Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Zeth's Recital


Zeth performed in "A Little Night Music" at his school and did a wonderful job! He and his class performed the following music:
Hot Cross Buns
Gently Sleeps
Merrily We Roll Along
Doggie, Doggie Where's your Bone?
Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Oh When the Saints Go Marching In
The girls really did a great job of sitting there and listening attentively while the big kids performed. Emma became very excited and expressed to her Dada that she wanted to go try it. He had to explain to her that this was Zeth's school and it was his event and that when she gets bigger she will be able to do these things as well.


STAAR STRESS

I will be so HAPPY to see April go bye bye for one major reason and that is the STAAR!

I am a teacher and I love what I do! Seeing all of my students every day, hearing their stories, and watching their everyday dramas unfold is better than any t.v. show because I get to help them sort out the real life issues. I help them relate what they learn to every day life, I get to point them in the right direction when they make a wrong turn, and I get to try and help mold a child into a better person to have a positive impact on our community : ) I help them become problem solvers and so much more.

Yet, with all that I do, no matter how hard I try, or what I try to instill in my students each year, the focus becomes all about the STAAR. When it is over I have to take the rest of the month and convince the students that the school year is not over, that there is more work yet to be done.

I see the stress this one test puts on the students and teachers. I honestly could not tell you who was more stressed out. What I can tell you is that I was doing wonderful in my personal fitness program until the week of the STAAR (blah)!

With this being the last day of April and my students being 6th graders, testing is now done and I say goodbye April and so long STAAR until next year...

I will say that to help my fellow teachers cope with their stress my campus was wonderful and ordered food for us on each day for the STAAR testing. Along with that, I provided a snack each day for my colleagues including, popcorn, key lime cupcakes, pink lemonade cupcake, dreamsicle cookies, and peanut butter fudge. The only thing I ate out of all of that was the fudge!

Our Busy Life

Ray and I both really enjoy our jobs, but mine comes with a forty minute drive one way so it takes away an hour or two from my day that I could be using to update our website or loving on my family : (

Not to mention this drive has increased our monthly gas bill, increased the frequency of oil changes, I had to have a tire fixed twice, had to buy a new tire, and I now have a chip in my windshield : (
But I have been blessed with a wonderful working environment and a job I have enjoyed.

Ray has meetings he must attend after work four times a month and the girls still do not like this (me either.) We always want him to be home with us and the girls do not like to share their Dada's time with others lol. They do not understand where he is, other than he should be home with them, but luckily when he is at the City Council meetings the girls get to watch him on t.v. and that has helped a bit.

When we are not working we are trying to spend as much time with our girls as possible. Both of our girls love going to the park so we are trying to take them as often as the weather will allow us. We are taking them as often as we can as a family to build those memories and bond together. The girls also enjoy riding their bikes, jeep, flying their kite, and going for walks. We enjoy all of these activities at the park and it does not cost us anything.

Pool time is also something we have tried to increase and will increase as a family, be it in the community pool (really big water park), kids pool in the yard, or the splash pad at the park. All of the different varieties of water fun offered in our community give our girls a ton of fun and many of them are free, so we are trying to increase the girls exposure to them and enjoy them together as a family.

Just a little peek into what we have been doing lately.





Sunday, April 21, 2013

My Teaching Philosophy



I believe that all students are unique and have the capability to reach success not only academically, but also as productive members of their community. As an educator I serve as a facilitator towards their success, and with my support and guidance my students will explore and internalize the curriculum through meaningful, real world connections that will allow them to continue their learning beyond the classroom.

I try to fulfill this belief each and every school year. This year I believe that I have seen this in the generosity of my students who go out of their way to raise money for a cause, show others that they care, or relate to me how they are involved in their community.  I feel very blessed to have been able to teach each and every student who has walked through my door this year. 

Random Family Fun

Emma and Poppa in Kemah

Abby and Emma on a carousel

Abby enjoying her salad

Emma being sweet

Abby riding her 4-wheeler in her Easter dress

Emma being silly at dinner
Emma showing off her artwork

Texas Crawfish Festival 2013

 


Ray, Emma, and Poppa in the spinning tea cup
Abby and Emma riding on a flying turtle
Ray, Emma, and Poppa

Emma and Abby on the Choo Choo Train
Abby and Emma on a frog

Emma and Abby riding the train again
We went to the Texas Crawfish Festival in Old Town Spring with the girls, Nana, Poppa, Aunt Pat, and Uncle Gary.  As you can see, they had a carnival there and the girls had a blast on the rides!  We all had fun getting to spend some quality family time together.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Grateful for Gods Blessings

Being exposed to so many things is a constant reminder by God that I have so much to be grateful for. As events occur around us, some so heartbreaking, others mind-numbing, these events makes you so much more aware of what you have.

I am grateful that I have a loving and supportive husband.

I am grateful and Blessed that my husband is such a wonderful and loving father.

I am grateful that I have two beautiful daughters that I get to go home to every day and see the smiles light up their face as they run to greet me at the door.

I am grateful that my girls have such loving and giving grandparents. They do anything and everything they can for our girls.

The list could continue for many more lines... but I do not have the time to write a book at the moment. I hope this inspires others to share what they are grateful for.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter Thoughts. . .

We love celebrating Easter with our girls. But as they begin to get bigger we want to make sure of a couple of things:

1. That we are bringing them up with the true meaning of Easter. This is hard for me due to their age and what I want them exposed to... how much and how soon are the two big questions for me on this one. I believe one of the reasons we struggle with this one is that since moving we have not really found a church to call home.

2. We always have an Egg Hunt. The Easter Egg has great Christian symbolism representing the resurrection of Christ but I believe we need to make a deeper and meaninful connection with it as adults so that we can foster that symbolism with our girls as they grow older. This again would be helpful once we find a church.

3. Easter Baskets. We always give them, but we do not want to get wrapped up in the commerical driven atmoshpere that surrounds holidays. We want to make the gifts given in the basket meaningful to our girls, so we were thinking of limiting the basket to five items. What those five are at this time is still to be determined. What we are leaning towards: 1 to feed the belly, 1 to feed the soul, 1 to feed the imagination, etc...

I know that our thoughts, practices, and beliefs will change as our family grows and as we find a church to call home, but as long as we keep Christ the focus and maintain our focus on wanting to do what best by our family I believe we will keeping doing right by our girls.