School Cancellations and Sick Days...

Indiana has the weirdest weather! Up until the first week in January we have had an on again off again winter. One day it will be snowing, the next 50 degrees and all the snow melts. We had an ice storm that caused some bad weather for 2-3 days then it was warm again. Well this week old man winter is up to it again. Monday started with snow...lots of it!! Tuesday again it was cold and snowy and we thought for sure we would have a delay, but no such luck. Wednesday brought MORE snow and cold temperatures....still no delay, but with it coming down hard they sent us home from school at 1 pm (2 hours early). Yesterday we got the call...first a delay, then a few hours later a cancellation due to -20 degree temperatures with windchill!!! Last night we got the call again...no school today (mainly I think because it was suppose to be a 1/2 day). So we have an unexpected 4 day weekend!! THANK GOODNESS!! First of all starting on Monday...moving through Tuesday...and then even on Wednesday my students were getting to me....believe me they are 100% better than last year, but there are still some things that just make me extremely frustrated (3 boys who think they can do whatever they want...especially when it comes to not doing there homework, several girls who are so gossipy and always have someone mad at them but then according to them it's not their fault, and then a few you just try to push my buttons everyday). By Wednesday morning I was about to plan to take a personal day. Just a mental health day so I could start fresh with them and have a day away from them! I decided against it, but Wednesday afternoon came home sick. Flu like symptons, headache, vomiting. fever, all the worst. I took a nap, then watched a movie with Matt and went to bed at 7. Woke up at 9:#) On Thursday thanks to the cancellations and still felt icky. Today I'm much better, but I'm thinking God was looking out for me. In the year and a half I've been at Riddle I have taken 4 days off (2 sick days last winter, and 4 1/2 days for doctor's appt. and such). I probably would have been stubborn and gone in even though I didn't feel well and needed a break. Looks like sometimes things work out!

Tomorrow is an all day wrestling tournament at the high school. I'm scheduled to run the clock on one of the main mats. Should be a very long day. I do enjoy seeing the boys wrestle though...weird I know :) Never before would I, but hanging out around wrestlers the last few years has made the sport atleast a little interesting, and its nice to have someone to root for!!

Report cards go home Wednesday. I'm about ready to start recording on the cards (all my grades have been entered). I feel ahead of the game, although I was kind of hoping for this whole afternoon at school to work. Maybe I will stop by before the tournament tomorrow and pick up the cards so I can atleast do some of it at home.

Other than that things have been pretty normal. Hope everyone is staying warm!! I can't believe we are 1/2 way through January already!!

Finishing Out the Week

This week was a bit intense. My new student is going to take some getting use to not only by me, but my students. The good news is that most of my boys are very clueless and so they don't always notice some of the akward situations that occur. Atleast he is into legos so he fits right in with my boys. I really have been lucky this year. I have some major stinkers, but all in all they atleast get along. We have a great classroom community built so far and it is nice to know that an additional student didn't change any of that.

Friday was suppose to be our Pioneer makeup day. It went alright although we have LOTS of changes we need to make before we do it again. The afternoon of movies was a different story....all I will say is thanks to some amazing lack of planning it wasn't the best experience for me to have 57 4th graders in my room.

This is week 1 back to working out with the ladies after school. I love love love having Wynne and Rebecca there everyday! Not to mention that it seems we have sucked in quite a few more people! Enough to where we have discussed running 2 rooms on some days!! We have about 7 regulars and have had up to 11!!!! I love the fellowship of being able to just chat about grown up things after being with 10 year olds all day!! Today I got up motivated to do something and loaded from our Netflix Jillian Michaels Cardio Max....in short....IT KICKED MY BUTT :) I felt like my stamina was getting better because of the December workouts and such, but this one was tough! I think I like it enough to do it the next few Sat/Sundays!!

Colts lost last weekend so now watching football isn't as enjoyable :) I guess I will have to try to find something else to distract me from lesson planning tomorrow :)

Recent News: Nana may be coming from Florida for all of the grandkids birthdays (my cousins and I's are about 4 days apart the end of Jan/beg of Feb. Could be interesting :) Always is when Nana visits :)

Alright time to go watch a movie with Matt. If I can get my lazy cat off of my lap :) Stay Warm Everyone!

New Year....a New Student

Break went by WAY to fast but definitely was a nice break from the normal routine. I am happy to be back at school and back in a routine though.

Yesterday was pretty uneventful with the kids. Minus me sending a froup of 21 10 year olds outside to no supervision and -5 degree weather oops! I didn't realize it was a stop sign (meaning indoor recess) I went an recovered them though and they were only out there for about 5 minutes so no damage done!

Has a Doctor's appointment last night. So far no new news, just another few rounds of medication and hopefully a solution. Otherwise our next step could make some changes in our life earlier than we were planning :)

Today I got a new student. He has Asberger's Syndrome. He's very intelligent from what I can gather so far, but there are some social concerns (as is normal with this syndrome) and I'm just glad my class is very accepting and looks past those things. I already had several boys today making sure he felt welcome. I was very proud!

Also started working out with the girls again after school. Since the beginning of December we have been doing the Slim in 6 video tapes. I love love love them! Also feel like a good workout and it is focused on all of the muscles I want to work on.

Random sidenote I bought a can of black beans today (frijoles negroes) to try out a Mexican style chicken tomorrow night for dinner thanks to a recipe from an online message board buddy. I can't wait!

Hopefully this freezing rain we have been getting all day and supposebly will continue all night won't cause a cancellation tomorrow!!

It's the MOst Wonderful Time of the Year!

So yes I have done a horrible job at this :) Things have been a bit crazy over the past two months, but also things have turned out pretty well! Matt got a job as an assistant in the special education room at the high school. He works with the kids on homework and he travels to classes and lunches with two boys (one autistic and one emotional disturbed) he seems to really be enjoying it. He is also the assistant coach of the high school wrestling team and he really seems to be enjoying that!

We had a successful cookie day the first weekend in December here at my house with my cousins, Mom and sister. It was a lot of fun....even the dogs enjoyed there cousin (Zeus my sisters dog) stopping by to play with them for the day!

I got to go shopping with my favorite roommate in South Bend and minus some minor car problems (I'll explain in a bit) we had a blast...and I found some AMAZING deals for gifts! Yes I am the bargain shopping queen!!

So a few set backs were our ongoing toliet problem. We bought a snkae rod thing and Matt has done that several times, getting it to work for only a few days before it stops working again. We have been mainly relying on our garage bathroom to make things work...well its FREEZING out there so I kind of said hey buddy we need to get this fixed :) Well when I called the plumber he informed me that it might be the toliet, so before he came we bought a new toliet and Matt installed it....nope same problem, so the plumber, a huge mechanical snake, and $140 later we are now working again :)

My car decided it didn't want to start on back to back days in the freezing cold.....I chalked it up to the temperature and didn't worry about it (I have a newer car with only a year old battery). So I went to S.B. with Meesh and we made it all over when I was getting ready to leave it was DEAD...no starting the car...we happen to be in Walmarts parking lot so we went to their car service place and the guy informs be it is not my battery it is my alternator.....and that there is no way I can drive home on it.....Matt tells me don't listen to him....drive home you'll be fine and I will come jump you and charge it if you die. So I drove home with no heater in the FREEZING cold....the next day I called a mechanic for him to tell me the guy at Walmart is an idiot and its probably just my battery...so Matt picked me up a good one and my car has been happy since....

Christmas time means lots of travel for us in just 2 days. On Christmas Eve we drive to my parents in Marion (A little over an hour trip) for dinner, church, and exchanging gifts with them. Then we drive back (we got here about 12:30 Christmas morning) and sleep at our house...wake up Christmas morning (About 7ish) have Christmas together with our puppies, then turn around and make a 2 hour one way treck to Michigan. See his parents and grandparents and we got back around 11:30 last night. We were EXHAUSTED! I said...once we have kids this schedule may need to change because there is no way we will be able to enjoy our Christmas at our house if not....It was an enjoyable time though and we did enjoying seeing both of our families and spending time with them!

We have another week off to enjoy New Years and then back to school the start of January. I must say this break was needed and I'm much more energized to head back to school this year.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

FALL!!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE FALL! It is by far my favorite season. For one, being a teacher fall is always an exciting part of the year. New kiddos, new school supplies, a cleanly decorated classroom, and excited students.

I also LOVE football! One plus to Matt is our love to lounge around on Sunday and enjoy several football games and just get lots accomplished! I even sacrifice and root for his Green Bay Packers once and a while now...UGH :). But this weekend was WONDERFUL! I got so much accomplished with lesson plans and stuff for my portfolio and also got to cuddle with my Allie dog and enjoy some good games.

I also made a GIANT batch of vegetable soup. I know some of you are thinking WHAT JESSICA IS EATING VEGETABLES :) Well I recently have discovered that I enjoy vegetable soup because if I make it in the crockpot and let if simmer all Sunday then you can't taste all the individual vegetables, and it is oh so yummy! I make enough too to freeze some and have it for lunch ALL WEEK :) Fall weather is definitely soup weather....

Oh another hand I was enjoying a nice conversation with Meesh (my roommate from college) as I walked to the Fulton librar to drop off books when a nice hailstorm decided to arrive. I'm sure I was a VERY humorous sight as I talked to her about whether I should run (which I did) or walk (which I also did) during this downpour....Meesh probably enjoyed my "Oh my goodness what should I do"....."AHHHH It feels like I'm getting pelted by nerds".....and such comments too :)

My students have been FABULOUS the past two days. We are running a mock campaign election this week among the 4th grade classes and our Independant party is AMAZING! Wendy Malchow (my partner class in this project) took the afternoon off to take her daughter to the doctor and I was left with 42 children to put them in their committees to work for the first time. I was gearing up for chaos and a headache...not to mention a miscommunication from another teacher about not starting the unbias committees until tomorrow, when I told the committees where to meet turned around and EVERYONE was busy and working. Our candidates from governor and lt. governor were mingling through each group and switching places to catch up on the doings of each of the committees....it was a joy to watch the kids SO into the project at hand. They are learning SO MUCH from this and are so excited it makes me excited to teach :)! YAY for a wonderful class this year!

Well I hear Biggest Loser taping in the bedroom and since Matt is at a Coach's meeting to learn all the new rules for the high school wrestling boys I think I may go watch :). I can't believe tomorrow is already Wednesday!

My First....

So back in college I use to blog on livejournal. I kind of gave that up when things got busy, but now that things are semi undercontrol I thought a place to record my funny stories that I have from teaching, living with Matt, and having two mischievious dumb dogs would be a great idea.

I guess a quick update on my life may be helpful and then you can join me on my adventure :). I graduated from Manchester College in May 2007. I was hired by Rochester Community Schools last year and have been teaching 4th grade ever since. Last year was a bit shaky with my group of youngins, but this year I feel so much more undercontrol! Not to mention I have a better discipline system, and 21 kids instead of 26!!!

I met Matt the first week of school my senior year in college. We got married last June. We bought a house in Fulton, Indiana (about 8 miles from Rochester) in April and LOVE being homeowners! So far we have painted, put in new tile flooring in the kitchen, and Matt put in a shower in the main bathroom! We stll have LOTS of things we would like to do but they will have to wait for the finances to allow :)

Right after I graduated Matt and I rescued a Dingo puppy from the Humane Society. We named her Allie and she became our little holy terror :)....so this spring when we moved into our new home Matt decided she needed a friend.....thus we rescued Tyson from a lady who needed to get him out of her 1 bedroom apartment.....since then Allie has been my behaving little angel while Tyson is my onery little bugger!!

Matt is still job searching....he is filling his time coaching the high school wrestling team (and doing a pretty job so far :)) and getting ready to begin substitute teaching until he finds something in business management.

Other than that we are pretty boring :) I teach, he coaches, and we enjoy our country home!!! I couldn't ask for anything better!!