That's a Wrap!

Wahoo! The school year for me is done! Woot, woot! I was very tired from all the things by the end of the school year. We finished on Wednesday and I've had a headache off and on since then. I'm not surprised, I knew I would get sick or have a headache when I was finished. My body is shutting me down and forcing some rest time which is good. Corbin and Gabby get out on June 2 and Piper and Ryan get out on June 3rd. This is the golden time when I'm done working but my kids are still in school. Ha. I love being home alone in a quiet and clean house. I'm taking advantage of this time by going on a trip with my bestie Jenny this week. This is kind of a graduation celebration trip. We are going to Phoenix for 3 days to swim, eat, shop, binge watch TV and chill out. I CAN'T WAIT. 

We got Y family passes yesterday. I've been wanting to do that for a few years and we finally signed up. We went for a few hours yesterday and we are going swimming later today. 

I already have another crazy idea but I'm in research mode and I'm definitely taking a summer break. For me to max out on my pay scale I need 30 more credits. I'm looking into the cheapest, easiest way to do that. I might, might do another Master's program through WGU. We will see. I'm looking into my options and I'm figuring out which path makes the most sense. Regardless, I'm taking a SUMMER BREAK! 

Huzzah!

Gabby got several awards from different teachers from the 6th grade school year. Wowza. She had 3 teachers give her awards. She also improved on her ISAT score and got a candy bar for that. 

Playing some racquetball. Corbin was with a school friend. He was at the Y for 4 hours yesterday. I hope he continues liking that. 

 

I GRADUATED!!!!

I got my results for Task 5 on Monday. I passed! I immediately felt kind of shaky and like throwing up. This whole thing was A LOT and it really took a toll on me. I went home and had to crash for a while. I have felt a certain level of stress that I've been dealing with ever since I decided to do it back in October. I'M SO GLAD I'M DONE!  Because I was able to do it in one term it cost me less than $3,700 which I will make and then some already in a pay increase next school year. Talk about a great return on investment...minus the stress. Ha. According to the Boise School District pay scale after working for 17 years the difference between pay of those with a Master's versus those without is about $27,500 more a year. Over time, it pays big time! Right now I get a little pay bump but every year I teach it gets bigger and bigger because of my degree...if any of that makes any sense. Basically, it's good I did it. 

The other huge thing this past week was distributing the yearbooks. Our school likes to put stickers on students who have purchased a yearbook. That's hours of looking through lists and sorting students. Thursday was kind of like a "field day" where the students did activities. I'm an elective teacher so I didn't have to help with that but I did sort yearbooks all day. I tried my best but mistakes happened. We are still sorting through some of them.  For the most part students who purchased a yearbook received it in their 8th period class. Now again, imagine this process...1,100 students, delivering about 600 yearbooks. It was a lot of list checking without a lot of time to recheck if you see what I mean...again mistakes were made. Ha. The yearbooks sold out and some parents were freaking out that they couldn't buy one. Luckily I haven't been yelled at yet. Oy! Peace out yearbook!

That's all I've got. 

Ryan quote: "Something that I have in common with the artic fox is that they are impossible to potty train." Haha!

I am throwing those AWAY as soon as I have my transcripts in hand.

WOOT!

Woot!

Woot!

My students were slackers and most of them didn't get to cook on Friday so I made about 80 ham sliders to give to the faculty. They are SO good.

I didn't take a picture of the process of organizing the yearbooks but I did snag a screenshot from a Marco Polo to my friend Jenny. See the piles of books with lists on top. Oy! 

SO STRESSFUL! Ha.

Passed Task 4 of 5

Last week felt like 3 weeks! On Tuesday I swear every wrong thing happened. Some stupid boys turned on the gas on the stove on purpose and it was gassing us out for who knows how long. I noticed the smell and turned it off. 30 minutes later the principal came in in a panic because of the smell so it had made its way down  the school. Dangerous, annoying, embarrassing, maddening.  Oy! Then it was just one disaster after the other and I was exasperated. I've had most of my students for a full school year and they still make me CRAZY in the kitchen, they still don't pay attention enough and add 1 cup instead of 1/4 of a cup and they don't follow the recipe or instructions. I decided to give a final on Thursday where I gave zero instructions and just graded them on everything. You get a F! You get a F! You get a F! I didn't really say that, but I thought it! 

I had a miracle from the WGU grading Gods and passed task 4. Halleluiah! I do not know if I could have handled any more revisions. I turned in task 5 a few hours later. It's the waiting game again now. I should pass but you never know. This is my LAST task. If I pass...I'M DONE! If I don't pass, that's okay, I have time to revise and turn it in again. I really hope I just freaking pass though. I'm SO OVER THIS!!!! I will know by Wednesday.

Scott went on a friends trip! He has the best childhood friends. They've been chatting on a group marco polo chain for a while now and planned a trip. They met up in Vegas where Richard lives and then they drove to St. George together. They stayed in Richard's brother in law's vacation home. It's beautiful. The guys reminisced and played pickle ball and probably lots of other things. Scott was supposed to be home tonight but his flight got canceled and he won't be coming home until tomorrow. Boo!  I've had a good weekend with the kiddos though. Gabby had a sleep over so Piper and I watched Austenland which she loved. Corbin and I went to dinner at Kyotos on Saturday night. It's expensive but it's where we both really wanted to go on Mother's day, plus I needed to celebrate turning in my last assignment. Corbin loves Japanese, Thai, Chinese food so much. It was fun!  

I went to the "Bans off our Bodies" rally yesterday. My friend told me they were going and they were going to wear their handmaid's tale costumes. I told them I wanted to come so I ordered a costume. I didn't realize we were going to stand on the steps in front of everyone. We walked up and Roxanne was like should we go to the steps and so we did. The crowd cheered for us when we went up. It was intense. I don't know what's going to happen. It's depressing to think about. Making abortions illegal doesn't stop abortions. Education and birth control do. Women still need options because you just don't know! Even the Mormon church is a little gray on this area when it comes to rape/incest. Okay, rant over.

Yummy Kyotos!

"Mom, take my picture."

I had to make a slideshow about my paper and "present" it. 

My final paper. WOOF!

I found this paper in my box. Ahh, it was nice to read after my week last week! 

That was intense.

Pickleball tournament.

Building things?

Cute boys!

Reminisce! 

Happy Mother's Day

Today has been a good day. We binge watched "Married at First Sight" while I was searching for recipe ideas. I only have 4 more cooking days! We went to Golden Carrel for dinner. It was BUSY, no surprise really but still. The only bad part about today was I got my results for task 4 and I have to do some revisions. I had a good cry for a minute. It's not that big of a deal and I have time but I'M SO READY FOR THIS TO BE DONE! I can feel it in my bones. 

Scott's birthday was on Wednesday but he was out of town for work training and we celebrated it last Sunday. Piper dressed up for May the 4th (Star Wars day). She is obsessed with baby Yoda. I'm trying to rest and refresh as much as possible. May is a tough month in school. It feels like the kids get extra crazy and the teachers don't have any reserves left to deal with it. I'm just trying my best to rest and push through. It was teacher appreciation week though and that was nice! We got some breakfast items on Monday and lunch on Friday. I won a $15 gift card to Target, a $5 gift card to Goody's (an overpriced candy shop downtown) and several students gave me gifts. It was nice! 

Scott and I went to dinner with my teacher friend Roxanne and her husband last night. It was fun. Well, nothing much else. I will turn in task 4 again soon. Fingers cross I pass. 

Sweet Piper! The heart says, "My mom is the best mom in the entire world." Purple says, "My mom is an amazing cook." Blue says, "My mom is the best." Green says, "My mom comforts me." Yellow says, "My mom loves us all equally." Orange says, "My mom gets us treats every Friday." Red says, "My mom love me no matter what." My fav! 

Ryan gift. The necklace he made is actually pretty cool! 

Front of Ryan's card. I love it! 

Our yard looks so good in the spring! 

Piper loves baby Yoda!

Spirit Week

My school had spirit week last week and Piper's school was celebrating their 45th anniversary and had dress up days. I was feeling tired and unmotivated to care about dressing up until it came to Thursday. That day was dress your favorite era and I had to go 80's because I mean....it's the best! I got a bad headache on Monday night and was awake for a lot of the night so I only worked a half day on Tuesday and I took Wednesday off as well. I was proud of myself for taking some sick days. It's hard because they are always short on subs and so the staff has to help cover but I always cover for people so I took some sick days. It was nice to rest. It's May. The end is so close. I turn in task 4 this week. Fingers crossed it passes on the first shot. If it doesn't, luckily I have some wiggle room. Time will tell.

On Thursday night we went to Summerwind to celebrate their 45th anniversary. The weather was terrible so everything got moved indoors. They had a few games set up and the Summerwind skippers performed. They also had some food trucks but I did not want to wait outside to get the kids a treat so I took them to Sonic instead.

This weekend was good, Scott and I met up with one of his work friends and his wife. We had a fun time meeting them. His wife is a part time dog walker. She loves it. She will go and stay in rich people's houses and take care of their dogs when they leave town. Interesting. On Saturday night Scott and I went to the new Nicholas Cage movie, we loved it. Today we are celebrating Scott's birthday early since he will be at a work training on his birthday. I'm making him pork chops, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, and tres leches for dessert. Hopefully it's good. Well that's all! 

The girls were playing some intense battle game with their stuffed animals for hours today.

 

Summerwind celebration.

My friend Aimee also dressed 80's. Oh ya!

I love watching a show with my girls.

Piper also had an 80's day. She came up with this outfit herself. Impressive!