Like My Mother Does

It’s been a while since I updated and days of schools with kids ended today. Tomorrow will be the end of year assembly and a little professional development. While I have lots of other things to write about from school something is a little more important today.



Lauren Alaina may not have won American Idol but her song, Like My Mother Does, struck a chord.


People always say, I have a laugh
Like my mother does
Guess that makes sense
She taught me how to smile when things get rough


I’ve got her spirit
And she’s always got my back
When I look at her
I think I wanna be just like that


When I love, I give it all I got
Like my mother does
When I’m scared, I bow my head and pray
Like my mother does
When I feel weak and un-pretty
I know I’m beautiful and strong
Because, I see myself
Like my mother does


I never met a stranger,
I can talk to anyone
Like my mother does
I let my temper fly
But she can walk away, when she’s had enough
She sees everybody, for who they really are
I’m so thankful for her guidance
She’s helped me get this far


When I love, I give it all I got
Like my mother does
And when I’m scared, I bow my head and pray
Like my mother does
When I feel weak and un-pretty
I know I’m beautiful and strong
Because, I see myself
Like my mother does


She’s a rock
She is grace
She’s an angel
She’s my heart and soul
She does it all


When I love, I give it all I got
Like my mother does
And when I’m scared, I bow my head and pray
Like my mother does
When I feel weak and un-pretty
I know I’m beautiful and strong
Because, I see myself
Like my mother does

I hear people saying
I’m starting to look
Like my mother does






I feel like I can connect to this song. I mean, who doesn’t love hearing a song that reminds them of a person? Obviously, it makes me think of my mom. Makes me cherish the times people tell me I said or did something ‘like my mother does.’ While our time together was short, I love the special memories I do have and appreciate the memories people have of her.

142-150: Mass update with not a lot of excitement

Oh my goodness! I know it has been a while but my skirt has left the building again, Pal.



On Saturday, May 14th, my school is hosting the 4th Annual Sapulpa Truck Touch from 10am-2pm. I am one of the people in charge of the event this year! AAHHHHH. I now know there is a reason I don’t like to be in charge of big things. Lots of decisions, questions, and issues arise when in charge. But there will be a lot of exciting things happening that day! The LifeFlight Helicopter is scheduled to land at 11 am (weather permitting). The Tulsa Bomb Squad is doing a presentation at noon. There will be lots of different vehicles to explore and climb aboard. New this year will be SIX different inflatables sponsored by 4 schools in our district. You can buy a $10 wrist band that allows children to jump ALL day!!! There will be concessions, prizes, and contests. We have also partnered up with Oklahoma Blood Institute and will be having a blood drive on their bloodmobile. The whole day will be benefiting OHP Captain Green's Scholarship Fund and Team Isaac.


THAT WAS A MOUTHFUL.


In preparation for involving the kids in the blood drive I looked up some facts about donating:
• Every 3 seconds someone needs blood.

• Shortages of all types of blood occur during the summer and winter holidays.
• Blood donation takes four steps: medical history, quick physical, donation, and snacks.
• Children being treated for cancer, premature infants, and children having heart surgery need blood and platelets from donors of all types.
• Since a pint is a pound, you lose a pound every time you donate blood.
• There is no substitute for human blood.
• It's about Life.
• Just one pint of donated blood can help save as many as three people's lives.
• The average adult has 10 pints of blood in his or her body.
• One unit of blood is roughly the equivalent of one pint
• Blood makes up about 7% of your body's weight
• If all blood donors gave 2 to 4 times a year, it would help prevent blood shortages.
• Blood cannot be manufactured. It can only come as a gift from people.








We are getting closer to wrapping up the school year! I cannot believe I have almost finished my 5th year of teaching {when did I go and grow up?} And, my first year of teaching kindergarten!?!






Currently, we are celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week. Several of my students have appreciated me with kind words and small tokens of appreciation.


We are also preparing for our kindergarten program. I am not a huge fan of doing programs, at all, so I am glad we are just singing a handful of songs and being done with it.


Then we will be preapring for our zoo trip on the 19th.


On a note about our chicks: I don’t have any. I have candled my eggs and none of them appear to be fertilized. I mean, a man, or rooster in this case, has one job. The silly bird can’t even get it done. I may go buy some chicks just to ease the disappointment of my friends and because I really wanted to have some chicks for a bit. We’ll see.

I am off to sleepy land. When my skirt finds its way home, I hope to be more informative.

135-141

I am so far behind, I don't know if I can catch up! I guess I will just cover the highlights:


We went to Stillwater for the Spring Football Game on Saturday, April 16th. It was a good time but got even better when I took Spencer to go potty. I ran into Zac Robinson! I then asked him if he would mind going to meet a huge fan of his. He kindly walked over with me. I felt bad afterwards because it caused a scene, you know, being an OSU celebrity. His appearance sure did make a happy camper out of Terri!

Isn't he pretty?! :)

Here are the eggs in the incubator. Exciting, huh?!

Our butterflies have started hatching! The first one came on Tuesday, April 19

The red is not blood. It is the extra color that comes off of the wet wings.

Then there were 2! (There were 4 when I last left school, but I doubt I can get a picture of all four together...)

Pretty!

A friend brought these to share. They looked so cute and smelled yummy but I couldn't have one since I gave up candy for lent.

Another pretty butterfly

During the week of Earth Day, we talked about it in class. There are several cute books that help kids understand what it means to "Go Green." One of the favorites we read was

In this book, Fancy Nancy teaches them tips to going green, like: "Less than a mile, bike in style" or "Get clean, but stay green" (referring to taking short showers).

After duty on Friday, one of my students was "catching the litterbug on the playground." He was picking up trash on our way into the building to wait for his ride. He was so proud of himself too!

Saturday, April 23rd, we ventured to Enid to celebrate Pa and Hubby's birthday. It was lovely to hang out with the family and celebrate two of the special men in my life.

Pa has a bag of treats in hand. I didn't know if he would actually make it back to his chair without getting pounced on. :)

Easter Sunday has been nothing but rain. Yes, we need it but ALL day? It did make for a good excuse to not get out of my jammies. (Yes, we were naughty kittens and didn't get up for church.)

132-134

 There isn't a whole lot going on in the school home front....

Day 132- we still had 4 chrysalis. I told the kids that if the last caterpillar wasn't a chrysalis by the end of the day, it would definitely would be when they got there Tuesday. Sure enough!

Now we just wait for the to start hatching!

We also received our eggs. Those will take 3-4 weeks to start hatching. (picture still to come)

Recently, I decided that I wanted a bird bath for part of our flowerbed. I had what I wanted in mind but we didn't find it at first. We even looked when we were in OKC. On Sunday, we bought this cutie!

I went out to check on it today, (you know, to make sure it was still there... or just to look at how cute it is!) and I could tell that a bird had used it! How did I know??? There was poop on it!

Sunday afternoon I also made a big batch of hummingbird food. I have the feeders out and am ready for the little guys to start coming in! I guess my Nandy's enjoyment for birds has rubbed off on me. Hubby on the other hand... not so much. He does enjoy the seeing the hummingbirds though.

Butterfly update

Sunday, April 10th- So yesterday there were two chrysalis. Today when I went to school there were 4. I have no doubt that there will be 5 by the time I leave school tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Here is another butterfly activity we did!

The butterfly life cycle told in noodles

Spring Break part 2... finally

Since I feel like my "skirt has touched my ass", I think I will finish our spring break trip. 

Thursday morning, Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We headed out early. We had a few stops to make on our way home. We stopped at the Warm Glow Candle Outlet about an hour away. Not as cool as the one I remember as kid near Bartlesville but picked up a couple things for some of the little people (niece and godsons) in our life.

Then we were headed to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Kissing the bricks at Indianapolis

We also drove by Lucas Oil Stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play. Hank and Peyton weren’t in but that place is HUGE! It sort of resembles a barn.

Finally, we were off to St. Louis. We got there around 5:30. When my brother was in college, I had seen a billboard for The Lady of the Snows. I wondered what it was but never investigated it. Well, I saw it again this time and said, “I need to go there. I AM a Lady of the Snows.” We looked it up and went. It was only 10 miles away from our downtown destination. Turns out it is a Catholic thing. The National Shrine to Our Lady of the Snow. It was a very pretty and peaceful. It also reminded me of something I had seen in my childhood: The Lady of Fatima in Bison, OK.

We saw what I think is the ultimate THANK YOU to myself for being a DD for life. :)

After leaving, I set Nina again to take us to our hotel. There isn’t an option to “avoid the ghetto” and she took us straight through it! We got a couple odd looks but just kept driving. We arrived at our hotel in time to enjoy 37 minutes of their “Kickback Hour.” They give each person 3 free drinks and have food out. That evening was nachos, salad and baked potatoes. Kind of random but nice to have a little snack before we walked down to the Arch. It was St. Patty’s Day, surely there is something going on down there, right? WRONG. We walked a good mile, took a few pictures of the Arch and the almost full moon, and headed back. We stopped at Calaco’s for pizza and saw the aftermath of a girl hitting a light pole with her car…. It fell ON her car. Finished our walk to our hotel and went to bed.

Nothing like a little CSI business while we are in St. Louis

Thursday, March 18^th- Happy 5 year anniversary to my other half, who makes me better every day. We walked back to the Arch to ride the capsule to the top. Hubby was funny. He kept questioning how it worked. I told him it was like a ferris wheel. He just had to see for himself.

St. Louis has these butterflies all over the place. They remind be of the bison or buffalo (whichever it is) that are scattered all over Oklahoma.

After The Arch, we headed to the Anheuser-Busch plant. (Can you guess who planned the trip home?)

Somebody's tour paid off with samples at the end!

 After one night at home, we packed up and headed to OKC for a 1st birthday party and wedding.

Then we visited Grandma and picked up our pooch. Luckily, Tobie's Grandpa was willing to skip church and meet us in Guthrie with her!

Got my girlfriend back!!!

Day 131

Finally Friday! is how I felt all day. After this week, I can rest assured that my friends know all about the butterfly life cycle. We read a couple books about and did many activities recreating the cycle.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

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They had to put it in order of the story.

I ran up to the school today to pick something up, and to take an updated picture, to find that there are 2 chrysalis!

Day 12

Our butterfly door