Ornament

Introducing you to the 2012 ornament made by my sweet, creative mother:

If you look closely, you can see at least one of the men that came to help me move. The other man is on the other side of the truck looking out. Thanks to Uncle Kyle for helping create this one of a kind! What an adventure it was and has been!

Christmas Eve

We headed to Grandma Gribble's house to spend Christmas Eve together.

Heartbroken

I learned of the school shootings during my lunch Friday. By the afternoon, I found out it involved "the babies". So many thoughts began and tears flowed that evening. You practice the lockdown drill a few times a year; everything goes as planned. Lights are off, kids are huddled in the corner playing "hide -n-seek", door is locked, cards are placed in the window, and you wait while they check the doors. The door handle jiggle makes my heart jump. You are brave because small faces are looking up to you for comforting. You hear the all clear and it's back to normal.
Tears flowed with sadness for those families and tears flowed out of fear. My job is to protect those children. What if I don't get the call in time, what if I don't get the door locked quickly enough, or what if I think the door is locked but it's really unlocked. You believe it won't ever happen but truth is I have to be prepared. However, I can't live in fear. So, the children are running on high levels of adrenaline and this will require extra coffee to survive. There are 5 more wake-ups until break and I'm going to enjoy every minute I get to spend with my classroom full of wonderful children. I am thankful and blessed.

Just another day

Here are 2 things heard in the classroom that just makes these last two weeks of school manageable with a good laugh!

1. "My grandpa is in jail for making moonshine". WHAT?! I would expect that from my old school in the mtns but here?! Then I thought, maybe I'll get some for Christmas! ha!

2. After the child was walking and just fell down: " I must have just had a foot fart". I tried so hard not to laugh but couldn't keep it in. I almost cried from laughing!

Parade #2

It excites me to see how this holiday season is unfolding. When I moved I wondered what I would do to replace the famous Gingerbread houses or the downtown lights. Yesterday I ventured out to a second local parade and will be heading downtown to the History museum this afternoon for some free holiday music with friends. I add this to a staff holiday party, a neighborhood cookie exchange/wine party, and of course watching Christmas movies with only the tree lights on. Lucky for me the festivities aren't over and there is more entertaining to be had!

We had several comments about our gear...and might even be in the local paper!

Campfire Music

Here are a few clips from the campfire evening. It just took awhile to upload.

Get your tissues...Phillip wrote this song for his son:

 

 

 

Here are a few more to enjoy:

 

Holiday

The tree is up, the decorations are hung, and I even have a mantle to hang the stockings with care.

 Mom told me to put my prettiest things on the mantle. This display sits on the left side of the mantel. The card is one MeMe made and gave me one year. The angel sits besides the picture I love of MeMe and Pa...two angels watching over me.

New Friends

I hosted a Friendsgiving of sort the Monday before Thanksgiving. These are my new team members and my new friends. Thankful they have embraced me into their lives.

What?!

Conversation between myself and a little boy in my room:
T: Did you play soccer?
Me: Yes I did. How did you know.
T: My mom and I were thinking that because of your shingles.
Me: My shingles? (I'm thinking shins?)
T: Yeah, your shingles.
Just as I'm about to ask if maybe he means shinguards? I'm lost there with this idea!
T: Oh, I mean freckles...because of all the freckles on your face.

WHAT??!!! You just never know what you'll talk about during the school day!

Decorating

Sawyer and Caroline helped decorate PaPa and GG's tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Thankful

Thankful to have family to spend time sharing stories and laughing. Grateful to Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Tom for hosting Thanksgiving again this year. We had a wonderful time with the family that could make it and were missing the family that were in other places.

Church

I finally visited a church today. I discovered at 8:15 the service began at 8:45 and found myself walking to the church by 8:35. I use this churches parking lot most days on my way to the greenway so it was time I stopped in and sat with God. Here are a few observations from the morning:

1. After a woman visiting people sat down she said, "I'd better get settled in and ready for God."

2. A man next to me had his Iphone in his bible during the sermon. He must have been looking up an unfamiliar word. I'm sure there's an app for that right?!

3. On my way out I shook the preacher's hand and he commented on my name. "How biblical and there's Mary and Martha too." To which I responded, "I know. My grandmother's name is Mary and my mom's name is Martha." He then asked if we had anyone named  Lazareth in the family. What a jokester.

A Visit

The first weekend in November Ann, Lauren, Rachel, Brenna, and Amanda drove across the state to see me! They arrived Friday evening and we laughed until they left Sunday morning. It warmed my heart to hear chatter and laughter in my house. It was too quiet when they left. Hopefully they will come back!

(Amanda is missing...she was still inside the store when we took this)

Sunday

Sunday I ate my way across town. I enjoyed breakfast with Maggie and her family before heading out the adventure. After dropping off Pattie at her sisters' house for the day, I met some of the old book club/running girls and husbands for lunch. Once again I tasted the yummy goodness that only PaPa's and Beer can serve. As lunch finished I found myself with 2 hours to spare. I decided to have a little date with the parkway. As I turned right I had no plan. I just drove until I found the perfect overlook. I snapped a few pictures and then just sat.
After a little talk with God I headed to meet some of my old teaching friends for food...again. I opted for chocolate pecan pie and a cup of coffee. We chatted and laughed just like we were standing in the halls of "The Creek". After saying goodbye for a good 30 minutes I was off to pick up Pattie and head down the mountain to my parents house for the evening.
Lucky for me it was dark and I wasn't able to see what I was leaving behind. Although there were no tears shed it was harder saying goodbye this time than my last visit in September.

Tazapawlooza...Round 3

Headed up the mountain Friday evening to spend the night with my dear friend Maggie and her family. It was lovely waking up Saturday and Sunday mornings to three cute children! I spent all day Saturday at the 3rd annual Tazapawlooza. There was running, mountain biking, horseshoes, obstacle course, hatchet throwing, closest to the pin (in the dark) and Rock em sock em. We ran out of time for the bb gun contest but still enjoyed a full day of festivities! I tied for 3rd this year and had another round of rock em sock em where I lost by a point. This year we were asked to bring donations for St. Jude's Hospital and $300 were collected! I enjoyed my day and have a shirt to prove it.

Proud

My brother wakes by 5:30 each day (or maybe it's closer to 5), works downstairs in the office, greets his family when they awake, spends time with them, goes off to a full day of work, comes home to spend quality time with his family, then works after the kids are in bed until after 10 each night. He has worked his butt off even more the past several months (and past 10 years) trying to get grants in, work on conferences where he would present, and get his program the accredidation they deserve. The following link is to an article that you should check out. I'm proud of my big brother and hope someday to find  a man as caring and dedicated as he is.
http://utnews.utoledo.edu/index.php/10_31_2012/newly-accredited-ut-program-has-most-representatives-at-athletic-training-conference?fb_action_ids=10100421267628392&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

Fall

And I thought Fall wasn't going to happen around here....

this is the tree I see when I go out to my car. I love seeing it change...

West Jefferson

Headed up to spend the weekend at a friends cabin in West Jefferson. It was just the little bit of mountains I needed to see.

 

New Vocabulary

Me: " ...and what are we looking for at the end of our sentences?"
A little girl: "Punctuation marks."
Me: "Right. What could one of those be?
A little boy: " A Punclumation mark!"

Punclumation, exclamation...what's the difference right?! :)

Camping at the Lake

We went camping at Jordan Lake for the night. In all the time I've lived or visited Raleigh, I've never been to this lake. I have driven over it, but never stopped to admire the beauty. It was past time.

Charlestons, SC

I was able to head down to Charleston to spend the weekend with Anna, Blair, their dog Clemson, and see Anna's little baby bump!!! Saturday morning we headed down to the Farmers Market with Mandi.

A Whittier Wedding!

I traveled back to the Asheville area for Ann and Brian's mountain wedding. It was a beautiful weekend to be with friends and celebrate a wedding!

Labor Day

The Hogg's came down from Michigan for the long weekend. We all spent from Thursday evening until Monday morning together playing at the pool, grilling out, and catching up.

Take a Moment...

..to pause and be thankful for surprises in life. Although I still have little regret about making the decision to move across the state, I still have those lost moments. Pretty much for the past 7 school days I have felt out of place and lost. I went from being the leader of the group who knew the answers and could help people to the one who knows nothing. This is a challenge for me and  I know it's good to challenged. I only cried twice last week and I broke down at the grade level meeting this afternoon. When you arrive at school way before most people on the hall (before 7:30)  and stay until 6 each evening leaving only because you know your dog really needs to potty gets tiring. Plus I typically come home and do some sort of school work, but I know this will change. Eventually I will get those kids to understand when I ask for their attention it means then not after they finish their sentence. I will eventually get used to not having an assistant with me; if nothing else just for the support and to share my stress, laughs, etc. I miss my sweet Mrs. Watkins (and my old team).

For now, I will hold on to the surprises. The first day of school a little boy brought me an apple with caramel dip. Yesterday, another little boy brought in this bucket of goodies. The picture was taken with my phone, so it's not great quality. It is titled Ms. Gribble's survival kit. I shed a few "happy" tears. Today, as mentioned earlier, I broke down in the meeting. This evening 3 of the teachers sent me text messages checking on me. I am already feeling loved and taken care of which is why I have to pause and be thankful for the surprises and the people that have been brought into my life.

Another music filled evening

A week ago I was able to see The Lumineers opening up for Old Crow Medicine Show. Again the show was 5 minutes down the road, and again I got to go for free! Moving back has it's positives for sure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suuy7bMOam0

Here's how the show was ended...awesome! (well, actually I think it cuts off at the end, but it was great!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUcC1pK_gaQ&feature=related

Unbelievable!

Today was the first official workday. Last Friday was an optional day and started with a breakfast for all the new comers. In the mail, we received a welcome back letter and agenda for the week. So going into today I was slightly dreading it. There are still plenty of things I could be doing in my room and didn't want to sit in all day meetings. However, better to get it over with the first day right?

So, we started the morning with a breakfast provided by our PTA and later on they provided lunch. Nice! As the meeting began, I remember thinking this is going to be great! I just love how this meeting is being run and Rod genuinely seems to be excited to see us all. As we are changing over to the new Common Core Curriculum, we were all asked to bring something old as we "kick it old school." So, we got in groups, shared our "old" items and took a break. As we reconvened, we were greeted by...The Beatles, made of the only 4 males in the school, minus the sweet custodian! They sang a song about "We all teach at Cary Elementary" to the tune of yellow submarine. It was hilarious!

The afternoon would be spent rotating through 3 meetings. All of Kindergarten, First, and the entire office staff moved to our first meeting space in the gym. We were wondering what we would be learning. As we arrived, it was clear. We were there to play...cornhole! That's right, complete with drinks and blue solo cups. They provided the mixers, just not the alcohol. It was also neat to have the entire office staff involved in the meeting this morning and the cornhole in the afternoon. It really felt like a community. I have a good feeling about this move...now if I could only figure out what I need to teach on Monday!

One More...

Thursday I headed back to the mountains. Since I needed to grab another car load full of stuff I decided to go up for book club Thursday and some friends' engagement party Saturday. So, I only thought June was my last book club! I didn't finish the book, but there was quite some discussion about this one.

Welcome

When I arrived at my new place there was a sign on the door welcoming me home and a new plant. Inside my friends had left a card, kids had drawn cards to decorate the fridge, and there was granola bars, fruit, along with cold water, Coke, and beer. To celebrate the first week, my friend Jill and her daughter came over to walk to lunch. They gave me a candle for my new house. It's always nice to "come home".

Old School

Had the pleasure of seeing Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson 5 minutes down the road this week. It was a great outdoor venue and I was upgraded to a reserved seat so was about 12 rows from the stage. Thanks to my friend William, Mr. PineCone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeBJcG8GuHo

One Week

A week ago today I was waiting for the movers to arrive. A week ago today I was starting my new adventure. Here is what's happened in one week:
* Cried so much Saturday morning I had to breathe through my mouth
* Finally unpacked the last load (that would fit) at 10:25 Saturday night
* Spent Sunday unpacking the house thanks to my sweet mom and my sweet aunt Laura
* Finished hanging pictures Monday morning with the house set up for visitors
* Went to school, but didn't get much done because I'm waiting on the floors to be done
* Said goodbye to my dear mother who gave up her time to help me move, unpack, and wipe away
my tears
* Walked to dinner with mom, aunt Laura, and uncle Grant
* Have taken Pattie walking each day; and just left from my house, no driving required
* Slept like a baby several nights in a row
* Got my haircut (fixed) less than a mile from my house
* Have visited my friends and it only took 5 minutes to get there!
* Have seen one set of friends 3 times this week!
* Pulled my trash and moving boxes to the curb. I didn't have to load all my trash and recycling in my
car, drive to the dump, and unload it all myself. Someone came to get it!
* Ran the dishwasher...and it worked! It's been 5 years
* Met my new team and we ended up talking for 3 hours. I have a good feeling about it
* Can sweat just standing still; I'm going to lose weight easily! ha!
* Tried going for a run last night; even Pattie was worn out!
* Have only shed a few quick tears one night...despite the heat I have a good feeling about this place
** Go Where You Belong**

Saying Goodbye

Thankful to those that could make it out today. Saying goodbye to 9 years of teaching friends was difficult. I have to trust this move is the right path to take...

 Part of the Kindergarten Team: