Spring Break Part 2

I'll be honest, I thought part 2 of our trip was the Tri Cities...ohhh no...how I was wrong!

I invited mom over for lunch this afternoon to stop by and say hi, plus she had some things to drop off to send to David, so I figured lunch should be included for driving out here. I was making coffee this morning, planning out my preparations for lunch (I was trying something new, so I needed to make sure I had all my stuff in order before getting started). I pulled the mug out of the cupboard, as I always do, and it fell. I apparently tried to catch it, and the same time it hit the counter, I put my arm on top of it.

Now, let me stop here and honestly tell you, I was (and am) much more upset about breaking my mug than anything else. I looked down at my poor poor coffee mug, keep in mind I have 11 more, and thought, hmmm I wonder in Bed Bath and Beyond will replace this. I then looked at my arm and thought, wow, that's a lot of skin. I very skillfully filleted my arm.

In the next few minutes I'm debating whether to do anything about it or just tape it up and keep going about my day. Anthony helped me tape it, and I realized there's no way I can keep this together on my own. When I got light headed and had to sit down before my coffee was done, I realized it was time to go to the doctor. I was so annoyed to have to postpone lunch to go get stitches.

So....and hour and 1/2, $20, and 6 stitches later, lunch was back on and all is fine and dandy, except for losing one of my coffee mugs and having a sore arm from my tetanus shot!

Spring Break Part 1 - Hagerman

We were so lucky to spend part of our Spring Break in Hagerman with the Lund's on a lovely fishing trip.

We pulled into Hagerman and it was in the 50's, the weather was beautiful. We went and saw the Hagerman Horse, looked at fossils and learned about the area. After checking into our rooms we went to the fish hatcheries and did a little fishing. The weather was cooling down, but not too bad. We went out to eat and I started feeling feverish (awesome time to get a cold). Shaun and Anthony went out fishing again while Jen, the kids, and I went to the hot springs. The water felt great and made sleeping even better. The bed was comfy and I felt much better.

The next morning Anthony and I decided to get the room for another night and extend our trip, the Lund's agreed :) We all spent an extra day in Hagerman fishing, being a little cold, and having a good time. The 2nd morning we woke up and decided yes again, we must fish!.....it snowed. We were the 5 idiots out fishing in the snow (Jen was the smart one who sat in the car). We caught about 20 fish all together and had a great time hanging out with friends and calling "here fishy fishy" trying to get those fish to eat our bait.

Things I learned:

Golden trout are pretty.

It's still cold in March.

Hot Springs feel good when you have a fever.

Don't wear knit gloves when fishing.

I caught something huge but never got to see it.

You CAN fish in any weather...I just don't suggest it.

Oh did I mention, it's still cold in March?

Some snap shots to enjoy from our trip!

Brr it was cold!

The boys fishing....

Me fishing.... watching my pole that Anthony threw way out there.

My pole....

Clear chilly morning

Snowy chilly morning - yup....it snowed sideways on us.The intelligent people in the group. The clouds finally broke up for a while (with the wind) and the afternoon turned into a balmy 36 degrees and windy. But hey, at least the sun was out!

We had a great time. I would do it again in a heart beat, just pray for more sun, less wind, and no snow :)

One Month Down

It's been a while since I've found time to sit down and blog. I'm waiting for Anthony to get home so we can leave again, so while I wait, I type.

It's Spring Break and and I survived my parent teacher conferences. And by survived, I mean, actually enjoyed them a little. It was great to meet the parents of my kiddos and get an idea of where they are coming from. I enjoyed talking with a mom that realizes there are issues going on at home as well as school, hence the low grades and lack of focus (it was nice to be on the same page). Parents were really nice and really supportive of the changes I've made in the classroom and no one seemed to be too upset about the switch in the middle of the year. Disappointed, but not upset. It will be really nice when I finally get to go through a WHOLE year on my own, but I'm making it work :)


Anthony and I are headed to Hagerman (in about a 1/2 hour) with the Lund's to go fishing (in the rain) and spend some time away from home. I've never been to Hagerman and I hear it's a nice little place with some fun things to do (like hot springs :) ) I'm exactly looking forward to spending the weekend in the rain, but I'm glad to get away from home for a few days to sit, B.S. and drink a couple beers. Oh, and fish some too haha.


David's birthday is on Thursday and Anthony and I are very excited to go spend it with him. We leave Thursday afternoon and get to spend the whole weekend with David relaxing and not having to worry about doing, well...anything really. I like going to David's :) (once again, I believe some of this time will be spent drinking beer. We really don't drink much, but apparently not having school drives us to open up a few cold ones and let loose a little )


And finally, the weather is getting just a little bit warmer and that means spring will be here soon and I get to be the sick person who enjoys mowing my lawn and tending to my flower beds.

I planted these last weekend (flowers)

I planted these 2 weeks ago (tomatoes) I'm annoyed my flowers are much better off than my veggies, the other pot still has NOTHING in it...which I didn't want to show.

And these I planted last Fall (tulips)

I'm so excited they came up, they are all over my flower beds :)

Rachel spent a couple days here at the end of her Spring Break. She came and helped my in my classroom with a very fun art project. They kids got to design their own flower pots and then use crayon to do the outline and pattern then use watercolor to paint it. This went pretty well until one of my girls didn't follow directions, colored the whole thing with crayon and cried for 25 minutes because I wouldn't let her paint. Joy. Otherwise, the kids were very creative. They got to cut out their pots, glue them on to black paper then use tissue paper to put on flowers. Parents really seemed to enjoy them.

Back to Rachel...

I told her that I really needed to get my house decorated for Easter, which meant taking down all the random Shamrocks and setting out a few rabbits.

In the mix of all this I realized how tired I was of my fall flowers I put out. They were great in October, but it's March, I really needed a new change of scenery. We went to Walmart (one of the cheapest places for flowers) and spent about an hour re-designing my flower arrangements. This is how they turned out. I love them!

I swear this should not have been as hard as it was, but this vase took FOREVER to get just right, it's still not perfect, but I like it.

And now the question of the month...what in the WORLD is happening to my bamboo?!?!?

I'm very very unhappy about the yellow/dyingness that is going on here.

If you peel the leaves back it's till green underneath, so I'm hoping it's just going through a stage of molting or something.

So, thank you to Rachel and Tyler for their visit for Spring Break. To Rachel for helping in my class and making flowers with me, and to Tyler for pruning my roses. I should be able to do it by myself from now on :)

Happy Spring! For those of you on break, be safe and enjoy your time off!

Hello

Poor Blog....I've had no time to visit you.

I don't really have time tonight either - so...for all of my blog friends: 2nd grade is amazing, I love my job more than I thought I could, I'm tired all the time (due to loving my job) and can't understand how I used to have time to get things done and now have ZERO time. How do I fix that (without it effecting my lovely children)?

Tetherballs and Vocal Cords

Oh the week I've had. I did survive my first week, barely. My kids are amazing and I love my class. It's been a great week, but, I feel like my kids are one step ahead of me. I feel like my life is in fast forward and I'm just trying to keep up. I have morning duty 3 days a week and I'm having a hard time being totally ready when those kiddos walk in the door. So, last night, I stayed a little late to get everything ready for today and luckily I didn't have duty today. I got to sleep in a few minutes and actually got to chat with some friends I haven't seen in a week :)

In my readiness, I was ready for anything those kids brought me today. They brought me piece and quiet. They came in quiet, read quietly, I gave many many group points...and they stayed quiet until after lunch. But let's back up, I had a girl come in this morning that got smacked in the fact with a tetherball. I thought she was playing it up a little bit and told her she would be fine. After lunch, she still had a mark on her face. What kind of a teacher am I? Poor kid. Her face hurt all morning and didn't complain about it at all. By lunch, she was fine, but still had a red mark on her face.

By the end of the day, my kids were working on reader's theater and the noise grew, but nothing too loud. Even having a great day with quiet kids, I'm still completely EXHAUSTED! I had no idea how crazy fast things would be. I'm trying really hard to stay one step ahead of the game, and I feel like those kids are always just a little bit ahead of me. I'll get there, but it might take me another week.

Finally...One of my darling children told me today, one of his baby twin brother's lost his vocal cord today, pointing to his belly button. Yes, he meant umbilical cord. Oh, the lovely 7 year olds I have :)

To a successful day and an exhausting week!