Kiddos

As a teacher I have had many "Kiddos" in my life. It is funny how some remain at the forefront of my mind, while others will fade in and out. I never forget any of them, I just think my mind puts them in different order every now and again.
The last few weeks have been difficult with all the changes in my life. Our move still seems so far away not knowing if the house will sell quickly, slowly or at all. I have a job to do at the moment, but will I be able to find another job in our new area, questions, worries and more uncertainty than I am used to or like in my life.
My patience has been wearing very thin on all fronts, and I caught myself snapping at the kids on Thursday. I did not mean to, I did not want to, but one more repeated question of "Where do I put this?" My answer was, In the same place you have put it all year......
Not good for the teacher to act like that. I decided we needed a break. We are studying magic the next two weeks. Not having a movie that covers the topic, I asked the kids what movie they think they could find magic in?
I was hoping and I was thrilled when they chose Charlie and the Choc. Factory. We all sat down to color some mother's day gifts and watch this movie.
The children would chime in every now and again where they saw magic and optical illusions like I had shown them on the computer.
As I sat resting, one child came up and asked to sit on my lap. As I gently rocked my chair I asked her if she felt okay, cause she was so warm. She said it is not me Ms. Comer, it is you that is warm. I think you are sick. I was caught off guard and she went back to her seat. Moments later another child came up and said "Are you giving free rocks in your chair?" I said sure and he sat on my lap. I asked are you feeling okay? and he said yes but I think you need to rock cause you do not feel good. I said really how do you know that? You are all white and warm he said.
So two hours later as I drove home to check on my husband who was ill, I realize that I really do not feel very well, I wake up to a well husband, and a sick me, with the fever , the chills and the headache.
Children know so much, they sense everything. Jeff and I have been going and going so much that it finally caught up to us.
I look forward to feeling better and returning to my little kiddos on Monday.Hoping that they are the ones that gave this little bug to us and that I did not pass it on to them of course.
I wonder if I ask them, if they have insight into when our home will sell???

Oh, yeah, and they can tell when I am sick, but not one of them told me that I forgot to put my makeup on for work on Monday. Maybe that means I do not really need the makeup or is it that I look that poor all the time????

Our Home

Moving

So moving is so mind boggling at times.
I have moved as a married lady seven times. As a child I can't even count how many times we moved. We moved from state to state, house to house and town to town.
Moving can be very cleansing, literally and figuratively. I have cleaned my house so many times in the last few weeks, I can't even remember what needs to be cleaned. I have gutted closets, packed up items to declutter the house and even cleaned windows, screens and misc. items that I did not know we owned.
Getting rid of stuff that I really do not know why we still had, why I had in the first place and just what and why is this????

I always think that moving will be so easy, but I really have tried each and every move to like where we live. Each move has offered new places to explore, new friends to be made and new experiences that we never even thought of. I hate leaving my houses, ( we had a lady that would paint each of our houses for the last 5 moves. She is now too old to paint them so I am in need of my current home and our soon to be new home )Our house always becomes our home.
I hate being told to clear off the pictures hung on the fridge, What? This is our life? You mean I have to put it away.

I am probably the realtors worst nightmare when they suggest that I make sure the house is magazine ready and picked up. But I live here........I also work all day and come home exhausted most nights.
I am never caught up on laundry, job security, I very seldom have the dishes done by the next morning and I love to have my blanket on the couch at night.
So for the next few weeks, I will be frustrated in having to clean my home continuously and the worry that it still is not clean enough. I hope another wonderful wife, mother will come in and fall in love with this home like we did. It is an amazing house with amazing sunsets and has been a wonderful home for six years.

To our new home, I know you are out there waiting just for us. You will offer new adventures, new cupboards to fill, neighbors to meet and friends to make. I can't wait to find you and fill you with all of our love .

Thursday, Friday and Saturday

Had so many great plans for the list of days in this title. Thursday, work, go look at a few of my favorite little stores for inspiration and home to watch the draft.
Not!!!!
Work long, go home to pick up house for realtor to take pictures , text Jeff all the draft names, cause he was at work late and then fall into bed missing Survivor and CSI.
Friday, field trip to Payson, two hours away with 20 kids and parents to look for geodes, and fossils. Cold and blustery, but a wonderful trip. The children we so excited. The geodes were plentiful. These are rocks, that when broken open have crystals in them. Our wet winter was a true blessing, there were millions of them that washed down. The children were so funny, loading down their backpacks and then realizing that they had to walk back about a half mile to the bus. If you want to find geodes, you will find many a pile on the side of the road tonight as the children learned of their error in judgement and dropped them like bread crumbs in hantsel and gretal.
Fun and exhausting home to pizza, a bubble bath and watching the draft on the couch with Jeff.
Tomorrow, sleep in and clean closets again.
Life is full and we are all blessed to be living it.
Go rock hunting, it clears the senses.

Wings

So I told you all, all eight of you that read this silly little blog of mine, that today I would let you know about my wings.
I really do not like birds. I never have and they really freak me out if they get to close but I have always loved angels. I collect them and I relate to them and not to be weird or anything, I feel as if I have a few that watch over me on a daily basis. So my wings are angels wings not bird wings.
I will not be working in Show Low anymore after May and that was really hard to accept, but on top of that Jeff had started looking into a new job for himself. He has felt the need to grow and learn and I can't blame him. He needs some new wings.
So last week he accepted a new position that will be giving us both wings. We will be relocating to Mississippi. Yes, back to the south for us.
The girls are torn and Ally and Brody will be staying in Arizona for the time being. Robyn will go to visit with us this summer and then she will decide where she wants to continue her schooling. This is okay, they are both growing up and I know that they are getting their wings.
I look forward to the new area, new friends and the chance to possibly teach in another state. Can I just take one test and get a certificate for all fifty states here people. This will be my seventh move in 25 years and our seventh state. I will miss my friends here, but know that the true friends never leave I am hoping our house sells quickly and putting my faith to work on that note. I am grateful that Jeff will have a new adventure and his wings are growing and I look forward to what our new town has to offer. (THEY have a TARGET). Jeff says that means I definitely have to get a job......
I am in awe of living somewhere with all the amenities. I am going from 3,000 people in our town to over 70,000. I may be walking around dazed and confused for a while.
Oh,yeah, did I tell ya it is an hour to the beach.......
I know, I am just in awe of that fact. All of my life I have wanted to be able to drive to the beach and walk around looking for shells for the day. What bliss that sounds like to me. Read a book watch the waves, etc.
So tell all those that you know to pray our home sells quickly and that my new wings are strong and soarable.

Mood

I so wanted to do a picture for this weeks art. My Mood has been cloudy all week and then I got the news that I was one of the teachers being Riffed. This is a reduction in force notice. In other words I have no job for next year. Yesterday, my mood was horrible. I felt bad for myself, felt like I was losing my friends and I felt bad for the children that will be in much larger classes next year.
I gave myself 24 hours to process this entire thing. Then I said I will get up and get over it.
So today on the way to work I heard three songs in a row with one word in common. WINGS
I now have wings and I will let you know what I mean by this on Monday. God is great and It feels wonderful to fly.

Spring Cleaning

So are all the rest of you suffering from this ailment or is it just me?
We decided that over the winter we have collected much clutter in the house. This is usually the case as we tend to live in the living room by the fireplace. Wouldn't you after you get over 6 feet of snow. The warmth of the fire and the blankets make it the perfect place to read, do art and to watch movies.
Now I have to go thru all these books, magazines, movies etc.
So we decided to start in the garage and clean it up, move the snow blower etc. Well, the dust, dirt and wind equals asthma attack for me.
I coughed until I could cough no more, I sneezed until I could sneeze no more and then the attack. I could not get any air in. I was freaking out. I stopped, shut my eyes and remembered the words from lamaze class, slow down and do not panic. It worked. I have never had an attack like that. I was scared to death. I knew air was getting in but the feeling of panic was so overwhelming.
What did I learn from this experience?
1. I need a maid. Wishful thinking
2. Spring is not my favorite season anymore.
3. We have too much crap collecting dust that makes me sneeze.
4. Simplify, simplify, simplify
5. I need to take this cleaning thing one room at a time and not try to do as much as I did yesterday.

So here is to a clean house, no more asthma attacks and summer when all the pollen is gone.

Happy Day to you all.

If you can read thank a teacher

So this has been a very long week. Seventeen of my coworkers were "Riffed" this week.
Riffed is reduction in force, basically there is no money in Arizona and they can't seem to make any decisions in the legislature to fix the situation.
This is the second year that we all were told of lay offs and then we wait and then they hand you a letter and say thanks. This really sucks!!!!!
I was lucky in that it was not me this year however, this will mean that our classes will be very large, 30-35 kids, we may not have p.e., music, or and breaks in the day. We have lost so many great people to this mess. There are single mothers, teachers within six months of retiring and the list goes on and on.
The ones that remain are just as upset and devistated as those that are being let go.
I was so in awe of these professional people that showed back up at work today in the midst of all of this. What awesome people they are.
Do we as a society feel that other programs are worth the loss of our futures education? We are behind in this area already.
I can read because a teacher helped me and I had great parents. My kiddos are in the third grade and many have never heard of a nursery rhyme. This is not the parents fault necessarily, for when you have two people that need to have two jobs just to get by it is hard to take the time to read with your children. Our society needs to think about the current state of affairs and get their priorities straight.
So here is my challenge to all of you:
If you are able to help out a classroom in your area by donating your time to the kids or the teacher please do this. Ask to be a listener, listen to children read. Ask a teacher if you could take some projects home to help him or her out. Ask if you could eat with a class at lunch. Ask if you could help with an art project. I mean just offer your time and encouragement to a group of youngsters that are longing to hear : Mary had a little lamb.
Today I showed a video , I know cop out... No we had worked so hard preparing for AIMS this week that the kids were so exhausted. The video was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The original
We did not finish it and when I said I needed to turn it off the kids said, no we have never seen it.
I said to them did you know this is also a very cool book? They were all so excited, they wanted to go to the library.
How many copies of this book we have is limited, but to see the kids connect with a fun non violent movie that was new to them was so amazing. I still love the song, The Candyman Can.
It is what every child dreams of..... All the candy in the world and it comes in the form of a book

If you could read this thank a teacher......

Umbrellas

My attempt at art this week. I seem to be on about a third grade level with my drawings. All I can say is that when I draw on the board for the kids, they always say, "Wow, how did you do that?"

Makes my day. Try your hand at some colored pencils today, brings back the feeling of calm and coloring is so wonderful. Today my class finished their writing benchmarks and they were so tired, I gave them a coloring page and for 20 minutes, no lie you could have heard a pin drop. I had to stop and just take in the view. I prayed the phone would not ring, the door would not be knocked on and that no one would sneeze. It was so amazing and silent that I sent my husband a text, Did blank just freeze over cause this is wierd. Then I looked outside and saw a pig flying so I knew I must be dreaming........

Prayers

I have had the same discussion with my mom and allison the last two days. I truly believe that when one needs comfort and love, it does not matter what religion a person is. I believe that any and all prayers are needed in many circumstances.
So here today I am asking for prayers for many people and for many different reasons. If you are offended by my request I am sorry but I feel that no matter what our beliefs might be, the fact that we believe in something higher than us, will aid and offer comfort.

So here are the requests:
Robyn's boyfriend, old boyfriend what ever, his cousin and his wife just had a baby girl at 33 weeks. She is 3 lbs. 11 oz. and in need of prayers. The mom will get to see her today as she was flown to the valley and the mom was too ill to fly.

Robyn's and Ally's friend Brandi from high school delivered her third baby last week at 32 weeks. He is 4lbs. Also in need of prayers.

Seventeen of us teachers will be riffed this week. Riffed stands for reduction in force. Our state has no money and it is now coming down to some very drastic and awful moves. I may be one of these teachers, but I am not asking for prayers for me, but for the children that will now be in much larger classrooms. I have no control over this and the decisions have been made and there is no changing this, however we can pray that the people effected can find other work, can feed themselves and their families and that those that will remain will be able to service the children as they need to be serviced.

A lady I work with has colon cancer, her surgery is tomorrow. Pray it goes well and that the dr. is able to get it all. Pray that she is able to recover and her family is able to comfort her.

Finally, this is a personal prayer, Our grand daughter Jaidyn would have been two on April 22nd. She was with us only 24 days, but she is an angel and we miss her so much. I believe that God is gracious and he will provide us with other grandchildren, but Jaidyn is our special angel. Pray that we are able to celebrate her life and that we learn about what took her and can prevent that in other babies.

Thank you for your time in reading this and I hope all of your prayers help each of these families.