A Special Place in My Heart

I got to know these two kids really well last year when they were in my class. These two kids had a really hard time reading when they came to me last year, but, we worked and worked all year long to get them on grade level by the end of the year. They made so much improvement in just one school year, I was amazed! Both of their Mom's were extremely helpful and supportive and became some of my best friends. They would take what their kids learned at school and do the same things at home.

At the end of the school year last year it was really hard to let them go. Both of their supportive mom's vowed that they would work hard all summer to keep them reading so they didn't forget all they had learned, and that is exactly what they did.

At the beginning of this school year both mom's showed up in my classroom and asked if I would be willing to tutor their kids this year. We worked out our schedules so they could come to my house every Thursday for tutoring. We worked on more reading and math skills.

Throughout all of this I grew to love these children as if they were my own. We would look forward to having them in our home. Sometimes we finished early and we would let them play the Wii while they waited for their parents to arrive.

Just last week they both participated in the Center Stage play, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. They asked us if we would come and watch them. Tommy and I got tickets for the Thursday show on the second row. We had so much fun watching them sing and dance on the stage. Everytime they came on stage I would point out to Tommy where they were and we would laugh and smile at just how adorable they are.

This post is just another reason of why I am a teacher, for kids like these two. I love that I can make a difference in the lives of my students. In this case though, these two kids have made a huge difference in our life. Thanks Mckay and Holly we love you!!

Homemade Bread...YUMMY!

This week I have off of school because it is Spring Break. This is the first Spring Break I haven't gone to Vegas to get my hair done. So on Monday I made of list of all of the little things I wanted to accomplish this week. I knew that if I did that I would force myself to get up and do things instead of sleep all the time. For those of you that know me I love to sleep and usually I sleep every break away and don't get anything done.

Some of the things on my list included organzing different parts of the house that drive me crazy, trying out some new recipes, running errands, and making homemade bread.

Let me give you a bit of background on the last one. Tommy's mom makes the BEST homemade bread I have ever tasted. Little by little I have been getting everything that I needed to make the bread. A couple of months ago Tommy's parents bought us all of the ingredients in bulk to make bread. I have wanted to try this for awhile now but have never made the time to do it. I have watched Tommy's mom make the bread and I am not going to lie I was very intimidated. (By the way did I mention that you have to grind your own wheat). I decided that this week was the week I was going to try to make it.

The only thing I didn't have was a rolling pin so I went and got a rolling pin and then started the process. After a few phone calls to Tommy's mom for some last minute help and reassurance I did it.

I don't know why I thought that it was going to be so hard. It wasn't hard at all and it tasted so good. We had BLT's last night just to test it out. We had Tommy's sister and our neighbors over and everyone said it was delicious!

Thanks Mom for the help and making me get over my fear of making homemade bread. I think I am going to try to make it at least a couple of times a month from now on.

Here is a picture of my masterpiece. Obviously I need to work on the presentation a little bit, but come on this this my first loaf!