My Classroom (Before & After)

I've been promising some before and after classroom pictures.  Here we go.

This is what I walked in to find:

 An empty room that was wet all over the floor around the air conditioner.  No students desks, chairs, or computers.  The stuff you see piled up was later picked up by the teacher who had my room last year.  The teacher desk had NO DRAWERS and one of the legs was falling off.  No joke.  

 Well, it's come a long way baby! 

Here's my cutie patootie monster on my classroom door made by Lisa, my amazingly talented and ridiculously patient friend.  (Seriously, if you all only knew what she puts up from me on a daily basis...)

 Isn't he perfect? We are Murray's Monsters by the way.  Not mean, get you in the night, monsters.  Just sweet, cuddly, furry first grade monsters.  There is a big difference.

 (The door needs a serious paint job.)

Here are a few other pictures from inside the room.  

 One of our little Five Senses activities (Thanks Pinterest!)

 Part of our word wall (this is not a good picture of it though). 

 Our Common Core standards board with "I Can" statements

 I really don't think any of these pictures show the room that well, but at least it gives you an idea of where I hang out every day!

Hope you had a good day!

Weekend Wrap Up

Our weekend started when friends and the ice cream truck stopped by around the same time!  I wonder how many more Friday nights that ice cream truck with come through before summer officially ends. 

This is how Saturday morning started.  Pretty typical actually.

The King and Queen have arrived! 

This is how I found Juliet on Saturday morning.  I guess that's how Claire solved the problem of Juliet staring at her during the night and "freaking her out".  

Later on Saturday, Brian took the kids swimming while I went to the grocery store.  It was raining, but they didn't care!

Max performed his lifeguarding duties in the rain like nobody's business!

   I also had to go to a funeral for one of my sweet student's mother.  She had been sick for such a long time, but I am heartbroken for that precious six year old who is now without her mommy.  Please pray for her and her family.  (It sure puts that rough day I had last week in perspective.)

This morning, we taught Parker and Claire's class.  Parker helped Mr. Terry with the Bible story.

 Then Brian and I worked with the K-2 small group.

 After church, we went to lunch at Logan's with a bunch of family.

 Then while we were resting for a few minutes this afternoon, this happened.  Never a dull moment.  Never.

 The weather was beautiful tonight.  We practiced tennis for a long time and enjoyed being outside.

  

Now we are just getting ready for the week and watching Peyton play for Denver! Looking forward to a great week!

He Is NEVER Allowed To Leave Again

I have no pictures to go along with this post, and for that you should be thankful.

I have a gross, disgusting story to tell you.  I'm warning you right now that you probably don't want to read this.  Leave now if you must.

Earlier this week, Brian had to go out of town for two days.  He rarely ever has to travel with his job, so I am not accustomed to having him away, especially during the week.  A few years back, he had to be gone for a whole week THREE DIFFERENT TIMES, and it was awful.  Every time he leaves, something goes wrong.  One time, we had a car problem situation.  Another time, we had a leak in our roof.  Seriously, something goes wrong every single time.  So I guess I should have expected that this time would be no different.

He left at the ungodly hour of 5:00 am.  So I was pretty much awake from then on, and I actually got up early.  I should stop here to tell you that I have the best husband in the world.  What? I've already told you that? Well, here's further proof.  He always makes the kids lunches, helps them with breakfast, and takes the dog out/feeds him every morning.  I knew it would be a little harder without his help, but I got up early, remember?

It was so nice to wake up to an upset stomach (mine).  I'm sure it was just my nerves anticipating what was about to unfold.  I had no choice but to start getting ready anyway.  I took the dog outside, then went back up to put my makeup on.  Then I heard both kids yelling, "Yuck, Max stinks!"  That usually means that he has diarrhea.  You see where this is going, right?  Before I could even get in the next room, I heard, "Oh no, it's on my bed!" That's right, dog diarrhea on Parker's quilt.  Clean up began.  Then I tried to get Max into the bathroom so I could clean him up.  He got scared because he thought I was going to give him a bath.  So he ran down the steps, peeing ALL THE WAY DOWN ON EVERY STEP.  Clean up continued.  As I was cleaning the steps, Claire was yelling that a huge spider is in the hallway about to eat her alive.  Spider killing commenced.  So by that time, it was 30 minutes from time we needed to leave, and I was not at all ready, the kids hadn't had breakfast, and lunches weren't packed.  I finally got my upset stomach self pulled together enough to get dressed.

When I finally made it downstairs to get us all out the door, I went to Max's crate to get his bone out for him.  You don't even want to know what I found in there.  Throw up.  Dog throw up.  Everywhere.  When I tried to lift his blanket out that contained the mess, the throw up went all over the floor.  So I started crying.  What else was there to do?  I gagged and cried and cleaned.  And then I gagged some more.  Unbelievably, we made it to school  on time.

And that was just Day One.

(I am thankful to report that Max is all better.  I am all better.  The quilt survived.  The steps look just as dirty as always, but not any worse.  No more spiders have been spotted.  Best of all ~ Brian is back home with us, and all is right with the world.)

Well It Appears I Have Some Catching Up To Do

I guess I've been a tiny bit busy.  

(Understatement of the century)

I don't like busy.  It's not cool.  It's just life sometimes I guess.

So let's head back to last weekend for a few minutes, if you will...

Just a sweet picture of Brian and Claire watching tv:

I just noticed that empty 2 liter sitting beside on the table beside the chair.  I have no idea why it's there, but I assure you we don't sit and drink out of 2 liters while watching tv. Unless it's National 2 Liter Day, in which case, Party On! 

 Saturday morning brought out some old school toys:

 And this good ol' pirate made an appearance.  He came in and said, "Would you like a piece of my booty?"

I kid you not.

 I'm not sure how this happened.  But it did.  And I own it.

 At some point, we had the return of the redneck water slide. 

Oh, yes we did.

 Care to take a guess?

 Bacon macaroni and cheese.  For real.  Oh emm gee.

Please take note of the fancy dinnerware.  That's right, I bring out the good stuff for Labor Day.

 Parker had a little project to do for school.

 Edible Animal Cell

 Labor Day led us to Chuck E. Cheese for a little fun and games.

 Then Juliet spent the night on the floor beside me.  In Claire's words, "She freaks me out when she looks at me in the night".  For the record, I didn't notice Juliet looking at me in the night when she stayed in my room. She has since moved back to Claire's bed.

So there you go.  Random pictures from last weekend.  I know your life is now complete.

Recipes Galore!

Here are more of the recipes that a few people have requested:

Oreo Extravaganza

1 (8oz) softened cream cheese
3 1/2 cups cold milk
2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding mix
1 tub Cool Whip
1 pkg Oreos (crushed)
1 stick melted butter

Mix crushed Oreos and butter in a gallon bag.  Put in bottom of 9x13 pan saving 1/2 cup of the mixture for the top.  Blend in mixer the cream cheese with milk and pudding.  Pour over cookies.  Top with Cool Whip and reserved Oreos.  Refrigerate.

I usually layer this in a trifle dish, but it's easier just to make in the 9x13 dish.
(From an old Sunday School cookbook)

Stuffed Shells

18-20 jumbo pasta shells
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 lb hamburger meat
1 egg
2 Tbsp. dried parsley flakes
1 jar spaghetti sauce (I use Hunt's because I hate chunky sauce)
Various other Italian spices
Extra cheese for top (however much you want!)

Beat egg, stir in ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, and parsley flakes.  Brown hamburger, add jar of sauce, and other spices to taste.  Spray a 9x13 dish with Pam and pour 1 cup of the sauce/meat mixture on the bottom. Cook pasta according to directions on the box and drain.  Use cheese mixture to stuff the shells and line them in the pan.  When finished, pour the remaining sauce mixture over shells and sprinkle with extra mozzarella and Parmesan cheese on top.  Back covered for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  Take the cover off and bake an additional 5 minutes.

I usually serve this with salad and garlic bread.  I got this recipe from the same Sunday School cookbook, but I adapted it by adding the meat, extra spices, and extra cheese.  Because that's how I roll.

One last thing...

Someone recently asked me for the recipe for Brian's winning Pioneer Woman chicken recipe.  I'm just going to add the link here because it's way easier than retyping the whole recipe.  Plus, you can see the other winning recipes too if you want!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/06/grillin-recipe-contest-winner-videos/

Enjoy! I'd love to know if you end up making any of these yummy recipes!