40 and 1 week....

This was the fastest week I've ever had! Where did the past 7 days go? There were still things I wanted to share from my birthday, and a whole week has passed already. Let's try and wrap this up...

That evening, my son and I went to dinner with my parents at one of our favorite restaurants. My brother and sister were both working, so it was just the four of us. After dinner, I took my son to his other grandma's, and the rest of us headed to the bar. When I arrived at the bar, some friends were already there waiting for us. A few minutes after I got there, my brother told his buddy (who helps him out behind the bar) that he had to go home for something, and that he'd be right back. About 10 minutes later, he came back with this:

Check out the description on the box! Pimpin Stein!?! LOVE IT!!I LOVE it!! He and I were cracking up, especially after we had to translate for all the seriously Caucasian people in our group. While my brother was gone, I had taken that opportunity to mix myself a couple of margaritas (that's right, I said a couple.) I had made them in BIG pint glasses, so there was quite a bit of heaven there. When he brought me my goblet, I washed it out, and then poured my two drinks into it. They didn't even fill it half-way! I LOVE this thing! I decided I'd better finish what was in there instead of filling it up all the way. Good thing, because I made those margaritas a little on the strong side, and by the time I was half through, I was trashed! More friends joined us in the meantime, including my Dori, and a good time was had by all. At some point, my brother turned off the music, and announced to the entire bar that it was my birthday, and had everyone sing to me (just like we did for my dad a few weeks ago). It was very sweet! My mom and sister then served ice cream topped brownies to the whole bar.

Flash forward 3 days to Mothers' Day. I've already spent too many days boring you with the details of my birthday, so I'll keep this short. I got even more flowers (yay!) from my nieces and my brother. Aren't they pretty? The daisies are from my nieces, the tulips are from my brother.

The only thing is that now, my kitchen is starting to feel like a funeral home, with all these flowers!Hey, remember way back when, when I started a blog to tell you about life as a CPS teacher? Baby Story Alert!

Once again, it's DIBELS time! Oh, joy! I've been trying to jot down some of the funnier things the babies have said. Before I share those, let me just say, I'm so proud of my babies so far. As much as I bitch and moan about not being able to do any teaching because I'm always disciplining, obviously some of them must be absorbing some of what I say.

You might remember that one of the tests requires the babies to take words I give them and make sentences. The words I gave are bold and in italics:

These are from Miss K.C.

• "I felt a wooshie cushion." (woopie cushion?)
• "Animals are not shmosta (supposed to) boo boo in the house!" (For those of you not in the know, "boo boo" is the Englewood version of "poop")

Miss C.W. gave an awesome sentence for the word north. "I went to the North Pole." Don't even get me started on the fact that north is one of the words given to 5-year olds to use in a sentence!

D.J. (who I haven't written about in ages!) gave me a couple of very short phrases for these two:

• "Early dismissal." (we hear this phrase far too often at school!)
• " North side." (I think this may be a Chicago thing!)

Earlier in the day, we had started a new unit for reading, and this week we are discussing insects. I was trying to see what the babies already knew about insects, and I asked, "How many legs do insects have?" A few of the babies started yelling out random numbers, from 2-100. Then D.J., with a very serious face, said matter-of-factly, "A lot!" I've been meaning to write about D.J. for a while now, I just haven't had the strength or energy. I will get to it soon though. I have lots to say about him.

OK, it's time to figure out what's for dinner. Thank you, Big Cheese, for signing me up for a workshop today. By now, you have to know that means I enjoyed a day off today! Hence, this extra loonnggg post!!

This made me think of D.J.

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today. ~Stacia Tauscher