Shooting, Stitches, & Substitute Teaching

No, they aren't all related, but they about sum up what we have been up to in the Adams' Clan for the first month or so of the new year! We have been busy and blessed!!

In January the twins started shooting with the local 4H club. Every Saturday they go to the Lenawee county Shooting Grounds and shoot BB's for an hour and a half. They pooled some of their Christmas money and purchased a BB gun. It just arrived this week and they were very excited. They had been using the club's guns. They will continue to do that as they switch each week with the new gun. I am not real sure how I feel about this whole shooting thing, but the boys seem to really enjoy it and it is very safe and structured. I will send the camera with Doug next week so I can post some pictures. They even get pretty good scores, lots of 7's, 8's, 9's and even 10's. (Think of the center of the bulls eye as 10 and each ring away from that goes down incrementally.) Their scores get higher each week.

Now for the stitches. Daniel, you had any doubts this involved him?, two weeks ago Thursday, got his finger pinched in the hinge side of the outer bathroom door at school. They called my cell phone and it was luckily lunch time so I could answer, since I was at work. They told me he pinched it and it was bleeding quite a bit and they wanted us to come in and take a look at it. So I called Doug who happened to be at home on his day off with Sarah, cause she had no school and Grace who was home with plugged up ears due to an ear infection. Doug left Grace at home and went to check on Daniel. When he got to school Daniel was in the office with a very bloody pinkie and he was throwing up in a trash can. Doug thought a visit to our pediatrician would be a good idea. ;-) So he drove to Dundee and of course, they were closed for lunch. Blessedly, the Urgent Care is literally right next door. They took x-rays, cleaned him up a bit, gave him a local and started stitching him up. He started to cry when he found out the Dr wasn't going to use glue to close the cut, but a needle instead. The Dr said, "Can you feel this?" as he tapped Daniel's hand. Daniel said no and the Dr replied, "Then why are you crying?" Daniel shrugged, stopped crying and settled in to watch. Doug had him turn his head and Daniel proceed to FALL ASLEEP!! He got a total of 6 stitches in an L shape above the top knuckle on his pinkie finger on the palm side. He had lots of gauze and wrappings that first day and was milking it!! He just got the stitches out last Tuesday. It still looks a little ugly, but it is healing nicely. The best part is that I had no idea how bad it was until I called on my way home from school at 3:30. Doug and Daniel were just back from the Urgent Care. Grace did a great job watching Sarah, although I don't think she will be volunteering to do it again anytime soon. I think it stressed her out a bit. Daniel is no worse for the wear. We had him stay inside that first week so he wouldn't tear out the stitches on the playground and now he has a great story to tell. He is even semi famous at school. Everyone wanted to know who all the blood belonged too! ;-)

Finally, on to the Substitute Teaching. It has made my life a bit more interesting, but I love it. I have to be a little more organized and Doug is doing a little more of the "Mommy Jobs", but it is all working out for the best. It is not a teacher's salary, but it is helping to pay bills and give us some fun money. I had intended to do the bulk of my work in the kids school, Britton, in the lower Elementary. I have in fact only worked there 5 days this whole year. I have been doing most of my work at Clinton Elementary, a nearby district, about 15 minutes from our house. I got my first job there through the Internet sub finder AESOP. I filled a young 5's spot that had the class in the am and then visited various other classed in the afternoon as well as playground duty. One of the teachers I visited that afternoon noticed me and asked me to work a day the following week. That night another of the teachers I worked with posted a job on AESOP and I picked it up. From that day on I haven't walked out of the building without another job for either later that week or the next. I have taken a few jobs in Madison and at the ISD preschool, but Clinton has been keeping me busy. I have been mostly in 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms, which is wonderful since that is what I am most familiar with anyway. I have also subbed for the Resource Room teacher several times. I am currently filling in for a second grade teacher who is on a medical leave for about two weeks. She has a great class and I am enjoying my time in her room. I am praying that I continue to be blessed with work after she comes back. Maybe I will have a few more opportunities to work in Britton. I will be sure to keep you all posted.

We have been up to other things here in Southeastern Michigan, but I will save the Line Dancing, Lock-in and Lent for another post...