Two days down...

...and only 178 days left to go!

The first two days of school have been great. My students are well-behaved (so far) and oh so cute!
My stress level continues to decrease each day and I think I might be able to survive my first year.
TJ has been super supportive and has even been helping me pick up the house and do the dishes.

And to celebrate the new school year, TJ and I finally used our gift certificate to the Melting Pot (since it expires on Thursday and has been on my fridge since Valentine's Day!). We just went for dessert and it was oh so yummy.

School Days

School starts Monday...as in July 28 (AH!). I spent this whole week working like crazy to get my classroom set up and ready for Meet the Teacher Night (which was Friday) and write up my plans for the first week of school. Want to check out my classroom? Keep scrolling down! Welcome to Mrs. Grier's second grade classroom! Thanks to my Mom, my sisters (including Calli who is in town from Kansas!), and TJ my classroom actually looks like a classroom now!
I have 23 students and I am so excited slash nervous slash scared to death to get started! This is Calli and I putting the finishing touches on my room before Meet the Teacher Night.
Word Wall. Isn't it great!?
This is the board where I will display all of their fantastic work. The green board has the 6+1 Writing Traits. The shelves below are their backpack cubbies.These cute little tubs were at the Dollar Tree (LOVE that store). As the kids came in to the class for Meet the Teacher, I let them pick their own seat (but only for the first week of school!) then they put all their books inside their desks.

I love having tons of bulletin board space! I left all the boards blank, for the most part, because I prefer to use them to display student work or content related to what we are learning about.

Student computers and a filing cabinent that is totally empty. If it wasn't for the other FABULOUS second grade teachers I would be totally lost. What exactly did ASU prepare me for?

Standing in the front of my room! Do I look like a teacher yet?

Since we aren't supposed to do a materials list for the students, we do a wish list. We let the parents know what supplies we need for the classroom and if they choose to, they can grant one of my wishes (things like construction paper, expo markers, crayons, etc). At Fulton, we have a large community of wealthier families, but we also have a community of lower income. I was excited to see that all but two of my wishing stars were taken at Meet the Teacher!

So my classroom is ready, my lesson plans are written up, and I bought new clothes for school. As I write this, I am totally panick free...but we'll see what happens Monday morning!

Tutu Fun!

After my LONG week of CSO classes I was excited for a weekend away. My family headed up to the Showlow/Snowlake area for the Pioneer Day celebrations. TJ and I got there late Friday night, so we made sure to cram as much fun into Saturday as we could before heading home on Sunday.

The highlight of the weekend was definitely Taylor (my niece, not the town!). Taylor lives all the way in Kansas and when Lindsey and Mike were back there visiting, they brought her back to AZ with them.

Taylor lived in this tutu all day Saturday! She even ran a race in it!

TJ, Jess, and Summer made sure to study up on the history of Snowflake's founders...Mr. Snow and Mr. Flake.

The parade was oh so much fun. Taylor's didn't care at all about the floats...she was more concerned with the candy they were throwing out! It was so cute when she would bend over to pick a piece up and her tutu would stick straight up!

After all that fun, Taylor was pretty tired. Good thing Papa was around to carry her!

TJ, Jessica, and I headed to Showlow to watch Batman: The Dark Night (which was seriously amazing!). We found these awesome masks that were promoting Space Chimps (which does not look amazing)...but the masks were awesome.

That night was the Showlow Stake bbq and we went cause we like free food...and Taylor likes to bounce.

We also ran into some old friends there. Elder Peacock (left) first served in my parent's ward, then in mine and TJ's ward, and now we are apparently stalking him up north! And Elder Irving (right) was the missionary that baptized TJ's friend Michael Mills. Very cool guys.

Oh, PS...Summer and I also have tutus, but we aren't nearly as cute as Taylor is in her's and we totally chickened out of wearing them in public!

No Fun.

OH. MY. GOSH. I started my CSO (Certified Staff Orientation) classes for school today. Best way to describe it:

"I would rather give myself a bajillion paper cuts and then take a bath in lemon juice."

Other things I would rather be doing for 7 straight hours:

*cleaning toilets

*chopping onions

*getting several root canals

*watching Celebrity Circus (how is that show still on!?)

*you get the idea

Festive 4th and Fabulous 5th

This 4th of July we kept it fairly low key, but we still managed to have crazy amounts of fun!First, I found a can of silly string...and lured TJ outside so I could attack him!Then Jess spent all sorts of time meticulously hanging up a "screen" for our dive in movie. And it worked great until...The wind started blowing and the screen fell down. But we were able to improvise by hanging it on the back window!
Mom and dad were able to lay back, relax, and enjoy the movie...and a few random fireworks that were shot off close by.
Jessica found a perfect seat in the spa...don't worry, it wasn't turned on (but when the wind started blowing, we did get pretty cold since we were wet and the hot tub might have been a good idea!)
The next morning, we were up at the crack of dawn (read: 5:30!) and headed up to Roosevelt Lake!

The weather was great, the water was perfect, and TJ found an awesome hat in the middle of the lake...so it was an awesome day all around!We took the jet skis, the tube, and a knee board with us. Summer and I both attempted the knee board, but it is apparently a lot more difficult when you don't have a boat pulling you up!

But we did take the tube and had fun trying to hang on as daddy flung us all around the lake!

Overall, this weekend was an A+ ...we had so much fun!

Birthday Shout Outs!

First of all...America. Our country is 232 years old today! As John Adams said,"It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore." So go see some pomp, play some games and sports, ring some bells, and light up those bonfires...man, Johnny sure knew how to have a good time!

Also...Diet Coke. This fabulous, calorie-free beverage was introduced on Independence day in 1982. For those of you who know me, Diet Coke is my love (along with peanut m&ms...they go beautifully together). But every now and then DC and I need a little break. He gets too clingy, then I start to have commitment problems, and its just a wicked little cycle. So DC and I have been on a little bit of a break for a week now. I'm not going to lie, I miss my DC...every time I drive by a QuikTrip my car seems to naturally veer on over, but I'm holding strong.

P.S. Coming Attractions...daddy is taking us to the lake! Be prepared for awesome pictures of my fam in bathing suits!