Sunday, September 26, 2010

And Then I Got the Plague...

So, it turns out little kids have lots and lots of germs. Just lovely. My students are all so caring they just all wanted to share with me. I'm so lucky.

This week was International Peace Day and we celebrated by making pinwheels for peace and calling Dr. Mrs. Mama Fishman's class on Skype! It was great fun and the students really enjoyed it...and LOVED their pinwheels.

While we were talking about peace we were looking at all the countries on our carpet...and someone asked if we lived in mexico...and that is when we started our unit on geography. Hopefully we have it all straightened out now.

This Friday was the back to school pow wow! I had a bunch of students participating and it was so fun to get to see them outside of school. I had to spend some of my time prefecting in the little gym...which means for an hour and a half I sat in the gym listening to the drumming during hand games and telling kids they could not sit on the stage. It was less than awesome.

Zaniya
Walter


 Angelina and Maria
Aaliyah
 Tyler



Friday night is when everything went down hill. When 5 hit I felt so awful I had to leave the pow wow dinner to come line down...and I was only feeling worse. Kate made me call the Dr. on call at the clinic and they felt that "I should seek medical attention within the next four hours" which basically made it sounds like I was going to die and was probably a major over reaction. Anyway, Kelly and Michael were feeling particularly awesome and drove me all the way to Rapid and back. I am very grateful that they came and was told after 10 minutes there that I probably just had a virus and was sent home with a long list of prescriptions. I am starting to feel on the mend but I am still really tired out. My only hope now is that I can be all better for school tomorrow.


Saturday was house spirituality/house fun day. We started the day of with yoga which I did despite my illness and late night. It was the first time I had ever actually done yoga and I must say it was very relaxing. After that we all drove up to rapid and had lunch at the Mongolian grill (DELICIOUS!) and then went to Pirates Cove to play put-put. It was AMAZING! But I was so whipped out I slept almost the whole way home and went to bed at 8.

While we were in Rapid we also made a quick run to wal-mart where I became WAY to excited in the Halloween section. Lets just say my kids will be very spoiled with plastic pumpkins full of stretchy skeletons and bouncy balls with spiders and candy and pencils! It was worth it.

Today I slept...and then had a Skype date with Shereen and Jennie! IT WAS AWESOME! I have not heard those giggles in far to long. We had some serious technical issues, but at least we could all hear each other and feel like we had been reunited once again. After that I slept some more, and then I lesson planned for the week, and then I slept some more...and on that note I am all ready for bed!

Here's to hopes of a healthy week!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Wow...Its been a while...

So I guess my life has not been that interesting the past few weeks...I hope this makes up for it.

I'm going to start with yesterday because it was the best day I have had so far. I finally feel like I am at home here and am starting to be more comfortable around people.

Once I finally got out of bed I went into my classroom to attempt to arrange my library. It was quite a bit of work...a two day project to be exact...but I hope it will be well worth it! I also found two packages in the hallways with my name one them which was just fantastic! One was lots and lots of books and supplies from Mrs. Warren which was overwhelmingly fantastic. The other was an International Peace Day package from Dr. Mrs. Mama Fishman so that our classes can do a project together...SO EXCITING!

When I left school to come home I found some horses out behind the playground. They spent a lot of time checking me out...I think they were hoping I had a bag of carrots or apples in my hand. To bad for them. They were very pretty though and I would love to keep one as a pet. I hope that none of them turn into zombie horses this winter.

I spent the rest of my afternoon unpacking my boxes of closes and the other pieces of my life that had arrived in the mail...I think that doing that is really what had a huge effect on my feeling so much more at home. I finally have a place that feels like my own. Allow me to show you the fruits of my labors...

















Saturday night Hope's dad and step mom came to visit and made us some delicious dinner. It was a great end to the day because I really felt like we were one big happy crazy family and I was so happy to be in the presence of so many happy wonderful amazing people. I think it was one of the first times I was really able to appreciate how blessed I am to be in their company.


After dinner I had my first experience with a bliss light. Let me tell you what...those puppies are cool. It was like watching the stars move, but without the 40 degree temperature, very relaxing. We also watched the documentary Tuning In which was very interesting. It was all about people who channel other spirits and the messages that they had to bring to the world. I'm not really convinced I buy into the whole thing, but they brought up many interesting points that I enjoyed getting to think about as I fell asleep o n our living room floor. 

This morning we all woke up and went to mass at Manderson. My happy bubbly attitude continued and mass was great fun. Kelly got the giggles at the end. We are worse then the children. After mass we had some breakfast and there was some AWESOME bread we had that was home made and still warm...we can't remember the name...but it was like fluffy delicious fry bread. YUM! And then we came home and made BRUNCH! (we did a lot of eating this weekend) and I had some left over chocolate cake to make up for the fact that I don't eat bacon. I think it was a fair trade. 

I spent 4 more hours in my classroom this afternoon doing more library organizing and getting ready for the week. Meaghan has been asking to see pictures of my room so here you go everyone! 

this is Kelly's board in the religion room

The White Buffalo is because second grade was the quietest in the hallways. He lived with us all week :) 

Friday was a half day because the Homecoming game was at 2. Thats right everyone...we get out early for football games...BOOM! Red Cloud won too which was just awesome... because it may not happen again all season. I spent most of the game with Jessie and TeeJay and met Jessie's daughter who is just adorable beyond words!

The real adventure of Friday though was taking the second and third grade on a walk to the potato cave. The kids had made it as far as the parking lot of the playground with Jacob and Jessie when I heard tons of screaming and saw an instant circle form. I thought maybe there was a squished toad in the parking lot...but much to my surprise when I got there I saw a SNAKE! And it was trying to bite the CHILDREN! Worst walk EVER! I found out later that Zuya actually stepped on the snake by accident and I am glad I did not see that because I probably would have had a heart attack and died. 
This is the non poisonous bull snake 
and this is a very poisonous rattle snake. Needless to say I was not going to get close enough to determine which one was trying to bite the kids. I just yelled at them to move as fast as possible. 

After the football game on Friday I came home to Mal and Aj making apple crisp. It was almost more cute then our house could handle. 







Friday night Maria and I went over to OLL and watched the Basketball Diaries which was a great movie but really just depressing. We had fun though and I miss all of them during the week so I am glad we got to hang out. :) 

Thursday was a short day because the afternoon was devoted to literacy day. Ms. Stacy and I were together and we read the darling children Friend Frog and then went outside and played Frogs and Falcons...if anyone is wondering it is just like Sharks and Minnows...but on land. Haha. 

Wednesday we had a two hour delayed start which meant that I did not see my kids until after lunch...not real sure why I needed to be there at all. But I did get to spend all morning with one of the first graders. I found him eating a banana hiding behind Ms. Stacy's door crying. Apparently he was upset that he did not get to finish breakfast before the bus came and was pretty much inconsolable all morning. His dad works at the school so we walked down to visit but even that didn't stop the tears. In the end we went to the playground and swung until it was time for lunch. After lunch he was fine (as I thought he might be) it is funny how thrown off the kiddies can get by a change in their routine. I also judged the talent show on Wednesday night and it was a lot of fun. The high schoolers are very funny and were a welcome break after so much time with 7 year olds. One of my students, Aaliyah, walked in which was pretty awesome and her sister who is in Kindergarten even told a joke! (Why did the bunny cross the road? To get to the other side!) I made sure to inform the senior boys that they had been put to shame. I had a dance party with all the small children afterwards too which was pretty much the highlight of me week. 
  Aalyah is also the worlds youngest new DJ
There was also a homecoming bonfire on Wednesday and the burning of the RC along with many other festivities. I must say, I am now fully aware of every mothering instinct I have because they were all freaking out at this event. I do not think there is any other place in the country where people are so relaxed about safety. I guess it could be a little refreshing...but it is also terrifying when you are not used to it. The first thing that happened was the fireworks shooting out of the bonfire...not to mention the smoke bombs being thrown through the air and the sparklers being left on the ground during an extreme fire warning on a windy day. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!  After all that they lit the RC on fire which was basically a flimsy metal structure with burning gas soaked rags...AND KIDS STARTED JUMPING THROUGH IT! Oy vey. But for the grand finale they had fireworks...which was great, except that the caps were hitting people and they were landing on the grass and more smoke bombs were being thrown and kids were jumping over fire works and I think that I now know how it feels to live in a country that has violent riots. One word everyone...SCARY! Everyone lived though so thats good. 
The only other exciting thing I have to fill you in on is camping last weekend. We went to Custer state park because even though "I know Custer was a very bad man...he does have a very nice state park" (Oh Anne Grass). 

On the way there we stopped in Hot Springs for dinner at the China Buffet which was great fun. We had many wonderful fortune cookies and lots of inappropriate dinner table conversations. It was great. 

Almost all the volunteers came and it was a great bonding experience freezing outside and peeing in the woods together. Yay for being one with nature! Most people were in tents or the cabin but some of us thought it might be a good idea to sleep outside...some of us also decided that was stupid because we were freezing and went in to sleep on the cabin floor after all. 

The next morning was the start to a very surreal day. Benji, Michael, Maria, Kelly, and I all went in a car that was taking a detour to Rapid for shopping on the way home. On the way out we went to breakfast at a dinner in Custer...only they stopped serving breakfast when we walked in so really we ate lunch. As I was sleeping with my head on the table do to exhaustion I heard the people at the table behind us striking up some nice conversation with Benji who apparently looks like their son. Next thing I knew there was a grey haired bearded man with a very unique nose standing at our table. He told us that he was a musician and then proceeded to show us his many magic tricks. It was amazingly entertaining. 

A short while after they left our waitress came over to tell us that our meals had been paid for...by them. SAY WHA?!?! We ran after them to thank them but they were trying to sneak out. All they said was "pass it on". It was like something straight out of Pay It Forward. And it was only the beginning...

As we continued driving towards Rapid I was not only still really sleep but also becoming increasingly more car sick. Before I knew what was happening Benji and Michael decided that we should all go to the Cosmos... because why not?! It sounded fun. Poor Maria was asleep the whole time and when she woke up she asked what was going on and we simply told here we had arrived at the mysteries of the universe and she needed to get out of the car. 

In case you are as unfamiliar with the Cosmos as Maria and I were you may learn more about them here....


I asked before we went on this adventure if it was going to make me ill because keep in mind I was already pretty car sick at this point. Well I was assured that it would be fine...and I can assure you that it was not. No more Cosmos for me! 

After our adventure to the mysterious Cosmos we continued on to Rapid and the rest of the day concluded without much incident. We enjoyed a delicious spicy dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings that pretty much made my life because I had been wanting to go since my arrival in South Dakota. I acquired a nice new hat while I was there too...


Well...thats all folks. 

Monday, September 6, 2010

So, I have made it through week two! HURRAY! And only one more student got sick at school...AWESOME! But now Miss Erin was sick all weekend...boo. 


Friday we were out of school early for the football game. The stadium has no lights so the team can only play during the afternoon, and all the student have to get home, so that they can turn around and come back! 


Maria, Jackie, Tim, and I left early, are view was just so great! We went on a tour of the middle school and the High School, and I found my lost water bottle in Maria's room. HURRAY! 


I did not go to the planned dance party adventure in rapid because I was ill. I also missed the porcupine pow wow and many other fun adventures due to the fact that I spent a majority of the weekend in bed. Sad day. I hope that I will be up and running by tomorrow though! 


Observations by the principal are this week. I'm a little nervous. I'm still not sure I am doing well with someone of these programs because no one sat down and told me what to do yet. I'm sure I will figure it out. 


I tried to go on a walk on Sunday when I thought I was feeling better. I will leave that description to EPIC FAIL! It was very pretty out though. 


I have eaten my weight in soup. 


















How is this time even possible?










This weekend I was also introduced to my first Anime show. The Fullmetal Alchemist. I started off just wanting to express interest in things my house mates like...I don't hate it though. 


I really did not have a very exciting weekend to report on. Hope no one is bored to death yet. 


I got a wonderful phone call from Chicago, it made my day. I had a call to Smith that made my other day too. 


I am still having an awesome time. Potential trip to Bolder to see Gaelic Storm in concert next month! 




























Meet the new class pet Alfred. He lives outside my window. 














“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together...there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart...i'll always be with you.” - Winnie the Pooh