Parent-teacher conferences are done. Woot! I am always happy to check that off my mental list. It wasn't a big deal, and I didn't have any drama, but I always dread the 2 12-hour days and the potential for a weird parent interaction. The upside of parent-teacher conference is that we get a 3-day weekend. It has been amazing having an extra day off. I had that much more time to get stuff done and relax/socialize. Friday night we had a scary movie night at my friend Krista's house. I always look forward to that. We watched outside, and it was so fun. The movie was super crappy, but it was still a good time. We celebrated Ryan's birthday early because it just worked better that way. I can't believe he's going to be 13! Crazy. We just love Ryan. He's so easy going and fun to be around. He's my perfect little caboose. I can't believe I have all teenagers now. Weird! 

Little Shahar is not so little! She's so beautiful! 

Gabe celebrated his 50th birthday. A lot of family members came to town and it was a great time.

My FCCLA made cookies for the teachers for parent-teacher conferences. We had a ton leftover, and my students were happy to take them off my hands. 

I can't believe he's turning 13!

Corbin got a new desk for his room. He is very happy about having more space.

 

Work has slowed down a bit over the past couple of weeks. I don't have to do any work this weekend and have my whole week planned next week, huzzah! Also, quarter 1 ends this week. I can't believe it. The semester is almost halfway over and 1/4 of the school year is done. Wow! I'm really glad I went ahead and dove headfirst into the standards-based grading even though I hate it and it's extra work. It's nice to see that I am sort of figuring it out, and it's nice to get ahead of the chaos of the forced change next year. We had our first fundraiser for FCCLA, and the pretzels weren't as popular as last year, so that made me sad. I think there was more competition and less student participation this year. I ended up buying $30 worth of tickets to help my fundraiser; that's usually how my FCCLA fundraisers go anyway. Oh well, fundraiser one check that off the list. 

It's October, my favorite month! I went on a jog/walk on the greenbelt this morning, and it was so beautiful. Bring on all the pumpkin flavored everthing and let's cuddle and watch a scary movie and enjoy the beautiful fall leaves. All the love!

Corbin worked his last day and is enjoying his freedom from Chipotle. He's studying hard for his Chemistry class in particular. Chemistry, woof. Gabby is very social and does all the social things. She's practically never here, and when she is, she's usually studying. She went to Homecoming with her girlfriends. I love that. You don't need to get asked on a date to still have a good time. Piper is staying on top of her homework and forcing Ryan to watch her wacky cartoons with her when they have time. Ryan is Ryan, cool as a cucumber. 

Hutch is a good sport!

Friends are some of the best parts of life!

So many pretzels.

Twin day for Homecoming week. My co-worker across the hall has the same comfy jeans as me.

I way overplanted my garden. It is a jungle back there, and you can't even get to all of the tomatoes; they are so buried with plants. Next year, fewer plants. Also, John would like slicer tomatoes and not just the snacking tomatoes I planted 5 million of.

Well, I lied, school is not settling down. The Boise School District is changing their grading system officially next school year. I've been dreading it for a few years and I decided to try to tackle it and try to implement it this year. I don't really understand how to do it and I'm bumbling my way through. We have learning intentions that students need to have evidence to prove learning. I'm having to look at all of my current curriculum and either justify/get rid/or build new to fit into the learning intentions. I also have to figure out what actually qualifies as evidence and what can go in the gradebook. It's a whole thing. I think it will take at least 3 years before I feel good about it. It's a very time consuming process and I spend a lot of time on the weekend getting ready for my lessons the following week. Good times!

Corbin put in his two weeks notice because his boss kept giving him too many hours. He is doing A LOT of homework right now, more than he's ever had to do, so I think that's fine. Gabby has decided to live with me during the school year because it's closer to Centennial and she doesn't like to drive further so that's been new (and exciting for me). Piper is doing a good job staying on top of her grades without her meds. She doesn't like being on medication which is fine but she does have a lot of homework and I just have to make sure she gets it done. Ryan is doing well with 7th grade although he is adjusting to more homework this year as well. 

I put up my Halloween décor, it was time! Well, that's about it. 

I like to get things premeasured to save time in cooking labs and my TA left all of the cheese out. I didn't catch it. I was very sad coming into my classroom the next morning. Wah Wah.

Just a man and his dog.

Piper with birthday goodies.

Because she's cute!

Halloween Things!

 

I'm feeling a bit less underwater at school. It ebbs and flows, but the beginning of the year is always a little extra. I got my kids early since Utah Cannons will be coming up during my weekend with the kids. We celebrated Piper's birthday over the weekend since cooking seems to be my love language, and it's too hard to pull off during the school week. We had birthday breakfast, dinner, and cake over the weekend. This coming week is extra busy, so I also made 3 dinners ahead of time this weekend as well. I was cooking a lot. Oh, and the birthday girl also requested chocolate pumpkin cookies. Her birthday is actually on Wednesday, and she requested homemade pizza that day. I made the dough today. I've heard it can be good if it ages for a few days in the fridge. Fingers crossed; anything I can do ahead of time, I like to do. Piper will be turning 15! I can't believe it! One of my favorite things about Piper is that she gets VERY EXCITED over really simple things. I think that's fantastic. If you appreciate the little things, I think you are happier. 

I should have snagged a picture, but John spent almost the entire day on Saturday replacing Corbin's brake pads and a few other things on his truck. I sure love and appreciate all he does for the kids and me. 

We made it through the first full week of school. The kids and I feel like we've been back forever already. I feel like I can't catch up. Going from summer break back to teaching is just one extreme after the other. There's always more you can do, but at a certain point you just don't. I'm definitely not back in the swing of things. I went on a day trip with friends today, and I almost backed out because teaching is a lot. I'm glad I went but I'll probably be extra tired tomorrow, and it's back-to-school night, so I will be at work until 7:00. It's fine; everything is fine. 

This year, the teachers had the option to paint their parking spot like the seniors do, and my friend Krista got me excited to do it, but I decided I didn't want to. I got some ideas in my head, though, and when I got to work, I decided to paint the inside of my door instead. A lot of the teachers have their doors painted. Some are AMAZING; they have students do them, but I just wanted to do something I could do myself. I painted light coats, but it took so many coats for the white to look good. 2 coats of primer and 8 coats of white paint, to be exact. I had my TA draw the sun, and then I taped the stripes. I bought 6 cheap paintbrushes at the dollar store so I could paint coats with all the colors at once. This approach helped me get the project done faster, but it doesn't look as good as it would have if I had painted one color at a time with a roller. I wanted to bust it out, so it was a no-go with the roller. It kind of bugs me that I can see my brush strokes, but I'm glad it's done, and overall it does look good. Not perfect, but pretty good, and it is cute, so...success! 

There's not much to report with the kids. Corbin started his classes this past week. He was feeling pretty overwhelmed with work and homework, so he asked to cut back his hours. I'm glad his boss cut his hours. I'm hoping he can still handle working and going to school, but cutting back is a good idea.  Gabby is in a lot of hard classes, including AP Calculus, yikes- but she's really smart, and she's a good student, so she should be fine. Piper and Ryan are happy to be back at Gem Prep. I'm not 100 percent about it. The curriculum has a lot of online courses, especially in their Junior and Senior years, and I don't know if that will be a good fit for Piper. I think online courses are hard for anyone, but add ADHD on top of that, it's not a good combo. We will see how she does with her online classes this year. If she doesn't do well, I might want her to try going to Borah with me. We will see what shakes out. 

I've been wanting to go to Blue Heart Springs in Hagarman for a while now, and my friends Shelly and Mary also wanted to go, so we made a plan to do it. We weren't able to schedule it over the summer, so we had to go today. It was fun, and I don't regret going, but it's definitely not as cool as the pictures online make you believe. Even the pictures we got make it look better than it was. It was a little underwhelming for all of us, but we had a great time going on a day trip, and I had enough time to still do some lesson planning and make dinner when I got home. Okay, this was long!

Not a flattering picture. Oh well! Haha,

John cleaned out the kids' sink that was backing up. Gross!

He also cut out the hair that was stuck in the vacuum. He will take no more complaints about Hutchie hair from now on. Haha.

This was probably 6 coats of paint.

It's not perfect and in certain angles you see all the brush strokes. Oh well. It's cute! 

1st day at CWI

 

School has begun for all of us except for Corbin, who starts this week. The kids are excited to see their friends again, but less excited about school. Wednesday was my first day back with students. It's so weird to get back into the swing of things. I look forward to the next few weeks being behind us as we adjust to a more rigorous routine. Every year I try to take my lessons and make them a little better bit by bit. This year I decided to make my students drop their phones off at my desk on the way into class. It is heaven not to have to worry about whether they are on their phone or write them up. Okay, well that's all for now,

Cute Charly.

Cute Charly again.

Cute Gabby, 11th Grade.

Cute Piper, 9th Grade. 

Cute Ryan, 7th Grade

Year 3 at Borah, Year 9 of teaching.

 

There's not much to say. I go back to work on Thursday. I love the soft launch though. First day back at the end of the week and I won't have students until the following Wednesday. It's nice to ease back into it. I'm ready, not ready. I've had plenty of downtime and I'm ready to be more busy again. I'm a little anxious as well. I will be glad when the first few weeks are done and I feel back in the groove. 

It got very smoky and gross in Boise a week ago. We didn't really do anything much outdoors last week. I went shopping with the kids for back to school supplies and clothes shopping. The kids are with their dad for the next few weeks. They are enjoying their last week off with family in St. George away from the smoke so that's nice. Corbin was able to get time off and join them. He's been working a lot of hours all summer at Chipotle. I'm proud of him for being responsible. I'm hoping he can still work and go to school this fall. We will see how that goes. 

I've kept the garden alive. We are getting a lot of tomatoes and the zucchini are coming now as well. The onions and strawberries didn't make it.

Charly hiding in Gabby's car ready to go back with the kids to the other house. Stinker!

Ryan sleeps in the funniest positions sometimes.

Chef Ryan! He looked up a recipe and made an egg tortilla roll up.