Super fun summer project

I finished painting my treasure chest!! And I had a great weekend with mom. And I love Photo Booth.

Out for the summer!

Summer school is OUT! Praise Jesus!

I can't tell you how many nightmares I've had about my summer school kids (SSK). I was placed teaching a younger age, not my own students. Little did I know I would be teaching kids that have a lot of potential, but are MAJOR behavior problems.... Lucky me! 10 little behavior problems all to my self. For 5 weeks. I will spare all but a few funny stories...

1. As I sat around a table teaching Math, from the corner of my eye, I saw a kid pulling out buggers with his index finger and immediately licking them off like a yummy treat. (Repeat 4 times). I know the other kids in the class saw him, but I couldn't say anything. Ha! I felt my stomach churching. How do you correct behavior without embarrass the child? So hard!

2. Heavy storms and thunderstorms + lights out and second graders = DISASTER. Half cried and the other half looked at me with eyes that screamed, "do something, please. hold my hand, or love me."

3. One little boy was DOPED up on heavy medication. One day when he wasn't on his meds, I heard his name thrown inside the boys restroom. Next thing I know, I saw a huge trash can in front of the door, blocking one of his classmates from exiting. These are 2nd graders! *While on medicine, he's completely different. Today, he quietly came to me and said, "Mrs. Stephens, you are the bestest teacher."

As a "horrayy, you survived" Josh surprised me with beautiful flowers :)

Beautifully orange!

Love,

Gilda

Nothing like it

Living in Waco has been good so far. Josh and I are growing a little tired of living in a small city but there are also a lot of benefits here. I didn't do a whole lot of fun events this past year since I was so busy with school, but I'm looking forward to the next year as it begins. There are already some events I'm looking forward to.

I've always dreamed of having a neat house with lots of elegant decor that cover soft-colored walls and with high ceilings that welcome a cool during spring, but it wasn't until I moved to Waco that I realized how much that requires. My house doesn't have that kind of elegance, elegant decor, or an array of color on the walls, but I love my home. Getting a good deal on furniture or slowly buying decorative pieces has been a fascinating experience. An experience I cannot put a price on. Now, it looks good. And cute. And I like it. I've finally learned to accent the dark purple carpet with light brown couches! And more! Maybe I'll take a picture sometime.

I like my neighborhood. Josh and I fit in well here. I am finally talking more with the neighbors. To the right, they have a rooster and a mini car repair shop in the back yard. They have twins- age 3-who come outside to watch me play frisbeewith Shelby. Our neighbors to the left had a visit from the SWAT team earlier last year and they moved out soon after that. We never did find out what happened.

Our new neighbors are friendly. Josh and I talk to them too. About a month ago, though, it happened again. The new neighbors had a visit from the cops. This time, the cops chased one of them through their yard and threw the neighbor on the ground to handcuffed him. I SAW EVERYTHING! Josh and I were in the backyard doing yard work and sure enough I hear a "get down, get down right now." I thought it was my neighbor telling his dogs to get down, but NO! It was a cop. My heart raced a hundred miles and hour. For some reason, I felt strange watching. I couldn't watch someone get arrested. Maybe because the cop sounded so angry.

So, our neighborhood is probably not the safest either, but we haven't had any problems. No one has broken in to our car. Thank you, Jesus! or our house! Thank you, Jesus! And we feel perfectly fine in this sweet little house.

I'm glad I can finally share the things inside my heart!

Gilda

Shelby

I was playing with my computer and photo booth the other day and I got this picture of Shelby in a second.

I don't know why her ears turned out bluish-black. Oh well.

I'm back!

I've decided to return to the blogging world after being gone for nearly 10 months.

My first year of teaching is now over. I can't believe it. I have throughly enjoyed this year. It has been one of the most rewarding and challenging adventures ever.

Did you know that effective teachers...

-hardly ever sit behind their desk.

-work until 5 or 6 o'clock and often sacrifice family time among other things.

-often go unrecognized.

-impact student behavior!

-hate working so hard.

-spend aaa lot of money on classroom materials.

-give the students what they need to fill gaps.

I was blessed to work in the middle of a closely knit 4th grade team. Can't believe how tremendously patient and helpful these girls were. I don't know how it can get any better than this.

This year I also had my first margarita!

Update on family:

Josh finished his first year of law school. wohooo! He's working on the first quarter of his second year.

Shelby's swimming and starting agility classes on Monday :)

I leave you with a picture of my students just 3 days ago- End of Year pic! Good bye 2008-09.

Crazy neighbors

Three nights ago, Josh and I woke up to a high vibration of loud music on our bedroom window. The neighbor (someone at the neighbor's house) decided to turn on their car stereo and blair music at 2:10 am. Josh called the cops and 20 minutes later the music was gone....

Fast forward until this morning. I woke up to a loud 'BANG' and deep voice yelling at the neighbor's house. My first thoughts were #1: a woman is being hurt. #2: a drug deal is happening and someone is really ticked. After being scared for a little while, I looked outside to see the SWAT team surrounding the neighbor's house! There was a dog with them, so we are sure they were being busted for drugs. It was crazy. I know why they are the SWAT team. Everything they did was really clean. No flashing lights, no million officers yelling "down, down" or pulling out guns. We didn't see the actual arrest, although I probably would have liked to have seen it. Josh and I wish we would of gone outside to ask what was happening.  After all, it took place less than 10 feet away from our front door. We even considered asking the SWAT officers for a picture. JK. 

We haven't seen anyone at their house since this morning. The only thing that's left outside is an orange sticky note on their white front door. 

There's nothing on the news about what happened, but I'm sure something will come up. 

......

I'm off to the Women's Conference at Antioch tonight and tomorrow!

Right before leaving the school, my co-workers said to me, "go get holy and please bring it back."

-I'm off the go get holy. 

Gilda

Here come a few pics!

August 7 at DBU for Josh's graduation!

A family so proud. 

Mrs. Stephens' classroom!

Baylor Vs Northwestern! 

Shelby and Josh playing at home.

Yes, Shelby's gained at least 6 lbs since we moved. 

This is Kitty (never did get a name for her).

We gave her away to a good family last Monday.

Shelby and Kitty were good friends.

Everything's going really well, just really busy. I'm happy to announce that Josh and I have been able to spend a lot of time together regardless of the busyness. We work together at home a lot-I plan/translate stuff for school while he devotes multiple hours to reading. It's worked nicely since the beginning of the year.    :)

Love,

Gilda