Quotes of the Day #1

"Miss, can I smell your hair? It smells good."

"I love the school too much. I just don't want to sleep."

"Miss, Miss, Miss, at what o'clock is school finished?"

"My tummy, it's paining me."

Saturday 9/18

I'm enjoying a minute's peace to blog, although I should continue working on what I'm doing this week in 1st grade. Last week was my first week with students (which was only 3 days), so I can't even fathom what this next full week will be like! The kids are super cute, but so busy-bodied! With time, I know that we'll get into a solid routine and have much more productive class time. For now, I'm lacking some of the materials that I need in order to do all the reading activities that the 1st graders are supposed to be working on, so we continue to do lots of assessment and fun things to get to know each other. On Thursday, I had them playing a math game which is basically like "War," practicing which numbers 1-10 are bigger than the others. If anyone walked by my room, it kind of looked like I was running a gambling circuit, but the point is that the game helped them practice number recognition, greater than/less than, and cooperation. They definitely had a blast.

On a side note, my family used to have this giant gray, calculator-type toy that spoke when we pushed different buttons on it. It would quiz us on which numbers were grater than/less than other numbers, and it made crazy noises when we picked the wrong numbers. Does anyone remember that? What was that thing called?

in Florida

Kenny and Kristen
some pics from vacay with the fam in New Smyrna Beach

at Fishcamp

Nick, checking out the kayaks

yellow sunglasses

There are some things you do just to make others happy.
With my nephew, Nick (2 1/2 ) and my niece, Rebekah (7mths)

at the beach

So, I said something about posting pictures by Monday. Today is Friday, and you guessed it, there are no pictures from this weekend. I guess since I don't have kids, I forgot what it would be like living with a 2.5 yr old and a 6 month old for a week. It certainly takes everyones time and energy!

In other words, we're having a great time. Chris was off to Kuwait on Monday and I actually made my flight and connection here, which if you know anything about my travels, is nothing short of miraculous. Let's just say, you probably don't ever want to vacation with me because likely: A) Your flights will be completely cancelled, B) Your flights will be delayed, C) Either choice A or B plus you'll lose your luggage, OR D) all of the above at some point in the trip.

We've spent just about everyday at either the beach or the pool, and two nights ago we went mini-golfing. Last night, we drove over to the Orlando area from where we are in New Smyrna Beach to visit with my cousin Sally and her husband, Eric. I am not ready to head back to gloomy Pennsylvania yet, but tomorrow we start the 17-hour trek there.

decorator for hire!

We are currently in Eastern PA helping with a wedding and visiting some friends.Today and yesterday, I made nearly 100 table centerpieces among completing other smaller tasks. I love doing these kinds of things, but gosh, I'm tired.

I am going to try to post some pictures and things of our weekend as soon as I get to the beach, so stay tuned. The wedding is tomorrow, Chris leaves for Kuwait on Sunday, and I fly to Florida on Sunday, so I can hopefully put up some good pictures on Monday...