Trees!

Charlie and I got two trees, Red Maples, from my parents for our Anniversary. Dean delivered them on Friday and we planted them that evening. It is nice to have some trees in the front yard - it adds some variety to a bare lawn. Dean told us we have to spend the next 40 -50 years helping the tree to grow nice and big so we can enjoy the shade. Hopefully we will have our house paid off by then too. :)
I love our trees and all the plants we added around the house. I am kind of getting into this landscaping thing. We just bought some plant food and fertilizer to help the plants grow bigger and faster. I just sit and watch! Next year our plan is to add a garden in the backyard. Charlie can make a lot of salsa and I will help him eat it.

Graduation

I had good intentions to blog about Alex's graduation in a more timely matter but as you can see that didn't happen.

Alex graduated from Northfield High School on June 2. We had his graduation party on June 3. The entire weekend went very well.

It is very strange to have Alex graduate already. I remember when we moved in together as a family and he was only 8 years old. Ten years later he is much taller, stronger, talks in a deeper voice and is able to grow facial hair.

The weather was wonderful for the party at our house. It sprinkled in the morning but the sun came out and everyone was able to sit outside to enjoy the food and conversation. Charlie and I ran a small daycare in the backyard. It was a lot of fun to run around with all the little kids.

The weather didn't hold out very well for the actual high school ceremony. We had to move the ceremony inside to the gym. It was very warm and cozy but the ceremony went quickly.

Alex is off for North Dakota State University on August 20. He leaves on June 29 to register for classes and get fitted for his fatigues. He has signed up with the Army ROTC. He is very excited and he was wanted to do this since he was just a little guy. As a family it is great to see his excitement - he just glows talking about NDSU and the ROTC. But at the same time, a little nerve racking for what the future could bring in today's American military.

In the mean time, Alex is enjoying a relaxing summer umping baseball games, gambling at Mystic Lake Casino, and hanging with friends.

Lady Landscape!

Well we finally finished our big landscaping project after two long days. Mom came to our house on Wednesday and helped me pick out plants at Bachman's and finalize our original landscape plan. While at Bachman's Mom and I picked out a potted plant, two large pots, and some colorful annuals for our front step. We planted those on Wednesday and also dug up all the extra plants that were around our front step. Believe it or not, there were bunches of hostas under the irises and vines.

Gerbera Daisy's - remind you of something?

On Thursday, I got up when Charlie left for work and began working on the side of our house. It was loaded with very rooty plants (I don't think rooty is a word). I think they are called Lily of the Valley. I dug up all of those and lined the side of the house with garden fabric so those crazy rooty plants won't come back again.

On Friday, I moved the hostas from the front of the house to the side. There are now 6 hostas on the side of the house and 6 hostas on the side of the garage. I then put cedar bark around all the hostas. Then I dug up the Bleeding Hearts under the picture window, edged part of that area and laid down some bark there as well.

Then it was off for one last trip to Bachman's. I got 5 False Spireas or Astilbe, 3 Campanula Bell Flowers, and 2 Chicagoland Green Boxwoods. I returned home to finish the landscaping project and Charlie surprised me by coming home early from work! Together we finished planting the last 10 plants, watered, and cleaned up our big mess.

It is nice to be finished and it cleaned up the appearance of our house. No more random plants. No more sore muscles - why does landscaping and general house work use muscles I have never used before? Where have these muscles been all my life?

Now we just have to keep the new plants watered and alive. Oh, and get rid of this all-too-friendly chipmunk! This thing climbs up our gutter drain, into our egress window, and into our garage. It lives running between our house and our neighbors. Charlie and I both want to get rid of it but neither one of us wants to dispose of it. Stupid rodents!

What a Good Day!

So Tuesday, June 12 started just as any other school day this past year. However it was the last official day we had to report to school. So naturally it was going to be a good day. But the day got even better after school.

We had a staff breakfast at 8:00 AM and then a little celebration in the auditorium afterward. We honored one of our retirees, Madame, the French teacher. She is a royal pain in the @#$ and I am not exaggerating. I had a little encounter with her this year that was not pleasant. But she taught for 40 years in the district which is pretty amazing!

After her little ceremony, we watched a PowerPoint presentation from this school year. It was pretty entertaining. One of the best quotes of the PowerPoint happened in a 7th grade Language Arts classroom this year. It goes something like this:
Student: It isn't fair. Yesterday Jamie said "Oh My God" and she didn't get kicked out of class. But today I said "God" and I get kicked out of class.
7th Grade Teacher: "Yes but the word "God" came out of your mouth followed by "damn-it."
The entire morning was wrapped up by 9:30 AM. I was already to go but had to wait for some of my colleagues because we were going out to eat. And this is were the fantastic day begins.

We went out to lunch at Applebees by our house. As myself and another teacher were waiting for the group, a strange man walked over to me and asked, "Has anyone told you that you look like Jennifer Aniston?" I replied, "No, but thank you." He was shocked no every told be that because he thought I looked a lot like her. So needless to say that made my day. Who wouldn't want to be told they look like Jennifer Aniston?!!

I don't know if I see the resemblence?!

After Applebees, I went to Salon Junallo. It is an Aveda salon a block from our house. I schedule a haircut for 4:00 PM. I went home and took a nap and then walked back to the salon. I was greeted at the door and given a wonderful tea to drink while I waited. People were in awe that it was my first time at this salon. By the looks of it, elderly Edina moms are the most frequent vistors.

I successfully got a great haircut by Charity. When I went to go pay, I found out somebody already paid for me. The receptionist gave me my receipt and said my haircut was paid for. She said if I wanted, I could call the lady who wrote her name and phone number on the receipt. The mystery lady is Sara Erickson. I have no idea who she is or what she looks like.

I was very nervous to call. You never know what this could be - I never believed it was just a nice jesture. So I delayed the phone call and went to Josh's baseball game in Inver Grove Heights. As I was driving to the game, I got a phone call from an unidentified number. I cautiously answered my phone and it was Charity, the person who cut my hair! She just wanted to call because she found out the information on my free haircut by Sara Erickson. Apparently this person was feeling very nice and heard this was my first time at Salon Junallo. She asked the receptionist to put my bill on her tab as well. She did it in hopes that I would return. After I got this phone call from Charity, I called Sara Erickson. I didn't talk to her but I left a message thanking her for her kind gift.

So I had a great day with a free haircut (an expensive one at that) and a nice compliment. Plus school is officially out for summer.

The new joke, from Charlie, with anything that may involve money: "Call Sara Erickson, maybe she will pay for it."

Viva Las Vegas

I am heading to Vegas for the first time in my life. Well, me and thousands of teachers. Can't you just picture thousands of teachers swarming "The Stripe" in Vegas after a day of workshops?!!

Hey, is that a Bally's?!! Think my gym membership will work there too?

South View Midde School is sending 10 staff to Las Vegas, Nevada for the National Conference on Differentiated Instruction July 14-18. Some big names in education will be there like Rick Wormeli and Mel Levine. It is kind of a bummer that Ann Tomlinson will be at the Differentiated Instruction Conference in Salt Lake City this summer. She is an amazing educator in terms of differentiation.

We were asked to sign up in advance and send in our list of workshops/sessions with our registration. There were so many interesting options to choose from that it was difficult to pick. But I am really excited about the ones I did choose. I have some sessions specific to math, middle school, and ELL students. Our team will have ELL students again next year so I am hoping for some good ideas and suggestions.

I also chose a lot of sessions with Rick Wormeli. I have read a few of his books and I just think he is amazing. He actually writes like he is a teacher with years of experience. He is practical, current, and funny. I don't know if it is just me but often times I read a staff development book and find it to be written by someone that has a Ph. D but taught for 2 years and KNOWS EVERYTHING. It is like they are writing a book to feel important. It is probably just illiterate me.

I will for sure have stories and pictures from the Vegas trip to blog about in late July.

Roller Gardens

I mentioned early that on Friday, June 8, the 6th graders and staff went to the roller gardens for the day. It was really fun. Katie and I hung out and goofed around with the kids.

Katie was recently hired as the new 6th grade math teacher. She taught science for half of the year on our team as one of our "original" team teachers was on sabbatical. I am really excited to have her here teaching math. She has a math concentration and can help me out a lot! Plus she is another new person. It was very different being the new teacher on the 6th grade staff that had all been teaching 6th grade in the district for at least the past 6 years.

Here are some photos of us at the Roller Gardens:

They tricked me into doing the chicken dance. Some of the kids thought it would be funny if Katie would spin me really fast.

Two stellar math teachers!

Hugs and YouTube

I use YouTube a lot at school. Our principal really likes YouTube and usually shows us a video at every monthly staff meeting. It is pretty funny. So I decided to blog about some of my favorite YouTube videos of the school year.

My Top 5 YouTube videos seen at School:
1. Of course Alex's football and weightlifting videos - he is family :)
2. World's Strongest Dad (caution: this made several female teachers cry)
3. Free Hugs Campaign
4. What You Know About Math
5. Squirrel Pooping

School's Out!

School is officially over! We ended school on Friday by skating at the roller gardens in St. Louis Park and playing at Pamela Park near our school. I brought my rollerblades and skated with the kids. The kids were amazed that I could skate. I still find it funny when students think teachers seem odd and out of place when they aren't in the classroom (perhaps it is just me). I was the same way. I remember freaking out when I saw my second grade teacher in the grocery store.

While the students are out enjoying summer, the teachers return for two more days. Teachers must report on Monday and Tuesday of next week. However it is a pretty relaxed environment. We have to be to school some time on Monday to clean up our room and enter grades. Grades are due by 4:00 PM. I will be there before 11:00 AM because we have a staff pizza party to celebrate!

On Tuesday we have a staff breakfast put on by the PTO/PTA (Edina calls it PTO - they even have their own website linked on the district site). Apparently this breakfast is amazing. I am saving up for it already.

Monday and Tuesday I don't have much to do because the custodial staff already removed everything from my room on Friday! We returned from our field trip at 2:30 PM and my room was empty of all desks, tables, bookshelves, and chairs. I heard from teachers that they clean the 3rd floor first because it gets so hot in the summer.

The kids thought my empty room was awesome, so we played a quick game of wiffle ball before the bell rang at 2:40 PM. The kids were great and I am excited to see them next school year. I was lucky to have another great group of students. I even got some hugs on the way out the door.

After the kids left on Friday, I frantically labelled all of the items from my room that were now sitting in the hallway. I guess if you don't label it, it may not end up in your room. I am learning so much these past two days.

Everything ended up working out great and my room is completely clean and organized. I picked up and prepared my room for the summer after school on Friday. I also entered all my grades this weekend. So Monday and Tuesday I will just enjoy the food and check out. I should be out the door early and off to our yard to start landscaping!