Troop 457 Christmas Party

Our Girl Scout Troop 457 Christmas party was on Friday, December 19th at Painting with a Twist in Greenville. Madeline and I both had a great time! Our painting was of a vase of flowers...

Madeline flipped her canvas so that she could reach the flower to paint them. Unfortunately, she forgot to flip it back over when the instructor told us to paint our stems! :)

So, as you can tell, Madeline's paining turned out to be a field of flowers with a bright yellow sun! It is beautiful!

My painting is just a boring case of flowers! :)

Feeding the Orphans Run

I participated in the Feeding the Orphans Virtual Run in November. A virtual run is where you buy the shirt and run alone or with a group and then post your pics. It was a good run and a very hard one! It was a very warm afternoon and I bought a long sleeved shirt! Also, I hadn't run 5 miles in a long time! Thanks to my friend, Autumn Deason, for inviting me to participate!

Fall is in the Air!

Spring and Summer are by far my favorite seasons. However, Fall is growing on me. There is something with the changing and falling of the leaves that gets me these days.

On my run yesterday, I paused to admire the beauty around me. The camera doesn't do this road justice. It is truly a beautiful place to run and think.

I also paused to have a heart attack as I jumped over this guy! Hello Mr. Grass Snake!

After I circled back, the sun was streaming through the trees. I am blessed to live this life. Life is good!

Movie Date

Last Sunday, the Kinder Krew and I went to the movies to see Don't Back Down. It was a very heartwarming story about a mom who challenges the system to change her child's failing school. We laughed and cried and had a great time catching up. We picked up Sonya who is home in maternity leave. Since I still had congestion and a cough, I didn't get to hold Addison. Can't wait to eat my hands on her!

Bashing it Up!

Yesterday was the Bois D' Arc Bash! I love the Bash! As a kid, I ran around all day playing with my friends and danced in my poodle skirt at night. As a teenager, I hung out with friends all day and enjoyed the music at night. As an adult, I still enjoy it just as much if not more! 

I started the day with the Bash Dash 5K. My friend, Veronica, came in from Richardson to run with me. Thank God she did, because she kept me going! I would NOT have ran as fast as I did if it wasn't for her pushing me. Thanks friend! 27:47 is a FANTASTIC time and much better than I had hoped for!

Twinkies in the "BEASTMODE" tanks I made for us. Thanks Pinterest! V brought her inner beast and it drug me along! lol! Healthy breakfast before the race and the "official" results posted at the Chamber of Commerce.

After the Bash Dash, I had to "dash" to the car and change for the parade and Aglaia Culture Club Duck Race! I joined the club last September and this is my 2nd Duck Race. I have always loved watching the race and I enjoy being a part of it now.

The ducks are off! and the "lucky duck" winner is Becky Thompson! 

I invited Stephanie Pullen to join the club this year. She is an awesome addition to the club, co-worker and FRIEND!

When I was a kid, it seemed that the Blandelles were always the headliner for the Saturday night street dance. I have fond memories of poodle skirts, hula hoop contests and getting a teddy bear during the song "Teddy Bear." Every Bash, mom and I make sure that we watch the group. (My high school golf coach and history teacher, Gary Felmet, is a member! My Technology Director and friend, Al Shipp, was a founding member!) They play during the day now but we still make sure and see them perform!

Madeline and I watching the Blandelles perform. She was wiggling to the music!

After a much-needed nap and shower, we headed downtown again for the wine tasting! I branched out a little bit and tried some "Zombie Zin" (yuck!) and "Chocolate Rose" (not bad, smelled and tasted like a Tootsie Roll with a kick) but ended up making several trips to my favorite "Yellow Rose" from Landon Winery in Greenville! Andy even tried some wine! (after John and Holly Gotcher convinced him to!) He wasn't a fan. After the wine tasting, we went to the Drunken Mule. What a name, huh?! We hung out with friends and danced some. It was a great night! Too bad the running, allergies and bar smoke triggered my first asthma attack at 1:15am! Not a great end to my night! Oh well, it was a great day! Can't wait to do it all again next September!

Check out the back window of my car. It says, "Wash Me Dad." Great! Tagged by my own father! lol! I love him! (and I washed my car this morning)

Meet the Teacher

On Thursday, August 23rd, we had Meet the Teacher in Commerce ISD.  Gus got to meet (well, meet again) his teacher, Sondra Feduccia. Sondra is a good friend of mine from the Instructional Technology Team and I am SO happy that she will be educating Gus this year! An added bonus is that his friends Garrett and Grayson will be in his class as well! The "3 G's" haven't been all together in class since Kindergarten with Mrs. Bland. We are excited for a GREAT year!

On the other hand, I got to meet my class as well! I don't usually get pictures of me on this night, but when you have the daughter of one of your best friends, you get pictures! This is Greenlee (Grayson's sister) and me. Aren't we a cute pair?! lol! I also scored this adorable gift. YuMm-O!

Back to School!

The kids and I have been hard at work in my classroom! Madeline has enjoyed the Play Doh...

 

...and Gus has enjoyed playing with the Oats boys and Ethan. The Kinder Krew is like a big family and I love when we get to hang out...even if it IS at work...2 weeks before school starts!

While I was busy trying to keep kids OUT of my room (hehe!), I was also busy cleaning up from my summer clean out in my room. It doesn't matter how early I start, I never get everything done before in-service begins! Our theme this year is our favorite storybook. I chose Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I have so many favorites and this is just one. I think that the Scholastic video of the book is really my favorite! I also love the bright colors and knew I could make a RoCkIn' bulletin board for relatively nothing! I only spent $3.50 for the yellow border. The rest is bulletin board paper from the school or scrapbook paper that I already had.

Speaking of bulletin board paper, our school was out of brown for the trunk of my tree. Thank God for good friends in high places! (the rip job needs a little work though! lol!)

 After organizing my iPad cables...(thanks Pinterest!)

 

 ...moving Tuck and Pancake back in...

 

...and getting most everything put away...

 

...it was time to go home and prepare for Meet the Teacher. First order of duty was stuffing envelopes for the new Cubs. I wonder who they will be?!

Tying up loose ends...

(I am catching up on a month of blog posts...)

Summer is ending (where did it go?!) and this week I tied up some loose ends around the house.

I cleaned out and organized the kid's closets. I wonder how long they will actually stay like this?









I had fully intended to have a company come and clean our carpets this summer, but my procrastination got me and I did it myself...while sick! Not fun! I am so ready to rip up this carpet and put down wood in here. The carpet looks pretty good though. I love the feel of clean carpet while barefoot!
















My last order of business was to fix Gus' bed. He and Andy were wrestling and broke off one of the wood bars that holds the slats in place.Good thing his underbed storage boxes were there to hold up the box springs until I could fix it!

After some wood glue, nails and screws...viola!

You're beautiful!

This morning, I got up early to get my 10K training in. I got up at twilight (I actually Googled the sunrise time and it included twilight!) and started my run. As I was beginning my second lap, the song "You're Beautiful" by MercyMe came through my headphones as the sun peeked over the tree line. The song begins,

"I see Your face in every sunrise
The colors of the morning are inside your eyes
The world awakens in the light of the day
I look up to the sky and say
You're beautiful"

God was there with me on my run this morning. How can you not hold your hands up and praise Him?!

By the way, I am proud of my time! This was my very first time to run 5 miles. 3 years ago, I never would have imagined that I would be a runner let alone be training for a 6.2 mile race!

God is good!

It's FriDaY!

Friday means family, fajitas and fun! (and my friend here!)

Ed Tech LoVe!

I truly LOVE my job as a Kindergarten teacher. I love the smiling faces, I love the unconditional love they give and I love to be a strong moral influence that molds them at a young age. I didn't mention anything about teaching, but I believe that teaching is a work of heart first and academics second. However, I love the teaching aspect of my job too! Especially the educational technology that I am blessed with at Commerce ISD. Today, I presented the workshop "iPads in Elementary Classrooms" at the TIC (Technology Instruction Camp) at TAMU-C. I had a great time sharing some of the apps and procedures that I use in my classroom. Like I said earlier, I love teaching...children AND adults!

New iPhone decal!

I am SO excited about my new iPhone decal! I posed the question on my Facebook page, "When you think of me...gold or silver?" The overwhelming response was GOLD! So, I decided on this decal...

Awesome, huh?! It is totally me. Click on the picture to order your own. There are lots of colors to choose from! Check out the maker KelloKult on Etsy!

10K training

Week 1 is behind me! I have run more this week than I ever have. The training program that I am using (here) had me running 3 miles on 3 different days this week. Normally, I run 3 miles on Sunday and run 2 miles once or twice throughout the rest of the week. Next week and each week after, the program gradually increases the mileage until I am running 7 miles. This is definitely a challenge, but I love a good goal to work towards!