Due to education cutbacks, the following presidents will not be taught: Buchanan, Pierce, Carter, Bush, Bush...

It's that time of year! The time the kids go back to school and I go back to work. What a double rainbow summer it has been. The kids are at a great age where they can play independently but are also fun to do things with. I think summers are just going to continue to get better. I have to say, summers off a DA BOMB! I love my job! I met most of my new students tonight at Back-to-School Night and things are looking good. Some of them are so small, I can hardly believe they are old enough to be in school. I've been working a lot at school, getting my room ready and I'm thinking it looks pretty good. I'm feeling a lot better this time than I was a year ago. I'm glad I have a year of experience which I hope will make this year a bit easier.

I copied Mary and made magnets for my students. We'll use them in a variety of ways in class and then they take them home at the end of the year. This is as crafty as I get.

My room. I really like decorating/setting up my room. I told Ryan I should do this for a living.




Practicing for my annual beginning of the year photo. Note the shoes. These will only be seen at school on back to school night for 2 hours. My feet were KILLING me.


Evie
Friday is Evie's 4th birthday. I recently had a friend whose brother went through something very similar to what we did with Evie. I'm glad I was able to help in some small way. It's brought up a lot of memories, things I haven't thought about in a long time but as time passes the pain lessons. Still, I found myself crying in the car the other day. I still have moments like that but they don't come that often and they seem to pass quickly. The grief is a part of me that will always be there. I'm never going to be "over it" but I've accepted it as part of who I am. Recently I had a situation where I was told I didn't acknowledge a friend's grief over a miscarriage. I honestly don't remember the situation or email or conversation, so I can't really defend myself. I was very upset by the accusation because if there is one thing I felt like I learned from losing Evie/4 miscarriages, is how to show compassion to those who suffer losses. It was one of the most hurtful things someone could say to me. Luckily I have people in my life who are good at lifting me up when I'm feeling down and I realized I can't please everyone. I can just try to be a good person. I'll try harder. Friday, we'll celebrate Evie as a family and I'll probably have a good cry.

Please, please, please let me get what I want
Once, in high school, I was driving my mom somewhere while listening to The Smiths and she told me she couldn't understand why I liked this music because the singer sounded like he was whining. I wondered how she couldn't think this was the greatest music ever but chalked it up to the generation gap. Now I'm dealing with this and I feel her pain. I was listening to some Billy Bragg in the car the other day and Hanna told me, "I'll do anything you want if you'll turn this song off." Wha!?! Yet she'll listen to Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber all day long. I only make fun of them when they listen to popular country music. These are lyrics from a popular country song:

I aint much for mowin thick grass
I'm too slow for workin' too fast
I don't do windows so honey don't ask
But I'm pretty good at drinkin' beer

Now I know they aren't all about drinkin' beer but I just can't like popular country music. Give me some Johnny Cash any day but please let my girls grow out of this. So far they are only really into Taylor Swift and I can handle that. I'm trying to load their iPods with the classics and they do like a lot of the music I grew up on, so maybe there is hope yet.