my pink life, mi vida rosada

The school year is off to an extremely rough start. My kids have gotten the best of me twice now, which is amazing, since there are only 14 of them at a time. Yesterday I rearranged the classroom into rows, reassigned seats with the talkers apart from each other, and came on strong and loud this morning. It worked until after recess. Then the volume button seemed impossible to turn down -- just got louder and louder in my classroom. I am praying VERY HARD that these kids settle down and get with it -- they are too old to be this LOUD. There is no understanding whatsoever that sound carries and that we don't yell indoors, especially when the teacher is trying to show you how to do something cool. For real.

I don't know how I've made it to Friday night, but here I am, wishing I was already asleep, but thinking that I can hold on a little longer. The girls and I had movie night on Saturday, to honor Kayla's visit before moving to Duke, and turned out the lights around 2am. Up on Sunday morning at 8:30, dropping off hubby's car for a friend to borrow by 9, showered and dressed for church a little later, then lunch with the family, followed closely by parent and student orientation at school. After orientation, a detail-oriented trip to wal-mart (in over an hour I only found 3 things off my list) and then on to university church for dinner. Followed by an unannounced meeting during which one of my movie night girls was outed, and emotional, and many other friends also upset. All return to my house, since that's where we can all be comfy and such while we recover and whine. Up early the next morning, preparing my classroom all day, number-photo hunting for an hour or...

Yep, on. Not in. I was informed by a co-worker this morning that a nearby school district is cutting all elementary foreign language instruction over the next two school years. A couple hours later, I received a phone call from the head of the SC Foreign Language Teacher's association asking for my permission to pass my number along to someone from a local tv station. She called a few minutes later, and was going to be at my school in less than an hour. My school, which is 30 min. away from my house, and my makeup, and my shine-fighting powder which I had forgone knowing that I was going to spend the day playing with blocks and magnets and drawing on white erase boards with students in between moving heavy boxes full of stuff around in my classroom. I was pretty nervous and very shiny, but I think that I ended up sounding reasonably intelligent on the news...Even though she cut out all the parts where I mentioned that "research shows". It looks like everything I say...

Estamos en casa de nuevo. Fue super triste salir de la playa, pero disfrutamos mucho los ultimos días de vacacion con una amiga mia de la universidad, su esposo, y su guaguita. Lo pasamos bien saliendo en la lancha, a esquiar, usando kayaks, jugando putt-putt, y tomando vino, viendo peliculas, y jugando "The Really Nasty Horse Racing Game". Fue triste empacar las cosas, limpiar la casa, y todo eso....Y tener que llegar a la casa nuestra y desempacar, guardar la ropa otra vez, ver cuanta ropa sucia hay, cuanto desorden hemos creado. En otras noticias, el Pato se va el domingo, temprano, a California, para un campamento de coro. Estara allá 2 semanas. Invité las niñas a ver películas conmigo el sabado en la noche....uuuups. Hay que empezar a ir a la escuela para arreglar mi sala y prepararme para el año escolar....Uf. Hay que cenar con mi mama hoy, e ir con ella a target este fin de semana....Lo triste es que estará loca la tienda con el fin de semana sin impuestos.... ...