Of lists, planners, etc.

Both Red and Gray and M are planners. They map their course.
I make lists sometimes, then forget where I put them.
And I very seldom plan.
Planning would make my work easier. There's so many things to do before the end of the school, report cards, cumulative reports, class inventory, promotion performance, end of year picnic. It would be helpful to make lists and prioritize.
Yes, maybe next year :)
Don't get me wrong. I totally see the wisdom of planning, I am just not good at following plans, or making them.
I am organizationally challenged.

Mother Goose

Friday night we had our Kindergarten Nursery RhymeS performance. It went well and we had fun, the children performed like pros and the parents enjoyed the whole thing! I must say I was a hit as Mother Goose, I wore a long dress with an apron and a little bonnet. Many parents wanted their kids to have their pictures taken with me, whether they were from my classroom or not. My room mother presented me with a beautiful bouquet of roses.
My two coworkers were a little stressed but J came and helped out. After the performance, J and I went to our usual after performance dinner at Acapulco, afterwards I took her to the train station.
Saturday and Sunday, I slept late, I soaked in the Jacuzzi, planted some flowers, cleaned my closet, sorted my shoes, bought 2 cute tops, went to Trader Joe's, cooked and just plain rested.
Just 14 more days of school !!!! it's time for report cards, promotion to 1st grade performance, end of year picnic. Lots of work and then...VACATION TIME!!!!!!! :)

Taking my grandson to work

T has been telling me he wants to help me at my school. So on Monday, M brought him to school at 11. There was no way he would wake up at 6:30, he said it was vacation time!

When they came in we were rehearsing our Nursery Rhymes play. Then it was my lunch time, he had a late breakfast and didn't eat. In the teacher's lounge I introduced him to some teachers then went to visit my friend Jennifer in 2nd grade. T thought 2nd grade was way better than Kinder. I beg to disagree, so did Jennifer :)

When my students came to my room, they thought T was my son (I love those kids lol). T helped correct their work, he told me he understand the work teachers do better now, he said correcting work takes time and effort. He decided he would not want to be a Kindergarten teacher because the kids are too talkative and immature. Then he decided teaching was not for him and went outside to play. After the kids finished their work I let them go outside too, and pretty soon T was the leader of the pack, with all the kids running after him (shades of Hamelin)? Afterwards, he read them a book and it was time to go home. The next day we were going on a field trip and the kids asked him if he would come along. T's answer NO, asked my not, he replied I got enough of you today!!!

I think he has a little more respect for my work now, he said he understands if I come home tired.

Conversely, my sister M had said she was going to come help me at school some days during her stay in California. She came to help me one day, she helped clean up the room for Open House and did a good job, but she asked me if the kids were always so noisy (I have a super energized class this year). She didn't come back lol.

May 4, 2008

I have not written for about a month. The reason being my sister has been visiting from Sweden. Today we went to the airport to bid her goodbye and wish her a safe trip back home.

It was fun having her here, but because I did not have vacation time, it was a bit hard for me to juggle work and leisure. We spent the day yesterday shopping and shopping lol (my favorite thing to do, not)! She left with an extra suitcase again.

I hope she enjoyed her stay here, she went to San Diego, Sea World, and Universal Studios. Went to Santa Monica and Huntington Beach, and we ate at many different restaurants. Friday night she took us to Duke's in Huntington Beach, to have dinner with a view of the sunset. We didn't know they had a Beach Volleyball Invitational and instead of the Ocean, we saw volleyball nets and the sponsors banners! But we enjoyed the evening anyway.

Now we have T for a couple more weeks, we really enjoy having him here :)

I am attaching one of our "fun" pictures from our San Diego dinner in Old Town...now who was that man? lol

Spring Break

We spent my Spring Break in Utah. It was so nice to see Red and T and MT. It was fun picking T up in school and just hanging out with him :)

We had a few days of nice weather, then came the snow! and when we left, it was snowing again. The mountains and trees looked so beautiful, and cold.

Utah was fun, Red and I went to have a haircut, mine looked great, I wish I could take care of it so it looked as nice now. We also had a manicure. And we had a great time at the Utah Jazz game, in the awesome suite with great food and drink, so fun! only way to go. We also went to see a movie, "Definitely Maybe", it was cute.

It was a relaxed time, which I needed. Red did most of the cooking during the week, we had ham and Mormon potatoes -I like this name better-, we had lasagna, we had sole, and chocolate croissant bread pudding, among other things. Red is quite a cook!!!

We left on Sunday and spent the night in Whiskey Pete's. In the desert, the Joshua trees were blooming.

Wildflowers

It has been raining so much this winter, that everybody said the California wildflowers were in full bloom and gorgeous. M and I decided to go for a drive on Saturday to see the flowers. Our original idea was to go to Anza-Borrego State Park, but I read in the Internet that there were a lot of people going there on weekends, and there were no rooms available in any area motels. So we decided to stay closer to home and go to Chino Hills SP . We took the SSR and went on our way. The Park is right next to a house development, but once you start driving on the unpaved road, is like being in a totally different place. It was beautiful! We saw quite a few hikers but not many cars. When we arrived to the end of the road, it had a spectacular view of hills and flowers.

Afterward we drove to Lake Elsinore, to see the California poppies. We stopped for lunch at the "famous" Tom's Farms http://www.tomsfarms.com/

All in all we had a very pleasant day looking at some beautiful California flora.

Back to jobs :)

After my musical adventure, my next job was working at a Travel Agency. It was close to my High School, so it was very convenient. I worked there after school and on weekends. I loved it! My best friend Isabel also applied for work there, so we spent a lot of time together. My job was to make "forfaits" . Travel Agencies from Europe and the US would write asking for hotel reservations and transfers for clients. I would make the hotel reservations and the transfers from the airport (or train station, or harbor, to the hotel) I also would make reservations to the bullfights, city tours etc. It was fun and I learned a lot (I also dated one of the travel agents, one of my very few Spanish boyfriends). After I graduated from High School and before I started college, I went looking for another job, preferably in another Travel Agency, where I could work longer hours.
I was sorry to leave that job, but I found another one in a Travel Agency that was run by a friend of my father. It was a bigger agency, in a great location, and I was the only girl there! I was 17 years old, and I worked there until I got married. 4 of the most fun years of my life!!!!