Mother's Day Weekend

This past weekend I was on my own because of the school Carnival being Friday night I wasn't able to join Tommy and his parents for a trip to visit Beth in Charleston.

Friday: School Carnival. It was a great turnout and the kids seemed to have an awesome time. It was HOT outside and so the Firemen decided to spray from the truck which was a HUGE hit! 

Saturday: I slept in! I enjoyed my coffee and breakfast in peace and quiet at home. Then I ran to the mall to make some returns before meeting my best friend, Ansley, at Chastain Park for a walk and lunch at Zoe's Kitchen. It was just what I needed! After my walk, I ran a few more errands to Target and Home Depot. I bought new curtain rods for the dining room and flowers for the yard. Soon I will show the updates I'm making to the dining room! I came home and made the dessert for our tennis semi-finals. I decided I would try the Watermelon Cupcakes from the blog Mix and Match Mama. After the cupcakes were out of the oven, I headed to my parents for dinner with my family (minus the Willi's). After dinner, I rushed back to monogram a few items for my friend Sarah that she needed for some graduation gifts for her sister-in-law! Phew what a busy day!!!!

Sunday MOTHER'S DAY!: I woke up early to get ready for brunch with my family. We went to my mom's favorite, J Chrisophers. It was delicious as usual! Then I went back to my parents to hang out for a bit before running home to change for my tennis match. I played with Katie Booher and we kicked butt winning 6-1, 6-1 fairly quickly so we got to enjoy watching the rest of the matches from the shade. It was again HOT outside! Our team won enough lines to carry us through to City Finals next weekend. Hoping to come away with another win and City Champ plate! The cupcakes were a huge hit! They were all gone from the tennis match. Sunday night Tommy and Cooper made their way home from Charleston and we enjoyed dinner and just hanging out for a low-key end to the weekend. 

(My little sister, Claire, nana, mom and me)

We missed having Bonnie, Brett, and Collier around for Mother's Day/ Brett's birthday but I know they so enjoyed getting to celebrate their nephew's first birthday, Bonnie's first Mother's Day, and Brett's birthday with his family up in Ohio! 

(Bonnie sent this of him all dressed up for Mother's Day)

I put these images up on Instagram yesterday as a way of celebrating my mom and Bonnie. I am so thankful for the unconditional love and support my mom has given me my whole life. I know I have given her a hard time in the past but she is my best friend now. I can't imagine not living close by and being able to grab a quick lunch or go for a walk by the river when I'm off school. She is such an inspiration to me having raised four kids while across an ocean from her family. I don't know how she does it all!

And to my sister, Bonnie, I have been amazed watching you transform into such a wonderful mother over the past two months. Collier is just perfect and you have really got everything under control. I am amazed and hope my first two months look as easy as you've made it seem! I am so thankful for your friendship and how much of a role model you are to me. I can't imagine living farther from you. We are so lucky to have you right around the corner. Thankful for the random texts I get each day and being able to rely on you always for a good laugh or support. I hope you had the best First Mother's Day! Love you so much!

Have another busy week ahead at both school and outside of school. Looking forward to Supper Club tonight! 

Have a fabulous week! 

Oh the Teacher Life

This week we started the dreaded Milestones test. It's a new test this year and lets just say it was brutal. The answer booklet alone is 16 pages long. I feel so sorry for my students (especially since the majority of my class this year due to language is performing below grade level) I walked around my classroom yesterday for 3.5 hours while they tested. They worked SO hard and tried so hard but I could tell they felt so defeated. These two memes really show my feelings about this week. This rain is KILLING me and the Milestones testing from yesterday through May 1st is going to give me gray hair. 

TGIF

When you finally feel as though people may listen...

Oh teaching...education....what it's like to be a teacher...

This morning I woke up to my old administrator posting on Facebook an open letter written by my county's Superintendent, Robert Avossa. I can't explain how much I felt like screaming "FINALLY" to myself! This is my fourth year of teaching and I have seen SO many changes in my job description over these years. My first year was tough solely because I was on my own in a classroom for the first time, but the added stress wasn't quite there like it has been the past three years. My second year of teaching was when common core came into Georgia schools and we weren't quite sure if we were teaching everything correctly and how the testing was going to look at the end of the year. This same year was when the change of how we were evaluated as teachers came in. Last year was a continuation of figuring out common core and our evaluation system but this year has been a nightmare if you ask me. Georgia decided they were going to create our own new assessment for the end of the year. 

"Teaching" is a relative term these days. We are so bogged down with assessments that are mandated that the "fun" has been taken out of our days. We can't just enjoy our students and helping them reach their potential because we are on such a tight lease with no time to explore with our students. Testing now takes a significant role in every classroom from Kindergarten through Twelfth grade. I am in fifth grade and the type of testing my students are expected to be mastery at is similar to tests I took in my latter years of high school and in college. No longer do you "Show what you know" but you have to be an analytic thinker at the age of ten. The demographics at my school aren't ready for this type of assessment. My students are still trying to figure out the language never mind be able to analyze between two long pieces of text. 

I am proud to say that I work with amazing people and I really think Fulton County has their heads (and hearts) in the right place when it comes to how they want us to be educators and how they feel about their students. You can read the open letter here. I can't explain the relief I felt that he actually has been listening to all of his employees and how they truly feel about their jobs today. It really is a shame that our government doesn't come to educators to ask us how we feel about what education is today. People in education (not just my school) are burning out at a rapid rate and if things keep progressing the way they are, then no one will want to come into the teaching profession. If a sophomore in college were to come to me and ask me if knowing everything I do now would I still have wanted to get my degree in teaching? I would most likely say "no." There are a lot of other jobs out there that you can help others, feel rewarded by your work, get paid more, and feel like you have a say in what your day to day life is like. This year I feel as though I have NO control over how I do my job and there is no way to change that. 

I sincerely hope (but highly doubt) that our legislature will take to heart what was so elegantly said in Dr. Avossa's letter or we are going to have a really long road ahead in our education system. 

End rant

Time for a break

Every year the month of December brings many different feelings. At work: exhaustion and need for a break. The month of December at school is always hectic and reminds me we are halfway through the year which totally stresses me out!  At home: excitement for time with family and friends celebrating the joy of the season. Everyday I left work exhausted from another day but excited for what I was doing that night. This week was a crazy week like the rest of the month!

Favorite moments of the week: 

Tuesday- round robin with our tennis team. Was so great to get out and hit around with our mixed team. 

Thursday: my work holiday party at Taco Mac. We had a great time and so thankful for my wonderful coworker friends!

(My good friend Sarah who teaches 5th with me) 

Friday: winter celebration day at school. This was the most seamless day before a break I've had in my short career thus far. We did all kinds of fun activities and I think my students really enjoyed themselves! We read to a kindergarten class, had a pancake party while practicing our fractional measurements, made gingerbread houses for a class competition, bingo, and dancing to just dance on the Wii in the gym. It was a fun-filled day!! 

( a gift from the newest member on my team, Mrs. Powell. This was such a generous gift of my favorite pens. Only my teacher friends will understand how excited I was when I opened this!) 

Friday night Tommy and I went to "There" for dinner to celebrate him getting a new job YAY!!! We then came home, scooped up Cooper, and went driving around looking at Christmas lights. Was a wonderful end to the busy work week. 

Saturday: met four of my best friends for mimosas and brunch at Kaleidoscope. This is the first saturday I didn't feel the need to do household chores because I have two weeks to do it. Enjoyed my four hour lunch catching up with friends. It was perfect. 

Saturday night we joined my family at "Thirteen Pies" to celebrate my younger brother and sister's 20th birthday. I can't believe they are twenty. James and Claire are two of the best people I know. I'm so lucky to call them family. We had a wonderful dinner and went to see the blow up house on Peachtree Dunwoody after. My mom was absolutely amazed! There's nothing I love more than spending quality time with my wonderful family. It is so special when we can get everyone together. (Not easy to do when there are nine of you and two of which are in college) 

All in all its been a wonderful week and it's only gonna get better from today on. I can't wait to see friends that are in town for the holidays and spending time celebrating the birth of Jesus with both our families. 

(Some pictures from the birthday dinner) 

Enjoy this week celebrating the reason for the season. God bless and Merry Christmas! 

Week in review

This week has been one full of stress, sickness, friends, family, and football. The work week started out with stressors that only a teacher in elementary school would understand. This time of year is when everyone is tired and ready for a break. Only 10 more school days until we get 10 days off and I think it couldn't come at a better time. This morning at church, the sermon was about fear and what we are fearing in our daily life. This whole school year I have felt from within and from the people around me the fear of the unknown. Education is a hard place to be in right now especially if you teach a grade that is tested. Georgia has made many changes that revolve around testing and haven't informed the teachers to the fullest extent what it's going to look like. This brings about so many emotions for so many people. I'll just leave it as that for now. 

Wednesday, I could feel myself starting to get sick so I did something I haven't done in the past three years and I took a half day just to sleep it off. This made a WORLD of a difference for me.

I was needing some girl time with my college friends, so thank goodness Thursday was girls night at my friend Carly's house. Boy have times changed since first graduating from college. Four of us (we have dwindled because my friends are awesome people and have scattered themselves worldwide but sure makes me sad how far away they all live) sat around her dining room table with water and a little bit of wine, crab cakes, orzo, real napkins, and discussions about weddings, babies, and vacations. I wouldn't trade these nights with the girls for anything. It was just what the doctored ordered. 

For the first time in weeks, Tommy and I had no plans for Friday night so we enjoyed some wine on the porch before grabbing a casual dinner at this place near our house called Takorea. It is a Korean Taco joint. I was skeptical but it was actually very tasty! 

Saturday, Tommy enjoyed his usual golf outing while I spent the morning in the fresh air with Cooper before watching football the remainder of the day. Georgia won against Kentucky (Thank goodness!!) but unfortunately Auburn had a major upset loss against Texas A & M. Best part of the Auburn game was getting to hang out with my long-time best friend Katherine! 

Katherine lives in Jackson, Wyoming, and is home for the next two weeks between her work seasons. She lives far away but we pick up right where we left off every time I see her! It was wonderful to see her and so happy she is home for a few weeks so I get to soak it up while I can! 

Today has been a busy day from the start! We went to the 8:45 service with Bonnie and Brett. Tommy and I then went across to the Sanctuary for the beginning of the 10:00 service to see a dear friend's youngest son get baptized! Gaines Alton Harvard is such a sweet little boy who has wonderful parents! It has been so much fun seeing Lindsey's family grow over the years!

After seeing Gaines get baptized we scooted out the back of the church and headed for Dahlonega for the day with my family. My mother loves to go to the mountains in the fall to see the changing of the leaves so she made a reservation at Montaluce Winery (where my sister got married on June 2, 2012) for the whole family for lunch. The weather was beautiful but more importantly I got to spend the day with my whole family! The twins came home for the night so they were able to join us as well. We enjoyed delicious food, tasty wine, beautiful views, and family fellowship. Was a great way to end the weekend! Looking forward to heading to Litchfield in two weeks to spend an entire week with my family. There is nothing I enjoy more! 

(All the women in my family: Me, Claire, My mother, Bonnie, and my Nana)

Now it's back to the grind!

Halloween 2014

As an elementary school teacher, Halloween is considered "book character day." This year my team decided to do the book The Day the Crayons Quit 

It turned out so much better than I anticipated! I told my students what we were doing and if they wanted to participate with the teachers than they should wear purple. I would say about three-fourths of my class came in purple which made it look so cute! I had a crayola sheet that they colored purple which I taped to their chest then we made cone hats. I had an army of purple crayons!!!! 

My homeroom class! Aren't they so cute! 

Kristan LeFave who is my special Ed teacher and we teach science together. 

Sarah Smith, who is a great friend of mine who also teaches fifth grade! 

The fifth grade team (missing Mr. Browning) after surviving Halloween at school. Quite a feat! (Left to right: Kristan LeFave, Katie Humpherys, me, Amanda Andrews, Owen Goard, Georgia Powell, Sarah Smith, and Amelia Ditzel) 

On to Halloween outside of school...

I am that dog owner who loves to dress up my dog for holidays. Poor Cooper is such a trooper and allows me to do it. Last year he was a taco 

And this year he was NEMO!

Over his short two years on earth he's also been dressed up as an elf and santa so I can only imagine what else he will be in the years to come! 

This year we didn't stay home to give out cand to our (very few) trick-or-treaters and went to our best friends, Ansley and Matt Reynolds, for a cookout. I left a bowl of Reese's cups on the porch and came home to most of them still there. We had a great night of food, laughs, and love with some of our closest friends! Halloween is very different now and I must say I enjoy it! As I walked in their house, Scott was the first person I saw and he was wearing this... 

It gave me a good laugh! 

This Halloween was a success and now to prepare for our day full of UGA (vs Florida)  and Auburn (vs Ole Miss)  football!