A New Chapter. A New Beginning.

I'm laying here in bed, listening to my favorite music, trying to calm my nerves. Tomorrow is day one of a whole new world for me. Finally everything I worked so hard for is all going to come together, well at least start. Its a huge step in getting to where I want to be.
Tomorrow I start doing paper work to become an EBD teacher for a charter school in NE Minneapolis. Yes, you read that right. Minneapolis. Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I am NOT a city kinda person. BUT!! I am up for the challenge! It could be the start of something incredible!
It is finally happening. All the late nights doing homework. All the tests I've studied for. All the projects I spent so much effort on. All the classes I have sat through. They are all being put to the test. I have the chance to help kids get through school, easier than they have been so far.
If someone were to ask me how I felt at this exact moment right now, I wouldn't even know how to answer. It is a combination between anxious, excited, scared, nervous, terrified, and happy all rolled into one. If that is even possible. Which I am saying, is possible.
Truthfully I didn't think this day would ever come. I was enjoying the job I had. But then one day things started happening and it hit me. I needed to do something better for myself. I already miss my kiddos so much and it is going to be so weird to not see them every day. I grew so attached to them and cared for them for so long. You just wish you could watch them all grow up. But I know that even had I stayed at the daycare teaching preschool, they would be moving on eventually too. If I can know that I have touched just one life, then my job would have been accomplished. And now moving forward onto a new opportunity, it will be the same goal. Touch at least one child's life. Make an impact. Once you start that rippling affect, you never know where it will stop.
I know so many new teacher starting school tomorrow and it is such an exciting journey for us all. Getting the chance to help teach young minds; our future CEO's and Presidents of the United States. It's an amazing feelings knowing we have such an important role in their lives.
So good luck to all of you first year teachers out there!! And good luck to you Vets as well!! The beginning of the year can always present us with new challenges!!!
I am going to attempt to get some sleep so I am not falling asleep filling out paper work tomorrow. Stayed tuned for what I am sure will be some interesting stories!! :-)

xoxo

New Beginnings....

So the day as finally come.....I finally feel like an adult, well, at least more than I did two weeks ago!! I moved out of my Dad's place to my own place in Minnetonka. I am not totally on my own, I have two roommates. But it is still a place that I pay for, I need to take care of, I can't rely on anyone else to take care of it but myself. It's weird.
It is still taking some getting used to. I just started sleeping through the night two nights ago. Of course, that could have been aided by the Jameson ;-) But so many new changes are happening right now in my life I don't even know where to start.
I moved.
Volleyball is over.
My classroom might totally be changing.
My grandpa has made his way up to hang out with my Mom.
Its all too much at one time!! So the game plan for now is to just breathe and keep as calm as possible. So far, its working for the most part! I have my moments now and again but I am getting better. It helps when I have such an incredible support system. My friends and family are the glue holding me together right now. Without them I think I would be locked up some where!! So thank you for all of you, you know who you are!! :-)
On the 26th my grandpa passed away and there are just too many weird coincidences with his death and my moms that I just need to share. First, they both passed away on the 26th of the month. Second, it was very close to the same time of the day. Third, they both passed after hospice was introduced to them. Forth, they both passed from cancer.
Many similarities. So I say, 'like father, like daughter'. Both extremely stubborn. I can only imagine the smile on my moms face to be able to hug her dad again. They are both in a much better place and are not suffering any more. I want to be selfish so bad and say that I want them back, but I know down here is not where they are meant to be any more. So I just tell myself, some day I'll be with them again.
Moving has kept my mind very busy though! Just when you think you couldn't possibly have any more things, you realize how much you still actually need! It is ridiculous!! But move in day was a good time thank you to Abs and Heather! I dunno what I would do without those two. My two angels watching over me!! But this is truly the first time I felt like a true adult in a long time, or ever I suppose. It still doesn't feel like home, and I dunno if it ever will. But it feels like a step in the right direction!!

I want to dedicate this blog entry to Grandpa Gus. He was an amazing man who left his mark upon many grandchildren who will do their best to carry out the life lessons he taught us!

This picture was taken at my high school graduation party. It was mugger than you could ever imagine yet grandpa was a trooper and sat through the whole thing!! Love you and miss you!! xoxo give mom a hug for me!

Happy 108th Birthday Dr. Seuss!!

So for all of you that are thinking, 'umm...Dr. Seuss's birthday was a few weeks ago!" Yes, I know this. But I am the ultimate slacker. I have been meaning to blog about my classroom festivities since then!! So here it finally is!!

I did a two week lesson plan with my kiddos on Dr. Seuss because there is SO many different things you can do with Dr. Seuss! They also LOVED it which makes my job a bit easier!! Of course there are endless Dr. Seuss books to read to them. But then the trick is to come up with activities for them to keep them happy and interested. This has been proven to be a difficult tasks since I have 2 1/2 year olds all the way to 4 1/2 year olds. BUT!!! Luckily seussville.com saved me!!! There are activities for a bunch of popular Dr. Seuss books (Cat in the Hat, Hop on Pop, Horton Hears a Who, etc.), a tab for parents, monthly nationwide activities and so much more! I stubbled upon it when I googled (love google!) "dr. seuss activities. Within minutes I had my two weeks filled up!!

Our first week, we had parents sign up to come in and read whatever Dr. Seuss book they wanted (aka what book their child picked out). All the kiddos loved it!! They some how got into this weird thing of bursting out into a ridiculous laugh after EVERY page was read to them. Absolutely hilarious. They would laugh at something that wasn't even funny. 'Go Dog Go' is a basic beginning readers book, so its super simple. The first page just says "Dog." They were rolling with laughter!! It made the experience for them a bit more entertaining I guess!! 'Whatever keeps them happy!' is all I told the parents that gave us questionable looks wondering what was so funny.I had them make their very own 'Cat in the Hat' hat. They thought they were the cats meow with those! (no pun intended!!) They got to color endless Dr. Seuss pictures to help decorate our room to celebrate his birthday! Which, keep in mind how much most kids love coloring; I didn't know what to do with all the pictures they colored! I could't keep up on making enough copies for them!! Here is how it ended up looking on one wall of the room!

My kiddos loved showing off their Cat in the Hat to their parents when they got picked up that evening! Of course, this is only a SMALL selection of pictures on this wall. We had a lot of them up!

My favorite activity I got to do with them was our Foot Book collage!! I read them the "Foot Book" (which they again thought was hilarious!) and then we talked about how many feet we have and how many feet different animals have and what not. Next, I laid down two giant sheets of paper on the floor. I had one student come over one at a time, take off socks and shoes and paint the bottom of their feet in any two colors they wanted. They seriously loved it!! For most of them, painting the bottom of their feet was torture because of how ticklish they are, and I can totally relate to them!! I am super ticklish!! The final outcome was simple, yet they loved it and it looked awesome! Here it is!

I love how colorful it turned out! And yes, above this this, you see "Thing 1 and Thing 2"!! We made those out of their feet and hands! With almost every book we got to take a piece of it and bring it into our classroom but in our own way! The students loved it!!

It was a fun couple weeks to have them become so excited about the books we were reading and the activities we were doing!! One day they even got to take out all the play clothes and dress up as silly as they wanted and become their own Dr. Seuss character!

Any preschool teacher out there needs to take full advantage of Dr. Seuss, even if it isn't his birthday week and let your students go crazy with it!!! There are endless ideas out there and everything is beyond simple to do! 

So thank you Dr. Seuss for being such an amazing author and giving our students such silly books they can get so involved in!!

xoxo

Appreciate the little things...

Today was a fabulous reminder of why I do what I do each and every day. These little reminders are very nice because some days I am not sure why I do what I do every day. No two days are alike and its always an adventure.
In my preschool room, we are now up to 30 children in our room. When I started, I believe we were at around 17. Its been a tough adjustment for many of our students. And truthfully, for some of them, not a good adjustment. A smaller setting would be MUCH more beneficial for some of them. But because I am who I am, I do everything I can to make sure each student is getting as much as they can out of each and every day. Some days are much tougher than others and I leave some times wondering if I am really doing anything for any of these children and if I am making an impact in their lives. After all, isn't that the ultimate goal? The pay check is just a much appreciated bonus every two weeks ;-)
This morning when I got to work, my question was answered. The answer is yes. And I have always said, even if it is just one child I am reaching out to, I did my job.
I walked into my classroom this morning greeted by all my little rugrats yelling "Ms. Sarah (which sounds more like Sawah) is here!!" along with all of them hanging on me and giving me hugs. It truthfully is a great way to start the day! Then I had one of my little girls saying, "I wanna open my present!" I was confused until I saw three presents on the counter, one for each of the teachers in the room. She thought she as able to open the presents, even though they were from her! But hey, she is only three, I'll give her some credit ;-)
 So I opened my gift bag to find a reusable cup. Ya know? The kind with the straw and double walls so it doesn't sweat? It was filled with Crystal Light packets and a lip gloss from Victoria's Secret (which is always a nice treat!!) Then after looking again in the bag, I found their families Christmas card. Adorable. It really is the only way to describe the two siblings. They are on my top five fav kids list!! hehe But ssshhh!!! Don't tell the rest of them ;-)
And there was then one last thing; a bag of M&M's with a note tied to it. I read what it said and I almost started crying!! Well, take a look for yourself!!

This is by far the best gift I could ask for from a student. This will be one of the things that stays with me, wherever I am teaching. It is such a simple gesture, but it means the world to me, and all of us teachers we got one. So this question that I've been wrestling around with for a while was clearly answered for me this morning. My ultimate goal is to touch every child's life that I meet, but I know that might asking just a bit much! So knowing that this little girl was so excited to give each of us our gift was gift enough!! It looks like I just gotta keep doing whatever it is I am doing!! :-D

xoxo

wOOp wOOp!!!

So for any of you that are actually reading this, you know how much I love to play volleyball. Well the past two months or so, I have been playing on a women's league through community education with a good friend of mine, Nickie Everroad!! The first night we played, I realized how much I truly missed playing!! Well, it all came to an end tonight :-(
BUT!! No need for the sad face!! We played really well (once we got our heads together!) and took 2nd place out of ten teams!! We ended up losing to a really good team that has been playing together for what seems like a while. We definitely gave them a run for their money too!
The reason I am bringing this up is because driving home, I realized I haven't had this much fun in a while! Well, this type of fun. I am able to pull my competitive side out for a bit and really enjoy something I am passionate about! I don't know how to explain it, but I am so grateful Nickie asked me to play with her and her mom's team!! It feels so great to be able to do something for myself one night a week. Every night of the week it seems I am doing work, outside of work of course, or doing something for someone else. Monday nights are my nights and I have been very happy to have this opportunity!! We actually have another league starting up the first week of January and I am already anxious for it!!!
Nickie and I have played together for years and it is always so much with her! She got me into softball again for the first time in years this summer and again, so much fun!! Obviously I love volleyball just a TINY bit more ;-) hehe but either way I am doing something that I love and I am keeping myself busy!!

So here was us on our last night of the season!!---------->
(Don't mind the red, sweaty faces!)

Nickie and I are also coaching a volleyball team through Elk River JO's. We are co-coaching a 14's team and so far its been a bit of a struggle to get things going smoothly, but I am already looking forward to the season starting! We are getting the chance to take something we both enjoy doing and pass that along to younger girls in hopes of them some day doing the same thing! So hopefully we can put our skills to the test and teach them everything we know!!

Stay tuned for updates on how the team is doing!!

xoxo

The things that truly matter....

And yet again, I manage to fall behind on my blogging. Sorry to those of you that are recently new readers and actually tell me you enjoy this (*cough*Dani!!) Its been kinda crazy in my life recently! I have so many things that I want/need to blog about, I'm not even sure where to start....Yet, I always say I don't know where to begin or what to say, and some how I find myself not knowing where to stop....hmm...
Well, just this past Friday, I got to see one of my closest friends, Sara, aka my whiskey sister!!

She is living in California right now because that is where her boyfriend is stationed in the military. I miss her like crazy. We met up at school and she basically became my other half up there. We are both loud. Very loud. We both don't care what other people think of us because we are loud. We both usually have the same problems at the same time. And we both love whiskey, hence the name 'whiskey sister'. I love her with all my heart. I got to catch her up on my insane life the past few months. But seriously, it was a much needed visit!! I am very jealous she was able to head back to warmer weather, and I got to stay for the first snow fall of the season.

In our top hats we wore for a bachelorette party!

Saturday was also a busy night for me! I had another close friend of mine, Abbey, turn 24 that day! We decided we were sick of being cooped up in the house all day because of the snow so we went and closed down Tanners! hehe It was a lot of fun and it was a MUCH needed night out of the house! I was beyond exhausted on Sunday after such a long week. So after I met up with Abbey and another friend of ours for lunch, I let myself have a lazy day on Sunday which was perfect! I got to catch up on some things for work this week, which is a short week for me! Only by one day, BUT, I'll take what I can get!
And we all know that Turkey day is this week! I am very excited to be with my family Thursday because no matter what I am going through in my life, they always seem to make things a little better. A few of them won't be there this year which will be weird. I have a cousin studying abroad in Ireland this semester. Her family and one of our aunts went out to visit her, so it is going to be a weird day. But either way, I am looking forward to seeing everyone else!! I can't believe its already holiday season! Where did this year go to?!
It was a year filled with ups, downs, laughs, tears, smiles and many memories made and honestly, I wouldn't change any of it. I learned a lot about myself and who I really am as a person. I wish I would have learned some of those lessons in other ways, but I have always and will always believe that everything happens for a reason. We go through things in life to make us who we are on the other side of that event. I could have chosen to be someone entirely different than I am right now, but I know it wouldn't have been beneficial to me. I am still working on growing as a person. Still working on letting some things go. Still working on doing what is best for me. Still working on many things. But as long as I keep the important things in my vision, I know I'll be just fine =) My family and my friends are what keep me sane and they are the important things in my life. Without them, who knows who, or where I'd be today. Count your blessings every chance you get! xoxo

Its all about the kids....

I know when I get up in the morning and I am getting ready, while listening to Slacker Radio on my phone, if I get good songs, it will be a good day ;-) Today, was one of those days.
For the most part, my little munchkins had a good day! There will always be issue that arise, but that is with anyones given day. And at the end of the day, I really do adore my kids and everything I do each day is for them. I get up for them everyday! They are the ones that make me love my job and career choice!!
I do have to give some of the credit to the parents though! If it were't for a few of them, it would make every day much more difficult to get through! And speaking of great parents, I got the next couple pictures from a parent who is a joy to work with! They are from our Halloween party on Monday night and I love them! Like I said, my kids are the ones who make my day every day!

This picture is Evan, me and Kelsey, my co-teacher. We are really sad that Evan is not in our class any more! He was so much fun to work with!


And yes! Kelsey has a little mini M&M on her costume because she is pregnant!! She just found out today that she is having a boy! I am so excited for her! I love picking out baby clothes! This baby is going to be the best dressed baby in town! hehe

I know I sound like a broken record, but it is all about the kids and they all put a smile on my face!! Right now I am ready Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul and every story comes back to a teacher that has touch their life in one way or another. There is a quote that I love because it is so true.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.  
                                                                                 ~Henry Brooks Adams


I hope every day that I can be a positive influence in just one of my munchkins life. They teach me something new every day! I have a daily reminder what it is like to not worry about silly things in life we don't have control over. Their biggest dilemma is asking who will be there best friend that day. Wouldn't it be nice to have that be our only problem in life?? Kids are the tiny geniuses around us and they don't even know it. They know how to live life to its fullest ;-) This career choice will not only be incredibly fulfilling every day, but it will also keep me in touch with my inner child! hehe =)


xoxo

P.S. Here is one more for another smile!