Written 1/31/14:

            My goodness!  SIXTEENTH JOURNAL!  I’ve been at Kindering for four months, and I couldn’t love it more – even while I am doing nonstop paperwork sorting.  However, I did have a minor communication slip-up this week.  There is a woman with Down Syndrome who helps out in our classroom – however, this week, the class took a field trip to the Wiggle Works on Thursday, and we had all forgotten to tell her, since she does not attend the team meetings.  She always has an amazing attitude and was not too upset about it, but she still was able to have her fun pretending to be upset.  However, she had nothing to do for hours afterwards, since her ride could not come to pick her up for a while.  At the time, we jokingly passed it off as empty-headedness due to excitement over the Seahawks going to the Superbowl (and there was quite a bit of Seahawks Spirit in the office that day) but we all did feel quite guilty at this fail in communication.

            Speaking of field trips…yes – I was filing paperwork BOTH days this week!  When I first heard about the field trip a few weeks ago, I was less than thrilled, for this very reason.  However, in the spirit of gracious professionalism, I have chosen to be happy that the kids get a day at Wiggle Works and that I have a chance to make the opening of the new Kindering location run a bit more smoothly by taking on the jobs that the employees are too busy to do at this time.  However, I am glad to report that I will be coming back to my classroom in a few weeks, since a pair of twins is joining the class!

            Time management…well…I decided that, as long as I was going to stick to my policy of gracious professionalism regarding the paperwork sorting, I might as well, be as efficient as possible and do as much as I can to.  I am pleased to announce that my time management skills have reach a new high – in the four hours of organizing and filing medical progress reports, I sorted through ALL of the necessary papers from A to S (by the way, there are a LOT of S’s…but I suppose I can’t complain without feeling slightly guilty, since my own last name begins with an S – teehee!)!  My moment of triumph of the week, I suppose.

            Lastly, this may be more in the way of “character realization” than character development, but Felise’s husband brought in her 18-month-old son to the office on Thursday for a few minutes...and he is ADORABLE (the son, I mean)!  I could barely look away from him the whole fifteen minutes they were there, and it made me realize just how much I love working with the kids, and how much I have missed them – yet another reason for me to be glad about the incoming twins!

            My goals, short term and long term, as are they were last week, only now I need the patience to wait a few more weeks to rejoin the classroom and the ability to contain my happiness at the thought of going back!