Sending strong prayers!

My sweet best friend Shauna was due today to be induced and welcome her baby girl, Abigail Grace, into the world today. Unfortunately, Abigail has a mind of her own. Shauna made no progress at all during an 8 hour process of pitocin and is being sent home --- hopefully tomorrow she will bring home her bundle of joy:):):) Prayers and wonderful thoughts are needed to bring her spirits up!

Only in Kindergarten...

...will I have these conversations LOUDLY and not find it to be weird or embarrassing in any way

-while outside on the playground me screaming, "J, where did your pants go? Are they on you or did you leave them in the bathroom?" She then proceeds to lift up her dress to her head and yells back I got hot I pulled them up! They were leggings and she pulled them under her dress.

- again on the playground little girl says, "I got bit by an ant. In my private place." me - "Okay, well do you want to go to the bathroom and go put a cool cloth on it?" her - "No no no not in my pee place but on the top part..." ... maybe we should consider teaching anatomy in Kindergarten

- me - "we do not put our boogers on our friends. "

- me - "we do not lick our friends while Ms. B is reading a story. Actually, we never lick our friends."

- me - "do we put cubes down our pants?" - them - "no" - one little girl - "I did that one time and I had to go to the doctor afterwards!"

- this one didn't happen in my class but it was still funny - during free choice center time a little girl was in the dress up center - "No no no no you have to keep your clothes on while at dress up. We do not take off all of our clothes and stand in our underwear at school. And K, please take off her clothes and give them back to her. A, when we play dress up we put the dress up clothes on TOP of our regular clothes."

And that was just the first week. What's funny is I know there are SO many more but really - these are my normal day to day conversations with my new found friends of 22, 5 and 6 year olds!

Why I love running the trail

I love running the trail here in Austin. At the same time, there are some faults to it. Below are my pros and cons (of course way more pros)

Pros:

• so many people running inspires you to keep going
• the beautiful view while running (downtown and the lake with canoers and paddleboards)
• there are very few hills which is very different from the trail behind our house
• the ICE COLD water provided each day by a different company
• the man that comes out around 9am each morning and plays his guitar just to entertain the runners
• the cute babies in their strollers loving their 'run' too with mom and dad
• the dogs cooling off in the lake during their run - man how I've thought about joining them
• how close it is to us (5 minutes max)
• the old people out there running (I mean like 90 years old no joke -- still moving along!)
• the adorable dog I saw today that was working so hard to go on her walk - only her front legs works and her back legs were supported in a harness held by her owner - it was so sweet
• the quietness of the trail - even though it is right downtown

The cons:

• as much as I love those babies in their strollers - I do not love how the mom's think it is okay to wall 3 wide side-by-side - hello how can I get by?
• at the same time people who are walking but leave at least a 1-2 person space between them - c'mon... the trail is only SO wide!
• the people who are competing with me... really - I'm not running a real race chill out!
• the looks I get from overweight people - why roll your eyes at me because I'm just wearing short shorts and a sports bra... it's 90 degrees outside!! you can wear it too!
  
• people who don't clean up their dog poop - for the most part they do... but not everyone
• people who let their little... i mean little kids... ride their tricycles on the busy trail. I don't mind during the week when it isn't so busy but on a Saturday between 8-9 (the busiest times) please don't take your kid - it's dangerous!
• the bikers who are not considerate at all and come flying around the corners... one of these times I'm going to be run over!

All in all I L-O-V-E having an amazing trail to run:)

What I'm loving....

My awesome Nook color from Derrick for my birthday - I have read soooo many books

Mia's sweet little bows she got in her ears the other day

2 new pairs of running shorts for $15 total!

Derrick's favorite coffee mug -- it always make me laugh to see him sipping out of it

Well, I'm not sure I can love these yet but I do love that they came for free with the fabric softener.

I LOVE this fabric softener -- it smells fantastic and lasts forever

MMMM mmmmmm - yummy! And SO GOOD FOR YOU!

Pure proof that price doesn't matter... Dawn may be more expensive but Gain's dish soap works 500000 times better and smells amazing

My amazing coffee cup from Costa Rica -- it's 3d in some spots

Our new staff tshirts -- pretty cute:)

Transformation

I transformed this old rickety shelf in my classroom last week and I love how it turned out. I loved the bookshelf because it was on wheels and was a perfect height, but I hated how the old look to it and the icky contact paper.

So, with someone else's contact paper that they were throwing away I transformed the shelf into something new!

Before

After! In my jungle room:)

Packed to the brim with literacy items!

My new room!

School starts in 2 days... oh my gosh where did the time go!? I cannot believe I am beginning my second year at this fantastic school and my fifth (holy cow!) year teaching!!

This year I have 5 more students than I had last year - I have consistently bounced between 22 and 23 students the past day. I will be starting on Monday with 22 as far as I know, but I'm sure 23 will happen very quickly.

The ironic part to all of this is that we will more than likely add an 8th Kindergarten teacher --- the cap is 22 and many have 23 with 1 having 24. Just think, 6 months ago I lost my job because they didn't think we would have enough students and they had hoped to increase class size from 22 to 24... that didn't pass resulting in a need for more teachers. Funny how things work out....

I had to really change around my room. i have the 2nd smallest homeroom classroom in the school but the smallest one is currently not being used so I have the smallest room in the school right now! Eeekkk! I utilized more of the storage in my room and got rid of a lot of bookshelves and random tables I didn't need. A lot of people have said my room is really open which is what I was going for. It needs to be open if I am going to be keeping track of 22 kids! Enjoy the pics:)

My room when you walk in

My room from the back - we painted the green wall across the top and it is soo pretty and adds so much (it used to be just plain white)

Where I will work with kids and also their art center (not enough space to have them separated)

This year I organized ALL of my books into categories. They all have a separate label on them and have a tub with that label on the outside for the students to know where they go.

More books organized into tubs

Best idea by far!! I borrowed this from some friends. The chair back covers are jumbo size book covers sold at Target. They fit perfectly and you just flip out the other end and it will hold their workbooks. I bought mine based off of table colors (pink, gray, green, blue, black, polka dot, and my back work table has different designs).

Amazing sneak peak

My great friend Lindsay who was married in July finally got a sneak peak into her video from her wedding. Click the link below and type in the password to enjoy. Isn't she beautiful!?

Click here

Type in the password 4498 and enjoy!

Sorry for the lack of posts

I have a ton of posts to write up and pre-plan-post (my new favorite thing... spending about 1-2 hours straight of blogging and then planning out when they will post so I don't feel guilty when I'm busy during the week)... butttttt..... school started back up on Monday for the teachers and between that during the day, keeping up with working out daily, bringing home labeling things to write 23 NAMES ON EACH THING (more on that... don't worry the cap is 22...), bachelor pad with the group of girls at my school, going to the airport, and just trying to get used to day to day working and life I am just not finding the time!

Hopefully tomorrow I will get some done:) Until then.... know this.. I found my church people. The one I was hoping for - cheaper, weddings on Fridays, and awesome priest. I'm planning on going on Sunday and pretty excited!

Probably not the best of intentions

This weekend I opted to figure out which church to join here in Austin. Such a great idea right? Finally getting back into the swing of things and geting my priorities straight is what you're thinking. Well... that is only partially true. Don't get my wrong, my relationship with God has become much stronger over the past few years and I truly do enjoy going to mass and listening to the priests sermons, but this past weekend during my church hunt - 50% of it was to get back into church again, but the other 50% was not - and I am openly admitting that.

You see, I obviously know you have to belong to a church and GIVE them your money in order to be married there or at least married there in an cheaper and easier way.

I am basing which church to join off of 3 things.
A) how much is the wedding price (one of the churches here is $3000!! for 2 hours! and that's for a member that can show proof of giving!) and yes - they show this information on their websites B) does the priest look nice... ya know kind of young and hip and
C)... my personal favorite --- the fact that I am EMAILING each sister to see if they allow weddings on Fridays. There are many reasons for a Friday wedding for me (main one being cost) but also because I really want a spring time wedding and spring it just around the corner and no, I'm not engaged (minor detail of course) BUT if and when this would happen I'd like to have the option of throwing thus sucker together sooner rather than later (c'mon... I've phad my wedding planned for the most part since I was 8). If none of them allow this then I guess I'll just have to eliminate part C and go for A and B.

Basically, to sum this up I am basing which church to join off of my wedding date that hasn't even been picked (nor am I engaged, minor detail) AND off of how much money they charge. Currently, I have 1 at the top of my list because the Priest got great reviews (another bad thing to do.... I'm reading reviews on a priest) and they only charge $350 for a wedding. True story. I just confessed my requirements for a church.

PS... Derrick completely caught me and I again told him everything! When I told him I was researching churches today - he said why... and my response was because I used to go to Charlotte and miss it (which is true, I loved our church in Charlotte because the priest was funny and young and had great sermons) and he said... hm I see. And then I just blurted it all out - Derrick's only response was, are you getting married sometime soon that I don't know about?

Mia:)

I haven't had an update on Mia in awhile and because she is so cute I feel that she deserves one.

Mia has been doing really well with being boarded. Prior to moving here she had only been boarded once and it was a NIGHTMARE! I found someone who used to attend our school and opted to move out further into the country to open a boarding place. We LOVE where she goes and they take great care of her. Each time she has been boarded (3 times total, twice in the past month) she has done increasingly better. We know to leave Derrick's used tshirt in her bag for when she sleeps and put a treat in her food for meal time to encourage her to eat. It works:)

Mia has also fallen in LOVE with new treats we have found at Petco. They are made by Halo, her new food company that we love, and smell UH-MAZE-ING. Just like pumpkin pie. They are pumpkin rawhide-ish types of treats but are not rawhides. She loves them beyond belief and goes crazy for them.



Lastly, we changed her food a couple months ago but just recently finished up her old food and have gone completely into her new food. She is obsessed and loves every bit of it. She also rarely throws up which she used to do weekly (I can't remember the last time she did) which goes to show it is better for her because her stomach is handling it better.

And to end with how about some super cute photos of her:)

Her and her new toy (already destroyed) - a monkey since we call her monkey:)

snugglebugs

FINALLY

FINALLY after 4 months and 2 days I received my refund from tutuposhboutique.com. I ordered an adorable tutu from them on April 10 for my best friend Shauna, after about 6-8 weeks I contacted her 3 times and then filed a BBB complaint. That was when she finally responded. We have gone back and forth with her claiming outrageous things from me and everything else. Really, how hard is it to give someone a refund when I asked to cancel because after 2 months I never received the product. Well today after a lot of nasty emails and a threat to bring in an attorney (for $22 hahahah no I wouldn't hire one but I now have so many easy connections in the neighborhood I work in someone would gladly write up a letter on formal letterhead and scare this crazy NJ store owner) - I got my check! No letter to apologize for taking so long, nothing.

All it took was an attorney threat. Thank goodness!

On a brighter note this company, Miss Priss Tutus was a wonderful company to work with and immediately got my item shipped and were happy to correspond with me in a timely manner. Awesome company!!

Camp is over - school is starting

I know this post is about 2 weeks late but we finished up our final week of camp the last week in July. It was definitely a different blend of kids from our first week and was very tiresome as opposed to the previous week when the kids loved everything and couldn't wait to see each other. We spent the first day at the zoo here in Austin - a very small rescue zoo. 2 of the kids were sick so we too advantage and did a filed trip. The cool part is a lot of the animals are out and about or barely behind any type of cage. We got crazy close to the tigers and one of them actually "tiger slimed" me meaning that he was jumping around so much in the green pool that he splashed it out the sides and all over me.

Crazy tiger before I was slimed

Huge tortoises

Feeding the goats

And the sheep

The theme for the week was "Day Camp Out" so our plan was a lot of outdoorsy ideas and snacks like smores and dirt (pudding and oreos with gummy worms). The second day was very hectic and I required a large glass of wine after that one. Some of the kids were very against what we had planned and we actually threw together a "pirate" theme for that day last minute which they loved.

The third day we went on a nature hike with homemade binoculars and cute little canteens. There are tons of peacocks roaming around so we had a great time getting up close to them and playing out Nature Bingo game! We then went swimming in the pool when we got home.

Nature Bingo for our hike

Cool canteens on the hike

The clan

Hanging with the peacocks

Enjoying a snack with the peacock hanging out

Feeding the peacocks goldfish

The final day was meant to be a blast but turned into a disaster. We planned to go to the big splash pad we had the week before because it was such a hit. When we got there though it was closed for cleaning!! AHHH! We tried 2 more splash pads before settling on a very small one with a playground. We had a nice picnic lunch and enjoyed some outside time. Then we hit up an ice cream place and went swimming.

The final day we took the 2 girls, Greta and Nora, ice skating! It was so awesome and they fell in love. We bundled up in our winter clothes (which was so crazy), hats, and gloves, and skated around for about an hour and a half. We then took the girls out to lunch and headed home. A fun way to end the week! (No pictures -- I was out skating!)

We definitely plan to do it next summer. Now with a lot of pictures, testimonials, and word on the street we think it will be bigger! Our thoughts right now are 2-3 weeks with some theme ideas being Pirates, Space, Fairy Tales, Austin... who knows:) We will extend the age group up to rising 2nd grade so probably ages 5-7 rather than 5-6 so we can have some returners:)

Holy cow... school starts in less than 2 weeks!

Day 5 in Costa Rica

We had to wake up at 2:30AM in order to be showered and presentable for our flight at 7AM. We got picked up in the lobby at 3:00AM and then had a 45 minute drive to the airport. Total I'm guessing I got about 2 hours of sleep between waking up every 5 minutes to check on the alarm clock and just not able to fall asleep knowing how much sleep I WASN'T going to get (we went to bed at 11:00PM).

When we got to the airport the driver said the airport would be open in 5 minutes. Weird, we didn't see a single soul there for it to be opening in 5 minutes. Well, what I think he really meant was at 5:00AM... it was 4:00AM! We waited for an hour before ANYONE showed up at the airport. So what did we do? We played in the wheelchairs, read, examined the extra large bugs that could fly all over and into where we were because there were no doors at all.

Empty....

Huge bugs - the man at the kiosk said they were some type of cockroach but now I forget the name he gave them. Whatever their name they were scary as anything and could fly!

Around 5:00 people started showing up but we couldn't get through "security" (if that's what you call a person opening your suitcase and looking at your stuff... so funny how different we are in America) till about 5:30. We went and waited and got first class!! Whoo hoo! We boarded early and were planning to leave early but then fog rolled in. Then, more rolled in and the airport shut down and at the same time our plan had a mechanic issue. Shocker... the mechanic lived an hour away so we deboarded and waited 3 hours for the plane to be fixed. We then were re routed 45 minutes out of our way before arriving in Houston. Then we had a 3 hour drive back. Shew!! When we got home and showered, miraculously we both were still wide awake and ready to go - I did 7 loads of laundry that night!!!! (We both have a rule that when we go on vacation, whether the clothes were worn or not it ALL gets washed).

So, home sweet home we were and poor Derrick had to wake up at 5:30AM to catch a flight to Chicago the next day to go to work. Not me... I drove him to the airport and went back to bed till 10:00:)

All in all Costa Rica was amazing. Nothing bad about it. The people there are SO friendly and it is beautiful there. If you are looking for somewhere to go on your next vacation - Costa Rica is the place to be. PURA VIDA!

Day 4 in Costa Rica

Day 4 we woke up and were sooo pumped to go ziplining. We got organized and slathered up with sunscreen and bug spray and headed to the beach. We found our guy from the previous day, he went and got their driver and this is when it got a little scary. Normally you take a tour out of the front of the hotel -- this we took via the beach... which is public. The guy drove up on the beach in an old blue camry and we got in and he drove down the beach and up the back way. At first I was nervous but then he started talking to us (only in Spanish which was fun for me because I could slightly understand and converse back and forth with him). It took about 15 minutes to get there, we got suited up and met our guides and group and away we went. From start to finish it took about an hour with our whole group. Our guides were phenomenal and hilarious. They brought along their dogs with ziplined with us (true story, I have the pics to prove it) and enoucrage us to have fun and they took pictures for us. Afterwards, for $5 more we could go through their "zoo" (it was about 10 snakes, 2 lizards, and 5 monkeys) and have a chance to interact with the monkeys. SAY WHAT!?! I'm there! SO we went in and I was in pure bliss. The monkeys like to take anything off of you that they can so I have to remove my ponytail holders so my hair was a mess in the pics. There were 3 or 4 white faced monkeys that were crazy and 1 big brown monkey that just wanted to be held like a baby. As soon as we hopped in the white faced ones jumped right us on and started playing and we fed them sunflower seeds. The brown one climbed right onto Derrick's chest and nustled in. He LOVED Derrick (or she?). At one point I wanted to hold him so I reached out for like you would for a baby, he crawled over to me, attempted to cuddle, but then reached back out for Derrick and remained there for the rest of our time. To me, Derrick was a monkey whisperer. It was amazing in that cage and it made my trip. We have video of both the ziplining and the monkeys but I want to try to edit the good parts together so bear with me.

After that we headed back, had lunch, went to some shops to get a souvenir (I got a cool coffee mug), and then got dressed up for dinner at the Steak House which was super yummy! Afterwards we got some drinks and enjoyed the big show for our final night there. We headed in around 11 (eek we had to get up at 2:30AM). Tomorrow will be the last post on our trip!

Gearing up for ziplining!

Ready for his first ride

No hands!

Derrick upside down!!

At the midpoint

Derrick 'superman' style with a dog on is back

Me superman-ing

The monkey whisperer - notice the one on his stomach

Checking out my hair

Me getting some love from the cuddly one

Our new friends!

SnugglingChecking out my hair again - they were thorough

A glimpse into our future -- surrounded my little "monkeys"??

Ready for dinner!

Awesome picture Derrick took while we were at dinner

The pool at night

Derrick looking fancy and waiting on the show