Nope, I'm not dead.

Hmmm...Emily pointed out tonight that it's been nearly a month since I updated my blog. It' s true, I got a little blogged out keeping up with the transplant blog (where I wrote 30-some entries in less than a week!), but mostly it's that I don't have anything nearly as interesting to write about now that no one is drugged up or being held together by super glue or staples.

The past few weeks have been hectic. My principal is fighting the district to keep my job full-time for next year (so that I wouldn't have to do part time at another school). It's necessary, and I believe she'll pull it off (because our program is really working nicely and if I'm not full-time, we can't serve all of the kids needs), but it's quite nerve wracking. We have the money, but she's fighting to be allowed to package it accordingly.

We've been WASLing for the past week and a half. At first I hated it. I actually started a blog last Tuesday, to tell about one of my 3rd graders who tried for an hour and a half to read a passage in her test booklet, before giving up without answering a single question, because it was just too hard for her, but it was just too sad at the moment to post it. Thankfully, she was able to give answers (probably mostly wrong) on all of the other 4 parts of the test (I figure she at least felt successful since she could do something). Now I actually have started seeing the merits of 2 weeks of testing. While it sucks because I can't teach right now, I'm kind of enjoying it (because I've realized that no one actually expects me to try and squeeze any groups in around the testing). I'm spending some extra time in classrooms just hanging out and joining in on fun (post test) activities (like making fried rice with the nutritionist and the 4th graders). Also, I've been shuiing my classroom. Today I recycled a few trees worth of old materials, mostly outdated paperwork that has no value and was taking up an entire 4-drawer filing cabinet! My room is looking quite beautiful, but there will always be more work to do.

The most satisfying part of my day occurred when I was taking out Grandma and Grampa's garbage/recycle/yard waste. I was picking up all of the chickweed that Grandma pulled up (to put it in the bin) and tried to pick up some dandylions that I thought she'd pulled up (because they were laying on the gravel by the hot tub). It turns out they were still in the ground, but because they were in gravel (that has that special paper under it), the roots went sideways rather than down, and I was able to grab them around the bottom, give a little wiggle, and pull the whole thing out, massive roots and all! It was about as satisfying as popping a giant pimple (which yes, I know I'm not supposed to do, but it sure is satisfying when the awful opportunity arises).

My goal for tomorrow night is to finish up the cute little ballerina/fairy costume I'm making Micaela for her 3rd birthday. The top of it is knit in pink, and it will have a purple skirt (shaped like flower petals) and ribbon ties at the shoulders. I'll post pictures when I'm done. It should be QUITE cute!