Award Winning Writing!

One of my new fourth grade teammates (Adam) came up with an idea to have a whole-school writing contest.  Each grade would have a winning writer (because you can't compare kindergarten writing to fourth grade writing, after all).  Each grade level team would decide how we wanted to handle the writing, and my team decided we would do it as a one-hour timed free-write.  The whole school wrote on the same topic--their favorite memory at our school.  Each teacher was to choose their top two writers to go to the "semi-finals" and Adam was to judge and decide upon a winner per grade level. Well, since I am teaching Kendra, I wanted to be sure nobody had reason to accuse me of bias so I had Adam also select my top two writers--I even had the kids only put numbers on their papers instead of names.  Well, Kendra's writing was selected as one of the top two in my class.  She was excited. 

Today, our principal stepped into the room and said he was there to pick up the fourth grade writing contest winner.  I was thrilled that the winner was in my class!  It was either Kendra or the other little girl in my top two, who is a very good writer.  Mr. D. said he would read the first line of the story to tell the winner, and as he started reading, up popped KENDRA saying, "YAY!!!!!"   What an awesome moment as a mom AND as a teacher!  Below is Kendra's story.  I publish this blog into a book each year, and I want to have this story included!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 

Who is it? Could it be me? I was at school and I was in second grade. It was a month and a half before Christmas. Ever since first grade I knew second grade did a Christmas play and the role of Mary was out there. I really wanted to be Mary. I really thought I had it because I had dreams and every time Mrs. Kougias talked about it she looked at me in “that way”. I thought, “This was it. It had to be me.”



I waited for what felt like 5 billion years. Whenever we went to the carpet, I always said it must be my moment. Day after day. No, no, no, no, no, no. Then the day finally came. Mrs. Kougias said, “I would like to give out parts now.”


I told myself this is the big moment. My body automatically went into cross-everything form. I kept on saying silent prayers. A couple of days before, I heard Reagan ask Mrs. Kougias if she could be Mary so I was worried the part would go to her. I felt like I was going to burst. I was shaking so fast. I kept on getting more and more worried. My teeth were chattering like a skeleton. I said, “If I don’t get Mary, it will be ok”. So many people were getting their parts. But then I heard, “ DUN DUN DAAAAAA! The role of Mary goes to Kendra!” I almost jumped out of my socks. I did not scream out loud but I did in my head. Everyone clapped for me. I was so happy.


Before I knew it, it was time to go home. I tore through the halls to tell my mom. I went down the ramp screaming, “Aaaaahhhh!” I wanted to tell everyone from China to Israel! I was so happy to get the role. I learned that one tiny thing can make one big day amazing!

Nativity and Early Christmas

Kendra and I continued our tradition of attending a Nativity display given by one of our church congregations nearby.  I will admit I was disappointed;  they scaled down the display a great deal this year.   There were only two or three rooms with nativities this time, whereas in year's past they had the entire cultural hall and every classroom filled.  The most popular feature was the dress-up nativity photo opportunity and Kendra and I had our picture done for the third year in a row.  It is a really nice service!  They dress you up, take your picture, give you a 4 x 6 print, and send you a link to a site to access the electronic versions, ALL for free!  Here are our shots from this year.

 Usually Kendra wants to be Mary, but this year she wanted to be the angel...

So that means I was Mary.

I also took a few pictures myself that night. 



Kendra's dad came into town for an early Christmas with Kendra.  We have done this for the past several years...he comes in a few weeks before Christmas and she gets to open her "big" gift from us.  She opens the rest of her presents on Christmas morning.  This year she got a REALLY big gift.  We usually don't spend this much on her, but it was a gift of semi-necessity.  She got....

A laptop!

The necessity part is that we have one computer at home--my laptop--and I have to use it all the time for work.  She can rarely use it (I work a lot!) and she is getting to the point in school where she needs access to a computer.  Even in fourth grade, her teacher gives online homework :-) (yes, yes I do!).  So when Kirk and I were talking about what to get her this  year, this was our choice.  She was very excited! 

We also got her a wireless mouse and she loves the color green so she was thrilled with this one.

Kirk gave me (us) a new flat screen TV (WOW!) which I got earlier in November, and surprised us with a BluRay player when he got here (DOUBLE WOW!).  We got him a Oral B professional sonic toothbrush, a couple of boxes of gluten-free pasta (he is eating gluten free and can't find it in Utah), a picture frame Kendra made at school with a cute picture of her in it, and the best gift that Kendra made herself was a nativity she made out of clay.

Kirk was shocked that she made this herself.  She really enjoys making things out of clay and had a lot of fun making this for him.  I think it is adorable! 



Fa la la la laaaaaaa!!!

I happen to live with a person who ADORES Christmas. I mean seriously comes out of her skin in anticipation. It has been so hard for Kendra to wait until Thanksgiving weekend to get out the decorations! I'll admit---I love it almost as much as she does! Our house is now all filled up with the red and green and sparkly stuff that shouts the holidays! Yay! Not too much is different from year to year, except the glaring difference in Kendra as she gets older. She should stop that, I think. I also messed around with my camera and tried some new stuff. I have absolutely no inkling of how to work the thing except in point-and-shoot mode. Someday, when I have time, I really must figure out how to use those manual modes so I can take neato pictures. I did mess around a bit and got a couple of (what I think are) cool looking pics.

This is my fave.  I have no idea what I did, but I like the lighting on this one.

 I just love laying on the ground looking up at the tree, don't you?

I know her face is shadowed a bit, but I love it anyway.  She's so stinkin' cute.

 My simple table. I got those three awesome Wise Men forever ago when I sold Southern Living at Home stuff for about five minutes.  These guys were worth that five minutes, I think.

I think this year I will splurge after the holidays for new, matching stockings.  Mine is pitifully old and SO boring (doesn't even have my name on the right side!).  And there is something wrong when the dog's stocking is cuter than yours.  Seriously.

Field Trip!

I haven't been able to go on one of Kendra's field trips since she was in kindergarten, so it was particularly fun when my class took our first field trip this year!  We went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History on the Tuesday right before the Thanksgiving break.  The museum also has an Omni theater and we went to see a movie called Under the Sea first.  Kendra was a little nervous...

 They had a really neat Egyptian exhibit with mummies, ancient pottery, and of course the camel photo-op.

 The kids really enjoyed the dino exhibit area, too.  Kendra is measuring a "fossil" here, although I'm thinking she's not too accurate considering she folded the measuring tape in half first.  Just sayin'.

 Good thing there are giant dino prints around for when you get tired and need to relax a bit.

 Look closely at this one.  I took it while Kendra was hula-hooping. You can see the hoop spinning!  Cool!

 Kendra and her pals M and K on the bus ride back to school.  Such cute girlies. 

I think my team is the smartest bunch of teachers around.  Taking a field trip the day before a holiday break is exactly the thing to do!  MUCH better than trying to wrangle squirrelly kiddos in a 20' x 20' classroom all day long, that's for sure!  Made the day go quickly and we all had a lot of fun.  And bonus!  I got to go with Kendra on a field trip again!  Yay!

Some final Halloween pics...

Forgive another Halloween post, but since I publish my blog into a book each year I wanted to have these in there!  A guy from the Saginaw ward took pictures at our combined Trunk or Treat and these were too good not to include in the blog book!

 The villians of the evening...Gaston, Snow White's Evil Queen, Cruella, Malificent, and Hades (Scott had his iPad showing a flame over his head, but apparently the flash killed it.  Bummer.)

Warms a mom's heart...and turns her a little green, maybe...

Comfy, cozy by the fire with a good book.  Ahhhhhh..

Full disclosure:  Kendra still doesn't LOVE reading.  She reads only the requisite amount each night to please her teacher (a.k.a. me!).  She never chooses reading over other things.  But she sure does look cozy here, doesn't she?  That's where the green part comes in for me...MAN, I wish I could cozy up to a good book!  JEALOUS!!!  She doesn't even know what a precious thing she has going there.  I can't allow myself to read during the school year.  I know.  It sounds so BACKWARD for a teacher to say that.  But if I get into a good book, I won't do the work I always have to do every night.  And I'll get behind, big time.  So no books for me, at least until Thanksgiving break, and then Christmas, and then spring break...and then (insert angelic chorus here) SUMMER.  Oh yeah.

Side note:  When we moved into our house almost 3 years ago, the contract dude I had do all my fixer-uppers, painting, flooring, etc. told me that he couldn't get the fireplace to light.  Being raised in an all electric home I admit that gas intimidates me.  I worry about blowing us up.  Rational fear, right?  Anyway, I assumed it was a thing that needed a repair dude, which I really didn't want to pay for.  Finally this fall I decided to buck up and pay.  I asked around and someone suggested it was simply that my pilot light needed to be lit.  I was still a bit unsure so I borrowed my neighbor and he lit the pilot and voila!  We have a fireplace that works!  Dang it for losing the last two winters without the ambiance of a fireplace, but I'm sure glad it works now.  It really isn't cold enough to use it yet, but Kendra just LOVED the idea of reading next to it tonight.  Far be it for me to deny her the pleasure....  anything to encourage the reading!

Science Vocabulary Hats

For the fourth year in a row our school has had a school-wide science vocabulary hat parade on the day before Halloween.  Halloween is rather pooh-poohed around here (people are so weird sometimes!) so there is NO celebration of Halloween at school.  Four years ago we took the lead from another school in our district and celebrate SCIENCE instead!  Actually, it is pretty dang neat to see about 830 kids with different hats showing their knowledge of science.  We parade around our school and this year we had the local high school drum line come lead us (how awesome is that?).  Each child is assigned a word and the COOL teachers also make a hat.

Kendra's word was TRANSPIRATION, which is the water vapor released by plants as part of the water cycle.

What you may not be able to see is that the word itself has hot glue dots all over to look like water, and there are also hot glue dots on the leaves of the tree and we put arrows with glue dots pointing up to show the water going into the air.  Kendra marched in the parade with the squirt bottle misting water into the air, too.

I have made a different hat each year, and this year I wanted to bop myself on the head for not just wearing one of my old ones!  That is a styrofoam ball on my head with part of a hanger around it and a space shuttle toy glued to it.  The hat itself is a black baseball cap with sequins to look like the universe, and the word is done in silver glitter.  It was quite the feat to anchor that ball on that hat AND get the orbit to stay around it!  Like I said, the COOL teachers wear hats.  All of my team did, but most of the other teachers didn't.  How LAME.  Well, not all of us can be so cool, right?  Yeah, I'm THAT teacher.  And proud of it, baby!