Monday, November 30, 2009

Circus Monkey

My mom often jokes that Luke isn't a "circus monkey", but that doesn't stop me from asking him to perform his new "tricks" (especially for the camera). ha! So, here's Luke performing some of his latest tricks...

I know I always say this, but my child really does wear clothes... this was at dinner and if it's bath night it's often just easier to go sans shirt and then straight into the tub :)

Sunday, November 29, 2009

A tasty lesson

We've been working a lot on sharing, and on this particular night Luke decided that he wanted to share the GIANT piece of wedding cake he was working on with me! I'm never going to turn down an opportunity to practice our sharing (or cake, for that matter) and so here's what resulted: Hopefully he won't want to share his peas of pimento cheese sandwich (ew!) anytime soon!!!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Can you dig it?

Ya'll know how much I love planning birthday parties, so it's not really a surprise that at 5:30 this morning I got started on Luke's 2nd birthday :) Here's a little preview of what the festivities will entail... I know it's still a while away, but I was too excited not to share. I really hope that he "digs" it!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Thankful

So it's Thursday morning and I may not have had the world's greatest attitude as I arrived at school (at 7:00 a.m.)... I have my staff evaluation this morning - which will take up my planning period, which would have come in really handy today since I didn't finish my grading last night and I'm proctoring a math competition this afternoon. It's the week before Thanksgiving break which means that students are either mentally "checked out" or actually checked out because they're leaving for vacations. Needless to say, it hasn't been the world's easiest week.

This morning, when my frustration level had reached it's max I opened my email to find this...
I am so thankful for all you have been doing this year and the efforts you have put into helping teach and exhibit Christlikeness in all that you do. Most people do not take the time to consider how hard a teacher has worked to prepare a lesson, activity, or project. Thank you so much for the investmenets you are making. It is a rare thing to see so many teachers adamant about serving and supplying kids in such an effective, personal way. I am grateful for all of you, and want you all to know that your acts of kindness do not go unnoticed. Thanks for being who you are, serving where you serve, and loving Who you love. You truly are an example and blessing to me, and I know so many of my peers as well. I hope you will all get rest over the break and enjoy the time with your families. I am thankful for YOU!

It was sent by a student and it completely changed my attitude and outlook. I'm thankful that I get to teach in a Christian environment. I'm thankful that I get to work with kids every day. I'm thankful that I have amazing, thoughtful students who can encourage me when I need it the most. I'm thankful.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Scarf Sale

Two weekends ago my mom and I took our scarves and set up a booth at the MISD Partners in Education Holiday Bazaar. We both knit throughout the year and had accumulated quite a collection (my mom more than me). We didn't really know what to expect since we've always just sold them to friends and given them as gifts, but we managed to get set up were able to make it look pretty good! The day was LONG, but a big success and we'll definitley be back next year. In the meantime, we still have scarves left, so if you're looking for a Christmas gift (or a fun accessory for yourself) give me a call and you can come over and check them out. :)

Our booth:



MICE!

I took a "personal day" yesterday since Dave is off this week and we had plans to take Luke to the Fort Worth Zoo - it would be my luck, though that it didn't get above about 50 degrees and was extremely windy. Plan B was to head over to the Heard to check out their "Dinosaurs Alive!" exhibit, but we quickly aborted that plan and opted for Plan C - to hang out in our PJs all day :) I did manage to be fairly productive, though and got the majority of my Christmas presents wrapped (YAY!) and the Christmas tree in my kitchen up and decorated. The day also consisted of multiple loads of laundry, more closet organizing and a few errands.
ANYWAY - I was checking Facebook last night when I got this message from one of my students, "Mrs. McAnally, you missed out on all the drama today! Two mice in your classroom!"
Since MCA is primarily an outdoor campus, when it starts to get cold "critters" come up from the field and like to find a warm and cozy place to stay - like student's lockers and the office. On Friday, in fact, we found a baby snake curled up underneath a sweatshirt that got left outside. Gross.
It turns out that about 10 minutes into class one of my students unzipped her binder and a mouse ran out! Needless to say, screaming and mass pandemonium ensued. Colonel Bellue (yes, he's a retired colonel) was my sub and he promptly stomped on it's head and killed it in the front of my classroom - and then proceeded to throw it in my classroom trashcan... ew. He got the class under control again and was giving them their assignment, when a second mouse scurried out of Madi's binder and quickly ran under my desk. Again. Mass pandemonium. This time the mouse tried to run underneath the door, trying to escape, but didn't quite fit and when the Colonel went to open the door the mouse was somehow decapitated. Ew. Both parts of said second mouse were then dumped in the trashcan as well. Ew. Ew. Ew.
I've had about 22 different recounts of this story in the 25 minutes before school and I'm sure that this event will live on in lore for years to come. It has also been mentioned several times that students wish I had been here instead of Colonel Bellue because "they really would have loved to see me FREAK out". My students know me so well.
I feel oddly better to know that the mice were brought in and that they weren't nesting and living in the cabinets behind my desk or some other place in my classroom - but my plan for my off period today is to make sure that my "snack stash" is stored in a big Tupperware and sealed up tight. ha!

Homecoming Football Game

I know that ya'll have already seen these pictures and therfore probably don't care about the following scrapbook page, but oh well :)

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Halloween Scrapbook Pages

I had a little bit of "creative time" yesterday and was able to knock out my halloween scrapbook pages. YAY!







Thursday, November 12, 2009

Autumn Walks

With all this gorgeous fall weather Luke is spending the majority of his days outside. He and Gibi often set off on a walk in the morning and don't come back until lunch! Then it's time for lunch and a nap and when he gets up (usually around 5:00) we try to make the most of the last hour of daylight and head out for another walk. He loves to pick up sticks and acorns and rocks and explore every crack in the sidewalk, license plate and ant hill :)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Last One... I Promise!

This will officially be my very last post dedicated to Scare on the Square - I promise! I'm super far behind on scrapbooking and posting pics. Oh well!
Here's Luke meeting Leah:
Luke and Carter checking eachother out:

Luke "pointing out" Ebby Lee's nose:
Luke holding Leah's hand (poor Ebby Lee! - Luke pretty much crushed her the entire time):
Group photo attempt #1 (Again, sorry Ebby Lee!)
Group photo attempt #2:
Group photo attempt #3:
Luke loves him some Leah (a little too much apparently!):
More hand holding (seriously, what am I in for?!?!?!)
ADORABLE!

Will there ever be a good group picture????
We decided to run around and burn off some energy and we ran into a couple of my students who were collecting canned foor for Scare Away Hunger. Good thing I had a couple of cans of Spaghetti-O's in my diaper bag. Ha! Cause who doesn't?!?!
Jaxson came!
(Luke has Leah Curley's ingenious gatorade bottle with dry pasta in it)

Boys:


Luke upset that Jaxson had the pasta bottle:

Luke pointing at said pasta bottle:

Leah's kind of bored with it all:

Monday, November 9, 2009

Fabulous Fall

I can't get over how absolutely GORGEOUS the weather has been lately! I'm not typically an "outdoorsy" kind of a girl, but I'm going to chalk that up to the fact that being outdoors in TX typically isn't a pleasant experience. ha! MCA has an "open" campus with LOTS of outdoors space and last week I decided to take advantage of it and spent a good part of the week outside with my various classes. I wrote our lessons in sidewalk chalk, modeled equations with leaves and came up with pretty much any "excuse" to take my kids outside... 7th grade boys (ugh, I can't believe that Luke will be one of "them" one day. ha!)
so cute:
I had to take this picture about 9 times before they all thought they had a "good smile" or their "teeth looked pretty" or "their eyes weren't too squinty", but I somehow managed to please the adolescent group with this shot. Oh, to be 13 again! :) Hopefully the weather will be a repeat of last week and we'll be spending a lot more time outside again this week!

Last Junior High Football Game

Last Thursday I took Luke to the last MCA Junior High football game of the season and he had a blast. This time I wised up and took him on his "monkey backpack", which as my students informed me is a glorified leash. And frankly, I don't care. :) It keeps him close and I don't have to chase him or hold him as he goes all "limp noodle" because he wants to be "down!".
Here's Mr. Man with a few of my 7th grade girlies: The cheerleaders shared their cookies with him at halftime and I was eternally grateful becasue he SAT and ate the whole thing (and it took about 10 minutes!) hahaha:
(On a sidenote, I can't get over how much of a little boy (and not a baby!) he looks like here... TOO BIG!)
Luke and I enjoying the game... AHEM, the cookie :)

Friday, November 6, 2009

Homecoming Football

I was all ready to post pictures of Luke at last night's football game (it was the last Junior High game of the season), but then I realized that I never posted the pictures of Luke at the Homecoming Game from about a month ago. So here they are...
Luke and Grandpa watching the game: Luke and I spent most of the game running around the stadium, because despite the cookies, books, sippy cups and toys I brought, all he wanted to do was run! It was FREEZING cold on the night of the game, so Luke wore the MCA shirt I had made the night before OVER his t-shirt and sweatshirt. He looked like the marshmallow man!
More snacking and watching:
Hanging out with some of my students. Occasionally he'll play "shy", but on this particular night he didn't know a single stranger :) He sat on several people's laps, gave everyone he passed a high five and could have cared less where I was. ha!
Here's Mr. Man walking around with a bunch of my freshman girls :) He looks like he's having a horrible time, right?!?!?! hahaha Now that I've caught up from Homecoming I'll work on posting pics from last night's game - hopefully not a month late!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Just My Luck

Remember a few weeks ago when we took Luke to the pumpkin patch and got COVERED in mud????? Well, I finally bit the bullet and after Dave scraped as much mud as possible off Luke's tennis shoes, I got around to sticking them in the washing machine and boy, was it NASTY! After a couple of rinse cycles and just as many wash cycles they were finally clean, but it's just my luck that since the pumpkin patch Luke-man's feet have grown and no longer even fit into the now-clean tennis shoes!
Just in case you need a visual. ha!...

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Bat Cave

So I'm getting over my perfectionist tendencies and am again sharing unedited/unscrapbooked photos... ugh. After a fun hour or so of chasing Luke around at Scare on the Square (TONS of adorable pics to come!) we headed back to the car. On the way back we ducked one of the little alleyways and ended up on the little stone patio behind what used to be the old Prison Restaurant (I have no idea what it is now). Anyway, Luke ran around and played hide and seek and enjoyed some snacks and I got to snap some cute pictures of him. Win-Win!

Feet crossed... so funny since he was doing this in-utero during several of our ultrasoudn and still sleeps with his feet crossed every night.
silly:
More snacking:
Peek-A-Boo!

On a compeltely unrelated note: I'm SUPER excited to report that the Christmas cups are out at Starbucks! I expressed my excitement to the girl at the counter and surprisingly enough she said that I'm not the only person who gets excited over this - YAY!

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