Once upon a time....

There was a big fat grey kitty sleeping in a sunspot:


When all of a sudden a ferocious puppy dog came along and began to lick him!


The valiant kitty stared down the puppy dog with fierce determination...


And so the puppy wandered off to play with his duck some more and the victorious kitty (somewhat annoyed with having his picture taken) went back to sleep.


And they all lived happily ever after :)

Merry Christmas!

Hope your day is full of love and joy :)

Snow, Sun, and Deer Chasing :)

So after a successfully lazy day yesterday (and by successfully lazy I mean 24hrs in the pjs) I started this morning off with a little more laziness and then decided to take Sherlock out for a long walk. (He walked three times yesterday with Mom and Dad, so he has gotten plenty of exercise already)

Its beautifully bright and sunny here today after yesterday's snow and so we enjoyed our meandering. I took in my VitaminD and the beautiful mountains while Sherlock took in lots of good smells and chased some deer. We stopped to play with another Aussie dog and now, after a long shower... I'm back in my pjs. Ahhh vacation :)

Merry Christmas Pooperdog!

So on the way out of town yesterday, I had to stop and buy a little bag of dog food to take home with me. Sherlock doesn't like to eat the dog food out of a tupperware container... yes he is just a little spoiled... and since he was in the car I took him into the store with me. Well then we decided to walk down the toy isle and I figured the pooperdog deserved a new toy for Christmas because he has been SUCH a good dog this year :)

He picked this one out all by himself :)





And now he is outside playing in the snow while I am going to go have Mommy-scrambled eggs for breakfast! :)

I'm freeeeeeeee!!

So I'm FINALLY done (well... done for two weeks at least!) Yay!!

Although I still feel like complete poop, today was a good day. The kids were actually pretty well behaved today (I guilt-tripped them into behaving to make me feel better since I'm sick). We spent the afternoon playing jeopardy and then compared and contrasted "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" book and movie (the origional cartoon, not the stupid Jim Carey one). It was a educational excuse to have fun... and it was :) The kids laughed at me laughing at the movie :)

Then we had a party... Sharla and I had books and book marks for every kid and a few other treats as well... they were thrilled! And then once we got them all hyped-up on sugar (cupcakes, candy, cookies, etc) we sent them home for two weeks. YAY!

I did have to share my favorite Christmas card from the day (verbatim!):
Merry Christmas
I howp you have a ecelent Christmas! your the BEST teacher in the hole soler-sistom!!!!!!!

Don't you just love it!?!
Now its time to visit my best friend Niquil and go to bed.... tomorrow I get to sleep in! *aahhhhhhhh*

They got me.....

Stupid germs.

Two more days until I can sleep sleep sleep and sleep.

Back Germs! BACK! BACK!!

Ug... the sore throat hit me mid-afternoon.

Actually it hit right around the time that I found out that the aide who usually helps in my math class would be out for a doctor's appointment during my formally observed math lesson. This was 10 minutes before my lesson started. I then quietly muttered a collection of swear words (before the kids came back from lunch) for the next 9 minutes. Neither the swear words nor the sore throat helped..... and the math kids were about as insane as usual.... so the lesson wasn't the greatest.

I have now drank 7 glasses of water since I got home and downed 2 vitamin C. I have a bedroom date with the NyQuil bottle. Please let there be a snow day tomorrow.

Only 5 days to go...

I can make it through the next five days.
I can make it through the next five days.
I can make it through the next five days.

I'm so beat. I did get to catch up on some sleep this weekend, but just not enough to actually make me feel like I got a rest. I was productive, got the stuff done that needed to get done, and took the pooperdog for a few romps in the dog park.

The last load of laundry is about to be done... and then its bedtime!

Gum Drops and Toothpicks

So we had a 2 hour delay this morning due to snow. It was funny because my alarm had already gone off and I hit snooze and fell back to sleep, so when the phone rang I thought it was the alarm going off again and couldn't figure out why the snooze button wasn't working :) (phone call = school calling tree to let us know about the status before its on TV) While I momentarily considered getting up anyway and being productive, I thoroughly enjoyed my extra 2 hours of sleep :)

School was a little crazy since we were on a funky schedule.... and we knew the superintendent of the district was visiting, so we had to finagle our plans. It all worked out fine, and when he came in my room (of course he came in MY room) I had my math class making 3 dimensional figures out of gum drops and toothpicks. They had a really good time and didn't eat the candy until I said they could :)

8 days left! :)

You call that a weekend?

Tomorrow is already Monday and I protest :(

Saturday morning I had to get up and go to a technologies class for CC. I get the point of having teachers be proficient in technology and how to integrate it into the classroom... but I also think if you already ARE proficient, then you shouldn't have to go. This class was a colossal waste of my time. The only good thing about it was getting a chance to see my friends. We were up to our usual shenanigans :) After class we went out to lunch together and shared ideas and vented frustrations... it was fun to hang out with them for a bit.

I promised Sherlock some dog-time this weekend, so when I got home we went to the dog park for a few hours. He had a wonderful time running around with the other doggies and got very muddy and wet. Its a dog's life :) Then we came home and I cleaned up the house a bit (it was, to put it mildly, a disaster area) and watched some TV. I even got a chance to chat a bit with Jessica (she was in GA welcoming her brother home from Iraq) and Becky on the computer.

This morning I got up and met up with Sharla at the coffee shop for our weekly planning session. Its good to get this time to bounce ideas around with her, but since I didn't get to sleep in Saturday, I was kinda grumpy about being there. But it was still productive. And when I came home I took a nice long nap :)

This afternoon I had too much stuff to do, but it was very nice outside (Hey weather man! Its DECEMBER!!) so I took Sherlock out to the park and he played with the ball and sticks while I graded papers and other such school stuff. So at least he got his playtime and I got some Vitamin D... but I am a little sick of working at this point. Oh well. The kiddos have quite a bit of district testing this week, so hopefully there will be a little less for me to stress about.

And... only 10 school days left 'till Christmas break :)

wooo for snow!

TGFS! (thank goodness for snow!) It started this morning and has been falling all day. It meant that 1) I didn't have to have duty outside this morning (it was COLD!) and 2) that the family night at our school was canceled tonight. It was my turn to do the stuff and I really did NOT feel like going home and coming back to school for 3 more hours. So I'm loving the fluffy white stuff.

Its been a rough couple of days. Not bad... but rough. I'm super stressed and worried about lots of things. But today I got a great reminder about why I am where I am. I had a formal evaluation today during math and a huge science lesson planned after that, so I was just really stressed out during the day. Then (due to the snow) kids had indoor recess. So while I was mentally going down my list of crap I should do during recess, one of my kiddos tugged on my sleeve and said, "Ms. Frostman... wanna draw snowmen with me?" I thought... ya know... there is nothing more I would rather do right now. So we did. I drew a snowman me (via his directions of course) and then he colored me while I drew and started to color a snowman him. He begged to keep both of them and proceeded to tape them to the outside of his homework folder. Even though I didn't get everything done that I had planned... my observation was fine and science went well. And drawing snowmen was the best part of my day.

Now.... I think I will start some school work while spending most of my effort wishing for a snow day :)

I love Chuck!

If you don't watch Chuck, you should. Tonight Chuck got out of handcuffs by using the liquid nitrogen from the frozen yogurt place. Then he said, "Those 7 years of MacGyver finally paid off!"

I love Chuck! :)

Snowy morning... last moments of freedom!

So I'm back in the Springs. Its hard to come back to an empty apartment after being home with the family. Luckily I have a pooperdog and a fat kitty that make it not quite so empty. Fatness was VERY happy to see me yesterday and didn't leave my lap all evening. It was nice to wake up during the night and have him purring right next to me :) I love my kitty!

This morning I woke up to snow! yay for snow :) Its only an inch or so, but its nice and white and wintery. Sherlock and I went out very early and played in the snow for a while. Sherlock LOVES snow :) He is so funny! Since then I have been hanging out in my pjs and working on school stuff. Luckily I don't have to go to the store because my mommy sent me home with LOTS of leftovers :) However I do have to shower and get dressed sometime soon because I'm headed over to Marci's to babysit Nathan for the afternoon while Marci and Jeff get some date-time and go see the Nutcracker. I'm excited to hang out and play with the kiddo for the afternoon.

Oh I also got this picture in my email and figured you all would like to see the wonderful friends I have here. This is (left to right) Pam, Jessica, Marci, and me at Marci's house. Yay us! :)

A lazy but productive day...

Is that an oxymoron? :) Well that's the kind of day it was anyway! I got up to have breakfast with my mom and aunt (Dad left eeearrrlly to go visit my nephews... lucky bum!) and then I got started on more laundry (I did a bunch yesterday, and some more today. Yay for clean clothes!) Aunt Barb went back to Denver and stopped to feed the Fat Kitty on her way.

While laundry-doing I filled out my emergency licensure form (so I can take over the classroom come January without someone else being there) I also filled out some other CC paperwork, and organized my messy teacher-bag.

Then I went out to play with my pooperdog and clean out Cujo. He was VERY dirty and VERY happy to get vacuumed :) He also got a snow-bath last night... so he's relatively clean inside and out! Sherlock also played in the snow and lost his tennis ball somewhere... oh well, we have 43 more :)

Then my mommy and I had quiche for lunch. MMMMMMMmmmmmm!!!! Lunch was followed by some lazy couch time while re-sewing buttons on my coat (it has taken me forever to find purple thread!) Then I took a short nap followed by some more productive paperwork stuff. Then my mommy made caramelized pork for dinner. Mmmmmmmmmmm again! And I did the dishes (I got the better end of that deal I tell ya!) Now I'm toasting my toes by the fire and occasionally going out to throw a stick for a dog who is having a ball in the snow (lots melted today but more is falling now!)

All of this productiveness was accomplished without getting out of my pjs :) Thus it was a very lazy and productive day!

MMmmmmm... sleep

So I drove up to the parent's house yesterday (Sherlock wasn't thrilled with the trip as there was a laundry basket taking up half his backseat). I helped Mom make two kinds of cookies (and made sure the dough was ok too!) and then we had home-made pizza for dinner. Yum! After dinner I was feeling very very sleepy, so I decided around 7:30 that I would go crawl in bed. I set the Ipod sleep timer for an hour and was asleep before it went off. I woke up a few times to roll over and go back to sleep and then got up about 8:30 this morning. Apparently I was very tired!! :)

Now there is a turkey cooking, my Aunt Barb is here to munch with us, and Sherlock is snoozing by the door (after a long walk and playing with a stick this morning) Its nice to be home with my family.

Love to all! :)

Dear Mr. Craig...

Your new movie kicks some serious Bond Bootie :) I went and saw it with my friend Marci last night (with a diet coke, some hot tamales, two peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, and some rainbow nerds) and it was fantastic! I think even the biggest blow-things-up action fan (Psst... Kyle) would say that this movie was about as action packed as you could get.

My only suggestion for next time, on behalf of the females in the audience, please give us a little more than one scene with your shirt off!!! :) If you need any help rehearsing don't hesitate to give me a call!

There will be days like this...

Today sucked. I know I can't control what other people do. I know things won't always go the way I want them to. I know the kids will have off days. But when you have a sucky day, none of that really makes you feel better.

At least tomorrow is Friday.

The Best Balloon Factory!

hee hee.... now you are wondering what in the world??? :) So every Tuesday I leave school a bit early to get back to CC for seminar. Supposedly these are mini-classes that are on very helpful topics (classroom management, ELL students, RTI stuff) --

Let me just interrupt myself and say that teachers have more freakin' acronyms than anyone else on this planet! RTI, CBM, ELL, ILP, SCR, CRAZY! Its ridiculous!!

Anyway -- so sometimes seminar is helpful and sometimes its a colossal waste of my time... and today was more towards the time wasting, but it was still fun because of the activity we did. I think the point of it was to compare individual work with division of labor/production line. However, me and my super-fun partner (that would be "my super-fun partner and I" if I was being grammatically correct, but I'm not) kicked all the assembly line peoples booties! We made a total of 16 super-duper-fantastic hot air balloons (out of paper of course) in 15 minutes. We even had happy face balloons, holiday theme balloons (Christmas and Halloween) and seasonal balloons (flowers, fall leaves). We rocked :) I think we may have messed up the presenter's point... but oh well :)

On the not-so-random side of life... both meetings on Monday went very well, and today I got my review of my first formal evaluation (from last week) back and I did very well. Yay me! Two days down, three to go!

I think I'm ready!

Well the pupper and I enjoyed a wonderful meander through the woods. He chased some squirrels, I got my fresh air and sunshine. Then he practiced his stick-rescuing skills (aka went swimming in the reservoir) while I read a few of the books our reading groups are reading this week (Sarah, Plain and Tall and The Chocoloate Touch). Then it was off to the grocery store where (my mommy will be so proud) I saved almost $7 with my cupons!

When we got home it was a toss up between an early dinner or a late nap, so I voted for the early dinner and made myself lamb, salad, and butternut squash. MMmmmmmmm!! Especially the squash. Kyle use to say I would turn orange because of all the squash I can eat! :)

For the last couple hours I have been working on lesson plans for this week and I think I'm ready (for Monday and Tuesday at least!) Time to do a quick Sunday evening cleanup of the house and then to bed early!

Student Teachers... Start Your Engines....

Ok... so while I love getting hugs, warm fuzzies, drawings, etc from my kiddos... the one thing I HATE getting from them is GERMS. Lots of our kiddos were absent last week, some of which went home from school sick... so with all the stress I guess I wasn't that surprised that it hit me hard. Thursday I taught back to back lessons at the end of the day and by the time the kids were going home I had an awful headache. Well then we had a meeting and a make-up parent-teacher conference, and by 5:00 I told Sharla I had to leave. Driving home was a test of will not to throw up... and I made it home and back out to the park (poor Sherlock really had to go!) before I lost it. Sorry park-garbage collector :( So I didn't go to school on Friday... just was miserable, slept, and did some laundry.

Luckily I felt mostly all better by Saturday morning and I was up early and very productive (finished my big project which is due Tuesday) so I was able to cross that off my list. This morning I got up and met Sharla at a coffee shop downtown where we went over the plans for this week because:
Monday - I have an interview with the district (not my first choice, but you never know...) and then a pre-observation conference with the principal.
Tuesday - I am taking over writing for the rest of the week (and my project is due, but its done!)
and have a meeting with my CC advisor about how my first formal lesson went (last Tuesday)
Wednesday - I am taking over math for the first time and being formally observed in writing by my CC person
Thursday - I will be teaching the entire afternoon for the first time: math, writing, and science
Friday - I will be formally observed by the principal of my school in writing

I feel like I have a good handle on the preparation... the endurance is what I am worried about. Luckily the week after that is only Monday and Tuesday and then I will be headed to the rents house for a big Mommy-Thanksgiving-Dinner :)

So right now I'm off to enjoy an afternoon hike with my puppy dog (he has been very patient with me feeling poopy, so I promised him a good long romp this afternoon) and this evening I will be finalizing my lesson plans. So if you have time in your busy lives this week.... send some good thoughts my way! Lets hope I make it through Friday!! :)

Yay for pizza and friends and Disney :)

So my friend Marci made me come over to her house and eat pizza, watch Sleeping Beauty, and get hugs from Nathan (the toddler). Her husband Jeff is even making it his mission to make me laugh as much as possible.

Just goes to show you that the bads make the goods feel gooder.
Or something like that :)

Back to the crap tomorrow, but for this moment... life is good :)

The Blahs

I don't know why people say they have the blues. Blue is such a nice rich beautiful color. I'd say I have the greys, but I also have a lovely, soft, smokey grey kitty cat, so grey is not yucky either. So I have the blahs. Too much work (not the actual teaching part, the extra song-and-dance I have to do) too much stress, too much crappiness. And sadly my immediate friend-support system is all going through the same thing, so its not like they have tons of time to help me with my crap because they all have their own crap to deal with. The weather today didn't help either with its not-quite-cold-enough-to-snow cloudy foggy wet blahness. Overall I'm just in a funk. So if you have extra de-funkifier handy... send it my way.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day. Maybe there will be a little more sun and a little less blah.

The Week In Review

Hi All! Sorry for the lack of blogging. This student-teaching stuff keeps me busy! So I thought I would [avoid doing my homework for a while and] give you an update on Polly-life. Overall it was a good week, for me and for America (yay Obama!). I had a good time last Sunday with Aunt Barb. We walked around Old Colorado City window shopping and then had lunch. School this week has been good too. So far I have taken over Math Calendar (a daily hodge-podge of math review done with the whole class for the 20 minutes between specials and recess) Cursive (kind of a pointless skill to learn these days in my opinion but whatever!), and Science. So far everything is going really well! The science unit is on rocks and minerals... which if you followed the teacher-book is kind of boring, so I have been mixing it up with other activities to keep them interested. Thursday we explored the property of texture by making rubbings (paper over the rock and then rubbed with a crayon) of the different rocks. The kiddos were super excited about that :)

The not-so-great part of things is still the high level of stress I'm dealing with... and it doesn't really revolve around the teaching stuff. My school has hoops they want me to jump through (paperwork, meetings, observations, etc) and CC has their hoops they want me to jump through (projects, meetings, observations, etc.) and of course they both think their hoops are the most important. Now I know there are always going to be hoops to deal with... but right now I feel like I have to be the world-record hoop-jumper-througher just to keep up. Blah.

Luckily this weekend I have a 3 day weekend! Yay! I think its because Veteran's Day is Tuesday so our district just decided to change it to Monday. Anyway, I am using it to sleep, enjoy the sunshine (stupid time change) and get some work done. Yesterday I had a very lazy morning followed by a nice hike with the pupper. Today I am (hopefully) going to be getting a lot of work done and then take a break to go hang out with the CC crew at Marci's house for a while. And tomorrow I plan to get snow tires on Cujo.

The highlight of my week this week was one of my kiddos saying "Ms. Frostman, I am glad you don't have to go to class anymore and you can be here with us all day!"

I Boo the Time Change

OK, so I boo the time change. Who decided that you get more light in the morning and less in the evening? Who cares about light that early? Its too early to be up anyway, so if you are up, who cares if it is still dark? What about in the late afternoon when I am actually awake and want to go hiking with my puppy dog and its already getting dark?!?! They try and pass it off as a good thing with this extra hour of sleep stuff... but I still think its crap. So there.

Parents and Parents and Parents... Oh My!

So the kiddos had no school on Thursday and Friday because we had parent-teacher conferences. So after 19 sets of parents and/or extended family and 4 translators (some of the families don't speak English).... we were pooped. Thursday we were at school from 7am to 7pm. It was a loooooong day. Friday we snuck out around noon and I came home and took a nap :) It was a good experience to see Sharla work with the individual families. She was really great at changing her style/verbiage of explanation for the people she was talking to. I do think that she occasionally avoids confrontation... there were a few things I thought could have been addressed with a few parents -- but on the other hand she kept everything very positive and upbeat which made the conferences run very smoothly. There are still three that need to be rescheduled for after school sometime. Anyway, overall it was a much better experience than I had anticipated... and I'm not dreading the next round as much!

Today I woke up at 7:30, got up and played with the pupper for a bit, fed him and the kitty, took a shower, and then thought.... I'm sleepy. So I went back to bed :) After a few more hours of snoozing and snuggling with the big fat grey kitty, I got up and took the pooper out to the park. He played ball while I graded some papers. Then I went to get my haircut! My friend Marci recommended a salon, so that's where I went... and it was a nice place. The lady was super-nice and I like my new haircut lots :) And she fixed it all cute for me too! After the haircut it was off to REI for some perusing of good REI stuff. I bought myself a new water bottle (purple!) and found lots of other good things that I want for Christmas!

When I got home Sherlock took me to the dog park where he played a lot with a very cute yellow lab puppy. Now we're home and having a relaxing evening! Tomorrow my Aunt Barb is coming down from Denver to visit! yay!

Oh.. and one last thing. Today is my friend Stephanie's birthday! She is one of my oldest and bestest friends... and we have spent many a birthday watching movies, eating pizza, and having sleepovers. So while its a little hard to keep up that tradition since I'm here and she is in KY... I still am thinking about her today. Happy Birthday Steph-ner-ninny!!

Yay for weekends :)

Well I wish I could add another day or two to the weekend, but even though its almost over, mine was very nice! Saturday the Frost and Suze came to play with their favorite Sherlock! Sherlock took us up to his favorite hiking and swimming spot. It was a beautiful fall day and we had a good time hiking through the woods. Unfortunately, just as I was executing the very difficult walk-and-throw-the-stick-for-the-dog move, there was a sudden gust of gravity which resulted in me almost not falling down. I did the almost not falling down part very well and have the road rash on my palms and knees to prove it! :( Oh well... it was still a fun afternoon.

Then for dinner we went to an Italian place down in Old Colorado City. I had lobster-stuffed ravioli in a lobster-cream sauce. Oooooooohhh goodness it was soooooo yummmmmmmmmy!!! Then I came home and watched DVDs of my nephews and went to bed early.

Today I got up to let out the pooperdog and feed the kitty and then went back to bed and snoozed until 11. It felt very nice to just lay in the sunshine and listen to some Harry Potter and be lazy. Then I got up and was very productive with some school stuff, followed by a short hike with the pupper. Then it was off to the grocery store where I saved almost $20 off my bill. My mommy should be proud :)

This coming week is a short school week because we have no school Thursday and Friday due to parent-teacher conferences. I'm still swamped with student-teaching stuff, so I'm glad I will have a little more time to work on that... I'm a little nervous about the parent/teacher meetings but I as I am not in charge of them this time, it will be good to see how Sharla handles things. Other than that I am taking over science this week and writing next week... so far so good :)

So it begins...

So today was my last day of class! Tomorrow is the official first day of my official student teaching. I am very excited :) I am also stressed to the gills and honestly kinda tired of being stressed all the time, but hopefully that will balance out with being able to be with my kiddos all day again (instead of this half day and half class stuff)

Also of special note today were the following:
~THE FIST SNOW!! :) Yes.. that's right, Sherlock got to roll around in a few inches of white stuff this morning. He was tickled! Its sunny now so most everything is gone, but the mountains are still white. I love snow :)
~Cujo got his oil changed. Now that may not sound exciting to you (Cujo is my car by the way), but I love him very much and he got the extra special oil because he is now over 75k. He is happy :)
~I got my flu shot. This was no fun and hurt :( But since I have had like 3 colds already this year from being around the kiddos, I figured I better be proactive.

Ok so I have the rest off the day off... so I'm off for a hike with the pooperdog and then... maybe a nap :)

"There is no one alive that is Youer than You!"

That's a Dr. Seuss quote for my bff Jessica because today is her BIRTHDAY!!

There we are in Vegas (the trip was to celebrate her birthday as a matter of fact!) and while this year I might not be able to buy her a birthday crown, I think the whole world should celebrate this day because its the anniversary of an AMAZING person being born on this earth. Happy Birthday Jeddita :)

A Jar of Pickles

So the best part of my day was a jar of pickles. Yup. The End. :)

Ok just kidding... I'll tell you why :) So last night I was on the phone with Marci yacking about homework and school and life etc. And her other phone rings and it is her husband who was at the grocery store checking to see if Marci needed him to buy pickles. Now as a fellow pickle lover, I knew the importance of having pickles! So I said, "Awww... I wish I had someone to buy me pickles!!" So apparently Marci told Jeff (her husband) and Jeff bought me a jar of pickles (the really good ones too!) I felt very loved :)

That is why a jar of pickles was the best part of my day. The End :)

I blame the snot

Hi friends. I blame the snot for the lack of blogging this week. Actually I should really blame Marci's son Nathan who gave me his germs... but since he is too cute to blame, I blame the snot :)

However, you can breathe a sigh of relief as I (almost) can, because I am feeling much better. And this morning I got to teach my kids :) Sharla took the day off because her mom was in town, so I took over while I was there. I still had to go to class in the afternoon (which was a colossal waste of my time, but that's beside the point) but the morning was really fun. We read a National Geographic (for kids) article, took a spelling/vocab test, had dictionary races, did some character analysis of a chapter book we have been reading, and practiced our math facts. Overall it was a good morning and I had a ball teaching!

The weather is suppose to be super-crappy here this weekend, so I am bummed... but maybe the weather man will be wrong (he often is around here!) I should get Monday off since school is closed but I still have class in the afternoon (boo!)... but that still means three mornings of sleeping in. yay!

Anyway, I think I will start my weekend with a hike with my pupper before the rain sets in! Happy Snot-Free Friday to all of you :)

TLC for my soul

So yesterday I had the privilege of attending an appearance by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods. We got free tickets from CC, so my friend and fellow MAT, Marci and I made an evening of it and it was so great! I have to preface this with the fact that I have not read the book yet (I know, shocking since I have so much free time!) but I have heard lots about it from my science professor, parents, etc. Anyway... I sincerely enjoyed listening to him speak, and I am glad there are other people out there who sincerely believe that the way forward in this world is not doom and gloom but optimism and the belief in humanity. I'll let you know more when I read the book :)

Another delightful part of the evening was getting a hug from an old family-friend that happened to also be at the lecture! Clay is the current director of the summer camp in Durango where I grew up and it had been ages since I had seen him! It was fun to catch up a little on life :)

After the lecture Marci and I went out for some drinks and munchies and had a ball. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was so much fun! I can not tell you how much I love having friends here who not only make me laugh until I'm crying, but who are as passitionate about the same things as I.

So today I got up (late! yay!) this morning and decided that I my puppy dog and I had a tryst to keep with the forest. So, even though it was kind of gray and cloudy, off we went. It was a perfect day for a walk in the woods, with bits of sunshine from time to time. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

It was a wonderful afternoon of TLC for my soul :) And for those of you who might not be able to keep your own tryst with the woods this weekend.... here is a little bit of rustling leaves for you. Hope it warms your soul :)

To Vote or Not to Vote

So my brother sent me this link today and, other than a wonderful phone call from my bff Jessica, this was the other highlight of my day.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832128

You gotta click it!! You gotta register!! YOU GOTTA VOTE!!

Back to Reality

So my four day weekend was wonderful! Wednesday (as you know from being an avid reader of my blogging) Sherlock and I went home to see the parents. Thursday I got up way too early to go and hang out at Mom's school for part of the day. It was nice to see a different perspective on how a school can be, and I definitely know I want to be in a small-town school versus the city-district-school I am in now... but there are always positives and negatives to each situation. Still an interesting day though. Sherlock spent the day playing stick with his Frost (aka my dad) and napping in the sun. After school I came home with Mums and then took a very nice long nap. It was nice to just hang out with the parents for the evening (and do free laundry!)

Friday I got up late, ate Mommy-breakfast, and then meandered my way home. It was another beautiful day, so the pooper and I stopped off to dip our toes/paws in the creek and look at the pretty leaves falling on the water. When I got home I fed the Fat Kitty (as he was adamant that he was starving, even though he had plenty of food while I was gone) and then took another nap. I love naps :) Friday evening I hung out in my pjs, cleaned up paperwork stuff, and was in general... lazy.

Saturday I stayed in bed (other than getting up to let Sherlock out and feed the kitty) until 11. Sherlock and Fat Kitty both got to snuggle on the bed, so they were pretty happy with that situation. Then after a nice chat with the brother, I got up and went for a long hike with the pups. The weather couldn't decide if it wanted to rain or not, but we didn't mind... and the occasional rain made the fall leaves smell nice and fally :) I got back just in time to jump in the shower and then headed over to Marci's for dinner. We had lots of fun! I got to play with her two-year old and she got some adult-time so everyone was thrilled :) After the toddler went to sleep we tried out their new backyard-fire-pit and chatted until we got sleepy.

Sunday, I figured I should get up early to make getting up early on Monday easier.... but then I rolled over and went back to sleep :) I was up by nine and got everything else around the house cleaned up and organized. Then Marci called me and we decided to go see "The Lucky Ones." It would make a much better book than a movie, but it wasn't awful (you just don't need to go see it)... but the funnest part was just hanging out with my friend who makes me laugh :) For example - styling her hair by sticking her head out the window while we were driving down the interstate. Oh boy :) Then the pooperdog and I went for another nice hike (a bit shorter as I was sore from Saturday) and he swam lots. We met a family of dogs that included two newfoundlands, one st. bernard, a german shepard, and a black lab. They were hilarious -- it was like a herd of dogs!!

So overall, the weekend was fun and very relaxing. But of course getting up at 5:30 this morning sucked. It was fun to go see the kiddos, but being in class for 3 hours this afternoon sucked too... and of course the four chapters of homework tonight is also on the list of "not so much fun." Oh well. Such is the first day back after vacation :)

I'm Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :)

*ahhhhhhhhh* :) So for the first time since June I actually have nothing to do. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It feels very nice. The very first thing I did was.....
took a nap :)

And then I loaded up Fat Kitty's bowl and then the pooperdog and I jumped in the car and headed up to the parent's house. It was a lovely drive, the aspens are starting to change and it was lovely and sunny. And now I'm getting ready to sit down and enjoy some Mommy food :)

Have I Mentioned?

Have I mentioned how much I adore my kiddos? Today the students came back from art with Mexican suns they had made on thin sheets of metal. Sharla and I were admiring them, and I saw one student kind of hanging back, and when many of the kids went to put their stuff away, he came over to me and said, "Ms. Frostman I want you to have mine."

"Are you sure?" I asked him. "Its very special."

"Yes I am sure!" he said. "I want you to have it because I don't want you to ever forget me!"

I adore my kids :)

I told him that I didn't need his gift in order to never forget him, but he wanted me to have it anyway, so take a peek at the lovely new art-fridge I have :) This sunshine will last me years and years and years.

Happy Fall!

As it is my most favoritest season, I just had to say....
Happy First Day of Fall!! :)

Moonset

The internet decided to be nice, so here is my cool picture :)!!

Semi-Annual Say No To Homework Day!

Yesterday I celebrated a semi-annual say no to homework day. It was delightful :) I was verrrrrrrry lazy in the morning, followed by a very productive clean up the house spree. Then the pooperdog and I went and explored a new park -- Stratton Open Space. Apparently it is very popular for mt. biking too. It is actually very close to home, so its easy to get to. I think it will be our official new favorite place for a while because it has great trails that wander over some open space and then into nice scrubby oak (just like at camp!) and pine trees. A good up/down/flat variety, and the best part is that the trails wander around a small reservoir! This means swimming time for the pooperman!! He was thrilled :) I reveled in the sound of the wind and soaked in the sunshine, and I thouroughly enjoyed not even thinking about all the stuff I "should" have been doing. The trails were near the northern base of Cheyenne Mountain (aka where the Stargate is for you science fiction fans) and there is a shrine on the face of the mountain (to Will Rogers I think) and it has chimes that echo off the mountain. Very very cool.

Today (after a yummy lunch with the parents) I need to work on my math video/project and revise my MR paper, both which are due this coming week. But only 2 1/2 days left of class until I get a break! yay!

Oh... and I keep forgetting to post this very cool picture I took last week of the sunrise/moonset looking from my apt towards Pikes Peak. But the computer is being dumb right now, so I will try later.

Long Week... Happy Ending

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week... it was a long and busy one including lots of homework for math class. The big project for this class is to plan, teach, and video tape a math lesson and then write an accompanying paper critiquing ourselves and tying in all the things we've learned. So I taught/taped on Thursday. The lesson went pretty well... I haven't watched it yet to start writing the paper, but I think the kids enjoyed it.

I had to share the absolute highlight of my week though. On Friday afternoons we have "community time" in our classroom. Part of this time we call "conflicts and compliments" where we pass a globe and the kids are allowed to say anything they want: how they feel about their week, something good, something bad, etc. So this Friday one of our students got the globe... thought for a little while... and then said, "I want to thank Ms. Frostman because she always explains things so we can understand them."

That, in a sentence, is why I am working my tail off right now! And I cannot tell you how amazing it made me feel.

Best part of my Monday :)

This is the email I got from my brother:

Tonight at bedtime, Amy and Sam were talking about God and Samuel said, "Mom, I think God bit the moon. Cause it's not round - it has a bite."

As my big sorority sis Bridget was known to say... this is so cute it makes my uterus hurt :)
I can't wait until I have my own children to light up my life. But until then, at least I have my nephews to shine in once in a while!

In need of fun!

So my best friend Jessica is in Vegas. You might not think that this is so bad, except that she shouldn't be allowed to go to Vegas without me! We had the most AMAZING trip to Vegas a few years ago. I won't go into the details (what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!) but it was probably up there on the list of the best times of my life. The Westward Ho, Xpedex guy, winning at Little Dude, the birthday crown, walking back to the hotel at 7:30am..... ah... the good times. So as a nostalgic toast to my bff (she is probably toasting just fine on her own!) here is a pic of us in Vegas:

My other bff Kyle had a fun party this weekend, and since I was not invited (I think you had to be in the state to be on the list) I didn't get to go there either.

*sigh* I am in serious need of some fun. But since I am not delusional, I know its not going to be dropping in my lap anytime soon. So, I did settle for some extra sleep and some time with my puppy dog this weekend, and I take comfort in the fact that in the short term I get a 4 day weekend in two weeks. More importantly in the long term, I will have lots of summers and spring breaks to go visit my friends and/or call them from super fun/exciting places :)

More Friends :)

So today was another long (oh so long) and busy day. But there were two highlights of my day today and they both revolve around the amazing friends I have here!

The first was a very simple thing... I had to run a bunch of errands between leaving school and arriving on campus, so I didn't have time to eat lunch. I met up with friends walking from the car to the classroom and buy the time I got to the classroom I had a sandwich and an apple! I know it was not a big deal to the friends that gave them to me, but it certainly made my day better! :)

The second was, by far, the best part of my day. One of my friends made the point of stopping me while walking to the car and saying that I am one of the best friends she has ever had. I got teary (part of that, I have to say, is probably from exhaustion) because, while I know this person has been going through some rough times, I had been feeling like I hadn't done much to help her... and apparently I had done a lot more than I knew! I think she is just an amazing, awesome person, so the compliment made me feel super warmfuzzy. Thanks friend! :)

I know this program is making me work REALLY hard, but I definitely believe it will help me to become and amazing teacher... but in addition to that, the friends I am meeting here are also helping me be a better person... and for that, I am truly thankful. I think that who I am is definately influenced by the people I love... so if you are reading this, that most likely includes you :)
And now I should quit procrastinating and get back to finishing my homework :)

Garfield knows what he is talking about!

There are some Mondays where it would just have been better to stay in bed! Ok so this day wasn't that horrible, but it was certainly Monday all day. It probably didn't help that my day started with waking up late (I forgot to change my alarm back to normal times from waking up to go see Kyle time). This sleepy not-ready-for-the-day-ness was not helped by the fact that it was chilly/grey/cloudy all day today! Blah. The kiddos were so out of it this morning that poor Sharla was dragging them along (I was yawning in the back), and one of our trouble-makers started the day off on the wrong foot, so then Sharla, who was also already somewhat Monday-morning grumpy, was even grumpier. Add to this the fact that our Monday is always a weird schedule (Monday school days are shortened by an hour and a half because there are district-wide meetings on Monday afternoons) and it was not a great morning at school.

Needless to say, by lunchtime I was glad to have the excuse to leave and go to class. I would have much rather climbed into bed to take a nap, but instead I went to class (which was freezing!!) to hang out with my friends who are all sick :( Luckily I think its all the same thing I had already, and I am feeling ok so far. Class was blah today though... apparently not many of us had done the reading, so after those of us that had input/ideas had chatted for a while she asked us not to talk so then we all got to sit there in awkward silence for a while since no one else had any other thoughts to contribute. Then we worked on a project that was, in my opinion, not all that valuable but did not get time to talk about the homework problems which would have been much more valuable. Oh well.

I decided to end the day on a good note (other than the fact that I have spent the last 4+ hours doing homework and am still not finished) by buying myself Papa Johns for dinner (I had a killer coupon! woo hoo!) So that was the best part of my day :) See..? Garfield = lasagna, Polly = pizza! :)


*Sigh* now its time to finish more homework and be glad that tomorrow is not another Monday.

Friends

Friends are good stuff. Today I got up to early (it was worth it thought, keep reading) and drove up to Denver to see my bestest friend Kyle. He was in town for a conference for some technical mumbo-jumbo stuff (my opinion, he liked it) this past week, so Sherlock and I drove up to see him before he headed back to ID. Now some of you are thinking... Kyle? Like "the ex?" Yes... the ex. I think we are pretty lucky people to be able to be really good friends even though we aren't "together" anymore, and I'm awfully glad that I still have someone who knows me so well and loves me to be there and support me in life. There is nothing "ex" about that!! :)

Anyway! We went to breakfast and then took the pooperdog to the dog park up in Denver. We had a nice walk and talk and Sherlock loved getting wet and muddy and wet :) I am sure he misses his Dad, and I know Kyle misses him -- who wouldn't? He is the best dog in the world :) So it was fun to just have some friend/dog combo time today :) I dropped Kyle of at the airport, stopped in the gallery to say hi to the crew, and then drove back home. Now I am debating between getting some homework done and taking a nap. I got a lot of work accomplished yesterday, so for now, I think the nap is going to win!

I like being me :)

Today was a good day to be me! Well... not at 5:30 when my alarm went off after three days of getting to sleep late, but after that. After spending yesterday on CC campus in class and going through registration and spending too much money on more textbooks, and then spending the evening writing a short paper, reading two chapters, and working math problems (yes! on the first night of class!!! AND on a "holiday") I was really looking forward to seeing the kids this morning. It was a productive morning because I helped grade some papers, and then I was working with four/five kids during reading groups. Its always fun to work with a small group of kids, and since we switch for reading it helped me get to know some of the kids we now have from other classes. After we switched back, I had to explain to all my kiddos that I was not going to be around as much for the next two months. We decided in our CC class (which is math these days) that we would be in school M, T, W mornings and back on campus in the afternoon and then Th and F on CC campus in the morning and back at our schools in the afternoon. Anyway! I was explaining this to the kids and I had to bite my lip from smiling because they were all so sad. Will you be here tomorrow? Will you miss us? What if we need you? My favorite was (since I told them this would last for two months) Will you be back for our Halloween Party?!? I just love them to pieces!! :) I got extra hugs on my way out :)

Since the kids go to recess/lunch at 11:40, I leave then to have my lunch hour and get to CC class by 1pm, so I get an extra 20 minutes which is very nice. Today I grabbed a sandwich from Jimmy Johns (Mmmmmmm!!!!) and went home to let the pooperdog run around while I ate lunch outside. It was a BEAUTIFUL day outside today, crispy and cool but sunny! So it was so nice to just sit there and enjoy the sunshine. I got to campus a little early to make a few copies and was able to pick up my big art project from the Ed. House. I got an A and lots of compliments! yay!! :)

Class this afternoon was short because we have seminars every Tuesday afternoon for all the MAT students (elem and secondary), but we were able to finish part of the assignment during classtime so it meant less homework this evening. Then we all walked over to the seminar. All the ed faculty was there, and even though it hasn't really been that long, it was fun to get to see some of them :) I noticed my science professor laughing when I asked a question during seminar and I asked him afterwards why he was laughing and he said "It was just such a Polly-question! I miss having you in class!" What a nice compliment!! :) I also got to see some of the other education (non-masters) students who have sat in on our classes from time to time, so there were hugs all around. These people are mostly just amazingly fantastic people, its so great to be a part of the crew.

Then I came home, had some yummy mommy-leftovers for dinner, and took the pooperman outside to play while I worked on homework. I finished sooner than I expected, so I got to call my friend Gwen (I forgot she is off to the equator - Costa Rica or some such place next week, so I am glad I caught her!) and chat for a bit. I have also done my dishes, sorted some laundry, and taken out the trash (it was stinky!!). I feel so productive! :) Once I finish going through things for tomorrow it will be early to bed for me.

So while I am not jetting off to Hawaii like my parents are (have fun Mom & Dad!) ... I'm pretty happy with just being me today.

Ahhh... Weekend :)

It's been a while since I got a weekend with NOTHING to do! It's been lovely! Saturday I enjoyed sleeping in, playing with my puppy dog (and brushing him, much to his dismay), followed by reading (NOT for school!) and a nap. My fat kitty supervised the reading and napping to make sure I was doing it correctly :)

Then for dinner I drove down to Pueblo and met up with Mums. We had dinner and then headed over to the CO state fair. It was lots of fun. First we saw some baby cows, followed by some goats, and that was all while in search of our main destination... the bunnies!! :) There were lots of them and they were fluffy with wiggly noses! Some of them were sleepy, some were scared, and some came hopping over to say hi to us. I wonder if Sherlock and Fat Kitty would like to have a bunny as a sibling..? :)
From the bunny-barn we wandered through some of the booths, saw the quilts (it's amazing that people still do that by hand!), the photographs, and some other crafty things. By then it was getting a little late, so I got some pink lemonade and we went and rode the ferris wheel. It was a very nice evening at the fair with my Mums.

This morning I got up and cleaned up the house a bit and then the pooper and I hit the trail. I didn't feel like driving up to the reservoir today, so we went over to the foothills and found a nice trail that meandered along a creek. Sherlock enjoyed the creek and I enjoyed the walk in the sun. It got pretty cloudy, so we headed back home, and then Sherlock took a nap while I painted my toes :) Then I made a scrumptious lamb chop on a bed of spinach and feta cheese. It was soooo yummy!!!

I find it pretty stupid that I have class tomorrow while everyone else has another day off, but at least I still don't have to get up super early. Oh well. At least I got my weekend :)!

Wednesday's Checklist

1. Get up too early. Check!
2. Call Jeffrey (at Images of Nature DIA) to check in with the old crew. Check!
No-one makes me laugh like Jeff :)
3. Make a lot (A LOT!) of copies for teachers who have issues with making double-sided copies. Apparently I have the magic touch. Check!
4. Have a great day with kids. Check! There is nothing like getting a hug from a kid who just wants to hug you! :)
5. Remind Sharla to buy crickets for Issa (our classroom tarantula) since she keeps forgetting. Don't want to have her eat any kids :) Check!
6. Take the pooperdog to the dog park to let him play with doggie friends, his frisbee, and romp around in the creek. Check!
7. Drive past the doughnut store on my way home even though it was calling my name. Check!
8. Make some yummy new spinach and feta cheese snasages that I discovered in the grocery store for dinner. Yum! Check!
9. Clean up the pile of dirty dishes in the sink. Check!
10. Call the very nice maintenance guy at 8:45pm to have him change the battery in my smoke detector as it started beeping periodically. Check! (I'm not a helpless female, just too short to reach the ceiling!)
11. Enjoy an evening of sitting in my chair watching t.v. in my pjs doing nothing!! Check!
12. Enjoy the thought of going to bed without a stuffy snotty nose for the first time in 4 days! Check and Check!! (that's one check for each nostril!)

Overall... it was a good day :) Hope yours was too!

No Fun

Being sick is no fun.

Writing a paper is no fun.

Being sick and writing a paper is really no fun.

But I did it anyway, and while it probably isn't as good as it could be (i'm not that stressed as I get a chance to revise it after this) it's done.

Time for bed soon, hoping that I wake up tomorrow with no more germs!

GO PACKERS!! WOOOO!!! *FIREWORKS* YAYAY!!! *CONFETTI*

So it was an awesome evening watching the Packers beat the Broncos with my Daddeee!! :) Even though I woke up with a super-soar throat Friday morning (which unfortunately hasn't gone away), I was ready for the game!! So once we got to the parking lot (after lots and lots of traffic) we headed up to section 506. It was the end of the first quarter by the time we found a potty, got some hot dogs, and found our seats (priorities ya know!) And the Packers were already ahead 7 to 3. It was a good game. The new quarterback was in for the first half and he did pretty well (so there Mr. Farve!) and then the other two quarterbacks got a chance to play in the second half. They are a little young... if I could tell where they were going to throw you know the defense could too! :) But I am sure they will get better. I also enjoyed watching the pair of birds fly around the stadium (maybe a pair of peregrine falcons?), picking the helmet that the football was under (#3!), and most of all just spending a fun evening with my Daddy. Here is us:

And here are a few shots from our seats. YAY! GO PACKERS!! :)

When we were walking out of the stadium some Packers fans set off some great green fireworks! :) It was fun. Thanks for a fun evening of Packers, hot dogs, and Daddy time!! :)

I've spent Saturday so far at the library making some good progress on my MR paper, but the library is closing shortly so I'm going to clean up and head home to take a dog-walk break!

Tuesday's Smile is Inspired By...

My brother and nephew Sam :) Now admit it... you smiled didn't you?

The Best Part of My Weekend

The best part of my weekend was having dinner with my Mommy. I felt really crappy on Saturday so in between running some errands I took lots of naps. I must have needed the sleep because I still went to bed early that evening. Sunday I worked on my MR paper (even though the stupid library was closed!!) and then I got to have dinner with my Mommy! We went to the Phantom Brewery downtown and it was VERY yummy. I had bbq pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. Mmmmmm!! Then we split a brownie and ice cream. It was nice to just have a good meal with my Mums. And she also brought me home-made yummies to have for lunch this week. I am spoiled :)
Anyway, I felt pretty recovered after the weekend until I had to get up early this morning!! It was an ok day. We switched classes for math groups for the first time and I am going to have ALOT of practice at being patient with these kids. Unfortunately I really don't agree with the style of the aid-teacher who helps with the class, so I am not sure how that will work out. But as it was only the first day I am just going to see how things go!
The count down to the Packers game is 4 days!!! Yay!! GO PACKERS :)

A bone to pick with the Brits.

I think I am going to have to head to China because Mark Cavendish (aka my boyfriend) wasn't selected to compete in the individual Olympic cycling race. Are they crazy!?!? Have you SEEN this guy race??! Why did no one check with me on this?!? I am not a happy camper. He is competing in another partner-race, in which I am sure he will kick some serious bootie, but I still need to have a chat with these coaches. I'm sure they will come around and see it my way :)

*Whew*

Time is a funny thing... it feels like this week went by in a flash and at the same time I can't believe that it was only five days long!! It's definitely going to be an interesting year. My mentor teacher, Sharla, is a neat person. She spent the summer studying fungi in the rain forest of Paraguay (and she's not even sciencey!) and also went through the CC Masters program, so its cool that she can relate to my current stress-load. We are very different, but I think it will be a great learning experience to work together and get that other perspective to keep me on my toes. We went out on Thursday evening to do some planning for next week and, during a "study break" we played some pool. She's a good teacher because I actually got a ball in a pocket (with the cue and everything!) It was fun to spend some time (away from school) just getting to know her. And of course even though I lost the pool game, I was proud of my one shot! :)
One of the less fun parts of the week was realizing that the school district I'm in has a lot of hoops to jump through. The staff at the school is great, but all the district "guidelines" are going to be frustrating. It's part of the job I know, but its my least favorite part. It will be a challenge to keep my focus on the kids without letting the rest of the stuff get me down.
On the other hand, the kids are great! I don't think I would already appreciate them so much if I hadn't had the experience in Whiz Bang with the two groups of science kids. My new kids are super energetic, and there are certainly some characters, but I know that is going to be so much more fun than if they were passive. I'm sure that also means that every day is not going to be a good one, but I still can't wait until they are "my" class! Sharla has done so great with including me in the classroom community since day one, but I wonder if the kids will have a hard time with the transition because we have such different styles. It will be interesting.
We are, of course, still in the introductory phases of everything, but in the next few weeks we will have the highest reading group as well as the lowest math group for the 3rd grade. I think this will be a great experience to see both ends of the spectrum. It's going to be hard in September and October while I have classes at CC again. I will be leaving school around noon to get back to campus for class and I feel like I will miss out on so much! (and it has been so nice to come home and NOT have homework this week!)
Anyway, its the weekend already!! Which means I need to get more work done on the MR paper. I found out that one of my CC advisers actually has taught a global perspectives class (that is my MR topic), so I am going to pick his brain too :)
I am sure there are things I forgot to tell you about my week, but my brain is too sleepy. Right now I am going to go snuggle down in my pjs with my pillows and my fat kitty and look forward to NOT getting up early tomorrow morning!

Tomorrow is the first day of school!!

Well I am still alive... technically. Around 6:30am tomorrow I will be dropping off my art project on my way to my first official day of school. That will mark the official end to the summer session!! yayayayyay!! I just have to finish the project :) (it's almost done)

Half an hour later I should be walking in the door to school, which will mark the start of the school year... *deep breath* Friday did not go really well (no time or desire to elaborate on that at this point) so I am hoping Monday will be good. Send me lots of good thoughts! PLEASE!

Oh, one good thing -- the masters paper deadline was extended, so I hopefully will have some time to come up for some air during the week!

My Snorkel

Ok so I might not have time to come up for air, but I have a pretty wonderful family who brought in a snorkel for me this evening in the form of a Hoops & Yo-Yo (I just love those crazy green and pink guys!). The cute little squeaky blue guy was even in this one! This card was a "Favorite Movie Lines"

My favorite part was:
"Houston, we have a problem."
...... pause.....
"Ok." (giggles)
"What do you want me to do about it?" (more giggles) "You got yourself up there, get yourself down." (more giggles)

I giggled too :) Thanks Daddeee :)

http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ecard%7C10001%7C10051%7C594885%7C147551;-102001;181568;181569%7Cecard%7CP1R1S%7Cecard?&categoryId=181569 (that is the very long link if you want to see it for yourself.)

No Time For Air

Hi friends... I apologize for the lack of blogging. This week has been a little on the rocky side of things. The class of art in elementary is a lot of fun, we've been dancing, acting, painting, singing, and overall acting like kids, and the teacher is so great, but I just don't "get" art like I get science, math, reading, etc. I might be able to make some sense of it in my brain, but I can't turn around and explain it to someone else... to learning how to teach it has been hard. Maybe I am making it harder than it needs to be because I will be explaining it to third graders and not to other adults... but I am still struggling with it. It's not a bad thing to struggle with something... I always end up learning something from it... but right now I am so exhausted that I feel much more like giving up than like stepping up to the challenge. It's also a bummer that this class is only a week long. A) because it is way more fun that some of the other classes, and B) because that means it's super-duper intense.

Add to the intensity the fact that I found out yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon that I need to be at my school before 1pm tomorrow (Friday) because my future students and their parents will be meeting in my future classroom for an ice cream social. Put this on the list of things-that-would-have-been-nice-to-know-ahead-of-time. If I had more energy I would be totally freaking out. As it is I am stressing about it with as much energy as I can muster (equal to about a blink right now). This was not the light at the end of my rough-week-tunnel that I was expecting.

In addition to this wonderful mix of life-elements, throw in a dash (or a few tons) of panic that the second chapter of the masters paper is due a week from tomorrow. Some professors are trying to get that changed for us, but since they don't know yet -- its just this lovely additional layer of stress which is on top of the huge art project that is due this coming Monday. Which, if you may recall, is also the first day of school.

If you are wondering at this point how I have the time or energy to be typing this... well its pretty much because this is all the crap racing around and around through my brain, so why not let it repeat again on the keyboard :)

Oh.. and just as that lovely little extra bonus gift thrown in... the company I use to work for is closing the gallery that I worked at in Sun Valley. Yes, its true that it doesn't really affect my life right now... but since I put 3 years into it, and since one of my good friends just lost her job because of the situation... I still care. And it sucks that I don't even have the time to feel sad.

No I'm not sorry I chose this path... I still feel like its the right one to be on, and I know that it will be so worth it at some point in the future... but right now I am standing on that mountain realizing that the last two months have been quite the climb, and when I look ahead it sure is still a looooooong way to the top.

But don't take the tone of this particular post as a sign of things to come... I am sure there will be brighter days coming soon. Besides, there are only 134 days until Christmas break :)

Me & The Library

Me and the CC Library are good friends. Our friendship would be better if my pupper could come hang out with me there... but I guess you can't have everything. Too bad I can't get paid for time at the library... I wouldn't be a poor college student anymore :)

Thursday was the last official day of science class as our prof very kindly gave us Friday off so we could work on the project for science. However, our art prof stopped by class that day to give us an assignment to do over the weekend. Homework before the class even starts?!? I don't think that should be allowed. So Thursday afternoon I went to the CC bookstore and bought the art textbook (and a new CC sweatshirt! It was Pam's fault for making me look at them :) She bought one too!) and then worked on my project for a few hours. Friday I spent the day in the library working on my project... yes, the entire day (no, I was not procrastinating until the end... I spent a chunk of last weekend and all my afternoons during the week working on it too!) Luckily my parents rescued me from spending the evening there too as they took me out to dinner. Thanks Mommy and Daddeeeeee :) We went to Famous Dave's BBQ (yummers!!) and then all the blood went from my brain to my tummy, so I couldn't do anymore homework that day :)

Saturday I got up and Sherlock and I played frisbee in the park before it got too warm. Then it was... you know it.... back to the library! I finished my project within the first hour and turned it in. I feel pretty good about it (its 40% of our grade!) so I hope I get an A. The rest of the day I worked on research for my masters paper. I have to say that I think I am learning a lot more from my classes and practicum experience than from this dumb paper, but I guess if it gets me more money back out in the real world, its worth doing.

I did nothing Saturday evening, which I enjoyed immensely, and so far this morning I have been very productive in cleaning my house and organizing some school stuff (I can see my desk!!) but haven't made much progress on the research. The library didn't open until 1pm today, and I printed out a bunch of stuff that I haven't read through yet, so I don't know if I will visit my friend library today or not. I have finished the reading for art, so I'm set for tomorrow, I just need to make progress on this paper while I have some time.

I have to share that the highlight of my week this week was discovering a Jimmy Johns Sandwich Shop (Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!) a few blocks from campus. Too bad its not attach to the library :)!! Alright... well... time to check the laundry and then read some more.

Go Packers!

Hi all... sorry for the lack of blogging... this week is extra-crunchy crunch time (with no end to the crunching in sight)

HOWEVER..... I had to share this as its one of my "to-look-forward-to" things.

My Daddy is taking me to the pre-season Broncos-Packers game on August 22nd! YAY!! GO PACKERS :)

He sent me this picture:

Cow Racing, Swimming, and The Library

So my weekend has been a good combination of fun and productiveness! Saturday I spent some time cleaning up the house, organizing, etc. I also played with the pooperdog and napped with the fat kitty. Then it was off to Marci's house for some fun with friends. I finally got a reason to open the raspberry framboise that Justin gave me for my birthday a few years ago back in Ketchum! Everyone loved it! Yum!! It was such a fun night, and so nice to get some downtime with the friends.

The best part of the whole evening (other than just the overall fun) was playing their Wii gamestation. There was fishing and shooting and... best of all.... cow racing!!! My cow's name was Stella (STELLLLLAAAAAAAAA!!!) and she was a very fast cow :)

So Sunday morning I got up early so the pup and I could get some nature-time before I had to meet some of the crew at the library for work-time. As it was suppose to be another scorcher, we drove up to the reservoir. We hiked around a different area, chased some geese (by "we" I mean Sherlock), and we both ended up taking a few dunks in the nice cool water! Just about the time we had to head out the big clouds rolled in, so it was perfect timing. I booked it back down to the Springs and then made some good progress at the library.

Tonight I watched the last stage of the Tour. Cadel (my pick for winner) got 2nd overall, but Sastre deserved his victory, so it was all good! Those men are just unbelievable athletes... I think its on my life list of things to do to go see that race in person. Maybe Mark will fly me over next year ;)

Tomorrow I don't have regular class as we have loads to do we are getting some time to do it, so while I plan to sleep past the regular alarm time, I will be back on campus getting some more work done! One week for the science project, two weeks until the school year starts, and three weeks until the second chapter of the Masters paper is due! Eeeesh!! Guess I'll rest my brain so it can get crankin tomorrow! :)

My new hat!

So here is the present I got from Julie. When she took me to the teacher store, School Crossing, before Whiz Bang started, I saw this fantastic hat. She has a birthday hat in her classroom, so when someone has a birthday they get to wear the hat! I thought it was just the cutest idea ever, but I decided not to spend the money until I had an actual classroom of my own. Julie decided I needed it anyway :) She's the best!! It isn't Sherlock's birthday, but he offered to model the hat for the picture... the yellow candle in the middle is attached to the hat, and the rest are velcro-bottomed, so you can pick the colors you want. There are only 6... so I might have to find some more if kids want to put their age on there... we'll see. I love it!!

If you want to wear it on your birthday, you'll just have to come visit my classroom!

Waterwheels and Soap Sail Boats

So today was the last day of Whiz Bang Science. It was a week shorter than the Gifted/Talented program, but it felt just as long. Probably because I was more "in charge" of teaching this time, and because there was a lot more content/planning to teach vs. Shakespeare. We did solar cells, balloon race cars, ivory soap sail boats (they were awesome!!), planted sunflower seeds and beans, made our working water wheel do work (also awesome!), made gravity-boats, and visited the CC organic farm. Whew!! No wonder I am tired!

The farm was yesterday, we took both classes and it was a great trip. The "farm" is actually just a big garden in the backyard of the CC president's house that is managed by CC students. It was in walking distance of campus, so we just herded them over and back. It was really hot, but the kids got to plant the seedlings they had been growing, pet some chickens (who weren't thrilled with that situation), smell the compost ("Ewwwww.... can I touch it?"), taste some broccoli, peas, carrots, etc. and of course, most importantly, run through the sprinklers. Well... my kids did at least :) It was a fun day for them.

Today we made renewable-energy-windchimes out of recyclable stuff while waiting for our turn to go out and join the picnic line. We got lots of hugs (yay!) and compliments from parents. It was great. They are so creative!! I think the best part of my entire week was presenting them with a "challenge" question and hearing their answers. Since we talked about waterwheels, I told them about overshot (water goes over the wheel) and undershot (water goes under the wheel) and told them one of them was better/more efficient. They had to tell me which one and why. Some great thinking!!! And it was just so great to get one-on-one time with each of them.

If you are waiting for me to tell you which one is better... you'll have to think about it and let me know what you think and why!! (And don't look it up! That's cheating!!)

So after we cleaned up our room, we headed over to one of the mentor-teacher's house to have an afternoon of chatting, munching, beveraging (yes that is a word), and overall-winding-down. That was a lot of fun (although I could have used a nap first). A few of my fellow students are taking a certification test this weekend, so they were all picking my brain about the science section. In case you are interested, the plural form of mongoose is mongooses!! Hee hee. Anyway, it was just good to have time to just be mellow with no class and no planning and no kids. And then it was time to go home. Now, after letting the pooperdog run around the park with one of his neighbor-dog-friends, I am catching up on laundry and seriously thinking about cleaning my house. Yes -- thinking about it... I haven't gotten farther then that yet. On tap for this weekend is a social gathering tomorrow night, some homework (we have a big science-project thing to due over the next week) and the much-neglected Masters paper. Luckily we have a day off from class on Monday to get some work done, so I plan to be productive!

I should go check my laundry and start cleaning, but I think I will veg in this chair for a while longer. Oh!! And when I find where I put my camera, I will post a picture of the delightful present I got from Julie today :)!! But for now... me and the chair are just going to sit here :)

Weekend? What weekend?

So this weekend was not so much fun. I feel like I am fighting off a bug, or I am just way behind on sleep. Or both. I slept a lot. The rest of the time I did homework. My fat kitty enjoyed the snuggling nap-time. And Sherlock had to settle for ball-time while I was reading. By settle I mean he didn't get to really go anywhere, but he got to play ball a-LOT! It was really hot here this weekend too, so it wouldn't have a been a lot of fun to go anywhere anyway. (That's what I am telling myself to make myself feel better). So I got sleep, and got homework done. Not enough of either, but enough to make me feel a little better.

Sherlock was happy that an Aussie won the stage (of the Tour de France) today :) I was bummed that my honey dropped out of the race - although he wasn't in it to win this year, so it was expected... I still missed him today. He needed to go home and rest up so he can win some gold next month! Good luck in the Olympics Mark!! :)

Time to finish up some some homework. And just in case your weekend was kinda poopy too... here are some smiles brought to you by my nephews :) They never fail to cheer me up!

Sam

and Max :)

My Boys!

Mark Cavendish won his FOURTH stage of the Tour !!! Yay!!
If you haven't been watching the tour, you should at least go to
http://www.versus.com/tdf
and watch my boy do his stuff!

I think I should send him myself in a box for a congratulations present :)

And I had a fantastic (but exhausting) day of teaching my science-boys today. They designed some pretty awesome ivory-soap boats :)

Time to sleep!

Loves....

I'm in love with.... teaching! (and I think also Mark Cavendish!)

So my 16 boys are just fantastic (ok, not all of them, some of them I want to tie to their chairs) and so much fun! Actually today we switched classes, so I had the other (girls and boys) 3rd grade class, and I missed my boys! They are loud and crazy, but they are so smart and energetic!! Controlling chaos is so much more fun than rolling rocks uphill. The other class is very mellow, which is great if you are watching a video or something, but when we tried to have group discussions, or even ask for volunteers....
.....
...
chirp-chirp (that's the crickets!)
....
.....
Nothing! Uuugghh... it was so painful. Definitely a good experience for how the same "lesson plan" can make two totally different lessons happen depending on class dynamics. I still have to teach that class a couple more times, so it also helps me mentally prepare, but I am glad I have my boys back tomorrow.

Its been a fun couple of days with the kids:
~~ pretending our class was in plant factory and watching the plant workers (that's us with head-bands on our heads with flowers sticking out on them) go through the photosynthesis process (aka collecting balloons and popping them!)
~~ experimenting with different insulators to see which one keeps in heat better
~~ playing with solar cells and trying to figure out if we can make them work in the shade (hint... try the mirror!!)

Tomorrow we are studying wind energy by making balloon powered race cars and ivory-soap sail boats! AND... it will be Friday!!! (I'm more than a little behind on sleep this week!)

Oh -- and Mark Cavendish is a very adorable British cyclist who won his third stage of the Tour today!!! He doesn't know it, but I have a crush on him :)

Frustrating!

Ok so the science camp is great! The boys are great (so far!), my teacher/partner is great (and goofy!), our ideas are working... its all fantastic.

My actual "class" on the other hand is insanely frustrating. Its also hard to describe why its frustrating..... so I will try and if you don't get it.... well I'm too busy to try something else. So, imagine that you can juggle... you have practiced so much that juggling is in your muscle memory - you do it by habit without actually thinking about what you are doing. Now imagine that someone is trying to re-teach you how to juggle. As soon as you start thinking about what you are doing - what happens? You drop all the balls!!!!! Especially if someone is trying to teach you in a way different than the way you learned.

So that's the best way I can explain what is going on in my head right now. I completely understand that someone who doesn't know how to juggle (aka teach science) needs a clear/concise explanation. I also get that it is a fantastic idea to re-evaluate how you do what you do (think, juggle, teach, whatever) so that you can keep a fresh and open perspective. I even get that seeing/understanding that there are different ways to do something helps you be better able to explain how to do that something to someone else. Unfortunately none of that "insight" helps me not be frustrated with the situation. I'd much rather be facing the "learning how to teach science" facet of things like the rest of my class rather than my current "I need to dissect my own thought process, explain it, try to adapt it to a different method, and maintain forward progression all at the same time."

To add to my pleasure, my professor seems delighted with my frustration and is very interested to see how I overcome the challenge. Well that is just swell. I have to say that he is actually fantastic (not Dr. Wagner, but high up on the likeable-professor scale), but that answer was about as far from helpful as it gets.

Needless to say I am in an overall grumpy mood. So my kids better behave :)

Renaissance Festival

So I've been to a couple of different renaissance festivals, and I think I've always enjoy them... and this one was no exception. In fact, their set-up is pretty impressive! This one is located about halfway between the Springs and Denver; apparently they do it every summer, so I think a lot of the buildings are permanent. The best things were:
1) the crafts! I wish I wasn't a poor college student!!
2) the food yum!! :)
3) The jousting (cute guys on horses with accents in costumes!)
4) the general fun atmosphere, costumes, friendly people, etc.
5) going with Jess - it wouldn't have been as much fun by myself!
We actually didn't see any of the "shows" other than the jousting because it was pretty hot and we didn't feel like sitting in the sun that much... but we walked around to all the shops and chatted and had a good time :)
I still would have preferred going to the zoo with my nephews in WI, but it was still a very fun day. Then I came home and took a nap :) And now I need to finish all the homework that I have been avoiding!
The kids -- or should I say boys -- come tomorrow!!!!

Smiles :)

Its been a long week, but instead of griping, I figured I would list some of the things that have made me smile lately:
~a lovely long-rambley-chatty phone call from Stephanie
~my WhizBang (WB) mentor teacher - Julie. She does something silly daily and we make each other laugh :)
~the very cool waterwheel that Julie and I created from a hoola-hoop, pvc pipe, and cups...we are very proud of it!
~getting to spend CC's money shopping for the WB kids
~the mascot stuffed cow that plays "don't worry be happy"
~watching the Tour de France (not only impressive athletics, but international eye candy too!)
~my Mommy leaving me a nice voicemail so I wouldn't worry about her :)
~Julie took me to School Crossing -- a fantastic store that could be called Teachers-R-Us -- I could have spent thousands!!
~my puppy dog that reminds me its always good to go enjoy a walk
~my fat kitty that reminds me its always good to take a nap

I am sure there are other things I have forgotten, but those were some of them at least! My family (Mom, Dad, Brother, Sis-in-law, and nephews) are all up in Wisconsin this weekend for a Frostman-side family reunion. I'm bummed that I can't be there :( But I'm looking forward to working with kids again for the next two weeks. This weekend Jessica and I are hoping to hit the local Renaissance fair... so we'll see! Yay for the weekend :)

2 teachers + 16 boys + 0 girls = ???

So we got our class roster today and since we are planning to have them in multiple groups throughout the program, we figured we would do a boys vs. girls tally... so I started going down the list... boy, boy, boy, boy, Boy, BOY, BOY!! BOY!!!?! BOY?!?!??!?!? Yes. That's right. 16 boys. 0 girls. Wow. The other 3rd grade class of 15 kids (which I will also be teaching sometimes as we are switching for lessons) has 9 more boys and 6 girls. Needless to say I am a little worried about how classroom management is going to play out. At least there are only (only?!?!) 16 of them.... right?

The nice part so far is that my partner 3rd grade student-teacher-person (one of the 9th semester people, not one of my MAT crew), and I are splitting the lessons. Since we are spending two days each on solar, wind, and water energy, we are each planning one lesson and then teaching it twice, once to our own kids and then the next day we'll switch kids. It will give us both a chance to teach all 31 kids and a chance to see where a lesson might need improvement or tweaking and have the opportunity to tweak it.

So... back to lesson planning...

How Science Began...

So it was a little hard to get my brain back in gear today... I definitely did NOT want to get out of bed this morning (and my fat kitty didn't want me to either!) and it didn't help that it was very cloudy and gloomy. But up I got anyway, and off to school I went!

We met up at the Education House and our crew of 6 were joined by a few others. Two of them are secondary MAT students who are working with the 6th grade classes at the science camp so they can have the middle-school age experience since their student teaching will be in a high school. Two others are undergrad students who are doing CC's "9th semester" program which is a Colorado teaching certification (without the masters degree). So there are a total of 10 of us, along with 11 teachers (one of them doesn't have one of us) along with our professor and his co-director of the science camp. The Wiz-Bang Science camp is divided into grade levels (instead of class topics like the GT program was) and there is an overall theme (I think the theme-thing is new this year) so this year we're all "Going Green." I'm sure there will be more on that later.

So anyway! We all piled into a few cars and drove up to the CC cabin. Just as a side-note... Woodland Park and/or Divide have been added to the list of places that I could see myself living after school is over. The CC cabin was just past Divide, and although it had dirt road access, most of the cars parked off the main road and we hiked the short 1/2 mile up to the cabin. Its a really beautiful setup and I could definitely see the benefits of bringing small classes there. It was still cool and cloudy, so we were inside for the biggest chunk of the morning. My one criticism of the day was that there wasn't a big group introduction/team building activity... we ended up in lots of different groups throughout the day, so eventually it worked out, but there wasn't a lot of cohesiveness to start with. Especially with the camaraderie of the teachers who have done this through many years. There also needed to be a mental-gear-shift from the program we were just in to this one as they are VERY different. This will definitely be a good thing, but it just wasn't something they offered up as a point of clarity, and it certainly would have made a difference to me ... at least for my thought processes throughout the day. So to make a long story short (too late) we spent the day doing a variety of experiments and group-exercises led by the different teachers. It was fun, although I'm a little worried that the "science" that I really enjoy is the stuff that it takes years of "basics" to get to... and therefore I might find it difficult to "dumb it down" for the elementary grades because I feel like I am not giving them all the information (which in science can translate into a misunderstanding!) We had also kind of been told that we got to make up our own curriculum for the program, which is not true, so I was bummed about that also... but we'll just see how it goes. I'll be teaching 3rd grade (We also thought we would be in different grades than we will be in the coming school year, but that we were misinformed there) and my mentor teacher seems very nice. We spend a good chunk of this upcoming week planning for the kids, so I'll fill you in on that as it goes along.

All in all I'm glad we had this transition day before we're thrown back into the classroom. I don't know if having "the break" this weekend helped or just made me more tired, and I am sure I will feel more into it tomorrow, but tonight 13 more months of this seems like a very very long time. Everyone says that this first summer is the hardest, so hopefully we'll all get over this hump and then at least have some forward momentum to work with on the other side. But for now... we'll see what tomorrow brings.