so it's been FOREVER since I posted last and I would like to apologize to the maybe 5 people that even look at my blog...sorry it's been boring and you haven't had anything new to read. i will try to make up for it with a longer post and maybe even some pictures-hope that helps.

*school is getting ready to go into the 4th week--holy cow, 4weeks of school already! i have progress reports to start filling out-they go out a week from wednesday, we have our first "short" week next week thanks to Labor day, we have already taken our school pictures-boy did i look like crap! we had our first "fun friday" last friday and i had the kids who didn't earn the reward and that was an experience. i have had my first parent conference with the parent, mrs. c, and the student-that was interesting, i have my first "big girl" observation scheduled for the start of my tenure...i have had my first big huge cry in front of the instructional coach while my students were taking a bathroom break, i have had my first "this is what you should be doing" talk from the assistant principal-some of which i don't believe will work with my kids, but i will take the advice...i have given 3 reading tests, 2 spelling tests, learned the art of letting papers stack up and then having to grade 2 weeks worth of work, school is such a new experience, it still hasn't really hit me that these are MY KIDS, these kids will take TCAPS and their scores will reflect my teaching, these kids are my responsibility from 8 am-3 pm, these kids are influenced by me and i am influenced by each of them. i am learning that kids rely to much on technology today and that they are still "testing the waters" to see how much they can get away with in my classroom, i have cried and cried and cried, i have gone to bed before 7pm just because i had a HORRIBLE day at school, i have had a kid just walk out of my room and completely ignore me, i have watched another student do the same thing to mrs. c, i have watched a male teacher try to tell me that a baby garden snake was a baby cotton mouth-he was wrong, i have begged for agenda books and threatened to take a box of them from the hallway just so my kids can finally have the stability of an agenda book, i have learned all about intervention folders and teaching students of all different abilities in one classroom, i have learned that some students-even thought they are in the 6th grade-still think they need someone to spoon feed them everything and come behind them and fix their mistakes, i have learned that whoever designed the desks that my students have to sit in was not the smartest designer ever...i have learned sooo much and we still have so much to go, so many things to learn, so many more battles to fight, just so much more to go. please pray for me, the students, the school, the administration-everyone.

*i know that i have already posted about the wedding weekend, but i figured that i should add a few pictures from the weekend...let's see if i can make a collage of them and put up here...ok, i tried the collage and i have no idea how to do that so i will just post a few of the favorites...








*drew and i have a possible lead on a house...yes a house here in jackson. my uncle has a house that he built here several years ago and now he is not living there and is wanting to sell it or rent it or something to get it off of his hands and we are talking to him and our parents about this. we would love to get this house. granted we don't want to be in jackson forever, we would much rather be in a house than an apartment. plus with this house we would have 3 bedrooms, a really nice fenced in backyard, a nice garage, a fire place and just a house. yes it would be more responsibility and more work but it would be ours. we could paint, we could fix things that we want to fix and we wouldn't have to worry about the neighbors and everything. send up some prayers for this. if it does happen it won't happen until at least after the wedding and closer to the first of the year.

going back to lesson planning and my "kiddie" movie marathon that has included free willy and now high school musical...
"let all you do be done with love"

whew!

what a long day...today was such a long day and tomorrow is going to be just as long. didn't have as many problems with students but there were def. still some sticky situations-sent a kid to ISS after being in my room for maybe 10 min...called another parent and did a lot of "lessson teaching" but not book lessons-lessons to a certain homeroom that was horrible for a second day in a row. these certain kids caused enough problems during activity that the principal was called into the room and he "chewed" them out...it's insane!! i am soooo tired, and all i want is a break, i posted a while back on wanting some time to breathe...just breathe but it just doesn't seem like i will have time to do this before november...this weekend will be no different, drew's grandfather passed away earlier this week after being very sick so we have the memorial service this weekend so we will be heading down to the memphis area for that, so yet again, a weekend away from my apartment...i think tonight that i am going to head to bed early and get some extra sleep...we'll just see how soon i can make myself get up and go crawl in bed-hopefully very soon!!

good night all!
"let all you do be done with love"

engagement photo link is posted on the wedding blog...

so i think i am going to nix the idea of the "teaching" blog...mainly because it's such a huge part of my life that without it i don't ever have much to talk about. so i will just delete-or actually just stop up dating that page so that i can keep this one going...so if you don't want to hear about my adventures at east intermediate then just skip on by this blog!

week #2 began today...holy cow! my second week of teaching started today!!! it's been an incredible, stressful, busy, fast, insane, overwhelming, incredible first 2 weeks...i have some pretty great kids in my homeroom, it's the other class that is giving me trouble and i am having to learn how to teach them each and every day. i am having to learn how to make specific accommodations as well as having an assistant in my room at 2 different times during the day. i am learning how to actually write lesson plans and keep up with the standards. i am learning what it means to use different types of media in the classroom...it's just a huge learning experience that i wouldn't trade for anything!

totally changing the subject, engagement pictures have been posted and they are great! i am waiting until i get my cd with the proofs on them before i put them up on here so when i get that i will post pictures on here and facebook.

that is all for now, i am going to work on some paperwork and possibly head off to bed early tonight...

"let all you do be done with love"

i just need time to breathe...just a little bit of time to myself to breathe and catch my breath. these last 3 1/2 weeks have gone by so fast and the next ones will go by even faster and before i know it i will be mrs. samuel andrew goldsby...i just need time to breath. time, please stand still for like 3 days and then pick back up again.

i pray for the energy to continue and the patience to survive

"let all you do be done with love"

so this whole posting with a full time job thing is not very easy. yes, full time job-so hard to believe that I have a full time job now, that comes with insurance options and regular pay checks that go direct deposit. you may ask, how were my first few days...well go to my teaching blog...and i will update there, including pictures, very soon.

today drewby and i went to nashville to go "book shopping" i had a decent stack of "upper level" books, but not enough so we headed to mckay's used bookstore where i had just over $100 to spend because of the other books i sold back. i ended up spending more than that but got a huge selection of books-including some "teacher resource books" that would be much more expensive had i gotten them from a teacher store or regular book store. i have to stay away from this store...its too amazing and we ended up spending almost 3 hours in there...they opened at 10 and we were waiting outside the doors at 9:55 this morning. i ended up with 2 of their carts full and walked away with some great books-including hard back dictonaries for like 3 or 4 bucks as apposed to 20something that i would have paid if i got them somewhere else.
then drewby and i went on an expedition to find the mellow mushroom pizza place in nashville and drove around for a while until we found that, then we went to the nashville farmers market because drew had never been and we walked around there for a little while. we eventually made it to one of the teacher stores so that i could look for a big piece of notbook paper that's laminated so i could use it for the proper heading and some other things in my room. we headed back to jackson via highway 70 and boy was that an adventure. drewby and i end up going on adventures way too much and this time ended up in montgomery bell state park. we explored there for over an hour and it was so awesome!

not going to post much more, got to get up and get to dyersburg by 8:15 in the morning. we are going to church with drew's parents and we are going to hear gary preach!

"let all you do be done with love"

my hands are shaking...
my stomach has a million knots in it...

...all because the school year starts today.
...not because i am a student.
...but because i am the teacher
..........because I AM THE TEACHER.

holy cow!
this is really happening.

i will def. post this afternoon.
"let all you do be done with love"