7/6/09-7/8/09

Monday 7/6/09

Each day that I go to school, I get more frustrated with the weird, unorganized ways that things are done!! For some reason the 4/5th grade Spanish teacher has the kids bring their pets to school. They bring them for the entire day and have to keep them in the English class. It is so annoy and such a distraction!! Today a kid brought a basset hound and it barked the whole day!! UGH!!

Tuesday 7/7/09

Today I was asked how the 4/5 graders were doing with their words for the spelling bee tomorrow. I said that I didn't know since they were given their lists to practice at home. Apparently the principal was expecting me to practice all the words with the kids in class!! I am soooo glad that she waited until the afternoon before the spelling bee to inform me of this!! (Yes, that was said with a LOT of sarcasm!!) Things tend to wait until the last minute to be taken care of here!!

Today we also had our first day of the "clubs". I did the quilting club but only had 1/2 the number of kids that had signed up. Oh, well, we'll just make a smaller wallhanging. It went fine but I was glad to have it over. Today was a packed day with things one right after another. After the quilting club, I had piano lessons for Georgy and Juan Fer at the school but they forgot the power cord for their keyboard so they had to cancel. I was able to use that time to get some planning done for school next week and to help Alysa and Laina with their homework. Morgan and Cole got done at 3:00 and we headed home to hurry and make dinner, do homework, try to breath, and then off to choir practice. Chris was working really late so all of the kids got to go with me. There was some sort of bribery announced on Sunday so our choir went from 2 people last week to over 20 this week!! A lot of the people I have never seen before. Each month the stake has a less familiar practice hymn for each ward to work on. Sunday I was told the song for this month and it was a song that isn't even in the English Hymnbook!! (At least not that I've been able to find!!) So, I had two days to figure out how to play this song. Not to toot my own horn but I was very pleased with how well I did!! (I have to really absorb those moments because they are far fewer than my frustrating moments since we've moved here!!)

Wednesday 7/8/09

The Lord must have a sense of humor and he is just laughing at us right now. I don't know what he was thinking when he sent us to Guatemala!! We are trying to figure out what it is that we are doing here!! Is it to learn patience??? Learning how to deal with more varieties of people???? Learning to laugh (or cry some days) at ourselves??? What ever it is, it is TOUGH!! This week has been especially tough emotionally for the whole family. Chris is really struggling with being able to express what he needs to at work and trying to get things done in a timely manner. Cole is struggling with being the youngest in the Spanish class and feeling like he is being made fun of. I am struggling to balance my time between school, home, family, personal time. I feel that I am putting in a lot of time/energy to teach these classes but that it isn't appreciated. The kids can be brats to put it bluntly!! I can not wait for the middle of August when the new teacher is supposed to start. I am however worried that if I am not at the school that I will feel even more isolated and alone than I already do. I also worry that I won't get as many opportunities to practice my Spanish. Laina is struggling to make it through the day if she doesn't get a nap! (Which also adds to my struggles!!) Alysa and Morgan seem to be doing better than the rest of us. We are also struggling to figure out what we need to do about the kids schooling. Morgan is getting absolutely nothing out of school other than learning Spanish. She is not getting any learning done in any other subject and she is not socializing with any of the other kids. She would rather sit in a room by herself than to have to go to recess. Cole is doing better at socializing than Morgan and he is doing work in his English class. However, he (and his teacher agrees) is not being challenged. His English teacher is great and feels bad that he isn't learning much but I have repeatedly told her that he is a special case and to not stress about him. She has suggested having Cole go into the 3rd grade Spanish class and just sit and listen for an hour a day but he refuses! So, we are contemplating home schooling those two. They are both all for it but if we do, they won't learn/use their Spanish. I can't seem to find a middle ground where they are able to learn Spanish but also learn the other things that they need to. (Not to mention having the chance to interact with other kids their age) Alysa and Laina are both doing amazingly well in school and seem to be fitting in with their peers in both Spanish and English. Oh, the agony of worrying about your kids and their well being!!

Well, if you can't tell, it's been a trying day/week/months! Hopefully I'll have a little pick me up this weekend and do something different.