Back to School

School starts February 7th! I am working my butt off trying to get ready. I will be teaching Science and 3 English classes (Language, Conversation, and Spelling) to 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. It adds up to 36 hours a week - and since I wanted 4 days a week to have a 3-day weekend, it's not going to be easy. I had thought I'd be teaching from 9 to 2 (that's 6 hours a day) which adds up to 24 hours. But with that many classes, I'll be on a full schedule, from 7 to 2 and with no free hours/planning periods!! Talk about rough....but I guess I'd rather do that and have my Friday off.

I'm partially excited about it because the pay is double what I got last year and will really help us get ahead with our savings. And, since I taught the same English classes last year and am already familiar with the books, I shouldn't have to plan as hard. It's the science that will take up most of my time. Speaking of which, I will get those books on Monday with exactly a week to plan the entire year!! Oh and I don't have a calender either, so I don't know the dates for the Partials or any holidays...

So here's what I'm planning. I'm going to make course overviews and Unit plans for the first partial for each of the classes, and then work a week to 2 weeks ahead with lesson plans, and write some really good classroom rules and disciplinary action to take, like a good teacher! I'm hoping it will be so much better this year, being more prepared. I'm going to do the best I can with what they give me and with the few, few teaching skills I have, and just simply NOT get frustrated with the students. So it will be a great year!

Roasted Chicken!

I made this roasted chicken yesterday and it was amazing! I was so proud of myself. I always end up frying the chicken because baking it never turns out well. Anyway, I saw Rachael Ray on TV butterfly a whole chicken and it looked soooo good, I had to try it. So, I watched a youtube video about how to butterfly a chicken and I was amazed at how easy it was! Seriously, it was SO easy! and it turned out wonderfully! :) I took a picture, I was so proud.

Here's the video that shows how to butterfly it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8tMEwBnSA

My Beautiful Little Girl

She's such a smarty!

Two new videos of Leyla! The first one is of her pointing to her body parts she knows (nose, ears, head, toes...). The second is her learning her shapes and getting frustrated. Poor thing has zero patience!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcY3MVf0Sck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CMNpeBrNRE

A Few Holiday Pictures

Leyla and the Singing Bear

Here is the newest video of Leyla, playing with her great-grandmother's singing teddy bear. She loved it! She cried when we had to leave, poor thing. She got really attached to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RRil4aEaLY

"Be-Be"

Leyla has finally learned some words! I think being in Nashville for so long definitely helped :) Here's a list of her vocabulary:

1. Ma-ma: Mommy!
2. Ma-MA (with the accent): that's daddy :P
3. Mi-mi: Grandmommy :)
4. Mooo: cow
5. Bow-wow: dog, of course, which she's been saying for quite a few months now.
6. Be-Be: belly button, which she is obsessed with!
7. Baby: baby doll (sometimes teddy bear)
8. Pepe: the only spanish word she knows! "pepe" is Spanish for "bottle."
9. Ba: ball
10. Ush: Fish :)
11. Me-mo/Mel-mo: Elmo!
12. Pa-pa/Pow-pow: Leyla knows that pow-pow means she gets a little tap on her hand because she's not supposed to touch whatever it is she's touching!

As far as words she recognizes: head, nose, ears, eyes, toes, feet, knee, hair, book, phone, kiss, hug, yes, no, monkey, shoes....that's all I can think of right now, but she understands a LOT so there's probably more. I'm so proud of her!

Back in Honduras!

We have been back in Honduras now since Sunday! Leyla slept from Nashville to Atlanta but was awake the entire trip from Atlanta to Tegusigalpa! She fell asleep right as the plane landed and stayed asleep through customs. She loved looking out the window at the mountains and the clouds! When we got to Tegus, the bus station was closed for some reason and we didn't want to take the cheaper bus because they are so crowded - sooo, we paid the taxi driver to take us to Juticalpa. We rode a taxi to Juticalpa! And Leyla slept the whole way. Then Angel and his brother came in Marcos's truck and picked us up.

The house was fine, Dania had taken good care of it - almost all the plants were still there, haha. The house was picked up but there was a lot of dust. Amazingly we got all unpacked, bought groceries, did laundry, and cleaned the entire house on Monday!

Leyla is doing well now. The first couple of days she was a little confused and clingy but now she is doing really well. However, here's a really funny story: Wednesday night, Leyla was with Marcos coloring with markers all over herself and the floor. We heard her crying and so came in to see what was wrong and her feet were completely colored red and she was staring at them screaming! Every time she looked at her feet she screamed! We washed it all off and she still cried. She would not go to sleep - it was like she was scared of her feet! Finally we had the idea to put socks and pants on her and she calmed down. Poor thing cried for 2 hours I think and slept with us. I think she must have a really good memory or something because it bothered her the whole night and she couldn't forget about it. Even yesterday she would look at her feet and start whimpering!

That's really all the news, I haven't started working yet but have started getting prepared. Mostly we're just relaxing and taking a break and spending time with Leyla!