Turning 6

My poor children. They are so neglected at times. Just ask Owen.

Oh wait, he might still be outside taking a nap in the dirt.

Between conferences,
teaching the boys to ride their bikes without training wheels,
training for Bloomsday (or not training in my case - I'm up to a mile and a half without wanting to die but I'm a little concerned because the race is this Sunday and it's over 7 miles long. Hmmm...),
helping teach a Dave Ramsey class each Sunday evening, and
just living life...

in between all those things we managed to squeeze in a birthday for our little boy, Caleb. Oops, I mean our big boy. Our SIX year old big boy Caleb.

Caleb got to have his first ever "friend" party. He was allowed to invite a few 4 friends from school (and his brother of course) to Chuck-E-Cheeses. This is who he chose:


                                                                       Mr. Muscles - (aka Jack)

The next Michael Jackson - (aka Andy)

"Caleb's Girls" (aka - Delaney and Allie)

The kids had a great time playing games, eating food, dancing, and just hanging out. Mark and I had a great time too (believe it or not!).

 

The best part was watching Caleb though - he loved every minute of it.

Happy 6th Birthday sweet boy!

Inside Jokes

There is someone in my life you must meet.

He has a smile like Matt Damon - one that takes him from being an ordinary guy into something extraordinary. His hair makes McDreamy jealous, his blue eyes can find you across a room and make you freeze in place and his body, well, let's just say -Whoo-ah. His charm is what gets you though - his

ability to make you laugh, to make you feel special- as though you are the only girl in the room. When he talks with his Australian accent it makes you want to purr.

His name is Luke and he is a figment of my imagination.

Let me back up and tell his story from the beginning. How he came into being (and how I am not crazy).

My good friend Cindy and I always sit together at various teacher trainings. We always laugh and joke and visit our way through the more boring parts (we even secretly text each other during the not so boring parts). Trainings are good as long as we have each other. Well, one night at a tech. training we were taking the "end of the night" survey. It was a zoomerang survey and very long, as are most surveys. But this survey had a surprise ending. 

It had Luke thanking us for taking the survey.  

Cindy and I looked at each other, looked back at our computer screens and said "Yum" in unison.

And Luke was born. We quickly started to wonder about him and assign fictitious facts about him. Half a dozen names were tried out and discarded before we both agreed on Luke. He had to have an Australian accent, of course, because only the hottest of men do. He is in his late 30's, possibly early 40's and he knows how to treat a woman - that went without saying.

Well, not too long after that first night of meeting Luke, we took another survey, and lo and behold, Luke was back. Since then he has been popping up in my life in all sorts of places.

 My good friend Cindy has made me my very own "brag" book of pictures. You know the grandma who always whips out her pictures of her grandchildren and they fall out accordian style for you to peruse? Well, I don't have grandchildren, but I do have Luke.

The best part of my "brag book" is the messages that Luke wrote to me on the back of all the pictures.

Well, our little inside joke has slowly started to spread out to others. Fellow teachers have heard us speaking of this "Luke" character and they want in on the action. Pretty soon we were seeing people sign up to take Zoomerang surverys just to catch a glimpse of our Luke. My husband even asked me "Who is this Luke and should I be worried?"

Women and men react differently to Luke. Case in point. Here is something my friend Ken sent to Cindy and I. (He is too creative!)

"Why, Hello Luke."

(said while looking down and glancing back up through eyelashes)

"Click here to see what you look like off duty? Ok."

Aahhh! It's a Ken cleverly hidden in a Luke body!

That wasn't all Ken created. Look at these pages.

   

You just have to love that guy - both Ken and Luke!

Just last month Cindy and I were at another tech. training and we were eagerly filling out our survey in anticipation of seeing "our" guy again. But, you wouldn't believe it, a girl was there thanking us instead!

I was ticked. Cindy quickly filled out her survey and the same thing - some bimbo, slut, tramp was there saying thanks in some boring old language like English.

Cindy and I pinky promised we were taking no more surveys until they brought Luke back and we agreed to promptly write to the head of Zoomerang and demand they bring Luke back immediately.

Before I could send our letter, I recieved this email:

That was cruel! I have already warned Mr. Joe that he had better watch out! Revenge shall be mine!

(Sidenote- aren't inside jokes the most fun! I love how with a few words or an invented name you can create your own language and laughs! I am loving how more and more people are being included in our little joke and all the things they are doing with it. You go ahead and try it - bring a little Luke into your life and start enjoying some laughs! I know only about 5 people read this blog but if you have an inside joke I would love to hear about it!)

New Flower Beds - Part 1

Ahh... spring break is over and I am feeling so good it's probably sinful. I am all rested and relaxed and ready to enjoy my students again. I know that summer is right around the corner for those kiddos and I still have a lot to teach them!

This week was filled with so much but one of my favorite things was working in the yard. Mark only had a couple of days off so we got as much done as we could on the flower beds in the front. Here's what we accomplished so far.

First "we" tilled up some grass. I let Mark do the tilling so that he could say he helped.

Then the boys picked up clumps of grass and rock while Mark raked and smoothed out the dirt. I helped a little bit also, when I wasn't busy taking pictures and all.

Once the ground looked good, "we" got the stones ready to be put in. Mark is a perfectionist so all I had to do was keep him company during this part and make his laugh by talking about his expressive eyebrows.

My main job was to try and get the dog out of the truck. We had went and got dirt without her and she was insulted to an extreme. She jumped up there as soon as we got home and no amount of pleading would get her out. I tried dog biscuits. I tried shaking her leash at her. I tried reverse pychology. Nothing was working. Then Mark came over, grabbed her and threw her out.

Well, hmmm... guess I hadn't tried that one.

Can you see her peeking out? She was trying to hide the fact that she was back there. She is right above the 4x4 decal.

Here is where we left off for now. The next step is to get some more dirt and all the fun stuff that we are going to plant. I can't wait!

This Spring Break...

I am going to transform the front of my yard...

Use these a little bit to train for Bloomsday...

Catch up on my reading...

But mostly, I am going to spend it with these two...

And I can't wait!

Quick! Take me to Vegas Baby!

My husband is saying it's my "Born-To-Bingo" Blood that I get from my Grandma.

My mother-in-law is saying it's something like voodoo magic (the same kind I used to get her son to marry me!).

My friends are saying I cheated (some friends!).

I'm just shrugging my shoulders saying "What can I say?"

Last Thursday our whole family went to an event at Caleb's school known as the Pie Social. There is pie of course, a carnival, and raffle items. I went ahead and bought $10.00 worth of raffle tickets and then proceeded to fill them out. The man selling them to me laughed as I crinkled and kissed every one of my tickets. "Does that help you win?" he asked while smiling at me.

"Every time" I told him. "Every time."

It's all in the crinkle and kiss folks.

The first time my name was called I didn't even know what we had won. It was called a surfing board. Huh?

Then when I went to pick up my prize I realized what it was. In 2nd grader terms, it's a ripstick. I think of it as a fancy skateboard. Mark loved the fact that I had won a skateboard. (Ask him sometime how much he loves skateboarders!) We went home after that since it was late and heck, we'd already won something. What were the odds of winning something else?

The next day at work, my friend, whose children also go to school with Caleb, said to me "You're name was called like 2 or 3 more times after you left."

"Really?"

I went down after school to check it out.

Sure enough. My name had been called 3 more times. Caleb won a new bike. Owen won a gift certificate to Albetsons and we also won a large family-style pizza at a place here in town. Jeez, Louise!

Mark and I decided to go ahead and trade in the skateboard (much to Mark's relief) and get Owen a new bicycle also. Here was the ripstick:

And here's the bike we now have instead!

Caleb doing a happy dance for his bike which he has named "My Beauty."

   

Then to top it all off, when I went to a Garden workshop today at church I won a door prize! This basket is filled with all kinds of awesome stuff! After I won it, I texted Mark and told him to book our tickets to Vegas. I just might go out and buy some lottery tickets tomorrow. You never know!

Teaching

                                                          I love teaching.
                                                    I specifically love teaching 2nd grade.

The year I spent in Kindergarten is still to be recalled only when I am wrapped up in a comfy blanket and I have a hot drink in my hand. And all the doors are locked. And my own children are in bed. It was that scary.

But 2nd grade is just right. It is perfect. The students are oh-so-sweet and so ready to learn. I fall in love with them and believe they are mine for a whole year. I cried on the last day of school the first two years that I taught. Now I only sniffle since I'm more prepared.

There are so many things to love about teaching that it would take at least 572 more blog posts to describe them all. The fact that I'm someone's hero. The way I can see the "lightbulb" go off when they understand something. The way they react when they see me in public - like I'm a movie star.

The hugs. 2nd Grade hugs are the best.

Before teaching I would have never considered myself a "techy" person at all. In fact, I still don't. But I have come to use and LOVE so many things in my classroom that are considered "techy" that I have to share them. My job is becoming less and less a job and more and more just a place I go to in order to hang out with some cool 2nd graders and have fun.

Meet my laptop and document camera. Her name is Looloo and His name is Elmo. Together they make me very, very happy. I have only had Elmo for 2 years and I still sometimes pet him and whisper sweet things to him. You may mock me now but just wait until you have one of your own!

This is a projector. Not a glamorous job but an essential one nonetheless. Without Eppie here, my life is very dull and gray. If her light doesn't come on, the students and I just slump in our chairs and twiddle our thumbs because we have no life without Eppie.

Now this, this is my Promethean Board and I still sing in the shower songs of praise to my bff Cindy who included me in her grant so that I could have one of my very own. She doesn't know this, but I have pledged myself to her for eternity because of this board. You should see the things the students and I do with this bad Larry. It would take your mind to places it has never gone before. Seriously - that's why I named it Bad Larry. You don't say it like Bad (meaning bad) Larry. You drag it out a little and nod your head slowly saying bad (meaning the coolest thing ever) Larry. He's pleased to meet you.

Some plain old boring computers in the back. (just kidding they're not plain or boring but you all know what those are!).

Now this I-Touch (and one other) are on loan to me right now. My students are having a ball with them. I give them passages to practice reading and then they read with the I-Touch. It records them with that little white magic thing on the bottom of the I-Touch and then it allows them to listen to how fluently they are reading. They love it, I love it and they can't get enough reading time in. I am working on getting them to write class news and things of interest for our school so we can branch out into podcasting. How fun is that!

(P.S. Couldn't I totally be a hand model? I mean, look at those fingertips!)

On each desk in my room, there is a little handheld thingy-majiggy called an ActivExpression. These work with LooLoo and Bad Larry to create such an interactive classroom that it would boggle the president's mind if he ever chose to visit. These things don't just do multiple choice, they do everything.

We can use these to text spelling words and share ideas, answer math questions and put numbers in order. They can instantly show me who answered what and create a graph that allows me to see if the majority of the students have answered the question correctlly. They are sheer awesomeness.

Now this cute little etch-a-sketch looking thing just came to me today. It is something a friend told me to try out (my students love him because he brings the best "toys" they say. I have to agree). It is a slate that works with Bad Larry and it allows me to control the Promethean Board from wherever I am at in the classroom. I can walk around and talk to the students and move things on the board at the same time.

Can you see why teaching is the best job on the planet? I didn't even get into the students and how awesome they are!! That post would blow your pants right off and I would really hate for that to happen, so I'll save student awesomeness for a warmer day!

State of Happiness

Life has been good lately.

No. Not good. It's been great.

Mark got a promotion at work.

 Caleb received an award at school on Friday for being Caring.

Owen is loveable and laughing as always.

As for me, well I did a little something.

Something that starts with a B.

Has to do with the big G.

Would you like to C?

I got baptized.

It was at our church, Pilot Rock Baptist, and it was with lots of family present rather than during a Sunday service. And while I have been a Christian for several years, I have never been officially baptized. Mark has tried to bring it up a couple of times, but true to form, I would dig my heels in and tell him that when I was ready, I would. End of subject.

I finally decided it was time. We had found a church that we were wanting to become members of and I was ready to take the plunge. I even heard myself agree to be baptized in front of the whole church, which gave me the hives just thinking about it, but if that's what I needed to do, then I would do it. (Contrary to popular belief, I do not like to be the center of attention.)

Once I had made my decision I was filled with peace. I could do this and I would do this. Then Pastor Harley called me and asked if I would mind if Grandpa was also baptized with me. Then he went a little further and asked if it could be a family affair so Grandpa wouldn't be rushed. I quietly (and thankfully, oh so thankfully!) agreed to a family affair and it was one of the most fun times ever.

My favorite part? The kids. They were so excited and we let them sit right up front where the action was.

Mark's grandpa went first and it was awesome. Just awesome.

           

Then it was my turn. The water was a wee bit cold. And like normal, when nervous, I got the giggles.

See? Still giggling and I got Harley into it also.

Luckily, I stopped before he dunked me.

Then, as soon as I was done, they were back.

It was great and I am great and life is great and most importantly of all:

God is Great!!