Ooooooooo

Check out my updated blog on my vacation below. I taught myself how to include pictures in a post. My hunting pic...AWESOME!

Oh Addison

Well...this isn't a new story but something made me think about it today and make me smile so I thought I'd share.

My niece is 2 and does all kinds of little kid "tricks." One trick is making animal sounds. My dad will say "what sound does a ... make?" And she answers with the sound. Here is what a "conversation" like this sounds like.

D: Addison, what sound does a dog make?
A: rooof rooof
D: What sound does a horse make?
A: naaaaaay naaaaaay
D: What sound does a duck make?
A: Aflac Aflac

NO JOKE!!! That is what she thinks a duck sounds like!!!

HAHAHAHA! I saw an Aflac sign and it made me think of that. Enjoy!

I love the Crock-Pot!

I spend 5 minutes throwing stuff into a pot at 6 in the morning, come home at 5 and presto! Dinner! Such a great invention! I will be eating vegetable soup all week but I think this fall/winter/"we don't really know what season we are in" season is a great time to eat soup!

I would love to claim this recipe but I got it from Betty Crocker. Can't wait to try some more of her great Crock Pot ideas this chilly season.

I'll let you know how it goes!

New Adventures

I took a trip down south to Georgia this past weekend and it was A-MA-ZING! Laura and I spent about 24 hrs in Savannah and then drove a little further south to meet up with some of her family who have adopted me - which makes me super excited! Get ready people!

Savannah...



Got in mid-afternoon on Thursday and had a late lunch. We were both really tired and really full from lunch so we checked into the hotel - a Hilton - and took a little rest. No sleeping just relaxing - tv, internet, books, etc. Then at 8:30 we decided to go to dinner. The place we picked was closed - Veteran's Day I guess - so we went wandering. The wandering led us to River Street in the car. And now the interesting part comes...

As I was about to turn left on a side street, a car pulled up - IN MY LANE GOING THE WRONG WAY - so I had to do an evasive maneuver and ended up crossing two lanes of wrong way traffic, onto rail road tracks, and into the correct direction. At the time I really thought I had lost my mind but then drove past that road again and saw that the other person really was an idiot and so I felt justified in the breaking of traffic laws. Out-of-state tags probably wouldn't've been much help with a police encounter but luckily it didn't come to that so...moving on.

Get to River Street, walk around and NONE of the restaurants are open for dinner. "Kitchen just closed down. Sorry." Ok, let's just try and get drinks - we think. Oh look sketchy bar #482 on this road. OK...slight exaggeration but the point is, it is 9ish on a Thursday night in Savannah and there is no where to get dinner and all of the bars are empty or have those creepy people that look like regulars who started at 5.

Friday - yeah for taking a day off from school - we pack up, head out to cute cafe for quiche breakfast, and mosey around town for the day. Stop and buy ridiculous amounts of candy at the giant candy store and get a palmetto flower from a local. Head out about 3 and onto the next portion of the trip!

Hortense/Nahunta...

Oh, yeah...doesn't it already sound exciting? You bet! I get to see my adopted family...the Andersons! Friday we stayed with Elizabeth and Layton with Emma and baby Brooks. By the next morning, Emma was thinking we had moved in and were going to stay forever. I wish Emma! We stayed up until 1am talking with Layton and Elizabeth about everything and nothing and it was AWESOME!

Ok I tell you we stayed up until 1ish to then tell you we woke up at 4:45...to go HUNTING!! This was my first hunting trip ever in my life and I was dragging at the early morning hour until Layton arrived at the door with our camouflage clothing and then I got SUPER-AMPED and ready.to.go!

Jimmy, Layton's dad, came over to take us out hunting and Laura and I got our own guide and teacher of all things hunting! Jimmy was my guide and he told me all kinds of great information to help out and build my hunting skills - unfortunately I was sleep-deprived and really cold most of the time so my brain was malfunctioning and forgot those riveting tidbits :)

When my feet began to get numb, we decided to go on a "hunt"/trek through the forest to find us a deer. I am not sure how long we were hiking but it was A-WHILE. No deer were sighted but it was fun and I got more of those great tidbits. We decided to call it a morning and went back to the house. As we were sitting down to eat our second breakfast I looked out the window and saw two deer running through the side yard. Of course, when we come in the deer come out. I really wanted to shoot that shotgun...real bad!



Hunting round 2: squirrels are my target with a 22 caliber rifle in hand. I am feeling lucky about this hunt because I remember seeing lots of squirrels out on my first trip out so I knew I would get something. Guess what I got? Another hour trek through the woods, this time looking for squirrels. Seeing a couple but not getting any! Lame-o! Even though I didn't kill anything, I got to go hunting, and experience I don't know will be repeated anytime in the near future so it was a great time!

Dinner time...We go to eat dinner and I am EXHAUSTED...if I wasn't concerned about what people would think of me, I would have fallen face first into my plate asleep! But I held out for a few more hours until I finally go to bed - this night at Jimmy and Charlene's. Laura says that she is going to set her alarm for 9:30 in the morning and I am like, "really, why so early?" Her response is "well that's 12 hours from now so I think we'll be ok." I didn't know it was that early but I definitely took advantage of that 12 hours! It was great!

Sunday, we wake up, have a breakfast of toast and deer sausage, and then go out to see how a tree stand works-just to wrap up our first lesson in all-things hunting. Its a fairly ingenious apparatus but looks a little scary, not for me on this trip.

It was sad, as always, to say "adios" to the Anderson clan but we made sure to make "in the future" plans to go fishing! I guess I can count on them to help my outdoorsy skills!

Anyway...this a a very short (even if you doubt it) nutshell look at my weekend vacay. More info can be found on Laura's blog . Sorry no super long conclusion to make an extremely intelligent point but it is what it is!

HAPPY HUNTING!

So...it happened :(

My first bout of tears this school year. Granted it wasn't 'roll down the cheek' tears, just watery eyes but if I wasn't so prideful, I would have had a full-on tear fest.

So what made me have this SUPER AWESOME day?

Well it really did start out pretty well. I woke up from an 8 hour night sleep (something that never happens) and I got to wear jeans to work! My first few classes went really well, only small struggles due to seating rearranging adjustments. One of my students that hassled me to THE. END. of my patience the day before came to apologize and ask for a truce. I was having a slightly above average day.

That is...until my last class.

Then all of a sudden instead of 6th graders, I was transported into a class of kindergartners. Moving from one student to the next it was "sit down in your seat," "don't even think of throwing those scissors," "I don't care if he did it first," "can you stop flicking paper footballs?" REALLY?!?! This is not what I signed up for.

Once the kids were gone I got to talking with one of the other teachers and she told me about a questionable thing another teacher did that could potentially mean bad things for me. She is a new teacher and doesn't really know how some things are supposed to work and is someone that likes to tell on people - for no real reason - just so she can look good. REALLY?!?!

So now it is after 3 and I still have 5 things on my 'To Do' list before I can leave. I BS those things well enough to look like I cared and shut down my computers and walked out - not saying bye to anyone, not wishing anyone a great weekend. Nothing. I just had to get out.

On the way home is when I really let this last 2.5 hours sink in. My mind starts to go now. "I am 23 years old! I don't have to take crap from 11 yr olds. I don't have to take crap from 30 yr olds either. I don't have to teach. I know that I can find something else if I really had to. Am I even good at this job? Is this really a calling for me?" Now is when I make one of the last turns home and, having worked myself up really good now, start having watery eyes.

I come home upset and definitely not wanting to talk to anyone. I get in bed, fully clothed and lay in silence. Within this silence I remember the first 6 hours of my school day and realize that I am not horrible. I'm not the greatest teacher either. With my 1 yr and 2 month experience I am doing pretty good for myself. I also realize that in 2 weeks, we are getting an extra teacher to decrease my class sizes as well as the removal of several problem children.

At this point tears try to creep back into my eyes - grateful tears now - but I push those away as well.

Why would I question my abilities? I am human. I make mistakes. I am not good at everything, no matter how much that hurts my pride. I am fallible. I can be pressured into doing things that under other circumstances would never cross my mind. BUT I am also held in the hands of a God who loves me. A God that has set struggles in my life to help me learn. A God that really only wants good things for me. A God that will never leave me no matter how much I try to push Him away or ignore Him.

In times of struggle I seem to scream "why me? I don't deserve this." Yet when I am blessed why do I not also scream "why me? I don't deserve this?"

"How do you feel?"

"Like an idiot!"

Well, lately I have been examining my health and fitness and the knowledge that sometimes walking up a flight of stairs gets me a little winded. I AM SOOOOOOO LAZY and have been since I graduated college. This is nothing like I am watching my weight or trying to lose weight - I can still wear clothes I have from high school - but that does not give me any excuse to be lazy.

Typical day - get up, go to school, come home, sit on the couch w/ tv & dinner, and then go to bed. This has been my life for the past 5 years and I hate being so lazy. In high school I played sports year-round and was active in all kinds of things. Now I am a couch potato!!!! I literally eat a bag of chips while sitting on the couch!

I don't really have any plans to change my eating habits, I tend to stick to a fairly balanced diet with fruits and veggies mixed in whenever possible. But I would really not like to be so lazy...hence the opportunity to tell the lady on the tv that I feel like an idiot.

I started on Monday and have had a pretty irregular routine since then.
Monday: 50 mins of Wii Sports & 30 mins of Pilates
Tuesday: 45 mins of Wii Sports & 30 mins of Pilates
Thursday: 15 mins of Pilates
Sunday: 45 mins of cardio dance

As much as I was movin' & groovin' with the dancing, I was getting frustrated because the lady was doing the moves too fast for me to learn correctly and therefore the comment "I feel like an idiot."

Hoping to get on a more regular routine in the weeks and months to come. Know of any good workouts on FitTV, send them my way!

Oh wow!

It's been 18 days since my last post and I'm not really sure that you have missed much. Back to the same ol', same ol' - sleep, work, sleep, work. Although, you might be interested to know one of my "sleep" stories...so let's start there.

I have been having trouble getting up and going the past few weeks so sometimes I skip breakfast or just grab something (a pack of cookies) on the way out. So on Monday, before I went to bed I decided that I REALLY wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast the next morning. In my head I knew I made the plan and there was no way I was backing down. I go to bed about 10ish, like normal. So here comes the weird "sleep" story part. I wake up and the look at the clock and see 12:00 and I get up. YEP, I see 12:00, as in midnight, and get up thinking it is 5:00am. It was like my brain was interchanging numbers to try to make this make sense. ANYWAYS...I get up and turn the oven on to start pre-heating. When I finally go to put the cinnamon rolls in the oven, I just set them in and close the door, look at the clock again and see 12:34. Double take, WHAT 12:34!!! What the heck? Why am I up? What in the world am I doing? A normal person may say "crap" and then just throw the cinnamon rolls out. NOT ME!! I REALLY wanted those cinnamon rolls so I stay up for 15 more minutes while they bake, buzzer goes off, I take them out and put them on the stove, turn oven off, and crawl back in bed. When I finally wake up at the actual 5:00am I warm them back up and put the icing on them. When I told a colleague at work this story she says "so you were like sleep-walking. Well sleep-cooking really." My roommate has told me that I can't plan to use the oven early in the morning any more just in case.

Now I have gotten up at a crazy time like 2:30, turn the shower on, recheck the clock and realize, turn the shower off and then go back to sleep. This time, not so much.

We have over 300 kids in 6th grade with only 10 teachers, sometimes our classes reach numbers of 34+ so we finally found out we would be getting relief - an extra Social Studies teacher (for 1 class period), Math teacher (for 2 class periods), and a Science teacher (for 1 class period). Yesterday (Friday) I see about 12 new schedules in my box to hand out to students on Monday to make these changes happen. So we will see what the 17th day of school looks like when these 6th graders worlds are turned upside down! More to come I am sure.

Also, did you realize what time I am posting this? Before 9am on a Saturday. That's because on Friday's I get up a 5, work all day, hang out with some work friends after school, come home and go to bed at normal time 10ish. At least my body gave me 2.5 extra hours of sleep. But seriously, I was hoping to sleep til 10 at least! Oh well...whomp whomp whomp.

Sixth graders are so funny :)

Ok so I'm sorry I haven't updated on all of the first few days of school yet but here goes.

As I said, 6th graders are so funny! They ask the craziest questions (well I think they are crazy but really they just don't know how middle school works).

"Do we have the same schedule everyday or does it change?"

At the end of the day a child comes up and doesn't know which bus he rides so I find one of the people in charge of buses to see if she could help and this is how the convo went...
Ms. C: Did you ride the bus this morning?
Student: (mumbled) Yes.
C: Was your bus driver a man or a woman?
S: (mumble AGAIN)Woman
C: Ok. Was she black or white?
S: (mumbled and totally serious) I don't know.
C: YOU DON'T KNOW?!?!
(I busted out laughing at that one.)

Parents walking students to homeroom on the first day.

Parents sneaking in the building a few yards behind their student to see them get into their homeroom and have a quick chat with teacher about lunch or some insecurity the parent has.

Student: UM...I think that person is in my seat.
Me: Yes he is but you don't come to my class until 6th period.

S: How does this planner work?
Me: Um...you find today's date and then you write your homework there?!

I feel like some of the best things I can't even remember but I know there will be more to come. All in all the first 5 days has been really good. They get chatty towards the end of the day but with the exception of maybe 10 out of 150 they are well mannered and follow directions pretty well.

Lesson planning is going really well too! I already have my lessons done for the 1st quarter - that means I don't have any lesson plans to write until NOVEMBER!!! Holla! Yay for working smarter and not harder and HOLLA to my Social Studies partner Jackie who is working with me.

Should I be knocking on wood in fear of being jinxed? NOPE! I am praising the Lord for His faithfulness, wisdom, and support already in the new school year! Lord You are good and Your mercy endureth forever!

It's that time again

So school starts tomorrow (insert sighs, screams, whoops, yawns, or whatever emotion moves you) and I am actually pretty excited about it. I tell you this to forewarn you that my next few posts slash next few months of posts will most likely be school related...rantings, ravings, laughs, etc etc...that you may or may not interest the three of you that actually read this.

My classroom has undergone a total transformation over the past three weeks and I have already started planning for this quarter. Technically I have the whole quarter at least mapped out - thanks to the help of the other 6th grade Social Studies teacher (we are working SMARTER not HARDER) - and already a couple weeks fully planned with accompaniments.

Last night was Open House and I got to meet a lot of my students and their parents. The majority of the students (and parents) are excited mixed with a smidge of nervousness! Like them, I am hoping for a wonderful year full of learning while having fun - I don't wanna be bored and I know for sure that neither do they!

I pray for patience, understanding, guidance, compassion, sanity, and wisdom working with these new students, their parents, my team, and the rest of the staff at school. Your prayers will be greatly appreciated as well!

All good things must come to an end

Well, I have detailed many of my summer adventures and now school is starting in 2 weeks! I went to work on my classroom yesterday and realized that I have a lot to do.

I am really excited about this new school year and all of the challenges I will face. I took a few minutes to look through some of my class rosters and noticed that a few of my students have many ailments that make everyday a challenge - almost total blindness and cerebral palsy are just a couple. I have never taught students with such issues but I know that these will be great learning experiences.

I also go into the new year prayful for loving on the students no matter what is going on in their lives. There were many times that I thought I would explode due to misbehavior or disrespect and then, even though I didn't want to, I continued to hold it against those students - they got no second chances with me. I can't do that to these kids, they have to know that in my class they are respected and safe.

To accomplish this goal I am going into the year with a new plan - management rather than discipline. I have to not only teach the students about the mountain ranges in Europe or the animals along the Amazon but how to be a productive citizen and member of the classroom. I realize now that just because they have been in school more than half of their life, the majority of students don't know proper classroom "etiquette". Examples include (1) raise your hand when you want to talk, (2) don't sharpen your pencil while I am teaching, (3) if it's not yours don't touch it, and the list goes on and on.

Anyway, I hope you are excited for more interesting anecdotes as the year progresses!