Break!

Thanksgiving. A time to be thankful. While I'm sure to have more deep and meaningful thanks as the week progresses, right now it is Friday night and I am thankful for a week off! It has been a crazy school year, folks. And today was the climax. I lost my voice. The choir teacher was teaching kiddos how to sing, without even SPEAKING. It was amazing. I mean, let's consider the superb teaching skills that have to be mastered to even be able to teach middle school in the first place. Then to do it MUTED? It seems there is little I can't do.

Now that I've sufficiently lied all over my page, I'll tell you how it REALLY went down. My 6th graders didn't understand that if I can't speak, then I can't answer 'why' questions very well. The boys thought it was great and 2 of them decided to become 'my voice' and 'instruct the class' as they thought I/they saw fit. My 7th and 8th grade girls were louder than I can even begin to imagine, and I had to resort to elementary echo clapping, WHICH THEY DIDN'T FOLLOW WELL. It was a day. But what made it worth every second of hacking and muteness for this bubbly, energetic, and usually loud woman? My Select kiddos threw me a birthday party! Several brought desserts, one made me a really cute "Peace, Love & Music" sign to hang in my room, and others got me pencils (since I break them tapping them on the music stands), Sharpie pens (my favorites!), and a stuffed toy for Coda!!!!! Do they know me or what??

I took pictures of Coda tearing into her toy. Mostly to prove to the girls she would get the squeaker (and most of the stuffing) out in under 60 minutes. She broke her own personal record and had it demolished in 32 minutes. I have attempted to load them onto my computer to share with you, but alas, it's not wanting to read my camera right now. So you will have to wait. I promise to post them though. I got some cute video too!

However, I can post from Halloween finally! My camera has been MIA lately. Well, not the camera, but the cable that charges the camera's battery. So I've had few pictures. And while there are several from others I would love to show you, here is Marc and myself at East. He brought me lunch the Friday before Halloween in his suit of armor! The kids loved it! They were all very intrigued by the chain maille and wanted to touch it. He was so patient! Mostly. ;) So here is the Knight and his semi-fair Maiden during the school day!