Someone Save Us!

My dear friend Amanda & I are currently trapped in a horrible, horrible workshop. As you can see, we do not need to focus on the speaker because she has said the same thing a MILLION TIMES!!!

We are located around 11th & Lewis. If you are in the area, please drive by, honk, and we will run out and dive into your vehicle. You don't even need to stop, just slow down a little. We will be forever indebted and grateful to you!

Starving

Kevin and I are currently having a contest. We are competing to see who can lose the most weight by the end of the week. I think it's actually pretty unfair because he can just think thin and about 5 pounds fall off of him. I, on the other hand, can look at a cookie and 5 pounds instantly stick to me.

Because of this contest, my current status is: HUNGRY

Congrats Kevin!

Last Friday, Kevin was enjoying his first day off after working 8 straight days when he received a phone call from Owasso Fire Department. They hired him #2 out of 40 applicants. And the crazy things is, they only hired 2! He will start in January. Which will be wonderful because he can finish Paramedic school in November and have some time to study for the National Test before he starts fire-training.

We give God all the glory for this wonderful news. For the past 18 months we have been doing things that would hopefully lead to the fire department: EMT school, Paramedic school, Tulsa interviews, and now Owasso interviews. However I don't think either of us thought that it would happen this soon! Many guys apply year after year to get hired. And it is only because of the grace of God that Kevin was hired so quickly.

I really am so happy for him. After years of playing around with carer idea after career idea during college and after, nothing lit him up like the thought of firefighting. And the thing is, he is REALLY good at emergency medicine. This really is his calling. So needless to say, we are very excited over here at our house. It still hits us in the middle of something and one of us will say "Oh my gosh! You're hired." or "I'm on the fire department!"

We appreciate ALL the prayers that were said on his behalf. I think half the state of Oklahoma has prayed for Kevin through each step of this process and it obviously made a difference. So thank you!

Word Problems

Read the following word problems and write the answers on your answer sheet. (You may use scratch paper as needed)

If Sherpa digs a hole that is 2 feet wide, 1 foot long, and 2 feet deep, how many cubic feet of dirt would have been removed from that hole?

If Sherpa digs at a rate of three holes per hour, how many hours will it take for Sherpa to dig up the entire yard?

If Sherpa digs three holes per hour and Cara fills in two holes per hour, after 24 hours, how far behind will Cara be?

If Sherpa continues to dig holes at this rate and Cara continues to fill holes at this rate, approximately how many days will it be until Cara loses her ever-lovin-mind?



p.s. If, due to our current economic state, you do not have enough money for a family vacation this summer, don't fret. Just load up the kids and bring them to my house for your own personalized tour of the Grand Canyon. Sherpa will be glad to show off his designs.

"Have a Magical Evening"

So I just finalized our plans to go to Disney World this July!! I am very excited! Mindy, one of our Kindergarten teachers, gave me a ton of tips and advice today and it motivated me to get it all taken care of.

We will be staying at one of the 'value' hotels. This basically means 'You won't be spending any time in your room, so we won't do anything special to it".

So far we have made one meal reservation and I really need to decide on the others because apparently restaurants book up about 90 days in advance. Wow! And I am usually so prepared.

I've been impressed with how friendly everyone was over the phone. They constantly say "Will you be celebrating anything while you are with us?" and "Have a magical evening." So I told them that this was our anniversary trip (not quite a lie, we'll only be celebrating a month late). And after talking to all those nice people, this evening feels pretty magical. =)

"School's out for Summer!"

Yes, Alice Cooper, you're right: school is out for summer.

Yesterday was the last day for students. I have to go back next week for a few days, but we always have a good time on our work days. On our last day, there was a sense of relief mixed with chaos. Relief for teachers, chaos for students. The kids knew there was very little we could do as far as discipline goes. So I had students trying to sit on tables, play steam-roller in the floor, yell at me, etc. A few of those resulted in the 'Mean Mrs. Lawson' (the one the kids hate to see). But all in all, it was a fun day.

The weird thing about yesterday was the amount of crying. I had kids crying by 9:00am and it kept going until long after school was over and they were free to go. I have never seen students cry like that on the last day of school. We couldn't believe it. They cried for any one of the following reasons:

-"I'll NEVER see ANY of these people again."

-"I won't know what to do next year; I'll be miserable."

-"Robertson is the only school I have ever been to."

-"My life is ending! Everything after this will be horrible."

-"Middle School sucks."

And these are actual quotes

Although a few of these concerns were genuine, I think a lot of the kids were just feeding off one another. Apparently, crying was the 'cool' thing to do yesterday.



American Idol Update: HOORAY!! There is still hope left in this world!

I was thrilled that Kris Allen won this week. Totally surpised, but thrilled. Obviously, I was pulling for Danny Gokey with Kris being my second choice. But when Danny went home the week before, I put all my voting effort into saving Kris and getting Adam the heck outta there! A good friend of mine says that Kris Allen just seems like a guy who anyone could be friends with; someone simple and genuine. I agree. I think he really deserved the win. (I'm certain that Danny will still have a career in music, so we will hear from him soon. I am hoping that he goes the Christian/Gospel route, I think he would do great in that genre.) But a big congrats to Kris.

How many months until season 10 starts?





p.s. No one ever mentioned that his wife is as cute as a button! What's the deal with that?

Too Cute

Avery and her cousin Hannah.

Hannie is soon becoming Avery's favorite.

Rylee Graduates Kindergarten

Last Tuesday, Rylee graduated Kindergarten from Marrs Elementary in Skiatook. They sang numerous songs and put on a great show. There were 173 kiddos in 8 different classes; it was a huge group. Also graduating, was Forrest, the son of our friends Jeremiah & Roseanne.

Quote of the Week

"Ugh! I wish I had a clone of myself so he could massage my feet."

-5th grader who was tired from playing outside

Entertainment

When we opened the package for the volleyball net, we discarded the poles because we were using the trees instead. They would have ended up in the dump if it wasn't for my strange nephews. Jordan & Taylor proceeded to start a game of throwing the poles back and forth towards each other.

We are talkin' some serious javelin tossing here!

This was a very dangerous game. Which, now that I am thinking about it, probably shouldn't have been allowed. Taylor ended up getting hit a few times and has some marks to prove it. They tried to get me to play but that was NOT a success.









I would compare them to kids at Christmas who only want to play with the cardboard box and not the toy that came in it.

Funland: The official sponsor of Summer '09

I promised pictures of 'Funland'. First I will explain what it is. My parents have many projects around their house this month and all of the projects are geared toward summer fun (updating the swings, bringing back the volleyball net, setting up the new pool and adding to the fire pit). So we started teasing them that before long they would have to start charging admission. We somehow named their house 'Funland' and the name just stuck.

So far, they have added two new swings to the swing set, and fixed up the slides. Soon they will add the rock wall and sand box. The swing set was built for me when I graduated kindergarten. Now, 18 years later, Rylee is graduating Kindergarten and the swing set is getting a much needed make-over.

Here they are playing boat, sharks, volcanoes, and whales. The sharks were attracted to the color gray (which was a total bummer because Kevin was coincidentally wearing gray) and the mulch was poisonous. There was a lot of danger involved in this game! When I came around with the camera I was a shark and they had to run for their lives (as seen here).

The next addition to Funland is the volleyball net. This is a really big deal! When I was a kid, we have a volleyball net between two trees in the backyard and we played all the time. Anyone my age or older remembers the good ol' days of volleyball. But over time the net began to fall apart and eventually we took it down. Therefore the grandkids and new additions to the family like Kevin & Molly, never got to enjoy the joy of volleyball. Well, year after year passed and we never thought to get another net. Well this year, it is officially back! And we couldn't be more excited about it.



These will most likely be the only pictures with grass under the net. Grass doesn't stand a chance against our amazing spikes & dives!

Next, are the new picnic tables that my dad made for the fire pit. Finally hot dogs and s'mores don't have to be balanced on our laps.



I'm thinking that there is a lot of fun to be had this summer. Lots of bug bites, sunburns, and calories to burn!

So here is how the story goes: Rylee scratched her nose. Actually, Rylee was laying on the floor and Belle ran over her and scratched her nose with her paw. It wasn't much of a scratch but when you're six, scratches are life threatening. So we went to the bathroom to do some serious Neosporin/Band-Aid business. When Rylee got to put Neosporin on her nose, Avery wanted some. (keep in mind, Avery is perfectly fine) Next, Rylee wanted a Band-Aid; therefore Avery thought she needed one. So now, when anyone asked Avery what was wrong she would dramatically say "Belle scratch" & "Scratch, ouch". All the while, Rylee never tried to lay claim on the story (even though it was her story to tell).

What a great big sister!




Movie Pick of the week: Jane Austin Book Club

This was so, so, so good. It was sweet, witty, and heartwarming. Definitly a feel good film.

However, now my reading list is getting quite over-whelming.

Heartbreaker, Dream-maker, Love-taker, Don't you mess around with me

Oh why, thank you for singing my post title Pat Benatar. It was so kind of you.


Things that break my heart:

1. Co-workers who bring brownies and ice cream cake to work when I am diligently counting calories.

2. Kids & Drugs.

3. Danny Gokey leaving American Idol.

4. Kevin not loving my new creamed spinach recipe.

(Only a few of these things have made me cry this week)

Things that make my heart happy:

1. Anticipating a sunny weekend.

2. 5 days of school remaining

3. A sale on strawberries AND grapes.

4. Funland '09 (pictures coming soon)

(None of these have made me cry)

Odds & Ends, This & That, Here & There

Ok, it's time. Summer needs to get here and get here NOW! Are teachers allowed to be anxious about summer? I hope so, because it is sure happening here.

Recent & Upcoming News

Rylee graduates Kindergarten on May 19th
Cousin Neil graduates high school on May 21st
Joey got accepted this week into ORU's graduate school
Dad shaved his beard and mustache (what?!?)
Ashleigh finishes her freshman year at OSU tomorrow

I have been to two band concerts this week. Hannah's was on Monday. She plays the flute; she's so cute. Taylor's was tonight (Thursday); he plays the tuba. He is in a small ensemble and he is in the larger wind ensemble. He's pretty awesome when it comes to anything musical. We have decided that band directors should not be allowed access to the microphone. It never reseults well.

This might be the funniest story I have heard in a long, long time. So my grandmother is pretty famous at area funerals. She makes a point to go to any funeral of someone she knew. We tease her that it is a social-adventure for her. Quite frankly, she is really good at it. She knows all the lingo and which funeral homes are the best and so on. She is just very polite and a good friend so she respects her duty. Well, today she did something that I can't get over.
She had to go to a funeral home to visit someone she knew. There were a lot of other bodies in the funeral home, so she walked through all the veiwing rooms just to check and see if she knew any of the deceased.
I can just picture her peeking in each casket, shaking her head, admiring their lovely flowers, and moving on to the next room. She is hilarious.

They don't come funnier than Gigi!

Bravo!

60 5th graders + Downtown Opera = Are we crazy?!?

So yesterday, we had the privilege of taking our 5th graders to see our music teacher, Mr. Cochran, perform in the Tulsa Opera. It was at the PAC downtown. It truly was a privilege and we were so blessed to go. But, like many adventures with 5th graders, it was entertaining.

First of all, my students do not necessarily have proper 'opera etiquette' and it is difficult to teach that on the spot.

"This bridge is not for us to spit off of!"

"Saying 'What's up Yo' to the usher is not appropriate"

"I'm sorry that it's in Italian.... No I cannot translate."

"We don't yell 'Boo' if we are unhappy with the outcome of a scene."

I had a student who was mad, probably at me because she was in trouble, who decided that she would plug her ears during the last 30 minutes of the performance.

We were one of few elementary schools; it was mostly high schools that attended. It was not fun to mix our 5th graders in with high school students that were NOT acting like we tell our students that high-schoolers have to act! Thanks a lot high school loud mouths; there goes a ton of wasted lectures!

"You won't be aloud to act like that in middle school and high school. They don't put up with it."

Well apparently: They do.

Oh! I almost forgot: A 6 ft something drag queen/cross dresser walked through our group. I'll let that sink in for a minute.........I bet you can imagine how the mouths dropped, the eyes bulged, the talking stopped. It was like the entire group was frozen solid. Then you've got me yelling "Eyes forward, keep moving" As if that didn't draw attention to the situation!

The name of the opera was L’Elisir d’Amore which translates to 'Elixer of Love'. Forget love, by the end of the morning I was in great need of an 'Elixir of Sanity'.

Nevermind

Forget taking pride in exercise!

These muscles HURT!!!

A strange piece of information

Nothing says "progress" like sore muscles.

It may be weird, and slightly painful, but it is a sure sign that your workout was effective.

I take pride in sore muscles.

A day in the life....

Today consisted of the following:

*Wake up
*Pay Bills while listening/watching the country music channel (I warn you, don't do this. If the song was produced in Nashville, it WILL make you cry)
*Get ready for church
*Church & Pot-Luck lunch (taco soup, yum yum)
*Help Jordan pick out songs for his iPod
*YMCA with the fam. (Working out on a Sunday? Is that legal?)
*Sonic Happy Hour (5 Route 44's for $5, can't beat that)
*Call from Kevin (Monitor family members for Swine Flu symptoms. Check)
*Wal-Mart (the checkout from 'you know where', I was at the register for 20 minutes. But no worries, they reimbursed the $65 that they overcharged for a $12 purchase. Don't ask)
*Home
*Kevin bought ingredients for dinner. Jambalaya! Great Idea!
*Make a deal with Kevin: watch the first 20 minutes of Slumdog Millionaire while the food is cooking and if he doesn't like it, I'll never mention it again
*Eat Dinner
*Finish Slumdog Millionaire (he was hooked)
*Iron EMSA shirt, pack lunches, count calories
*Tuck Kevin into bed
*And here I am.....

Oops!

Well folks, I made 5 kids cry today. Yep, FIVE!!

"How?" you ask. Let me explain. We are starting our last novel on Monday and it is my favorite book of the year. It is The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. It is a book about a city in which the students are assigned a job and they have to comply with the assignment; they don't have a choice. So on the day before we start reading, I tell the students that the State of Oklahoma has a new program in which they assign jobs to 5th grade students. I go around the room and assign the students their 'jobs', telling them that they will be trained in this job and when they are adults, they will begin working in that career field. The kids usually get all riled up about how unfair this program is and they say that the State is taking away their rights. It is usually a great way to help the kids to sympathize with the characters.

Well, today was different. This year, they took it very seriously. Five students cried when they heard they would have to do a job that they didn't like. I couldn't believe it! I felt horrible and so sorry for the kids. But I hugged them and they laughed about it. They were all good sports.

I might re-think this lesson before next year. =)


*Side Note: For those of you who might be curious. Our recycling drive raised 400lbs. of paper. (that is without the phone books of course)

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

When I came in to work this morning, this is what I had waiting at my classroom door.



We are having a recycling contest in honor of Earth Day. One of my students carried all of these phone books in early this morning. Talk about eager to save the environment!! Unfortunately, we are not allowed to bring in outside paper for the contest; all paper must be from the school.

On a seperate note, does anyone have any creative project ideas that involve about 35 phone books?

Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, We are Free at Last

Testing is over!

At approximately 2:15 today, a cloud of stress and worry lifted off of our school and dissipated into oblivion. (Or a least that is how it felt to me) That is when my last student finished the last test of the year. After that, I felt like a kid on the first day of summer vacation; I laughed and joked with the kids more that I have in a long time. I actually danced on the playground (which isn't all that unusual for me). *sigh*


This was a little pre-testing confidence booster activity that we did in class. The tree says "The Things We Know" and the kids made leaves with terms that they know well. It was fun and I think it turned out really cute. They were also impressed with all the vocabulary that they knew by heart.


This week is known as "Cara Embarrasses Herself '09". So far there are three reasons for that. And at the rate I'm going, I anticipate many more:

1. Sat in chocolate (as mentioned in earlier post)
2. Took a shower, got hair wet but forgot shampoo, didn't realize it until noon. Hair was pretty embarrassing by the end of the day.
3. Went to gym, got on Elliptical, started reading, was running for a good 5 minutes, only then did I realize I still had my sunglasses on, therefore I looked like one of the people who try to act cool and wear their sunglasses indoors. However I'm certain, I was very uncool.

Loving this weather. Might even get a little tan, or at least a slight burn.

Favorite Quote of the week: "Our philanthropy is children. Because we believe that children are the future, and they’re also small, and can’t reach things like light switches and microwaves." -Joey

Plot: what happens in a story

Pay close attention to the 'Plot' of your life story.

Because it is testing week I will be speaking in 5th Grade Language Arts terms for the duration of this post. May this be a review of your reading skills. All Language arts terms will be in bold for your viewing convenience. For example: The purpose of this post is to inform and entertain.


What: 17 Again
When: Sunday, April 19th, 2:00pm
Where: AMC Southroads movie theater
Who: My mom, Taylor, Hannah, Anna, Myself
How: (this category does not apply)

Summary of Events: We loaded up after church and headed to the theater to see 17 Again, a movie that a few of us have been excited to see. In all, we liked the film. It was pretty funny and we agreed that it would be categorized as a 'Romantic Comedy' and NOT a 'Chick Flick'. (Taylor was very adamant on stating this fact)

The most exciting part of the day (climax) was when we got up to leave after the movie and Anna & Hannah (characters) noticed something on my pants. Well, Lo and behold, I had sat in chocolate (problem). You can imagine how this looked; not pleasant. Fortunately I had a jacket to tie around my waste (solution).

Another issue of the day was the popcorn (main idea). We bought a large popcorn and Surprise Surprise, you get free refills when you buy a large popcorn (supporting details). Well, no one wanted to leave the movie to get the actual refill. So, the thinkers that we are, we decided to eat the whole bag BEFORE the movie, so that someone could go during the previews to get the refill. Good idea, huh? Let me tell you, a large bag of popcorn is big! But we managed to lower the level of popcorn by at least half. Hannah stuffed her mouth like a small rodent, mom made a 'popcorn pallet' out of napkins, Taylor just ate really fast and we managed. In the end, we got our free refill and 5 stomach aches to go with it.


Opinion: Kevin is absolutely awesome!
Fact: Kevin is leading EMSA in code saves for the year to date. This means that he has brought back more people from cardiac arrest than any other medic.
Summary: My opinion is backed up by facts, therefore it should persuade you to agree with me.


I hope you enjoyed today's State-Test-Themed-post. Pray, Pray, Pray for my students for the next two days. All the info is there, in their brains, I just need them to find it easily and quickly for each question.

Enjoy the weather! It's going to be a good week!

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday

That would be Elton John singing my post title.

Today is a rainy & cloudy day. I am hoping it clears soon. Kevin's grandparents are coming up for the afternoon from Norman and I would really like to take them to the Zoo. G'ma Mary is a huge penguin fan and if you know Tulsa then you know we love our penguins.

I finished a good book this week. I had never read anything by the author so I was taking a chance. But I was pleasantly suprised. The book is Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson. It is about a little girl and her imaginary friend; the girl grows up and has to discover whether or not her imaginary friend was actually real or imaginary. It was a very quick read, but very sweet.

Kevin & I met with a man last night that might rent our rent house in Skiatook. We are crossing our fingers that this works out. It would be great to have that house rented and not have to worry about it right now.

When we went to Skiatook we had dinner at my folks. My mom made her newly famous cinnamon rolls, which I had not had yet. Oh my gosh, I had not lived until that moment. Wow! They was delicious! Also, I taught my mom and Hannah the 'Hoedown Throwdown' dance. That was definitley a sight to see. I don't have rythmn and I now know why: it doesn't run in our family. (I think Hannah's cheerleading skills are our only hope)

Have a nice weekend! And help me pray for a break in the rain.....

Too much information...

As I stood at the pop machine this morning, I asked myself "To be good, or to be bad, that is the question." It was a question of choosing yummy Diet Dr. Pepper (which I have just begun to love) or choosing good old H2O. And only because today seems to be such a nice day did I choose to be good. And boy did I feel healthy as I drank my water.
However, in all honesty, if my choice had been between Diet CHERRY Dr. Pepper & water. You can forget about it. That yummy can of cherry-goodness would have won, hands down!

State Testing, oh how I despise thee! The kids are unhappy and restless. The teachers are stressed and panic-stricken. We prepare for this throughout the entire year and yet, it seems to sneak up on us. I will give the reading test on Tuesday & Wednesday of next week. This week is math, science, & social studies. I really confident in my students; I think they will do well this year. But no matter how much they know, the nervousness continues.


This is a paper that I graded yesterday. The students took their quiz, we went over the correct answers, and then I graded them myself. This is a student's writing on their own paper; if you can't read the writing, it says "Disappointed". This cracked me up. Usually they just write their grade, it is very seldom that I get to see their feelings towards that grade also. =)


We went to see the Hannah Montana movie this weekend. The girls & I had a great time and enjoyed the movie. We ate lunch at Zio's, Rylee ordered "adult noodles" (aka Fettuccine). Rylee was also quite amazed at the movie theater. It was adorable to watch her looking around at all the big movie posters and signs. She was entertained with each preview and by the fact that the movie was projected and you could see the projector if you looked behind you. It was fun to see the day through a child's eyes. And the movie was super cute also.











The little girls & I also spent some time outside enjoying the weather this weekend at Nana & Papa's. We played on the swing set, pet the chickens, tried to catch minnows, and threw rocks in the pond. It was a lazy and wonderful afternoon!











My favorite quotes of the week are:

"If you got all the answers right....then...give your brain a kiss" -Mrs. Carter
"A french kiss?" -Student

"You have bad bedtime etiquette." -Kevin (when I turned the light on after he had fallen asleep)

"When you are sad at night, and you sing in your bed...People can hear you!" -SNL

What a relief!

Our Jonas tickets arrived today!

I am a little bit of a weirdo, so I kept worrying that something would happen to the tickets and we wouldn't actually get them. Like the website hadn't accepted my purchase, or they would get lost in the mail, or who knows what else. Needless to say, I am relieved to actually have them in hand.

Also, today I finally re-introduced myself to my kitchen. We had a lovely time. I made twice-baked potatoes (borrowed the recipe from my new favorite blog, PioneerWoman.com, pretty cool site), Mac & Cheese from scratch, chocolate chips cookies for Kevin, and RIBS! I am so proud of myself for conquering a new meat. I rarely stray away from chicken, ground beef, or pork chops. There is just a huge amount of pride that comes with slapping a rack of ribs on the grill and cooking them to perfection! They were quite yummy, if I say so myself.