Late Again.............

Belated Birthday Greetings to my beautiful Ladybug - Alyssa turned 10 on March 12th!!

We had a lovely time on her birthday, which was on a Wednesday - great timing. On Wednesdays, she has Dance Company class (which is her competition team), then we have an hour and fifteen minute break til Stretch Class (intense exercises helping to strengthen muscles and techniques to perfect turns, leaps, etc), so usually during this break a slew of moms and girls go catch a bite to eat together. Several of her closest friends were able to be there and brought presents against my instructions - they disagreed with me that presents were unnecessary! We went to Chili's - one of her fave eateries & a fellow dancer mom made a fabulous Red Velvet Cheesecake (Alyssa's two fave desserts combined in one!). She got four Webkinz & was simply delighted - they are almost like having new babies & alot of work!

Alyssa has such a beautiful spirit that I cannot take all the credit for - alot of it just comes natural. She has always had an interest and kinship with the Special Friends in her class & they love her as well. She loves to sing and is active in her school choir. She is looking forward to the bigger opportunities she will have next year at the Intermediate School in regards to their awesome music program. Her dream is to play the harp (could she pick a more expensive instrument?!) but probably does not have the time for dance, choir and orchestra next year! And I don't have the gas money either! ha ha

Blessings, Alyssa!

Belated Birthday Greetings

Wow, I am now officially the mother of a teenager! I feel so blessed and old!

Austin's b-day was on the 15th, but he was very ill with a 102 temp, so we have yet to officially celebrate. He actually spent all of his birthday and the weekend in bed. I don't know if it was officially "the flu", but was pretty darn close if not the real thing.

The pic below was taken in summer 2006, but it was a very good photo and it was already on my computer, so it made it super easy to load on here.

He is such a wonderful boy - super smart - loves to read huge books - polite - almost taller than me - big science geek - his dream job is to someday develop video games - plays the flute beautifully - and best of all, still loves Momma's hugs n kisses!

Congrats, Austin on your new chapter in life :)

LOOOOOOOOONG OVERDUE NEWZ!!!!

Okay so I have been told - not that I didn't already know - that I need some new news posted on here (& this is so one of the reasons I did not want to start a blog - I knew I'd fall behind!!!), so here goes......

I have been trying to get a TA (teacher's assistant) job for several months now. Subbing makes more money per day, but a TA position is consistant pay and also my paycheck is broken down into 12 month increments, so I will get a paycheck even during the summer months. Right around Halloween, I was offered a position at my kids elementary school, which is absolutely perfect. I work 9 - 2 in a Pre-K class where we have 19 four year olds - all are at risk children - 6 are foreign & 4 of those speak no English (2 are Mexican and 2 are Japanese). Now, from here and there, I have picked up a few Spanish words, I can count to 20+, and can sing Feliz Navidad almost all the way correctly! However, I only know hello in Japanese, so not very helpful there. Needless to say, my days have gotten a wee bit crazier. Almost daily I get that feeling of, "What was I thinking?" You know how it is when you want something so badly and then when you finally get it, it wasn't exactly what you thought it'd be?!?! That's me! However, I asked God for a TA job and He gave this to me, so I am very thankful for His providing hand.

I got sick the Sunday before my very first day at work. Our church had it's version of a Halloween thing which was called Cove Country Fair (our church is Church of The Cove) and we were outside all evening in the somewhat brisk mountain air. They also had a Chili Cook-off for dinner, which did not sound very tasty to me that evening, so I didn't really eat any supper - we had also eaten a late lunch that day. Then we had a lady from FL, who recently started at our church and who is a Line Dancing Teacher, teach us steps to 4 songs and we had a "Line Dancing for Jesus" session - which was a blast and very hilarious! By the time we got home my throat was feeling scruffy and I was very tired. I decided I needed to get a good night's sleep. so I was gonna take some medicine to help my throat and some Tylenol PM to help me fall asleep quickly. I have no idea what hit me - if it was a stomach bug or it was the medicine on an empty stomach - I woke up at 2 am deathly ill. And I'll spare most of the details, but I was in horrible pain, curled in a ball on the kitchen floor next to the trashcan for the next 2 1/2 hours. I hadn't received or signed my hire papers for my job yet, so I wasn't "official" at that moment, so I knew I had to go to work the next morning as I couldn't call in a sub for me! As if that wasn't bad enough, when I woke up the next morning and for almost the whole week, I could hardly talk! So besides all the other "normal" stresses of the classroom, that didn't help at all. It made for a very interesting week!

So have you ever seen the poster or saying, All I Ever Needed to Know in Life I Learned in Kindergarten? Well, what follows is my version........

Things I Have Found in Pre-K

I have found I do not like being in the same classroom all the time.
" " " hand sanitizer does not eliminate all germs nor does it taste good.
" " " hand sanitizer gives you "old lady" hands.
" " " very creative hand motions for words like potty, sit still, & be nice.
" " " little shoes hurt bad when they're kicking the shins.
" " " that pre-schoolers will eat anything - even recycled tire mulch!
" " " when they say it's a bathroom emergency, they mean it.
" " " some people should not be allowed to be parents.
" " " no child should ever go hungry.
" " " safety pins should never take the place of a belt on a child.
" " " Thursdays are the new Mondays.
" " " it hard to keep a straight face when farts are called "stinky business".
" " " even the most unruly child can melt my heart with, "I love you."
" " " even with huge language barriers, you can be close friends.
" " " whatever the paycheck - it's not enough $$$.
" " " there's very little that is "not in my job description"!
" " " you never want to hear the words, "I got lots & lots bi-arrea!"
" " " some days, "Good-bye, Ms. Esther." are my favorite words!
" " " aliens sometimes land on our playground.
" " " it is a bad idea to wear skirts to work because, (see next line!)
" " " some pre-kers have no shame regarding their body parts or yours!
" " " "hor-nadoes" are very scary, but fun to draw.

I am sure there is so much more joy, pain, sadness and triumph that I am forgetting at the moment. But you can see why I have been AWOL for awhile. I have tried to keep updated on all of your happenings, but look fwd to chatting more frequently!

Take care, y'all & a quik reminder to be thankful for what you got & be faithful in what He asks - that is where God has my mind right now. I know from personal experience how very easy it is to get so caught up in what we don't have & it can even be "needs" and not just "wants" but, friends, we have soooooo much that He has blessed us with!

Love & Prayers, Essie