A little artwork

Today I had a special delivery from one of the second graders. The whole second grade class made "The Best Teacher" posters and two of the second graders picked ME as the best! Below is a picture of the drawing one of the students did! Definitely a keeper!

Traveling!

Bruce and I have done a lot of traveling lately and it is not stopping any time soon! We began the month of May spending time in Washington DC to celebrate the marriage of a childhood friend of Bruce's. Matt and Amanda were engaged back in early 2010 so this wedding has been years in the making! Bruce was honored to be included in the wedding party as a groomsman. Bruces entire family was also invited out to the wedding so it was a great time for a mini Summers reunion! Below are a few pictures from that weekend. We enjoyed spending time with Matt and Amanda as well as time with Bruce's family taking in the sites!

 The Washington Monument is quite a sight to see. What a wonderful piece of our Nation's history.

 Bruce and I taking a party pic in front of the White House. No Obama sighting.

 Here comes the bride! Beautiful ceremony at the National Press Building.

And they are married! Matthew and Amanda Woerman.


What a great weekend! It was very short but so much fun!

This last weekend, Bruce and I hopped in the car with my parents and headed North to Grand Island, Nebraska. The purpose was to visit my dad's Aunt Ann. I have such great memories of visiting Aunt Ann throughout my entire childhood. She has lived in the same house on the same lake since I can remember. It was important for me to introduce Bruce to Aunt Ann because she has always been an important part in my life. Since I never had the chance to meet either one of my dad's parents, she was the last remaining member of that generation. She was almost like a "grandma" to me. Below is a picture we took right before we left.

 There is one more week left of school and then Bruce and I are headed to Vegas for a whole week!!! Woot!! I cant wait!

MB

The race

Yesterday was race day in KC! Ever since I met Bruce, he has always expressed his love for the "sport." Of course, I don't see how riding around in a car for hours upon end is considered a sport, but after the "ride along" a few years ago...I have respect for those guys, and gal. We have managed to make it to the last 3 races and we don't plan on stopping anytime soon! We have started discussing attending races outside of KS. Hopefully we can start getting some other races under out belts!

This first picture is of Bruce and I all bundled up and in our seats. It sure was chilly, but I got a super cool new hat!

This picture is of the start of the race! It sure gets loud when they get going!

What a week!!

Well as I have said before, this has been a great school year but there have been some tough days. This was the first 5 day week we have had in quite a while. Going into this week, I had a feeling it would be a long week. Lucky for me, it went by pretty quick!

We had an all school field trip out to Nativity grade school on Thursday and then Friday afternoon, the middle school kids had a special presentation about Abstinence...so once Wednesday was done, I knew it was a downhill ride for the rest of the week.

I started off the week very anxious because I was scheduled to sign a contract for a new teaching position!!!! I heard from the new principal on Monday and we set up a signing on Tuesday. I was so excited to finally sign on the dotted line. It was hard to tell my fellow OLU teachers that I was leaving, but they all completely understood the reasoning for my move. I will be teaching middle school science at Sacred Heart in Shawnee next school year. NO math and NO religion classes...NO gift baskets for fundraisers, NO making up art lessons (when I am the LEAST artistic person I know), etc etc. It will be nice to focus on the subject matter that I wanted to focus on from the beginning. I have not told the students that I will be leaving but I plan on doing that Monday morning when they are all together in the cafeteria before school. Once I tell them, they may have lots of questions, but I will address those when they come to my room for class later in the day.

Next week is another 4 day week. It is hard to believe we are almost to the month of May! Yikes! Where did this school year go?!

Harmon Lady Hawks

Well I have always wanted to try my hand at coaching soccer. I have always dabbled but never really had a team I could call my own. I was always someones assistant. Well since I got a teaching job in KCK, I started looking for coaching opportunities in the KCK public school district. A few positions opened up but one in particular caught my eye. The Harmon girls soccer team needed a head JV, and assistant Varsity coach. This was particularly appealing because Harmon is located blocks (literally, blocks) away from my school. I applied and never really heard anything. I figured they picked someone else. No biggie. Boy was I wrong! I heard from the coach a few months after I applied and we set up a meeting. I felt I was an ideal candidate due to my years on the playing field, and my location. Not to mention, I was a teacher. Every high school team practices right after school. Most people with a full time job couldnt make a job and coaching work. My school dismissed almost an hour after the high school, but the coach didnt mind, so I was offered the job!!!!

 It has been SUCH an enjoyable time with this team. They are a great group of girls. I remember the Harmon soccer team when I was in high school...actually, maybe I dont. I dont even know how long the program has been around. I dont think they have been all that successful in previous years, but their 2011 season was one worth mentioning. The coach has worked hard to turn the program around. He has a very strict contract which he makes all of the players sign. They have to uphold a certain GPA, and there is no drinking or drugs. If they are caught breaking any rules, they are off the team...no questions asked. Most girls on the current Varsity team, have hardly played soccer before entering high school. They are a very talented group and I am excited to be apart of such a solid program. Below is a picture of the Varsity team. Unfortunately, I have NO pictures of the JV squad, but now it is has been brought to my attention (in writing this post) so I will be sure to get a picture after our games the next couple weeks.

Catching Up

Well once again...almost 2 months before an update. Sheesh! Well, my dad had open heart surgery about a month and a half ago. Talk about SCARY! I am so glad he came out of surgery with guns blazin and he is doing really well. He has been breaking all of the "recovery" records! Woot. Things at school have been pretty tough lately. We are all just going through growing pains...and it is tough. I feel like I am dealing with the soccer coach I had my last season of college. It is THAT bad. Anyone who knows my last college coach knows...this is a bad bear situation... Anyway, moving on. We have 35 more days left until the end of the school year! I just cant believe that we are already through most of the school year! What fast ride!

Snack Techtonics

From the beginning of the school year, all of my students have been asking "are we going to do science experiments this year?" and "when are we doing an experiment?" I have made sure to at least do one experiment for each class at least once a month. They love the activities we do and they seem to be pretty thankful they arent stuck doing packets. Blah! I would like to give a big "shout out" to my 6th grade science teacher, Mrs Gruss, who has given me a TON of activities to do with these kids! In 6th grade we are discussing Plate Techtonics and Mrs Gruss said "If you dont do anything else with the 6th grade...do Snack Techtonics!" Finally the time came for a little snacking...and a little learning. Using icing, fruit rollups and graham crackers, these students could learn the difference between the types of techtonic movement. Below are a few pictures of the students projects.