March Madness...

Looking back over the month, it has gone too quickly. Here are some of my favorites!

First, I mentioned loving my class and I really have had some great times with them. Every Friday, they have the chance to earn a special activity. They have to turn in homework, not get their name on the board, no write ups - a good behavior incentive. I have wanted to do Oobleck with them for a while and planned to do it the week before Dr. Seuss's birthday. I was sick and they had to wait a week, but it was well worth it!

The month continued with a great visit with some of my favorite girls and their darling little girls. Steph and Tay have five girls between them and they are so cute! I could not get over how much they have grown up since I last saw them!

Since we had so much fun with Oobleck I wanted to play with Tysen, Jacksen and Adysen. Lani had a bow party and Eric was working a tournament. and so I got to hang out with the kids! We had a great time with the Oobleck and the kids were cracking me up. Ady was making the funniest sounds as she played with her purple oobleck! Ty kept asking me "Are you sure this is ok with my mom?" And Jacksen loved it so much he hardly said a word! He was trying to figure out how it worked!

We also had Rock Star Day at school on the Friday before Spring Break! Here is my friend Jodie and I as well as some of the rock stars of my class! We had a Guitar Hero Tournament in honor of Rock Star Day!

At school we have these beautiful mulberry trees! I look forward to their awesome pink blossoms! I have never seen trees this pretty and my class laughed as I took a ton of pictures of the trees! Tysen noticed them one day and even mentioned them to his mom and how pretty they looked.

Finally, I could not resist these beautiful Gerber Daisies from the store today! I'm so excited for bright colors and planting season!

Pictures

The poor kid thinks he wants to be a Yankee fan. So the Red Sox fan has to hug the Yankee!

Brooklyn! So Sweet!Nathan hates pictures...

Mom and her baby girls!



Sam, Nate and Brooklyn



Dad and Nate had an exciting day

Just cuz it's funny

RIP Dandy. Yep...the horse died. I still can't say that without laughing.

I have a sick sense of humor.

How adorable is this kid!

I love his faces!

We had a great time at the park!

She is a doll!

I'm obsessed...

with chocolate. Seriously, today we had Oreo cookie balls and a ridiculously rich chocolate cake. I had to leave it at Lani and Eric's house or I might have well as just taped it to my thighs.

with the Oscars. Hopefully you are watching it. I'm crying...I'm laughing...I'm amazed. Seriously...loving it.

with the "Secret Life of Bees". I read the book before the movie came out, waited to see the movie...waited...waited and finally I watched it last night. Loved it. I cried and laughed and even though I'm sure it's a "girl" movie, it is fabulous. Seriously, one of the best movies I have seen in a while.

with the economy. Are we going to get out of this slump? Are we the next "Great Depression"? Seriously sad and scary.

with Ava and Ady Bowtique. I don't have a girl, I can't wear the designs, but I need to buy bows. If you have girls, you should be totally obsessed too. See button on the right.

with my lesson plans. My class is amazing! I love them! I love making new projects and items for them. It's so challenging this year but in a totally amazing way. I love teaching more and more each day.

with getting to see "Wicked" again. I love this play even more than "Phantom" which I never thought would be possible. I'm so excited to see it with the "besties" this summer.

with July! It's my birthday (which is never my favorite! Never!) but the nerd in me is excited because Harry Potter comes out on my birthday, I get to see Wicked, 4th of July...and I'm seriously trying to figure out a way to go to Disneyland just for the day! ;)

with the word "seriously", "...", and "totally". Lani and I had a conversation yesterday and without trying we used "totally" a few too many times. I think I have a serious problem where I totally try to use these words to much. Somewhere Mr. Howell is shaking his fist and saying "You just sit there and sit there and sit there...Like a rock." Maybe I should have paid attention. Seriously...I totally would be a better writer. Maybe I should invest in a thesaurus.

I have a confession...

so my confession...I read the end of books before I finish the book. I know it's a terrible habit. Terrible! I can't help it. Very rarely do I pick up a book and immediately read the end. I have to read a couple of chapters and then read the end. I do this to make sure the book turns out like I want it to turn out. Now, when I finished the Harry Potter series...of course I had to read the end as soon as I bought it. In fact when I was standing in line I swore to myself I would not, but then all the ladies around me did before they even bought the book. Most of the time I love seeing how the author gets the story wrapped up. I like to see Point A and Point Z and then go back and see how it all fits together. Most of the time it's not a problem. Last summer I picked up John Grisham's new book "The Appeal". It started off great...so I read the end. WHAT? That can't be right...so I kept reading...re-read the end. It was still a bad ending. Nobody won...so what did I do? I never finished it. Never. It still sits on the nightstand ready to be read.
What is the point?

I finished a book this week. It is the new book "3 Willows" from Ann Brashares who wrote the Sisterhood of the Traveling pants. I was stoked to see it at Wal-mart last week. I started reading it Tuesday night...and finished it early Wednesday morning. It was a good book for me to read right about now. Not because I am a teenage girl (just my hormones rage like one....you know the crazy I'm going to kill stupid people ones!) Three girls experiencing changes as they grow up. Great book for teenage girls..but something happened in the book. One girl said she like to think she was in control of her life, and then realized for the most part you are not really in control at all. I thought about it for quite a while. Do I like to control thing? Yeah...way to much most of the time and that is why I am scared when big changes come around. How do you let go of the control when you can't control what is going on? Life is changing constantly and you have to be willing to roll with the changes. Yuck I sound like a bad Hallmark card. But I did come to the conclusion that things are probably going to be hard for the next few years, but I can control my attitude. I have no idea what is at the end of my book...but I guess getting there is going to be the fun part.

I apologize for this sickly sweet crazy rambling of a post. I'm using this blog mostly as a journal. Please don't judge my crazy behavior. I promise I'm not a weirdo.

So since it is a journal I have to share a couple of funny things that happened this week.
I have an amazing class this year. They are so great! But one student is so dang out there and he says the FUNNIEST things. We were in line at the library, waiting to go back to the classroom. There was a huge gap in the line and I said "What the heck guys? Pay attention!" and this student proceeded to tell me "Sorry Ms. Leonard. Someone hit the space bar and so I had to wait for the cursor to get to the end." I laughed all the way back to my room.

I got to spend some time with Ty, J and Ady. Eric and Lani were at a YW activity. So I was eating dinner with them. Pizza. We were sitting at the table just talking and out of the blue Ty says "And I don't even know why girls don't have wienies." Wow we can't even go there bud!

We had a fantastic family dinner tonight. Kerry and Leslee surprised us all and came up for the weekend. It was nice to visit and talk and see people. We missed Cole and the kids...but she has been feeling under the weather.

Looking forward to this week...it is a short week and our Valentine's Party is Thursday and Ty turns six on Friday.

It passed

The budget passed. I'm moving.
Either I'll be moving classrooms, houses, towns, states or all of the above I now have to do the thing I despise.

Introducing: Brooklyn Lisa! She was born January 27th at 12:22 p.m. She weighed 8 lbs and 3 oz

Nicole is a trooper! She and Brooklyn made it home and that baby is super sweet! Look at all that hair! She needs more bows!

Gotta give him credit...

I emailed my reps and received this response:

Amanda,

Thanks for the email and information. While I agree with you (as a former school board member, a supporter of higher education and educator) this is going to be a very difficult budget year.
I am very concerned about the chairman's options on higher education. I agree that these options could destroy what we have worked for years to build.
AZ is short almost 40% in income and education is over half of the budget.
I will all I can to protect education but understand I am one vote of 90.
Let me know if you have some suggestions.
Again thanks for the email.
Bill‬

Did you catch the typo? I know I'm critical because I can't read anything without proofing it...but doesn't this raise the question:
WHERE WAS HE EDUCATED?

But I do have to say of all the emails I have sent, he is the ONLY one who responded. At least I know someone opened it and read my email. Hopefully it means we are at least making them stop and think.
By the way, I did respond with the suggestion of raising state sales tax by .01.

Addresses....

If you want to email your representative here are the three which represent our district:

Sylvia Allen - Republican - email: sallen@azleg.gov
Jack A. Brown - Democrat - email: jbrown@azleg.gov
Bill Konopnicki - Republican - email: bkonopnicki@azleg.gov

The three in leadership which are sponsoring the bill meant to cut education funding:
Russell Pearce - Republican - email: rpearce@azleg.gov
Bob Burns - Republican - email: rburns@azleg.gov
Jon Kavanah - Republican - email: jkavanah@azleg.gov

Please email them and voice your support for education!

Fight the power...

"Fight the power!" those were the words uttered by my five year old nephew last night. He has no idea what those words mean, but was willing to support me. I was on my way to the Arizona State Capital to voice my concern over proposed budget cuts.
The state of Arizona is currently in a major budget crisis because of the recession. Plain and simple, we are spending more than we are taking into the budget. A certain group of Republican lawmakers have proposed a budget which would drastically cut spending in public education. You may not think this is important, but consider this: The state gives districts roughly $5000 per student in our classrooms. Compare this figure to eastern states which spend $15,000 per student. We rank 49th in the nation! Shameful! With these cuts we will be spending even less, averaging a cut of $1000 per student. What difference does this make you ask? Well, this will increase class sizes, cut the amount of money we can spend on textbooks, and put 1000's of people out of work. In Winslow alone, the district is planning on cutting 2.6 million from the budget to balance it which will be jobs, textbooks, supplies, music, the arts, p.e., sports. In other parts of the state that is all day kindergarten. How is this possible you ask? Apparently they are not willing to listen to other ideas.
A short research was done by the superintendent of Florence Public Schools. He found that if we instituted a .01 cent sales tax the state could generate over A BILLION DOLLARS a year!!! How much is that for you? An accountant stated that for the average family of four it would increase your taxes at a mere $12 a month. That is less than it would cost to take your family to a dinner at Micky D's! And it's an investment in the future.
Other proposed cuts are the Kids Care insurance program. This program provides insurance for families throughout the state at a minimal fee to the families. My brother who works for the WUSD and cannot afford the insurance for his family at $400 a month, uses this program. This will be done away with in the proposed cuts.
What can you do! Write, call, email and fax your legislators. I will be posting that information tomorrow. Urge them to look at other ways they can save money! Be willing to pay a little bit more in taxes to insure Arizona children are educated in the best way possible. We are not asking for a raise or increase, we just want to keep what we have! Please fight the power and become involved!
Check out this article! It says it much better than I ever could!
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/01/25/20090125edprotest0126.html

You know when you vow to change something, you begin trying it and then it seems to get harder and more challenging and frustrating! Yeah...all those goals I made just a little while ago have really become a challenge.

My biggest challenge is my calling. I know I know I should be grateful and love what I do and think it's amazing, but...I don't. How do I get over that? How do I start to love preparing lessons and covering teachers and not get frustrated with whining? Well...something to work on.

I did finish my book! Loved it! Loved it! The Wednesday Letters is perfect for someone who loves the old show "The Wonder Years". It was touching and funny and really made me want to be the kind of teacher she was in the book. Also made me think Shakespeare might be fun to read...no...I still hate Shakespeare.

On another note, the State of Arizona is in a major budget crisis. We are poor and they will be cutting school budgets...which means ME! I always felt safe in education but apparently that is no longer true. Apparently it will be ok as long as I'm willing to take a pay cut, move schools, lose my special education teacher, have larger classes, lose supplies...or ALL of the the above. So yeah...I'm a little scared. Maybe a little more than that which brings me to the next resolution I made. Did you know when people are stressed when they eat? Ok by people I mean ME and I ate cookies and milk for dinner. Ideas on what you do when you are stressed? Cuz I don't think I should be eating oreos for dinner.

And on a more positive note...Nicole is scheduled for a c-section on Tuesday, Jan. 27th! Hopefully everything will be ok for her and little Brooklyn! I know...isn't that a dang cute name! All of my nieces beautiful names...Nicole, Samantha, Adysen and now Brooklyn! They must have some smart mamas!

So even though it's hard...you have to find some joy in the journey!

The Year of Change

This year I am vowing to change some things in my life. I love how everyone sets goals on New Year's Day and I vowed last night I would do it. So here is the list for the year:

Lose XXpounds - I know I know, you can't see what I wrote, BUT I know. I just don't feel comfortable sharing that with the world just yet. Maybe when I lose XY then I can share it! I can tell you that it is a lot, but I think if I work really hard it is possible. I mean hello those people on the biggest loser do it!

Read a book a month - you would think as a teacher I would read a book a month, but I want to read a new book each month. A new one! Not just kids books, I would like to expand into real adult books.

Pay off a credit card - I'm in debt like the rest of the county, but I would so love to dig myself out of this hole. I can honestly say that I am at less than $6000 without student loans and that includes my car (which will be paid off this year!). As soon as I pay my car off, my plan is to take that money that I would have put toward my payment and save half of it and use the rest to pay on a credit card. In order to do that I will work on the ones with the least balance and move on up...

-Ritz Camera

-Home Depot (Eric and I share it...)

-Visa

Work on a year supply. I never really saw the use for this until this economic crisis hit. How prepared our Leaders were! I know that each month I can do a little to get prepared and since it's just me, I should be able to do it quite easily. Do you think if I prepare for two that would help my chances of meeting "the one!"

Learn to love my calling - ok...I'm the primary president in my ward and it is such a struggle for me. Most weeks I go home crying or wishing they would release me. I get frustrated with peope and have low tolerance for people that whine. So, I want to love my calling. I don't want to just move through the motions, I really want it to mean something to me. I LOVE the KIDS! Don't get me wrong, I swear if I NEVER was anywhere but primary, I would be super happy. Those kids are great and I can't even put my finger on my frustrations. I mean if I could show you how the sunbeams try to do the signs for "I am a Child of God", my heart melts. They are so stinking cute! But I think I'm suppose to learn something in this calling and maybe it's just trusting that Heavenly Father does have a plan for me and I'm not just floating here trying to endure this life, but actually enjoying it.

Ok this is a strange one and maybe a little petty, but I want to put my feet in the ocean this year. I love that feeling! I love the crashing waves and if I have to drive myself to California this year, I want to do that!

Finish making my house look like a home. I've worked out the living room to where it looks like an adult lives here but I want the bedrooms to look like that too. Probably need to get rid of some junk and that would help.

Plant a garden. I love having flowers in my yard and this past year I was able to get sod for grass. But now I want to grow things! Cucucmbers, radishes, pumpkins, carrots, strawberries, green peppers, corn and an herb garden.

Ok this is the list for now. I plan to add things as I move along in the year and share my life. I love love love my family. I have the most adorable and sweet neices and nephews, so you will probably see a lot of them!

Welcome to 2009!