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.

Sopapillas

Bruce and I made dinner last tonight and we decided on enchiladas!! I always love a good Mexican meal but I wanted some tasty dessert to finish off the meal. What to do? FINALLY! It came to me. I will try to make sopapillas!!

I got on the computer and started searching and found this blog site with a tasty looking recipe. I had all of the necessary ingredients except the crescent rolls and the cream cheese. It was easy enough to stop by the store and buy those. The recipe calls for 3 cans of the rolls but I could have easily gotten away with only buying two.

I laid out the rolls in the pan and got out my Kitchen Aid mixer to make the filling.

After the filling was done, I spread it over the crescent rolls dough. Once I spread out the filling I thought it was WAYYYY too much, so I scooped off about half of it. Again...knowing that, I could have only purchased 1 package of cream cheese instead of two. Once the filling is spread, I opened the other can of dough and rolled it out over the filling. I melted some butter and poured it over the dough and sprinkled some cinnamon sugar mix.

I put the pan in the oven and 25 minutes later this was my result! I think it turned out pretty good. Bruce doesnt care for cream filling in anything so he ate the top of the sopapilla. Maybe next time I will try it without anything in the middle. I think you could easily add some other flavored filling.

Break!

It is so nice to have a break! I always thought teachers lived the good life...work 9 months out of the year and they got frequent breaks...must be nice. Well let me just say, we have to work HARD to get our breaks. I have never been more exhausted after a day's work until I started teaching. I definitely have a new respect for everything teachers do. Even though break has started, I feel like I have hardly gotten any time to truly enjoy a break. Yesterday we had a School of Faith meeting for half the day, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon organizing things around the house. Today, I spent most of the morning finishing up my Christmas shopping...so now I finally have some time to update the ole blog. I did a project with my class before break started. My intention was for the whole class to do their own project, but once I priced canvas I realized I didnt get paid enough to do that. So we did the project together. I got the idea from Pintrest. I saw this project ALL over the craft, DIY website and it seemed like everyone was doing it so I had no desire to try it myself. Once I thought through it some more, I decided...why not. First thing I had each student do was give me a crayon. I asked for everyone to give me their favorite color but I think a few of them saw that almost everyone was donating either blue or pink...so they started giving more of a variety. When a student brought his/her crayon up, I had them write their name on the crayon. Now I will have a little memory of my first class!

I also included a crayon for myself as well as a crayon that said "2011-2012 7th Grade" so I could especially remember. After I had all the crayons, I used a hot glue gun and attached all of the crayons.

The last full day before break started, I took the hair dryer to school and we melted the crayons. Below is the finished product! There was a little bit of crayon splatter, but as soon as it hit the table, it dried. It was easy to peel off after that. The crayons were well melted and running down the canvas within the first couple of minutes. (I took this picture with my camera phone so the quality isnt the best)