Thursday, June 18, 2009

Could we fill this day with any more fun?

On the last day of school, Halle's teacher sent home a caterpillar in a container. The students had been learning all about butterflies and caterpillars, so Halle knew what all was going to happen. The very next day (our first day of vacation), Halle's caterpillar put itself in it's chrysalis! I had absolutely no clue how long it was supposed to stay in there, so all the research I did concluded that they stay in the chrysalis about 2 weeks.
Well, obviously, my research was wrong or our butterfly emerged too soon, because only 6 days later, Halle rushed me her container to show me that there was a butterfly in it!!
We put the container outside and figured the butterfly would fly away when it was ready. We hope it is still living, flying freely!After all that excitement, we met up Allyson for a little shopping. We had nothing we had to buy, but just enjoyed walking around and looking. We stopped for a little while to let the kids play in the big play area! They had a lot of fun! Parker LOVED it!!!



It just so happened that my good friend, Brooke, was in town from South Carolina visiting her parents and they live only 10 minutes away from the mall we were at. My sister is also good friends with Brooke's sister, Brittany (who was also in town visiting), so we called and decided to go see them after shopping.
Because it was all last minute, we ended up showing up to their house right when they were heading out on their boat. We jumped on and enjoyed 1.5 hour ride out on the lake! We didn't have our swimsuits or anything, but we got to relax and enjoy the day on the water. (Halle and Parker were quite bummed they couldn't jump in the water or ride the tubes-I felt horrible).

Halle, Parker, and Allie (Brooke's baby-6 months old)...Parker doesn't know what to think about Allie

Brittany, Bradley, and Bethany (Brooke comes from a family of 7 kids, all with their names starting with a "B")

Brittany, Allyson, Halle, Parker, Me, Brooke, and Allie

Brooke and I have been best friends since we were in 9th grade! I can't believe we're both married (we share the same anniversary too!) and have kids!!

It was such a fun-filled day!!!

Playing in the Rain

On Wednesday, it POURED rain all day!! I don't remember the last time it continuously poured all day long without stopping!! Parker kept looking out the window saying "Wet" and "Rain", so Brad asked him if he wanted to go out in it. He was quite hesitant to go at first, but after getting a little wet (and a little coaxing from Uncle Todd), he went out. Uncle Todd decided to go play in the rain with him!! They had fun, but boy, was the rain cold!!!Um, I'm not so sure about this... I'm all wet!!!
(Halle was spending the night at Bailey's house, so she wasn't here to be a part of the fun)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

School's Out for the Summer!

Last Wednesday was the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! All the teachers stood outside singing "Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye" and waving their hands as all the buses drove off with the students. I spent the last 5 weeks of the school year teaching at Seaton Elementary in the 6th grade Language Arts class. Their regular teacher was off on maternity leave, so I got chosen to fill in for her.


I spent my 5 weeks there teaching poetry and the fantasy genre. The big project for the end of the year was for the students to write their own fantasy story. I also read "Ella Enchanted" aloud to the class! They loved it!!! We watched the movie the last 2 days of school.
Not only did I get to teach, but I also made some good friends with the parapro in my room, Kathy, and the 6th grade Math teacher, Becky. Both were huge helps to me and I'm so happy I got to work with them.
I got to be a part of a big step in 67 kids lives. Going from elementary school to the "big" junior high is quite a big ordeal. I got to take part in the school's Life Skills carnival, the 6th grade class picnic, and Field Day!! On the last day of school, I got to give out Honor Roll awards to my students at the Awards Ceremony. I hope I made some sort of impact on these guys, even though I was only there for 5 weeks.

Halle finished 1st grade this year as well!!! I can't believe I have a 2nd grader on my hands now!! WOW!! We were extremely proud of her as she got a "1" in every category on her report card ("1" stands for "advanced").
She came home with "Creative Writer" award, the "Got all A's on her spelling tests" award, and holds the record for girls on the "Sit and Reach" in gym!! We were totally impressed!! She also brought home a caterpillar in a container, and it has since put itself in it's chrysalis. So, we're expecting it to become a butterfly sometime within the next 2 weeks.
2 days after school was out, she came down with a horrible stomach flu, and she missed her very first piano recital!!! We are planning on having everyone over to the house soon and we will have our own recital just for her!! We can't have all her hard work going to waste!!
SUMMER is here and we're totally enjoying it!!!! We've swam every day, played outside, rode horses, shopped, grilled out, and stayed in our pj's til noon (and we've only been on break for 6 days).

I am TOTALLY enjoying my break!!!!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Blog Hiatus

For the two people who might actually read this blog every now and then, I have been on a "Blog Hiatus" lately. Not because I have wanted to, but because my busy life has made me. I have been in a long term substitution position for the last 5 weeks of the school year, and although I don't get paid much more, I have had to do all the work of a "real" teacher. It's been a blast and I will blog more about it soon, but it has taken all my time away from blogging. When I could have been sitting here at the computer typing away, I was grading papers and creating lessons (which I love to do by the way, except after you've read and graded 67 fantasy stories written by 6th graders, it's not so much love anymore).
You might be asking why I haven't written on my blog since school got out 2 days ago, and that would be because I have been flat on my back on the couch with stomach issues. The first night, I had an allergic reaction to peanuts. I finally figured out why my stomach always felt like tight knots after eating at Logan's-which is the only restaurant we go to that serves peanuts. I had horrible pain in my stomach all night long, but it thankfully passed by Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon, however, my stomach started to feel nauseaus and queazy. I never threw up, however, my stomach was very upset all night long and into this morning. As my stomach was finally starting to not bother me as much today, Halle announced that she was not feeling well. She slept in bed the entire day today, complained of the same feelings I had had the night before, and ended up missing her very first piano recital tonight because of it.
So, that's been the start to our vacation. That's also the reason I've been away. I'm hoping summer will give me some time to blog again, as I have missed so much lately.