I know there are many many teachers out there with this same age group who teach a much larger class than I do, and may wonder what I am whining about. I've taught in a classroom with 25 students before, so, yes, I do know what it's like. The largest only first grade class I've taught had 17 kids in it (in a very nice size room). The classroom I am in now is about as big as an oversized kitchen - in other words, NOT very big at all. I use tables for my kids to sit at. I have three tables that pretty much take up most of the available space in the room, and sit four comfortably. Up until a little bit before Spring Break, I had 11 kids, which left one empty spot. Then I had a new boy added (who is a great kid) which gave me 12. About that time I ordered the books for their end of year gifts from Scholastic - got 12. My second graders are almost finished with their Phonics book (maybe 10 pages left). They are 3/4 finished with their Reading book/skillpak. They only have about 3 chapters left in their Math book.
Oh yeah, --- How am I going to come up with enough materials to make another OTTER book???

Why am I saying all this?? Well, today when my kids came back from Choir, they brought a visitor with them, along with this visitor's Mom. Apparentally she had brought her son for a "visit" without informing ME or our secretary or our principal. It takes a few minutes generally to get the kids calmed down after Choir. Now add to the equation a strange little boy who's been announced to the kids as a "new student". Especially add to it the fact that he is in SECOND GRADE and previously there was only ONE second grade boy. I really didn't know what to do with him. His mom just kind of left him in the room with me, after saying that he would be starting Monday. From the little bit of time I was able to spend with him, he seems like a well-mannered enough little boy, and maybe a bit on the shy side. But . . . . all the time he is there, I'm thinking . . "WHERE am I going to put him!!!!?????" HOW am I going to get another copy of the books I got for my kids (without having to spend money of course!)?
"There's only 8 weeks left of the school year, WHY would you move a kid to a new school NOW???" ARGHHHH!!!! Just kill me now! (Ok, no, really don't do that. I only have to get through another 40 days of this.)

Up until the little boy entering our arena, my day was almost blissfully easy. Ahh. The difference one child can make. I was kind of surprised though to hear a number of the students actually saying that they MISSED my little whirlwind known as M.

After school I took Monkey to the vet for the recheck on his teeth. The vet said that his teeth looked great. Then she gave me this oral dental cat medicine called "Orro Vet" that I'm supposed to apply once a week. It annoyed me a bit because I wasn't planning on spending anything today. It's a 16 week supply, so I guess it's fairly economical, but still . . . !

When I got Monkey home from the vet, I did something majorly stupid. He didn't want to go back into his carrying kennal, so I decided just to carry him out in my arms. This is something I've done many, many times before, and have had no problems. For some reason though, I decide that I should lock my car up BEFORE taking him inside. The thing about my car is, in order to lock it completely, you have to hold the door handle up while at the same time pushing on the lock. Well, apparentally the angle I was holding him at when I locked and shut the door was a POOR one. His tail got caught in the door!!! Oh my poor poor kitty! Understandably, he was yowling in pain and rage. As I was scrambling to get the door unlocked and reopened, he was striking out at me (again, understandably) and I ended up getting bit on my hand, having several new holes put in my shirt, and some not so good scratches on my arm. I felt just so horrible! I think he has forgiven me. I think he knows that I would never intentionally hurt him, just as I know that his striking out at me like that was totally out of character.

I got a call from Ryan last night. Apparentally he had gotten the information from Mom about her getting married. He sounded more shocked than I even was. He said that he was probably going to give Dad a heads up about it. I wonder how that went. :roll eyes:

Ok. It's time for me to relax with ER.

Spending Log:
Vet: $24.95

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura