Little Notes.....

Have you ever seen The Little Rascals? Do you remember the scene when Alfalfa writes a love letter to Darla?  My girls and I have been LOVING that movie for awhile now and this is one of our favorite parts. So much so that my youngest, who is 6, left me this little love letter.

I love that she's becoming more confident in her writing skills.  Even if she "hates my stinking guts".  hahahahahahahahaha

Happy Tuesday Friends!

#keeponteaching

This is how we taught today from 9:20 until about 1:00 pm.  

We kicked it like in the "olden" days with no electric and only the light from our windows to help us see.  I'm not going to lie.... I was a little disappointed when the lights came back on.  There was something calming about working in the "dark".

A New Chapter

How many of you out there are Empty Nesters?  Well... I'm joining your club.... kind of.  I'm now an Empty Carster.  What is that you ask? For the last 10 years (well... 11 if you count the time our oldest daughter was in my belly) I have been driving to the city I teach in with a child in tow.

Our last car ride to school this summer.

 

For 10 years a DJ.
For 10 years a singer (well.... I like to think of myself as Adele or someone else famous).
For 10 years a car dancer.
For 10 years a conversationalist.
For 10 years a joke teller.
For 10 years a joke receiver.
For 10 years a car teacher to my own children.
For 10 years a discusser of life situations.
For 10 years a prayer over drivers that needed one.
For 10 years a laugher, a crier, a discipliner, an understander.
For 10 years a momma.  A car momma.


I didn't realize this new chapter in my life was going to start so soon. I didn't even see it coming until the end of the last school year.  And now... starting on Friday, I will drop my girls off at the sitter and head to the city I work in.... alone.  I didn't really feel too emotional about it until right now, this very moment.  While I know I'm going to miss the conversations, laughter, singing, and those three little voices in my backseats, this new chapter will give me some time to just be.  Do you know what I mean?  To just be alone.  Quiet or Loud.  It'll be my choice each day as this new chapter begins.

Donut Anyone?

This has been a greaaaaaaaat week and it's only Tuesday!  My teammate Em and I presented for the very first time together at a conference called High Aims on Monday.  We presented on Writing Celebrations.  Do you have them in your classrooms?  We hit home on the big ones the , but more importantly to us.... the small ones.  When we started I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest and I was going to puke!  As the presentation went on it finally settled down and everything went smoothly.  We will be presenting again in December and January for SDE on Oral Storytelling, so if you're in Columbus for a conference, I hope you'll come and see us!!!!!




Then today, the girls, myself and our friend hit the road on The Donut Trail.  Yes, you read that right, The Donut Trail.  It was uh-mazing!!!!! It took us about 2 1/2 hours to hit 8 spots (the girls and I were able to hit one when we we to Miami University for our swimming championships). Here's how it works...

You go to one of the spots on the trail and you pick up your passport.  Buy a donut, or not.  Get your passport stamped and then head to the next spot.  You do not have to complete the trail in one day like us, you can do it over time.  When you finish, all you have to do is turn in your passport and you get a Donut Trail Shirt!!!!!!!!  We came home with a box of donuts because while I love donuts.... 8 would be excessive! :)  At each spot we bought a donut or two..... maybe more. hahaha  and we are looking forward to eating them the rest of the week.  So if you're every in the Cincinnati area..... The Butler County Donut Trail is a MUST DO!!!!!!!!!

First Stop on the DonutTrail

Photo op at every spot!

I LOVE THIS!!!!  It's hard to read but says, "Please don't touch the glass, it scares the donuts!" BWAHAHAHA

Completed Passport

We did it!  

Does anyone else out there feel this way about donuts?  I just love donuts! hahahaha

Relief

Relief....

I walked into school on a HOT Sunday afternoon.  The building was sweltering as it is not air conditioned and has been closed up for the summer.  I reached out and put my key in the keyhole.  I turned it, wiggled it, and tried to turn it again.  Success!  My hand then moved to the knob.  I slowly turned the knob and opened up the door.

RELIEF!!!!!  My classroom was set up how I asked them to set it up. Now the real work can begin.

Blessed Life

Lately I've been busy with these three little ladies. 

Our life is a crazy, busy life, but it's a great one!  We have three very healthy little ladies and we are blessed that we are busy. 

What are some of your greatest blessings?  I can't wait to read about them!

Listen to Me.....

This has just been one of those weeks for me.  Our lives, since last week actually, have gotten crazy busy.  And this week has been no different.  I've been trying so hard to get my kids to listen to me at home and at school.  It just seems like no one listens to me.  I don't know if it's the sound of my voice, the tone, maybe it's just that my voice is so annoying, no one wants to listen.

Here's the proof.... My husband and I were folding laundry (I know sounds glamorous).  While we were folding, I was talking to him about how I'm tired of no one listening to me and I was getting really frustrated. Then, he asked me which daughter a pair of purple pants belonged to.  I gave him the answer and went on folding.  You'll never believe this....  He asked me again who the pants belonged to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So, I said, "My point has been proven." He was laughing so hard he was crying and then three little ladies scurried into the room because they wanted to know what was happening.  I gave them the low down and then we were all laughing.  It was a great moment, but I'm still waiting for someone to listen to me. ;)

From my brown eyes to yours....

Photo Dump

Well... spring and maybe a little summer is in the air!  I'm loving it!  Unfortunately, this means less time on the computer because we have softball, swimming, school, church group, and choir.  Well... choir is now over until next school year, so one less thing to run to.  But it's like every night there is something.  I know we chose it, but whew.... I'm a little tuckered out by all of it.  I do miss anyone who reads this little blog of mine.

Our weekend started with a visit to Kings Island.  Our girls LOVE this place.  Even more so now because two of them got new wristbands which open up more rides for them!  This is not good for me since after I get off of them I feel like I have shaken adult syndrome.  I had to go to bed when we got home because my head hurt so bad. I'm so old!

This past week our middle daughter also had first communion pictures. 

She is so beautiful and I'm so excited for her!  She can't wait for this step in her faith journey.

The last picture is what we were doing while waiting for the group shot! hahaha

Our girls also had their last choir performance in church today.  The voices of these children in church is just so sweet and magical.  My mom always told me "He who sings prays twice".  I can't wait for our youngest to start singing in the choir. She needs all the prayers she can get! haha

 She has two more years until that time. :)

Well... that's about all I have for right now.  I guess it wasn't really a photo dump, but I thought more pictures transferred from my phone. Oh well.... until next time my friends....

From my Brown eyes to yours...

Superstitious?

Through the March Slice of Life challenge, I was able to become great friends with Loralee from This and That .  As I was reading through her SOL from last year, she posted about her son and how he lost his jersey.  They looked for an hour and he finally found it in his drawer. hahaha

This sparked a memory of mine from when I played volleyball in high school.  I'm not sure how many of you play/played sports, but I was into sports from a very young age.  I was stared out in t-ball when I was 5 or 6.  I played for BJ Bears. hahaha  I wish I had my picture online to show you.  I was hooked from then on.  Once I entered 3rd grade, I was able to play basketball, volleyball, and softball.  Volleyball was my favorite. I still love it a lot even though I don't get to play very often.  Anyhoo....

When I was a senior in high school, our number one goal was to win league.  We worked hard. My friend and I used to stay 2 hours after practice just keep working on our skills.  Our coach would kick us out at 11 pm saying, "I have a husband at home". haha Sorry Coach (who I now teach with).  Once the season started, we started winning, and winning and winning.  I was always superstitious, but when you're winning, you become even more superstitious. To the point of..... I got mad at my mom for sewing my knee pad that had a hole in it! She was just trying to be nice.

Back to the uniform that struck this memory.  Because we were winning, when my mom would wash my uniform, she had to hang it up in the same order each time.  I mean the EXACT. SAME. ORDER. I think it was knee pads, bra, shirt, buns (yes.. we wore buns, yikes!). My mom was so sweet to live with my craziness. But... it worked.  For awhile anyway.  We were 9-0 before we lost our first game.  And when the season ended, we were 19-2.  It was an amazing season, but I just wish we would have made our goal to win sectionals or something like that so our season wouldn't have ended. :)  I'll know better when we set goals when I coach.

I still have a few superstitions, but not nearly as bad, when I run in races.  I don't run to win, I run because I love to run, but I'm still superstitious.

Do you have any superstitions?

From my Brown eyes to yours.....

It's Opening Day, Hooray!

Today is opening day! Our Redlegs won! Great start to a hopefully winning season, even if we traded the homerun derby winner and the Cuban missile.

From our brown eyes to yours......

Five For Friday!

Today I'm going to link up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for my Five for Friday. :)

This month I have completed the Two Writing Teachers challenge.  I posted and commented each day except the one I ended up in the Emergency Room.  So embarrassing.... it was during an ETR meeting!  I had to kick everyone out of the room because I felt so awful.

In the end, it was my first of many kidney stone. Oh joy!

The nurse told me I'm now called a "Stonemaker". 

 I've been called lots of things, but that.... has never been one. :)

I was on spring break this week with these little ladies! 

(Better pictures will follow)

We've had a great week together.  It started out pretty rocky, but then I started to feel better.

We celebrated Easter at my sister's house with an egg hunt. Then, we woke up on Easter Sunday and headed to church and brunch with my parents.  A few of my sisters also attended.  I just love being around family. 

We also went to the Cincinnati Zoo one day.  It was a GORGEOUS day!  We had so much fun.  That zoo never disappoints and this summer we are getting HIPPOS!!!!  I can't wait!

These little cheetah cubs were born on March 9th.  They are the cutest little guys ever! I want to just snuggle the heck out of these guys!  Their momma and one of their brothers died, but a nursery dog stepped in as a surrogate and right now they are doing well. 

I posted this FREEBIE over at my first ever blog. It's a teaching one with my friend Em.  Nowadays she does most of the blogging over there, but every once in awhile I surprise her and post something over there. She posts some really great reading and math stuff.

 It's called Curious Firsties if you want to visit! :)

Click on the picture if you want a copy for yourself! :)

I hope you all have an AMAZING week!

From my Brown eyes to yours....