Happy 12th Birthday to Alayna!!!!!

Alayna had a good but busy birthday this week!  On her actual birthday she got to go to Young Women for the 1st time and loves it!  She is excited that she will be able to attend the next temple trip in October and we are planning a family temple trip when Marisa gets back!

We went to Olive Garden for her special dinner and going to Orange Leaf tomorrow for her requested dessert.

She started volleyball this week and is enjoying it.  Bob helped her set up a net in the backyard to practice and Kayla has been practicing with her.

We went out one morning as a storm was brewing and the sky was absolutely one of the most beautiful things Alayna and I had ever seen!  I tried to get some pictures but it definitely didn’t capture the majesty of the moment!

Bob, AKA Captain Awesome, made grape jelly from the grapes we grew this year and it was so very yummy!

The kids at the HS LOVE the new set up, the maker spaces, everything!!  We were told we have the best room in the school!

Tyler has been sick.  Anyone shocked? Kayla saved my butt at work by knocking off several projects.  Alayna and I bonded yesterday watching Jaws 3 and the Jurassic park: the lost world while I sewed a gazilliion things.  We need Marisa back to help with the mending…lol

Warning: Long story you don’t have to read…

God doesn’t always answer our prayers the way we think he will or the way we think he should.  Although this is a life lesson, it was very evident to me this week.

A little background 1st:  Last year, I was told since I was a new teacher, I would have to be evaluated.  I was assigned the high school.  The other teacher who goes to both schools was assigned the middle school.  I was jealous.  Why did I get the awful principal and she got the nice one? As most of you know, it was a tough year but I passed the evaluations. 

This week:  I got an email from the new HS principal saying she needed to see me in her office to discuss “past evaluations”.  I started out the day in tears and angry just knowing she was going to say how much the old principal says I suck.  I get to the middle school for our big meeting as a staff on individual professional development only to find there were no papers for me.  I asked the middle school principal where mine were and she said since I was assigned the HS last year, then I will stay there.  Again, I was mad.  Why do I have to do my professional development at the HS when I teach at the MS?  I had to book it over to the HS to catch the staff meeting there. 

At the end of the meeting, she had a list of all teachers to be formally evaluated and I was on it!  What the heck!  I just did that!  So I went up to talk to her and she said, oh yeah, you were evaluated last year so you are good.  Next day I get an email saying to come see her in her office because since I am a new teacher to the district I will have to be formally evaluated for 2 years (let the barfing and stress ensue…).  So I went to go see her and she pulled out the master contract to show me.  There is a clause in the master contract that says if you have previously taught in Iowa for 3 years, then  you only have to do 1 year of evaluations so I don’t have to do them this year!!!!  I almost cried there too.

Then, here is the clincher: all the new teachers at the middle school, regardless of whether they have taught in Iowa or not, are being formally evaluated for a 2nd year and HAVE to create a new portfolio with 45 artifacts proving that they meet all 24 Iowa Teaching Standards!!!  I am so eternally grateful for a father in heaven who knows what's best for me.  What if I had pushed and begged for the middle school?  Eeek!

The school year begins!

1st ever 1st day of school picture with dense fog in the background…
Bob, amazing as always, got the beautiful stain on our mantle downstairs.  Don’t you love it??  We will be doing the kitchen and upstairs with that as well
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This week Alayna watched “Gforce” with the guinea pigs…lol.  They loved it.  Here's a pic of their favorite activity- running free in the living room.  They never go off the carpet but they love to hide under the couches.

School started for me as well.  It was  a tough week and I am not sure I am ready to talk about it.  I think that there are experiences in life that can make you or break you, make you closer to Christ or move you farther, you can take it as a learning experience to grow or it can tear you down.  Life is about our perspective on things that are out of our hands.  My thinking this week brought me to the importance of family, the support of loved ones, and what really matters on that eternal perspective, because that is what guides our future decisions that we do have control of.  So, this week, I will focus on the good things from work, few though they may be…
My para did an awesome job decorating our door at the HS

I got a box personally from Brandon Sanderson donating 6 hard cover books worth 150 bucks!!!

I also spoke in my very 1st assembly in front of 500 kids.  Talk about nerve-racking!!  I announced how well we are doing in the summer reading program (we are 202nd place out of over 7,000 schools!) and we have almost doubled our goal.  When I announced Mike Ritland was coming the kids went crazy!  I cant wait until he comes.  So, the kids loved it and I didn’t barf.  That’s what I call success.
Kayla has been a domestic goddess and I have decided to sabotage her admission to BYUI so she has to stay here…Every day I come home from work exhausted and the house is cleaned, dinner and dessert made, and she has the kids doing their chores.  She is the only reason I am functioning now,  She cant leave.  The other day we came home and she had made brownies from scratch with cookie dough topping.  Tyler said, “Mom REALLY isnt going to let you leave now!”  She and Bob are starting the downstairs bathroom this week.  WHile we have someone here that’s “bored”…Tyler also asked what we will do when Kayla leaves and I said eat ramen.  He started laughing so hard and said he was laughing because its so true….
Alayna starts volleyball tomorrow and has her birthday!  woot woot!  Tyler is swamped with marching band and show choir.  And all 3 kids have done the ice bucket challenge…ill try to post their videos.  Oh the busyness of it all…

And so it begins…

Finally got my signs up.  Bob cut them out, Kayla painted them, after school care kids cut out the letters and their teacher modge-podged. them.  How's that for amazing delegation??

Because only cool librarians can pull off this kind of display…

Got my board by the main entrance done

I was overwhelmed by these boxes sent by people donating and trying to help!  I got all teary-eyed!

We finally got a hold of Mike Ritland to come do an assembly for meeting our summer reading goals.  I am SUPER excited for it!!

I guess I am an official professional now?

To be honest, this week was a tough one.  I wont go into to much detail except to say that the ONLY reason I do this job is for the kids.  I am sick of people, red tape, posturing, and budget cuts.  My new projector was taken, and I was given a dinosaur.  My cataloging computer for the middle was taken and I am fighting to get it back.  The old principal made sure no supplies were ordered for me this year, out of spite.  I wanted to scream and cry.  My chair at the HS was stolen.  I went and got a new one and then my paras was stolen.  When does the madness end?  But, I helped run Back-to-school night and seeing all those smiling faces run up to me to say hi reminded me WHY I do this.  Especially when a boy came running up with his parents and gave me this huge packet of papers of all the hours he read this summer.  His parents said they have never seen him so determined and motivated before.  That’s why I do this, folks.  It’s a matter of ignoring and getting through the rest.  But the kids?  They are MY motivation!

Its always much more fun when Bob does the gardening…

Tyler made it through heck week. Plus, 2 days were 13 hours of marching band and show choir.  Truth be told, I'm a little shocked he survived!

Actual school starts tomorrow.  None of us are mentally ready, but its coming anyway.  Wish us luck!

Summer is over :(

Well, once again summer has flown by so quickly that we barely knew it was here.  Personally I could use another month.  To our credit though, we accomplished a TON!

We worked on building up our food storage because I keep reading apocalyptic books we have been asked to.  We are now prepared BUT we aren't telling anyone we have it.  Bwaahaahaa…

Our garden was pathetic this year.  We got a bowl and a half of gross, spotted, ugly tomatoes.  We hung our head as we had to go buy roadside tomatoes so we could make salsa this year.  So sad.  And so far no apples.  But somehow we have become a farm for 2 bunnies (one is the baby we saved!) and Vinnie the Varmint has returned.  They eat our weeds, carrots, and lettuce.

As a final goodbye to summer, I took the kids to see “Guardians of the Galaxy” and we just loved it!  I am in love with baby Groot!  Marisa we put this on your list as a must see when you get back.

Bob and I had a wonderful date day yesterday.  I went to massage therapy which is saving me!  Then we went to Panera's for lunch and went to see “Into the Storm” which is like Twister on steroids and we loved it!  It’s so realistic and terrifying all at the same time.  Makes me take sirens here a little more seriously!

We also enjoyed getting ready for shark week by watching Sharknado 2.  There are no other movies like this, people!  A special thanks to mom for the cool book and tshirt- my kids will love it!!

(The shark ate Tyler…)

We spent some time at the high school library this week.  There is so much to do but it is looking so much better!  I did a TON of work here at home while I watched a marathon of “The Killing”.  It has been nice to relax (kind of) and feel accomplished.

Also, I got the bad news that ALL of my funding for the middle school library was cut.  ALL OF IT!  I was devastated.  How could they do that after all my hard work?  My  extended family jumped in, got the word out on facebook, and people I don’t even know started sending in books and asked me to create a wish list on Amazon.  I just wanted to cry.  I was so grateful for their support and kindness.  Then, I made a grant proposal to the Anamosa foundation and they granted my proposal, which means now I have some funds to work with.  Then the head of the foundation asked me to come to come speak and present at their next meeting and request funds for the high school. Yikes!

For those of you who don’t know, I was also contacted by the president of the Eastern Iowa Reading Council and asked to be a presenter for their conference in October.  I am extremely nervous. 

Well, this week I start back to school and Tyler starts marching band.  He will be super busy with that and show choir that starts this week too!  He was “kidnapped” this week to be initiated into the top show choir.  I blew the surprise because I thought it was 4:30AM not PM.  Oh well.  Only 4 weeks until Kayla starts at BYU-I and Alayna will have her 12th birthday in 3 weeks and join the young women program.  Where has the time gone people??

I got my new shirt and new plaque so bring on the new year!!!

Oh what do we do in the summertime?

1.  We work on giant projects

Well, we finished painting the downstairs.  It took many days and was exhausting but I am so thrilled with the results. We still have a few finishing touches and we will be staining the mantle, but hopefully you can get some sort of an idea of how it looks.

Preparing for the painting

Like the BYU wall?

Still working on staining this mantle and window sill

2.  We grow GIGANTIC zucchini and then must search for yummy recipes

3. We bathe guinea pigs.  It’s not as easy as it looks!

4.  We watch movies.  We watched Red Tails and 47 Ronin this weekend and enjoyed them both.

5.  Other stuff:  Tyler went on a fun scout over night camp out where they got to explore the Makoqueta Caves the next day.  Tyler also tested and got his school license which means he can now drive himself to and from school only all by himself.  Ahhh relief for us!

This week will focus on small projects for work.  Most of the home has been redone and organized.  I finished about half of my Christmas shopping, been working on meal plans through December, made chore charts for the fall, etc.  I just HAVE to make life easier next year!

Projects Galore

Another week of knocking out a huge amount of projects!  I wish it could be summer all the time!!!

1.  I finished getting all of the recipes into our new online program.  You should all check it out.  Its called “Pepperplate” and despite the stupid name, it works great.  You input all your recipes, you can plan meals, share recipes, print shopping lists, etc.  Now I wont lose any more recipes!

2.  Thanks to Kayla, we kicked butt and got everyone's school supply shopping done!  Although I must say I am irritated at stores for already having school supplies out.  Its still July people!!

3.  Bob worked all week on the finishing touches for the deck and it looks awesome!

4.  We worked on some décor for the high school library (this was all Kayla!)

5. We took a family trip to Anamosa to deliver 2 cars full of stuff I needed there.  We ended up redecorating the high school library.  I went to Rockwell surplus and got a circulation desk worth $3000 for free!  So exciting!

We set up a new comfortable reading area with a new rug I got with double coupons!

Because the school is getting 200 new chrome books, I was able to get most of the awful computers taken our of the library.  We used the white computer tables and I got new matching blue chairs from Rockwell as well (the custodian got them for me).  I am so thrilled how its starting to come together!!

6.  A couple of weeks ago Kayla got a new ukulele and has been teaching herself how to play.  She is sounding awesome!

7.  This week we attack painting the downstairs living room and exercise room- last painting project for the summer!

As summer flies by…

Another busy week of projects and its hard to watch the summer flying by.  I feel like maybe I need a whole year off to get everything done!  First, we tackled the laundry room…

It may be a little hard to see but we did it in a light mint green with white trim.  It looks way better and we got rid of more junk.

We also went through our food storage and redid our 72 hour kits…

We got the computer room cleaned and organized, but we have to save some of the painting for when Marisa gets home right?  We got up some new posters…this is my new favorite…

We have been trying to work out each day, however the bugs are so bad here that it has been unbearable.  So I guess we will be stuck working out inside again this week.  Parts of our garden are flourishing like Zucchinius Gigantor…

Tyler has been using our machine to deep clean and scrub all the carpets and couches in the house.  Next week he tackles the cars.

We got all the kids passports done!!

I finally got a smart phone and joined the world of instagram.  I am still trying to figure out how it all works.

Funny story of the week:  Tyler comes running up the stairs exclaiming, “so that’s what that noise is, there's a baby bunny in my window sill!”.  Sure enough we go out there are there is this tiny scared bunny stuck in the window sill.  He explains that he keeps hearing these freaky noises that pound against his window and scare him and when he looks out nothing is there.  Apparently this happened 3 nights in a row.  That poor baby bunny must have been so scared! 

We couldn't get it out, so we had to get the small animals whisperer (ALayna) who picked her up no problem.  The sweet bunny closed her eyes as we pet her, she must have been so exhausted. Alayna took a step forward and the bunny jumped out of her arms, went running like a bat our of heck, did the biggest superman leap I have ever seen a baby bunny make….right INTO the other window sill!

Long story short, we got her to the back yard where we hope her mom will show back up.  She comes out each afternoon so we know she is ok, otherwise she lives in Bunny City under the shed.