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 :-)

You just need to laugh!

I was thinking about what I was going to write today and I was all ready to go on a rant about something that has been bothering me. While I was thinking about how I was going to word everything, I just felt like God said "It doesn't matter." So I had to let it go right then. It's good to be able to get things off your chest, but I'm not here to case drama or be a butt. Ranting, in this case, wasn't going to help anything. I let it go. It's over and done with. Life isn't fair and it never will be, but I'm not going to let that keep me down.

This afternoon I went over to my sister's house. A few days ago, I had parked in a handicap spot in front of our building. This lady ALWAYS parks in that spot, but I took it on Thursday. Well today I finally moved my car. When I walked out to my car, the lady's son was out there cleaning his mom's car. Of course, she was parked in the spot next to me. He asked me "Is this really a handicap car?" I replied "Yes, my husband served in the Marine Corp and he is a disabled vet." The guy said "Oh ok. My mom thought it was a stolen vehicle parked in that spot trying to get back at her. She was pretty mad." I said "Yeah I bet! Sorry about that, but my husband really is handicap." I got in my Jeep and saw him run back inside. I guess he had to go tell his mom what happened. 

It made me laugh that she thought someone was getting back at her. She always parks in the same handicap spot. Someone used to park on the white lined out spot next to the handicap spot (the white lined spot that gives room for ramps on handicap vehicles). Well she showed them not to park there anymore by parking over the line, so she is half in the handicap spot and half on the white lined out spot. 

Well now I know it's her spot. My bad! Before I park somewhere next time, I will check for a name on the spot. Hahaha! Just in case you think I am being mean, just know I have seen this lady before and her handicap isn't visible, just like Manny's isn't. 

Poor Manny always has the handicap parking spot police eyeing him. He has quite a few stories about people policing him. One lady at Walmart looked at both of us and said "You parked in a handicap spot." Manny is always polite and he told the lady "Yes ma'am, I am a disabled veteran."

When we went to PetSmart the other day, this lady was hardcore eyeing the Jeep. She was checking all over for a handicap hang tag which Manny didn't put up, but he doesn't need to. We were watching this lady just waiting for her to say something. One of these days, I know one of these handicap parking spot police are really going to call the cops. That will be a sight to see! This is how the phone call would go down...

"Hello Officer! This kid parked in a handicap spot. His license plate number is DV..." 
"Ma'am let me stop you right there. DV means Disable Veteran. He can park there." 
"Oh ok. Thanks!" 

Bahahahaha!!! I can just see that happening. I can't blame them though. I used to not know what DV meant either. Oh people! Haha

Summer is quickly drawing to a close and it makes me sad. I pray that everyone has a wonderful school year :-) And in case you were wondering, Muñeca is doing fine. 

Organization

Today has been pretty eventful. I had a little freak out moment when Muñeca swallowed a peanut m&m. I have been keeping a close eye on her since. I have been checking her pulse and her breathing to make sure the caffeine isn't affecting her too much. So far she is ok.

Right after she ate the m&m, I tried to induce vomiting. If you've ever tried, you know it is pretty hard to get a dog to throw up by sticking your finger down their throat. I was reading online what to do and one person suggested diluting the chocolate by having the dog eat a lot. This way the chocolate will be digested very slowly. I gave her a lot of can food. Poor baby was whining because she ate too much. She's been sleeping ever since. Her belly is too big to move around. She couldn't even crawl into my lap. We took her over to my parent's house to celebrate my mom's birthday. She just wanted to sleep... Hopefully she is better tomorrow.

I made my desk organizer!!!! The other day when I was cleaning my classroom, I was going through all my office supplies. Muñeca was busy sleeping in my lap.

When I got up, she stayed right where she was. She was out cold.

I bought my desk organizer from Home Depot. Lowe's was out and they said they should be getting them in the next month. I wasn't going to hold my breath on that so I went to Home Depot. It looked like this:

The ones at Lowe's are blue, but I was fine with gray. If I get bored with the color, I can cover it with contact paper.

Next I made the labels which I downloaded from TeachersPayTeachers. You can download it and edit it to say whatever you want. These are mine:

I may end up changing a few based on what I need more room for. I have four boxes of paper clips, plus magnetic paper clip holders full of paper clips too. I like the big paper clips the best!! The ones covered with plastic are even better, but they still have to be the big ones :-)

I cut all the labels out. I used double sided tape to tape the labels to the inside of the drawers. I can't wait to use it!!! The finished product:

It took me less than thirty minutes to make this and it will help me condense the Office Depot that I own in my classroom. Haha

Time to get back to watching my baby. Have a blessed night :-)

Breathe!

Yesterday I was able to get a lot of work done on my classroom. I meant to post pictures yesterday but we were busy with Manny's mom coming home and all. So I shall post pictures now :-)

 The kids mailboxes are near the door. They put all their papers they complete in class into their mailboxes. I have them empty their mailboxes every Friday.

 This corner is my writing station. I revamped the blue mailbox my sister gave me by putting contact paper on it. I am going to put different types of paper in each of the mailbox slots.

My big bulletin board on my back wall. It has a pocket chart for math stations, my helper chart, science word wall words, literacy stations, and the blank spot is where I am going to put the kid's birthdays.

I had to take this close up of the writing station because Muñeca was sleeping at the bottom of the tree.

Our classroom library :-) The paper on the wall makes it look like they're reading in a meadow. I cheated when I put my curtains up... They are just stuck in the ceiling tiles. Shhhh don't tell anyone! Haha I need to get a short curtain rod.

 Here you can see the front of the classroom. The library is near the front, but I like it being near the window. Last year I had it in a corner against a wall. I like it much better this year. Easy access in case I forgot to pull a book for a lesson or I need to fill a few minutes of extra time. I love books!!!

Here's the other half of the front of the room and my corner where you can see Manny studying.

Our word wall and computers. I need to put the letters on the word wall.

Lastly, here is a view from the door :-) Ignore all the stuff on the tables and in the corner on the floor. I realized yesterday I own a Office Depot. I guess I am an office supply hoarder. I had ten boxes of 5000 count staples. I had a foot tall stack of sticky notes. HELP! Hi my name is Alicia and I have a problem. Haha

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures :-) Hopefully the next pictures are of my finished room. Yay!!

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.

Tricks

Last night we out smarted Muñeca. She likes to sleep on my side of the bed on the floor next to my slippers and bedside table. Manny doesn't like her not sleeping in her dog cage. So I moved the cage to the corner she likes to sleep in and put one of my slippers in there. It worked!! She went to sleep.

She's the small black blob in the picture. I closed the gate but at 1 am she started going crazy!! I opened the door. She went and played with her toy for a while and then went back to bed.

Today I gave her a bath because she has been scratching a lot. I think the ants are getting her when we take her to go potty. Poor baby!

After her bath she was shivering since she has no body fat. I covered her with a towel and she buried her face in the towel.

Muñeca got to meet one of her grandma's today, an aunt, her cousin, and her dog aunt. Her dog aunt, Bonnie Blue, is part Siberian Husky. Bonnie Blue didn't seem to mind her, but my mom didn't want to leave Muñeca alone outside with Bonnie Blue just in case Muñeca made Bonnie Blue mad.

What I find funny about Muñeca is that after she eats, she has lumps sticking out of her sides. Hahahaha!!!

I took Muñeca outside to go potty and this little boy was walking his dog. He had dropped the leash so I quickly picked up my dog. Then we had a very ADHD conversation...

He said "Oh your dog is actually kind of cute!"
I replied "Thanks so is yours. How old is she?"
He said "I think two months or maybe a month and a half."
I said "That's how old my dog is, about six weeks."
He said "I'll buy your dog for twenty bucks."
I replied "We paid a little more than that for her."
He said "Oh yeah! Well we paid $500 for our dog because she is an Australian Shepherd. I'll give you $3,000 for your dog."
I replied "I don't think you have that much money."
He responded "Just kidding. I don't have that much money."
I asked "What's her name?"
He stated "We called her Butter but her real name is Kevin. I'm not sure why I named a girl dog Kevin. She likes to stalk people and go into their houses. Try going into your house and she will follow you."
I opened my door.
The dog was busy smelling stuff elsewhere.
He said "I'm trying to teach her how to run without me holding the leash. Watch this."
He ran off and I yelled bye. As I was going inside, I heard him yell bye back and then start talking to someone else "Hey what kind of dog is that?"

BAHAHAHAHAA!!! Oh children! I told Manny and he just laughed at me.

Tomorrow I plan on doing some work in my classroom. The new school year is quickly approaching and I only have two weeks to prep my room. Hopefully I can get a lot done tomorrow. We shall see!

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.