Snapshots of Life

Here is a fun new idea, brought to us by the ladies from eighteen25, which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. It is super simple. They announce a time of day on Wednesday, you take a picture of what is happening in your life at that time on Thursday, and finally post the picture and link it back on Friday.



So this week, the time was 5:00. I took a picture of the girls doing something that I LOVED doing when I was little. They were out in the yard with the neighbor girls, raking the fall leaves into a huge house. Fun times, great memories!



Hopefully I'll play along with this every week!

Busy, busy, busy

Clearly, my blog has taken a severe back seat to everything else going on in my life right now.

Student teaching is just awesome! I love every second of it, even the not-so-good ones. I have been teaching pretty much full days for the last two weeks so I am coming home exhausted every night. I knew I would be tired - of course it is a huge change to go from sitting down answering phones to standing all day and enriching little brains. I got super lucky and, while I NEARLY lost my voice, it stayed just strong enough to get me through the worst of my annual fall allergy attack.

I had my university supervisor come visit me last Tuesday for the morning. The kids were just awesome for the entire morning and they did just an awesome job with everything I had them do.

This coming week is a short one, with an early out on Wednesday and then MEA on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately for our kids, it is a week filled with tests. We will have our first theme test in reading, a VOWAC test, and a math test in addition to our normal spelling test. So basically everything they can be tested in, they will be tested. Poor kids. And not much teaching time for me.

After the short week, I have one more week of teaching everything and then I start giving responsibilities back to Mrs. Weber. It is just unreal that we are already almost done! And then on to subbing until I can get my first job as a teacher, which hopefully come very quickly.

So, as for my Project Life album, yeah, not doing so well with that. I've got to get some pictures loaded onto the computer and then onto this blog.

In other Nissen News ... we are all delighted to have Randy Moss back in the purple and gold. Now we just wish the Vikes could pull their heads out of their bottoms and actually come to play. Tricia is doing well in 4th grade and loving her teacher. Ryleigh is still enjoying both daycare and preschool - she'll have kindergarten roundup later this year and I just cannot imagine my baby going to school already. Both girls are back in dance and loving their busy Monday nights. Tricia just finished up her tennis practice for the fall and still enjoys it. Dave is staying busy and working even harder than normal right now. He is looking forward to hunting season to see if Miss Holly will be a hunter or not. Hopefully she is since she is pretty close to being booted outside because she is chewing up all the woodwork in the entry way.

Hopefully I'll have some time to get some pictures taken care of so that we can have a new Project Life post on Tuesday!

Project Life Tuesday, um Thursday!

So here we are again, late for Project Life Tuesday, after missing it again last week. All I have to say is that, even though I am home earlier from "work", I am much more tired than I ever was while I was playing copy girl for the Service Cooperative! It is a total blast though, and I love every second! So here we go with two more weeks of Project Life ...

Monday, September 6

Here is our birthday girl! Tricia turned 10 today - double digits! I can hardly believe it! Can you see tiny Tricia in the scrapbook? I am just shocked that I am the mother of a 10-year-old.





Tuesday, September 7

Today was Home-School Connection day for the elementary staff and students. This means that the kids come into the school for a couple hours in small groups, with their parents. We just go over some of the basics of the classroom and let the kids meet the teacher. Mom and Dad sent me pretty flowers to celebrate my first day as a "teacher".




Wednesday, September 8

First day of school, 2010-2011! I am in the picture since it is also my first day! Tricia 4th grade (Mrs. Siebenahler), Ryleigh St. Paul Lutheran preschool (Mrs. Lorenzen), Traci 2nd grade (Mrs. Weber).




Thursday, September 9

Here is Ry doing one of her favorite things ... swinging! Just look at that smile and those beautiful blue eyes.




Friday, September 10

Our pumpkins went crazy this year. This guy decided to break the rules and grow through the fence. We ended up putting a stool under it so that it would not break off. (Good thing too, because another one that was growing even higher on the fence broke off because it got too heavy.)




Saturday, September 11

Dave got the lawn mowed today. Ryleigh, who used to hate the lawn mower because it is so loud, hopped on for the ride. I have pictures of Tricia doing this same thing with Dave so it will be fun to compare them!




Sunday, September 12

Stocking up for the winter to come. Dave is still trying to work on the load of wood that the city dropped off this summer. Someday he'll get it all done and stacked up. (He does have to wait until we pick the pumpkins since three of them are hiding in the wood pile.)




Monday, September 13

Dance class started today for both girls. Of course that means that Ryleigh needs to dress up in all the old dance costumes. Quite the look she has going here, I think.



Tuesday, September 14

Reno finally got in to get his hair cut today. Please ignore the demon eyes he has going on here. His ears were pretty matted so they got cut super short. I think he is just adorable after a hair cut.





Wednesday, September 15

Tricia playing on her new netbook. Yeah, she is spoiled. I am aware.




Thursday, September 16

Miss Ryleigh hanging out on the couch with some serious "ponytail head" looking at the Halloween costume catalog. This is a nightly occurrence right now. Going to have to get the costumes ordered soon or both girls will change their minds 800 more times.




Friday, September 17

Birthday party night. The girls were so excited that Taylor was able to make an appearance! This cutout is seriously lifelike.




Saturday, September 18

Aubrey taught all the girls how to do the "penguin dive" into the pool. They lay on their bellies on the side of the pool and slide right in like the penguins do. Pretty funny. Tricia needs to work on pointing her toes, I think.




Sunday, September 19

Tricia and I got some of the fall/Halloween decorations out today, including this pretty pumpkin which is now in a place of honor on the mantel.



So I am still taking pictures, just not getting them up on the net very quickly! I am also seriously behind in the journaling portion of the actual album. The ONLY good thing is that my journaling is all taken care of, just need to transfer it to the actual album. I am really thinking about typing everything up and printing it out instead of handwriting ... we shall see.

Have a great week everyone!

Student Teaching Weeks 1 and 2

Student teaching weeks one and two are in the books! The first week was a very short week with Tuesday being the Connecting Home and School day, we had students for only three days.

The 2nd grade class is filled with 22 simply adorable little ones. My very first goal was to learn names. I was familiar with about four of the students but the rest I saw for the first time on Tuesday. Plus, almost all the boy names are so similar! Two Dawsons, two Aarons, a Brendan and a Brandon, and a Dylan and a Dellan! Ahhh! But I have managed to get all the names down already. It is really easier than I thought it would be.

As for actual teaching, I taught just one lesson the first week. It was a combination art / team building lesson called Squiggle Picture. It was fun and the kids did a great job. I also did a lot of help prepping, helping with seat work and transitioning students from one place to another. The second week I taught a math lesson - the dreaded subtraction! I have also pretty much taken over correcting the daily math and language work. Next week I'll take over quite a bit more of the reading/language arts activities and then the following week I'll start doing more math as well.

I have gotten so many great ideas though! There are so many little activities that are fun and educational at the same time.

One great idea that I will try to use in the future is a toothpaste activity. Each kid gets a paper plate and a glob of toothpaste. One by one, they are told to put their toothpaste back into the tube. Of course the kids think it is great fun to get messy and full of toothpaste. The symbolism behind the activity is that we cannot take back our words once they are said. Rule number one in our classroom is to say nice words to each other so this activity is a great tie-in!

Most of all, I am having so much fun! I love every second of student teaching. I pray every day that I will get a job very quickly!

Project Life Tuesday

So, I was one of the people who did not get a post done last week. Oops. So here are my pictures for two weeks.

Monday, August 23

Holly learned the hard way that those big, buzzing bugs with pointy things sticking out of their bottoms are not food. She tried to eat a wasp and became our puffy puppy. At least we think that is what happened - she hasn't told us exactly what happened.




Tuesday, August 24

No picture


Wednesday, August 25

My very last day at Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative. I took a picture of my office, although it never did really feel like my office since I was only there from August 1 through today. I will admit that there were a few tears as Tonia and I said our goodbyes.





Thursday, August 26

Another Big Brother picture. I just love Ragan. He adds such flavor to the show!




Friday, August 27

The tree in our backyard has become a haven for monarch butterflies. There were so many of them flying around the tree it was just crazy. These three landed on one branch. (Picture actually taken a few days later - I was at my very last face to face for Bemidji today.)




Saturday, August 28

Today we all got together at Grandma Darlene's house to celebrate Bryan being home and also have some early birthday cake for Tricia. Bryan and Terry put the girls to work shucking 24 ears of corn. They were all pretty cute sitting there.




Sunday, August 29

Today Tricia, Ryleigh and Mataya put together a little "party" to celebrate Kindra's birthday. She was queen for a day with the oldest girls as her security detail. Ryleigh was not feeling too great but she was there for the festivities anyway.




Monday, August 30

Tricia had been sick over the weekend with a sore throat and fever. Ryleigh woke up this morning with the same symptoms. So off to see Heidi we went. I was assuming they both got strep throat somehow. I was wrong! It turns out they both somehow came down with hand, foot and mouth. Strange since they hadn't really been around kids at all this summer. It was short-lived, thank goodness. This is me trying to get a picture of Tricia sitting on the exam table.




Tuesday, August 31

Tricia is on a cooking kick lately. Tonight she made us chipped beef on toast. She cooked it from start to finish. Here she is with the finished product.




Wednesday, September 1

I cannot really take any credit for the classroom, but this is where I'll be spending the next 12 weeks as a student teacher. My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Weber, does such an awesome job decorating her second grade classroom. I just know I'll have an awesome student teaching experience.




Thursday, September 2

The girls and I headed over to the campground in Edgerton for the night. On the way, it was raining ahead of us and the sun shining behind us. I watched this rainbow form as we got closer to Edgerton. Pretty cool.




Friday, September 3

Mataya came to the campground with us for the weekend. The girls all had a blast, especially playing on the new equipment at the park.






Saturday, September 4

Okay, yuck picture of me again! What is it about me and taking pictures at the theater? Anyway, Tonia and I had our first "date" today. We went to Sioux Falls for the day and spent some time shopping, had a great lunch at Panera and then went to see the new Drew Barrymore movie, Going the Distance. I cannot even express how much I will miss seeing Tonia every day!




Sunday, September 5

Holly is a satellite girl, cone head again. When she was at the vet last weekend they mentioned surgery to try to close up the sore on her face. I must have given her some face, because she said we could try to put the cone on again and keep putting the salve on. Hopefully this will work so we don't have to pay for surgery!



I hope that my blog will start getting more interesting now that I start with my student teaching. I am nervous and scared and yet very excited to start my next venture!

Remember to head over to Jessica's website to check out her Project Life post as well as many other posts.

Project Life Tuesday

So this is Project Life - The Slacker Edition! The camera did not come out much last week. The result ... boring pictures. I'll have to dig up some filler pictures for the three days I am missing. But here is our week for now.

Monday, August 16

Today I cashed three checks from our fair winnings.

$1.25 ... Ryleigh
$15.00 ... Traci
$37.50 ... Tricia

In my defense, they missed $5 on my check, but Tricia pretty much put me to shame this year!





Tuesday, August 17

Today, Dave finally got the fish tank cleaned up. Tricia won five new fish at the fair last week so the tank needed to be cleaned desperately. Unfortunately, one of our "old" fish did not appreciate his new buddies and had a water burial. And even more unfortunately, one of the new fish decided to jump ship and landed on the floor, where he stayed until Wednesday morning when I found him. Oops!




Wednesday, August 18

No picture today. Slacker Day #1


Thursday, August 19

No picture today. Slacker Day #2


Friday, August 20

We went to a new State Park this weekend. This is the sign as you enter Big Stone Lake State Park. We decided to head up to Ortonville to visit Grandpa Don & Judy. Ortonville was celebrating their Corn Festival so we took part in some of the festivities.




Saturday, August 21

No picture today. Slacker Day #3


Sunday, August 22

Could this be more boring? Our site number at the campground this weekend. The campground was okay ... sites were a little close together and it was fairly rustic. We visited the SD State Park and decided that might be a better option next time.



So there is my slacker week of Project Life. I promise to have a better picture week next week! Remember to head over to Jessica's site to check out the other Project Life entries!

Project Life - Fairs and Festivals and Plays - OH MY!

WHAT A WEEK! We were so busy this week that I barely had a chance to think! Rather than take a picture a day, I am just picking some of my favorites from the week.



http://www.jessicaturnersblog.blogspot.com/

Fairs and Festivals and Plays - OH MY!

The week started with Tricia having auditions for The Princess and the Pea. The production was put on by the Missoula Children's Theater and the Calumet Players. Auditions were Monday for two hours and rehearsals began right after lunch. Every day, the kids practiced from 10:30-3:00 and they did their first performance at 7:00 on Friday night. What a busy and long week for these kids, ranging from 1st through 8th grade. They did just terrific! Tricia was cast as one of the "phony princesses" of Glacierdom and you can see just how much she loved her role!

The Pipestone County Fair was also this week, Wednesday through Saturday. Both girls just adore the fair. Since we live across the street there really is no avoiding going over there every night. We just have to ration the ride tickets and game money. Ryleigh loved going on the "Miracle Round".




Tricia found Aubrey on the last day of the fair and they wandered around together. Finally they convinced us that Aubrey should spend the night. Aubrey kept trying to persuade Tricia into going on the Zipper, but she did not give in. They both love the Sizzler though.



This was Ryleigh's favorite ride, the octopus. She went on this one about six or seven times over the four nights. The arms went up and down as it went in circles and it was plenty bouncy. Even though she won't admit it, Tricia even enjoyed this one with her sister once. The best part about this year's fair was the carnies. They were great - clean, smiling, not making us use tickets to ride with Ryleigh when necessary. The rides were all clean and they worked well. This is a huge change from past years.



They had bumper cars this year and even though they went pretty slow and the kids spent most of the time stuck together, Tricia had a blast. Just check her out with her sunglasses and stage make-up still on!




And as if the play and the fair wasn't enough for one week ... the Civil War Festival was also this weekend. Pipestone has the festival every other year. Two years ago, Tricia, Aubrey, and I helped with the games. This year, we just wandered around with all three girls in costume looking adorable and oh so Little House on the Prairie! We spent all of Sunday enjoying the pretty dresses and walking the grounds. Ryleigh was so exhausted that she crawled in my lap and fell asleep during the battle, even through the cannon booms.



Oh, and don't forget all the open-class entries that Tricia scrambled to finish up ... I have to get some pictures taken of all the crafts. I never did get pictures taken of the baked goods, but suffice to say that Tricia cleaned up at the fair this year!

So that was our week. I cannot believe that I survived it! And to make it even worse, I had the 2-day paraprofessional conference at work on Wednesday and Thursday so I was at work at 6:00 all week. No wonder my legs are feeling like I ran a marathon, I basically did over the course of the week.

Remember to head over to Jessica's site to check out the other Project Life entries.