August Photo Contest

Here they are...
My photos for the August Photo Hunt Challenge

1. A Fountain (Overland Park, KS)

2. A Road or Pathway (Leavenworth, KS - Missouri River)

3. A Fence (Leavenworth, KS - U.S. Penitentiary)

4. A symbol (Lee's Summit, MO)

5. A Black and White Photo (Leavenworth, KS - US Penitentiary)

6. A Clunker Car (Independence, MO)

7. A Cool Car

8. A Portrait (Bethany - English Teacher)

9. Amusement (Kansas City, MO - Worlds of Fun)

10. Back to School (Kansas City, MO - Hickman Mills High School Freshmen Orientation)

11. Urban/City (Leavenworth, KS)

12. Suburban (Grandview, MO)

13. Country/Rural (Schuyler, NE)

14. Something Domestic (Johnson County, KS - Deanna Rose Farmstead)

15. Something Wild (Omaha, Ne - Zoo)

16. Something Silver

17. Something Gold (Grandview, MO - My backyard)

18. Something Shiny (Independence, MO)

19. Something Miniature (Johnson County, KS - Deanna Rose Farmstead)

20. Something Delicious (Kansas City, MO - Worlds of Fun)

Here's Wishing

The boys and I went to Deanna Rose Farmstead today to finish my pictures for the August photo contest. I won't post yet because Amy cheats. :-)

Here's wishing that the pictures turned out okay. And here's wishing that my cold will go away. I hate being sick!

First Day Back

While I've been back to school for awhile now, the boys just started on Thursday. (Thursday was the same day my Hickman students started, too.) Evan's in the 3rd grade, and he loves his teacher. I'm very happy about that! Dylan started the 1st grade. He's especially excited to have his friend Simon in his class this year. I met both teachers at Sneak-a-Peak last week, and it looks like the boys will have a good year ahead of them!

Back to school is in full-swing now. Tonight I had "Meet the Squad" for the cheerleaders, and the boys have their curriculum night on Thursday. Friday is the first football game, too. It seems like this is all starting so quickly this year.

I'm about a 100 steps behind where I need to be right now, but I'm getting there. One day at a time, right? My goal is to be in bed by 10pm tonight. We'll see!

The above picture is from the boys' first day of school last week.

What I'll Miss About Summer (Thanks, Amy!)

The first day of school is over, and how many to go? This year I have three Senior English classes and two Sophomore Honors English classes. There's a nice balance to it.

I thought I was ready for school to start again, but after this week, I'm wishing for another week of summer vacation. What am I going to miss about the summer?

1. Sleeping in. I now get up at 4:45 am. It's pretty depressing when the alarm goes off and it still looks like it's midnight.

2. My official babysitters (Grandma and Grandpa). While they could spend a week with the grandparents in the summer, it's not so easy during the school year.

3. Lunches last longer than 15 minutes. (Additionally, it was nice meeting Lee for lunch, too.)

4. The long walks/jogs in the park. I know I can still do this, but my time is limited. (Oh, and don't let the "jogs" throw you off. It's more...long walks/short jogs in the park.)

5. Windows. My classroom has none. Enough said. (Someone needs to text me or email me if there's a thunderstorm, tornado, monsoon, etc outside.)

6. Using the bathroom when I need to use the bathroom. I think only other teachers can truly appreciate this one! I need to get my bladder back in practice.

7. My cell phone. I lock this bad boy up in my closet during the school day, and only on rare occasions do I actually check it.

8. Computer time. Facebook. Twitter. Blogging. Ahhh....those are the days when I can sit at a computer and not worry about blocked sites.

9. Soaking up the sun. I wish I'd done more of this during the summer, but my pasty white look will soon haunt me once again.

10. Control of the building temperature. My classroom was a balmy 55 degrees today.

Back to School, Already?

Today we had our Freshman Orientation day. Incoming 9th graders had an opportunity to meet teachers, visit with upperclassmen, get a tour of the building and basic preparation for the transition to high school. Teachers greeted students in the gym, as they began with a greeting from Dr. Scully and staff. The above picture was taken as teachers were getting ready for students to walk through "the tunnel." Please note Mr. Pearson's face. I think his face says it all.

Photo Hunt

Amy and Sarah participate in a photo contest via their blogs. It looks like a lot of fun, so I've decided to give it a try this month.

Lee helped me come up with ideas for the photos, and on Thursday we drove around Leavenworth to get some pictures. He had some great ideas, one of them being the penetentary for the "fence". We drove to the prison to take some pictures. I got a couple good shots of the prison fence (which I won't publish until the contest). The above picture is of the penetentary, but it didn't quite feature the fence so I'm not using it for the contest. However, I really like this photo.


The month of August has us on the hunt for the following items:

1. A fountain

2. A road or pathway

3. A fence

4. A symbol

5. A black and white photo

6. A clunker car

7. A cool car

8. A portrait

9. Amusement

10.Back to school

11.Urban/City

12.Suburban

13.Country/Rural

14.Something Domestic

15.Something Wild

16.Something Silver

17.Something Gold

18.Something Shiny

19.Something miniature

20.Something delicious

Publicly Announcing "A Failure"

Okay, so the 365 days of pictures is NOT going to happen. What was I thinking? Once the school year is back in business, I know I'm not going to have so much time to Twitter, Blog and Facebook. :-) Well, I'll still have a lot of time for Facebook. Really, this is just my way of saying, "I quit." I made it through 5 days; that's something, right?

This picture is an old one, and a little staged, but it fits the title.

Aug 2 - Day 5

Okay, so I was stopped at a red light to take this picture, but guess what the boys are doing? Yes, it's Pokemon. If it's not Pokemon cards, it's Pokemon the video game. Both boys have Nintendo DS's, and they're playing a game where they can "talk" to each other through their DS's.

Aug 1 - Day 4

Another day of biking ... this time we went on a shorter path, mainly because my rear still hurts from the last one. The path we took today leads to the boys' elementary school. Meadowmere Elementary is featured in this picture. Note: Evan rode through a few puddles of water from last night's rain. His back displays this nicely!