Can I get a 1-2-3?

Or even an Uno- Dos- Tres would be good for now.

I've started school. Actually, I'm three weeks well into school. I thought I was pretty prepared for teaching little kids after nannying the Flanagan boys for 4 years, but in ways that I couldn't have anticipated, this job is difficult.

I did anticipate the following in this job:

• kids crying the first few days
• teaching them how to wash their hands, stand in a line, and other basic necessities
  
• throwing rocks on the playground
• needing to put kids in time out
  
• throw up
• snot

I did not anticipate:

• needing to tackle kids bolting for the door
• that speaking English to the kids would still get no response after three weeks
  
• that I would not be teaching them English so much as taking a crash refresher course in Spanish
• laughing every day at their preciousness
  
• being utterly exhausted every day of the week by 11:30
• poop
• yes, I said poop. One of the kids brought me a fecal sample of their very own on the playground with the words, "teacher, I need to go to the bathroom, see?"

It is a very good job but it is tiring. I have regained about 1/2 of my Spanish, still only speaking in present tense with an occasional fue, fuiste, fuimos or fueron (it's the past tense for "go"- it means "i/we went"). While I'm glad to be speaking Spanish again, my goal here is to teach them English- which is very hard for now. see the following: I get no response to "stop throwing the blocks!" and get an immediate response to "no lanze los bloques!" and since I'm a thinking being, I do not want to continue to do those things which provide me with no results. Therefore I've been learning a lot of Spanish rather than teaching much English.


Theres not a whole lot more to say about school. It's fun. Every day I have another funny story to tell my roommates when I get home. Every day they hug me. They're terribly cute and I like them all, even the defiant ones.


Here are some pictures for you:

mi casa con las bouganvillas.


These two plants belonged to Justin's grandad. I inherited them when he passed in June and nursed them back to health.

Una parte del jardin! Here all you can see are sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes, but there is much much more.


CHICKENS!!
the two in the middle here are Grushenka and Old Warsaw


here we have Mr. Boltitude and Gingo


I love Old Warsaw's feathers



This is actually my roommate. Kris Hiew. Yes it is.
don't laugh too hard- he got $20/hr for this



This past weekend was spectacular. It was a huge Waco reunion as Ethan Durelle played their last show together. 8 years as a band and you'll know a lot of great people.
These are from the show at CG:

I have the WACO sign in this one. mucho gusto




The amazing Reeve Hunter.
L-I-V-E in the H-E-B

And there's Ellie, on stage with her best friends. The pinacle of this experience for me was watching her singing at the top of her lungs "I'm not worthy of this life."

Oh yeah, after the show- around 2am, roughly 40 people came over to hang out. Enough stayed the night to fill every room other than the kitchen and bathroom. We had 20 in the house when I woke up the next day. good grief.


All in all it was a poignant and triumphant close to the 8 years of music. I was glad to be a part of the final day. I love my family here.