First Snow

It's so funny that I'm excited to see the snow.  I left Boone saying "I don't care if I never see snow again."  Then I had friends calling me to tell me about the snow up there and it made me miss it.  Dianne called me around lunch today to rub it in how much snow Boone was getting.  Right after I hung the phone up with her it started snowing here!  So here is Sadie walking around in it.  I don't think she is a big fan of the snow.

22 days till Christmas now!  Our church, Tyro UMC,  is having Journey to Bethlehem tonight.  This is something our church started a couple years ago.  It's a live nativity set that displays the real Christmas story.  We have live animals and it all looks like you are really going through Bethlehem.  It's today and tomorrow from 6:30-9 so if you see this before then, go check it out.

I turned in my last assignment yesterday while my 5th graders were at book buddies.  It felt so good to know that I am now free of college work until I decide to go back for my Masters. When they came back from book buddies I had to do a happy dance with them. haha.  My supervisor even graded the assignments last night so I am officially done!  All I have to do now is show up to Tyro Monday-Wednesday of next week. I can't wait till graduation.  It looks like it's going to be snowing that day which I am kinda looking forward to as long as everyone can make it up the mountain alright.

24 days till Christmas

An angel said to Joseph "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

Not only is this a great Christmas verse but it should also take meaning in our everyday lives. The angel said "FEAR NOT" because Jesus came to save us of our sins. So no matter what trials we go through we should have no fear because the lord is always with us.

25 days of Christmas

I have to admit that I go a little crazy over Christmas and probably not always for the right reasons.  I get caught up in the shopping, the cute Christmas movies and the overall glamor of Christmas. I don't think getting excited about the Christmas season is a bad thing at all but I think it's extremely important to always remember what we are celebrating. So this year my goal is to remember the reason for Christmas each day of December in a special way. God has brought me through so much this year and so for the first day of my 25 days of Christmas I pray in Thanksgiving for all that he has done for me and my family this year.  It's hard for me to see how anyone could live without him in their lives.  For those of you who are reading this and know what I'm talking about you I encourage you to "give this Christmas away....."

What I Love Wednesday

My roommate from App, Kaitlin, does a thing on her blog where on Wednesday's she blogs about the things she is loving that week.  It's kinda of way to get over the hump day blues.  I loved reading hers so much that I've decided to do it myself.  So here is what I'm loving this week:

Today starts DECEMBER, which means that all the best Christmas movies will start coming on T.V like:

 

I am loving that student teaching is wrapping up and I have more free time for simple things like baking cookies!

I am loving that I had a job interview this week and that I'm graduating in 11 days!

 I'm loving dinner parties with my best bud.

I'm loving that's it's finally cold enough to wear cute teacher sweaters.

and finally, I'm loving that App State football playoff's start Saturday!

Countdown to Graduation

I only have 6 days left of student teaching and I graduate in 12 days!  It is so bittersweet.  I love my 5th graders to death.  I have learned so much from them and everyone at Tyro.  This semester has absolutely flew by.  It is so hard to believe that it is all coming to an end.  In less than 2 weeks I will have my Bachelors in Elementary Education!

I guess this semester has flew by because I have been going non-stop.  Thanksgiving break was a lot of fun.  I got to see a lot of family I haven't seen in a while, eat lots of food, watch some good movies, hang out with friends and go shopping on Black Friday.  I also went to CVS on Thanksgiving and got everything in the picture below for free and ended up making $7 in extra care bucks!

Black Friday was pretty interesting.  Felicia and I got to Kohls around 2:30 a.m. and waited behind about 600 people for Kohls to open at 3.  It started raining while we were outside in line which was a great added touch to the occasion.  After we got in line there were probably another 600 people that came in line behind us.  The check out line  was a 3 hour wait. It was double wrapped around the store.  We also went to Target right when they opened but didn't try on anything so we got through the checkout line fast.  We then went to Hanes Mall which wasn't too crowded but by this time we were about too tired to shop so we got a few things and left.  I don't know that I'll go next year, online shopping seems like a good plan to me.

On another note,  I had an interview for a 6th grade position this week.  I don't think I will hear anything about it until next week because they have one more person to interview.  I would really love the job though, the staff seems great and it's a really nice school.  I'm loving student teaching in 5th grade so I know I would enjoy 6th grade just as much. 

This past Sunday we had a great service to kick off the Christmas season.  Randy preached about Joy.  He said that at the top of our Christmas list should be to not let anything or anyone rob you of your Joy because we have already won the ultimate victory.  I wish we could always remember this because knowing that we are saved and will be going to heaven should bring us Joy everyday.  And yes, I am spelling Joy with a capital J on purpose.

Time to get busy

I haven't wrote about student teaching in a while so I thought I'd post myself a to-do list.  Note to self: stop procrastinating!  Anyway, I am loving student teaching right now.  Getting to teach everything is time consuming with all the other assignments I have to do combined but I love every minute of it.  I'm becoming much more laid back than I was at the being of student teaching.  At first I was all about my students not talking unless I gave them permission to and getting on to them constantly for not paying attention.  Now I'm letting them take responsibility for themselves.  As long as they aren't disturbing the learning of other students then I'm not wasting time fussing at students for every little thing.  I think it is making my students respect me more because they don't hear me getting on to people all the time.  Anyway, I need a list of all that I have to do this week so I don't forget so hear it goes.

1)  Finish this week's lesson plans
2)  Write last week's reflection
3)  Finish PDP
4)  Revise last component of Impact Project
5)  Combine all components of Impact Project to one PDF file
6)  Scan student work for Impact Project
7)  Make next week's lesson plans
8)  Create reading assesment for this week
9)  Contact registrar's office to make sure name is on list for graduation
10)  Make out graduation invitations
11)  Call for screening interview

Extreme Missions = Complete!

Our church is pretty much finished with the Extreme Missions project we did. We still have people coming to redo the roofing but the inside is finished. It was such a wonderful experience!  My church really pulled together to remodel a house in our community.  The family was gracious enough to let us come in and work for a full week.  People were there working on some days as early as 6 a.m. and some people stayed until after 9 p.m.  We did everything from removing all the trash in the home to completely redoing a bathroom.  We had a lot of challenges throughout the week like when when the countertop came undone and we had to completely redo the countertop on the island in the kitchen.  But in the end we finished remodeling the house and the family is very happy to have a like new home!  It really showed that no matter what your talent is there is some way that you can help out people.  Those who couldn't do labor helped provide meals for those working.  Even children came and helped out in some way.  I'm looking forward to doing this again.