Back to school, back to school, to prove to Dad I'm not a fool

Taa Daa!!! Here is what my classroom looks like!!
Just kidding! That was at the end of the first day I spent working on it! Here is what it really looks like.

So this is a fourth of my room. We are lucky enough to have to share our rooms with Sunday School classes, so we have to leave them one blank wall. You don't want to know my opinion on this, but I assure, it is not very Christ-like.

This was just before Meet the Teacher night. Those things on the chairs have since been thrown into a fire pit and burned(well, not really, but we did away with them)and replaced with boxes, as they were a failed attempt to hold folders and a pencil box.

Megan helped me with a lot of the decoration, and she helped me with this thrown together bulletin board, the idea which I got from someone I went to school with. I love it.

Bri helped me recreate the tree that my mom and Caleb made in my room last year, and I think we did a pretty good job considering there was not a pole in the corner to provide the3D-ness of the trunk, and we could barely reach the ceiling tiles.

I have 2 sinks AND a bathroom! My room used to be 2 small rooms and they just tore out the wall between the two.

There is another set of cubbies just inside this doorway, along with another bulletin board which I free hand painted myself, however I accidentally hit the delete button and cannot get the picture to drag and drop from the top of the post. So imagine it.

Welcome to second grade!

All gusssied up for the parents

Last Saturday night Carter and I met Micah and Aly and her family out at the Harbor to see her sister's choir sing. Carter was rather uninterested in the performance and didn't last too long, so on our way out we stopped to watch the kids play in the fountains. He was a little scared of it since it was so strong, but liked it when Uncle Micah held him up to reach this spout!

Then we got up bright and early and drove to Waco. We made it just in time to attend service at Christiaan's home church there, Cornerstone. After nice visits with his friends there, we met up with his family at Papa Rollo's for Brandon and Candice's baby shower. Her mom gave them a nice shower and they were given a ton of stuff! It barely fit in their car!

Jazzy kicked booty at this game! Silly girl!

TONS of gifts!

Then after our day visit we came back to get ready for the first day of school.

Ugh.

Listen, I love my school, I really truly do, but I was in no way ready for this year to start. The summer was not long enough. There was some drama related to the renovation/construction in our school, and naturally it took longer than expected. I have never felt so flustered on the first day of school, and after more than 2 days of trying to figure out what was missing, I realized that its mostly due to the fact that my kids are sitting at tables instead of desks, therefore creating a lot of personal space issues. I'm still working to get a handle on everything, and these kids are definitely going to give me a run for my money this year.

For instance, Chelsea told me that she overheard a second grader telling his friend "Ms. Webb told me I was stupid today!" Um, really kid?? Seeing as how I don't allow that word to be said in my classroom, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't be throwing that around towards a small child! So we had a group discusssion today about how badly my feelings were hurt and how I could get in trouble if you go around telling your parents stuff like that.

Oh and I survived my first major incident of a child getting hurt. One of my sweet kiddos fell on the playground somehow, right in front of me and 2 other teachers, yet none of us managed to see what happened, and none of the 6 kids right there nor the injured child can give an account of what happened. Nonetheless, he fell, there was a lot of blood, and large gash, and he went home to get stitches. Teacher of the year, right here.

They are not really "bad" kids, just ridiculously talkative and generally noisy and cannot sit still to save their lives. But I am determined that they will mature and realize their boundaries! Still, I'm pretty sure that you should not want to cry on the first week of school.....

Raygen started kindergarten at our school. I'm pretty sure they planned to match....they are cool like that! :) Shane has been Kasi's sub while she is on maternity leave, and he has earned a whole new perspective on teachers! He has been great though. Still, I miss my teacher partner and I'm ready for her to get back so we can get our groove back!

How blessed are we to work together?? Except that we are on opposite ends of the building(not me and Kasi of course!)and barely get to see each other. I love getting to see so many of my favorite people every day. I am working on Brooke, trying to convince her that they need to move closer so that she can rejoin the teaching world and work here too! Then, I could truly be content. :)

Dad came home today, so I'm looking forward to a nice weekend with them, and we will start fresh Monday. Then we have a 3 day weekend in Waco. Yahoo! Oh, and Christiaan starts his new shift this coming week with normal work hours of 11a-7p, so our lives can be somewhat normal for awhile!

(This post wasn't really about Carter, but the first week of school is always consuming. You'll get more of him later. He's really been a goofball lately.)

My last days of freedom

Last week we spent a lot of time with Dad at the hospital, as he is getting hit hard with some strong chemo and we were trying to cram in as much Carter-Grand Dude time as we could before his counts dropped. Chandler made Dad this sign for his room and gave him a Nerf dart gun to shoot at the blasts!

Carter high-fiving Grand Dude

Riding the "carousel" animals in the hospital lobby

Carter and I also stopped by VBS one night, which I was supposed to be helping teach, but it was too crazy of a week. Carter was totally into the songs and tried to do everything the older kids did.

Last Friday night we had a girls night with some of my co-workers at Painting with a Twist. Since we all know that I am seriously lacking in the creativity category, I was interested to see how this went since they say its so easy a kid can do it.

We were painting irises I think, I'm not sure. Somewhere along the way the instructor said that my grass and flower stems resembled snakes, and then my flowers were about 3 times the size they were supposed to be and he said they looked like sea urchins.

Group shot. See how huge my flowers are?? But hey, Megan gave up and painted tulips, at least I tried to stay on task!

Then on Saturday night I met up with my Keller friends for a girls night in Southlake. Chay had arranged it all in celebration of her 31st birthday. We had pool time at the Hilton, then got ready and had dinner at Campania's. I forgot how scrumptous their calamari is! Brooke and I scarfed it down so fast! One of the girls gave Chay this Harry Potter scarf, which Chay proclaimed that it was the best birthday present ever.....Not sure about that one!

After dinner we headed over to a little place in Town Square that has a tee-niny dance floor, where we promptly took it over. It was like a flashback 3 or 4 years, and it was fantabulous. So much so, that my toes are still numb from wearing heels, thanks to that awesome hereditary nerve disorder.

Paige, Meagan, Brooke

My P.I.C.

Chay, Kristin, and Kim

Later in the evening..... :)

Thanks Chay for planning an AWESOME and much needed night of just girls! And thanks to Aunt K for keeping Carter!

I have spent 2 days this week at school trying to get settled into my new classroom, which stresses me out to the max. If I have to move again after this year, the men in white coats will have to take me away! But its getting there, and as soon as I'm done I'll post pictures of all my new masterpieces I have made. We start inservice on Monday....where did my summer go??

Galveston vs. The Romero's, 2011 edition

Earlier in the summer, Christiaan and I were really wanting to plan a beach trip, but had no one else to go with. Shortly after, his mom called him and said that she had rented a beach house and did we want to join the rest of his family in Galveston...um yes please! Christiaan was able to finagle his new work schedule and trade shifts so he could get off. We left when he got off at 3 am last Thursday morning.

Carter did this basically the whole way there, thank goodness....

And just about as soon as we got there and got unloaded, we went straight out to the beach! Carter was a little confused at first, but loved playing in the sand and water.

Especially when Uncle Jason showed him how to use the sand toys

He spent a lot of time loving on Jazzy and Nana

And after dinner the boys went fishing at the private pier at our community

Gorgeous sunset!

Tropical Storm Don was headed for the Texas coast on Friday, although projected to make landfall further south from us. We did get some of the rain from him though, which was a nice sight after no rain in north Texas! After napping through mid-day storms, we went to walk around on the beach.

Carter has this thing for chasing birds, and he loved that these were the ones on Nemo that say "Mine, Mine" because he likes that part.

An early morning storm pushed back the guys' morning fishing outing, so I decided to join them when they left later on. Christiaan bought me a Columbia fishing shirt, and I was actually surprised to find that it really is rather cool due to all the ventilation.

Apparently it was blue shirt day

This is Jason's fishing boat. I believe they named it Big Hoss.

The boat ride was rather comical, with the 3 brothers arguing like they were kids, and Christiaan did his best to provide the comic relief.

I caught this dude, a Black Drum, named as such because he kept making noise that sounded oddly like a growling tummy. I was so happy to find out that it was legal size to keep!

Christiaan's big catch of the day was this sheepshead, which had some nasty human-like teeth

Julius had to try too

Our captains Brandon and Jason

Brandon discovered this hilarious belt in the closet at our rental house! It was like a plastic boxing belt with all these fishing lures attatched. I wish I knew the story behind why someone made it!

Later that afternoon we went back to the beach. Carter was not really digging it for some reason, so he didn't do a lot of playing.

He enjoyed Julius' boogey board though

And more enjoyed the water hose when we got back!

After a wonderful home cooked feast of various seafood, we went into town and stopped at the Rainforest Cafe. I guess the lighting was bad because all the pictures we took there were blurry.

Jasmin has recently gotten into pandas, and she made a Build a Bear while we were there

Carter got a light saber, and was too preoccupied by using it to pound a cockroach(EW) running across the boards to stop and smile

He loved playing in this mirror over the bed

This was the house we stayed in. It was in a neat community called Sea Isle about 20 minutes outside of Galveston.

We left Sunday mid day and went through town on the way out. This is the pier where the Flagship Hotel was recently demolished, and they are already doing construction to convert it to some sort of amusement park.

We went to the souvenier shop Murdoch's that has a cool deck in it. I was trying to get Candice to let me take a picture of her belly, but this was all she would give me! :) Elan will be here in about 8 weeks!

Carter was not in the best of moods, and I eventually gave him the last of my Starbucks in an attempt to avoid a public meltdown. Hey, it worked!

And just before loading up, we stopped outside for our 2nd annual family beach picture

And before we could make the rash decision to rent an apartment and just set up home there, we got in the truck and headed out, where Carter was asleep before we got out of Galveston. We decided that next year we will stay like a full week, maybe longer! :) Can you tell we love the water?? So long, Galveston, until next year!