What a week. I have put in a record 40 hours at Miss Sippy's this week. We have been so busy, and also shorthanded. I am more than ready for the weekend. Gator baseball tomorrow at noon. Hopefully we can play this tournament without any problems.

Picked up my baby after school today for the last time as a junior high student. He doesn't have to go next week because he is exempt from all his final exams. Time has really flown since he got started in school. We debated sending him to preschool because I was at home and didn't know just how much he'd learn anyway at K4. He told us that he had to go to school because he had to learn. WE both looked kinda dumbfounded and said, well alright then! We sent him to the Presbyterian kindergarten here in Carrollton because Elizabeth and Jonathan both went there. It was a good little kindergarten. It is closed now. He loved kindergarten and loved going most days. It was funny, though, one night he told us that he wasn't going to school tomorrow. I just kinda brushed him off. The next morning I got everyone up and dressed. Took the big ones to Winona, came back to Carrollton to drop off Patrick and walked him to the door as always. Well, he said, remember, I told you I wasn't going to school today. I tried to leave him and he pitched a snotslinger of a fit! Miss Judy (Bankston), the director told me later that he stayed mad for a while and she'd never seen that side of Patrick! Still to this day don't know his reasoning behind that little episode. the next year was K5 and we switched him to Winona Elementary. He had the teacher that to this day is his favorite teacher of all time. Mrs. Susie Austin. Susie was fun! She had a playhouse in her classroom built like a little loft with a slide. The kids loved to play in it on rainy days. Patrick has always loved animals and Mrs. Austin had 2 parrots, Taco and Buddy. They also had bunnies and turtles and other animals in the classroom. First grade was Mrs. Lester, second, Mrs. Bourne, third, Mrs. Forsythe. The end of year awards programs for the little elementary students were always held in the pod. Each teacher gave her own awards for her classroom. Patrick usually brought most of them home. Fourth, fifth and sixth grades were a little different. They started switching classes and this changed things up a bit. There was a little competition for those end of the year awards. Each teacher only gave 1! He still brought some home! One year he got the award for the second highest average in the whole grade! He still is in the top 4! He could be number one, but doesn't want to put out that much effort. He started band in the sixth grade. Loved his band director, Miss Dee Dee Pitts. Miss Pitts was a big kid herself! She had pet names for many of her students and really made band fun. Patrick was "Mater"! Patrick started playing the trumpet. He loved it while Miss Pitts was there. He even moved up to a "silver trumpet"! Seventh grade moves him to the secondary school, which houses grades 7 through 12. He liked being at the big school, says he has a little more freedom. Wow, no more reprimands for "reckless swinging", leaning up against the building during recess, or coming in from recess with his shirt half out! No more recess. :(! Eight grade was good, except for the band thing. Miss Pitts got a better job at a school on the coast and in comes Miss Tullos. Not good. Nuff said. While in 8th grade, he played jr. high football, which he wasn't really interested in, but it got him into a weightlifting class instead of accelerated reading. The weights really helped him this year for baseball and he was able to make the jr high team this year. He didn't make it in 7th grade and was really upset about it. He still plays tournament ball on the weekends, their team is planning on going to Arkansas in July to play in the USSSA world series. This year he got the American legion award which really made me proud. It is a citizenship award, the criteria being: Courage, Honor, Leadership, Patriotism, Scholarship, and Service. It is given by the local American Legion Post.
Right now he is passed out on the couch-resting up after a big week. They finished state testing yesterday and today was exam review day. I don't know if I can get him up to go walking or not!