Mission Organization

Well, as previously warned, I have fallen behind on updating my blog. The pictures above are the reason. School is officially back in session (even though the kids don't come back until Monday). The teachers have been working like crazy getting ready for another great year! These are pictures of my new office/classroom. I HAD to put a picture of my closet on here to show how organized I have it! Every year I organize a little better so I can keep all of my teaching junk in order. I now officially have everything labeled and can get you anything you might need to teach reading at a moment's notice.
I started a new job this year - Reading Interventionist, and so far I LOVE it!! There is still stress, but a totally different kind of stress. Instead of having a TON of small projects all going at the same time, I have just a few BIG projects going all the time. For some reason, that kind of stress seems to be much easier to handle. We had our "Meet the Teacher" Night on Thursday, and it really made me sad not to have my own new set of kids this school year. That's always so exciting to meet your newest group and get to know all of their personalities. There is so much about being in a classroom that I know I will miss, but I am also very excited about getting to look more at the "big picture" rather than just one grade level. It's amazing to look at the kindergarten class and the 5th graders and see how much they really change in the time they are in elementary school. It was also really nice to see my students from the past 2 years and see how much they have grown. It's amazing how fast that happens and just reminds you how short life really is. I'll keep everyone posted about the school year and do MY BEST to update more than once a month!!

Family Reunion

What a crazy week it has been! Jeff was gone to Arizona to finish up some training, so T.J. and I got to spend the whole week together. We went to the Science Spectrum, the movies, the mall, and even out on a dinner date one of the nights. It was fun to have some alone time with the little man, but we were definitely ready for Daddy to come home. We went and picked up Jeff at the airport on Friday night. He brought T.J. back a little airplane souvenier that makes noise and lights up - Thanks for that, Daddy!! The next morning, T.J. and I got up and drove to San Angelo. Of course, he had to take his new toy, so it sounded like we were on the airport runway the ENTIRE way to San Angelo. You can only turn the radio up so loud!
I went to a Stella and Dot (jewelry) / Mary Kay party on Saturday afternoon while David Hendricks took T.J. out for ice cream. Then we had dinner over at Mimi & Granda's house. We had a great time! T.J. played with my cousin's baby, Kelton. They pushed each other around on this little gardening bench thing my grandmother has. Here is a video of them playing:


Then, we stayed the night out at Aunt Shelly and Uncle Drew's house. Shelly had worked so hard to set up their blow up swimming pool, and T.J. would just walk around in circles saying, "I swimming." Too funny! The next morning me, T.J., Shelly, Uncle Mikey, Kaylin, and Riley all drove to Abilene for a Phillips Family Reunion (Jeff's mom's side of the family). There were a LOT of people there, and as usual T.J. does not do well in crowds. I don't know why I always expect it to get better. He saves his biggest fits to throw in front of groups of people - Oh, motherhood!! It's like the saying, "Lord, please give me the strength to endure my blessings!!" Believe it or not, even with the major fits, Granna and Pa still took him home for the week. I have a training for 2 days this week, so Granna agreed to take T.J. back with them to Camp Kerrville (what the grandkids call Granna & Pa's house) and then Jeff and I will get him back when we all go to Meemaw's house this weekend. This is the longest I've been away from him in over 2 years, so I know I'll miss him like CRAZY, but I also have a list of things I plan on getting done (one of which was to update my blog, so check that one off the list!) so it will be nice! Today I got to sleep in, go tan, go to a few stores (just quickly run in and run out - long time since I've done that!!), go to a sappy movie, and then go to school and get by bookshelves set up. It was SO nice!! Then, Jeff and I are meeting for Happy Hour this evening (REALLY long time since we've done that!!). I plan on an equally relaxing day tomorrow!! Karen said T.J. is being very sweet, remembering to use the potty, and sleeping through the night. Oh, my sweet boy!! Karen's taking lots of pictures, so I'll keep everyone posted on all of the fun things he gets to do at Camp Kerrville!

The New Nelsons

Well, I am a big sucker for a cute little guy - who knew? Today, T.J. and I went and got his hair cut because he was getting a little shaggy. I told the lady to cut it a little shorter than last time because it grows so fast, and she sure did. He has quite the buzz cut. Good thing it grows fast!

Then, we went to the mall. I had to pick up my contact lenses, and we decided to make a whole event of it. We did not take the stroller (a first for us at the mall) and he was SO excited to have free roam. We went by the pet store to see the dogs and, little did I know, the pet store was having quite the hermit crab sale. There were kids all over the place looking at all these crazily painted hermit crabs. There were little stools all around and T.J. was lucky enough to get one, and I could hardly get him down from there when we finally had to leave. We were seriously standing there for about 45 minutes, and each minute was as fascinating as the next! The sucker that I am, I told him that if we could go get some lunch and finish our shopping, then we might come back and get a hermit crab. I figured with all of his progress with potty training, he deserved a treat. Plus, how could I not want to get him something that made his face light up like that?

So, we had lunch, picked up the contacts, and went into a few more stores.Then - as I was repeatedly reminded - we went back to pick out our own hermit crab ("Herman" crab as T.J. calls them). They had quite the deal on them (I'm pretty sure some worker went way overboard on the hermit crab bulk order!!) so we got all of the food, set-up, 2 "herman" crabs, 2 empty shells for them to crawl into, and a VERY big smile on a sweet boys face for a bargain price of $14.95!! Picking out just the right shells was quite the big decision, but T.J. decided on an Elmo shell, a Nemo shell, a Batman shell, and a shell that looks like a baseball.

He is completely fascinated with these things! I was a little nervous at first because they can pinch, but there is NO danger of that with our little cautious fella. He loves to look at them in their cage or for me to pick them up from a good distance away from him, but he will in NO way reach in and touch one. They're actually pretty cool little easy pets so we'll see how long the interest stays! When we were leaving the mall with the herman crabs in tow, anyone that even looked our way, T.J. would say, "T.J.'s herman crabs" as he pointed to them. He also wanted to hold the cage on the drive home, but settled for having them on the floorboard under his feet. The whole way home he kept talking to the cage, "You o.k. herman crabs?" At naptime he had to tell each one of them good-night. "Night, Night, Elmo crab." "Night, Night, Nemo crab." "Night, Night, Batman crab." "Night, Night, baseball crab." He doesn't quite understand yet that there are only 2 crabs, so we are also saying good-night to 2 empty shells - Oh the things we do for our kids!!

Open Up and Say Ah

T.J. had his first dentist appointment today. Since he can sometimes be (hmmm . . . how can I say this in a nice way . . .) strong willed and determined, we had been really talking up how we have to open our mouth wide when we go to the dentist so he can look at all of our teeth. The appointment was at 8a.m. and I was a little concerned when he woke up in a pretty foul mood. So, again, on the drive over, I talked to him about how we have to open our mouth very wide when we go to the dentist so he can look at our teeth. Who knew that my sweet boy listens so well?

As soon as we walked to the desk and the receptionist came up to us, T.J. opened up his mouth VERY wide saying, "AHHHHHH". I started giggling, and told him that he didn't have to open his mouth just yet. Then, as I was filling out the paperwork, T.J. went over to the kiddie play area to play with some other kids. I looked up from my paperwork and he was sitting, mouth WIDE opened as the other kids were checking out his teeth. I again began laughing and let him play dentist while I finished the paperwork.

They put us in the little examining chair (which he really liked because it had a television hanging on the ceiling that he could watch while his teeth were being examined). As soon as I put him on the chair, he laid back and opened up his mouth saying, "Ahhh". I laughed again, and told him he didn't have to open his mouth until the doctor came. As soon as the dentist came over and sat down, again, he opened his mouth and was practically yelling, "Ahhhh". The dentist was trying to ask me some questions and get some stuff filled out on him before he looked, but he couldn't get in a word edgewise with T.J.'s constant "Ahhhhh"ing. So, he finally said, "Let's go ahead and look at his teeth first." I was cracking up - who knew that I had nothing to worry about with him opening his mouth. He is so funny!

Anyway, the doctor said his teeth look great, spread apart the way they should be, and very clean. T.J. got a new toothbrush that he is so proud of (even though he picked out a pink one - Daddy will be so proud!) and some new sparkly big boy toothpaste. Very exciting!

We celebrated his great job at the dentist by going to Play and Learn at the Science Spectrum and went out to lunch together. What a fun filled day!! I couldn't resist taking a picture of him in the chair at the dentist office (Yes, I am that dorky mom whipping out the camera at every waking moment). The other pictures are from our day at the Science Spectrum.

Potty King

Well, our little man never ceases to amaze us! After months of trying to potty train, something has finally clicked. For those of you that don't know, we have T.J. enrolled in a new daycare that he will start in 2 weeks (when Mommy starts training for her new job) and he has to be potty trained to be in the 3-year-old class. If you had asked me last weekend if there was any way that would possibly happen, I would have said "NO WAY!" However, we have really buckeled down this week, and he is doing GREAT!!

On Mon-Thurs, we let him run around with no pants on. We had a few accidents, but nothing major. Then, on Friday we began putting underwear on. Before, he would do fine when he was naked, but as soon as we put underwear on, he would have accident after accident. Not this time! On Friday he only had one accident, and it was really more Mommy and Daddy's fault. He had just had a drink, and we should have reminded him to go to the potty, but we didn't. He seemed really upset about it, and from then on has even been asking to go to the bathroom.

So, today (Saturday), we were going to put a pull-up on him while we went to lunch (not completely confident about how we'd do in public). When I tried to put one on him, he begged for his Lightning McQueen underwear. So, we had a talk about how he could wear them, but we had to be sure to ask to go to the potty. Sure enough, while we were waiting for the Hibachi cook, he asked to go to the potty, and had no accidents - AMAZING!! The cook made him a little balloon hat that he just loved - he called it a crown. So, here's a picture of our little Potty King. Keep up the good work, sweet boy!!

Independence Day

For the Fourth of July weekend, we met all of Jeff's side of the family at Memaw's lakehouse on Lake LBJ. We left on Thursday and set off for the 6 hour drive to Memaw's. Halfway, we stopped in San Angelo and combined with Mike, Shelly, Drew, and all of the kids into 2 cars instead of 3. It is amazing how much junk we needed with all of the 5 cousins between groceries, life jackets, clothes, and every swimming toy available! T.J. outdid himself on the trip - he was a great traveler. He saved up all of his getting in trouble for when we got there (You know, in front of everyone he has to put on quite the fits!)

We had a GREAT time! It's always good to see Memaw and Aunt Glo, and it was the first time we had seen Steve and Karen since they returned from the "Australia - Trip of a Lifetime Tour". They had goodie bags for each of us and, Mel, Tim Tams are really good, but Vegimite is AWFUL!! Apparently this is something that people in Australia put on toast and eat all the time. It is the worst thing I think I have ever tasted - must be an acquired taste that none of us here in America have acquired.

We got to all go out on the boat and jetski, and had a great time! I do have to say that I think everyone would agree that the fireworks show was the best part of the whole weekend. They put on a fireworks show right across the lake from Memaw's house and it is like the show is just put on for us! We all got out some chairs and blankets and sat in the grass in the yard and watched the GREAT show. I was really amazed at what a show it was - much more than I had expected!! Then, we all ate watermelon and watched Jeff and Mike race these 2 little bicycle/rowboat things - that was TOO funny!! What a bunch of kids! Of course, the best man won (I'll let you decide which one that was!)

We went to visit Minnie while we were there and Shelly, Kaylin, and I got to stand in the longest grocery store line I have ever seen. That's what we get for going to the only grocery store in the area on the Fourth of July - nice planning on our part.

The whole trip was a blast, but we all agreed that the saying that "Fish and Family start to stink after 3 days" is oh-so-true!! Spending long days out in the sun with 5 kids is exhausting. There always seems to be at least one of them throwing a fit or fighting with another cousin over some silly thing (About 90% of the time, I think T.J. was that kid!) It is always obvious which one is the only child. Siblings sure teach you how to share, and we have yet to master that!! We were all ready to get back home by Sunday but made some precious family memories that we will never forget!! We got a great picture of the 5 cousins all on Mikey's jetski - the first one we have with all 5 looking at the camera and smiling : ) I also loved the other picture of T.J. watching the firecrackers - he was so amazed!

The Wonderful World of Blogging

Allright, I have several friends who are avid bloggers. I always love keeping up with their lives through their blog, so I have finally decided to set one up (with a little help from T.J. so pardon any typos!) I hope my cousins are proud!! I hope that I will do well with keeping this updated, but when school starts back up, chances are I will fall behind! So, here goes . . .