4/20/09

4/20/09 What a LONG day!! We had to wake everybody up to get ready for school. Fortunately everybody was in good spirits and excited to go to school. The kids looked so nice in their uniforms. It was pretty strange to send ALL my kids to school. When we got there, I went with Laina to her class while Chris took the other three to turn in the paperwork. Laina was a little reserved but after a while she was able to stay by herself. She had the English half of the day first which I think helped her. Once she was settled, I found out that Morgan and Cole had already left for their own special Spanish class. Their teacher, Nancy, doesn’t speak any English so the kids will definitely get to work on their Spanish a lot. We were a little concerned about that but I have found that when people speak English to me it becomes sort of a crutch and I don’t work on my Spanish. I finally found Chris sitting with Alysa in her class. She wasn’t very happy at all!! She was put in the Spanish class first with a regular class and not with the teacher that she knows. She completely shut everybody out and wouldn’t do ANYTHING that she was asked to do. All she did was complain about the class and how she didn’t want to be in school. It was pretty tough to watch her go through that. Watching my kids struggle and go through hard times really helps me understand how the Savior feels when I am struggling. Yes, he could take me out of the hard situation but how would I learn and grow?? Same with Alysa. As much as I want to take her pain away, I can’t if she is to learn and grow.
After much frustration, Chris left Alysa with a pinky promise that he would come back with me. After that I sat with Alysa while Chris went to work for a little bit. I know the class must be intimidating for Alysa because I didn’t even understand a fraction of what the teacher was saying!! The other kids are really excited to have her in the class and they all gave her a kiss when class started. (She’s doesn’t like people in her space so that probably didn’t help her get off to a good start!!) While I was there she got to work on writing the letter ‘d’. She even got to finger paint it!! Once she was calm enough, I left her for a while and wondered out to the playground. It consists of a bunch of dirt with an old Wendy’s sign used as the sun shade. All walls are cinderblock and the equipment has seen better days. The kids love it just the same! Laina.’s class was doing an obstacle course and she was keeping up with everybody else. The teacher threw buckets of plastic fruit and balls out and the kids had to pick them up and sort them. Laina had a blast doing that. She kept taking the stuff to her teacher (now the Spanish teacher) and say stuff to her. The teacher would point and say something and she’d run off and do it. Chris was later informed by the Spanish teacher that Laina didn’t stop talking the entire time and that the teacher didn’t understand a single word of what she was saying but that it didn’t seem to bother Laina!
After Laina left, Morgan and Cole came out and told me that they had a great time at their Spanish class. They said that they had a few embarrassing moments but they liked it. Apparently the teacher asked them to do something and they thought they were supposed to repeat what she said. (: I definitely don’t think that they will be challenged academically but if they learn Spanish and make friends, I’ll be happy. The rest I can work on at home!! While Morgan and Cole had their break/snacktime/recess from Spanish, all of the other kids from the younger classes huddled around us to ask a TON of questions. We were able to communicate pretty well between our Spanish and their English. It was pretty cool when the kids would ask us how to say stuff in English. It seems like I’ve been so busy asking everybody else how to say everything in Spanish!
Once Morgan and Cole returned to their class then Alysa came out with her class for her recess. I don’t know how they keep the schedules straight. Alysa had another girl with her that kept holding her hand and trying to get her to play with her. It was pretty nice to see Alysa smiling and enjoying herself. She was still very clingy but at least smiling!! I was very happy that after recess Alysa went with Teacher Lily for the English part of the day. I was able to leave the school so Chris and I could go get some lunch before we had to be back at 12:00 to pick up Laina!!
Unfortunately our pizza wasn’t ready in time so we had to run back to the school to get Laina, then back to get the pizza, then back to get Alysa, Morgan, and Cole at 1:00. (We tried a new pizza place that I think we’ll definitely have to go visit again!!) Morgan and Cole were bouncing off the walls when they got out of school. Morgan’s teacher told the class that they all have to talk to Morgan in English to earn their points! Cole said he made all sorts of friends. What a relief!! Alysa had been crying when we picked her up though. She said she had cried a lot because she was sad. Once she got into the car though, it was the complete opposite. She couldn’t stop talking about how much fun she had and how excited she was.
When we got home it was mass chaos trying to listen to each kid tell about their day, figure out their homework in Spanish, and get stuff done for the next day. We finally got everything done and we were off to the grocery store to get more school supplies, lunch stuff, and groceries. After that, we ran to an Italian restuaurant for dinner for Chris’ birthday. It was pretty fun. The kids all got ice cream or cake with their meals which turned out to be a good thing because when I went to get Chris’ cake, they were all out!!
It was almost 8:00 when we got home so we bribed the kids to take showers, brush teeth, get clothes ready and everything else for bed by the time my alarm went off otherwise we wouldn’t get to open Chris’ birthday presents!!
A few weeks ago, Chris’ boss, Dave, had brought down some Tostitos chips, Dr. Pepper, etc for us to give him for his birthday. I think he was happy!
On top of it being the kids first day of school and Chris’ birthday, we were also expecting Dave to arrive at any time. He ended up getting to our house right after the kids fell asleep. He’ll be staying with us until Wednesday so that they can get some meetings done and get the construction started on the temple.