SOLD!

We are homeowners!! Unbelievable! Sam and I closed on our gorgeous house yesterday at 4pm, and promptly celebrated with a pizza party in our new kitchen :) It's so surreal to go from growing up in my parents' beautiful homes, then living in a college dorm/apartment, then my first solo apartment, then back to my parents' home, then to a basement with bugs in DC, then to an apartment with bars on the window, then to a nice but small apartment back here, and now to a big, beautiful home where I can unpack for a very long time. God has blessed me beyond anything I could have imagined.

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! It was a delicious meal on Thursday with my family, a scrumptious brunch on Friday with Sam's mom, a fun time at BINGO on Friday night, and now off to another yummy meal at Sam's dad's house. Wow! Just call me a turkey cause I'm feeling stuffed! I thought about making this post into a list of things I am thankful for, but then I realized it would extend waaaaay too long because I have so many blessings in my life. So, to keep it short, I'm thankful for my incredible family and this year, I am especially thankful for my fiance ~ the thought of spending the rest of my life with Sam by my side gives a whole new level of thankfulness to Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day on Thursday and that we remember to give thanks to God every day of the year for our blessings, not just on turkey day :)

Just another day

It's amazing what a 6 year old can do to a classroom all because I asked him to write the number "3" in math class. He said he was finished working for the day; I said not quite; he threw his pencil on the floor; I said pick it up; he overturned 6 desks, 6 chairs, threw a bin of Legos, snapped a pencil in half then threw it at me, erased my dry erase board with work on it, broke the metal window blinds, dumped out the bins of crayons and markers, shoved a desk into the hallway, peeled drywall off the wall, and threw a large toy airplane at my head. This was with 30 minutes until the end of the school day. I stood in the doorway of the room ignoring his fit until it subsided, then told him he could not go home until everything was returned to its place and his math work was complete. 1 hour later, he picked everything up, sat down and wrote the number 3, and I let him go home to his dad patiently waiting in the school parking lot. The beautiful thing about autistic kids is that he gave me a hug before leaving, told me I was the best teacher, and I told him I was looking forward to seeing him tomorrow...and I meant it :)

Kids say the darndest things!

It's days like today that 1) I LOVE my job, and 2) I wish I had a continual tape recorder in my classroom. The first subject of the day is reading and today one of our new words was "name." I demonstrated how to use the word name in a sentence ("My name is _") and then had each of the kids say their name in a complete sentence. After we did this little exercise, one of the kids asked what my last name is. So, I told them and then reminded the class that my last name would be changing when I get married. These are the questions that resulted from me saying that:

Student A - "Are you marrying your daddy?"
Student B - "She can't marry her daddy. Who would pack her lunch?"
Student A - "But daddies are nice."
Me - "No I'm not marrying my daddy. I'm marrying Mr. Sam."
Student C - "You should marry your daddy."

All the students - "Can we come?"
Me - "Well, you would have to be really good and sit quiet and not talk."
Student D - "Don't worry, I will just talk a little."
Me - "There's no talking at weddings. You have to listen."
Student D - "Well that's okay. You can just let me talk."

Student B - "Can I bake your cake?"
Me - "Sorry I already told someone else he could bake my cake."
Student A - "Did you tell me I can bake your cake?"
Me - "Nope, it was someone else."
Student E - "I will bake you cookies. My mommy and me are really good."
Student A - "No, I will bake you chocolate cookies."
Student E - "I will bake you a billion cookies."
Student C - "I can eat cookies."
Student D - "Okay, you can just let me come and I will only talk a little and I will eat cookies. You don't need to worry. I am a good helper."
Me - "Thank you. I will think about it."

Student A - "Are you getting married in a garden?"
Me - "No."
Student A - "What's the address for the garden?"
Me - "I'm not getting married in a garden."
Student A - "But that's okay, just give me the address."
Me - "But I won't be at a garden."
Student A - " Well, I will pick you up and take you to the garden. My mommy has 2 car seats. You can use one. Just leave my brother at home."
Me - "Okay class, it's time for reading again."

I love teaching and I love autistic kids :)