PJs and Packing

So I went to work on Friday and I forgot my camera!  Gasp!  Me? Forget my camera?!  I know!  Shocking!  So I took this picture with my cell phone.  Not the best, but what can I say.  I hate a blog entry with no pictures.  Friday was absolutely NUTS.  It was CRAZY do you hear me? Crazy!  My students were out of control and ready to party!  Thankfully I had already prepared myself for it to be a nutty day so I was able to just go with the flow. Yep.  Just another day in my 3-ring circus.  I am very glad to say that I don’t have to worry about Frog, Toad, Mimi and Lola for the holidays!  Kai and his mom are toad-sitting for me – yay!

Saturday was spent packing up my old apartment.  I got through with the bedroom and most of my studio.  I still have a little left to do in there as well as pack up the bathrooms and kitchen.  The livingroom is already done.  I am so excited!  I can’t wait to get into that new apartment.  Beth…if you are reading this, I am still waiting on a response about that paint color.  (imagine me standing with my hands on my hips and tapping my foot right about now. lol)

On a side note I finally read Twilight.  I started it yesterday and finished it today.  I really liked it and am eager to read the second book in the trilogy.  I finally took a day for just me today.  I did a lot of nothing.  Surfed the internet and read…oh and wrapped a few Christmas presents.  I haven’t had any time to myself lately.  It was very nice.  Tomorrow is sure to be a whirlwind of a day.  I am going Christmas shopping with my mom.  She wants to leave at 7:00 a.m.  and we probably won’t be done until the stores are closed.  Natalie you are more than welcome to join us if you don’t want to shop by yourself!  Normally I like to get most of my Christmas shopping done early, but this year has just been busy busy and more busy.

Well dahlings…I am off to do other things…like start reading a new book or perhaps work on cutting out the fabric for some Christmas gifts.  Yes, I still have some sewing to do before Christmas.  No I am not telling you what I am making.  You will just have to wait and see.  Maybe I will give you a sneak peak on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Maybe.  lol

My New Love

Wow!  So much has happened since my last blog!  Last week was just beyond filled to the brim with places to go, people to see and things to do!

I FINALLY graduated with my masters!  With a 4.0 G.P.a. I must brag!  Yay!!!

This is me with my youngest brother.  I am hoping some better pictures turn up on other people’s cameras because I am not to fond of this one.  At any rate….I am done!  Hey Mama!  Check out my hood!! lol

My grandparents came for graduation and gave me the best gift a woman like me could ask for!  A chair!  lol  Not just any chair but an antique Victoria chair that I discovered and fell in love with over the summer.  If you know me, I am just a tad chair obsessed.   Folks, I would like to introduce you to my new love -The Chair!

Isn’t it beautiful?!!   I just keep thinking about all of the different ways I can rearrange my furniture in the new apartment and how I can best showcase my new love. – for my mom’s sake ignore the stuff going on behind the chair…they are still working on Christmas decorations.  =-p  Speaking of the parents – their gift to me was amazing too!  They are paying the deposit on my new apartment.  Yay for that!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Tonight I went to Emma’s birthday celebration.  Happy Birthday Emma!!  We went to a Gingerbread House making party.  Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

Here are Emma and Maia after I helped them assemble their houses.

Joy and Lia being silly as usual!

Maia and Me decorating her gingerbread house

The rest of my week is shaping up to be pretty crazy too!  I can’t wait for dinner tomorrow with Heather and getting my very own Flyoung Studio original painting that is just for me and inspired by me!  Thanks Heather!!  For a sneak peek check it out on her blog. Friday is the last day of school before Christmas break!  We will be having a Polar Express/Pajama Day.  Y’all know I love to go to work in my P.J’s and pigtails!  I am so excited!!!  I need a break and I will be doing lots of packing since the move date is rapidly approaching!  I am sure by the end of the week I will have posted another blog or two about the insanity of the week!  lol

Oh!  And did I mention I am teaching French this week?  Christmas Around the World – the students had me singing French Christmas carols for them since the internet was down and they couldn’t listen to them.  lol  So glad I’m not shy.  And I love teaching the kids about Pere Noel but even more about his companion Pere Fouettard!  I am so mean!  lol

On a side note, I just finished reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.  If you haven’t read it, you really should!  The writing is wonderful!

Also, just had to share!  I heard Britney Spears’ “Oops!” song this morning on the way to work and it just made me laugh because I sang it the way little Maia does “Oops!  You Stink I’m in Love!” It just cracks me up!  What a fun way to start my morning!  I love when she gets to the part that says “I’m not that innocent!”  She is all of 4 years old!  She is so sassy and does the dance too!  Gricell…we really need to record that so the world can see the preciousness of your daughter! =)

Hope you have a fantabulous week!!

A New Lease on Life

I haven’t posted in a while because of all of the strange things that have been happening in my life over the past two months. It all started out when the aliens kidnapped my soon-to-be ex-husband.

He started going through some sort of quarter life crisis and I think he lost his mind. I won’t get into all of the hairy details on the web. We all know what he did and I don’t feel the need to waste my time rehashing it. (If you don’t know, and are dying to, email me.) I am a strong woman and I am handling this well. He has pushed me away for the past few months and it has made life so much easier for me. My family and friends have been supporting me and keeping me busy since I left him on Tuesday. I am so thankful for all of them! They really helped me get through my first holiday as a single gal.

On to the positive and fun stuff! I am very excited about my new lease on life! I have so many things that I want to do and I started out by finding my own apartment! That’s right! I am officially out of the ghetto!! I have a FABULOUS new apartment in a gated community near my school. (Hey Lisa!  We are going to be neighbors!)   I have a two bedroom, on the ground floor.  I can’t wait to get all moved in, decorate, and have everyone over for a housewarming party! I won’t be moving in until the end of December, but I can handle the wait. =o) It gives me plenty of time to get everything organized, boxed up and ready to move. Thanks Mom and Heather for helping me pick out the perfect Princess Pad!

I have taken over as Lead Teacher for second grade. This is something I am happy about because, well…you know me…I like a little extra responsibility and being in charge. =op They don’t call me the Princess for nothin’! Congrats to Anne on her new little bundle of joy! I can’t wait to meet little Macie!

I am graduating with my Masters of Arts in Teaching next month! I am VERY excited about this! I have worked so hard and will graduate with a 4.0 gpa in addition to getting a HUGE pay raise! This is going to be a major season of celebration!

So here is to changes, celebrations, exciting new beginnings and buying all the shoes and fabric I want!

P.S. Happy Be-lated Thanksgiving! This year I have a lot to be thankful for!

Oh and I just can’t stand it! I have to add one more thing for your entertainment! I had a child poo, not just a little bit….I am talking a big old TURD on my the floor of my classroom on Tuesday! Wow that was really a metaphor for the entire day! At least I can look back at it and laugh!

Bewitched

Alas…my dream did not come true.  *sigh*

Usually I stay late on Mondays to get everything in order for the week, but I had to make a trip over to AASU today to take care of some graduation paperwork.

I came home and started cleaning up a storm.  I do not know what came over me.  Maybe it was prompted by my dream. lol I was such the 1950’s housewife this afternoon!  I started a roast last night and let it simmer in the crockpot all day today so it was nice and ready for supper tonight.  Mmm!  All the while I had the  Bewitched theme song was playing in my head.

Work was a bit of craziness again.  I had 2 students with birthdays – double the cupcakes!  Double the sugar!  Double the hyped up kids!!

It has been too long…

since my last blog entry.  I have been beyond busy.  My life has been crazy hectic – but in a good way!  I started teaching at my new school.  So far, so good!  I will post pictures of the updated classroom later.  I don’t have them on this computer.  I have a sweet little class.  We have so many students in second grade that we are creating a 5th class.  This will start on Monday.  It is nice for me because I will have less students and can spend time on the ones that really need me the most.  I have made lots of new friends at work and I feel like I have a good support system there.  Since I switched over my classroom website to the new school, things have been haywire!  The links are not all working and neither are some of the graphics.  So crazy!  I will hopefully be working on that later today.

On the house hunting front…we went again this morning and found a new house that we would build that we like the absolute BEST!!  It is in a great neighborhood and close to work for me. The house is spacious and has an open floor plan.  I am very excited about it!!  One thing that I really like about this company is that they let you pick all of the options, paint colors, cabinets, etc.  The other place we were thinking of building does not have that.  They are also giving us a deal since I am a teacher.  =)  The amenities center is really nice too!

Click here to check out the model.  It is in Savannah Quarters in Pooler.  The East Haven quarter in the Hamilton Grove neighborhood.

Well I am off for now….stop by and visit again soon.  I will hopefully have some pics to post.  =)

Serendipity

That is one of my favorite words and the best way to describe my day.

First off, I need to send out a thank you to my hubby for helping me out in my classroom this morning.  We got a lot done!

Now for the exciting stuff!

Jason and I went with my realtor, Stephanie Yost to look at houses today.  We made some progress and found a few new options that we are really interested in.

Here are our Top 5:

1.  The Santee – We would be building this one.

2.  Katama Way

3.  Aquinnah Dr.

4.  Tiger’s Paw Dr. at the Hunt Club

5.  The Greenville – We would have to build this one too.

Any thoughts?!

My realtor, Stephanie, and her family are dear friends of mine and have become the most unexpected generous benefactors.  As most of you know, J and I have been dealing with 1 car now for a little over 3 years.  Since I have switched schools, this is going to be a problem.  She and told us today that she and her hubby have talked things over and they are going to give us her hubby’s old car that they are no longer using since he has a new one.  I can not think of a more generous thing for them to have done.  They have truly been a blessing and an answer to our prayers.  So, Steph, if you are reading this, thank you thank you thank you!

Oh!!  A huge congrats to Heather and Nick on becoming engaged!!!!!! It’s about time!!  Love you!

Namaste!

It is starting to come together…

my classroom, that is!

Click HERE if you need a reminder of what it looked like when I moved in.

It is still needs a bit of work, but it has come along way.  I will take more pictures when it is completed the week of the 25th.  (I have new teacher orientation next week – I know I am not a new teacher, but I am new to public school so I must go.)

This is my awesome new whiteboard!  The guys at Home Depot cut me a really good deal for it!  A big thanks to my dad for helping me pick it up and attach it!

To the right side of the board is my math corner MESS!  I turned one part of the chalkboard into a bulletin board – I need to go find some cute boarder for it.

To the left side of the board is my writing center MESS!

Yes, I plan on cleanning up all of these messes….they are driving me crazy!  The room has been eating my supplies!

Here is a close-up of the curtains I made…no more tacky red bandana!  I covered my door with the same material the curtains are made of.

This is my new desk that I painted to match everything else. =p

This is one half of my reading garden.  I am making Jason hang butterflies from the ceiling tomorrow morning.  =)

the other half of my reading garden

This is the cube storage that I put together.  I still have to do another one.

And here is the big mess….

Does anyone know a good cleaning fairy?

Happy

My classroom website reached over 10,000 hits today!  Yay!

Also…my classroom is really coming together!  Hopefully I can post photos tomorrow! =)

I went to my old school’s open house tonight and saw all of the families that I am going to miss!  Apparently they have all been telling my replacement that she has some BIG shoes to fill.  (Funny to think about as I have teeny tiny feet – size 5 1/2  to 6 to be exact.) Anyway…great to see the faces of people I adore!

And….I saw a trailer for the new movie “The Tale of Despereaux.”  I am so excited!!  It was such a good book and the movie looks so CUTE!!

Just a random bit of happiness in my day.

It is about time!

So, I finally got the pics from Heather.  We were trying to take cute pictures with our new haircuts.  Let me just say…they are pretty silly.  Words don’t really do them justice.  See for yourself.

This is one of the first ones, but we thought we would try for more.  I am mainly inserting pics of me, because I don’t know how Heather would feel about me including some of her.

This one wasn’t much better.

Then Heather insisted I do a Katy Perry inspired pose. Which resulted in…

Me singing and laughing my head off!

As if all that weren’t silly enough… we decided we needed to take pictures of our hair in pigtails!

And we couldn’t resist…

Anyway…hope you enjoyed!

In other news…I spent the day in my classroom again.  However, before I made it to the classroom I had to make a stop by Home Depot.  I bought 2 pcp pipes that were 10 ft each.  (They were used as curtain rods in my classroom because they blend in with the wall.  Pictures to come soon.  Anywho…it was pouring down rain and I had to shove those bad boys into my car (they had to hang out the window) and I had to hold them for the drive back to my classroom.  (Thank goodness it was only a 5 minute drive!)  I was hoping to be able to take tomorrow and Friday off, but no such luck.  So much to do and so few people to do it for me. Now I am off to cut out some cutesy pie flowers I laminated.

Waiting on H.

I have been waiting on Ms. FLYoung Studio to send me some pics from the other night before I posted again.  I still haven’t gotten my pictures, but felt the need to post a current blog. To catch you up to speed, I have been super busy.

Thursday I had lunch with my teacher friends from Cabrini and also had to take my car to get a fuel system cleaning.

Friday I got to hang out with Heather and Nick for the first time in a month!

Saturday I went shopping with my mom to help her use her Sonny Money.  I already spent mine. =p

Sunday, Jason and I went to look at houses with our realtor.  We are still set on the same houses number 2 and number 3 from my previous blog entry.  I was scared that number 3 sold because I can’t pull up the info, but that is only because they changed realtors.  We will be going to look at some more this Saturday.

On Monday before I went to work in my new classroom, I had to take my car back in because it was running worse than last week.  It works better now, but I am waiting on some parts to be delivered so that more repairs can be done.  Grr!

Monday and today I have been working my butt off in my classroom.  If you saw the before pictures, you know I have my work cut out for me.  I am hoping to finish up tomorrow so that I can take Thursday and Friday off.  I will update with the “after” pictures as soon as possible.