It's been a while

So, I obviously haven't been very good at keeping up with my blog recently. I will give you a quick rundown of what's been going on in my life these last few months and hope to be better about posting things on a more regular basis. Right now I don't seem to do much more than work all the time and play very little. I did have a GREAT time this past Friday night with Robin hanging out on the patio having a few too many drinks. My job is going great and I love the people I work for and with more than I could have ever imagined. My students are the most precious things ever and I love them more and more everyday.

I was lucky enough to have the whole week of Thanksgiving off and was able to spend that time with my wonderful family. My mom was off all week that week as well and we had a great time shopping and spending some quality time together. Brad also came into town on Tuesday and we were able to spend a few days with him as well, including his birthday. This Thanksgiving was a special one because for the first time in at least 10 years, everyone in my moms family was able to be together for the holidays. It was great being able to see everyone. Hopefully when I'm home for Christmas I can get some of the pictures that my mom took and post them for everyone to see.

What an AMAZING week

Last week was not only my first week of school, but also my first week of school on my new campus. As many of you should remember, the school I have spent the last 7 years teaching at was re-purposed leaving all of us moving to new campus'. It wasn't until February or so before we really knew what our options would be and it was probably April before we ever found out where we were going to be this year for sure. All I can say is that all that stress seems to have been worth it. I'm teaching at Lee Elementary in Grand Prairie and feel so lucky to be there. My bosses have been amazing to work with all summer and made this new adventure such a memorable experience for me and all the other wonderful people I work with.

Right now I have 17 kids in my class and they seem to be an overall pretty good group. Like any group of kids, they do like to talk a lot, but they're working on fixing that :-) I'm also team teaching with one of the girls I taught with last year so I'm only teaching Reading, Writing and Social Studies. I got to do this for a semester last year, and loved it so I'm looking forward to getting the opportunity to do it full time this year.

Hopefully now that life is back to some sort of normal for me, I'll have more time to blog about what's going on in my life. Really, nothing new is going on with me so my job and kids are all the excitement I have to talk about.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week!

My NEW Car

On top of my whirlwind summer, I decided it was time for a new car. For those of you that saw my last one, there isn't much difference between the two. I went from white with grey leather to red with black leather. I refer to it as my "sassy" red car :-) I'm going to post a few pics, but they don't really do much justice to the color; it's a lot prettier in color. My new one does have a few upgrades that the old one didn't have like satellite radio, blue tooth, and some new features on the radio. It also has what they call safety connect which is like on star and stuff like that. So far in the short time I've had it, I love it just like the last one. I just love how I have so much time to do what I want in the summer :-)






If you can't tell, it was raining the day I got it and had to take pictures in the garage instead of outside in the sunshine :-(

Sum... Sum... Summer Time

Summer vacation is off and I'm running full speed ahead. When I walked out the doors on June 5, I had no summer plans. Here it is a few weeks later and I can't seem to keep myself at home. When I am home I seem to spend most of my time at the pool. The rest of my time has been spent visiting my mom and John and at a mini family reunion in Bryan this past weekend.

This was the 2nd year that my dad's family has gotten together for Texas Reds; a steak and wine festival in Bryan. Both years I've been and both years I've had so much fun. One of my favorite moments from the trip was going shopping and having lunch with my aunts and grandma. I feel like I never get to spend enough time with them so it was great to have that opportunity. After spending Saturday morning shopping, we enjoyed the sun and some great Texas wine. Who wouldn't enjoy a day with family, food and plenty of adult beverages?

Next week I'm leaving on Tuesday for Pittsburg for 8 days with my friend Becky. Her parents live there and invied me up to come stay with them for the 4th of July. I'm really excited to go since I've never been up there and also for the break in the heat. I'll be sure to post pics and stuff from my vacation.

Another Year in the Books

I've made it through another school year and all I can say is what a ride it was. Every year always brings new challenges, and this one was no exception. I had some very "special" kids and worked so hard this year, but was also reminded that hard work pays off. This year the school that I've spent the last 7 years working at closed it's doors forever. Next year I'll be going to a new school with new kids, new administators, and some new teachers. I'm lucky in the fact that most of the people I work with will be going to the same place I am next year so we'll be taking on these new challenges together.

Some of the best things from the past year only happened these last few weeks. Every year we strive to teach our kids to do their best and they will acheive great things. This year was not a year of endings, but also a year of firsts. For the first time ever, the school I work at became a Recognized campus based on TAKS scores and our 4th graders were Exempary; the highest honor a campus can acheive. In order for a campus to become recognized, 80% of all kids, in every population, in 3rd through 5th grades have to pass each of their TAKS tests. This is a HUGE accomplishment for our kids and our school considering all the obsticals they face on a daily basis. Our 4th graders took it up a notch and we had at least 90% of our kids in every population passed their TAKS test making them the "Shining Stars" of the campus. I must admit that I've never felf more proud of my kids than I did the day we got those results and found out what an awesome job they did.

All I can say is, "What a way to end an era."

Chicken Pox

So I'm going on day 5 of the wonderful Chicken Pox and I can now tell you from experience, it's miserable. You read and hear about how much harder they are on an adult than a kid and it's so true. All I've been able to do for the last few days is lay on the couch, sleep and feel like total crap. I have no energy and what little energy I do have goes away just a quickly as it came on. On the bright side, they are starting to scab over so maybe there really is an end in sight.

Next week is also the week my kids have been working all year for; TAKS. Last week I was a basket case when I found out that I had the chicken pox and was going to be out of school until this Wednesday, unless they all scabed over before then. I'm so ready to get back to see my kids because I didn't even get to say bye to them :-( I know they are going to do great this week, but I still want to be there to tell them how much I believe in them and the great job they are going to do.

We'll I'm going to get back to my exciting life of watching The Hills marathon on MTV and pray that this is all over soon. Hopefully this finds you doing well and enjoying this lovely spring weather.

Isn't Ironic....

For those of you on facebook, this may be somewhat of a repeat from a post I made earlier, but for the rest of you it's new.

So for at least the last month, I've probably put in a good 60 hours of work a week. Between planning stuff for our Writing BLITZ right before TAKS, to writing Saturday School lessons and teaching Saturday school, I've been more than busy. Since TAKS was the week before last, I thought this past week we be a little less hectic and the we would pick right back up after Spring Break. Boy was I wrong. Tuesday morning we found out that we are changing things up for the 3rd time this year. So in the matter of 4 days I've managed to plan reading lessons for not only my students, but also one of the bilingual classes. Before doing lessons, I met with our literacy strategist analyzing data and figuring out what the bilingual students need to be taught/retaught so I know what lessons to plan for them. I've also organized everything for our new rotation including folders, attendance, behavior, spirals, boxes/crates and a other things that come to me at random times. Anyways, you get the point :-)

So this morning I woke up, played on facebook and did a few other things before deciding to check my work e-mail. Why? I wish I knew, but I did it. So I took care of a few things and logged out. Everyday my horoscope is posed on my homepage and I enjoy reading it, if for nothing else, the fun of it. Every now and then I'll read it and think about how true it was. So today I scroll down and this is what I read...

Let go of work matters -- at least until you get back there on Monday. You've done more than your part to take care of business. You're tired, you haven't had any fun in longer than you can remember and you can't really do any more than you've already done. There. Now that it's all been said, do you think you can actually give yourself a reprieve? Just for a couple of days? You know you deserve it.

I couldn't help but laugh and think to myself that God really is trying to tell me something. This just reminded me that He always knows what I need and makes sure to find a way to remind me of that :-)

I miss my mommy

Well my mom has been on vacation all week and I've sure missed her. So much has gone on this week and I really could have used her "words of wisdom" a time or two. With family night, sitting in on interviews, CPS, kids in ICU, TAKS training, Writing BLITZ, Saturday school, and teaching 25 kids a day I think I've been on overdrive. Staying so busy all the time certainly keeps me on my toes, but when I finally have time to relax I get so bored. I forget what it's like to have "me" time and not have to take care of something or someone else all the time. I must admit that I'm really looking forward to spring break and hope to get in some much needed relaxation; a hot stone massage and a pedicure. I think after all this, I've earned it :-)

What a Week

This week has certainly been one for the record books. I feel like I haven't stopped going since last weekend and I probably really haven't. Tuesday during our weekly meeting with administration, everyone realized what we've been trying to tell them for weeks; that our Writing TAKS is in 7 days. So then we went into freak out mode. What that means for me is that I've spent all week getting ready and planning 7 days of intensive writing lessons and 2 weeks of Saturday School. I've done this on top of teaching and giving benchmark tests. Needless to say it's Friday night and I'm sitting on the couch watching a Lifetime movie. Tomorrow morning I get to teach Saturday school from 8-12 and then I get to spend some quality time with Robin. Tomorrow night I'm going to a wine bar in Grapevine with her, Becky and Becky's mom Susan. Beck and I went a few weeks ago and it's a really cool place. They have a whole wall of wines that you can sample either by the ounce, half glass or glass, a live band and pretty good food. Maybe one day I'll get better about keeping up this whole blog thing, but for right now it's kinda hit or miss.

Whirl Wind of a Month

These last few weeks have gone by like a whirl wind. The first week after vacation was a little tough, but slowly things are getting back to normal; if you can call it that. I've gotten 7 new kids since coming back from Christmas vacation and each day brings a new challenge. Last week I started team teaching with another one of my team mates and that's been quite a challenge for me. As I'm sure most of you know, I'm a little bit of a control freak,so turning over control of my kids to someone else hasn't been easy. It's also been difficult taking in all these new kids and teaching them the structure of my classroom. Most days I feel like I've gone back to the first few weeks of school and we're just learning everything, and for the most part that's true. On top of all this change, I'm trying to get all these kids ready for the TAKS Writing test in a few weeks; 5 to be exact or 31 days :-) but I'm not counting or anything.

Well I'm going to finish watching The Bachelor since I'm done grading papers. I hope everyone is doing well and 2010 is bringing you everything you've asked for so far.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Can you believe it's already 2010? It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the year 2000, and here we are 10 years later. I'm amazed at how quickly life goes by and reminded just how much things can change with the drop of a hat.

2009 was a pretty good year for me, and I look forward to more great adventures in 2010. After getting back to my apartment on New Years Eve, it's only taken me a little over a week to get all of my new stuff put up and in it's place :-) I spent New Years Eve with the usual crew and we had a pretty low key night. Everyone went over to Becky and Kyle's and we all played games and drank before crashing around 2 or 3 that morning. The best part was knowing that everyone had a place to stay and no one had to get out and drive home. Beck and I ended up spending most of the next day laying around and watched a movie after everyone left.

Monday I had to go back to work, and it's been hard getting back into the groove of things. Finally by Thursday I was feeling back in the groove, and then Thursday night I went with Robin and Tammy to watch the football game. We had a little too much fun, so Friday was a little rough, but we made it.

Today I'm suppose to go meet mom and Marsh for pedicures and dinner so I'm excited about that. If for some reason that doesn't work out I'll either go hang with Katy, Beck, Kyle and Susan or go watch the game somewhere with Tammy and Robin. So as you can tell, life hasn't slowed down one bit for me, but that's just the way I like it; most of the time.

Here are a few pics for the holidays for your enjoyment. By the way, I love the pic with my daddy. I don't get to many of them so when I get a good one, I get excited :-)




The "bar" for New Year's Eve


Mom, Brad and I


My daddy and me