Busy Busy

Wow, it's that time of year again when our weekends start filling up like crazy. On top of that I have been extremely busy with my new job (preschool teacher). Those of you who think there isn't much lesson planning involved with teaching preschool- GUESS AGAIN. Not to mention the endless prepping for the multitude of projects. I'm certainly not trying to complain though because it is so wonderful to have my very own class and the kids are fabulous. There was a lot of work for me when I entered the classroom about 7 weeks ago. The teachers before me did not exactly run that class with much precision or care and it showed. The classroom was in shambles (dirty and unorganized- and you know how that drives me nuts!), the kids had no structure, routine, or clear expectations which led to major behavior problems, and last but not least, no one was learning anything! Well, I changed all that in a hot hurry and took it on as my personal goal to get that class in to tip-top shape. The fruits of my labor are becoming evident because just today my director informed me that they are turning my classroom into a "model Pre-K room" for La Petite Academy- meaning that it will be the example room for all teachers in training in the greater Madison area. I'm quite proud, yet this requires more work and I am going to have to stay late several Wednesday nights a month.

This wouldn't be a big deal except I just started singing in the choir at my church 2 weeks ago, and yup, you guessed it, choir practice is on Wednesday nights. I had to make the decision to push off choir for a while in order to fulfill these work duties. I'm sad about that but the choir will always be there and this schedule will not.

Well, Jason and I have a date set to tear down the deck and build the new one. I was looking forward to the demo part but it turns out that our neighborhood is having a group garage sale the same day so I will be running that while he's in back with some buddies tearing away at it. I can't wait until it is finished because we both plan to spend lots of time outdoors when it is done. Our current deck is too small to buy the patio set that we want so we just held off on buying anything until it is done. Jason and I love grilling lots of fish in the summer and I just keep dreaming about eating fresh fish and sipping a cocktail on a warm summer night.

Not much more news except that Jason and I just sponsored a young girl, named Neema, from Rwanda on Monday night. We sponsored her through World Vision which a is a reputable Christian organization and we're so excited to help her and her family and have the opportunity to watch her grow since she is only 4. Another exciting aspect is that our church has become part of a partnership where many of us and other local churches have sponsored children from the same communities in Africa so that someday we may be able to all take a trip together to visit the children. We hope and pray that will happen someday.

Well, I'm going to be a nerd right now and study a little for ANOTHER state test they're making me take to extend my Wisconsin teaching license. Everyone keeps laughing at me for studying because I probably don't need to and will still pass-- I never studied for any of the Illinois tests-- but I can't help it. I set a personal goal for myself to get one of the top scores cause I was really close on the last test. I have no idea why I care because it's just a pass/fail test as far as WDPI or any employers are concerned.

Maybe I'll just give Wrigley a bath and think about my final moments at work today cleaning up a 4-year old after she pooped in her underwear. Ah, one of my many job perks.