Wordless Wednesday: Trying something new!

I have been so busy with teaching and trying to adjust to the structured life of teacher/mom, so yes, my poor little blog has been neglected. 
Things will settle down and I will adjust, and return for some more frequent blogging, soon. 

I do have something I wanted to share with you and link up for Wordless Wednesday with Miss DeCarbo. 
I am so excited about this!

I was so honored, priveleged, thrilled, delighted, pleased to be given a grant from our school foundation and The Walking Classroom for a class set of podcast players to use this year. 
The box arrived yesterday and I could hardly wait to open it. I CANNOT wait to get started! 
If you don't know what The Walking Classroom is, don't worry, I will be blogging all about it this year as my class pounds the pavement while learning. Learning through movement and listening!
What are you excited about trying this year? 
Have a great day friends-

Wordless Wednesday: First Day of School Edition

Our first day of school was yesterday. I figure that it provides the perfect subject for my link up for Wordless Wednesday with Miss DeCarbo.

I am not sure how things go in your house on the first day, but in my house it is hectic and full of emotional reactions from at least 1 if not all of my kids. Hence, I rarely get those first day of school pictures.
Forgot those adorable chalk boards or printed signs. I envy the families that get that accomplished! Instead, I call it a successful morning when I don't get a door slammed in my face.
No, I am not exaggerating, it has happened, and yes more than once.
Let's just say, my boys don't always embrace changes!
I was determined to capture a picture this year! I succeeded, and they capture some of the emotions I deal with during week 1 and especially on day 1.
Sadly, my husband did not get a picture of my youngest, who started at a new school for private kindergarten. {He is not ready for public kindergarten, so we went the private route and he can enroll in public next year.}
It was Sean's first new school (that he remembers) and it was an emotional morning. My husband needed to use bribery, thank goodness for the ice cream place right next door! So no picture of him, but that is ok, I don't have any of his brothers at that age either, they were in their door slamming stage.
So, enough of my words, here are the pics I managed to snag.

Glitter Frame by Glitter Meets Glue, Font: KG Fonts, Paper: JCSweetpea

Since I know what it is like to not capture first day of school pictures of my kids, I also took pictures of my students. I quickly made a backdrop and they all happily smiled for the camera. It helped that I took the picture toward the end of the day. I may save these for them and do an end of the year shot so they can see how much they change during 5th grade.
I love this girl's pose, she is so stinking sweet, and made me smile as she "worked the camera!"

So what is your first day -before school- morning usually like? {Hopefully I have a few friends who can empathize with me, if not I can at least be the source of crazy stories and laughter!}

Currently August 2014

I am linking up with the great Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade. 
August arrived quickly and I needed this little opportunity to think and read everyone's delightful posts. 

This will be short(er) since I need to get moving on my TO-DO list. 

Today, we are heading out to celebrate my father-in-law's 70th birthday. It will be nice to get together with family and celebrate him. You know though, that teacher/mother in me, is thinking about all of the things I still need to do in order to be ready for the first day of school. {Breathe}

I think my list is pretty self-explanatory, except my dog comment. So let me elaborate a little. 

Bandit, our sweet, almost 2-years old Labrador Retriever has been slowly acclimating to life in a house with a family full of active boys. He is doing great with us yet struggles with strangers. He desperately wants to protect his territory and BARKS a lot. 

In order to break him of this we have enlisted a trainer and are taking steps to get him use to being social. Making progress, and that is great. 

So the other day my darling husband (who is spending the week before school starts home with the boys) took the boys and the dog to the park to play and relax. On the way home, almost in our driveway, the dog next door bolted out of his house and approached our dog and boys. He sniffed then suddenly attacked Bandit.
My kids were frightened and my husband was freaked out. 

He bit him once, then let go and bit him again. This time he would not let go. Kids were screaming and crying and my husband was yelling. The dog wouldn't let go and his owner is still inside their house. 

My husband forced their dog off and takes off running after the kids and our dog. They quickly try to get in the house and now the neighbor is out saying, "Are you ok?" You can fill in what my husband said. 

They were scared and the neighbor's reaction was less than expected. They did not seem to think it was a big deal. I disagree as does my husband who had to force their dog to retreat then had to help the kids and Bandit recover. 

Thank goodness my husband was there and it wasn't just my oldest, whose chore is to take the dog on walks.

I called animal control and they were supposed to come out to talk with my husband and the neighbor but they did not show up. 

My husband talked to the neighbor and they are just in denial that it was a serious situation. It was and he has shown the tendency to bite strangers before, so we are really concerned. 

Our dog is ok, no injury, except to his ego. We are still working with him on behaviors and have talked with our boys about safety. Sadly, we are not allowing them to play with the boy next door at their house ever, unless they get rid of Kujo! 

Just another bump to learn from, right?

Well friends, I really need to get moving, that to-do list needs to be tackled a bit. Hope you are having a wonderful August!

Cheers-

Saturday Snapshots 8/2/14

Well, my summer break has been over since Tuesday. Yes, sad, but it was nice to be back with my friends, I miss them during the summer!
Being back to school meant this was a very long week. Really long because I was at school before the sun rose and on a few days left as the sun was setting. 
Since I spent my summer days with my boys, I had to work hard to get my room ready in only 2 days. Open house (meet the teacher) was on the 3rd day of our pre-planning week. Yes, that was stressful! 
I managed to be ready, and it was a great open house day, one of the best ever, especially since I have a few siblings of former students and I heard a lot of, "I am so glad you will be his/her/my teacher this year." 
Because I was so busy that I did not snap any pictures of my classroom except for these three...

Yes, my shoes and feet were aqua blue!

Tuesday morning, during my 5:30 am Wal-Mart run, on the way to school, I decided I was going to paint my corkboard. Wow, I learned a lot about spray painting inside of my classroom. I will save that post for another day, but I was seriously concerned that I made a big mistake when I saw my feet and the hint of blue on my recently cleaned carpets! I promise everything turned out great, and it looks fabulous! I have received a lot of compliments and the color is so relaxing. Stressful, but worth it! 
Next week, I plan to snap some pictures in my room, and I will share them. 
Tonight, I helped my husband with some photos for his Dad's 70th birthday. It was fun flipping through the pictures from our summer, it helped me remember the great times I had with the boys. Photos really are a great way to reminisce, relax, and spark memories.
Here are some of the pictures from the end of our summer break together.

Thank you to the wonderful Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera for the opportunity to share some snapshots and always hosting this fun, motivational, and inspirational party! 
Disc Golf

Playing at the Park

Chalk Drawings
I have a friend, an art teacher, who did some amazing chalk drawings this summer. You have probably seen some floating around on Facebook and/or Pinterest. Well, I attempted it, and it did not go well! 
My boys were not too keen on laying on the hot driveway to snap the pictures. Here is my feeble attempt.

They did enjoy drawing on the driveway to welcome my sister, niece, and niece's boyfriend when they visited us. Since my niece and her boyfriend are in the Army, they both attend West Point, the boys drew guns, swords, and grenades, so yes, those are guns in the bottom right picture. 

The Perfect Family
There is one thing I know I am not, and that is perfect. I also do not have perfect children nor am I a perfect mother nor a perfect teacher. I try my best and love my wonderful children with all of my heart. What we are is perfectly normal!
Hence you can imagine, we probably do not have all perfect family photos. 
It is actually difficult to get all 3 boys to smile at one time, and to get all 5 of us in a picture. 
Well, I could pretend that everything is perfect, but I think you have learned, I don't hide the truth. I could only share perfect snapshots, but instead, I am going to share some snapshots that are full of life, therefore are perfect shots! 

My PERFECT Family

That is my awesome sister - I love how much we look alike, aside from our hair color!

Our sweet Bandit - the rescued lab

Isn't that tongue surreal?

I think he might be part giraffe and he is a happy licker! 

Why does he have a tie on? Well the boys thought it would be fun to dress him up for a pcture for their Papa, who we are celebrating 70 years of life with tomorrow. I guess they felt Bandit needed to be a little more formal for such a wonderful occasion! Too bad he thought the tie was for chewing!
Thanks for taking the stroll through my memories with me. We had a great summer playing, spending tie with family, and growing closer - it probably was close to perfect!

Hope you have been creating perfect memories and snapshots yourself!

Cheers to all of my friends-