the past few weeks

The past few weeks have been very trying.
When I returned home from Tricia's wedding I had no voice. Laryngitis had struck. There was no way I could take Halloween off, and absolutely no way I was going to leave my aide alone with my kids the day after Halloween (I am confident that each and every elementary school across the globe should not be open the day after Halloween).
And so it went, Halloween +19 1st graders + teacher who with no voice= mayhem
I had invited the families of my students into our room for a "Halloween Parade" during which my students walked around our classroom, strutting their stuff in their costumes. After about three laps around the class I ended the eerie Hallow-tunes and we partied with popcorn balls (thank you, Miss. Merissa), candy and juice. A good time was had by all, voice or no voice.
I struggled a lot during the week of Halloween with one student in particular. When he arrived on Monday (Halloween morning) he gave me my daily hug and bent over to show me the 5 staples that were in his head. Over the weekend, his 12 year old cousin smashed a bottle over his head which landed him in the hospital. He could see the anger and disgust in my eyes and said, "Don't worry Miss. Smidt, it didn't hurt that bad and I followed your rule and didn't even cry!" Right about then I had to excuse myself to the restroom to take some deep breaths rather than break my own rule of no crying in my classroom.
One of my professors from USD came to visit me on Wednesday. She interviewed me about my first year teaching experience on the Rez. She is going to use my interview to help upcoming student teachers (hopefully) make the choice to come out here! She is working on getting a grant for my friend Tim and I to travel to USD to speak on a panel. I am very excited to be a part of something that may bring more highly qualified teachers out here! I am having such a priceless experience that I can only wish for more people to have. Hopefully it all works out.
Parent teacher conferences followed Halloweek at RES. I had 13 of 19 show up! I was really impressed and happy with the turn out. I had no bad experiences, and felt that they went quite smoothly. On Thursday we had a Veteran's Day honoring complete with patriotic songs, veteran introductions and the Lakota Flag song being sung by a local junior in high school. It was a great ceremony, and the kids did really well singing!
In honor of Veteran's day, we did not have school on Friday. A good friend of mine from college came through and stayed for the weekend. She has spent the past 2 years teaching English in Prague and is spending some time helping her cousin in Colorado with her son. She was on her way through from Colorado to Scotland, SD to see her family. It was such a delightful time filled with Czech beer, good food and hilarious reminiscing of our Stroller days. Though we found out that we can no longer party the way we used to, we still managed to enjoy every last minute of our time together.
Whoop is doing great. Although he did escape the house this morning while I was helping my friend load the car. He ran loose for about 20 minutes. I drove around town, worried sick and had given up. As I approached my house, there he was --sitting on my front step grinning from ear to ear. What a little snot. I suppose I should be thankful he came back... but man oh man was I upset!
Speaking of being thankful: I am no patriot, but I definitely need to give a post-Veteran's day shout-out to my big Brother Matt for his years in the Army National Guard and his services to the people of Iraq. Also, Grandpa Jack, Amy, Johnny, Rob, Glenn, Jerry and an endless list of friends from childhood and college.  I will never understand how people are able to make those choices, but respect them for it.
I am really looking forward to this coming weekend, my parents and Rijah are coming to visit! I can't wait to have them here, all to myself! Aside from missing my parents, I haven't had a single drop of homesickness since I left in August. I miss a handful of people, the occasional Sunday morning at the Pub and of course Mexico Viejo but all-in-all I just miss my parents. So, my level of excitement is out of this world! I just hope that the weather cooperates and they are actually able to come!