Sick of being sick!

I'm sick of being sick! Yes, my ear infection that I had a couple of weeks ago went away but last week, something else sprung up--or I just never got over what I had before and it's back! I have a sore, scratchy throat and a cough, all of which I had right before the ear infection. I also just found out that mono is going around the school where I work--could that be it? There are also bad allergens in the air and we are in the process of building a new school behind the old one so, the construction dust is bad. So, am I really sick or is it just a mixture of allergies and dust? If anyone out there has any ideas, please share! I'm sick if being sick!!!!!!!!

Good--no, GREAT news!!!

I'm keeping my job for next school year!!! YEAAHH!!! I just found out Tuesday evening when I was at the school to translate for parent-teacher conferences. Our principle just happened to be there so I asked him when we would know about our jobs and he said, "Do you want the good news?" Well, DUH!?! (I didn't say that, of course) He said they had just decided that very day to keep the ESL aids--WOW! But, we had lost our jobs before Tuesday--fortunately for me and the rest of us in the district, they found some funding to be able to keep us!!! SO, to whoever found the funding and to whoever fought for our jobs and to whoever is responsible . . . THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!

Spring Break

I'm back to school today after our too short Spring Break. Unfortunately for me, I was sick to entire time--I had a bad cold that wouldn't go away. Finally, my husband made me go to the doctor after my ear started hurting so bad I couldn't sleep, and guess what? I have an ear infection! Don't small children just get those? I guess not--lucky me! My mom said she couldn't remember me ever getting one when I was a child. Even the doctor made some comment about how he usually only sees ear infections in children. But, this is just typical for me. I didn't get chicken pox until I was 26 and I still haven't had my tonsils out. Oh no, I hope that's not next!!! YIKES!!!!

Luckily I was on antibiotics by Easter, so I felt good enough to go to my sister-in-law's for Easter dinner with my husband's family. We had good food and a fun Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful spring day and a nice time was had by all! Sparky (my husband) helped our youngest niece (she's almost 2) find her eggs and he was SO CUTE holding her little hand and walking around the yard with her. It made me a little sad thinking that we could have been doing that if the baby we lost would have been born. I know I shouldn't think of the "what ifs" but sometimes I can't help it! Enough of feeling sorry for myself! It was a good holiday with family--that's the most important!

Scared!

The school district that I work in was just informed that it has to cut 5 million dollars from the budget for next year. That means my job is in trouble--especially for me because I have the lowest seniority of all the ESL aides in the district. They said if they cut jobs, they will look at need then seniority. They are looking at a lot of other options so there is hope I won't loose my job but I'm still very nervous. Especially because I carry the health insurance for me and my husband. We should hear something by next week. Hopefully it will be good news! I would much rather they cut our pay across the board or raise our insurance cost then loose my job!

Yeah--it's finally over!!!

We had our second and final performance of our Multicultural Assembly this past Friday. It was fun and we all had a great time but, it was also a little stressful so, like the title says, yeah, it's finally over (and I'm SO glad about that)! This performance was shorter and much easier, though. We performed for a local elementary school and those kids are always our best audience. It was shorter so we only had 4 performances this time. AND . . . the best news of all . . . I finally figured out how to post pictures so instead of my rambling on more about it, you can see some of the performances from both assemblies. Didn't the Mexican skirts turn out beautiful?

One down, one to go!

I survived another Multicultural Assembly! It went very well and the student body seemed to really like it. Both audiences (we always do 2 assemblies because the entire student body wouldn't fit in our auditoriam) were very respectful towards our student performers, which is always a concern. My ESL girls from Mexico did great with their dance and we got the skirts on time. They were perfect and very beautiful! We have one more performance at a local elementry school next week and I'll post some pictures then (if I can figure out how to do it--I'm a little slow getting into the digital age and learning how to do all of this--but I'm slowly coming along with help from my family and friends)! I have to say, out of all the performances, my favorite was another one of my ESL students. She's Tejano, which is basically someone who was born in Texas to Mexican parents, and she sang a beautiful Tejano song, her first time singing in public. It was a huge deal for her and she was very nervous, but she did it! I'm SO proud of her for getting up there in front of her peers! She did really well and the audiance gave her a huge round of applause! It was a great experience for these students to share their cultures with their peers and for the auidance to get to know them, as well!

That time of year!

Well, it's that time of year again, for me, at least! It's time for our annual Multicultural Assembly at the school where I work. This will be our 4th. I'm the co-advisor to the club and I love it! I usually work with just the hispanic students but being a part of this club allows me to know more students, especially those from other cultures. In fact, I'm in the minority when we meet!
This year we have a great mix of cultures. We have 3 Mexican performances (which has caused me stress because I have been in charge of getting the skirts for one group. We thought we could borrow some from a previous year, but we only got one, so now, we're having the other four made . . . in one week! The assembly is next Monday (hopefully they will be ready on time)! We also have a Native American hoop dance, a Middle Eastern dance, Irish step-dancing, a Japanese performance, an Italian aria, and swing dancing!

Stay-tuned to see if I survive the rehearsals and our girls (they're not happy they don't have skirts to practice in yet and that they're not the colors they wanted). Don't you think they should just be grateful that I'm even getting their skirts when usually we require our performers to provide their own costumes? Ah, teenagers!! Hopefully I'll have some great pictures to post later!