The Glorious Single Life!

I first need to say happy birthday to my mother!! She is 16 today (and I'm dyslexic). :-) Happy Birthday to you! Also to my beautiful grandma who turned 88 on Friday! Go Grandma Go!

Soo.....This was my first weekend in ages that I really had no plans and didn't make any! It seems that my Friday evenings are the only evenings of the week that I am asleep before 9pm. The life of a teacher...

Yesterday I did nothing. Wait--I straightened my hair to see what it looked like since Stacey cut it last weekend. I took a few naps, worked out. A friend came over in the evening and we hung out, watched a movie and caught up on life stuff. But basically nothing.

This morning I watched some football, did laundry and made it to church on time! Came home, napped and went to my dear friends Mike and Eliza's house for dinner and fellowship. I was originally planning on driving up to the Bay Area, but I'm so blessed it was cancelled! Eliza was an amazing chef as normal. I got to see them both for a bit. Poor Mike though has tests all week so while he was studying Eliza and I were suppose to play Wii boxing but we drank coffee and got a chance to just hang out...which is why I'm probably up now--I rarely drink coffee!

I never did mention it but last weekend I babysat and played guitar hero on Wii and it was so fun! Everyone talks about it, but I had never played! I was so tempted to go and buy a Wii just to play guitar hero.

I'm counting down the days until Fall Break! I'll be attending the New Kids on the Block concert!! I can't wait until I get to see Joey Macintyre. Oh how I loved him! I also loved Danny although I remember thinking he looked like a monkey! ha! Then the next day I'll be flying out to Germany and then onto London. Only a few more weeks until I get to ride the 111 to Priory Road and visit my Twickenham family--and see my Charlotte!.

The Glorious Single life!

Ok I need sleep! I'm getting another student tomorrow and I need all the rest I can get!

Job Description for our President

303,824,640 residents—each with an opinion
A budget of $2.568 trillion in revenuesand $2.73 trillion in expenditures
A debt of $ 9,697,453,381,850
3,537,438 square miles of land
12,380 miles of coastline and 7,476 miles of borders with Canada and Mexico
The world's third-largest country by size (after Russia and Canada) and by population (after China and India)
A government constituency of 50 states, over six time zones and an additional five territories, coordinating efforts with 55 governors
A Congress of 435 representatives and 100 senators, some members of his party, some not
1,436,642 members of the Armed Forces of which he is Commander-in-Chief
A workforce of 153.1 million
An unemployment rate of 6.1% and 12% of the population living below the poverty line

Hot Cheetos

God reminded me today just how wonderful He is. God always wants to bless us more than we could ever imagine and we sometimes set limits and God wants to go above and beyond this!

I was reminded of this today because my students earned their 100th star, which means they earn a party of some kind. We had a unplanned fire alarm which can throw the whole morning off depending...and because we had an overall successful fire alarm we earned our 100th star.

The last few times the kids earned 100 stars they have gotten a cookie party. It has been a cookie party because cookies were on sale. Today I really wanted to make sure the kids knew that they earned this party to encourage more good behavior. I let the kids throw out different suggestions and they all wanted another cookie party. I finally stepped in and said "Cookies are boring-let's have a cool party--how about a hot cheetos party?" You would have thought that I was sending them all to Disneyland or something. Cheering broke out like I had never heard before. The smiles on their faces were bigger than I had ever seen. There is something about Hot Cheetos that Seaside students love, and its almost an unspoken rule that Hot Cheetos are not allowed at school because kids love them so much--they dream about Hot Cheetos instead of listening.

We're asking for Dollar Tree cookies from God but God is wanting to give us $2.69/bag of Hot Cheetos.

Haircut

One of my students just said that because he got a haircut his brain was turned off. He has to let his hair grow again before his brain will work again....

Huck Pack

I went last night to Calvary High's Fundraiser at the Monterey Conference Center. The highlight was at the very end of the evening when I got to shake hands and say cheese with Mr. Huckabee! He looks like a cardboard cutout...I'm sure because he's done this so many times. He's real though...unlike that photo with Hillary on the right. I heart Huckabee!

And I can't get enough politics these days, so it was fun to come home and watch Tina Fey play Sarah Palin on SNL.

Guns n Roses

I had two students bring two completely different things to school today. Mary-Kate brought me some weed flowers and was so proud to give them to me.

Another boy brought a cap gun to school. Now I really don't understand guns at all. I know there are big guns and small guns and toy guns. It was still only plastic, but you could shoot stuff from it. Thankfully a little tattler told on the student who brought it....

I'm just thankful that today is Friday! I have earned the weekend this week.

Mary Kate's Love Note to Me

Pretty impressive writing for a 6 year old huh?

Visit to St. Helena

Grandma was keeping me company outside. Thankfully it didn't get too hot.

This is the view from the pool I spent an hour in on Sunday. Her vineyard beyond the pool! It was glorious!

View from Heather's bedroom window!

My other grandma lives on a vineyard in St. Helena. She has a pool as well...I think I even got a tan! It was beautiful. I stayed the night at my friend's house in Calistoga. She's a nurse and actually was working the same day at the hospital when my grandma went in to have her major surgery. The balloon was from the window of Heather's house! Amazing! And my grandma...check her out! She's turning 88 on the 19th. Isn't she beautiful?!

Pictures of Mommer's Visit

Mommers stayed at the Clement on Cannery Row---it was beautiful!! My grandma who we call Mommers is 82. Isn't she beautiful?

I'm alive

So I am alive, but barely these days. I can't believe its been over two weeks since I have blogged. You could tell when summer ended and school started, or just when school actually got serious. I feel like I am just on the go, and when I get home the last thing I want to do is log onto the internet and talk about my day. I'd rather ask the Lord to bless my dreams and think about other things until 5:27 when my alarm goes off to do the same thing again! This week I've had parent/teacher conferences. It sucks to have to tell parents that their kids might repeat first grade if they don't learn their letter sounds by October.

My schedule is this:
Mondays-Childcare for Most Excellent Way from 6:45-9:00.
Tuesdays-Leadership meeting after school from 3:15-4:30--then free nights to get together with people or just rest.
Wednesdays-Spanish Class from 4-6:30 and then Bible Study from 6:30-8:30ish.
Thursdays: Staff Meeting from 3:15-4:00 then Free Nights
Fridays: I stay at school until late to get ready for the next week, then come home and crash!

Last week I had Open House where I had to meet with parents and then on Saturday I had training for school all day (8:00-3:30) and then when training ended I drove immediately up to St. Helena to visit my grandma before her surgery yesterday. I stayed until Sunday Night and drove home, did laundry and went to bed!

My students sure keep me entertained. I always tell myself that I will blog what the students say because they just crack me up. This week I had a student who asked me if he could go to the bathroom. I said Yes, go. He came back 2 minutes later and whispered again, Can I go to the bathroom? I said Yes, Go! He then put his hand over one side of his mouth and half whispered-But I have to go poop. I then said--GO!! You don't have to tell me you have to poop.

I had my Mary-Kate come back from a vocabulary lesson from another teacher. She walked up to me-batted her eye lashes and said, "Miss Dobie-You're gorgeous. (long pause) Do I have to do my homework tonight?" Then yesterday Mary-Kate wrote a little note on her reading log that said, "Ms. Dobe-I love you like a friend." Today when we were packing up for school to end, she whipped out this little mini sandwich and said, "here miss dobie--its a little something so you won't get hungry during your meetings. Its delicious." She drives me CRAZY because shes a kid who will get "talks to much in class" and "needs to focus on doing her work before she helps others" but is a true kick, who keeps me going. I do have a feeling she may make a few hairs turn gray in the process.

Last week we were having lunch together because she was the only one to do her reading every night during the week. She said, "My mom bought this for me at Costco. Its not a fork, but not a spoon. They call it a Pork." I wish I could share a picture, but I don't want to cross that line...but if you need any type of entertainment or cheering up---please volunteer an hour a week--by the end of your time you'll be able to write a book of Mary-Kate isms.

OK So I'm going to try and post some pictures. Two weekends ago my other grandma was in town....she went shopping and let me put it all on my credit card and I sure racked up those air miles!