I'm Back!

Oh my goodness! I'm actually blogging. Don't get too excited. We're taking this slow. :) We'll start by sharing some of the latest and greatest things I've found lately I love.

Starting with this cute idea I found on Pinterest for my classroom. It is courtesy of http://msnoren.blogspot.com/ "My Life as a Fifth Grade Teacher." Love this blog! Adding to it my favorites.

So tomorrow I'm going to give this little motivational tool I try. This week we will be taking our 2nd ELA benchmark assessment. Since I just administered an ELA theme test last week I knew I was going to need something to get these kids excited about "taking another test." blah...

This is how it will work. I will present the bag at the beginning of the week as we begin our review for it. I will explain that for each section of the test (e.g., Vocabulary and Concept Development, Reading Comprehension, etc) students pass they can are earn a raffle ticket. The more sections they pass the more raffle tickets they earn, the more raffle tickets the better the chance they have to win the Awesome Reader Bag. I'll put all the tickets into a raffle on Friday. The winner of the raffle wins the bag full of prizes from Bridwell Bucks to pencils to candies. Love this idea! So excited to try it out!

Groundhog Day

Here comes an embarrassing story I'm about to share. A couple of weeks back I was admiring my new flowers when I noticed a hole in my flowerbeds in front of the house. I recognized it as a gopher hole. I went behind my house to the garage, grabbed a shovel, and returned promptly to do my duty of filling up the hole, so the gopher could no longer disturb my prized flowers. I commenced filling the hole back up with dirt the gopher had so kindly dumped on my flowers, when I heard some scurrying around me. There was the gopher running at the speed of what seemed like a mile a minute around the adjacent flower bed. I was obviously causing him great stress by proceeding to destroy his new home. I didn't care for watching this giant rodent run my flowers. All I could keep saying under my breath was, "Gross...gross...nasty...gross..." (I just have such a low tolerance and uneasy feeling about anything that looks related to a rat). So as I continued to watch the gopher run around and around in circles, and with each circle I became more and more uneasy about having him in my yard, I walked slowly up to him with my shovel in hand with the objective of simply scaring the pest out of my yard. Well, part of my objective of was met. As the gopher completed his next circle, and I started gently swinging the shovel (again just with the intention to scare him away) and saying "Shoo...Shoo" (it felt absolutely ridiculous to say shoo to a gopher), he stopped right in front of me. The next thing I knew I thought I was in a remake of Jurassic Park. That gopher stuck out his teeth and lunged toward me. The next thing I remember was I had run inside my house, cowered by the window, and was peeking out ever so cautiously, hoping I was safe. It turned out, on this day, I was the pest who was meant to be scared out of the gopher's garden. :)

This photo is long over due. These hearts have been up 5 months and they still make me happy! I truly do have the best boyfriend ever!

My Yard

If you know my mother and grandmother you know that they have regular ole' green thumbs. I always appreciated both of their abilities to turn an average space into something truly magical. The next chance I get I'm going to post pictures of their yards, and you'll see exactly what I mean.
When I was a kid,I can remember going to the Matthew's greenhouse on Old Westside Road every spring and picking out flowers with my sister and mom. Both my sister and I would run up and down the rows of flowers inside the greenhouse and out, anxious to find the biggest, most beautiful petunias for our mom. My grandmother would be there in her big brimmed hat, apron, gloves, and trowel in hand working away with a smile on her face, eager to share new growing tips she had learned while working at the greenhouse. There truly seemed to be nothing less than magic growing in those rows of flowers at the greenhouse because of the way it brought our family together.
In May my mom and grandma came over to impart their wisdom of knowledge of the garden on me. Since then I've been truly blessed with a wonderful sight every time I leave and return home. It's been such a joy to get up early in the morning before it's too hot or work in the cool summer evenings in my yard.
I don't know if I'll ever perfect the skill of gardening as my mom and grandmother have but I'm grateful that I can always plant flowers and be reminded of their love for me.

Heart Attacks and Freedom Toast

When Matt came to visit me for Valentine's Day he met me at school on Friday. Then we went to my house I was shocked to find him and Cap had already been there. On my bedroom door were brightly covered hearts all over it. In the middle was a large heart that said, "Heart Attack." It made me so happy that the hearts are still up today.

Isn't that Freedom Toast above just too cute. Matt sure knows how to do the little things to make me smile.

February was another great birthday month. Matt and I celebrated our birthdays together at my parents' house in Gazelle with both of our parents. The next afternoon I thought I was just meeting Matt for lunch in Yreka at Casa Ramos. I was shocked when I walked in to find my college roommates, Ash and Ang, there too. I was so thrilled I screamed a little in the restaurant, glad it wasn't that crowded. I love those girlies!

A little more news of excitement: Spring Break starts tomorrow................YYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!