Hello Cats and Kittens!

How are you doing? I am pretty good, myself.

It's been a birthday week for me, even though my birthday was last week! How weird! Meaning, I got all my cards and mail presents this week. No sweat, it just means I get to celebrate my birthday for an entire week instead of just one week! Lucky me.

Anyways, last week for my birthday Chris bought me A History of Japan and The Kwaidan. This weekend, we went to Matsue and he bought me Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie. You see, my we actually decided to do a Birthday/Christmas gift for me since I wanted something rather expensive. Unfortunately, there was a weird problem with the order so I wasn't going to get it in time, so I got these in the interim. Weird. I love them all. The first two are books and the last is a movie (which, if you like Spongebob at all, you should definitely see, funny stuff). So that was pleasant.

I also got a nice gift certificate from Laura B., a magnet and a card from Laura W. (already hanging on my fridge!), a nice card from Nana, and a magazine, note cards, and card from Grandma and Grandpa. Thank you all! All very lovely gifts. All made me happy. Thank you!

Also, this week my big gift came in the mail. Squee! You know what it is? Ok, but you are going to be super jealous. It's the complete Buffy's Special Edition collection. It's season 1-7 all in one compact box. Pretty sweet, huh? Click here and envy me Isn't it great? Man, it's so awesome, I'm jealous of me! ^_^ Before you ask, I used to have the first 5 seasons, but I ended up selling them for a gamecube. Here they are again! Complete and compact so it doesn't take up my entire shelf. NICE!

So that was my birthday week!

I have definitely gotten back into the swing of things with school. Tuesday was, like, the best day I have ever had with these classes. My highschool first graders are always wonderful and make me pleased to teach them. But usually I hate my 3rd graders with a passion. But yesterday, they were wonderful! I think it's because I entranced them by playing a Japanese favorite. Bingo! I don't think they get to play many silly games so I played it with them and they really seemed to like it. We played Hangman (Bob goes to jail version which is less horrifying to them) and they liked that too. Clever monkeys, they got all of them right.

My 6th grade class went well. Like, really well. That was unusual. I am back with the third class (there are four and we have been rotating so I am back to class 3 which I started with). They are awful! Everyone says that Class 2 is so bad, but Class 3 is the worst for me. Unfortunately, there is a severly behavior disordered kid in class. I don't know what his problem is, but it's obvious that he's not...right. He tends to run around class screaming and throwing himself on the ground, hitting the other kids, making messes, killing bugs. Stuff like that. It bothers me because everyone just ignores him and I have to teach by yelling over his screaming. English is an inclusion class for the special kids, but I really wish this kid was taken from my class. However, yesterday he was so good that I didn't even realize that he was in class until 15 minutes after I started. He actually participated and seemed to have a good time The other kids reacted well to that as well and were able to concentrate. We definitely had a really good class and I was pleased. Put me in a fine and dandy mood it did!

Well, one of my kids has come to class in kisuki (gah, she comes 15 minutes early, it's so awkward!) so I need to get off the computer. I hope everyone is having a lovely week as well!