The Andersons go south

It finally came.  The acceptance letter we have been waiting for made its way to our mailbox and we officially will be moving to Conway, Arkansas.  As soon as Evan got the letter he called me, then said, "I think we should go for spring break."

So we packed up the car and headed down to Arkansas.  The drive was not that pleasant going down.  We decided to leave Friday night after work so we could get there in time for a job fair for the local school districts.  Well, we both worked all day and were exhausted which meant two hour driving shifts in the middle of the night.  However, the drive back (when we left in the morning after a full night's sleep) was much better.  Tennessee is a beautiful state to drive through and comprises at least 10 of the 15 hour drive.

Anyhow, we spent a long weekend in Conway looking at houses and apartments, and the school, and of course trying out local restaurants.  We discovered there is a lot of real estate available, and many houses for rent as well, all within a reasonable price, especially if I get picked up by a school district (fingers crossed!)  Conway is a small city, but it's cute, and clean.  I think we will be able to make a good life down there for the next five years.

It's still surreal that we have just over three months left in Richmond, but so exciting that we will be able to move on to the next chapter of our lives!!

Patience

Every day for the last week, Evan has run in asking about the mail.  Specifically, is there any mail from Arkansas?  The only interview Evan has had so far went better than we could have planned, but we are still in the waiting game to find out if we will in fact be moving to Arkansas.

I'm 6 weeks from graduation, and at the point where I feel like I am also waiting.  Just biding my time until student teaching is over.  Filling out applications in two different states, a dozen different districts, just waiting to know which I should be putting more work into.  My upper placement has not been going as well as kindergarten.  The teacher I am with is known for using student teachers as personal assistants.  My supervisor said, "Hang in there.  You're almost done, and her opinion matters nothing in your final grade." This took away all of my motivation.  I am weeks behind on lesson plan write ups- even though I've been teaching reading and math.

Patience is something we are both learning at this moment.  Spring Break couldn't come soon enough for the Andersons!

How SWEET it is!

For the first time in VCU Men's Basketball history, the Rams are going to the sweet 16!

I can't say I have been the most avid fan, I did watch the VCU -Duke game a few years back and witnessed first hand the madness in the street of downtown richmond, watched safely from my apartment of course.  After Evan and I started dating he took me to a couple games and I was disappointed I had missed out on so many years of VCU games!  I still haven't made it to many games, but I did at least make an effort to listen in on the radio while driving or check the score afterwards to keep up on the progress.

And now, a well deserved win.  The rams played hard and OWNED Purdue on that court!

And Evan says: If we win, Disney could make movie out of it.

A dream come true for VCU students and Alum everywhere!

Crafts ... and other things

So, I have finished the first half of my student teaching.  Yesterday was my last day and we celebrated with me teaching another fun computer activity and the children giving me a giant bag of goodies.  Oh yes, West End schools are wonderful to teach in.

That's my new bag, with my initials monogrammed on it.  Cute no?  My maiden name was used instead of my middle name, but I'm ok with that.  It's pretty cute all in all.

The goodies that were inside of the bag.  Markers, crayons, a whistle, tape dispenser, stapler, scissors, bright colored printer paper, neon card stock, pastel card stock, file folders, paper clip, binder clips, binder rings, stickers, stamp pads, glue, glue sticks, post its, dry erase markers, highlighters, sharpies, etc... Pretty much, I don't need to stock my desk once I become a teacher. They also made me a book, everyone wrote me a letter and drew a picture.  The kids were super cute too. One girl sits near me and kept warning me that I wasn't allowed behind the teacher's desk (where they were hiding the goody bag).  She was always watching me to make sure I didn't go back there haha.  Those kids were too much fun, I really will miss the class.  I just don't know if big bad third graders will love me as much!


Now onto the crafts!

I turned my corkboard into a message board.  Some batting, fabric, ribbon and a staple gun took care of that real quick!  Now all the pictures from our refrigerator can go on here.  My refrigerator looks so clean now, and by extension my kitchen looks clean.  It's wonderful.

And my favorite of all time:

A photo collage letter!  All pictures of us Andersons, cut and mod podged onto the letter.  I was really proud of it and Evan wasn't even ashamed to have it in the house!  That's when I know it's a success :)

Oh gosh, I just noticed the ladybug was sitting on the shelf... another goody from the kindergartners. LOL.

My big idea is to do one letter each year, like a fun scrapbook that people will actually look at.  So, check back in seven years and see what the finished project looks like!

Things my husband says

We have a bad habit of watching movies while we eat.  It's nice, but things don't really get done and then we end up watching a whole movie instead.  S I asked, "Someday when we have a real dining room,"  he knew where I was going and said "Yes.  That's fine."

Then added  "Nothing in this house is real!  Except for our love."

Cheese Factory!

Day of Love!

The Andersons celebrated Valentines day early.  Because, well, Monday isn't exactly a day where we have a lot of time.  So Saturday we went out to dinner and had some husband-wife time.  It's been a while since we've spent a weekend just at home, so it was nice to be just the two of us for a couple of days.  We spend so much time working all week that by the time Saturday comes we are ready to go out and play, which is usually with other people.  A little date night was excellent. And I put on a perty dress, even though I was way overdressed for Mexican food.  haha!

For the actual holiday, I committed myself to working on Lesson Plans till my fingers bleed an Evan sat down to finish up an application.  Come to find out, I wrote the due date down wrong.  By a month. So he missed that one.  I then had to turn over all of the chocolate I got from my kindergarteners as an apology.  Luckily, the next one he picked up was a coconut (his fav) and he wasn't upset anymore.

All in all, a pretty low key first V-day for us, but welcomed amongst the commotion in our everyday lives.

Happy Valentines Day!

Busy Andersons

Somehow we always manage to fill our weekends.  And our week days.  No rest for the... wickedly cute?

Anyhow, cute kid in my class today.  He is Indian (both parents form India), and I believe bilingual.  At the very least his parents are.  Last week we picked up on him saying "walentine" instead of "valentine" and my teacher mentioned that she didn't think there was a /v/ sound in Hindi.

Fast forward to today.

V was the letter of the week.  My teacher finished reading her V book about Vam Vampire.  She was asking questions to get the kids to remember different V words.  She asked, "What's that jar we keep flowers in?"  Cute Indian kid said "a wase."  Teacher said "yes.  a Vase. say /v/" and he did.

20 minutes later...

The kids do a handwriting sheet with each new letter.  They get it checked, then they can color it.  Well, cute Indian kid raised his hand and said- cute as could be- "Mrs. Anderson, I finished my wee's!"  I couldn't help giggling.   We practiced the /v/ sound some more.  He just has the cutest voice to begin with, and dimples, so it makes it all the funnier.

Just another story from my adventures in students teaching!