Surprise- it's almost your birthday!

I'm trying to catch up a little bit on my blog. Nathan kind of pointed out the fact that I have not been the most faithful blogger since, well, he found my blog! That's kind of true. I'm not so sure it's because he found my blog so much as that since then I've been a little busy.

Well, my birthday is coming up, and Nathan, the ultimate planner has been working hard on my gift. He has given me plenty of updates on that, without telling me what it is, "I've been cutting wood today." Or "I was painting and gluing today." He's done a pretty good job of keeping it secret.

The birthday comes next week, and so yesterday, the boy who cannot keep secrets could bear it no longer. He gave it to me yesterday. This picture is really bad simply because my camera's battery was dying, and so I had to take the picture super fast before it turned off. So, it's a bit out of focus.

He made me my very own little school house to decorate my classroom with! How cute is that? Underneath each of the foam pieces of "carpet" is a picture of the two of us together. And underneath the chalk board is one of our engagement pictures. If you can't read the chalkboard it says, "Welcome to Mrs. Mulder's Class." Yeah... I think he might be a little excited about getting married. Just a little bit. ;)

The Reaction

Six year olds are awesome! I'm learning more about this stage of development every single day.

Nathan comes in to volunteer in our classroom quite a bit. I think it's because he's a saint. So, my children are fairly familiar with him. By that, I mean that the last time he came walking into my classroom, one of my students was so excited to see him, he fell right out of his chair! "Mr. Mulder!" They like him.

So, last week, I told my students that I had gotten engaged. Riley guessed right off, "to Mr. Mulder?" To that, Emanuel chimed in, "You're gonna marry Mr. Mulder? I think I'm gonna be sick!" A few minutes later he asked me, "You didn't kiss him, did ya?" I just asked him, "What do you think?" In both classes, I got a resounding, "Ewww!"

Well, the students got over their initial disgust, but it still seems to be sinking in. The next day, I had one little boy decide that if I was engaged yesterday, I must be married today. So, he concluded, my name is now changed to Mrs. Mulder. Not yet, buddy!

And then there was Rylee. Rylee is an adorable little girl and she is girly to the core. She wears cute hair ribbons that match her outfit. She always chooses pink paper when given the choice, and she only plays with other little girls. She also did not think it was gross that I was getting married. She wanted to see the ring. :)

Well, Rylee's mom comes in to volunteer in our classroom, and so she told me what Rylee had said when she had gotten home. She told her mom that I was getting married. Her mom asked her if I had a pretty ring, and she told her mom that yes, it was very pretty. And then she thought for awhile and came back to her mom, "They're going to get married and then they'll probably have kids, huh?"

Her mom answered, "yeah, they will, and Miss Parrish probably won't teach anymore."

"She won't? Well, Mr. Mulder can stay home with the kids!"

"Well, Rylee, it wouldn't matter anyway because by then you won't be in kindergarten anymore and she wouldn't be your teacher anyway."

"She won't?"
And so now we begin breaking the children in to the tragic reality of life. We can only shield and protect them for so long. At some point, they have to be faced with the harsh facts:

Your kindergarten teacher is not your teacher for life.

I guess it's about time to start talking about it anyway-- it's going to take a couple of months for it to sink in for some of them. :)

I'm getting married!

I'm getting married. It's true. If you had told me at the beginning of the school year that I would be engaged by February, I would have told you that you were crazy. But even though I thought it was far-fetched, I've been well prepared. For those of you that have been faithfully reading this blog, you might recall one of my kindergartners drawing me a picture of my future husband. It looked like this:

It turns out that Clarissa may have been on to something, because I found that man I was looking for, and although the picture she drew may not have been a perfect likeness of either of us, it was pretty close... the huge smiles on our faces are the same in both the drawing and in real life.

Last Saturday, Nathan and I had a wonderful day together. That morning he drove up to Syracuse to talk to my parents about marrying me, and then that afternoon we went to the Draper temple open house together. From there, we headed over to the Jordan River Temple where we did a session together. When we came out, Nathan pulled out a red scarf and blindfolded me so that I couldn't see where I was going. I already knew though. :)

He drove me up to the capital, and walked me right up to the spot where he first danced with me and where he first told me that he loved me. He then took off the blindfold and danced with me again, to Peter Breinholdt's "Grow Old With Me." That's one of my favorites. We finished dancing and he knelt down in the freezing cold snow and asked me to marry him. I said yes!!

I can't believe it! I'm getting married!

As a little girl, I often wondered about who I would marry and what he would be like. Now I don't have to wonder anymore... and I feel peace about this decision. I don't know what will happen in the future, but I'm excited!

Well, we may not look exactly like Clarissa's drawing, but we're both pretty happy. Here's a picture of us just after we got engaged. This is at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, where he took me to dinner afterwards. The ring can't be seen very well in this picture, but it's beautiful. He picked it out himself and I am impressed! If I could have chosen it myself, I probably would have picked this very one.

I Think He Likes Me

Yesterday morning was Valentine's Day for my kindergartners. We were all super excited about the Pretty Princess and cool Transformer Valentine's Day cards. I put up red streamers over the door where the kids come in and put out their Valentine envelopes. I even dolled myself up in pink and red like a true elementary school teacher.

Nathan didn't forget this special occasion either. Instead, he came in early to surprise me- and surprise me he did! I knew he was coming because he called me the night before to tell me not to eat breakfast. What I didn't expect is that he would get the teacher next door to let him into my classroom. So, I show up at school a few minutes later than I planned, as usual. I go to open my door of my normally empty classroom, and there is Nathan standing right there with flowers, chocolates, and a big fuzzy teddy bear. It scared me so much, I let out a shriek! He brought me breakfast of toaster strudels and chocolate milk and we ate our breakfast in my tiny little kindergarten chairs.

I think he likes me.


My kids noticed the flowers when they came in and asked me who they were from. When I told them where they came from, one child said, "He's a nice guy." Another child chimed in, "Yeah, he is a nice guy."

The Substitute

I left them today. All 23 of them.
I had a collaboration meeting for half a day and so I had a substitute teacher for the morning session of kindergarten .
My children have heard about substitutes.
I told them about substitute teachers.
But they've never had one.
Until today.

I knew this would be a shock.
I warned them.
I told them it would be okay.
I told them that things would be different, but that's okay.
I told them I would be back and it would be okay.
I assured myself it would be okay.

The collaboration meeting wasn't very far away. It was just in the library.
I made sure to stop by in the morning and remind the students that I would be back the next day. Then, I came back for the last few minutes to get them ready to go.
Most of my kids did pretty well. They listened to their teacher and did their work.
Others didn't do so well.
Three children faked sick.
Two children clung to me as I entered the room, assuring me they missed me.
One child wet her pants.
One little boy had such a hard time with the fact that the teacher didn't do things exactly like me that he cried. And cried. And gave himself a headache and had to call home.

And I'm going to China for a week? I must be nuts.

The funny thing is, I missed my kids too. Even though sometimes I really need a break, if my kids are in school, I would rather be teaching. And so, it's funny, but it was quite a relief to be done with collaboration and be back in my classroom teaching my kindergartners. I'm going to be okay... I get to go back to kindergarten.