Catch up and Vacation

Once again I started to slack in the blogging. To play catch up...the last few months have been super busy! Up until last week we've been preparing our kids and cramming the last bit of information we could for testing. Thankfully testing is over!! Testing is a huge ordeal for our kids and for us, I'm just glad its over! I could go on and on about testing, but thankfully our kids did great and its over! Before testing was spring break. Which came at just the right time! I went down to Riviera Maya Mexico with some friends. I've traveled all over the world and been on a ton of amazing trips, but this one was in the top 5 for sure! The resort was amazing, the staff was extremely helpful, and it was the perfect place to sit by the pool with a good book and relax! Of course I couldn't sit on the beach forever so it was time to come back to reality. Work has been super crazy, the end of the year is here and we are finally on the downhill slide! We've got so much going on with field trips, field day, end of the year celebration etc that i'm sure the last few weeks will hurry on by.
Here are a few pictures from our amazing trip!

Exciting Day!

Last Thursday may have been the most exciting day so far in my professional career! For the last few months one of my fellow 1st grade teachers and myself have been piloting a new literacy program called Key Links. It is written by a lady named Jill Eggleton, who is a well know children's author from New Zealand. Through out the program we have met with people from the publishing company and talked about the program, apparently only a few schools across the US were picked to pilot it.

We had our final wrap up meeting last Thursday with the ladies from the publishing company and ladies from our school district. During our meeting we learned that not only are they using our feedback to use in their advertising of the product (which is a little intimidating!)we were also told that the author, Jill Eggleton is coming to our school!! I know, it may not sound like that big of a deal but we are super excited! My kids are excited because we have been reading her books for months, they talk about her like they know her! I'm just excited because its not everyday that an author flies half way across the world to come to Little Rock, Arkansas! It truly is a great honor that our school was picked to be the only one she visits with and we cannot wait! There will be pictures coming at the end of April!

Snowed in...again!

Remember those days when you were a kid and your mom would come wake you up and tell you school was cancelled because it has snowed the night before? Those mornings are just as much fun even when you're an adult...you know, minus my mom coming to wake me up. I'm pretty sure none of us in the Little Rock area were expecting it, so it was a pleasant surprise. I think total we got about 6 inches and this time it was all snow, none of that icy stuff like 2 weeks ago. It was so beautiful just to sit and watch the big snowflakes falling and fun to play in it! Although I do start to go a little stir crazy after being stuck at home after a day or so. Lets hope though that we don't have anymore snow days because I've got my trip planned for Australia in June right after school gets out, so I can't be stuck making up days!

Test worries...

Tomorrow I go to Arkadelphia to take my first of 2 exams to get my teaching license in Texas. To say the least I am very worried. First of all, Its been what...3 years since i've taken a test?! haha. Second, I keep hearing about how hard this test is. I'm sure I will do fine. I will just feel so much better when its all over. I have to take the second test on Wednesday, so after that it will be over! Then I just have to sit patiently and wait for my scores. Its such a scary thought that so much is riding on these test. I have to pass them in order to get my teaching license in Texas...in order to get a teaching job in Texas...in order to be able to move to Texas! Get the picture? :-)

Snowed In

Well, last week we had a little ice storm in Little Rock! I say little because people from the north would probably laugh at the amount of snow and ice we got. But it was enough to make the roads very icy and pretty much everything around here shut down, so we (Marley and I) stayed in from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon. Friday was great, no school, I stayed in my pjs all day and watched a ton of movies. Saturday morning was still ok. I cleaned and got a lot done from my to do list, but my Saturday afternoon I was going stir crazy. Luckily things started to melt Sunday morning and I was able to get out of the house. I had to add a picture of Marley, because he was just too darn cute in his little jacket.

As part of my new years resolutions this year was to keep up better with my blog. So I've decided to make some changes...or at least attempt to. I am not high-tech and not creative so we shall see. And with my changes, I've also decided to broaden my topics beyond "my teacher life". Although that is a huge part of it...its not all of it! So if you can stick with me while I'm figure it all out :-)

Helping Haiti

My first graders never cease to amaze me. Not only do they come up with some of the craziest things, they also have some amazingly big hearts for 6 and 7 year olds! Haiti has been all over the news, and to my surprise my kiddos actually heard about the earthquake at home which started a long and interesting conversation in my classroom. (How can you explain earthquakes, devastation, etc to 6 year olds?!) Well at the same time my kids were talking about it, our school had decided we would raise money for 1 week to send to the Red Cross to help the people of Haiti. We talked about it today and we decided we would set our class goal at $50.00. That may not seem like a lot but it is to them, especially considering some of the homes they come from. It is so important for them to learn about helping people in need, even if they don't know them. I'm very proud for the huge hearts they have at such a young age and it really does help put things into perspective in my own life. Many of the things that frustrate or upset me today aren't going to matter tomorrow. I've always said my kids teach me more than I could ever teach them, and for that I'm grateful.

New Years Resolution

Well...I could say that I'm surprised that I've gotten this far behind on my blog but that wouldn't be true! But hopefully with a new year, comes new resolutions and keeping up with my blog is one of them. So much has happened since the last time I posted....where to begin?!

In August I started my 3rd year at Chicot as a first grade teacher. I cant believe it! This group of kids sure is different than last years! They are a hand full and we don't exactly mesh as well as my group from last year. But we're making it...only 5 more months :-) I spent a lot of time this fall traveling on the weekends. Visiting my family in Memphis, visiting my "other" family in Dallas, attending several weddings etc. I love to travel, but its also nice to come home and sleep in my own bed.

I was able to spend a week in Memphis during Christmas, which may be the longest I've visited in a while. It was good to spend time with my family and see old friends. And since being back in Little Rock I've kept myself busy with a long to do list and of course dreading going back to work on Monday. I've been making a lot of big decisions lately. One of the biggest being that I've decided to move to Dallas, TX once this school year is over! I'm very excited and of course nervous. Its still hard to say it out loud even though I am very excited and feel like this is the right decision, its still hard to leave my life in Little Rock. Little Rock has been my home for the last 3 years, it was the first "grown up" place I lived after Harding and I've made so many great friends and had so many wonderful memories here. But after doing a lot of thinking I think its time for me to move on. For years I've wanted to move to Dallas so now is my chance. I love my job and I work with some of the most amazing people but this school year has been very difficult in a lot of ways so I think its just time for a change. It is still so hard to walk into that school and teach my kids knowing that I wont see them next year, but I know I'm making the right decision and its time for me to do whats best for me. I will miss my Little Rock family more than I can even put into words, these people have helped make me into the person I am today. But I'm ready for a new adventure!

Speaking of new adventures, I have another big one planned for this summer (I know, besides moving what else could be so big!)
I'm going to Australia! This was actually part of my Christmas present from my parents. My cousin Zach and his wife (Elisha) live in Australia with his wife and I'm going to go stay with them and explore for a few weeks! I am so excited to visit this amazing place and get to spend time with family there. Elisha and I may have only met once, but we "talk" often on Facebook and she is so much fun! I only wish we lived closer than an ocean apart...but I have a feeling we might get into a lot of trouble if we lived on the same continent :-)

I am going to be better about writing....and hopefully better about posting pictures. We shall see!

Happy New Year!!