It's that Time Again!

The time of the year, that is, that you get to hear me whine about the stress of the TAKS test! Well actually, I am hoping to not whine about it as much.

This past week began "the countdown". 5 weeks til TAKS (4 as of today, yipes!). Whenever this time of year comes around, I get very stressed, and emotional. We are just under so much pressure to be "recognized". All, with a bunch of students who really do NOT care about school, success, education, you name it! It is very hard to stay positive, and not feel like everything is falling apart. This year especially I am nervous, because I have 120 students, with 3 classes close to 30. I spend most of the class period just trying to keep everybody in their seat and not touching each other or throwing things! I am worried they are not paying attention to me in the slightest! On Thursday, I had an emotional breakdown after school. Just crying, big huge tears, just from being so overwhelmed.

But then last night, I read Chapter 7 of "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. If you haven't read this book....I highly suggest it. It is about giving thanks in the middle of trials, or even just in our everyday lives. Last night, it was about finding the joy, and God's blessings, in the midst of stress.

Hmmm. Holy Spirit much?

So today, and for the rest of these 4 weeks, I am going to find the things to give thanks for in the midst of the stress, and be grateful for all I have been given through this job of mine. Because, I am very blessed to have a teaching job, with all of the state's budget cuts to education!

Here is my list so far, for Monday:

1. A wonderful principal
2. A school, full of co-workers I am comfortable with.
3. My very sweet, first period class.
4. My cute room, decorated in black, white, and blue.
5. My word wall, that is finally getting developed.
6. Books.
7. School supplies.
8. Eyes to see.
9. An Elmo. (not from sesame street).
10. A projector.
11. A laptop
12. Busy writers.

That's all for now! :)

Makenna's 10 month post, coming soon!

9 months old!

Makenna Grace turned 9 months old this past Friday. Unfortunately, her start to her tenth month of life has been not so fun! Last Tuesday, Makenna began to run fever, and it actually got up to 103 degrees that night. This usually means she is getting another UTI, so we just upped her medication that she takes daily. Well, her fever cleared so we assumed that was what the problem was. By Thursday night she was starting to wake up and fuss during the night, so Casey took her to the doctor on Friday. They said that she has another ear infection, which they say probably means the one she had 2 weeks ago didn't fully clear up. So, they started her on a different medication. This was the weekend from you know where. She screamed every night, especially Sunday night, all. night.long. I took her back on Monday and the doctor said since the medicine wasn't working and the infection was worse and spread to 2 ears, that Makenna would have to take shots. She had one Monday, one yesterday, and one today. :( It has been very sad, but Monday night she slept solid through the night, so the shots seem to be working. We took her for her 9 month appointment today, and our pediatrician suggested we meet with an ENT doctor to look and see if Makenna might need tubes. :( Let's just say Makenna is our "sick" baby, it appears. Fortunately, Makenna is the sweetest most loving, happiest little girl you have ever seen. We just love her to peices, and it is so hard to see her suffer!

Here are her stats:

17.9 lbs (25th percentile)
26.5 inches (25th percentile)

(Today she got to wear a little hospital gown! Isn't it cute?)


She's a petite little thing!

Here is what she is up to lately:

-She is babbling. (Ma ma ma. duh duh duh. bah bah bah. You know the drill.)
- She is crawling everywhere!
-She is pulling up on everything!
-She loves to dance. We call it her "Ray Charles" because when certain songs come on, she just sways to the music with her head. It is pretty cute!
-She loves to dive off the couch. Yes you read that correctly.
-She can eat Stage 2 Gerber Jar Food. 1 Veggie and 1 Fruit per meal.
-She loves to eat puffs, and is getting really good at picking them up.
-She has also discovered a love of french fries, which helps us keep her happy at restaurants!
-She still loves to watch Kailey and play with her.
-She loves to go into Kailey's room and play.

Here are her 9 month pics, which as you can see, were somewhat of a challenge, because she did NOT want to sit by the sign!




But, I must say, the pics still turned out pretty cute!

A Day in the Life

My friend Leslie is doing these cool things every week where people share about themselves. Today's topic is "A Day in the Life" and you are supposed to share about your daily schedule. This might be a tad boring, but I like schedules, so I'm sharing mine! At least I know she will read it. :)

A Day in MY life:

(Throughout the day I am doing Weight Watchers, so add intermingled in this schedule that I am constantly convincing myself that I do NOT need to eat that cookie!)

6:15 My alarm goes off

6:30 I get out of bed

6:30-7:00 I shower, brush teeth, scrunch hair, and get dressed. Right now my morning routine is very short because 1) I need a haircut, and until I get one, I scrunch the hair then put it up once I get to school, 2) I am completely out of make-up and 3) My contacts are not working for me right now, so I just wear my glasses. Yes that is correct, my routine is short because I am turning into a frump. :)

7:00-7:10 I pack my lunch and fix me some breakfast to eat on the way to school.

7:10 I leave for my drive to school. (This is the worst part of my morning, because my babies are not awake yet, so I don't get to see them until after school! :( )

7:35 Stop at Sonic and buy a Route 44 Diet Coke. Yes that is correct, EVERY DAY. :)

7:45 Get to school

7:48-8:10 Tutorials. Kids can come in for help on their homework, or to hang out before first period. On Tuesdays I have "duty" by the cafetera doors to monitor who comes to tutorials and hand out library passes. (This is where my "Day in the Life Post" gets really interesting, as you can tell. )

8:15-10:02 1st Period, then 2nd Period. I teach English/Reading/Language Arts, so the lesson has something to do with that. Right now, we are reading Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, and doing activities related to that.

10:02-10:56 My Department meeting with my 2 6th ELA teaching cohorts where we plan and discuss how things are going and get on the same page with each other.

10:56-11:26 Lunch. Yup, that early every day. I usually eat next door with my teaching BFF Mrs. Bunch and some other peeps.

11:26-12:28 My Conference Period. This is when I do lesson plans, make copies, get ready for the afternoon classes, call parents, or read my Kindle.

12:32-3:45 I teach 5th Period, Homeroom, 6th Period (which is my Pre-AP class. They are reading The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin right now, instead of Tuck Everlasting), and 7th Period. During 5th period I have 29 (used to be 30) students and during 7th Period I try to keep from pulling my hair out in frustration. They have bad attitudes. During homeroom right now all the students scored low on TAKS Reading last year, and the benchmark this year, so we are tutoring them in the hopes of helping them pass in April.

3:45-4:00 Clean up the chaos of my classrom. Except on Tuesdays. I have duty at the car awning. And on Thursdays. We have after-school tutoring until 4:50 until the TAKS tests are over.

4:00-4:30 Head home

4:30-5:00 Relax until Casey and the girls come home. Sometimes I start dinner.

5:00-6:00 Cooking dinner, Eating dinner, and hanging out with the fam.

6:00-7:15 Watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and playing with the girls and talking with Casey about his day.

7:15 Bathtime for the girls. Casey and I rotate days. I also lay out their outfits for the next day during this time.

7:35-8:00 Story time, brush Kailey's teeth, blow-dry her hair, hang out and play in Kailey's room with both girls.

8:00 Bottle and bed for Makenna. Rock, Pray, and Bed for Kailey. Each of us takes one kiddo.

8:00-10:00 Usually TV time or Reading the ole Kindle. Right now I am enjoying watching The Bachelor, The Biggest Loser, American Idol, Survivor, and Amazing Race. Reality TV anyone?? On my Kindle, I just finished reading Redemption by Karen Kingsbury, and am about to start Remember by Karen Kingsbury. I am also reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, and doing the whole Bloom Book Club Thing with Angie Smith and friends. :)

10:00-10:30 Quiet Time. I am finishing up David Nassar's "A Call to Die" right now...not sure what I'll do next. Suggestions??

10:30 Brush teeth and head off to beddie bye.

Its a plain life, but a blessed life, and I LOVE it! :)

First crush

It seems that Kailey officially has her first crush! It seems a bit early for this sort of thing, in my opinion, but here is the evidence, and see if you come to the same conclusion!

On Wednesday night I was rocking her and I was about to sing to her and she randomly looks up at me, with the biggest grin ever on her face and says:

"I like Cade!" (in a dreamy voice)

I, in shock, say "oh, you like to play with Cade at school? Is he fun to play with?"

She says, "yes, but he wouldn't play with me today"

So I keep talking to her about it and then she goes:

"He's a boy!" (same dreamy voice)

and

"He has black hair!" (dreamy voice again)

So, I put her to bed, and when Casey got home from church I told him all about it. So the next morning, he decided to ask her about him and she said:

"I dreamed about him last night!"

Well when I get home from work, he was telling me about how she said that and she goes:

"And, I'm going to dream about him again!"

Haha. So, innocent as it may be, I would say she has her first crush!

Happy Valentine's Day! (early)

The grandparents are the only peeps who get these in the mail this year, so I thought I'd share on here! Happy Heart Day!

Heart Stripe Red Valentine's Day Card

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Snow Day!

As with most of Texas and the surrounding states, we have been in a deep freeze for 4 days now. I cannot remember a time when we have been in the teens and low twenties with wind chills below ten, and sometimes below zero! It has been pretty crazy! We still had school, because there was no precipitation, but the attendance has been pretty low. On Wednesday, the power company started shutting off power to some of the schools in my district, to try to conserve energy! Yesterday we had a delay start, and then today, FINALLY we got a Snow Day to stay home! It takes a small miracle for my district to cancel school, in this case it was that the snow started falling around 8:45 last night, and snowed all night! Of course, they didn't cancel it until about 5:00am this morning, but hey, at least they did! So we have been having a fun day so far playing in the snow and enjoying being at home!

(Please excuse our ragamuffin appearances. I never got around to buying Kailey a heavy coat, and I have been looking since last weekend, and I cannot find one ANYWHERE! So, she had on her footed PJ's, a sweatsuit, a sweater, a hooded sweatshirt, a padded vest, mittens, rainboots, and a hat with earflaps. Not the most stylish, but she was warm. And I, wore old boots instead of my Uggs, because I mean, who actually wears their Uggs in the snow, they might get messed up! haha)


We only kept Makenna out in the weather long enough to take a few pictures. The wind is still so cold, I don't want her to get any more sick than she already is! (Speaking of Makenna, her first tooth FINALLY burst through on the bottom gum! Woo hoo!)





Kailey and I ventured to the park behind our house. It was so pretty, covered in snow. I thought this pic was so cool. It is the pathway on the playground. It has holes in it, so obviously the snow only stacked on the thin edges. It looks neat!







I think we are supposed to get up to 52 tomorrow, so maybe we will actually start to thaw! ( I don't mind the snow, but this bitter wind stuff is SO not fun!)

8 months old!

Makenna turned 8 months old yesterday! It is so hard to believe how big she is getting! She has learned to do like 3 major things this month, so it should be an interesting post!

-She is crawling!
-She is pulling up!
-She can sit herself up now! (And she learned all 3 of these things within a week of each other!)
-She is eating 6 oz bottles, and lots of cereal, fruits, and veggies. She eats really really good, but when she is tired of eating, she spits it at us!
-She is FINALLY sleeping through the night! (I mean she won't now,since I posted this, but up until this point she has been for over a week now!)
-She loves to eat puffs and yogurt melts
-She loves to take baths with Kailey (in her little bath seat my mom and dad got her for Christmas. BEST THING EVER!)
-She is an adventurous little booger that is into everything! Yesterday she was in all my magazines, paging through them. So cute!
-She weighs 17 pounds exactly, as of 10 seconds ago! (Tiny little thing!)

Here are some pics!