A conference, a casual evening out, & creativity.

 

Hey, all! It's that time again! Time for the midweek blog post four thousand days late describing my uneventful weekend. You ready??

Last week, I got to spend two amazing days that University of Memphis learning how to mentor new teachers coming into our profession. I wanted to say, "Tell them not to be teachers!" 

::Clears throat::

That's not true. At all. Ok, sometimes I have a moment or two like that, but I did enjoy learning more of how to relate to my student teacher as well as better evaluate her. I've done a lot of things wrong, so now I know what to fix.

Friday afternoon, I met up with these crazy guys for some Central BBQ--a Memphis must have. In fact, they won "Best Place Where the Locals Eat" in 2010. Yes, we do eat here. It's my fave.

 

Silly faces over dinner! =)

 

I'm telling you, it's like a comedy routine with these two.

 

Micah chowed down on some bbq nachos while repeatedly telling us to "top it" whenever he didn't like something. So the child "fails" his speech screening, but "top it" he learns immediately.

 

Because after a long, two day conference you need the big ole plate of bbq nachos. Don't worry, our family of THREE shared this plate!

 

If you'd like to know the fancy name of my conference, it was entitled "Mentor Induction Modules 1-2." My presenter even used words like "reptilian needs" in her speech. That's a fancy pants way of saying "go to the bathroom" in administrator talk.

 

In all seriousness, I think I need more "breaks" from teaching. It was nice to have adult conversation and professional dialogue with colleagues. And I got to learn the word reptilian.

 

On Saturday, Micah demonstrated the best playpen so far--the deep jacuzzi tub sans water. And no, my tub is not that yellow. Bad flash, I guess.

He kept throwing his "people" into the tub and wanting to play with them. It kept him occupied for a good 15 minutes, so I obliged.

 

Monday night was spent grading. And grading. And grading. And watching Hulu on the iPad while grading on the laptop. Oh, did I mention the grading? 

The down side of a two day conference? That'd be two days (testing days) of papers to be graded.

 

On Monday, I decided to give my new pinterest chalkboard a try. This is actually a picture frame that I painted green. The glass was painted over with chalkboard paint. Only, when I went to write on it...the chalkboard paint came off in some places. 

As you can see, we stay very busy. I can't wait for Saturday's events!

 

Tonight was PTA meeting night at work, so I drove back to pick up Micah. He made it about 15 minutes of the meeting before he embarrassed me. I am truly at this humble point about parenting these days. He says "NO!" a lot. He says "TOP IT!" (stop it) a lot. He says "HAVE IT!" a lot. 

 

After one two many screams of "OUT!" or "NO!" or "DOWN!" (from stroller) or "TOP IT!" or "HAVE IT! HAVE IT!!" we left the cafeteria. I just love how everyone looks at the teacher and her kid she can't control. Instead, we ran up and down the hallway.

I mean, what do I do at this point? In front of that many people?

Le sigh.

 

Micah wasn't the only rambunctious child. He met this little girl outside, and they played a whole lot.

 

And keeping him from the playground? Ha!

 

Eventually I got tired of seeing "the blur" go by, so we left. I'm not sure I'll bring Micah to any more PTA meetings anytime soon.

Finally tonight we landed at Chick-fil-a in Collierville where I ran into multiple students who oooohhed and aaaahhhed over Micah.

We enjoyed a nice dinner, though. Sometimes I think I lose patience with him because I'm so frazzled from being with kids all day.

It was nice to just relax, enjoy our chicken, and know that we're almost to fall break!

Because an Instagram shot always makes it better.



 
As you can see, we gobbled down our shared combo.

Happy Wednesday! Have a great rest of your week.