1 Week Down

I survived the first week is about all I can say right now. My kids are sweet but keep me on my toes. Monday was total chaos. I came home thinking that a) I don't think I could ever be prepared enough for that and b) I'm working toward being an intervention/dyslexia teacher so I don't have to deal with supplies, parents and the first day of school. Compared to Monday though, Tuesday was a breeze. The kids behaved and I felt like I was organized and efficient. The rest of the week has been good too other than the fact that the kids are getting a lot more comfortable which means a lot more talking. There are some big attitudes in those little bodies.

I have one who is a roamer and gets up and aimlessly walks around the room every so often. When I call him out on it he'll say, "I was just coming to hug you!" I always laugh, hug him and send him back to his seat. I can't help it. Of course I have a few who are just going to enjoy themselves and have a good time no matter what. It's a party all the time. I love that they have such a zest for life and school but Miss Thomas needs a small break sometimes. Here's some pics of my classroom finished. These were taken last week. It looks a lot more "lived in" now.



Enough with school. There are other things going on. Maverick football started tonight. Chelsea and I took two girlfriends and we had a good time visiting and even though the Mavs didn't pull it off tonight, it was a great game.

So who knew Randy Travis was coming to Shreveport in September? Mom asked me if I wanted to go and I said yes so fast that I didn't realize it was his gospel stuff. Don't get me wrong. I do love Randy Travis in any genre and know all of this gospel songs because they are on constant repeat in the dollar store by Kroger but I was really hoping to hear Digging up Bones. Speaking of which, I've been strangely into music from my childhood here lately. I think Aaron and Chelsea might be wondering what's going on. I found out last week that Mark Chestnut was playing nearby but sadly it was on my Meet the Teacher night. It truly was a hard decision. Hearing All my Old Flames Have New Names live or the career that I'll have forever?

I'm officially rambling and done now. Will update again soon!

Changes

Summer is going by so quick but there are so many fun things happening around here. Most importantly, we found a house! A few weeks ago I got an email from Dad that said our friend Doug had gotten some info about a house for rent and gave me the phone number. I drove down the street, didn't think it was a very good neighborhood and didn't think about it anymore. Last week, Chelsea was in town and after a few frustrating days of looking I figured I would call and see what happened. We met the lady at the house and walked in and it was furnished. The house was perfect but we don't need or want somebody else's furniture. We hurried through the visit and pretty much marked it off the list and went to meet a real estate agent we've been working with at a house about nine miles out of town on a huge piece of property that was beautiful. We really liked having the space and the layout and room size was perfect for us but the location and price wasn't so great. On Thursday as we contemplated moving forward with that property, the lady called me about the furnished house offering to move the furniture out. The rest is history. We move in on Saturday. I'm so relieved for this part of our grownup life to be over. Well, over for a year at least.

My classroom is coming along really well. I'm working on lesson plans some (not near as much as I should be) and starting to get some organizational stuff put together. I'm really getting nervous that I'm going to not think of something important but I know everything will eventually pan out fine. My sweet Aunt Kim made the valances for my windows and I'm so sad I don't have a picture but they turned out really cute.
Caroline put my calendar up the other day and I hung the alphabet. We had to take a picture of our first official finished project. At just 9 years old, she's all about some classroom decorating. She asks me everyday if we're going to work at my school today. I'll post more pics hopefully by the end of the week when I get some more done up there.

Lastly, I'm so excited about the way cheap, easy and quick project I did that I just have to share. I spent part of Saturday morning in Hobby Lobby. While I was wandering around I saw this lamp. I've looked online trying to find a picture of it but couldn't. Anyway, the base was black and the shade was red. Around the top and bottom there was a thin leopard print piping and a leopard print ribbon tied from the top the bottom. It was darling! I immediately decided that I was adding red and leopard print to my current brown and white room decor. I was set on the lamp until I picked it up and saw the $60+ price tag. I tried to think of ways to make it work but couldn't bring myself to buy it. It wasn't long before I was in "make it myself mode." I went right over the ribbon section and snatched up a spool of leopard and headed across the parking lot to Pier 1. They had throw pillows and lamps on sale and with a little bow tying this is how it turned out. Sorry for the poor quality (and mess on my table.) It's from my phone.
I wish the lamp shade was red but I think with the red pillow and my brown and white duvet it will be perfect. I've had a lot of room designs through the years and I'm thinking this one just might be my favorite. I'll post lost of pics when it's done.

Dodge These Bullets

There is so much to update I think the easiest way to go about such an extensive post is to just go with the bullets. Sorry it's the best I can do for today.

• Chelsea, Aaron and I are still looking for a house. We found out today we were too late applying for the one we wanted. Starting the search over at square one.
• I realized last week that I could buy a house and make payments for what I'm paying in rent. The idea of renting knowing I will probably be in this same position in a year makes me ill. Nobody will give me a loan to buy though so I guess it's not the right time.
• I'm house sitting a few nights over the next two weeks. I told Christina it wasn't a great time for me to stay the whole two weeks but would come in and out. Until I got here a little while ago I forgot how much I love it. I might stay more than I planned.
• I moved my stuff to my classroom but still have a lot of work to do. I plan on working up there tomorrow. I'm fixing to start working on lesson plans and have in service next week. It's all really here and happening quick.
• In anticipation of moving sometime in the near future I did a huge over haul on my closet last week. I still feel very accomplished about that.
• In spite of the triple digit temps I have a Canton craving like never before. I "need" some things in a bad way. My mom refuses to go in the heat and I'm pretty sure my friends will agree but it's really all I want to do for my birthday.
• Cate, Henry, Maggie and Walt are taking swim lessons this week. Half of Walt's lesson today was spent clinging to me as I sat on the edge of the pool and the teacher tried to coax him into the water while he was yelling, "I want to see Ms. Eee Ann!" and reaching for me. I snuck away and I'm not sure how much was really accomplished.
• Potty training update from my last post: Several tee tees on the potty but no number twos. Lots of accidents....
• My sister is crazier about her summer job at Water Town than I thought any one person could ever be about anything involving work. Mom had to make her take a day off yesterday to rest or she would have gone in. She's so tan it looks like she needs a bath and her hair is completely sun bleached white.

Did you survive that? Sorry for the lack of pictures and the overall lameness of my blog lately. I'm looking into ways to spice things up and motivate myself to do better. Keep checking back!

Weekly Update

After a week at the beach with the Trueloves, we're all back home and real life has returned. Actually, it's returned for most of us, but there are some changes in store for Walt. This morning we've started a little potty training. I read Mckmamas potty training tips this morning and she suggested not putting any bottoms on them at all but considering I have 4 other kids here I can't watch him close enough to make sure he doesn't go on the floor in his room and I never know. For that reason, he's wearing training underwear so I'll know if he's gone. So far nothing. We'll see how things go. I feel like this might be the very beginning of a long process.

*Update: While I was typing this I heard the girls screaming and went in to find he went in the toy room. I have the timer set for 20 minutes at which time we'll sit on the potty again. Oh what a day this is going to be.

In other news, I'm a litte too young to be a die hard Michael Jackson fan but I love celeb gossip so I've been stuck on TMZ all week. Mom and I were talking yesterday about how our society hurts celebrities by putting them in a fish bowl (and I'm guilty of playing into every bit of it.) MJ started so young and was famous his whole life to the point that he couldn't have been normal if he had wanted to. It's a shame that being a person of noticed talent can result in such a sad and tragic life and even sadder that there are three kids left behind.

I can't believe that July 4 is this weekend. Our family from Abilene is coming in and we're having a gathering at my uncles house. I'm looking forward to a laid back weekend with them. I would love to go to the fireworks in Shreveport. The traffic is crazy I'm sure so I don't know if we'll attempt it but I think it would be tons of fun.

Last but not least, can you believe whos birthday was on Friday?
Happy Birthday Kristen! I thought of you out on the beach. I love you! Have a great year!

Summer Lovin

I'm an awful blogger. It's been over a week now and I haven't finished talking about Jamaica and haven't blogged about anything else either. In case you can't tell, I'm not worried. I did post all of the Jamaica pics on facebook yesterday and you can go see them here if you wish.

Work is in full swing and we're getting our summer routine down. We're able to get a lot more time in at the pool this year because Walt is so much more independent. Last year we didn't take him at all and could only go when there was someone else to watch him. The girls have had some friends join the country club this year so they almost always have somebody to play with.

Bible school is this week and is going really well. I'm teaching second grade and all together there's about 20 kids that we split up into two groups so I've had around 10 all three nights. The theme is Boomerang Express, this Australian train thing. I was a little skeptical about it at first because it is definitely different from any of the themes we've had before but it's turned out pretty cute. I've been praying all week that the Lord would help me as I get worn down and unmotivated and every night when we the kids get there and we get started I'm always glad I'm there.

I'm starting to get as excited as the kids about going to the beach Saturday. A few months ago the Trueloves asked me if I would want to go on their family (Kurt's family, parents, brother and his family) beach trip. I don't turn down a trip to the beach even if there is some babysitting involved. I would be babysitting at home so why not babysit at the beach? Seven whole days of sun. Gotta love it. I know my dermatologist will in about 10 years.

Have a great rest of the week!

Jamaica Post #1

It's a quiet morning around here so I thought I would do a quick Jamaica post.

We got there on Monday afternoon and didn't do much but ride to the resort, ate a lot because we were starving and then went to the beach.

On the way to the resort

The views from the balcony of our room

The pool at sunset


Tuesday we stayed by the pool except for when we walked down to the local craft market right down the beach from the resort. We expected everything to be really cheap but even after you talked them down it wasn't much different than the upscale shopping we did later in the week. Not to mention the pressure they put on you to look at their goods. It was ok to visit once but we had no desire to go back. I didn't take any pictures down there. You're not missing out on much.

Later that afternoon we went snorkeling on this boat.
It was the three of us and two boys about Lydia's age plus the guide. We got to see the coral and a lot of cool fish. It was all fine and pretty until Lydia and I got sick. The water was way rough and did not mix with our motion sickness issues. I wasn't feeling so great but didn't say anything because Lydia tends to make fun of me when little things make me sick. It was only a few minutes later she looked up at me and said "I think I'm going to be sick." At that point I looked up and realized we were a long way from the boat and still had one more reef to stop at before swimming back. Lydia ended up throwing up over the side of the boat when we got back to it and I just felt nasty for a while. After we took a nap we ordered some room service we felt much better. The guide took Mom's underwater camera while we were out there and took a lot of pictures. I'll be excited to see how they turned out because it was beautiful on the reef.

We had late dinner reservations that night at the little steak house on the resort. I ordered the pork chop and it was delish! Mom and Lydia both had steak which looked good too. We spent the rest of the evening reading in bed and watching tv.

I'll post more later but at least this got me started. Wednesday we went to Dolphin Cove and Dunns River Falls and that is a big post in itself so I'll get to that soon.

I'm watching the Roth kids this morning while Marcy is at an appointment and I think a trip to the pool is in order for this afternoon when she gets home. I also need to go by the real estate agent office and attempt to try to find my roomies and I a house. My hope was that they would find something while I was out of town last week and I would come home to a done deal. No such luck. Now it's my turn to work on it for a while. I know we'll find something, the looking is just so much work. I am excited to see what we come up with. Anyway, have a great day!

We're Home!

After a great relaxing week, we got home to Elysian Fields last night at about 11:00. We had a wonderful time! We swam with dolphins and sting rays, climbed Dunns River Falls, snorkeled, saw some pretty scenery and relaxed by the pool a lot. I'm so glad we were able to go! We had a wonderful time!

I'm uploading pics as I write this and will be posting them in the coming days. I would love to sit here for the rest of the day and relive our trip for you but a family event at the church where my grandpa grew up and Miss Caroline's 9 year old birthday party are on the agenda for the day and I want to do the pictures and stories justice when I do post them all. Here's a quick preview to get you excited to see the rest.