Happy

Oh my goodness, I'm officially on summer vacation!  I am experiencing a flurry of emotions at present.  Relief being right at the top of the list.  Of course, it hasn't sunk in yet that it's not just a weekend and that the relief won't run out after two days off from school.  Does that make sense?  I have learned several things from my first year of teaching.  First of all, teaching certainly isn't what I thought it was going to be.  Not necessarily bad (of course, I was disappointed a few times), just lots different.  If it were all about the kids and the teaching it would be an ideal job, but unfortunately there is a lot of other stuff that factors in (political stuff, government stuff....yuck).  Anyway, I'm very pleased to have a long break.

One perk to teaching 1st grade is that I have been refreshing a lot of spelling and grammar rules this year.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am a horrible speller.  I have had several "oh, so that's how you know to do that" moments this year.  I have been learning right along with my 6-year-olds!

Another perk are letters like the one below.  Is there any other job where you would get a letter like this?  Also, to be called Mommy and even Grandma sometimes several times a day keeps a smile on my face, even on my hardest days.  I truly love my school babies.

I have learned that teaching is definitely a calling.  To say it's a hard job would be a major understatement.   Teachers are expected to perform miracles in many cases, deal with very unpleasant administrators, government officials and parents, get paid peanuts, put that hard earned money right back in their classroom, receive weekly calls to take action because pensions are constantly under attack, worry about the children in their charge (where in most cases are helpless to do anything for them), stay up at night thinking about school, work day in and day out in a damned if you do, damned if you don't atmosphere, and always wonder if you will be on the chopping block next year......but still love it and can think of nothing else they would rather be doing.  That's a calling.

So, enough about that!  Evangeline had her preschool program at Ms. Linda's last Tuesday.  She did a magnificent job!  They opened with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance and they they sang close to 15 little songs and poems.  Papa, Karen and Grandma were there as well as me and Kyle.  We were all beaming with pride.  Afterward there was a little cake reception where she got a special surprise from Ms. Linda in her cubby.  Evangeline had been talking about this all week how there would be "a special surprise in each of our cubbies".  She always referred to it exactly like that.  Ms. Linda always goes all out.  It was a sweet night.  We couldn't be more please about the care Evangeline receives there.





Here's our little girl receiving her "completion of 1st year of preschool" certificate.
 



Wednesday was my last day of school.  The kids were only there for a half hour, just long enough to pick up their report cards.  Evangeline came with me to school.  She fit right in with my big kids.  She sat at a table and worked on the same thing they were doing.  When I read a book to the kids she sat down on the rug with them and listened.  I kept looking at her little face mixed in with all my 1st graders and it made me kind of sad to think that this will be her in just a few years!  What happened to my baby!?  She is growing so fast.  Grandma Esta used to ask me "how did you get so big?"  Then she would answer herself, "one day at a time".  The days go by so fast now that I'm working full time. I try to be present each day with my little bug and enjoy every moment I get with her.  She is getting so big, one day at a time.

I had been wanting to get Evangeline's hair trimmed for months now, but she had been nervous about it.  She is really in to Rapunzel and insists that she is growing her hair down to the floor.  I remembered that Ms. Anita from daycare was a hair dresser and I asked her if she would consider doing Evangeline's hair.  She gladly agreed and Evangeline got to get her first hair cut at Ms. Linda's.  It went very smoothly and she really enjoyed having Ms. Anita be the one to cut it.

She was a little unsure at first.  She spent her whole hair cut with her little hands folded up like this.

Her hair is adorable.  It makes her curls so springy.

After the hair cut I did something I told myself I would never do.....I took her to get a Happy Meal (because we were so happy).

We had the first of many summer vacation picnics in the back yard.