What a cutie!!!

I received a text message from my brother yesterday. Shocker, I know. But it said, "Claire wanted me to send this ASAP."

How precious is that?!?!?! I just wanted to jump through the phone and squeeze her to pieces! It also prompted me to rummage through facebook photo albums and get pictures of her ready to print off at Walgreens so that I will have them to post all over my house since she is so dang cute!

Here are a few of my favorites that I pulled off....

Apparently, this was her other Halloween costume. Girl is already changing her mind left and right about what to wear. :)

Catch-Up (per Pa's request)

Several days have run together in this busy week. Tuesday evening, I made these for all of my teacher friends. It isn't much but it our way of showing we support our co-worker during this difficult time.

Day 45 was Red Ribbon Day. Here I am in all my red. Yes, I know the two reds do not match.

That day after school, I went to my friend Jade's house to make some of these. If you want to buy one, hit me up. We make Pete with or without a bow. Jade is into the bow making business and can make much more!






This is my snazzy jogging suit jacket to "Team Up Against Drugs" in. I was sporting my Oklahoma State shirt under that hideous thing! :)

Unfortunately, my class picture disappeared from my camera! So, I have no pictures in my borrowed Crayola costume. :( Considering 5 year olds wearing their costumes all day, we had a pretty good day! The party went well and I am considering always having butcher paper down on the tables for the kids to draw on. They loved it and were content drawing away!

These are from the school Fall Carnival. We have an awesome dad at school that painted these!

LeFlore and I in the circus

Hubby and I

Sunday afternoon, we carved our pumpkins before the trick or treaters showed up. Here we are working diligently.

The finished products with our little cheerleader. Tobie said, "The ladybug costume is really cute, but not as easy to maneuver and chase away the trick-or-treaters. Can I just wear my OSU gear?" So, of course, we let her!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Day 44

First set of report cards sent home. Only three more left!

Today was an interesting day. First off, I couldn’t help but feel helpless for my co-worker but what really can you do besides pray? I cannot imagine how it would feel to have a trooper pick you up at your job and take you to see your spouse. I feel truly thankful for the men and women who put their lives on the line daily so that I can be safe. This story was all over Tulsa news. When I first heard about it, I looked it up online. Then, I made the mistake of reading people’s ignorant comments. Yes, you have freedom of speech but you do not have freedom of unsympathetic stupidity in an unfathomable situation. This man was a husband, dad, friend, son, etc. An online news forum is not the place to leave your speculation of what happened or why it happened. Who cares why or how it happened?

Needless to say, Captain Green passed away about 24 hours after the accident. The Lord had bigger and better plans for him. I pray for peace and understanding for his family, friends and work family.

On to a lighter, more humorous story….

Two boys came back from the bathroom saying a third boy was peeking into the stall while others were in there. When boy #3 came into the room boy #1 and #2 made sure to let me know. I informed that I would deal with it. In the meantime, boy #3 apologizes to boy #1. He responds with, “That just won’t cut it.” I laughed really hard in my head, thinking he must have heard that somewhere before.

Later, boy #3 cuts the handle on one of my expensive $1 baskets. When I asked him why, I got a variety of answers…..

“My body just made me do it.”

“Because my papa. I just like him.”

“Because I really like your shirt.” At that point I had heard enough so I said, “You cut my basket because you like my shirt???” “Yes.” “What if I said, ‘I really like your shirt, I’m going to cut your hair.’” He got a really scared look on his face and said, “No.” in a really scared tone of voice.
I never got a clear answer. We’ll see what his mom has to say about this.

As I am typing this I remembered that I, again, did not take pictures of pajama day. Tomorrow is red day, maybe I will remember. Mark day 44 off. I am off to paint my nails red.

Day 43

Fall break was lovely but made a regular Monday seem so long....

The kids were pretty tame today. We kicked off Red Ribbon Week with "Round Up Against Drugs" day. Here is our door decoration....

When I was first telling the kids about Red Ribbon and why we have it, I asked for suggestions on a door decoration. I got: skeletons, black cats, haunted house! So, there we have it. They were allowed to draw any scary thing.

Today, when we signed our pledge to be drug free I heard some good stories about home. "My dad doesn't smoke much cause mom smokes all the cigarettes so he doesn't have any left. Then he has a beer." Or, "My grandma smokes and drinks all day long." No worries parents, I only believe half of what they tell me!

Please pray for a co-worker's husband and their family. He was in an accident today in Sapulpa. This summer, I saw what prayer can do for a hairy situation and have faith that things will work out.

I am off to get my PJ's ready for tomorrow! I love Red Ribbon Week and all the dress up days! I told our counselor we should extend this for a while since we have seen former students around the school smoking. Obviously, we need to make more of an impression on these kids and get to wear our PJ's while we do it! :)

How could I have forgotten????

On Tuesday, a visitor came to my classroom.

This is Herman. You can probably tell by the shade of red my face is that I was ready give him back. But it was pretty cool! How many times in life do you get to hold an alligator???

This is the look on my kids faces when Herman came out of his ice chest.

They each got a chance to hold him, pet him or just take a picture with him. They were pretty excited!!

Decisions, decisions...

Tobie has a big decision to make. Thanks to her Grandpa Oltmanns for going to pick up her Grandpa Snow some OSU gear, we found another costume (which could also be gameday attire).

OSU cheerleader or ladybug????

Fall Breakin'

Teacher meetings on Wednesday were stupid. I don’t know too much about our new math series but I feel like I knew more than the “fruity” guy that presented.
That afternoon I went thrift store shopping with one of my teacher friends. We were on the hunt for cowboy boots since next week is Red Ribbon Week. We are having western day on Monday so what is better than cowboy boots? We didn’t find any but we did find matching wind suit jackets, shoulder pads included. Mine is turquoise and hers is pink. I am sure there will be pictures to follow.

Unfortunately, I went to another teacher meeting today. You see, when I looked at our school calendar I thought that Wednesday and Thursday were professional development days. When I got a flyer to go to OECTA (Oklahoma Early Childhood Teachers Association), I thought, “I would rather go to that than something stupid at my school.” So I paid my $35 and signed myself up. I found out on Tuesday that Thursday was not a professional development day but since I paid with my own money and my Benji from high school was going to be there, I got myself out of bed and went.

As the garage door is opening and I walk out of my house into the garage, I notice a red car parked behind my driveway and think to myself, “There’s a car parked behind my driveway again. Don’t back into it.” Two minutes later, my PaL comes out in me and I bump into the car. If you know my Pa, you know he has a tendency to back into parked objects. The most annoying thing, besides someone rudely parking directly behind my driveway, is that I saw the stupid thing and thought, “There’s a car parked behind my driveway again. Don’t back into it.” Needless to say, it was not the kind of start I really wanted to my Fall Break. Luckily, there was little to no damage done. I think a Magic Eraser or a buffing by Hubby can fix the mark on both cars.

OECTA was good though. The key speaker had some good ideas. The first presenter sucked. I could have read all of her information in a book I already own. The second one, I got a lot of good ideas from and have already stopped at Dollar Tree to implement some of those ideas. The third one was very informative too. Just maybe, I will put something different in my sensory table now that I have 70 ideas!

When that was finished, I stopped by another thrift store in hopes of finding some cowboy boots. No luck… in my size. I did find Tobie a Halloween costume! She will be a ladybug this year.

I heard from Daddy-O that puppy’s name will be Petey, as in Pistol Pete. So, welcome to the family Petey!

Tomorrow, maybe, we head to Stillwater for a weekend of homecoming festivities. For those of you who don’t know, Hubby likes to think he is a homecoming king along with his two friends. We will just relive the glory days now...…

If you know what is good for yourself, you won't ask him, Cody or Coleman about it. ;)

Here’s to staying up late tonight and sleeping in tomorrow!!!

Day 42

WOOHOO!!!! FALL BREAK IS HERE!!!

In case you are wondering, I am excited for Fall Break! I have teacher meetings tomorrow but no kids for FIVE days!

Puppy still does not have a new name.

Hitting the hay for my exciting teacher meetings tomorrow. Ugh.

Day 41

Why is it that short weeks always seem to be the longest??? School was school today. The kids showed up again. :)

I had 4 more students make progress in Number Masters. I believe the count is down to 5 that need to pass 1-10. I have 9 weeks to accomplish this goal with my friends.

This is the newest member of the family. Here is the little guy my Daddy adopted today. I can already tell that they will be BFF (if I don't try and steal him).

As of publishing time, his name is still Dee Jay. What is the perfect name for such a cute little boy. I suggested Cutie Pie, but that is not very manly. The name challenge is out there... What would you name him???

Sunday, Funday

Today after church, my sidekick (Hubby not Tobie) and I went to the pumpkin patch that I visited on Friday. Hubby was amazed that the giant pumpkins, were in fact giant. I don't know how big they really were but I would guess 2 feet across! Seriously.
There are some huge ones at the bottom of the tree! I should have taken a picture of them because they are not served their justice in this picture.

Carving will take place sometime this weekend, after all the homecoming festivities. Pictures to be posted then.

How sweet!

Tobie loves having Spencer here. With a little help, I was able to snap this....

Excuse me....

I was informed today, "I'm pissed that you aren't using your blog thing. You left me hanging." Apparently, my Pa plans his day around this. Here's to you PaL! I will try to do better. At least you have an idea of what I am doing, where I am at, and know that I will answer your phone calls. That's more than I can say for some others. Wink, wink.

Here is a little sneak peek of tomorrow's topic...

My Daddy is adopting this cute little feller!!!! I am going with him after school to pick the guy up. Right now, his name is DeeJay. (I will keep you posted as to whether or not that name sticks.) He is a 3 month old Westiepoo from the Oklahoma Westie Rescue. HOW PRECIOUS!!!!!

Day 40

Thursday after school, I drove to the McDonald’s on the turnpike to pick up my father-in-law (FIL) and Spencer. They are coming to stay with us for a week while Kay goes on a cruise. Must be nice. MIL (mother-in-law) made sure FIL knew that he had to follow the same ‘boot camp’ rules that Spencer had, meaning that I am in charge. I followed up with, “There is no digging in the front yard. Only the back.”

Day 40- Friday, October 15, 2010- Carmichael’s Pumpkin Patch Field Trip Day
Since this is my 5th year teaching, I have been on several field trips but kindergarteners are a different breed than second graders. They have shorter attention spans, smaller bladders, and can sneak off faster. The second grade field trips I went on were pretty well confined. This one? Not so much. In spite of that, I made it!!! I was exhausted but I made it. Didn’t lose anyone. Didn’t have any traumatic accidents or bathroom accidents.

We left for the pumpkin patch around 9. Our bus driver didn’t know where he was going so our bus and the 10, maybe 12, cars following us had to turn around. If I were a bus driver, I would make sure I knew exactly where I was going. But that’s just me. While there, we rode a hayride, petted some goats, sheep, and bunnies, and got to feed them. Then we picked out our pumpkins and headed to the Big Build, in Sapulpa, for lunch and lots of playing.

On the hay ride

Who knew pumpkins were sturdy enough to crawl on?!?!

While there, I found out that my rinky dink arms can no longer haul my body across monkey bars. What a weenie. I can out run, well maybe outsmart, five year olds and I do still fit down dark, windy kiddie slides!

We were there for what seemed like ever. Finally my new cohort and I convinced the ‘veteran’ kindergarten teacher that we should leave at 1:15 not 1:30. If we had our way, we would have left at 1:00. Did I mention it was hot? Holy cow. October 15th isn’t normally 90 degrees.

We got back to school, got our rest time blankets out and laid down in the dark to watch ‘The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” After a little bit of winding down for myself, I started testing a few of the kids for report cards.

Friday night, the three of us, FIL, Hubby and I, ventured off to Wal-Mart. I did 99% of the shopping while the boys waited in line at the deli.

Days 34-39

Day 34- I hope you are ready for a story because I have two! Well, maybe three!

While at our afternoon recess, I am sitting on a bench while two of the kids are playing at my feet, in the dirt. They are building a ‘castle’ by piling all of the fine dirt up. “When we get this all the way up to space, we will see Jesus. Keep building.” Then continue to talk about seeing Jesus and one says, “His angels will come out and meet us.” Then they begin to discuss people they know that have died that they want to bring back to see Jesus. It was very interesting to hear their take seeing Jesus. Did you that know “He’s magic.”??? A third child comes over and they start telling him what they are doing and why. He responds with, “You can’t do that. You can’t just build a castle and see Jesus. He’s died.”

I continue to sit and listen as the conversation changes to ‘devil hair,’ also known as grass. Apparently, all of the grass is devil hair and some of my children are going to pick all the devil hair out. I tried telling them that they were going to be pretty busy doing that but it didn’t seem to deter them.

A few minutes passed when I am told a story by the main devil hair picker. He tells me, “A long long time ago, my old old grandpa and I drove our car down there to the devil. Then he stole the car and we had to run from the lava.” Not only did he tell me that story but when another teacher came out he told it to her too! And, it was the exact same. Normally, a kid’s story would change a little but not his.

Day 35, Friday, October 8-
Today was a little bit sad at the end of the day. One of my little friends moved. She is such a sweet kid and will be missed by all of her friends and teacher.

Nothing else too exciting is happening; however, I am pushing my kids to do Number Masters. Number Masters is a timed thing where they have 10 minutes to write their numbers. They start with 1-10, and then move to 1-25, 1-50, 1-75, and 1-00. After that, they move to addition and then subtraction. I am happy to say that out of 16 children, there are only 7 left that need to pass 1-10! I know what you are thinking… “1-10??? They can’t write that?” I thought that too but believe it or not I have some that cannot look at a number and know it is that number. But we will continue to work on it. My goal is to have no one working on 1-10 by Christmas. Good luck to us!

Day 36-39 (October 11-14)
Nothing too exciting. I had to mentally prepare myself for my first kindergarten field trip. AHHHH!

Day 31-33

Day 31- I finally got a SMART board!!! Now, I just need to learn how to use it! We were kicked out of our room this afternoon so it could be installed. Thank you Jesus for such a beautiful day to spend the afternoon in!

When we went in, I had a friend say, “I feel sick.” I figured since we played all afternoon, ate snack and then played some more, he was just feeling his snack not settling right. About 10 minutes before school was out, his snack got settled… on the floor and in the sink. I felt really bad but made sure I got a hold of our custodian before he went home. Later after school, I walked over to get disinfectant wipes and found a surprise in my sink! Apparently Mr. Bobby didn’t use the sink in his clean up because there were leftovers there! YUCK! Luckily, I didn’t lose my lunch over that but I sure did give Mr. Bobby a hard time when I saw him.

All of my friends, including the ones that moved to the new class, had library time today. When I took my current class in, you would have thought they had not seen the other kids in years. “Aahhh, it’s so good to see you!” “Buddy, I’ve missed you!” All the while hugging these ‘long lost friends.’ It is all very sweet!

Here is a picture of the finished pergola!

Day 32- One more fart claimed today followed with a “Oh, Mrs. Snow!” I couldn’t help but laugh picturing the kids going home talking about my farts. However, I know that particular kid that made the after comment really appreciated that I claimed it since he was the one that let it go.

Day 33- Something really funny was said at school today. But, I can’t remember it! I shall use this as a learning experience and write all funny things down in the future.
My friend that was sick on Monday told me that he stayed home by himself the following day. When I asked if anyone came home for lunch he said, “Nah. I had a banana though. And watched cartoons.” Hmmm, something just doesn’t sound right about that.

Hubby is at it again staining. I may come home to an entire red mahogany house someday. After this project there really isn’t anything else to stain. The entertainment center should be back in the house sometime this weekend.

While he was working, he sent Tobie in because there was a ‘big dog’ across the street. So, I roam out there looking for it and see a tag gleaming in the sun. When I start whistling and calling it over, it came! She is very sweet and in my backyard right now.

I have called her owner, twice. It is quite confusing… the number on her tag is a 407 area code and the address is in OKC. For you non geography buffs, 407 is the Orlando area (I googled it.) and OKC is 120 miles away. Tell me, how did she end up in Sand Springs? Her tag says “Isis.” I am calling her Izzy even though I think you pronounce it ‘ice-is.’ Hopefully, her owner will call soon. Otherwise, I may have to give her a bath and take her to my Daddy. :)

Special birthdays in the house!!!

2 very special people celebrated a birthday today.

My Nandy- 79 years young. She was there for me when my mom couldn’t be and I am thankful for that. I know my childhood has made me the person I am today and I now can see parts of my childhood as a blessing in disguise.

I have so many fond memories of my childhood because of you.

• My love of Wal-Mart. How I love to just wander around there. We did it a lot and I still love to.
  


• Precious Moments, truly are precious. I love them because they made you happy and my mom loved giving them to you. Whenever I see the boy and girl ones, I think of both of you.
  


• Me attempting to do sewing projects but always running out the sun porch for you to come rescue it.
  


• Always being the Jennie Marie to your Jennie or little Jennie to big Jennie.
  


• You and I always irritating Pa with our nail polish fumes.
  


• The day you ask me about sleeping in Biblical Sense.
  


• Admiring your ability to read in a book in a day.
  


• Road trips in the Silver Bullet.
  


• The Ford station wagon that resembled a hearse. (I am really glad you got rid of that.)
  


• My plastic canvas Barbie furniture.
  

There are so many more but to sum it up: I couldn’t have asked for a better person to step in for my mom. I feel that I was still given a glimpse of how she would have raised me because you raised her. I also couldn't have been named after a better person. :) Happy birthday!!! Thank you for being you! I love you to pieces!

My little girl Tobie Ann-
You were once just a little puppy Christmas present. Little did I know that you would be the best thing ever!

You turned 6 today! You love unconditionally, all the time. The waggle of your tail brings a smile to my face. Thinking about your cute little face the first time I saw it melts my heart. You knew the second I walked in that I was your mommy. Who knew that a dog could change a person’s life in the blink of an eye?

Much to Dad’s displeasure, you are on Team Mom. I think that is what bothers him most is that he knows it is true. We still love him though for trying. You were able to show the world your daddy's soft side. You have him (and your grandparents) wrapped around your little paw.

Happy birthday little girl! I love you grrrrrfrien!!

Day 27-30 with lots of pictures!

Day 27- 5 days later I don’t have anything memorable to post about. If I think of something, I’ll let you know because I know you’re dying to hear about it. ;)

Day 28- First off, I survived the dentist! I even let Preston leave me there so he could get to the rental place to pick up an auger.

One child was sent home. You just can’t be acting a fool forever. Now that I think back, I don’t remember why she was sent home but no worries, I have it documented.

Hubby and I set the posts for the pergola after school. Thankfully a super dad from school stuck around to help us! We definitely could not have done it without him, especially since I had my new, cute, half price ($6) shoes on!

Day 29- Holy cow! Quit trying to beat your friends up! Before long, you won’t have any! At 9:40 I sent two kids the principal for hitting each other. I handed child 1 the office referrals because I wanted to make sure they actually got there. Well, child 2 did not like that she wasn’t carrying her own referral and tried to tackle child 1 in the hall. So I call my principal back and tell her to call me when child 2 arrives and I will send her the other one since he was almost tackled. She calls and I send him.


A few minutes later, I get a call from our counselor. “Can you tell me what the deal is with these two? They were sent to me.” I question her as to why and neither one of us could come up with a valid reason. So child 1 comes back and says, “Child 2 will be a little longer because she was being mean.”


We carry on with our day and child 2 returns (around 10:40), does her literacy center and then starts her ‘quiet activity’ of spelling her name and sight words with letter tiles (just picture Scrabble tiles). I am watching her spell and hearing her say, “Here’s my brother’s name. Here’s mine.” I take a peek at her tiles and see vlknawgnauibni or bijorolnyzxI. A few minutes later, I look up and see child 2 shove child 3 and child 3 toss some letter tiles at her. I tell them both to go to their seats and child 3 does. Apparently child 2 doesn’t have to listen and didn’t. So I go tell her to put the tiles away and go put her head down since she was not using the tiles correctly. She doesn’t, so I have to help her. Then she runs off to the corner of the classroom. She doesn’t so I have to help her go to her seat when she runs off again. I told my aide, “I will be back” as I am getting ready to assist the child out of the classroom. She refused to walk so I picked her up and off we went.


When we arrived at the principal’s office I see her in there with the new kindergarten teacher discussing her schedule. When I told her that child 2 had not changed her attitude. Child 2 was asked to go into the principal’s office and refuses so the conversation continued like this:


Principal: “well, take her to the counselor and have her call the dad to come get her at lunch.”
Me: “Lunch??? I think now. This is her second offense today.”
Principal: “Well, lunch was as early as he could come yesterday.”
Me: “With behavior like this, NOW should be the only option he gets.”
[While all of this is going on, child 2 starts whining and crying, “I don’t want to go home. I’ll listen. I’ll be good.]
Principal: “We’ll have to see what he can do.”
Me: “Okay, child 2. Let’s go to the counselor.”
Child 2: “No!!! I’m ready to listen.” And runs into the principal’s office crying and whining while the principal takes a call.
I follow her in and pick her up off the floor explaining that she was not invited into the principal’s office and we are going to see the counselor. She proceeds to flop herself on the floor in the front hall like a fish out of water.
Principal: “Do you want me to call the counselor to come help you with her?”
Me: “NO. I want you to call the dad for the counselor to help me!”
Principal: “Well, I just can’t do that because I am busy.” And she picks up the phone, calls the counselor to see if she can come help me with the child. I on the other hand, scoop the child up off the floor and carry her down the hall and stairs to the counselor’s office.

The counselor sent her home and suspended her for the next day. We had no more issues that day.

Talk about a draining day! Then I had to leave pronto after school to head to Stillwater for a nail biting football game. With only 2 seconds to go, the Cowboys had a win over A&M!! We got home at 1:30 in the morning so 7 rolled around quick!

The Cowboys were back in black and had a snazzy new Pistol Pete flag!

We look tired because this was at the end of the game.

Day 30- Peace. There was no fighting or shoving. What a nice feeling!


It was my 7 kids (I ended up getting to keep the 8th one that was supposed to be moved) last day with me. They had the opportunity to meet their teacher Thursday night. Friday afternoon they went down to their classroom for a bit with their teacher. It was not traumatizing to me and they all seemed excited about it. I hope that continues when Monday rolls around.


I left shortly after school to go see Disney on Ice! Yes, I am 28 and wanted to go! Yes, I dragged my husband to it too! When I was a kid, my Nandy and Pa took my brother and I to see Snow White on Ice. Whenever I go to Disney on Ice now, I think of that childhood memory. Thanks for the memories Nandy and Pa! Thanks Hubby for helping me relive some childhood!!


Here we are in an area of the fair that more our speed... the kiddie rides!

For a mere $10 dollars we could have taken our picture with this cutie:

Unfortunately, we missed the last Splash Show of the evening since our Disney on Ice started at 7:30

Jessie, Buzz, Woody, and Ham came for the Celebrations!



At the Tulsa State Fair (who knew Tulsa was a state anyways?), we tried chocolate dipped cheesecake with sprinkles on a stick! YUM!!!! I believe the cheesecake was shipped from Florida since we had frozen cheesecake at the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday came and went. We spent all afternoon and some of the evening at school finishing the pergola. I didn't do much but supervise for a while before I went in to work in my room but thanks to my wonderful Hubby, the super dad, a marvelous mom and super grandparents of students at school the pergola is 97% complete. We are returning tomorrow to nail the last of the lattice work to the top (it was too dark when we left to get it done today) and the I will have pictures to show for it! But here it is at the beginning: