I Survived!

Well, I did it. I survived the first week of school. And in all honesty, it went pretty well. Sure, there were a few hiccups, and signs of problem behaviors, but overall, it was a reasonably successful week of school. Even though I’m overwhelmed by the number of evaluations I will have to do this year, and the number of meetings that are imminently in my future, I’m hopeful that things will settle in, in the next few weeks, and my life will slow down a little bit. I’m not counting on it, but a girl can dream, right? Anyway, I thought I’d write a little bit about what I’ve been up to. 

On Tuesday, I went to school, nervous and excited to see my kids. The kids were all learning classroom rules and expectations with their general education peers, so I just kind of bounced from room to room, trying to make sure that my students were on-track, and nobody was melting down. Most of the students were glad to see me, although a couple of them didn’t want to be singled out in the class, so with those kids, I just made eye contact and smiled from a distance.  In one sixth grade classroom, I snuck up behind a student of mine from last year. I’m not working with him this year, but when I peeked in the room, he was clearly lost. So, I crouched down beside his desk, tapped him on the shoulder, and he simultaneously jumped and turned his head. “Ms. Pierron! You scared me!” he whispered, excitedly. “It’s really good to see you,” he said, as he squeezed my shoulder. I left the room shortly after, and when I stopped by to check on him again, he was doing just fine. I was happy for him.

Wednesday was my birthday. 31. It’s crazy to me, because I’m not at all where I thought I would be in my life at 31. I take that back. In many ways, I’m exactly where I expected to be at  this age. I have a beautiful child, a great home, wonderful friends, and a job that I love. So, in all of those areas, I suppose I couldn’t really ask for any more. I guess I just never thought that I’d be 31 and a single mom, living paycheck to paycheck. But life is never what you expect, right? And that’s okay, I won’t be in this situation forever. I have a feeling it’s going to be a great year for me. Anyway, the day itself was wonderful. Certainly better than LAST year’s birthday! Last year, I spent the entire day running from one DMV to the next, trying to get my in-state driver’s license. This year, I went to school, and received a bag of goodies from one of my friends, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers from another. By the time I checked FB, I had lots of birthday messages, including a message from one of my favorite little gymnasts. Those little things definitely got my day started off on the right foot. Students were still spending most of their time in their regular classrooms, but a few kids came down for small groups. A couple of them clearly just needed a break, so one of my co-workers put “Just Dance” on the SmartBoard, and let them take a movement break. It was hilarious. I’ve never seen two 6th grade boys so serious about dancing. When “I Will Survive,” came on the screen, my co-worker and I joined in with the kids. I’m sure if anybody walked by, they probably thought were were crazy. But it was fun! And the kids were much easier to work with after their little dance break. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, and I went out to dinner that evening. After Charley went to sleep, one of my girlfriends who lives a couple of blocks away came over for a glass of wine and we chatted for awhile. It’s amazing how much we have in common, and we just met by chance at the pool a couple of months ago. It just goes to show, you can meet good people anywhere…Particularly in Minnesota!

The rest of the week was pretty typical. There were a couple of miscommunications, and a few student meltdowns, but nothing too bad. This morning, Charley woke up in a great mood, and ready to go at 6 a.m. By noon, I had already vacuumed and steam cleaned the floors, done two loads of laundry, run the dishwasher, and Charley and I had already been to the grocery store, and the park twice. My mom called, and asked if she and my sister could come up for a visit, so they stopped by for awhile, which was nice. Charley and I sat outside, waiting for them to come, and discovered a nice family of bees living on the front of our garage. I don’t know if it was the product in my hair, or if the bees could just sense that I’m severely allergic, but they were circling around me for a good fifteen minutes. I didn’t want to panic, and scare Charley, but truth be told, I was screaming on the inside! I kept walking around, trying to avoid them (which I’m sure looked ridiculous to anybody who might have seen me from a distance), but they just wouldn’t leave me alone. When we went to the pool later in the day, I seemed to have another bee-stalker. Bees and mosquitoes are the reason I don’t consider myself an outdoor person! I think they can sense my fear. Anyway, I managed to make it through the day without a sting or a bite, so I suppose that’s a success!

Alright, I suppose I should get myself ready for tomorrow. I’ve got a full day of private lessons at the gym, and it’s going to be a doozy. On an unrelated note, this is my 99th blog post! When I started blogging a year-and-a-half ago, I never really imagined I’d keep writing for so long. So with that said, any requests for 100th post blog topics? Let me know! Have a great weekend!