Stressful Happiness!!

As most of you know, the school year is FINALLY coming to a close. It has probably been one of the hardest nine months of my life but extremely rewarding at the same time. Well, as of right now, there are 4 1/2 days left!! Yes, I am rejoicing but at the same time I feel very overwelmed by everything that goes into closing down a year: inventories, grades, grading, sorting, organizing, assemblies, parties...you get the point. Before I take these next few moments to sort through all the crap on my desk, I thought I'd show you a picture of my desk area so you can see why maybe I'm overwelmed...or why I should be more organized next year!

BFF: Butt Fire Fighters!!

This is a strange random story, but it really happened. I swear.

Last week, Erica and I were going to Subway to grab a bite to eat before a school function. Well, I turned the wrong way for some reason and so I knew I needed to turn around. Well, as I was about to turn around, we notice smoke billowing on the side of one of the office buildings. We drive closer and we realize that the cigarette butt disposal container is smoking. Erica quickly jumps out of the car and begins throwing mulch on the smoky butt container. Well, the container quickly becomes engulfed in flames!! Erica runs inside and I jump out of the car and keep kicking dirt at the flames to smother them. A woman comes running out with Erica to put out the flames with the fire extinguisher.

We finally put the fire out and in the mean time, the container was completely melted at the bottom. It was gross!! Here are some "after" pictures. Notice (this is hilarious) that the brand of the butt container is called SafeSmoker. Ha!!

Door stops

Since I am the new teacher this year and because there was no room in the 5th grade hall, I've spent my whole year down in the 6th grade hall. It has had its pluses and minuses. When I came to my classroom the first time, I noticed the door stop, or the splinter that went by the title of door stop. Well, over the year, it has been a running joke about my door stop and the kids always promise to get me a new one and I always reply that I don't believe them anymore because they've promised all year.

All this to say that my kid Matthew actually MADE me a door stop!! I was so excited...especially cause he shined it up and buffed it so nicely that it barely holds up the door, it just makes it slide.

Here's a picture of my collection of door stops...the splinter and the gift.

(Belated) Symphonic Adventures

Last weekend, I decided to be the brave teacher and take some of my kids on an outing! I thought, since I enjoy the Springfield Symphony, that I would take some of my students to expose them to the wonderful music of John Williams. I could only take four due to my jeep not being a bus and I chose the students through an essay contest. Part of the adventure was dressing up and getting to go to CiCi's Pizza! Here are some fun photos of me and my kids.

Here we are before the big adventure! I absolutely loved how dressed up the kids were, especially my Aaron. He's been one of my hardest kids this year, and I was tickled pink to see that his dad the tattoo artist took him shopping to get a whole new outfit!

...fun car shots...

Part of the excitement of the evening was going to CiCi's Pizza. Here's a timer shot...the sun was pretty bright!!


The actual concert took place at Juanita K. Hammon's Hall in Springfield. Here's what it looks like on the outside.

Here's a fountain shot...

One of the highlights for the kids (and myself) was that there were about 20 different people with authentic costumes from the movie. Of course we stayed after to take fun picures. I love the one with Aaron looking up at Darth Vader and the one of me and my white boyfriend.

This one's my boyfriend...or so I like to think...

Cinco de Mayo Extravaganza!!

I have been given the great responsiblity of creating a blog documenting the adventures of three girls enjoying Art Fest in Springfield and celebrating Cinco de Mayo. I'm feeling a lot of pressure, considering that Kate is letting ME do the blogging instead of her...well, here we go!

Kate, Emily, and I started out our adventure driving straight up 65 to the happy land of adventure. Here's some fun car shots:

Emily was into her cool "rock star" look and Kate was showing her excited face at discovering that I remembered to bring my camera.

Our first stop was Los Portales, a Mexican restaurant in Springfield. We enjoyed the celebratory balloons and the authentic Mariachi singer singing to a track. He was a lot of fun.
After we finished eating, we thought we would take advantage of some fun murals on the side of the restaurant. Nothing like some good timer shots!

For this cool shot, we actually had the camera on the ground. Just so you know, the car on the left belongs to the mariachi singer.

Taking advantage of cool sun placement...

Kate breathing in the freshness of the traditional Mexican wall plant.

Once again, the view from the Mariachi singer's car...

Another fun shot from the view of another car. Notice how my finger is in the Mexican's ear...nice. It was funny...everytime we finished using a car as a camera prop, the owner of the vehicle always came out. In fact, when we were using the mariachi singer's car, he was actually in it! Cool illusion, huh?

After our fun picture taking at the Mexican restaurant, we headed in a spiral direction towards downtown. We arrived at Jordan Valley Park a bit early, so we took advantage of some good cement seats in the front row. While waiting for the show to start we enjoyed watching the little kids run around in the fountain and play with bubbles...and of course took more pictures of ourselves. Now our attempts to look like a rock star...Kate totally pulls this off...

My friend Caleb, who sang with the symphony, got in on the rock star action, too. Emily always looks like a rock star...even when not trying.

Now I'm a different story. I just can't seem to pull off the looking thoughtful/rock star look. After about 20 awkward attempts, I settled with this one.

Another cute one...look at my cute dimple!

Aren't we just darling?!

No, our night was not just filled with pictures...we got to enjoy a FABULOUS free concert given by the Springfield Symphony. They played lots of fun marches and great movie music.

I would have to say, it was so far my most favorite and memorable Cinco de Mayo!

Thanksgiving List

My class just finished the wonderful book, Out of the Dust. This is a novel written in poetic verse. One of the chapters near the end of the book is just a list of things the girl in the book was thankful for. So today I made my kids do one of these lists for themselves. I wrote one too:

Thanksgiving List

Warm sunshine on my face, the symbolism
of trees,
babies laughter, friends who ask me hard questions,
Jesus,
driving in the car with my hand out the window
singing my heart out,
ice cream, foam soap, laughing till it hurts.
Brokenness.
My students for showing me how to
love selflessly and showing me what kind of
teacher I want to be.
Air conditioning, holding hands, sweet tea,
my bed, journaling, the smell of grass,
music,
laughing till it hurts, fresh dew on summer grass,
Isabella’s joyfulness,
Jesus clouds with rays of light stretching from their fingers,
letters from kindred spirits, friend dates,
rolling green hills in these Ozark Mountains,
amazing conversations when you should be in bed,
companionable silence, rich harmonies of choral music,
Mom singing,
friends who really want to know my heart,
reminiscing with sisters and Grant,
teacher friends,
lingering hugs, the crunch of fallen leaves,
knowing glances,
waking up to the sunrise, not being able to put a book down
spectacular green of spring, starry nights and sunsets,
long conversations with Mom while drinking iced tea,
being able to pee after holding it forever,
money to bless people with, teasing friends, sleepovers,
family bluegrass jam sessions, people who accept me with
scrunchies and all,
and the promise of a new beginning.