Saturday, June 25, 2011

Lincoln's Words

I just wanted to post really quickly the most wonderful things we've been hearing lately. Here is Lincoln's current vocabulary:

Mama
Daddy
Yiye = Lile
Nana
dall = ball
tu-uh = truck
ta = car
ni-ni = night night
bye bye
hey
uh-oh
no
doo = door

He also has lots of sign language:
cup
up
more
all done
bath
yogurt

We're working on outside, diaper, and dog. 


A quick pic of our recent trip to South Mountain State Park. I'll blog about that soon!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Weekend Fun!

Lincoln got his first haircut on Friday! It was bittersweet....he was so precious as he sat there in that chair and was a perfect angel. He didn't fuss or cry once. He never tried to take the scissors away from Melissa or anything. Anthony decided that his curls over his ears were getting unruly and needed a trim. I had already said that I wasn't cutting his curls from the back! I'm afraid if I cut them off they won't come back. He looked at the comb and held one so he could brush his hair while she was cutting. He turned to see what she was doing maybe once or twice, but that was it. Otherwise he just sat there and waited to be finished! 





He gave her this look when she brushed his hair into his eyes so she could snip it. 


He had to help sweep when he was finished! He LOVES a broom! 



Here's the bittersweet part, he looks sooo much older!! Something about that messy curly look said sweet little boy. Now that it's all trimmed up and short in the front it's such a big boy cut! I have to admit I shed a tear! Anthony saw him when he got home and said he wished we wouldn't have cut it....we're going to let it grow back out!! :)

On Saturday we decided to check out a zip line course here near home. The Beanstalk Journey is here in Morganton, NC. The course has like 5 wood bridges and 5 zip lines. Here we are all suited up and ready to head out on the course.






You had to climb up the Giant's Ladder to get onto the course! It's a huge rope tube. 


My very fist zip!! It was tons of fun! We're about 50 feet off the ground and each zip is about 50 feet long.  Except for the last one, that's 500 feet!




Anthony showing his personality!! We obviously didn't take Lincoln. This place doesn't allow anyone under 4 years old or 70 pounds. Not to mention that after our 3rd rope bridge and 2nd zip line the sky turned ominous. Huge black clouds came rolling in and filled the sky. As we were trying to get from one treehouse to the next the wind REALLY started whipping! I mean, blowing the pine trees a good 15 feet over and showering us with branches and leaves. Then came the rain...COLD, cold rain! Just a few drops at first, so it was OK. They were going to let us finish the course. Then suddenly: thunder!! And the sky opened up and poured on us! They had to "rescue" us by tying us to a rope and rappelling us down from the tower. We made it about halfway through the course, enough to know that we liked it and want to do it again. The best part is we get a FREE pass to return any time! So not only did we get halfway, we get to go back for free!!! That's my kind of trip. And it was a big adventure! We weren't scared, just cold and wet! We will definitely return to use our free passes soon...

Sunday, June 19th was Father's Day. 

This is Anthony's 2nd Father's Day and he is such a good daddy. Lincoln adores him and loves to play with him. They wrestle in the floor and play guitar together. Ok, so Lincoln just really smacks the strings and carries it around. But it's still cute! Yesterday at a yard sale I bought Lincoln a big tool box full of cute little plastic tools. Some are Little Tykes toys that make noises (without any batteries!) that sound so fun. There's even a tool belt. We filled it up with tools today and he wore it around the house taking all the tools out of it! Anthony can't wait until Lincoln is old enough to start helping around the house. Not because he doesn't want to do the work, but because he wants to do it with Lincoln and teach him how to do things, like his daddy did. 


We got him a Kindle. He's always talking about how the books in the basement are taking up so much space and we've sold about all the ones we're willing to part with. So I thought that an e-reader would be a great way that he could still have his books, but not have them cluttering up the house. Plus, he reads like 3 books at a time anyway...and this way he doesn't have to pack 3 books in his suitcase! 

Lincoln loves Daddy!!!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Who moved my cheese?!

Yes, I'm like Hem and Haw....I do NOT like change. Let me explain.

So we had an end of the year faculty meeting this morning before our principal let us know what our staff placements would be for next year. Due to the fact that she was planning on moving a large number of people around another teacher volunteered to read a children's book about change. The title is Who Moved My Cheese? If you haven't read it check out the basic idea here: http://talktokate.com/books/who-moved-my-cheese-for-kids-by-spencer-johnson/

I am happy with my old cheese. In fact, I LIKE my old cheese. I don't want to go out into the scary maze to find new cheese. I'd like to just wait right here until someone returns my old cheese. 

But, alas, that is not going to happen...Today I was informed that I'm moving to 2nd grade. After teaching in 4th grade for the last 3 years, and having taught either 3rd or 4th grade for my whole 8 year teaching career you might say I'm quite concerned. I'm so overwhelmed I don't even know where to start. I have to move rooms of course, so I feel like there's sooo much to be done that I can't even begin to pack. Today after she told us our assignments I literally just wandered around the school talking to others who had been moved to see how they were feeling. Now I have one more paid workday and probably a week's worth of work to be done before I have my classroom moved. Plus once I get moved I'll have to organize and put up posters and such. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm simply stating facts. I'm trying VERY hard to be positive about this. My principal tells me this will give me more of an opportunity to be creative and integrate even more technology. Plus, it's a little less stress b/c it's not a testing grade. I'm nervous because I have no idea how they do the K-2 assessments, or how they do their grading. They don't use grades, they give 1-4. Who knows!? 

The sermon at church on Sunday was about insecurity and fear and how we need to overcome. How it's the devil working on us and when we feel that we should start to pray. It was a very hard lesson to sit through. I already felt like I had been attacked and was being judged as a person and not a very good teacher. So to hear the preacher say we needed to get rid of our insecurities it stung a little bit. 

I'm not sure what I'm doing here. I don't know what to do on the first day at school. I don't know what they can do. I don't know how much these babies can read. I don't know how to help these babies read better. I don't know what to teach. I don't know how to deal with teaching math and science again. I don't even have manipulatives. I don't know how their calculators work. I don't have enough books for them to read. I don't know what to do with them all day...

I am trying very hard to look at this as a good thing. I can do anything once. I can try anything once. I can give it my best shot. 

Let's just hope I make some progress on my room tomorrow. I have a feeling I'm going to be at school this summer more than ever before. I realllly try hard not to go to school at all over break. In fact, I won't even talk about school if someone asks. And I won't tell them when school starts back until the month of August. I just am not a teacher in the summer months. Take that however you want, but it's how I work. I get to truly be Kyla over the summer. I get to be the best mommy ever over the summer. I get to be the best wife ever over the summer. That is truly who I am and who I love being. Let's hope that now being a 2nd grade teacher fits into that equation! 

Friday, June 10, 2011

School's Out for Summer!!

TODAY IS THE BEST DAY IN A LOOOONG TIME!!! Today was the last day of school!!!!! No more students...no more lesson plans.....no more meetings.....and HOME with my Lincoln!!!!!!

Ok, I know that was pretty powerful and included a LOT of exclamation points but you have to understand how wonderful today is. All the paperwork, lesson plans, meetings, political drama are over!!! At least for the summer. I can't wait to spend all my time with my Lincoln. We've got a trip planned for Yellowstone with Erin for July and we're planning to take a trip to Virginia Beach for Anthony's birthday in August. That's all the concrete plans we have for now, there's no telling what else will pop up. We've been talking about trying out a zip line pretty soon and I think Anthony's itching to get the kayaks out into the lake pretty soon, too. I know it has also been mentioned that Lincoln would be crazy about the zoo this summer since he's crazy about animal books and sounds. 

I'll write more often now, since I will actually have time to upload the pictures and share our excursions. Sorry it's been a while...just haven't felt up to doing anything extra with the stress of the end of the school year. 

Here's a quick picture of our Mother's Day this May.