Oh the Thinks You can Think

I walked in the door after a long day at summer school and what did I find...Peter had made me a reading tub for my classroom. When I was a kid one of my teachers had a claw foot bath tub in our classroom that we would read in. It seemed magical to me at the time. Ever since I have known I was going to be a teacher, I have wanted to have a reading tub in my classroom. Peter made it a reality by taking an old tub for an outdoor pond that was left in our yard when we moved into our house and painted it to make a special place for my kidos to read. He decorated it with hand drawn pictures of some of our favorite children's book characters and some cute quotes from Dr. Suess. As you can see, he really outdid himself. It took him a really long time and I wanted to show off his work! Plus the fact that I went to a lot of trouble getting that thing to school (thanks again Belinda) and I think it is amazing. My summer school kids LOVED it and all they want to do now is read. I can't complain about that!


In the bottom of the tub are some "book buddies". These are stuffed characters from some children's books. I have had these for awhile and my kids love to read to them! So cute!

Elmer!!

Summer Has Arrived!

It is now officially summer time for the Scalias! The school year for our students ended last Tuesday and for us poor teachers, our year ended Thursday. It was a long and difficult year, but I must say it was NO WHERE NEAR as tough as last year. 07-08 will forever be the class that I compare all others to. 08-09 had some real sweeties. I will surely miss them!
Pete's first year of teaching went well. He had all of the ups and downs that come along with year one of being a teacher. He will be back at JHop next year!
Just as one adventure came to and end, we begin new ones. I will be teaching summer school for the month of June. We started today and I am miraculously excited about it. I will truly enjoy only having 5-10 students all at the same level and no behavior problems! How pathetic am I that I actually am happy about working over the summer?!? Peter will be taking some trainings that will fill his June. Then starting in July, we have some visitors coming to enjoy sunny Florida with us!
Will you just look at that picture! I am really starting to notice a difference in the way I look and how I fit into my clothes! It's fantastic. I wore a shirt the other night on a fancy date with my husband that has not really fit in...well...ever. It has always been super tight on my arms and now it just slips right on! Are you ready for the official scale number? I now weigh............184.6!! That's right! Can you believe it? That's about 13 pounds since I started! WooHoo! I'm just disappearing! ;) I wish I had more of you around to celebrate with! Just wait until after this summer! I will keep you all posted on a more regular basis so keep checking in on me. That's what keeps me honest!