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.