The Last Two Weeks in Pictures!

Before I get to the pictures I'd like to ask all 7 of my readers (lol) if they have ever heard of anyone having a TENpm curfew... at the age of TWENTY FIVE! Well, it's true. Zach's entire unit is on a curfew. They have to be at a residence from 10pm-4am. Seriously! They had enough, pardon my french, jackasses with DUI's, bar fights, and other stupid things that they punished EVERYONE! If you are caught out after that, unless it's a medical emergency, you could get into serious trouble. Absolutely ridiculous!! Not like Z and I ever have late nights, but occasionally if we want to see a later movie, or go to a football game - ten is a little lame!

Also, Z has a decision to make regarding the Army. It's either go into the IRR (I think it stands for inactive reserve something) ... or the Reserves! He has to do either one for three years to finish the eight years you're required.. since he was Active Duty for 5 years. The Reserves Recruiter offered him $5k, school loan payoff, and TWO of the three years stabilization (which would be in Tampa). He would have to go to trainings one weekend a month and for 2 weeks during the summer. We could pay to have the same insurance we have now (which is amazing), and that is that. I'm not sure which I prefer, but I think I'm leaning more towards him doing the reserves... even if that third year means he could be deployed. Hmm. Pros/cons about both!

Now onto the pictures...

Kahlua walked into the house with TWO bones in her mouth the other day.
She doesn't like to share. Poor Lace... Lua is a female dog. Haha :)
(Lua has her own couch she doesn't usually let Lacey on!)

All of the alligators I used for my lesson on Tues. :)
(Unfortunately their eyes kept popping off...)

This picture may look familiar... but notice the fish is GONE!
RIP Goldie Jr...

Lacey enjoying her doggie ice cream.
Spoiled mutts... :)

I looked outside last night and Lua and Lace were running around the backyard.
When Lace needed a break she'd go in the pool because Lua is too scared to go in it!
(It's totally empty and is now deflated!)

Well, the USF vs. FSU game just started! GOOOOO NOLES! I went to both schools, but grew up dreaming of being a NOLE and they will ALWAYS come first!!

-Ashley

Is That Your Boyfriend?

Zach came to school yesterday to bring me lunch and hangout, and the first thing one of my students asked me was "is that your boyfriend?!". I let her know that he is my husband, not my boyfriend, and she replied with "weird!". My mentor teacher explained that it might be weird to her because most of the students just know of their parents having a boy/girlfriend not a husband/wife. Sad, but true!

The "BF" and I enjoying Moe's. :)

Anyway, once it was time for recess Z left and the same girl had another question. This time she asked if I had ever kissed him. I looked at her like she was crazy and said "no! of course not!". She quickly replied "THAT STINKS!". Lol. Third graders make me laugh... Another student asked me how long we had been married and I told him just over three years and they were ALL like WOW!! One of them even said that's like 300 days! And I explained how many days are actually in a year and did a little adding. Too funny!

Since the awful day Monday the rest of the week went really well. Zach was off Thurs/Fri so we went to Outback for dinner Thursday night. It had been THREE weeks since we went out to dinner so it was definitely needed. I am a little nervous about Monday though. I'm going to be COMPLETELY in charge because my mentor teacher is going to be out of town. There will be a sub in the room, but they are just going to sit alllll day. A day without the "real" teacher might lead to crazyyyyyyyness, but I'm going to do the best I can!

-Ashley

AMAZING!

... is one word to describe today! Thank you Lord for such a great day at school! The kids were awesome, my lessons rocked, and I am just so thankful it went the way it did because if it was another yesterday I'd be SO bummed!! I have to be back at school in an hour for a PTA meeting that's from 6-7:30, but I just had to write a few words and say how happy I am! Woooo :)

Tomorrow is my first official observation! The lesson plan is written and at 9:30ct I'll be playing with my alligators! Think of me and cross your fingers that tomorrow goes just like today did!!

-Ashley

Practice Makes Perfect?

.... if that's the case I hope the rest of this internship goes better than it did today! I mean I guess it could've gone worse... a LOT worse, actually, but it wasn't good! Today was my first full day alone in the classroom. In the morning my math lesson went pretty well. I guess because they are all still half asleep!? lol. Anyway, as the day went on the crazyness in the classroom grew. One student didn't take his medicine and that really changed the vibe of the class because every two minutes I was having to deal with him. I, again, feel like a failure and it's just SO frustrating I can't get through anything without stopping 100,000 times! I feel bad for the students who are doing the right thing and listening because I know it has to be annoying!I've tried everything I've been taught the past FIVE years in school and these kids really just don't seem to care. I almost cried when my mentor teacher was talking to me after. I know she's frustrated with me that everything isn't going perfectly and that I don't have total control, but I really am honestly trying my best! She gave me some ideas and I'll try them tomorrow.

I usually go to the library after I leave the school for about 30mins. to get stuff done, and right after that I called my mom. She has been teaching for 33 years and of course she let me know it's okay and I'll get better. :) I love my mom! She also gave me some ideas to use because she is in a Title 1 school just like I am and knows how these kids are.

Well... I'm done ranting! lol. I just opened a bottle of wine so it's time to wind down a little bit and grade some papers... Here's hoping tomorrow is a better day! ( my fingers are crossed!)

-Ashley

Not so Artsy ... or am I?!

Being a teacher I think you are expected to have at least a little bit of creativity. I, however, got the short end of that stick! lol. As a kid my dioramas and other "artsy" projects were never very detailed. I didn't have any great ideas on how to do this, or how to do that.. and my mom didn't either. (No offense, mom, but we both know neither one of us are very crafty - haha.) Back in grade school the same select kids always had projects that looked like they should be in a museum somewhere, but it also looked like their parents did the whole thing... which wasn't the case for me. I usually enjoyed working on it WITH my parents, but I did do the most work! My dad can draw/copy pictures really well - so when it came to projects that needed drawings he was the one I'd go to. He has many funny stories that involve him and my older brother staying up all night working on art projects. (Justin was quite the procrastinator and he'd always tell my dad about it the night before it was due!!)


Anyway, I have my first observation on Tuesday. My supervisor is coming in during math time and it just happens to be the day we start "greater than/less than". She wanted the first lesson she watched to be short and sweet, with an activity. I decided it would be fun to make each student an Al the Alligator clothespin. Al will always eat the bigger number, and that will help them remember which sign is which: > or <. Zach spray painted them for me (thanks, hun) and I am going to glue the eyes on. It's not very crafty, but I hope the kids get it and use it to help them!

Al taking a bite... lol.

Another funny thing happened with my dogs the other night. I couldn't figure out what the heck Lacey, my beagle, was barking at. She was on the edge of the couch looking into the dining room and growling/barking. I looked over and saw the table and a closed window and then realized I had placed a puppet that I made in a class last Spring on the table and it was standing up. The puppet has no eyes or ears now - I guess I'll have to do some surgery if I ever use it in my class, but I guess she saw the shadow! haha. Maybe I am a little artsy after all! Even my dog could figure out what it was! :) We had to pick a character from our favorite childhood story and do some sort of paper mache and it had to have attachments that didn't fall off when it was turned upside down. We also needed a prop. I chose to do Grandpa from "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" and I made a plate of yarn spaghetti with painted Styrofoam meatballs. Artsy?! I think so!!

This is before his ears/eyes fell off in my trunk!

Next week I start "Total teaching"!! I'm a little nervous, but I think it will be okay. She will be leaving me alone starting on Tuesday and I'm just hoping my classroom management only gets better from here! She said she thinks her being gone the whole time will help because it will look like I'm really in charge since she's not there watching me and chiming in with certain things. We shall see! My mom sent me a really cool book called The Tough Kid Toolbox that I got a few ideas out of and two other teachers even borrowed it to get some ideas for their class. (2 brand new teachers teaching two Kindergarten classes with 80% of their students having NOT gone to pre-k... I don't know how they do it!)

Yesterday I spent 3 hours of my life taking my LAST certification exam (well, until I get to FL) the OPTE. It went alright, I think. There were 75 multiple choice questions - which a majority of them were answers like "A. I and II B. I and III... etc" those SUCK! lol. At the end there were three essays and by the end of that my head AND hand hurt... what a crappy way to spend my whole Saturday - it started at 12:30.

Anyway, I better get to work. I can't believe I didn't post once throughout the week, but I'm just so busy with school stuff and after that 's done I'm always exhausted and in bed. lol. Today I have a LOT to do so my Sunday will be busy! Enjoy your week! :)

P.S. GOOOO NOLES!!! They beat (#7)BYU 54-28! Hopefully we'll be ranked again after that WIN! ... They play USF next week (the other school I went to) - I'm just hoping we can somehow watch it!!

-Ashley

Boomer Sooner!!

The forecast was absolutely accurate yesterday! Rain, rain, and more rain, but that didn't stop us from having a good time! We left the house around 2 and with the crazy weather we didn't make it to Norman until about 3:45ish. I was happy/surprised that there wasn't much traffic until we hit the campus. I was expecting delays on top of the rain, but it was pretty smooth sailing! We did stop at Wal-Mart to see about getting Z an orange poncho, but they didn't have any. When we were there I went to the bathroom and broke the seal because before we even made it to Norman I made him stop at a gas station so I could pee again! lol. TMI? :) Oh well!

When we got there we drove around trying to figure out where we should park. We weren't sure where the stadium was, but we found a house that was only 10$ so we decided to park there. After we got out of the car we just followed the crowds. We walked around and eventually made it into the stadium after walking through "fan fest". We found our seats and Z finally wasn't the only one in orange since we were sitting in the visitors section! lol. Since there was over an hour until game time we decided to walk around the stadium. I grabbed a pulled pork sandwich and went back to our seats to eat it. I had to use the foil to keep it covered because it was raining so hard. Who wants a soggy sandwich!? Zach was starting to get pretty wet when he overheard someone talking about them selling ponchos at the front entrance so he left to grab one for him and the people sitting right in front of us. About 30 minutes later he returned. He said the line was insane, which I'm sure it was. Lucky for me Z bought me one when he exchanged my white shirt earlier in the day! :)

The game was fun. OU won, of course, 64-0 or something crazy like that. Through the first half ISU had negative rushing yards! lol. Sadness. Zach just wanted ONE first down - and they actually gave him that so he was happy! lol. After the first quarter I was unable to take anymore pics because the rain was coming down so hard... but these are a few I did get!

Tailgating at home! lol.

ISU vs. OU! :)

No sun in sight!

Being silly in the car! I love my white zin. (just like my mom!) :)

So happy to be dry! lol.

I kept thinking of Oregon Trail...

The jumbo-tron was HUGE!
Wet!

Wetter!!

Wettest!!!

I'm currently watching the Bucs lose to the Cowboys 6-0, but hopefully we'll score soon! It's still the first quarter and I'm just happy I'm able to watch (and be DRY!!). Next week I won't be able to! :( DirecTV has every NFL game on today for free as a trial to their Sunday Ticket package. We pay to get every MLB game, but adding on NFL too would make our monthly payment incredibly high, unfortunately. Last year Zach got the NHL package, but since we'll be out of here in December that won't be necessary! (darn!) haha. He actually has Lightning season tickets and is SO excited about being able to go to the games starting in December!

Well, I have school stuff to work on. I can't believe tomorrow is already Monday! ICK! Have a nice week everyone!

-Ashley

There's About to be a SQUIRREL fight!

Okay... my puggle Kahlua isn't the brightest dog. She may be super cute (in my opinion) and oh so loveable, but sometimes I feel like she has rocks in her head instead of a brain! lol. (and yes, I think that way about some of my students too... hehe) Kahlua is always doing stupid things that make Z and I laugh! Well, yesterday after the kids were let go I finally got a chance to check my cell phone and noticed like ten missed calls from Zach. Sometimes he does this when there isn't really any reason, but I immediately called him back and didn't get an answer. When I got home I noticed Lua's crate by the door (usually it's in our bedroom), but she and Lacey happily greeted me and everything seemed normal. Zach was taking a nap so I woke him up and asked him why he felt the need to call me so many times and he said there had been an emergency! Kahlua had gotten in a fight with... A SQUIRREL! The squirrel either bit her or scratched her, but she was bleeding like crazy on her paw he said. I then noticed the deep scratch on the top of her paw... He had found the squirrel dead in the backyard and he said both dogs were guarding it like it was theirs. CRAZY! He said the squirrel wasn't bleeding or anything, but they must've somehow ganged up on it. Only Lua would have battle wounds though! lol. He was calling to see if he should take her to the vet, but he wrapped it and put neosporin on it and she seems to be okay now. My poor baby! When he told me this I couldn't help but laugh. It's not really that funny, but this would ONLY happen to her. Haha. Gosh that dog brings me so much joy/pain! :)

Anyway, the weather this morning has been blahhh! Usually I'd enjoy a rainy day, but it's GAME DAY! I bought a white shirt last night from Wal-Mart, but I think I'm going to go exchange it for a CRIMSON! one. I'm not trying to be in the wet t-shirt contest tonight - lol. I'm in college, but my crazy college days are over! ;)

I woke up craving some coffee and have been reading other blogs about the Pumpkin Spice Latte so I had Z take me to Starbucks and I tried it for my first time! It was soooo yummy!!!

"Tall PSL"

Have a nice weekend! I'm sure I'll blog about my first SOONER experience tomorrow!

-Ashley

"Now Accepting Debit and Credit!"

... is totally a sign I saw on the way home today ... at SUBWAY! It's like welcome to the new millennium Oklahoma! lol. Honestly though! Who really carries around any amount of cash these days?! I think I have a dollar in my wallet, but probably not! How they have stayed open for business is beyond me. I'd be one of those people that walked in, ordered, and then not been able to pay because they didn't want my plastic! But anyway...

This week has been 1000 times better than last week! My second math lesson went really well and they loved the game on Wed.! :) Today every third grader had testing to see if they would get into the gifted/talented program, but I'm not sure if any of them will qualify. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! It took up all morning and part of the afternoon - poor little ones! We had to teach them how to use a scantron and almost all of them were confused at first! One kid had 3 bubbles bubbled in on one line! LOL.

Zach is off Thurs-Sat. On Saturday we're going to the OU football game. He actually went to Idaho State (the team they're playing) for a year and a half before he decided to join the Army (so RANDOM, I know!) His dad lived out there so it's not THAT random. lol. He and I both know that ISU will get their butts kicked, but I'm sure it will be fun to go and attend an OU game (they are crazy about football there!)! ISU's mascot is the bengal. Bengals are orange and black. I hate orange and won't wear it or cheer for a team that's orange... therefore, I'm an OU fan on Saturday!

TGIF tomorrow!!

-Ashley

Pointless Post #2!

Last night South (Zach's UM friend) and Vander Molen (the "40 yr old virgin" - pshh) came over to watch the game. I made a dip as an appetizer and we had some chicken pasta.. and cupcakes for dessert, of course! It was fun having them over! As for the rest of the night... it was such a BUMMER!! Why do the 'Noles always have to break my little heart? The game was amazing though - both teams played really well! I definitely couldn't fall asleep.. I stayed up all night (well, until 11) and the game went back and forth, but it ended 38-34 with a UM win. We had a chance to score a TD in the last 90 seconds, but totally blew it... Booo!

Today, however, was a great day at school! I woke up SO sleepy, but had to get moving! I did my first full lesson and my mentor teacher had a lot of good things to say! It was such a relief after how bad that one day last week went! Her only complaint was that the lesson was too long... which meant they didn't have a lot of time to work on their independent practice worksheet. Oh ya, and I didn't have an activity to get them moving around - which lead to a few not paying attention at the very end. Tomorrow I have a fun game planned for the beginning of the lesson so that will help keep their attention - wooo!

The finished product of giant cupcake #3!
She'll pick it up from the jail tomorrow.. hope she likes it!!!

Only three more days of school this week - Yay for 4 days weeks! :)

-Ashley

GAME DAY!! >>--FSU--->

Just wanted to write a quick post and sayyyyyy: GO 'NOLES!! Three years ago today I was a sophomore at FSU and I was partying and getting ready to head to Doak to watch the Canes vs. Noles game with my BFF Brittany! (which I remember we WON!)... oh the good old days!! I remember it was Labor Day and I don't think I made it to class the next morning since it was played on a Monday night, but we had a great time and I miss those crazy days and all of my friends!

This was my first game EVER freshman year...

Britt and I sporting the beautiful GARNET and GOLD freshman year!

I hope to watch the whole thing... that is one good thing about being in the central time zone! The game will start at 7 here, not 8, which gives me an advantage!

Beat those Miami Hurricanes!!!

F-L-O-R-I-D-A S-T-A-T-E... FLORIDA STATE, FLORIDA STATE, FLORIDA STATE! WOOOO!!!!

EDIT: Zach just texted me and said he invited over his friend to watch the game with us tonight... who just happens to be a big Miami fan! YUCK! I was about to put the extra cupcakes from the giant one in the oven when I decided to add red and yellow food coloring to half of the cupcakes... nothing like a little festive dessert for tonight (and I'll be sure he gets one)! hehe. I hate the color orange and any team that wears it... especially Miami (and Florida).

-Ashley

Pro Baker?!

When I took SFC Heizer his giant birthday cupcake a couple of weeks ago EVERYONE at the jail saw it... and everyone thought it was pretty cool/AMAZING! lol! Most people took it upon themselves to tell Z when their birthday was so I could make them one (ya right!). One lady in particular was serious ... Zach came home and said she offered to pay me to make one for her daughter's birthday! We both decided she should just pay for the supplies and we'd call it even! That's a lot of pressure on me to make it look and taste good, but it's my third one so I think I've got it down to an art! She wants pink icing and funfetti cake and needs it by Tuesday (thank goodness I have tomorrow off because it takes forever to finish the whole process). I need to go back to WalMart and get the candy melts, but we have everything else ready to go! See you tomorrow kitchen!!

The first one I did - Z's 25th bday cake!
(I used icing for the bottom - didn't look as cool as H's)

Wish me luck - I hope her daughter likes it!!

-Ashley

Attack of the Moths!

Now that the mud daubers have seemed to leave us alone... we have another insect that has raided our house! The MOTH! When Z and I got home from the football game last night this is what the front of our house looked like!!!

All of the little black specs are moths...

They look right at home! Ewww!

It was absolutely discusting and the next time we leave at night the front porch light will be OFF! We had to walk around back to go inside because if not they would've come into the house... where they are obviously NOT welcome! The other night I went to let Lace and Lua in and a bunch of them flew inside the house... and the only door to the outside is through the kitchen. It was so gross. I had to get the fly swatter and kill them! Lua likes to try to catch them too so she was a big help! lol.

I figured since I posted about something I truly dislike, I'd post a few pictures I've taken on my phone this week of things I DO like!

#1 - An old man in over-alls.

(Makes me smile EVERY time.)

#2 - Margarita in a mason jar from SFCC.

(Not sure why they use pink and blue salt...)

#3 - Choc/Vanilla swirl FRO-YO from Braum's.

(Z took me when I had my bad day on Thurs) :)

Zach helping me grade math papers.

(He asked if he could help.. and enjoyed it!)

UGA game is about to start - GO DAWGS!

-Ashley

How We Spent Our Friday Night....

Well, before I get to where we spent our Friday night I'd just like to say yesterday was a MUCH better day! I wasn't left alone for any significant amount of time - so that was nice! lol. It was, however, picture day! When I was watching the kids get their picture taken in my head I kept thinking of "Glamour Shots by Deb" from Napoleon Dynamite! HAHA. The lady reminded me of the girl from the movie the way she was like "okay now move your chin up a little bit... tilt your head more this way...ya, that looks real nice!" etc. It took a lot to start cracking up. I got home around 4:30 and my house was SO clean!!! Thanks Z! He had his Phase 1 physical (getting paperwork and such ready to get out of the Army) in the morning and had left the house before I woke up to make it there by 7. He also went grocery shopping while I was at school - what a nice little hubby I have! :)

I was starving and exhausted when I made it through the door so I laid on the couch and relaxed, but eventually we left and went to the local roadhouse here, Santa Fe Cattle Company. As soon as we walked in I headed to the bar and grabbed a margarita (it was def. needed!). We were eating peanuts and waiting for our table, but since there was a long wait, and we had somewhere be, when they offered us a table in the bar seating we took it... The food was great and we paid our check and then headed to the car....

...we were going to a HIGH SCHOOL football game. lol. Zach had planned on going to one sometime throughout the season, and I had heard some teachers at school talking about it so we thought it would be fun to check out. We got there and let me tell you something - there were more people there than at a (2004) Ray's baseball game. INSANE! lol. We had to wait in a pretty long line for our tickets and decided to go for the pretty baby blue team and sit in the dollar extra "reserve" seats so we were away from all of the crazy "HS'ness" stuff. We actually had a pretty good time. I was falling asleep by half time though so we left after the show (our team was trailing 14-7). I think everyone in the town was there and the school spirit by both schools was fun to see. :) Reminded me of in the movies where Friday night football is like THE thing! Pretty cool!

Stands were full so people had to sit on the grass...

They actually play at the field at my school...

It was a nice night! :)

EHS vs. LHS... We were cheering for EHS!

We woke up around 9 this morning and Z made me french toast for breakfast - it was SO yummy! We plan on spending the day watching college football. My FSU 'Noles aren't on until Monday night, but at least I'll be able to watch a little bit of it before I go to bed... It is CRAZY that they play USF this season. Since I went to both schools I always cheer for them against the teams they're playing, but since for the first time ever they play each other - I'm going to have to go for the Noles!! Sorry Bulls! :) Zach's UGA Bulldogs play Oklahoma State today so we're thinking we'll definitely be able to watch that. I SO miss waking up and spending all day tailgating and then heading the game. My FSU days were pretty crazy... the school I'm at now doesn't even have a football team! (I guess that's why HS football is so popular around here).

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! (woooo hoooo!)

-Ashley

WHAT A DAY!!!

It feels so nice to be able to sit down and relax and not hear or see children! haha. It's only my fifth day in the classroom, but today was just insane. My teacher was asked by a first grade teacher yesterday if I could watch her class while she went to a dr. appt today. It's against my university's rules for me to "sub", or watch another class, so she said she'd do it and I could stay and teach the third graders! Wowwwww. Lets just say CHAOS! I feel like I failed miserably those two hours she was gone. The lunch lady made them walk outside the lunchroom and come back in again because they were chatting in line, and then later they had library time and the librarians couldn't believe how chatty they were either! It made me feel a little better that they couldn't control them either (there was the actual librarian and her assistant talking about library procedures to them).

Today we read a book called "Cook-a-doodle-doo" where the characters bake a strawberry shortcake, so we did too... We had put all of the ingredients together right before my teacher left to go watch the other class and I think the excitement of it baking and getting to eat it later in the day really got them excited. Or maybe it was because there was a new moon? Or the fact that the weather was changing... it's starting to rain as I type. (last semester the teacher I observed mentioned the changing of weather brings about crazy kids). Or maybe I should just blame it on having ZERO control! They just wouldn't listen or shut up! lol.

At the end of the day, after the teacher had been back for awhile, they were given time out/heads down the last 15 minutes because they were still "acting a fool" as she calls it. She sent a note home today saying she was disappointed in their behavior ALL day and that their parents needed to talk with them about it. Here's hoping! I guess I have to put my mean pants on from now on. These kids don't seem to care about "changing their color" or anything for the matter... Pray for me!!!!! ... but for now I think I hear a glass of White Zin. calling my name! :)

P.S. Jaws went home today. The tank was way too small for him and she was darting back and forth like a psycho. The mom of the Jaws brought in a new, small goldfish we're thinking of naming Junior! There we go again being SO creative!

-Ashley

RIP Goldie...

It was a sad day in third grade today... there was a death! Goldie, our beloved goldfish, has passed away and it was no accident! A boy named M had appendicitis all last week and came back to class today... with a BIG goldfish fish in hand! His mom bought it for him while he was sick and he wanted to contribute it to class. So, the teacher took the fish and nicely placed him in the tank with our tiny carnival looking fish Goldie, hoping they'd be BFFs. Only after a few minutes the new fish was charging at Goldie and grabbing him by his tail thrashing him around the tank. The teacher told the students she'd keep an eye on the agressive new fish, but as she taught a lesson I watched as Goldie floated to the top of the tank never to move again. I didn't want to disrupt this lesson so I waited until she was done to let her know of the passing. She took a cup, scooped up Goldie, and that was that! A student yelled out "he's like a shark!" and then another said "we should call him Jaws" and we all thought that was a great idea. So... meet Jaws, the new fish!

The killer... AKA JAWS!

We later learned that Jaws is a CARP not a goldfish. Now we understand why Goldie died. Oops!! Tiger Time went well today (yay!) ... I have more papers to grade and lesson plans to start writing. I'm doing everything math related on my own next week! Well, time to start dinner!

-Ashley