"I know she's kind of socially retarded and weird, but she's my friend... so, just promise me you won't make fun of her!"

I'm really starting to like my second year of teaching. I'm not saying there aren't days that end with a wicked headache because I've just had the 100th kid say, "teacher!" but mostly it's going well. My class this year is funny. They crack me up and I totally appreciate that. I can handle a kid misbehaving if he/she is funny while doing it. The first week of school we had a fire drill and one of my boys reminded me that not everyone got out of the room. When I asked him what he meant, he said the parrot didn't get out. He was talking about our stuffed parrot we have in our fake tree. I said something like, "Oh the poor parrot. Maybe the firemen will get him out." This boy then said in an overly dramatic voice, "WON'T SOMEBODY THINK ABOUT THE PARROT?!" He thought he was pretty funny and you know what? He was. I'm also really excited about the music program our first grade team started. We are going to have music every other Friday (they also get it once a week with the music teacher) as an entire grade. We did it for the first time on Friday and it went really well. Shari is a natural and I could tell the kids loved it. I think the arts in school is so important but it's hard to fit it in when you are also trying to get through all the curriculum.

Our own little junior executive
My own kids have been pretty entertaining also. Hanna called a family meeting last week to which she brought a binder filled with an agenda. She wanted to talk about an allowance increase because she takes care of the cat, taking cheer leading lessons (ugh) without Grace and starting up our daddy-daughter/mommy-daughter dates again. She had each tabbed off with points written down. When we responded to her, she'd write down what we said. Whose child is this? She also went to her first real party this weekend. A girl in her class had a back to school party with a DJ. This place is a lot different than Santaquin. I took secret joy in telling her to "remember who she is and where she came from." I also added "no making out with boys, no drugs and no alcohol." Her response was a disgusted "MOM! Stop it! There aren't going to be boys there!" I got Grace her first little sports bra/cami thing this week because she told me, "all her friends have them." Really, why should I care? She isn't asking to go on the pill or get her tongue pierced. I know I need to let them have control over the little things. See, I'm growing. It's just hard to see them growing up. It's fun in some ways but sad in others.

"Why are you dressed so scary?" "It's Halloween."
I don't think it's any secret that I'm not a big fan of Halloween. I don't like spending money on something that will be worn for one day. When the kids were younger, I borrowed a lot of costumes or bought them 70% off the day after Halloween or told them to go down to the dress-up clothes and find something they wanted to wear. As they got older, this got a little more difficult because they didn't want to be a Disney Princess for the third year in a row. I still haven't spent that much on costumes because I'm savvy like that. Now, to add to the misery, I have to come up with a costume each year. Last year I wore a costume that I'd actually borrowed for Hanna a couple of years earlier but I didn't really love it and don't want to wear it again. So this year, we all had to get new costumes. I think most of the first grade team has decided to be fairies of some sort because we can make our own skirts together. When I was out buying my wings, I found some really cute monarch butterfly wings for Grace and our costumes are now mostly taken care of. I took Hanna out yesterday to look before things get really picked over and she picked this out

I like it. It's really hard to fine Halloween costumes for a tween that aren't totally hootchie mama. Apparently society has embraced this. It reminds me of the line in "Mean Girls" where Caty says, "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it." I'm not cool with this. Hanna wanted to be a witch and I thought this costume was good at covering everything but also looked appropriate for a 6th grade girl.
*This was my first choice for a costume but I worry it would scare my class and I know Ryan would have nightmares.


Daddy's girl
My parents came to visit over Labour Day weekend and we had a really good time. Lot's of Mexican food was consumed and the girls got a nice fill of grandparent time. We had two rocking chairs out on our front porch. One was given to me by Karen a few years ago and I painted it black. It was the comfortable one that Ryan and I always fought over. The other chair was a new one I'd bought at Walmart was about as comfortable as two boards nailed together at a 90 degree angle. We did a lot of porch sitting when my parents were here because the weather was so nice. I got a phone call from my Dad after they got home and he told me he'd buy me some new chairs for our front porch. Comfort was obviously #1 but I also wanted them to look nice. I found these at Lowes and I'm loving them. Karen said I was spoiled and I'm okay with that.