Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas friends! I hope that you all have a wonderful day filled with family and friends. To those of you living in Vicksburg, pick up today's paper and read the Letters to Santa. Precious. A girl in my class got her letter scanned into the front page (in color)- big accomplishment! I have to retype a letter from one child in my class. Hilarious: Dear Santa, My sisteres hav ben vere bat. I think you shud put coll in ther stocking. Will you fill ther roomes with coll. Will you give me what thay get. Ples give me a gun.
Um....ok. I seriously laughed out loud the first time I read it. I have got to call his mother and see what she thought. I hope you can read and understand the creative spelling. This gives you a little insight into what I do every day. Actually, I don't even notice the spelling much anymore as long as the handwriting is legible. Please remember- these are 2nd graders. Another girl in my class told Santa she wanted "skinny jeans kids size: Large". Nice use of punctuation there.
We have a new finish date for the construction- January 14th!!! This is 2 weeks earlier than expected. This is wonderful because.....baby Louis will be here January 27th at 7am! We are so excited to know the date. That is, unless he decides to come earlier. He needs to hang in there- the 27th is perfect, and I've got some schoolwork to finish before then.
PS- Never got my Christmas cards, which isn't a big deal. Just wanted you to know you haven't been cut from the list. Be looking for baby announcements in February!

Monday, December 20, 2010

I promise I will post pictures soon. My camera is dead.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Slacker

I have really been trying to keep updated with the addition. But, every time I come home it's too dark to take pictures. Here are the most recent ones. They just have the framing. But- we now have sheetrock, windows, doors, a tub, a shower, and a garage! (Oh and a driveway). I will take some more pictures soon. In 4 1/2 days I will be on Christmas break for 2 weeks. So.Excited. I need a break.
Master Bedroom

Bath and closet

I also have to brag on my sweet kids at school. We adopted an angel from the Salvation Army. They brought in money to buy him Christmas gifts. I figured we would get maybe $10 and I'd have to put up the rest. They brought in almost $70! I was so happy! The kids really "got" the point as well. Whenever they brought in money for the angel you should have seen their faces- they were so excited. So, I made sure that all the gifts they purchased were brought to school first so they could see. They were really excited about buying the kid a bike. I was so nice to see kids really get into giving something to another child. Ok enough typing. Here are the pictures...
Our sad attempt at a Christmas card photo with the dogs. Notice Baxter is nowhere to be found. Kevin looks terrified.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Lucky Little Louis

Today my friends threw me the most perfect baby shower! Every little detail was wonderful, and I felt so lucky to have such great friends. Rob and I are also really lucky to have such wonderful friends because Louis' nursery is FULL of clothes and all kinds of sweet baby things. Right after I got home I began cutting off tags and washing clothes. Dreft smells so good! While I was sorting, Rob was putting things together. He did a great job and didn't say one inappropriate word the whole time (not out loud anyway). My dad put the stroller together the other day, and I wonder if he faired as well :)
Here are some pictures from the shower:
Table with Louis' rocking horse (elephant)

The Baby sign Ellen practically stole

More sweets. My friends know me too well!

Monogram in blocks

Guest Book



Hostesses: Ellen (sister-in-law), Jennifer, Caitlin (sister), me, Laura Beth, Katrina, and Casey (sister-in-law)


My sister, mom, and me!

Both sides of the fam

Casey, Mrs. Jackie, Ellen, and me

Alana and Kaycie. Thank you both (and Alana's mom Lo) for driving all the way here! Love you!



Louis' loot

Saturday, December 4, 2010

MS Reading Association Conference

This past week I got 3 days off of work to attend the MS Reading Conference. It was at the Beau Rivage. I really enjoyed my last trip before the baby comes! Only 9 weeks now. Scary.
I listened to some really good speakers and I think that I left with some awesome ideas to use in my classroom. The speaker that I really enjoyed the most was Brett Dillingham. He is from Alaska, and specializes in storytelling. Let me tell you- he is super interesting! I learned a lot about how kids tell stories, and how to help them tell and retell stories. Sorry for all you non-teachers out there. This is probably a boring post. But seriously, if you are a teacher- go to BrettDillingham.com to check him out. Very inspiring. He also did a talk about the new documentary "Waiting on Superman". I knew this documentary was about schools, but I really haven't heard much about it. Apparently it bashes teaches and says that the only solution to American education is Charter Schools. I will not go in to this on my blog, but this is NOT the solution. If you really know a teacher, then you know how hard they work. I am not patting myself on the back by any means- I am just letting all of you know, I have not come across a teacher that doesn't work super hard every single day and I sure haven't met one that doesn't go home at night worrying about her students. If you have a chance, spend some time in a public school. Read to kids, help them review spelling words, just watch a classroom full of 7 years olds. It's amazing. That is really what our schools need right now. The support of our community. Anyway, off my soapbox. I'm going to get some new house pictures up soon. Promise.
Oh and by the way- the reason you haven't received a Christmas card from us yet is because we cannot get a good one. The dogs will not cooperate. Maybe our next photo session will work out.