Back To School!

Caden started first grade last week.  I am so excited for him!  His first day began a little rough for both of us.  He didn't even want to step into his class.  He was so shy!!  I saw tears in his eyes when he took a seat.  I thought of him all throughout the day.  I remembered what it was like being in a new class with a new teacher.  Being all alone in a room full of strangers.  But when I picked him up from the youth center, he told me he had a GREAT day!  He likes his teacher and there are several kids in his class that were in his kindergarten class.  I wanted to cry, I was so happy!  I guess the big-baby mom really is in me.

He wasn't the only one who started school last week.  Guess who else!  ME!  I'm finally back in the game.  I stopped when my divorce started four years ago and I am finally at a place in my life where I am comfortable with taking classes and working towards my degree.  And I am so friggin psyched!

I am pursuing my B.S. in Investigative Forensics and am about halfway there.  I started my Intro to Investigative Forensics class last week and had a TON of homework.  Oh my goodness.  The reading, the conference discussions, the homework assignments and the brainstorming for a paper.  All in one week.  I love it. 

So right now it is 1:32 a.m..  I've been working on homework.  I have one more assignment that's due by 11:59 p.m. tomorrow night and then I'm done.  This week I have to choose a forensic discipline I might want to work in and begin writing a paper on it.  There are only A LOT to choose from. 

Forensic pathology (dead bodies, cause of death, etc),

Forensic physical anthropology (skeletal remains, identification of corpses),

Forensic odontology (teeth, bite marks), Forensic toxicology (poisons)

and Forensic entomology (insects at death scenes).

It's challenging trying to juggle work, mommying, housework, pet care, AND school all at the same time.  But here I am blogging about it so I guess I found a way to make it work.  Yay! 

Coffee.

It gets the homework done.

That is all.

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Mr. Zippity Goes To the Hospital

You might remember that Bruce chewed Mr. Zippity's eye out on Friday. You can read more about it here. I was able to save him but he wasn't in any shape to go back to school. I had to buy a new one.

Instead of taking pictures of Caden's activities with Mr. Zippity, we decided to write the journal and draw about it.

We drew Mr. Zippity recovering in a hospital, thinking about all the fun he had before the incident.

Caden felt much better about the whole thing after we were done.

He's also pretty sure Mr. Zippity is happy with the project.

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Mr. Zippity Loses His Eye

Sean
(In his best He-Man voice)
"For the honor of Grace Skull, I am SPIDER-MAN!"

Caden
(In his best He-Man voice, too)
"Me TOOOOO!"

Sean
"Oh my gosh, Caden! Bruce is chewing Mr. Zippity!"

Like all kids, mine have a habit of leaving toys around. I nag and threaten to throw toys away if they don't show me they care for them. But it's pointless. They're kids. And it isn't a crime to forget to put their toys away. It is, however, a different story when the toy doesn't belong to them.

Caden's weekend project is Mr. Zippity's Travel Log. Each kid in his class will have a chance to take a stuffed animal zebra home for the weekend, take pictures with him, and journal their time together. On Monday they are to bring the travel log and zebra back to class and talk about it.

Caden was so excited to have Mr. Zippity! He ate dinner with him, did homework with him, even brought him to his morning babysitter's house. It was so cute and I thought the project was really sweet.

And then something incredibly ... what's the word ... Common. Yes common. Something incredibly common happened.

Mr. Zippity was found in the mouth of Bruce, our 5 year old bloodhound mix. I couldn't fix it. I sewed his face up and hand washed him. But he was permanently damaged. I ended up purchasing a replacement on Amazon. Thank goodness that store had it.

Caden was so sad but more than that, he didn't want to tell his teacher that he wouldn't be bringing her zebra back. Hopefully this will be a lesson for him--take care of toys!

The culprit. Bruce is known to steal stuffed animals and chew their eyes out. I don't know what it is but he won't do anything else but take out the eyes. Sometimes a nose if its shiny enough.

Caden's tree frog was found mutilated under the dining table.

Sean's Kanga was found under my bed. Thankfully he paid no attention to the baby in her pouch.

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