Pumpkin Day!

Today was absolutely INSANE! Not only was it the last school day before Halloween, but it was pumpkin day in first grade AND the day of our book character parade.

The day started with kids dressed in costumes. First grade did fairy tales so we had dragon slayers, fairy godmothers, and princesses.

We sat in the hallway and watched grades 3-5 parade by us, then we stood up and got to parade by them. The kids LOVED it! There was music playing and they were dancing up a storm haha.

After the parade we went back to the classroom to begin pumpkin day. Pumpkin day included a variety of pumpkin activities. We started by making headbands, then made some guesses about our class pumpkin including how many seeds it had, how many lines, and how much it weighed. We cut strings to guess how big around we thought it would be then checked to see who was the closest (6 kids were dead on, impressive!!). We graphed our choices for what sort of face we wanted carved, then we opened up the pumpkin and carved it. The kids put the seeds in groups of ten for us to count, we listened to a story while sitting in the dark admiring our lit up pumpkin, we played Halloween bingo with candy corn, and we worked with partners to compare the small pumpkins we brought in from home.

All in all the day was a success. The kids were CRAZY excited ALL day! I had more than one tell me this was "the best day of my life" which I guess made the insanity all worthwhile.

I must admit, it was a fun day :)

Wings Over Houston

This past weekend Tony took me to the Houston air show ... by took me, I mean I begged him to take me until he agreed haha. He had free tickets from work and I really wanted to go so I basically just talked about it until he said okay :-P

It was hot as can be (it's October for goodness sake, when is it going to feel like fall?!?) but it was such a fun day! There was so much to photograph I was in Heaven! We wandered around for a bit checking out all the military planes and Tony taught me pretty much everything about them. They had a whole area set up like an army camp with actors playing the roles of soldiers. It was pretty neat

After awhile we settled into our seats to watch all the planes flying. There were so many that were sooo cool! Plus, it was fun to go with someone that actually knew about them because I learned a lot.

After a few hours it was hot and we had seen so much I would have been ready to go but Tony said we had to stay because the Thunderbirds were last and he claimed they were awesome. He was right, it was totally worth the wait. I was amazed by how fast they were going and how synchronized their movements were. Honestly, you just had to see it to know how cool it was!

I literally took hundreds of pictures all day ... so many that it is hard to choose just a few to post here haha. I do really love this next one though so I wanted to include it. It's a 48 star flag from WWII and after tinkering with the color I fell in love:

Intentions

This was posted on thenotebookdoodles.com today (love some of the things posted on that blog!) and I thought it was just perfect for me given how this year has gone.

It might be a ridiculous story, but I can laugh about it, and I'm so happy now so it doesn't even matter. :)

cute kids

First graders totally crack me up!

Today little girl A comes in and says to me "Ms. McCormack, I'm going home with M today because my mom has a doctor appointment. She's having an oh so sound ... you know, when they look at the baby in her tummy!" hehehe "oh so sound" too darn cute!

Later we were reading the book "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly". We had read through about half of it and then when I read "I know an old lady who swallowed a cow" little boy C pipes up loudly, "OMG that's disgusting!" he actually said the letters O.M.G. I laughed so hard I had to put the book down which of course made everyone else start to giggle too. Maybe you had to be there, but goodness was it funny! :)

Fishing!

In the past month I have become quite the fisherman (or woman rather)! Over the summer I went out on the boat with Tony a few times but while everyone else fished I just got tan. A week after I got back in town we went out again, and that day everyone was catching these HUGE fish! It was so exciting I decided I wanted to give it a try.

So, that week Tony took me to academy and helped me pick out a fishing pole (it's black and pink and super cute btw). We've pretty much gone fishing every weekend since, either out on the boat, or to the pier.

The first time we went to the pier I caught this MASSIVE fish! It was WAY too bit for my little rod and had it fought at all it would have totally snapped my line right away. As it stood I got it reeled all the way in and there was this huge crowd of people watching. All these men were trying to help get nets down there to bring it up (it was too big to get up otherwise) but unfortunately at the last second it broke the line and got away. I'm so sad we didn't even take a picture of it in the water :( Let me see if I can explain how big it was ... put your arms out strait in front of you then link your hands so it makes a circle. It was about that big!!

Catching a fish just never gets old for me. It doesn't matter what it is or what size I get excited every time as you can see from my pictures haha

This past weekend we went on the boat on Saturday and then to the pier on Sunday. On the pier there was a 4 year old boy fishing next to us who was just too darn cute. He wanted to help us throw all our fish back and got so excited when he saw us catch something. At one point he was helping me hold the fish while I got the hook out and in all seriousness he said to me "I'm going to sing twinkle twinkle to it and it will calm down" and then this sweet little boy sang to my fish. How precious! He totally loved Tony too! After Tony caught a good sized sand trout our fishing buddy Nick requested to be in the pictures too. He was too darn cute giggling up a storm as the fish flopped around and Tony helped him hold it.

I love my new hobby!! :) Can't wait to go again this weekend!

First Grade

I feel so lucky to have a job! I just cannot get over that! :)

So far everything is going really well. I really love how the school is brand new (only opened last year) so everything is SO nice! Nice furniture, technology, etc. I have a projector in my room that is hooked up to the computer which we can use to watch United Streaming, and I have an elmo instead of an overhead. I LOVE it! Oh, and the whiteboards ... SO much better than chalk. I hate the feeling of chalk on my hands haha. It's the little things. Plus, my classroom is HUGE. I mean it is at least twice the size of my rooms the past 3 years. AND one wall is painted green. It's so pretty (I have a thing for accent walls)!

My team is awesome! My team leader is so on top of things and such a good teacher, and there are two girls just about my age on the team which is so nice as well. I enjoy being around all of them and they seem to have similar teaching styles to me. We plan everything together every week (no more winging it because I don't have a clue what I'm doing) and as an added plus I have found they do a lot of the same things I did at Highlands in first grade, so I'm really comfortable with it.

I have 22 kids in my class, 13 girls and 9 boys. I have some REALLY sweet ones! I do love first graders! I had forgotten how little they know though, so the first few days were really a shock. I'm getting back into the swing of things though and the days are going much smoother.

I couldn't be happier with how things have turned out :)

rewind button

You know that rewind button for life people are always wishing for? I think I may have found it!

From my point of view, I messed up my life pretty badly this summer. I quit my awesome job, I spent a ridiculous amount of money moving across the country, and yet I ended up right back where I started in the first place (sans job, money, and apartment). Oddly enough, I wasn't too panicked coming back without having a job. I just kept telling myself that it was going to be a good year for me, no matter what happened and that there was a reason for everything. I'm learning to go with the flow here. haha

Before I came back, I emailed my principal, my assistant principal, and the original principal who hired me into Fort Bend (who I never got to work for since I was moved schools). I assumed they wouldn't have any openings, but wanted to see if they would just keep their ears open for me in case they heard of something at another school. All three immediately responded that they would be on the lookout for me, and that if something came up I would be their number one choice. This was encouraging, but I still wasn't counting on anything opening up. I know how little hiring is happening this year in general.

As I was driving back on Tuesday I got an email from the principal that hired me 3 years ago. She had just been given permission to hire for first and third grade and wanted to know when I was moving back. I responded quickly with "TODAY! I'm driving through Dallas right now!" She asked me to come in and interview the next morning. Basically, she had already decided to hire me, but was going to let each of the two teams meet/interview me (along with one other girl she was hiring) and then let them duke it out to see which team got which girl. Both teams were great, but I felt like I really clicked with the first grade team. The team leader is awesome, AND there are 2 girls about my age on the team (um, that's amazing! haha). I was really keeping my fingers crossed that I was placed there. First grade would always be my first choice if given the option!

When I left the school, the principal gave me a huge hug and told me "it's just such a God thing that you showed up right now, I'm so excited about this". I just keep thinking how right she is ... it IS such a God thing! Had I not interviewed with her 3 years ago, and had I not made it a point to stay in contact with her every once in awhile after moving schools, this never would have happened. At the time I had no idea how much that connection would help me years later. It's just amazing the way it worked out!

Later that same afternoon I got a call saying they were putting in the paperwork with HR to recommend me for the first grade position!! I somehow managed to move back and find a perfect job for me in less than 24 hours! How amazing is that?!? Seriously, NO ONE is hiring, and yet somehow I managed this. I'm still a little bit in shock, but I'm SO excited! Everyone knows how much I LOVE first grade, and the team just seems fantastic. I think I am really going to love working with them.

So, I did something crazy, realized it was a mistake, and managed to get my entire life back in a 2 week time span. Things are better than ever now. I get to teach first grade again, I get to work with a new great team, and I get to live with some of my favorite people (I realized recently that having roommates (one's you like at least) is SO much better than living alone). Life is so good! :) And, on top of all that, I now realize how much more I need to appreciate my life. I appreciate every single part of how blessed I am today (and that may not have been the case before).

What have I learned from all this? I've learned that life is not quite as cookie cutter perfect as I had made it out to be. Sometimes it's messy and confusing, and that's okay. I don't have to color in the lines all the time. I can make mistakes. My life does not have to be perfect all the time. I don't have to make all the right decisions the first chance I get. And guess what? Life will still be okay.

I'm SO happy! :)