Blake and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Our story starts on a Monday, of course, when Blake wakes up to a sore throat. He of course lobbies to stay home, but mom and dad (the ogres in this story) don't detect a fever and send him to school anyway. We should have let him stay home because he got a detention from Language Arts. Now for a lot of students this is a normal occurence, for Blake it's a first and hopefully last. His dirty deed? Not bringing his book to class. An hour of detention after school tomorrow. We won't go in to details but the villain in this story is now the teacher. Fast forward to his last class of the day. Our hero decides to show his friend how wonderful his flexible glasses are and...you guessed it, they snapped! So, poor, poor Blake has to go home and tell his parents that not only did he get a detention, but he willfully bent his glasses in half and broke them. Luckily Dad, the savage beast, was calmed before he arrived home and a lifetime sentence to the dungeon was averted. As of two seconds ago Dad has become the hero and was able to solder the glasses back together. Did you hear the shout of HURRAH!!?

2nd Grade is the Best!

Yesterday was my first day as second grade teacher and so far I love it! I have 19 adorable children in my class with 2 more coming in tomorrow. I get lots of hugs and love notes--I rarely got that from my 4th graders. Unfortunately, I was very sick last night due to the heat. I'm hoping for a cool-down very soon. Today they ordered my name plate for my classroom door. I'm official now.

Also, Bishop came to see Scott and I Sunday morning, always a nerve-wracking experience. So, new callings for both of us......

Off to school!

Tomorrow is my first official workday. It will be spent at the Coliseum with all FWCS teachers for a day-long inservice. After that our school is having a picnic for the families of our students. It's going to be a long day! Today was spent frantically trying to get my room ready for 18 second graders on Monday. So much to do, so little time. The best part of my day was going to the Teacher supply store--I love that place!! I'm doing a jungle theme, so all ideas are more than welcome. So far I've thought of "Wild about Reading". Somehow I'd like to hang something that looks like vines, maybe I'll check out the party supply store.

What A Race!

This is what the Olympics are all about! What a great race. Their expressions mirrored ours when we were watching. Unfortunately I had to go to workshops today and haven't been able to keep up-to-date. I'm preparing now to vegg in front of the tv so I can catch up. I hope your family is enjoying the games.

USA

I love the olympics, I love the opening ceremony, it is so impressive. I am so inspired by the stories of the athletes. I wish I could spend the next 17 days glued to the t.v. to watch every minute of it. Go USA!

Still Waiting

Still waiting on information so I know what I will be doing this next school year. Went over to the school today and they gave me a room number that I would probably be in. I checked it out and it's going to take a lot of work to get it all put together. I was really hoping to avoid this last minute stuff. HOPEFULLY, I will find out for sure tomorrow but I'm not holding my breath. There is no air conditioning at this school, which is kind of a bummer, it was very hot this afternoon. We're off now to buy school supplies for the kids.

Chicago Trip

The kids and I just returned from a quick trip to Chicago. Kind of a last hurrah before school starts. They each brought a friend which worked out great. We started with a visit to the waterpark in Merrillville and although it rained off and on throughout the day we still had a blast! I enjoyed tubing on the lazy river while the kids braved the wild rides. Once Blake's friend Taylor started turning blue from being cold we decided it was time to head to Chicago.

With Ashley navigating we arrived safely at our hotel. After checking in we proceeded to walk to Navy Pier which was a little farther than we thought, but we made it. The sights and sounds were fun, we especially enjoyed the view of the Chicago Skyline.

From here we took a taxi to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.

Then we took another taxi to see the Blue Man group. Scott and I saw them when we went to Las Vegas this last spring and knew we had to take the kids. It was an awesome show! The kids loved it. If you haven't seen the show, it's hard to describe what it's like. It's wild, crazy, loud, and interactive with the audience. I was lucky enough to get this picture of Blake with one of the Blue Men.

We went back to the hotel and crashed, we were exhausted! Unfortunately Mother Nature didn't want us to sleep and unleashed an incredible lightning storm. The sound of thunder echoing off all the skyscrapers was weird. Luckily we didn't know until the next day that funnel clouds were spotted in downtown Chicago.

Bright and early we checked out and drove to the Shedd Aquarium. The beluga whales were amazing and the dolphin show was a lot of fun.

We then walked over to the Field Museum. So much to see. I loved the Egyptian exhibit. It's too bad my nephew AJ wasn't there, he would have loved the Dinosaur exhibit--he could probably be a tour guide with everything he knows about dinosaurs.

And finally we took a trolley to the Sears Tower, it was the last thing the kids wanted to definitely do before we headed home. I was a little apprehensive about being up so high, but once we got there it was great, no fear at all. It was an amazing view of Chicago, we were even above some of the clouds we were so high. I would definitely do it again.

It was a whirlwind of a trip, but so much fun.