What's your favorite part?

"Good morning L---! Good morning R----! Good morning H------! I missed you all so much! Good morning S--! Did you have a good weekend? Good morning J-----! Good morning, good morning, good morning!"

Hugs.
Smiles.
Listening to what they did over the weekend.

I love it.

I am seriously so happy. Almost every minute of each day at school is wonderful. I love each of my students so much already... and I miss them so much over the weekend!

Highlights of this past week:
Me: "So what has been your favorite part of second grade so far?"
Several answers were of course math, literature, science, gym, music, and all the normal stuff and then there was this one"
Me: "S--? What is your favorite part so far?"
S--: "Ummmm..." looks shyly down and then back up, "You."

So stinkin' cute! After he said that, all the other students were little dears and couldn't wait to say something similar. It just warmed my heart. Then there was another incident...

Just a couple days ago we were out at the pick-up line at the end of the day and M----'s mom came up to me and said...
M-----'s Mom: "I just had to tell you this. At dinner we go over the highs and lows of our days. My husband (C---) asked M----- what his high was and
M----- said, 'School'.
When C--- asked him what part of school M----- told us that his teacher was the best part about school! C--- said, 'You just really like your teacher, don't you?'
'Yeah,' said M-----.
Then C--- asked M----- what the low part of his day was
and he said, 'Leaving her there.'

Well, melt my heart! I've got some little charmers in my class! I'm so glad that we are all getting along!

Little E--- and sweet H----- are always giving me hugs. They are all enthusiastic learners and follow directions quite well. Of course they have their faults and their moments, but overall, I cannot imagine a better start to the year! I am SO excited to go to school each day!

I can't believe I work here... but it must be for real... because I got my ID badge this week and it says that I really do work here!

By the way, my hair is pretty curly now. The rain and moist air are creating a rather different hairstyle for me.


We read the Velveteen Rabbit this week. What a good book. I teared up while reading it to the kids. Ooops. ;-) Kinda embarrassing. Haha!
So Thursday we had "Shabby Stuffed Animal Day." The kids were so excited to bring in there favorite stuffed animals and share them with me and with each other! I love that I can just do fun things like this as the inspiration strikes. I love teaching!


In other news, my sister, Christy, is coming to visit in THREE WEEKS AND ONE DAY!!!!!! I'm so exciiiiiiittttteeeeeeeeeddddddddddddddddd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, just a little excited anyways.


I'm really enjoying all the healthy food options out here. And it has been so much easier to work on my gluten-free, dairy-free cooking. I can really tell a difference with staying away from dairy. The gluten doesn't seem to be as much of an issue, but I'm still experimenting with it. Anyways, last weekend I made some gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate chip cookies and some gluten free, dairy-free apple crisp. May I just say, YUMMILICIOUS! They were so good! They didn't even have the weird aftertaste or odd texture that gluten-free baked goods often do.

This weekend I'm going to try gluten-free, dairy-free pumpkin pie. We'll see how that turns out!

I miss all you wonderful mid-westerners so much! 

Hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall colors for me! It's still green here. :)