Seaside Day 2

Well before I begin on the adventures of today...my loving sister reminded me about a few things that I left out of yesterday's blog that happened on our journey down to the greatest place in the whole world. If you know anything about my family (I feel like I use that phrase WAY too often) you know that every little thing somehow turns in to a major ordeal. While I think that my mother is the most wonderful woman in the world, she can occasionally be a tad bit ditsy. We were trucking right along until we reached Pine Bluff where we decided to stop for lunch and gas up before continuing on our jouney. When the three cars were filled up (or so we thought) we hit the road. Devin and I received a phone call about 30 minutes down the road from the Peach saying that we needed to stop at the next gas station so that she could go to the bathroom. While we were a tad bit frustrated we were not too surprised because we are pretty sure that she has a bladder the size of a pea. After a slightly smart alec response she informed us that it will be ok because she needed to gas up anyways. We were a little baffled by this comment because we had filled up...how could she already be out of gas? When asked this question she really had no clue...UNBELIEVABLE!!!! She has done some ditsy things in the past (usually on a daily basis), but I think this one definitely takes the cake. I don't understand how you can pull in to a gas station, stand right in front of the gas filler-upper thing, get back in the car, drive away, but COMPLETELY forget to put gas in the car somewhere in the process! Ok, not that I am a control freak or anything, but before we took off on this adventure I was pretty insistent on leading the pack for a couple of reasons: 1) I have a GPS in my car and I think that is much easier to follow than the old fasion maps that Peaches still insists on using and 2) It is much easier to set your cruise if you are leading as opposed to following. Everyone was ok with this until my mom insisted on taking over in Greenville. She had just gotten directions from Toppy on a "short cut" to Madison (where we spent the night) and wanted to give it a go. Devin, Reece, and I were just trucking along following the Peach shen something just didn't seem right. Maybe it was because we were on one lane dirt roads, maybe it was because the GPS had to recalculate with every turn that we took, or maybe it was because we continued to be 90 miles away from Madison (according to the GPS) for 45 minutes. Before we knew it, we had reached a dead end on a dirt road in the middle of someones personal soy bean field. Let me just say that Peaches lost her priviledges to lead! As we found our way back to civilization Devin and I weren't sure if we would pop a tire from one of the huge nails that could be found on these types of roads or if we would get shot with a shot gun from someone in the farm crew, but we were certain that one of these two things was bound to happen!

One of my goals for this trip was to make sure everything got documented; however, I was slightly offended when the only comments I got were from people telling me that I did not post enough pictures. A girl can only do so much people! Fortunately I am a pleaser and like to make other people happy so I will do my best to take, upload, and post LOTS of pictures of these beach babes and dude!

We woke up this morning to another monsoon. I sure hope Hurricane Alex is helping this whole oil situation because it sure is putting a damper on our vacation.

After eating breakfast this morning we kept ourselves entertained by...

painting with Aunt Courtney's make up brushes...

having Justin Bieber dance parties...

and just laying around!!

As soon as it lightened up a bit, we hit the beach.

All geared up and ready to go!

The cleanup crews came rolling through while we were down there, but fortunately they found NO signs of oil...Praise the Lord!

Here are a few pics that we took of the beach babes and surfer dude this afternoon...

However, all of these pictures don't give an accurate portrayal of the theme for the day...RAIN!!!

We were totally bummed when we had to leave the beach when it started to rain.

When we got back from the beach we were COMPLETELY tuckered out...

and napped for HOURS!!

In the words of my wise niece Ava..."This rain sure is a bad apple, but we aren't going to let it ruin the whole bunch!"

Keep checkin' back...there will be more to come later!

The summer vacay has bugun...

Ok, so I know it has been FOREVER since I have updated my blog and I am really sorry to those two people out there (outside of my immediate family) who read this on an occasional basis. Instead of updating you on everything that has happened in my life in the past three months I have decided just to let you know what is going on in my life at the moment. I know you can tell from my previous posts that I absolutely love my job, but I am about to let you know one of the best reasons to be a teacher in just two simple words...SUMMER VACAY!! Now I totally think that spending my day with a bunch of kiddos is absolutely wonderful, but I have to admit having two months off in the summer is definitely NOT too shabby. For the first couple of weeks of summer vaction my mom and I have been working on various projects around my house. This is something that she has been itching to do since I bought my house last August, but my priorities have been elsewhere for the past 10 months. However, for these past two week I have been completely motivated and focused to get a lot done. My mom and I have had a lot of fun pretending like we are on the HGTV show Devine Design (and I truely believe that my mom thinks she is Candance Oleson), however, we have yet to be able to completely redo a room/house in just a few short days. There are just a few minor details that we are lacking in order to be as successful as Candace...we don't have a big team to disperse the responsibilities and, unfortunately, we are not professionals! I will post pictures of the work in progress very soon.

Now for the next adventure of the summer...If you know me or you know my family at all, you know that our favorite place in the whole world is Seaside, Florida. My family started going to Seaside before I was even born and has continued to go pretty much every year since. It is so fun to think back to how the "group" has changed over the past 25 years. This quaint, little town is such a special place for us because of all the memories that we have made here. About 7 years ago my family started a new tradition. We totally love having all of the boyfriends and husbands around as we are laying on the beach, however, my mom wanted to be able to get away with just her girls...thus, the Seaside Girl's Trip was born. I have to admit, this year I was a tad bit worried that with everything that is going on with the oil, our WONDERFUL Seaside trip might not get to happen as planned. I quickly realized how selfish I was being when my mom talked to the guy we rent bikes from down here and he was telling her about how he has had this bike shop for 17 years, but he wasn't quite sure how he was going to be able to make it this year. Why was I so concerned about my two weeks of vacay being postponed when there are so many people's livelihoods that are being ruined and the only thing they are worried about is how they are going to put food the the table? After this conversation my mom decided that we would go no matter what. We didn't know if we would be laying on the beach of cleaning up oil off of it, but regardless, these precious people down here needed us to spend our money so that is exactly what we were going to do! On Sunday, nine girls and one boy (we made an exception this year since he is just 4 weeks old) headed to the coast for two weeks of laying on the beach, swimming in the pool, riding bikes, eating lots of food, nightly trips to Heavenly Shortcakes, and having TONS of fun!

Here we are on day 2 of traveling, all loaded down at the hotel in Madison, Mississippi ready to head to Seaside. We spent the night in Madison because after eight hours of driving the three kiddos were definitely ready to be out of the car...which means the adults were even more ready to be out of the car!

We finally reached our destination around 5:00 yesterday evening. After unloading the car we headed to one of our favorite restaurants right on the beach. While we were waiting for our food, Ava and I walked down to the Ocean to assess the situation. We were so excited that the sand was as WHITE and BEAUTIFUL as ever! We all went to bed pretty early last night because we were completely exhausted from the two days of traveling. I have yet to figure out how driving/riding in a car can make you 1) make you look like you have been hit by a truck and 2) make you feel like you have been hit by a truck. When you are staying in a house with three kiddos under the age of 5, EVERYONE gets to wake up super early. We were all pumped about spending the the entire day laying on the beach and swimming in the pool, however, our plans quickly changed when we woke up this morning to TONS of rain. We laid around the house for the majority of the morning trying to entertain ourselves with Justin Bieber dance parties. We all made a mad dash to get our swimsuits on as soon as we saw the slightest break in the clouds. We decided that a little rain wasn't going to keep this party from going to the beach. Most of yall reading this probably know that I am not the type of person that is able to just lay around all day...I always need something to do or work on. However, that rule totally goes out the window when I am at the beach. That is honestly the one place that I can lay around all day long. I don't think there is anything that I enjoy more than laying on the beach with a really good book! With that being said, the exact opposite took place this afternoon. There was no laying around, there was no reading taking place...our afternoon consisted of boogie boarding, sand castle building, and lots and lots of swimming!

This surfer girl was ready to catch some major waves!

After Ava got taken out by this wave, Devin thought she needed to show her daughter a thing or two when it came to boogie boarding!

She showed her a thing or two all right...next time you see Devin, make sure to ask her about her mad boogie boarding skills! I wouldn't be surprised if she minored in boogie boarding in college after seeing what she was capable of today! Let me tell ya...that is something to be proud of!

When we got back from the beach, there were a few things that needed to be picked up from the grocery store. Devin and I thought that it would be a good idea to ride our bikes to Publix. Reece had just woken up from a really long nap so we decided to bring her along with us. I'll be honest with you, there were many reasons why this whole situation seemed a little scary: Devin on a bike...scary, Devin pulling Reece in a wagon behind a bike...scary, Devin having NO IDEA how to get to Publix...scary!! But what the heck, you only live once! Obviously we made it to the store and back in one piece and Reece absolutely had the time of her life!

This is Devin and Reece before we took off on our journey. I'm pretty sure I was praying while I was taking this picture!

Well folks, that's all I have got for you tonight. It is getting pretty late and as the saying goes "early to bed, early to rise" I can guarantee that I will be rising pretty early tomorrow morning even though I'm not making it to bed very early. I'm sure some eventful (or lack there of) adventures will occur tomorrow that will give me some more topics to blog about! Until then...

The Big Game

The biggest weight has been lifted off my shoulders! I finished up my Praxis III last Wednesday! For all of you non-education people out there who are reading this blog, the Praxis III is when a person from the state department comes in to interview me and observe me teach a lesson in order to get my "official" teaching liscense. While I always expect my students to act appropriately, I wanted them to understand that for this 45 minutes while the assessor was in my classroom I needed them to be on their best behavior and give me absolutely everything they've got! I kept on trying to figure out how to explain to a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds just how important this whole thing really was. I figured I could threaten or bribe them, but neither of those options were really the approaches that I wanted to take. I honestly thought about it and thought about it all day long. Finally I figured out just what I needed to do...


Before the kids went home on Tuesday, we had a little team huddle on the carpet. I asked my kids to close their eyes and picture in their heads a really important event that they have been a part of...maybe a championship soccer game, a dance recital, the spelling bee, etc. I proceeded to ask them to name some things that they had to do in order to get ready for this event. Have I ever told you how brilliant my kiddos are? They absolutely hit the nail on the head. They started to list things such as practice, practice, practice; stay focused; listen to your coach; etc. Then, I told them that tomorrow was going to be my "big game". I continued to tell them that I have spent so much time preparing, practicing, and getting ready for this one event. I decided to get really specific and tell them that I went to college for 5 years, then went to a year of grad school, and then I have spent this whole year getting ready for this one day. Ok, so maybe I went a little overboard and exagerated just a tad! But, I told them that they were going to get to be the ones to make sure that I was successful and together we were going to win the big game. Well after this they were completely sold! The challenge was on and they were so excited! I left that afternoon feeling really good about things and slightly less stressed knowing that my 23 darlings were on board! Fast forward with me to the next morning. I woke up really early Wednesday morning so that after I got ready I would have plenty of time to look back over all of my stuff. I tried to leave my house earlier than normal so that I would have plenty of time to triple check and make sure everything was just PERFECT for game day! I live right across the street from one of the little boys in my class (let's just call him Larry) and here is what happened when I left my house Wednesday morning...

As I am backing out of my driveway, Larry came running over to my car and was waving his arms like crazy to try to get my attention. I rolled down my window and said good morning and told him that I would see him at school in just a little bit, but Larry just looked at me with the most excited face and said "Ms. Weaver...today is the big game...and we are so ready for it!" I'm telling you my friends, that right there is why I have the best job in the whole world. When I heard those words come out of Larry's mouth all nerves went away because I knew my kiddos had "gotten it"! They understood how important this was and they were ready to win the big game for me! Let me just tell you...the big game was won! Don't get me wrong...these kiddos aren't perfect angels and we definitely have our days where I just leave completely worn out and wonder if I'm really cut out for this whole gig, but they proved to me last Wednesday that when all is said and done...they really do care!

Ear Muffins

Ok so here is the first story for the blog...

As Lincee would say--SIMPLE DISCLAIMER:
As with any story, I feel like I can never tell it (or write it for this matter) near as well as just being there in person to experience it; however, I will absolutely try my hardest! In order to stay professional I will give these kiddos different names--let's go with Max and Conner!

Here's how it all went down...
Go back with me to about a month ago (remember when it was -20 degrees outside in the middle of the afternoon...I know, it is pretty impossible to forget)! As a second grade teacher there are many moments throughout the day that I get to play "mommy". On cold weather days, one of my mommy duties is making sure that each of my 23 darlings is bundled, buttoned, zipped, covered, etc. before ventering out to the bus or car line. I still quite haven't figured it out, but for some reason when you are 7 or 8 years old you tend to think that it is really cool to go outside half naked. While my kids are getting decked out in their artic gear I happen to overhear a conversation between Max and Conner:
Max (wearing the goofiest and girliest ear muffs I have ever seen): (walks over to where Conner is standing) Hey, do you have any ear muffins?
Conner: What?
M: Do you have any ear muffins?
C: Noooo (Looking at Max as if he is the weirdest thing that has ever walked this planet.)
M: (leans up against the wall while crossing one leg over the other and crosses his arms in front of him as if he has just turned in to Joe Cool) Well, you like mine?

It is definitely moments like this that get me through the day! One day one of my little darlings asked me why I was laughing so much and I simply looked and him and said that if it didn't just keep on laughing I would go completely crazy! And that my friends is the honest truth!!

Joining the bandwagon...

Wow! I can't believe that I have actually jumped on the blogging bandwagon. I absolutely love reading other people's blogs and have many regulars that I follow on an almost daily basis in all of that extra free time that I have. Wait...I can't believe that the words "free" and "time" are actually in my vocabulary because I honestly have no idea what that is, but for some reason I manage to find the time to read about other people's crazy lives and really enjoy it. I have been wanting to start a blog for quite some time now, but for some reason I felt like you had to have one of the following credentials: a husband/boyfriend, kids, or at least a pet of some kind. Well...I don't have a husband or even a boyfriend at the moment for that matter, I would love to get a dog, but that probably won't happen until at least this summer, and I technically don't have any kids of my own; however, I still feel "blog worthy" because I have some of the funniest stories (or at least I feel like they are pretty darn funny) to tell about the 23 darlings that I spend more time with than anyone else in the day. Yep, thats right...the majority of my day is devoted to a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds and the truth is...I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! You probably guessed it...I am a second grade teacher! I honestly believe that I have the best job in the whole entire world. I get the priviledge of working alongside some of my best friends while doing what I love to do the most. I feel so fortunate that I have a job that I enjoy waking up for every morning. I become even more thankful with every conversation that I have with my friends who have been in the corporate world for only a year or two and are already hating their jobs and dread what the next 30+ years look like for them. This year has totally confirmed for me that unless your a teacher, you have no idea how challenging, yet how rewarding this job really is. I firmly believe that you can't understand it unless you do it! I will fill you in more on that a little bit later, but I thought I needed to set up the situation before I could continue. After telling my dad about something that one of my kids said or did on the very first day of school last August he told me that I needed to write all of this stuff down because I will want to look back at it a few years down the road and remember everything that happened during my first year of teaching. Well...as wise as my dad is, unfortunately some of his fatherly advice tends to go in one ear and out the other (sorry Dad) and this is definitely one of those instances. This is also one of those instances that I wish I would have listened because so much has happened this year that I have already forgotten about because I simply didn't write it down. Oh well! As one of my favorite sayings goes...sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but unfortunately this is one that I lost! However, even though I will probably not be able to recap the first seven months of this school year, I figure that now is as good of a time as any to start writing stuff down so that I at least have a few months worth of stories to look back on when I need a really good laugh (as if I EVER have trouble finding stuff to laugh about)! I have always been a big journaler, but I thought I would move into the 21st century and start journaling in a more contemporary way. I have to admit that this is not the first time I have sat down to start one of these things...in fact this is probably my 5th attempt at it. I kept trying to come up with a catchy, can't-wait-to-read title, but NOTHING would ever come to me. I have decided that I'm not going to let myself get hung up on the title anymore..."Tales of a First Year Teacher" is just about as good as it is getting right now, but my friend Christy is putting her thinking cap on! Well...one thing that definitely goes along with being a teacher is an early bedtime and unfortunately it is way past mine right now. I'm sure it won't be long before I am posting a funny story for you with all of the craziness that goes on in my classroom!!