Wednesday Thankfulness

Today I'm thankful for breaks from school. Although, I love what I do, I do love a day off too! I am also thankful for my students this year and my team-teachers. Before school started I prayed that I would have a good year, I still pray for that. Our kids are probably the most challenging out of all the 6th grade students, but we are having a good year so far. There are those students I have to be stern with, but I've definitely toughened up since last year. I guess that comes with experience. Jeremy says I react so differently to situations this year. Last year, I would take things personally, I now let them go and do what I can to make a difference. On another note, I used to come home drained of all energy, but I have noticed that I am not as tired this year. I guess that also comes with experience. I am better prepared to handle the daily on-the-go schedule, I am better prepared with the 6th grade curriculum, and I am better prepared to teach students.  

It's funny that I used to be able to sleep late, and I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but I'm so used to getting up early that I can't sleep in on my days off. Today, I got up and got to enjoy some quality time with Miriam, Micah, and my dad. We all went to Sam's. My dad had to go get some cereal. We ended up leaving with much more than JUST cereal. We even got lunch there. While growing up, I would have been so embarrassed to be seen at Sam's eating lunch. (Man, I used to get embarrassed when Momma sang in the grocery store!) I find that funny that I used to get embarrassed so easily. Now I LOVE getting cheap food. It's not only cheap, but it's yummy. My dad and I (and Jeremy once) have been to Costco a few times lately as well and we've enjoyed some tasty hotdogs and strawberry sundaes. I laughed at myself today for charging $1.56 on my debit card though. After our trip we got to go through a car wash because Micah said the truck was dirty! I had to wake him up so he got to watch it. He got so excited as Daddy's truck got cleaned. I was quite impressed with the nice cleaning job and will have to take Lug to get her cleaned.

The rest of my day off was filled with fun with family. I got to FINALLY go see Twilight. I went with Cindy (Jeremy's mom), Jonathan (Jeremy's brother), and Laurel (Jonathan's g/f). We ALL enjoyed it. Cindy and Jonathan now want to read the other books since they've seen the movie. My goal since April has been to get other people to get into the series! I am a fan of the movie! They did an incredible job even if they didn't read the books before they became the characters. There were things I had not imagined and it throws off my thinking because for 4 books (about 2800 pages) I had something else in my mind. Much of the books are the character's thoughts and its hard to show that on a movie. Some of that was left out, but I filled those thoughts because I was more aware of what was going on. Afterwards, Jeremy joined Jonathan, Laurel, and I for dinner. This is only the 3rd time I've seen Laurel, so it was really fun to get to know them and their relationship a little more. Laurel and I were also able to have some fun conversations on the way home because Jonathan and Jeremy rode together and then we were in my car.

Those are all things that make a day off so much fun. There are so many things I like to do on my days off, so I have to pack lots of stuff in. I usually don't rest on breaks, but it's okay. Brandi (my teammate) thinks I'm crazy for staying so busy on my breaks, but hey, I love every moment I can have with my family! 

---Goodbye until tomorrow on the "real" Thanksgiving day... the day I should be thankful...