Yes, I’m alive. The first week of school always kicks my hiney. We made it, though! Truth be told, all of these pictures (except the last few) are from before school started…and the last few are from the first day. I haven’t had much time to pull out my phone (or I decide that it’s best to live in the moment instead of try to record it…I’ve been getting more and more like that). We’re getting into our routine and I think this year is going to be great! So here’s a snapshot into the last couple of weeks:
Life is better with neon pink shoes. The picture makes them look more bubblegum-esque, but in natural light…let’s just say I get a lot of comments. It’s mostly “I love your shoes!” but I did get one from the head custodian that made me laugh: “I saw you coming from 100 yards away.” 😀New year means new haircut!A coworker/friend of mine and I were talking about how I like to put positive signs in my classroom. She mentioned that she had one that she had been holding onto for years but never found the right place for it, so she offered it to me. It fits into my decor perfectly and I love the sentiment.Here’s your daily dose of awesome. Paul managed to get this shot of a dragonfly that was just chillin’ in our garden. I wish I could make heart eyes right now. Dragonflies are my favorite insect.I was trying out the 0.5 setting on my phone because someone mentioned that they used it to take “selfies” with their entire class. I wanted to see how much of the background would be visible. I’m impressed!Paul was able to get a picture of Abigail at the Meet the Teacher night that we had before school started. I’m so grateful he’s able to be present when I can’t (I was in my classroom greeting my students).New year and some fun new earrings. This is a small business I stumbled across while browsing Amazon and I thought the earrings were so cute! I loved that she offered a personalized option. So this is a shameless plug to go visit her site. 😉I was able to squeeze in a quick visit with this lady…this is Kari (Cole) Starzyk and we’ve known each other for as long as I can remember. She moved away right before sixth grade and we’ve spent more time apart than together. She was on the east coast for a long time but moved to North Texas a couple years after we moved to San Antonio. The distance between is still awfully far, though, so when she mentioned she was going to be in town for the weekend, I cleared my schedule and met up with her for breakfast. It was such a great experience!First day of school! I only have a picture of Abigail because she and I had to be out of the house before Joseph was even awake. ‘Tis the stage of life we’re in, I suppose.Google photos did this cool background for the picture I took and Abigail said I had to add it to the blog, too.Abigail and I got to school when it was still a little dark, but the moon was so big and bright! It’s times like these that I wish I had a real camera (and knew how to use it). My cell phone doesn’t do it justice.
This past week was a busy one! Paul had to attend an LP meeting up in Tyler, which is sort of close to Dallas. He got a lot of two-lane country road driving in. I decided that it would be a good idea to go in and set up my classroom. We aren’t back on contracted time for prep week until next week, but I knew that we wouldn’t have much set-up time next week, so I decided to knock it out this week. Abigail finished up her round of antibiotics and earned her polar bear. She was super excited. Joseph has been practicing riding his bike farther distances so that he can build up his stamina. He hopes to be able to ride to and from school this year. It’s only about a mile, which on a bike is not that bad. He says it will be way better than walking.
This little guy (or gal, I suppose) was chillin’ on the hose as I went to unwind it in order to water. I much prefer a lizard to a snake, spider, or scorpion!He was very comfortable and let me zoom in real close.We made a deal that if she finished her round of antibiotics without fussin’ at me, she could earn a stuffie.Google Photos made this awesome version of the picture. I had to save it.Introducing her stuffie polar bear to her other IKEA stuffies.Paul had a lot of driving on roads like this to and from Tyler.This was the only load of classroom stuff I needed to move from our house to my classroom!This is what I started with on Monday. Luckily, since I was not moving rooms, the custodians said I could leave a lot of my stuff out and on the walls. That saved so much time.Student cubbies: I’m going to need all 24 this year.Some positive affirmation posters as well as my amazing classroom sign that was made by a dear friend.This is where I put up my new posters.My new and improved calm corner.The board that I use to display student work as well as the calendar and sticker store.My class library area. I decided this was a good area to put the “Cool kids read books” poster.This is the chair that I sit in when I have my entire class on the carpet. You can also see my supply unit that also houses the area where students turn in work and where I store the class games.My desk set up. I love having both a desk and a computer table. It makes it so I have so much more room for all my things!The *almost* finished room. I ended up moving a few things around and adding a couple more lamps in different places, but it isn’t much different.I really pushed myself on Monday. Six hours of set-up and over 12,000 steps!!!I found a unicorn version of Monopoly Jr. and Abigail had a blast playing it. She also wiped the floor with me. One perk of being on summer vacation is that I actually had time to make rolls. The house smelled divine. Thanks for teaching me to make bread, Momma!!
Well, we’ve had one interesting thing happen in the past little bit. Our ward (church congregation) had gotten quite big, so they decided to adjust the boundaries (wards are organized by geographic location) so that our ward wasn’t quite so large and other wards bordering it would be a bit larger. When this happened, they called me to become the new Relief Society (women’s organization) president. When the Relief Society was originally formed, it was mainly to help with temporal needs of the church members. It has since expanded to make sure that all the needs of the church members, both temporal and spiritual, are met. The Relief Society has structure in place so that the workload is spread out with a lot of people doing smaller jobs so that all the work doesn’t fall on just a few, which is nice. My job as president is going to be to make sure that all the jobs are being done (and that the people doing the jobs are still comfortable in those roles and not burned out). So, I have this new calling at church to get used to as well as getting ready for school to start in the next few weeks (I go back on the 12th and the kids go back on the 19th). It’s a lot, but I received a blessing when I received the calling and I was blessed with being able to handle all the responsibilities that I currently have: home, church, and work. I’m sticking in the same grade level with the same team, so there’s a little less stress there. We did a lot of work last year with organization to make this year run more smoothly and it seems like it’s going to work out.
Paul has been busy with work and LP stuff. Sometimes (like this weekend) he needs to travel to go to meetings since he holds a position at the state level. He’s also worked really hard to keep our yards looking nice and the garden plants healthy.
The kids are soaking up the last little bit of summer. Abigail had some sort of upper respiratory infection that I took her in to the doctor about. They weren’t sure if it was viral or bacterial, so they prescribed antibiotics as well as allergy medicine, nasal spray, and breathing treatments. After a few days, we were able to stop the breathing treatments. We were also using a vaporizer in her room up until a couple of nights ago. She only has two more days of meds and she sounds so much better. She would get these hacking coughing fits and now she’s only occasionally coughing.
A random green parakeet has been visiting our bird feeders. Paul looked it up and apparently there are feral parakeets that live further south in Texas. This one is either someone’s pet that got loose or a wild one. Either way, it’s decided that our backyard is the place to go for the good grub.Big brother entertaining her while we were having her do a breathing treatment.Have I mentioned we’ve gotten rain? We’ve gotten a few really good storms that have greened everything up really nicely.Playing games together.Her Play-doh creation which is Paul hitting a pinata at her birthday party. She’s never actually had a pinata at her birthday parties, so we’re guessing this is a hint for this year.Paul planted an acorn in one of our large pots. We’re going to see what happens. 🙂He also planted a mango seed along with its peel. We might get a mango tree (if we can keep it alive through the winter, that is).We have a cute squirrel that also likes to hang out in the yard (probably due to the copious amounts of birdseed the birds drop from the bird feeders). He’s still cute because he’s currently happy with living outdoors and hasn’t tried to get into our house at all.New posters for my classroom……and more that are just funny. I thought the one on the top left had a typo, but apparently “periodt” (pronounced “period-tee”) is this generation’s way of adding emphasis to what they just said. You learn something everyday, ha.The pollinators really pollinated the heck out of our gypsy pepper plant. Anything that is light green is a pepper that is growing.
