Things You Never Knew About F

First, let me say that F has a bit of a wild side...and I have proof.

Yes, the other night F was jamming out to I believe "Band on the Run." You might not see this wild side of F often, but it exists. But to top it all off she has given birth to an evil boy...who brought this into my house with a bet! (Everyone knows Baptist don't bet!)

Yes, F's son, Stephen brought me in this nasty little Texas ornament and says, "If OU losses the National Championship game you have to hang this on your tree next year." Wait what if they win Stephen...what are you going to have you do!!!! BEWARE!!!

More to come on this!!!

Happy 51st Birthday!

Today is Dan's birthday. It must be terrible having a birthday in between two holidays. I got up and fixed breakfast. His parents got him a new Ipod and the boys got him a Jonathan Edwards' Book. Happy Birthday.

Christmas 09

There is a new member of the family.

My Dad and Brother bought the boys a Wii for Christmas. I had talked to my brother one day and mentioned that my boys were almost grown and it would be nice for PawPaw to do something for them. They are estatic.

Dan's Parents then got them this game and an extra controller.

As you can see Matt is totally into this game.

I got a wonderful set of lipstick (Estee Lauder) and a gift card to Dillard's (be still my heart).

Oh Me! X-Rated Post

Oh me! We've been a little wild at the Hestad Homestead today. My back has been hurting so after breakfast Dan said why don't you try the jacuzzi, I'll fix you a bubble bath. Well this 49 year old has NEVER taken a bubble bath. So Dan put in the bubbles, but then I turned on the jacuzzi.

The bubbles soon took over, Dan was dipping out bubbles with a bucket and it was the funniest thing I've been a part of in a long time!

May your holidays be as bubbley as mine!

Christmas '09 Part 1

Drew and Nicole made it down for Christmas this past weekend. It was so hard to see them go! Looking at the picture I can't get over how big Gabe is getting.

We had our classic fondue party. I didn't think that the rice and broccoli turned out good, but oh well. Then we exchanged gifts...

Gabe got these Call of Duty boxers and was very excited to model them all night. Christmas still excites Gabe and I'm glad. I'm not glad about his 87 in English, but I'm glad he has childlike wonder still.

This boy should be a comedian. I think he could give Larry the Cable Guy a run for his money. Just let him get started on going to the doctor and everyone cracks up!

I really miss these two. Nicole has grown into a part of the family. I do wish they were closer; however, they are excited about our new house.

Quote

Yesterday in the choir a fellow teacher looked at F and said, "Isn't it great to have two weeks off and we don't even have to think about school." F says she was puzzled and replied, "I may not see them for two weeks, but they are in my every thought."

When you teach fifth grade the pressure of the test is almost too much. When you have an inclusion class and a parasupport class, you are always thinking of how to reach them. Two weeks of 12 hours days were starting to catch up with me. I'm glad for a rest from long days. I left home at dark and got home after dark. I missed my family.

I read sweet blogs of how precious women love their little ones and feel defeated, because when I get home I've given every thing to 50 students and have nothing left for my own. Yet, how do you balance your own and those you are intrusted with? I don't guess I know.

I know exhaustion, lack of patience, and no money. I hear administration talk of adding more hands on instruction to the classroom, yet we are expected to pay for it. I know that most people think...so. But last week F spent over $30 to have candy for some hands on graphing exercises. I've read other blogs where people spend lots of money on notebooks and other material for their kids.

So for the new year, I'd like to learn balance. How to be the best at home and school, without feeling the exhaustion and failure.

A Christmas Miracle

Remember when I mentioned the little boy in my room. Well his speech teacher, a parapro, and I have worked to help make him feel as special as we think he is. So Friday rolled around. K came in to my room with a letter from mom. It was a tear jerker. Thanking me for loving K, wanting me to be aware of all that lay ahead for her and her concern for him. I was so sad (could it only been 35 years since my mom had this same talk with my teachers), but had prayed the day would be special for him.

First, came a suprise package that was a bag of books, no note from who. He was so excited. Inside was the book Ol' Yeller. We had all worked and put together a card with money in it for him and his mom. We already had shoes and clothes wrapped up. (We did all this anonimously.)

Then in the afternoon we had our annual bike give away. All the students who make honor roll or have perfect attendance get to put their name in the hat. WELL guess who won...K. He looked at me, I looked at him and said get on up there. He was running out the room, everyone is screaming and hollering. But it was when we got in the hall and people started coming out of their rooms clapping and saying "Yeah Kenneth." I thought I'd die.

Later we went for a long recess and K looks at me and says, "This morning I had an old bike with a torn seat, now I have a brand new bike. Can it get any better than this?"

Oh K, I hope when you got home and had your extra gifts that you realized there is a God who cares and looks over you. As the hard days (that are surely ahead for you) come may you never forget the day that Miracles happened.

Thank you God for being in the miracle business and letting me see them through the eyes of a 10 year old boy!

On the 8th day before Christmas

It is 61 degrees in Georgia and pushing on up towards 70 today. I woke up hot and I'm scrambling for light weight clothes to wear to work. My kids yesterday even agreed that my room was a sauna!

The in-laws are here all snug in their bed. They've done lots of little projects. Last night we were all up late shelling pecans so I could make banana nut bread for the janitors.

Report Cards must be ready by tomorrow. Tonight I must make more chex mix for the retirement party on Thursday.

Has anyone noticed that PW has posted molasses cookies on her site. I'm so making those!

Part 2

The day progressed with much eventfulness! My lesson today centered around analyzing the difference between the written text and its movie version. We do this in our Chris VanAllsburg author study. Should of been simple enough! Only the new school is full of new technology. So I use the SmartBoard to watch a movie, only their was no sound. Apparently when we moved we only came with two old fashioned prehistoric television sets! So then I ended up having to try to show an hour and a half movie in one hour after lunch....it didn't work! So my day was totally over.

Then in the process I get chewed out because a certain girl in F's room was making the librarian and staff crazy. I listened and said, "Well, we have 25 more who act just like her, it is tough." Then got yelled at when office personnel said, "We are looking for a fifth grade teacher." I replied, "Well there are 3 others teaching the same grade." Their response was, "Well excuse us for speaking to you at all!" GROW UP!

Then if life wasn't going smooth, CJ and DB got into it. CJ got two days suspension and DB got nothing, because he has paperwork saying he is certifiable? WHAT!!!!!!! Inclusion is good for some, but we have several who need to be resourced this year. So it makes for a long difficult day for the rest of us.

Came home and everyone was gone. They called to get me to start cooking. CW called and may be sending money from Daddy for the two remaining boys a special gift. Note the money is not here yet! And hopefully, I don't have to add to it!!!!

Praise God

I just called Linda and good news she is stable. The doctors in Houston are keeping her on the drug trial and she will continue to go down every 21 days for more testing and observations. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had found something that cured cancer!

Introspection

Most people understand that teaching is more than a job. Probably very few understand that a good teacher these days puts in a good 13 hour day at least 5 days a week, and always has work on the weekend. When we aren't working we are studying how to become better. For 180 days my students are never out of my mind! Then through the years I think of them often and pray for their well being! However, my greatest job isn't so much the academics as it is to help them learn how to be better human beings.

Their reaction to yesterday's throwing up incident really upset me. So our day started with a stern talk about how to treat others. There were tears, but I hope they got it! Then my tough big boy...I learned something about him. Even though he is bad to the bone, he wants limits and to know you somebody loves him. Yesterday, someone comment "Oh her comes CJ he must want something, so he'll ask H." Okay, so that person doesnt' know that he is a 12 year old who gets to roam the streets and his mom doesn't know or care where he is! Tomorrow will be hard for him, because I will be gone. Today, they came to collect cans and before they came in CJ picked up a can and said, "I need this." I said, "You can have it." He didn't take it, but he sure could have.

Then there is a little boy in my room, sweetest child I've ever taught. The other day we were working on persuasive letters to President elect Obama and we were talking about issues of today, when he started sharing. It was very uncharacteristic of him. He shared that his mom's cancer just kept showing up and that the doctor's at Emory are going to put her on a clinical trial. My heart breaks for a precious child whose life will forever be changed because of illness. So on the way home I decided I wanted to put together a little Christmas for him. Not because that happy child doesn't have everything he needs (love and security, the thing CJ doesn't have), but because I want him to have a special day where sickness isn't even thought about!

Monkey had a big birthday today. I hope it was all she expected! It started out a rainy, dismal day in Georgia. I hope it got brighter for her.

Miscellaneous

Today was a day! At 2:30 my autistic boy started to throw up. He hadn't been himself all day and I kept having the parapro check on him. I was jumping children and grabbing for a trashcan. My para did not leave me! She stayed and while I cleaned him up, she dealt with 23 screaming, immature 5th graders. Then she cleaned up the room.

During this time I was having a major hot flash. To the point F thought I might be fixing to implode. Sweat was dropping off me in buckets, my hair and shirt were soppy wet. I tutored afterschool and my little girl kept saying it is only 72.5 degrees in here. I guess she had never seen anyone sweat profusely.

I stayed at work till 6:40 and then went to choir practice. Got home at 9:15, made the bad choice and came home the dirt road after a long day of heavy rain. My car is now caked in Georgia red dirt.

So now it is time for bed and time to start this all over again. I hope the sweating is less tomorrow! Brenda thinks it could be that they've changed my thyroid medicine and lowered the doseage.

Check it out

Check out shutter sisters website. They are giving away a divine necklace!

Need Ideas

I would like to spend the week before break making crafts. I want simple directions that the kids have to read in order to make the "what-ever". Perhaps, I can develop those critical reading skills and get them ready for expository writing after the break. I know you've got some! I would use Oriental Traders, but those tend to be too difficult.

What a week!

This week I've tutored afterschool twice, had play practice twice, and a hair appointment. Let's just say the week culminated yesterday with the schoolwide recitation contest. We didn't win the drama contest, but we'll be more prepared next year. However, my student will be representing 5th grade in the countywide contest and I think we've got a good shot at the district.

Then last night we watched the Jackson Christmas Parade for the 12th year. Before the parade we met F & R for supper at Jimmy's. We've eaten at Jimmy's every year, but one (we ate Mexican).

Today, promises to be just as busy. I need to figure out if my IRB is going to be approved before February and I have some doubts on that one. If it can't be approved I may have to take a break on the dissertation and start back in Summer, using the next school year as my reasearch year. We shall see...I'm struggling with my assumptions, delimitations, and limitations.