It's a boy!

Stad and I went to the doctor last week for my ultrasound. The doctor said everything looks great and my growing baby is 14 ozs. I can't believe that in four short months I will have a baby boy in my house. Boy is Copper in for a rude awakening. I have great friends at school who have offered to paint our guest room so we can use it as the nursery. We are now on the hunt for a small computer desk so we can move the other bed into our office. Suddenly my house feels very small. I will keep you updated on the progression of Baby Smith. No we don't have a name picked out. We thought we did, but now that we know for sure, we are not positive we are set on the name.

As far as school goes it has been a great year. How can it not be with a class who actually listens and likes to learn. :o) I am actually sad that I am going to miss out on 7 weeks with them this winter because they are a lot of fun. This may be my favorite year yet! I also have a principal now who knows that school should be fun for all involved (including the hard working teachers)! He does everything he can to keep things light even though we have Central Office breathing down our necks. Anyway here are some ultrasound pictures of the baby's profile and fist. Until next time....I wish you well!

New Beginnings

I know it has been a long time since I posted a blog. It seems like just yesterday I was getting out of school for the summer and now all of the sudden I have two weeks of it behind me. I can't tell you how many days, but our new principal has the count (I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.)! :0) Things are going really well this year. The staff seems much less stressed and we actually are back to having fun conversations after school and not the gripe-fests we were having last year. I have heard that we have been volunteered to work with an assist team because our numbers are so low, but I can deal with a volunteer basis.
On a positive note my new class is great. There are a couple in there that make me ready to pull my hair out at times, but nothing like the aggressiveness that I had last year. It almost makes me sad that I will be out six weeks....almost.
If you haven't heard our big news...where have you been? Stad and I are expecting a new baby to join our family in February. It is all still very surreal at the moment. Yes we are going to find out boy or girl at our next doctor's visit (Sept. 20). I am an avid planner and not knowing would not help my planning of rooms, clothes, etc. We are both very excited and nervous all at the same time which I am sure is totally normal for new parents.
I took Stad to Babies 'r' Us the other day. I thought Mr. I don't like to spend money was going to have a stroke. He told me to buy and not tell him the prices when I go back with mom. :0) I think I overwhelmed him more than anything. Now that I have written a lot more than I intended I will sign off. I hope everyone is doing well and until next time....I wish you well!

Where has the summer gone?!?

So I am looking at the calendar wondering where my summer has gone. A lot of my time in June was spent on the search committee for a new principal for my school. I am glad to say after more than 9 nights of long meetings and teamwork we did find someone who seems right for our school. I hope we are right on this one because there is a lot of disorganization that this "J" girl does not approve of when it comes to the administration at our school.
It has been nice to spend most weekends up at camp with Mom, Dad, and the rest of the campers and staff. I have enjoyed seeing some of my old campers from girls camp coming back to older camps. Yikes! How do the get older and I don't? :)
I am busy planning Girls Camp at the moment. I have had four counselors as well as the Priest back out over the last couple of weeks. I don't understand how people commit to something and then don't follow through. This worries me about the youth today. If you say you are going to do something...do it. Not that hard I don't think. Anyway, I hope to get through next week safely and without too much stress since my partner in crime (Summer) is not going to be there as much. Stad is talking about going to the beach at the end of July so I hope it works out. :) I need a vacation! Hope everyone else is having a safe and restful summer.
Until next time...I wish you well!

Crazy world of teaching leaves no time for updates!

I have 3 more days of school! YAY! Things have been busy as we are hiring new staff and a new principal. I thought I would post some pictures of Baby Jack and Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy! :)

Welcome to the world Baby Jack!

Stad is officially an uncle! We got the pleasure of driving Spencer to the hospital from the Louisville Airport on May 11th. I am pretty sure the Element was doing 100 a couple of times. All I know is we made it to UK hospital from Shelbyville in about 40 minutes. Spencer made it in time for Therese to start pushing (actually I think Jack was waiting on him because according to the nurses she should have had that baby much earlier than she did. He stopped coming once she got to 8 cm and waited for his daddy to get there.). Two hours later the cutie was here. Congratulations to Spencer and Therese! I can't wait to spoil the little guy (don't tell Stad that involves money...)!

Spring breaks and Lightouses!

Stad had a buisiness trip in Savannah, GA over spring break so I rode along for time away from the cold, nasty Kentucky weather. I asked around for some neat attractions that we had not seen last year and everyone told me to go to Tybee Island and visit the lighthouse. Ever since I was a little girl and was watching Pete's Dragon, I have always thought it would be neat to go up into a lighthouse. I decided this would be a perfect opportunitiy. Here are a few pictures from our mini-vacation.

The Tybee Island Lightouse is one of the oldes running lighthouses around GA and can be seen from miles away on the ocean and waterways of the river areas.

This was posed, but I was really nervous standing on the catwalk at the top. I wish I was as brave as the boy who kept running the circle. Yikes!

It was really far down to the ground!!! 150 feet to be exact!

The view was very pretty once I found my nerves. :)

I was much happier with my feet back on solid ground.

The last day there we decided to visit Hilton Head Island to see what the fuss was really all about. Stad managed to buy a t-shirt and get a bumper sticker so he can fit into the club, but I don't think I will be staying there unless it is in the off season. There were sooo many people there that it was almost miserable. Between the traffic and people I was a nervous wreck and ready to hit the mainland. I did enjoy our time at Harbour Town. The boats were massive and very beautiful.
Stad found a huge tree and just like any little boy he wanted to climb it. This thing was very beautiful.

I decided to keep my feet on the ground this time.

The time away was nice, but it was good to be home. I finally got to read a book for pleasure and just relax. It was a much needed break from reality and I was thankful for it.

Goodbye Box...Hello Life!

Since June my personal life has been slowly squeezed away like the breath of life in a boa constrictors prey. This constricting box has been consuming my life. I have been sitting endless hours in front of my computer reading and rereading entries that I didn't think would ever get cut enough to reach the page limit. I finally broke down and took some of the days given to me so that I could finish this process. When I finished the last piece on Thursday afternoon, I got up and did a happy dance around my house and scaring the dog in the process. I am a dork, I know. After one final read with my mentor (who I know I have bugged to death) and tiny corrections Thursday night, I was finally ready to ship it out.
The feeling of putting each article safely in the envelopes was both scary and exhilarating. There are so many places to check and write your id number it is scary. I hope that I crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's properly.
At the post office I used more tape than was probably allotted, but I wanted to make sure there was no way the hard work and dedication to bettering myself as an educator was coming out of Fort Knox, I mean my box. I said a little prayer over the box and shipped it away. Now for the worry of "will it make it all in one piece?" or "Will I pass?" Please say a little prayer that I don't have to do the portfolio pieces again.
Long story short, I am finished. I reached my personal goal of finishing before the March 31st deadline (which was extended due to the ice storm). That was enough for me. Was it a hard process? Not as hard as I thought. Was it worth it? I think I have learned more about myself as a teacher than I did in any of the college classes that I took, but it was very time consuming. I am glad to be finished so that I can enjoy the rest of this year with my class and I am excited to finally have my life back! Goodbye constrictor....hello world! :)
Until next time, I wish you well!