what a wondrous time of year

Christmas Break is officially here. (Man, I love my job!) We had a class party at school last Friday. The day of a class party is a true test of your classroom management skills. How long can you keep 24 fourth graders distracted and doing something on task until the final hour of school? Luckily, I have some good students. Then I discovered how to get them quiet and perfectly still during the party. Tell them you are going to take a picture!


Looks like I survived and they had an incredible time. And while I was having all of this wonderful fun, my husband was finishing up his finals for pharmacy school. He survived as well!

I always have so much fun during Christmas. Over the years I have collected quite the collection of Christmas socks. This year I got this pair from my secret pal at school. I think these might top all of the Christmas socks that ever were!

The day I got them I was wearing a skirt, so I thought it would be fun to put them on over my tights. That in turn got so many comments for the rest of the day from my co-workers.

As long as I'm posting about Christmas, now would be an appropriate time to share a picture of our tree...




And the mantle...

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays! May the calendar keep bringing, Happy Holiday to you!

all in perfect taste

Our small group at church has been quite the happening group lately. These guys are just the best. We're all so busy, but we sure enjoy each others company. (well, at least I do :)

Here we took a girl's night out to see the movie New Moon. We got to be all fancy in the balcony of the Warren theater. Plus we got to use the seat warmers on this rainy evening.





Last night we met for dinner at Zio's. Here are shots of each side of the table.




Then the few and adventurous ones headed to the devon ice rink downtown.
Cynda and Clint turned out to be the ice skating champions!

mind your manners

It was much to my delight when an article in Time for Kids gave tips to children on how to show their manners.

I read this in class with my students, but I thought these tips were also good for us adults to be reminded of as well.

This comes from Capricia Penavic Marshall who is an expert on manners:

• Know your manners. You give yourself an advantage when you know the appropriate way to act.
• Do not say thank you with an e-mail. People appreciate a hand written thank you note.
• Give others your full attention at the dinner table. Put the cell phone away, and engage in conversation.

I think the first one is an obvious one for adults and we usually do consider this when dealing with other people.

The second one is something I agree with, but I keeping coming across people who feel that writing thank you notes is very outdated. I don't write thank you notes for everything little thing, but I do write them from time to time to show my appreciation to someone. I do feel that writing thank you notes is very necessary for wedding, shower, and graduation gifts.

And I totally agree with the third one. I keep coming across people who are totally engrossed in text messaging and I tend to wonder why I am even hanging out with them in the first place since they obviously have something else occupying them. Bob and I were out at dinner one weekend and we saw a family sitting together and the three "children" all looked to be about in their twenties. All of them were texting on their cell phones and nobody at the table was talking to each other or to the parents.

Reading the article in the kids magazine was a nice fresh reminder that even the little things we do can speak volumes of how we value other people. Showing kindness and consideration does not take much effort and it makes everyone feel good.

you're so old

So old and so out of touch... at least that's what I have felt like recently with some of my students at school.

Last week I heard a girl mutter "you're a jerk". I immediately asked her what she was saying. She said she was singing a song. Instantly some of the other students sang along which was when I realized it was indeed a real song. I guess I have been living under a rock because a quick google search brought me to the song and the group who sings it, the new boyz. I told them I had never heard that song before. This of course was shocking to my students, how have I never heard this song before?



I told them I knew the song "cupid shuffle". Which was followed by scoffs. A girl told me, "Mrs. Kennedy (like come on...) everybody knows that!"

Then earlier this week they asked me if I liked Twilight. Which I told them yes, I 've read all the books. Then the girl follows up with "Robert Pattinson is mine!"

I reply with "who?". And she says, "Edward". Then I ask, "Why are you calling him Robert?"

Then she says, "because that's his name".



So, it took me a little too long to figure out she was referring to the actor who plays Edward in the movie. To me the Twilight series is just books, but to elementary students it is all about the movie and the actors. How silly of me.

I find both of these encounters rather humorous now. I just happened to feel incredibly old while they were happening. If I am so old and out of touch with these kids, I wonder what it is like for the other people in my building who are 12-30 years older than me?

everybody's got a laughing place

Laughing is a very natural and healthy part of life. I feel that if you are not able to laugh at some things, then you might be taking life a little too seriously. Laughing helps me to be able to enjoy life. Why am I feeling the need to say this? Maybe because I laugh a lot. Maybe because my students tell me, "Mrs. Kennedy, you laugh a lot."

However, this week I've been a little pre-occupied with video taping for my national board project, and I just need a good laugh to help relieve some of the stress. If you would need a good laugh too check out the videos below. These make me laugh every time. Enjoy!

Single Lady Clown



Injured Bad

the leaves are rustling gustily

Last week I got to enjoy one of my teacher holidays that seems "unfair" to the rest of the working world. FALL BREAK!!! And might I say that I for one have been enjoying our premature fall weather here in OK. I thought for the one week anniversary of fall break being past us, that it was time for a recap.

First, I came home Wednesday night and did all of my grading so I could enjoy the long weekend.

Then, Thursday morning I got to be a fun aunt and I had Audrey come over to the house and watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with me. I must admit that was probably mostly for me, but she enjoyed it too. I bought the new DVD this month and I just haven't had time to watch it. What better excuse is there than to watch it with my niece. Our movie was followed up with lunch at Chuck E Cheese.

Thursday evening Bob and I helped serve a meal at the Lighthouse and then we headed home to chill out and watch "The Office".

Friday, was just one big date day/night. My dear husband accompanied me to the mall and I actually got to go to several stores, bought a new black jacket, and some make-up.

We then had a late lunch at the Elephant Bar

Yea for late lunches and having the restaurant to our selves!


Later that evening we had a big night out in Bricktown. Since this was the evening before the OU/Texas game it was not overly crowded for a Friday night, but not deserted either.

Me in my new jacket.

The husband cruising Bricktown
We ate dinner at the Bricktown Brewery and enjoyed the nice crisp fall evening as we walked outside. Finally, we got to check out the new Michael Murphy's Dueling Piano bar. Since it was not a very busy night we got to walk right in without having to wait, like we've been hearing about from several people. The piano players were a hoot, but I would not recommend this type of entertainment in the midst of company such as your grandma.

Overall I would declare Fall Break a success! Luckily this week of school so far has gone well, except that I have been getting hungry before lunch time. Sounds like I have gotten myself accustomed to eating more often during my time off. Oh well, time to get back into my routines.

there maybe something there that wasn't there before

Having a pet in our house is shocking for many of our close friends and family members. I never grew up with pets, so this has been a completely new experience for me. We are getting used to our cat still and his interesting schedule. He's not a complete indoor cat as of right now. Mr. Swarley comes and goes as he pleases. He eats, sleeps all day, and prefers to be outside all night. Whenever I try to treat him like an indoor kitty, he goes to the door and asks to leave (stands at the door and meows). I gave him cat nip to play with, a fake mouse. Shortly after that he asks to leave and 10 minutes later he comes back with a half dead field mouse. I guess he wanted the real thing. I've heard that you never really "own" a cat, it is the cat who chooses. I think that is definitely the case here. We'll see what happens as the weather keeps getting colder, but for now Swarley is still an indoor/outdoor kitty.

happy birthday to you!

A year ago on September 25, 2008 my sister had her second baby girl. Today we had a party and celebrated her first birthday! Here are some pictures from the past year and a few from the party today.

Happy Birthday Chloe!

everybody wants to be a cat

We have a new addition at our house. If you have known me for a long time, then you know that I have never had a pet before, so this has been quite an experience. Get ready for story time and meet Mr. Swarley.

This has been one interesting kitty adoption. It started when we got back from our trip to the Riviera Maya. I kept noticing a gray cat hanging around our house. The neighbor girls next door (they are about 9-12 years old) would play and pet the cat like it was theirs. Then our other neighbor asked them who's cat it was, and they did not really give a straight answer.

This cat kept coming around and would lay outside in front of Bob's truck. Then one evening the cat was meowing at the door and my compassionate husband said the cat looked hungry, so he fed the cat some people food. After talking it over we decided we could give this kitty a home. It was ten o'clock at night and we made a Wal-mart run to go buy kitty litter and some food.

The cat came into our house just fine. He was really calm, friendly, and seemed to be already trained with a litter box. I feel safe assuming that he probably was somebody's cat at one time and he probably got dumped in our neighborhood.

The only thing was, we could not get our new cat to stay in the house. Any time we would leave or sometimes late at night he would want out. We would let him go and sure enough, in less than 24 hours he'd be back. It seemed like our house was just a place to sleep and eat for him.

For a while we did not have a name for him. Finally, we decided to name him Swarley. This name comes from the show "How I Met Your Mother". The character Barney goes to a coffee shop and they wrote his name on his cup, but they put Swarley. For the rest of the episode all of his friends keep calling him Swarley and it drives him nuts. We also decided to name the cat Swarely because we felt like we were being used by him, kind of like the character Barney from the show and how he takes advantage of women.

Then one day we let him out like usual and he came back with a female friend. This is where we drew the line. I did not want to let him and his friend in my house. I was not going to risk her having a litter of kittens on our floor.

So Swarley went away, for a little bit. He would come back and meow and Bob would feed him food outside. We have been feeding him for two weeks now, but he would come and meow and not eat. It looked like he wanted back in.

Yesterday, my mom came to drop something off and she opened the door and he ran right in! I put him back outside. Then that evening after we got back from dinner we decided to let the cat back in since it's been wet and rainy lately. We are going to try to let him stay with us and let him come and go as he pleases.

With winter coming I'm guessing he will not be a fan of being stuck outside in the cold. So this cat is ours for now unless somebody comes looking for him.

Or if anybody out there would like to adopt him let us know.

let's stop pretending and be practical

Well, I thought I was going to be practical...

On the first day of school my students told me they liked my shoes. My response was, "thank you I'll probably wear them all year long."

We've had 5 days of school now, and I've worn 5 different pairs of shoes.

it's delicious!

Bob thought this was funny, and for all of the Jim Gaffigan fans out there you might have a giggle at this as well. If you don't know what I am talking about check this out first.

Jim Gaffigan's Hot Pockets

I was grading the paragraphs I had assigned for homework: Write 5 sentences describing your favorite meal. I ran across this one. Written just like this except the parentheses are my editing.

"My favorite meal is Hot pockets. (I like them) Because their good, and spicey hot. But they don't have diffrent (kinds). The'ry only pepperonie. Thats what I don't like about it."



I guess this child is deprived and has only had the pepperoni kind. Maybe that's the only kind his mom buys, I don't know.

"Hot Pockets"

I'm afraid this can't last forever

It's been an extraordinarily fun summer. Unfortunately it is coming to an end! I've been up at school working on my classroom all week. I still have a lot to get together, but I like skipping to the fun things... like decorating. Here is the bulletin board I worked on outside my room today.

I wonder how far I can make this bulletin board go? Last year I started with "Swing into Kindergarten" changed the next one to "Wild about Kindergarten" and then made it "Wild about Thanksgiving". However, I may need to take ALL of the words down each time I change the bulletin board theme this year since unlike kindergartners, 4th graders CAN read!

On Monday my school district will officially dictate my comings and goings once again. Then on Thursday the students get to join us. Also Bob will start year 2 of pharmacy school on the 24th.

how does she know...

I love it when my husband makes the bed =)

Makes a happy wifey too.

I can't even fly out of a window

Last week we got a new window in our living room. So no more breeze coming through the drafty old window this winter. I am so overly excited about this, plus I was kind of tickled to see what it looked like when the old window was removed.

What can I say? I am easily entertained, or maybe it's time to start back to school soon?

Saludos Amigos

Hello everyone! Last week we spent our time on the Yucatan peninsula at the Secrets Capri Resort in the Riviera Maya. It was a belated two year wedding anniversary celebration! The resort was all-inclusive and the beach was beautiful! All of the pictures in the collage above are ones that I took with our camera. It was just gorgeous! The workers at the resort were wonderful and a lot of them seem to be familiar with JFK. Any time we would tell them our name was Kennedy, they would respond, "like the president?" . I'm still getting used to the presidential references that go along with my married name, but it's fun.

We enjoyed relaxing on the beach and getting pampered. I got to finish reading Eclipse from the Twilight series and started reading the final book New Moon (edit) Breaking Dawn. Sounds like we had a lazy vacation, and we wanted to do just that! We're anticipating a busy school year with Bob starting year two of pharmacy school and me moving up to 4th grade plus tackling national certification. So, whenever we start feeling overwhelmed next school year I'll reflect back to this lazy vacation, and press on.

and we're off

We left Friday afternoon for Houston. From here we are leaving for a resort in the Riveria Maya in Mexico on Monday morning and we'll be back in Houston on Friday.

But first Bob's parents thoroughly entertained us. We got to go to the outlet mall, ate dinner at Irma's Southwest Grill, and caught an Astros game. The Astros played terribly, but it was still fun.

Should be back next week with an update of the rest of our trip.

every color in between

It has not been an ordinary week, and I mean that in a good way. And this will not be an ordinary post. I'll be summarizing the week and then back tracking to the end of last month.

Monday night I got to babysit the two most cutest nieces ever because grandma was out of town! We got to play games and watch movies together.
Tuesday night my husband and I went out to eat for our two year wedding anniversary. So far our tradition has been to go out to eat somewhere nice where we have not been before. Last year we went to Musashi's Japanese Steakhouse and this year we went to 1492 Latin Cuisine. When we get back we take our picture using the timer on the camera. Yes, I enjoy being cheesy!



For the holiday weekend we decided to paint the dining room. We painted most of the day on Friday. It took two coats of paint thanks to our textured walls. Luckily, my man is a skilled painter and he did a fabulous job.

Before:
After:

Soon we will be working on painting some of the walls in our living room. White walls just do not go with the color of our new couches. Stay tuned.

Also, here is the lime cheesecake I made for my father-in-law's birthday last month.


While the in-laws were here we got to play guitar hero together on the wii. Fun stuff!

the best of friends

Two years ago today I married my best friend. It has flown by so quickly. Whenever we have friends who are planning a wedding we tell them it would be easier to just elope. Still can't tell if we're half joking on that. However, I am glad on how our wedding turned out. Both of our moms really went out of their way to make it extremely nice and we were able to share our special day with our family and close friends.





Would I do it all over again? Yes I would, in a heartbeat!

just a cute little bundle

On June 12th my cousin gave birth to twin baby girls, Claire and Sadie. One baby was 4.5 lb and the other was five, so there was just over nine pounds of baby!

I was content just getting to hold one baby, but then my aunt thought this would be a good idea...


My husband better watch out! Twins do run in my family! For those of you who don't know, my mom is a twin and her twin sister had twin boys.


Honestly, I thought I would be more on top of this blog with school being out and all. Actually, things have not slowed down one bit. I should be back soon since I have a few pictures that I have not uploaded to the computer just yet.

the moment we've been waiting for

We bought new furniture in April. It has taken two months to finish re-decorating the living room. I put up new curtains, bought a new picture, painted my old mirror, and added a nice red rug. Then it took a while for me to get the after picture. So now I am ready to share the completed project. Drum roll please....

The living room Before:

And After:

It's still not finished. We are thinking about painting the walls maybe a light, light brown color, maybe. I'll have to play in the paint sample department at Lowe's or Home Depot. So we will see.

It was fun to do, but I don't think extreme home makeover will be calling me any time soon.

Let's get it over with.

One more day of school... on Monday! Things won't slow down though, things are only going to get busier for me from there. I have two days to get all of my stuff out of my classroom and into a different room down the hall since I will be in 4th grade next year. Then I will go to professional development throughout the next three weeks. Summer, you will just have to wait for now, and so will this blog.

things are gonna change

About a month ago I found out for sure that I would be back in my building next school year and I got to sign a continuing contract with the school district. This month I found out that my grade assignment next year will be changing to 4th grade! I am way super excited about this because originally I have always wanted to teach 3rd or 4th grade and my major actually covers this grade level. I learned and adapted to teaching kindergarten and it has been a good experience, but it's time to move up. There may be times I might miss kindergarten next year, but I am looking forward to working with older more independent students.

Also this is what I will be working on becoming next school year:


I just found out last week that I received the scholarship that I applied for to pay for national board certification. This is a huge deal for me. 1. The scholarship pays for the $2500 application fee and 2. I've been planning on doing this ever since I began teaching.

However, completing the national certification process will be a ton of extra work on top of everything I already have to do at school. I am up for this challenge, but there will just be a lot of change next school year for me. I think all of these changes are going to be good ones, maybe not always pleasant, but overall for the better.

(Plus, in honor of summer, time to change the background of this blog!)

your mother and mine

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's day I had my mom and dad over for dinner Saturday night. I've spent most of my life eating fabulous food from my mother's kitchen. So I felt that it was about time that I reciprocate that to her. My wonderful husband cooked tilapia for us and I baked a lime cheesecake. It was lots of fun taking care of my mom for a change. She has dedicated her life to taking care of me, my sister, and now her grandchildren. So, Happy Mother's Day Mom! You're the greatest!

It's just a closet

This summer I was going to re-organize my closet; basically clean all the junk out of it. Well last night at about eleven o'clock I thought it would be a good idea to get started on that "little" project. Many of my old clothes triggered so many memories like where I bought them from, where I was living at the time, first dates, events I went to in them, etc. Then I realized that I have kept some of my clothes for over ten years now. It is definitely time to part with this section of my wardrobe that I have not been wearing at all.


Here is a pile of some decent clothes that I will be dropping off at Goodwill.


And now I have more hangers!

I did not finish the project last night but now I have more space and the closet is more functional.

This weekend turned into doing several small projects around the house. We moved our old couch out of the kitchen and into the garage, I put up new curtains in the living room, I put up a new shower curtain, and I started cleaning out that closet. I felt very accomplished. The rest of the house will have to wait until summer.

and wedding bells will ring

What a busy week! Every year right around Easter through the end of May, everything just seems to go in fast forward. Baby showers, wedding showers, weddings, Mother's Day, and graduations; all of these things happen right around this time of the year. Starting with last weekend, I will be attending one of these events for the next five weekends. It sure helps the rest of the school year go by a lot faster.

This weekend was a very exciting weekend for my family. My cousin, who is the oldest among our clan of cousins got married on Saturday. This is a BIG deal because this is the first marriage for her and her husband both. Everyone is extremely happy for them. They looked so happy together yesterday and I know that they will enjoy spending the rest of their lives with one another.

I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked, but here are a few that I thought I would share.


A bridal portrait of my cousin.
I got to hold my baby niece while her Mommy and Daddy were getting their picture made.


My fabulous husband and myself. We clean up pretty nice.


Another dear cousin and the brave soul who continues coming with her to family functions.
Will they be next?