And if the music is good, you dance.

Last night, as I was reading my amazing little book on happiness, Joel called to inform me that there had been some miscommunication and he did not have a show at that little country bar I spoke of. Deciding what to wear and putting makeup on my face did not sound like something I wanted to do when I was cozy on my couch, already in my comfy clothes, book in hand, lap top to my side, candles and incense lit. But for some reason I felt like being spontaneous so I threw on some makeup and a maxi dress and popped the top off my new favorite cider beer.

After running into some people we hadn't seen in awhile, giving them hugs and sharing a few laughs on the street, we accidentally fell into a great night. There's a bar in Loveland that plays all my favorite kinds of music; techno, dubstep, house, you name it, and they have DJs through every weekend. There was a very talented girl mixing all my favorite songs, so of course, I was immediately in love with her and everything she was doing. She took a break and I took full advantage of the opportunity to tell her how great she is and how much I was inspired and how badly I wanted her skills. Joel turned to me and informed me that when he makes enough money someday, he would be happy to buy me my own set of turn tables. I made him promise and then I laughed as I told Joel and his buddy about how I should have been on the show "Made" back in 2004. "I work in Childcare but I want to be a DJ." Do you remember that show? How entertaining. I still think it would be an amazing hobby. I can see it now, childcare by day, DJ by night. Sounds like madness if you ask me. And to sit and mix so many amazing songs and artists together and give people fun beats to get jiggy to, ugh, it sounds like something I want to be fully apart of. Because you know I would be ripping it up behind those tables to all my own beats. It makes me laugh when people ask me what my favorite kind of music is. It catches them off guard for some reason, that I don't understand. Do I not look like someone who likes to get lost in music on the dance floor? "Do you like... dance with glow sticks?" is the question that I particularly loved one time. I mean, I have, yes, and if you haven't, try it sometime! Put that neon pink and yellow glow stick around your head as a head band, put some on your wrists and enjoy everything you are doing. Joel and I were talking about how opposite we are when it comes to music. He plays acoustic guitar and I love my techno and want to DJ as a hobby. That sounds like a reality tv show right there ;) Just kidding! The DJ's name was Chelsea and we laughed as I told her my name and that apparently we were destined to meet. Moving here from Texas with her boyfriend, who also DJs and has taught her everything she knows, she is always looking to make sweet, new friends, just like I am. What completely sucked me in was the moment she started playing a song that came out in the early 90s when techno and house music first started to surface. I remember being in middle school, my brother in high school, and I missed the bus one day. My brother, who is 5 years older was not so thrilled to have to take his little sister to school but let me tell you how thrilled I was after the fact. And I'm sure I had a 5 star day, because we all know music can do that to you. Anyways, Chelsea remixed the song that my brother played in the car that morning. That song was also remixed by Tiesto the first time I had ever seen him in Chicago and the memory of my brother first introducing it to me makes me smile. For some reason that song just sings to me, literally. After exchanging contact info with my new favorite local DJ, and both making it clear that we needed to see each other again, we went home after a very successful night spent on the dance floor. 

See you every single Friday, Chelsmosis, you are awesome. 

The Happy Ones See Only Beautiful Things.

During my two and a half hour long lunch break today, I had Joel meet me somewhere between Loveland and Longmont to take full advantage of my time and enjoy some Starbucks and a community garage sale together. The neon pink sign screamed at me as I passed it this morning. Along with two camping chairs, a garden hose, two lamps, a couple nick nacks, Battleship... yes, Battleship (50 wonderful cents spent) and a book about happiness, I felt it was a pretty wise $10 spent. Now, you know me, being the sucker that I am for quote books, I could not walk away from the gem I found today; a book called, "I Wish You Happiness" and it's a book written entirely by children. Umm, does it get any better? As I sit here on this lovely Friday, refusing to go to Joel's show at a little country bar that is entirely not my scene, I am reading this amazingness, smiling and even laughing to myself. Now, upon opening the book, I figured it was full of happiness quotes and then amongst all the goodies, occassional quotes by children. Oh no, entirely by children. At first I couldn't figure out why the publishing company would allow so many spelling and grammar errors. And then I realized that children wrote their thoughts and it was put in the book completely, 100% their own. How awesome. Let me show you how great this is: 

The things that make me happy are

flowers and dimonds and butterflys and

ladybirds all things that are coloured

and clowns make me laughe and the sun

and summer and the snow makes me

happy and toys makes me and sweets and 

the hedgehogs are nice althow they are

prickly and I think everything makes

St. Valantine very happy and sheep and cow's and 

goates and I like the birds and it makes

me laughe when I see peple with arrows

through there ears and I like the rainbow

and the lightness and I like the stars and

the moon and I like the fields and I like 

neklises and braselits. 

-Elizabeth Wright

Unfortunately, this is one of the few without an age written by the name but, holy moly is that awesome. I just smiled as I read and laughed out loud at parts, especially the last line and it's most likely because of the spelling. Oh, seeing the world through the eyes of children. It's times like this that I again think how lucky I am to have the job that I do and have been able to stay in it, happily for almost six years. The fact that I get to teach, and play with, and talk to two year olds 40 hours a week is something special. Being silly with them, and teaching them manners and how to love their friends and give hugs and all that emotional, good stuff, ugh, it just makes me happy thinking about how I spend my days. The other day as I sat outside in the grass with a couple of my girls, I was fixing one of their pony tails when one came up to me, nicely stroked a solid strand of hair of mine and said, "Ms. Kelsey hair pretty." It's moments like this that make my job. Reminding my two year olds that it's important to tell their friends "thank you" and that they "willy like the dinoswar" shirt that they're wearing today is important to me. KinderCare ladies back home, you can imagine how big I am on having my two year olds give each other hugs. Ah, I just love my kids. 

The other week, I was asked by my director and owner if I would like to step up to a lead teacher position, because their was an opening. As you may already know, I am qualified but stepped down to "Assistant Teacher" when I took the job, because that was what was available at the time. Now 4 months later, my director has informed me that I have instilled so much trust and confidence in her and have shown so many lead teachers tendencies and qualities that she no longer wants me to assist, she wants me to be able to have my own room. The two and half year old room was available and the more I thought about it, the more stressed and nervous I became, simply because two is my comfort zone age limit, believe it or not. Given I work well with all children but I do so much better with the younger ages. It simply comes more natural to me. So luckily, my co-teacher who was, at the time, the lead teacher, who is so flexible and great, stepped down from the lead teacher position in our room, so I could have it and went to the room next door, so I didn't have to leave my comfort zone and all of our awesome children. Needless to say, I bought her a card and a coffee and told her how much I appreciate her doing so, just so we could both have our own rooms. It's been a change this week, having a new assistant teacher, but any change is challenging with two year olds. I am aware that after a few weeks, everyone will be comfortable again. The summer months are pretty easy to coast through and all my lesson plans are done through July. Thank you awesome co-teacher! So starting August I will be fully in charge of daily lessons and all that good stuff. From what I hear, it's work... that I'm not used to (KinderCare curriculum was all laid out for you, all you had to do was implement) so it will be a change. But it's definitely something I can do, especially with the slight raise I demanded.

Cheers!