Teacher Calls

This week has been quite active! Sal was out of town for the first part and the daily activities did not slow down! But, to add to the excitement this week, the teachers were calling! Tuesday, after returning from my conference, I received a call from Clarissa's teacher. Clarissa had decided that she was mad at the teacher and so she wasn't going to do any work! Not the kind of call you want to get ESPECIALLY when you are a teacher yourself! So, I spoke with Clarissa through gritted teeth, reminding her of why she was at school and that I fully believed the whole "spare the rod, spoil the child" Proverb, hung up and prayed that I had made a believer out of her because I sure didn't want to have to leave my school to go to hers and PROVE myself! At the end of the day, I received an email from her teacher thanking me for my support and letting me know that Clarissa had been an angel the rest of the day. Tuesday evening wasn't too much fun around our house because there was still consequences to dish out! Wednesday on my conference I received ANOTHER call, this time from a teacher at Jonathon's school. It starts out like this...."Is this Jonathon's Mom?"; for a brief second I wanted to say no.....but I didn't! So, I owned up to who I was and prepared myself for what I THOUGHT was to come.....but I was wrong. One of his teachers was calling to tell me how much she enjoyed having him in her class, how he was such a model student for others to follow, and that she just wanted me to know. WOW! I was speechless. Just 24 hours before I was speaking through gritted teeth! I quickly knew that I needed to celebrate Jonathon and what he was doing and I felt bad for Clarissa and knew it would upset her because in her eyes, Jonathon NEVER gets in trouble!

INSERT NOTE - Don't ever leave God out of the equation....HE is SO good!

Right before I left school that day, I checked back over my email and had received an email from Clarissa's teacher. It said.."Just wanted you to know that Clarissa is back to her wonderful self today. She was her sweet, hardworking, great attitude self. Just wanted you to know!" It brought tears to my eyes! Now, we can all celebrate and we did! (Ice cream and gum....that's a whole other blog!)

The week ended with another call from the counselor and Jonathon's school, wanting to share with me some words that she had heard from teacher's about Jonathon.....all so pleasing to a mother's ear and then last night at Clarissa's fall festival, the coach telling me how sweet and cooperative Clarissa is.

So why blog about all of this? Well, for a couple of reasons. One, to let folks know that even teachers get those yucky phone calls from their kid's teachers. Two, never underestimate your kids! Three, remember at all times to celebrate the successes more than the failures. Finally, to thank God for using my children to make me a better parent AND a better teacher. I plan on making more POSITIVE calls this week than those yucky ones!

Jobs Galore!

Sal and I have been looking at living room furniture for about a month now and finally found something that we both liked this weekend. How blessed we are that we were able to purchase new furniture. I took a picture of it with my phone but will have to wait until it arrives to take a picture with the camera so that I can post it! New LARGE purchases always make me a little nervous but I'm excited for it to get here!

We also treated ourselves to Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets for December 30! After the furniture and the tickets we told each other Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary, and Happy Birthday! YIKES!

So now the work begins. We're turning the playroom into a gameroom which is a little sad I must say. There is no longer really a need for one room devoted to the playroom rather now they've moved into the need for a "gameroom". We'll move our loveseat into there and give our couch and tables away. We want to have the carpet cleaned and I'd love to put a fresh coat of paint on before the furniture arrives. All of this on top of....we have already begun tearing off wallpaper in the kid's bathroom and have bought new flooring for it so that project needs to be finished. We need to paint both kid's rooms and Sal mentioned recarpeting them this weekend and then there's the "gameroom" that will need some paint and other work! I guess we won't be bored this winter, huh? I just pray we get it all done and still like each other at the end of it!

Have a great week all!

Six Random Things

My friend Melissa has tagged me and now I need to post six random things about me. This could be hard because I know there are many more than six but I'll try! Here goes!

1. When I was little we had a pet pig. We raised pigs and this was the runt of the litter. We raised him in the house and his name was Arnold.

2. I can't stand to drink something in a restaurant without a straw. I start thinking of all of the lips that have touched the glass and it grosses me out!

3. When I was little, I wanted to own my own full-service gas station just so I could use the squeegie thing to clean windows. I still love cleaning the windows!

4. I am a list person. I will add things I've already done to the list so that I dcan feel that sense of accomplishement when I cross them off. Weird, I know!

5. One of my favorite meals is scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh tomatoes with toast! YUM!

6. If I think too deep about how God has blessed me with my children, I will cry. They are both such miracles and there was a point in my life that I never thought I'd be a Mom. God is so good!

OK - That's my beginning of randomness. Now I tag Penny and Megan.