Wonderful Week

Here's a brief (sort of) re-cap of a fun and crazy week:

-Tuesday had a great time with the Relief Society ladies at Cooking Club. I really enjoyed socializing (dang I've really missed that this year!)

-Wednesday did my Visiting Teaching! Yea! Afterwards I went out for frozen yogurt with one of my girls, since we were both husbandless and needing girl time.

-Thursday at school was an emotional one. The school choir had their concert and it was a salute to the school faculty and staff. Most of the songs were about the secretaries and the principal. Friday was the last day of school for the main secretary and the principal, as they are moving on to open a new school. The principal, the secretary, the teachers, the parents, and the kids were crying. At the end the whole school stood up and sang the school song. It was amazing how powerful that was as everyone sang with such emotion and feeling. I heard several people say they could just feel the school pride in the room. I will post a video of the school singing later (one of the other teachers recorded it). After school I went to dinner with another teacher and two of my kids' moms. They are a riot! We sat at the table for over 3 hours and never had a lull in the conversation! It was soooo much fun! Dang I love those ladies.

-Friday was the day we said goodbye to Jill (the principal) and Shannon (the main secretary). That morning they had everyone sing the school song (as we do every Friday) in the hall. Everyone was so emotionally drained from the day before that the feeling wasn't quite the same, but here it is.

I have been so blessed to work with such wonderful people! They have made my first year that much easier and have given me confidence in an intimidating thing! Separately, Jill and Shannon both told me that I have to teach again because they think I'm a wonderful teacher. That means SO much to me! I love them!

Chris surprised me with some beautiful flowers when I came home from work. Then Chris and I went out with Aubrey and Wes. We haven't done stuff with anyone all year and now we're really making an effort and it is great! We had a yummy Thai dinner, a fun time at the MOA, and tasty shakes made by Wes.

-Saturday, we went to one of my student's baptism. He was recently adopted so he was sooo excited to be able to baptized. Then we went to the luncheon at his house. Afterwards we went home and cleaned for a bit. Lastly, we headed up to Farmington for family time! Little Libby Lu turned 1! It was good to see extended family on Chris's side of the fam.
At the Baptism

Aunt Libby and Lauren (Lu) with Baby Libby Lu
Baby Ruby and Me (Isn't that such a cute smile?These are the highlights and positive notes in a week of the Mullen Mania!

Romantic Getaway

Chris and I will have been married for a year, as of the end of next month. We are trying to figure out what to do for a mini-anniversary trip. Chris has graduation on Thurs. and Fri. and then our anniversary is Sunday. As we've looked at places to go, I've thought a lot about our wedding. Especially since we just put our digital picture frame up and it is full of wedding and engagement pictures.

We had the most incredible wedding. It was my dream come true day. I have a horrible memory so I'm grateful for photographers and videographers. But I vividly remember what our bed and breakfast looked like. I hope I always remember what Aruba looked like since our camera got lost :( On our wedding day I was able to go, go, go all day, but I knew that as soon as I sat down I would be ready to crash. Our wedding planner was so incredible and this is something I will always remember. When we got to the bed and breakfast after the reception, the door was open and we walked in to find votive candles all over the room. In the bathroom, the tub was filled with a warm bubble bath and had candles all the way around. The vanity had these square drawers all across the top, behind the sink and under the mirror, that also had candles all across it. There had to have been like 40 candles or so. As I lay on the couch right now, tired and worn out, the thought of that sounds SO nice.

It's Done!

Yea! I have survived another round of parent-teacher conferences. They make for very long and stressful days. Whose idea was it that you should teach a full day and then have 5 hours of conferences afterwards? My voice and throat don't think it's a good idea. Neither does my patience.

Overall, I fared better than last time. I had a least one parent or guardian come for every student! Except the one who asked me to call her instead.
The highlights:
I only made 1 student cry. And the parents backed me up!

I only got behind a couple of times and that was because the parents were late.

A kindergarten sister of one of my students told me I was beautiful. He must have paid her to say it.

2 kids told me that the best of part of second grade was having me for their teacher. Their parents asked if I paid them and I said I didn't make enough to do that.

The scariest parent didn't come.

A scary parent came without his wife, but he was cordial!

The secretary called me a brat because I'm not coming back next year. And a few parents said that they hoped I would have their younger kids when they were in 2nd grade.

We'll stay focused on the positives. I do have to say that I wasn't my nicest at the end of the day Thursday, because the bell didn't ring. So all my students left late, which gave me about 8 minutes to get ready for conferences--not happy. It was also a stressful beginning to the day too. I get to school early, but for some reason a long line of cars was pulling up to the school. Then I remembered it was a PTA thing before school called "Dads and Donuts" so dang my parking spot was gone. Then I remembered they had called an last minute faculty meeting for this morning. Great! When do I get ready for parents coming? Also, after lunch on the last day of the week we have family members of the student of the week come and talk about the student. The little girl whose turn it was, was apparently very excited. I came into my room after lunch and found her sitting at the carpet, by herself, in complete darkness, with her poster from high up on the wall. She said she was waiting for her mom. I asked her how she had gotten into my room and she said that she came from the lunchroom. That means she'd been sitting there for at least 20 minutes, while everyone else was at recess. I was not too happy, but couldn't send her to think time since her mom walked in a minute later. I survived and I'm done for the year. So yippee!