Interview.

So, I am sitting here with my two favorite little people. I have some questions I wanna ask.
Ready?
Let's GO!

Question 1 - What would your mom do on her dream day?
Emma - She would go shopping, go get her toes done and go meet Payton Manning and go to an Usher concert.
Tripp - Get me a toy.

Question 2 - What makes your mom laugh?
Tripp - Funny jokes and doing funny stuff.
Emma - When she is talking on the phone to Uncle Chris about Ethan.

Question 3 - Why does your mom teach?
Emma - because she likes it and she wants to show kids how to learn and make them smart.
Tripp - so she can get money.

Question 4 - How did your mom and dad meet?
Tripp - at school... he met you and he thought you were pretty. You were walking around somewhere and he asked you to marry him.
Emma - in high school you knew each other and then in college you went on a date and then you started being boyfriend and girlfriend and then you just asked him to marry you. You lived happily ever after and gave birth to me.

Question 5- What does your dad love most about your mom?
Emma - That you take care of your kids and that you take care of him and feed him dinner.
Tripp -She is pretty and she makes him laugh.

Question 6 - What does your mom love most about your dad?
Tripp - He makes you laugh and he thinks you are funny.
Emma - He makes her shirts and he is funny.

Question 7 - When you grow up, what will your mom and dad be doing?
Emma - Encouraging me to go on and helping me do stuff and buy stuff for my classroom.
Tripp - Having a job.

Question 8 - When are you going to move out? Where will you go?
Tripp - a few years, somewhere to live.
Emma - When I am 25, I will go to college.

Question 9 - Do you think that your mom will cry or your dad will cry?
Emma - I think that my mom will cry AND my dad will cry.
Tripp - Neither. Eli would say "I am glad your moving out"

Question 10 - What will mom and dad do on Saturday nights?
Tripp - GO OUT.
Emma - go to the movies and come visit me at college

Motherhood.

So, this week, Eli - without any prompting by me - goes and sees his guidance counselor at school. It seems that he didn't like the path he was on. He changed his schedule and added Driver's Ed. That is just fine, we let him have one "fluff" class per semester. He changed to Honors Chemistry in the Spring. He also changed this path from Science something to Science something else.

Then, he handed me a packet because he wants to apply to Tennessee Govenors School. Great, I say. I start to fill it out. Then, I get on the internet, and I read that, if accepted, he will be gone for five weeks this summer. Ouch. I felt the burn.

Five weeks, I thought.

Me: Ummm.... Five weeks? In a dorm? And you will only be 16?

Eli: Well, It won't be that far away. And I don't know that I will get accepted. We just have to apply. But it will count toward those college credits that I need, and next year, MY JUNIOR YEAR, I am taking six college hours WHILE I AM IN HIGH SCHOOL... and since you are a teacher, it won't cost that much, and WHEN I GO TO COLLEGE IN ONLY TWO YEARS it will help me out ... (at this point I tuned him out and I heard)..

Me: Two years, I have been saying two years, but he could go away for five weeks now, and then WHAT next summer, and then what if he sees bad stuff in the world and I am not there and he doesn't call and who will help him find socks and what if he can't remember how to cook an egg and what if his pencil breaks and he can't find a sharpener and he may run out of notebook paper and he uses an awful lot of shampoo and doesn't have a blowdryer....

INSERT MEDICATION HERE

What really happened is -
Me: Ok, Eli, Let's fill these papers out. And you have to write an essay. This should be fun.
Eli: Well, just how long of an essay?

And I knew that my Eli was in there somewhere :)

Updates.

Quiet. It is nice and quiet. All the kids were asleep by 7:45 tonight. I guess that means we ran them hard this weekend - Football, School, Pumpkin Patch, working at the store. Cleaning.

We did not have a good football game Friday night. In fact, it sucked. It was one of those games where nobody threw the ball, they handed it off and tried to run right through the middle of the players. I threatened to text the coaches and tell them to change the plays up, and that they might score. When something doesn't work, why keep doing the same thing over and over?

I guess I am getting confident after reading Football for Dummies. Nope. I am not even kidding.

Other than that, I am just counting down till snow days. I think that this year, my first year of teaching, has been harder than I thought. I feel so, so sorry for my mentor teacher. I text her and call her. I know she is sick of me. I am trying to take the problems of all of my students. I think about them. I know that I need to set emotional limits. But it is difficult - especially when you are a "fixer".

So, I love teaching. I love my students. I love my co-workers. My house is a disaster, I can't get ahead. But I am so happy with my job. I just need to get a grip and know when I leave the school (at 4, 5, 6 or 8 p.m.) that I should leave the kids and their issues there too. I will get it. I will.

Report cards come out this week. I have New Evaluation #3. Gymnastics. Referral for SPED. That is a whole book itself. Off to work I go. :)