Teacher! Teacher!

My cousin Courtney just had the most beautiful baby in the universe (Well, most beautiful baby that's been born since my children. Just to clarify.) and Courtney is a Kindergarten teacher. That alone makes the woman eligible for sainthood, in my opinion.

Awhile back, when I hinted around on here that big things were changing regarding my employment status, Courtney called me and said, "Did I just read that you quit your job?" I let the cat out of the bag to her only and said that yeah, that was the plan. She laughed and said, "Have you ever thought about teaching Kindergarten? Because they still don't have a sub for me yet." I laughed and said, "Yeah, sure," but a few days later it hit me.....uh, why not?

So I asked her if she was serious and said that if she wasn't then uhm....neither was I. Hey, I didn't wanna look like an doofus if she had just been joking.

When we went over to see my new! baby! cousin! who is now healthy and home and no longer a sick baby boy, she asked if I had gone the school district office to fill out an application because they were kind of counting on me taking her class for the first 2 1/2 weeks of school.

So today I filled out the application and I'm teaching 12 days of Kindergarten when school starts.

Yeah.

*enter panic*

Actually I'm looking very forward to it. Two of my kids and both Tots One and Two had Courtney for Kindergarten (She left our school before Kady started so we got Mrs. Weece who was deemed The Best Kindergarten Teacher Ever If We Can't Have Cousin Courtney.) and she is a super teacher. She has already assured me that everything is done, all I have to do is follow her lesson plan. And keep them from hanging from the light fixtures.

My mom is utterly ecstatic because she is SO hoping that teaching Kindergarten for 12 whole days will unleash some kind of buried need deep inside me that will give me an overwhelming urge to go back to college and become a teacher. Tonight, standing in the kitchen at the church, she got a wistful look on her face as she sighed and said, "I just always knew you'd be a teacher. I just knew it. I guess I was wrong." *insert deep heartwrenching sighs where you see fit as you read that* Heck, Mom, lots of people wanted me to be a teacher. Everyone in high school, from the janitor to the guidance counselor wanted me to be a teacher. Everyone except me.

Don't get me wrong, I love kids. I love teaching kids to sing silly songs about monkeys jumping on beds. I like gluing cotton balls to construction paper. I like naptime. I can read Skippyjon Jones books with a killer Mexican accent and make the kids fall over at my goofy-ness. I can color with the best of 'em. But as far as making teaching my lifelong profession? Nah, no desire whatsoever. I'm like the aunt who spoils your kid and then sends them back home on a sugar high. I will take your kid, play with them and then happily hand them back and go on my merry way.

But when I turned in that application today I was really excited about this upcoming year as a substitute teacher. The gal that took my application was excited, too. She said she'll use the heck out of me if I can take the Kindergarten class and keep them from tearing down walls and duct taping me to the desk. I laughed, but I think she was serious.

That's okay, though. I am looking forward to the oportunity and hey, if I end up duct-taped to the desk, it'll make a great story for the blog.