How much do I love them?

It is impossible to put into words how much I love my nephews! I'm having a wonderful time here in Vermont. Max (who just turned 1) was not sure what to think of me at first. I got a delightful scowl from him that just made me laugh... and now he has warmed up to me and the goofy grin makes me laugh even more!! He is so stinkin' cute! Sam is definitely three (almost four) and loves to ask "why?" The favorite game currently is garbage truck... as he has a new toy truck. I am the lion and the elephant and the turtle (other toys) who put out their garbage (aka Lego pieces) for the garbage truck to pick up. The challenging part is coming up with places that my animals have gotten their garbage from... to answer the question, "Lion where is YOUR garbage from?" We also have played Legos (I made the flower delivery spaceship) and marble tower and hide and seek and trucks.

I also have sore thumbs from playing video games with my brother :) We are playing a super-fun shoot-'em game. I am the sniper (aka... I am not really good at the game so I hang back and pick off the occasional bad guy while Daniel kills everyone else.) It's fun :)

Today me and the sister-in-law are going to have a girls afternoon of lunch and shopping and grownup time!

I love my family :)

Life is good...even if United SUCKS

So while it is true that I prefer sitting in my living room to sitting in an airport... I do NOT prefer it when it means that my flight has been canceled and I wasted an entire day sitting in an airport AND didn't get anywhere. United SUCKS.
I was suppose to get to Vermont tonight to spend a week with my nephews, and instead I am home and grumpy. At least I got stuck here and not in Chicago... but I am still grumpy. Apparently some sensor on some door wouldn't go off and so they couldn't fly the plane... didn't really sound like a flight-canceling dilemma to me, but what do I know. I am on a flight tomorrow morning, with an additional stop in Denver and about 4 more hours of airport/flying time... but hopefully I will GET there. At least United rescheduled my return trip another day so that I am not losing out on nephew-time. Oh well.

Since I am blogging... I should catch you up on the non-sucky pieces of life! :)
SCHOOL IS OVER!!! Or at least the teaching part is. The trip to the zoo was awesome... although I would have rather skipped the "tour" and just taken the kiddos all by myself... but since most teachers don't have my background in biology, I am sure for the other groups it was worth it. I definitely need to go back there myself. My favorite part was feeding the giraffes (they have prehensile tongues ya know!) The day after that we had field day - a pointless day of playing games outside all day -- but it was still fun.

That weekend I got steamrolled by a bad cold which lasted the entire week. The kids were awful... not as awful as they could have been because they are great kids... but still awful... so it was a looooong last week. The last day was good though! I finished reading them "The Phantom Tollbooth" (my all time favorite book) and then I read them "The Rainbow Goblins" which they all loved. I got lots of hugs :) I will never forget those kiddos!

The last day with the kids was Thursday, so Friday was clean-up-the-room day. It was also a day to hang out with the teacher-friends and say goodbye. I got some beautiful presents (might get around to taking pictures of those at some point) and a lot of teacher-supplies!! Most of all I got a lot of heartfelt "good luck" and "we'll miss you" and hugs. As much as I would not want to work for that district... the staff at my school was a bunch of wonderful people and I will miss them.

So... as much as I will miss my kids and the staff... I'M OFFICIALLY DONE! At least with the teaching part :) The next time I teach it will be in MY OWN classroom in my school in Estes Park!! I do have 5 weeks of summer classes which start in another week and a half....and I don't really know where I will find the motivation to get through them... but I'm sure I will somehow. I'm looking forward to spending the time with my friends :) Then I will get to start hunting for a place to live in Estes Park. Yay!

In the meantime I have been enjoying my vacation time. I have slept, slept, slept, slept, went shopping with my Marci (we found this wonderful shirt... I will have to take a picture of it later too), slept, slept, slept, had ice cream and saw a movie with my Jessica, slept, slept, slept... and when I got tired of sleeping I took a nap! Speaking of which... I might just need another nap soon :)

Anyway, I need to go figure out what I need to do to re-arrange the rest of my traveling plans. I should be updating the blog from Vermont soon... hopefully United won't be sucking tomorrow!!!!

Snot

The lack of blogging is due to copious amounts of excess snot. I have a cold :(

Thankfully tomorrow is the last day of school with the kids... and the plan is to be out of the building around 10am on Friday. After I catch up on sleep, I'll catch up on the blog.

In the meantime... pass the kleenex.

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo!!

Tomorrow is the zoo field trip! I am probably more excited than my kiddos!!
The fun part today was that they all wanted to know if they were going to get to be in MY group tomorrow :)
Apparently I am a super-cool teacher! :)
Yay for the zoo!

P.S. Monday was awesome. I got up to Estes Park a little early so I treated myself to a carmel apple (yay for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!) and walked around the lake. I kept pinching myself because I cannot believe that I actually get to live in such an amazing, gorgeous place! Then I went over to the school and the principal walked me around and introduced me... of course I don't remember any names, but everyone was incredibly nice and welcoming. I saw my probably-will-be-my-classroom (which looks south/east with a view of the mountains and the lake!) Then I signed a bunch of papers for the HR person (also extremely nice)... and then headed home. I can't wait until THAT is home!!!!!!!!!

Ode to my fridge

So I was thinking the blog needed a little light-hearted fun... so I am blogging about my fridge. Not the inside (boring!) The outside!! It is hard to make an apartment feel like home when you move around a lot, but the one thing that makes it instantly homey for me is to decorate my fridge! It's the first thing I put up in a new place... and while I can't show you my new fridge in Estes Park (as I have no idea where it will be yet) I figured I would show you my fridge now :)




As you can see it is quite the eclectic collection of things. I have LOTS of pictures of my wonderful nephews, fun magnets, cards from friends, and other things that make me smile! The most recent addition is a congratulations card from my Idaho friend Bronwyn on my new job! Thanks B!! :)

In life news... I had a very nice weekend so far. Friday, my Mom came and did her astronomy presentation for the 3rd grade, and she was awesome :) Then I took her out to ice cream for Mommy's Day. On Saturday I met up with the Daddy for lunch and some REI shopping. I got new hiking boots (in periwinkle!) and Dad got a new backpack and I got him some hiking socks for his birthday. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon with Marci and fam. We went to Lowes to get them some garden plants so Nathan and I explored, ran around, and played on the tractor/lawn mowers. Then we had pizza for dinner and watched Bolt. Fun times :)

Tomorrow I am headed up to Estes Park to meet up with the HR person for some paperwork fun and also visit the school. Yay!! Then when I come back I have two days of regular school followed by a field trip to the zoo on Thursday and our school field day on Friday. I think I am more excited for the zoo than my kiddos :) It should be a good week... and will probably go by fast. Then there is only one more week until I'm done! Wow!! :)

Stick a fork in my paper 'cause it is DONE!!!

That's right, baby... DONE. D. O. N. E. Finished. Kaput. Done. Over. Final. Concluded. Ended. Completed. Through. Finite!

I got the word from my paper advisor that I was ready to print a last copy on acid-free paper so he can sign it and it can be sent off to be bound and stuck on some shelf in a library. Maybe someday I will go back and look it up.... but for now.... I'm done!

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!! :)

Officially Official!

It is now officially official! My future principal called and said that my references told him he better snatch me up quick :)!! (thanks guys!) So, while it sill has to be voted on by the school board, my next step is to make an appoitment with the HR person and head up to do some paperwork and visit my new school!!!

You should all go google Estes Park and see what an amazing place I will be living in! I AM SO EXCITED!!! I can't wait to get there... and then you are all welcome to come visit! :)

Parent/Teacher Conferences down and 3 weeks to go!

So I still have not heard the "official" word from Estes Park... the principal was suppose to call my references this week, and as far as I know, he didn't. Maybe he is just taking their word (letters of rec) without calling them, or maybe he didn't get to it. I am still suppose to hear something from him by the end of today... but I suppose if he didn't get to it, then it still won't be official. Not that I think there is something that is going to change, but I just want it to be officially official so I can stop worrying!!

This week was busy (what week isn't busy?!). And the kids are about as stir crazy as I am. Luckily we have field trips, special events, field days, and other fun stuff to fill the next couple of weeks, so hopefully they will go by fast! Friday I had parent/teacher conferences (which I did on my own!) and they went pretty well. It was sometimes hard to tell parents that their student really isn't where they need to be, but I focused more on the positive and ways they can help their child. Overall it was exhausting, but I still think it went well.

Yesterday I got up and took the 4-legged furry kids to the vet. Fat Kitty complained the entire way, but then he had a little fun spelunking around the room. The vet was very nice and Sherlock loved him! They both got their shots and a clean bill of health! :) When I got home I showered (excess fur!) and then met up with my mommy as she was in town with her academic team. She is going to do a star-presentation for our 3rd grade this coming week, so she gave me a starchart to copy for the kiddos. I didn't feel very good, so I went home and went back to bed for a lovely 3 hour nap. Then I spent the rest of the day catching up on my 6 loads of laundry!

Today I am being very productive, already have my piles of papers graded, did my April Americorps hours so I can get a bit of scholarship money from them, and am off to revise my Chapter 4 so I can be FINISHED with that stinkin paper!! Then I hope it will stay clear so my pooperdog and I can have an afternoon hike. Hopefully sometime in there I will get a phone call (official or not!) and let me know what the next step is!

3 weeks of school left... and then off to Vermont!! :) Yay!!