Happy New Year!

It's the end of 2012, and what a year it has been.  So many things took place this year, good and bad.  I struggled last school year with not really teaching much.  The first half of the year was especially tough, but then I was so blessed to find teacher blogs (it will be my one year blogoversary in 3 days).  The teacher blogging world is such an amazing place, all of you helped me get back into a good place as I finished the year.  I also saw my mom struggle with and lose the battle to Alzheimer's.  That was a tough thing, but I'm just so thankful that she is no longer suffering.  I experienced being back full time in my classroom this year, and am loving that so much!  I felt so much sadness from the tragedy at Sandy Hook.  I also had the sad experience of seeing another friend who was only 29 pass away, leaving her parents and husband.  I was privileged to meet some amazing new friends from the blogging world, and from church and school.  So as a new year starts I hope to have more times to learn and make friends and keep old ones.  May all of you have a wonderful new year as well!  Happy New Year!

Silence for Sandy Hook

In the Face of Tragedy

My heart is so filled with sadness as I think about the awful tragedy that happened yesterday.  We were on our way out to recess, I stopped in the teacher's lounge and the school secretary who was getting her lunch told me about the text alert she got from our local WFSB news station that alerted her to the breaking news of a school shooting at an elementary school in Newtown.  As I'm sure was the case with all who heard, I was shocked and totally heartbroken.  When we came back inside after recess, I was even more shocked and more saddened to hear that the death toll was thought to be in the double digits.  Although my heart was broken, I had to finish my day with my kids.  Once I got home WFSB had special coverage on, and that's when the tears really started to flow.  The pictures and videos of children walking to safety with such fear on their faces, parents grieving or getting their children and hugging them tight.  It's so hard to understand what would make someone OK with hurting precious, innocent children.  Not only were 20 precious children killed, but 6 adults as well, the principal being one, the school psychologist being another.  Another was a teacher who got all of her students safely hidden in closets and cabinets and told the gunman they were not there, but in the gym, he then shot her and moved on.  In the face of tragedy the principal, psychologist, and all of those teachers were true heroes!

Victoria Soto, 27, the one who was shot after hiding her students and telling the gunman they were not there.


Praying earnestly for the families of the victims, the teachers, students and community of Newtown!  May God grant His peace!

If any of you would like to send cards, the school address is:
Sandy Hook Elementary School
12 Dickenson Drive
Sandy Hook, CT 06482

What to Post??

I'm sorry I've been so awful about posting!!!  I'm actually back in the classroom full time this year....and LOVING it!!  I have a panda theme that I love, I've never done it before, and pandas are my favorite, favorite animal!!  I may post some pictures, but it didn't turn out exactly the way I would have liked.  Teacher's Orientation week started two days after mom's funeral, so I wasn't able to get as much done as I would have liked, and I had some great helpers, which is hard not to do it myself.  I'm so thankful, though, because it may not have gotten done without them.  It's been a pretty good year so far.  Sorry this isn't anything educational, I haven't quite known what to post lately because I still feel like I'm trying to catch up with myself and school and life.  But I wanted to at least post to say hello and let people know I'm still here.  Hoping this post will help get things flowing for me again.  It's been hard to sit and blog and even hard for me to have time to blog stalk lately.  So, I am not sure what to even post.  But this week is Spirit Week, so I hope to at least post some pictures from that.  That's a start to hopefully more posts.  Tomorrow is Super Hero Day, I am thinking of going with a few different looks, and even some education questions tacked on me...people will look at me and wonder who I am trying to be....so....I'll be Wonder Woman!  Is that dumb??  I loved Wonder Woman, she was my hero when I was little, and how fun to put a spin on her, because I definitely can NOT try to look like her, lol.  Well, I'm still not sure, either that, or I'll be Fashion girl, or Bling Woman, or Purple Girl, because I love bling and purple.  I will let you know what I chose in my next post. Well, if anyone took the time to stop back by and read this, thank you!  Hope to be keeping in touch more. :)

A Moment to Catch Up

I just wanted to take a quick moment to catch up with everyone and let you know what's going on. Sorry I have been MIA for a while, but mom was getting worse and I was busy taking care of her and keeping up with my other blogs that deal more with my everyday circumstances. I've missed reading your posts and keeping up with you all. I hope I haven't missed too much! But just quickly wanted to share that mom went home to Heaven on Friday morning. I got to be right by her side. She was still here at home with me. I had wonderful chances to hold her hand, talk to her, sing to her, pray with her, and read scriptures to her. My Mom's sister was also here and we were both by her side. It was a hauntingly sad, but beautiful moment when she was finally able to be at peace from the pain and suffering. Thank you to the many of you who have thought of and prayed for us the past few months. Wake and funeral are Friday and Saturday. Again, i'm sorry I've missed catching up, but hopefully will be back to normal soon. Thanks!

Award

I have to say a HUGE thank you to Darleen at Third Grade Love, for sending me some "third grade love"!!  She awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award!!


What a wonderfully sweet surprise!!  She has such an adorable blog that you should definitely check out!  Thank you so much, Darleen, you totally made my day!!!

The rules for this award are as follows:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you

2. Include a link to their site

3. Include the award image in your post

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself

5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award

6. When nominating, include a link to their site

7. Let other bloggers know they've been nominated

So, 7 random facts about myself, hmm...

1.  I LOVE cereal!!!!  No, seriously, I could eat it all day every day, and never get tired of it.  I usually have at least 2 bowls a day! 

2.  I finally got the dog I always wanted at the age of 35!  Love my little Bella!!

3.  I love snow!!!!!

4.  I am an only child taking care of my mom at home who has Alzheimer's.

5.  I'm obsessed with accessories, rings, bracelets, pocket books, scarves, etc., etc., etc!!! :)

6.  Thunder storms freak me out, not a fan!

7.  I'm definitely a night owl, but have to get up early to take the dog out and help get mom up....so...I'm also a napper!

Now for the blogs that I would like to give this award to...

1. Mimi, from 5th Grade Rocks, 5th Grade Rules
2. Samantha from A Teacher's Looking Glass
3. Allison from A Work of Heart

4. Felicia from Adventures in Teaching: Learning as I Go
5. Michelle from Apples and ABC's: Adventures in Kindergarten

I'm going to have to leave it at 5 for right now, things have still been quite busy with mom, and if I don't do it now, I'm not sure when it will get done.  I will try to get back and add more.  Thanks again, Darleen!!  Check out her awesome blog and the others that I have here, you won't be disappointed! :)

Currently July

I can't believe it's Currently July already!   I had to join up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade and do the July Currently! Sadly I have missed a couple of them, but I desperately want to get back into the swing of things!  I was hoping to do this early enough so I wouldn't be the last one, and could hopefully get some comments, but man, you all are so quick!!  Oh well, hopefully someone will come back and see my link way down at the bottom, lol! :)

Yes, part of the reason I didn't get this done earlier is because mom is back in the hospital again.  She has an infection and is dehydrated, she's been pretty weak lately.  Prayerfully she will get stronger!
And yes, you read that correctly I have a new (to me) car!!  My pastor's wife called me at 11:15 on Sunday night, and asked if I could come over to their house, because they had a gift that they wanted to give me face to face.  This was pastor's last Sunday because they left early Monday morning.  He was headed to an Air Force base in Alabama for his basic training.  His wife and 4 kids are spending some time with her sister, and then meeting up with him in South Carolina some time later.  Anyway, it was so sad to say goodbye to them at church, the morning service was pretty emotional!  Well, back to 11:15.  I had to get mom taken care of and to bed first, then I headed over and got to their house about midnight.  After some conversation pastor went over to a kitchen cabinet and handed me some money.  They wanted to give me some, so I could get an oil change for my car.  Of course I bawled, that was so kind of them.  Then pastor and I talked about the car, he asked when I had last had my oil changed, I told him I couldn't remember.  I just knew the little sticker said I needed to at 123,000 miles, and I was at about 127 or 128,000.  Then we just ended up talking about the car, telling him that it was a '96 Toyota Corolla, it was loud (he said they could hear me driving up to the church), it was low, hard to get in and out of, but definitely not the best for mom, because it's so low, and some other things.  But I also said how thankful I was to have my little car, it gets me around, I don't have a car payment, it still runs.  He just kept letting me talk, until finally his wife tells him he is taking too long, and she walks toward me holding a key, I backed away from her asking what she was doing, then bawled some more.  They said they wanted me to have their 2005 Honda Accord because he was going straight to basic training and she already had their minivan that she would be traveling with.  So the money he said was actually really to help me get the car registered under my name and for me to get plates.  Talk about speechless!!!  And emotional!!  I'm still having a hard time believing it!  So I didn't get home until after 2 Monday morning, and finally got in bed by about 3...too excited to sleep.  Then yesterday mom went to the hospital about 7:30 at night, she was in the ER  most of the night, I finally left her about 2:30 a.m.  She was still in the ER, and was getting ready to go down for an MRI, so the nurse told me to just go ahead home.  So, it's been a busy few days...again. But thankfully I got to join the party tonight! :)
I have so many favorite read aloud books, but Treasures of the Snow was read to me in 4th grade, by my favorite teacher!  I fell in love with the book after she read it, then bought the book sometime after.  I have had the book, and read it every year to my kids, and they all love it, too! And of course, Ron Clark is awesome, and I try to reread The Essential 55 every summer.
Well, I'm off to check out some others! :)