Wine and Love, Take 1

It's been a very busy week and my blogging has been on and off lately, so I figured now was as good as any to play along with Nora's Wine and Love. From the first day Nora posted this, I thought it was an awesome idea. I like to complain as much as the next person, but it's always nice to be thankful too. So in "Wine and Love" I'll be telling you what has made me want to grab the wine glass this week, and what is making me smile.

Grab the Wine

1. It's been two years since I was last formally observed by my principal. I received tenure a year and a half ago, and my principal and I get along well. Yet, my stomach still dropped when I got the e-mail "Hi Kelly, can we set up a time for me to do an observation next week?" Nooooo. There is NO reason for this to make me nervous. I am a good teacher and even if something goes wrong, which it does at least once a day in kindergarten, that is OKAY.

2. My body has been hating me lately. I've had a cough for more than 3 weeks and it's finally starting to go away thanks to a steroid inhaler. Then last night I woke up with a terrible stomach ache. I thought I had ate something terrible at my work event last night but no one else seems sick so I don't know what my deal is. I had a lot to do today so I just sucked it up, but I still feel pretty yucky. I'm sick of sickness.

3. Life is crazy busy right now. I had an awesome weekend last weekend but I was busy every day and night which left me tired before the week even started. Right now is placement time for next year and there have been a lot of meetings etc. On top of that I'm trying to get a lot of new tutoring jobs for this summer so I've been constantly going to "interviews" which are usually pretty low stress but when you pile them up, it gets exhausting!

Feel the Love

1. I have some good student stories from the week. The first comes from one of my hilarious kindergarten students. She was working with an aide to do math work. I noticed it was probably a bit hard from her and came over to figure out how I was going to adapt it for her. As I crouched down next to her, she put her arms around me and the aide she was working with and said, "I think I'm going to make you guys chocolate chip cookies!" Haha, who cares if it was trying to avoid the math work? I want some chocolate chip cookies!

2. I also started tutoring a new kiddo this week. He ended up being AWESOME, he loved literally everything we did. The best part was at the end:

kid: are you coming back next week?

me: yup

kid: I wish now was next week.

3. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the effects of Bin Laden on the little ones, especially when I realized first thing Monday morning I would be out of the room for a meeting. Luckily the kiddos did not bring it up while I was gone and the first mention I heard of it came yesterday while the kids were playing at blocks:

kid 1: I hate Osama bin Laden

kid 2: you should not say hate

kid 1: fine I don't like him

kid 2: how do you know him?

kid 1: I just do

kid 2: is he a kid?

kid 1: no, he is a grown up

kid 2: why don't you like him?

kid 1: he is a bad man

kid 2: okay

You just have to love the innocence of this conversation... don't you?

4. At work this year, I had to take on this really annoying role of "team facilitator" for these professional learning teams. I do not mind being a leader at all, but this was annoying because it involved attending a class on how to lead a group. It was a waste of time and it cut into tutoring time where I could've been making money. Plus, I was leading my 3 best friends at work (K Team) and frankly I had no trouble leading them at all because they felt massively indebted to me and did whatever I wanted them to do. Mwahaha. Anyway, this week was our last meeting of our group (I still get to go to another training on how to be a leader AFTER I'm done leading, gimmeabreak!) and I got a present from my amazing team. They got me a gift card to Not Your Average Joes AND Kathy actually went and asked them to give me a big container of the delicious peanut sauce from there that I love so much. I may bring myself some to my meeting next Wednesday afternoon to make it more bearable. I love peanut sauce.

5. It's going to be sunny and 70 tomorrow. Wahoooo!

What is making you grab the bottle of wine this week? What is making you smile?