Home Again!

I cannot wait for the day when I can start my new post by saying how unbelievably unbusy life has been. Unfortunately for myself, tonight is not the night for that. But right now I am taking a little down time so I thought I would update a little bit before life gets even more chaotic and there is too much stuff to back tell. Last weekend I got to go home for a day or so. I left Friday after work and got home at about 8ish. No one was there to greet me which was a little sad. Mom and Dad were at the high school football game with Cayd and Mol and Bon were at the Movie High School Musical 3 with Aubs. . . it was just a high school night I guess! But they eventually all came home and it was all good. The weekend was just a typical one. . very short, but good. We hung out, did some shopping, went in the spa, ate. . . all the stuff I love to do when going home.

Of course it was October, that means "Pie Month" in the Kelly household. Marie Calendar's pies are on sale for way cheap so we see a LOT of pies throughout the month. Yum Yum!



We also had sunday breakfast! One of the good things about 2 oclock church- bleh. Mom and Dad discovered pancake batter in a can (like whipping cream!) They were kind of fun to make, and way easier than batter, but they were not the best tasting and therefore we ended up having to make real pancake batter instead :(


Then. . . our final activity for the weekend. . . a trip to the pumpkin patch! Dad planted baby pumpkins in the backyard this year so we got to go and pick out all the pumpkins in the WHOLE patch= any kids dream right?! Somehow we got a stowaway humongous one out there too! WHOA! It was the whole pumpkin patch experience shortened into a wee ten minute family excursion. . . which honestly. . . is long enough time for the pumpkin patch!

A Fun Surprise!

So this morning, sitting on my counter, there awaited a great surprise. My friend Randi sent me a GYNORMOUS card in the mail! It was so adorable and completely says something her and I would say to each other and it was so perfect. I LOVE it! Thanks Randi! you are the BEST!!!!

My. . . classroom?

So- it is hard to believe I have only been teaching this class for a little over a week because it feels like they have been my little ol' class for the whole entire school year! For the most part. . . the kids seem to have completely adjusted. They seem happy with school, they like our class, it's all good. Kids bounce back from stuff like this pretty easily it seems. The parents however, are the ones that seem to be making this process a bigger ordeal than it really needed to be. yeah- it might have been a rough spot for their child for a day or two, but they are fine. . . the parents should be too! But I still have some parents (ok- ONE parent) that is pulling her child (who by the way, seems to be a very happy child) out of class and questioning her child every other second how the class is because she claims that "she is afraid she is not adapting well to the situation." Which. . . by the way. . . is a bunch of crap. Anywhoo. . . once we get all parents on board with everything... the year should be great!

Ok. . . about the classroom though. When I first got this job, I was told the classroom would be in a portable, because the school is pretty overcrowded. There are mmmm maybe like 7 or 8 classes out in portables and I really didnt think much of it because I grew up going to school in portable classrooms. In fact, my 2nd grade class was taught in one! At the time, it seemed like no big deal. It was just another classroom. But here, there is like a bad name with the whole portable classroom idea and I have come to believe that that is one reason parents were very opposed to their children switching classrooms This is so silly to me. I mean, maybe its just because I grew up going to school in em, but I feel that it makes no difference in the classroom environment.






Anyway. . . as you can see. . . its a cute classroom and all. . . looks very typical of any other classroom you might enter. So the other day me and my class went outside and a little girl asked "Miss Kelly, can I go back to the portable to get my jacket?" "No honey- you may go back to our CLASSROOM and get your jacket." Geesh- what are these parents teaching their children??

All By Myself

So tonight (Friday) my school was putting on a little halloween carnival, technically referred to as "Grizzlies After Dark," cute huh? Anywho,this afternoon I finally got rid of parents about 3:30 pm (parents love to stay after school and chat) and I had to be at my booth at 5:15 pm, so that gave me less than two hours of down time. It takes me a good 25 minutes to get home, so obviously going home would have been just plain silly. I had actually brought a little microwaveable meal to school that day for my dinner, but after school, especially on a Friday, the last thing I really wanted to be doing was stuff in my classroom. Afterall, I will be going back tomorrow. So I decided to go to target and then to grab something to eat or something instead. As I was driving along and talking to my sister Molly on the phone, it came to my knowledge that I have never gone out to eat by myself before. I mean, I have gone and picked up food and taken it home, but I have never actually like sat in some little fast food restaurant and eaten all by myself. But I had no where to go take my meal, I had some time, and I was starving, so I did tonight. I thought it would be weird, but it really wasn't. I just sat, and ate. Who knows. . . maybe I will do it more often now! I was pretty disappointed with the food however. Baja Fresh, I have never been there, but I LOVE a place called Rubios and I was hoping it was something like it. Sadly, it just wasnt the same. I left leaving SO full, but just not satisfied. Its kind of a pain being so incredibly full off something you didnt enjoy much to begin with. . . oh well. I have discovered one Rubios here in Las Vegas area, it was once when I was visiting Chris, probably the first time I came here to visit him. So I dont even know where we were at. . . but there it was! I know it is in Henderson, but that is like a good distance away from me, definitely worth the trip, but I was just lacking in time tonight. I will have to look up Rubios and see if there are any a wee bit closer. Who knows. . . maybe I will go there for my next by myself food experience!
So I would like to have gotten a candid moment of me, and my new dining experience. Unfortunately, no one was with me to take a photo. Haha. . . go figure!

Happy Chaotic

Things are so busy right now that I don't even feel I have time to sit down and write this post, but I just barely got home from work and I have so much stuff to do that I brought home, I figured a break from that kind of stuff was well deserved.
So shall I just jump right in from where we left off?

Last Tuesday was my official first day on contract for my new job. I spent the day moving all of my stuff into my classroom, and from past posts we all should know by now, that it is A LOT of stuff! Not to mention the school is a good 25 minute drive from my house so it was kind of a long process. Near the end of the day I got my pal Randi's brother BJ to move the last of the stuff over with me because he has a big humongo truck. . . something that I am thinking I should invest in with all this moving going on, but for now, it is just nice to have friends that can do it for me instead. :)

On Wednesday I spent the day there just trying to set everything up and put things where they belonged. This was kind of a hard task because a lot of the furniture for the room hadn't arrived yet so I didn't really have places to put things anyway. But I hung up some bulletin boards and just tried to clear out some of the clutter.

On Thursday I went to the school for half of the day to do the same thing, but then had to go down to the district office to sign my contract. YAY! But this we know from past posts as well, that going to the district office can be a heinous experience as well because it is in such a horrid location.

But I got it all taken care of, yahoo and showed up on Friday morning at school to try to get some planning done so I could be ready for Monday, the first day! But the good ole principal had different plans for that day which included starting my class. . . and he decided to share it with me just that morning. In fact, he didnt really personally tell me either, he just kind of announced it at the morning faculty meeting, as if it was just common knowledge or something! Luckily, he wanted me to take the kids after lunch, so I had til 1230 to finish organizing a bit and to come up with some kind of fun activity to start our school year off with. The day went surprisingly well. It is a way cute little second grade class. 17 kids in all. Some of them definitely have some spunk in them, but I really think it will be a fun year. That night I went home feeling pretty beat, however, I ended up going bowling with a friend and smoked his bum in all 3 games that we played. . . with my last score being. . . wait for it. . . 178 points! I was on fire I tell ya! Guess I wasn't so beat afterall. . . I really think that might be my personal record!

So yeah. . . Saturday I went to work for most the day, then went to a bonfire thing in the pm- late into the pm!

On Sunday after church I went and signed the lease for the new house I am going to be living in! Yay! I am very excited. . .I already got the key and everything but I am not too sure when I am going to find time to do the actual moving. . . but its a cute house, fun girls, I am excited. More on this topic (with pics hopefully) is sure to come. After that I went to game night at my friend Becky's house. Becky moved here right after I did, but cuz of a couple reasons, is sadly moving back to Provo. :( This was kind of a last hurrah with her I guess. Most of the night was way fun. I enjoyed myself quite immensely. A group of us played one of my favorite games "It came to Pass," yes- the terminology is religious, but the game itself is not. :) And some of the people I played with were just not my favorite people and this one STUPID boy even made fun of me. . .agh! But then he was doing so freakin crummy after like three rounds, he quit and left- YAY and then it was a joyous occasion once again. It made me miss my Utah friends way much though. . . so sad. We used to get together and play this game through all hours of the night and Brienne and Ryan would create "team unstoppable" haha. . . or when me and Molly would cheat by jabbing each other under the table til people figured it out and wouldnt let us sit together anymore. . . awww good times that I miss. :( Anywhoo. . . I ended up getting home too late (for the 3rd night in a row) and still had to stay up late to finish some stuff up.

Monday I started work and it went just smashing. Good little buggers, they will be fun and I am excited to be where I am at. The school is so unbelievably cute. it is two stories high and the work room has seriously like every color butcher paper you can imagine! (ok. . . that might not seem great- but pretty much. . . a teachers dream :) The other teachers are way nice and helpful and it has just been a really good first week. Yeah. . . crazy to think that just this time last week I had barely moved everything in! The actual teaching part has been pretty good. It has been quite the challenge to get things going in the classroom. They are all so used to doing things differently because they came from 8 different teachers classes! But we are working things out and it should be smooth sailing pretty soon.

Anywho. . . I really must scamper off. No worries. . . I will hopefully be back shortly. :)

Finally caught a break. . .

Wow, so much has happened this past week, I am excited to catch everyone up. :)
We will begin with the job hunt. . .
I came back from Indiana and tried to do the whole substituting thing. Just getting myself used to the system was a pain in the butt. My first job was on a Friday, Kindergarten class, and basically, it was a heinous experience. The kids were out of control, they hadnt had a teacher since like the second week of school so they had no routines down and no expectations, basically it was a nightmare. On monday, due to my disorganized life, I didnt go in to sub. That night I went to family night and sat by a girl that I had never spoken to before in my life. She knew I was a teacher however so she tried to make small talk about what grade I teach. I had to hold my head in shame and tell her that I didnt exactly have a job at the moment. She then told me that her school (did I mention she is a teacher as well?) had an opening for a 4th grade teacher because their numbers went up this year- yay for them. So she told me to come in the next morning. I did that, had an interview with the school that afternoon, and left feeling very confident that I got the job. They told me they would contact me the next day after finishing the few interviews they were "required" to do, but toured me around the school and made sure I would be available on Friday to come in.
The next day however, I did not receive a call from that school, but I got a different surprise call. Yay for surprise calls!
It was a principal at a different school who needed a second grade teacher! He had talked to the principal of the school I started at this year and said that she had only wonderful things to say about me and told him that I just had to have a job this year. So he wanted to interview the next day! So of course by now I am hoping that the first school does NOT call me, I mean, it was a great school and all, but second grade was where I wanted to be. So the next morning while I was driving to my interview at the second school, the first school called me. I did not answer though because I am indeed a wimp. I immediately listened to the voice mail though and it was the vice principal telling me that they had put my name into the district as their new 4th grade teacher! AGH!! So I got to the interview at the second school and oh my gosh it was the cutest school EVER in like a way nice area in town. The principal was SO nice and after a long, friendly interview, I was offered the job there. Of course I wanted to accept that job immediately! He knew about the situation from the first school (he had tried to hire me before I even got to the interview but the district told him I had already been hired!) and told me that I could easily get out of that job because I didnt even accept it to begin with and the district thinks its important that teachers go where they think they are the best fit. So I called the district and I went to the other school, and to make a very long story short. . . got my new second grade job at the cutest school EVER! I start tomorrow. . . I will definitely let you know how it goes!
After getting my job, I drove down to California. Molly and Bryan were originally supposed to come this weekend, but due to
other circumstances, they decided not to. It was a way fun weekend. I hung out at home and with my family. I watched Cayden in his football game and I might add, he did amazing! Dad got an awesome video of one of the plays and I highly recommend you viewing it. :) Cayden is on the blue team, number 21 :)


We went in the spa a few times, watched tv, just did the hang out at home thing. It was way fun. Today (Monday) I drove back but randomly decided to stop in Murietta to visit my friend Jenae who I have not seen in a long time. We had a wonderful and lengthy visit and then I got on the road and made it back here this evening. Two Thursdays ago, I had a visit with another friend of mine Brittney. Her sister plays soccer for BYU Hawaii and were playing in St George so Britt and her fam drove down to see her so I drove up to see them. It was way fun and little kami even scored the only goal for their team. It was way exciting! I am kind of bummed I have no cute photos from either of my excellent friend visits but I had to mention it anyway. I have lots of friends that I dont get to see very often which is so very sad so it was way fun to get to see those two again!