I volunteered.

6:26am my alarm went off. I had no idea where the heck I was or which side was up. Once I got my bearings straight, I shut off the alarm, rolled out of bed and got in the shower.

6:26am is too early for me. Plus, the sun is not quite up that early. It's rough.

I had to shake my Buddy awake. He used to be in my bed at 6:30am on his own, now I'm shaking him to wake him up!

We had eggs and yogurt with granola for breakfast and we took off to the school.

There was no ling in the carpool, but I wouldn't have had to sit in it anyway because I was headed inside. That's right, folks. Inside!

I walked in the office, punched my name into a computer and out printed my name badge.

"Jennie Sawyers--Volunteer"

I was official. I could now roam the hallways free and clear.

After dropping my cell phone on the floor and it breaking into three different pieces, I made my way to the kindergarten wing.

The walls were covered in artwork my kid had done. Raccoons with big tails and big eyes.

My Buddy's teacher has a theme in her classroom: frogs.

They belong to "Mrs. Manzella's Pad", each student has a FROG notebook, and there are various different kinds of frogs all over the room (none of which are alive--just an fyi)

I walked in and got to test some of the students on AR (accellerated reading). After they read a book 3 times, they get to be tested on it. There are 5 questions and you have to get at least 80% or only miss one to "pass" for that book. My Buddy took his first one today and got a 60%. Now that I know what an AR test is and what to do to help my buddy get better grades, it's on!

After AR testing, I got to help the kids with their shapes by playing a game with them. It was interesting to see how different kids acted toward different activities and who they reacted when put in groups with different kids.

Then I was able to replace the raccoon pictures with pictures of the kids, ones they had drawn. It was fun to see how the kids are little artists.

I tore out pages from the math workbooks and then helped the kids with a little bit of math before I left.

The teacher apologized to me a couple of times for the chaos, but I didn't think it was chaotic at all. I thought she did a great job of keeping the kids under control, yet still letting them have their freedom. I'm glad my Buddy is in that class and now that I know what they're doing, I can help him excel when he's at home.

I loved school and I love that my Buddy loves school! It's that important to me!

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Have you ever volunteered? Did you like it?

--I thought volunteering was great and I know it really helped the teacher.

What was your favorite part of school?

--I love reading and English! Forget math and science, good thing I married Oswald, he's good at the things I am not so good at!

If you could re-do any room in your house which would you decorate and how?

--We're moving in a few days and I want inspiration/ideas for the new house!