My bit of heaven. . .

Well, I have been told I should begin. I feel kind of lame because I see so many very cool blogspots, and mine will never be that cool. However, I have also been lame in my journal-writing, so I figure if I write here, it will all work out in the end, right? Hope so. I'm totally counting on things working out in the end; otherwise, I'm in a heap of trouble.

Today I painted kids' faces in Jake's 2nd grade class at their Halloween party. I know it's a tad bit early for a Halloween festival, but today was their last day of school before going off track. They had several games to play and many munchables to eat, but I sat in a corner and painted. I loved it. I only did very simple things--cat, witch hat, bat (not all of them rhyme--I promise), ghost, pumpkin, Boo!, snake, and I don't remember anything else. The kids really liked it and they were happy, so that's good.

Jake has a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Ligget. She's been teaching for many years and really knows what she's doing. He had a rough year last year, but hasn't at all this year--one time in trouble, not bad! She gets the kids' attention by just saying, "class, class." Then they stop, look at her and respond, "yes, yes." Sometimes she says it three times, sometimes just once. She doesn't raise her voice, but they know to listen for that. Whatever inflection she puts in her voice, they respond the same. So if it's "claaaasss," they say, "yeeesss." Sometimes she'll say, "hands and eyes." They stop, clasp their hands together and open their eyes really wide, staring at her. If someone isn't paying attention, she says, "Oh do we need to do a mighty groan?" Then they all groan. I love being in her class!

Yesterday we had Dante's party. I'm so glad this whole year these two teachers decided to have their parties on different days. That makes it so much easier to be in two places, not at the same time. I didn't have much to do at that party, just be there. The kids all planned what they wanted for treats and had a sign-up sheet. We took a box of Twinkies. Simple. I like it. They played a fun game--each was assigned one of the following: skeleton, ghost, bat, zombie, witch or pumpkin. The person who was "it" called out one of the list and those people had to change chairs. I've played it before with everyone in a big circle, but she had the chairs all mixed up. That made it very crazy. If you said "Halloween" then everyone has to change places. The person who is "it" is trying to get a chair. Whoever is left is now "it."

I love it when the kids go off-track. We don't have to get up early! I don't get to bed until about 1:30 or 2:00, so I end up getting kids off then coming home for a nap. This way, I can just sleep a little longer, and then I have the whole day. Taylor and Simona are still in school, but Corky gets them up. I'm so grateful to him for that. Taylor has to be at school by 6:00 a.m. every other day (for Jazz Band), and 7:00 on the others. Moni goes to Jazz Band at the Jr. High at 6:50. That's so early for me.