Spring Program

We had our Spring Music Program on Thursday, May 12.  The students and parents surprised me with flowers once again.  They spoil me!

Ethan was proud of his mommy.  

You Know...

you're a TEACHER when.....
somebody asks you what your plans are for Valentine's Day and you reply by excitedly sharing the special Valentine music activities you have planned for all of your classes. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Blessing in Disguise

I woke up at 5:30am today thinking that I'd prepare for school as normal.  Luckily, some dear friends of mine made a post on my facebook wall to inform me that my school district had canceled school for the day due to icy roads.  I saw this on my phone before I started getting ready for the day.  THANK YOU to all who were looking out for me.  = )  

This snow day is truly a blessing in disguise.  I REALLY need to go to the doctor, but wasn't going to take a sick day to do that.  I have far too much going on at school right now and I absolutely hate to miss, especially without advance notice. So, I'll be calling a new doc when their clinic opens at 9am and hopefully they'll be able to squeeze me in this afternoon. I'm not getting out on these dangerously icy roads this morning.  Safety first!


My "snow day" will be filled with coffee, blankets, hot yummy food, baking cookies, watching movies, creating PowerPoints, and going to a new doctor. I may need a day off after today. jk ; )

Baby Shower!

No, not mine, silly!

Maybe I should be careful. That's how rumors get started. FYI- We're waiting a few more years.

I helped host a baby shower for a wonderful teacher at school. It was so much fun! Here are a few (unedited) photos I took...

Mmm... Tasty cheese and crackers.

This was my first attempt at Cake Pops/Cake Balls.

I'll be making them again soon.

I may have to go with the

good ol' BOOMER SOONER theme. = )

Cheesecake bites

Precious!

Love these!

The sweet corsage the mommy-to-be wore.

Can you believe her mom wore it and saved it all these years? WOW!

The Mommy's plate.... CUTE!

CONGRATS to my Sweet Friend!!!

She is going to be an amazing mother.

Happy Saturday!

I don't remember needing a weekend so badly for quite some time. Yesterday we had our first school assembly. Yours truly (me) is in charge of all the planning. Everything turned out pretty well for our first run. There were only a few minor technical difficulties.

We opened up with saying the Pledge of Allegiance and the Norms Pledge. After the Pledges we all sang the Star Spangled Banner. Their little voices are precious!

I had everything on PowerPoint for the students. They loved it!

The biggest problem I encountered was with the stereo system. It's so old that it won't read burnt CDs. So... I just played the music off my Macbook and held the mic to it. It wasn't the ideal situation, but we made do.

I'm exhausted from working on my room, writing lesson plans, researching, and all the singing. My voice is actually pretty raspy from all the talking/singing. I sound like I have a cold. Ha!

Ethan and I slept in until 8am today. We were up several times during the night so I could really use a nap today.

Earl's BBQ emailed me a coupon for a $3.99 chicken dinner. I just went and ordered it to-go. There were several pieces of smoked chicken and I chose green beans and baked beans for my sides. It was so delish! Ethan may of had some too. The boy loves chicken!

I'm not sure what we'll be doing tonight. I wouldn't mind watching a movie at home and snuggling with my pup.

Back To School

School began on Thursday, Aug. 19. I woke up super early so I had plenty of time to get ready and take Ethan for a long walk. Here's a cheesy photo of me on my first day as an elementary music teacher...

I had the hardest time deciding what to wear. There are way too many cute clothes in my closet! It's an awesome problem to have. ; )

I took Ethan for about a 45 minute walk. He needed to get all emptied out before being locked up all day by himself. Poor guy! It's going to take some getting used to.

I arrived to school around 7:30am even though my report time is 7:50am. That gave me just enough time to get a few things in order and get all my tech stuff prepared. Good times!

The Principal gave the morning announcements at 8:15 and directed the school in saying the Pledge. It was wonderful to hear all the little voices.

At 8:20am I had my first class.... the 4th graders. What a great group! After that came 5th, 3rd, Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd. Yes, I did have a lunch break in there. My day finished at 2:30 and I reported for bus duty at 3pm.

I REALLY enjoyed my day! At lunch I told the art teacher (who is absolutely wonderful!!!) that I could hardly believe I was getting paid to have this much fun. The afternoon was a little exhausting though. I may need to start indulging in a small piece of dark chocolate after lunch to pump me up for those classes. Ha!

Ooh, and I must mention that a couple kids (Kindergarten and 1st grade) told me I was pretty. How adorable is that?!?!?!!!!

I'm so grateful to have this job

and thankful for these kids!

Getting Organized

Apparently I collect school supplies... 

I found these super cute shoe boxes that are decorated with colored pencils.  

David and I had a bunch of school supplies a drawer, but it was constantly getting jammed.  Now we have a shoe box of pens/highlighters, a shoe box of pencils/scissors, and a box of all the leftovers that haven't been sorted out yet.  It would be awesome if I could find a teaching job again so I could make use of all this stuff!  

I have tons more and will need to purchase a couple more cute shoe boxes.  

School's Out for Summer!!!

That's right!

School's out for summer!  

I finished at about 2:30 pm on Saturday, May 16.  I ended up making a 100% on my algebra final, so I was pretty happy.  It actually made me consider majoring in mathematics for a moment.  = )

I'm glad school is out for the summer.  Of course, I've decided NOT to go back for summer classes or in the fall.  I have an addiction to school that needs to be worked on for a while.  So, I'm cutting myself off - COLD TURKEY!  I need to rediscover my hobbies and have some fun.  After all, we only have 2 years left in St. Louis.  

I thoroughly enjoyed my little adventure and majoring in nursing, but I didn't LOVE it.  I'm already so passionate about music and teaching.  I often felt like I couldn't really give nursing my 100%.  I can say that I learned a ton and greatly benefited from taking the nursing nutrition class.  I actually feel like I can somewhat keep up with David and his other Med School friends when they talk about medical stuff.  It's great!!!

David is really impressed by all I learned.  He couldn't believe I was only enrolled in an undergraduate nursing nutrition course.  He often referred to it as "mini med school" or "pharm school."  I often felt that way too.  I spent a lot....and I mean A LOT... of time studying.  

Pursuing a second undergraduate degree was really hard after already having a graduate degree.  I won't go in to this now, but I have a nice list of reasons.  So, if I ever go back to school again, it just might have to be for my Ed.D..  Of course, it's very possible that I'M DONE FOR GOOD, but I'm not making any promises.  I think I still have a few good years left in me.  LOL!

I'm eager and excited to be working soon.  My plan is to just substitute teach until we move again.  It's a pretty sweet gig.  The school I've been subbing at pays their subs double the old district I taught at in OKC.  I won't have to give up my evenings or weekends for marching band either.  I don't even have to write lesson plans.  I'll finally have some free time so I can start enjoying this wonderful city again.  

Here are some recent pics....

Ethan recently discovered a 

nice little spot on his bookshelf.

"Mommy, you're disturbing me.  

This better be important."

David studying for the USMLE Step 1.

I'm so sick of seeing those books!

Back to School......Again!

It's February 4th and I'm completely back in the swing of things.  I'm taking 16 hours this semester and I'm super swamped already.  My favorite classes are chemistry, nutrition, and algebra.  My least favorite are abnormal psychology (video) and interpersonal communications (internet).  

I did great with the scheduling and only have to drive to UMSL on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Tuesday I go from 8am-4pm, so I'm exhausted by the time I get home.  Thursday I only have chemistry in the morning, so I've been spending the afternoon working on homework/studies and doing laundry.  It seems to be working for me.

I've met some really neat people in my classes.  A few of them graduated high school when I graduated with my masters, but it doesn't feel like there's that much of an age gap.  They're fun and very hardworking.  I have also met a couple of RN's in my chemistry class.  They're taking the course as a refresher before they apply to CRNA school.  I'm just really amazed at how friendly everyone has been at UMSL.  They're some of the sweetest people I've met in the last 1 1/2 years.  This is going to be a great semester.

David has been back to the grind for a month now.  He just finished Renal and is now studying GI.  I have been studying GI in my nutrition class, so I'm sure we're going to have some real interesting conversations here before too long.  Want to join us?  = )

David has to perform a full physical examination on a patient next week.  I'll probably be his practice subject this week. We're really romantic, aren't we???

There is one bad thing about me attending school at UMSL this semester.  David and I don't have spring break at the same time.  His break is the week before mine.  We're still not too sure how we're going to handle it or what we're going to do.  We do have a close friend that's getting married on the 21st.  I'm really looking forward to seeing her walk down the aisle.  She's going to be a beautiful bride.

Ethan is doing good.  I'm pretty sure we finally got rid of his ear infection.  He's been battling that for awhile now.  Poor guy! 

I think he misses his uncle Jasper.  And sometimes I think that he'd like a sibling, but that's not an option right now.  We're able to provide very well for Ethan, but 2 dogs would be just too much for us to handle.  I'm reminded of this when I take Ethan in for his annual shots and when he gets sick.  I love my little Ethan to pieces.  We play fetch and tug with him a lot.  I think he stays pretty well entertained.

I haven't put a real update on my blog lately, so I figured it was time.  Now it's time to hit the books again.  I have a pile of notecards just waiting to be put to use.  

Take care!