Sunday, May 29, 2011

In love

It's official. I'm in love with long weekends.
So far, we've managed to accomplish nothing productive.
Friday night we cooked dinner and watched a movie.
Yesterday, we laid in bed for far too long, set up a makeshift bed in the living room (we have no couch) and watched TV, and watched a movie last night.
Today, we've been doing just about the same. It's 4:00 and I JUST took a shower.
I have to set no alarm clock tomorrow. This is glorious.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Rain, Rain, and even more rain...

It's finally Friday! Hooray! That means we only have 10 days of school left (yes, yes I know we don't have school Monday... save your breath. Unfortunately we have a make up day next Saturday). 10 days. Let's see the breakdown of what's left to do:

4 days of re-testing and the fifth grade dance next week
1 day of Saturday school
and then there's the last week...
1 day: Middle school visits
1 day: awards ceremony
1 day: End of Year Celebration

I'd say it's gonna be a pretty sweet last 10 days! Not much to do, no stressing about cramming for tests, no stressing about homework or lesson plans or anything. I'm pretty pumped.

In other news...it's raining here, yet again. There have been some pretty nasty storms this afternoon. We were doing remediation in class today and I had the door open (because it's been freezing all week), and I even took a few groups outside to work this morning. Well, we were working so hard that right before lunch we looked outside and didn't even realize it had been raining! I just thought that it had been raining a little bit, but when I got in the car to come home I was listening to the weather and apparently it had rained 5 inches (closer to home) in only a few hours! We're under a severe thunderstorm watch right now and a flood watch AND warning until sometime tomorrow...oh boy.

Hooray for a long weekend! Enjoy yours and be safe :)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

What I'm Loving...

I'm finally getting the hang of remembering to blog more than every once in a blue moon! Anyway...here's my first What I'm Loving Wednesdays link-up!

I'm loving the fact that there are only 12 days of school left...even if 4 of them are make-up testing days for my pickles.

I'm loving that this weekend is a long weekend

I'm loving that I discovered decaf, sugar free, nonfat frappuccinos at Starbucks.

I'm loving this weather we're having (even if it is 94 degrees in May!)

I'm loving that MTV is showing Teen Mom AND 16 and Pregnant tonight

I'm loving the new season of the Bachelorette!

and most of all...

I'm loving my sweet sweet boyfriend who puts up with and loves me with his whole heart on a daily basis despite my crabby moods and stress lately!

So today started operation "less sugar"...I've gained a little more weight than I would have liked in the last month and I decided that it's time to do something about it! After I had my coffee this morning, I decided that it was time to cut way back on the sugar. Teacher appreciation week did me in this month but here goes nothin!

Day 1: 
Turned down donughts...twice!
Went to Target and got a decaf, sugar free, nonfat cinnamon dolce frappuccino...

...so maybe this isn't as bad as I thought it would be!
Stay tuned :)

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Lack of Motivation

Well, folks...EOG's are finished. A few thing I never realized until last week:

1. I never realized just how LONG a week could be. Holy cow. It seemed like last week took three week's time!
2. I never realized how much I actually do NOT stand up during the day until I had to administer 4 EOG tests...my feet were screaming at me by the end of each day.
3. I never realized how much of an impact my little pickles have actually had on me, until I got their EOG scores back...and I was able to rejoice for some and cry for others. I think I cried for 4 hours on Thursday.
4. I never realized that planning for remediation would be so darn difficult! Leaving work at 7:15 one night at 8:15 the next is pretty rough, especially with my 45 minute drive home.


All in all, it was a very difficult and trying week. We had some drama, some tears, some love, and most of all, we had hard work. I'm very proud of my pickles and the work that they did. We celebrated the end of testing with with an ice cream party and recess on Friday afternoon. Now it's onto remediation, re-testing, and one last week of school. Only 15 days left!!! I've done some work on my centers today, but I have such a lack of motivation...I think I'm finally running out of steam, the germ gremlins are after me. I'm gonna go spend the rest of the day vegging out on the couch or in the bed...although I need to do laundry and clean up around this place!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Rain, rain go away...

I would just like to mention...it's storming/raining here yet again. I believe this is day 4 or 5 day in A ROW, and it's supposed to be like this for the next WEEK. I live in the south, not in the rainforest! I feel like we're gonna have to start building one of these things soon...

that is all.

A performance, rainy Friday, and interesting Saturday

What a LONG week...and boy, do I mean long. I struggled to get up every morning this week and the days seemed to drag by. I suppose it's because we started off the week not going to bed on time. By the time we took my mom out to dinner on Sunday night and got back home it was almost 10:30! I'm a bear if I don't get my sleep.

Thursday night we had our fourth and fifth grade performance. I had to leave school early to attend two meetings at the middle school, so I missed their performance during school. After my meetings I shoved down some food and went back to school to see them perform that evening. The pickles were all so adorable  standing on the stage singing songs...I was like a proud momma! :)

Yesterday was nothing special...just a test in my EOG review class. After lunch, we went over homework and finished getting the classroom ready for testing next week. I had already spent a few hours taking things off the wall and covering bookshelves and lunch choices with butcher paper, but yesterday I had them take their name tags off of their desks and move them into alphabetical order. You can imagine what the noise level was like with 20 little pickles moving their desks around, ripping name tags off, and cleaning their desks out. I was more than ready for recess when 2:00 hit.

That's the biggest trouble that I've been having lately...I lose the pickles after lunch. It's like they're done listening for the day.  I teach from 8:00-11:30 and they're fine and attentive, we go to specials and lunch, and then I have to come back and try to get them to concentrate for another hour before recess in the last half hour of the day. After lunch though, they lose their MINDS and do things like run around the room, fall on the floor, chase after each other, and just talk excessively in general. I've tried everything from threatening to take away their recess to giving out laps and trying to make the lesson fun...but they're done. Do any of my fellow teacher people have any advice on how to get them back to a place where they want to learn for that last hour? I know we only have 20 days of school left but it would be helpful for next year! :)

Last night we went to boyfriend's work to celebrate the company's 35th anniversary. They had a block party sort of thing, and we walked around and gorged ourselves on food and beer. As we kept walking, the sky kept getting more and more ominous. We finally decided (after a few rumbles of thunder) that it was time to head home so that we didn't get caught in the rain...you see, we live about a mile away from his work, so we simply walked to the celebration. The sky was fine when we got there. Anyway, we're walking home amidst the thunder and lightning, and thankfully we beat the rain. Literally 2 or 3 minutes after we got inside and shut the door, another summer storm came. Ever since we started dating boyfriend and I have had impeccable timing, and last night was no different!

Today is a lazy day...the four legged children have been laying low this morning, the muffinhead has been wanting to lay in my lap all day (probably because I have a blanket with me). We watched Waiting for Superman earlier this morning and now i'm here blogging and boyfriend is playing on his computer in the office. I need to run out and get cat food and supplies to get drunk wine and it looks like it wants to rain...so I'm gonna do that before we get caught in another storm!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Thankful

I am thankful...I am thankful....I am thankful.

Today was one of those days that I struggled to find something to be thankful about. During the course of my day, I had my toe smashed by a chair (with a student in it), had to write a student up at the end of the day, and my meeting at the middle school started 20 minutes late. But despite all of that, I am thankful for my little pickles and the smile that they put on my face throughout most of the day!!!!

23 more days, folks. We can do it! Nothing planned for this weekend...EOG's are next week so i'm planning to relax, maybe find a few sun rays to catch :)

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Addicted...

Twenty four days of school left, folks. Twenty four. I can smell summer in the air! Since the kids have come back from spring break, they have been angels. I'm not sure what changed in them, but I haven't come home in tears a single night or wanting to rip my hair out. That's not to say that they're perfect, but who is? I love my little pickles and I can't believe my first six months year of teaching is almost over! It's definitely been a roller coaster, but I'm more than thankful to have a job (and hopefully one next year).

EOG review has been going well...I wasn't so confident in teaching reading when we started three weeks ago, but as we enter our last week before EOG on Monday, I'm feeling pretty good about what I've been doing! I've been able to make it as fun as possible without letting them know they were learning. Thanks to this little website, I've been able to find lots of comprehension games for the babies to play. 

I'll admit it. I've become addicted to blogs. I've spent A LOT of my free time (while boyfriend is working or in his office on the computer) just surfing the internet to find interesting blogs to read. It's inspired me to start using mine more as a space to get my feelings and ideas out there. So, as of today, my vow is to start blogging more!

We're headed west in a little while to spend some time with boyfriend's mom. We'll come back home tomorrow to spend time with my mommy! After racking my brain for weeks about what to get her, a lightbulb went off in my head last week...and finally today, sissy and I went to get her present! I love spending time with sissy and I love Mother's day. lovelovelove.

Toodles!