"The Skanks"

Today we read a book called Aliens Love Panta Claus. It goes along with the book Alien's Love Underpants. The premise of the story is the aliens are helping out Santa, but keep using underwear for everything. They use them as a hat on the snowman, exchange the stockings for underwear, use them as ornaments on the tree etc. After reading the book, I wrote the following sentence on the board and the kids had to finish the sentence in a creative way and illustrate. Then I put all the pages together to make a class book:

"The aliens might use the underwear to______________"

One little girl brings me her paper and it looks beautiful. Her handwriting is perfect (better than mine, I swear haha), her picture fills the page, and everything looks fantastic. I read her paper to discover this gem:

"The aliens might use the underwear as gifts and deliver them to the skanks."

no. freaking. kidding.

The picture is of a house, and on the house it says "The Skank's House". Next to the house are the gifts that have been delivered by the aliens and they are labeled with tags such as "To Mrs. Skank".

I couldn't even bring myself to ask her what it said because I was laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face (not in front of her of course, this happened when I immediately ran to show Michelle haha). Best I can figure, she either has some friends with a similar name and sounded it out wrong, or she might have been trying to write "The Skunk's House" because a number of other kids had the brilliant idea to write things about skunks and thought it was funny.

Either way, this one is a keeper.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

So many things to be thankful for ... here are just a few:

- I'm thankful that after last years group of hellions, I have a small class of perfect angels this year
- I'm thankful for my AMAZING team that I work with. It is not possible to have a better group of ladies to spend my days with. They are truly my friends and I look forward to seeing them each day at work.
- I'm thankful my whole family is able to spend Thanksgiving together this year (and I'm thankful they are coming to Houston so I don't have to spend my break traveling!)
- I'm thankful for my wonderful best friend who came home from China early to cook a turkey for my family. He's so good to me!
- I'm thankful for my naughty kitten, who as we speak is climbing the Christmas tree, yet again!
- I'm thankful I didn't move to Colorado after all last year, because life turned out pretty damn good here. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by friends and family!

Christmas Stockings

When my brothers and I were born, my grandma made us each a quilted Christmas stocking. Maybe it's because I grew up only ever seeing these homemade ones, but these are really the only ones I like. Whenever I go to other people's houses, or look at stockings at the store, none of them seem right to me. Last year when we put up the Christmas tree, we bought some cheap stockings from Target just to have something to hang, but I really didn't care for them. So, this year I decided to make us some! I found a pattern (via pinterest, LOVE that site!), picked out some fabric, and got to work yesterday morning.

The first few steps were easy. Cut the outer pieces, lining, and batting, using the pattern, make a quilt sandwich, quilt the pieces together however you want (I did straight diagonal lines on mine, and followed the pattern of the squares on Tony's), put the pieces right sides together, sew a 1/4 seam around the edge, and flip right side out. Around this point I was feeling so proud of myself because this project was turning out to be pretty simple. Then I got to the band at the top and got incredibly frustrated because the directions were not very clear and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get these pieces sewn together. I had to take a long break and come back to it later. Once I googled directions and saw a picture of what the directions were asking I realized how simple it was. Took me just a few minutes to finish them up from there. yay!

Here are the finished products. All I have to do is add our names to the top. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that up tomorrow. I think they turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself! :)

 My stocking

Tony's stocking

Wonderful Evening

Last night I had such a wonderful evening with the sweet boys I nanny for in the summer.  Their mom messaged me a few weeks ago asking if I could take some pictures of their family. Of course I said yes! We met up at Pecan Park at 4 and took some pictures of the whole family, the three boys, and some individual shots as well. I'll edit those in the next few days and you'll be able to see a few posted on my photography blog.

After the pictures at the park we drove over to the new fire station by their house. It just opened a few weeks ago and Jennifer had asked me if I would mind taking a few pictures of Quinn in front of the fire truck in his halloween costume. Quinn is obsessed with firemen and wants to be one when he grows up. She bought him this awesome costume for halloween that looks just like the real thing. Well when we got to the station the firemen there were so friendly. I took some pictures, they let the boys play in the truck, and gave us a tour of the whole station. The boys were ecstatic. it was so much fun!

When we were getting ready to leave the station Matt asked me if I would like to join them back at the house for dinner. I had such a nice time with them! Jennifer and I sat outside and watched the boys ride bikes (they can ride on 2 wheels now!), and tossed the football with them as it got dark while Matt grilled some delicious steaks.

I love that sweet family so much! And those boys always manage to make me smile :)

Reasons I love my job

This morning I went to see one of my students play in his football game. At the end of the game I was giving him a hug and telling him goodbye when one of his little friends standing nearby overheard us talking and walked over ...

friend: hey! is that your teacher?
student: yeah
friend: aw man I wish MY teacher would come see me play. Your teacher is awesome! You're so lucky.

I looked back at my student and he was just beaming.

Christmas Vacation

I am SO excited about Christmas break this year!

One of Tony's good friends, Kyle, and his wife Jacky, rented a super fancy RV to take a 2 week trip to Colorado over Christmas break (I'm talking multiple bedrooms, heated floors kinda fancy). The four of us went to the gun range yesterday, and then out to lunch afterwards. At lunch, Jacky and Kyle invited us to join them for a leg of their trip. So, I spent the evening coordinating with Jacky, and working out flight arrangements with my dad to make this possible

I was already going to be in Denver the 22-26th for Christmas. Now, instead of flying back on the 26th, Tony is going to fly up to Denver to join me (thanks Dad for getting my flight changed, and using the miles to get Tony to Denver instead!), and we are going to meet up with Jacky and Kyle in Breckenridge to spend a few days playing there then road trip back to Texas in the RV with them! I'm so excited! I get to see my family for Christmas and go snowboarding with them, AND I get to go on an awesome road trip with friends. I seriously cannot wait for Christmas break now! So much fun ahead! :)

Dewberry Farm

Last week we took the kids on our annual field trip to Dewberry Farm (have I mentioned how much I LOVE that place?!? SO fun!!). The bus ride is actually pretty long for first grade standards. It takes about 40 minutes so by the time we get there the kids are usually getting pretty antsy. We were almost there when one of my cute little boys turns around and asks:

"Ms. McCormack, how much longer until we get there?"
"We're almost there D"
"*big sigh* I hate when people say almost!"
we then round the corner so we can see the farm
"Look D, we're here"
"Wow, that really was almost!!"

too cute!

We had a great day at the farm, just like last year. The kids had a blast even though it was FREEZING cold and incredibly windy!

Tony's Halloween Costume

I know it's been a number of weeks since Halloween, but I just haven't been in the blogging mood so this hasn't made it up yet.

I came home from school one afternoon, a few weeks before Halloween, and Tony informed me he wanted to be dead Caesar for Halloween, and he wanted me to make his costume! I was not quite sure how well this was going to turn out given that I have never sewed any type of clothing before, but he assured me I could do a better job than what he could find at the store. We spent some time picking out fabric and researching what a Roman tunic should look like (I also whipped up a toga, but that was much simpler and didn't take any time at all). When it was finally time for me to get to work on it, I was SO nervous I was going to screw it up. Tony had such faith in me, and I had no confidence at all that this project was going to be a success. I am happy to report though, that the costume turned out great! I think it turned out better than I could have hoped actually. The whole thing just came together really nicely. Tony loved it, and everyone knew who he was right away, so I would consider it a success overall. I felt so proud of myself for actually making something that not only fit him, but also looked great. Here are a few pictures so you can see how it turned out:

Mad Shooting Skills

Today we went out to the gun range with Jacky and Kyle so the boys could shoot their new guns and I pretty much put them all to shame.

We started at the pistol range and I shot my .22 a few times while the boys played with Kyle's .45 and Jacky shot Kyle's .22. The boys were shooting pretty well, every shot hitting the target, but sort of all over the place, when Kyle suggested I try shooting it. I was a little nervous because that is the biggest pistol I've been around. He put three bullets in and told me to give it a try anyway. I lined up my shot, and hit the bullseye first try. The boys were shocked. I turned back around, lined up my second shot, and quite literally shot straight through  my first shot hole. Lined up the third shot, and hit the same exact spot again. I turned around and all three of them had their jaws dropped. Apparently I put boys to shame with my mad shooting skills. I was pretty impressed with myself! Turns out that is a fun, powerful, gun to shoot!

Later, we went down to the rifle range. I shot my .22 for awhile but got bored because I've shot so much at 50 yards that I can pretty much put a hole in the bullseye no matter how many shots I take now. Kyle got out his AR-15, and shot a good cluster a little high and right of the bullseye. He handed it over to me and told me to try it out. I put 10 shots in a 1 inch cluster on the right side of the bullseye. Kyle says I should quite my day job and become a sniper. haha.

I also got to spend some time shooting T's AK-47 and SKS. The more I shoot, the more I find I like shooting the bigger, more powerful, guns. Such a fun hobby! Who knew I'd be so good at it?!? :)

Gun Show

On Saturday I went to my first gun show. My aunt texted me and asked me to compare and contrast gun show vs quilt show. Here was my response:

Quilt Show: MUCH bigger, more colorful, more women, but way more old people
Gun Show: more men, more tattoos, more scary people, more people walking around holding guns

The gun show was actually pretty cool. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was surprised by how many hundreds of guns there were laying out in one place. Tony bought a Russian WWII gun so overall the day was a success.

Of course after the gun show we had to go to the gun range to shoot haha. I was proud of myself for trying his new gun, though I MUCH prefer to stick to my .22 haha. His gun was big and scary. It went boom, and after only two shots my shoulder was sore because it kicks so much.

Tony already has a list of classic guns he wants to buy so I'm sure this won't be the last gun show I attend haha.

Phone Conference

Yesterday I had, hands down, the funniest phone call of my life ...

 

Yesterday was parent teacher conference day and I had a list of parents that requested phone conferences. I dialed the first number and the student's grandmother answered the phone. She didn't speak a word of english (they are middleastern so I didn't know a word of their language either).

 

Grandmother: hello??

Me: Hi this is Ms. McCormack calling from JSES. May I please speak to *Susie's mother or father?

Grandmother: hello

Me: um, this is Susie's teacher ....

Grandmother: TEACHER TEACHER TEACHER (screaming!)

Me: May I please speak to Susie's mother or father?

Grandma: TEACHER TEACHER TEACHER

 

the grandmother then pulls the phone slightly away from her mouth and starts screaming across the house in their home language. I can hear the mother screaming back. This goes on for a good 5 minutes back and forth. Finally, a new voice picks up:

 

Mother: hello

Me: Hi this is Ms. McCormack, Susie's teacher, calling from JSES

Mother: hello

Grandmother (still on the line): TEACHER TEACHER TEACHER

Me: Ma'am, can you hear me?

Mother: hello. hello. hello

Grandmother: TEACHER TEACHER TEACHER TEACHER

 

at this point I'm not sure what to do. Obviously there is a complete language barrier here but I can't just hang up the phone on them, yet I can't tell them goodbye either. Then, a third voice picks up the phone:

 

Susie: hello?

Me: Oh, hi Susie.

Susie: hi Ms. McCormack. I'm so sorry, but my mom doesn't know English. She doesn't know what you are saying.

Mother (still on the line): hello. hello.

Grandmother (also still on the line): TEACHER TEACHER

Me: That's okay Susie. Does your dad speak English?

Susie: Yes, but he's at work right now. He won't get home until about 5:00

Me: okay, thanks sweetie. I was just calling to tell your mom and dad what a great job you are doing in my class.

Susie: Thank's Ms. McCormack. I'll see you at school tomorrow.

Mother: hello hello

Grandmother: TEACHER

Me: see you tomorrow Susie. Have a great day.

 

When I hung up the phone I literally cried I was laughing so hard. This seriously could have been on the show punk'd hahaha! Thank goodness my student picked up. What an adorable girl she is and so smart!

 

*names have been changed

 

I'm still laughing when I think about how this phone call went. Completely ridiculous.

new purse

I recently bought myself an Erin Condren life planner. I would normally never spend quite so much on a planner (they are $50!), but with a combination of a few great deals, I got it for only $20. It came in the mail last week and I am in love! I forgot how much I love having a cute planner to write in! I'm such a nerd. I went out and bought myself a set of fun colorful pens and had so much fun filling in all my upcoming events, meetings, etc. hehe

Here is where this story becomes ridiculous.  I bought this new cute planner, so I wanted to start carrying it around with me (mostly to and from work at least).  Unfortunately, I haven't been carrying a purse for at least a year (I've just been using my coach wristlet). Since my planner obviously could not fit inside my wristlet, buying a new purse was in order. This idea resulted in a trip to the galleria, which led me to the coach store, which led me to walk out with this:

the outside

the inside 

(except of course I got the black purse, not the brown  because I already have an older brown coach purse)

I LOVE my new purse! However, I'm finding it a bit ridiculous that a week ago I had no desire to get a purse at all, and because of a $20 planner, I just spent $300 on a purse! hahaha And unlike the way I usually make big purchases, I didn't spend time thinking about this one at all. I walked in, looked around, modeled wearing it in front of the mirror, and bought it. In and out with a purse in under 30 minutes.

So, now I have a new cute planner and a new cute purse to carry it in. yay hehe

A brief comparison

A few simple, but noticeable, differences between this year and last year:

- Last year I had to sharpen pencils EVERY SINGLE DAY because kids would destroy them on purpose.
- This year I had to sharpen pencils for the first time today (that's 13 days of school with one pencil per child!)

- Last year at least one kid was impatient and lazy and dumped their lunch tray on the floor next to the trash can EVERY SINGLE DAY (seriously, for 180 days!!!)
- This year, not one kid has accidentally spilled anything on the floor by the trashcan.

- Last year I had 5 kids ALL year that did their online reading homework (10 short books per month).
- This year I had 15 (of 18) kids start their reading online the very first night I assigned it (two of them even read over 20 books already!)

I LOVE my class this year! It's going to be such a good year!

Backpacking in the Rocky Mountains

I have been meaning to blog about this trip for, oh about a month now haha, but somehow time got away from me and I never got it done.  Fair warning, it might be a long post, but if you read to the end you should get a good laugh.

Tony and I had SO much fun on our trip to Colorado. After my last day with the boys, I picked Tony up at the house and we headed straight to the airport. Our flight was delayed half an hour so we had just enough time to get a yummy Papa's burger before we took off.  We got to CO around 9pm and spent the evening hanging out with my parents and planning out our backpacking trip for the next day (by planning I mean Tony and my dad looked over maps and planned out our trip, I just hung out haha).

We got up the next morning and drove about 3 hours out to San Isabel National Forest. My dad had warned us that the whole state had been getting afternoon showers just about every day, so he made sure to send us off with rain gear. Once we got to the trail head we put on our packs, walked about 10 feet from the car and it started POURING. Since we didn't have our rain gear out yet, we ran back to the car and jumped in just as the hail started. We ended up waiting out the hail/ rain for about 15 minutes. Once it died down, we pulled out the rain gear, loaded up with our packs, and started our hike.  Within 5 minutes my legs were on fire and I thought there was no way I was possibly going to make it.  Turns out hiking uphill with a 28 pound pack on your back is not quite the same as hiking a flat trail in Houston! hehe. We hiked up the first incline, then continued off on the path. The whole time we were hiking there was a pretty steady heavy drizzle and we kept commenting that the trail was much more difficult to manovur than my dad had said. The trail was no more than 12 inches wide, there was brush scratching your skin the whole way, and it was very windy and up and down. We went on like this for awhile, stopping once for lunch and to wait out some heavy rain under a tree, then continued on for about 2 1/2 hours.

All of a sudden our tiny trail opened up into a large clearing, and the trail disappeared (luckily, the rain disappeared at this point as well)! We put our packs down to take a break and wandered around the clearing for about 30 minutes trying to find the trail, but it was no where to be found. Tony got out our maps and started triangulating our position; good thing I had an expert navigator with me otherwise this would have been the time to panic! Based on the position of the mountains, and our proximity to the river, Tony was able to pinpoint exactly where we were.  He finally looked at me and explained "the trail is gone and I'm not sure why, but we're here (points to map), and we need to get here (points again) to where the two trails merge. We need to go that way (points which direction to go) so we have two choices: we can camp here all weekend, or you can trust me not to get you lost and follow me". I told him I trusted him and would follow him, so we got our packs back on. Right at this moment we heard voices coming up over the ridge in front of us! Turns out, Tony was exactly right with his navigating. The people were coming from exactly the way he had pointed! He's so smart hehe.  We ended up having to truck it up an extremely steep hill (I was literally crawling up it at one point) but once we reached the top we were on a large, clearly marked trail (which was what my dad had said the whole trail would be like). We hiked on for about an hour more, and then stopped to set up camp for the night.

While we were setting up camp (and I was trying to dry out my shoes by the fire since Tony made me truck it through a stream!), a large group passed by with 2 llamas! I stopped and talked to the two guide girls and they let me take pictures of the llamas. Apparently they can carry up to 80 pounds so they are great to take on long hikes. Who knew?!? I thought they were pretty cool! As soon as we got our fire going and camp set up, it started to POUR again so we quickly hopped in the tent and waited out the rain for about half an hour. It ended up clearing up and we were able to restart the fire and spent the evening cooking, hanging out, and looking at stars.

The next morning we fixed breakfast then started off on a day hike to a lake my dad had recommended we see. This was the hardest hike I have ever been on! It was 4 miles to the lake and completely uphill. The whole trail was rocky, and really quite steep!  Each time we would start up a huge incline I would motivate myself to keep moving with the hope that the lake was right at the top. Each time we got to the top of a hill, it would be followed by another hill. This went on for hours! FINALLY, just as I was about to give up, we made it to the lake! We set up my hammock, ate some lunch, and took a nap. It was so chilly by the lake as we had hiked up to about 12,000 feet (we started at 9,000ft). After the nap we hiked back to camp, packed up, and moved to a campsite a little closer to the trailhead to make the next day's hike a little shorter. We had a short rainstorm that evening, which gave me a great excuse to take a nap in the tent, then made a fire, ate, and overall had a nice evening.

On Sunday we woke up, made breakfast, then packed up camp to head back to the car. We started hiking and when we got to the place we had trucked it up that huge hill we commented that we were interested to see where the trail we were on met up with the trail we took that first day. We wondered how we had missed the trail so we were tracking on my phone to see where the trail met.  Well, we kept hiking and hiking and hiking and finally realized that the two trails did not actually meet. The trail we were on was steep, but was well marked and much more like what my dad had mentioned. When we got to the end of the trail we came across this:

turns out, after that very first incline we hiked the first day, we crossed right over these sticks and followed something that was NOT the trail at all for 3 hours rather than go on the actual trail, which did a 180 turn and zig zagged up to the top of the ridge. hahahaha! We quite literally hiked off the trail the ENTIRE way!! We think we must have been on some type of game trail, because it was an actual trail of some sort, but not the one that has been cleared out for people to hike. So while we were hiking down in the riverbed the first day, we should have been hiking up on the ridge. Too freaking funny! We got a lot more than we bargained for, for sure! Looking back at our maps there was no way to have known because our trial literally paralleled the real trail, they were just 100 yards apart (though one was at a higher elevation). At least Tony knew he was supposed to be following the river, otherwise we could have been lost in the mountains!

When we got back to the house we got out my camera to look at all the pictures. We got to the second picture I took of the day and laughed out loud:



look familiar?!?! this is how we missed the 180 degree turn. We hiked up the first incline, were tired and took a break on this rock, then because we were sitting we didnt notice the trail turned behind us and just got up and continued down the trail straight ahead.  Unbelievable. My dad laughed at us when we told him the story. Heck, I'm still laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. Last night I was a basket case worrying about how today would go. This morning I woke up at 4:30am on my own and figured why not go to the gym if I'm up. So I got to work out, shower, get dressed, and even enjoy a cup of tea before heading out the door. That was actually pretty nice, except that I was anxious the whole time.

At the end of the day I texted Tony and said, "I survived day 1!". His response cracked me up, "excellent news. I'm sure most teacher's did, but probably not all" I went on to explain that I didn't just survive, I had the most amazingly wonderful first day ever!

I wish that there were words to describe just how wonderful today was, but I seriously don't think I can even put it into words. I had 22 kids on my class roster, but had 5 no shows! I've never even had 1 no show, so this was insane! If you do the math, that's only 17 kids!! 17!!! And they are 17 of the most perfect children I have ever met!! We knew this group coming up was a group of angels because we heard it every day last year, but I had no idea what they would actually be like in the classroom. Seriously, they are amazingly perfect. They were so sweet and quiet and helpful and respectful and silly and I could just go on and on. I freaking love them already!!

At lunchtime, my team met together and we stood back and just watched the group for a second. They were quiet, and well behaved, and all doing the right things. Coleen looked at us and started to ask if ours were as good as hers and we all responded that we had almost cried first thing when we saw how great they were. Seriously, this is SUCH a change from last year's group I actually wanted to cry.

This might be the most telling of how great our day was (if you're a teacher, you'll understand). We did everything on the lesson plans, in every single subject, and even did them during our normally scheduled times. This is completely unheard of for the first day of school. You usually just watch the clock, see how much time there is, and grab something to fill that time. There was no time filling today, we just learned. It was so great!

I have a feeling it's going to be a very good year! :)

Last Day With the Boys

A couple weeks ago was my last day watching the boys for the summer and boy was I sad about it! I have had SO much fun with those sweet kids this summer and I have so been dreading going back to my real job. We had a wonderful last day together. It started with swim lessons where Quinn passed the final round of his float test and earned his bell. He was SO excited it made my heart smile to see him so proud of himself! Poor sweet Quinn has been trying to master floating for 18 months, so this was a MAJOR accomplishment for him! After swim lessons we spent the rest of the morning at the neighborhood pool swimming. Now that he is able to float, he is finally able to go on the big slides with Wade. Such a fun time!

At the end of the day, when it was time for me to go, Jennifer had the boys give me a card to say thank you. This is hands down the best card I have ever received!!!  She made the boys have a photo shoot in the front yard to get the perfect shot for the front of the card. Apparently there were MANY takes and some bribes involved but it turned out perfect! I almost cried when I opened the envelope and saw this:

Is that not the sweetest thing ever?!? She had them pose in the capes I made them and ordered a card with the picture as the cover; LOVE it!! :)

I love that sweet family so much! It was a little sad leaving them, but at least this time I know I'll see them again soon. We already have plans to meet up for dinner after school starts and things settle down a little.

Best summer job ever!

I Spy Bags

A couple years ago I got a great gift from a student that I had completely forgotten about in all the classroom moves. This parent made me an I Spy bag to use as one of my centers. An I Spy bag is simply a fabric pocket with a clear plastic window sewn in the front, that you fill with a random assortment of items for the student to find and then fill the rest of the way with poly pellets. As I was setting up my room this year I was really trying to think of some new fun things I could have available for kids to work on if they finish their work early. I found my I Spy bag and knew it would be perfect, so I whipped up a few more today to have a variety.

These are really simple to make, and I think the kids will really enjoy them. In case anyone else wants to make one, here's what to do:

1. Cut two 7 squares of fabric.
2. In one of those squares cut out a window (mine was a 5 1/2" square)
3. Cut plastic vinyl into a 6" square
4. Using a zig zag stich, sew the clear vinyl into the window of your fabric square.
5. Place right sides together and stitch around 3 1/2 sides of the square using a 1/4 seam.
6. Pull the bag through the hole to turn it right side up
7. Fill the bag with whatever items you want (make sure to either make a list or take a picture so kids will know what to look for) then fill until it's about 3/4 full of poly beads.
8. CAREFULLY sew up the remaining half side to close up the pocket.

That's it, you're done! You now have a super fun hands on i spy game kids can play quietly at their seat. This would also be a great thing to keep in the car if you had kids because it's simple, quiet, and takes time and concentration. Love these!

Christmas in August

This year I told myself I was not going to spend a ridiculous amount of unnecessary money on my classroom. By this, I meant I would not go to the teacher store and buy new borders, posters, letters etc just because they looked cute. I have all that stuff, and what I have is fine, so I was going to just make it work.

While I have in fact stuck to that goal in the sense that I have not spent any unnecessary money at the teacher supply store (all I bought were two sticker charts, desk name tags, and a set of library pocket charts), I may have ended up spending quite a bit of money on reusable supplies for my classroom. I justify these purchases by reminding myself these are things I do not currently have, and can use year after year.

That being said, Amazon and Paypal have made it WAY too easy for me to purchase things without guilt! Seriously, Amazon is the lazy man's mall. You don't have to leave the couch, and you can buy just about anything! In conjunction with PayPal, you don't even have to stand up to get your wallet, just click, and it's yours!

Just about every day when I come home it is like Christmas in August. I have literally had a package come in the mail every day for the past week haha! So, while I didn't spend money at the teacher store, and I didn't buy any junk I didn't need, I did buy:

- my own copy of SSPTU because I'm tired of having to borrow it every single day (plus I found it used for only $6!)
- 3 Draw Write Now books - these are an awesome for those early finishers!
- 120 piece magnetic letters set - I have lots of plastic letters, but none are magnetic
- 24 drawer organizer for SSPTU letters - this was just necessary for organization purposes
- USA state puzzle - I'm going to teach my kids the state song during calendar this year. This way we can add a state each day until we have learned them all.
- Have you FIlled a Bucket Today book - going to do this with my class this year, so the book was necessary. Plus, I LOVE books!
- I may have been lazy and purchased the black line for journaling prompts for tongue depressors because I was too lazy to make them myself hehe
- materials to make I spy bags - um, because these are fun and awesome for early finishers! Plus, I'm crafty like that!
- materials to make my own mind jar - I'm still debating buying the book. It's a little more than I want to spend, and I think I can just explain what the mind jar is just fine for the kids that might need it.

hmm that's all I can think of right now.  See how Amazon is the death of me?!? I can't stop buying things! haha At least everything I've bought so far are things I have a real purpose for and can be used year after year, but still. The most unfortunate part of this is the shipping. Had I purchased all this at once, I would have had free shipping, but no, I buy things as soon as I think of them so I have paid for shipping on every single one of these purchases. boo. I need to plan better to avoid having this happen again. Oh well, I THINK I am done buying things for now ... guess we'll see!

Classroom Tour

Since I'm still being lazy and haven't edited Colorado pictures yet (there are just so many to go through!), I thought I would give you a photo tour of my classroom this year.

 View from the door

(Moving counterclockwise around the room) Calendar and read aloud area

CAFE board, math tubs, and part of the classroom library

Other half the classroom library, computers, and student work bulletin board

Student cubbies

Guided reading table, teacher desk, student book box bookshelf

Close up of my new shelves which house all the word work materials, work on writing materials, choices for when you are done with work, and chapter books (ran out of room in the library haha)

Look at the new rug Kristine gave me! I LOVE it!!

Daily 5 choice board. SO excited to be doing daily 5 again this year. Missed it so much last year!

I love my classroom library. So organized and so many books! :)

My cute frogs! The student desk nameplates match these. Too cute!

That's about it. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Bright, colorful, and spacious. This makes me excited for a new year.

Random Thoughts

I need to blog about Colorado (because it's a really great funny story, just wait), but before I can do that I need to edit pictures.

I need to blog about my last day with the boys, but before I can do that I need to take and upload one last picture.

So, rest assured, those two posts are coming soon ... well, maybe not that soon, but sometime at least.

For today, just some random thoughts:

1. I LOVE pinterest. It is my newest addiction. Seriously, I cannot stop once I get started. So many cute projects and ideas! I've already made three of the things I saw on there for my classroom. hehe

2. Today I went to the gym. I walked out behind this man who walked to his car, pulled out an analog scale, weighed himself in the parking lot, then got in his car and left. Why would you carry your scale with you? Why wouldn't you use the scale in the gym which is of much better quality? Weird, right??

3. I drove up to the ATM today to deposit my last summer check. As I was waiting in line, a man WALKED up to the line, cut in front of my car, and used the ATM. I'm sorry sir, but that was just lazy. There was a walk up ATM not 10 yards away from us, and plus, you don't get to cut in front of me just because you're on foot and I'm in a car! Annoying!

4. The teacher center is closing for good, which is so so sad. They are only open a few more weeks so I decided to brave the crowd this morning and get some things made. Guess what? There were only 3 people there!! Apparently Saturday morning is the time to go because everyone is spending time sleeping in or hanging out with their families. Score! Also, I wanted to steal some of their paper. We have a paper crisis in first grade this year and they just had SO much. Seems unfair.

5. I think the entire city is sold out of clothespins. I went to 5 stores today looking for some and they were all sold out. I guess I might try Walmart later tonight, but if they don't have any I don't know where else to look!

6. I have worked out every day since T left for China. Go me! I know this sounds weird, but I swear my body had been craving exercise for the last month or so. I felt this urge to work out all the time, but was pretty much just too lazy to actually do it. Turns out, I feel great and have much more energy. Who knew hahaha :-P

And, that's all for today.

World Record?

This morning (at 4:30am to be exact) Tony left to spend the next two weeks in China. I have found that having a roommate makes me much more lazy because at the end of the day I'd rather sit around the house with a friend than do something productive. Since I knew he would be leaving today, I already had a plan for how I was going to spend my time being productive over the next couple weeks.

Starting today I am going to the gym every. single. day. no exceptions. I have been HORRIBLE about going to the gym this past year so I'm going to kick start what I hope to be a regular routine once school starts by going every day while he is gone. So, this morning I got up and went to the gym. Good start.

I had planned to spend my time this week working on my classroom up at school. Next week I have a bunch of inservice, and the week after that we start out campus staff development days so I knew I had to get my room ready by the end of the week. After I hit the gym this morning I headed up to school. Michelle was there, so I wasted a bit of time chatting with her, then dove right in.

I'm not sure if there is a world record for the amount of time it takes to set up an entire classroom from boxes and stacks of furniture to finish, but I may have just set the record. I was at school for 6 hours today. An hour of that time I took a lunch break with Michelle (and quite honestly I spent some random time talking to her as well I'm not even accounting for). In 5 hours I got my room COMPLETELY set up. I'm talking every single thing is done. All my furniture is arranged, supplies are out (including book boxes filled on table groups), bulletin boards are set up, and even my hallway display is done. This is quite an accomplishment! Guess moving rooms at the last minute for the past 4 years taught me to be efficient with my time. YAY me!

Now I'm not quite sure what to do with the rest of my week though, as working in my room was pretty much the only thing on my to do list.  Tomorrow I think I'm going to go up for a few hours and organize some files and things I've been wanting to tackle, so that should be productive, but then, until I get my class list, I'm done. Amazing!

Oh, and I LOVE the way my room looks. :) I may be getting a little excited for this year, but shhh don't tell anyone hehe

Free Photography Sessions

I guess I should mention this here, because I just realized I haven't already, but if any of you who read this (and I really have no idea who reads this to begin with haha), have kids, live in the Houston area, and would like to have some photos taken of them for free, please let me know. I am working on portfolio building and would love to get some practice on your children! You might get some great photos, and hey, it's free, so what have you got to lose! Thanks! :)

Photography Blog

So this is still a work in progress, but I set up a separate blog for photography related posts. Seems this might be something I'll want to do on the side for awhile (and who knows, maybe full time one day) so I thought it would be a good idea to have a separate professional blog that I can direct people to in order to see my previous work, or pictures I've taken for them. Feel free to follow it if you'd like.

It's http://kerrimccormackphotography.blogspot.com/

Not much on it right now (in fact the posts there are just copied from here thus far); as I said, it's a work in progress, but it'll get there.

Oh, and if anyone is good at designing brands/logos you could make me something fancy that says Kerri McCormack Photography to use on my header and I'd love you forever! :)

Samer and Siblings

Here is part two of my shoot with baby Samer. After taking pictures of just him, we took a few with his brother and sister. Farris and Leenah were such good sports through the whole thing. They helped make their little brother laugh and did whatever I asked them to. I honestly had no idea how hard it would be to get two kids and a baby all looking at the camera at the same time though! Even with awesomely well behaved kids, it was quite a challenge. We managed to get in a few good shots though, and their mom was happy with the preview she got so far so I guess it was a success! :)

Here is a preview of The A family kids:

This one is my favorite!

Sweet siblings loving on their baby brother

Such a challenge to get them all looking toward me at once! Especially when Samer was already worn out from his photo shoot

I had to include this picture because I just love sweet Samer's face! It cracks me up every time I look at it.