Bling-bling, a Melting heart, and Snot!

So I know that I usually dont post very often buy I decided that today was a day worthy of a blog post...mostly because it was just full of surprises.
First this week is "classified employee appreciation week" at the school that I work at. Basically this means everyone who's not a teacher is pampered (they had teacher appreciation week 2 weeks ago). This morning the PTA brought us breakfast of donuts, beagles, and muffins. They also had a gift for each of us which included a key chain, a jamba juice gift card, and ring with a huge colored stone. It was such a grand surprise that I wore mine all day as did all of my co-workers. We looked quite fancy as you can see from the picture...I think I should add more "bling-bling" to my wardrobe.
Second there is a little girl in our class who just loves me. She is an afternoon kindergartner and every day when she arrives she walks up to me and while standing as close as possible says "hi, Tara" and just looks at me like I'm the best friend EVER! It just melts my heart. Today during recess she decided that it would be a good idea to drag the tub, that is supposed to be outside the bathroom for students to put their stuff in while in the bathroom, over to the drinking fountain and taking water in her mouth and spit it into the tub just for a good time. She only got one mouthful in by the time I got there but I have no doubt she would have kept going if I hadn't come along and distracted her with something else. It surprises me just what kids think is a good time sometimes.
Lastly. During story/calendar time today and I had one of the kids standing next to me while I sat in a chair. I was trying to get her to sit on her carpet square and pay attention but she kept getting back up and trying to sit on my lap or leave the circle. So we finally compromised in her standing still next to me while paying attention to the teacher. After awhile I was distracted trying to keep the other kids around me under control. Near the end of calendar I turn to see what she is doing she was still standing there quietly just the turns toward me and smiles like the good little girl she was being and ...sneezes all over my skirt....all I could say was "really?" wow she couldn't have sneezed while looking away. I know that's not how it works but...yuck. It seems like maybe working with kids and constantly being around snot because there is always one of them sick you would get use to snot...but you don't...it's still sick.

Summertime approaches!

Here's some signs that summer is quickly approaching:
Summer Job: This past Monday I had my 2nd interview for a job working at a local summer camp for children who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech related disabilities. On Thursday I found out that I got the job! I'm super excited I think it will be perfect for me. Well it turns out that like most summer camps everyone has a "camp name" that they go by for the whole of camp, and I had until Saturday to come up with mine... as part of my first interview I watched a dvd of some of last years campers from which I gleaned some important name picking info: first I found that most of the kids have animal names like: nice cat, friendly lizard, etc., while the teen volunteers have cool names like "reef", also I found that most of the staff seemed to have nature related names like: rain, oak, etc....I thought and thought and after much deliberation...I decided my camp name would be Sparkle! I got to try it out yesterday morning when I attended a training that was held for the camp's teen volunteers. I think it's going to work...even if none of the teens can say it with out a smirk on their faces. Tonight my sister did my toenails for me, when she was trying to lightly sprinkle glitter on the wet polish she accidentally tilted it a little too much and dumbed half the small tub right onto my toe...now my big toe is covered in glitter ruining the effect.... turns out all she could say was "don't worry sparkle it looks great!
Tan: I just keep getting tanner and tanner. It's not like I'm laying out in the sun or smearing on the baby oil, as a matter of fact I put sunscreen on my face and neck every day. I've got to admit I love that people comment on it all the time....I also love that I don't even try, it just happens to me during the summer. I guess it's just in my blood. Gotta love it!
Temperature: It's been really hot the last few days. On Friday night it didn't get below 80 degrees until about 11 pm...YUCK! Hopefully it will cool off like it's supposed to this coming week, I mean it's not supposed to be this hot until at least the end of June.
The Beach: Yesterday we went to the beach. It was an amazing day! Warm and sunny. The water was clear blue and even while standing in water up to my chest I could still see my feet, plus, the water was warm enough that it wasn't a really issue getting in to take a swim either. We spent all day and still had to drag ourselves away when it was time to go. Such an amazing day.
Here it comes ready or not!

SPECIAL OLYMPICS

Friday was Special Olympics for our county. It was held about 30 miles away on the campus of our local jr. college. I work at a grade school as an aid working with kindergarten through 2nd grade special education kids, and I LOVE it! The kids had been training for weeks to participate in their events: running and softball throw.
So when I arrived at school on Friday morning I hurriedly made all of us staff "coach" name tags before the kids arrived, then it was quick trips to the bathroom and getting everyone plus all our stuff loaded onto the bus. On the bus ride over the little girl who was sitting next me unbuckled my seat and her seat belt each about 90 times in 20ish minutes and I finally had to hold her buckle so she couldn't touch the button. I spent the rest of the time entertaining her by singing our color songs...over and over..."y-e-l-l-o-w spells yellow, y-e-l-l-o-w spells yellow, it's like the early morning sun when the day has just begun...." and so on.
When we arrived roughly 20 mins late because of traffic we had to head right into opening ceremonies which was in their main gym. They announced our school and the crowd went wild...it was so cool. Then the kids walked down the line of police officers and other VIP's and gave high fives (I had to tell the girl I was with: "high five, high five, high five, high five..." for each person otherwise she wouldn't do it). Opening ceremonies was amazing. They had a young adult girl with downs syndrome sing the national anthem, she did such an great job and the crowd went wild! She loved it.
When opening ceremonies was over we headed to the track because our girls raced in one of the first races. One of the races where three of our girl students raced was hilarious because there was nobody they knew at the finish like so the just kept going....and the teacher from our class room had to take off after them....one girl didn't stop until she got to the other side of the track where another race was going on and she arrived at the wall of people getting the racers ready. The girl that I was with raced by herself because she was in her own category. It was so cute because she was slow but because she was racing against herself she got to burst through the ribbon at the end of the race and she was sooooooo excited. After her races we headed back to meet the rest of our group for lunch.
After lunch since the little girl I was in charge of had run two races instead of throwing soft ball (she was unable to do it) we headed for "tent city" where she was able to play games, get her picture taken on a motorcycle, visit the petting zoo and hold a bunny (she was squealing with delight it was so exciting), and get a free ice cream bar! Later when all of the other kids joined us they went over to the booth of a local radio station that was playing music and did some dancing with other and some more severely handicapped athletes, so cute! They all loved it and I had a great time too even though I was worn out from all the sunshine and fun in the sun.