Fun teaching First Grade

Job Update:
In September, I started another long term substitute job teaching first grade. I am still at the same school I have been at for the last 2 years. (Justin Elem) I will be there until Thanksgiving. After teaching 4th grade for so many years, first grade is sooooo different. Refreshingly different. We start teaching guided reading groups on Tuesday. After I master that, I think I will feel confident about it all. While this is fun for a short time, I am still thankful that I do not have to work full-time. (IF I ever go back, I still don't think I will do kindergarten or first.)

Brownie Girl Scouts

We have started another year of Girl Scouts. Sarah is now a Brownie. We have 14 girls that meet every other week at our house. We work to earn Try It patches. The girls chose to work on Make It, Eat, Art to Wear, and Science Wonders. We are also completing scrapbook pages to go along with these badges and to document our year! They are a very craft, giggly set of little girls!

Hamster Derby

Who knew there was such a thing, huh?

Yesterday, we went to Petco, where Sarah's hamster, Whiskers, competed in the annual Hamster Derby. They divided the hamsters up into dwarf and regular sized and then they ran in heats to see who would go to the final round. (Side note...the regualr sized ones are called Teddy Bear hamsters and they are huge. Look much more like rats. Glad we got a dwarf one.)

Whiskers got second place in her first two races against other dwarf hamsters. Then she completed in the final round against one other dwarf and two BIG ones. She got third place over-all! We thought she wasn't going to get it because during the race, she got right to the finish line and stalled. Shane and I were screaming at her to keep going and cross the line! You wouldn't believe how exciting it was!

Pictures show:

• the staring lineup (there were actually 14 hamsters there to race)
• the race course
• Sarah coaching Whiskers during the warm-up practice
• Sarah giving a last minute pep-talk before Whiskers started the final race
• Coach and Whiskers with their 3rd place ribbon and prize (a treat log)
• Whiskers proudly displaying her ribbon once we got back home.

What FUN!! Some of you teased us because we have a potty-trained hamster. Now, you must really be jealous. :)

COWBOYS

Well, Steve's dream of being a Cowboys ticket holder has finally come true! He is super excited to have tickets for the 10 home games for the 2009-2010 football season. The new stadium is amazing. We have been to several concerts (Reba McIntire and Jonas Bros.), the Open House, and then to a few games. Since we only bought 2 tickets, Steve takes a different person to each game. Our seats are in section 201, row 6, seats 16 and 17. This is caddy-corner to the end zone. They have a great view of the field, the big screen overhead, and the cheerleaders. One of the pictures shows us all 4 sitting in our seats at the Open House. The kids were amazed at the vastness of the stadium and had fun going all the way to the top of the nose-bleed section. Another picture shows Steve with the tickets before he had to tear off the first one. Being the husband-of-a-scrapbooker that he is...he knew it was important to take a picture of the tickets before the picture was disrupted.

I enjoyed going to the Inagural Game against the Giants. I am not a fan, but it was impressive and exciting to be at the game. The enthusiasm of the fams was very contagious and we had a good time. One of the pictures is of a huge U.S flag that military service members unrolled on the field during half-time. Steve's sister Debbye bought a party pass for the game and had her picture taken with the Tom Landry statue.

"Hey Batter, Batter!"

Shane's first T-Ball game was this Saturday. He played last spring and liked it so much we decided to play with the local YMCA this season. His team is the Aggies and is made up of 3-4 year old boys. It was quite fun to watch. Here are some of the highlights:

• Kids hitting the ball and then running after that same ball
• Kids running to third after a hit
• A kid crying at first because he didn't want to run to second
• Many kids on one base at a time
• Inning 1: Kids watching the ball as it was hit and noone going after it
• Inning 2: Kids dog-piling each other and trying to wrestle for the ball

The pictures show Shane in his uniform, Shane with Coach Brian ready to bat, hitting the ball, and then waiting for a "High-5" after scoring a run.

Shane's first day of preschool

Shane is attending Heritage Christian Preschool again this year. He is in the 4 year-old Zebras class. He absolutely loves school and attends T/Th from 9-2 pm. They do a lot of kindergarten prep stuff and also learn bible verses and stories. They go to Life Prints where they explore science and Spanish.

Do they make a bed bigger than a king?

With last night's storm, I gained two extra people in my king-sized bed. At midnight, I finished a 3+ hour phone call with my mom and went up to check on the kids. Shane has been sleeping with Sarah a lot these days. She uses it as a bartering system when she has friends over. "Shane, if you let me and Kate play alone, then you can sleep with me tonight..." Pretty smart girl. I think she is comforted by him as much as he is by her. If she won't let him sleep in her bed, he sleeps outside her door in a little Star Wars tent. Hopefully they'll still get along like this as teenagers. I said hopefully. {picture to follow}

Anyways...when I went up to check on them, Sarah was wide awake, scared of the thunder. Steve was out of town, so I invited them down. I don't think any of us slept well. Shane was in the middle, but his knees and feet were on me the whole time. Next time, I think he is going sleep in the floor. I keep a pillow and blanket on my side of the bed so that when he shows up he has a place. Note, he came down often when he was allowed in the bed, but since I put out this blanket, he doesn't come near as often.

I read Cari's post about the 4 of them in the same situation, and I think they have a queen! Maybe I should just utilize the lock in the bedroom door?