Click your heels...and get sentimental

The last time I truly played in snow was in January 2010 at the Grand Canyon with my friend Lindsey. She was in the Air Force then and I was helping her move from Ohio to her new base in Las Vegas. We made our own tracks through knee-deep snow to see that awesome giant hole in the ground for the very first time. I haven't been in such snow since, much less, played in any. All that changed this past weekend. But I should back up a bit...

Lindsey and I met at preschool when we were 3 years old. Apparently it was love at first sight, because we've been best friends ever since. Sisters, actually - and her family is my second family. In high school, her dad used to ask when he was going to get that child support check from my parents since I was at their house eating their food all the time (Dad, I think he's still waiting on that).

Through the years, Lindsey and I have done our own things, but no matter what, we always had each other. As "grown-ups," nothing has changed except the distances are further apart these days. Her husband, Travis, serves our country with the Air Force and for the past year(s), they have been stationed in Germany. But now, Lindsey and Travis are moving for their new assignment in Alaska. And as much as I've tried to convince them, Arizona is not en route. WHAT?! So I had to take matters into my own hands...

I found a last minute deal to fly home to Iowa for the weekend while they are there. Boom! I jumped on it and we even managed to keep it a total surprise from Lindsey until I appeared in Cedar Rapids. It was a very short, but wonderful weekend seeing my sister and the whole family!! Lucky for me, Iowa got plenty of snow right before I got there, so it was beckoning me to come play. And you know I most certainly did play! That 1970s era snowsuit appeared and I was zipped into it faster than you could say, "Want to play outside with the kids?"

Yeah, we made an igloo. Yeah, the neighbor kids were green with envy watching us build it. And yeah, you know you are too. I wanted to sleep in the thing, it was sweet! Common sense prevailed given my extremely thin Arizona-fied blood. And even though it looks small, it took almost all the snow in the sunny parts of the yard to complete. Igloo success!

Too soon, it was time for me to leave the winter wonderland of Iowa. But wow, it was good to be home, even for that very small period. Nothing like home and family - nothing.

My students - Why I Stopped Telling

On one of my flights today, I was grading a spelling test (you know, so I don't have to do it on a weeknight). It sparked a conversation with the couple sitting next to me and they had plenty of questions about my school and the town. As we conversed, I realized I don't really talk about my school and students anymore - I mean, the basics of what I do, sure, but I don't really share stories about my students themselves anymore. And boy, are there plenty. But how? Unless you are at my school and know the kids yourself, I don't know HOW to tell their story. So I don't.

Ironically, I read the following blog tonight and it sums up my feelings amazingly well. Please click and read - it's definitely a must: Why I Stopped Telling.

"Building the perfect teacher is like building the perfect Band-Aid. It needs to be a unique fit for each environment, and while Band-Aids do a lot of good, there are far too many wounds that need much more than a Band-Aid."

"People don’t want to hear about the system and how it is desperately broken."

Wow, the writer (and teacher) Abby Norman, articulates it so well right there. And that second paragraph, spot on (well the first half, obviously not the labor part for me specifically).

Please click and read - it's definitely a must: Why I Stopped Telling

DIY Chair Make-over

Our first year in Arizona, Brad and I scored a dining room table set on craigslist for a decent price. I instantly loved the table because its actually real wood, has great grooves in the tabletop, and gorgeous legs. Plus, its secondhand, so it has great character with all its dents and scratches. The chairs on the other hand, not so gorgeous. They have really wide wicker seats that are not comfortable in any way. Plus, the wicker was old and coming out in places. The wood was solid though and plus, they were better than the folding chairs we were previously using! So the set became ours for a low negotiated price.

Fast forward to this past fall for the story of a chair and its journey to DIY fabulous...to match the table of course. Oh yeah, and everything needs to be multiplied by four because there are four chairs.

First step - remove all the wicker. Not as easy as we expected.

Despite the loose poke-y pieces, that wicker didn't want to budge. Brad and I got a little creative, and definitely a lot messy, figuring out how to get it off. 

What was left was a rickety seat frame that was not so solid with out all the wicker holding it together. Being all that is man, Brad quickly traced and cut a brand new seat so we could just toss the old one. Yeah, he was pretty impressed with himself. 

The second step was to actually put something on that wood seat. Except it didn't happen right away - the chair stayed exactly like this for a good month before we finally got motivated again. My friend, Julie, and I covered the seats using foam, cotton batting, and the fabric I had found. Having never upholstered anything before, it was a guess and check game at first. But we got it down and I have to say I'm pleased with the result! Ignore my bad hair day please (although you can tell time has passed since its significantly lighter from the above pictures).

After putting some tack on the bottom to finish off the seat, you know, make it look professional and all, the seat was done. Then it was Brad's turn to figure out how to attach the seat to the chair. Originally the seat was screwed on through the wicker on the top, so there was nothing for Brad to work with on the bottom. He invented his own way of attaching the seat, as shown below. It worked pretty well if I do say so myself.

Yes, this happened at one point.

And viola! The finished chair! Did you remember to multiply all those steps by four?

We are really pleased with the end result. I like the graphic pattern and the fabric because it helps break up all the wood of the table and chairs. Brad likes finally having a comfortable seat to sit in (and I'm sure he liked using his power tools too). I am big into DIY, but it is definitely hard to do all the stuff I dream about when we live in an apartment. That doesn't stop me from stalking home improvement blogs though.

Flu Season

One thing my students are really good at doing is sharing their germs. Big time.

It's inevitable that they will get me at some point or another during the year.  While getting sick is never any fun, the worst part of it is I can never seem to get better. Between not being able to take really any time off work and being constantly surrounded by germy children, once my immune system is struck, it's down for the count.

I got some flu type thing and then after that, I developed a serious sinus infection. So for the past two weeks, I have been feeling completely gross. Pretty much all of my time not spent teaching was spent sleeping. Lucky for me, I have some doggies that love to snuggle and have a sixth sense about how I am feeling. Here they are curled up together, and yes, that's me squeezed against the back of the couch. They aren't so good at giving me any personal space.

Needless to say, I have not been keeping up with my February goals - or really much of anything besides naps for two weeks straight (I can just hear people saying "And that's different how?!"). But I am finally feeling better, and with the day off school tomorrow, I am hoping to get back into everything I've been slacking on. As for Brad, he managed to ward off most of the germs, despite my best effort to share them. He did fall off the Insanity wagon a bit this week, but he claims he is starting right back up in the morning. So for both of us, here's to getting back up and trying again!

Morning Glory

I have successfully avoided posting about our big fall break trip for the past couple weeks, mostly because there are so many pictures to go through and edit. Between Mike's two cameras and ours, we took a lot of pictures of rocks. A LOT. So I will continue procrastinating the paring down the photos by posting a time-lapse video.

We got up super early one morning to watch the sunrise at Monument Valley. I set up one of the cameras to take a photo every minute for almost 1.5 hours and this is the result. Not the most picturesque of all sunrises, but still pretty sweet to watch unfold!

"You have brains in your head"

In the midst of all this sightseeing and people visiting, I swear Brad and I actually do work. Brad has had a lot of changes at his job in the last 6 months, mainly him moving around to different positions (he really needs to update everyone on all that). And I have been teaching.

I thought my third year of teaching might bring me more free time outside of work, considering I am more experienced and actually know what I am doing these days. Wrong. I've decided that school is all-consuming, no matter what. Even without grad school to overwhelm my time, teaching is never-ending. There is always more you can do, it's merely a matter of finding that balance and knowing when to stop. So I still have weeks where I am doing school work every evening and other weeks where I choose to ignore it and leave it at school. Case in point - this picture of me grading papers while at an Iowa State football game watch.

That being said, it isn't all work and no play in second grade. I teach with four other great ladies and we are always up to something down our hallway! It certainly makes it not so lonely to have a person working beside you when you are at school wayyy to early or wayyy too late. For Halloween, we all dressed up as characters from the "If You Give A Mouse..."books. The Moose with her Muffin never made a picture, but here are "If You Give a...Cat a Cupcake, a Pig a Pancake, a Dog a Donut, and the classic Mouse a Cookie."

One of our big projects we all did this year was an election unit in the last few weeks leading up to election day. We taught our second graders the history of our government and then continued on with the three branches and how they work today. Of course, we didn't want to bring politics into the classroom (and by that, I mean, what our students had heard their parents say at home), so we learned all about the electoral process using George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The kids had to choose who they thought was the best president and then we had a big vote. It was fun to see the students get into the whole campaigning and debate side of elections. And they really enjoyed our makeshift voting booths we set up for the whole school to join us in determining the winner. Who knows, maybe my students will actually somewhat remember the electoral process after that. A teacher always hopes!