Calgon Take Me Away

Calgon Take Me Away! Is that commercial still on? Anywho-that was a memory from my childhood. I remember those goofy commercials where the woman was drawing the largest bubblebath froth ever seen with her permed hair and fluffy robe saying calgon take me away. So you wonder why this is being blogged about right now right? Well, Kindergarten is back in session. Let me slow that back down for you. kindergarten.is.back.in.session
And every year, I wonder why I choose to put myself through kindergarten being back in session.
On day 1 with all of my kindergarten students(another teacher and I are sharing 33 kindergarteners) I was:
1. punching bag punched in the stomach 3 times by a FIVE year old
2. escorting a FIVE year old to the office in a trained hold with my co-teacher and partner in crime
3. told by this very same FIVE year old that he "ain't afraid of nobody"
4. losing my patience as I reminded this FIVE year old that he was just FIVE-slapped my hand on the table in front of him as I slowly said F-I-V-E(yes I do realize that this angry child was not getting my sarcasm but really dude-you are only 5 years old)
5. ducking and covering as a wooden letter U from a puzzle was heaved into the air (by another 5 year old) smashing into the ceiling and quickly bouncing back to try and attack my head
6. tripped up as I was helping another teacher escort a 2nd grader to the office in that same trained hold I mentioned earlier. He was a little bigger-SEVEN years old!
I tripped and fell right on my face into the guidance counselor's office.
You know you are a school teacher when you have a day like mentioned and somehow talk yourself into returning for another day. Now I do not hope this continues in any fashion but I do have to admit that my friend and cohort in this madness and I have some really fun times because all you can do sometimes is laugh. Well after a good cry!!

Creation Museum

Catching up here on some summer fun we had! We went to the Creation Museum a few weeks ago for a girls weekend. It is located about 10 minutes from Cincinnati in Florence Kentucky. I know, I always remember Florence Y'All on the water tower when we would travel south as a kid. Do Y'All remember Florence Y'All or is it just me??
Anyways, any trip staying in a hotel with a swimming pool is fun for the girlies. They are quite easy to please! We did have a great time. The museum was a little more geared for the older family but we enjoyed our time looking at how God created this amazing universe we live in. The best part of the trip was the exotic petting zoo. The girls got to feed an enormous camel as well as pet zorses(zebra horses) and billy goats. Gracie even got a chance to snuggle up with a Wallaby(spelling??). Here I am with my fresh Mater's Degree and I don't even know what a Wallaby is or how to spell it for that matter. I am calling for Gracie to come see the baby Kangaroo at the museum and a 12 year old corrects me that it is actually not a Joey at all, it is a Wallaby. So there you have it friends-Gracie held a Wallaby, not a baby kangaroo! What is the difference anyway??

It is official....

I am officially a Master's Degree holder. I have no picture of the degree for you to prove my accomplishment but it is real babies!! I just got my grades today! 4.0 Chicas-I finished with style!!
I know many of you were thinking something else when you first saw my it's official title-so sorry to disappoint!!
What does that mean for me? Well it means a bit more pay (nothing much friends) and my teaching license has been renewed for 5 more years until they can think up the next hoop I must jump through. Maybe they will require me to carry a doctorate to educate 5 year olds. We will just have to wait and see on that one!
Celebrate good times!

Harvest Time Once Again

Last week we did some harvesting at my grandpa's lovely garden. We picked potatoes, more zucchini, okra, and cabbage. The girls were very in to the digging and I learned a great deal about planting and harvesting potatoes. For example, you actually quarter the rotting potato when it starts sprouting it's craziness and that is what you plant under the soil. When harvesting the potato you can actually pull the beginning quartered piece out of the ground and see how the whole plant started. Very cool! I know I have left a bag or two in the pantry a bit too long and seen the sprouts but I never really put that together about using that to start the potato plant. Anyways, the potatoes all grow underground but the actual plant sprouts up out of the ground so you can pull it as you dig around the plant to loosen the potatoes. Then you just pull the plant up and bunches of little potatoes are hanging on and then some are just down buried in the ground because they fell off the plant. It was an actual harvest the girls could really get into because they could pull them off the plant and dig in the dirt to find the hidden treasure. I couldn't help but snapping some pictures because they looked so cute getting their hands dirty. Gracie asked me before we left the house to go harvest if I thought she looked like she had good farming clothes on. The girl was definitely preparing to get her little dig on!
I am really getting quite addicted to this whole gardening thing. I can't believe how crazy fun it is to plant, grow, harvest and eat these little goodies. I know I need to get out more!! I am looking for recipes now to help me use all of this zucchini. I have been making some zucchini bread lately that is so tasty. Who knew? I guess when you put 2 cups of sugar in the bread, it can't go all that wrong now can it?

Random Sightings of Future Olympian Hurdler

Mimi and Poppy blessed Gracie with a set of hurdles for her birthday so she can follow in the footsteps of the old momster. She loves them for sure and wants to be taught and coached how to do them better. It is so wildly fun but I must remind myself that she is 4 and only 4. Working on the 3 step might just need to wait a year or two at least :)
Here is the making of a future olympian hurdler(or maybe 2 because Shiloh has really taken to it as well!)

My Sweet Little Princesses

The girls decided they wanted to play dress up the other evening after dinner. Mimi(that is my mom) and I helped them pull their dress up box out of the closet for a little fun. Gracie was rummaging through it looking frantically for something "beautiful" but came up short. Their were monkey masks, firefighter clothes, hard hats, cowgirl pieces, and even some ballet slippers but nothing "beautiful" for sweet Gracie. So I got to be mom of the year and bust out early birthday presents-2 new princess dress up boxes filled with that beautiful stuff she so longed for. I can't tell you how fun that was pulling those presents out (that I had just wrapped-that will never happen again for sure) and meeting her little desire right on the spot. That was way better than waiting for her birthday party where she probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to dive in the way she wanted to. The girls (all 3 of them because Nat was over for a slumber party) jumped into those boxes and got all dolled up. They were so happy and looked so sweet! I just kept thinking about how cool it was for me to bless my daughters right in perfect timing and that is how God wants to bless us too. It is like just wait for it-wait for it-maybe wait for it some more-and then the blessing comes in perfect timing and can have the maximum effect. I was pretty tickled to give her those boxes but I know God is so much more tickled when he sees us enjoy His blessings!
God is good! Thank you for my little princesses!

Because We all Need a Little 4th of July Chuckle

Nic and I sat and belly laughed about this little video. Check out the diligence these fellows have in taping explosives to a sledgehammer.
The kicker is at the very end when "our guy" finally gets his turn at slamming his hammer. He meticulously changes the metal plate over a couple times for exact placement, winds up, lunges back, and simply hilarious. Check it out!
Happy 4th of July-don't do anything quite this silly!!