Can't Sleep

Writing a post for my blog will forever remind me of the first week I spent with my husband to be… back in Dallas, when I would write in the wee hours of the night simply because it was the only time I could do it. And I HAD to do it, of course, because I knew he’d be reading it soon. Just knowing that he would was enough of a booster to keep me up for hours, writing away, making sure to include the most interesting things in my crazy busy life to entertain and impress him.

Well, it’s sort of like that still… except this time around he is somewhere in the US and Im down here in Mexico. It’s past midnight for me, and I haven’t been able to go to sleep yet, because I have way too many things in my head. The anticipation doesn’t let me sleep. Forgive me if for a moment I write like no one else will read this… Q, Ry bear… I miss you.

Home will always be home. There’s the expected and familiar.. and I’m grateful for that. I am grateful to be here. But there are a lot of things I just didn’t expect.. the busy-ness and messiness of it all, for one thing, disorients me once in a while (and don’t get me wrong, it was busy and messy enough with just me, but now it’s 9 of us!) I expected this time to be a bit more laid back.. a time to enjoy my family leisurely. Strange that I expected that, knowing how crazy my parents’ schedule is –and I want to be of as much help as I can be. This is my very last year at home, and at home we all eat from the same pot. All for one, and one for all! I’m learning to re-embrace it.

So I am once again a “teenager,” a Sunday-school teacher, a school secretary, an active member of a youth group.. and of course a sister/daughter, a wedding planner and an ESL teacher, which were the three main goals for the year.

It’s been a busy month for me… emotionally and otherwise. Busy, busy. It’s been a strangely overwhelming AND fun month. Both hectic and exciting, tiring and rewarding….

School is going amazingly well, despite the expected bumpy start. Office paperwork is as complicated as I knew it’d be… and teaching 1^st through 6^th grade ESL is no easy feat, especially while the classroom is under construction and still lacks a blackboard. But I do have plenty of space, seats, and a computer (my laptop) and a projector. And Dad bought me a Disney interactive program, which the kids LOVED. I also have a whole lot of Power Points, flashcards, and other didactic materials. I think the kids and I are all having a lot of fun, and they are learning fairly quickly. In a month (2 classes a week) most of the grades have learned school vocabulary, the pronouns, the verb to be, this/these, that/those, the, my, a… the family, the house, the numbers, the calendar… my goodness.. I’m going fast. But that’s how smart they are. I’m very proud of them.

Hard things? Learning names, keeping the noise level down, and grading so much homework! But I refuse to lower the hw load.. they need it.

Fun things? Games and crafts with the kids. I had the 1^st grade kiddos make cubes with the names of the months, and they loved it. The cubes came out surprisingly well, given the age of the kids. They are all cute and colorful, and I intend on hanging them to the paper tree Im building in one of the corners of the classroom…Getting little notes and drawings is also a lot of fun too :)

So that’s been the start of the year for me.. I love teaching :) The kiddos make me happy .. jejejeje…

Alrights… Im going to sleep now.. Im finally starting to fade.