Fire Drill

On Thursday and Friday, I attended a two day training at my district office for their official behavior management plan. My district has it's own conference center, complete with a cafe. It is actually rather ingenious. They even rent the space out for other non-district events on the weekends.

I attended the training with 3 other teachers from my school along with my assistant principal. The second day of training went much like the first. There were some PowerPoints, worksheets to fill out, etc. Then right after lunch the fire alarm went off. There were two doors to choose from. One door went right out to the parking lot (the logical choice), and the other door went to the courtyard. The minute the alarm went off, my assistant principal starts yelling "Get the babies!!!" I looked around the room. There were no babies. However, she was the assistant principal so I figured she knew what she was talking about, and followed her to the courtyard. Sure enough, there was a staff daycare across the courtyard from where our meeting was being held. We went to daycare and all ten of us either grabbed an infant or lead toddlers across the street to the meeting place.

It was a bit surreal to go from not being responsible for anyone to being responsible for small children who you did not even know were there. Luckily, it was only a drill. Everyone was fine, unless you count the poor kids that were woken up from their naps.

A Visit With Shawn's Family

Shawn's sister's family came to visit Shawn's mom for this week. It was so great to see them, and it was fun to watch the boys play together. I think the 3 little ones will be the Three Musketeers in a few years, once they get organized.

USA V Venezuela

We went to a professional soccer game last night. It was so much fun. They had the dome open, and it was pretty cool to be both inside and outside at the same time.

Charlie started off on my lap, his hands covering his ears for the first 30 minutes. Then he got really into it and started chanting USA! USA! USA!. He did not stop chanting until we got to the car, much to the amusement of the people around us.

AJ loved the game too, and watched it intently.

All in all, a great time.

Charlie Complains To The Warden

The other day I made the mistake of taking Charlie to the grocery store, yet again. He asked if he could get a donut. I said he could, if he was good the entire trip. Things were going well. We made it to the actual donut counter without incident. Then, when we were checking out, he went into a full toddler tantrum flop, right in the middle of the store floor. I was paying and AJ was left to physically carry him out of the way of other shoppers.

Of course I was in the process of paying for the donut. We leave and I tell the still screaming Charlie to come over to the trash can. I then drop the donut in the trash can outside the store. As you can imagine, this did not improve his mood any.

Today, his note from school says:" While Charlie was painting the letter "F" today, he said he wanted to draw a picture for his mommy and daddy. "

Coincidence? I think not.

Welcome to Phoenix

I was leaving work and saw this guy on horseback riding down the street. I thought that this picture was so Phoenix. I have never lived anywhere else where people ride their horses down the streets. In fact, when we first moved to our neighborhood (about 20 minutes from where this picture was taken), we went to the store one day to fine horses tied up outside the grocery store and using a parking spot.

I played with editing this picture to make it clearer and you are just going to have to trust me that this is a whole lot clearer than the original. I could have gotten a better picture as the man rode in front of the school. However, the principal was speaking to me at the time and I thought whipping out my phone, mid sentence, would not be a good idea. Instead, I stalked the guy and drove behind him, pulling over to take the picture.

I should really call the health teacher at the high school and have his or her class come with Charlie and me to Target. Because after 3 tantrums and a spilled drink in the check out line, I could have sold abstinence t-shirts.

Charlie's Note of The Day

Charlie handed a block to a friend and said "It's not a block. Come on man, use your imagination!"