8 Things About Me

Shay tagged me!! Here is my delayed post of 8 things.

8 Shows I love to watch (right now)
1. Unwrapped
2. Rachael Ray
3. Semi-Homemade
4. Animal Planet
5. The Hills
6. Brothers and Sisters
7. E News
8. All My Children
( I know I watch a ton of trash!)

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. On The Border
2. Maggiano's
3. P. F. Chang's
4. Mi Cocina
5. Chuy's
6. Chicken Oil Company
7. La Madeline
8. Taco Shop

8 Things that happened today
1. I had cheerleading practice at 6:30.
2. My PTA meeting got canceled...hooray!!
3. I gave out new spelling words...sorry kiddos.
4. I organized the Christmas gifts that I have already purchased.
5. I made it home before 5.
6. I worked on the laundry.
7. I am going walking with my neighbor.
8. I finally blogged again.

8 Things I look forward to
1. putting up my Christmas decorations
2. spending time with my family
3. Christmas music
4. catching up with old friends over the breaks
5. soccer season
6. looking at Christmas lights
7. completing my Christmas shopping
8. going to Christmas parties

8 Things on my wish list
1. new counter tops and back splash
2. stained cabinets
3. for Ellie not to throw up on our bedspread
4. a new bedspread...thanks to Ellie
5. Jersey to calm down
6. My students to all pass TAKS.
7. a relaxing Thanksgiving and Christmas break
8. a successful soccer season...Go Titans!

8 People I tag
1. Julie N.
2. Kristen H.
3. Monica J.
4. Julie S.
5. Jill M.
6. Lanette S.
7. Amy C.
8. Mandy N.

New Kids On The Block

Here are a few pictures from New Kids On The Block. I took them from Jessica's and Melissa's blogs. We had dinner at the Grand Lux before the concert. We had so much fun singing the old songs. I still have them stuck in my head.

Melissa, Jessica, Me, Loree, Elise and Beth

We had a great waiter and I loved my huge salad.

Melissa, Beth, Loree, Jessica, Me and Elise

We got to the concert early so that we would not miss anything.

Here is a picture of the concert. You can't really see anything, but I promise it was a blast. The opening act was a little crazy, but entertaining to say the least. I was very impressed with the New Kids. I am so glad that I had the chance to see them in concert since I never got to go when I was little. My mom still does not understand why we all love them.

A Great Weekend and A Crazy Monday

Saturday, I went to Market in the Meadow at Forest Meadow Junior High, in Richardson. They had a great craft fair with over 180 vendors. We had so much fun shopping. The four ladies below were on the same team with me when Roach Middle School opened. Sadly, we are not all on the same team anymore, and Michelle has moved up to high school. I love that we all keep in touch!

Michelle, Me, Cheryl, Cissy and Traci

The Original Xtreme Team

OK...do you notice anything funny about this picture?

Let me help you out. This is picture is of one of my favorite pairs of shoes. If you know me very well, you know I love my shoes. I am one of those crazy people that keeps all of the shoes in their boxes. Anyways, back to my reason for posting about the shoes. Today when I was reading to my students, I stepped back and heard a loud crack. When I looked down at the ground to see what I stepped on, my shoe was still on my foot but the heel was on the ground. My students all gasped and I stood there shocked. Thank goodness I had tennis shoes in my bag or I would have been walking around barefoot. Although, I did look rather silly in my tennis shoes.

One more thing...I went to the NKOTB concert last night. When I get all of the pictures, I will post for everyone to see. We had a blast!!!

So You Think You Can Dance

This past Friday I went to So You Think You Can Dance with Mandy, Kati, Jessica, Allison, Caitlin, Loree, Andrea, Carrie and Carrie's Mom. We had a great time eating dinner and enjoying the show. I am looking forward for the next season to start.

Fun Times at the State Fair of Texas

We went to the State Fair last weekend. It was so much fun to walk around, look at cars, people watch and eat fair food. Jason had a corn dog and chicken fried bacon. I had nachos and a funnel cake. We even got to ride the Ferris Wheel this year!! Here are some pictures of our fair trip.

The Ferris Wheel - We rode at night.

It was fun to see downtown Dallas and all of the lights.

Chicken Fried Bacon

Kate, Jessica, Me, Melissa, Caitlin and Emily

(and of course Big Tex)

Big Tex in his new clothes...looking good!!!

Rachel's Challenge

Ok, so since Brandon Cox motivated me to share on my wife's blog (Great Blog B-Dawg). . .thanks babe for allowing me to borrow your site (oops, I didn't ask). . .oh well, I hope you are winning at Bunco right now!

Anyways, today at my school we were shown a presentation called Rachel's Challenge. If you haven't heard of it, stick with me as I attempt to share...it is moving. Rachel Joy Scott was a student at Columbine HS. She was the first innocent person to lose her life in the shooting. She was described as a young lady who would go out of her way to treat people right. Lend a helping hand when needed, sit with someone at lunch who had no friends, or go stand up for a kid being bullied. Like most young ladies, she was an avid journalist, which proved to be the motivation for the Challenge. As Rachel's dad and brother (a survivor of the shootings who lost his 2 friends hiding beside him under a library table) sat in Rachel's room years after the tragedy, they found a paper stuffed in between the mattresses. They pulled out the following essay that Rachel wrote in one of her classes about kindness. Please read: ESSAY

She also liked writing in unusual places, this was found on the back of her dresser :It is an outline of her hands, with the following message written on it :
"These hands belong to Rachel Joy Scott and will some day touch millions of people's hearts."

You see Rachel had a dream, she wished that all people would treat each other the way we all deserve. Her father has begun carrying on her dream and indeed is reaching the "millions" she sought out to touch. This is called Rachel's Challenge. The following is the 5 ways she hoped all would do this (which was written on her journal...you can see it in the top right):



These simple 5 things she thought could change the world we live in. All students today were presented with this challenge and were asked to sign the banner if they wanted to accept the challenge. It was amazing and moving! I was so moved, I decided to sign up as one of the Teacher/Facilitators who will lead a group of students this year in upholding the challenge for our school. It is amazing how this young girl has moved so many to act the way God intended us to act towards each other.

More about Rachel can be found at http://www.blogger.com/www.rachelschallenge.com My wish is that all of you who read this post, challenge yourselves with these 5 challenges. You can even sign up on the site to accept the challenge and show your support.

One last point made at the presentation was to think of 5 of the most important people in your life. Go and let them know how much they mean to you and your life! You never know how long you will have to share with them.

I value you dear friends for reading this post and staying true to being a person of God. Thank you for being our friends!!! We value each and every one of you!!!

The First Six Weeks

It is hard to believe that the first six weeks of school is over. I have no clue where the time has gone but we have been having fun. I have been busy getting to know my students and parents, spending time getting ahead in the classroom, and cheering on the Ram Football and Volleyball teams. We are half way through the middle school football and volleyball season. My cheerleaders are working hard and improving every day. I love teaching ILA! I am very excited that we combined Reading and English. I was a little nervous on how everything would flow, but it is all working out great. I truly enjoy my job. I do get tired sometimes but it is so worth it. I feel blessed to have a job that I look forward to.

I love my students this year. I have a few that are going to need extra help, but I am ready for the challenge. Since I am teaching ILA, my student number has been cute in half. I have had so much more time to get the know the kiddos. I have already had the opportunity to have some great conversations. Sixth graders are so fun because they spend so much time figuring out who they are. They want to be mature teenagers, but they are really kids in awkward bodies. I love it!

This week we had an amazing program come to our school, Rachel's Challenge. Rachel Joy Scott was the first student to die in the Columbine High School shooting. Her family has started a program in her honor. They have taken her acts of kindness and her dairy entries to create a foundation for the program. In a English paper, Rachel said that you could start a chain reaction with simple acts of kindness. I think some of the Columbine content was a little mature for our sixth graders, but they were definitely touched by the presentation. I know this program will have a great impact on our student body this year. I am excited to see how it will change our diverse school to be a better place. Here is the link so you can check it out: http://www.rachelschallenge.com/

Here are some pictures of my classroom so you can see where I spend most of my day.

The back of the room. I love my windows.

The wall that gets us organized for the day.

The front of the classroom.

We love all of our storage at Roach.