apparently, my principal has been telling a lot of my coworkers that i am a great teacher.
she left me a note saying, "mrs. kotze, great lesson! you're kids are lucky to have you for a teacher!"
that would make anyone feel good. and, i for one, think it's kinda nice.
thanks mrs. pantuso!
my principal came in this morning to observe me teach.
i wasn't overly nervous about the whole thing, so everything went smoothly. i had to call on a few kids to stay on task or whatever, but principals actually like to see redirection.
my last observation was done by my vice principal and when i got my paperwork back, everything looked great! she said i had done a great job and she was very impressed with my teaching style and my way with the kids. that's good...
my head stinkin' hurts now. i mean i could take 5 advil if i had them right now.
starring at the computer screen isn't really helping a whole lot...
i can't wait to hear about the walk. i prayed for you gals all weekend.
i cannot imagine how tired you are (that's why i haven't texted you yet this morning), so i hope your husband takes care of the baby one more day, and let's you sleep late. but, if i know you, you missed her so badly that you woke up with her. if so, maybe you'll have time for a nap.
i love you so much and am looking forward to your post about the 60 miles (holy cow!) you walked this weekend. i love you and i'm very proud of you.
need i say more?
no.
but i will anyway. marme cooked michael and dad's birthday dinners on sunday afternoon.
chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, cream gravy, corn on the cob, peas, butter rolls, and fresh brewed sweet tea. then she topped it off with a black forest cake (michael loves it!).
it was so delicious. i mean, stinkin' delicious! we stuffed ourselves big time. it was the most pefect meal ever created. there is nothing, nothing in this whole world, like mama's cookin'.
thanks marme! you're definitely the best!
michael-
you are the love of my life. i can not even begin to imagine my life without you. you are an amazing man, a wonderful provider, a leader in our home. i am more in love with you now than i have ever been. i know that that is going to continue forever.
i am so proud to be your wife.
i hope you have such a wonderful birthday! i love you!
i lay in bed yesterday morning, sleeping.
michael had awaken just a little earlier and was laying in bed quietly. he's recently begun a quest of reading the Bible in a year.
i began to hear the quiet turning of those oh-so-thin pages of the Bible.
my husband, was laying in our bed, next to his sleeping wife, reading the Word of God.
there is no better feeling in the world.
thank you, Jesus, for the blessing of a husband yearning to know you more.
Seven things you never knew about me and now wish you didn't. Or as you put it...Seven strange/weird/crazy things about me:
1. I hate smacking gum and clicking pens. When I hear either of these annoying habits, it consumes me so much that I cannot focus on anything else. If someone behind me in church is clicking their pen, I lose all focus in the sermon and picture the person behind me totally obliviously, pen clicking with their thumb. When someone around me starts smacking their gum, I can do nothing but stare at them until they stop. Geez.
2. I never make my bed in the mornings, but I always make it before I go to sleep. I don't go as far as putting the throw pillows on the bed, but every inch of the sheets are straightened, pillows fluffed and cover pulled up and folded back smoothly. I then get in the bed and hardly move until the next morning.
3. I am in love with all things organizational. I can shop in an office supply store for hours. Pens, paper, notebooks, sharpies, file cabinets, rubbermaid containers, post it notes...I'm obsessed.
4. My shower routine has been the same for as long as I can remember: wet hair, shampoo (leave in), soap up, rinse shampoo, conditioner (leave in), shave, scrub feet with pumice, wash face, rinse conditioner, rinse face and body, turn off water, squeeze hair, towel off. Continually, making sure JAWS isn't coming up through the drain. Honestly.
5. I think pizza really is my favorite food. Remember when you were a kid in school and you were asked what your favorite food was? Most everyone said pizza. I think mine really is. I beg for it all the time. I think Michael is a little disappointed that my tastes aren't a little more refined.
6. I cannot stand the hamburger meat that looks like intestines. I will go to another store just to buy a different kind. Blah! That is so disgusting!
7. I drink pickle juice from the jar...a lot.
I tag seph and amy!
it's gonna have to wait, crys.
i have just enough time to check the last two blogs before heading our to our Stallion Stomp (the school's fall festival and once a year fund raiser). i have to work our booth because my room mom couldn't get enough people to sign up. poor thing.
i'll be the master of...the pig races. (don't worry, they're toys)
i promise to post my tag as soon as i can this afternoon.
i laughed at every single one and could identify with at least one thing everyone wrote.
crys-i often have the typing thing going on as well. thank goodness though, it's not during every conversation.
defensive driving online, has to be so much worse than anything else.
you see, in person or on video, the defensive driving continues whether you're paying attention or not. online, there are elevendy-million slides all less than one minute (except for the 20 minute videos). when each slide is complete, you must hit the continue button.
the stupid thing does not go on without you. you have to sit through every stinkin' minute of the six hour training. yucko!
it took me all day, but thank goodness it's finally over.
stinks!!!!
i'm doing it right now online.
yes...right now.
it seriously takes six hours and i had to finally go to sleep last night. the thing is, i procrastinated...again, and i have to get it done quickly so it can be overnighted to my mother.
she's going to save my patootie and take the certificate to the court for me.
i was speeding, okay!!! and it wasn't even very fast. my mom was with me. she was irritated with the officer as well. (thank goodness i didn't get in trouble!)
i hope it will be over soon...
i had such a great weekend.
it was wonderful to sleep in my own bed and take a shower with real water pressure. it was wonderful to see my marme and daddy. it was absolutely wonderful to see my sweet ellie belle.
it was wonderful to see my friends and their kids! love 'em!
it was wonderful to sit in my daddy's church on sunday morning. it was wonderful to see angela, rw, christal, michelle, crystal, and all of the other ladies.
it was wonderful to hear ree singing behind me in the middle of worship.
it was such a wonderful weekend and i can't wait to do it again!!!!
it is so fun getting to see ellie. thank you for letting her come and play. i hope you and landon have a wonderful weekend. here is what we've done so far:
last night as soon as i got into town, i picked ellie up from randy and tonya's (they didn't want to let me take her). we went over to jenny's where she played and laughed at mason and was then awed over by troy. she wouldn't stop smiling at him.
laney still can't figure out if she likes this little person or not. but, ellie sure likes her! this is the one time she got close enough to touch her!
i think she knows what a computer is for! she kept wanting to play with it! she must know she can reach her mama this way...
we're going to san angelo.
we're going to san angelo.
hurray! i'm so excited!
i get to spend some time with my friends, their kids, my parents, my NIECE, my husband and our home. oh...and LANEY!
we miss laney, but not as much as jules does. it's hard to be away from your best friend!
they're gonna die when they see each other.
i've never looked forward to a three hour drive so much in my life.
see everyone on sunday?! i sure hope so!
during snack time.
mrs. kotze looks at jason, "where's my fruit roll up?" as he shoves the last of two in his mouth.
mrs. kotze: "What?! you didn't even bring me a fruit roll up?"
jason: "i was hungry."
mrs. kotze: "you don't care about your teacher, or what?!"
david: "well, you have to care about yourself and bring your own snack."
mrs. kotze's mouth drops open as she stares at the boys in shock.
mady: "kids. they think they're so mature..."
i guess i didn't realize it, but i may have been more stressed than i thought.
right at lunch time, i was hit with a huge wave of exhaustion.
thank goodness for long science experiment videos.
and, the six pack of 1 liter dr pepper's one of my student's brought me this morning.
it's just that i'm too tired to even drink one of those.
thanks for all of your sweet, encouraging comments.
my observation is over.
the only real reason i was nervous is because this vice principal is sort of...well...negative. she nit picks to find something wrong.
i'm sure there will be things wrong on mine as well. i just didn't really pay her any attention.
because i'm new to this district, i'll have another observation next semester. that one will be done by the head honcho. #1 principal.
she's the opposite and very encouraging. she'll even change a score if she feels it doesn't reflect you correctly.
i'm just glad it's over.
i have my observation tomorrow.
for those of you who are not teachers, you must still know what i am speaking of.
think back. you were in elementary school. it was the day that your teacher dressed up and wore red lipstick with a big smile. she had on her special school stuff necklace laced with wooden school houses, apples, ABCs and 123s. it laid nicely on top of her red shirt under her denim jumper. she planned an outrageous lesson and was really nice all morning. that is, until her principal came in.
the principal sits in a chair, and watches...everything. she makes notes about everything. the teacher, the students, the lesson components, technology?, redirection, relativity, understanding, whole group tasks, individual tasks, a product that shows students comprehension, a well behaved class and a relaxed teacher.
fun.
this is me tomorrow. without the fancy getup, of course.
i'm not really that nervous about it. but it does make you wonder what you'll do if your autistic kid breaks into hysterics and you (for really, the first time) can't calm her down. or, what you'll do if the boy who pulls down his pants and hits people does something else that he should be sent to the office for.
oh well. i'll get through it. i always do. and if my kids act crazy, well...that's just part of the job.
as i'm sure many of you did, i sat on the edge of my couch last night, jumping back and forth between joy and exasperation.
after 5 interceptions and a few bad runs, the boys just kept getting that extra chance to win the game.
nick folk. his longest kick was in college. 52 yards if i'm not mistaken. this game winning kick was from 53, and he did it!
twice!
i was so nervous for that ol' boy, but as soon as that second quick sailed over the goal post i fell in love.
anyone who can pull out a win like that deserves some love.
thank you, nick folk, you big ol' kicker boy, you. thank you for allowing the dream to live on.
you're the man.
these were taken right after our run tonight (yes...we ran!!). that is why jules' tongue is hanging out everywhere.
aren't they so cute?!
while i was looking through my camera to post the awful pics of the previous post, i stumbled upon this sweet picture of my beautiful niece when she was a few days old.
she is so tiny and sweet and i love her so very much. she's my ellie belle and i will forever be proud to be her auntie jo.
we have a couch.
a wonderful couch.
a pretty new, greenish, long, nice big couch.
a couch that we can both lay on, together and feel great.
a couch who's cushions don't move all over the place.
a couch that isn't ugly.
it's down right pretty.
i love our couch. there's just one problem...
that couch is in san angelo.
the couch that i sit on everyday is the dumbest couch in the whole, entire universe.
this is michael's old couch. when he got it, he got it from a friend. it was old before he even got it. it's one of those couches with the three back pillows semi connected to the couch. it has fluffy arms and 3 cushions on the bottom that move no matter how you sit on them. of course, when the bottoms move, the back cushions slide on down and mess up everything. the couch is a tan color and was torn up by michael's dogs. it's been sitting in my mom's garage for about 2 years for the garage sale. it didn't sale.
this couch didn't even sale at a garage sale.
we decided that since we are leaving most of our stuff at our house in san angelo to help it sell (which apparently isn't working like we had planned), that we would bring this old couch here and just buy a slip cover for it.
we did that.
i hate it.
i think at least 3 times a day i say, "i hate this couch. ggrrr. this is the dumbest couch in the whole, entire universe!"
if for no other reason than having a nice couch to sit on everyday, i'm ready for our house to sell.
i hope you never see anything this embarrassing in my house again...
i promise, this happens so fast. it takes so much energy to make it look nice, and then a sit or two later and it looks like this. can you imagine how much this annoys someone like me?yesterday we went to a surprise birthday party for michael's friend fremont.
he, his wife and his son live about 2 hours away.
we decided that we would drive to new braunfels and ride with our friends jimmy and jill. they are so fun!
it did take a while to get out to fremont's house. and we sat there with a bunch of people we didn't know, but we had a good time.
jimmy and jill are so fun to hang out with that we ended up having a great day! the cool thing is that they are only 30 minutes away from us!
i love having friends and having fun!
i spent the week looking forward to friday.
it was the longest week of my life.
because i knew mom and dad were coming in, i called in sick on friday. everything was ready for the sub on thursday afternoon before i left. as soon as i walked out of the school door, my mind never returned to school...until now (and that's just because i'm blogging about it).
mom and dad got here really late on thursday night. the boys carried in our washer and dryer and mom and i carried in the smaller stuff and set up the air mattress in the guest room. michael insisted we give mom and dad our bed. so, we did and we slept on the air mattress. it wasn't too bad.
friday, michael and dad got up early, had coffee and went to the valero texas open. they walked around in the humid heat for hours. after that, they played a round of golf and by the time we saw them later that night, they were sore and tired. it was a pitiful sight.
mom and i spent the morning talking and chatting and having fun. we got ready slowly and then went to one of our favorite spots, jason's deli, for lunch. after lunch, we got manis and pedis from some really funny vietnamese men and headed over to the LaCantera mall for a little shopping. we didn't buy anything except for some really good marble slab ice cream.
we stopped off at target and then headed home. we took jules on a short walk and it was time for dinner. he headed out with the tired boys and had a delicious cheeseburger from longhorn cafe. we came home, hung out and, shortly after, all went to bed. everyone was so tired!!! the boys from spending all of their energy and mom and i from our relaxing manis and pedis. ;)
it was really fun to have them here and i can't wait to see them again.
a visit with mom and dad makes for a wonderful sick day!
well, i thought it would be really fun to change my blog background. it took like a week to find something i liked.
i spent the few hours looking and figuring out how to change the thing and make it work, and now i hate the fact that i can't put any new sidebars on my page. i do not have a sidebar of my favorite blogs to visit and that is just really hard for me.
anyway-i found this nice little serene template and loaded it. then, i found other cute ones from pyzam, like christal's and angel's. i tried to go there. now, since i have gone to that site, my computer is screwed up. there are constant pop ups and "malicious scripts detected". it's super annoying.
i'm sad to say that i think i am just going to go back to the regular blogger templates and get on with life.
grrr. i hate it when things don't work out like you want them to...
i get to see my mom today!
i get to see my mom today!
i get to see my mom today!
na, na, na, boo boo!
for the other henry child who wanted to see mom this weekend and then found out she was already coming here! ha! can't you see? i'm the one she loves the most!
oh! and i get to see my dad today!
i get...i'll stop.
but i am just as excited to see my daddy!
i'm sooo tired.
i am just tired.
school has been rather crazy. i got a new student who happens to be autistic. she was in second grade, and doing rather well, but her parents wanted her moved back down to first. i'm fine with her being in my class, but it does take a lot of energy and patience to be her teacher.
also, i'm getting sick. sort of. i'm so sick that i just might have to take a day off this week. i think i may have enough strength left for 8-9 more hours of school and then that's it. maybe my marme will come take care of me...;)
in regards to that, preparing for a sub (with this new student) is quite taxing. i always have a very organized sub folder with a long, detailed note, lesson plans, seating chart, lunch count thingies, attendance sheet and paper for them to write me a note on. now, however, i am having to write another long, detailed note to include directions for dealing with this sweet new little girl.
parent/teacher conferences are going on right now. the parents who don't show up take as much energy out of me as the parents who do. how can you sign up for a time, that you chose, for a conference and then not show up? not even call? jerks.
my days are going from 7:00am-4:30pm without a break. i'm with students or my student's parents that whole time. even during my conference period. my work day actually lasts longer than that because now all of my planning time is taken over by parents. so to get ready for the next day, i have to spend more time at school. yuck. it's tiring, but hopefully it will be done soon.
in the midst of all of that, i am trying to teach 19 children all of the objectives that need teaching in a first grade classroom. of course, one of those 19 children also needs to learn the objectives of real life. such as:
It is inappropriate, for more than one reason, to tell a girl and a boy to look under the lunch table so that you can pull your pants down and expose yourself because you think it would be funny.
That is not funny. At all. Ever.
living with my husband is such a great thing!
we do all kinds of stuff together. stuff we wouldn't normally do if we were in sa. he'd be playing golf or something. ;)
we grocery shop together. we do laundry together. we take jules for walks together. we cook and clean together. we hang out, laugh and talk together (i guess that one should be normal, huh?!). we even, most nights, go to bed together (getting michael in bed at 10pm isn't always the easiest thing to do).
it's fun. i feel totally loved and cared for by my husband and i am totally in love with him.
thank you, Jesus, for this wonderful time in our lives. it was definitely needed and you knew just what you were doing! it's awesome!
i've been working on my blog style for a few days now.
i couldn't ever figure out what to do.
i went to the site that rw and ang got their templates from. i had a hard time. i found a few i liked, they wouldn't work. i finally figured out why they wouldn't work so i changed it. of course, when i changed that little thing, others wouldn't work and now i can't figure out how to get my blog html back to the way it used to be.
...huh...it just makes me scratch my head in wonder.
why do certain things have to be so difficult.
anyway, for the time being, template boat 34 it is.
