5 Things Friday (on Tuesday): The Daddy Edition

30 years ago today, a very special person named Joseph was born, but I just call him Dad. How is that possible since my older brother is 24? Well, that's just one of my Dad's many special talents. :)

So. In honor of this special guy and his special day, I give you:

5 Things I've Come To Understand About Dads From Observing Joe Cacibauda.

5) Dads watch really strange and boring things on TV, like Western films and documentaries about rhinos.
I have yet to discover what is so great about Western films. I don't get it. Not only do they want you to take part in the "fun" and watch these types of things with them, they also think you want to hear all of their knowledge about it. Even when you don't. 12-year-old Alexa would have rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, but 20-year-old Alexa enjoys every second she gets to spend with her dad. Even if those seconds include never-ending documentaries about rhinos.

 





















 4) Dads don't see a problem with watching Jason Isaacs set a church on fire in The Patriot for the 1 millionth time, but do see a problem with you watching Steel Magnolias for the 300th (fabulous) time. 
My dad could watch The Patriot every single day. Actually, I'm pretty sure he did watch it every day for at least 7 years of my childhood. "Mommmm, Dad is watching The Patriot.... again," my siblings and I would say to my mom as we waited to watch a movie. Don't worry, Mel Gibson, Joe Cacibauda always stuck up for ya. The Patriot is to my dad what Steel Magnolias is to me and my mom. My dad still walks into the room when my mom and I are watching Steel Magnolias and says, "That girl is dying AGAIN?" I mean, really.. what would possess a person to watch a hilarious movie with Sally Field and Dolly Parton when you could watch The Patriot for the millionth time?

3) Dads always stick with Mom's rules... until Mom leaves for a PTA meeting at school.
I was a clingy child (true story: it's the reason my mom calls me Ivy or Ivy Vine, because I would literally wrap myself around her leg when I was little), and I hated when my mom had to go somewhere. Which really makes no sense, because we all know rules basically go out the window when Dad is in charge. :) Healthy dinner? Uh.. McDonalds and a snowcone. In bed by 8:30? Dad would still be twirling me around the living room with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin blaring through our surround sound at 9pm. Those daddy/daughter traditions and my obsession with the trumpets at the beginning is how "The Way You Look Tonight" became our song.

2) Dads really try to make sure you stay single for a long, long time. 
Sometimes they feel the need to tell your prom date that they have a shotgun and will hunt him down if anything goes wrong. Because being a teacher's kid isn't hard enough. Other times, they will continue the teachers' tradition to embarrass their kids at the senior luncheon on high school graduation day.

If you think being a regular teacher's kid is hard, try being a band director's kid. Did you father compose a song titled "If You Touch My Daughter You'll Meet Jesus Tonight" and perform it in front of your entire graduating class?

1) A really great daddy is the best thing a girl can have.
A daddy who let you and your sister put butterfly clips and bows in his hair.

Even now when his youngest daughter is 17.

A daddy who played catch with you and taught you everything you know about baseball and the New York Yankees. A daddy who taught you what a real gentleman is like just by loving your mom and standing by her side for 27 years (and counting).

A daddy who picked out the daddy/daughter song for your wedding back when you still thought boys had cooties, and then always made you dance to that song with him, even when you were a teenager and thought it was silly.

A daddy who has made life so fun, and would do just about anything to get a laugh out of one of his kids. 

Including, but not limited to, things like starting an icing fight with his youngest daughter while making gingerbread houses. 

A daddy who has never stopped loving or encouraging you, and has always showed you what being an incredible teacher looks like.

Parents are so weird. You spend 18 years trying to figure out why the two people who love you more than anyone else in the entire world are constantly DRIVING YOU NUTS. And then suddenly you're 20 years old, trying to make it through your 3rd year of college, and visiting your 3rd grade focus child and telling her that you can't decide what to get your dad for his birthday.

"Ms. Alexa, you crazy. He probably don't care about presents, I bet he just wanna see you. That's all I ever wanted from my dad. I just wanted him to show up or somethin."

And then you feel like you've been hit with a ton of bricks. Because this precious girl in front of you barely knows her dad, but you've known yours for 20 years and it took you 18 and a half of those years to fully appreciate it.

A really great daddy is the best thing a girl can have, and the best thing a really great daddy can do is show up.

As for my dad? He always shows up.

And the best part: he never leaves.

 

I love you as far as the number line goes--
Peas

(Yes. That's really what my father calls me. My mom's nickname for me is a plant, and my dad's is my least favorite vegetable. Is it because I'm the middle child?)

Be Still.

"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." -Exodus 14:14

A toy breaks, a shoe comes untied, shorts come unbuttoned, someone gets hurt, and suddenly one of my daycare kids is standing in front of me crying or whining their little heart out. I am trying to help and their little bodies are just running everywhere. They are restless and they can't stay in one spot for more than half of a second.

"Baby, hold on," I say. "Be still and I will pick it up for you." "You have to be still so I can put the band-aid on and make it better." "I can't help you if you aren't still for just a second." "I will fix it and make it better if you will just BE STILL for one minute."

Be still. Be still. BE STILL. Over and over and over again.

Those words come out of my mouth so many times a day at the daycare. Not because I expect 3 year olds to be capable of being still, but because I know that if they could just be still for five seconds, I could fix their ouchie, or get all of their water bottles out of the fridge, or hold them long enough to calm them down when they're crying.

Every day I am begging them to be still so I can do something for them or make something better for them. I was thinking about this on the way home yesterday when I was so overwhelmed. My kids were out of control, I have so much school stuff to work on, I work non-stop, I'm unsuccessfully trying to keep up with my fast-paced life while recovering from wrist surgery, and my wrist feels like there is a butcher knife in it 24/7. I go go go, and I am NEVER still.

It's a family trait. If you know my mom and Aunt Charlene, you understand.

This verse from Exodus is my favorite, and it popped into my head when I was driving home yesterday. And BAM. It's like Jesus was just chillin' on my dashboard. Oh HEY Alexa, I've just been sitting here waiting for you to notice me and stuff. It's cool, take your time.

I love to be in control of my own life. I worry about my future on a daily basis, and sometimes I worry about things that I don't even have control over. Here I am, trying to do everything by myself. I can't possibly cut back on my activities until my wrist heals, or ask for help when I can't do something with only one hand. Be still? I can't be still!

But that's exactly what I should be doing. I need to BE STILL. Because Jesus is all up in this joint, YA KNOW?


It's weird how much you actually end up learning when you are a teacher. Everything I tell my kids about being still is what He has told us. He has it covered, and the only thing we have to do is be still. I have it written all over the place. BE STILL, ALEXA. My wrist, my kids, my worries, my doubts. He said that He will FIGHT FOR YOU. We just have to step back and let Him do it.

And we ALL know how I feel about giving someone else all of the control.

I know I don't usually post about stuff like this, but I haven't blogged in forever because I can barely type and it's just been on my mind nonstop. I'm not usually public about my faith, because.. well.. it's MINE. But it's there.

I jokingly say "pray for me" on a daily basis, and I'm not big on really asking people for prayers. It's part of that whole I-refuse-to-ask-for-help-because-I-wanna-do-it-by-myself thing.

But if you're up for it, I could use a few. For peace, because there are things out of my control that are eating me alive. For healing, because my wrist hurts so bad that I've considered cutting it off once or twice. Or ten times. And for my wrist doctor, nurse, and physical therapist. Because they are super patient with me when I'm mentally swearing at them while they (very painfully) help my wrist get back to 100% and.. well.. GOD BLESS THEIR SOULS.

PS- I'm looking for a good devotional book that's very modern and easy to understand. What's your favorite one?

Checking out of Social Media & Checking into Life

I love social media. I love it.

I love that I can keep up with my family on Facebook. I love opening Instagram and seeing a picture of my beautiful cousin Layla. And Twitter? Oh, Twitter is my favorite. I can find out what's going on with my sister, the New York Yankees, and the White House all in one place. It's awesome.

However. I think it's giving me anxiety. (And that's not a normal thing for me.)

Every day, I'm exhausted when I come home from work, but I feel like I need to check Twitter and catch up on what I missed. So I scroll through 12 hours of tweets. I check it again the next time I'm bored. I check it before I go to bed. The first thing I do when I wake up? Hello, Tweeters, let me catch up on everything that happened to you while I was sleeping.

It's absurd. It's even more absurd, because 95% of it is-- excuse my language-- bullshit.

Social media is covered with people screaming about Paula Deen. A 17 year old is gone for good, and there are people on my Facebook and Twitter celebrating. There are posts from petty girls who measure a person's value by their appearance. #TSM (Total Sorority Move) and #TFM (Total Frat Move) tweet disgusting, condescending, shallow things at least 15 times a day.

And somewhere between "Trayvon Martin got what he deserved" and "if you wear cargo shorts you deserve to be punched in the face" I lost. my. mind.

So I quit. I've been checking Facebook to see whose birthday it is so I can wish them a happy birthday, because I hate when I miss birthdays. If a picture of my cute cousins pops up and is right there when I log in, I click "like" but then I log off. I haven't really been scrolling through. I deleted the Twitter app on my phone, because that's the biggest one I wanted to stay away from for a while. I haven't been on Twitter since Saturday night.

The most surprising part? I don't even miss it.

I didn't realize it, but it was just making me angry, bitter, and sad. People use social media to be so hateful these days, and it's awful.

Somehow we have forgotten that these are people. We hide behind computer, iPhone, and iPad screens. We have forgotten that social media was not invented so we could bash on others, point fingers, and insult those who have opinions that are different than our own.

At the daycare I work at, we have to keep our phones in our cubby in the office because we aren't allowed to have them in the classroom with us. That's about 10 hours without my phone, minus my 1 hour break, and it's fantastic. It's like I get to escape into 4-year-old world of play-doh, blocks, and make believe, and temporarily forget about politics, crime, and who is dating who this week.

I know people who have taken long breaks from social media and they always talk about how refreshing it is. And guess what? It IS refreshing!

I'm not distracted and I don't feel like I have to constantly spend my free time on my phone. I people watch and hold conversations, and at night I sit on my bed and plan activities for my daycare kids. I've had so much more time to read. I have no idea what kind of crazy things my friends have been telling the internet about lately, but I feel so much more focused on the good in my life, rather than reading dumb stuff and getting worked up about it. And I'm 100 times happier.

I'll eventually go back to it, because there are good things about it. I just don't want to be so consumed by it. I had forgotten that I am supposed to manage social media, not let it manage me. I also forgot that it's MY space, and I shouldn't be afraid to delete someone who is bringing hate into my space. And the biggest one: it's JUST social media. It's so easy to be sucked in by technology these days.

SO. If you need to be refreshed, or your friends and family are just posting terribly ignorant things, take a break! I highly recommend it.

Check out of social media and check back into real life.

Why?

Because real life is GOOD.

I Love Showing Up

Warning: this post is all about my daycare kids, and it's probably about to get cute and mushy all up in this blog. What can I say, I spend 10 hours a day with them. I don't have anything else to talk about.

So, we recently had VBS at First Pres. All of the daycare classes with kids who are 3 and above go and there are other non-daycare kids who go as well, so it was 5 days of pure chaos. But MAN, that was some of the sweetest, funniest chaos ever.

We started every morning by singing and dancing to this year's VBS songs, and those 30 minutes were my favorite part of every day.

"Gonna give all da gwory give da gwory to our king, gonna waise this woof when we start to sing. All da way to Heaven, our pwaises will wing, gonna give all da gwory give da gwory to our king!!"

Cracked. Me. Up. When I looked around while we were singing and dancing, the kids were singing and dancing while giving me the biggest, cheesiest, smiles I've ever seen. It was like a huge, thick blanket of God's love was wrapped around the entire room. My heart was exploding with joy. It was that kind of happiness that causes you to smile until your face hurts. Then, when you think it can't get any cuter, the VBS leader says "okay let's pray" and you watch tons of 4 year olds fold their hands and squint their eyes shut.

And just when I think my heart can't possibly take anymore of the sweetness, one of the kids looks at me in the middle of singing and says, "WOW. I bet this is making God so happy, huh Ms. Awexa?"

Yes, baby. So happy.

I'm trying to soak up these last few weeks with them before they move up to their new room, and they have been cracking me up lately. Earlier this week, we were playing around and one of them said, "You're not the boss, Ms. Awexa, I'M the boss now! I'm the new teacher!" I decided to humor them, so I started acting like a 4-year-old. "Mr. Garrett!! Ms. Emma!! Ms. Kennedy!! Wahhh, I don't want to play in this center. I don't like this snack. Wah wah wah!" They were dying with laughter. I was worried about how they would imitate me as a teacher, so I was relieved when they said, "Finish your snack and go to the blocks center!" Then they began joking around and told me to go to the thinking chair.

They want me to go to a place where I get to sit alone? Where no one gets to talk to me? Where I get to put my head down without anyone touching me and sit in the peace in quiet?

Oh, YES PLEASE. I volunteer to go to the thinking chair.

Some of my kids left the daycare for the summer, so I only have 7 or 8 every day. This week, we had our 4th of July celebration. It started out as a little party with a craft or two, and then a co-worker and I basically turned it into a 4th of July field day. What can we say? We really like being elementary ed majors. And we are just awesome teachers. So there's that.

 

Here they are in their firework hats in front of their paper chain & hand print flag!

We did tons of cute crafts thanks to Pinterest and a few teacher websites! I can't find the link for the hats, but basically we used poster board for the hat, construction paper for the fireworks, and curled the paper to make it fall outward. Then we made firework art using paint and straws. They were so cute! Tip: if it won't work, put a little water in the paint to thin it out. We also did a tissue paper star light catcher thingy. But we didn't do the "USA" stuff that's hanging off of those. And then we made noise shakers so they could have a parade and make noise. I'm pretty sure their parents have always liked me, but they probably don't now that I gave their 4-year-old a noise shaker right before a 4-day weekend. :)

Then we gave them sugar for their snack after nap time, because the doughnuts I brought them for breakfast didn't have enough sugar in them. And because I'm crazy.

We played pin the stars on the flag. (No Pinterest here, this was ALL Ms. Alexa!) It's EXTRA hilarious with 4 year olds.

 

We also did bubble snakes, and now regular bubbles will never be good enough. Cut the bottom off of a water bottle, cover that opening with a sock, dip it in bubbles, and blow through the top of the water bottle. And BAM, bubble snakes. You can also put food coloring on the end of the sock and they will be colorful! (TIP: when doing this with young children, be sure to tell them that they can't suck in when their mouth is on the bottle, or you will have kids choking on soap.)

Then, it was finally time for water games!! The kids had been waiting all day, and I was ready to pull my hair out while feeling like my heart was going to burst with happiness. It's confusing, I know. Party day will do that to ya.

 

We played different games with water balloons. We did balloon tossing, and then we just made them do silly stuff while trying to balance their water balloon. But the game they loved the most was water freeze tag! I bought a bunch of 97 cent squirt bottles at Walmart and filled them with ice water, and they basically played freeze tag, but instead of touching the person to freeze them, you squirt them with the ice water! After a while, it pretty much just turned into running around and squirting each other with water, but they were perfectly content and so was I! 

Until they were like, "GET MS. AWEXA!!!" and then there were 7 children running towards me, ready to drench me and tackle me to the ground. And that's basically what they did. 

Oh, be still my heart.

I always seem to have an epiphany at weird times, but I never thought I'd have one while I was tumbling to the ground and watching my life flash before my eyes as seven 4-year-olds, armed with ice water, surrounded me. But there I was, doubled over on the ground, laughing so hard there were tears pouring out of my eyes (or it was all of the water that was being squirted in my face..?) and I hear, "I love to play with you." BAM. There was my "duh" moment. 

I could plan hundreds of activities and games, but it's really just my presence that matters. Playing with them, giving lots of hugs, and always opening my arms when they ask to sit in my lap. Letting them tackle me to the ground and answering their "I wove you Ms. Awexa" with an "I love you too" even if I want to say more. I love being your teacher, you are perfect in every way, and I say a prayer for you every single night. 

My mom always says, "You know, Alexa, 90% of life is showing up" in that mom voice of hers. 

And she's right, but don't you dare tell her I said that. ;) 

They don't care if my hair is messy, or if I'm a little cranky, or if I have to wing our activity for that day because I stayed up all night studying and forgot to plan one. All they care about is me showing up every day at 7am.

 

And ya know what? I love showing up.

Five Things Friday: School's Out For Summer (but not really)

Man. I'm the worst blogger ever.

In my defense, I've started a new post four different times, but I just never get around to finishing it. I'll just go ahead and blame it on how much my daycare kids wear me out since that's what I blame everything else on these days. I think they siphon every ounce of energy out of me when I have my back turned. Okay, you distract her in that center, the others will cause a scene in the center right next to that one, and we'll stand behind her and take all of her energy! Annnnd BREAK!

1) Starkville summers are so freakin' fantastic. 
Seriously. I didn't fully believe it when my older friends told me how great they are, but I should have. The horrendous traffic is gone, every single place in Starkville is no longer packed 24/7, and there aren't obnoxiously loud parties at The Pointe on Monday nights. IT'S SO WONDERFUL. Even Walmart isn't bad, and I despise that place.

But really. I'm loving it. During June, I go to work at 7am, go to my summer class from 10-12, go to physical therapy at 12 or 1, and then get back to work right as my kids are waking up from nap time. After work, I hit the gym, do my homework, and try to actually make it into my bed before I fall asleep. If I'm not babysitting and don't feel like going out with my friends on the weekend, I stay in bed and sleep or lay out by the pool and soak up every second of peace and quiet. You guys take your sweet time coming back, ya hear?

2) I think I accidentally pissed off the Spanish Gods in my previous life.
I have yet to take a Spanish class and have a good oral exam partner.

Also, my teacher is great, but she found out that I'm good at Spanish and that it's my minor. And now she won't stop making sure everyone else knows it. If she keeps it up, there's a good chance someone in the class is going to find a locker and shove me into it. Or a trash can.

Have I mentioned how much I despise attention?

Moving on.

3) Our Spiderman, who art in Heaven.
When you spend 8-10 hours a day with kids, you end up with some good stories to tell. My kids have said some pretty hilarious stuff, but this will be my new favorite for a while.

Spiderman is a big deal when you're 4. One of my little girls is the cutest, sassiest (is that a word..?) little thing, and she LOVES super heroes-- especially Spiderman. We were outside on the playground and she was sitting with another girl not too far away from where I was sitting. I just happened to overhear her talking.

4yo: ..and he saves people, and he is so powerful, and he loves you soooo much!
Me: Aw, sweetie, are you telling her about God?
4yo: (looks at me like I have 10 eyes) No, Ms. Awexa.. I'm talking about Spiderman. Duh.

Duh. Because it's totally normal to talk about Spiderman like that. She was talking about it in the sweetest way, and 4 year olds love to talk about God, so I just assumed that's what she was talking about. We do a lot of Jesus talkin' since it's a church daycare, and they love to use God as a way to win their argument.

4yo: But WHYYY Ms. Awexa? (for the 53rd time)
Me; (after I've said every creative answer I have in my brain) Because I'm the teacher and I'm in charge.
4yo: Nuh uhhh. God is in charge. He is bigger than all of us. Even this whole school!

BOOM. Burn. Roasted. I mean really, what could I possibly say to that?

It looks like we are spreading God's love AND Spiderman's love around the daycare these days. Whatever floats their boats. When they start changing their snack-time prayer to, "Spiderman is great, Spiderman is good, let us thank him for our food," well.. that's when I'll be a little concerned. They "pray" to Santa Claus occasionally, but that is not a bubble I'm willing to burst.

They've been on their A-game this week, but you know what they say. A glass of wine every night is good for your heart. The other three are to keep a daycare teacher mentally stable. ;)

Just another day of sharing what we know about Spiderman's love for us. The usual.

4) The Happiest Place on Earth.
The two weeks I just got to spend with my family will probably always be my favorite days of 2013. The first week, I was home for Zoe's graduation and all of that good stuff. We are so proud of our little graduate!

JT got home a couple days after me, and then a week later my family packed up and headed to Disney World! Minus Zoe, because she rode with the band kids and got there the next day.

 

The number of times we had ice cream before our meals was absurd. And awesome.

 Medieval Times!

It was a perfect week. It all went pretty smoothly since we are Disney pros, minus the part where a tropical storm hit Florida on Thursday. FYI, Disney World stays open until there's a Category 2 hurricane. Mickey Mouse doesn't play around. You would think the lines would have been shorter, but oh no. Instead of a lot of people, it was just a lot of people with ponchos on.

 

However, JT and I were insanely lucky that day. Earlier that week, we had to leave MGM to make it to our dinner reservations at Be Our Guest, so JT and I gave our Rockin Rollercoaster fast passes to two random people. No big deal. On Thursday, just as we were walking up to Tower of Terror to get in line, a lady stopped us and asked if we wanted 2 fast passes. Then, later that same day, we were all going to ride the Toy Story ride for a second time but we were just going to wait the 70 minutes since it was our last day. But just as the four of us were walking up to get in line, a girl stopped us and asked us if we wanted 4 fast passes. Two times! In one day! I guess they mean it when they say what goes around, comes around.

 My badass Daddy doing his thing on Main Street with his band.

 At Norway in Epcot with JT. 1997 and 2013.

We ate at the new Be Our Guest restaurant in the Beast's castle. Props to my amazing mom who made reservations 6 months ago! JT and my parents were served the special "gray stuff" for JT's birthday and my mom and dad's 27th anniversary.

 "Try the gray stuff, it's delicious. Don't believe me? Ask the dishes!"

 Cutest parents in the world & the perfect example of being happily married.

 The food was amazing and the whole inside of the building is absolutely beautiful.

I love Disney World. I love the happiness, the magic.. and the ice cream. I love watching kids get so excited, and feeling as excited as a little kid even though I'm actually 20. After one of the fireworks shows, there was a little girl near me who was so happy she cried and said, "Magic is SO happy!!"

But more than that, I loved just getting to spend time with my family at our favorite place. We only get to see JT 2 or 3 times a year, so getting to spend 2 whole weeks with him made my heart feel like it was going to burst from happiness.

 Best brother and friend a little sister could ask for.

It was just so wonderful to have just the five of us together for a while. The five of us, starting our summer at Disney World, just like we've done every single year. It was like being in the best part of your comfort zone. I knew it would end quickly and my heart would hurt, because apparently my cold heart is warming up the older I get. The whole time all I could think about was the fact that it was probably the last time it would just be the five of us, and I wanted to hold on so tight, so that maybe time would slow down for just a day or two.

But it didn't. Life is changing so fast and I'm sure it's only going to change even faster from here on out. I guess it's not really changing in a bad way, but it's still change. And we all know how I feel about that. It's bittersweet, really.

I can't wait for the day that we aren't all spread out all over the map and I can see these weirdos on a regular basis.

5) Being a Cacibauda is probably the best thing you can be in this world.

But maybe I'm a little biased.

Five Things Friday: Spring Fever

April has been one of my very favorite months ever since I started college. It's a month of so many good things, which helps balance out the obnoxious amount of torture this month brings. Trying to learn all of the stuff my teachers were supposed to teach us weeks ago, taking tests right before being destroyed by finals, begging people on the street for coffee and/or Xanax donations.. you know, the usual.

1) Crawfish, family, and a birthday makes for a perfect weekend.
I love my family. I LOVE THEM. And you're like WE KNOW, ALEXA because I never stop talking about them. I read an article for my Developmental Psych class a few semesters ago and it said that family is VERY important to middle children. So I'll just blame it on that. Every year, my aunt and uncle have a crawfish boil to celebrate their anniversary which is right before my birthday. So every year, the crawfish boil and my family birthday party fall on the same weekend. And it's perfect. It's my favorite family event. What could possibly be better than food, crawfish, and chasing my little cousins around?

My heart explodes with happiness every time I look at this picture.

And this one. I have BEAUTIFUL cousins!

                                              

I also don't like making a big deal out of my birthday, but my mom always insists and I don't mind using it as a reason to hang out with all of my awesome aunts, uncles, and cousins a little longer. :) Even when my mom is pressed for time, she can still throw together an awesome cake. My mom LOVES birthdays when it's not her own, which is obviously where I get that from. She starts singing days/weeks before, and will excuse almost anything with, "It's okay, it's your birthday week/month!" I guess life is pretty good if the worst thing you can say about your parents is that they insist on making a big deal out of the day you were born. Right?

Also, a huge thank you to my best friend/roommate, Jen, for always making me feel so special on my birthday! I hate attention, so getting me to celebrate my birthday with anyone other than family is like pulling teeth, but Jen always forces me to anyway. My bedroom is still beautifully decorated with streamers thanks to Jen and my other sweet best friend (and a professional streamer decorator) Amber! I was so overwhelmed this year with everything they did for me, along with all of the calls, texts, and posts on social media. Thank you all so much! I am so lucky to be so loved.

2) Zoe's NO MORE CCD!! celebration.

I passed on Super Bulldog Weekend this year because my beautiful baby sister made her Confirmation! If you're not familiar with Catholic stuff, this is a big deal in church world. It means you're joining the church as an adult and all of that good stuff, but it ALSO means you never have to go to a CCD class ever again. Not having to go anymore after going every Sunday/Wednesday (okay- most Sundays/Wednesdays) for 11 years is just really exciting. But it was fun sometimes, and I have some good memories from Fatima and St. Elizabeth. Most of them involve donuts in Fatima's parish hall after class, but Jesus probably likes donuts so it's okay. 

Anyway, it was just a little thing and we didn't invite anyone or make it into a big event, but Zoe picked me to be her sponsor and I was so proud! She picked Saint Lucy and will tell you all of the ways poor little Lucy was tortured. Just a small warning: the story includes digging her eyes out or something. It's gross but Zoe really likes telling the story because she's weird.

She is constantly giving me more reasons to be so proud of her and I can't believe she is going to be graduating from high school in a month! I don't know why I call her my baby sister, because she's only two and a half years younger than me, but she's my baby in my mind! I can't wait to have her (and her wardrobe) here with me in Starkville in the fall, even though she's going to make me look bad because she's way cooler than me. I love you, Zo Zo!

 

3) What's going on in 4-year-old world?

My kids have spring fever. We went from never being able to go outside because it was freezing to not being able to go out because it rains EVERY SINGLE DAY. That's an exaggeration. But it really does rain at least one or two days a week which means the playground is too wet to play on for days. 

April showers might bring May flowers, but they also bring psychotic children. I would be looking forward to summer, except we also can't go outside if the heat index is too high. You're killing me, Mississippi weather. Killing me.

Apparently, any life problem is due to the fact that my hair is messy. Oh how I WISH brushing my hair could solve any and every problem. If only.

Sometimes my kids say things that are so amazing it takes my breath away. And sometimes they run up to you all sweaty after playing too hard in centers and say, "Ms. Awexa, feel how warm my armpit is...." So. There's that.

We are entering the "I want to tie my own shoes" phase since only 3 out of 12 of my kids wear velcro shoes. Which is great! I'm so glad some of their parents are starting to teach them how to tie their own shoes. Except now they want to tie their own shoes every time they "accidentawwy come undoned all by demselves." Which is also really cute because they are trying to be independent. Except for one teeny, tiny detail: they don't actually have the whole shoe-tying system down yet. And of course the one time they don't shove their foot in your lap and tell you to tie their shoes is when we are walking out the door to go to the playground. Because kids work against you that way. :) So they scream because their shoe is untied. And then they scream because they want to do it without your help. And then, of course, they scream out of frustration because they don't actually know how to do the whole thing yet. These are fun times. Our next mission is to either 1) teach them how to button/unbutton their own pants or 2) convince parents to buy elastic pants and/or pants with snaps. Miss Alexa's speedy unbuttoning skills vs a 4yr old's tiny bladder. The odds are against me. And belts? Don't even get me started.

Mother's Day is coming up, so I've been looking up crafts to do and I think we are going to do one of these! 

 

I love the poem on this one! And they love doing anything with paint and glitter, so they would have a field day.

 

But I also REALLY love this idea! Because magnets are something that you can keep on the refrigerator forever! There are still magnets of my siblings and I on our fridge that are from so long ago. I would use different color foam though. Probably some cute pastel/spring colors. They love gluing stuff too, so they could do that and I'd probably let them draw on the foam if they want so they can add their own adorable 4-year-old touches. Or I might completely change my mind and pick a totally different project since I'm so indecisive and they are all SO DARN CUTE.

I'm such an elementary ed major. I know. And I love every single second of it.

4) The best birthday present ever.

My parents got me some really great stuff for my birthday and my mom took me shopping to help me find some clothes I can teach in when I start the education program in the fall. HOWEVER, they also got me this and I may or may not have actually jumped up and down out of excitement. It's one of those Fathead things that you can peel off and stick to the wall, but I'm keeping it like this so I can save it forever. Now my beautiful husband is on my wall and I get to look at him every day. 

What can I say? I'm easy to please. 

5) In case studying for finals has caused you to forget how to laugh. 

Crazy Delta Gamma Lady -- I'm assuming everyone has heard about that crazy letter from the Delta Gamma president at the University of Maryland since it's basically the #1 topic being discussed in America right now. It really expanded my vocabulary. This video is even funnier because Michael Shannon is HYSTERICAL. 

Louis C.K. "Goodbye Jews" on Conan -- My brother showed me this video a long time ago and it's still my favorite video to watch when I need to laugh. I love Louis C.K.

Jessica's Daily Affirmation -- Everyone has seen this, but I still  love it. If only we could all feel like this every day! 

How Animals Eat Their Food -- I really don't know why this is so funny. 

 

I have 7 finals. Yes, that is the number SEVEN. Don't ask me if I'm ready for them, because I'll probably going into cardiac arrest.

Happy Friday and Happy (Almost) Finals Week!! Good luck!!  

xoxo! :)