Catching Up (Again...)

In noticing my kids are growing up faster than I would like, I am going to try to record what has been happening around here:

December
Christmas was fantastic, the kids were spoiled like they always are, and we enjoyed the snow.  We actually got enough snow that I had to shovel a few times this year.  Hooray for a south-facing house and no sidewalk!

January
Mike went on a business trip to China for 10 days and loved using his Mandarin.  He did not love, however, the high temperature each day of 20 below zero.  He was able to navigate the subway on his own and see a few sights in Beijing.  But I'm still hearing about how hard the beds are on the other side of the world.

While he was in China, we were making some big changes around here.  Ally hadn't been very happy since school started in August.  She didn't have any friends in her class and she didn't get along with her teacher very well.  She was getting in trouble for taking too long in the bathroom and wandering around the classroom when her work was done (because she was bored).  I'd finally had enough when they went on a field trip to a high school orchestra concert and I didn't hear about it until Ally told me about it the day before. There was no note sent home and I still don't know where they went or how long they were there.

I called the charter school a couple of miles away that a few families in our ward go to.  They had 2 openings in second grade and would be holding a lottery in a few days to see which kids would get to take those spots.  I hung up and called the Relief Society President, whose twin boys go to the charter school and are some of Ally's best friends.  I blubbered about how Ally absolutely loved school in kindergarten and first grade, but now didn't even want to go.  She said she loved the boys' school and that there was a good chance one of the openings would be in one of her boy's classes.  We spent half an hour on the phone and I finally felt like there was a solution to our school problem.

Mike was still in China and I hadn't talked to him about it yet, but I put Ally in the lottery and crossed my fingers, but didn't tell her.  I didn't want her to be disappointed either way.  The letter came that Saturday.  She was in!  When Mike came home from China, we talked it over and decided that things couldn't be any worse and she could always go back to the other school for third grade if it didn't work out.

We told her that day and she could not have been more excited.  They told us she could start any day we wanted to, so we decided to spend one more week at her school, then go to Odyssey Charter on Monday.  We met her new teacher (she'd be in class with two of her friends from the ward! Yay!) and toured the school the Thursday before she started.  I knew it was right when she jumped in the car at the end of her first day and said, "That was the greatest day of my whole second grade life.  I LOVE it here!"  Whew!

Here she is all dressed up for school.  Isn't she just terribly cute?  And there's a preview of last year's kitchen remodel.  I'll post about that soon.

The greatest part was that I no longer worried if she was okay at school.  I used to drop her off and worry every minute that she wasn't having a good day, or that she spent recess with a book because she didn't want to play.

And the uniforms!  I think they are the greatest thing EVER!  Instead of going through her closet every morning and finding "nothing to wear," she can choose either khaki or navy pants, and a light blue, navy, or white shirt.  But they could be improved, according to Ally, if the shirts were red because she doesn't want to be mistaken for a BYU fan.  The white shirts and khaki pants are always the first ones chosen each week while she lets the navy hang in the closet as long as possible.

So, Odyssey Charter School, I love you.  I love that my daughter isn't bored in class any more and that math classes are split up so she doesn't have to wait for the boy who doesn't understand yet before moving on.  I love that there are two teachers in the classroom all the time and that music is twice a week.  I love that I can just walk into her classroom anytime.  I love that I was able to see improvement in her spelling the second week she was there.  I love that I get an email everyday about what the class did that day and what's planned for tomorrow.  But most of all, I love that my girl loves going to school and and that her teacher is happy to see her everyday.