State

Harrison's XC team is going to state today.  I'm so excited for him and everyone on the team.  He PR'd last week at semi-state with a time of 16:58, after getting slammed into a fence by a runner that he was trying to pass.   His leg is mostly healed and he is ready to go today.  North was not expected to go to state this year, so Coach Warthan told them to go out there and be competitive and enjoy the experience.

what I would like

I would like to be able to sleep at night.  That would be nice.  Instead, I'm reading blogs and other stupid stuff.  I did find some pretty cool teacher blogs and I'm in love with the teacher tipster guy.  He teaches first grade and he is hilarious.

I had a great time with my class today.  I just love this class.  We are piloting My Big Campus and they love it.  I'm finding new ways to use this technology every day.

app

I was finally able to buy an app on my iphone today.  I always get stuck on the security questions page.  It's funny because I picked the questions and answered them on-line and when I answer the questions on my phone, it always tells me that my answers are incorrect.  Normally, I just give up and decide that I don't need the stupid app anyway, but today was different.  I reset the questions five times and it finally let me in.  Anyway, I bought this app called picframe.  It lets me make collages with all the silly pictures that I take.  Like this one....

I went to the IU auditorium today and took some pictures of the Hoagy Carmichael statue for our Artful Learning unit.   It's really beautiful outside right now.  I love this time of year.  It sucks that I didn't have time to walk around campus.

Fall Break

Fall break hasn't been much of a break at all for me.  I spent most of the day grading papers, entering grades and cleaning up my classroom.   I also had to do concession stand duty at the football game tonight for Harrison's XC team.  I need a real break.  I wish we still had Thursday and Friday!

Harrison birthday is today.  I can't believe he's 16.  He'll be doing something that he loves though.  It's regionals for his XC team.  I hope he has a great run and gets a PR.  I was going to bring cupcakes for the team, but he told me no, because cupcakes are not healthy.  He said I could bring bagels.  Bagels!?!  Whatever.  I miss the little boy that he used to be, but I love the teenager that he is now.  We've had some good times together and I hope that there will be many more to come.

age 1 

birthday - 10 years old

 age 7

 First day of 1st grade

 6th grade

2nd grade

XC 2012

5k

I ran the Hoosiers Outrun Cancer 5K with two of my boys today.  It's my first real run since my injury in May.  I've been sick all week, so my chest was hurting a little and my leg tightened up, but mostly I felt ok.   Henry took off and left me.  He finished in 27 minutes and I think Harrison got 7th place overall.  Even though it took me 38 minutes to get to the finish line, I love that I got to do this run with my boys.  Hayden is not interested in this running thing at all.  I saw a lot of great friends at the race and it was for a really good cause.

Birthday

Today was my good friend Whitney's birthday.  She told me all about this last Friday night, but I forgot.  I'm a loser.  She even brought ME a present today. A handmade present!  see cute bunny below....  Again, I'm a loser.   Ok, so I'm going to make this up to her.  I swear.  Somehow.  Someway.

BTW, today sucked monkey butt.  We had really bad news at our PLC meeting, I had indoor recess duty, I had to break up a fight and call security to my room.  This is not how I wanted my day to go.  

I AM happy that Modern Family is on tonight and I'm really loving the new Mumford and Sons CD.  I love that band.

Frustration

I'm really struggling to keep up with what life is throwing at me these days.  The job is getting me down.  I have an amazing group of students this year and I feel like I haven't been able to take a breath to even enjoy them.  Third grade is test city and I hate it.  The state of Indiana should be embarrassed by all of the tests that they make these little kids take.  The paperwork is piling up and I'm pretty sure that I used an entire tree today just to keep track of student progress.

Harrison ran tonight in the rain at the county meet.  He finished 11th in 17:45.   This is 2 minutes faster than last year at the IU course.

Nap

I came home today and took a 2 hour nap.  I'm pretty sure that I was asleep before I hit the pillow.  I didn't sleep very well last night.  I've had a lot of trouble sleeping lately.  I usually wake up around 3 and finally fall back to sleep around 6.  I'm exhausted.

I'm driving to Culver, Indiana tomorrow to watch Harrison run on Saturday morning.  He's having a pretty great year in XC at North.  His best 5K time is 17:14.  He placed 2nd in the Brown County Freshman/Sophomore run a couple of weeks ago.  He's leaving school at noon tomorrow to head up to Culver.  He's pretty excited to be getting out of class for this meet.  I'm going by myself because the twins have hockey on Saturday.  I hope Culver has some decent hotels because I haven't even started looking yet.

sick kid

Got a call from Henry's school today.  He was complaining of a stomach ache this morning, but I didn't have time to throw sub plans together.   So, I put him on the bus and hoped for the best.  I think he lasted about 25 minutes.  Oh well.  

I made a checklist in my head before I left school.  

1.  disinfect house

2.  enter math CA scores

4.  go workout at the Iron Pit

5.  clean the kitchen

 Guess what?  I'm in my pajamas watching Looney Tunes on Cartoon Network.  I'm trying to find some motivation.  I think I'll take a nap.

2 days

It's time to get serious people!!!  I need to get my room ready and have a grand plan for the first week of school.  I can't believe that this amazing, spectacular, fun summer is about to end.  I don't want to say goodbye to it, but it's time.

I spent $180 at T.I.S. bookstore the other day on backpacks and a few pens.  I have no idea how that happened, but those backpacks better last until they are 80 years old.

I can't wait to meet my new group of third graders.  I'm sure that they will be crazy fun.  Bring on the madness!

Summer

I'm pretty sure that this has been one of the best summers of my life. It's had it's ups and downs, but mostly it's been amazing. I'm not ready to go back to work, but the calendar says it's time. I'm hoping for a great group of kids that makes me smile and laugh and forget that I'm even at work. I want to learn lots of new things and not let the challenge be just to make it through the day. I want my students to teach me things about this world that only a child can do. So let's get this party started!

Tie Dye

We did a little tie dying with friends today.  When Hayden got in the car, he said "this was the best day ever!"  I'm going to have to agree with that kid.  It was definitely a great day.

shopping

I went shopping with Harrison today.   I couldn't find what I was looking for and he was getting VERY IMPATIENT!  He told me to ask the guy at Target to help us find what we were looking for and I said, nahhh.  He said, "WHAT ARE YOU A MAN?"  I freaking lost it!!!  This summer is still rocking and I'm loving every minute of it!

Rockies

Henry's team won first place this season!!  It was a great game.  Henry pitched in the open inning and they only scored 2 runs off of him.  I was so proud of him and his entire team.

Big Barrel

I bought Henry a big barrel baseball bat today.  He's going to baseball camp in the morning and he is so excited to use his new bat.  I can't believe the season is almost over.  His Rockies team won first place in their league this year.  The championship game is this Saturday and Henry is pumped.

Ducks

We downloaded Smoovie to make this claymation movie.  I would not recommend this software.  Adding your own soundtrack is a pain in the butt.  The boys had fun making the movie though.

Enjoy....

fantastic

I'm having a fantastic summer.   The days are just packed with activities and I'm loving every minute of it.  I worked out at the Iron Pit today for the first time in months.  My leg is healing nicely and I'm ready to start running again.  I'm hoping that my leg will cooperate.

I took this picture of Harrison while he was driving today.  I love the reflection of his hand in the window.  He's a pretty decent driver.  I can't wait to teach him how to drive a stick.  

blast-o-rama

The twins have been begging me for days to buy clay and a stopmotion itunes app, so that they can make their own claymation video.  I told them to just use whatever we had laying around the house first and then we would talk.  They found some old clay, an old camera and they went to work.  It impressed me enough to buy the clay and the app.

50 pictures

10 second imovie video

3 hours manipulating the clay

2 happy little boys

1 OLD piece of clay

Priceless

work

I went to work today for a couple of hours and got a lot of stuff done.  The other third grade teacher and I spent some time archiving our Artful Learning unit that was due June 1st, oops missed that deadline, but mostly we just talked and told funny stories.  Summer is relaxing like that.

Our boss told us today that there was a very BIG possibility that we will be moving upstairs next year.  We both laughed at this and told her to suck it, but now it's sinking in and the thought of it is making me want to vomit.  Henry overheard me telling Goodwoman about this and he screamed NOOOOOO!  Even my 10 year old knows what a pain in the ass it is to move an entire classroom.

Hungry Snake

Harrison took this video today at Lake Griffy.

Bicycle Song

The freaking fracking Bicycle song by Queen is stuck in my head.  At first, it was only happening when I was out riding, but now it's playing pretty much non-stop.  This is annoying.   I can't listen to music while I'm riding because it's dangerous, so I'm stuck listening to whatever is running through my head.  Awesome....

Hayden drew this picture of a zipline on his itouch.  You should steal his name off of the picture and play Draw Something with him.  If you don't play Draw Something, then you are lame.  This kid is amazing.  He scored 3 goals in his last soccer game of the season this morning.

I've been fretting big time about whether or not Hayden passed the writing portion of the istep this year.  He told me that the prompt said write about a "cool event," so he wrote about killing zombies in the basement with his friend Sam.   Henry told me that it said write about a "School Event."  Henry wrote about the 6th graders vs. the teachers volleyball game.  Got the results back yesterday.  Henry was right, but guess who got a higher score in writing applications??  Yep, that's right people!  The kid who wrote the EPIC STORY ABOUT ZOMBIES!!!!!!  I call this winning.

boo on this rain

I want this rain to go away.  We did get to go on a bike ride after the storm passed though.  I'm going to try and go every day this summer.

Henry decided to put his foot on the front wheel while he was flying down the parking lot of the HPER building.  The bike flipped up and he went flying into the air.  He landed on his butt in the middle of the street.  He had one tiny little scratch on his elbow.  He's lucky, but the bike is damaged.  The front tire is bent and the brake is jammed into the rim.  It scared him to death and he was shaking all over.  I bet he won't do that ever again.

Harrison got his permit today.  He spent twenty minutes teaching me how to say the word permit properly.  I'm pretty sure that I'm never using that word ever again.  Anyway, he can drive with me starting on June 7th, after his first day of driving school.  I'm excited about this, but he's just growing up so fast right now.

OK OK OK

I'm so very happy that summer break is here.  I'm still waiting for the day that I get to sleep until noon though.  Maybe next week.  I went on another bike ride today.  The twins went with me this time.  Henry was great, but Hayden could barely keep up.  That kid needs to step up his game.

I'm taking Harrison to get his permit in the morning. We went today, but the 15 things that I brought in with his name on it, wasn't good enough for the BMV.   So, we are going back tomorrow.   He's so excited.  Hayden is terrified to be in the car while he's driving.

Bike Ride

I went on a really long bike ride today and it was AWESOME.  It didn't bother my leg at all, so I'm going to be on that bike all summer long!

It's starting to sink in.  I really don't have to teach anyone anything for a minute.  Thank goodness!!!

Summer Break

It was a tough, stressful year, but I made it.  barely.  My head is still spinning from it all.  I'm going to need a week or so to decompress.  You know what sucks?  I was driving around today thinking about lesson plans for next year.  I need a cold drink and a quiet, small, padded room.

Time

Time is flying by at lightning speed and I feel like I'm standing in quicksand.   We have so much to do and there are only 6 days left.  I really hope that we get to the Artful Learning activities.  My students are really excited to learn about kinetic sculptures. 

Harrison ran in his last track meet of the season tonight.  He ran the mile in 4:55.  Henry had an amazing night in his baseball game.  He pitched 2 innings.  He struck a lot of kids out and only walked one person.  He also got a great hit.  I'm really glad that Hayden didn't have a soccer game tonight because I'm freaking exhausted.  

Mother's Day Weekend

I had a very fun weekend.   I saw The Avengers movie twice.  Yes, it's that good. The Black Widow avenger is bad ass.  I took the twins to an Indianapolis Indians game today.  The kids ate for free and the moms were offered free manicures and massages.  No way I was getting a manicure and I should've said no to the massage.  The guy made me a little uncomfortable.  I really wanted to get out of that chair!  They also had t-shirts for the boys to decorate.  It was a great day to be a mom.

                     

workout

This injury is incredibly frustrating.  Everything I do now, takes FOREVER.  I went to Target the other day and I'm pretty sure it took ten minutes just to get to the door.  When my leg does heal, I will never skip another workout.  

One benefit from all of this nonsense, is that my upper body is getting a workout.  It still feels like my armpits are being jabbed with bull horns every time I use the crutches, but I am getting better at using them.  I think it helps that I'm not sore from the Louisville run anymore.  

Draw Something

Henry and I are addicted to DrawSomething.  We looked at pictures on-line that other people have drawn and they are really good.  We need to step up our game and do a better job.  NO MORE STICK PEOPLE!  We have been using the free version, but today we bought the game so that we have new words to choose from.  If you need people to draw with, our usernames are cubs325 and Henry streib.

I moved around way too much this weekend.  I went back to the ER this morning because my leg was so swollen I could barely move my foot.  It was tingling and numb and I was sure that I had a blood clot.  They did a blood test and told me that I did not have a blood clot, but if I didn't stay off of my leg and keep it elevated, I would have one soon.  The doctor also told me to stay home for 3 days.  I don't want to stay home.  I only have 3 weeks left with my students and I don't want to miss it.  I also want to teach my students all about Chaos and systems.  I am getting an MRI on Tuesday.  I need to know how bad this tear really is.

Now and Then

This was taken back in 2006.

And I took this today....

This is Harrison in 2008..

And this is Henry today...

Pretend World

I've been pretending this calf strain is not that bad and that I'll be back to normal in two weeks.  I was secretly hoping to walk the mini with Henry this weekend, even though he DOES NOT want to walk it.  I was really hoping for the best.  That is not what is happening.  I still can't walk more than five steps without some sort of assistance and words can not express how much I hate this.

When this injury heals, I'm going to run, walk, bike, and swim as much as I possibly can because life is short people.

Harrison is going to wear my bib this weekend and pace his little brother.  They will be running 11 minute miles to beat Harrison's time in 2008.

Calf Strain

I injured my leg yesterday in my softball game.  It was very embarrassing because I had to be helped (carried) off of the field.  I'm sure it had something to do with the 13 miles that I ran on Saturday and I probably should not have agreed to play in 3 games.  I had several offers to be carried to my car, but thanks to Goodwoman, I was able to walk out of the park on crutches.

Henry and I cried our eyes out last night because I can't run the mini with him this Saturday now.  We have been so excited about doing this run together.  I'm sitting at home right now, hating everything.  I couldn't go to work today because I can't walk.  I've been reading about calf strains on-line and it says that I have a moderate strain and it can take up to 6 weeks to heal.  I can't deal with this.  I have to much to do right now.

I finished the Louisville run in 2:46.   I trained a lot more for the Disney run and was in much better shape in January and got 2:43.  The weather was almost exactly the same and the Louisville course was a little tougher due to the hills.  I don't get it.    

Dream

I was in the middle of a great dream this morning and my stupid phone rang and woke me up. I tried going back to sleep, but of course, I couldn't.  I want need to go for a run, but I spent all day yesterday freezing my buns off at sporting events, so I'm not really that excited about going outside.  I have 2 big runs coming up and I stopped training like 5 weeks ago.  My times are going to suck, but I'm making myself go.

  Hayden is really great at soccer.  It's fun to watch him play.  

Hayden

One of my favorite websites is closing up shop.  Check out picnik before April 19th and you can make a cool collage like I just did.

I noticed that Hayden's super blonde hair is not as blonde as it used to be.  It was Monday night and he was walking into MC Sports.  We were there to buy soccer cleats for his first practice of the season.  I was walking behind him and I saw lots of little brown hairs mixed in with the white.  I hate that he's growing up and changing, but I guess that's all a part of this program.  

Chicago Cubs

1, 2, skip a few, 99, 100.  I missed a few teams, but not many.  Great blogging idea, Pronto Pup!

According to Sports Illustrated for Kids, (Henry read this to me last night) the Cubs are expected to finish 5th in their division.  I hope they are wrong!  I'm excited to watch my team play this season.

See that big, tall, dark building to the left of the scoreboard that's in centerfield?  I used to live on the 35th floor of that building!  I used my binoculars to watch games and loved hearing the sound of screaming fans when the Cubs hit a home run or made an amazing play.  I did not want to move out of that building and I would still be living there, if the decision would have been left up to me.  When I go to Cubbie games, I always make it a point to drive by the building and reminisce.

Minnesota Twins

Apparently, Target Field is pretty amazing.  It received first place in Best Stadium Experience in 2010 by ESPN.  I'm going to have to put Target Field on my list of stadiums to visit.

Harrison did really well in his meet tonight.  He ran the 1,600, the 4 x 800 relay and then got third place in the 3,200 with a time of 10:56.  It was fun watching him run and his twin brothers were there cheering him on.  Way to go Harrison!

Anaheim Angels

I refuse to call them by their new name because it's ridiculous.   Ok.  So, guess what?  The first year that the Angels played was in 1961 and they played in Wrigley Field.  Yes, I said Wrigley Field.  Apparently, Mr. Wrigley had two Wrigley Fields, one in Chicago and one in Los Angeles and the Wrigley Field in Los Angeles came first!

The Angels only played there for one year and then the stadium was used for other events.  They filmed a lot of movies there, played some soccer games, had some famous boxing bouts, and hosted a civil rights rally where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke.

www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2009/03/wrigley-field-l.html

St. Louis Cardinals

I have a few friends that are Cardinals fans.  I've been to Busch Stadium a lot.  I really don't like going to Busch stadium to watch the Cubs play.  Been there, done that.  Not fun.  Don't plan on doing it ever again.  This is Harrison back in 2001.  Hey, guess what!!!  He has a Cardinals shirt on.  My friend bought it for him to wear to the game.  I don't think I have ever let the twins wear a Cardinals shirt. 

Cleveland Indians

A long time ago, I had a goal of visiting all of the MLB ballparks in the country, and Canada.  I've been to quite a few.  I stopped counting, but I think I was up to 17.  Anyway, we visited Jacobs Field when Harrison was 4.  The Indians were playng the Royals that day, so of course, Harrison has on his BRAVES shirt.  Makes sense, right?