do i still have a blog?

as i sit in my room at my parents house, i aimlessly look at facebook, which then leads me to the heethuis blog. i wish i could write a blog as interesting as hers. then i see 2in1... hey thats our blog. ha. do i still have one? here it is. maybe this will be my summer 'thing' to do.
so a quick catch up: almost married for one whole year!! back in michigan for the summer. it's so good to see family and friends that we don't see while we carry on our lives back in nc. ernie is well ernie. he doesnt paint fun pictures, doesn't cook with mommy/daddy, doesnt have any funny jokes to tell.... but he did jump in the lake this weekend! it was such a proud moment for us :)

well, on my summer to do list.... blog, take pictures, hang out with family and friends, celebrate our one year anniversary, go to a couple weddings, and most of all... relax :)

lights out

It's been raining for three days straight. today was windy as well as rainy. not a good start. at school the lights flicked a couple of times in the morning.... so i sat with a flashlight all morning. did i mention the schools server was down? so no computer. a couple of kids being themselves i guess, which is exhausting for me. 130pm in my self contained reading group as well as having a 5th grade boy who has autism. just us sitting at the round table. the power goes out. did i mention that my room has no windows? so its a dungeon. not only are the two couple of kids low functioning but the boy in 5th grade then starts to say "they're here... they're coming to get us" did i mention that i left the flashlight on the other table? ohhh my life in the classroom is never a dull moment. tomorrow is jean day. i hope it's not raining and i hope the power doesn't go out. i need just a small break.

lifesavers

i came into my kind of deaded staff meeting thinking i hope this doesnt take long. its my day off of cheerleading and i wanted to actually get some planning done. well its now 4pm and i am still there. just as we are about to be dismissed, our counselor tells us some sad news about a couple of families.
one hispanic family has 4 kids. one 16, one in 8th grade, one in 4th and one in 1st. the two younger kids go to my school. well their 16 year old brother decided to go with some friends and break into a house. as the house alarm went off, he attempted to jump out of the window and stabbed himself with the glass on accident. this family was visited by our school admin. and they have nothing. the food was barely there and this family is now grieving and trying to figure out a funeral with no $. the second story is a 1st grader at our school. his parents just had a baby 3 months ago, dad recently lost his job, and this past weekend was killed in a car accident. ugh. just as i was thinking that my day was going to be ruined if i didn't get planning time after school.
as i sat there, i probably could've cried. i cant imagine that feeling that anyone in either of those situations are going through. could you imagine losing your sibiling at a young age? or what about your dad? or being the mother to a lost child? a wife... with two young kids?
i called brian and told him the story and said, lets help. he agreed. so i went and bought some food for the family that was in great need. it felt so good. while i was at the store, another story from the meeting came to mind. staff morale being low... we needed a lil pep. and so me... being voted most school spirited in high school and being on the SUNSHINE committee, i got to thinking.
i came to school today, with no lesson plans, ha, but i did bring 4 bags of food for a family in need, and a bowl full of lifesavers and kisses (chocolate ones that is) with a note on top saying "sometimes all you need to save your day is a lifesaver or a kiss" how creative i know! no one knew it was me except for the couple of teachers in the room when i made the drop off, but by the end of the day, the bowl was almost gone and whether or not they gave a crap about the note, they had to have read it. and i know for sure they enjoyed the candy.
so after you read this..... go pay it forward in some way :)

I have a blog?

Well, I will say, I totally forgot I have a blog... or should I say, we have a blog. It was fun to look at Tammy and Theresas blog and see the pictures of the kids :) We miss home, so I love seeing the pictures and reading the stories.
So summer came and went. We got married <3 We love it. The wedding was so much fun, the reception was fun, everything was so much fun!
Now the school year has started, we are a month into it already, pretty crazy. The honeymoon period at school is for sure over! Brian and I are staying pretty busy with school, coaching, painting the apt on the weekends, putting away all of our wedding gifts, or trying to at least.
We did hang up our new wine glasses underneath the cabinets in the kitchen, so when the Klein's come to visit I will have some wine and wine glasses for you. As for Theresa, I for sure have short rock glasses to make us a nice little V&T :)
Keep us posted on life up there, we miss you all!

Well, it's been a few months, sorry. The last couple months of school were exhausting and to be quite honest, I forgot about the blog. ha. surprise. Well here's what we've been up to:

Wedding
Wedding
Wedding

There is only 15 days left until we become a married couple. aahhhhh. That's an ahhhh of excitement if you couldn't tell. While Brian is enjoying the life in Vegas this weekend, I will be enjoying writing out thank you notes, finishing centerpieces, trying to figure out how to do a picture slideshow, and bathing my... I mean our dog. Man Brian has it rough. Well, thats about it. I am so excited to be back home in Michigan. It's so good to be able to see friend and family and more than just a couple days. I am also enjoying the summer life of a teacher... hence that's why I have so much crap.... I mean fun things to do for the wedding. I've been enjoying laying out in the sun baking my white skin, so that I look "glowing" in my dress. Thats if the dress actually fits. I am PMSing and eating just about anything in site. The latest crave is rice krispie treats. I made them at the Klein's, tried to leave them, but when I was leaving, there was a note on top of the pan saying, "Amanda, please take these with you or else I will eat them all, luv, Dad" haha, so I left them two and took half a pan home with me. Thank goodness, because they are delicious! Im sure I might regret this decision in a couple weeks as I try to squeeze my fatnesss into a tiny dress :) So if you are at the wedding and notice back fat hanging out of the top of my dress, just think of how happy I am that I ate those treats.

Drug Problem

I received this as an email and thought others would enjoy it:

Editor’s note:
The following letter has appeared on the internet and was viewed by many readers. Many felt it would be appropriate for the readers of Avoyelles Parish.

The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a Methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, “Why didn’t we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?”
I replied, I had a “drug problem” when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.
I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn’t put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom’s garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad’s fields. I was drug to homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood, and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroine; and, if today’s children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.
God bless the parents who drugged us.
Submitted by concerned citizen


so can i share this with my students parents?

i can't even imagine

As I sit here on the weekend in my living room, watching a huge tv, typing on a brand new laptop, and full, I think about my students who are not. This past month has really been something else for me. I guess I just wasn't thinking about it in depth until now. I serve about 30 kids a day. I would say about half if not more wear the same pants for the whole week (and one I know, can't even zip or button them because they are too small) so many of my students are wearing clothes that are either too big or too small. I want to say "at least they have some sort of clothes to wear" but for myself growing up, I never had to worry about any of that. I was always provided for. Not only do some of my students wear clothes that aren't their size or are dirty, some of my students go home on fridays knowing that they may not eat that weeked. or if they do eat, they may not feel full after. ugh. it breaks my heart. if i could i would have them all over and feed their little bellies full. good thing my counselor has this program through our county called "back pack pals." every friday there are students in the school that pick up an "extra" backpack on their way out of school. some are embarrassed, some are glad, some probably have no idea where it's coming from. in that back pack are snacks. not meals, but those kids now know that they will have something to eat this weekend.
One of my students who qualified for this program lives in a trailer park. a big trailer park, however it's not a pretty new trailer. This trailer park almost had me in tears the first time i saw it. there are trailers with no windows, rusted trailers, no curtains, i can't even begin to describe it. you would need a picture. its sad. well she came to me one day and said "i want to tell you something, but you can't tell anyone." i said ok. she had a huge smile on her face. "the counselor is giving me a back pack that i can take home today and it's filled with snacks and stuff for my family because sometimes its too expensive to buy lots of food." omg. seriously? that was my first thought. here is a girl who looks completely "normal" clean clothes, showers, smells good, always happy, and yet I had no idea that she lived like this. I had to put on a happy face and say "thats so cool!! I'm so happy for you" when i really wanted to cry and hug her.
When I drew a picture of a house at the beginning of the year and asked my kids who lived with them,one of my kids said that their house looks like this.. and they drew a rectangle. ugh. I now know that school is probably the best place for these kids. They are guaranteed a free breakfast, a free lunch, climate control, water, and a clean bathroom. never the less they get love. i have to always remind myself to not get upset for kids who complain about things like 'i need some more water, i'm hungry (even though they just ate) sleeping in class (for the whole day) not doing their homework. it breaks my heart especially when its time to go home and they complain about going home. i was always like, YESSSSS, LET'S GO HOME!!!

I want to take this opportunity to thank God and my parents. i was just telling this story to my parents while they were down here. I can't imagine not knowing if i was going to eat and be full every night. i can't imagine going to school in dirty clothes. wearing the same thing everyday. not having someone help me on my homework. being cold at night. so thank you for giving me food, warmth, shelter, and love.