Goodbye Third Grade

Last week I found out that I was being assigned to 4th grade next year. This came as a huge surprise considering that the week before my principal had told our team that she was going to keep us together. I love my team. They are so amazing. Last year was our first year together. We all came from different places, but we meshed so well. Our personalities are really different, but we have had the same goal: success for our children--no personal agendas. I may be leaving my wonderful well-working machine of a team, but I have gained friends for life. Corny, but true.

Michelle-Thank you for sharing a wall with me, for letting me pop my head in whenever I have a question, and sending me attachments over and over again because I have deleted them.

Alice-Thanks for being the bilingual queen. You do so much more extra stuff that I don't even know the half of it. Thank you for always making puppy chow-it is the best. PS I still have your bowl.

Ann Marie-You were the one person I knew on the team when I started. Thanks for sharing all the first year teacher ropes with me. Thank you for letting me copy your files and always sharing everything you create.

Ernesto-Mr. Handy Man: Thank you for always have nails and batteries and rope and krazy glue and anything else that we could possibly think of. Thanks for taking our difficult kids and being flexible.

Alexa-my running buddy. You are so willing to drop everything to do anything for someone else. Thank you for all the encouraging words.

I will miss all of you next year as I move down to the dungeon, as Michelle calls it. Please come visit. My classroom, and life, is always open to you. You guys have been the best introduction to teaching!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Goodness, I feel like I have not blogged in for-E-V-E-R! Last weekend we celebrated mother's day. My parents came up and visited. We cooked dinner, and my little brother was home from college. I love opening up our place to friends and family. It fills the heart with love. I am pouring love into them, and they are replenishing that love with love for me. It is a great feeling to give and receive. Growing up, I was always the first one to want to leave the table. "Ok, food is done, Can I be excused now?" I am realizing more and more the importance and joy of sitting around the table just talking.

Anthony and I made fajitas and this yummy strawberry salad. (I even convinced my brother to try it and he liked it!) To end it all we had a really tasty, and healthy, dessert. Yum! My mom is wonderful in so many many ways.
1. My mom is so sacrificial. She always puts herself last.
2. My mom is extremely sympathetic.
3. She is fair. She kept track of everything so that she did it exactly the same with all of us. Because, heaven knows, we would call her out if it wasn't exactly fair.
4. She raised four children. Not bragging about me, but we all turned out really well thanks to her.
5. She is a prayer warrior. Any time I had a struggle that I brought to her, she would ask me if I had prayed about it. At times, I probably got frustrated with this response. Over time though I realized that she believed in it. Prayer does work. Not that all your prayers get answered, but that you trust in God's provision enough to turn it over to Him...which is what we should be doing always.
6. She always had a meal on the table for us to eat together. I know this always wasn't easy especially when we whined about what she had spent time preparing. Now that I am cooking meals, I know how hard this is, and all I have to do is feed one extra mouth.
7. She taught me not to care what other people think. We had by far the ugliest, oldest car in the church parking. Anybody remember our old station wagon? Fun times. I used to be so embarrassed about riding in that thing. Eventually, I got over that, but I think that car taught me a big lesson. If people are going to judge me based on what I drive or what brand I wear, I probably don't want to be their friend anyway.
8. She is a hard worker and for little in return. She did not consider any job or task below her. That is why when we all started jobs as teenagers, we weren't the ones just standing around, we were always looking for work to be done.
9. She is super creative.
10. She doesn't pry. She manages to care about my life, marriage, husband, and decisions without being overbearing and a control freak. How nice that is to know that regardless of what decision I make, I will have a mom who supports me and loves me. She is a great example to follow.
Happy Mother's Day!