On the first day of Preschool

Well, my boy started preschool this year. He is just so big, and I can hardly believe it! I have been excited for him to go-knowing it would be good for both of us. But as it got closer I really started having a hard time thinking of letting him go. I cried the day before and the morning he went, but as it got closer to go I was just excited for him. The night before I decorated our table like this for him. Plus my sister Kimberley came out and brought us dinner, so the cousins were all together. Brandon gave him a Fathers Blessing (to learn more about this click here) then we tried to get him in bed early. The next morning he woke up at 7:15 and was dressed and ready even with his backpack on by 8:00am. He was so so so excited! We ate breakfast, then worked on his shapes and colors, took pictures, picked up his room, and waited..... Then Grandma K came to pick us up ( we were without a car due to a troubled transmission). When we got to school we took pictures outside then went in. He was just uber anxious he could not contain himself. Then we went in his classroom, met his teacher, hung up his backpack, got his name tag, and sat down and played with play dough. I waited in there for a little while then the teacher said "okay kids say goodbye to your mom", he looked at me, waved then sat down and played. He was so grown up and I walked out thinking, " I can't believe my baby is 4 and old enough for this!" When I picked him up he ran to me and we talked for hours about his day. He LOVED every every everything about it.

This is our table I decorated for him

The morning before school picture

He is just so handsome and so grown up!

Showing off his scooby doo backpack

Such a big boy at preschool

Where is art work will be shown in the hallway

The smile that says it all--this was right before he walked in to his classroom

heading into the school

Mom being camera happy again

As I have thought about my Zach going to school, and so many others starting school again it has made me reflect on all of my years while I was in school. It seemed that each year I had something traumatic/dramatic happen. So since this is my journal as well as our family blog, I wanted to write down some of my memories. And if you know me at all, I am blessed with a good memory so here it goes!

Pre-School: I went to CDL at Burges High School with my cousin Jennifer. Our teacher was Mrs Fails. I remember eating peanut butter on celery with raisins and drinking tomato juice. We sang songs and one of my fondest memories was when we made Stone Soup and I was to bring a crookneck squash and I got to pick it out at the store and I carried it on my neck. I remember wearing my birthday crown made of tissue paper and on that day Lisa McDaniel was taking Jen and I home in her jeep and it rained and ruined my crown! I was so sad!

Kindergarten: Mrs Calvo, East Point Elementary. This year was intersting because I remember that our entire class was out at one time with the chicken pox. I remember the way she had it decorated for Easter and how excited we all were when we came into our class and the Easter Bunny had come and made a mess everywhere with his footprints.

First Grade: Mrs Norris, East Point Elementary. I remember walking to school with Anne-Marie, Kimberley and Kenny. One day I lost my hello kitty coin purse on our way to school. One morning before school I was sitting in the den and my younger brother Kenneth ran into the ironing board and the hot iron landed on my arm. Oh it hurt soo bad. I had a burn mark in the perfect shape of the iron and I was so mad because I had to sit inside during recess and PE because I couldn't get dirt in it so I didn't get an infection. She also got tired of hearing all of us tattle on each other, so she made a cut out of a big ear and posted it on the wall, so when we felt like we needed to tattle on someone we went over and told the ear. This year we also performed some Mexican dances in the talent show as a class. My mom and sisters and I performed "When I grow up I want to be a mother" from the I'm a Mormon tape. My mom sewed all of us matching pink and white gingham dresses and we sang and danced with our dollies on stage.

Second Grade: Mrs Guest, Aledo Elementary. This was a traumatic year because we had just moved from El Paso to Aledo. For some reason I even missed the first day or two of school so it was even harder for me. I remember on my first day that the girl next to me threw up on the floor and it almost got on me. ugh. I lost a tooth this year, I think we were at recess, and a girl Blanca bumped me in the line and I lost it in the gravel, oh I was so mad at her and so sad! I don't have many memories of this year.

Third Grade: Mrs Dewbre, Aledo Elementary. Oh this was a really rough year for me. I was not nice to the girl, Lindsey M, who sat next to me. our teacher told us to go sharpen our pencil for our spelling test so I did, then when Lindsey came to sit down I put my pencil-sharpened end up- on her chair and she sat on it. don't ask me why, i don't even know why I did it. This year I remember a girl named Blanca Hernandez stole my paper and put her name on it, I saw her do it, but then the teacher caught me erasing her name and sent me to the principals office. I got swats with the paddle in the principals office with this big wooden paddle. I had to lean over the chair and he got me 5 times I think. The secretary and my teacher had to come in and watch. It was mortifying but those were the rules and no one would listen to me. The funniest thing about this story is that I thought for sure my parents knew, but never said anything. Well just a few years ago we were all sitting around the table at my parents house and I brought that up, knowing I couldn't get in trouble about it anymore, and we laughed and laughed about it. Another exciting part of this year was that my mom was our substitute teacher while my teacher was on maternity leave. She certainly paid no favoritism, but it was interesting to have her as my teacher. Then later on that year it was exciting to be at school waiting for my dad to come and get me to take me up to the hospital to see my new baby sister Amanda. What a year!

Fourth Grade: Mrs Reisdorf half the year then Ms Armbrust for the other half, Aledo Elementary. I remember not liking Mrs Reisdorf at all, and I was really excited to get to go with the new teacher. We were in the new "portable" classroom and we grew a class pet in some water.

Fifth Grade: Mrs Gibson, Aledo Elementary. Our teacher would give us super bubble gum when we did good on a test. I was excited because all of my friends were in my class, and it was the first year we were in the "big kid" section of the school. We practiced tornado drills and this was the first year I got a locker. oooh.

Sixth Grade: Mrs Moore, Eastwood heights elementary. We moved back to El Paso this summer and I was sooo nervous about going to school. I really liked my teacher. I was traumatized when I had to get glasses for the first time and I sat with my head on my desk and cried, even though I had the most popular Sally Jesse Raphael red glasses, it was still hard. I made alot of friends this year. I loved being on the Safety Patrol that let us be the crossing guards. This was also my first year in the band, and I wanted to play the flute but there were too many girls that played that so I had to play the trumpet. But I found I was good and could beat the boys for first chair so I liked it. We also went to my first dance, and I remember everyone liked Brad Alexander and he liked Melissa Lingard. ha ha ha. I started taking spanish form Senora Lee and she had the longest fingernails I have ever seen, but I learned the most spanish from her.

7th Grade: Eastwood Knolls K-8 school. We changed classes here so I had alot of teachers. I liked Ms Coulehan for English, Mr Vasquez for History and Coach ruleford for sports. I made the 7th grade Volleyball and basketball teams. I HATED playing the trumpet because I had to carry it home up this really steep hill on Buckwood after practice. It was bad, but I still could beat the boys at the trumpet :)

8th Grade: Eastwood Knolls. This year I got in trouble because I hated my spanish teacher and I told her some lies, which came back to bite me. It is funny to look back on. I remember taking computer class and learning to play Oregon Trail. I had my first crush this year. I had fun playing basketball and volleyball.

9th Grade: Eastwood High School. I decided that instead of doing sports I would join the marching band. I was pretty good at the trumpet and thought I would enjoy the band, and I did not like it at all. It was not fun, but I had to stick with it since I had decided this is what I would do. I marched at half time of football games, in the parade and other band performances. I ate lunch with Jen everyday at her house and we had our lockers together in 8th hall.

Well, I think this is where I will stop. I had a hard high school life. I struggled with friends and trying to know where I fit in. I joined another group my sophmore year that became a big joke and still is from my sisters :). Then I found what I was really meant to do and that was I became a student Athletic Trainer working with all of the athletic teams. I loved this and obviously this is where my life took me down the road and I majored in college in this and worked at this for 8 1/2 years.

Then I went away to college and LOVED everything about it. I met some wonderful people who I am closest to even now. It was hard but I learned so much about myself and all of these has made me who I am today! okay, good night :)