Donors Choose

Being a teacher, I spend a lot of money on materials for my kiddos. The first year was insane. I started from scratch. I literally had NOTHING. It would be embarrassing to tell the world how much money I spent that year… So let’s move on.
The beginning of the year is always costly, but there is also many things that pop up throughout the year. My principal works so well with us and tries to get us anything and everything we need. However, we all know that getting a teacher ANYthing or EVERYthing she could want is virtually impossible. ha! There is a wonderful website called donors choose. This allows teachers to appeal to the masses and plead for money to fund projects. What a great idea!! I currently have a project up. Please go check it out! If you don’t have any extra funds, tell a friend about it! I am trying to get five digital cameras to allow my students to take their own photographs to include in their digital stories. The possibilities of having cameras in the classroom is actually endless. I am “picturing” my students taking cameras outside to find acute, obtuse, and right angles or different types of lines. I am envisioning them taking pictures of the different steps they are writing about in their how-to writing essays (which in turn can be created into a digital story). I can go on and on! So, please go check my project out and spread the word! The address is: www.donorschoose.org/kristinmotley.
And to end my post, here is a video I took of my husband playing in the ten inches of snow we got today with our dog Mason.

haha!

Welcome 2011!

I am so excited for this year. I think it will be the best one yet for Bran and me. 2010 was a pretty good year as well though. I was trying to think of all of the highlights from last year…. paying off the truck, developing a financial plan with the hubs, starting my masters, beginning my third year teaching, and Bran won his two mma fights. I have also enjoyed playing with my little nephews Drew and Jaxon. They are both at an incredible age. God was awesome to us in 2010.
I have a few resolutions for this new year. However, I don’t feel like sharing all of them. The biggest is, of course, losing some weight. Since I will be in Hawaii in six months, I have some fantastic motivation. In fact, my friend Dara is coming to my house every morning at 6 am to do Zumba. I have also been working out after school with some other teachers. We have been doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. My other biggie is reading the Bible through in a year. Bran and I tried last year, but we failed. Hopefully we will do better this year!

To ring in the new year, some of my girlfriends came over to my house. I made some potato soup for dinner, then we went bowling. I hate bowling. Mostly because I am a terrible bowler and partly because it hurts my hand. But we had fun nonetheless. We came back to the house and indulged in some chocolate fondue, played Catchphrase, watched the ball drop, and had a dance party. It was great fun. God has blessed me with some truly special relationships. I am so grateful.

Good times… Good times…
And for good measure, here is a recent picture of Mason and me.

I hope God blesses each and everyone of you this new year!

Our Nightly Entertainment

Our entertainment envelope is almost empty for this month, so instead of going to the movies, or bowling, or eating out, or any other fun thing, we bought a $4 pair of antlers. Introducing… Reindeer Mason!

Reindeer Mason

haha! I should’ve recorded the very first time we put the antlers on him. It was a million times funnier than this video.

Good Day

Why has it been a good day?
1. I have been accepted into graduate school!
2. We received a little over $30 from our dentist for overpaying.
3. Bran and I took our little refund to go eat BBQ tonight to celebrate my acceptance.
4. My SMARTboard worked today! You seriously have no idea how huge that is!!
5. One of my precious students informed me that they scared a starfish this summer, causing it to poop. bahahahaha! This would be absolutely hysterical  if you only knew this kid.
In other news, Mason loves ice cream. Frosty Paws is his new favorite treat!

Bran, on the other hand, doesn’t think that they are that tasty. (That was some great alliteration there! )

I took Mason on my walk this morning. He needed to get all his energy out because he stayed inside with me today. The heat index down here is a whopping 108! We left at 8:00 and didn't get back until 9:15 if that tells you anything. HA! Mase was ready to go, acting like a crazed dog at first. However, once we hit the half-mile mark, he decided he had had enough! So what did he do?? He just went over into the grass and plopped himself down. I sure wasn't moving this 105 lb dog anywhere. So we gave him a little rest, then he finally decided he could make it back Cathryn's house. There, we had to take another break. This time about 15 minutes! Finally, we made it home. The walk sure did the trick though! He was nice and calm all afternoon!

Greg, my father-in-law, helped me take Mason to the vet this afternoon. Mase is practically impossible to control in the car with just one person, and Bran was working. I am so thankful that I had some help! Mason has some kind of infection in his eye. I spent over $100 on his meds. *sigh* That was not in the budget!

I am leaving tomorrow to go to a teacher leader conference. My colleague and I have a presentation to give. I have been working on it for so long. I am glad it's here, and I will be even more happy when it is over!

Mason

Who can not love this face??

I mean really?? Look at him!

This is Mason. Our adorable Dogue de Bordeaux!

These are pictures of when Mase was little bitty. Just presh! But then... Mason started to grow.

Maybe got a little crazy...

He grew and grew...

But he's still so lovable!

HA!

Sigh...

And he was still getting bigger...

But still, who couldn't love his droopy face!

So now Mase is about a year and a half old. He weighs over 100 pounds. My guess would be probably 120 now. But I have to be honest. Mason has a problem: a big one. He's a rude dog.  He jumps on people. He doesn't like to sit when we ask him. He barks at our friendly rabbits in the woods. He pulls on his leash which makes him impossible to walk! He needs a major attitude adjustment. m-a-j-o-r

So, my mission this summer is to whip my dog into shape! Without actually whipping him. bahaha! Today was our first training day. I worked with him about twenty minutes. He did such a good job! He's so very smart. He already knew the commands "Sit" and "Lay Down," so we did a refresher course. I cut up a whole package of hot dogs for rewards. I also used my clicker that Bran and I bought forever ago but never tried out. Once Mase associated the click with the treat, we got busy! Any time he sat down, I clicked and rewarded. Then we practiced sitting for longer amounts of time. Then we practiced laying down. What I was really impressed with though is that Mase only jumped up on me once. I simply turned my back to him and gave him no attention. He sat down finally and I clicked and rewarded! No more jumping! Woo-hoo!

After the training session, I swept all the pine needles off our deck. Mase goes CRAZY with the broom and tries to catch it. So I applied the same principles. I ignored him and stopped sweeping. He went and laid down and I clicked and rewarded! It worked like a charm! He sat down the entire time just watching me, so I kept giving out the hot dogs! Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well. We are going to work on the "Stay" command and maybe practice walking on a leash. I'm motivated to shape him into the perfect dog!

Bad Dog

Bran and I chose to have our puppy Mason as an inside dog a few months ago. He is such a good dog and so loveable. However, he is only 8 months old; still a puppy. He is pinned up in our hallway while we are out of the house. This is what I came home to today.

Mason is now an outside dog once again.

In other news, our broom stands up.... on its own.