The story of why I work

(Pre-reading warning: This is a very long post I wanted to record for myself, so if you don't have the time to read it all- at least scroll down to the last paragraph and watch the video.  Its a good one!)
So now that I am done with my first year teaching kindergarten and my first year back teaching after an eleven year hiatus, I thought it might be time to tell the story of why I have to work.  I taught for 5 years back in the late 90's and during that time I got married, had Finn and got pregnant with Annie.  Once I had Annie I was able to quit and I thought I would NEVER go back.  People would ask me, "Do you think you would ever go back to teaching?" And I would answer, "Well I would if I HAD to."  But really never believing that myself for two reasons-1. Because I didn't honestly believe I would ever HAVE to because if there's one thing my husband is good at- its being a good provider. 2. If I did happen to have to go back to work- I didn't want it to be teaching.  Only someone who has been a teacher- or at least tried to be a good teacher- truly understands how much work it is- especially your first couple of years.  You spend hours and hours preparing your lessons and the pay doesn't even come close to compensating you for your work.  In fact if I ever tried to figure out how much I make per hour based on the number of hours I work beyond my contract hours- I would be so depressed.  In fact just last night Eric and I figured out that one of our teenage neighbors makes more per month mowing lawns than I do teaching. And the problem when I was teaching before was that I never had the same grade two years in a row.  So I was always having to come up with new lesson plans.  So every year was my first.  So 12 years ago I left teaching and tried to not let the door hit me on the way out!
So fast forward about 10 years, 4 kids and life in general later- and I find myself not quite in the life I had planned.  Which, by the way, I could write a whole post about because whose life really does turn out the way they planned it?!?  I think that may be one of the points of life but I won't go down that philosophical road for the time being and just say that my plan of never having to work was slowly dissolving.  Eric was diagnosed with a potentially debilitating condition that could render his awesome "provider powers" useless if he didn't get the medication he needed to slow down the disease process.  And being a self- employed provider superhero, his insurance didn't cover the medication he needed.  And there was no way we could afford the medication on our own- can you say additional house payment?
At this point in my tale I am going to go one a little side journey.  Eric was diagnosed with this condition in 2007 and for about 3 years his doctor was trying lots of different treatments/ medications.  The aforementioned "house payment" med is a last resort- not only because of its price but also because if it doesn't work -nothing will.  We were coming close to the end of the road with the other treatments when I went on a little girls retreat with some friends to St George.  I was talking with a friend who was asking me that all too common question "Do you think you will ever go back to teaching?"  I half- heartedly said(because remember i didn't really want to ever go back to teaching) "Maybe if I could go part time because but it was hard to go part time these days because most districts have phased out job shares- unless of course I taught kindergarten."  To which she replied, "You would make an awesome kindergarten teacher."  As soon as she said that I had an experience I have only had maybe once or twice in my life.  It was like those words completely skipped my ears and brain and went straight to my heart.  I immediately knew that was what I was going to have to do.  It was such a peaceful feeling, very unlike the feeling I had had before when I even thought about going back to teaching before, that I knew it was beyond me.  And it important to note that this conversation happened about a month before this next one.
Eric and I were driving somewhere and he started talking about his latest doctor visit for his condition.  The conversation went something like this: his doctor said he needed to figure out a way to get the "house payment" medication because nothing else is working and if he goes untreated he would be in a wheelchair by the time he was 45.  And the only way he could figure out to make it all work would be for me to go back to teaching so we could get government insurance- which despite the lousy pay- is a great benefit for teaching.  I think if I hadn't had the previous experience I would have been a lot more resistant to the idea of going back to teaching.  But because my heart had already been prepared, my reaction was "Well, of course that's what we'll do." 
So 3 months later I was signing up for courses at the University of Utah to get my early childhood license and now 2 and 1/2 years after that I have finished my first year back.  So needless to say I have felt very "supported" on this journey back to teaching and having to work part time outside the home.  I don't want to sound overly sentimental or trite, but I really do feel like the Lord provided the way not only for my going back to school, but also in finding a job.  There are few part time jobs out there where one can get health insurance but I just happen to have a degree in one of them- for which Eric and I are very grateful.  Between my insurance and a copay assist program Eric's "house payment" medication is covered 100%!!!! (Although who knows what "Obama Care" may do to that benefit but again- a different post!)
But I wanted to record down some of the funny things my first year kindergarteners have said over the past year because I tell you what- 5 year olds are pretty darn funny!
*At the beginning of the year my mom came in to help on Fridays.  Then halfway through the year she stopped coming because she was getting ready to go on a mission to Vegas.  The last Friday she was there she explained to the kids why she wasn't coming anymore- because she was going on a mission.  She didn't really explain what this entailed or that it was a church service mission because one of the kid's questions was whether or not she got to carry a gun on her mission!
*I work in a very low income school where the kids speak 31 different languages.  Luckily the only languages spoken in my class this year were english and spanish and even though my spanish is limited- I took two years in high school- I can still understand and speak un poquito.  The kids LOVED it when I tried to speak spanish.  And I did get to learn some spanish swear words!  But I had one student who had much more than a language barrier going on.  He was very immature and I had a suspicion that he had some sort of developmental delay.  But there are a lot of hoops you have to jump through to get a child qualified for special education, especially when the parents are not on board or don't understand you- which was both the cases for this child.  I had to be constantly assessing these kids on the kindergarten requisite skills- one of which is counting.  I had to record how high each kid could count and this kid counted like this- "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, chicken".  Funny enough there was no "chicken" spot on the numbers recording sheet!
*I had one extremely complimentary student.  He was always telling me how pretty I looked.  Needless to say he was one of my favorites!  One day we were at recess and he told me all the girls in kindergarten he thought were pretty.  And I must say he had really good taste!;)
*Another thing I have to assess is how well the kids can read sight words.  There are 25 required words the kids should be able to read by the end of the year.  At the end of the year I was testing one particular boy and he was cruising through them- not an easy feat and one not everyone can do.  After he finished he looked up at me and said, "I'm like a machine!"  Yes he was!
*In this day and age- besides fire and earthquake drills- we also have to do lockdown drills.  Our school has protocol for both a soft and a hard lockdown and by their names you can guess that one is more intense and intrusive than the other  We were getting ready for a hard lockdown drill and I was trying to explain to the students under what circumstances we would have a hard lockdown.  This is a tricky thing to explain to 5 year olds because they are very curious and need to be given some information to keep them from getting upset, yet too much information isn't a good thing either.  So I went with this explanation- "We are doing this drill so we can be ready in case anything dangerous comes in our school."  One kid raised his hand and said, "Like if a tiger comes in our school?" Exactly!  If a tiger ever came in our school, we would for sure need to go into a hard lockdown!
*And by far this is my favorite story from the year- I was handing out papers and the students started asking me questions like "Do you have a house?" or "Do you have a bedroom?" One kid asked me if I work.  With a smile I said "Yes, I work.  In fact I'm at work right now."  One little girl's eyes got real wide and she said "You work here?!?" 
And in case you ever wonder what it is like to teach kindergarten, this video sums up very nicely what I do for 3 hours a day:

Soccer Season

 

 

Katie just finished her spring soccer season.  She has played before but it has been a couple of seasons.  What she lacks in skill, she makes up for in scrappiness!  She is quite the little speedster.  It was amazing to watch her little legs move her across the field.  It was like her legs went twice as fast as the players around her.  And they very well could have because she is about half the size of some of the other players.  She is picking up the skills of the sport and even though she never made a goal she made some great passes and was a fantastic defender.

Even though she played in a rec league, her team was quite competitive.  This was in part because of their coach.  He was such a great coach but he sure liked to win.  It was kind of entertaining to watch him on the sidelines.  It was like you could physically see the battle within himself of trying to balance the strong desire to win and the delicate egos of 8 and 9 year old girls. While on the sidelines the girls who weren't in the game, would pepper him with questions like "Did you notice my new haircut? or Do you want to see our secret handshake? or Watch me do this handstand!"  He would try to validate them but let's be honest what 30+ man notices even when his own wife gets a haircut, let alone one of 10 girls on his soccer team?!?  He was constantly trying to redirect their focus back to the game.  And being a person who is a professional redirector of children's attention, it made me smile to watch. 
My very favorite of these moments was after the game.  The coach would gather all the girls around and they would have a little breakdown/debrief of the game.  Coach would ask things like "So what went well during the game?" or "What do you like about soccer?"  Without fail some girl would pull the conversation off topic and soon they were talking everything but soccer.  It was hilarous to watch the coach's face.  It went something like this:

But he really was a great coach and we would request him again for a great non-competitive winning season!

There is beauty all around

Recently I have been finding signs like these on my girls' doors.

First Annie, then Katie, then Suzie.  They each have their own rooms but finding these signs is kind of funny because they are often asking if they can sleep in each other's rooms- especially when they are scared at night.  (I refuse to let my kids sleep with Eric and I because they are all perpendicular sleepers-meaning they don't sleep laying next to me, rather they sleep with their feet in my back.  So I have offered to let them sleep on the floor next to my bed but none of them have taken me up on the offer because our bed is raised off the ground about 6 inches and their imaginations run wild with what could potential crawl out of those 6 inches.)
So really these signs should read "No siblings permitted- except when I hear noises at night and think hobos are crawling out of my ceiling." (Their a hole in Annie's ceiling about 6 inches in diameter that we have never patched up from some pipe repair we had to make a few years ago and she swears a hobo lives up there.  Although I think only a hobbit hobo could fit through the opening!)
Anyway I was looking closer at the sign on Katie's door and noticed that in attempt to not copy her sister outright, choose to have her sign say,
"No siblings prohibited"
Uh- Katie- I don't think that means what you think it means!
And even though I don't let Suzie sleep with me-she's the worst of the perpendicular sleepers- I will let her cuddle with me at night.  She is my most affectionate child and one night while she was laying in bed with me watching TV she asked me,"Mom, who do you like to cuddle with the most- Dad, me or the blanket?"
Mom: Dad
Suzie: Why?
Mom: Cause he's soft and squishy
Suzie: And what am I -hard and talky?
I don't know about the "hard" part, but as my sister can attest, she is most definitely "talky."

My kids aren't the only ones getting awards around here!

Since we are approaching the season of end of the year assemblies and awards being given for straight A's, perfect attendance and all around awesomeness- I thought I would throw out my own recent award. 

That's right I got a "Dream Big " award from Arby's.  It's kinda big deal!;) Not really but I did get to have my picture posted at the Arby's close to the school I teach at along with two of my students.  Since my kids ADORE Arby's I took them there one evening and made them take a picture of me with my award and my picture. 

And even though this award isn't that big of an accomplishment, the little girl who is pictured below me, is one of my biggest accomplishments this year.  One the first day of kindergarten she screamed for two hours- no exaggerating!  Then she spent the first three months running around the room and crying whenever anything new or out of the ordinary happened-like the day I switched seats.  She took her name tag off her new seat and proceeded to rip off the name tag where she use to sit and replace it with hers.  She also vehemently refused to go with anyone to do any sort of testing- which if you are familiar with any school environment these days- that happens ALL the time.  But after some pretty intense behavior modification over the past 6 months, I am proud to say she is much more well-adjusted to a classroom environment.  She goes with just about anyone to do testing without complaint and she has learned to handle change a bit more gracefully.  She still has her moments but she has done an almost complete 180.  And I can honestly say I will miss her next year.  Which I can't say for all my students!;)

Viva Spring Break

This year's spring break wasn't as nearly as eventful as last year's- in a good way!  After going through about five different ideas for spring break that ranged from Yosemite to Grand Targhee, we finally decided on the most obvious choice- St George.  It was so obvious because my parents, who are currently on a mission in Las Vegas, had their time share week for part of the same week as our Spring break.  So we decide to not pass up free lodging and the opportunity to see grandma and grandpa. And bonus- my sister, Natalie and her family were going down too so we got to spend time with them too. We spent the week swimming, hiking in Snow Canyon and playing.

We also went down to Las Vegas to see Grandma and Grandpa.  We decided that since we were in Las Vegas, we should go down to the strip. My kids really wanted to go to M&M world. But after hiking over 16 blocks to and from M&M world from where we were parked to discover that M&M world is really just 4 levels of stores, lets just say my kids are so over the strip.  I told them it was like the hikes we take when we go to National Parks, but with different scenery. 

 

Not sure it was the best decision to take my kids- it was quite the education for them.  I knew it was a very stimulating environment to say the least because I had been there about 13 years ago.  But it is a whole new experience when you take your 14 year old son.  He couldn't look up at the buildings for the billboards, he couldn't look down at the street for the fliers and he couldn't look to the side for the bus signs.  I really wish I had brought some blinders for him.  But he was a good sport and it did create some good jumping off points for some good conversations with our kids on the way home.  The best quote of the day was by Suz.  We were walking out of the Venetian after having lunch there.  It is one of the hotels where you don't have to walk through the casino to get to the food.  But we got a little turned around and ended up walking by the casino on our way out.  Suz turned and looked at all the slot machines and said, "Oh- so this is where the arcade is!"
We decided next time we go to visit my parents, we will do our sight-seeing at the Las Vegas temple instead.  And after talking to my friend Lori- the fountain of all knowledge, I've come to find out that there are some pretty cool sights that are family friendly in Vegas- and a real candy factory that I think is more like what my kids were envisioning when they heard M&M world.  So next time, Mom, I have some great places to go!
But all in all-it was worth it to spent time with these people!

Different Strokes

Last Sunday night Eric found reruns of "Different Strokes" on TV and got the kids to watch it by telling them it his and mine's version of "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody."  Even though it was super cheesy, it did bring back memories and I could totally remember the episodes from almost 30 years ago!  Finn especially loved Arnold and his catch phrase "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?"  Eric explained to the kids how we actually had to watch it on TV at a certain time and would look forward to when it was on each week; how we couldn't watch it "on demand" like the kids can do now.  The kids were amazed by this.  We also talked about how we didn't have remote controls- we actually had to get up to change the channel (Although in my brother's case, he would sit on the floor close to the TV and use his freakishly long finger-like toes to change the channel!) It was truly on of those "We had to walk through the snow to school 10 miles uphill both ways." types of moments.  The kids' concensus was that we must have had a pretty dull childhood! :)  In the course of the conversation we talked about how we didn't even have the internet, cell phones or even cordless phones- at least when we were younger.  We described how the phones receivers were attached to the phone so we had to sit by the phone to use it.  At this point Suzie remembered that Grandma Shauna still has one of those types of phones in her kitchen.  After she mentioned this she paused and then giggled and said, "She's old school."  Accurate description!

So Blogging is back!

I really don't know if it is back for anyone else, but after a hiatus of blogging only occasionally- I will be back to blogging regularly.  Not because I have any adoring readers begging for more but because my parents have decided to go on another mission and the blog is the best way for them to catch up on our family.  So here goes for my parents and anyone else who cares...
Shakespeare...
Our school's annual 6th grade Shakespeare festival was this past week.  Annie was a fairy in "A Mid-Summer's Night Dream."  She did a great job. 

The Shakespeare festival is a wonderful tradition that has been going on for years at our school.  It is kind of like the "pinnacle" of the students' elementary school years.  The 6th grade teachers have done  a fantastic job of making it something the younger grades look forward and aspire to.  Last year Annie was in a 5th/6th grade split that was taught by one of the teachers who started the festival and has perfected it over the years.  So Annie got to participate in the festival last year as well.  This teacher retired after last year and I was so grateful that Annie got to experience Shakespeare with the famed Mrs. Johnson.  But this also caused me to be a little wary this year because Annie's current teacher is a first year teacher and I wasn't sure the festival would be up to the same level as before.  Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how well Annie's new teacher did.  The plays were great.  There were a few differences- like the number of plays the class did- but overall the class did a fantastic job, which I know is often a direct result of the teacher.  Being a teacher myself, I made sure to let Annie's teacher know how well I thought it went.  I can't imagine taking on something like Shakespeare- especially as a first year teacher.
Funny Annie story- recently I was taking Katie to her violin lesson and Annie was in the car.  Katie asked for a piece of gum.  I reminded her that she wouldn't be able to chew it for very long.  Annie asked why and Katie told her that her violin teacher doesn't allow her to chew gum during her lesson because it could fall out on the violin.  Annie replied, "I think my piano teacher appreciates it when I chew gum."  I asked her why and she said, "Cause I think my breath stinks when I count out loud."  (Annie's piano lesson is in the morning and I think quite often she has morning breath when she goes to piano.:)
Katie never ceases to amaze me.  The other morning I went downstairs to make sure Finn was up and moving so he wouldn't be late for school.  He and I leave for school about the same time and if I don't hear him stirring while I am getting ready, I usually go downstairs to check on him.  Well this particular morning I found not only him awake in his room but also Katie.  The scene I walked into was Finn staring intently at Katie while she was sitting on the edge of his bed with her knees tucked under her chin talking.  When I walked in Finn turned to me with a look of amazement and said, "Katie has been explaining the distributive property to me.  I didn't even know what that was until the 7th grade!"  I looked at Katie and she was proudly beaming about blowing her older brother's mind with her math prowess.  She even drew a picture to demonstrate.

I tell you what, this new math curriculum is serving Katie well!

Now onto Finn.  He recently received his Life in scouting.  I have to be honest here- I really don't know what that entails or its full meaning except that it is the last step before you can start working on your Eagle project.  I always feel guilty when I go to courts of honor where Finn gets awards because they always give a pin to the mothers and make a big deal about how so often it is the mothers who should receive an award as much as the scout because of how much the mothers do to help their boy scouts.  But truth be told, Finn was born to be a scout because I do very little when it comes to his scouting.  He makes life easy for me!
Recently we were driving in the car and the song "I'm Still a Guy" by Brad Paisley came on and Finn turned to me and said, "This song is about me."  But then it got to the part about the french painting and how the girl sees beautiful art and the guy just sees a naked lady.  Finn gives me a sideways glance and says, "Well except that part."  All in good time my pubescent teenage boy, all in good time!
Last but not least, Suz!  My last post was all about Suz so I'll keep this short and sweet.  Suzie and her BFF, Hannah were playing at my house.  They decided they wanted to do a workout video- my main form of working out these days.  They started the video and a few minutes into it they decided they needed to go get bottles of water.  I walked by and noticed that when they got water they also decided they needed a little workout snack as well.

 

Yep-those are chips next to their water.  Every time they would pause to get a drink they would also have a few chips.  Now that's my kind of working out!  "I like pop!" (That last comment is for my sisters!)