I'm attached.

No, it's attached, actually. Our garage, that is.

I went to leave the house on this rainy morning. I open the door, I walk into the dry space, I get into my car. I'm still warm and dry and have a smile on my face!

No more running down the skinny sidewalk to the garage on the alley. No more stepping in that puddle of water that has always gathered right at the end. No more getting soaked while trying to unlock the garage door. No more wondering why I bothered to even dry my hair to begin with.

I can step conveniently out the door and into my car.

It seems like a very simple thing - but I'm spoiled now, I'll never go back!

I'm attached! To our garage! : )

Another reason I love my job...

Mrs. Shmits
My techer

You mak my day i have never seen eny body as nice as you. Your smile is like the sun it so grate to have you here today. This is like a book but it is about you and how nice you are. I hope I have ben good for you and i make me sad wen you leave me and the class.

Mrs. Shmits
My techer

- - - - - - - -

Can you tell we've been working on our colorful language? We've been trying really hard to use descriptive words in our writing. So maybe we have a little work yet to do this year on our spelling. : ) But you just don't get this everyday in other jobs. : )

Pinkie

(Disclaimer: If you're not a pet person - you'll definitely find this blog post boring and possibly ridiculous! And for the record, I'm totally okay with that.)

This is Pinkie.

I know I've mentioned her in blogs before, but Pinkie holds a special place in our family. Dottie received Pinkie as a gift from my mom about a week after we got her. She went to stay at my parent's house while I supervised a Jr. High trip to the boundary waters. Dottie and Pinkie have been pretty inseparable ever since.

Pinkie started as a comfort object for Dottie to lure her into her kennel. She HATED her kennel (and probably still would if she ever had to go in it). So we used Pinkie and a treat to get her to go inside. They were almost the same size back then.
Over the years, Pinkie has become Dottie's little partner in crime. She carries her everywhere. She treats her like another dog to cuddle with, but when it comes time to play, Pinkie is often what she wants to play "go get em" with.

I've come home on many occasions and found Pinkie in some of Dottie's "lookout" spots. I often wonder if she walks around with her during the day while we're gone.


Lastly, Pinkie sleeps with us each night. If I go to bed early, Dottie will find Pinkie and drop her off in bed with me, and then wait up with Jay. If she is tired, then she'll drop Pinkie off with Jay and she'll come to bed.

Probably my favorite nightly ritual with Pinkie happens when we go to bed together. Dottie will stay for a few minutes - almost as if to check we're going to stay there - then she'll find Pinkie in the house and bring her to bed. It never gets old!

Pets are so funny! I wish I could know what's going on in that little head of hers!

Dookie

We don't have any adult only bathrooms at my school.

So...when I walked into the girls' room today, this is what I heard:

"I just took a big dookie."

"Oh really? What's a dookie?"

"It's a poop."

"Oh, then I just took a dookie, too."

It's at that point that I turned around and left.

Thank You.

A friend and former coworker of mine emailed me today to ask me my opinion on an email she received.

For anonymity's sake, we're going to call my friend Samantha. And on the off chance the person that emailed her would ever stumble upon my blog, we're going to call the person she received the email from Wilma.

Wilma emails Samantha.

Hey Samantha, I have a question about one of the students Kelsey had last year. Can you send me her email address?

Samantha emails Wilma.

Yah, no problem - her email address is blahblahblah@cf.com. Have a great day!

Wilma emails Samantha.

ty

TY? We concluded that TY must mean "thank you" in text talk. But we're not texting, we're emailing. Does it really take that much more effort to type up the words:

Thank You ?

And use some punctuation for cryin' out loud!

wdytabt?
(What do you think about this?)

9 Years Ago...

9 years ago today...

A freshman in college came back to his hometown he vowed he wouldn't visit until Christmas. He did it to surprise a girl. At the time, that girl was just a friend, but he was pretty sure that this surprise could convince her he should be more. They went to a dance together. They hung out in her basement afterward. They awkwardly wrote notes back and forth before he finally got the courage to ask her out.

9 years later that guy is my husband. We no longer need to awkwardly pass notes to tell each other how we feel. But sometimes we write them just for fun :) . We're no longer "just friends" - he's my best friend. We've danced at proms (too many for Jay), friends' weddings, and our own.
We've had our rollercoaster moments, but sitting where I am today, they were definitely worth the ride.

Love you, Jay. Thanks for choosing me. : )

A School Divided

(click on the photo for a zoomed image)

We ceased our scholarly minds and disciplined studies for five minutes on a Friday afternoon.

Why? To shoot a picture honoring the great rivalry going on in our state this weekend.

I assure you there were at least 200 other students in red that "accidentally" got cropped out of this photo.

GO CYCLONES!!!

Back to School Speech

I know we're not technically "the students of the nation" anymore, so this speech is not directed towards us. But neither is the children's message at our church. So why does the simplified version of God's love for me sometimes make more sense? I think it's okay to not lose our inner child - the simplified and purer versions of ourselves. It's refreshing.

I also know I have some blog readers who are not Obama supporters, and that's okay with me. Picture your favorite inspirational figure reading it aloud to you, or your favorite teacher, or James Earl Jones - he has a cool voice.

Read the speech here

So intended for us or not, take 5 minutes. Read the speech. Tune in your TV tomorrow and watch it. I really think it's a message we can't stand to miss. Because sometimes it's the simple things like never giving up, washing our hands, and reminding us all that we are special that matter the most.

Sensoring the President??

I consider my blog to cover pretty "safe" subjects. I've never really gotten into anything too controversial, as I've never felt this specific blog was the correct venue to express my views on those subjects.

Until now. (You knew it was coming, didn't you?)

Next Tuesday, President Obama plans to address the children of the nation in a speech. He has encouraged all children and schools to watch. Parents, however, have a different view. While some very much support their children watching a speech from the president, others don't want their kids to watch the president because they are afraid of what his message might contain.

As a teacher, my email was bogged down today with the correct "protocol" in handling this situation. The White House will release the text to the speech 24 hours before it is given. If we wish to view it in our classroom, we need to make the justification that it has valid curricular ties. Even then, if parents would not like their children to view the speech, they may opt out.

I did a little googling and confirmed my notion that this isn't the first time a president has addressed the children of the nation. Did those past presidents receive the same response? I don't care what your political views are - isn't part of getting an education exposing you to history and, gosh, maybe even a little politics? Isn't that reality?

Has our helicoptering style of overprotective parenting really come to this? We can't trust our children to watch the PRESIDENT? We sit in fear of what our nation's leader could taint our child's minds with? Seems very much against everything we stand for here in the USA.

For me, the scariest reality of this all is the message parents are sending to their children. Some send this message very vocally, while others send it through their actions:

Intolerance. We don't want our kids to listen to the opinion of a person whose views might differ from ours.

Disrespect. We don't honor our nation's leader, we turn our head the other way, and cease to acknowledge his opinion exists. We teach them that even though we elected a man through a fair system, that because "our choice" didn't win, we don't need to support him.

So how do you teach a class full of kids tolerance and respect if it's not something they see practiced at home to our nation's leader? Beats me.



Okay, I'm off my soapbox. But something about this struck a chord with me today.

We practiced my name...

Today was my sixth day as a 3rd grade teacher. The first six days have been an absolute blast. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed teaching 5th grade. But 3rd graders are different.

3rd graders walk into your door full of enthusiasm, curiosity, and a need to please. Yet they take pride in gaining independence. 3rd graders find absolute joy in learning a letter of the alphabet in cursive. 3rd graders love read aloud time and sitting on the carpet.

A couple of days ago we practiced how to pronounce my name. SHHHH-MITS. Easy enough. Wrong. Add a "Mrs." to the front of that and you've got a tongue twister.

I have been called Mrs. Smiths, Mrs. Schmit, and my all time favorite - Mrs. Smich.

"Um....Mrs. Smich....how do you do this math problem?"

How could you not smile at that?