Take Your Child to Work Day

Well as many of you know, I don't have a child. But I do have a Lacy and she has been excited about going to work with me since last summer when I first mentioned the concept of such a thing. You see, she's very much like I was when I was little. I think she might grow up to be an educator herself.

I had class last night but Josh kindly went to my mom's for a cookout-- I mean to pick up Lacy and eat burgers and corn on the cob while he was there :o) When I got home from class the three of us had some fun playing Rock Band on XBox until about 10:00. Then Lace, being the ultra-student she is insisted that she read for 20 minutes for her homework. I think the assignment is 10 minutes per night but she was doubling up to because she had missed a night. Here are some pictures of the fun:

Lace & Josh on guitar

Get this girl a contract!

She was even brave enough to attempt the drums...
no amount of coaching on my part was going to save her here.

This morning we climbed into the car and she said- Em, we're finally here! Can you believe it? Like I said, she's been asking about this day for practically a year now. I had to warn her in the car that my school is old, and the children aren't always nice, and not to drink the water (lead!). And sure enough, she did great. She really liked drawing on my ActivBoard and writing what the kids activities were going to be. Sometimes she walked around the room to check their work and then would report back to me who was finished and who hadn't done anything at all. It was all too adorable. She even drew these pictures on the ActivBoard where it would look like an ordinary picture but in it was hidden eyes, a nose and a mouth. For example, in this one picture there were two stick people. Their cirlce heads were the two eyes. They were holding hands and the dot where their hands met was the nose. On the ground below them was a mouth-shaped row of flowers. You guessed it, the mouth. So we would spend the last 5-10 minutes of class letting the students try to guess where the eyes, nose, and mouth where. Something you might think sixth-graders would show no interest in or at my school, even make fun of. But they played right along raising their hands and letting her call on them. Again, all too cute. I cried inside all day for forgetting my camera (or as preschool-Lace would say, "cramera").

As a result of our satanic rotating schedule, my lunch time backed up to 70 minutes of planning today so we went to Subway for food. Since we had a good chunk of time she also wanted to watch Mulan when we got back. I turned that on for her while I did some quick planning for the next lesson.

The biggest event of the day came during the last period. Just as the bell rang and class started we looked out my windows (I have the back corner of the building, windows on both sides of the corner giving me a bird's eye view) to see three trouble-maker boys tearing off across the field and disappearing over a hill. My class of course went crazy laughing and talking about it. Lace was horrified. She couldn't imagine what they were doing and where they were going. I had to remind her that some kids at my school are really bad. Anyway, that was solved with a quick email to administration.

After school we came back to my house and had snacks. Then we played Uno until Amberly called. She was in Catonsville for a doggy doctor appointment so we decided to meet at the soft-serve stand on Route 40. It was a pefect day for it. We stood in line with our puppies laughing and telling stories (people probably thought we hadn't seen each other for months). It was kind of comical because we have dogs that are brother & sister, so they look a lot alike, and everyone says that she and I have identical voices. So I wondered what the people around us thought. Needless to say, we dominated all conversation for a good 6-foot radius. It was good fun. Then we were on our separate ways with rapidly-melting ice cream cones.

So now Josh is home and doing a tiny bit more work (literally his 11th hour) before we cook up some dinner and settle in for TV night. Last week I couldn't keep myself up for ER so maybe tonight I'll be able to hang in there.

This weekend I have a baby shower Saturday and Josh is going to Guitar Center to finally buy all of his music equipment that he needs. I really can't wait for him to start practicing and recording. I know he's excited for it too. And Sunday I'm pretty sure we're having dinner at the Beck parents' house. Yay!

And I know this post is long enough, but just as a P.S. I got a new vacuum cleaner and I was super excited. I called that sign #75231014 that I'm growing up. But you know what? I've got some clean floors :o)