The life of a first-year teacher

Yes, I'm alive. Promise. But in transitioning to the new job, I have realized that every day, I am more and more behind. And every day, I better get my butt moving so that I can mold the youth of America the following day.

So, I'm a little over two weeks into teaching, and I must admit that my experiences have been pretty dang interesting.

I never understood why teachers wore those lovely lanyards around their necks. I mean, they're not really a must-have accessory. But, on Day 2, after a certain teacher — ummm, Mrs. K — locked herself out of her own classroom, I quickly decided that lanyards were not only fashionable, but functional.

And, it only took less than two weeks for me to get my first poem from a student. Granted, he had gotten into trouble with the rest of the class, and he wanted me to know he was sorry and that he really liked my class, but it was a sweet poem nonetheless. And he made sure to close it with "Please don't hang this up." Ah, kids.

You wouldn't believe what gets a classroom of 15-year-olds going either. I mean, we can be reading a cuss word in Of Mice and Men, and then they can't stop laughing.

Or, during my awesome denotation/connotation lesson where we discussed word connotations and their more negative counterparts, you would think I gave each student a new car because they were allowed to use the word "slutty" compared to "promiscuous" or "druggie" compared to "substance abuser." Hey, whatever makes them remember a concept, right?

And yesterday my kids had a nice laugh when I came to school without a voice. And I still haven't gotten it back either. But I couldn't help but smile when one of them said, "Mrs. K, isn't that ironic that you lost your voice?"

"Why, yes. Yes, it is."

And then he told me my hair looked beautiful.

And then reality slapped me in the face again, and I got back to telling my kids to sit down and be quiet and work on their group activity.

All without a voice.

Matching lunch boxes would be so darn cute

As of today, the opportunity to walk into school together with my husband carrying matching lunch boxes increases exponentially.

What, you say? Oh, yes. It's true.

After seven years with Texas A&M, I am leaving. Leaving to teach a bunch of 16-year-olds in Franklin. I am about to become a sophomore English teacher, which means I am going to change the world one grammatical error at a time. Or at least try.

And I am going to make sure my students know that it's okay to begin a sentence with the word "and." And that you don't have to stick with the five-paragraph rule when writing. And I plan to post a lot (not alot) of English-related cartoons and funnies around my room. Who says you can't make learning fun?

Gosh. My poor future students have no idea how much I love my red ink. And I just bought a whole new box of red pens to get me through the year. I hope it lasts.

And Brady and I will get to carpool to school together. And eat lunch together (if we choose). Drop off and pick up Kassidy together. Heck, even work out together.

Let's hope this professional career change doesn't make my marriage end in divorce.

Or matching lunchboxes. Because that would just be ridiculous. Or would it?

And even though I've already posted my awesome good-bye video to Facebook, I actually still have some extra awesome friends (you know who you are) who starred in my awesome good-bye video that don't have Facebook accounts, so this is for you guys. I smile every time I watch it. And laugh. A lot (not alot).

12 Months with Kassidy

This time last year, I went from being a very large woman without a baby to a still semi-large woman with a baby. Oh, and a tornado. Yes, the night I had Kassidy a little twister visited our ranch.

But on to more important things. My baby is one! And the blanket she is sitting on in her 12-month picture was made by my mom just for Kassidy. It is made of some of my old dresses from when I was a baby. Pause for "ahhhs" now.

And she is such a little toot. Literally, on the day of her birthday, she decided to not only say her first word, but add three more to her vocabulary. And what I count as her first word is exact repetition of what Mommy or Daddy says and being able to identify with that word, because if I counted any babbling from my child, she would have been "talking" at two months.

So, she now continues to pull bows out of her hair and say "bow," grab a book off her shelf and say "book," finally refer to Massey as "puppy," throw a ball to Massey and say "ball," point out any duck and say "duck," and say "boo" when she hides behind a blanket and tries to scare you. Tries is the key word here. And over the last few days, she's learned "cat" for our kitties.

So, we have a talker on our hands. And a dancer. And a diver.

Yes, a diver. She's still not quite walking on her own yet. She can stand by herself and has been able to take up to about eight steps to get from one piece of furniture to the next all on her own, but she still looks like a little wobbly drunk. And she's learned that if she tries to walk from Mommy to Daddy that she can dive head first and we will catch her. So, walking is apparently a game to her. A very fun game that involves lots of diving and lots of happy screaming.

In less than a week, Drew Kennedy will be at our place for BFE, and Kassidy is beyond excited to show him her moves. She loves dancing to his music, and I'm thinking she is going to try to "help" him play guitar. I think he will be impressed. As long as she doesn't try to eat his guitar.

Kassidy Reese | 1 Year Photo Shoot

So I know I'm behind in posting pictures and updates on a lot of things, but here's some pictures of Miss Kassidy on her first birthday to tide you all over. I took these this past weekend in Franklin early in the morning. And my child was starving, so this was about all I could capture before we had to call it quits and head to the Burger Bar for breakfast.

And just for the record, I tried my hardest to keep some dang shoes on this child's feet, but she's a country girl, and she prefers to go barefoot.

Now in addition to Baby Walking Boot Camp, we are having Baby Shoe-Wearing Boot Camp.

I have learned a very important lesson for my next kid. Put shoes on them when they don't have the motor skills or attitude to take them off.

I can only blame myself on this one.