It ended up being a good day!

Today started out ok, but by this afternoon it was getting pretty rough. I literally had students in my room taking tests all day. That should have been a breeze of a day for me (and yes, I did get caught up on quite of bit of end of term grading and other stuff), but it was tough. Mainly it was difficult because my SLCC 1010 kids get 2 hours to take the final, Wednesday is a short day, and we were trying to fit 2 hours into an hour and 16 minute class period. Yikes. Fourth period stayed in for lunch. Sixth period came in during lunch. Students had to sit on extra chairs I'd borrowed from the library until desks became available. They were all super stressed. It was tense and crowded. Including my TEAM (advisory) class, I taught five classes in a row and through lunch. I did have another teacher come in and ask me a question at one point. While she was there, I asked her to stay so I could run to the bathroom. It was crazy.

I don't know if it was the lack of food, or the lack of fresh oxygen, or the fact that I had a few extreme disappointments after grading the day's worth of tests, but by the time this afternoon rolled around I thought I might die. My head was throbbing (probably because I hadn't had a Coke since Saturday). I felt dizzy and nauseous (probably because I didn't eat lunch and my head was throbbing). I wasn't sure if Molly and I were going to make it home. We did. I crashed on the couch for a half hour while Molly screamed at James and then I finally started to feel better. Phew!

But, it ended up being a pretty good day. Why?

• The term is just about over and I have Friday and Monday off!
• James fixed most of our dinner. We had breakfast and between the 3 of us we ate an entire pound of real burned bacon. Delicious!
• I got a message that I sold a third used book on Amazon in about a week. These books having been sitting on my seller list for months. I'm not making more than a few bucks on each, but at least some boring books off my shelf are going to a better home.
  
• Molly finally stopped screaming and was super funny in the bathtub. She was copying everything I did except animal sounds. Every animal I asked her, "What does a ____ say?," she panted like a puppy and then giggled at me.

• And then the best news of all . . . GUSTER IS COMING TO SALT LAKE and to top that they are playing an all acoustic show with some type of string ensemble. Amazing! I am so excited. When I e-mailed my sister to make sure she read the news, she said, "Yes. I saw this and cheered. I am in!" Woo Hoo!!!!

Guster can make any day bright!

This little girl . . .

This little girl is mine.

She is my most favorite little girl in the whole world.

Today when I picked her up from school, one of her teachers told me this story. Molly and Emily (Emily and Molly are often confused by other people. Emily is a month or two older than Molly. They are both about the same size, have blonde hair, about the same length and cut, but otherwise look nothing alike.) were both sitting at the table eating their snack. Emily threw her cup of milk on the floor. She started whining for it back and Miss Sarah said, "No, Emily, you need to say, 'Help, please'." Emily continued to whine about her milk and Miss Sarah wouldn't give in, repeating, "Emily, you need to say, 'Help, please'." Finally, Molly, surveying the situation, threw her milk on the ground and promptly said, "Help, please. Help, please. Help, please." Good girl, Molly! (Ok, so maybe you shouldn't throw your milk on the ground, but at least you followed directions well.)

Also, Miss Sarah said they've been working more on sign language with the little kids. I know Molly knows "more," but that's all I've ever seen. Sarah said she also knows Please, Help, Milk, Cheese, and a few others. I've been trying to get Molly to do them tonight, but she just says all those words instead of signing them. I'm okay with that.

She's also been pretty good about going to school since we started back in January. She's whimpered a few times, but hasn't screamed at me yet. She's even waved and said, "Bye mama" a few times. It's a huge relief to not have to leave a screaming child every morning. It takes her a few minutes (it's not like she's running away from me in excitement), but usually she can find something fun to do (look at "Sal" the salamander, do the Chicken Dance, play with play-doh, put chairs around the tables) and is pretty good in a few minutes.