Sunday, November 28, 2010

Back to Reality

Say it isn't so... Can it be? The break is almost over??? :(

I enjoyed this break more than you could imagine. I got everything done as planned and more! My Thanksgiving was great, all we did was hang out, eat and play board games. The food was beyond amazing and I think I was the fullest I have ever been at Thanksgiving! Thinking about it makes me sad that I have to wait another whole year for more :-P


 The boys got lucky with this game haha! We are all obsessed with Cranium!


The dogs were able to join in on all the food fun. They went crazy for whip cream!

 

Demitasse just sits here sad all the time because she is too old to do anything. Poor girl.


This is Baloo and he is one of the most spoiled brats ever.


But my brother loves him to death.

I am going to give you a fair warning now... This blog is going to be nothing but tons of pictures. What else did you expect with me putting up my Christmas stuff this weekend??? There would be more if my best friend Kathleen and I didn't forget to take pictures when we were out! Ugh... we're awful. I always get sad when we forget to take them. 

Well, like I said, I put up all my Christmas stuff this weekend. I have been prepping for a while because I made most of everything that is up, even down to the bows. Everything I bought was mostly cheap stuff and I made something out of them. The only thing left is my tree skirt which you will see in pictures. I cut out a felt snowman and letters to write "Merry Christmas With Love" on it but haven't gotten around to hot glue them on. I did the same for my stockings which are still plain but when I have more time, I will add to them. I think my favorite thing I did was making my ornaments. I have some gorgeous ones I collected from Bath and Body Works when I worked there but they weren't nearly enough to fill the tree. I saw a tutorial on Today's Fabulous Finds to make paint stick ornaments and since they cost next to nothing, I tried it. I LOVE THEM. They make my tree look old-timey and I love it! Basically I took 5 gallon paint sticks and cut them into 4 inch rectangles. Took the template that was on the blog, printed them on scrapbook paper, and mod-podged them all! 

Now, she says not to use an ink-jet printer.... I did and it worked fine. If you just sweep one quick coat of mod-podge on then it doesn't smear at all. LOVE THEM! I didn't paint them like she says too either because I think the wood goes well with the look of my tree. It's perfect! I have some pictures but they are pretty dark, I was too lazy to try and get good ones! Hehe


Here was my tree when we were starting:

And after:

I hate our star but oh well. There weren't any white lights anywhere so I settled for blue. Maybe I will find a better one next year. 
Side note, do you like my mangled looking, not glued on, should have moved it, snow man on the skirt?!

I WILL take better pictures, I promise!

And here are the rest of my decorations:




I mod-podged the Noel sign too! I used some fun scrap book paper I found:


I think I love mod-podge.


Excuse the mess... it's presents that need to be wrapped :-/


That white bow was a pain to make! It just did not want to cooperate. Kyle bought me that Mickey snowman :) I love him








Our apartment is so Christmas-y now and I just love it!!! 

This was our apartment before...




I made a freaking mess while getting everything together. I know it was getting on poor Kyle's nerves but he was a good sport and let me be :)

In the spirit, my bff Kathleen took mine and Kyle's Christmas card picture so I ordered them last night and pick them up tomorrow! I am so excited!

Even though it is back to reality this week, it is still going to be a great one. Tomorrow is my dad's birthday so we get to go celebrate that with him. Then Thursday we get to go see Jeff Dunham. He is so dang funny live so I am very excited about that. Then Friday it is my birthday!!! Its going to be a great week!!!

Well I have TONS of work to do so I better stop procrastinating!!! Happy Sunday!

P.S. This isn't the one I chose for my card but I liked it too!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

I just had to throw in a  quick little post just to share how happy I am!!! Not that I think my 3 (haha) followers care much but it is still fun to share!

I love love love this time of year. Everything about it just makes me smile and since Saturday, I have been elated! Saturday was the day that I went and bought our first Christmas tree. It is the cheapest, puniest, little tree imaginable but I don't care. I bought lots of stuff that will hopefully make it amazing. Along with my tree purchase I bought lots of Christmas craft stuff that I will be working on feverishly today. I just love it all. Although I realized that I didn't buy enough lights for the windows so I guess I will be heading out to buy more. I don't want to think about what my credit card bill is going to look like. I am actually a little nervous about it :-/

All week at school, well, the tiny two-day-week we had was great. All we did was hang out and do crafts that were so much fun! Have I told you that I love Kindergarten?! The fact that I get a five day weekend is just amazing. Even though teaching is a blast, no one can explain how tiring it is. The 40 minute drive home just intensifies my tiredness which kinda stinks at the end of the day but it's worth it. Not only that but it makes me appreciate these breaks so much more!

The rest is going to be nice but the plans we have is what is making me excited! Today, like I said, I am going to be working on my Christmas decorations. I have to take a quick break though to take Kyle his pot luck food and it's all I can do not to eat it all myself. It's his mom's recipe for cheesy potatoes... by far the BEST cheesy potatoes you will ever have and probably the most fattening. We all joke that we have mini-heart attacks after eating them, but you can't help it, they are soooo good! After that I might do more Christmas decorating shopping :-/ and go to Comcast. Never get Comcast cable, they suck!!! We have had nothing but problems with them since we started our service.

Tomorrow of course is Thanksgiving!!! Every year I HAVE to watch the parade... it's like a tradition! I just love it. After that we are going to head over to my parents house. My mom always makes a great Thanksgiving dinner so you know we are excited about that. We went to Target last night and bought some board games. We seem to always play one when we go over there so we are excited to play some new ones. I just about peed my pants when I saw that there is a NEW Cranium!!! We have literally played ALL the Craniums we could get our hands on simply because they are the most fun. So I am super excited for tomorrow :)

Friday Kyle and I are going to watch Harry Potter! We were gonna go last weekend but one, we were lazy and two, I wanted to stay and work on my Christmas stuff :) I saw it at midnight but it's pretty much a must watch like 2 or 3 times when it is in theaters. I am a loser, I know.

The rest of the weekend is going to be filled with us actually putting all the Christmas stuff up!!! AHHH I CAN'T WAIT!

So I have an amazing stuff planned for my time off. Are you doing anything special???

I will probably update soon with pictures hopefully! If not, then have the Happiest Thanksgiving with love!!!

<3

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Yay for real updates!

Ok, let's try this.

Apart from me being sick, teaching has been crazy busy. Luckily it makes my days fly by because I am constantly going and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. The work is on going. I just wish I could catch up so I don't feel so stressed and worried about the next thing I have to do.

Stress aside, I am very excited for the activities planned for the rest of the week and upcoming events (hello, Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up!). In class we have been learning about celebrations; what they mean, what we do and family traditions. Well this week we decided to come up with our own holiday and way to celebrate it. Our holiday is Pet Day and one of my boys thought that the main celebration was to eat pie while the animals have treats. Cutest. Thing. Ever. We ended up writing a class letter to the office stating why they should make Pet Day a holiday within our school and they did a pretty good job! We also made crowns to wear with pictures of pets because on Friday we are going to have a Pet Day parade around the school and that is when we are going to hand in our letter to our Principal. You can only imagine how excited my kiddos are.

Next week is our Thanksgiving week and they are letting us put a hold on our curriculum (YAY!) to do anything we'd like with a Thanksgiving theme. All the Kinder teachers came up with a great thematic unit and I can't wait to get to it ahhh!

Today I also got really excited because my class got all new chairs. If you had a classroom full of old junk then you would share my happiness.


Aren't they lovely and oh-so-cute??

The head secretary in the front office is one of my most favorite ladies and she has been since I was interning there. Last week she came into my class and gave me a handful of free things and told me to do what I want with them. Today I was able to go through them and there are some great things! I put one up (that's all I had time for) and I like it. They are all things that are going to make my classroom so much more fun :)

I'm such a weirdo that LOVES cute little things like this!!!


Well chicken soup is ready for me but before I go I wanted to share one last picture with you.



How cute is this? This is from one of my best students. He was just having a bad day and let one of the other kids talk him into playing a little too roughly with my ABC set. This melted my heart when I got this. :)

Well any-hoo, I am hungry, its cold, and there is warm soup waiting for me. TTFN!

How does anyone do it?

I don't get how some people are always going and going yet still have time for fun little things or something as simple as being able to post a blog :( I am dying for the opportunity.

Its weeks like this one is already starting out that makes me wish I lived in the same town as my job. I think that is whats getting me. I wake up at 5:30 to leave at around 6:30, work all day, stay late because so much still needs to be done, and then come home, make dinner, do a little more work, then go to bed. Wake up and repeat. The drive is about 40 minutes and it's just 80 more minutes a day that could be spent doing more productive things. Not only that but I am dying to talk to my best friend! I was horrible and forgot to call her the other night and then me not actually sitting down til about 9 last night made me not able to skype with her :(

Don't get me wrong, I love love love teaching. I just wish I had better time management I guess it is. Or had more time for me in general during the week. I think I am just being mopey because I didn't get to have fun this weekend. I was in bed THE WHOLE TIME. The only time I was up was when I got to go to my parents and I still felt a little crummy. Boo germs.

Well just had to get some ranting in before heading out to work. Gotta blow dry my hair and finish getting ready! Fingers crossed that I can write a real blog soon because I love it! It's so much fun but when will I get the time??? Sigh

P.S. Suggestions welcome as to how I can fix my little problem!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Ughhhh!

Someone...please...help...me...

Since yesterday morning I have been sicker than ever. My cold STILL hasn't gone away and it seems to have turned into an EPIC flu. Its so bad that I can't stand up for more than 2 minutes, trust me I am not lying or exaggerating. Within 24 hours, I have only been awake for 5 and it's kind of starting to scare me. Scariest part of it all is the fact that I have no insurance until the 1st of December. If I don't get any better by tomorrow I am going to go to urgent care and face the embarrassment of asking my parents for help if the bill is ridiculous. I hate doing that :(

As far as teaching goes, this week went much better. I think it was more because I was in the swing of things but I think it also helped that I was more prepared. The thought of this next week scares me because if I don't get better by tomorrow I don't know when I will have time to do the LOADS of work I brought home with me since I had to have a sub cover the rest of my day yesterday and couldn't finish up.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better and I can get online to produce a decent blog unlike today's (sorry!). Its hard to lay down and type stuff up!!! So instead I will just spend my time blog stalking for Christmas ideas. That is if I don't fall asleep AGAIN.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

I promise I was going to update sooner but if you knew anything about my past week then you would know exactly why its been so long. Oh my... where to begin?

Well I obviously started teaching this week and let me tell you, it was one of the longest weeks ever. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED it but it was beyond exhausting. As if it isn't hard enough being a new teacher, try entering in November. Then on top of that, realize that your class is so far behind that it actually scares the poo out of you. Then on top of that, realize that your class has SERIOUS behavior problems because the sub thought it was okay to let them run wild (insert an eye roll from me here). Then on top of that, realize that the sub hid/took/misplaced a bunch of necessities for the classroom. Then on top of that, realize that everyone expects you to already know what you are doing when it comes to using the newly adopted curriculum. Are you tired just reading it??? Yeah it was pretty scary. As of now it looks like my work is never ending which is tiring.

What really made my week almost miserable was the fact that I was having severe migraines EVERY DAY! Really? It had to happen THIS WEEK?! Luckily Kyle bought me some great medicine this weekend that is working wonders. I am going into this week like Wonder Woman now that I have it!

Out of everything that was mentioned, none of it was even the craziest part of my week! The part that was insane to me was the fact that I saw a child completely lose it. Unfortunately I had to write up a referral (on my 3rd day... ugh) because through this whole process she kicked my students, kicked and punched me, did the same to two other teachers and was mistreating the principal as well. Just writing and telling the story doesn't do it justice. I have seen fits but this was beyond anything you could possibly imagine!!! I was so shocked, scared, and mad that I was actually shaking. Hopefully we can get this little girl some help. She is only five and this kind of behavior is happening which just breaks my heart.  No matter what is going on, nothing warrants this type of behavior as a reaction. When it causes harm to others it is to the ridiculous point. The part of the story that kills me the most is that the ones that care for her don't want to admit anything is wrong and will continue to let things go on the way they are. This poor little girl needs help and starting this week I am going to  try my hardest to get it for her in any way possible. She is only 5 for crying out loud.

Apart from the stressful stuff, I really realized how lovely it is to be teaching. Gosh as corny as it sounds, it is where I belong!!! I am so happy teaching :)

This weekend was a good one! Even though I am sick (what else do you expect your first week back teaching?!) I was able to clean the apartment and relax all day yesterday which always makes me happy. The best part of the weekend was today. We got up, made french toast, a must this time of year.


This afternoon we went to the Renaissance Fair here in Cruces. I had so much fun there!!! I don't think Kyle had as much fun as I did but that is ok, he still said he enjoyed it :)





I fell in love with these clocks!!!!


I really wish prices were a little bit better because then I could have come home with some goodies! Oh well, maybe next year. Ugh and maybe next year I will actually remember my camera! I was so disappointed that I had to use my phone. I hate when I go to great things that have good picture opportunities and I ruin it with doing something as stupid as FORGETTING MY GORGEOUS CAMERA. GRR.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I will TRY to post a little more often this week and if I don't, well then you should know it was probably another crazy one!