Shanny!

While growing up (and still now every once in a while!) my family and a few friends called me "shanny" or even "shanny wan". Today during class, my students were working on a project. Throughout the period, I kept hearing people say, "Shanny!" I would actually look up in response, thinking someone might be calling for me. Then I would remember that these kids don't even know my first name! Then I discovered that they were talking to my student named Chanise...apparently her friends call her shanny! Anyway, it just made me feel young again thinking of siblings, parents, and even my friend Sharla who still call me Shanny!

Viva Las Vegas!

Last week I couldn't handle the Utah snow anymore! So I took a little road trip down to Las Vegas to visit Paul & Amy and their adorable and hilarious kids! We had so much fun seeing the fountains at the Bellagio, playing Star Wars (of course!), and simply playing at the park in the 70 degree weather!!!

Aaron is still the Star Wars kid! I still haven't been able to win a battle of lightsabers against him. According to him, he gets to watch a new Star Wars video when he turns 7 next month.

Jacob still loves his trains! He talked about the Heber Creeper every day I was there and thinks Uncle Craig is the greatest! He also wants to go to Disneyland again because, according to him, he's big enough to go on Big Thunder Mountain.

Anna is such a doll. She appears to be following in her brother's footsteps with the Star Wars thing. Hopefully this video works because it's so stinking cute and funny!



I also got her to say "Anna Banana". She's such a chatter box, and she's willing to try any new word you give her!

My worst fear comes to pass!

A lot of you know that I run a preschool one day each term (for one class period) with my students. We have a child care unit and they bring their adorable brothers and sisters, neighbors, cousins, etc. It's one of my very favorite days of the whole term! This morning it was going great! The preschoolers were adorable. My 7th graders were doing everything they were supposed to do. When there were about 5-10 minutes left, there was a group telling the story of "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly." This is when my worst fear came to pass...the fire alarm went off!!! Seriously, every time I have this fear that it's going to go off when the kids are here. It's just my luck that it actually happened! They usually tell us if they're going to have a drill. I hadn't heard anything, so I figured there was either a fire or (more likely) a student thinking it would be a fun prank.

So after waiting for about 30 seconds to see if they would simply turn off, the principal came on and told us to evacuate the building. AWESOME! So we told the preschoolers we were going on a fun trip outside! Now at our school the students have to report to their 2nd period teacher when there's a fire drill. So the 7th graders took off with these little 3-5 year-olds and were no longer under my supervision! Since there were only a few minutes left in class, I had parents showing up to pick up their kids. I kept hearing, "Miss Lacey! Where's my child." I have no idea!

Now to make the story even better (is that possible?), we still have 3 feet of snow in the field behind our school! It has been warmer the last couple days, so the top layer has crusted over a little bit, so they kids were all trying to stay on top of the snow. However, with a few hundred kids on it, it kept collapsing and everyone would fall into the snow drifts. I also came upon a girl who had just slipped on the icy road and broke her leg. So I was trying to help her and my 2nd period students were all trying to find me and were hovering over me...all while the parents were asking for the preschoolers and other students asking me if the school was on fire.

What a fun day...it was all I could do to keep from crying. :) But the kids were all claimed (that I know of), so now it can be a good story. Well, maybe in a few days it will be a good story. Now I'm just mad because they're pretty sure it was a student's idea of a great prank. Hilarious, kids. Hilarious.

I don't get paid enough. :)

My "amazing" observation

So I had scheduled an observation today by one of the assistant principals. All last night and this morning I was really nervous. He was coming to a class that is really quiet and too shy to participate. But suddenly today they were participating and the lesson was actually REALLY good! So I start the lesson and the principal wasn't there yet. I figured it was the beginning of school, and he probably was busy making sure kids were in class. Then15 minutes went by...then 30...then an hour. With 10 minutes left in class he walked in my room. He had forgotten! He was taking care of a problem child this morning and just spaced it. I was so mad!!! So now I have to find another day for him to come and go through the whole nervous process again. Anyway, that's all!