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.

I miss you Meshach!

My life lately has kind of reminded me of a book called "If you give a mouse a cookie." So, I've written my own version of the story called, "If the window on Nathan's car breaks."

Sunday was Dad's birthday dinner. Nathan and I decided to go up to Syracuse for his birthday dinner, but the very afternoon we chose to do that, the window of his car fell off of its track so that he couldn't roll it back up again. And so we begin...

If the window on Nathan's car breaks, you might decide that it is too cold and wet and snowy to take his car all the way to Syracuse. You may decide that your car is a better option and take it instead.

If you choose to take your own car instead, you might get to about North Salt Lake before your car overheats and you have to pull over to the side of the road. You may decide that you can't drive any further for fear of ruining your engine and choose to call your Dad (remember how it was his birthday) to ask him to tow you home.

If you choose to call your Dad and ask him to tow you home, you may have to wait inside your cold wet car for about an hour and a half while your parents drive down to come and save the day. While you are there, you may decide that you should have put up with the broken window in the first place. When your parents tow you home, your dad may let you take their car down to Salt Lake so that you can get to work. You may decide that is a great idea and take the car.

If your Dad chooses to let you take the car, you may try to take good care of it and make sure that all of the doors are locked before you go to bed. And then the next morning, you may discover that the locks on the doors are very hard to open... meaning you can't. You may choose to call Nathan to come and give you a ride to work instead.

If you choose to get a ride to work from Nathan, you may realize that you don't have any way to get home. You may also realize that the only one that knows how to unlock the car is your dad. So you may choose to call him to pick you up from work and drive you home to unlock the door.
If you call your Dad to come and help you unlock the door, he may be able to get the door open. Only, after getting the door open, you might find out that the door has gotten some water in it from the night before, is frozen solid, and refuses to shut again. The two of you may decide that the door needs to be warmed up so that the ice can melt. You may choose to ask your roommate to trade you places so that you can leave your car in the garage.

If you choose to put your car in the garage, you might also put a lamp inside the car and leave it on all night so that it can warm up the car. You may discover, however, that because the door won't shut, the overhead light in your car is also on. The only way to get it to turn off is to lean something against the door to keep the door shut and the light off. You do this, and go to bed, hoping that your car will work in the morning.

If you choose to put a lamp in your car all night, the next morning your car door with finally shut! However, you might also discover that the heavy object you put against the door wasn't heavy enough. Your overhead light may have been on all night and now your car might not start. You may choose to call Nathan again to come and save the day.

If you choose to call Nathan to save the day, you may discover once again that you have no way to get home from work. So, Nathan might have to come pick you up during his work break, and sacrifice his dinner and drive you home to try to jumpstart your car. On the way there, he may tell you that he fixed the window on his car so that it cannot fall down again. You may choose to breathe a sigh of relief, happy to hear that your troubles might end soon.


Or at least we hope! Let's all hope that Meshach returns home safe and sound. We miss you Meshach!

Toleration

Kindergartners are much more tolerant of others. I learned that today... and I continue to learn it every day in our little classroom.

The other day I was teaching penmanship, and one of my students fell out of his chair. That's right, just fell right over. This is not an odd occurence. It happens just about every day. My reaction is usually simply, "Well, climb back in your chair."
At that moment, I stopped to think, "What if an adult sitting in my classroom had just done that?" For one thing, the other people in the room would have noticed. It would have been a concern. And if it turned out that the person had simply fallen out of her chair simply because she was wiggling so much that she had lost her balance, the adults around her may have considered getting her some help--- psychiatric help. Not so in kindergarten-- you just keep on working as if nothing happened at all.

Or how about when Ryan put his coat on upside down today and complained because he couldn't get his backpack on. The coat was hanging totally up on end with his hood hanging down by his knees, and what was Ryan was saying? "Miss Parrish, I can't get my backpack on." I looked at him and said, "That's probably because your coat is on upside down."
This got no response, other than the fact that Ryan was spinning around in circles trying to catch his other backpack strap. Finally, I stopped him and told him, "Ryan, you need to take your coat off and put it on right side up." He did so... only because he knew he had to because his teacher made him do it- not because it bothered him that his coat was on upside down. The other children either did not notice or else it didn't bother them.

That's tolerance.

But some things cannot be tolerated. Not even by kindergartners.

Today during small group instruction, I was interrupted by a student. Usually, I encourage the students to work independently- and only interrupt me if they are dying or going to wet their pants or someone is badly hurt. The girl assured me this fit under the category of "important." It did.

"Tupu is putting crayons up his nose."
"What?!? Tupu! Come over here!"

"Are you putting crayons up your nose?"
"Yes." Simple response. There was no shame. Not even a little bit.
"Don't put crayons up your nose!" I said this as firmly as I could... under the ridiculous circumstances, it was hard not to laugh.

That afternoon, the students in my p.m. class asked me why Tupu had gotten his card pulled. I told them why, and one little boy responded by saying, "You got to be kidding me!"
Like I said, some things even kindergartners can't tolerate.