The First Week of School

The title of this post sums up the reason I have neglected the blog over the past few weeks. To be prepared for the first week of school first required two weeks of preparation- meetings and classroom set-up. I've been exhausted and have had little time to do much else recently, but it's all in a good way. I love being a teacher, I love my classroom, and I love my class!

I've been proud of myself in achieving my personal goal of stricter self-discipline as far as going to bed at a decent hour and making myself get up a little bit earlier in order to get to work with enough time to get a few things in place before I pick up my kids. (That was a long run-on sentence, but I'm not fixing it. Ha!) It's been working out well so far and I hope it continues that way!

Last year on the first day of school, Dayn, Jes, Audra and I went to Mt. Fuji to celebrate the first day. This year, we kept it a tradition. You could also call it an excuse to go out to eat, but single girls have this privilege regularly. ;)



Good times, great stories!

This isn't a long post tonight. The title of this post should explain it all. Tired is an understatement. Goodnight!

A Good Day and Kitten Rescue

Today was a good day. Do you ever have days like that? Where you can say "it's just been a good day!" I love days like this. I think, especially as a Christian, that on days like these we just have to pause and be thankful to God for what He has given us and praise Him for what we have. Family, a job, friends, a place to live, food to eat, air conditioning during a hot summer....the list goes on!

Today I worked in my classroom. I worked before I have to report back to work officially tomorrow at 7:45 a.m. What made the day so good was my mom, sister, aunt, and cousins who came up to Lakeland from Sarasota to help me out. And then afterward, they came over for a steak dinner! Recently I had texted my mom and told her that I was in the mood for her homemade fettucini. So, that was one of the sides to our steak dinner.

My sister, Korinne, had never been to my school before, and neither had my Aunt Diane or cousins, Nicholas and Matthew. I was glad to show them where I spend my days teaching my little heart out! Haha. They were all such a HUGE help. I went down to the custodians' area and borrowed a dolly so that we could move some filing cabinets, etc. and my cousin Nicholas, who's in 8th grade, took over that dolly right away and was moving things like a strong grown man! He was SO helpful. I think know he had a blast using that dolly. But I can't blame him; my brother and I used to push each other around on those things!

My Aunt Diane helped organize one of my shelves of paper while my mom gave me some tips on management techniques, etc. from all her years of experience as a classroom teacher. Although I know I have a lot more to do before the students come back (which is thankfully still 2 weeks away) I do feel like I got so much accomplished today with the help of my family! THANK YOU!

Me with the helpful crew!
After we had went outside to empty the recycling bins and take a short break, as we were walking in, my sister was yelling, "Kaitlin, Kaitlin!! A kitten!" I turned and looked at the frantic look on her face (she's naturally dramatic, but I was still concerned) and started walking toward her. Sure enough, there was a tiny gray kitten stuck deep inside a cactus bush. Poor thing was probably hurting so bad! I ran to Dayna's classroom real quick because I knew she'd be eager to rescue an animal. She came out, but they had already retrieved the kitten. We were all so amazed that it was stuck inside of a cactus bush of all things. It was SO tiny. We looked around for other kittens or perhaps a momma cat but no sign of any.
We had a mission on our hands now, not just to get my classroom ready, but to find this tiny kitten a good home. The first best thing we could find was a copy paper box. This little kitten, although small, has a big meow! He/she meowed and whined constantly, but I certainly don't blame it. Poor thing!

My Aunt Diane had run to McDonald's to grab some lunch and picked up a kids' happy meal milk so we could give the kitten some milk. It didn't drink much but it was probably out of sorts.

We called it a day around 3:00 in the pouring rain and headed home, with the tiny kitten in tow. We were planning to call the SPCA when we got home to tell them we'd found a newborn kitten with no mother. They said they wouldn't take it if it were less than 2 pounds, which we don't think it was even a pound at all. If we brought it there, they said they'd euthanize it. That wasn't an option. This kitten was entirely too precious to just be euthanized.


Secretly, she wanted to keep it. :)

The kitten has such pretty blue eyes!

So immediately I posted a picture on facebook of the kitten explaining the situation and long story short, someone knew of an older couple wanting to get a kitten and said they'd let me know as soon as possible if they would agree to take it. Sure enough, about 2 hours later, the kitten was picked up and taken to a new home! We are all so glad to know this kitten has a good future ahead. :)

Well, that's that for the kitten rescue. Dinner was good! Steak, homemade fettucini, biscuits, brocolli that I didn't eat and caesar salad was on the menu! I so enjoyed having my family here today and for it to last most of the day! I'm hoping they all visit again soon, although I know it's about to get busy with school starting back. My birthday is in October, so that'll be a good excuse to get them back up here, right?! :)


Well, summer is officially over for me. This summer was so good! I will be at work at 7:45 a.m. tomorrow. That means it's time for bed! I hope you have one of those "it was just a good day!" kind-of-days very soon!

"Girls Gone Godly" Reunion

For a few months now, the Girls Gone Godly* group had plans to meet today for lunch. It was long anticipated as I haven't seen these girls since Whitney's wedding in December. Now that we're all working and live in different cities since graduating college, it's much harder to plan our get-togethers.

*dubbed group name in April 2009 when we went to Savannah, GA and spent a girls' weekend before Lauren, Whitney and Mandi's graduations. Someone, who shall remain nameless, thought we were going to a Bible Study conference since we all did Bible Study together. We all got a big kick out of that considering we weren't on "business" per se, but just having a fun weekend. Of course, the name is all in fun!

Anyway...

Last night Mandi came to stay at my apartment since she lives 3 hours away. I was so looking forward to having her here! If you know this girl, you know she has the BEST stories that will make you laugh so hard, sometimes 'til you can't breathe. She's just so animated and uses all these voices and I just always look forward to laughing when we're together. We stayed up til 4 a.m. just talking, catching up on life, and of course laughing! I'm so thankful we've stayed in touch. We have lots and lots of memories together!

Today we met the group at BD's Mongolian Grill at 1:00.
Finally reunited!

After eating and talking for a while, we moved the party to Yogurt Mountain and had ice cream for dessert. Chocolate overload is all I can say!



Kelly, who we used to know as "Ms. Roy" in college when we were students, was hired on as a professor at our university our sophomore year. Lauren, Tressie and I had her class, Major American Authors. We asked her if we could start a Bible study together and she loved the idea. We'd take turns cooking dinner at her house, or she'd cook for us and it was just a great time of fun and fellowship. Our friendships grew and we became really close. We continued that Bible Study we started in '07 until we graduated 2 years later. I am SO THANKFUL to have had these wonderful girls in my life during college, (and still today, too!) There were many times we'd open our hearts to each other, knowing that whatever was said stayed between us. There were times one of us would start crying, and then we all would be just a few seconds later. Then there were nights that Mandi and Lauren had one too many funny stories to share and we started Bible Study late from laughing for so long. Those nights at Kelly's house will never be forgotten.

Since then, both Kelly and Whitney got married, almost one year apart from each other. We all met up to be at their weddings. I hope and pray that whenever Mandi, Lauren, and I get married, we'll still all be able to be together on those special occasion days! In the meantime, I will continue to make it a priority to get together as often as we are able in between our busy schedules! We always have a good time!

Me, Mandi, Lauren, Whitney and Kelly

I love these girls!

Trip to Sea World

Today I went with a group of teacher friends to Sea World.
Dayna, Jennifer, Shaundra, Audra, me, and Jessica

Sea World gives FL teachers "study passes" which get us in for FREE! Not a bad deal, right? We had been planning to go for awhile, but with everyone's summer schedules, it didn't happen until today. We had beautiful weather, although HOT, and the storms/rain held off and about the time we left at 6:30, the thunder had started and the clouds were about to open up. I just need to reiterate the fact that it was HOT today!!!

Here are some flamingos we saw today! They don't smell very good we figured out.



Dayna, pretending to be a tourist.

Touching the stingrays! We recently swam with huge stingrays in the Grand Cayman Islands! {I still need to blog about the cruise!}



The first show we went to was the dolphin show which is amazing, but I didn't take any pictures during it. I could watch those dolphins do tricks and jumps in the water all day; it's just so entertaining to me. The Shamu Show was soon after the dolphin show so we went to that. Seeing whales in the water is just as amazing and fun to watch! Growing up in FL, I've been to Sea World more than once, but seeing Shamu never ever gets old! Last time I was at Sea World was 3 years ago, before the tragic accident where one of the killer whales killed one of the female trainers last year. They have made some adjustments to their show and the trainers no longer swim in the tank with the whales during the show (I'm not sure the policy during regular training of the whales, though.)
It's hard to imagine that there are whales in the wild that are even bigger than the ones we saw today! Many different kinds of whales, too!







Takin' a break. The sun required it. It was an oven outside today.


Dippin' dots! Have you ever had them? I had chocolate-yum!


Exploring the shark exhibit. Audra-sorry to say, but I think you and I lose for the title "Most Likely Face If You Encountered a Shark." Dayna most definitely wins!


We stopped and watched the sea lions and otters for awhile. Here's a momma and her baby.


There was one male that kept barking so loudly the whole time we watched. Apparently it's their way of declaring their territory. Hate to tell him, but doesn't he know that they share that big 'ole pool they're all swimming in?? We found out from one of the workers that particular seal is the father of most of the babies. So is that bark also his mating call? ;)

Interesting fact I learned today in regards to sea lions and otters: the females have something called delayed implantation. What that means is, when a female conceives and the due-date after their 11 month pregnancy does not fit in the summertime-or close to it-delayed implantation will go into effect and the fertilized egg won't implant until the due-date is in the more appropriate season. I think it's so incredible that their bodies are able to have that kind of automatic programming, so to speak.

My most favorite exhibit of the day was the penguin exhibit, although I didn't get pictures inside due to one of the park's rules. We stayed about 30 minutes and just watched the younger penguins play and swim. When they get out of the water and onto one of their rocks, they just shoot straight up onto the rock. There is no climbing involved. I know it's how their bodies are made, to stand erect all the time, but it's just so interesting! I loved watching how incredibly fast the penguins can swim!

Our day at Sea World was great and a fun way to spend one of our last summer days!

Mid-Week Randoms

I'm writing random today.

You may or may not know that I just got back from an incredible cruise in the Caribbean (just got back, as in 5 days ago) experiencing the Grand Cayman Islands and Cozumel. I plan on doing a completely separate post(s) to let you in on the fun I had, but that is going to have to wait. I'm just trying to get a lot done before going back to work next week, etc., and I just haven't found the time to devote to uploading and captioning all my pictures on here just yet. But I will. To keep you from thinking I'm that lazy, I can at least say that I've uploaded all of my cruise pictures on Facebook and have also made a real physical album (archaic these days, eh?) complete with captions and even some sticker decals. Being as wordy as I am, I want to be sure I caption each picture just right on here, complete with all the fun stories, etc. Here are some pictures for now:




I'll be back soon with a complete post of the cruise. It was too amazing of a trip to not get its own post. :)

So I picked up the book, A Stolen Life, by Jaycee Dugard yesterday while I was at Target.
I got home, had dinner, cleaned up a bit, watched TV, and didn't start the book 'til like 10:00. Well...I was up 'til 3:15 a.m. reading it, with just 2 chapters left to go when I finally went to bed. The book has 273 pages. I just couldn't put down the story of someone who lived in a sick and demented prison of hell basically, and lived to tell about it because she had the strength to survive it. Can you imagine??? The details Jaycee describes had my heart beating fast and heavy at some points. I am SO glad that the nasty man who was capable of such acts is behind bars where he belongs-forever. I'm sure Jaycee is too. I hope the best for her and her daughters in the future; they deserve literally anything they want in my opinion!!!

The power went out in the middle of the night last night around 4:30 a.m. I had only been asleep about an hour since I stayed up reading so late. I am one of those people that my fan is my "lull"-it's the soothing noise while I sleep. As SOON as I heard and felt it stop; I shot up out of my bed thinking someone turned it off or something. I got my phone and walked over to my roommate, Dayna's room and she was awakened already too by the dead silence that now filled the apartment. I got the electric company's phone number and reported the power outage. We looked out the window to see the whole apartment complex was dark so we knew it wasn't just us. Around 5:15, the power went back on and then shut off again. By 5:30 it was on again and hasn't been off again since, thankfully!

In addition to staying up way too late reading, being awakened by the power going off in the middle of the night, we also had been notified yesterday that today our apartment building was having its fire alarm tested and they'd be running the alarm and coming into each apartment for fire inspection.....beginning at 9 a.m. So of course I set my alarm to be up by 9 so that whenever the people came by, I was awake and ready. Needless to say, it was a night of little sleep and I'm tired.

I'm going back to work on Tuesday, the 9th. That is coming very quickly. I have had an amazing summer though, and don't have a reason at all to complain about returning to work. It's always refreshing to start a brand new school year. I've been to the teacher's store here twice this week already and my brain is going non-stop thinking of all the things I want to implement in my classroom this year. I'm ready to go back, just like I knew I would be!

Although I go back to work next week, summer isn't quite over yet! Tonight I went out to dinner with "the girls"- Dayna, Audra & Jessica and then we went to Michael's afterwards to shop for some classroom supplies. Friday, there's a group of 6 going to Sea World (we get in free with our teacher certificates)! Monday, my mom and sister and possibly my aunt and cousins also, are coming to help out in my classroom a little bit and then stay for an afternoon at the pool and then to grill out. Besides, I still have 2 weeks back at work before the students come back, so summer is still, most definitely, in session. :)