New Technology

Today I was able to go with my first grade team to a school that has been equipped with Smart Boards. I have heard great things about them for a long time,and never....EVER thought that our school site might be eligible to get one in each classroom. Now I know what you are all thinking. "How the heck does your school have the money for this?" Yea, I wonder the same thing sometimes too! But since we are a Title I school, we have a little more funding than other higher performing schools in the district. Our principal thinks that having these boards in each classroom will increase student engagement, which will in turn increase student performance, which will in turn increase academic performance in class and on tests. I just think they are plain COOL!!!

I saw how these high tech tools were used in first grade. Let me tell you, it will be QUITE the task to get myself educated and informed on how to use and create programs for the SmartBoards. But they are amazing! In each room we walked in to, almost all the students were paying attention because they wanted to participate in using the SmartBoard! It's awesome how you can go directly up to this thing, touch something, and drag it over or flip it up or move it around. My colleague said it best when she described it as a HUGE iPhone. :) I really hope that we get them at our school. I can see myself falling in love with this new technology! I'm already quite smitten with it.

What to do....what to do...

While being on vacation, I've discovered something quite important about myself. The MORE time I have on my hands, the LESS I get done! Isn't this crazy? When did I become like this? Now don't get me wrong...I find nothing the matter with a lazy day on the couch. But I think I've come to love those days more than days when I am able to cross things off my to do list! Hopefully, I can find a nice balance between the two. :)

Today is my LAST Monday off before school begins. I am pretty much ready for the start of the year; since we don't have to move classrooms this year, I've had the luxury of going in a setting my room up the last few days. Hmmm...I suppose that's one thing I can cross off my list! I'll have to post pics of my room when I get back in there. I heart my classroom.

So today, I am hoping to run a few errands, do a little grocery shopping, and maybe even get some work done at home for school. I tend to get sidetracked when I am out and about, so I'm drinking my coffee today to try and keep myself focused!! Maybe some cookie baking today? Then to the gym to get a few miles of walking in.

But man, I would love nothing more than to sit on my comfy couch and watch t.v. all day.

is it that time already?

Summer has pretty much rocked...and I'm quite sad to see it go. Well, it isn't gone yet; but I do have to go back to work soon, which means bye-bye vacay. I've actually been quite busy this summer, and I've had LOTS of good times. :)

I kicked off the summer with a bbq at the house. Timmy finally got his new (and very expensive) bbq and he was really excited to start the grilling! Here's a pic of those of us left at the end of the night! Happy-ness all around! Since then, we've had several bbq's. Tim and I are loving being hosts for things like this, and most of all I just love having people over!

Let's see....then Pea came from the east to visit. It was SO good to see her. I cannot believe I didn't take any pics from our mini-trip to L.A. with ALL my girls together. Ugh. BUT, bff's buddy, L, took an amazing pic of me being a drunken pirate. Oh, the shenanigans in Venice!

not the most attractive pic..but entertaining to say the least.

We went camping up at Donner earlier this summer also. My girlie girls came up for the trip, and most of the boys came too. It was quite the lazy weekend, which was completely ok in my book. The boys attempted to go fishing; but there were no fishies biting that day. K's doggie, Ducky, was cracking us up trying to dig holes EVERYWHERE!

how cute is she?!?
and here is the super deep hole the cutie dug!

Tim and I took a weekend and went to SLO and Monterey with my parentals. It was a very quick, but fun trip! We went to Hearst Castle (second time for me, first time for the familia). I love going there and seeing all the intricate details. So beautiful!

Mister and me taking a break from the heat.

beautiful view!

my bro-dude, being amazing silly, as usual!

I got to visit bff again for her birthday!! A weekend in Catalina was exactly the way to kick off the big 2-7. The sand, sea, and sun....and too many umbrella drinks to count!! So fun!!

bestie and me

Last night I went out with the Mack ladies to 58 Degrees and Counting. Such a cute place! I valet parked for the first time ever...made me feel super important. :)

I also began my training for the half marathon, and I've stuck with it! I'm currently on week 7...I seriously didn't think I'd make it this far. In the past 6 weeks, I have walked over 100 miles! I'm pretty shocked...let's hope I can keep motivated when work begins again!

Tim and I will be going up to Tahoe for a much needed break before my school year starts next Monday. Fishing and resting will be on the agenda...and maybe some sun? All in all it's been a great time off, and I'm pretty sad to see it go. But lots to look forward to in the coming months!

it's the most wonderful time.....

ok, so maybe not the MOST wonderful time...after all, that would be christmas! but it's that time when the new school year begins. :::sigh::: reality will be kicking in for me in just a few short days; i MUST go back to work. sad, i know. but here's the wonderful thing about that...

I GET TO BUY NEW SCHOOL SUPPLIES!!

i am so obsessed with new boxes of crayons. it's crazy! have you ever seen the movie you've got mail? do you remember the part when tom hanks emails meg ryan and says, "i would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils..." that's how i feel about fall and the new year. it makes me want to buy an abundance of crayons, pencils, gluesticks and paper!! sometimes i think i became a teacher just so i could fulfill by school supply obsession. :)

my next half marathon

It will most definitely be the Disneyland Half Marathon that occurs every year!!! When can I sign up!?!? I am SOOOO doing this in 2010, baby!!

iPhone friends..check out Runkeeper!!

My new favorite application!! If you are a runner, walker or biker, you HAVE to check out this app. There is a free one and a paid one, but they BOTH track your time and mileage on your cardio activities. The coolest thing is that once your activity has been uploaded onto runkeeper.com, you can see your trail on the map. Oh, it's the little things in life that make me so happy!

...and on to Week 3!

of training, that is!! I've been working really hard to stay consistent with my walking and workouts since I've committed to doing this half marathon. It's been pretty easy, only because I'm off track right now and have way too much time on my hands. I only hope that I can continue going this strong when I return to work in August.

I've been walking 6 days a week and strength training at the gym 2-3 days a week. My body has been pretty tired, and my rest days are well deserved. 2 days a week I have an awesome buddy to walk with, but all the other walks are on my own. Hubby offered to walk with me (he doesn't like the idea of me walking around by myself), but I had to turn him down (he'd slow down my pace!).

In the first week, I walked a total of 24 miles. Didn't think I could do that many in 1 week, but it was easier than I thought. I began the week averaging an 18 minute mile, and by the end of the week I had my average down to 16 minutes. I've been walking for a long time now, so I knew I could get my time down pretty quickly with some discipline.

The second week I walked a total of 26 miles, with 2-7 mile walks in the week. I don't think I was supposed to do that many long distance walks within one week, but I took 2 rest days rather than 1. And I got my time down to 15 minutes a mile! That is really awesome, and that's the time that I was aiming for. The fact that I'm already there just amazes me! But I'm going to keep at it, not to increase my speed but to work on endurance. I need to be able to keep that pace for 13.1 miles.

Since this is my first half marathon, my main goal is to simply finish the race! I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to finish in 4 hours or less. But as long as I cross that line and receive my cowbell, I will be pretty darn proud of myself. :) I'm getting more and more excited!! So week 3, here we go!

new commitment

I've decided that I'm going to begin training to walk a half marathon! It's something that I've been thinking of doing for a while now, and I'm finally going to begin the journey! I know it takes a lot of dedication and commitment, and it will be a challenge to stick to my daily work outs, even when I'm exhausted. I figured that it would give me a reason to work out regularly and eat better, which I've been trying to do for a while now. The thing that will keep me going is the feeling of accomplishment that I will get after I've completed it. I am so excited that I have some daring friends to go through the training and marathon with me!! I will probably continue to blog about my training workout, just to hold my accountable. The half marathon I'll be running is on October 4th...so I have exactly 3 months to prepare my body for the challenge. It's supposed to be a really fun event, so I'm pretty excited about it!

Today I began my morning with a brisk 3 mile walk around the lake. It was pretty warm this morning, but there was a nice breeze every once in a while. I completed my distance in under an hour (I think I'm walking an 18 minute mile right now). My goal for the next 3 weeks is to get my mile to 15 minutes.

I did some strength training as well, working on upper body and abs. My bottom is definitely feeling the walk from this morning! It's such a wonderful sore feeling. ;)

I came across this quote today and I thought it really fit my mood.

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind, don't matter and those who matter, don't mind."

~ Dr. Suess

Touch your what?

So today, as I was reading quietly with a small group of my students, one of my boys comes up to me with his reading folder. He had just finished reading with one of the intervention teachers, and I assumed he came up to me to tell me that he passed his reading fluency. He walked up and said, "Excuse Mrs. C, but I wanted you to feel my monkey."

WHAT?!?

My dirty mind came rolling in and I began cracking up!! He looked SO confused and said, "It's fuzzy, Mrs. C. I just want you to touch it." That didn't help me control my laughter.

He had received a FUZZY MONKEY STICKER from the other teacher, and we both looked at each other and laughed uncontrollably! Most hilarious thing I've heard from my kids in a few weeks.

To make him happy, I touched the sticker and said, "That is pretty cool."
And his response was, "I knew you'd want to touch it!"

Ah, just another day in first grade!!

Lion King

On Saturday night, Tim and I had tickets to see the most AMAZING musical...The Lion King. This was the third time I had seen it and Tim's first time. We splurged and got ourselves the VIP tickets, which meant we sat in the fourth row orchestra and had an aisle seat (super important for this show!). If you've never seen it, you must. I don't want to give it away!! It moved me to tears, yet again. The music is so vibrant and passionate, and the costumes are absolutely the coolest things ever! Tim and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and I've even got him talking about getting season tickets for the Broadway Series! I can't wait till it comes back again. LOVE THIS SHOW!!

because I grew up in the 90's...

seriously, funniest thing ever!! I so watched EVERY episode of saved by the bell and even have seasons 1-4. I had the biggest crush on Zack Morris...even with his ginormous phone! Watch the video for a good laugh and some great memories!

Zack on Jimmy Fallon

almost there!

I officially have 13 days left of this school year and it cannot come soon enough!! This week has been the busiest week EVER, and tomorrow is only Wednesday. We had Open House tonight, which was a success. I always love this time of the year because the kids (and I) get to show off what we've been working so hard on all year. It was great to see all the families come and support their children. We did some awesome projects to get ready for this night. Last week we completed our Torn Art Portraits. I have done this with my kids the last 2 years, but this year was quite challenging because I have a lot of self professed "perfectionists" in my class and for this art project, they are NOT allowed to use scissors to cut the paper. I will have to take a picture of how they all turned out and post it tomorrow, because even I was impressed by the creativity that was shown!

Just let Friday be here already. Team is coming over to our casa for a BBQ, and Saturday brings date night with Hubband and 2 amazing tickets to see Lion King!! CAN'T WAIT!

honesty is the best policy

This year, I have a child in my class that I will call "A.M." because he is my Anger Management child. He came in to my classroom in the beginning of hte year throwing fits, crying, wailing, and becoming violent whenever I told him something he didn't want to hear. After MONTHS of documenting his actions, making adjustments, using every possible intervention...he finally got some counseling and mom got him some meds to balance his mood. Now, he is a dream. No joke. I am NOT one to encourage putting such young children on meds, but this child made such the turn around! And now, he has become the most HONEST first grader you will ever meet.

Why, you may ask?

Because today, A.M. came to me after recess and said, "Mrs. C, I wanted to let you know that at recess, I pushed "so and so" down because she wouldn't get out of my way and I called her dumb. Then she hit me so I hit her back."

I was totally shocked by the fact that this child just told me the honest truth, even though he knew he was going to get in trouble! I proceed to talk to him about his actions and the fact that he should have made a better choice. Then, I asked him what he thought his conseqeunce should be. This was his response:

"I should definitely pull a card and owe you all my recess for the rest of today."

Wow. A.M. so made my job easier today. And because of his brutal honesty, I only took away one recess instead of two. I mean, honesty IS the best policy. ;)

and the verdict is in!

I'm staying at my school site! I was so happy to find out that I wasn't on the list to transfer, so I get to stay at my school with my amazing first grade team! I am oh-so excited for next year with my new partner. We already work so well together, and we aren't even partners yet! :) The next school year is going to be awesome. It just has to be after the year I've had with this class. I can only hope for the best.

i'm such a control freak...

...that it is KILLING me that i don't know, for sure, where i will be teaching next year. i'm so upset with all the budget cuts and downsizing! not only because it is affecting our kids and their education, but because it's affecting so many people i know...myself included. i know, i know....i should totally be thankful for the fact that, no matter what, i KNOW i will have a JOB next year. but to think that i may have to change grade levels (i love first grade) or worse, change school sites (i love my co-workers) leaves me feeling VERY uneasy. like queasy-uneasy. :( my hubband says i stress too much...and i know i do. no matter what happens, i'll be ok...unless they give me a 5th or 6th grade class. but i have a job! it's just sad that i LOVE where i teach now...even if it's not in the best area of town or the easiest kids on earth. i love that i know i'm making a difference. i know i'm providing these kids with some stability and love that they may not get at home. i know that i am NEEDED. and i love that i become so close with them through the year, that even with their tough lives and their barriers, i can make them smile and giggle. so do i really want to leave? no...i still have too much passion left in me to leave a place like this. it's hard, i will admit that. it's hard to teach the kids who come in with so much baggage....but in the end, it's just that more rewarding.

...but if i have to leave, then i have to leave. i just hope and pray that i get to stay at my school site in my current position. damn the economy, damn the budget cuts....damn all the people who continue to think it's ok to take so much money from education. i may be complaining about something as petty as my own job...but seriously....think of the kids. they NEED to come first.

back to reality

i'm quite sad about that fact that i have to go back to work on friday to set up the classroom...and school begins again on monday. i am hoping that this trimester goes by quickly. it's the last trimester of the year, and there are always so many things going on...but the kids will begin to get "spring fever" and it will be that much harder to keep them under control, especially this year with this group. ahh! let's hope for the best on monday. ;)

i haven't blogged all month...wow! i can't believe i've been off work for a whole month; but it has been a pretty productive one. i worked 6 days while i was off, which will bring in a nice chunk of change. the new blinds got put in finally, and i even spent 2 days putting up new curtains! i love them because they make the house look more "home-y". i did not, however, step foot in my gym until this week. of course, the LAST week i'm off. grr to me. :( i so wanted to get myself back into a routine this month. but so good fitness news: i have fallen in love with doing the yoga exercises on my wii fit. and man, it's quite the workout! i've done it every day for the past week, and i find myself sitting up a little taller now. :)

so here are my spring goals, published for all to see. ;)

1. i will go to the gym at least twice a week in the evenings (as hard as this may be to stick to, it's almost impossible for me to go in the morning!). i know it doesn't sound like much, but baby steps until i can make it part of my normal routine. and i will try and drag hubband with me!

2. i will eat healthier and keep better snacks around the house for both myself and my hubs. this means cooking healthier for the two of us and less eating out. we did that a lot this month since i was off...but i'm going to try and limit our eating out/date nights to twice a month. do-able!

3. i will give myself "quiet time" each day to unwind. i don't do this for myself enough when i am working because i get caught up in daily chores and planning for school. this month i have realized that i NEED this time to center myself.

4. i will try and clean up as i go during the week. i cannot stand spending a whole saturday picking up crap left around the house during the work week! so i will try and put my things away as i go....and i will try not to let the fact that hubband does this irritate me. ;)

let's see if i can stick to my spring goals. not to lose weight or become a body builder, or to be a domesticated godess...but to feel better about myself and my lifestyle. because sometimes i feel like i fall short. that should be enough to keep me going. :)

i heart year round schools

i am FINALLY off track for a month! thank goodness!! i am so ready to sit around the house and do nothing for a few days. i have picked up a few sub jobs already, which is great because i could use some extra spending money. but nothing else big is planned for this break. jammies, couch, and movies are all that are on my agenda. yes, i know i sound like the laziest person ever; but teaching these little munchkins take A LOT out of you! i hope that the weather is pleasant for a few days...i would love to get some yard work done since our back yard looks like a stinkin' jungle. and we should be getting new blinds in a week or two, and after that i can put up the curtains. oh yea...and i told myself i would paint the bathroom! so maybe i will have a productive break. but for now, i'll enjoy the fact that i don't have to wake up early tomorrow. gee, tim is gonna love that when he has to get up and get ready for work. ;)

beamer's beloved teddy bear

so beamer has this little teddy bear that he is absolutely in love with. he plays with this stinky little bear all the time, and it is just the cutest thing when you catch him dragging the little bear along the floor by the ear. here is a picture of said bear.
beamer's best friend

this morning as tim and i were getting ready for work, we found the bear on our bathroom floor. we know that beamer plays with this bear like mad because we find it in odd places of the house when we come home. so...tim thought it would be funny to place the bear underneath a laundry basket to see if beamer would try to get it out while we were at work. i giggle as tim puts the bear in "jail", and beamer watches. then beamer just stares at his friend, helpless. he tries to paw at the bear through the gaps in the laundry basket, but no success. tim put bear in the dead center of the basket, and beamer's arms weren't long enough to get his friend.

so around 4:30 today when tim got home from work, he called me on my cell phone cracking up. he came home to find the laundry basket clear on the other side of the bathroom floor. bear was pulled out halfway through the handle opening of the laundry basket. i asked him to take pictures for me so i could see.

i just about died laughing when i saw these pictures! beamer REALLY did try to get him out. i thought he'd figure out a way to tip the basket over...but instead he scooted it around to get to his friend. at least he picked the largest opening to pull bear out, but bear just wouldn't budge. ;) beamer was quite elated when he had bear in his arms again. if i can get a picture of the two of them cuddling, you better believe it will get posted.

iCrave....tart yogurt!

i'm so sad that we don't have a pinkberry here is sac, but we do have pretty good yogurt places. not all of them carry the tart yougrt, which i ADORE. and not all of them have fresh fruit toppings either. so when i find one with BOTH, i am jazzed. last night we went to yogurt after belly dancing and it was very yummmmmmy. i got the cantelope tart yogurt with mango, kiwi and strawberries. it was so good! i've been thinking about this yogurt all day. maybe i'll be able to convince hubs to take me on saturday.

yummy, yummy, in MY tummy!

beamer meets franklin

beamer kitten checking out his brother, franklin turtle

last weekend i finally packed up franklin mortimer the turtle and all his belongings and brought him from mom and dad's to our house. i've had frankin for quite a while now...6ish years? anyway, i left him at the parent's house when i moved out in 06...and now that we've found room at the house (3 years later), we decided to bring him home. beamer was VERY intrigued by his new brother. everytime i come home, i find beamer sitting next the franklin's aquarium. i think franklin could take the cat...easy.

welcome home, franklin!

let's try this again ...

so back in the day i used to blog...oh...everyday! but that was back when i had more time between classes and didn't come home dead tired. i've been wanting to get back into blogging for a while, but i felt like i didn't have much to blog about. however, the more that i think about it, the more i realize that i do! i teach first grade, for goodness sake! i've got cute/crazy/insane stories to tell! and hello?!? i did just get married, so i guess i can blog about that too. and learning to cook...man, that's got some stories. but for now, i've set up my account (another one, since i have been locked out of my old one) and will try to blog every once in a while. no one will read these, i'm sure. but at least i have a way to share and vent if necessary. ;) and maybe i'll be cool and put pics in as well! we'll see. for now i'll share a pic from the awesome red, red wine party last weekend. heather knows how to throw a shin-dig!
the lovely ladies of mack