Salsa's CURED!

Grady and I took Salsa (hence Grady and I) to her final check-up this morning to learn that she is once and for all CLEARED of heartworms!!!

I can't tell you what a huge relief it was to hear such wonderful news! I've been worrying constantly when were around her about how active she gets (seeing as how she wasn't supposed to have any sort of cardiovascular activity for two months)! But, much to our surprise, the vet revealed that she is ready to play ONCE AGAIN!

Poor thing's been waiting for so long . . .

The First Day

Yep, the FIRST day of kindergarten.

Now that I'm a teacher, I wish more than anything I could remember what my first day of kindergarten was like. I watch my class and try to figure out if I experienced some of the same things my kids have . . . or if I cried when my mom left me.

It's pretty amazing all the firsts a kindergartener goes through . . .

First day of sitting on a carpet with 23 others.

First day of realizing you won't get to speak whenever you please.

First day of standing in a line.

First day of holding a tray full of food, while standing in line, and finding your lunch table.

First day of riding on a school bus . . . and doing it by yourself.


What huge accomplishments. Quite possibly the biggest they've had yet . . .

. . . in fact, there's been so many accomplishments today, this teacher is spending the evening (as they say in the teaching world) "reflecting" . . . with a glass of wine.

Goodness . . .

Well, as you can imagine, I've been cooped up in my classroom for the last 5 straight days in a row anxiously preparing for all the little kidos to come . . . ON MONDAY!
Thursday I received my class roster . . . 23.

I'll admit, a little more than I had anticipated, but I had accepted it by 2:00 pm and was well on my way to cleaning my room for "Meet the Teacher" that night.

I was pleased with the turn out and really excited to see all the cute little faces enter the door. (Yet, another reason I love to teach this age . . . their genuine enthusiasm and excitement to be in school. Their faces really do say it all.)

There were a few no shows, but all in all the evening was most successful.

My assistant and I were busy shutting down the computers and turning out the lamps when all of the sudden 3 boys and their mother walk in the door. The two older boys were a set of large twins. They followed the younger one in- immediately to the Housekeeping Center.

I watched in horror as the younger one grabbed and pulled things out of the center and tossed them to another spot. Completely ignoring this, the mother says to me, "Hi! This is so-in-so and he's just been added to your roster!"
Immediately I think to myself, crap . . . 24 . . . though, by the looks of his behavior, 27.

Still ignoring her child, now climbing over the center shelves, she proceeds to inform me that her little boy is "something else" and that if she "would have had him first," she "would have stopped there."

Wonderful.
By this point, it was evident to me 27 was now 32.

I forced the (clearly fake) smile on my face as I waved good-bye to them all.

On the way home, I thought about how "The (Mobley) Mom's" school was going through the same thing, and I had a hard time deciding which was being spit out faster around here . . . houses or babies? Unfortunately, neither is helping my class size.

I see God has decided it is time to challenge my teaching abilities . . . yet again.

Here goes nothing . . .

(Grady's) Summer Project # 3

I'm really excited about adding a few new centers to my classroom this year- one of which is a puppet center. Though, I have to say, after spending a chunk of change on all my classroom puppets, I wasn't too keen on spending another chunk on the dern stand for 'em!

So, I asked Grady what he could do . . . for the children, you know.

We started with a piece of scrap wood from "Lowe's," to which he drilled holes in . . .

. . . spray painted the wood and dowels . . .

. . . cut the dowels . . .

. . . then put it together!

Go 'head, Grady!

This will, of course, lead to a firm lesson on "proper puppet procedures" with the kid-os.


More classroom photos are sure to come!

Last Hoo-rah

It's certain. Summer's at an end. And, before any of us teachers had to go back to work next week, we made it out on the town one last time . . . (on a week night, that is)!


I love Wild Wings in the Vista. At this particular Wild Wings they have an upstairs bar area that allows you to look out onto the entire restaurant . . . and in our case, the band. This is nice.

Cheers!

Salsa Update

It's been three weeks since Salsa was injected with the heartworm treatments, and I brought her back to the vet this morning to check her progress.

Still quite unsure about the vet (although, surprisingly very excited to jump in the back of the car still- which may soon change with all our car rides going to the same place), she did much better this time. There wasn't too much activity inside, which of course made things smoother for me. However, once inside the examining room . . . poor Salsa . . .

The vets main mission was to check her heart with a stethoscope (but Salsa had no idea what that entailed). Grady gave me some helpful advice before he left this morning- to grab her by her snout to calm her down. This piece of info worked wonderfully! As I held her by her snout, the vet moved the stethoscope around her body listening to her heart. Little did we know, she was so deathly afraid of her position, she was pooing all over the floor in the process.

Poor little Salsa.

I feel as though she may be torn. She HATES being inside that examining room, but is so utterly interested in all the smells and sounds of the building, that she's always excited to go in! Of course, by our last check-up, she may not feel quite the same . . .

Anyway, the check-up went well, and the vet says her heart sounds good. We're all hoping this whole horrible ordeal is almost over!

Hilton Head

We spent the weekend at the beach . . .
for the first time this summer!

Jennifer is clearly showing baby Cate now!

Saturday night we had a big fish fry . . .

. . . where Alex serenaded us with his new guitar!

Wish we could have stayed longer!

Now, back to school . . .