a bff girls get-a-way

....and the road trip begins! I took Friday off from school, left for Durham Thursday night and here Caroline and I are leaving bright and early Friday morning for the beach! It was AWESOME! I lovvvvved every second of taking the day off. I needed it, bad! Madison and Madalyn met us at the beach house at 4 that afternoon and the weekend officially began.

Being January it really was not too cold. We knew when we got there the very first thing we had to do was "de - winterize" the house.  It seemed a little too complicated for this little girl, but after reading directions that were in the house, and matching them with an email dad sent me we finally figured it out. By the way, dads directions were different than the directions that were printed in the house.
- 1st things first, TURN THE HEAT ON, and pour a glass of wine, then disect the "de-winterizing" instructions.

...and thats exactly what we did.

another instruction on the sheet said, "get the metal t in the closet and use it to turn the switch at the street" - Caroline and I were looking for a screw driver that had a "t" point on it... until we saw it, THE BIG METAL BLACK T. Never used one of them before. We got the fire pit started, caroline got down to business trying to break up the starter log.... lets just say we ended up using the whole thing.

Our night continued with grilled hamburgers and my homemade sweet potato fries that I completely forgot to put in the oven, because we were downstairs grillin, chattin, laughin, and sippin!

Saturday we brewed some coffee, layed in sweatpants  all day LITERALLY,  did some pinterest crafts, and made drunken gummies! I have never had these before, but of course we found them on pinterest. We soaked them over night, and then rinsed them off. They were SO good. You got to try them, but make sure to spray them off in the sink before eating or else- your heading down your 21st birthday road again :)

This is my craft I made.. I used paint chips, mod podge, canvas.... I'm not to sure really what to think about it. Maybe it will look cool hanging in a shadow box or something in my new bathroom. I'll have to play with it.  It looks cool/ a little 80's. I'll have to see. Caroline did some sewing thing, making a bunch of petals to form a pillow (pinterest inspired again :) Madalyn, she cut them out, and smoked cigars! HA love her. Madison made sure everyone got their hour dose of gummies and built the fire!

Sunday came.... it was SADDDDDDDDDDDDD. Madalyn had to leave around 12, she had a six hour drive ahead of her :(. The 3 of us packed up around 2, locked the door, winterized the house, had our keys in our hands and were saying our goodbyes until......

Crazy cam and madison thought it would be an excellent idea to stay.  It took a bit of convincing from our boss, caroline. But we finally did. So, of course we had to "de-winterize" the house again, go the the store, get some brooskies, pull everything out again and start the fire.We actually ended up leaving Sunday around 8 ish. Waking up at 3 in the morning just sounded miserable.

It was an awesome, relaxing, and fun weekend. I secretly wish we were there right now! Thanks mom and dad for letting us use the house :)

xoxo

God... through the eyes of kids

I'm back :) - Ya'll didn't think I'd come back did you? I definitly took quite the "hiatus" , is that how you spell that word?

2 things that I would like to do at some point (No, this is not a New Years resolution...)

1- Write a book about my life, with excerpts from "the mouth of babes" from my classroom. I think it would be totally entertaining...
2 - Sell my wine glasses. I LOVE painting them, and always do it for presents year round but how cool would it be to have my own line in one of those "girly, boutique" shops that I never shop in?

I have to tell you that my FAVORITE part of the school year with my kiddos is the Christmas holiday season. It starts in my classroom right after Thanksgiving break and we have a solid 3 weeks to enjoy the lights, decorations, music and festivities. I have a snowman in my room this year that I made in Spanish class back in 7th grade... my kids love it. I love it too because its like a big pinata almost and reminds me of South Charlotte Middle School and my teacher--- ugh, wish I could remember his name, but he resembles Humpty Dumpty. It was there, in that class, that I learned my favorite Spanish word--- sacapuntas (pencil sharpener ladies and gents!) Its got quite a ring to it, don't you think?!

Celebrating Christmas in a public school runs on quite a fine line. I however totally focus more on Christmas than any other holiday. How can you not if you are a believer!!  I mean come on... It's the Lords birthday! I was amazed this year to watch my kids, listen to them talking with friends, and hear them sing all about Jesus. My radio is on each morning in class when the kids come in... to 91.9 Christian music station. I play it during writing time too. On many occasions I have caught my kids singing along with the songs! Ha, I love it. My kids reference God and Jesus on many occasions, and I just eat it up asking questions as if I don't know anything just to get more out of there 6 year old mouths!

Here are a few:
* I was reading a story about weather and asked how drizzle and rainstorm were different, one of my Chinese little friends stood up and said (forget the hand raising...) IT MEANS GOD IS CRYING REALLY REALLY HARD. That lesson lost its umph real fast. I laughed and laughed....

* During guided reading ("small group reading" for all you non teachers,) we were reading a story about a grandmother having a yard sale. I asked what made them think she was a grandmother, and what it reminded them of. One of my little girls said, " You know what, my grandma died once, and she in da ground, and she about to turn to a skeleton, and den she gonna be in heaven." Me: Really, whats it like up there? - "I don't even know, I not up der"  

*I  think I told the kids to do something one afternoon, and one kid  must have not liked it and said " ohhhhhh Jesus no" - another little girl got SO mad she said Jesus, and said " Don't be sayin Jesus name like dat, you aint sposed to do dat, my grandmomma said so"

....they crack me up.



xoxo