It's not Thanksgiving any more!

So, my thanksgiving post is late. But just because it's not thanksgiving any more doesn't mean we should stop being thankful. What if we all remembered to be thankful ALL the time?
Counting my blessings takes ages.

A - Awanas. Apple cider - which would be good right now. My throat hurts. Advent -which we're celebrating this year!
B - Boys (and I mean that in a totally innocuous way. Boys of all ages. They're fun!)
C - Church. Coffee. My name. Choir.
D - Daddy.
E - Evening time. Email
F - Friendship, Food, Fun
G - God's Grace
H - Holy Spirit. He has to remind me of so many things so often. Hugs.
I - Intercession. I love knowing that I can help my friends through prayer.
J - Joy.Real joy. Not circumstantial happiness. :)
K - Katey and Alicia. (they just go together like that)
L - Laughter, Love
M - Music. Mama. and my "other mothers," Marmee and Mom.
N - New friends!! I gained a couple of new friends this year. Yay! (Rae, Becca, and church peeps.)
O - Orthodontics. ... I WILL have pretty teef one day.
P - Popcorn. PEACE. Peace comes first, actually.
Q - Quiet.
R - Rain. Relatives. Random rambling. Reading.
S - Singing!! Sunshine, Stars, Siblings.
T - Tall shoes. Teaching.
U - Umbrellas. **I'm siiingin' in the rain, just siiingin' in the rain..."
V - Vincent, my crazy little green bird.
W- Walking. Waiting. Yes, I can be thankful for waiting.
X - X. I'm thankful for the letter X. ... mostly because I can't think of any X words. It's a nifty letter.
Y - Yogurt? I'm thankful for that. ... I can't think of many Y things either.
Z - Zippers. Where would we be without them? Zippers and Zeros.

Be thankful, people. :) I hope you had a great thanksgiving.
I'm looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.
<3

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school! I was so excited. Really, I was! And I'm still excited.
And all the other teachers think I'm nuts. But I love teaching, and I love little kids, so... Of course, some of the love and excitement wears off by the end of the school year, when you're sick of saying "don't climb the slide!" and chasing barefooted kids, germy (and prohibited) crocs in hand.

Anyways, where was I? Right. First day of school, in a cute clean room, with cute little boys.

There's my door, with all our names on it. Nifty, isn't it?






Here's my room as seen from the door! This photo turned out really blurry. Hm. Oh well.

I really enjoyed preparation week... playing with sticky tack, construction paper, and foam pieces... Painting my tree on a bulletin board was really fun. I laminated it so that I can put different art projects up for the different seasons. Jessica liked it so much, she had me paint one for her room.
I got her to cover my extra board with yellow paper in return. I still haven't decided what to put on that one... Any ideas?


I also brought in my bean bag chair, a fluffy dog, and lots of pillows from my room that I never use. Makes a super cute and comfy little reading/music corner. No success reading today, though. We're gonna have to work on our circle-time skills... But they're only 2. We have time.





I asked Mrs. Dawn to hunt down all the trucks for me. As you can see, we have no shortage of wheeled vehicles. And for good reason, too - all of them were employed today.

I used sticky foam letters to put the boys' names on their cubbies. I really like the way it turned out. ... Only, Nathan isn't coming. lol

I had his name on a couple of things already, and then Mrs. Nancy told me Tuesday that plans changed. It's ok. I can handle six boys, but five is just fine, too. :D

Well, I was going to go ahead and post pics of the little guys, too, but I've got to get off the computer now. Ah well. It was a good day, and I'm ready for bed.

I leave you with a picture of one of the cutest moments of the day.

-Miss Caitlin

Hallo again!

It's been over a week since I posted!

I've been busy.
Crocheting, going places, doing things... I had to drive somewhere almost every day last week. I think I listed all of the things I had to do in my last post. They all got accomplished, and they all worked out well.
Even the orthodontist visit. Although that isn't to say it wasn't miserable and painful and all that sort of thing. And then there's the fact that I still have to have these braces for two more years. Blegh. But I'm grateful, so there.

Hey, look! It's me when I first got my braces.
(I just felt like I needed some pictures in this post.)

Our movie night was a blast. It was so fun to see Beth and Katie again. Katie's gone off to college now... But she said we should have another movie night without her, in her honor. I agree.

I like talking about my friends in my posts so that I can tag them on facebook.

It's always fun when you see yourself in someone else's blog... if they're saying nice things about you. Or at least it is for me. lol I have other friends that would probably get mentioned more if they had facebooks so that I could tag them. Like Katey.

With that random little spiel over with, I would like to say that I'm glad to be back at work. This week is preparation time. Woo hoo! I've thrown away all sorts of clutter, and got my cabinets organized and neat. I decorated my door, and got started on a bulletin board. Other than that, I have nothing accomplished. I've got some idea books lying in my room that I've been meaning to look through... Got to get a lesson plan together, you know. I'm pretty good at flying by the seat of my pants (what an odd expression - that's the first time I've used that one, too, I think), but I doubt Mrs. Nancy would appreciate that. :D

I'm looking foward to actually starting with the kids there. I've only got two days a week, and a quarter of what I earn is paying for gas money to get there and back. Lest you think I'm exaggerating, ... well, I'm not. I put gas in the van today, so I know how much it takes, and if it's not a whole fourth of what I earn, it's more. Aaaanyways, I'm obviously not working for the money. I'm working because I love to! And guess what? ....
...
guess again.

My whole class is little boys!! Is that awesome or what?! I'm so excited. I'll have 6 two year old boys. It will be scary, but fun. Mrs. Nancy has labeled my class "Caitlin and the Boys." lol

And because I don't have any pictures of them yet, here's a favorite from the beginning of last year. It's my Rhett-Monkey!! I love that kid so much. He's grown a lot since that pic. I can't wait to see how much he's grown over the summer. Maybe his mom will need me to babysit... lol

Oh, yeah, I think where I was originally going with saying that I'm only working two days a week, was to say that it leaves me free to do other stuff during the week. Like maybe pick up a few babysitting jobs. ;-) And keep my nice little shop running.

It's been running well so far. As a matter of fact,
it's actually been picking up some speed lately. I'm currently working out another trade with Miss Helen from ShereDesign. This time it's for these great little bird earrings.
Her work is so cute!

Okay, I'm done now. I'll be back again someday.
"Hallo" and "love ya!" to all my friends. Enjoy your week. :)
-Miss Caitlin
P.S. I'm reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis in my spare time. It's amazing good. Check it out.