Change

I have been slacking on this whole blogging thing, but work has been keeping me busy! Everyday after work, all I want to do is sleep. I was talking to one our wonderful fifth grade teachers. One year she taught Kindergarten. She said that every night she would go home and take a bubble bath. It is definitely exhausting! I have been told that upper elementary is easier. I feel like all grades have their pros and cons. I plan on sticking with Kinder for as long as possible.

Once a month, our counselor takes one class at a time to do a thirty minute lesson with them. After she took my class she said "You have a great class! You must've been praying for your class all summer." I told her that absolutely I was! After the beginning of last year being such a wreck, I definitely didn't want a repeat. This year has been SO much better than last year. I have an amazingly helpful set of parents! The parents are responsible for bringing class snack for two days every two months or so. My counter looks like this...

These parents have gone above and beyond what they were asked to do. I am excited to see how the rest of this year goes. It's been an amazing beginning! 

The other day I woke up to find that Muñeca had got her bed out of her cage. She's been working on that for a while. She seemed pretty proud of herself.

Tonight Manny and I were watching this strange movie called "Redemption." I was quite confused most of the movie. In one scene the main character was beating up this guy and stuff marshmallows in his mouth. Well apparently they were marshmallows... It was a bunch of little bags of crack. Never would've known. I relate the things I see, to the things I know. I know marshmallows, not crack. Haha

When we watch movies, I bring Muñeca's frog blanket out, otherwise she will try and get on the couch. She was watching the movie with us and I realized how long she is getting :-( 

I told her she can't get bigger. She can get rid of her baby teeth though, for sure!

Now for the exciting stuff!!! Yesterday I got a sample...

My sister got the same sample too. I think that's the first time we have both gotten the same sample. Usually we get totally different things somehow.

Today I got some more freebies from Highlight's magazines. I got two containers that have chalkboards on the front...

I also got some tabs and sticky notes.

It's been a pretty exciting day!! I am ready for bed now. Haha I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I know I will :-)

8 days...

8 days without Internet... Manny went to the AT&T store today. The other day I jokingly said that he should ask for a discount because we haven't had Internet for over a week. So today when he went, he asked for a discount. They gave us 25% off. Sweet!!! I still dislike AT&T, but at least they tried to make things somewhat right. Now we just need them to come and fix our Internet. 

On Sunday Manny wanted to take a 30 minute nap. He said he woke me up after 30 minutes, but I didn't wake up. I ended up sleeping an hour and a half. Oops! Two days off of work is not enough time to recover from five days of work. Every weekend needs to be a three day weekend. 

I got a new student yesterday. I'm waiting for him to start talking. I guess that's good that he is quiet, but I sometimes need him to talk. Haha

I got a free sample in the mail. Yay! It is two pastels:

 

Yesterday I had a freebie website open on my phone. I left my phone on the bed. Manny saw the site and he laughed at me for always getting free stuff. I reminded him of the coffee samples I got for him. He seems to forget that he uses my samples too. Haha 

Tomorrow at work some teachers from another school are coming to observe. We shall see how that goes... Also, there will be a principal meeting at our school, so the principals will probably be wandering into our rooms. Fun fun!

I hope everyone has a wonderful evening!

Busy busy!!!

Last night Manny worked a 24 hour shift at a fire station. They had 12 calls. He was telling me all about them while he drove me to work. He went to my parent's house after dropping me off. He said he wanted to just stay there and sleep. Poor guy only got 45ish minutes of sleep. At least he has a few days to recover before his next 24 hour shift. 

Manny didn't get much sleep today either because he has to take Muñeca for her 8 week shots. The Vet noted that she is skinny! She recommended a whole bunch of fancy dog foods to fatten her up. I told Manny that in a year or so she will be noting on Muñeca's chart that she is too fat. Hahaha!! She eats when she wants so I am not worried about her. I really rather not have a fat wiener dog. The vet also cleaned Muñeca's ears and Manny said they were really dirty. He was embarrassed. I told him there was no way all the earwax was from her time with us. We have only had her for three weeks. The vet gave us some ear cleaner. This vet is fancy. Man!! Haha

Yesterday one of my kids went home crying. He doesn't know much English. Poor baby. Apparently he was upset because he bought a lunch but his mom had packed him one. Today when his mom picked him up, he was jumping up and down. It was cute! He really enjoyed math time :-) and he ate the lunch his mom packed him. Seeing his excitement is what makes me want to teach.

Tomorrow I am getting a new student. At least it's not like last year where I got a new student 10 days before summer. In Kindergarten, you are constantly teaching and reteaching, so it shouldn't be hard to bring her up to speed. Should be fun! Hoping our numbers stay low though. I like having 18. 

On a side note, I am not the only one to set off the smoke detectors in this building. Manny and I were sitting in the livingroom and we heard this loud beeping sound. We were just continuing doing what we were doing, then we looked at each other. Right when I said "I think it's a smoke detector. I wonder where it's coming from," the smoke alarm stopped. I am not embarrassed anymore for setting off the smoke detector. I have been pretty proactive when I am cooking. No new smoke detector stories. I hope it stays that way for a while *knock on wood*. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful evening and a blessed Wednesday :-) I am going to try to go to bed again early. I went to bed at 8:30 last night. It was so nice except that Muñeca knew it wasn't bed time because Manny wasn't home. She stayed up playing and barking. She better sleep tonight!! Haha 

Firsts

Whew!! I am alive! Today was the first day of school. I don't think this year will be too bad. I have a few chatty ones, but I can deal with that. I pray it's only talking, no misbehaviors.

It was fun getting to see my old students. I definitely miss them though. I had them trained well. Now I have to break in a whole new group... 176 more school days! Haha

What's crazy is that by the time I got home from work at 5:30, I had been awake for over 12 hours. I am definitely feeling that.

There's nothing like coming home to a puppy happy to see you :-) I missed her while I was at school. I wish I could bring her with me. I know the kids wouldn't mind. Haha

Yesterday I decided to make soft pretzels. They were sooooo good!!

 The top two are cinnamon sugar and the other two are plain.

The two on the right are parmesan and the two on the left are salted.

Manny had a shift yesterday at a hospital. It was his first clinical as an EMT. He was in the ER. He had a lot of fun. He has two 24 hour shifts this week. Boo!! At least he is having fun.

Ok well this grandma needs to go to bed! I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Stop and rest

Sorry I disappeared for a while, but as many of you know, it's back to school time *insert tears here.*

Thursday we had meetings at school. Our principal allowed us a few hours in the morning to work in our rooms. I started writing the kids' names on everything. So many things to write their names on!!! Class lists we posted Thursday afternoon. I left school not too long after 4pm because I had a massive headache. The dust and mold in the building bothers me a lot. Hopefully it gets better and not everyday ends with a headache.

We had "Meet the Teacher" and "Parent Orientation" Friday evening. I got the chance to meet all of my kids. Manny took their pictures so I could put their pictures on their book boxes. I will be doing that sometime this week. *Fingers crossed*

Here is my room all ready for Meet the Teacher! I will have to take a close up of their tables. Each student has a cup with their crayons, pencil, scissors, and glue stick in it.

For "Meet the Teacher," I put an "All about me" paper on their tables so they could read about me :-) I also put a paper of how to sign up for remind 101 which is a way to text your parents without them getting your phone number. It's pretty cool. I hope to get a good response about it from the parents. Lastly, I put a poem on their tables. Our awesome Kinder Team Lead found this cute poem to read the night before school starts. We put a little bag of confetti in with the poem because in the poem it says to sprinkle some under their pillow for a great year :-)

Friday night, Manny and I watched the movie "Olympus has Fallen." I fell asleep at the end so I didn't know what happened. I told Manny I wanted to finish it before he took it back to Redbox. He told me I should've stayed awake. Haha how rude! He let me finish it though. Movies like that are so funny! One guy saving everyone. Macgyver! It was a pretty good movie though.

Today has been emotionally draining! I have done so much crying it's not even funny. First Manny had to tell me that something was wrong with Muñeca while I was at a wedding shower. My sister offered to take me home, but I stuck it out and stayed. Later today some more drama happened. I am just worn out. Manny and I went grocery shopping around 4 and my eyes were just killing me. I just wanted to sleep. I am not sure what all of this means or why this is happening to me, but I am still moving on. I saw this on Facebook and it just got me thinking...

"Don't worry about people TALKING about you. If no one is TALKING about you, then you're not doing ANYTHING. And the only REASON they're not talking about you then, is because they don't know you EXIST. Let the dogs BARK, but the caravan keeps MOVING."

Well this caravan is still moving! Haha!

To end on a lighter note, I changed the sheets the other day. Manny decided that he wants to sleep under the mattress pad because it is cooler. Bahahahaha!!

The bed is a little lumpy :-)

I hope everyone had a restful Saturday. Enjoy your Sunday and go to church! Haha :-)

Back to business

Yesterday I had my first experience with getting ink out of clothes. Yay! Manny accidentally left two pens in his uniform shirts. Luckily the pens didn't explode, but his shirts were covered in little pen marks. I ran to Kroger to get some pen remover while Manny washed his shirts the old fashion way by stepping on them in the bathtub. Haha! I got home and he pulled the shirts out of the tub. A lot of the pen mark was gone, but I put some stain remover on the stops that were still there. He chose the best shirt and I ironed it so he could wear it today. He took his other three shirts to show the Chief and he will be able to get new shirts Friday. I had warned Manny that I don't check pockets. Now he knows that I really don't. Maybe I should. Especially since sometimes I end up with toys in my pockets at work. 

Today was my first day back at work. Man, if only the kids knew how much work we do. People probably think teaching is such a skate job. Work 7:45-3:45 and get off all summer. Psh! If people only knew... If the people who create the laws for schools only knew. Ha! I usually work 50-60 hours a week. Trust me, I have worked my summer! 

So far this year is going well. I don't feel as overwhelmed as I did this time last year. I hope this continues. I would love to have a nice calm year! Every teacher's dream :-) Last year wasn't too bad after the first nine weeks. The very first week is so critical! It sets the tone for the rest of the year. Last year, the first nine weeks were spent trying to get my kids to listen. This year, I hope I can accomplish that in half the time. That's my goal! My room is ready and I think I'm ready. Bring on the kids! 

I hope I don't seem like I don't like my job. I love teaching kids!!! It is definitely a passion of mine. The only thing I dislike is getting up early. I am not a morning person at all. This year I decided I am going to work out before school so I got up at 5am this morning. When I got to the gym, Nick@Nite was on TV. Seriously!?! Even the TV knows that 5am is not morning! We shall see how long this getting up at 5 thing lasts. The only thing that helps is that Manny gets up at 5 to go to work too. As I leave for the gym, he leaves for work. He runs on very little sleep. Man I need my 10 hours or I get grumpy. Haha

As everyone gets back into their routines and gets ready to send little ones off to school, I pray that your nights are full of rest and your mornings are full of peace :-) Have a blessed evening. Enjoy your family time!

Trips

This morning I was leaving my apartment and the handicap parking spot lady was getting in her car. I was afraid she was going to come over and talk to me about taking her spot. Haha

I drove my parents to the airport. Lucky them! They are going on an Alaskan Cruise to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Our wedding got in the way of them celebrating on their actual anniversary. I wish I was going with them. How fun!!

Driving home from the airport, I knew that I would eventually get home because 610 is a loop, but I may just go in a longer circle. I made it home without going in a huge circle. Yay! I have always stunk at driving on freeways. I am directionally challenged I guess.

When I got home, I gave Muñeca a yogurt container. She was having a blast!!

This is Muñeca carrying the yogurt cup around :-)

After she was done with the yogurt container, I gave her a rawhide bone. It's almost as long as she is! Haha 

Well tomorrow I am going up to my classroom. I am hoping to be able to finish my room. I am so close to being done. Oh man! I hope this is a good school year. I pray that everyone has a wonderful school year :-)

Progress

I was able to get some work done on my room today. I told Manny I didn't feel like I'd done much but he said that I did. 

Ok so before pictures...

And what I got done today...

This is my corner with my computer and desk. I pull the kids for guided reading at the kidney shaped table.

This is the bulletin board where I put the "Star Student of the Week" poster. I choose a different kid each week to create a poster about himself/herself. It is on this bulletin board all week long.

 This is the corner for our classroom library. The rug is flipped over because I just painted the little stools green so they are still wet. I am going to put a background in the classroom library and see how it looks.

 This wall has our classroom computers. Each classroom has four student computers. The green boxes on the blackboard are for the word wall. 

 This is our meeting place. Clearly it's still a work in progress.

 The back corner is the writing station. I am going to put different types of paper in the blue mailbox. The green buckets are the kids' book boxes. Later in the year their book boxes will be full of books!!!

These shelves have everything for math stations and literacy stations.

Obviously I still have furniture to move around and rearrange. I am still thinking about what will go on the back bulletin board and the bulletin board above my desk. Lots to think about and I only have one week. EEEKKKK! Manny said we can go back tomorrow and he will study while I work. Today he was studying while I worked, but he helped me move some of the heavy furniture. He also got distracted when I gave him a bucket of legos :-) That bucket of legos made the trip home with us. Haha!

We were going to take Muñeca to school with us, but it was a good thing we didn't. We were both super hungry when I got to a stopping point, so we went to eat. We also went to Home Depot to see if there was a way to rig our patio fence so Muñeca can stay on the patio while we are at work. We saw some lattice and some garden fence stuff. I told Manny that I would be worrying all day about someone taking her... So we are still thinking of what to do. She may have to come to school with me :-) I am sure the kids won't mind!

Ok now it's time to go finish my projects. Almost done! I can't wait to share them.

Projects

Last night, Muñeca actually let us sleep. At first we put her in a dog cage, but as soon as she realized she was locked in, she started whining. We moved her cage so she could sleep near my side of the bed. For some reason she likes to sleep next to my slippers. You can see her in between the trashcan and slippers...

I went to Starbucks with Steph this morning. We had fun talking. It's always good to catch up with friends :-)

Afterwards I went to my school and the AC was on. Yay!! I didn't want to stay long because Muñeca was at home alone. When I got home, she had pulled all her blankets out of her bed and spread them everywhere. I guess she got bored.

I printed out some stuff today for some projects I am making for my classroom. I will post pictures of the finished products of everything I'm making, but for now, here's a preview of what's to come...

These are for my desk organizer:

These are for a sound check clip chart:

These are for a clip chart of "How we go home:"

These are for my birthday chart I will put on a bulletin board:

This is for a clip chart of where we are in case someone is looking for us:

Lastly, this is a book I am making about how to treat books nicely:

I am excited to make all these projects!!! Now I need to get to work cutting these things.

Work

This morning after I went to the gym, I saw THE cutest thing. I saw a little orange kitten...

I guess I was a creeper for taking this picture but it was too cute to pass up. 

I took a trip to school today. I started getting quesy on the drive there. I am so not ready to go back. 

Here are the before pictures of my classroom...

There was no AC so I only lasted about an hour today. I had trouble locating my stapler so I had to borrow one from the office. I was able to put the fabric and boarder on my bulletin boards. One less thing to do even though it wasn't much.

 I have two of these little bulletin boards...

On the way home I stopped at Kroger. I had a massive headache from having no AC at school, so I needed food. I bought a pint of blueberries!! They were 99 cents. I started eating them on the drive home. I guess when I made a turn I squeezed my legs together because they shot up and made a mess! I had blueberries surrounding my feet!

Poor blueberries! I even sat on one. So sad :-/ I rescued the ones I could and washed them off. Can't waste food! Haha

Alright well time to get dinner ready...

Change

Today I went shopping to buy a birthday present for my mom and oldest sister. My oldest sister told me not to buy her anything because then she'd feel bad about not paying me to babysit. I told her that one day she will babysit my kids for free so she shouldn't feel bad. She said "True, but still..." I couldn't not get her something for her birthday!!!

I went shopping at Walmart and they are having some pretty amazing back to school sales:
Crayola Crayons 24 ct for 50 cents
Spiral Notebooks for 17 cents
Filler Paper 150 sheets for 88 cents
Plastic Prong Folders for 50 cents
Paper folders for 25 cents
Glue sticks for 25 cents
The list goes on...

I bought a few notebooks, but I will probably need to go buy a few of everything on the Kinder school supply list since there are always a few kids who don't bring school supplies.

After dinner, we watched G.I. Joe Retaliation. Manny got it all ready and I walked over to the couch to find this...

A tupperware full of ice cream with two spoons and a box of cookies. I laughed!! 

The ice cream is in a tupperware because the tub it was in broke. We didn't realize it was broken which is probably why it was on sale for 99 cents. Psh! A half gallon of butterfinger ice cream for 99 cents!?! Who can say no to that??

G.I. Joe Retaliation was a pretty good movie. *Spoiler Alert* Channing Tatum gets killed off right near the beginning. What I find humorous is that his character's name is Duke which is his character's name in the movie She's the Man. 

After the movie, we went to Lowe's because Manny needed a bolt to fix the strut on his truck. I was also looking for something for my next project :-) (Lowe's didn't have what I needed, but Home Depot did. Luckily both places give military discount. I take Manny with me places just to use his discount. HAHA! Totally kidding.) 

Ok so I saw this picture and I asked Manny what was wrong with it. He couldn't figure it out...

Which side of the gate is the mom on?? Manny said that is the norm nowadays. Parents don't watch their kids. How sad! This company that makes the gates is encouraging locking your child in a room so the parent can do whatever. Manny said "Those used to be for dogs, now they're for children." Hahahaha!

Alright well insight for the night from Exodus 17... The Israelites were fighting the Amalekites and as long as Moses held his hands up in the air, the Israelites would start winning, but when his arms and staff went down, the Israelites would start losing. This shows that as long as we keep praying, God's power will keep working and flowing through us. But when we stop praying, that's when things get bad because God's power has stopped flowing through us. We've stopped letting Him work through us. People, that is when it gets dangerous and scary. Don't stop praying!!! Let God use you! He wants to :-)

Hope

Today I went over to my sister's house and I drive past a local elementary school on the way. It was quite depressing to see all the cars in the parking lot... NOOOOO!!!! I am not ready for school to start.

I returned the fourth season of Friends (I am trying to watch all ten seasons before summer is over) to my sister and we went to Hobby Lobby. She needed to buy a picture frame and I needed some velcro. This year I plan on velcroing my kids' name tags to the tables. This will make rearranging table seating 
so much easier and it won't leave a huge sticky spot like tape does. I will post pictures of that once it is all set up in my classroom.

Last night I used this app called Sleep Time. It keeps track of your sleep patterns such as how often you were awake, in a light sleep, or in a deep sleep. I found it quite intriguing. Just as a glimpse, I will post my measurements from last night. (I use my iPod not my iPhone so it doesn't drain my phone's battery).

As you can see, out of my nine hours of sleep, only about half was deep sleep or REM which is when you're in your most relaxed state. I can't wait to use this app again tonight. This is interesting data. This app has an alarm that is supposed to wake you up at the most optimal time. You can set your alarm, but it might wake you before your alarm because you will feel more rested. It's cool though :-)

Tonight my husband requested that I make him a smoothie for breakfast tomorrow. I enjoy using our awesome wedding present. It's a Ninja!!

The first smoothie I made with it tasted exactly like the Banana Berry smoothie at McDonald's. The second time I made a smoothie it tasted like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a cup. Not sure how this time turned out, but yum!!!

I adore these cups my best friend gave us as a wedding present. Perfect for smoothies!!!

As a final thought for today... This morning I was reading in Exodus and one verse really stuck out to me... 

Exodus 15:26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you."

God doesn't want anyone to suffer. He longs for everyone to be healthy and whole (that doesn't mean you won't ever get sick, but there is hope when you do). God says He will heal us if we obey Him, but beyond that, He sent Jesus to die for us and by HIS stripes we are healed. We do not have to live with any type of pain--physical, mental, spiritual, etc. God is reaching out saying "Ask me to heal you and I will!!!" He is ready and willing. Are you ready? Are you willing to ask? Step out in faith.

Excitement

I must not have gotten enough sleep this weekend since I didn't get up until 10:30! Usually by 10:30 I am already at the gym. Oh well...

I went to the gym late today. I'm not sure if someone was sweating buckets or what, but the gym floor was covered with water. Hmmmmm... I went around the small ponds to get to the treadmill only to find a dollar. Sweet!!! Getting paid to work out. The whole time I was running, I was thinking about what if I had found more than a dollar?? I determined I wouldn't feel right about keeping it and I'd have to turn it in to the office even if the office people just keep the money themselves. I'd feel good about my decision.

Alright enough of my honest Abe mentality... Last night I had more school dreams. I was completely unprepared. We were 20 minutes late for lunch and I messed up entering my kids' pin numbers so they could buy their lunches. I made the lunch ladies mad. To top it all off, I had one of the kids from last year in my class and I couldn't figure out why this kid wasn't in first grade. But all my kids were angels!!! Oh man I hope that's not just a dream.

In order to avoid being unprepared for the start of school, I have been working on some crafts. I created a door mat so my students can choose how they wanted to be greeted in the morning. Last year I stood at my door, shook each child's hand, and greeted every child by name. Time to change it up!!

I bought a table cloth from dollar tree and cut it to the desired size. I then squared off four sections with a sharpie and wrote "Welcome" at the top. Each of the four sections has a different way to be greeted...

The four ways are: high five, heartwarming smile, wiggly handshake, and bear hug. 

After outlining the drawings with sharpie, I started painting. Once the paint was dry, I put a layer of Mod Podge. After that, I sprayed it with a layer of clear acrylic. And here is the finished product...

I am so excited to get to use it!! I will probably put it out each morning and then put it to the side once everyone has been greeted. I am not sure I want it to get walked on all day long. But anyways... Yay!! Each student will one-by-one get to stand on the square of how they wanted to be greeted. I think this will make the morning greeting more personal and make each child feel unique and loved. I want them all to start the day off in a good mood :-) Can't wait to test it out. I will post pictures once my kids have used it and let you all know their reactions to it.