First Week of School

Chris and I made it through the first week of school ... barely. It was rough, at least for me, and after all of these years of teaching the first week has never gotten that much easier. I have taught for seven years -- and if you have ever taught, then I bet you can relate. Basically, it is trying to learn names (and this year for me I have 47 kids (2 classes)), learn what your kids will be like, getting into a routine, going over rules again and again, and saying the same things so many times, you start to sound like a broken record. You even start to wonder, "are these kids gonna catch on?" And then you start to miss some of the kids you had from last year, who of course by the end of the year did get it! So, each and every year has its new challenges, and getting back into the swing of things all takes time and patience, so I am working on it. 

Chris had a pretty easy first week because he has a new job at his school. He is the math and science instructional support teacher, so he does not have an actual class this year. He will be pulling kids to tutor and helping the teachers at his school, but for the first week he just helped out where and when it was needed. He's really enjoying it.

I took a few shots of my classroom, because I realized not many people have had a chance to see my room. I am in a portable, and I have only taught in the main building of our school once. I like the portables because you can control your own air! In the main building, the school district controls the air so it is either freezing or way too hot. That is one perk of being in a portable.
  

 

Got to have those helping hands! Kids LOVE helping the teacher. Some of my jobs for them if you can't see are, "Errand Angel", "Line Leader", "Hand-Out Hero", "Door Dude"-you get the point...

 

My great bookshelf, that is now even better because Chris gave me a whole bunch of chapter books he was not going to use this year. 

And last but not least ... our lil' miss Coco. She had a rough week because she missed us so much. Every morning we would try and say goodbye to her and she wouldn't even look at us. BUT when we got home she was SO excited to see us! To make her feel better I gave her this Hawaiian lei to chew up. I got it at a new nail place in town I tried out called Hawaiian nails - ha! But I told her that while she was chewing it up she can be dreaming of the day when Chris and I can retire and we will all move to Hawaii to live happily ever after. Hopefully that will help her not to be sad while we are gone. She seemed to like the idea.      

 

 

Now if only we can all get through week two...

Love,

Chris, Carrie, and Coco

The End of a Great Summer

Chris and I have been having a wonderful summer and we are for sure sad to see it end. We head back to work tomorrow, not yet with the kids, but for lots of teacher inservice meetings and setting up our classrooms. Good thing we both went up to our schools last week, so we are done with our rooms. Yay! I used to love setting up my room and doing cute bulletin boards, but since I am going into my 7th year of teaching, I try to get in and get out!  Ha!

We also both finished our summer classes for our masters programs. Chris has been doing his for a while, but this was my first class and it was hard! However, we both found out that we made A's so I guess our hard work paid off.  Now I just have 33 hours to go! We will see how it goes while trying to teach at the same time ...  

Here is a kind of a long recap of what other activities we were up to the last few weeks of our summer!   

In our last post Chris wrote about our July 19th wedding anniversary. It was a great 1st anniversary!   The weekend of I was actually at my annual mother daughter trip (more on this in a minute) and so I headed back a day early to be with Chris on the actual day. To celebrate we went to a really nice sushi restaurant that I think started in New York, called Nobu. Chris and I have really been into sushi lately, we even try to make it ourselves occasionally, and this food was sooooo good! Of course, for us it is only a place we can go on very special occasions such as this. We had several courses of Sushi and then when we got dessert, this is what they brought out. I had kind of  mentioned it was our special day. The flower reminded us alot of Maui, where we went on our honeymoon, and we wished we could have gone back there this summer. Maybe soon.

Before our anniversary, I was at my annual mother daughter trip. This was our 27th year to do the trip with the same moms and daughters. I am the youngest of the girls (28), the other girls are all 30, so we started doing this trip when we were all babies, and have not missed a year since. I could write a book about the history of mother daughter, how it started, tidbits about each and everyone who goes etc, but I will try and keep it short. However, as you can imagine, these moms and daughters are like family to me.  

The people that go on the trip are my mom Chris, and sister Claire, Sherron and her daughter Holly, Val and her daughter Heather, and Charlotte and her daughter Katie.  

Back Row: Heather, Val, Charlotte

Front Row: Sherron, Claire (my sister), Chris (my mom), Holly, me   

Katie was taking the picture!

We started this trip when we all lived in Corpus Christi, and we would go to the beach for a few days together. When Charlotte and Katie moved away, we started going to Galveston which was closer to them.  Then for a few years we floated the river in the Hill Country, and then for a few years we went to the lake in Austin. For our 25th anniversary we went to Telluride, Colorado, to hike the mountains, and now for the past couple years we have ended up back by the river in Wimberly, Texas. We are a group of mothers and daughters who love going places where there is water. We have gotten lucky in finding places to stay that have plenty of room for us to cook our meals, (every mom and daughter is assigned to different meals/days), and lots of room to spread out to talk and relax. Since this is the only time of the year we get to catch up, we do a lot of talking and a lot of eating!

This year we were back in Wimberly, Texas, to a place called the Seven Star Ranch. It is really just someone's vacation home that they rent out. It is by the river, but it is on several acres of land, so I think that is why they call it a ranch. Here are some pics of the weekend.           

Heather and Claire

Katie and Charlotte making dinner. 

Sherron, Claire, Chris, Holly 

Candid shot of Sherron and Charlotte chatting. And a little bit of the huge ranch house. 

This is why we love this house! The kitchen is big and open so we can all stand around and talk with the cooks!   

A view from the porch. The river is many steps below! 

Our own pool! 

We had a great time this year, and I think we plan to return to the same house next year. 

Jumping to a few weeks later....Chris and I then took a trip to Corpus Christi, for several events. One was my 10 year high school reunion, and the other was an anniversary present from my parents - tickets to see Willie Nelson, John Mellancamp, and Bob Dylan.  

Here is a pic from the reunion party. Chris was such a good sport coming with me. I know spouses' reunions can be awkward when you don't know anyone! But we still had a good time and I had fun seeing old friends!       

We didn't get any pics from the concert, because cameras were not allowed, but we had fun at that as well. 

So in all Chris and I had a great summer and I guess we are as ready as we will ever be to head back to work! 

But..... 

... then again, what is Lil' Miss Coco going to do all day while we are gone?!  With that face I may have to enroll her in Kindergarten so she can come with us! Ha!

Love, Carrie and Chris