Sunday, September 26, 2010

Fall Begins




Well, a field trip + a full moon + early release = one crazy week at school!
We went to an apple orchard this week with the kids. They go through a corn maze, a soybean maze, watch an apple being peeled and taste it while in the barn, taste apple cider, and go on a tractor ride through the orchard stopping to pick a bag of apples. Afterwards, we enjoy our picnic lunch before heading back to school. This is one of my favorite trips and the people at this orchard do a fabulous job! I had Mrs. Watkins pose with me on the trip.
Friday evening, a few of us gathered at a local place. The girls caught up while the guys played a game or two of cornhole. I am keeping Lucy, Pattie's sister, this weekend so while I was out the girls played in the fence yard. I have really got to get myself one of these! I picked them up on my way back home and they slept hard Friday night. Saturday morning, I dropped them off again before heading to Maggie's brunch. She is expecting her third child the end of October. Her two boys will have a new baby sister to love soon! Ann and I were going to meet with some friends at the Greek Festival Saturday afternoon, but the rain had another plan for us. So, I took Ann to get her U-haul then picked up two wet and stinky dogs before heading home. Fall is officially starting up here with some much needed rain and welcomed cooler temperatures. I was just hoping the rain would hold off until we could get Ann moved. Oh well, nothing like moving in the rain right?!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Fall with Friends

Last weekend, I tagged along with Mandi and Ann as we surprised Briana for her birthday. Her fiance planned the event and how fun to be a part of the surprise! This week at school was trying and I am having a new outlook on the situation come Monday. It's time to let things go, remember why I'm there, and enjoy the teachers I work with...everything will work out from there. So, Friday evening was spent watching the dogs play while relaxing with friends. Saturday was filled with funness! I took my friend Anna to the wonderful SunnyPoint Cafe for breakfast since she had never been! From there, we walked around the Art in Autumn festival up in Weaverville. I have about half of my Christmas shopping down with wonderful handcrafted goodies! There is a brewery out in Colorado called New Belgium. They have a red bike that I would love to have. However, since I can't have the red bike, the earrings that I found will have to do! They come straight from the can of one of the beers! After leaving the festival, Anna and I hung out on her back deck before we each left to attend birthday parties! Maggie and Justin's youngest son, Liam, is turning 2 next week! We enjoyed watching the kids play, having wonderful homemade cupcakes, opening presents, and even watching some football. After coming home to play with Pattie for a bit, I headed back out to celebrate with some of my friends. They ran in the Asheville Half-Marathon...better them than me! Ann and I walked around downtown looking in the stores before meeting up with some other folks for the evening. Whew! Now I need to relax a bit today!

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Sunday, September 12, 2010

2010...hangin' with my kin!

Here is the group shot from our Petty family beach vacation in August. John graciously sent me a copy of this after Laura informed me I could have gotten it from his site a month ago! Well, now I know! So, thanks for their help I can now enlarge this photo and replace the beach picture from three years ago; as well as enlarge the Gribble Easter picture for my family wall. Yes, I apparently have great ideas but am slow at the execution of them!






Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Beginning of the Year

I am digging deep for patience these first few weeks of school. Whew! I seem to block this time of year out of my memory...wonder why?! I am starting my 10th year of teaching with 22 children. There are 15 boys (yes, 15 boys!) and 7 girls that create my new group of eager learners. Everyone has now turned five. I taught half the class one day, the other half the next, then taught one full day before the first weekend. Last week was my first full week and I am half way through a four day week. Here are some positives:
1. I no longer desire to fall asleep at 7:30 on the couch.
2. I am gaining my appetite back as I would rather eat dinner BEFORE falling asleep on the couch. (See number 1)
3. I am leaving most afternoons by 4:30
4. I can get all 22 children to sign in for lunch, hand us their folder, hang up their own bookbag, and find their nametag within 14 minutes..and 2 children can put their nametags on themselves!
5. I am actually enjoying a full 12 minutes of lunch time; it used to be 10.
6. I already have one kid who can tie shoes...they are a HUGE help!
7. I awake each morning at 5:45 with little complaint...so far at least!
8. I have only seen 5 kids eat their boogers, one kid lick their glue stick, and one kid eat paper...so far.
9. I only have 2 children that still cry each morning and only one kid who cries when we leave them for specials.
10. I have 22 children who will brighten my day and my year in more ways than I know.

Some one sent me this article:
http://shine.yahoo.com/event/backtoschool/13-things-your-childs-teacher-wont-tell-you-2332811/

Monday, September 06, 2010

You're My Blue Sky...

The sky has been absolutely gorgeous this weekend. It is such a vibrant blue with no clouds looming around. I decided to snap a few pictures of this cool, crisp weekend.

In a blink of an eye


Sunday morning the windows and doors were opened as Fall weather came breezing through the house. My coffee tasted even better as I cuddled up in my long sleeved shirt and pajama pants. There seemed to be a newness surrounding me; one of which I was particularly fond. After church, the day changed courses in a blink of an eye. I received a phone call from uncle Dave which I immediately thought they maybe wanted to go on a hike together. I couldn't have been farther from the reason. Apparently Christa had decided that morning to let David rest in the tent while she woke to make coffee and begin the fire. A few minutes later, Christa was back at the tent holding a paper towel around the finger that she had cut off. Yes, you read correctly. Christa cut off part of her pointer finger, picked up the piece, and went to tell David. David rushed her to the closest hospital where a hand specialist was called in. They were able to reattach the missing part and will now wait. If she avoids chocolate, cigarettes, caffeine, and cheese there will be a 60% increase that the dead nerves will come alive again. So, I say keep staying drugged up so you don't realize you're missing out on the 4 C's! This is where I come into play.
David needs my help getting Christa's car down to Greer. So, my dear, wonderful friend Anna steps in as well. We meet up at her house where I leave my car and Pattie to play with Clemson. I hop in the van with David and drugged up Christa to head over to the campsite. David and I spend the next little bit taking down the site. My job was the tent. I was halfway through taking the poles out when I realized, duh, the bed is inside. I'm not talking a simple sleeping bag with maybe a thermal rest under each. I'm talking 2 huge pieces of foam, I believe there were 5 or 6 thermal rests, 3 blankets, 3 sheets, 2 sleeping bags, and 4 pillows. Now, that's some comfortable camping right there! So, after we get the site packed up, get Christa into David's van, and me into her car with Annie (the dog) we make our way back to Anna's house. Anna has graciously agreed to follow us down and drive me back to the mountains. When we arrive at Christa's apartment, Anna gets out of the car and tells us that her husband works just down the road. So, after checking out the place, making sure they are alright, and saying goodbye we head across the street to this wonderful ice cream place. We have decided to surprise Blair at work with ice cream!
So, Anna and I take off down the road another 5ish minutes with ice cream in tow. We pull up to the National Weather center located at the Greenville airport. Meanwhile, I have forgotten my phone so I now relying on my camera phone to pull us through. We call Blair and tell him there's a special delivery waiting outside. It's pretty quiet since the weather has been so beautiful this weekend. So, Blair is able to give me a mini tour of the place, we met some of his co-workers, and I snapped some pictures before heading back up the mountain. It was certainly not what I had planned for the day, but sometimes those days turn out to be the best ones. When would I have gotten a chance to try out this highly recommended ice cream place and taken a tour of the weather center?! There is always a silver lining.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Carolina Blue


After the adventures in apples, I scooped up Pattie and brought her home to rest and eat. I headed back out with Anna to meet up with Ann and some new friends to watch the Carolina game. We stayed out until half time at which time we thought watching the game in our pajamas would be more comfortable. Plus, my belly had enough of bad for you foods after chowing down on wings and homemade potato chips during the first half. We weren't giving up on our team, we just wanted to be more comfortable when they started to come back...which they did! Who needs those 13 players huh?!

Apple Pie, apple cider, apple slushies...


Saturday afternoon I went to the Apple Festival. I have lived up here for 8 years now and have never attended the festival. My friend Anna quite enjoys it. Since her husband was working, she asked me to tag along with her and who could pass up an invitation to the festival right?! So, after my long morning nap, I got ready to meet her. Pattie enjoyed playing in the backyard with Clemson while the girls took off for some fried apple delights! Her husband has never enjoyed eating the food, so this year that's exactly what we did! We started off with a fried apple pie, followed by a corn dog, and finished up with an apple cider slushie. We ran into our friends Jennifer and Eugene as well as some children from school. We browsed the craft tents, filled our bellies, heard some music, and fought crowds for about two hours before calling it a successful apple festival adventure!

Camping


Thursday evening, Uncle Dave sent me a text. He would be in the area camping until Monday morning and sent the invitation for Pattie and I to join him, Christa, and Annie the sweet dog. Even though all I wanted to do Friday night after completing the first full week with 22 Kindergartners, 15 of those boys!, was to come home and be in bed by 7:30; I decided when would I get another chance to camp with Uncle Dave? So, I told him I'd meet up with them after work. They were just camping about 10 minutes down the road from me, so I was at the campsite around 5. We sat around talking while the dogs played in the river and chased the ball. David fixed us a mean meal before we called it an evening around 9:30ish. However, the excited kids that arrived around 8 next to us weren't ready to call it a night until after 10:30 when their parents began to settle down. Pattie is also not the best camper. She doesn't quite get the concept of actually sleeping in the tent! I started to time it, and every 5 minutes she would sit up and I would tell her to lie back down by either patting the ground or sometimes having to tug on her collar. This pretty much continued throughout the night. I think my best sleep was between 5:30 and 6:45 at which time I decided it was time to get up. I walked Pattie down the road before heading out. We were home by 7:15 and I was back in my bed around 8:00 for a two hour nap! David and Christa are staying in the area until Monday morning and should be experiencing some perfect camping weather!