3TT: Soaking Edition

1. Yesterday was my LAST day of freedom as school ends today (and it is a half day). I spent the morning soaking up attention from a great friend and the afternoon soaking up the rays from the sun. The day ended with swim team practice (and conversation with some awesome moms), dinner that EVERYONE actually ate, mowing the lawn (since we will be in NC this weekend celebrating my nephew's 1st birthday), and an extremely boring ride on the trainer. I need some text buddies to make the miles fly away (send me an email if you are interested: hahleewude {at} verizon {dot} net. I started watching Man v. Food, which was in Philly (where my Oly debut will be), but it made my stomach growl... seriously a 6lb Philly Cheesesteak - YUM!

2. Today, I am a 2nd grade teacher. I know, it is odd for a teacher to miss the last day of school, but she is getting married this weekend... I kinda think she has the right to plan her wedding, right? Kiera (who is in 2nd grade) has been hearing comments from her friends in the class about how cool it was that *I* was going to be their sub. She was proud and then started to get jealous that I wasn't going to be her sub. By 10am, I had danced to Taio Cruz's Dynamite, sung Alice Cooper's "School Out for Summer", and was told, "Wow, Mrs. Green, you *are* cool!" Subbing ROCKS and is truly an ego stroke! Of course, they might just be thrilled to have ANY sub on the last day of school, but I am soaking it all in... enjoying their praises!

3a. Brock has his "Moving Up" ceremony today for Kindergarten. I am sure I will shed a few tears. I cannot believe how fast this year went by. He is cuter than ever, bright, friendly, loving, compassionate, courageous, sweet, and most of all cuddly.  This morning, at 5am, he crawled into bed with me. He first asked why I was wet. I had just showered after P90X, AB Ripper X show down. Then he said, "You know why I love you so much mommy?" And I said, "ummm, because I give good tickles (as I tickled him)?" He said, "Nope, because you hold me just when I want you to!" How SWEET is that? I totally soak up those moments when my little boy allows me to love him. Yes, he has already asked me to kiss him *before* the bus comes so no one sees (despite getting on at the first bus stop), but moments like this WON'T last forever. I just held him as our breaths fell into sync and prayed for him and thanked God for this incredible blessing.

3b. Since I doted on Brock, let me dote on Kiera. She loves school. She is a pleaser and wants to make sure she does what you expect of her (except eat vegetables and fruit). She is quite compassionate and even recently displayed specific empathy for a fellow student who got severely injured at recess and recounted, "I looked at him, and he saw me, and I could see the look in his eyes that he needed me to be with him...". Wow. Yeah, she will be 8 on the 23rd.

She is loving, friendly, empathetic, a leader (or bossy ;-) ), witty, and most of loves her little brother.

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I hope you have a great Thursday!