from the previous day. I really had no idea what I was teaching other than the fact that I had to give a math assessment. I really needed to take a look in my plan book and see what was on the docket for the day. Plan book. Interesting. I knew I left it at school. Where in the world could that be? Hmmm. There's a great question. I searched. Nothing. I searched some more. Still nothing. Then it hit me. Our genius thief not only took my electronics, but they were lo enough to take my plan book. Apparently they wanted to do a little teaching too. Fine. As the week went on, it came to light what all was taken. Of course, anything electronic was taken: laptop, Elmo, projector, CD player, timer (yes, how lame, a $5 kitchen timer), then they rifled through my drawers and took things like my Mr. Sketch markers (great for posters), all of my stickers, Sharpie markers, pens, snacks (yep, string cheeese!), candies, my prize box, all of my fun pencils for my students, my chapstick, a sweatshirt that I had embroidered with Wildcats (our mascot), a jacket, and even my half used air freshener that was sitting on the top of my closet. Seriously!

Yeah...let's just say it was a stressful week. Yes, it bothered me a great deal that someone had been in my room and taken things, but when I realized that they had gone through everything and chose certain things to take, that threw me over the top. I needed time to let it all out and just hadn't done that yet when I got an email with fire drill information on it. After replying and finding out that there was a fire drill later in the day, I absolutely lost it. Apparently that was the straw that broke the camels back. I had a nice cry and was ready to move on.

On the bright side, we went to Office Depot on Wednesday to get some replacement things. When the store manager found out why we were there buying so many "new teacher" items, he went and picked out some things and just threw them in. I couldn't believe his generosity. I am working on a thank you letter for his graciousness. There really are kind and thoughtful people out there!

Now that you know about our exciting week, I am going to stop writing. I have some fabulous pictures from the weekend in Spokane and today (we went to the Farmers Market and let Eli play on the playground toys at the elementary school) to share soon.