Bitter sweet...

This past Monday was bitter sweet for me....I headed back to work for my first day back since Miss H, and my last day of teaching!  I am so excited and thankful that I am able to be a stay at home mom!  I couldn't imagine missing anything that Miss H does....yes even the blow out poops.  However, it was a little sad to clean up my class room.  I mean I have been teaching for 6 years.  I have taught K-2 through out the years and at 2 different schools.

The bitter sweet part is that I had finally found an AMAZING school and family there. I love, love, love Sweet Lily B.  There really is no other school like this one.  The staff and work environment are over the top.  Not to mention the outstanding families and PTA.  I have never seen a community like Lily B....and am sad that I was only able to enjoy it for the past 2 years.

I had a heavy heart leaving my kids for many reasons.  1) this was by far my sweetest class...they were so loving and wonderful.  I had no real behavior issues, which was so nice.  2) the families...man my families this year were just as amazing as their children.  They were so supportive. 3) Sweet S (my special needs child), he had such a bad rap at school for his past 2 years...and well needless to say he and I were wonderful together.  He was succeeding and making progress acadmically and socially as apposed to spending everyday in the office.  I knew once I left to have the baby things would probably change with him and that broke my heart.  Not a day went by that we didn't talk about how when I left I would still be checking on him...and that I had to be gone with the baby for a while.  Come January he was so prepared he could give me the speech by heart...."Mrs. Roberts' has to be with the baby and I am going to continue to follow the rules and do my best work even if it is not fun or kind of hard...so on and so on."

When I did leave in January, it was just for maternity leave (at least that is what my parents were told...for contractual reasons I couldn't say more)  Finally at spring break I was able to inform them that I had made the choice to stay home...by this time they were good with my sub and life seemed to go on pretty good without me.  That made my choice of staying home so much better...and it showed me that my kids were pretty prepared for the new teacher to step in.  Thank heavens...I did worry about that all year...actually I think I probably taught harder this year than the past just because I wanted to make sure every child was well beyond where they needed to be when I left.

Now, where does this leave me....excited because I get to see my beautiful daughter grow everyday. I just can't picture myself leaving her with someone else and heading off to teach.  I mean I loved my job as a teacher.  I loved seeing my student succeed and grow, but I just couldn't do that rather than be with my own little one.  When we found out I was pregnant last May we knew right then and there I would be making a choice to stay home once she was born.  Chris and I both come from families were our moms were there for everything...I can remember to this day going to 1/2 day kinder (yeah when that was around...I know I am old) and then spending the afternoon with mom.  I want Miss H to have those same wonderful memories. I know she wont remember it all now, since she only 4 months old....but in the long run she will.


Thankfully mom wonderful mom made the trek back up here to help me out.  (I feel like every time she leaves from helping me with something, she is turning right around to come back and help again) She is the best mom ever....I really wouldn't have been able to do it without her especially since Miss H was with us.  It took us 3 days but we managed to pack up all my MUST HAVE school items and move them out.  I am sure we could have done it quicker but we had the time....plus Miss H had to eat and nap in there a few times.  I left some of my teaching stuff behind for the new teacher to use, but kept the stuff I loved. You know like things I though Miss H could enjoy one day in her playroom or that her mommy may want to teach her.  The fun things....and well don't kid your self I took all my SHARPIES home when I left in January.  Yes, I love them so much I couldn't stand the thought of my sub using them.  Ha ha ha.  Here are some pictures from the GREAT MOVE!

Day1: We cleaned out all of the cabinets and sorted...

 Here is what my room looked like BEFORE we began the cleaning out!  All my wall decor and such I left behind..

My Door...I decorate my door every year with a new fabric. I love it because it is different from the others.

mom removing my door fabric

Miss H taking a nap as we worked

Amy and Emily enjoying a break from there rooms in mine! 

I love this pic of mom and Harper...so sweet

 Day 2: Putting it all in boxes and containers....

 Day 3: Pack all boxes up and take them to my storage unit.  Small side note...we had to rearrange my storage unit to make room for it all. HA HA HA Yes my storage unit is holding all my apartment from when Chris' and I got married. 

Thank you dad for the van...it was very good for the move! It only took 2 loads to get everything there.

 We had to take majority of it out to rearrange.  Good thing my unit is on the corner, we used all the halls! 

Miss H being a trooper in the heat, look at those cheeks.

The unit all rearranged and organized! 

 My class room on the final walk through...and last few items picked up!  

Weekend Recap

Please ignore my awful sunburn!

WHEEEWWWW!!!  I think this is the first time all weekend I have actually sat down and relaxed!  We had yet another busy weekend on our hands.  For starters I was playing with Claire in a tennis tournament. Thankfully the draw was not too large....allowing me to find a way to leave Saturday night open.  Our first match was on Friday night...but let's not talk about it!  Um, it was not the best tennis either of us have ever played!  Enough said!!

Saturday morning, Chris went a head and finished up our flag stone walkway.  It looks SUPER!!!  I hope it will help sale our house too.  Then we (Winston too) ran to Lowes and picked up some other things.  Of course we had to eat a hotdog while we were there too!  We really love the Lowes hotdog guy, actually we prefer them over Home Depot.  (if you have not tired their hotdogs you should...mmmm...) Next we rushed home and I took off for match number 2.  The good news is that we got on court a bit earlier than scheduled, the bad news is we took forever to play!  Once our match was over I had to RUSH RUSH RUSH home and clean up.

Last night my school had their annual art auction.  For those of you who have no idea what this is....well let me enlighten you!  Basically our sweet art teacher works on projects with each grade level.  They start working on these projects around October besides the normal art class items.   Each grade level has a theme!  My second graders had Andy Worhol (he did many piece with silk screening)  and Charlotte's Web!  The kids made time capsules of items to be opened in 2015.  They placed their items in a screen printed box....it was so cute!

Okay back to the info...so there are a total of 12 "master pieces" that are student created you can bid on.  But also there is a HUGE HUGE HUGE silent auction.  The items in this area vary from food, house decorating, romantic getaways, and teacher parties.  There were a couple of things Chris and I wanted to win!  When you arrive you may begin bidding on the silent auction items.  That continues on through the meal and then ended around 8:30.  Of course you have to keep "stalking" the items you really want!  We bid on a cooking package where a chief came and cooked 5 meals at your house!  Also on a cooking party for up to 20 people.  Chris wanted a golf package.  Also we found something for our sweet little pup!!

Though out the night we got to mingle with all the parents and teachers that were there.  I really enjoyed getting to chat with many of my moms in a more informal setting.  You know I wasn't having to be the "teacher" telling them how good their child is or what they need to work on at home.  Once the silent auction ended the fun really began!  Now it was time for the bigger items...the art!!!

I am completely amazed at how much our parents were willing to spend for their child's class piece.  Now keep in mind all this money is going to improve our school...they want to build a running track around our play ground!  The first few pieces went for 300-400 dollars...then we hit a fourth grade piece!  Man that piece really got things going.....if I remember correctly it went for 2,500 dollars.  I love that our parents want the school to be amazing.  I love that they are willing to help out!  I also love that they enjoyed all the art pieces the kids have worked on....each piece was created with such love!!

The company was wonderful, the event was amazing, we raised tons of money, oh and we won one of the silent auction pieces.  What was it?  Well.....only the best for our pup!  We bid on a 100 dollar gift card to Winston groomer...and won it!  Winston will now get 2 hair cuts for the price of one! ROCK ON!!!

Our goodies for Winston! 

Oh yeah and did I mention...Claire and I got 2nd place today after our very LONG match this morning.  That's right folks it was a rough start but we pulled it off in the end.  Enjoy your Sunday!

My 6th First Day of School!!! Yippeee

Sorry I have been the worst blogger ever...but I have a few reasons for it.

First of all I have been crazy busy working in my classroom.  The last week has been spent learning new ropes, since I am now a new school.  I have been welcomed in with such warmth from all of my new faculty members.  I have seen new light, new ways, and new ideas.  I can tell that this year is going to be very amazing.  This year will be very different from my past 5 years of teaching.  However, I will put this out there....I am very thankful to have had my first job at Contreras. If I had not taught there first I would have never know what "real" teaching was like.  My new school tends to spoil their teachers a bit lot, I don't think they have any idea really how lucky they are. Between the PTA and my principal I have received more goodies this year than ALL 5 years at Contreras.  Really it is crazy, just crazy.

Thus tomorrow begins my 6th First Day of school, yet my 1st First Day of Second Grade at Lily B.  I told Mr. Amazing this year would be exciting.  I know that the kiddos will be fun to teach and ready to learn.  It will also be fun to learn another grade level....I am now very skilled in K and 1, but soon 2nd also!!  I also spent this afternoon putting the finishing touches to my class blog.  Yes, folks you heard me!!  My principal is very pro TECHNOLOGY!!!  It is wonderful, because I too love technology.  I mean heck she text messages us almost as much as emailing.  FWISD had a web page provided for each teacher, however it is NOT user friendly at all.  Instead I have posted my blog link to my FWISD web page and away we go!!!!   I can't wait for the kids to get to post blogs on there too.  I think the parents will really enjoy our blog better than a stinky web page that holds very little items. 

Now for my OTHER REASON EXCUSE for not blogging that much lately.  I am having MAJOR computer issues.  Mr. Amazing of course blames that on the fact that I take 1000's of pictures.  He claims that I should move them to our external hard drive.  I agree with this but, just as soon as I do move them...I will need one or something.  Yes, I have taken and moved all of the pictures over to the external hard drive.  Yet, still my computer will not stop freezing up every 2 seconds.  His next suggestion of course was to use the Mac for blogging!!! YIKES, my windows life does not agree with Mac talk...I um well am not a pro at using that thing.  Thus I sit waiting every 2 seconds for my computer to stop freezing...and blog between issues! HA   I was hoping Mr. Amazing would help me you know by getting a new computer...thus far no such luck.  I hope that I can blog more and better in the future! Ha!!! (oh and this is also the reason you do see any pictures of my classroom...I will try to post later)