#FallFun

I'm trying my best to not give up blogging, y'all! I'm sure no one out there even reads this pathetic blog anymore, ha! But, that's okay because that's not why I do it. I love to look back and see what I was up to, so I'm not giving up... 

#promise

Here are some recent things that my iPhone has captured... and a few hashtags to tell you how I really feel. 

#sorrynotsorry

First up, a teeny tiny school update. I just want you to show what a real classroom looks like in the middle of the school year! I always post pictures before school starts and everything is perfect and that's not real life. Not at all! 

Notice our multiplication monsters and area pumpkins on that bulletin board. I love that they are so fun and colorful and "fall!"

#thirdgraderslikecraftstoo

Junky buckets, goals taped to desks and locker tags flopping all over the place. 

#happybutmessy

#nobodysperfect

Our word wall is filling up nicely! 

#exceptscienceandsocialstudies

#notenoughtimeintheday

And, we use these charts daily for guided  reading. 

I may have covered up a cute printed picture with an anchor chart. 

#drowninginanchorcharts

Annnnd, the science teacher borrowed one of my globes off the top of my counter and it kind of broke my heart because I was using it for decoration! Ha! 

#dontjudgeme

My kiddos are making book character pumpkins again this year and this is the first one I got. I was super impressed by her painting and barn background, but when she pulled a duck decoy out of her locker? Well, I was mighty impressed. 

#nowihavepumpkinsallovermyclassroom 

#wouldnttradeitforanything

I'll do a seperate post about those later when they all get turned in.

I let the kids who turn in their homework eat lunch in the classroom on Fridays. And then force them to watch Pippi Longstocking on Netflix. 

#dontevenfeelbadaboutit

Last weekend, Ryan Grace had a virus and was soooo sick. I went to help out so her mommy could get a little break and while I was there, her fever broke and she was a smiling machine!

#icouldeatherup

I finally got my Hogwarts letter. Finally, y'all. 

#dreamcometrue

And, I finally "fall"ified my porch.

#abouttime

I did a little redecorating, too. 

#cantstopwontstop

Two quick school funnies that I want to remember...

While doing research about civil rights, one of my kids brought me a computer and showed me this picture and said "Look, Ms. Ridings! Rosa Parks is getting her diploma from her teacher!" 

#nailedit

Then, I found a wad of paper on the floor. I looked at it and found an entire page of detailed notes about our day. With phrases like "we went outside today for the first time all week!" and "we have P.E. today so don't get in trouble." 

Crazy thing is, I have NO idea when she was writing all this! I never saw her do it. 

#kidsarefunny

We also made our class timeline for te third year in a row! I'm in LOVE with this project! This year, we focused on civil rights leaders and my children are now beyond obsessed with MLK, Jr. But, they insist on calling him MILK, for some inexplicable reason. 

#hardnottolaughwhentheydothis

#okaymaybeido

#probablywhytheykeepdoingit

And, last but not least, we took the cutest baby ever (aka my niece) to the pumpkin patch today. It was so fun!

#pictureoverload

#shesprettymuchperfect

#diva

#idie

#shemakesmyday

#pumpkinbutt

#losinghairdontcare

#gottaframethisone

Okay, are you bored to tears yet? I'm all out of hashtags and pictures, so I better go to bed! As always, thanks for reading! 

The Lamest Update of All Time...

Welp. I'll say it again. I'm a terrible blogger. This school year has been a little on the rough side. My kids are fine, it's just been a year of changes. Good changes, for sure. But, there's just lots and lots and lots to do. Last week, I didn't get home before 6:30 one single day.  (Wahhhhhh!) But, this week was Fall Break so I've really gotten to enjoy some down time. 

Just a quick little breakfast with my grandpa, who cracks me up! 

Our school is getting a brand new playground! It's being provided by the Nashville Predators and KaBoom! And we are sooooooo excited. I'm on the committee and it's my job to get the kids involved. We have lots of cool things in the works. It's being installed on October 30!

Me and my sweet little niece before her mommy's surprise birthday party.

We found a super cute pumpkin dress for RG and had to get her pic made in it! 

This week, I kept her like three days. It was pretty fun and she's the best, smiliest happiest baby ever!

See???

And she loves to swing!

Last night we took her to the Predators game.

She was mesmerized! She seriously didn't blink or smile or anything. She just stared at it all!

Oh, and also? I'm sick as a dog with sinusitis and an ear infection. Which is just great because we're headed out of town to my grandma's this weekend. 

Ok, lame update I know. Just know that I'll get to back to blogging again some day when things calm down a little! 

Promise!

Same Old Vandy

Okay, so.

 I'm going to post twice in one day. I know that's kinda lame, but I have my reasons. I was just going to add this stuff to my list update that I just did, but I decided not to. Because I have a lot of opinions about this topic. 

Are you wondering what I'm talking about? 

Here it is...

I'm a Vanderbilt fan and I am NOT ashamed! 

Now, if you follow college football, especially in the south, you know that Vandy has been struggling. A whole lot. Like losing by double digits to Temple struggling. And, make no mistake about it, it has not been fun to watch. 

Basically, my whole life, I've been a Vandy fan. My dad grew up going to games. My grandfather took up tickets to the games up until I was in high school. On basketball and football. We've always had season tickets and I grew up going to games. And quite frankly, they've always been pretty much terrible. I know this. I've sat through seasons where they won one game and there were less than 15,000 people sitting in that stadium. I've endured endless and incessant trash talk from every single other team in the SEC. Well, their fans anyway. Vandy has been disrespected my whole life.

Now, you may be asking, why would anybody adopt a team that's so bad as "their" team? I saw that comment on twitter last night. From a UT fan. They couldn't fathom why anyone would be a Vanderbilt fan. But, here's why I am: because, it's the home town team. Yes, I live in Tennessee. I know that a lot of people view UT as the Tennessee team and that's fine. But, I don't live in Knoxville. I have no ties to that school or that city. And I love Nashville. Vandy is the Nashville team. When you grow up cheering for a team, especially an underdog like Vandy, it's kinda hard to switch allegiances. I could never...

So, enter James Franklin a few years ago. He came in on a blaze of glory, taught that team to get mad and fight and talked trash to every other SEC team in the process. And, not one fan will ever admit it, but for the first time ever, other teams were afraid of us. We beat good teams and we caught some other teams on down years, but it was such a blast, regardless. We went to bowl games, we got excited, we believed. And, more than that, the players believed. 

Then James Franklin left. And, he didn't leave nicely. I don't think anyone was naive enough to think that he was going to stay forever, but the way he left stung. A lot! He lied to administration, players and fans. He was talking to recruits before he even left and then half our recruit class decomitted the day he left. Shady, you better believe it. But, James leaving kind of lit a spark in the fans. All of a sudden, it was personal. Everyone was united in this stinky thing that was going on and it wasn't about Franklin, it was about the team. 

I'll say one more thing about James Franklin. I don't like him. I did. But, after the way he handled things when he left, I'll never be a fan again. But, he did one thing for Vandy football that I'll always be thankful for: he killed "Same Old Vandy." 

"Same Old Vandy" is the term for the Vanderbilt of old. The team that would play decent for a whole game and then find a ridiculous way to lose. Time and time again. And it's the term for the fans who just didn't really care. There was a lot of passiveness. A lot of thinking that a Vandy team just couldn't be successful. That it just wasn't in the cards for us. Because of James Franklin, "Same Old Vandy" is unacceptable now. The fans and the players want it to bad to go back to the old way.

Enter Derek Mason. We were told he would be a better coach than Franklin. We were told the players liked him more than Franklin. And, we were told this team was going to be good again.

And then the season started. 

Whomp, whomp.

Look, it hasn't been pretty. At all. It's been devastating, actually. It's heart breaking to see a team struggle and not even score offensively. It's gut wrenching to be on Twitter and see my team being disrespected again. It's awful to go on a message board and read everyone saying that our players are checked out and that they don't care. It's not fun to read in the paper about all the incompetency on both sides of the ball and especially on the staff. And, mostly, I just hate it for Derek Mason and the players because they're living it. I'm not saying he's done a bang up job, but the guy appears to love the school, the team and I mean, obviously he wants to win!!! The man has to be fearing for his job and that's ridiculous. It's been three games! 

Yesterday, I went with my dad to the game against UMass. You know, a team worse than us. (Not sure how they figure that considering we hadn't even scored an offensive touchdown the whole season..) 

I was worried about what I would see at that game. I was thinking the crowd would be awful and the players wouldn't care. That in two games, all the things that had been built up the last three years would be gone. 

But ya know what???

The place was packed! And, the players played with so much heart. They fought and clawed and even though it was a crazy, weird game, they won. Because UMass missed a game-winning field goal.   And, sure. Everyone made fun of them for almost getting beat by a bad team. And, the naysayers all jumped in and said they'll get killed next week by South Carolina. And they probably will. 

But, I saw what I needed to see to know that "Same Old Vandy" is not a problem. I saw fans that still have fight in them. And I saw players that still have fight in them. And I saw coaches that still have fight in them. 

Will this season be fun? Probably not. Will we even win another game? It's likely we won't win many, if any. Am I guilty of being negative about this team and this staff, too? Absolutely! 

But, for right now, I'm willing to be a fan who is patient and lets them work out their kinks. As long as I see the fight I saw today, I'm sticking with Derek Mason and those players. 

And, fans from other teams who talk trash about Vandy? Keep it up. Please. Because that will make it that much better when you get beat by us. 

A Little Update...

I had some big intentions to do a school update last week, and well, that obviously didn't happen. Sorry. It's just that life at school is pretty hectic right now. There's a lot to do and lots of after school things going on and the last thing I think to do is take pictures! I really am going to do an update. But, for now, I'm going to just share what's being going on around here. 

1. Thinking Maps

I recently introduced compare/contrast maps and y'all? These are their favorites! All throughout that week, they made them daily. And they did so good with them! We compared and contrasted books by the same author and I'll share more later but just know that I am firmly and comfortably in the Thinking Map camp and do not see a change to that anytime soon!! 

2. Yummiest Chocolate Ever!

Just do yourself a favor and go buy some. You won't be sorry. Trust me!

3. Family Dinner

Last Friday, we had a family dinner and it was much needed because I hadn't seen my grandpa or aunt and uncle in a long time! It was so fun to catch up and spend some time with them! 

4. Last Saturday

We kept Ryan Grace alllll day, it was raining alllllll day and college football was on allllllll day. So, yeah. It was pretty awesome.

5. Milkglass

I'm not sure that I've mentioned it here, but I collect milkglass. When my grandma was still alive, she gave me a few pieces. Then, in the last two years, I've bought a lot of pieces at flea markets and thrift stores. I have a $10 rule. I don't buy any piece that is more than $10 because for me, it's just fun to search, ya know? The last few months, my grandpa has been giving me the last pieces of my grandma's collection. So, needless to say, I'm ecstatic to have these pieces because they belonged to her! I think I'm about out of cabinet space, though! Might need a bigger hutch, ha! 

6. Text Features

This week, we learned about nonfiction text features. I made this chart an we used it all week as we read articles incorporating the features. Then, the kids made posters about a topic of their choice that included text features. They turned out great! I will blog a more detailed post soon!!

7. The Baby

Love her to pieces. Can't get enough. 

8. Someone needs a haircut...

I mean, she looks like she's missing an eyeball! Ha! 

Okay, I think that's about it. Probably about the most boring blog post I've ever written. I'm really hoping school sill settle down here shortly and I'll have more energy to blog. 

As always, thanks for reading!!!