A project, a 5K, and water

Samantha has already been given her first school assignment.  They are working to create an online slideshow to introduce themselves to their class.  She has to have 30-40 pictures showing various things about her (favorites, family, etc.).  We are working on collecting a few pictures here and there.  I'm hoping I can use a lot of pictures I've already snapped at different places.

Sam's first day back to Jr. Company at LaShar's with Teacher Jenny

 Sam's favorite books (these books are like 300 pages).  She's read the first two (got the third for Easter but has been reading other things since).  Part of what has deterred her from starting the third was that she read the first two books & neither one was an AR book & she was trying to make her AR goal this spring.  I hate AR for this exact reason!  Seriously?!  600 pages for two books that are 2 grade levels above her grade level & she gets no acknowledgement of that?  Yea, not so much an AR fan.

Look what I got today!  It's my Making Strides t shirt for the 5 K on Oct. 13th down at Liberty Park.  I'm excited.  Sam told me about three times how much she liked my new shirt and wanted to know if she was going to get one.  I told her if she does the 5 K with me that she can get one (they're only about $10 at the event).  So, who wants to come do this with me?  In the words of my ACS rep that I do Relay with "This is basically a big, fun, crazy party.  Don't stress about fundraising, you fundraised with Relay.  Just come have fun."  So, I ask again, WHO'S DOING THIS WITH ME?

Tonight I was out watering flowers and had a helper following me around.  She was completely intrigued by the sprinkler.  She kept bending over to try and catch a sprinkle of water in her mouth.  It was too cute.

 She was so happy and excited just to be there.  I decided I'd better grab my camera & capture it.  It's moments like these that I want to stop & remember.  It's making myself stop that's the hard part!

 When I moved the hose she realized there was a hole in the hose.  She kept trying to plug it with her fingers and then she'd try and catch the water spraying up at her.

 Notice the tongue sticking out in concentration?  Love it.

 Success!

More photos for Sam's project.  Our poor fluffy rat dog needs groomed so bad!  Everyone thinks we get a new dog when she gets shaved!  Her fur has grey to it when it's long and it's all a light brown underneath!

Sister decided it was a grand idea to come & sit on mom while mom was trying to take her picture.

 This is what I get when I say, "Brooke!  Look at mom!"  She gets as close as she can and says, "EESE!"

 There was just as much fun to be had when we came inside & I put her in the tub.  She's never let me put the "gogglers" on her before.  It was kinda funny to watch her with them on.

 My favorite one:

Another one for Sam's project.  She loves her some spaghetti!  I hope she doesn't edit herself out of this one.  I love her cheesy personality!  She's got so much of her Uncle Zack in her it's ridiculous!

And on a completely random side note: I'm starting to wonder if I should have told my boss to take one of my four schools and give me a different one in it's place when she mentioned this spring that four of us could just have three schools and one of us could keep four.  I volunteered to keep all four because I don't need two prep days.  I have prep time built into my schedule during my time at the schools.  This way I can take Fridays off.  So, against better judgement, I kept four schools.  I worked six hours on Monday and another three hours on Tuesday.  I wasn't suppose to have to go back to work until after Labor Day.  Why am I there already you ask?  Because certain people have neglected to do their job which therefore makes it impossible for me to do my job!  I knew this past spring that things weren't going to be followed through on certain ends but I didn't do it because it wasn't my job, I had a blow out with a principal, and I was in the midst of scheduling, coordinating, & attending 110 student presentations.  Well, I'm paying for it now.  Chalk it up to a learning experience I suppose.  I told Travis this cannot be a good omen for the year to be beginning like this.  I hope it isn't a sign of what's to come.  Seriously.  I'd have to quit my job, dig a dying hole, and crawl into it - never to be seen or heard from again.  I think I've got the mess sorted out...if the eight teachers that I need to do follow up work will do the follow up work I need them to do (does that even make sense?).  I have a meeting on Sept. 5 at this school and I'm hoping to see major improvement before then (wishful thinking probably).  I told Travis that if this year doesn't go better I need to either renew my license & get into a classroom full time or be done with teaching all together.  I'm tired of all the politics and red tape.  Yes, I realize there will be politics in any job I take on.  I also realize if I don't like them, and can't change them, I CAN change my situation and how I react.  So, we'll see how the next few weeks go.  I'm crossing my fingers that it was just a bad Monday and not a sign of what's to come this year.  I really, really, really want to LOVE my job again.