Out of Commission

Sorry guys,

I woke up yesterday feeling really sick. I managed to make it through the school day, chaperone the junior high dance (which just made me feel old), and then drag myself to our faculty/staff Christmas dinner at Claim Jumper.

Today, I slept in and have been recovering by lounging in front of the TV with my sweetie (who was kind enough to bring me tea in bed and make me breakfast). Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and will snap some more pictures of my classroom.

Until then, here is a really pretty wreath appropriate for both the home or simplified to be made with kids in the classroom using the easy craft staple: the toilet paper roll.

Directions here. Via A Cup of Jo.

Have a wonderful weekend :)

Advent Ideas- Part 1

Make Advent Calendars with Wreaths

When we came back from Thanksgiving break, we make Advent Calendars. I found the calendar and the candle templates online (although they would be really easy to make yourself). I had the students write something each day that they could do to prepare for Jesus. I told them they could do the same things on different days if they wanted (although kids who ran out of ideas tended to write "pray" in the remaining squares). We cut out the candles and flames on construction paper using the templates. For the green wreath part the kids traced their hands and glued them on. We are coloring in the squares each day with purple to count down the days. Super easy and cute.

Prepare Jesus' Manger

I'm not a big bulletin board person. By that I mean that I usually don't give a crap. In fact, I was so swamped my first two years of teaching trying to keep my head above water I barely changed them out at all. Now that I've relaxed a little bit and gotten the hang of this whole teaching thing, I've had a little bit more time to spend making things look pretty. I inherited this Nativity bulletin board set from another teacher. I stapled paper craft hay stuff for the manger. Below that I stapled a paper bag to the board (which is hard to see in the picture). I had each student write something they would do to prepare for Jesus this Advent on a yellow strip of paper. They placed these paper strips in the paper bag. It looks really cute and I realized I didn't get a good picture of it so I'll remedy that tomorrow. Sparkly lights and silver pipe cleaners complete the picture.

I'll post more Advent (and Christmas) ideas over the next few days. I've been doing Christmas Traditions  Around the World with my class and having a lot of fun with it. Stay tuned!

Anyone else doing something special for Advent with their families/classes?

Life

Man, it is hard to update this thing every day. By the time I get home from teaching, eat dinner, shower, do the work I took home with me, and then finally sit down to relax, it's bed time (and getting up so early every day, I conk out at about 9:30-10:00).

I got home last night and just really needed some quality time with my sweetie. Understandably I didn't post.

Tonight, I have a crap-load of grading to catch up on for the upcoming progress reports. It is also my wonderful mother-in-law's birthday and we'll be heading over there soon to celebrate.

I will definitely have time tomorrow to post classroom pictures and ideas (and I have quite a lot to post).

Until then, here are a couple of anecdotes to tide you over:

I was talking to one of the substitute teachers at our school today and he mentioned that he grew up in Berlin in the 1940's. As I talked to him more he revealed that his uncle was none other that Claus Von Stauffenberg...yeah, the guy Tom Cruise played in Valkyrie. Just as I was about to ask him more about this the bell rang and I had to go pick up my kiddos. I must investigate further tomorrow...

I also watched my coworkers (with my help) devour an entire gift basket's worth of food today. We opened one of those huge holiday gift basket things in the morning (courtesy of parents) and laid out all the cookies, chocolates, crackers, olives, etc. over the table for everyone to snack on. There were quite a few snacks. I jokingly said, "This will all be gone by the end of the day. Hahahaha." 

It was.

MIA

Dear Two Readers,

Wow, has it really been so long since I've posted? I sincerely apologize. I had one of those 'f*** it' moments the other week and got really discouraged with this blogging thing. I am both inspired by and envious of all the amazing blogs out there and I sometimes feel incredibly inadequate. Then that feeling of inadequacy spirals out of control into a giant snowball that engulfs every other aspect of my life including (but not limited to):

Not being able to keep my house clean
Falling behind on grading
Students acting up in class
Running late for work
Failing to conquer the PILE OF LAUNDRY
Not calling my mom back
Fighting with my husband
Eating so much lately and not working out
Etc., etc., etc.

Anyway, I'm in a slightly more positive mood lately because

I had a great meeting with my principal last week.
I got to see my family for Thanksgiving.
My husband and I actually got out of the house for some dates and social activities over the past couple weeks.
People are actually looking at my blog and actually leaving comments now (well...one person). Yay!
Aaaaaand...

We brought home our very first Christmas tree (as a married couple) and decorated our house for Christmas.

If that doesn't put you in a good mood I don't know what will :)

So, I'll leave you today with some pictures from around our house (and city). Tomorrow, I'll post some classroom pictures and Advent ideas (sorry the Thanksgiving ideas never made it onto the blog).

Enjoy :)

Apple pie.

Thanksgiving turkey.

December Nights at Balboa Park, San Diego.

Food selection at the international cottages- We ate Scottish food.

Baked potato with beef and melted cheese and hot spiced apple cider. Mmmm...

Ukrainian beer in the International Spirits area.

We got spiked hot chocolate at the Austrian booth.

Taking the tree home.

Decking the halls. (We bought that little Santa at the Swedish craft booth at December Nights)

In the process of decorating (excuse the down comforter flung over the chair).

Our Nightwatchman ornament we bought in Rothenberg, Germany. He's our tree topper this year.

Our blindingly bright Christmas tree.

Flowers and candles on our table.

Giving Thanks

Sooooo, I was supposed to post some Thanksgiving ideas. I sort of forgot and then decided to put it off one day longer so I could take some pictures tomorrow of my class' Thanksgiving Feast.

Until then here is the excitement that's been happening in my life lately. We caught up with a couple of friends over some really good beer. We broke in our fire place. And, perhaps more excitingly, we fiiiiiinally got ourselves a dining room table. Yes, we've lived in our place for almost six months and have been eating on the couch. It feels good to have a table and chairs. It feels even more like a real home in here now. Speaking of real homes, I cannot WAIT to start decorating for Christmas. Yay!

This month I am thankful for:

Good beer.

Really good beer.

Beer Cheese Fries (what's left of them anyway).

Really alcoholic beer.

Husband making fire.

Oooooh, fire!

Yummy breakfasts.

Door wreaths.

Pretty, muted sunset colors.

Student turkey art. 

Bulletin boards.

Classroom decorations.

Classroom doors.

The Food Pyramid.

Thanksgiving crafts.

Cute calendars. 

Bulletin boards with spelling mistakes (it was my aide I swear!).

New tables!!!

Apple pies baking in the oven.

More new furniture (family of the table).

Rainy Day

Dear two readers,

Sorry about the spotty posting. It's been a loooooong week to say the least.

I think starting off the week with two half-days (for parent conferences) was a mistake. You see, the students get very excited for shorter school days for some reason. They remained very excited the whole week. The students also sensed the upcoming holiday which increased the excitement to a level where a simple statement of, "Today we're going to do some math!" provoked screams and what sounded like a rabid squirrels dying.

I'll post some Thanksgiving ideas tomorrow. Tonight, I'm having a cozy night in with my sweetie watching Conan on the DVR and snuggling by a roaring fire. I finally cooked him my "surprise" meal of pasta with sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and spicy Italian sausage. And beer. Mmmmmmm....beer.

Enjoy your evening everyone!

Psychic Newlyweds

The other day, I decided that I was going to surprise my hubby by going grocery shopping, cleaning the kitchen, and then cooking him a delicious dinner.

So I bolted home from work and tore over to Trader Joe's to pick up ingredients for a pasta dish he really likes.

I knew he wasn't going to get home for another hour so I unpacked the groceries and settled down on the couch to relax.

Minutes later, I heard the clanking of a key at the door and in walks my husband...with Trader Joe's bags.

"I'm going to cook you dinner tonight! I got really good stuff at the store."

"Um, guess where I just was..."

"Trader Joe's?"

"Yes!!! And you can't cook me dinner because I was going to cook you dinner and it was my idea first!"

Long story short, my husband had heard that there were Nurenberg-style sausages at Trader Joe's from his German coworker and was really excited about them (those were his favorite sausages when we 

were in Germany). I was really excited about them too and decided that I would cook him the sausages as a surprise dinner truce. 

The freakiest part about all this was that we picked up several of the same items at the store. These are items that we don't usually get like potatoes and spiced apple cider.

I just thought it was so sweet that we had the same idea on the same night. I didn't think I could love him any more than I did before we got married. Not only do I love him more every day, but I have somehow become psychically connected to him...Weird.

I'm still working on the mind reading though. I'll let you know how it goes :)