Lately

So I know haven't updated in a really long time (remember how school rules my life??)...well here are the updates from the past few weeks....

First, we celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary in November!  I can't believe that we have been married that long!!  I know it seems like a short amount of time compared to 50 years that my grandparents celebrated...but STILL! Four years!  The time has just flown by and it has had its ups and downs, but i wouldn't trade a minute of it.  Everything we have been through and accomplished has made our relationship stronger.  I love him.

 Then Mr. Handsome celebrated his 25th birthday!  I am officially married to a man who gets an insurance discount because of his age! haha! For his birthday we went to Carrabbas (no surprise there right??) and I did a project where blew up 25 balloons with 25 memories attached to them.  It was super fun to watch him read them all.  Take a look on facebook to see them all. :)

We also went to TransSiberian Orchestra with Brian's parents for christmas.  It was super fun to watch all the lights and hear the music.  I love christmas music - especially when its so loud that I can't hear Brian complain about it (like in the car). 

As for school, we got granted Christmas break early!  After the snow storm early Thursday, school was canceled Thursday and Friday! YAY!  I don't know how it will all work out with finals, but we will figure it out in January!  For now, I get to just relax and enjoy a break!  Thank goodness.  I am ready for a couple of days of just relaxing and reading.  I already got ahead start on the reading, I finished a book yesterday and started/finished another one in the same day!  Totally worth staying up reading until 2 am!

I have also finished my first class in my masters degree!  YAY!  I won't start another one until January, but so far I am very grateful that I decided to get the process done with now and not put it off any longer! And compared to my Mom's program - I have it EASY! Yet, I am still learning a lot every class!

I have also taught myself some new information about using technology in my classroom!  Using my Ipad, I was able to hook it up to my projector and use it in class!  I can't wait to see how it actually works with kids in the room, but so far my trial run with my A&P kids, it went really well.  Cross your fingers that I can make it as useful and effective as I hope. As you can see, I think its awesome!

We are very excited for the  holidays and for spending time with family.  We get to host Christmas for my side of the family and can't wait for everyone to be here and see all our Christmas decorations!  It will be the last Christmas together where we don't have a little one running around!  If you didn't know yet....we will be an Aunt and Uncle yet again!  But this time my brother and his girlfriend are expecting in June!  I can't wait to spoil the little one like crazy! 

Happy Holidays to every one!  I hope you spend it safe and with the ones you love!

I'll try and keep more updated next spring.....but no promises :)

When Science Teachers are Stumped...

So today I was inspired to make a blog educating the people of the world on the fact that just because my job title says I am a science teacher; doesn't mean I know everything!  :)

Now, don't get me wrong - if you want to think that I am some super, amazing, extraordinary, crazy intelligent person......go right ahead!!! I will not stop you.  But the truth is that I know a lot about what I have been educated over; but if no one has ever taught me the information or I have not been so inclined to learn it on my own...I probably have little knowledge on a given subject.  My lessons this week have really been an mind opener that I need to be more curious.

This week in physical science we are learning about the States of Matter and Phase Changes.  Now, when I took physical science in high school; we learned about three states of matter - solid, liquid and gas.  The teacher mentioned a fourth state of matter, plasma, but did not go into any great detail on what it was or how it worked.  Well....just like Pluto is not a planet anymore...states of matter change too.  We now know of FIVE states of matter!!! (wouldn't have guessed it would ya??)  They are solid, liquid, gas, plasma and the bose-einstien condensate.  Most kids know the basics of solids, liquids and gases but are really curious about the other two.

So here is what I know and what I tell them.  Plasma is a very high energy state of matter.  It is what all of the stars in the universe are comprised of.  The bose-einstien condensate (BEC) is a type of matter that only occurs near absolute zero (roughly -453oF) and is where a group of atoms will behave as one.  I tell them it is like the school of fish in Finding Nemo - there is lots of little fishies that all act as one single object.  That's it - that is literally all I know about these two states of matter.  Last year when I taught it, I didn't have much time and so I couldn't look up new information and this year I again ran out of time.  (I swear that teaching makes time go by faster than the rest of the world!)  Needless to say, my kids are always curious and I have to try and analyze their questions quickly and think of a logical response but they seem to always get me with a question that I literally have no idea how to answer it.  So I have two responses stored in my back pocket.

1. That is a great question!  I appreciate your curiosity, but I do not know the answer...which makes this a great opportunity for you to go home and do some of your own research!  When you figure it out...let me know the what you found out!
2. That is a great question!  I appreciate your curiosity, but I do not know the correct answer...would you like me to make something up so that I can give you an answer?

Both of these responses normally get a few laughs out of the kids and they like that I don't know everything.  I mean, who likes a know-it-all?  I am only human you know....but I can't let the kids see me at the grocery store or gas station - knowing that I do the same daily routine things as them really freaks them out!

Anyways....back on topic.  This whole situation really got me thinking that I need to be more curious!  I need to go back to the basics and ask the questions that the kids will have so that I can be better prepared to answer their questions.  Its been a good reality check that I don't have all the answers and I can always learn more.  Which is actually in really good timing because I start school again next week!

If you did not see my facebook status yesterday; I have signed up for grad school!  It is a cohort program through William Woods University and I will be done the beginning of June 2014.  I will be getting my Masters in Administration.  Even though I am not sure I ever want to be on that side of the desk, I think I will learn a lot and moving horizontally on the pay scale won't be too shabby either!

I hope everyone has a fan-freaky-tastic halloween!!!!!  And don't forget - its never to late to learn something new!

Life in a Nutshell

So..............................Yes, I realize it has been a while since my last post................but I have reasons for that.

Reason #1: My life is controlled by school.
Reason #2: My life is owned by school.
Reason #3: My life is dominated by school.
Reason #4: My life is utterly wrapped around my school life.
Reason #5: The tiny bit of time left over after school is reserved for my husband and family/friend interactions.

So now you ask; well if your life is so completely surrounded by school stuff - how did you you find time to write this blog?

You see, Brian needed to put in some overtime at work this weekend to get caught up on the never ending list of new projects to draw...I really didn't feel like sitting at home alone - so I came with him. My original plan was to work on school stuff the whole time to get ahead for this week...but when we got down here i realized my flash drive is safely stored in my drawer at school.  Figures.  I did the small tasks of what I could do from memory and then I have some glorified, amazing, no thinking involved FREE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I was shocked too. 

Any normal person would think that its a great oppertunity to just relax, sleep or do absolutely nothing....I never said I was normal did I?? I spent a lovely four hours on pinterest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have not been on there since school started  up (have I mentioned that school rules my life?) and I have missed the crafty inspiring website!!!!!!!!!!!! So if you get on pinterest today and your homepage is dominated by my pins, i will not appologize.  It made me happy. :)

As I wait for Brian to finish doing his drafty thingy (aka moving between 5000 screens on his computer in warp speed that would be hell for an epileptic) I will fill you all in on what we have been up to lately.....

If you keep up on my blog (and I don't blame you if you don't....its mainly a journal for me anyways)...you know that our basement is finished!!!!!!!!!!! We love it.  We have had friends over to enjoy it and I couldn't be happier.  We still have small things we need to do for the house...but we seem to be amazing at avoiding them!  I think we had our fill for a while and now enjoy being complete bums on the weekend.

We have tried to go to the OGHS football games...but we have utterly failed.  We have only made it to one so far this year.  (pathetic right??)  I blame Brian; he gets off work too late to make it on time and they are always packed so there is not point in going if you aren't super de duper early.  But this past friday we even drove all the way to harrisonville to watch the game - got there - realized i washed/ruined my get in for free pass because i teach these crazy kiddos and then we had no cash.  The closest ATM was clear across town...and by the time we would have gotten back - we would have been at half time already.  So we drove home empty handed. A bit ridiculous if you ask me.

We also have spent our time taking the dogs to the dog park at super late hours in the evening when it is really dark out....but the problem is that you can't see them run off!!! So we attached lights to their collars - so now we walk the track and watch the lights bound up and down all over the place as the puppies freak out.  Its quite entertaining - they look like freaky fireflies :)

Hmmmmm.....the rest of my life.....SCHOOL.

This year has been going well so far.  My freshmen are all backwards (they like notes and don't respond very enthusiastically to activities) but they are all kids and I wouldn't teach unless I truely did love going to work every day - even when they drive me to my wits end. :)

Well.....I think that's about it.....until next time.

Remodel Junkie Bliss...For Now

Anyone who knows me knows that I am someone who likes to make plans.  Now, if you know anything about my life - my plans never pan out the way I want them to.

So plan #1 - Brian and I decided a long time ago that we would rent our apartments/duplexes/houses for a while until we were ready (and had the money saved) to build our dream house. I never wanted to buy a house before then because I knew that I wouldn't like parts of it and I would have to do some major remodeling.  I grew up around remodeling and knew how much of a pain it is to remodel a house while we live in it.

Change of Plans to Plan #1 - Brian and I bought our first house this past March.  Now, the reason for buying the house is because we wanted to move to Lee's Summit to get closer to Brian's new job and still keep me somewhat close to Oak Grove.  Well the houses/duplexes that are for rent around here are crazy expensive for what you get with it.  Also - no landlord really wants an 85 lb lab/rot mix in their place. Way to go Jack for being so big. So we started looking into buying a house - a month and a half later we signed the papers for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house.  Here's some pictures of what it looked like then:

Front of house

The back of the house with the deck.

When you first walk in the front door, you have the dining room all the way back and the formal living room is closer.

Kitchen

Breakfast Nook right off the kitchen

Standing in the breakfast nook...looking at the actual living room and the stairs that go up to the main master bedroom/stairs that go down to the basement.

Hall Bathroom

Bedroom #1 (there is another that looks pretty identical but we didn't take a picture of it.)

2nd Master Bedroom

Bathroom for the 2nd Master

Upstairs Master bedroom

Attic access from the upstairs master - EVENTUALLY this will become a big walk in closet

Bathroom for upstairs master.

So these areas are still pretty much the same - just now filled with our stuff.  Now for the good part - the basement.  The basement was originally divided into two sides.  The finished side and the semi-finshed side.

The finished side

The semi-finished side (divided into three rooms)

Now, when we bought the house - I knew i wanted to make some changes the the basement....

Basement Remodel Changes Plan #1:  On the finished side, take down all the mini walls they put up because they made the space seem smaller.  Open it up and patch in the carpet (the sellers left us extra).  On the semi-finished side, take down all their mini shelves. Then put a door on the farthest room and tile it to make it the dogs room.  Then get rid of the walls separating the other 2 parts of that room and it is now one big storage/laundry room. Bada Bing Bada Boom  - easy right?? So we get our keys to the house and head up that night to start some demolition.

Basement Remodel Problem #1:  It just so happens that these walls are here for a reason.  Reason being - there is a beam support column hidden in that wall. Oh shit.  Well by the time we had found this out - we had taken off all the trim and put some major damage in the walls.  Well that led to...

Basement Remodel Changes Plan #2:  Still knock out all the stupid walls in the finished side and just have a column in the middle of the room.  So we continued demolition.

Basement Remodel Changes #2: We decided we didn't like the idea of the column.  It would look dumb.  So my Dad gives us some advice - he says...why don't you just open up the whole room?  Yeah, you will still have a column, but it will give you a lot more space.  Now - if you don't know, my Dad owned his own construction company for years...and he remodeled our house over and over again for the majority of my childhood.  As Brian would say, "when your Dad says it will be simple, easy, no problem, or will take no time at all,  that actually means that we are in for a ridiculously long process that the rest of the world normally wouldn't attempt unless they are on some serious mind control meds." This time - Brian was right. But being naive and hopefully for a freaking awesome basement...we replied "SIGN US UP!!!"  So we continued the demolition....

Now, to get the full picture here - you need to realize that as we were making all these decisions - we were moving in at the same time.  Now our move wasn't planned for 2 more weekends but as impulsive as we are, we decided we wanted to move in that same weekend we started demolition.  So as my mom helped me pack up our place in Grain Valley, my Dad, Brian and Brian's Parents were at the house setting up the fence for the dogs and moving the washer/dryer connections into the basement so we could wash our clothes.

Needless to say, when my mom's facebook status stated that she was "past exhausted"  after that weekend, we couldn't have agreed more.  But that's when the real work started.  Here are some progress pictures.

Building the new walls for the future laundry room

Adding Drywall

Mudding and Taping = WORST THING EVER

Painting the Laundry Room

Tiling the Laundry Room

More tile = INSANELY PAINFUL TO THE BACK AND KNEES

Adding the washer and dryer and the cabinets (dogs kennels are now on the opposite wall)

Painting the downstairs living room.

 Getting closer to the end..........................................

CARPET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this looks like a very simple process...it wasn't even close.  But it was totally worth the work.  It may have not been our original plan or close to it.  It may have taken much longer than we planned but now we are finally enjoying the benefits of our hard work in our new awesome laundry room and basement fun room. :)

So the only thing left to do is refinish the ping pong table and fooseball table to make them black - but that can wait.  We need a break from finishing off things. So very minimal things to do in the basement. 

Next project - the closet in the upstairs master so we can move in up there and then have a guest bedroom.

Bottom line - we love our house and love the time we have gotten to spend together changing it. This remodel junkie has had her fill of remodels for a few weeks. Now we get to enjoy the payoff of our hard work.

Updates

Well...so its been a while since I blogged...but I've been busy lately. Really Busy.

First off, SCHOOL STARTED!!!!! I can't believe I had my third first day of school this year!   I feel like i've learned so much in my past years but I am absolutely thrilled to finally have a year where I have done everything before!!! There is no more learning things the night before I teach them or coming up with every brand new worksheet or test.  I have resources! I am so happy.  I have already learned that I can throw something together in the morning and have it work out really well.  Its amazing.

So this year I have five classes of Physical Science (Freshmen) and one class of Anatomy & Physiology (Juniors/Seniors). I seriously miss having more A&P classes but since my enrollment went from 52 last year to 18 this year..there isn't much that I can do about it.  I guess that's what happens when it actually becomes a real weighted class and not a blow off class. The class I do have this year is completely SILENT compared to last year.  Friday they finally started to open up a bit, but hardly any.  Hopefully  I get to see a bit more of their personalities as the year progresses.  My freshmen are great so far! They are entertaining as well as intelligent.

So for those of you that have not seen my classroom yet - here are some pictures. (I apologize for the quality)

My view from the front of the room.

The front of the room - the crates are for the kid's bell work.

My front white board.

Right next to the door.

 I love my room!  Now, on the first day of school - I was making some copies, left my door open and came back to these:

It was stinkin cute!! I loved being able to see the same kids multiple years in a row!  Its awesome! All my previous freshmen are now sophomores and their lockers are right in front of my room!  They walk past me all the time and give me high fives.  I love it!  If you didn't know - I give my kids high fives everyday when they leave my room.  Its my way of saying goodbye and giving them reminders. Its really cool now when my last years kids walk past me and want a high five. Its fantastic!

Well - thats the new updates for school.  On tuesday when we get couches for downstairs, I will take new pictures and update on the renovations downstairs!

Feelin Crafty

So this past week I feel like I have accomplished more than I have all summer.  Its like Brian said "Get the last 95% of the work done in the last 5% of the time."  Oh well, it all got done right?

First and foremost, I am thrilled to say that we now have completed drywall (mudded and taped), paint and tile in the laundry room!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I may have hardly been able to walk yesterday,  but I am thrilled to see this much progress.  And I have to say, not too shabby of a job for it being my first time ever trying to do these things without my just aiding my parents when they did it all.  So now, my goal for this week is to get the rest of the basement mudded and taped, then painted and hopefully we can get the carpet installed next week.  Then, it could be all done before school starts!

After I had spent my days working on the basement, I also had time left over in the evenings to get crafty!  I've had all these projects on my pinterest boards just begging me to do them...so I finally knocked some out.  Some came directly from pinterest, others came in my birthday bag of pinterest goodies from a Taryn! :)

My new button bowl!  Now, people of pinterest, don't be shocked if you read instructions on pinterest and you think "Hey, this will be really quick and easy!"  Because if its like the button bowl, its NOT! But I do think the finished product turned out nicely.  It will be a great addition to my desk at school to hold my school keys during class.  That way I have a specific place to look for them at the end of each hour...just to make sure they don't end up in the wrong place/hands. ;)

(Don't judge the pictures too harshly, my camera on my phone still hasn't recovered from its nice swim in Lake Jocomo when Brian decided that standing and trying to cast his fishing line in a CANOE sounded like a good idea).

Top View

Bottom View

My next craft was for school as well...surprise, surprise...This is for all those papers that have no name on them.  (Even though last year they would rarely come in spurts).  But now instead of chasing kids down, I can make them responsible for going up to the board and seeing if its theirs - then come see me to get their score recorded.  I like it.

My almost favorite is my new "Dates to Remember" Board.  I have always had the desire to keep all the birthdays of immediate family members and close friends in my head so that I can send out cards to them, but I can never remember in time and then end up getting busy and completely forgetting.  But, now that it looks all organized and pretty sitting in my office, hopefully I can remember now!!! I have already had the chance to make cards for the next two months of birthdays (Aug & Sep)...lucky me that no one is born in September! hahaha!  So cross your fingers that if you are immediate family or a very close friend, you will get a home-made card in the mail for your birthday!

And last but definitely not least, the easiest craft I made comes with a funny story.

The set up:  Over the summer, I do not have to get up as early as Brian, so being the lovely person he is, he does everything in the morning so that he will not wake me up.  He even takes a shower in the hall bathroom so that he doesn't have to turn on the light in our bathroom - freaking sweet right??  Well he also will wake up, feed the dogs and let them out, then put them back in the room with me.  Our dogs, (being the cuddle bugs that they are) feel free to hop up on the bed with me and get a few more hours of sleep in (as if they don't get enough sleep during the day).  Jack sticks to the edge of the bed, but Ally will usually lay right next to me, if not completely on me. I'll get up around 8 and then proceed to get ready for my workout class in the morning and the dogs will stay on the bed till its time to go in the kennels while i'm sweating it out at the gym.

The actual story: This morning was like every other morning.  My alarm goes off (it seemed darker in the room than usual)  I thought that it was Brian's early morning alarm going off because a warm area was laying across my stomach.  I rolled over to shut off my alarm saw that the clock read 7:26 (brian has to leave for work by 6:50)!  I had that "OH SHIT, YOU'RE LATE" freak out moment and literally threw off the covers and jumped out of bed....only to find Jack and Ally as my only companions in the bed with me.  Ally was giving me the "WTF Mom????????" look and Jack barely raised his head before falling back asleep.

So from what I can piece together, Ally was the one laying her head on my stomach that I assumed was Brian's arm and he wasn't late for work at all, it was just my head not really thinking that early.  Needless to say, I was awake before I needed to be and that early occurrence lead to you getting to read this lovely blog before I head to the gym. 

I seem to have gotten a little side-tracked...here is the actual craft that led to that lovely early morning event tangent:

The glass acts as a dry-erase board that we can take turns writting on it.  :) 

 Well, on that note,  its time to leave for zumba.  I hope everyone has a wonderful day that started a little less eventful than mine, but ends just as productive!