Well What Do Ya Know?

I was working on lesson plans this morning during my plan period when I was paged and asked to pick up on the intercom. It was the principal calling to tell me her 8th grader had never come home talking about Science until last night. She said both of her boys couldn't quit talking about their Science class and how much fun they had. I told her I had planned that lesson for the second day as my "hook". She said they were definitely hooked! With my class sizes as small as they are I am able to plan more hands on activities. Three of my classes are all doing the same lesson so it makes planning and preparing a little easier.

First Day of School

Up before dawn, showered, dressed, gathered Nathan's clothes, woke Katlyn who always appreciates extra bathroom time, pulled out lunch items to begin putting lunches together, woke Phillip, helped Phillip pack his lunch and have breakfast, woke Austin and Nathan, got Nathan ready, called Austin again, packed Nathan's backpack for daycare, called Austin again, Katlyn, Phillip, and Nathan were ready and in the car and Austin comes down the stairs asking where his belt is and what was there for breakfast. We managed to get out the door just 5 minutes behind schedule. I don't have those "First Day of School" photos because we were lucky to just get there let alone get the photo of the event. I think Austin took a few pictures after school but I have yet to even look and see what he was doing.

Nathan went to the chipmunk room in the toddler program, Phillip went to 1st grade, Katlyn begins middle school in 6th grade, Austin is entering 7th grade and I am enjoying middle school/high school teaching. We all kept pretty busy during the day but I found time between classes and during lunch to touch bases with the kids and asked them how their day was going. They all seemed to enjoy the first day. Needless to say we were all tired as we traveled back home. It's going to be a great year.

Matt was out of town for the first day but we're hoping he will be back to make everyone breakfast tomorrow. He can set his schedule somewhat so he won't have to be "out the door" by 7am like we will. Nathan eats breakfast at daycare so he doesn't have to get up until the last minute.

Tomorrow will be exciting as we make a model of quicksand and experiment with it in my earth science classes.

Slightly Busy

Teachers started back to school this week and I have been extremely busy to say the least. I have a very full load this year and am determined to make it the best year yet for each of my students. I will be teaching HS Physics, HS Literature, MS Science, and a Bible class. I have been busy gathering materials this week so we can have an exciting class. There are aquariums to fill, terrariums to tend to, locate critters to fill the empty homes in our lab, and have supplies for our experiments all set up and ready to go. We will start the year off with an experiment showing a model of quicksand. The excitement is building. The goal for tomorrow is to get the aquariums all filled so they can be running for a few days before we add our fish and bring a little more organization to the science closet.

Praise the Lord!

Mom had a wonderful doctor report today. They had taken another CAT scan last week but she had to wait until her chemo treatment today to hear the results from the doctor and they showed her how the lymph nodes had really shrunk in size since the first treatment. They were able to show her both scans and she could see the difference. They also told her they expect to just do one more treatment at the end of this month and she will be done. She is so excited. In just 3 weeks she will take her last treatment and then just have the follow up visits to make sure everything is okay.

I hope to have a few pictures soon but mom doesn't like having her picture taken. My sister just snaps them and even has a few she could hold for black mail but I'm sure she won't.

Thank you to all who have prayed for my mom. She has had alot of ups and downs and feels tired alot of the time but it looks like the end of that is in sight so I think she can hold on a few more weeks.

Kids Say The Funniest Things

While in Arkansas I went to a Walmart just over the Missouri border (only about 5 miles from my sister's house) and tried to get a few groceries to get us through the next week. I let each child pick one thing that they really wanted for the next week and Katlyn picked a cereal, Austin a drink and Phillip went off towards the meats but quickly came back and asked in a very excited voice, "Mom, where do they keep the Lebanon Bologna?" Poor guy. He settled for a pack of pepperoni as his choice. That isn't all they ate for the week mind you but that was mom's way of keeping them busy for a minute while I shopped for groceries. We did our fair share of eating at my all time favorite BOJANGLES. I even talked Tim and Sharron into going there for breakfast one morning instead of IHOP. Since we've been back I have made sure I had Lebanon Bologna for Phillip.

This picture doesn't even begin to show how large Phillip's ear swelled from a bug bite. When he walked into the living room he was scratching his ear and said, "Mom my ear feels funny." It looked so large and swollen that I couldn't believe it. I checked it out and saw where he had a couple of bug bites and since he and the other kids had some mosquito bites I was pretty sure that was the problem. A nurse at the church we were visiting looked at it and told us to give him benedryl and use ice which we did and noticed a big change overnight.

Phillip speeding around the track

Katlyn did kind of a trampoline/bungee jump.



Katlyn really enjoyed doing this but the man offered her to climb the next level wall once she reached the top and rang the bell but she turned him down. Once was enough. None of the other kids wanted to do it.