I made it.

I have never been so relieved that a week is over. It wasn't neccesarily a bad week. It was a week that I maybe shouldn't have gotten out of bed a few mornings. Thank goodness that Chuck had an easy and uneventful week. He fell asleep easily and without a fuss, slept great ( waking up once.... except last night he slept through the night!), had a great week at daycare, ate good and it was just easy going.

I had my observation this week on a topic that I had purposely skipped the first time around. I hate teaching context clues ( I just think it is a hard concept to actually teach) but it forced me to come up with a really good lesson for a topic I don't like. My student's behavior was great ( thank goodness). Preparing for a formal evaluation just takes a lot of prep work, prepping the room (organizing, cleaning, work up on walls) stress, late nights, etc. I am so glad that it is finally over ( was just looming in the back of my head my entire Thanksgiving break).

As soon as the observation was over my room just fell a[art completely. A child was in the bathroom ( in which the light bulbs have been flashing and taking a little time to turn on) and all of a sudden there was a huge pop. I immediately ran to the bathroom ( which is in our classroom), flung open the door and pulled the child out. I thought that a bulb had broken and there was glass in her eye. So I rush her down to the office, break in on a conference the principal was having. Turns out no glass was in her eye, we couldn't find a bulb that had busted. Hm mm. Then we notice her hand was a little black... kind of weird. We go back down to the classroom and sure enough the light switch was black. There on the floor right underneath the light switch was a burnt paper clip. Yes sirree, the child had put a paperclip in our light switch, shorted it out and um.... got shocked.

So we had called her dad to come take her to the eye doctor but by the time he showed up ten minutes later, it had turned into a discipline matter. Needless to say, I have a student who has now been suspended for five days because she almost caught the building on fire ( oh wait, did I mention there was smoke involved?) and she almost killed herself, her teacher ( which is me... I immediately switched off the light switch when I had run in after the pop) and almost killed the principal ( she was flipping it on and off looking at the bulbs before we realized it was the switch). Thank goodness the paperclip fell out of the switch and didn't stay in the switch or we would have been electrocuted. Amazingly this had happened before several years ago when a child stuck a pair of scissors in the light switch and shorted all the lights and zapped every single TV in the whole school.

Now today, I spent my first two and a half hours of my day trying to find clothes for one of my little girls who reeked of urine so much so that everyone in the class was getting headaches and starting to feel sick ( thank goodness the kids really didn't know why they didn't feel good). The mother would not bring the child any clothes because she doesn't have transportation ( did I mention that the children walk to school.... if your kids can walk to school, you can walk to school so that your child isn't being made fun of for reeking like urine. ) Anyways, finally when I was able to get her a uniform out of a uniform closet, I picked her out a jumper with a white blouse with a peter pan collar under it and told her to look in the mirror and said "What do you think?". She looked in the mirror and said "I look beautiful". About broke my little heart. She was so happy to have this sweet little uniform ( that was used.... but she can keep). Bless her heart.

So after spending my morning taking care of someone else's child..... ( i'm not saying I wasn't experiencing a migraine and gagging inside the whole time) I got to spend time with the illiterate literacy coach. Now mind you, this lady was so against me my first year but quickly realized that she really needed me for ideas, help, etc HAHAHA. She comes to my room everyday asking to borrow something or for me to come up with an idea or wondering how to do something. Today, she couldn't figure out how to open a document in her email and then save it to her computer. Seriously. Seriously. She owes me big time. BIG TIME . I have saved her A$$ so many times in the last three years, she better regret ever raising her voice at me that first year. Oh, yes, I do let her beg for my help occasionally just so she appreciates what I do for her.

So really the beginning of the week was just crazy stress, the end of the week was just crazy nonsense and I have never been more happy to be home with my little munchkin who is starting to use his knees when he crawls. I love that little guys so much. He makes my heart so happy.

Alright, gotta go wash bottles, start shopping from Christmas and do a little laundry. Have I ever mentioned how much I love to do laundry? I do, I really, really do. I love it.