Kindergarteners Brighten My Day : )

I love Kindergarten! It's not like any other grade. Five year olds are just sponges! In what other grade will you get an entire class with their hands up ready to answer when you've only said, "Who knows", "Who can", or "Who will"??! They don't even listen to the question you are posing. I love them! They just crack me up!! Today they were doing it again. I was asking a question and two words into my question half of my class's hands pop up. Today I decided to have a little bit of fun with it. I giggled and told them that they had to put their hands down and raise them only after I asked the question. I knew they couldn't do this. Everyone, except one girl, put their hand down and awaited my question (or really the words "Who will"). Again I started with "Who will..." and half of my classes hands were high in the air. Bless them! I finished with "...give me a dollar?" You should have seen their faces. They were kind of confused. Some kids put their hands down. For those who did not I told them to pay up. They ended up laughing and putting their hands down. I thought that that might fix my eager hands. Nope. This is kindergarten, what was I thinking! "Who will..." *hands flying in the air* give me their big toe? Most put their hands down. I had one silly boy who I could just eat up keep his hand up with a smirk. I then said I guess I need to go get some scissors. Everyone busted out laughing. The next thing I know, one of my babies...bless his heart was coming back with the scissors box. My para and I looked at each other and giggled. He thought I was serious. This is the one that told me he needed to go to the doctor. (This is a normal thing for him when things are challenging.) I asked him why. He said his baby was coming and he needed to go to the doctor (as he rubbed his big Buddha belly). Again, Kindergarteners brighten my day!

Kidney Stones + Two Blue Lines = Disney Trip

Well, our Disney trip wasn't quite what we expected. Monday we ventured over to the Magic Kingdom for the day. We had park hoppers, but didn't use them that day because there was so much that Carson could ride. We had a blast riding it's a small world, the tea cups, pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear, and more. Carson even went on his first roller coaster ride and loved it. He wanted to go again! It was so much fun! Carson wasn't quite tall enough to ride the bigger rides. You have to be 40" at the Magic Kingdom and he was about 2" too short. The park was open until 11 p.m. We left though around 9. When we got back to the hotel, I told Jordan I have no clue how my Mom and Dad did it taking us there. I had factored in a day off at the hotel for our visit, but Mom never did. We were exhausted!! We decided to sleep in and use our hotel day on Tuesday. My calves and arms were sore from walking and holding Carson. It was good thing we stayed at the hotel that day because Jordan had kidney stones. He didn't pass them until Saturday. I love that Carson is only three because at any other age he would've been bummed that we didn't go to any more parks that week. Instead he didn't mind exploring Orlando, swimming in the pool, and vegging out in the room. Luckily the tickets we bought were not for specific dates. They are good for six months. That just means we'll have to make another trip. We had another health related incident on the trip. I found out that I am pregnant!! We are all so excited!!!! It wasn't the trip that we planned, but it turned out to be an alright trip. We'll try Disney again this summer. We did manage to take quite a few pictures though. Here's a slide of them.

Our Little Family

I love our little family. Don't we just look so cute in this picture?! Yeah, I know that totally sounds like I'm tooting my own horn (too much Junie B.). It's just that for some reason the only time we get a really nice family picture is on Easter. It's worked that way for the last few years. By a nice picture I mean all of us have our eyes open and we all are looking at the camera (with a 2 year old this is almost impossible). So I wanted to share this picture because it's a miracle that it turned out so well. A lot has happened since my last post. Obviously I totally stink at blogging now that I am teaching. I love teaching, but man it is the most exhausting thing ever. Anyway, this week is Spring Break and we are going to DISNEY WORLD!! Jordan has never been and Carson is 2 so he's still free. We got a really good rate since we're Florida residents back in February. It's all worked out really well. We were going to go in the summer before Carson turns 3, but Jordan's work is closing down this coming week (no one wants to buy a boat with the great economy so they have been making cut backs a lot lately). So we found a killer deal on a nice hotel on Hotwire and decided to go for Spring Break. I'm really excited because we really have never had a family vacation that wasn't just to see family. Not that we don't love to see family, because we absolutely positively do, but this is our first family theme park vacation. It's funny because we invited family to go with us, but no one took us up on the offer. Now my mom and stepdad want to go, but can't. So she said we have to go again next year. I love my mom. So we're on our own on this trip. I can't wait!! We leave tomorrow and get back Friday. We have 4 day tickets and they are park hoppers, which means we can leave one park and go to another one on the same day. It's going to be so much fun!! I'll have to blog about it when we get back. Until then, here's what we've been up to...

Teacher Initiation

I started my new job at the beginning of the month. By the end of my first week, I lost my voice and could only whisper. I thought that I might need a trip to the doctor, but didn't want to ask for time off since it was my first week. After all, my class is made up of only 8 kids and I do have a full time teacher aid so whispering worked for a few days. Since I opted out of going to the doctor, I made my way through another week or so and Monday I couldn't take it any longer. I called in and went to the doctor. She said that I might have the flu, but it's been longer than 48 hours so she couldn't give me any drugs because they wouldn't be effective. Don't worry, I did get some drugs. However they were for pink eye and strep throat. Seriously??! So I've been out from work since Monday and today was my first day back. Tuesday I thought I was going to die or that I'd rather die than feel so horrible. Luckily I felt somewhat better Wednesday and even a little better today. I made it through the day and what do you know...tomorrow is Friday! That is kind of nice, though I'd rather go through a regular week at school than be that sick again. I am now officially a teacher with my student induced illnesses (one student had been out with strep the week before). Hooray for working with little kids!!

My Busy Life

Alright, so life has been totally busy these days. I hate that I haven't kept up with blogging because then I get overwhelmed with everything that I need to mention that has happened. Here are some pictures that show what we've been up to.

Jordan's Birthday was January 25th. In the past we've had bigger parties, but this year we decided to go with a party of 3. We had fun and the cake was spectacular! Thank you Publix! Carson just decided that he was the one who was supposed to blow out the candles. So after helping Daddy, the candles were lit again and Carson got to blow them out all by himself. Carson had his first living room camp out with Daddy. Mommy had to go to work the next morning. Darn. It was so great because after about an hour, Jordan came and got into the bed. Carson got up around 1 or 2 in the morning and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Where is Daddy?!!" So both of the campers made it in the bed with me. Oh by the way, if you look at the picture of Jordan and Carson in front of the tent, you will see that Carson has inherited the dreaded CH-EE-SE picture curse from my mom. My mom always is in the middle of saying cheese when the picture is taken and looks hilarious. I LOVE YOU MOM! Lately we've been on a game kick. I think that we can thank Faye for that. In Jordan's birthday package from his family we got a game called Toss Up. After playing that game, we pulled out other games we've had but haven't played in forever. Just a little side note: Toss Up is a great game because even Carson can play it. Tiffany would be proud that we pulled out the old Phase Ten cards and I killed Jordan almost every time. A few weeks ago I had to go take a test to become certified in Exceptional Student Education K-12 (to keep my special education job). I PASSED!!! My dad was great enough to watch Carson so Jordan and I could go to Tallahassee to take the test. After passing the test, we stopped back by Dad's to pick up Carson. We ended up staying there for most of the night. We played around and built a fire. We shot off a few fireworks. I love that my dad lives in the sticks! It's so much more fun! Here's a video of some of the fireworks that my half brother Chris brought Dad. The video is just from our digital camera, but I think it turned out well. Listen carefully because you'll hear my brother Chance do his little scared girl scream.

Kindergarten ESE Here I Come!

I received a phone call this morning and guess what!!! I have a job! I will be teaching at Waller Elementary, Kindergarten ESE. My class will consist of 8 students. I will have a para for 6 hours of the day. A speech person will come in too. It's so exciting and so scary all at the same time! I'm sure it will be some of the hardest work I have ever done, but it will be the most rewarding as well.

And the Winner is...

Don and Lisa Osborn!! Congratulations! Sorry I am a day late announcing it. Carson drew yesterday morning, but it was a crazy day. I have the pics of him drawing, but will post them tonight because Jordan took the cord for the camera and I don't know what he did with it. Anyway, congratulations!!!