A work in progress

Day 2 of working in my classroom is finished.  I  have exactly 10 days total to get my classroom ready for students. Needless to say, I was hoping for a little more time to work in my room before school started. But I'll do what I can with what I've got. That's the flexibility of being a teacher, right? 

My room is a nightmare and other teachers agree. Not only is there a huge diaper keeping the roof off the floor that comes down to my head, but my room became the catch-all room at the end of last school year. I spent all day today pulling stuff of shelves and out of containers. Some of it was older than me; some of it hadn't been used in 10+ years. I was so thankful that some of the other teachers came in to help me weed through it. I had no idea what most of it was or what to do with it. I was more than happy to throw away most of the clutter that was overtaking my room. I wish I had taken pictures to show you all the stuff we threw away or got rid of. But to give you an idea, we filled up a shopping cart to overflowing twice. There was so much of it that we had to get it out of the room. I couldn't even work in there b/c there was so much stuff everywhere. 

Thanks to all of their help (for several hours today), I left today feeling a little better. There is still more than I care to think about left to do, but at least most of the junk is out. I still have a giant diaper ceiling that makes my room feel more like a bounce house but hopefully that will be gone Thursday. I still have lots of painting to do that can't be done until the diaper is gone. I still have lots of organizing to do, procedures to develop, a roster to fill, and numerous other things. One day at a time. One day a time. 

On another note, tax free weekend is this weekend and I couldn't be more excited! I've already stalked some of the store ads and made lists of what to get at each store. I've always loved school supply shopping, but now that I get to do it for my classroom, I'm even more excited! And the fact that they money will get reimbursed helps a little :)

One last school note: I was told today that there has never been a Kindergarten class at my school to start with less than 21 students. Repeat: 21 kindergartners and 1 teacher! It took me a few minutes to come to grips with this. I cannot imagine having 21 5-year olds in my room, but it looks like it may be that way. I was expecting 18 or so, but 21? Holy moly! This is panicking me a little but I'll let you know once I have a roster. 

Lots of prayers would be appreciated this week and next. I have soooooo much to do at school and no time to do it. I'm also trying to work on wedding stuff. We're going to Atlanta in 2 weeks to hopefully book a date and place! yay!! I'm trying not to stress with all there is to do, but I'm not always successful. Please say some extra prayers when you think about it. Thank you! Pictures coming soon!! :)

Quick Update

Well it's almost the weekend but there is still so much to do! This week I have been busy doing a New Teacher's Orientation program that Metro hosted. It was semi-helpful but a lot of repeat stuff that I learned in college. I was overwhelmed with all the information that we were given through the week. I spent (with about 180 other new teachers), every day from 7:45-3:45 being bombarded with loads of info that we need to know. Needless to say, by Wednesday afternoon, I was mentally exhausted.

I am hoping to get in my classroom tomorrow but that has yet to be determined. I'll find out in the morning. I have 6 big boxes and lots of other stuff to get out of my apartment and into my new classroom. Plus the room still needs a good cleaning, new paint, and so many other things. I could (and probably will) spend all day every day for a week working in there and still have loads to do. I'm trying not to let that overwhelm me. Luckily, I met some really nice new teachers at my school and we're all holding each other up for now. I've been told the teachers on my team will be just as helpful so I'm thankful for that! There is just so much to do and so little time to do it in, but I'll manage. I've already started recruiting people to come help me paint and put tennis balls on chair legs :) 

While all of this is going on, we're also trying to get Kevin moved and plan a wedding :)  Kevin is officially moving tomorrow but we've already moved a lot of his stuff. This is a weird move b/c it's just moving his stuff to a new place. We're doing that, but we're also moving things into my apartment and some of my stuff is going to his new place. That means a little more planning is involved haha. But we're managing!

As for the wedding, I'm hoping to have something finalized by the 2nd weekend in August. We're going to Big Canoe to meet with some people and see what we like. The wedding will most likely be in March (which weekend is up in the air right now) and most likely at Big Canoe in North GA. This is by no means finalized or determined yet. We're just hoping. I have spring break the first week in April so we're trying to make good use of it. I was going to wait until everything was finalized but I figured I'd at least share some of the decision making process. :)

With so many things up in the air right now, I will be very happy when something is finally put in it's place. I feel like a juggler right now. Hopefully nothing falls and hits me in the head, but I'll be glad to take a few things out of the air. This week I should start getting my classroom in order and by the end of the weekend, my apartment should be back in order. This will go a long way in bringing order back to my brain. I know for me, when there is chaos in the settings around me (i.e. classroom that's a mess, apartment full of stuff that's not in it's place yet & boxes to go to school....), there's some chaos in my head. That, plus all the emotional stress of starting school, getting a date set, being overwhelmed with information from the district, etc., has made me a mess this week. With compassion and help from a bigger God, I'm muddling my way through one day at a time. :)

Kindergarten Wishlist- Can you help?

The last 2 days I've been putting together a list of things I need for Kindergarten. I have very limited funds with which to get everything so I was wondering if I might enlist the help of people who love me :)  Please do not feel obligated! If you happen to have any of this stuff laying around and would like to put it to good use, I would love to help! There will be many 5 year olds and one 22 year old giving you lots of thank you's!

1) Box tops for Education- Everyone can do this! They're on almost everything you buy. I just stick a zipper bag on my fridge with a magnet, cut out the box tops from whatever they're on that I've bought at the store, and stick them in the bag. This is such an easy way for the school to earn money! (Now I'll just say, I work in a school where 75% of the kids don't speak English as their first language and most of them are on free/reduced lunch.) Having said that, if you think about it, please put these aside for us!

2.Old socks- yes I know this sounds weird but when they're washed, they make excellent erasers for small dry erase boards and are much cheaper than erasers. Erasers also tend to disappear and I'd much rather replace a sock! We all have a pile of socks that lost their mates in the dryer. Now is the perfect time to get them out of your laundry room! Please wash before donating if you can :)

3. Books- If you have any old kids books that your kids have outgrown, I'll gladly add them to our classroom library! I can't ever get enough books!

4. Little toys, Kids' meal prizes, or anything that would be good for a treasure chest- I'm going to do a reward system with my class and would love anything that would be something fun for the kids. I have a few things already but if I have a really good class, I'll run out quickly :)

5. Any school supplies you have laying around that won't be used, especially paper. I don't know, maybe someone has an excess laying around and just wants it out of their way. For example, Kevin was cleaning out his desk last night and found lots of goodies for me!

6. A hand held vacuum- This sounds a little odd too, I guess, but 5 year olds tend to make lots of little messes that would be easy to suck up real quick with a little vacuum. I'd also like to be able to get the dust up quickly and often to ease the pain of little allergy sufferers (and me as well!)

This is all I can think of right now. If you have other suggestions, feel free to send them to me! I haven't even gotten into my room yet to start working so I'm sure some other things will pop up! If you have any of these things that you'd be willing to part with (for a very good cause!), please let me know and I'll arrange to get it from you!

The last few days of summer

It's hard to believe but my summer is pretty much over in 2 days! Wow has time flown! It seems like just last week I was graduating college. Oh, wait, just last week I was getting engaged! :) It's only been a week and a half since we got engaged but a lot sure has happened in that time! Everything with my teaching job has kicked into gear, wedding plans have been a work in progress, and Kevin is moving! We've been busy since we got back from vacation, that's for sure!

1) teaching :)  I am officially a TN teacher now! My teaching license came in the mail today; all of the paperwork for MNPS has been completed and turned in; and I have been to school to see my room and talk with the principal! That all happened yesterday and today so it's been kind of a whirl-wind. I can already tell this 1st year is going to be quite the adventure. For starters, my room is in a hall way that is having a new roof put on it. Well, it rained before the roof was all the way there. Enough said? My room and the rooms on my hall are a mess right now! Mine stinks the worst though. Literally, it smells awful! My principal was trying to be positive about it though so I wouldn't be too worried. We'll get some paint, hopefully new (or I'll settle for cleaned) carpets (although tile floor would be best!) and spruce it up a little. We may also invest in a lot of Febreeze if that smell doesn't go away! On the bright side, my classroom is huge and I can't wait to get in it and start setting everything up! I'm probably going to be enlisting Kevin's help to paint a huge wall that has some pretty ugly wall paper on it too :) 

Next week I am in a New Teacher's Fellowship Program or something like that. It's hosted by Metro and is for all new teachers. It's 8-4 Mon through Thursday and then Friday I get to go to school and start working in my room! Yay!

2) Wedding planning- No, we haven't officially set a date yet. We have one in mind and have lots of ideas for what we want to do. We're in the process of putting everything together now. Hopefully in August we will have a date set and a certain special place reserved so the real planning can begin! So far, I'm mostly enjoying this process. There are a few elements I'm not so fond of, but overall, it's pretty fun. It's so fun to put all our ideas together and see what happens! I don't want to say too much before anything is officially planned, but if we get the place we're wanting, the ceremony will be absolutely beautiful!!! I can't wait to find out if we actually get to see that become a reality :)

3) Kevin is moving- Yes, he is moving very soon! This move will mostly consist of his stuff moving into my apartment while he (and my stuff) move into his new place. Confused? Yes, I thought so. Well, he is moving into a house with a friend and my furniture fits better there than his will. So my furniture leaves my apartment and Kevin's comes in. I have to say, it's gonna look pretty funny to anyone in the parking lot. The good news is, hopefully once we get married, most of Kevin's stuff will already be here so should be pretty easy! And I get to rearrange my apartment because there is all new (to me) stuff coming in :) I've already got the 6 boxes of school stuff ready to go so I could make room. I know he's happy to be able to make this change so I'm happy for him. I'm not so happy about how hot it's going to be the 2 weekends that we do this, but I'll be happy for him because I'm a good fiance :) (and b/c I want help painting my classroom!)  :)

Well, I guess that's about all for now! I have 2 days of summer left (plus a couple weekends that will be spent moving and painting my classroom and hopefully a trip to Atlanta). I'm going to make the best of it and enjoy it by babysitting and celebrating Kevin's birthday on Friday. Don't forget to send him a birthday wish b/c he's getting old now :)

One last thing, the post about the proposal was viewed over 40 times! I was so excited to see that! Thank you for all the love and support! And for reading these really long posts :)

We're Engaged!

One week ago today was the best day of my life so far. Kevin surprised me and proposed while we were at the beach! I have promised that I would put the story up on the blog since I didn't get a chance to call/text or talk to everyone. So here goes!

A little background first: We went to Ocean Isle Beach for a week with Kevin's family for a little vacation. We left Nashville on Friday to go to Atlanta. He dropped me off with Oma and Opa while he went to his grandmothers. We met back up on Saturday morning and headed to Spartanburg. Now, if I had known what was to come, I would not have been quite so insistent about seeing my parents that morning. But he couldn't tell me that we would have a cook out at the end of the week with them so I got to see my parents for a few minutes while the cars got packed. We drove all day and got to the beach Saturday evening. A wonderful week was to follow but I'll get to the special part!

Every day we would try to go for a walk on the beach. I had told him before we left that I wanted to get some good pictures; it had been a while since we took any. He kept assuring me that we would get some. Our nightly walks on the beach were my favorite part of the day. Listening to the water and being out in "nature" were wonderful. 

Skip to Friday: Friday morning it was raining. It hadn't rained all week so of course it was raining on our last day! I checked the weather to see if we'd be able to go to the beach that day and it said it was supposed to rain all day. I decided to go to the gym to work out a little since the boys were still sleeping anyways. Kevin's mom and I headed off to the gym. When we got back, the boys (by boys I mean Kevin, his brother , and his dad) had gone down to walk on the beach since it had momentarily stopped raining. I took a shower and they were back when I got out. Kevin said we should go down to the beach to take the pictures since it wasn't raining at the moment. (Earlier in the week, I told him I had brought 2 dresses in case we went out somewhere that I needed to dress up.) He also said I should put on one of my pretty dresses for the pictures. I thought nothing of it. I was just glad we were finally going to get some pictures! It made sense that we would go then, at 1 pm b/c at that moment, it wasn't raining. 

We got ready and headed out. As we were leaving, he said he had to get his phone. I thought that was odd for a brief second quickly justified it. (He later told me he actually got the ring instead!)  We walked down to the beach and of course it was windy! It had been unbelievably windy all week. I was kinda bummed because I had on a dress and it was blowing around; my hair was also blowing around like crazy. He swore it wasn't windy when they were down there earlier. But it was now so we trudged along the beach. As we walked and talked, I tied my dress in a knot so I didn't have to hold it :)  I also spotted a dead jellyfish and begged him to take a picture of it. I'm not sure why I asked him to use his phone when my camera was in my hand but apparently that caused some ripple effects that I didn't even pick up on. You see, he had to reach in his pocket and kneel down to take the picture. Keith, his brother, was following us (but I didn't know that) and apparently this made him panic. The fact that I almost turned around could have contributed haha. So the jellyfish almost ruined the surprise!  We continued on down the beach. There was an island type place at the end that we had walked to before. However, because the tide was coming in so rapidly, we couldn't get to it. We would have had to swim to get to it! There was a little cove that we walked into though. This little cove had big docks on each side of it. There were giant sand bags to keep the waves off the shore and it was perfect! 

We decided to take the pictures there quickly b/c the tide was coming in. I sat down on one of the sand bags and when I looked up, Kevin wasn't beside me like I had expected. Instead he was still standing up. I asked what he was doing b/c it was going to be very hard to take pictures like that! He grinned and said, "So you know how you didn't know if we were going to get engaged at the beach or not?" I said, unsure of where this was going, "Yes.... Why?" "He said that he had a surprise for me. I got excited but still didn't believe this was really happening. He said a lot of really sweet things and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes! We shared an unbelievable moment that I'll always treasure and remember. 

Then it got even better. Keith, Kevin's brother, stepped out from behind the dock with a camera. He laughed and said that he hadn't gotten any of it and we'd have to do it again. I died laughing. It was perfect. The actual moment is only recorded in our memories and the pictures hold the re-enactment. However, the pictures are very accurate and a very good portrayal of the emotions. I love that the camera hadn't worked! It seems like something always go differently than we plan and this proposal was no exception.

Kevin had planned to propose Friday night but the rain had caused him to have to change it to the afternoon. It was cloudy and windy and the tide almost washed us out of the cove. Keith didn't get the pictures so we had to re-do them. All of the pictures have the wind-blown look. We took a picture in shallow water and got hit by a wave and were soaked from the waste down. But it was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing. I love every detail and everything about his proposal. I'll cherish it forever. 

Oh, and the ring is perfect :)  We took some pictures with his family and I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone. Both of our phones blew up with emails from facebook, texts, and calls. We are so loved and blessed. Saturday we went home and had a cook out with our families to celebrate. All in all, it was a perfect weekend and I wouldn't trade it for anything!!

I know this is really really long, but hopefully I've been able to share a little bit of this special moment with you.

Before the Traveling Starts

Hola amigos! Summer is almost gone! Tomorrow, July begins. How crazy is that? It's already July. The countdown to school beginning is on. I'm a nerd, so yes, I am excited about this countdown :) I love buying school supplies and this year will be unlike any other start of school for me. This year, for the first time ever, I will be starting school as a teacher and not as a student. I was pretty good at being a student. I hope I'm half as good at being a teacher! (Thankfully, it's Kindergarten and they don't have anything to compare me to yet :) )
To celebrate the start of teaching and the end of summer, I get to go to the beach with Kevin and his family. We are leaving Nashville tomorrow to go to Atlanta for the night, go to Spartanburg on Saturday morning, and then be at the beach Saturday night! I'm so excited to get away for a while. I like my apartment but since the babysitting business has been slow this week, I'm ready to get away and have some fun! I'm hoping to see Oma and Opa Friday night and my parents for a few minutes Saturday morning but plans are still in the works.
On that note, one thing I'm learning to be very good at is not being able to plan ahead. I have to be patient and let things come as they may. The control freak in me is fighting this lesson every step of the way :) But since waiting has now taken over in absolutely every area of my life, I think God is trying to drive the point home. He's telling me to take a step back and quit trying to rush things; everything will work out the way He has planned. Fortunately for me, His planning trumps my feeble attempts and will always work out better. So I say, "Go ahead please! I will be patient."
I'm sure there are others of you who are dealing with the same issue of having to wait around for something and I encourage you to be patient. Yes, it is no fun when you want to know how and when things will work out, but it's better to let go and let God. :)
Enjoy the holiday weekend and I'll write more after our trip to the beach!

A little school work this week

Well it's officially been 1 week since I was hired as a Kindergarten Teacher and I'm still excited :) I'm also a little more frustrated than I was a week ago because I want to know more information about when I get into my room, see the rest of the school, do paperwork to become official, etc, but no one really seems to have the answers to my questions. Nonetheless, I'm still doing little bits here and there. I have a 2nd bedroom in my apartment filled with boxes of books and supplies for crafts and projects (like light bulbs, jars, pipe cleaners, etc.). I need to get this stuff out so I can actually do something with this room! And I want to see my classroom! I'm so excited about getting things ready for my Kindergarten babies :)
I worked in itunes yesterday to start making some playlists. We got to sit in on some Quantum Learning training during Student Teaching and the one thing that really stuck with me was the impact of music in the classroom. She mentioned 3 specific categories: Energizers, Focusers, and Soothers. Energizers are exactly what they sound like: songs that get you up and moving and wake you up! I'm trying to find some good dance type songs. Here's how I choose: I listen to the song and close my eyes; if I can picture 5 year olds jumping up and down to it, laughing, and playing around, then it's an energizer! For Focusers, I'm using a lot of instrumental, classical musical. Research shows that classical music stimulates the brain and instrumental means there are no words to distract you (or at least that's my thinking.)  Soothers are calmer, "chill" type songs. I actually tested this out with my student teaching class and it worked wonderfully! For 3 days, I had them on my own. The 1st day, they came in at 7:45 like wild people! The noise and energy was shocking. So the 2nd day, about 5 minutes before they came in, I turned out a low-key song and played it quietly in the background. The difference was amazing! At 8:00, they were all sitting quietly in their seats working and talking softly. It was so quiet that other teachers were coming in to see what I had done :)  Needless to say, I will definitely be implementing soothers into our daily playlists!
I am thinking that if I don't hear from Metro soon about getting paper work done, that I'll be heading to the beach with Kevin and his family. It'll be a nice way to celebrate having a job and a last hoo-ra (sp?) before school starts in full swing! I'm still working the details out, so Mom, Dad, and Oma- I will call you as soon as we have a definite plan! :)
Adios!