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. ;)