In a Month....

A month from today, I go back to work. My summer will be over and I will no longer get to take a nap in the middle of the day. Yesterday I noticed that they already have back to school items out at the store. Confession: I bought something.

Last night I looked at my Summer Adventure List to see what all I have gotten done that I planned on doing. I have done four of the 23 things planned. That's a 17%. That's horrible.

I better get busy!

Summer 2016

And that is exactly why I have made a list and a plan! The past few summers (minus last summer I just realized) I have blogged about my summer to-do list and enjoyed it. So that's what you are getting again this summer!

Things That Get Ignored All School Year Long That Don't Take Very Long To Do

• Copy recipes from print outs and screen shots onto cards for the recipe box
• File and/or shred paper work
• Address a years worth of rent envelopes

Crafty Things

• Jean skirt out of old jeans
• Decorate my Everything Notebook for the 2016-2017 school year CHECK
• A thank you gift for my sister for taking care of me
• Finish the "blanket" I started ten years ago (carry over from 2013 list)
• Weekly Goal memo board
• Misc. crochet projects
• Weave in ends of my first temperature blanket

Physical/Health Things

• Get the Japan badge on Fitbit
• Sleep on my left side again CHECK
• Swallow and Coyote Song Loop (carry over from the last two years)
• Narrow Gauge and North Fork View (also a carry over)

Books

• Raymie Nightingale
• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
• A Breath of Snow and Ashes
• I, Alex Cross CHECK
• An Echo in the Bone

Random

• Turn hangers around CHECK
• Blog/write most days
• Get caught up on all my house cleaning
• Trip to Goodwill

Not a bad list to start with. I have not been successful in the past of finishing everything on the list, but maybe this summer will be the year!

If you want to join me for any of these activities, let me know! I was just thinking the other day of those who have helped me cross things off the first list.

{Summer 2014} {Summer 2013}

What I Have Been Up To

January 17th? Is that really the last time I blogged?! I know that I have thought about it a lot, but I guess thinking about things doesn't get things done!

May was a whirl wind if I have ever been in one! There was something going on every day of the month and there were times I wasn't sure I was going to make it!

 I finished up by tenth year of teaching and said goodbye to a really good group of students. It was a good year full of laughter, growth and lots of learning. The fourth graders did amazing on our district testing and got a lot of adults super excited!

In the midst of packing up my classroom, I was trying to get ready for my surgery. I was hoping to have my house cleaned, but didn't get as much done as I would have liked. Good thing my family didn't care!

Friday morning, the 27th my dad and my sister took me to Fort Collins. I had a tumor removed from my parotid gland just under my ear and along my jaw line. It was supposed to be a two hour surgery, but the tumor was bigger and deeper than they thought, doubling the surgery time. Thankfully I don't remember anything! I remember asking if we got to listen to music and then waking up trying to take all my clothes off, and when I say clothes, I mean the sexy hospital gown you get to wear. They wouldn't let me take it off, so I told them then they better get me cooled down! I hope I wasn't too rude, but I was hot! The last time I was under for my wisdom teeth, 15 some years ago, I woke up freezing.

The week to follow was NOTHING what I thought it was going to be. I don't know what I was expecting. I guess I was hoping that I would be able to sleep a lot and read my book while my family checked in on me from time to time.

Nope. The medicines that I was given, the killer headache and I didn't get a long very well. I am pretty sure in my mind the worst part was the headache and it was the cause of all my problems. Once we were able to get all that figured out, things started to move along. I will save you all the details and pictures that were taken.

I wasn't able to focus and read as much as I thought I was going to, so I feel like I am already behind on my summer reading!

To recap, I am very thankful for the care that I was given the last week, the texts and phone calls to check on me and the gifts that were dropped by. I don't know how anyone could go through something like that alone.

So now, in my world, summer vacation starts tomorrow and boy do I have big plans!

Celebrating This Week

Fist pump for Sunday! Double fist pump because it is a three day weekend!

It has been awhile since I have linked up with Ruth Ayres to celebrate the week. It's good to be back.

This week was a tough week and in the midst of it all, it was hard to find things to celebrate. Which is why celebrating with Ruth is good, because it helps to look back and find those moments.

Our little restaurant in town was once again open from a two week closure and serving tacos in abundance. Naturally I met two of my friends there and we sat and chatted for a good three hours. These two friends are my young friends that are still in high school that I first met when I had them in first grade my second year of teaching. Now here we are eight years later talking over chips and salsa. That's something to celebrate.

Scholastic always gives me reason to celebrate! I was getting ready to hand out book orders and noticed that Natalie Lloyd's new book was ready to be purchased and put into the hands of students and teachers. My excitement bubbled over to my students and several copies were purchased. Thanks to all the awesome parents who bought books for their children and the students who raided their piggy banks, I was able to get my copy with points, which equals FREE for me! That's two celebrations!

Goodreads page

Friday night I finished my 15th row of my thermometer blanket. I was one degree away the other day from using a third color, on the warmer end. I want it to get warmer, mostly because I am tired of this cold, but also because I want to add another color! Come one Mother Nature, work with me! The celebration with this one is that I am still in love with this project!

What are you celebrating this week?

January 2016

It's a new year! The other day I had a student say, "I can't believe it is 2016!" I had to chuckle inside because she has no idea what that means in her whopping ten years on this planet. She had to have heard her parents utter this phrase at some point. Every adult mutters this phrase at some point during the beginning of the new year. I know this, because I too mutter it every year. It is then usually followed by, "I remember Y2K like it was yesterday!" Are these signs that I am turning into an old lady?

Anyway, it has been since August that I blogged. Here's what I am up to at the moment:

Crocheting:

Recently, I was tagged on Facebook by a few friends in this picture. It is a thermometer blanket. You crochet a row a day and the color is based on the temperate for the day. I broke my pledge to not buy anymore yarn until I used what I had and bought the first few colors. I am not doing the colors in the picture, mostly because I didn't want to.

Here is what eight days looks like. I have not used the coldest color yet, so I guess that is a plus for the people who have to do recess duty! I am excited to see the end product. I like the idea of not having to really plan anything other than the colors. Mother Nature decides the color pattern and I just go with it!

Reading:

Don't act all surprised that this is what I have been up to. I am still working on The Fiery Cross from the Outlander series. I started it in September but put it on the back burner a lot the last four months. I was able to get a lot read over the two week break and got a good chunk of the book finished. My goal is to have it all read by the end of January.

This year, I plan to read 50 books for my Goodreads reading challenge. My goal was 45 last year and I read 50. Should be a pretty attainable goal.

Teaching:
Second semester is off and running! The words "state testing" are being spoken more and more as we move forward. As a school we are hitting writing pretty hard. This excites me, but terrifies me at the same time. Once again this year, my goal is to write more. In order to teach writing well, I have to be able to write well. Cassie got me this great journal with writing prompts to help both of us write more. So far so good! I also hope to blog better this up coming year and not care if I don't get any feedback. I am writing for me, not for comments.

Here's to the new year with lots of adventures; Reading, writing, crocheting and teaching adventures.
What are you up to these days?

Celebrate This Week

We made it through the first "week" of school! 19 students stood outside my classroom door bright and early on Thursday morning to start our year of adventures.

I don't know about my students, but this was me Thursday night when I got home. I went to bed willingly at 8:00 and slept the whole night through.

Today, I celebrate making it through, but I also celebrate the memory of a dear friend.

Ten years ago when I finished my first ever first day of school, I stopped by my mentor teacher's house on my way home and out walked her husband with a Popsicle. It was the best gift I never knew that I wanted.

After a whole day of talking, your throat gets dry, hot and tired. A Popsicle is a sweet, cold oasis.

At the end of the day, I went around and celebrated each teacher who was awesome and made it through the first day of school with a sweet, cold oasis. It was an incredible way to celebrate the first day of school and the memory of an amazing man.

What did you celebrate this past week?
Check out other celebrations at Ruth Ayres blog!

So This Happened Today

Living in a small town sometimes has its down falls, and shopping can be one of them. Since I was going to the big city today, I decided to do a little shopping before the baby shower that I was going to.

I was kind of dreading the shopping trip since I needed to purchase some new boobie jails. Not a fun item to shop for, yet an evil necessity.
Thankfully, it wasn't as painful as I had thought it was going to be. Since I was only going to get the one item, I didn't grab a shopping cart and was just walking around the store with a handful of bras, not really thinking too much about it.

Until I saw some parents of a future student. Face palm.
I went down a different isle to avoid them, but what I should have done was walk to the other side of the store until I was sure they were gone.

Walked right into them! I couldn't not stop and chat, and introduce myself to dad. Dad had to be along on this shopping trip? I wouldn't have cared if I had ran into mom with a fist full of over sized over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders, but nooooo, dad had to be there.

At least it will be a story to laugh about later and one that hopefully dad will forget!