What a Day...

Phew.

It has been one busy day. I overslept this morning due the the intense heat through the night again. Barely got below 77 degrees- YUCK! I did finally get up and get going as I had to supervise summer school today. Only two more sessions and then we are done with that! It has been quite successful, though not as much as I had hoped. These last few sessions has only brought in the dedicated 5-6 kids. But, that is okay, I am proud of those who are coming.

After summer school, I worked in my classroom for about two hours. I finally have everything mostly where I want it. I have really cleaned up and de-cluttered my classroom. It looks much, much better. I am very pleased with it. I left the school about 1:20 so I could go and watch the kids while my wife headed over to Heather's so they could work on the Bountiful Baskets information. It looks like our site will start August 21st (I think) IF, and that is IF, our site is accepted into the CO-OP. Exciting stuff! My wife is heading to Moab on Saturday to do her last training (and to pick up our basket we ordered- Yum!). It is exciting to see the amount of interest there is here in Green River over it. I hope it continues.

While my wife was gone, I cracked the whip (okay, not really, my kids are generally pretty good to help their OCD father!) and we cleaned up the house. My wife decided last night that she wanted to start painting the living room, so we moved everything (TV entertainment center NOT SO MUCH FUN TO MOVE!) and she started. She is already done this evening. In less than 24-hours our living room is now tan! It looks warm and inviting (okay. maybe warm was the wrong word to use in 110 degree weather). We just finished getting everything back in place (curtains, blinds, couches, tables, etc.). She will blog about it soon and show-off her work. I would never want to infringe upon her unveiling (however I have no shame in stealing it from her later and reposting here!). Anyways, while she was gone I cleaned the kitchen while my 7 year-old daughter cleaned both bathrooms and helped the boys clean their room (2 for 3 isn't bad for 7- the boy's room is a total disaster- but then again, the boys were building a fort with their bunk-beds!) When my wife came home, we had lunch and headed up to my parent's house. They have been in Sun Valley, ID for a Emery Telcom Conference. My father is on the board of directors. Anyways, we have been watching their yard and try to keep their garden alive. I noticed their lawn was a little shaggy the other day so my wife and I took the kids and headed up so I could mow the lawn. The kids enjoyed playing on grandma's many toys (swing set, tramp, etc.) while I mowed. It was quite funny. We were watering some new grass my parents had planted and we weren't really paying attention to the baby. Well, he walked right over to the sprinkler and stood in front of it. He thought it was great. I laughed and hauled him to his mother. He ran around in the diaper for about an hour while his pants dried. Silly little boy! After I got the lawn done, I dropped my wife and kiddos (except my daughter) back at the house and I returned to the school.

Back at the school I finished cleaning up some walls by removing old posters and other items that were dust collectors. I printed all the labels for notebooks, etc and also the front covers of the student's communication folders. Then I just didn't want to be there anymore. I have plenty still to do. I did get the tables set up with chairs. It will be SO nice not having 6/7 tables in the classroom this year (at least I HOPE I don't get that many students again). 5 tables and 17 student's so far. I have earned that. The last two years have been large classes for this area (22-25). My classroom really wasn't built to handle that many students either, so it is squishy and cramped. This year should be spacious and glorious! :)

After we got home, I enjoyed time with my babies. My parents arrived back in town safely (yea!) and stopped by to give my little one his belated birthday gifts- a new car seat (THANK YOU, MOM and DAD, THANK YOU-THANK YOU- THANK YOU!!!!) and a new little jumper to wear. It is way cute.

After family prayers the two little boys dropped off to sleep and we had ice cream with my cutie pie princess. What a great helper she is. My oldest is at my sister's house until Sunday, so she has stepped right up and is helping out more than usual (and that is a lot). She finally crashed, and I can barely keep my eyes open. We are cleaning the motel for our friends again tomorrow AND Saturday- YUCK! So I better sign-off so I can rest up for cleaning toilets and making beds- YEE-HAW, now that is some great Green River fun right there- Yup!

Oh, I do need to mention that I received two of my assignments back for Dr. Aleman. He gave me A's on both of them (one was a real close call- phew). I am waiting for the final paper to be graded and also the group paper from Dr. Rorrer to be graded and returned. I hope that happens someday soon!

Later...

I've Become a Handy Man!

So, I guess all I needed was a few power tools to overcome my fear and take off at full speed. Wednesday, my father generously agreed to drive me to Grand Junction with his trailer to get the wood I would need to build shelves in our new shed as well as other things (like a screen door for the back door). While there, I used a gift card we had earned from our credit card and I was able to purchase a few power tools. I got a really nice cordless drill, a circular saw, and a jig saw. When we got home I got right to work and built the benches for the fire pit area. Next I installed the screen door on the back of the house (it looks so nice and is great as now we can let in the cool evening air and leave all the bugs outside!). I was very excited I did some things on my own!

Thursday morning I was up fairly early and set up my workspace to build the shelves for our new shed. After a brief break (took kids to t-ball and coach pitch only to find out it was over) I came home and got to work. About 7 hour later we had two sets of shelves (1-16 ft and 1- 8ft, each are 3 shelves). They look SO great and they are beyond sturdy! Yes, I will post a picture, but not until we clean out our shed tomorrow as it looks REALLY bad right now! So Thursday was a very long and tiring day!

This morning (Friday) was add shelves to the pantry day. I got that completed in a little over 3 hours (YEA!) and they look great. I added four shelves behind out pantry door where there was a waste of space. Now we can actually see what we have have lots and lots of storage space.

Now, this afternoon, we are cleaning out all our hall cupboards of decorations and getting them out to the the shed to store them. That will free up all the space we need in the hall to build up our two year supply of food storage that we have started (and now we won't have to look at all the cans stacked around on the counter tops. Not to mention I will have a place to store my power tools.

I guess I better get back to work. Our little one sure is a cutie! He has thankfully slept quite well through all this cleaning stuff!

Later...

Thursday + Friday = 3(Saturday)

See, I am good at math! I like the title equation. It means that I get 3 Saturdays this week. What more could you ask for?

I had a fantastic day. It started with tutoring (We did math today and it went fairly well), which moved straight into cleaning up the garden. What a relief that was. I guess I still need to work on the whole "taking pictures and adding them to my posts" thing. After we hauled off all the garden material we went up to my parents and we took out all of their tomato plants for them. As a reward for the kids helping, we took them to out to eat. We tried burger king, but a tour bus of Asians had just beat us in so we decided to try somewhere else. We ended up at Arby's. It as pretty good. Then we came home and finished the yard. The wife and kids cleaned up all the toys (threw out all the broken ones/unsafe ones) and winterized the backyard. I, meanwhile, was using the blower and cleaning up the front yard.

This all lead to us deciding to clean the car. So we went down to the local car wash and used their vacuum since it would suck up all the big garbage. It was nice to finally clean "Bessy" (that's the name I have given our van). She got new floor mats and a new storage bin for the kids to put all their coloring books, reading books, etc. in.

Next came a voice lesson. She was fun today. Since she is a/the lead in the musical, we worked on School House Rocks songs. One of the best parts about all this is that I will be able to keep the CD and music. So I can start teaching my 6th graders the songs. They are really fun! A good friend stopped by again as well. Brent J. It is always fun to have him come over. He loves our kids and plays well with them. What a blessing to our family he is.

My wife had BUNKO tonight, so she went to that around 6pm. I watched TV with the kids and made dinner.

That's about been the day. It has been wonderful to get lots of the little odd job things done we have been putting off. I hope to make it to the school tomorrow and get the same thing done there.

Anyhow, I still things I would like to get done. So,

Later...

Files, Manipulatives, and Shelves- Oh My!

Another day of battling with "stuff" is done. I wish I could report that my room is tip-top shape and all "Purtty", but alas, it is a bigger mess than when I started. So this leads to the next thought on my mind- WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING? I wish I wouldn't get my wild hairs and start moving things around. I hate clutter (I might have more crap that the local thrift store in my room, but it is organized) and so moving something over here created a pile over there, and when I would fix that pile it created a new pile over here, and thus the vicious cycle has started and I find myself running around my room moving stuff everywhere and not getting it anywhere.

I do it all in the name of "Back to School". Which isn't as noble as most would have you believe! It is the #1 cause of teacher... well teacher something (Stress? Ulcers? Diet Coke Drinking? I would like to pause at this junction and declare my independence from diet soda of any flavor as it is just not right. Super Unleaded Soda just isn't worth drinking. But anyways...) I think parents rejoice at "Back 2 School" as it means the resuming of kids being out of their hair 1/3 of the day. I guess who wouldn't rejoice about that? Oh ya, right! T-E-A-C-H-E-R-S! Maybe that isn't fair. I love teaching, I love having the students in my classroom, and I love the atmosphere of school time. But I also love the end of the day when the chatter has died down as the students leave and I get to sit at my desk (usually for the first time all day) and reflect on the day, prepare for tomorrow, and correct a thousand papers. :)

As for my post title. The "Files". I have this big idea to take all my files and put them into binders by topic. I am tired of having extra papers in my units that are not relevant. So that is a MAJOR project that will take most of the year. Again, What Was I Thinking?

The "Manipulative's". I have a ba-zillion manipulative's for math. They are in two rickety carts that are going to crash to the floor any day now. In fact, when I moved them today to a new location (see above for disaster) the drawers fell out of place. Luckily they didn't hit the floor. So Friday when we go to see my sister (I hope you are saying," They are traveling AGAIN!?!?" because that is what I'M saying) I am buying some new 7 drawer totes from my all time favorite store (NOT- see below posts for true feelings) Wally World!

The "Shelves". I did it. I can't believe I did it, but I did. I moved some shelving units and this led to the "move it here and move it to there " problem. But, on the good side, I was able to also go through some of the shelves (especially the ones by my desk) and declutter and play garbage toss with many items.So, it has been a full day.

After working at the school unit 5pm, I came home, had dinner, and then received a call from my parents with a cry for needed help. My dad has been working on his shed all day and was totally out of gas to finish what needed to be done. He called myself and the person I was supposed to go out and visit some families in the ward with. So instead, we both ended up at my parents. I think that the biggest thing I walked away from working on the shed tonight is I am OUT OF SHAPE! WOW! I made it home just in time for the rain storm to hit and showered. Then I had to run back to my parents and put all the tools away out of the rain as my parents had left for a few hours. And now I need to get to bed as I have to be up by 6am. I am driving myself and two other teachers to an all-day math training. Yippee! (See post below). So, I hope that you are not laughing (at least not too hard) at my Pre-Back to School adventures.

Anyways, more adventures of Mr. Hughes later...

Holy Crap I Have A Lot of Crap!

So, after spending 8 hours in my classroom (this being the first time this summer due to CORE Academy- and that stinks because I usually put in a bout 40 hours over the summer) I can honestly say that about all I accomplished was moving crap from one pile to another! I sat down after 5 hours of "cleaning and organizing" and was pondering when the custodian walked by and laughed at me. I guess I looked confused and tired. We talked for about an hour. We have a great custodian in our school. He is quick to help when ever you need it. I appreciate that A LOT!
I guess it wasn't really that bad. I did haul a bunch of old resources to the garbage and de-cluttered a few areas of my room. That is my mission. I want to get the room cleaned up and put in order and THEN I will be able to sit down and get my first few days charted out.

Unfortunately I have a church activity tomorrow night I need to attend, and then Wednesday I have an all day math training with the district. Now, I don't know how many of you readers are teachers nor how far you are from your D.O., but I am 90 miles from my District Office and so when they call these meetings, it can be frustrating in that some meetings don't even last the time it takes to get there. Oh well, that is a whole other soap box to stand on some other time.

Well, it is getting late. I have tutoring in the morning and then another day of moving my crap around in my room in hopes that it will magically find a desirable location in which to live.

I know, wishful thinking...