Whoohoo!

One more week and the kids have a WHOLE week off for Thanksgiving Break! I still have to come to school Monday and Tuesday, but I don't mind because I can get everything reorganized in my classroom and some new lesson plans written up.

So I've decided I'm posting everything off my new computer because the time seems to come out right (yes, I'm a moron and still worried about what other people think. Somehow though it just bothers me to think that someone would think I was wasting time or not doing my job...consider it job security if nothing else).

So I had an eventful weekend...at least in my world. On Saturday I managed to completely unpack the bedroom and bathroom and clean and put things in order! I also finally unpacked the boxes in the TV room and waxed the wood floors in the TV room and kitchen. Kitchen needs to be unpacked now, but it has to wait until the new countertops and cupboards go in. This is the first time I've had a whole day home to work and it was so fulfilling!

Shane came in from working the feedlots in the afternoon and we finally got my little colt, Rebel, halter broke. He's too cute and loves to cuddle. Sunday we shipped cattle from the feed lots. I brought my old mare Sabrina. I thought I was going to have to put her down this fall because she was so thin and sickly looking, but we changed her feed again and she's rallied back and is looking great! Albeit still a bit thin. She's as sassy as ever and worked great for me! Sedona came along also. It was a chilly morning as seen by the photos:

My baby boy is growing! He is SOOOO fat and needs to go on a diet. But we roped him and let him fight for a bit and then he just let me put a halter on him! Now he walks right up to me and rests his head on my arm.

Though I don't have an actual age for her since she's a Morgan/Quarter cross and unregisterable, she's most likely around 26 due to aging her teeth. She's so awesome and I hope I still have her around when I have kids so she can teach them the way she taught me!

Giddy up Cow Horse!

Chilly fall morning (it's still been in the 60's and 70's during the day though)!

Sedona chills out with Sabrina in her snazzy Denim jacket.

Can't we get going already?

Sedona and Ty

Crashed out with her buddy Izzy after a way long day. Izzy, by the way, we expect is expecting due to a certain 'Joe' in our house who has trouble grasping that closing the back door involves actually grasping the handle and pulling it after him until he hears a 'click'...

They will be New Year's kittens...

Middle School Reading Group Trip

At the begining of the school year, while looking over my class rosters, I had a class named JH SME. Huh? So I asked the principal what this was...It's called Junior High Skills Mastery. Huh? It's a small group of 7th and 8th graders who have scored low in reading and writing? HUH!? Teach them to learn to like reading. AHHHHHHH!!!!!

So I introduced myself to my 11 misfits and asked them to pick out a book they would like to read in class from a list I had chosen for them. They choose Canyons by Gary Paulson (yes, the same guy who wrote Hatchet that we all read when we were their age...he's still writing). So we read it. We study the Apache. We study the Berlin Olympics. We study Sacred sites around the world (all topics brought up in the book). And the kids LOVE it. We wrap things up and somebody mentions, "Wouldn't it be cool to go visit this place?" And everybody jumps in, "and we raise money, and we present it to the principal, and we make a documentary, and, and, and...." I tried to jump in, but they were on such a role that two days later I found myself watching them present this to the Principal who approved it. I found myself counting the money they had raised at a bake sale a week later. I found myself booking a hotel, a campsite and setting up educational talks with park Rangers at both White Sands National Monument and Lincoln National Forest....And the weekend before last we made this a possibility.

We drove to Las Cruces, New Mexico on a Thursday afterschool, met with a Ranger at White Sands Friday morning, explored the park all afternoon, drove to Oliver Lee Campground to camp, Hiked the HUGE Dog Canyon trail talked about in the book Saturday (10 miles round trip with a 3500 feet elevation change!), met with a ranger Saturday evening and headed home Sunday morning.

We are now making a documentary to send to the author of the book.

I've had the slide show made for over a week and have been meaning to post, but I've been busy! I figure who the heck cares if I post this info between classes. I obviously teach!