Friday, July 29, 2011

It's Coming Together

I'm so close to being ready to start our new school year! And then I think of this and that ~ I realize there's still a lot to get done.

At the end of last school year {only 5 weeks ago!} I worked a few extra days organizing my "stuff".  Sooo glad I did!


 All the leveled readers are labeled and in order, ready to grab off the shelf.
My favorite children's books are categorized and bookmarked in alphabetical order by topic so it's an easy grab when we're ready to read them.
Don't worry, the students have their library center, too!
EF has brain-based classrooms ~  meaning that we use only colors from nature (there are a few exceptions), we use low lights and no florescent lights, soft music, and some yummy scent in the room.  No bright STUFF cluttering our classrooms!  Less is more.  ~ You also need to know that my room won't look this vacant in another couple of days :-).
 Not too sure about having such big table groups to start the year.  I need to think about that one again.

I think my room looks pretty good ~ I just have to personalize the table groups, put up my agenda and objectives, and a few "this and that's".

LOVE my Smartboard!  I have a map shower curtain I found at Tarjay a while back to cover it when we don't use it.  My kiddos just keep on learnin'.

Here's hoping for a fabulous ~ BEST year ever in second grade!

Happy Dreams!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The Teacher in Me

My last week of summer vacation and where do I find myself???
  At the best school in the whole wide world!
 I'm a little anal when it comes to planning and organizing, but it works for me.  SO, our second grade team met today, put all the standards/PASS skills on sticky notes, and inserted them into the 2011-2012 calendar.  Our kiddos will be prepared for next year!  It's going to be a fabulous school year!
We color coded the objectives for each subject ~ Reading/Language Arts were blue, Math was yellow, etc.  Everything will be covered and we'll be able to track areas that need further instruction.

More to come on our beginning of the year activities ~  But I'll leave you a little feel for our weather ~ ENJOY.
Stay Cool!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Nutshells

Trying to put my crazy week in the fewest words possible...
You do what you have to do, waiting for the A/C guy to come fix the condenser. Ahhhh ~

One benefit of having no ceiling in the bathroom is that we discovered a little problem in the roof ~ more like SKY shining through!  Many dollars later, five of these were fixed and we're water tight again!

Our bathroom was demolished...
The new tub is in, and we waited and waited and waited for the sheet rock man to arrive....
Making progress, but here's the fall out ~
Riley's all stressed out. Poor baby!

So, on the school front ~ I thought I was moving my class out to the prefab Learning Cottages but Divine Intervention happened and I get to keep my classroom.  My carpet is cleaned and I started moving back my desks, computers, cabinets, plants, and lamps.  I didn't get as much done as I wanted because of two days of professional development and one full day for our team leader meeting.  I have my work cut out for me next week.  I'm so excited to be in second grade again, continuing on what I worked so hard to build last year.  We have many new faces on our staff and are sadly saying good-bye to some dear teacher friends who are moving to new districts.  But I just know this year will be our very best ever!  


Monday, July 18, 2011

Gigi-Weekend with Ms. Harper

Finally it happened!  I've waited all my life for this!  A whole weekend of Gigi time!! Lindsey and Brian surprised me a few weeks ago by asking if I'd "consider" coming over and spending the weekend with the cutest little gal in the whole wide world...Uh... YES!  So here's how it rolled.

Thursday night, Lindsey came to Tulsa for the Reveal Party (did you read that post?) and stayed overnight so she, Harper and I could get an early start to An Affair of the Heart.  We LIVE for that show twice a year.  Love it!  And how cool was it that we know that Baby Girl Leonard is on her way so we could just buy a few little necessities for her.  So fun!

We got to Siloam Springs just in time for Brian to get off work and off they went to Branson!  Ms. Harper and I were on our own.  Yippee!!

We played in the pool for awhile because that's pretty much the BEST thing to do in 104 degrees, right?
                                   Getting ready for the plunge...

This is one remarkable little gal.  Harper told me "dak du" (thank you) for absolutely everything I did and my heart nearly burst ~ I love this girl!!  After our pool time and bath, we read books and danced until she got her blankie and went to sleep.

      Such a smiley girl in the morning!  We ate our waffles and blueberries and then headed out to Wal Mart to do a little shopping.

We played tea party and had so much fun.  She fed her Baby Kate and even Max got in on it  ~ until I had to rescue the dishes from his mouth...oops, he left a few little teeth marks.  
                                Harper got in the bucket and played.
What a great weekend.  Hopefully, that'll hold me for awhile until we get to plan another Gigi/Harper weekend.  I'm still loving it!

Happy Memories!

It's a GIRL!!!

I've never felt so giddy ~ happy ~ blessed ~ and WRONG before in my life!  Natalie and David had their Reveal Party last Thursday night to find out if Baby Peanut is going to be a boy or a girl.  Since we couldn't be in Franklin, Tennessee, we attended via Skype ~ the coolest little invention this side of heaven.  
                       Here's Katie all the way from Ft. Worth, Texas.
      And here's Lindsey and me in Tulsa...David's shoulder getting a little air time, and I'm pretty sure Brian is on the phone listening in...  


  The invited guests wore the color they thought would represent their choice. I wore my clothes for Team Blue ... and here's the Team Blue in Franklin...
 David wore his pink polo and Lindsey a pink sweater for Team Pink...here is the Franklin Team Pink.
The BIG question of the night was ~
We almost missed it because we couldn't get the audio to work.  But finally, they fixed it and the moment we've ALL been waiting on...
Cutting the cake.....ahhhhhhhhh.......
OH MY GOSH!!!!!!
                              It's a GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Total Joy!!!!!!!
                                It's official!!!  Baby Girl on the way!
                            I'm thrilled, but HOW could I be so wrong?!
                 Ahhh !  The Leonard family of THREE!  Beautiful!
We are so blessed.  We already have the most beautiful g-baby girl in the whole wide world, and now God has blessed us with TWO!!  It was hard to sleep that night because I'm already planning my first Gigi-time with Sweet Pea II.


Happy Dreams.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Jumping in with both feet

Ms. Harper

Having been a blog follower for several years, I've decided it's time to take the splash and start blogging, myself.  I'm not positive what will find it's way onto this blog, but I am pretty sure it'll have something to do with being a Gigi to the cutest granddaughter in the whole wide world!  And even better yet, we have another grandbaby on the way in December!  So expect lots of pictures and stories.  I also teach second grade at the best school in the whole wide world, so I want to add teacher ideas and activities that I've tried in my classroom.  First things first ~ I need followers!  So tell your blogging buddies to FOLLOW me  ~ and here I go!
Happy Trails.