Milo and Otis theme song...youtube it...*love*

Oh.my.GRACIOUS....we made it. Where ON EARTH did this year go. I'm finished. Done-zo. First year of teaching is in the books...what???? Sara made me update, but refused to make an outline of things I need to cover, so it'll be sporadic.

We finished our three+ weeks of testing....thank goodness that part was over. It rocked to finally be able to do our nine-weeks test whole group (meaning I don't have to administer them one-on-one). The last week of school was spend preparing for our "transition program." A whack title, but no one asked me. The night before, I was stuck at school for an extra 90 minutes printing off certificates for this program. We had promotion certificates all signed and ready, but since not all students were being promoted, they obviously couldn't get them. Lame. I figured we would be a hot mess, as my class normally is for ANY type of program. That morning they came dressed to the nine's. It was only the 2nd day all year they didn't have to wear their uniform...and most of them came to school with their "hair did." Did I mention that more than one of the boys had light blue polyester multi-piece suits...wicked cute!

Anyway, we started the program with our kindergarten poem. I had the letters spelling out Kindergarten and each of them shared a big letter with a partner. They would go to the microphone and say their lines. Such as, K is for kindergarten....hip, hop, hurray. Well, we were doing alright, until we got to the last E. My two youngest, most immature boys were in charge of that letter. Well, when it was time for them to walk up to the microphone, it looked basically like deer in headlights, they totally balked. I thought, oh.friggin.cripes. What are we going to do. Well, I was sitting in the front row, so I went up the steps and coaxed the first one to the microphone telling him that I would say it too. This is the child who doesn't talk, so clearly I anticipated this going smoothly. He takes my hand, we walk to the microphone and together say, "E is for excitement..." The crowd is laughing hysterically, mostly because of the boys that refused to say their line, partially because I'm up there in a dress and heels reciting the same lines as 5 year olds. I take him back to his spot and have to coax the other one. He cried most of the morning (didn't like his outfit I guess) and didn't necessarily need my help, but walked to the microphone and in the crabbiest, maddest voice EVER said, "this.year.we've.had.some." which caused everyone to laugh again, but at least he was done. Oh goodness, get me off the stage, out of these shoes, and away from an audience making my kids cry. However, that was our final hurdle. We survived. We were done.

So....the last couple of days were spent cleaning and packing. Blah. I left school on Friday (the last day) not feeling as joyful as I anticipated. But a bonfire that evening was totally necessary. I spent memorial day weekend sulking about not being on the lake...and grading/doing grad school work. Tuesday was our last teacher workday...it should be listed on our yearly calendar as "day from hell." We had to be there at 7:30 a.m. only to sit around and pick our noses until everyone else finished their grades. Report cards had to be printed, verified, signed. Cumulative folders had to be finished, verified, immunization records updated, and stickers put in with grades. Let me tell you, none of this was even STARTED to be printed or verified until 3:30 p.m. I left at 6:10 and was one of the first 5 finished. ANNOYING! However, I literally screamed the entire way to Indianola, so frickin' excited to have survived and put the first year behind me (I was light-headed from screaming so much!).

Two days later....up at 5 a.m....16 hour drive to Amboy. It wasn't even awful (except for the moment I realized I forgot my fishing poles in Ruleville)! Granted, I'm thankful for having friends call me and having the internet on my phone ;) I'm not a fan of Missouri though...I will put that out there. It's been a whirlwind this past week....Amboy for a couple of days, Ingrid's bridal shower, turning in my 4th and final grad school contract, procrastinating starting my thesis paper, and L.O.V.I.N. my life in Winona. It's so beautiful here....enough to get us up at 6:15 a.m. to power walk around the lake. If you talk to me this summer and I don't have my thesis done, yell at me. If I'm sitting outside and haven't been to the library yet, yell at me. If I have been fishing and playing golf but not working on that stupid paper....feel free to drop kick my butt to next week.

Headed to the cabin for the weekend....fishing, swimming, laying out, reading books, eating smores and hotdogs over the campfire and eeeeekkkk'ing about how much I love life :) :) :)