A summary of my life

First I need to apologize for not posting for so long. Life at this time of year is . . . crazy.

So the last time I posted, I had just finished tearing apart my boxspring. (Wow, that seems like forever ago!) Here is a run-down of what I've been doing over the past several weeks:

After the monster truck jam, I went to my parents house for a couple of weeks. I consider this my "very low budget" vacation of the year. My cousin got married (congratulations, Ben and Jenny!!) on Saturday, then I stayed in "the valley" for the next couple of days helping my mom get ready for the yard sale I had convinced her was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY that we have (more on that in a little bit! :-) After a couple days at my parents, I went to visit my brother in Lynchburg for a couple of days. This is where the "very low budget" reached its ultimate low. We spent the entire time I was visiting him either watching movies, putting together puzzles, or talking (*note: these are listed in the order of time spent from longest time to shortest time) We decided that of the . . . ahem . . . .let's see . . . .4 maybe 5 (or 6) movies we watched over those 2 1/2 days, only 2 of them were actually watching again: Stardust and The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen either of these movies, I DEFINITELY recommend them (especially the latter of the two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

So, anyway, after leaving my brother, I headed back to my parent's house to help their/my church with their soccer camp. I spent the next 5 days with 1st and 2nd grades helping them with soccer and just hangin' out with them and letting them know that someone cares. I had helped out last year and didn't want to miss out on it. I think I've helped with their VBS/Soccer camp every year since I couldn't be in it anymore -- that's 15 years!! (Wow! I feel really old!)

We spent the evenings getting stuff together for the yard sale, then had the yard sale on Friday and Saturday of that week. It really didn't go as well as we had hoped, but at least we got rid of some stuff!! It rained on Saturday, so that really didn't help things either. Maybe next time will go better, right, Mom???? :-)

I stayed an extra day and returned "home" on Sunday. I was going to go to school on Monday and start working, but I just needed a day. My friend Karen had been making sure my fishies didn't die while I was gone, and she and a friend of hers had left a "surprise" at my apartment. They left a scavenger hunt with sticky notes all over the place, along with some other cute notes that just made me smile. I took pictures of them, but I accidentally left my camera at my parent's house, so I can't post those (or any pictures) just yet :-(

I started the next day on my classroom. I was there just about every day for the next week and a half. In the middle of this, my sister and her family came in for a visit to my parent's. Of course, this meant I HAD to go see my little nephews!!!! (oh, and Karen and Bryan too, of course!) I was poised and ready to leave and mom called and said that 2 of the 3 boys were sick. This was especially sad since we were planning to go to Six Flags the next day!! Fortunately, Carter and Wyatt were feeling better by Saturday, so we got to go anyway (minus Keilah who had to go back to school). In the meantime, Hayden got some very special extra attention from 2 aunts and one uncle!!! HE LOVED IT!!! We went to Six Flags on Saturday and had a great time. Speaking of batman stuff (the movie earlier, remember?) We got to ride on the Batwing ---AWESOME RIDE!! You ride FACE DOWN!! My comment after it was "just make sure you mow the grass first!" It dipped pretty low to the ground at some points! I wouldn't recommend it when you have a headache, either -- the blood all rushed to your face!! If it wasn't for waiting almost an hour to ride it, I would have gone on it again!

I returned back to my place on Monday for our teacher work week. I had a very "exciting" 4 days of meetings and room preparation. Then, on Friday, my friend Karen and I started what was SUPPOSED to be an 8 hour drive to Indiana. TWELVE hours later, we arrived at Elkhart for our friend's wedding the next day. The wedding was beautiful!! We were supposed to stay for clean-up, so I was a little worried about needing to start the trip back home, but she was very wise in her decorating choices, so there wasn't much to do. I got to see some other friends from college and were treated to dinner when we stopped for the night (thanks Ray and Tiff!!!) We stayed in Toledo, OH for one night with Miki and a friend of hers. We set out the next morning for an equally long trip back to home. This was Sunday afternoon (I know, I know, we skipped church. ) I would have tried to stay a little longer, but school started that Monday. It was a crazy weekend, but I'm really glad I went!

So . . . bright and early last Monday (8/25) morning, I started my second year as a third grade teacher. It was really eye-opening. I remember getting so much more academic work done last year. I don't know how I ever explained how I wanted things done -- I guess that's why last year was so rough behavior-wise with my kids. Then Monday night, I went 45 minutes away to meet my Dad, Mom, Karen, and her boys at Cracker Barrel for supper. It was really good to see them one last time before they headed back home. (Bryan had left to help his brother with something or other) Since this was the end of the first day of school, it was all I could do to leave by the time I said I would be there! I finally got on my way, then got stuck at a railroad track. I waited there for a couple of minutes, but when the train was moving slower than molasses, then backed up until it was almost clear of the road, then started going forward again, I decided to turn around and try another route. I finally (after weeding through 5 o'clock traffic) made it on my way. As I was going down 81, I saw that the northbound lane had traffic backed up. I decided to take note and not go back that way, but take another road when I went home. Of course, by the time I made my way home, I decided that the wreck MUST be cleared off the interstate by that time!! right?? WRONG!!! Traffic was so slow that at one point I actually turned off my car for FIVE MINUTES and sat on the INTERSTATE! After I got through that, I saw more construction on the way home, so exited a little early -- only to be caught at the train track again (82 cars on the train -- just in case you were wondering) I didn't get home until almost midnight(which is great on a school night!).

The next night (since I'm a glutton for punishment) I went to our weekly volleyball game (just for fun at the church). As I was playing, I went to set a serve. You read that right I SET a SERVE!! The person serving whacks it pretty hard, too. So I hit it and managed to bend my left thumb backwards pretty hard. It was still hurting the next day, so after school I went to the urgent care place and they sent me to the hospital to have it X-rayed since their tech had left for the day. I got to choir practice about 20-30 minutes late and didn't confirm until 2 days later that it wasn't broken.

This past weekend, I opted to stay indoors and attempt to avoid any other major catastrophes. So far it's working.

Today was great, though. One of my "kids" gave me a letter. For those of you who have endured this update, here's what he wrote:

"this is my second year being at this school, and your one of the best teachers ever. I may be way back here (he sits near the back of the room) but every time i do my work I look at you, because . . . It helps me focus on my work."

He had everyone in the class sign it too! I think this is going to be a great year!!!