Catch Up

I know it's been over a month since I have posted, but now I have tons of pictures so I'm going to TRY to let them do most of the talking because well, we all know pictures are just more fun. I am an explainer though so we'll see. As a general disclaimer: I can't stand how blogger puts pictures in backwards order and how much of a pain it is to move them around, so my timeline of pictures is a little messed up. You'll be able to follow along I'm sure!

I spent from Dec. 20th to the 31st in San Diego with my family this Christmas and it was FANTASTIC! My family showed us a great time and made sure we hit all my favorite spots. This meant that we saw the ocean a lot and ate Mexican food to my heart's content. Chris spent most of his mornings and afternoons golfing. I'm not kidding, he played 5 rounds of golf and went to the driving range on top of that. He was pretty much in heaven.

For the first time in a few years all of us were together so my parents could get a much coveted complete family picture.

My sister Audra, Me, my brother David

Three of us with my parents

Whole group

(Me, Chris, Mom, Dad, Dave, Luke, Will, Audra, Chloe, Ethan)

I got to meet Audra's baby, Chloe, for the first time! She was to die for! I'm in love for sure.

Oh, I love this guy too! :)

We had a fun day at the San Diego Zoo. Audra's boys, Ethan and Luke were the resident experts and corrected me many times. Ethan told me the birds were not just condors, but CALIFORNIA Condors! Duh!

Luke had me cracking up with his love of this gross stuffed cheetah on a little train we rode and his comment about the hippos we saw playing in the water. Turning to me with a big smile on his face, "Oh, that's quite a creature!"

The boys weren't cooperating...

until I asked to take a picture of Ethan's nose!

Cute Chloe, being as happy and content as always at the zoo.

I had to make it to the La Jolla tide pools. It being December did not deter me at all.

There were HUGE starfish everywhere we looked!

I finally found a pet I want. I seem to be the only one who wants these sea slugs as pets. Not to mention I'm the only one who thinks it is awesome to hold them. I tried to get some kids to pet them and they looked at me like I was crazy. I always did like sea creatures better than any others. Aren't these guys fat! The fattest I've ever seen!

We also saw an octopus, but he got away before we could get a picture.

Gorgeous, gorgeous day! Look at all these views we had that day. Why did I leave San Diego???

We also biked around that day on the coast up on the cliffs. The waves were huge! We saw Seal Beach (which really is roped off for the seals), and a wedding going on that was beautiful.

This one is on Coronado Island right off Downtown San Diego. It is famous for the Hotel Del Coronado which Chris and I got to stay at for part of our honeymoon. I love their huge tree they decorate different every year. I buy at least one ornament from there every year.

Christmas morning. I think Chris was most excited with his pound of Sees Chocolate plus two more pounds of it in gift certificates. Well, that and the money both sets of parents contributed towards a new TV. Oh boy, this could be dangerous!

I got the boys Zhu Zhu Hamsters. Winky and Scoodles. Although for the first day they were "Tinky and Skittles."

Luke was pretty excited about his. When he first opened it he said in the sweetest voice possible, "Awww! What's this cute little guy?!" Gotta love that kid.

I also got them some books. Luke is "reading one" very intently.

I loved seeing all my family, including grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins too. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas!

These are just some fun pictures of school stuff before the break. We did lots of fun Christmas crafts and centers the week before Christmas.

Gift Bags,

Holiday themed worksheets and another gift bag,

Christmas Memory,

Reading corner with all my Christmas books (and yes that is a cup of hot cocoa I let them drink while reading. Only 2 spilled and thankfully not on the books! I'm crazy, I know),

We made cute Christmas trees out of upside down ice cream cones, white frosting for snow, green for the tree, and lots of candy for decorations.

I've noticed some kids really don't care if their stuff looks nice, EVER, so I tried to document both sides.

Kid who doesn't care...

Kid who does.

Kid who doesn't care...

Kid who does.

(If you want to learn how to make cool snowflakes, just ask - One of the perks of being a teacher :)

Kid who doesn't care...

Kid who does.

I didn't take a picture of one of the ones that didn't care about their reindeer, but let me tell you... there were a couple doosies!

Want to know what the common theme was? All the "Kid who doesn't care" were boys. There are exceptions to every rule of course but...I'm just sayin'.

Just so you know we did "real" work too, here is an example of a cool clock each kid made to help them remember how to tell time. I should have taken a picture of a kid who doesn't care. Wow, you should have seen that.

This I posted so you can see how creative kids are now days. I had them add to Verb Man showing different actions he can do. Please note "farting" and "bleeding." I stopped them there though there were many more hands that soared into the air after having been inspired by the two children before them. I had to laugh.

Candid Comments

Last school year I had an abnormally large amount of creepy and gross kids and parents who would shock me. Think back to creepy dad with no semblance of personal space, sweaty dad (even in December), "I believe in killer whales" child, I will wash off the math game piece I dropped in the toilet and put it back child, and so forth. This year I have such an awesome class, that I feel I am being repaid for my sufferings last year. I still crack up at some of my students' comments and doings and am so glad they just keep on coming. It seriously is one of the best things about teaching to me. Anyway, with these cute kids, I don't have so many gross or weird stories as just funny ones. (Why is it so much funner to post the former kind?) Here are some of my recent favorites anyway:

1. On making a list about places that are special to them, one student wrote:

"Disneyland, school, Adventure Island, church - because I'm supposed to like it and if I don't God with PUNISH me! The bathroom is also special to me because everyone needs some privacy you know."

2. I have 3 students who spend part of their day with a specialist because they have some learning disabilities. One of them has a bit of autism along with some other things, and this kid has become one of my favorites. He is draining because he has to be refocused every three seconds, but he cracks me up. One day he couldn't do what we were doing so he was drawing a mask instead. He colored it with markers and was very proud. He asked for some tape, but when I told him I wasn't going to let him tape it to his face, he took matters into his own hands. When I wasn't looking, he went to the sink and doused his face in water to make the mask stick. I felt a tap on my back and a, "Mrs. Hawwis..." (which is how he says my name). When I turned around I saw this

The marker bled through the wet paper, covering his entire face in marker. He didn't seem to mind though and even wanted to see the picture I took on the camera. His reaction to seeing himself was, "Oh, so funny!"

I had to scrub this poor kids face with soap until it was red to get all the marker off.

3. Same kid as above... We are finishing a test when this child comes back from his special class. I tell him to grab a book to read for a couple minutes. The class is totally silent when he YELLS, "Ha Ha, HE FARTED! Oh my gosh, ew, look at the fart. I can see it, look!" He was reading a book called Walter the Farting Dog. As you can imagine, my whole class erupts in laughter. I do too, so what are you gonna do?

There's a bunch more, but I can't think of them right now.

Baby Shower and School Stuff

My sister -in-law, Camie, Is due with a baby boy on Nov. 10th (the Marine Core's b-day which Mike is seriously excited about) and I thought it would be fun to throw her a shower!

We ate tons of food, played a couple games, and watched Camie open some great gifts.

Her husband, Mike, made a guest appearance and brought their daughter, Calla, since a lot of people there hadn't met her yet. She is going to be a cute big sister once she realizes she has a brother! Right now she kisses the "ball" in Camie's tummy.

This wasn't nearly all the gifts yet! She's a lucky girl! (Oh yeah, her son is a lucky boy too :))

The invites

On a totally different note, my class has been awesome so far! I am having a really good time with them this year. I am feeling so lucky! This doesn't mean there aren't days where I think they are all crazy, but it's such huge difference from last year! We read this cute book called, Glad Monster, Sad Monster. Each page describes a feeling and things that make the monster feel that way. Then there are masks for each emotion for the kids to put on and tell what makes them feel that way. At first they were embarrassed to do it, but soon every child wanted a turn.

I was surprised how much I learned about each kid during this. Some have horrible siblings that ignore them or injure them, some have parents who are ill a lot, many of the kids have had bad experiences in water, and some just wanted attention. I have to say that I am scared for the day when my future kids go to school because kids spill dirt like no other! No shame and nothing sacred.

I have several things I do to promote good behavior as a class and as individuals. As a group they try to get pebbles from one jar to another by following directions, being really quiet, or just doing something good. Once they earn the whole jar they get a surprise. This time around they got candy to eat while painting some canvas bags that we are going to use to put their center work in. They had a lot of fun doing it. There were a lot of other cute bags but I didn't feel like editing all the faces out of the pictures. I wish I could post my students' pictures because those are the best ones! Oh well.

Murphy's Law & Cracker Country... not together

I have never believed in Murphy's Law, where everything that can go wrong will, nor do I think people should always whine about how horrible their lives are and give the whole, "woe is me" speech. However...have you ever had days/periods of time where you believe Murphy's Law might really exist? I'm not being totally serious of course, but there are days when I can't believe how many things can really get in the way. My life is ridiculously wonderful so I'll stop here. Just throwing it out there after a very frustrating couple of days which have followed an almost laughable series of events.

Just to prove I'm not a downer, here are some pictures of my 2nd graders' field trip to Cracker Country. It is a turn of the century historical site with hands on activities. It was very hot and buggy, but the kids had a really good time despite the fact that I thought they were going to die of hunger since we ate at 12:15 instead of 11:00 as usual. :)

Making candles

Inside of one of the old houses they transported here

Making Butter

Ironing

Getting the juice out of sugar cane to make into honey

Train depot

A turn of the century house

The kids were worn out after just trying some chores for a few hours! I think it was good for them. Too bad most went home to video games.

Nothing to Report

I want to post...I really do. I just have nothing interesting to say. What this means is no pictures and some unrelated bullet points.

*I celebrated my birthday a week ago. Despite the fact that it was really great and my family and friends treated me like a queen, this is the first year I have felt older than I want to be.

*I got to go shopping to spend birthday money. It is depressing how expensive some stores are. You go thinking you have gift cards and are going to get tons of great stuff. When you walk out, you are excited about your two purchases but bummed you had to chip in extra money to cover the cost of the said two items.

*I wish I lived somewhere where I could wear the cute fall clothes I bought. I can't wear them here for another 2 months at least.

*School is going really good. I have both hard and easy kids, but overall they are fun to be around. Three of my students (along with some from each of the other 2nd grade teachers) were put in a newly made second grade class because of our larger sizes. I was sad to lose them but happy to have a more manageable class size! Plus I lost all boys, so now I'm at 7 girls 10 boys! They were going to make me give 2 girls and a boy but I fought them on that one!

*The new teacher for the 2nd grade class came from another grade that had too few students. She is starting to bug me with her comments like, "Oh, your student's parent would be in the office first thing Monday morning if she knew I was moving up to 2nd. She would want me to be her kid's teacher!" or "I don't like that these parents are treating me with hostility like I'm some first year teacher. I just tell them, I've been teaching for 12 years thank you very much." Sorry if this sounds mean...I'm just tired of listening to her talk about her greatness.

*I am really struggling lately with the desire to eat healthy. I am usually pretty good about this but all I seem to feel like eating is stuff that is not good for me. I am trying to work out hard to off set this, but I think I'm losing that one.

*I need some good books to read. I am re-reading things now which I like to do, but really want to read something new. Any suggestions?

*I'm going to San Diego for Christmas this year and can't wait to meet my new niece, Chloe. My sister really needs to stop having her children in the first 2 weeks or so of the school year. I'd like to meet one of the munchkins before they are 4 months old! I can't wait to kiss her squishy cheeks!!

*Okay, enough bullet points. Is it obvious yet I have nothing to say? At least I don't have to feel guilty about not posting.

Potpourri

There is something about the word potpourri that I like. Maybe it's that I think of something that smells good, but I'm really just using it to show a bunch of random stuff that I have been meaning to post, but haven't. Whatever it is about the word, here is a bunch of random stuff I have been meaning to post, but haven't. :)

Our 7th Anniversary

August 23, 2002

August 2009

Dinner at Shulas, a steak house in Tampa.

They put this cheesy sign on our table

Shula was a football coach in FL, so the steak part of the menu is on footballs. Kinda weird for an upscale restaurant. Good steaks though, so I will overlook this fact.

Dinner to celebrate our friend Craig's birthday. It was a really fun night with friends. Notice that Camie and I aren't sitting next to our husbands. I guess when you have been married for a while you realize that sometimes it is fun for the guy to sit next to the guy and the girl next to the girl.

Only in the south does the Elders Quorum have a shooting activity. The guys were ridiculously excited and insisted that the women come along. I did not grow up around guns, and to be honest, had never even held one. After much whining and begging, Chris convinced me to come. Thus, I now have shot a gun. Chris asked, with a huge smile on his face if I liked it. Sorry to disappoint, but I couldn't figure out what the big deal was. I had fun with all the friends though!

The guys had a Osama Bin Laden poster made as a target.

Clark and Mike getting ready.

This is what the girls spent some of the time doing.

I love this picture of a pregnant Camie shooting a gun.

Here I am trying to look like I know what I'm doing.

Chris taking aim.

Craig looking tough.

Some of the guys being way too excited to hold guns. Unfortunately since this day all they talk about is guns. It's really annoying for someone like me who knows nothing...and doesn't want to know anything about them.

Tada! Potpourri is finished and hopefully still smells sweet!