Happy Birthday Baby Finn!

Finn is one today.  His first big milestone.  It's so scary how quickly a year flies by.  I can't believe that it has already been that long since I was packing for a quick weekend trip to Iowa to meet my new nephew.  Finn has a totally magnetic personality.  His smile draws you in and you just want to hang out with him.  As he grows up, I just know that he will be the guy who is sincerely kind to everyone and loved by all. 

 

Sorry baby boy, you have to wait 20 more birthdays before you celebrate like that!

Class Size Rant

I'm not going to spend a lot of blog time complaining about work, because I am really fortunate in the fact that I love my job.  However, I would like to point out that at this point I find it slightly annoying that counselors keep adding students to my classes when they are already full.  It's hard for me  to get a grasp on the fact that in my 3rd and 4th period only, I have 97 students- that is 9 less than were in my graduating class in Storm Lake!Pari that number with my less than efficient air conditioner and you can just imagine how hot it is in my room by the time 5th period rolls around.  Can we say it's just a bit out of control!  Come on Arnold, give some money back to the schools for Pete's sake!  To end on a positive note, today are auditions for the fall show...pretty exciting!

It Started With a ....HISS

It's such a great feeling when you wake up, go for a run, and know that it is already Friday of your first week back at work. Such a great feeling that is until you are sitting on your bedroom floor stretching and you hear something hiss at you.  Yes, I said hiss!  So, I immediately jumped up on the bed and called Dave to the rescue.  At this point I still didn't know what had hissed at me.  Luckily it was only a cat, but getting that damn cat out of our house took a half an hour.  First he wouldn't come out from under the bed, then he did, and ran into Cooper's room ( mind you, neither of us want to touch him, so Dave is chasing him with a broom and a water bottle)  back into our room, back under the bed.  Finally we got him out into the part of the house that is being remodeled, we had the front door wide open for him, but this dumb cat tries to jump through all of the closed windows.  Before we know it, he's in the rafters of the addition.  Now we really have to get this thing, we don't want it dry-walled into our house.  Dave knocked him out of the rafters and he relocated to behind the new fireplace.  At this time the cat hunter is out of water and we are both yelling like idiots to try to get him out.  After a half an hour of these antics, the cat found the open door.  So, now we are late for work, I'm all wheezy and we find ourselves wondering....how long has that mangy thing been in here?  

No more support...

Dave and Cooper in the new room
Bella in the kitchen

We had a great surprise today when we got home from a long day of work- our first with students.  The support wall that has been up in our house since the remodel began is finally gone!  Now it's possible for us, and those of you looking at the pictures to get a better idea of the new floor plan. The first picture is a view of the new family room if you are standing in the middle of the kitchen.  The second picture is looking into the kitchen from the new family room.  The third is the view of the addition from right inside the front door.  

It's a Wrap

Today the crews started placing the tiles in their new spots on the roof.  In addition to finishing off that big job, they also wrapped the walls of the addition.  Other than the fact that at this point the outside of our house looks like the homecoming floats we would stuff with McDonald's napkins in high school (think lots of chicken wire), from the outside looking in at least, the end is in sight!

UGH

It's back to reality today.  Summer break is officially over.  I won't complain too much, it's unfair to those of you with real jobs that have to work 12 months out of the year.  But in this life of a teacher, today won't be much fun.  Meeting after meeting telling us how we are going to raise those test scores this year.  I'm looking forward to Wednesday when the students arrive and I can close the door to my room and just teach.  I'm not much for all the beginning of the year junk we get handed every year.  In honor of this "glorious" day, the kids gave me a taste of my own medicine and took first day of school pictures of me.  Scroll back to Coop's first day of school and you will see the great contrast in emotion that a 36 ( I can still say that for two weeks) year old and a five year old have.  As a matter of fact, my body language is frighteningly similar to Bella's in Cooper's first day pictures.  I wonder where she gets her attitude? Ha-ha.

Benefits of the Job

There are numerous reasons why I love being a drama teacher.  As the kids get older, I realize one of the greatest benefits is the fabulous babysitters that come along with the job.  Not only will the drama kids play dress-up with Bella and Cooper while they are here, but they will act out entire stories right along with the little ones.  Yesterday, they took a fantastic journey to Neverland with Jazzy.  Bella played the role of Tinkerbell, Cooper starred as Peter Pan, and Jazzy thoroughly enjoyed her role of Captain Hook. 

Raise the Roof

Friday was a whirlwind of activity around here.  Inside "the house" the electrician and plumber were wiring and installing pipes like crazy.  Outside the roofers were getting  a good start on their task.  The streets around our house were lined with all of the workers trucks.  I'm sure this really annoyed the neighbors, but as far as we are concerned, the more the merrier.

Happy Birthday Wendy!

Yesterday was Wendy's birthday.  It's on days like this when it is hard to live so far away.  We all would have loved to be there to enjoy the Airliner Pizza and White Cake!  We will be celebrating soon though when we meet up in Vegas for our annual Labor Day Trip.  We love you Wendy!

Walk-Ins "Welcome"

Time for a remodel update...we now have new windows and doors.  The doors are beautiful and really give the existing house an update.  The only problem; no handles/locks yet.  So as the title says, it is a bit nerve-wracking in the middle of the night to know that someone could just "walk-in".

Just Beachy...

Summer is quickly drawing to a close, for Cooper it already has and for Dave and I, the first school bell is about to ring.  I can't think of a better way to end our months of easy living than with a trip to the beach.  Our friends are using a time share in Carlsbad all week and suggested we come down for Saturday evening and all day Sunday.  We said, "Perfect".  That's their last name, so it was a pretty sad attempt at a joke and one I'm sure they have heard too many times.  We arrived in time for a walk on the beach on Saturday and told all four kids, "You can put your feet in, but don't get your clothes wet"  Yeah, sure, that really worked, they were all drenched from head to toe in the matter of about three minutes.  Our clothes were back at our hotel, Bella was able to borrow clothes from Brooke, but Cooper was a bit more problematic.  He ended up dressed in clothes that looked more like pajamas than clothes, but oh well, it's the beach.  Sunday we spent almost seven hours at the beach.  That amounted in slight sunburns, a lot of sandcastles, a lot of time to boogie board and two exhausted children when we drove home.  In other words, it was "perfect".

Daytime Divas

No, this doesn't mean that I have decided to spend my days watching soap operas now that Cooper is back in school.  It is the perfect title for a blog about Bella's first play date with her new friend Brooke.  From the sun glasses to the tour of Brooke's property in her little Jeep, diva describes these two perfectly.  Brooke is the daughter of my friend Poppy and of Lee who is our contractor. Bella and Brooke are a match made in heaven.  They spent the morning being princesses and playing with dolls.  The playdate ended with a princess tea party complete with crowns, goblets and princess cupcakes.  Bella was in tears when we left.  She wants Brooke to come to her house as soon as possible.  I told her she needs to wait until we have a house!

All That Work For Nothing?

This summer, before we left for Iowa, I rushed around getting the kids moved into their OWN rooms. It was something they both wanted very much.  This photo pretty much shows how they prefer to spend each night and I find myself asking, "Did I do all of that work for nothing"  On the bright side, how cute are they?

Cooper and the 6 F's

First day of school

First grade

Faux hawk (the new hair style)

Four- his new room number

Friends- his best buddy from Kindergarten is in his class

Fun

Cooper and the 6 F's

Let's hope it's not Foreshadowing of his first report card!

This has nothing to do with Cooper and his  F's, but you must take note of Bella in the family photo.  Her body language pretty much sums up how excited she was about Cooper getting to go to school and her having to wait two more years!  Poor Bell!

Women Wheels and Wine

Today was the first official fitness event that Girls Gone Active has sponsored.  It was a 20 mile bike and wine tasting tour.  For most of us, the added incentive of wine makes this a great fitness event!  We called it Women Wheels and Wine and had no idea if it would be a hit or not.  In the middle of July, we only had 13 women signed up, and were thinking at what point do we cancel this thing?  By the end of this week, however we had 58 women signed up and after event day registrations, we ended up with close to 80 women.  The wine was great, the weather was a little hot, and only two women had problems with their wheels.  They will literarly  be scarred for life from this event.  Even they though said they had a great time.  The husbands felt left out though, so next time we may have to call it Broads, Bastards and Booze- hey we'd double the number of entries!

Framed

Here are some snapshots of the latest stage of the remodel.  We still feel like the project is moving along at a good pace.  No complaints yet, let's hope the pattern continues.