Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas at home

Merry (late) Christmas to you all! I hope you had an awesome time celebrating our Savior's birth.

We opened presents at 545 am. Yes, you read that right. My step-dad had to get to work, so all presents were opened by 630. I'm still recovering. Then to grandma's then to dad's. It was all a fun time, and really fun to see the family. I got an electric toothbrush and blanket, some movies, lots of teacher stuff and a wonderful Nintendo Wii. It's awesome.My new favorite toy.My arm is actually sore from playing so much! Should be fun to have for parties and such! I hope everyone is having a great break. I will post pictures when I am home!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Charger fans at their finest...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1Ex8crGPjYs


I swear I don't know these guys...I never went to church with them or anything....

December is here!

I can't believe Christmas is here! wow! December has been a fun month for me. I got to celebrate my birthday all weekend, since it was on a Friday. Friday night we went to dinner and out on the town. Saturday was our young adults Christmas party and Sunday, we had about 30 people over to celebrate my birthday. It was awesome! I am so blessed to have that many loved ones in my Santa Cruz life. I enjoy being with them, all the time!
Birthday weekend:




Tomorrow, I head home to San Diego, for a week. I am looking forward to seeing all of the family! After that, I head back to Santa Cruz for new years, Visalia for a few days to visit Mel and baby Joshua, and then it's off to New York!! Soooooo excited!!


Christmas party:







Tomorrow, I head home to San Diego, for a week. I am looking forward to seeing all of the family! After that, I head back to Santa Cruz for new years, Visalia for a few days to visit Mel and baby Joshua, and then it's off to New York!! Soooooo excited!!


School ended well this December. I will miss my kids dearly for the next 3 weeks. The new year will be a new challenge for me, as I begin taking classes for my masters degree. Starting January 23rd, I will be enrolled in a masters program for a year. I will have to take two classes a week, even in the summer. :( Luckily, each class is only 1 night a week. To start, I will have one class on Tuesdays and one online(because its full). I think that will help me ease into being back in school. It should be crazy, but totally worth it, in the end. Well, Christy is here to scrapbook with me all day and night! yay!! :) I will update more after Christmas! Merry Christmas and remember the little one in the manger!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

california missions!

Every Monday, I teach social studies in the after school program. We get to do a lot of fun things I usually don't have time to do in class. This week, I worked 2 days, and we built 5 California missions! It was AWESOME! The after school program purchased them at michael's (they bought the slo mission just for me) and I was surprised how easy it was for the kids to put together. They loved it! I wish I could do that with my own class! Here's some fun pictures!










Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Thankful...

Yeah, I know, Thanksgiving was a long time ago. I've been busy!But, it's still the season, so I'm still going to tell you what I'm thankful for.

I'm thankful for...

Jesus
My family
My Nugent family
my friends at home and here
my students
having an awesome principal
my job
time off
my awesome apartment
my cute christmas tree
netflix :)
starbucks

and many, many other things. Not much to update. All is well here. :)

Monday, November 12, 2007

SLOing down life...

I went away this weekend for a much needed vacation. On Saturday, I hung out with my Nugents and went to the melodrama with Cassie, Christy and her friends. SO much fun. Sunday was church and meeting up with my old college roommates. It was awesome to see them! Sunday night we watched the awesome/horrible charger game and played lots of games! Today was fun filling with Morro Bay, smores and more games! It was just what I needed, and it was awesome to see everyone. William is getting huge, and 2 months is too long to be away! Can't wait to go back soon. :)





Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Yosemite...in pictures

I went to Yosemite last weekend for 4 days, with some friends. It was amazing..I didn't want to come back to real life. Best Story? Coming back from the bathroom at 3 am with the girls, to find a bear in our campsite. Needless to say, we ran. We got back and it was gone! Crazy times!











Sunday, October 14, 2007

Wow...

It has been too long! This last month has been a trying one. I have been sick for most of it, just starting off with a small cold and then ending with the wonderful flu. I took a few days off this week and had to cancel my trip to SLO. :( Luckily, my week of parent conferences is over, and there are lots of fun things coming up! 12 conferences on monday, 2 tuesday, 12 wednesday and 3 on thursday. Only 3 of them in English. yeah. Needless to say, it was a long week.

Next week, my mom is coming to visit! She gets in on thursday and then on Friday she's going on our field trip with us. We are going to Capitola beach for this fun California history program. I'm looking forward to it! I don't know what else is planned for the weekend, except Jen's wedding! I'm looking forward to it. Then the weekend after that is yosemite, then the weekend after that is a writing conference down south in ontario. Good times lie ahead.

Nothing else, really to update you on. I'll leave some pictures from when we took 130 kids to the boardwalk a few weekends ago. All of these kids moved up one level on their state standardized testing. SO much fun. :)




Monday, September 17, 2007

An awesome weekend!!!

On Saturday, a group of us headed out to San Francisco to watch the Pro Beach Volleyball AVP tour. It was AWESOME! We got to see Misty May and Kerri Walsh and lots of guys teams, too...which were the most important, of course. It was fun to get away for a little bit and watch some good volleyball.

On Sunday, the Nugents drove up to meet me in Gilroy...we went to Gilroy/Bonfante Gardens. It was tons of fun. I rode in an artichoke, a strawberry, and a banana! :) Went on some roller coasters I probably shouldn't have...but I fully enjoyed it. It was awesome to spend time with the family and be outside on a beautiful day!!








Thursday, September 06, 2007

Fun Santa Cruz pictures...

The sun, last night in Watsonville...there was a fire in Morgan Hill!
Sunset at the boardwalk. :)

There's so many I can barely even fit them in a picture....

Sunday, September 02, 2007

New Classroom!

My new room!

My least favorite subject....

The other side of the room..

Our mascot is a Dragon. :)

Exactly how is one supposed to fit 31 students?!? Like this!




Saturday, September 01, 2007

I know, I know...

It has been way too long. My life has been crazy x 100 since the first day of school. I am still wondering if it will ever calm down! 4th grade seems so much more tiring than 2nd grade. There has been so much going on. Our numbers in 4th and 5th grade are low and the numbers in kinder are way too high. Sooo, we just lost a 5th grade teacher to kinder. So, we had to make a 4/5 combo. What does that mean for me? Gaining 7 new boys and 1 new girl, plus giving up 2 of my boys. It breaks my heart to move kids around like this. At one point during our 3 hour placement meeting, I actually cried. This population of kids really needs a person who is constant in their lives....It's just hard on everyone. The new class starts on Tuesday. Please be praying that the switch goes well for all of us!

I decided to stay home this weekend, just because I was sooo exhausted and my neck and back have been bothering me. Today, I got a new camera! Some friends came over for some UNO playing tonight...always great times. It has been a nice relaxing weekend. Tomorrow is church and probably grading math tests. :)

OH and my roomie and I are going to New York in January! We decided to go out for a few days because we really want to see Hairspray and Grease on Broadway. So excited!

Laura and her brother, Mark!

The UNO players.


Allen and Laura! So glad you're back, Laura!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

First Day #2

The first day is over. I am so exhausted! My feet hurt, and they have blisters. :(

Other than that, the day was pretty good! I think my class will be much better than last year! And, so far, I only have 22 students. Thats less than some 2nd grade teachers. :) The kids are so much more mature and can do so much more! So far, I'm loving 4th grade. I have a lot of really fun girls, and even some fun boys. Only 1 student who doesn't speak any english...pretty good.

One of the new teachers ended up with 4 pretty high intensity boys. I feel like I paid those dues last year. I had about 7 of those. But since my numbers are so low, I may be gaining one of those boys. It should be ok, since my class does pretty well. They are still pretty chatty, but can also work pretty quietly, especially once I do a little moving of desks. I'm looking forward to doing some fun things with them. Be praying that I find my groove and ease right into 4th grade! Hope everyone is doing well!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Summer is over?!?!

School starts tomorrow. Woo! My room is ready, the desks are ready, everything is ready, but I'm not ready for summer to be over!

I'll update on the first day, tomorrow!

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Spirit West Coast and the Strawberry Festival!

This past weekend was crazy, but tons of fun! On Wednesday night, 5 YWAM-ers from Denver came to stay over at my house for Spirit West Coast. It was crazy, but tons of fun. We stayed up late talking and watching Friends. On Friday, we all headed out to SWC to work! They worked at their booth and I worked at the KLIFE booth. It was awesome to see Noonie and get to hang out with all of them. I didn't stay late because I wanted to rest so I could be healthy for the next day. On Saturday, I worked at the booth for a little bit and then hung out with my house guests and saw tons of concerts. I got to see Downhere, Wavorly, Disciple, Tobymac and Switchfoot. It was tons of fun! My back made it through, I was very impressed. I went to PT today and they worked me hard because I wasn't feeling any pain....now I'm feeling it. :)

On Sunday, after my awesome visitors left, we Kirsten, Julie, Allen, Alyssa and I all headed out to Watsonville for the Strawberry Festival. Basically all we did there was eat. :) Strawberry quesadillas, strawberry funnel cake, chocolate covered strawberries...it was awesome. I actually made it out of the place only seeing one student. Amazing.

Yesterday I started my training week. Im being trained in a new language arts program. I am loving the program but am bored of the training. :) Luckily, my room is already finished and looks awesome. School starts a week from tomorrow. AHHH! Crazy. Just plain crazy. Does anyone know how to teach 4th grade? Let me in on your secrets. I got to see my class list, and it looks pretty good. I'm getting excited...but we'll see! Hope everyone is doing well!


Thursday, August 02, 2007

Summer Pictures!






























Sunday, July 29, 2007

Harry Potter....and Garlic! :)

The Harry Potter books are over. I just finished the 7th book. I LOVED it. I actually found myself being sad that they were over! The 7th one was so intense...the main characters could have died in basically every chapter. It ended how I thought it would..but I won't ruin anything. :) The most recent movie was good, but definitely not my favorite. I am really looking forward to the 6th and 7th movies, they should be the best out of all of them.

It has been interesting to watch the Harry Potter phenomenon over the last 10 years.My opinions go up and down, but in the end...they are amazingly, entertaining fiction books. Will I have these in my classroom? I haven't decided yet. I'm not sure that most of the 4th graders I will be teaching can even read them...but, if I do choose to have them there, I will definitely give my fiction talk before they are allowed to read.
In other news, we got to check out the Gilroy Garlic festival this weekend. It was really hot...not that that means much, since hot to me is anything over 80. haha. So spoiled. We basically, walked around, shopped and ate. We tried garlic fries, chocolate garlic ice cream...yes, that's right..garlic ice cream, garlic corn and lots of lots of water that ended up tasting like garlic. It was a fun experience.
This week begins the last week of summer. So sad. :(

Monday, July 23, 2007

July in Santa Cruz

How is July almost over? Wow...I only have about 13 days left of summer break. I plan to enjoy each and everyone of them. :) The first week of August I will be setting up my classroom and going to Language 3 training. I am beginning to really look forward to the 4th grade...it should be an exciting adventure!

July has been a rough month for me. Not being in Kenya has been hard and frustrating. They will be back this week, and it may be equally as hard, but I am hoping to be the best friend I can possibly be, and listen to all the fun stories. I'm sure God did amazing things there. I have yet to write a letter to my supporters, I can't seem to get through it. It will get done, eventually.
My back seems to be getting better, but it changes daily. I am still doing PT and resting a lot. I am learning that this is something I may be dealing with for awhile. So I am trying to change the little things to make everything easier on my body. I am mostly sad that this pain keeps me from driving long distances. I miss my Nugents. :(

Although I didn't get to go to Kenya, my amazing friends have made my time in Santa Cruz loads of fun. We saw the new Harry Potter(not as good as all the others), we've been out to eat, we've been to the beach, we've been shopping, we've watched TONS of Friends and Grey's Anatomy, we've been bowling(not me, I just watched..dont worry.), and we've been to the Salinas Rodeo. I am so blessed to have them in my life to take care of me, to make me laugh and to just be there for me when needed. I have enjoyed most of my time in this B-E-A-utiful place this summer.
The next few months bring busyness and lots of visitors! Sarah, my college roommate, is coming to visit tomorrow. We haven't seen each other in a year! I'm working at Spirit West Coast and going to the Strawberry festival, the Gma is visiting, as are Matt and Missy, all in August. Oh yeah..and I go back to work. Minor detail.
Enjoy your Monday! I should not be up this late....

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Transformers

Awesome, awesome movie! Go see it!