Maybe I'm preoccupied with my own schooling. It seems I'm about halfway through the semester, which is shocking since it seems like it only just began.
Also, I'm doing a practicum in a second-grade classroom at Anna's school this semester. Our class has recess the same time as Anna's kindergarten class, and today she saw me out on the playground. But she did a great job of not crossing the imaginary boundary between the K-1st grade and 2nd-3rd grade playgrounds. The teacher did let her come over, though, to say hi.
I've already gotten 10 of the required 40 hours in. And with me having to leave by 10:45 a.m. to pick up Anna and Alexander from their classes it might stretch out longer than I'd like. However, I will get to whittle it down quite a bit this Wednesday after spending the entire day at the school. So far it's been fun. I really like this age group, have learned much and am getting a lot more comfortable and confident.
Here are photos of the children opening Valentine's cards from their classmates.
Over the weekend the children made Valentine cards for their classmates.
They each have little parties at school later this week and get to deliver the cards into bags decorated by students.
We did not do homemade Valentines, much as I would have liked to.
But they each addressed their cards, wrote their names and inserted sticker surprises. And we used double-sided tape to stick a little bag of conversation heart candies on the outside of each card.
Here are the pics, including one of Anna munching on a gigantic broccoli stalk.
Anna took the one of Alex by the sliding glass door. And I couldn't resist her snapshot of Barbie.
Oh, and she also took the close-up of herself and Alex. They really look like they could be biological siblings, don't they?
One of the few good things about living in South Dakota during the winter is you can leave the supermarket at 10 a.m., load up your trunk with groceries and not be in a hurry to get home.
In fact, you can dang well not worry about making it home for hours.
That's what happened to me today.
I dropped the kids off at their schools, went grocery shopping, drove back to pick them up (yeah, kindergarten is only half day here! can you believe it?), headed over to the gym where I dropped them and their lunchboxes off at the childcare area and then proceeded to spend the next two hours working out, relaxing in the sauna and showering.
It was after 2 p.m. by the time we got home. Milk, yogurt, cheese, meat, frozen pizzas, etc.? No worries.
Aside from the beautiful blanket of the pristine snow itself as it quietly cocoons your world, that may be the only good thing about a South Dakota winter.
Down sides?
Driving dangers and snow days from school. So far the children haven't had any school days canceled this year. And I'm hoping they don't because it will only extend their school year. Anna's, anyway. Already, her school doesn't get out until June 4.
Yesterday, however, my 4 p.m. class was canceled. Unbeknownst to me until I got there.
Our instructor drives in from about an hour away and she canceled it because of a winter weather advisory. Not like it was a blizzard or anything, and I had checked my school e-mail and Web site for any cancelation notices. The one place I didn't check (or even knew existed, to be honest) was a call-in line, which is now in my cell phone's contact list.
On my way to said class an 18-wheeler did a little fishtail action right in front of me as it attempted to stop at a red light. Since I was driving like a grandma there was plenty of room between us.
Back in the fall, when we had snow two days before Halloween, I was driving Alexander to a drop-in daycare one morning and this car lost control as it came around a curve we were approaching. The car was in my lane, forcing me to drive into the extremely bumpy area off the side of the road. Of course I couldn't try to make a sudden slowdown or else I would have lost control as well, despite the 4WD I was in. So we were going too fast on this snowy bumpy area and were very lucky we weren't hurt or didn't crash into the fence and let all the cattle escape. The jolts were severe enough to knock loose my cell phone battery, and the cell phone was in my purse. I was so worried Alexander had rammed his head up against the inner roof of the car, but he was fine. I kept calling the daycare lady to make sure he wasn't exhibiting strange symptoms.
Also, we live in quite a hilly little neighborhood, which poses problems for the teen-age babysitter, who last week got stuck leaving our driveway.
Our driveway connects to a private gravel road which kind of plummets down if you're backing out of our driveway onto the road. There is another house down at the bottom of the road. I forgot to tell her that in the winter we turn our cars around and leave the driveway going forward. Her stepfather had to come pull her out because we don't have a tow rope. Guess we should get one.
A 4WD is kind of essential here in the winter.
So, yesterday her mom dropped her off at our house, and I drove her back home after my canceled class.
On another note, I'm not sure why my posted video clips are about half the time coming up with a black screen and a message saying the video is unavailable. It's a host issue, which I thought was resolved.
I'm trying another clip here I took yesterday before lunch time. See (hopefully) the snow fluttering down like glitter? It's another all-boy video of Alexander pushing his monster truck down that gravel road I just mentioned.
If this video problem persists, then I may have to post them through YouTube, which I think we did for our long adoption movie some time back.
Alexander played Cowboy on Saturday at the annual rodeo and stock show.
For a mere $5 entry fee he got a stick horse and a piece of paper certifying that he participated in the world's smallest rodeo. And all that dirt-kicking fun, of course.
The little cowboys and cowgirls were adorable, though Alexander, in his Toys R Us getup, was just playing cowpoke while I'm guessing the majority of his new friends were authentic, right down to their Wranglers.
Here are photos and a little video clip of Alexander running around the "barrels" and seeming to love the attention of the pretty rodeo queens. It's not the best pic, but I liked the one of Alex holding his hat over his heart during the "Star Spangled Banner," which was sung by one of the queens. I'll spare you that performance.
Afterward, the children met some animals at the petting zoo.
