You Belong in Paris

You enjoy all that life has to offer, and you can appreciate the fine tastes and sites of Paris. You're the perfect person to wander the streets of Paris aimlessly, enjoying architecture and a crepe.

What European City Do You Belong In?

9 Months Old

Today is Reese's 9-month birthday and she has had one hell of a day. When Big Daddy left for work, Reese and I headed out to the new dog park. The idea of an enclosed area where Reese can feel free to run and play and interact with other dogs is awesome!!! This was her first time going but she did so well. At first she was a little scared because the first dogs she encountered were 3 huge Great Danes, but she eased in and eventually was running full speed with a pack of dogs. We ended up being there for 2 hours and she formed a good friendship with a pit bull named Brody and a deaf Great Dane, Jewel. It was so cool. Dog parks are wonderful things...

After the dog park, I decided to bring her to PetSmart to look for her birthday toy. I was looking for something new, considering she has successfully accomplished unraveling any rope toy she comes into contact with -- she's a toy-destroyer!! So we finally decided on the highly durable, supposedly indestructible, yet-to-be-named snake. This picture is a perfect portrait of Miss Reese passed out in the bed with her new toy after a full day of fun.

Teach Update

So it's been a bit since I posted, I know. Life in general kicks ass. I'm still loving my teaching life -- I have one class that forces me to raise my voice on a daily basis but hey, it's nice to know who's in charge.

Tonight is Open House for the 8th grade. It's definitely going to be interesting considering they planned it on the same day that progress reports went out. I wonder how many parents are going to show up just to discuss why their child has failed my class. If only I could be truly honest -- "your child is a lazy fool, that's why he's failing". I ended up with 16 failures out of 130 kids -- not too bad, but I hate to see kids failing. But hey, I'm not going to loose any sleep over it.

Overall, I have no complaints lately. I have a career that doesn't feel like a "job", I'm getting paid regularly, don't have to worry about paying the bills every month, and I have health insurance -- for me, the real world is a pretty nice place to be.

So McKinley did teach me something...

I know how to break up fights. I broke up my first fight yesterday between three girls in my lunch period. I knew it was coming, these girls have been brewing for awhile. So yeah, Ms. Latham beats the principal and vice principal (who were actually closer) to the girls and handles the situation. Yeah I'm good.

Now the 8th grade class is like, "don't mess with Ms. Latham". Ha, it's so funny!!

The principal called me in his office today -- yes it's still nerve-racking when you are called to the principal's office over the system, even when you are the teacher. I didn't know what it was about but it turned out he wanted to let me know he was impressed with how well I handled everything with the girl fight.

You know, I'm glad I've finally found my place in this world. It may be exhausting but everyday these kids just make me smile.

Mariana -- [adjective]: Visually addictive 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com