Praises!

I just got lined up with another tutoring job. I've been tutoring for a sweet, sweet family from church. Their daughter needed some bolstering in math, and it's truly been a blessing and delight. She is so sweet and fun, and I am a geek who loves math. After meeting weekly since January or February, she now tells people, "I like math now!" If THAT doesn't bless my socks off, I don't know what does. :)

The family's neighbor has asked me to come try working with her elementary-aged daughter and high school-aged son (yea, algebra!) on Tuesdays (after previously mentioned tutoring) and Wednesdays (some kind of funky block scheduling where the son has math only on MWF). She's had a girl from UF coming, but she's graduating and leaving this week.

So, we'll try it. School is only in session for another month. Can't be that bad, right? And the most exciting thing of all to me is that the church family's mom said she could probably hook me up with as much tutoring as I want (and more!). :) We have "always said" that, Lord willing, when we have children and I'm staying home, tutoring could be a nice way to supplement Matt's income. But I wasn't sure how to go about getting my name out there. The families at my school tend to be trying to just make ends meet; tutoring is not in many of their budgets. But now, even though it's on the other end of town, the Lord is building some business for me! How exciting! :)

God is good (not just because of tutoring). :)

BAM! WHAP! ZOW! ZOINK!

My class is currently using the software Comic Life to create comics about an animal they researched. There are specific guidelines (including some choice--I'm all about building the autonomy) they followed, and one group is finished with the other 7 *right* behind them. I just HAD to share one with you though. Theirs are a little different than this, but here's an example I made to post on my class's blog for the parents to see until the kids are done. I think it's so fun!!

you simply MUST click it to see it enlarged and read the comments!

oops, Matt pointed out a typo to me in the lower, right box.... please overlook that for now ;)
I have a fever.... does that excuse it?

Oops!

We had another oops today. Well, a couple actually. The biggest were:

• I figured out today, the day grades are due, that my username wasn't working. Yes, we were supposed to check last week. Yes, I started to. No, I didn't finish. Not only was my username not working, somehow I was BOOTED FROM THE SYSTEM!! I had no anything. I have to resign up for a school board account (AGAIN) and they had to add me in so I could input my grades (which, as I said, were due TODAY). NUTS! The ladies at school who helped me were very kind, though. I appreciate it! And.... my grades are DONE!!!
• This OOPS was NOT mine. At about 3:40, I got called to the office for a flower delivery. I thought that was kind of odd. When I got there, I saw a birthday balloon. My birthday is next week, bu tthat is a week away. Something seemed off. Apparently, Mom ordered flowers to be delivered from her and Dad... ON MY BIRTHDAY (imagine that). Mom is coming to visit this weekend, and she has to go back the morning of my birthday. She specified for the flowers to be delivered early morning on November 6, so that I would have a happy surprise to cheer me up about her having to leave. But no, they delivered them after school hours today (?). She called (in her very hoarse voice) and they were apologetic. Someone new messed up. They said they will deliver a balloon on my birthday. I hate to sound like a brat, and obviously with the whole "lonely" thing I've been kind of emotional lately, but I almost cried when I found out they messed up. It felt like they took something special away, and now I wouldn't have something fun that my parents so sweetly planned to ease Mom going back. So, even though I'm now expecting it, at least there will be a fun something on my birthday. Here the "early" flowers...
  

The arrangement even has cute party blowers mixed in. :)

The vase has flowers painted onto it. :)

• Oh, and while we're talking about birthdays. Matt ordered something for me, and the company sent a postcard telling him that his gift (and what it was) has been shipped. I check the mail, so of course I came across it. That's ANOTHER birthday surprise ruined!
• And Brad and Joy ordered something off my Amazon wishlist. I thought that my wishlist address would change when I updated our mailing address after the move last summer. But no, it didn't. So my birthday present was delivered (or attempted to) to our old address. Who knows where it is.
• I'm beginning to wonder if 26 is not going to be a good year. :-(
  

Thursday-Friday!

Tech training is done!!

I had fun this evening showing Matt some of the projects I worked on. :)

I have tomorrow off (though I'll be doing some grade averaging for report cards--grades must be entered by Monday night)! I plan to SLEEP IN, have lunch with my HUBBY, and who knows what else! :) I can't wait! I have NEXT Friday off, too!! Amazing, huh? And on top of that, my MOM will be here next Friday (and it will be mere DAYS until my birthday, AND one day away from "falling back" the clock). :) :) :)

The weather here has finally turned cool. I was telling Mom today how this weather completely takes me back to when I moved here, 2 years and 2 days ago (crazy).... being a newlywed, getting settled in, figuring out how in the world to get around in this town without getting lost (with some success), meeting Matt's coworkers for the first time, interviewing for my job, seeing my school for the first time, accepting my job... How has it been two years already? I can't imagine what else will come our way in the next two years!

If you haven't seen it on Joy's blog, you should check out Peace Like a River. It's a great book. I also just finished Hope was Here--highly recommended. Good reads. :) Let me know what you think of them if you read them (or have read them)!

Happy Friday (almost) to all!

Love,
Becca

Top 15!!

Check out this article from the Wall Street Journal. Scroll down to the Es. ;)

I'm Still Here!

I'm just swamped!

Preplanning week will be 1/2 over after today. Thankfully, my room is in great shape! I'm trying to remember to take my camera today, so I can post pictures later.

I have 19 students, which is a great number, if you ask me. :)

I am excited about seeing them again.

I am tired. It feels like it should be Friday. I've been having crazy-vivid dreams since last week. Stress much?

Sammy is hanging in there, though she's UBER-excited when I come home. :) She also threw up as soon as she woke up when I was getting ready on Monday. Great start to the year, huh? But her stomach settled back down.

Matt is working hard and doing a great job, too. :) One of the things he most recently designed is selling really, really well! Praise the Lord!

I need to go finish getting ready. Today is the back to school rally (all the teachers in the county get together and they try to pump up the excitement... I think a lot of us would rather finish our classrooms....) then a tech inservice. Whew.

Then tomorrow is the last full day before.... meet your teacher on Friday. Then I'll go straight to the church house for a Kids Camp debriefing meeting.

I can do it (in Christ!)! :)

I'll try to write more soon (and post classroom pictures). :)

Love,
Becca

Down to the Wire...

This is the last week before preplanning. Yikes! The kiddos will be here before I know it!

I am sooo glad I had last week to just kick back (and be crafty), because this week has not turned out quite as expected. I did get to mostly play on Monday. Well, at least I didn't have to go into school. We also had a guy from church over for dinner. Then yesterday I had a writing committee meeting, so I planned to just go into school for the day and work in my room before/after the meeting. I got about an hour's work in before the meeting, and then about 30 minutes after, even though I was there from 11-4! In the middle, we had our meeting and then I manned the copy machine so the committee members could copy materials for their teammates. Unfortunately, the copy machine broke--and on my watch! Eeek! Two papers jammed, and we cleared what we could find, but one of the papers we got out was torn. We figure the side of it must be stuck in the machine somewhere (although we opened it up and twisted every knob you can twist, etc.), because every copy comes out 95% streaked with black toner. The machine says it's all ready to copy and that the jam was cleared, but obviously something is still wrong. [Kinda makes me think of the times we try to act like everything is okay, but inside we're boiling over about something... whether it's hurt, anger, disappointment, etc. Just like the copy machine, we can display all the right messages, but the problem WILL find a way out.] The fix-it people are supposed to come sometime today (we hope). The time crunch is that the inservice we were preparing all these copies for is.... tomorrow!! Ahhhh! So, Lord willing, we'll get the rest of our copies made today or tomorrow morning before the inservice.

Anyway, all that to say, I *planned* to have another "play day" today and not go to school. It's not that I terribly mind being there, but I want to grasp each "down" moment I can before the big upswing of preplanning, meet the teacher, etc. I know once that begins, it's a marathon sprint to the finish line. In my head, I've tried to break it up. For example, August is just two weeks of school, September has Labor Day weekend, October has our anniversary (!!) and Matt's dad is coming to help us redo the family room walls (no more paneling!!), November is my birthday and a long weekend AND Thanksgiving, and December is a few weeks of school and then Christmas (and HOME). I know in that perspective time will fly. And so, knowing the RUSH is oh so quickly approaching, I'm trying to slow down my mind (and quickly beating heart) right now. I made Matt promise to keep from going in on Friday. It's my last chance to just stay home and play. And my room is MUCH farther along than it was this time last year, so I need to just stay home and chill. I'm already having "freak out" dreams about school and migraine auras--even when I'm not having caffeine or my other triggers. That tells me I'm already stressed. So, today and tomorrow, fine, I'll go in. But I am not going in on Friday.

In other news... I'm not really sure what to write about. :) Matt's working really hard on projects at work. One of his more recent endeavors is selling like hotcakes (so fun to say), which is a huge blessing and really exciting. Sammy is good. I think she's a little spoiled by me being home all day during the summer. She hadn't experienced that until this year, because we adopted her the day before school started last year. So, as crazy as that was (and as gracious as God was to have her sleep through the night right away!), next week marks a year of Samantha being in the fam! :) And what a sweet addition she is. Right now she's out playing in the back yard. She needs a bath sometime this week from all her outside play time. :)

I guess that's about it for now. I am anxious to receive my class roster, etc. I saw my placement card stack in the office which was very exciting. :) I think I should have between 18-20. I have my room set for 18 at the moment, but I can change to 20 if I find out that's needed on Monday. I already have a lot set up, and some of what I have left to do depends on knowing my class' names and such, so anyway. I had better close so I can get ready to head into work. I'm trying some new air fresheners in my room. It's never smelled bad, but it's never smelled good. We're not allowed to use any plug ins or have any candles (even if we never lit them), so I got one of those new airwick ones that uses batteries instead of plugging in. :) We'll see if it's made a difference when I walk in the door.

We hope you're having a good week. Halfway to the weekend!! :)

Blessings,
Becca

Check it Out!

**Edited: Hopefully the link works now. :) **

Click on this link to see my school's updated magnet academy homepage! There have been some personnel updates. ;)

Unexpected

Today I tried to keep myself busy. It's rough when your two best friends are both gone! Thankfully, even though one had to leave today, the other's coming back to me. :) He should be landing in ATL any minute, actually. Then it's a short layover before his flight to Jax. Then a medium drive to get HOME.

To distract myself, I did some "to dos" around the house, and I took pictures of what Mom helped us accomplish during the week....

*Painted the trim above the tile back splash a true white. It was a beige, and the tile, trim, wall, and appliances (we inherited bisque appliances in this house..... which are definitely better than no appliances or poorly working contemporary colored appliances) all just blended together in a "blah." Now the wall, trim, and tile counters pop better. :)

*Painted the rest of the kitchen trim white! Eventually (when it cools off), we'll take down that door to the lanai, sand and prime it, and paint it white, too (we'll be replacing the rest of our doors with molded white doors over time as well).

*Used Barkeeper's friend to bleach/clean the other 2/3 of the kitchen grout I hadn't cleaned yet AND sealed it with 2 coats of sealer. Hopefully it will stay bright and clean a long time now!

*Added a second coat of white paint to the built-in china hutch and scraped the excess paint off the glass. :)

*Here's a view with the flash, so you can see how the white looks nice and clean against the walls.

While the paint stuff was out, I touched up our kitchen chairs today, and they look freshened up now that the puppy teething marks are painted over. ;)

Also, I stopped by Dollar Tree on my way home from a Kids Camp meeting to look for something Holli mentioned for Kids Camp (VBS). I didn't find what she told me about, but I DID find some great "teacher" stuff for $1 each!! I'd heard the dollar stores can have great teacher finds, but these were so cute and quite unexpected. All this for under $7!



We hope your weekend gets off to a great start!
MUCH love (and missing you!),
B

A Dozen.... or Two

Matt had 2 dozen roses sent to me at school on our last day (last Friday). It was a very sweet gesture that earned him major brownie points with other teachers at my school. ;) They are *gorgeous* and smell wonderful! Thank you, honey, for being so sweet to me!



P.S. One of my students asked me if I was going to divide them up and give a flower to each of them! I told her I would be keeping them all. ;)

Almost...

Just one day left until my 2006-2007 school year duties are over. How bizarre is that?!? Today and tomorrow are teacher "post planning" workdays to finish up paperwork (there are mounds of it in elementary school!) and such. Today I turned in my attendance cards, cleaned out some stuff in my room, checked in cumulative records, and checked in most of my library and textbook materials. Tomorrow I need to turn in my lesson plans & grade book, report card copies from the first 3 quarters (the final goes in the cum. record), and check in my curriculum folders. Those are the main jobs for tomorrow, along with a few details for summer institute next week. Have I mentioned we're doing kitchen science as our theme? We are. :) I think it will be fun!

I was going to write more about the end of school, but honestly, I'm still a little too emotional about it. I definitely still tear up about it all being over whenever I think about it, so I think I need a little more time before I can blog about it! I do plan to make a scrapbook of this year with pages for our field trips and other special events and also a layout for each of my students with pictures, fun memories and things they said, and special characteristics of each one. I did NOT cry while they were at school Friday, but I have cried since I left that day, and teared up several times if I think about it much. I didn't realize how hard it would be to let go of them. Those little 8 and 9 year olds (and their families) blessed me so much this year, in countless ways. God really used them to brighten my lonely days down here, encourage me so much, and I'm just trying to hold onto the sweet memories and trust God for fun times this summer and a sweet class next year too. Someone told me you always have an extra special place in your heart for your very first class (as I had my *wonderful* mentor my internship year, and I took over mid-year last year, this was my first full year solo class ever),and while I'm sure that's true, I think there's more to it than that with this group. They really were a dream class, first year or not, and I can tell that as I am able to reflect on the year through scrapbooking and processing it all, God has more to teach me through my time with my class. I feel like I just lost 20 of my closest friends (not that I just treated them like equal friends in class, but I am realizing now that they're gone how much God used them to fill that friendless place in my life right now...), and it's a little daunting to move on to summer, but it's a much needed rest at the same time.

Since I can't write much more about my class without flooding the keyboard, I thought I'd post my first installment of "one year in the house before and after pictures." This weekend we installed a new ceiling fan in the kitchen, so it's even MORE updated now, but you'll get the idea. :)
(click on the pictures to make them bigger)

C-R-A-Z-Y

So, the end of school is drawing near and things are CRAZY!! I was reminded yesterday at lunch that grades are due in the computer system.... by FRIDAY! EEK! I don't know what I was thinking!? I thought I'd have until the beginning of next week. They posted for us the first day we could begin entering grades, but I had never seen a deadline in the teacher's area of the office. Oh well, now I know. :) I averaged everything today except for reading and writing. Both of those are partially done. And, I did it all by hand (i.e. with a calculator instead of Excel), because my eyes have been blurry (end of year stress induced migraine auras). The computer makes my vision worse, so I didn't think hours of entering grades would be a smooth move at this point. :) Thankfully, everything went well with the calculator. The memory function on a simple calculator is my new favorite. :)

In addition to school, today I was passed by several emergency vehicles on my way home. Then I turned on my street and saw them parked across from my house!! Thankfully, I saw Matt in our front yard, so I knew he was okay. I asked him what was going on--a sheriff's vehicle, 2 ambulances, and a firetruck with special life support were there--and he said all he knew was he heard a huge BOOM sound. We thought maybe something exploded at our neighbor's across the street (the retired Navy man's house, Mom and Dad). I told Matt I thought I saw their camper in the back with a tree on it as I pulled up to our house. It turns out we were both right. A tree from a yard behind them fell on their lanai and camper WITH the wife of the household on the lanai. She was trapped by the tree!! Praise the Lord, they unpinned her and she was "okay." They were concerned about her neck and they bandaged a cut on her forehead. But she was sitting (somewhat) on the stretcher when they brought her out. I think our whole street was standing around trying to figure out what happened. Everyone was talking about the trees they now want to have cut down! All the trees in our yard are sturdy and straight. There are a few pines (the biggest problem, along with Water Oaks) in neighboring yards, but we can't make people cut those down. We can just be thankful for insurance and hope we're not where the trees land if they fall!

Lastly, I was stung several times at our awards ceremony this morning. We went right to lunch when it was over, so I stopped at our nurse's clinic and got Benadryl while my kids were eating lunch. The stings are ITCHY, and they're right where the seams of my shirt collar are (around my neck, but in the front and on the sides), so my shirt keeps rubbing and irritating them.

All in all, my stings will stop itching, I will get grades put in the computer, and we are home together for the evening and a yummy dinner (grilled pork chops, my special rice, corn on the cob, and green beans). And, thankfully, our neighbor's wife sounds like she'll be okay. If you think of it, please do pray for them though. She seems to be a bit fragile in general, and her husband and daughter (who lives with them) are quite shaken.

Thanks so much for reading! We hope your day was at least a little less "eventful" than ours. :)

Love,
Becca

Busy Times!

Whew! With about 2.5 weeks left of school (eek!!), everything is running full steam ahead! Even Matt's been exceedingly busy at work (staying at work until 11 Friday night). I must say again, my husband is so whole-hearted. He is putting everything he has into finishing his latest project well, and I'm proud of him! Way to go, honey!

I myself have a busy week as well. Today was our third and final poetry of the year. It was a "Mother's Day Poetry Tea" in honor of Sunday's holiday. Several moms and grandmothers (9 total, to be exact) were able to join us for our celebration of poetry... and them (through poetry)! :) In writing we have discusses three formats for poetry in the last week or two--shape poems, acrostic poems, and diamante poems. I'm not sure which type was the class's favorite, because they seemed to enjoy them all! For each type, we wrote one together as a whole class composition. Then they wrote a poem of their own in that format about the topic of their choice. Lastly, after getting the hang of that form of poetry, they wrote one about their mother. At the end of our mini-lessons on poetry this go-around, they had 3 free topic poems and 3 mother poems. For the tea, they selected their favorite mom-themed poem to make an extra-special final copy of and read at the poetry tea. They also selected one other poem they composed to read at the tea. Mothers who attended the tea received their copy of the mother poem after their child read it. Mothers who could not attend should receive it today rolled up with a happy bow around it. :)

Tomorrow is the end of year writing prompt in the morning during our reading/language arts block (because it's an early release day, which means no writing period). My class is also taking an end of the year calendar math test tomorrow. Then Thursday is the end of year reading test. Whew! We will be done with big tests at that point, though! Hooray!! We'll still have a spelling test this week and next week, but I've tried to make those fun as we've finished our spelling curriculum. This week the list consists of the names of everyone in my reading groups, the three third grade teachers' names, and our administrators' names. :) Our special area (resource) teachers' names are the bonuses. :) hehe

Also on Thursday is a church women's event at a bead store in town. It's been "mine" to coordinate after taking Jamie's place on the women's fellowship team. It's a busy time of year for everyone, so I'm not sure what our turn out will be. But, I'm doing my best to coordinate some little snacks and such. I also had to make an announcement in church on Sunday. I told Matt I would have asked another team member to do it if I didn't think they would think I was crazy for not just doing it myself. But I survived. :)

On top of all that, I think I'm supposed to have a VBS ("Kids' Club") meeting on Thursday after school. We've been sending info in to be reimbursed from our FSA before its deadline, getting ready to renew our home warranty (we would like to have it when our a/c unit--original from our 1970s home--gives out....), and Matt's coworker is getting married this weekend! The engineers he works with enjoy each other's company quite a bit. :) It's not unusual for one of them to host a video game night that lasts late... past my bedtime at least. :) So, on Thursday Matt is attending one of the aforementioned video game nights, in celebration of his coworker's "bachelor party." Saturday is the wedding---but not before the guys get together in the morning to fire off some ammo. The reception will be followed by a get together for people from his company to hang out with a couple who used to work there and has moved... and are now expecting! Annnnd, we were invited to a semi-business dinner tomorrow night. YIKES!

I keep telling Matt I just need to make it through this weekend. :) All I'll have then is the normal crazy pace of the end of the school year, without the extra stuff. Don't get me wrong, it'll be fun to attend the wedding and see Matt's work friends. It just comes at an already overflowing time of year!

In response to my last post, I just want to mention that the Lord led me back to two verses He gave me earlier as I waited upon Him for something that was a desire of my heart--a husband. As I am waiting again for something etched into my heart's longings, it was sweet to be taken back to the Word He gave me to cling to in the past. And to use that to further stand upon His past and present faithfulness... and His faithfulness to come. The two passages are....

Psalm 27:14
Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

Habakkuk 2:3
For the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end--it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.

Also, I wanted to mention that our church here is another outcome of God's faithfulness for which we are very thankful. Even all the way down here in Florida.

We hope you had a great weekend and got to tell your mom (or those women God has placed in your life to nurture you, physically and spiritually) you love her! :)

Love,
Becca

Sunshine in the Shadows

Lately I've struggled some again with being so far away and having so little (no) friends here. It's so much easier to make friends in school, because you automatically have your major in common once you're in upper-level classes. And while we know great people at church, no relationships there yet have truly led to friends. I find myself again feeling like I'm almost just on an extended vacation or extended work assignment here, and feeling like I'll be going back home to TN anytime now. It's hard. It's hard being the only one of my siblings that does not live in our hometown. It's hard watching my niece and nephew(s) growing up 9 hours away from me (though, praise the LORD, Charis knows my name, asks where I am, and even asks to call me--already, at 2 years old, when she could count on her hands how many times she's ever seen me). It hurts to be this far and feeling somewhat removed from everything that's going on back home.

And that is where I CLING to KNOWING God brought us here and standing on the Ebenezer of His faithfulness and goodness to us in this place--all the things big and small the Lord has done to reaffirm over and over His guidance and direction in our being in FL, 9 hours away. From jobs to the house, in particular. But even in little things, like getting to see Les Miserables. In the midst of my pain and loneliness, I do NOT want to turn a blind eye or hardened heart to His hand, presence, and action in our lives here. He is here with us, and He stands with us as we wait for more community and deeper roots.

I do have to say, even though I do not have friends at work (since Jamie moved to ATL), the Lord is showing me I am accepted and appreciated there. This week is teacher appreciation week, and one family in particular is totally spoiling me! Three of my students got together over the weekend and made decorations for my door. When I walked to my room Monday morning, I thought I was at the wrong room! There were little sayings about education and the difference a good teacher makes, a list of "great teachers throughout history" that said at the bottom, "and best of all.... Rebecca Kubo" made by the mom. Thank yous, and "you brighten my day" and "you're the best," with glitter and crepe paper too! Then on Tuesday, one of the same students came to school with heart-shaped post it notes and some trail mix for taking a break. :) Then on Wednesday, she came in with a bag full of fun little things and a poem--a cup for when yours overflows, a 100,000 bar because that's what you should be paid, bath stuff to pamper myself, etc. :) Then TODAY, she sent in a yellow rose arrangement in a vase. My student said she's bringing something every day, so I can only imagine what tomorrow has in store! One of my kids gave me a big hug and said, "I appreciate you very much, and I wish you would be my teacher every year." Several of my students have come in with books from my "wish list" at the book fair 2 weeks ago (they have each teacher make one). One cool geography book with interesting facts and a child-friendly map of each state, one about the moon (Steven Kellogg), and my very own copy of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (!). I have felt so loved by all these gestures!! also had a parent I do not even know come up to me out of the blue and tell me how much she wanted her daughter to be in my class next year, but that she heard I was teaching magnet next year (I guess her daughter's not on that track), and she was so disappointed to tell her daughter she didn't think she could get her in my class. I've only been there 1.5 years--I didn't think that was long enough to have a reputation for parents to ask for your class! Whew--God is so good! Thank you for giving me favor as I try to glorify you through the work you've called me to at this time, Lord!

I should go for now. We're had a laaate dinner because Matt worked late tonight. He's so whole-hearted! He made us yummy grilled pork chops and rice! I washed his dishes from last night, folded some laundry, started a new load, and vacuumed while I waited for him.

We hope you have a happy Friday....
and we ESPECIALLY hope that you, JOY, have a SUPER DUPER BIRTHDAY!! We love you, and I'm SOO glad you are my sister! I hope Charis is extra sweet and that you have fun surprises throughout your day. Our gift is on its way; I'm sorry we missed your party! :-( I think you should ask Brad for a vacation to Gainesville for your birthday. :) LOOOOVE you!

Love,
Becca

Dun Dun Dunnnn

FCAT scores came in this week.......


..... my class totally knew their stuff...... and it showed!! :)

Praise the Lord!!

It's Been Awhile...

I know it's been awhile since my last real written post (as fun as the pictures and videos are). I think we've just reached that point (in the school year, at least) where life is a bit of a marathon sprint. I have 25 school days left until the end of the year, and that actually seems impossibly short! Eeek! :) But we're chugging right along, and I'm really enjoying my kiddos (as I have all year).

Here's a little catch up of what we've been up to

• We have compiled and prioritized a list of improvements we'd like to make to the house. It's exciting to have a real list and come up with a plan to finish updating some things like light fixtures, doors, etc.
• I tidied up the den a LOT this weekend. Tyson came to visit (more on that later), and I just wanted some things put away. They are not necessarily in FINAL "homes" (some are in temporary storage under a bed), but they are out of the den! I also moved our extra filing cabinet out of the den. :) I'll take a picture soon.
• I scrubbed the hood over our stove. The stove was uhhh, far from clean, when we moved in. I used a Scotch Brite pad and some Mr. Clean and it looks sparkling now! I also figured out how to replace the light bulb in it, so our hood now has the vent AND a light! :)
• Last week at school my class wrote about someone they admire. Three or four students wrote about me, which was very sweet. :) For the format we have to teach for expository papers, the students have to write about two reasons for their position, and then each "reason paragraph" includes details and an anecdote. One student who was writing about me came over to my table to ask a question. We've talked a lot about transition phrases to use between paragraphs and to begin the anecdotal story. One they often use is "One time..." Well, this particular student came over to me and apparently chose that I am "smart" as one of the reasons she admires me. She said to me, "Mrs. Kubo, I'm having trouble thinking of one time you were smart." I CRACKED UP! She totally didn't mean it rudely (and she blushed and said she didn't mean it badly when she realized how it sounded), but the whole class was giggling... AND raising their hands with examples of times I did smart things. ;) It was really cute and really funny. She just meant she couldn't decided on a "One time...." anecdotal story about me doing something smart. She settled on the time I multiplied 9,999,999 times 9,999,999.... they seem to be quite impressed by large numbers. ;)
• Tyson came to visit! He flew down Friday night, and we all went to dinner at On the Border (yummy Mexican food). When we came back, we just relaxed until 11 or so. He'd been up since before 5:00 that morning, so we all got good sleep Friday night. On Saturday I made waffles, and then we sat around trying to decide what to do! We eventually settled on visiting the Santa Fe Teaching Zoo. It's a teaching zoo for the animal tech program at a community college here. They had several animals I'd never heard of, though not the typical lions, tigers, and bears you see at a large zoo. It is however FREE, but they only allow guided tours that begin every 30 minutes (and last 30 minutes). I enjoyed seeing some new animals (like a tree kangaroo and African jumping cat), and now I know I can kill an hour's time for free when we have kids (15 minutes to get there, 30 minute tour, 15 minutes back home). :) After the zoo, the guys hung out while I worked on lesson plans. Then last night we played Settlers of Catan (and Searfarers). Tyson did REALLY well for his first time! I had my best game EVER and won! :) This morning we took Tyson back to the airport and he flew home. We hope he comes again soon. :) But we can be patient, ;) because he's starting a new job.
• Charis' 2nd birthday party was yesterday. Even though I was reallllllllly sad to miss it, it sounds like a very fun time. We've loved the pictures we've seen so far!
• Tomorrow is my last field trip of the year. I have lots of parent chaperones coming, and that is a great asset. I hope the class enjoys it. :)
• E ("Alice") and her husband adopted a puppy, Ferdy! Click the link to "Alice" in the sidebar, and go see a pictures of his sweet, giant ears! :)
• Lastly, we're getting plans underway for VBS. This year will be centered around an "incredible" super-hero-ish theme (think The Incredibles the movie). I think it will be really fun. :)
• It's officially hot here in FL.

I guess that's about all for now! We hope you had a great week, and I'll try to do better at keeping up! :)

Love,
Becca

Long time..

So I know I'm overdue for an update. Unfortunately, this week has been a little crazy!

• We had a WONDERFUL visit with my parents, my uncle, and my cousin over the weekend. The only problem was its length... WAY too short!
• Monday was a tad of a sad afternoon coming home to a very empty house after it was FULL of people we love so much! Not exactly the right "mood" for blogging... more like the right mood for tears (my dear, sweet husband is such a patient man!)
• Yesterday I came home and then pretty much fell asleep on the (new) couch until Matt called to say he was coming home! Yikes! He even made dinner, because I was so tired and sleepy.
• Today was an early release day, but I also stayed late in order to exchange the teacher workday Friday for a day off... that meant working from 12:30-5:30 in my classroom..... looooots of grading going on in my room, especially some fun writing prompts and science projects.
  
• Tomorrow I stay late again, but not quite as late. And then Friday is OFF!! Tomorrow my class is also presenting their Black History Month powerpoints! And we have a free day for resource, so I'm hoping to get in some cursive and science, and maybe a quiz or two before the week is over and the long weekend is here!
• Friday is my day off--woo hooooooo!
• Saturday is Sammy's graduation.... we need to brush up on a few things. ;)
• Jamie is coming to visit on Saturday!!!
• Sunday is the all church event for the stewardship program
• I need to make a decision about directing VBS this summer.... I'm hoping Jamie will have some good insight since she did it last year. And I need total peace one way or the other... I keep going back and forth just when I think I have peace!
• One week until spring break!
• Two months of school left (EEEEK!) :)
• That's all for now

Lots of love!
Becca

Dig Dug has to Go Go

Yea for the weekend!

At times this week seemed to take awhile and at times it flew. On Wednesday, I thought for SURE the next day should have been Friday, but no such luck. :) But today really flew by, and I got good things accomplished and questions answered both at home and at school.

On Monday, our furniture was delivered, as you see below. :) I think we have a plan for arranging things this weekend, and it won't have to be as drastic as I first thought. :) We are hoping to pick up our mattress set this weekend, and the guest room is all ready--I just need to set up the rails for the bed. The den is coming along. I think we've decided on a configuration in there too, and I've been toying with ideas for the "splash of color" the room needs now that we painted over the wooden paneling. I am excited about it, and I think the color will really create the warmth we noticed lacking after the first paint job.

On Tuesday, we had a pretty normal day. It was the day before our last FCAT test, so there were final preparations, of course.

Then Wednesday was the actual, final FCAT test! Woo hoo! It was the math norm-referenced test, and the kids were excited to be done. :) I was too!!! I think just the anticipation and anxiety are exhausting. All the teachers talk about how TIRED we are FCAT week, but we don't even have to take the test! It was an early release day, and I got a lot done in the classroom.

-side note- Last weekend I got a betta fish for my class. I had some extra money to use for my classroom, and I got permission to use part of it on fish stuff, as we are beginning our life science unit. I am hoping this weekend to get a few live plants for the room too. The kids love the fish. They named him (by voting) "Aqua the Fish" (he's dark blue and burgundy). He seems to like his little 3 gallon aquarium. I got a little bridge and 2 artificial plants for it too. They cheered the first time he went under the bridge and the first time he swam "across" the bridge. They're so cute! :)

Thursday... that was yesterday! I got a new student in my class--a really sweet little boy (the other, outnumbered boys appreciate more on "their" side, I'm sure). Matt got home around 7:30, and we had a church meeting at 8:00--eek! But we made it, and it was about an hour long. We stopped at Moe's on the way home (Welcome to Moe's!!) to use a gift card for dinner. It was about 10 when we got home. I was so tired! Whew!

And today... FRIDAY! My class finished reading Mr. Popper's Penguins and we watched a short illustrated video of the story to celebrate the end of FCAT. I also had lunch bunch in the room to celebrate the end of FCAT. The kids are working on powerpoints--it's so cool to see them researching, working together, and creating products they are excited about. They should be done next week and ready to present them! I'm excited! They also took a reading unit test. I was bummed, because several of them confused the types of sentences (interrogative, declarative, imperative, and exclamatory) even though we've drilled them for WEEKS! We'll just keep going over it until it clicks! :)

So, that was our week! Tomorrow night we have a dessert for the church stewardship program. Other than that, I think we're pretty open. It's UF's spring break this week, so we really ought to go out to dinner one night while the waits are next-to-nonexistent! :) hehe

Before I close, let me tell you the reason for the title of this post....
This week, Sammy dug a HUGE hole in the backyard. We've had digging sprees off and on. We had been more on the "off" trend until recently. Even though I had JUST taken her for a walk, she dug a gigantic hole. She must have consumed crazy amounts of dirt in the process, because her digestion pretty much turned on its head. I got home and her crate was a mess. She NEVER "goes" in her crate--she avoids it at all costs. But I opened the door to the house , and the everything smelled really earthy. I thought to myself, "this does not smell like new furniture, like I thought it would." It turned out she had a big mess in her crate. Then she proceeded to have diarrhea the rest of the afternoon and evening. I lost count of how many messed I cleaned up in the kitchen. I have changed some noxious diapers, and I have cleaned up vomit from sick children, but I had to tell myself the whole time I was cleaning her crate, "I will not be sick, I will not be sick, I will not be sick." Thankfully, that worked. :) But the poor puppy went and went all night. I fed her some dinner, though not as much as usual, and that didn't help any. We woke up at 4 in the morning to her crying from the kitchen. Matt said he'd go check on her, because she's NEVER done that before. I fell back asleep and heard him come to bed awhile later, though I didn't know what time. I found out when it really was time to get up, that he'd been up with her over an hour, because she'd gone in her crate again, and then she had another accident in the kitchen while he cleaned the crate (and went 2 more times when he took her outside)! What a guy! He was so sweet to her and took great care of her. I do not mean to say that Sammy is as much work as a baby, but I sure felt like I was looking after a sick baby all that evening. And Matt definitely stepped up to the plate in performing dad-like duties by taking care of her in the middle of the night. The next day we gave her no breakfast, and when it had been about 24 hours since the on-set with about 8 hours of no more diarrhea, I gave her some rice to eat. She is now totally back to normal, and we are glad to have our sweet (though crazy) dog back!

One more caveat to the story... we got a free lawn inspection from Scott's Lawn Service, because we were curious about what they would say. Matt's done a LOT to the yard, but we know there's more work to do and wanted to know their suggestions. Guess what problem they marked we have?... MOLES! We cracked up. We do NOT have moles, we have a digging dog right now! So, there's the title of the post... Dig Dug (Sammy) has to Go Go (upset tummy)! It's funny the names that suit our pets after we get to know their personalities and likes more. After awhile, Ellie ooch-ooch was perfect for El, because she would "ooch" her way more and more into rooms she was originally "not allowed." And dear Sammy, the hound in her has given her quite the propensity for digging. :) We love her though!

We hope you have a great, restful weekend enjoying good times together and with the Lord!

Love,
Becca

A Sampling of My Class' Work

Here are a few acrostic Valentine's poems written by some of my students...

Luck

Overwhelming

Valentine

Emotion

Candy

Unique

Precious

In love

Decorate

Relax

Obey

Marriage

Adore

Noble

Caring

Exciting

Valentine

Arrow

Love

Everybody

Nerds candy

Tasty

Icing

Never boring

Exciting

Sweets

Dates

Awesome

Yours forever

Cunnning

Undercover

Plotting

Inspecting

Driving

Chocolate

Awesome

Nerds

Dental floos

York peppermint patty

Candy

Heart

Obeying

Cupid

Obviously yummy

Love

Anybody

Tasty

Edible

People

Anybody

Refreshments

Tasty

Yelling

Love letters

Occasion

Valentine's Day

Enchanted

Freedom

Awesome

Mommy

Impatient

Laughter

Yours forever

(p.s. see more curtain pictures below)

Congratulations!

"The light of the eyes rejoices the heart, and good news refreshes the bones." -Prov. 15:30

I want to start out this post by congratulating Kim on being recognized as top realtor of the month! We rejoice with you and in God's provision! And we miss you (but we're so glad we got to have some Backyard Burger with you over Christmast)!! :) Praise the Lord!

Secondly, today is Grandpa's funeral. Mom and Dad are out there, as well as Uncle Adolfo, Auntie Laine, Sarah, Uncle Andy, Aunt Loreen, Colleen, Amanda & Lee, Uncle Mickey, Aunt Tera, Anne, James, Bob, and Janella. I'm sad my brothers and I were not able to fly out, but I am so thankful for the family who is there with Grandma to celebrate Grandpa's life today. Family is such a blessing, and I am reminded over and over of what a blessing and gift I have in the Godly heritage of the family to which I belong.

This weekend is kind of busy, but I do not think it will be as marathon sprint-like as last weekend. Today is Sammy's class; I think we're halfway through the course! We need to take a walk with her this afternoon too, and keep working on this "loose leash" walking thing. Tomorrow is an all-church Valentine's party. I am now part of the women's fellowship team, who have planned the event. I am in charge of the ice-breaker type of activity. I have some ideas. I need to call the hostess and see what she has decided on for entertainment. And then we might need to make some copies or something depending on what I decide for us to do.

But the house is clean, dishes are washed, laundry is folded and put away, so it will not be a big house weekend. Although, I think Matt is going to put the drawers on the armoire I built so we can start arranging the "man room." Maybe we'll move the entertainment center and bed into that room and get it set up some. The replacement for my broken computer armoire piece has been shipped. So, that will be my next project soon!

Last night, I wanted to get out of the house (shocking, I know!), so we went to Lowe's and Walmart (the only things still open here, even on a Friday night, when Matt works until 7 and dinner's ready at 8). At Lowe's we priced some motion-detector floodlights for the back corners of the house. We also visited the medicine cabinet I would like to install in our bathroom and looked at lighting. We'd like to replace the fluorescent ballasts in the kitchen with something a little more contemporary. Lastly, we looked at doors. Matt is succumbing to my requests for white interior doors. :) All those things aside, it is really nice to have the house presentable and start having people over. When we got the house, we said over and over that we really want it to be a place of hospitality. I am excited that we are beginning to use it that way. We've had some of Matt's coworkers over and we're signed up for a new "adopt-a-college student" program at church. I am really excited about that, because the church my family attended in Charlottesville had something very similar. Even though I was 7 or 8 at the time, I still remember the two Jennifers my family "adopted". :) We just want to be a blessing!

At Walmart we acquired some dog food (Sammy was glad about that), and we also looked at flower bulbs. Last year I grew some calla lilies in a little pot that I bought. This year, I'm going to try some other lilies, and our house "came" with two stone pots near the front door, so we are going to try gladiola in those, I believe. We tried to pick some perennial bulbs/roots. And I got one seed packet of a perennial flower.... although I don't recall right now what it was. Something pretty. :) Hopefully there will be pictures to come.

Other than that, we are working away! Matt had his yearly review and felt really good about the outcome. We are so thankful for the Lord's provision of his job and his great coworkers! The review included a raise, which was a very nice affirmation for Matt, and we are excited to give more than we could have without the raise to our church's capital stewardship program to build! I had my second observation of the year (we have 2 formal observations when we're still an annual employee--i.e. no tenure, etc.). It was during reading, and I felt good about it. I received a very positive note on my desk when the administrator left, though I have yet to meet with him. I think we'll go through the evaluation on Monday after school, but I was very thankful for some immediate positive feedback, so I'm not stewing over it all weekend. :)

Lastly, I've lost two students from my class in the last week. Because this blog can be found by searching for my name (through Brad and Joy's blogs), I do have to be extra careful about what I write. But please be praying! Neither student is gone under particularly "easy" circumstances. One is gone under very difficult circumstances (in other words, when I found out why I called Matt and Mom and cried to both of them). It makes my stomach hurt. Thankfully, I will be able to write that student a letter, as I didn't get to say goodbye and just underscore his/her strengths. The other student's last day was yesterday. Because I knew it was his/her last day, I was able to write a note to the student, give the student a piece of writing he/she had worked really hard on, and let the student pick one last thing from my treasure box. Then, at the end of the day, the other students who wanted to got to say something to the student who is leaving, and I got to say something affirming to him/her in front of the whole class. I am SO thankful that even though this second student is leaving, I was able to celebrate him/her before he/she left. I will be down to 19 students on Monday.

I guess that's about it for us right now. Oh, my class does take FCAT in 2 weeks (only 8 school days though, with President's Day weekend), so prayers for that are appreciated as well. :) It's definitely crunch time, as far as that is concerned.

Congratulations again to Kim. What a blessing to have such sweet a friend with whom we celebrate!

Love,
Becca