Brick, Door, Slide .... good mixture?

On Saturday, Bryan & I went by the house twice. Once around 10am (before we drove to Conroe to see my parents & check out the pool that they're building) and once around 5:30pm (when my parents decided to stop by and see it too).

That morning this is what Bryan and I saw on the back of the house:



That afternoon? THIS is what we saw! Isn't that crazy progress?



The brick looks so nice!! I can't believe how much nicer the house looks with it. Pretty unreal.



Also, we now have a garage door!! Pretty sweet.
We chose one with windows to let in extra light into the garage. We really like it so far. Guess we'll see how handy it'll be once we're living there!



We also decided to go really explore all of the neighborhood amenities, including the fish-able ponds, tennis courts, swimming pools, walking paths & playground. Bryan decided he absolutely had to try out the crazy steep slide on the playground. As a person who spends a huge amount of time with small children, I saw that slide and thought "good grief - that's not safe!" I'll have to make sure I keep my future children well away from that one until they're big enough to not go flying!



Yikes!
(But Bryan enjoyed it, haha)

What do y'all think of the house so far!?!?!?!

Classroom & Pigs

I mentioned several weeks ago that I did a massive classroom make-over. It's been working much better than my old arrangement. Since I won't be using it much longer, I thought I should probably post the pictures I had promised to post ... sorry for the delay :)

Here's the carpet/starboard/calendar time area:



Here are my students' desks and small group table (most of the room):



This is more random, but this past week we've been reading books where pigs are the main character, writing about them, etc. So I decided to do a guided drawing with the students where we all drew a pig together and then I let them use watered down watercolors to paint the sky and grass around the pig. The great thing about watercolors is that whatever they've done with crayon won't be covered up by the paint because the paint stays off the wax. Most of the kiddos did an awesome job! A few struggled but they're still cute!

Here's just one example close-up:



And here they all are lined up on the wall. The kids were so happy to see them hung up when they got back from P.E. :)



Some things about Kindergarten are so much fun!

Job Update

Well, I figure it's time to "publicly" come clean. I decided to wait until I wasn't angry to actually post about this, because otherwise I'd probably have used foul language and made threats, etc ... which doesn't usually make for good reading :)

I resigned from my job as a teacher.

This year has been one of the most frustrating and miserable years of my life - and most of it did not have to do with my students. (With one major exception. And wouldn't you know it? He just withdrew!!!! Ugh.) I have never so often felt like I was in so much trouble or such a failure as at this school. Last year my administration was very happy with me - this year at a new school my administration has acted like I'm a terrible teacher who doesn't put forth any effort (I guess they overlook my 80 hour weeks? And the ever increasing scores my students were achieving?)

Bryan and I have been debating the "what do I do?" question since about November, and right before Christmas I was very close to resigning. But the thing about pain? We tend to forget. And I forgot a little bit about how horrible it feels to constantly be scolded and constantly be watched like I need constant supervision to do anything properly, so I decided to stick it out. That lasted until last week, when a specialist was yet again very unprofessional (I've sought legal advice regarding earlier problems) and got me into trouble yet again for something that didn't even happen. I cried and was furious and Bryan was furious and we decided that there was no reason for me to be so miserable all the time. I haven't been sleeping very well (even with medicine) and I've had horrible stomach trouble pretty much the entire time I've been teaching there because of the stress.

I absolutely adore many of my co-workers, and I love my students. This was a VERY difficult decision to make - especially considering the financial and reputation ramifications. Thankfully, we will be okay financially AND I have had many wonderful people who have seen my teach all year offering to write me letters of recommendation for future positions.

This sounds like such a negative post, but the reality is that I feel free. I feel a 100lbs lighter, and I bet it will feel even better this coming Friday, Feb. 4th when I say goodbye to my classroom for the last time. I gave them 2 weeks to find a replacement, and thankfully they did find someone. (On Friday I'll hit up happy hour and it will be glorious!)

Thanks for the support these rough past months. Let the good times begin to roll again!

Think brick!

Whoa - prepare yourself for the amazing progress you're about to see :)

First, the sheetrock on the inside of the house - it's all up!! I think they have a few more days worth of work on it (sanding and so on), but it now looks like individual rooms and areas instead of one large floor with boards sticking up!

This guy is standing on some stilts to reach the higher areas and the other picture is of our formal dining room & stairway.



On the left is our master bedroom and on the right is our bonus room upstairs.



Next, check out the STONE ... and .... BRICK!

(Ignore the random stacking of bricks that looks like they're covering up the window. They won't be there very long - they're just helping hold some of the weight of the other bricks I think.)





It's looking beautiful! I love the stone and brick combination that we chose. The very light stone brings out all of the light white specks throughout the brick.
We really love it!!

Joshua Creek

Although I'm a little late, this past weekend my parents, Bryan and I drove a little north of Boerne, Texas to Joshua Creek Ranch. It was a WONDERFUL and fun weekend!



We had some beautiful lodgings. Where Mom and I are standing was our view when Bryan & I woke up, and where Dad, Mom and Bryan are standing was in the kitchen/dining area of our really nice cabin.



Mom and Dad clearly had a good time messing around :)



Watching the birds work during the field hunts (for quail, pheasant and chucker) was AWESOME. Those dogs are so neat and fun to watch work! The picture of the cocker spaniel (named Buster) below is one where he actually caught a quail IN THE AIR and then, without dropping it, picked up the quail Bryan had just shot and took them both to his owner. How cool is that? The other picture is Bryan shooting at a pheasant - which fell to the ground shortly after this photo was taken :)



Then we did the driven pheasant hunt! This was SO MUCH FUN!! Bryan absolutely loved it. Dad, Bryan & I all had pretty sore shoulders after this :)
The 10 shooters managed to shoot over 300 birds that afternoon. A-mazing. We even broke a Joshua Creek record!

Below is Bryan & I posing in front of all the birds shot that afternoon. The other one is Mom & I nice and bundled up when it was about 28 degrees outside - burr.



And here are the 10 hunters + Mom posing in front of our 300+ birds. Yum!!!



It was a wonderful weekend. We would love to go back again.
*For those that don't approve of hunting: I tried to minimize the pictures of too much carnage :)*

Pennsylvania & Testing

Bryan is on a trip in Pennsylvania! He got to fly out on the company jet (very cool) with several other people all headed the same direction. They left Monday morning bright and early, and he'll be back sometime tomorrow (Wednesday) night. I told him he was pretty much obligated to take a picture of himself in all of the snow, and because he loves me dearly, he complied :)

I really don't like him being gone. It was very hard to sleep last night!! (Which probably made an already terrible day at work worse...)

Pray for all the little children in public schools these days. All this standardized testing is RIDICULOUS! In Kindergarten we have SIX days worth of 2-3 hour testing mornings. Today was Day #2 and it was awful. Then on top of that child-(and teacher)-torture, today was DAY #9 of inside "recess"!!!! Some of those days were legit, and some were just plain stupid. They said that 56 degree weather was considered "snowy conditions"... what does every city north of Houston do for 4 months of the year during recess? Surely those children get to play!! With a coat on in that weather, most children still work up a sweat running around while playing.

Did I mention there are 136 days left until the glorious June 2nd?
Sorry for the rant. This has been (and continues to be) one heck of a year.

MISS YOU BRYAN!

M-A-R-C-H!

Well, it's been a busy, busy, busy .... did I mention BUSY week?
I got a new student, and so I pretty much had to rearrange my classroom completely to make room for anymore incoming students. Thankfully the new arrangement will allow me to seat 2 more students comfortably, although I REALLY hope that wasn't tempting fate!! Since I was rearranging anyway, I went ahead and gave the entire room a go-over. I updated the decor, moved the Starboard, teacher table, carpet, and center areas, along with the student table arrangement. I keep trying to remember to take a picture so I can post it on here. I'll try to remember that this week!

But more interesting is all of the house changes! We had our pre-sheet rock meeting today and it went pretty smoothly. We had a couple of questions, and our builder showed us a few things they had to change from the original plan.

The AWESOME news is that instead of closing on April 30 which was the initial estimate, the plan is now around the end of MARCH!!! WHOOP!! We can't wait!

Here are a couple of pictures from the last week:

Air Ducts are pretty much taking over our house! Although they will be covered up once they do the sheet rock. Still, it's kind of weird to look around and see all of these monster tube like things roaming all over the ceilings and walls, haha.



Jacuzzi tube!!! Whoo hoo!



And ..... brick!! The brick was delivered this week, and the stone will probably be delivered next week. Not this week but the following week the brick will start going up!



It's very quickly becoming a "real" house instead of just wood, nails, and shingles. Pretty wonderful :)

Tomorrow my day is made because it's Martin Luther King Jr. Day! AKA I don't have to go to work! And that, my friends, is a great day. Mom & I are going to hang out together, which I'm super excited about.

Bryan, on the other hand, will be freezing his butt off because he'll be in Pennsylvania on a work trip. There's a high of 22 and a low of 9 or something crazy cold like that. He'll be gone until Wednesday night. Does it count as me stealing all of the covers if he's not here? :)

Rain, rain, it's okay!

The house has a ROOF! Prepare yourself for these pictures because it really is starting to look like a complete house. Granted, the walls inside are still missing ... but they can't do that until the house is dried-in anyway, so it'll come soon.



A few pictures from our little off the bonus-room attic. Check out the "roof"!
No more rain inside :)



The ceiling for the patio and check out the chimney!



Our entry way looks great! And Bryan checks out the bottom of the shower:



It was SO loud inside the house as they were outside finishing up the roof. That looks like HARD work! (And I'd felt like I put in a long day in Kindergarten, haha).
Also, the fireplace is installed!



Lots of changes over the course of the week! Pretty snazzy.
Since we're about to have a huge storm in Houston, they finished the roof with perfect timing.
So bring it on, rain!

Do you see what I see?

I had an INSANE day at school, but I made sure to look on the hilarious side of it all, so I'm good :)
... like the child that told another teacher that I forgot to take them to lunch (not likely to happen! I love having 30 minutes to regain my sanity)
... or the child that claimed I wouldn't allow them go home (our P.E. time was switched just for the day - we usually go home right after P.E. or music but we had to switch with 4th grade since they were taking the TAKS, so it was at 9:30am)
... or the child that told me (after being given a referral for slugging another child in the face) that he was "going to kick me in the nuts" (anatomy difficulties aside, it is still a very inappropriate comment to make to a teacher).
I also did Rigby testing all day (yuck!) but I managed to finish every single student so tomorrow and Friday there won't be any testing, whoohoo! At last the children went home (yes, I did allow them to go home after all ... haha) and I found myself cracking up like usual at the end of the day :) My sense of humor has developed wonderfully these last several months!

Meanwhile, Bryan had a pretty interesting day too! He started on a machine in Andarko's gym that you have to sign up for. You're given a 30 minute slot and have to complete 24 sessions in 4 months to keep it. He has a slot on Monday, Wednesdays and optional Fridays. It's called a Ko-ko machine. I believe Bryan's exact words were "Ko-Ko kicked my ass" :) I'm really proud of him for doing it! It sounds like it combines strength training with endurance. Pretty cool!

Then Bryan stopped by the house to check out the progress and take some pictures. Notice anything different?



Yep, that's right! We have WINDOWS! And siding!
Note: The siding will be painted.

Bay window!



I think this is probably the coolest part:



The big front bedroom window & the door/windows in the entry! Yay!

And finally, can you guess what on earth this is or where it might go?



If you guessed rain-glass window that goes next to our bathtub, you'd be correct! Looks pretty cool!

We also have DOORS!
They aren't the final doors, they're temporary for while they work.
This one goes on the side of the garage for BRYAN'S easy access to the lawnmower, etc :)



I hope this post made some sense. I'm worn out!

Half-way Oopsie

So about those New Year's goals .... I managed one of them today! But not both.
Wanna guess which?


I did make it to the gym!! :)
(And I was right - it always does make me feel better)

It's the "making myself love the rest of the school year" goal that didn't go so well today, BUT it had nothing to do with the students - they were great. Today was really a super day back at work. I don't know if it's because I had pretty low expectations, so it seemed extra-good, or if it really did just go really well! I think what REALLY helped was that my most difficult student was absent today. I always hate to think it, but it really does make a difference when a difficult student isn't there. I sincerely, from the very bottom of my heart, hope that my child is NOT "that" child when they are in school. That they are NOT the child that encourages their teacher to go to Happy Hour on Fridays :)

It was actually a tiff with a co-worker that made my afternoon head south. It's amazing how someone can assume they are so extremely superior to someone else that they think it's perfectly okay to criticize everything they've done. Given the circumstances, I feel that I've done a pretty darn good job this year. I'm NOT meant to be a kindergarten teacher. I'm meant to work with older students - this was pretty obvious even when they offered me the position. However, I've done research, put in some extremely long hours, and worked very hard to get better and better and do a good job for these kiddos. And I really don't think I've failed as badly as a few people like to think I have. But who knows? I might have. But given that there are 149 days remaining, let's at least PRETEND I may have done something right, or it'll feel even longer than it sounds!

Okay, rant over. I guess I'll start over with my resolutions again tomorrow. Going for 2/2!

I hope everyone else's first day back at work for 2011 was good!

Adios 2010

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2011!

Bryan and I partied hard by ... watching bowl games & visiting with our good friend, Tyler. Not exactly wild & crazy, but we DID make it to midnight! And it was really nice to relax.

Although I don't believe in new year's resolutions in general, I don't think it hurts to give oneself a goal (or two) and see how far you get :)

So this year I've decided to:

1. Really try to ENJOY the next 5 months as much as possible and not only live for the end of this school year. This includes limiting the amount of complaining I do and making sure I get plenty of sleep. It's amazing what an extra hour of sleep can do. Having said that, however, I will also give myself plenty of encouragement via counting down the days. It's much easier to reach a goal when you actually see progress. As of today: 150 days more to go until June 2nd. I even downloaded an app to my phone which will keep count for me! (Not that I'm likely to forget, haha.)

-and-

2. Help myself out by going to the gym. I was doing really well about this until my days at school starting ending later and later. It was so hard to motivate myself to go when I didn't leave work until after 6 or 7. I just wanted to go home, relax, have dinner and enjoy some time with Bryan. I've decided there is NO REASON to be at school past 5pm on a normal week day and that I will try to leave even earlier than that if I can manage it. This will also contribute to Goal #1. I'm a much happier (and healthier) person when I exercise regularly. My stress from the past few months has really contributed to weight gain - and just like counting down the days to summer (in a positive way, of course!) I'm going to count down the pounds until I get back to a normal, healthier weight. I can be really good about this when I decide to. Plus the YMCA next to our house is awesome :)

If you came up with a cool resolution or goal, leave them in the comment box. I love reading about them!

And in the spirit of Goal #1 AND Goal #2, I'm going to take myself off to bed right now so I'll wake up shiny eyed and bushy tailed for our first day back at school tomorrow! And still have plenty of energy to spare for the gym after school :) Good night!