Holiday Season

Wow! What a crazy week!! My principal informed us that we would all have an informal observation before Christmas break. Well, she didn't make it to me and then the last week of school was here and I was sweating bullets! What teacher would want to be observed the last week before Christmas vacation?!?! Monday passed. Tuesday was our plan day. She was in meetings all day Wednesday. Thursday was our Spelling Bee and Christmas program. I was at the point I would just laugh if she came in Friday!! Luckily she did come in, but not for an observation. She popped in to tell the kids Merry Christmas at our fabulous end of year party! I have the best parents this year. The party was fun and smooth sailing. 

My kids were SO sweet, and I felt so blessed to open up all their gifts. They were so happy to give them to me. I loved them all! 

Thursday my team and I exchanged gifts between one another when we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Colton's before the Christmas program. I love my team so much. I feel so blessed to work with them. In fact, I love all of the faculty at my school! Here are a few shots of our school Christmas party! 

Our new principal seems to be warming up to us as well. She is very sweet and has a great sense of humor. She gave all of us a free movie pass for Christmas! We are all going to go together I think. Our husbands will be in charge of the kiddos! Haha!! 

Wednesday night my ladies bible study group had a Christmas party. I haven't been able to go as much this semester, but hoping to go more often this upcoming year. My friend and I are trying to get a young couples group started. I think I have way too much on my plate for Spring with national boards, an intern, TESS, and helping a new ministry. Yikes!!

I wore my lumberjack shirt to school with my leopard print, sparkly slippers. Haha! Most comfy outfit!

Off to finish some Christmas shopping last weekend! 

God is SO Good!

So many updates to give….

Brandon and I celebrated our fifth anniversary on the last day of the school year, May 31. We have grown so much in these last five years. I’ve learned so much about him, love, and marriage. I’m tremendously thankful he chose me!!

Look at how young (and skinny) we were!

We dropped G off with Nana and Papa and headed to Branson. We checked in at Chateau on the Lake, which is a BEAUTIFUL resort. My parents “gifted” us dinner, so we headed to our favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. It was so yummy! Once we got back to the resort, we found chocolate covered strawberries and sparkling white grape juice waiting on us. We found out later that my precious momma set that up! It reminded us of our honeymoon and vacation in Hawaii. In the morning, we ordered room service, and ate a delicious breakfast. It stormed all night long, but it finally cleared off by 11:00 when we checked out of the hotel. We headed to Silver Dollar City with our season passes and rode all the big coasters. We LOVE their new coaster Outlaw Run. It is top notch! We spent just a few hours at SDC, then headed to Tanger to buy my momma’s bday present which I totally screwed up. So sad! All in all, we had a terrific time. It’s always nice to be able to get some alone time with my man!

Moving on…

Summer break is now in full swing!

Mom, Kayla, Megan, and I all went for a run last Saturday evening. I think it’s pretty awesome that we have started to get in shape and be more healthy!

We had our first girls’ night of the summer at my house Tuesday. I work with some of the BEST people. I love that most of us have kids about the same age too. We get together about once a month during school and once a  week in the summers. I don’t know where I would be without those wonderful women!

Unfortunately, Tuesday I also received some horrible news. My grade level team had to choose someone to move to a different team. We were heartbroken. My team is everything to me at school. We have worked together seamlessly for the last five years. Of course, we’ve had our ups and downs, but I don’t want to work with anyone else! We had a meeting with our new principal, and today we received notice that we are NOT being split up!!! I was in SHOCK! I am so very grateful to her and feel VERY blessed!

I also received an email from my former principal earlier this week about my Benchmark scores. My grade level did pretty well! We were at 96% proficient or advanced in Math, and 90% proficient or advanced in Literacy! This is why we don’t need to be split up! ha! I was pretty pleased with my scores. In Math, I had one student score basic, one scored proficient, and the rest were advanced! (I had 19 kiddos this year.) In Literacy, I had one student score below basic, one student score basic, one scored proficient, and the rest were advanced! I was pleased because I was not expecting so many to score advanced. This year was also an incredibly hard year for me. I had a lot going on with a new grade level, new curriculum, new baby, and a difficult mixture of kiddos. I’m glad that I didn’t give up despite wanting to several times. I’m ready for a new school year and fresh start in August!

Griffin and I went to the park today and had a little picnic. Thankfully we were the only ones there because he walked around yelling and acting like he owned the place. It was too cute. He likes to swing now, and I even went down the big slide with him. He thought that was pretty awesome.

So now I’m off to begin writing my grant so I can begin working on National Boards next year. EEK! I think I’m crazy!

BFF

Brandon has been gone every, single night this week. I have been so sad. He is busy training for his second MMA fight tomorrow. I hope he wins and doesn’t get hurt!
Anyways, I am so thankful for amazing friends. There are few things that are better than hanging out with your girls. Wednesday night Cathryn, a fellow teacher, and I went to Wal-Mart together to get some groceries and an ornament for a Christmas party. We ended up eating Mexican and having some good girl-time. Then Thursday, Cathryn and I crashed the Kindergarten teachers’ Christmas party. We all brought a dish and sat around the table for a couple of hours just catching up. It’s hard to make the time to just talk at school. It’s always so busy. Tonight, my friend Dara and I had a date at Cracker Barrel. We met at 6:30 and didn’t leave until 9:00!! I had the best time just having a great conversation with her. My friends are so amazing. Even though I have fell out of touch with some after getting married, I have gained so many more.
However, I do miss my best girlfriend… my mom! I wish we could hang out more. She’s the best shopping buddy and the best person to go to Neighbor’s Mill with. Hopefully we will get to go sometime over Christmas break though.

Pumpkin Carving Contest 2010

Last night, our town observed Halloween. All the little kiddos in their adorable costumes were ringing doorbells hoping for the name-brand candy to fall in their bags all over town. I love the silly Halloween. However, I have never gotten into the gross, nasty, scary side of Halloween. Last night, instead of handing out candy, we went to our friend’s house. Meg cooked an awesome dinner, and we carved jack-o-lanterns. It was so much fun. I had a great time visiting with everyone.

Megan and Daniel

Cathryn

Yes, we cheated and used a stencil.

Well, three groups used stencils…. Can you see which one was freehanded?? haha!

 

The Davis’ Pumpkin                   DT and Chris’ Pumpkin

 

The Motley’s Pumpkin            The Shelton’s Pumpkin

We had a blast hanging out with everyone. And there was a three-way tie for first place. ha!

Woooo Pig!

Good friends can make football a lot easier to watch!

First Days of Summer

Ahhhhh.... Summer is here! My first days of vacation have been glorious! This weekend we went up to Springdale. Bran had his first MMA fight at a Maxtap show. He won in the third round with a triangle choke! He did such a great job. However, I'm ready for him to be done with all of this fighting stuff. He makes me nervous.

Yesterday I got to hang out with the girls. It was so much fun. They went swimming... I just watched and talked. I have to get a bathing suit!! I only have my old suit from high school. I can't believe it still fits! But it's old and worn out. My mission today is to find a new one. It's not in the budget though. ha! I'm going to have to be creative. Anyways, after swimming, Meg made a wonderful dinner, and then we watched Glee.

I woke up at 6:30 this morning!! I think I am insane. I met up with a couple of friends, and we walked around our neighborhood. It was a nice way to start the day. Hopefully I will keep it up! It was some great exercise. I need to start the 30 Day Shred again. Jillian knows how to get it done!

I've been thinking about starting graduate school. It would be nice to start early and enjoy the pay increase. I just filled out my FAFSA. If I can't get any financial help, I will just have to wait. One class costs about $700. That would cut way too much money out of our debt snowball. So if I don't get any help, I'll just have to wait until we are debt free. I refuse to take out any more school loans!! I hate those things!! Say a prayer that it will all work out!