Boots

Today I was laying on my bed trying to rest when Sammy opened the door to my room and said that the neighbor was at our house and wanted to talk to me. I admit that I was half asleep, but when I opened my eyes, I realized that Sammy was standing in my doorway holding a puppy! Well, that woke me up pretty quickly!

It turns out that Sammy had walked over to the neighbor's house and asked if she could walk their dogs. Our neighbors are so nice and agreed that Sammy could bring this little puppy home for about 30 minutes to visit while they had lunch.

I have to admit that the guy was pretty cute - especially the way he crawled right into Sammy's lap and stayed there the whole time he was at our house. I'm sure he was unsure of where he was and probably a little scared too. Sammy loved having him visit and did her best to convince me to keep him.
Sammy LOVES animals - especially dogs - but since we are renting, we can't have any pets. Although the neighbors are trying to find homes for their adorable puppies, we will not be adopting one at this time...

M-m-m-marshmallows

A few weeks ago, we were shopping in Wal-Mart and we came across these enormous marshmallows. I swear, they are so big that you have to eat them by taking bites of them. They're called "roasting marshmallows" - I assume because they would be excellent to use for just that! We saved them for a while hoping to visit Costa and Andrew in Indiana and have a bonfire where we could roast them in style. When our plans fell through over Labor Day weekend, we ended up opening the marshmallows anyway.
Jonathan posed for a silly picture that he could post on Facebook. Sammy wanted in on the fun as well. I posed for a couple too, but you won't see those here!

First visitors...

Today we had our first visitors to our new home in Clarksville (other than the family that helped us move in in June). The Ostlunds were on their way home from Georgia and took a detour to visit us for a couple hours. It was so great to see them.
On a side note: On the way home, Tracey ended up missing the exit that would take them up to Bloomington. They ended up going about four hours out of their way. Not such a great way to end their trip, but we are still grateful they came by!

It's finally coming together!!!

I have wanted to post pictures of my classroom ever since school started, but it has really taken me until tonight - Open House Night - to get the classroom all put together.

When I first got to my classroom this summer, I found that the teacher before me had left all of her things in my room. So, my first three days were spent cleaning and sorting through her things and unloading a lot of boxes from my car. Take a look at the before shot below:It doesn't really look too bad, because I forgot to take pictures of the other side of the room where all of Mrs. Santos's things were piled. But it does look pretty bare.

I spent countless hours in my room before school even started trying to get things organized and decorated so that when my students came the first day of school, they would be welcomed into a room that was "ready" for students. Over the next month, I continued to refine how I had organized things and now I am pretty pleased with the results.

Here are my teacher's center and calendar of events:Below you will see my desk, small group station, and standards board:Next, my technology center - complete with student profile pages hanging on the wall: My word wall and student writing wall:And finally, my content area bulletin boards in the front of my room:I really had a good time coming up with fun ways to display work and information around the room. I love bright rainbow colors and that has become a theme around my classroom. I think I managed to create an inviting place for students to learn. I know that I am happy here and enjoy going to work each day.

You're kidding me!

Okay, so last night I was in the basement working on the computer. I was up pretty late trying to get things ready for my classroom. Anyway, when I started to go up stairs to go to bed, I noticed something next to the wall by the staircase. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a snake - did you get that? A SNAKE! In my basement! Are you kidding me?

(NOTE: Even typing this story is giving me the chills...)

I knew I had to get rid of it before the kids got up in the morning. Besides, I certainly didn't want it to slither away and scare me at another time. So I went to the garage to get a shovel. I fully intended to release it into the backyard. But the dumb thing wouldn't cooperate. It kept flipping all over the place, so I finally had to smash it to death with the shovel.

You may think that I handled this whole incident rather well. The truth is that I was shaking uncontrollably, dripping with sweat, and screaming pretty loud during the entire experience. Even once I got into my bed I couldn't really shake that creepy feeling for a while.

(NOTE: I actually tried to search for a picture of a snake on Google to include with this post, but it creeped me out too much. So you will have to just use your imaginations.

Righteous Cookies

Tonight we decorated sugar cookies. It is a favorite activity of the kids.
The kids frosted sun shaped cookies, and I frosted these...

We took them to the church youth activity to share. We joked that they were "righteous cookies" since they were in the shape of the Choose The Right shield.

Summer Sewing Project

A silly picture...
But it shows this cute little dress that I made for Sammy the other day.
I have been so frustrated with the styles out there in Sammy's size lately. They are either totally ugly, or too "revealing" for a young girl. So I decided to take the time to make her a dress that I liked the look of more than the ones available in stores.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today makes 34 years. Wow!
In an effort to celebrate getting closer to the end of my life, I made this strawberry whip cream cake. Doesn't it look delicious?
As my birthday treat, Jonathan made French toast for breakfast and made me a really cute card. For dinner, we ended up going out to eat at The Olive Garden where we stuffed ourselves silly.

Say "SQUEEZE"

Several years ago - five to be exact - I snapped this quick picture of myself with the kids and it has become one of my favorite pictures of all time.

In an effort to recreate and update this shot, I talked the kids into posing in our front yard despite the heat. Here is what we ended up with:

Unfortunately, I was not really happy with either of those, so at the last minute I snapped this one:

It's not exactly the same as the original picture from 2005, but I do love it!

Fingerpainting?!?

I remember fingerpainting when I was little. It was a messy but fun activity. Today the kids wanted to do some fingerpainting. Here are Jonathan's creations:

Pretty fancy for fingerpainting, huh?

Directionally challenged

I have never had a great sense of direction. I lived in Bloomington for 23 years, and it wasn't until recently that I was able to claim to know my way around. So when I took a job in Tennessee and knew for sure we would be relocating, I decided to purchase a Garmin GPS device to help me until I could learn my way around. It's been a lifesaver! It has now been almost two weeks since I moved to Clarksville, and I feel like I have made some progress toward getting my bearings. I know how to get to the church, my school, the kids' schools, the mall, the library, the YMCA, and the grocery store.

The trouble I have run into, though, is that it appears that in this town the roads have several names. It shouldn't be that big of a deal. There were a couple roads like that in Bloomington. But here it seems like every road has at least three names depending on where you are. In fact, I was looking at a map the other day and discovered that one of the main roads in Clarksville actually has SEVEN names: Paul Buff Parkway, Purple Heart Parkway, Highway 374, 101st Airborne Division Parkway, Warfield Boulevard, Richview Road and the Bypass. It made me laugh to realize that within a ten mile stretch of road, it was called seven different things. No wonder when someone gives me directions I have trouble following them!

Getting Settled In

Well, it's a long story... but I am finally settled in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Saturday was moving day. It began with loading the truck with all of our belongings. Six wonderfully strong men from our ward in Bloomington showed up to help us load the heavy items. It took a total of 40 minutes to pack the truck - seriously! I cannot begin to say how thankful I was to have the help. They made it look almost easy - almost.

Next we drove the 230 miles to Clarksville. We were lucky. The forecast called for thunder storms, but we had sunny, blue skies the whole way. When we arrived, we checked to see that the electricity and water had indeed been turned on in the house. We turned on the air conditioning (as it was 92 degrees inside) and went to get some dinner.

After dinner, the moving help from our church in Clarksville showed up and we began to unload the truck. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the air conditioning was not working in the house. While I called my landlord's son to decide what should be done, everyone else continued to unload boxes and furniture into a steamy, humid house. Poor guys! By the time we were through, it was even hotter in the house and we were all literally soaked to the bone with sweat.

Paul (the landlord's son) showed up and tried to fix the air conditioning. No luck. He called someone to come service it, but they would not be able to come out until the morning, so we headed to a hotel so we could sleep in cooler weather.

The next morning, we headed back to the house and it was refreshingly cooler inside. About 81 degrees. Nice. So we worked in the basement to unpack and set up furniture. After several hours, Stan mentioned that he didn't think the house was getting any cooler and that perhaps the air conditioning still wasn't working. When I checked, the temperature in the house had actually gone up! So I called poor Paul again. Then we headed out to dinner for some relief from the heat. While we were shopping at Walmart, Paul called with the bad news - the problem was major and would not be fixed until the next day. So we went to another hotel.

Monday morning, we had a great breakfast at the hotel and headed back to the house to continue to unpack and set up house. The air conditioning repairman still hadn't come, so we worked in the heat and took frequent breaks. Finally at about 1:30 pm he showed up and worked for two hours until he had fixed the problem. By 8:00 pm the house had cooled down to 77 degrees. Relief!

Mom and Stan had to leave Tuesday morning, but not until they had helped me set up the computer, put together the TV stand, hook up the big screen TV, unpack the kids' rooms, the kitchen, and countless other boxes of stuff. Without their help, it would have been so much more overwhelming.

Since they left, I have spent time each day unpacking, arranging belongings, doing yard work, exploring the town, and cleaning. While my room is still a bit of a mess, the rest of the house is pretty close to being done. I still have to hang some pictures on the wall and buy a piece of furniture to hold all the movies that we own, but I feel like I am mostly settled.

Here are some pictures of the outside and the inside of the house. My personal favorites are the red chairs at the kitchen table and the pink polka-dotted bathroom.

I hope that our family will feel at home in this new town in this new house. The kids come back from a trip to Colorado in about a week and I can't wait for them to see our new place.

Our new home in Tennessee

This week I spent a few days in Clarksville, Tennessee looking for a place to live. And this is it!
It's a cute little house, really. The operative word being "little". It is about 1200 square feet total, and it is what we will call home beginning on June 12. The house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a tiny kitchen, a small living room, a one car garage, a big deck, and an unfinished basement room. When we get settled, I will send out our new contact information.

Triple Twist Flippy Buns

I found a really neat blog one day. It is called Adopt A 'Do and has tons of fun hairstyles for girls. I have been experimenting with different hairstyles for Sammy and today I tried a new one. Take a look...
If you're interested in checking out the website, it is one of the sites listed on the right side of my blog. The lady who keeps the blog includes both written directions with pictures as well as video tutorials. I don't love everything she posts there, but every once in a while I come across a really fun idea.

Sammy's Orange Belt Test

Today Sammy tested for her orange belt in tae-kwon-do. She has been spending Friday afternoons training with Mina Haddad ever since we returned from England.She has been so excited about her upcoming test. She did such a great job today. Take a look at some of the pictures of her in action... As part of her test, Sammy had to do two forms. These are combinations of hand techniques, stances, punches and kicks done in a specific order. Watch the video below to see her do the orange belt form.

I love this picture of Mina helping Sammy tie on her new orange belt. These two have really had a special relationship through the years. We are going to miss Mina so much!The newest orange belt (Sammy) with her friend and assistant (Mina) and her instructor (Mr. Scott). I cannot put into words how proud I am of Sammy. At one point during her test, Sammy made a mistake. When Mr. Scott corrected her, I could tell she was upset and that it kind of threw her off. I was worried that she was going to fall apart and not be able to complete her test. But even though she was nervous and a little flustered, she got refocused and did an excellent job.

Mother's Day Photo Shoot

My Mother's Day gift from the kids this year was to cooperate for a photo shoot this afternoon. I took a ton of pictures but have only shared a few. These ones turned out cute despite the less than perfect lighting conditions.

It was fun driving around town and finding interesting places to take pictures. The kids were cheerful and cooperative. I don't know if any of these will end up on the wall, but they will certainly remind me of a pleasant afternoon spent with the kids.

Snip, snip, snip

Today was a big moment for Jonathan. He got his hair cut! Not just a trim. And not by me this time. We actually went to Great Clips and had a stylist work on recreating his look for him. He wasn't totally sure what he wanted, but he knew he wanted something shorter for a change. Check it out...

BEFORE:
DURING:

AFTER:

Currently, Jonathan is trying to adjust to the new style. He is so used to flipping his long hair out of his eyes. Now we can see his eyes, and ears, and neck... I think he looks great!

A work of art

Check out this hat! Jonathan made it in art class...
He worked really hard forming the entire thing out of wire! His art teacher told me that it was one of the best sculptures in the class.

Pizza anyone?

Sammy's Young Women's group at church decided to make and sell pizzas as a fundraiser for Girls' Camp. They ended up selling 51 pizzas and planned to assemble them during their activity tonight. The crusts were already made and spread for them, but all the toppings had to be put on each pizza.

Each girl had a job on the "pizza assembly line". Sammy was the "sauce spreader" and she did a pretty good job overall.

There were 16 supreme pizzas, 31 pepperoni pizzas, and 4 special orders. What a project! The girls worked so efficiently that they finished much sooner than they had planned. So, they decided to cook up a couple pizzas for themselves.

Sammy and I even brought a candy pizza as a treat for when they were finished. Delicious...

Jonathan was so sad that he wouldn't be getting a piece of candy pizza that I told him if he helped make pizzas with the girls, he could have some. He definitely earned his slice of dessert.

Bird Brain

Innocent enough, right?
Just a robin sitting on the back porch...
Wrong!
This nutty bird has been trying to fly through the back window for a week! I have heard of a bird flying into a window by accident, but this thing just keeps doing it over and over. It flies into the window, falls down onto the deck, perches on the railing for a minute, and then repeats this process. Sometimes for hours at a time!

I have tried scaring the bird away. It doesn't work. I am worried that all these collisions with the window will cause serious injury to this poor bird. Poor thing. What on earth could it want so badly that it would keep trying to get inside?

Google it!

For Christmas, Jonathan's cousin, Calvin, gave him a Rubik's Cube. He said that since Jonathan is so smart, he knew he would be able to figure it out. Well, Jonathan has been working at it for months now. He even has some friends at school who have tried to teach him how to solve this infuriating puzzle.
Finally, he decided to search the Internet for some help. (You really CAN google anything!) After several hours of searching and working at it, Jonathan was able to solve the puzzle. What an accomplishment! He was so excited.
Now he plans to memorize the steps so that he can solve it without looking online anymore. Good luck to him - I can't believe he actually got the thing figured out in the first place (even with instructions)!

An Easter Tradition

Over the years, we have tried several versions of this tradition...

My favorite?
"Coloring" egg-shaped cookies with frosting and sprinkles. Delicious!

This year, we decided to dye eggs together. The kids both did a great job of making their eggs very pretty. Sammy was super careful not to spill the dye (thank you very much) and Jonathan had so much patience as he held his egg partially submerged waiting for the dye to color half of his egg.
Although I don't have pictures of the finished product, we also added funny face stickers to our eggs. Sammy's were the silliest - having multiple mouths or several sets of eyes.

I do wonder...
When will the kids feel too old for this tradition?

Employed at last

As many of you know, I have been actively searching for a teaching job for the past couple months. The biggest problem is that so may states are cutting their funding for public education. Translation: smaller budgets, lots of layoffs, no hiring.

When I came across a listing for elementary teachers in Tennessee, I was interested but unsure. I really wanted to stay in Indiana (where I already have a valid teaching license) and more specifically, Bloomington (where the kids and I have friends and a good support network). But when jobs are scarce, a person can't be picky. So I applied.

Over Spring Break I had a phone interview with the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System. Later in the week I got an email invitation to a job fair at the end of March. After a little persuasion, I decided to make the trip to Tennessee for the job fair. I wasn't sure if it would be worth the time and money, but I felt like I had to at least try...

JACKPOT!
I was offered a position as a fifth grade teacher at Minglewood Elementary School today!
YAHOO!

When I sat down with the principal at the job fair, she began by telling me that she didn't plan to do any hiring that day. That is she liked me she would call me back for another interview. After about five minutes she was asking me for my references. After ten minutes she had me call the assistant principal for a phone interview. By the time I had finished talking to the assistant principal, the principal had filled out a form with all my information and a start date. She said all I had to do was sign it to say I understood.

I told her I wasn't sure that I did understand...
Was she offering me a teaching position at her school for the fall?
Yes.
Would I be interested?
Well, of course!

So, we will be moving once again. To Clarksville, Tennessee.
I am torn. I am so thankful to have a job, but I am sad to be leaving Bloomington once again.
I suppose this is just another adventure. And luckily Tennessee isn't as far away as England...

ATV Fun

Here's what we did today...
Sammy's favorite part was driving Stacy's four-wheeler!

JUST KIDDING!

But great picture, huh?

This is more like it...

Sammy absolutely loved riding on the back of the four-wheeler with Aunt Costa. They never really got out of second gear, but she had a blast anyway. She said her favorite part was going over the hills.

Jonathan and Andrew rode all over the field too. What a couple of goofballs!

Thanks to Aunt Costa and Stacy for letting us come out and ride around on their "toys" for the afternoon!

Visiting the Dabaies

On our way home from Virginia, we stopped in Ohio to visit April and her family. Mostly we just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company, but here are a few pictures of the other things we did while at their house.

Sammy and Kate drew all over the place with chalk. Kate's favorite thing to draw was Mickey Mouse. She even drew a Mickey Mouse on one of the outdoor pillows - oops!
It was so pretty out that we decided to take a walk to the park. Kate insisted on carrying her own soccer ball - just like Jonathan was doing.

Soccer at the park. Why is it that dogs and kids always stand right between the people who are trying to play? Funny.

It was so sweet - on the way home Kate wanted to hold Sammy's hand. Doesn't Sammy look so grown up compared to her little cousin?

Before we left, Sammy wanted to take a picture of Kate. Knowing that would be a challenge (ha ha) I quickly grabbed Kate and held on to her while we "cheesed" for the picture. I actually like how it turned out. (NOTE: This is the only photo from our entire trip that I am a part of...)
What I didn't get a picture of was Kate cuddling up to Jonathan on the couch. It was so cute. She just climbed right up and scooted closer and closer until she was scrunched up right next to him.