Kenya!

Ok! So here is the (tentative) itinerary for Kenya:

June 13th-14th: Spend a gagillion hours on an airplane and reach Nairobi (capital of Kenya) check into the Stanley Hotel. (Side note - I think it is hilarious that I am flying halfway around the world to stay in a hotel with the same name as the one in Estes Park.)

June 15th - Safari Day 1 :) Drive past Mt. Kenya to Shaba National Game Reserve (this is one of the places where Joy Adamson raised the lioness Elsa in "Born Free")

June 16th - still at Shaba -- safari all day (walking and riding)

June 17th - travel across Kenya, stopping at 237ft tall Thompson Falls, then on to Lake Nakuru. This is a day full of birds (especially flamingos) and the park is also a sanctuary for the black rhino.

June 18th - leave Lake Nakuru and head to Maasai Mara national reserve. Spend all day animal watching.

June 19th - another day of safari on the Maasai -- one activity we are looking at is a hot-air balloon sunrise safari trip!!

June 20th - morning safari and then back to Nairobi. This is the end of the "package" trip, but Jessica, Jordan, and I decided we needed a couple more days in Africa, so we have the rest of the day to explore.

June 21st - more exploring

June 22nd - more exploring - back on a plane late at night.

June 23rd - catch up on sleep (and plan the next trip back to Africa!!) while spending another gagillion hours on a plane.

I literally cannot remember a time in my life when I did not want to go to Africa. I cannot believe that I finally get to go! Not to mention the fact that I get to have this amazing adventure with great friends. Hurry up June!!! :)

AFRICA!!!

So after weeks of planning and looking and pricing (mostly done by Jessica's awesome travel agent) we've FINALLY booked our trip to Africa!!!!! I am so excited :) We're going to Kenya! More info to come!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Hi to all my adoring fans out there, it's your favorite dog, Sherlock! Mom doesn't let me on the computer much (she says I get fur in the keyboard) but since it's my birthday she made an exception :) I'm 6!!! And for my anual silly birthday picture, mom said I could pick my favorite six toys to have in my picture with me.
(It's a good thing I love my mom so much... I better get treats today!)

Mr. Big and Mr. Fat and Mr. Grey

No it's not three people, it's my kitty :) Although I do sometimes think he has multiple personalities (big = crazy attack the fridge and run around the house like I'm chasing something, fat = sleep eat sleep eat, and grey = cuddle love me purr-head). But I love him three bagillion times as much as any other kitty in the whole world. He was being very photogenic this weekend :)

Grow little plants grow!!

Apparently I'm on a blog kick (don't expect it to last too long) and I just had to post about my kiddos. Last week, the administration team asked the 4th grade teachers to give a presentation on the work we have been doing this year. The 4th grade class as a whole has a wide range of needs and ability levels, so we have had to approach this year with a bit of an "outside the box" being more specific and focus about what we are teaching, and doing short assessments and helping each other re-teach when kids don't get things. So on Monday we went to the monthly school board meeting and presented some of the things we have been doing. Our data shows a lot of growth in the kids, and we got a lot of kudos.

Well this week my kids finished taking the Scantron (a standardized test that they take at the beginning, middle, and end of the year). EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY KIDS GREW!!! Some of them even made INCREDIBLE gains (seriously, I almost cried!!) This is completely a team effort as there are other teachers (past and current) that have helped these kids... but it feels amazing to be part of that team. Most of all, I am just so proud of them :)

Well done Stork, well done!

Happy news today!! One of my oldest and dearest friends Jessica (from St. Louis - not to be confused with my Africa Jessica) is pregnant!!!! That little tadpole couldn't have picked a better Mommy :)

And I promise that I won't show him/her any of the hilarious and incriminating pictures that I have of his/her mother until he/she is at least..... 5 :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hee hee hee!

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

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

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

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

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

I do love my job!

2010

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

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

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