Past year... in a nutshell : /

Big kid life is soooooo busy! oh my word this last year was quite crazy and well.. I just never really got the chance to sit down and think about it. But now that things are going to start settling down for ahwile, I figured I could do a catch up post since I kind of stunk it up the last long while.

Alright, well today was the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! I survived my first year, on my own, real classroom and students year of teaching! I seriously can't belive it. The time really did go by so fast now that I have begun to look back. However, going through it was another story..... every day seemed like eternity! But honestly, as miserable as I was sometimes, it was a great year! I was just thinking today, as I was takin down all my decorations and packing up my stuff... that I never put up or even took any pictures of my room. Oh well, guess I'll never get to look back and remember what my first year's room looked like. But you better believe that it was freakin cute! All the other teachers would always comment on how cute my room was and what they are going to copy for their room : ) so that made me feel even better! Especially because it just seems like a classroom can never really be CUTE if you know what I mean... but I guess I acheived that this year woo hoo! As for the teaching aspect, this year went WAY WAY WAY better than I could have ever imagined. The first year teaching horror stories did not happen to me. I can't even tell you how many people warned me about how terrible my first year was going to be: 1. Becasue my classroom management would be bad so my classrooms would be a little out of control. 2. Becasue I was so young I was going to have a lot of problems with the immature young boys in my classroom. 3. Since it was a new state, new curriculum, etc it was going to be very stressful doing all new material everyday.

1. I know that I'm still learning, but if my classroom management was the worst its going to be then man I can't wait for the years to come! I really had some awesome amazing kids! And I'm not teaching in the best area of Houston either. It's a pretty tough school demographically, but my biggest issue was not keeping them under control. Honestly, my biggest struggle with my students was to get them to do homework! Geeze its an almost impossible task. Many of them work, watch their siblings, and even don't go to any home, so I can understand that to them homework comes after getting dinner and taking care of themselves. But.... I mean once in awhile couldn't they do jsut a little bit?!?!??!?!?!? That's what we're going to have to work on next year for sure : ) Many of my kids (after they finally found out this was my first year) told me how great of a teacher I was. That was very satisfying knowing that the kids even thought I did a good job.

2. I only have a total of 5 comments said to me about my age and looks. And they were all from 1 kid... who transferred from another high school with only 5 weeks in school so he was feeling brave. But it was so awesome because my kids were actually the ones who kind of dealt with him, telling him not to say stuff like that to me. Other than that, all my boys were very respectful and kind. It was a total surprise to me not to have any problems with that. But I heard that I looked like a student a million times. I have been mistaken as a student even, and that happened a numebr of times (embarrassing!) I'll look older eventually

3. This part was super stressful! Every day I had to prepare for what I would be teaching that day. I knew the background material on it no problem, but all the activities and notes and such were the hard part. I was on a biology team of about 9 teachers. We all planned together, divided out the lessons and worked together for just about everything. This was very helpful because it took a lot fo the load off. But our team had a lot of rough moments throughout the year where things just kind of went sour. Man those were hard times. I had a lot of sleepless nights, total breakdowns, and a whole lot of stress. But I managed well wnough and survived til now. I learned a lot, but I'm glad it's over. Hopefully next year will be better : )

Well.... for those of you who don't know, we got a dog about 8 months ago (last september 24th). We rescued him from a shelter and man do we love him! He is a corgi named Wilson and he couldn't be any more awesome. He's around 3 years old and quite small for his breed, everyone always thinks he is a puppy. And man do we get attention walking him around! All the people in our complex (and at James's parents neighborhood) all know Wilson by name and come over to pet him. He's a very beatiful dog and he LOVES the attention... from people. He's got some quirks though like every dog. About our little Wilson: not a dog lover - at all - he never plays with his toys or even us really, he sleeps a lot, loves to cuddle on the couch and likes to be carried like a baby. We sure do love him, and he couldn't fit our life more perfectly.

As for James, he's been working at a company called Preventive Pest control. Yep, currently he's a bug guy. It's been a great job though during this transition time. He'll keep working there until August when he will start commuting to College Station to go to A&M University for his master's degree. He will be going for Public Administration - a two year program.

In march, my younger brother Derek left for his mission. He went to the MTC (training center) for a couple months before he left for Ascuncion Paraguay, spanish speaking. He's been in Paraguay now for almost a month and it sounds like he's doing great. He still struggles with the language but he loves... and I mean LOVES being a missionary. Every email just screams his excitement about what he's doing. I miss him a lot and it's been very hard for me not being able to jsut text my brother during the day at school like we used to. But I am so proud of him. And I can;t wait for him to come back and help me with my spanish so I can understand what the heck my students are saying!

With us both working, we really haven't had any exciting outings or things to talk about. the last year of our life has been mostly about working, paying the bills, sleeping, and trying to save money : ) you're jealous of our life aren't you?!?!??!?! But even though it's been a little bit bland, we've enjoyed struggling together. We love our little apartment (which I will hopefully put up pictures soon ------- hopefully), our dog, our fish, and each other <3

Can't wait for a summer vacation off of school though! Woooooooooooooo!!!!

Oh and my little brother Connor is coming to visit us for 10 days next week which I am soooo excited about! I miss him so much so it will be great to have him with us for awhile.