My March Madness

How is everyone doing? I am doing good. I am enjoying my classes this semester, they are lecture classes and not a ton of homework like last semester. It is nice to not be overwhelmed for a change.
I am also working on wrapping up my schooling. The plan is to take the last two classes over the summer and then student teach in the fall for 8 weeks and I will be done. I am waiting for one more signature and one 8 week block of student teaching will be waived for me because I already teach at a preschool. I plan to do my student teaching in primary grades (for me that is 1st-3rd). I have my provisional teaching certificate until then. It has been a long process, many of you have been with me the whole time. I am ready to be done. I hope to be about mid October.
The weather has been gorgeous here the past couple of weeks...in the 60's. I love that, I can take the kids out for recess at the preschool and they have so much fun.
Let's see, the house hunt. We have been looking at houses. Mostly trying to get an idea of what size of house we want, how big do we want the bedrooms, how much storage space do we need, etc. We were looking at moving to another town. Josh is not doing so well with that, and as silly as it seems, we will probably try to stay here. He is doing so good in school now, after a not so good last 2 years that he was in elementary school. I wanted to move him away then and now that he is back in school and doing good in middle school, I am glad we stayed. It all works out. God has a plan and He will show us the house He wants us to have when the time is right.
Well, I know I should post more often so when I do post it isn't so long, but I have a lot going on and when I come home, I just want to relax. I will have a life again in a few months, I am so excited!! 7 more months!! If I do not make it back, Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

February Freeze

Well, I have another snow day. I thought I would drop in and make a post. We did not get the "blizzard" they said we would thank-goodness. We are not used to that kind of weather here in Missouri. There were some places that got close to 20 inches around here, but we got about 6. Just 6 inches has paralyzed our town. It is cold now. It was -9 last night. So far the pipes haven't froze. Maybe the snow is keeping the wind out. Let's hope. We have a really old house.
Well, Karl went back to work today being out from the storm. It is so cold. The roads were really bad. They still may be, I am not getting out in it.
We have still been looking at houses. Not seriously though. I do not think we can seriously look at houses until I finish school in the fall. I will have no paycheck for 8 weeks when I am student teaching, so we will probably wait until then. The house I had talked about in my last post was super inexpensive. I guess if we found the right deal we could do it, but until then we just have fun looking.
We are missing a lot of school. I hope much of it is forgiven so we do not have to make all of it up. I do not enjoy being in school when it is nice out in the Spring.
Well, I will wrap this up. Enjoy the Superbowl!!

January update

I wish I could say I have been really busy and that is why I haven't blogged, but I haven't been. We started back to school at the preschool. We have some new kids, they are precious. This has been a good year so far there.
I started my second set of methods and I think those classes will be less stressful than last semester. We do not have as many assignments. The good news on the college front is that hopefully I will be able to take my last two classes over the summer and then do student teaching in the fall and I will be done. That is the plan anyway. I will see what happens. I know they are planning to offer the classes over the summer, but if there are not enough students that need the class, they will drop it. I will keep you posted.
We have been looking at houses. We found one that was great. It overlooked a golf course and was by the river in a valley, but it had some problems, we were more than willing to fix, but DNR was being ridiculous about the whole thing, so we said forget about it. It is a very long story. Anyway, we are still looking. We are taking our time. God has the right house for us in His timing.
Josh is doing great in school. That is the other thing. I hate to move him from our current school district, but I haven't found any homes here in town that I like much, or they have a lot of land with them and it jacks the price up. We do not necessarily need land. There are a loot of horse or cow owners here though that do need the land. I just want a big back yard.
Josh is also doing well with his braces. The last time we went he got his night gear. He hates that, but the orthodontist said about 6 months is all for the night gear, so hopefully that is all it will take.
Karl is currently working, but there are not many jobs in construction right now, so we will see how that goes.
We have been out of school and work a lot lately with snow. We have to make all of those days up which stinks. I do not want to be in school at the end of June again this year. That was a short summer last summer.
Here is a picture I took of Meisha on Jan. 20th on one of my snow days. She is so sweet still, getting bigger.

Last week of 2010

Well good grief. It has been a month since I posted last. I finished my college classes and begin my second semester of methods in a few weeks.
The preschool Christmas party was fun, the kids all had little gifts to open and lots of great snacks. We are getting 2 new students when we come back from Christmas break. The second semester is always so busy at the preschool. I kind of do not look forward to it. It can be stressful with me going to school and trying to juggle everything.
We have been doing ok with Karl being laid off. He has been doing some odd jobs, so everything has worked out ok. We are hoping he gets to go back to work in a couple of weeks.
We had a nice Christmas. The month flew by. We did get out to see Christmas lights with Josh and we had a Christmas party with his extended family a few days before Christmas. Then on Christmas my dad came up and spent Christmas with us. My mom stayed home. She is not feeling well. She is having some pain in her leg. I do not know why yet. We will be having another Christmas party with Karl's immediate family on New Year's. Then Monday I go back to work (3rd).
I cannot believe a New Year is almost here. Oh and since I haven't posted in so long, we had a puppy dumped in our driveway. We decided to keep her and named her Meisha. She is going to be a big dog, but is adorable. I think she was only about 4 weeks old when she was dumped and we had had for for 3 weeks now.
Josh got a Wii for Christmas and some games to go with it. It is funny to watch them play it. I am going to post a picture of Christmas and one if Meisha. The picture of Meisha was taken on Christmas Day, so it is current.
This week I am geting my haircut (wed.). I cannot wait. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011!!

Black Friday

Well, let me back up and actually say that we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent the day with my parents. We got there around 10:30AM, so I was able to help cook and Josh watched the Macy's Day parade and the Dog Show. The food was wonderful because my mom makes everything homemade, I even got Josh to help peel potatoes. It was fun. After we ate we watched football a little and Josh made up a game for all of us to play. It was like family feud. The weather was crazy. We had freezing rain and sleet and it was so cold. It was hot in the house though. It was a fun day. We gave my mom her gift and sang Happy Birthday to her, we got her a frame that says "Nana always makes me smile". She loved it. She also had her favorite German Chocolate cake for her birthday cake. She made Coconut Cream pie, it was awesome!!
Well, if you have been reading my blog for many years, you probably know I am not the one that goes out shopping on Black Friday, it is Karl. He went out this morning early to Kohl's and other places and got most of the Christmas presents. I just need to get presents for my co-workers and my dad and I think everyone is taken care of. We didn't buy anything "big" this year for ourselves. He is wanting to buy a shed, we need to talk about it, he is out shopping again though.
I took my Fall/Thanksgiving things down last night and put them away. I am hoping we can put up Christmas things later today inside the house.
I do want to ask for your prayers. Karl has been laid off. This happens from time to time and hopefully he will be back working by the first of the year, but just pray that December and early January goes smoothly for us. I think we will be just fine.
I hope if you celebrate Thanksgiving it was wonderful and if not I hope you have a great weekend!! Is everyone ready for Christmas??? I am so excited!!

Thanksgiving!!

The thematic unit I have been working on every weekend for a month is finally finished!! Yay!! I am so glad. It has been very time consuming. Now I will just put together my practicum notebook, make a math game and work on our chapter presentation. Then the class will be over. The projects above should not take much time.
This week I have work on Monday, then practicum Tuesday, and it will be my last day of practicum. That is all I will do that day because the preschool has a half day. I will come home and work on that practicum notebook I had mentioned. Then I plan to enjoy the holiday. I will be working on the chapter presentation with two classmates, so I cannot do that and I need further instructions on the math game.
Well let's see. Josh is doing good. I think his teeth are already starting to straighten up a little. They have a long way to go, but I can see changes. He is doing just great in school. He loves it and he has all A's as of right now.
Karl is working as always. We are very thankful for that.
We will be spending Thanksgiving at my parents house. It is actually my mom's birthday on Thanksgiving day. I am not sure what I am going to get her yet. It is going to be a busy week. I better get moving.
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving if you live in the U.S. and if not, I hope it is a great week!!

checking in...

I have been working on my thematic unit today. It is kind of like our Final for my class and it is pretty involved. I worked on and off all day and I do not feel like I got much done, but I know I did. I am going to do a couple more lesson plans tomorrow.
Well, I did my lesson plan in practicum last week and as boring as I thought it would be, the kids were really into it. The teacher did a great job teaching them about the Pledge of Allegiance and they were excited about my lesson. I was very impressed with them. I tied it to Veteran's Day and they talked about the Veteran's in their lives also. It went well. I am almost done with practicum, I am going to miss those kids.
Work is going fine. I have really good kids this year. It is nice.
Karl is still working and that is good.
I cannot believe it is almost Thanksgiving. I am excited. I love Thanksgiving!! All of the food, football, Macy's Parade and relaxing. I will only have that one day I am sure. I will have to get back to doing homework after Thanksgiving Day. Everything is due the following week on Dec. 3rd.
Well, I just wanted to drop in. I am fine, just really busy this semester. Oh, I got enrolled for next semester also. I am taking my second block of Methods. I am excited. It will be assessment and curriculum. I better go. Have a nice week!!