Elk, Sonic the Hedgehog, Johnny Depp, and The Electric Cowboy

How's THAT for a good title?!? :) Well I'm sitting here wishing I had another weekend day because I am NOT ready to go back to school yet, but I did have a good week last week and a fun weekend. So let me explain the title:

Elk - as in on my porch. Yup - Wednesday night I was just getting nestled all snug in my bed when I heard what sounded like a herd of elephants on the other side of my bedroom wall. My porch wraps around 3 sides of my little house and on that side, the porch is pretty much on ground level, so I am instantly thinking people (scary!). Sherlock did NOT bark (weird) so I crawled out of bed and peeked out from behind my dresser. All I could see was something REALLY big on my deck, so now I am thinking animal (still scary!). At this point I said something out loud (that I will not repeat on my blog) and Sherlock started barking. Well the poor elk freaked out, but at this point he was 4+ feet up in the air on the front deck, and he was too big to turn around, so he kept going around the house at which point there are stairs going down. He hesitated for a few seconds and then took a flying leap down the stairs. I hope he was ok, but I also hope he NEVER comes back :)

Sonic the Hedgehog and Johnny Depp. Last week during math class, one of the students called me Mrs. Frostman. (As the only un-married 4th grade teacher, I get this a lot). So I corrected her and said I wasn't married - to which she responded that I should just get married so that they can just call me Mrs. So I asked who I should marry - which set off a very entertaining debate between the students. I only said the occasional "no" or "he's dead" and after about five minutes most of them had agreed on either Johnny Depp or Sonic the Hedgehog (video game/cartoon caracter). I said I didn't really want to have blue kids so I would go with Johnny Depp. :)

The Electric Cowboy - a fun dance club in Denver where a group of people went to celebrate a teacher-friend's birthday this weekend. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I could really use another day to catch up on sleep... but I had a great time. It was worth it just to have fun with friends :)

Tomorrow we're off and running again... hope this week will be good too!

Hee hee hee!

Oooooh boy my kids make me laugh. The hardest part is not to laugh at them if they aren't trying to be funny. Some of the fun things from the last two days:

Playing "The Synonym Game" - students in small groups try to think of as many synonyms as they can for boring words (helps them improve their writing by giving them more interesting words to use). So the word I gave them was "pretty." Many of the boys groaned as this was a "girly" word - to which I responded that the boys better pay attention so they can give compliments to their girls! They laughed and moaned again - but one of the boys said "I already know all these words! I'm good with the ladies" (Keep in mind this is a 10 year old boy!) We all laughed :) It wasn't until later that I realized how glad I was that none of my kids came up with "sexy" as an answer :)

Sharing some answers/ideas in reading - I called on a student who had raised his hand. He didn't answer right away so I said his name again - to which he said "Ok hang on! I'm just checking it again... Santa does that every year!" We all laughed again :)

The best (worst?) one was today in science - students are working on a final project for our human body unit. The group that has the respiratory (breathing) system is being very creative about their project by glueing 3D objects to a poster board. Unfortunately the big pink balloons that they blew up and taped to the poster board look way too much like something else :) This one I had to bite my tongue and not laugh at - and thankfully they will be glueing straws and other paper on top of the balloons for the brochial tubes, etc. But for now... oh buddy :)

Today I showed the kids the trailer for "The Lightening Theif" which is the book I am reading out loud to them. It comes out in Feb so we are all very anxious!! Not to mention I have to finish the book before they see the movie :)

I do love my job!

2010

So the vacation is officially over :( It has been a deliciously lovely two weeks of pajama wearing, book reading, dog walking relaxation. (Not all at the same time, cause that would be kinda funny looking and I'd probably fall down a lot) I got to spend some nice time with the parents, lots of laziness and good Mommy-food. I actually cleaned my house and read lots of good books. Sherlock got a lot of playtime and Fatness got a lot of snuggle time. My best Christmas presents were a massage, money for my Africa trip, and my annual nephew calendar :)

I also spent quite a bit of time at school over the past couple days (today was a teacher work-day) getting ready for Round 2 of kiddos. I think I'm ready for it. I didn't quite get to the point of actually missing the kids, or being really ready to go back, but (other than the getting up early part) I'm ready to start things on a positive note. I think once I see their smiling faces and we get back in the swing of things, it'll be all good.

2009 brought me some good things, and I'm certainly happy to have landed where I am... so I'm hoping that 2010 has more good stuff to come :)

A Little Perspective :)

My very dear friend Jeannine sent me this and I thought it was pretty fitting for my blog:
One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, 'How was the trip?'
'It was great, Dad.'
'Did you see how poor people live?' the father asked.
'Oh yeah,' said the son.
'So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?', asked the father
The son answered:
'I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.
We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.
Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.
We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.
We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them. '
The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, 'Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.'
Isn't perspective a wonderful thing?
Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.

A Beary Good Present

So the staff at the elementary school plays a very fun Christmas game. If you participate, you give $2 to the winner of the game from last year. That person wraps every one's $2. Then you wrap a gift of $10. Then for a week we all trade presents, trying to get the one that has the big bucks. You can't go wrong as you will still end up with $10... and this year the winning prize was $70+
So we have been swapping all week, and I've had my eye on this very VERY cute bear. I thought it probably wasn't the winner, but that my chances of getting the big prize were probably less than my chances of ending up with a bear AND $10. So this afternoon (while my kids were at a swim party) I fought for my prize. He got stolen from me like 5 times, but I found him, and when the bell rang... he was mine!! :) My good friend Terry Leija won the grand prize, and it turned out that I never even saw the box that it was in... so I was VERY happy with my bear (and $10!)
Only one more day before a two week break!!!!!!

My Neighbor

This nice gentleman is at my house many afternoons when I get home. However, he never seems to listen to me when I tell him that a certain puppy dog is about to come outside and chase him (the picture was pre-Sherlock).

BRRRR!!!

OH MY GOODNESS it is cold!! It's like 3 degrees right now and my little toes are COLD! If it is going to be this cold, I demand snow! And hot apple cider :) Even the pooper dog doesn't want to go outside.
So I'm in the last stretch before the heavenly two week Christmas break! Thanksgiving was good... drove home to see the family and eat some superbly yummy Mommy-food. Then on the way home I stopped to see my Marci and the Eckles crew. Nathan is now obsessed with hockey which was funny, and Alex was very grumpy but still awfully darn cute. I also got to see "UP" which is now in a tie for favorite cartoon movie (tied with Ratatouille). SQUIRREL!
Today I had to drive down to Denver for a standout math training. It's a program full of chants that are used to expose kids to math vocabulary... and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet... but I am excited to give it a shot. The neat thing was getting compliments from other teachers about how smoothly I could pick up the pace of the instruction (it's suppose to be a fast thing) and still modify my questions and such. It means a lot when the praise comes from people that have been doing this a lot longer than I have!
I have to get through Friday (which I am not looking forward to after having a sub yesterday), and then this weekend is our elementary Christmas party which should be a fun time :) After that there is only two weeks left!! On one hand I feel like it is a big time-crunch for all the stuff I want to fit in before then. On the other hand that is 10 days until I have two whole weeks off!! Actually it is more like 9 days, as the 18th will be "Polar Express Day" where kids wear their pajamas to school, bring books, pillows, and blankets to have a reading party, get hot coco from student council, and of course watch the Polar Express!! :)
In the mean time I think it is time to go dig out the electric blanket! Hope your toes are warmer than mine!