1st week

I thought that I would catch everyone up on my first week of student teaching. It has been really busy that is for sure! My mentor teacher is really intense and I had a hard time with her for the first few days. We had a nice chat on Friday and I feel much better about her now. I will be teaching my first lesson on Tuesday after the LONG weekend! This middle school has about 5 advanced math classes (algebra). They are piloting a new thing with having an all girl class and an all boy class and the rest of the classes are mixed. I am going to be teaching the all boy class. I am really excited! They seem like a great group of kids and I am anxious to see how this works! I am also taking a night class on Wednesdays. This week was the first class. I drove all the way from Allen to Denton to wait for 45 minutes for a teacher who never showed up. I was pretty upset because I had been at school all day and the last thing I wanted to do was drive for an hour and then sit in a class. Anyway, apparently there was a technology glitch and the teacher didn't know she was supposed to be teaching the class. To me it sounds like someone didn't check his or her email. That is me being a little critical though. This week has been great overall. Clay has the girls twice a week and is finally realizing what I do everyday is not easy! My mom is taking the girls the other days. I am so thankful to her for doing this for me! She is really helping us out a bunch. I love you Mom!

First Day of School

All I can say is I am exhausted!!! I did not get a nap today. Ha Ha! It was a day of just information overload. The middle school that I am at reminded me of an elementary school. I have never seen teachers have to walk the students to the bus when in middle school. Hmmm.... Maybe Junior High is different then middle school because this was nothing like my junior high experience. I guess probably because I am looking through it from the eyes of a teacher and not a student.

What Olympic Sport are You?

Thanks for the Friday Quiz Sarah! This fits for sure. This has always been my favorite sport and I LOVE watching it on the Olympics!

You Are Volleyball

You enjoy a fast paced, somewhat chaotic life. You don't like to over think things. You like to act in the moment. You are good at solving problems at the very last minute.

What Olympic Sport Are You?

Going Private

I was trying to avoid going private at all costs because I have enjoyed coming into contact with friends from Idaho and staying in contact with friends from Texas, but I have decided that I need to go private. I am still debating it, but think that this is probably for the best. I was placed in a middle school for my student teaching, but since kids are so computer savvy these days I am afraid that they will start looking at my blog and want to get into my personal life. Does anyone have any comments on whether or not I should do this or not? Rene any comment? I really don't want to. I will give it a little while if I do decide to do this. Please email me if you want to keep up with us! I would really love it especially if all my friends from Poky will email me so I can put you all on my blog. Here is my email: alhooten@gmail.com. Anybody have any good ideas that I can try before totally going private???

Waiting Game

I hate playing the waiting game. It is not fun! Clay's job interview went well yesterday, but they did not offer him anything yesterday. I don't know why I was thinking that they would. They said that they would let him know in 4-5 days! 4-5 days! Seriously! We have been waiting for a month for this interview and they want us to wait that long! Oh man... I am so not a patient person. I know that if he is supposed to get this job than they will hire him. It is just the waiting that really stinks! I will let everyone know when we hear something. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers from my fellow bloggers!

Favor!

Who's finished with Breaking Dawn that is willing to let me borrow??? Anyone??? I don't want to buy it since I did not buy the first 3.

Wish us luck!

Wish us luck everyone! Clay has a job interview today!!! This is a great opportunity that he is being interviewed for. We are really excited and are praying that he gets this job! I will let you know what happens later!

Summer Lovin'

With Summer coming to an end I thought I would pay some tribute to some of the things that we have done. I have 2 weeks before I am in the classroom doing my student teaching and have mixed emotions about going! I have had so much fun being home with my girls this summer, but at the same time I am looking forward to getting out of the house during the day and doing what I love! Teaching young minds!! I feel like I am not a good SAHM because I am not good at the homemaking things that go with the job. Yes I get my housework done and I make sure my kids are taken care of and that dinner is on the table (okay I might be going too far by saying dinner is on the table. There are some days that I don't even want to cook even though I have been home doing nothing.) I just don't feel like it is satifying to me. I know some of you might look down on me for saying this, but this is how I feel. I like that I chose a profession where I can have a few months out of the year to spend at home. I feel like I don't accomplish anything when I am home all the time. Sounds unusual and maybe selfish, but it is what it is. We have done some fun things this summer. We started off the summer doing well by going to library just about every Friday. We slacked off towards the end though. We LOVE story time over here. My Elyse loves to read. She is taking after her Mommy. Mady is getting where she loves to read to. Elyse got her first library card this summer and she was so excited. BTW we have the COOLEST Library here in Frisco, Texas! It beats any library I had while growing up.

Here is Elyse getting her Library card and checking out her books.

Tyler, Mady, and Elyse on the boats having fun playing with the bells. That was a hit for all of them!

Here we are with my sister Jenny, her son Tyler and Elyse and I on the Tilt - A- Whirl at the the Sandy Lake Amusement Park in Carrollton.

We have been spending summer evenings outside playing with our next door neighbor Alex. He is a good kid and Elyse loves going over there. This is them having some ice cream before saying Good Night.

The best part of the Summer was that my brother Scott came into town. He is the handsome Marine that I have previously mentioned and did not have a picture of a few months ago! He is awesome! We spent a lot of time with him when he came in town last month! We had a couple family dinners at the Minson house and then went bowling in the middle of the week at Main Event. We had a lot of fun! We had dinner one night at my house and played the Wii. It was fun! My dad and I had a boxing fight and he beat me. I think this was one of the best times I have spent with my family in a long time. My dad made the BEST blueberry cobbler ever! Scott leaves for Iraq on Wednesday. Please pray for the soldiers to do their jobs and to come home safely and in a timely manner! These guys are great for serving our country. We all are in debt to them for what they do to keep our country the way it is!

Sorry for this post being so long! I needed to catch everyone up with pictures and things from the Summer. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with blogging somewhat once school starts! Wish me luck!

The Joys of Blogging...

Messes! Need I say more? Apparently I need to spend more time focusing on my children even though I left them in the kitchen eating breakfast for 20 minutes this morning. Mady began to fuss and Elyse being the good big sister that she is decided to pour Mady some more cereal. Except that she poured what was left of the Kix onto the floor and covered the high chair. It's a good thing that she didn't come up with the idea of pouring milk. That really would have been a disaster to say the least. A funny moment, but I was a little upset. It's a good thing I hadn't swept already! Apparently I need to spend less time checking on all my favorite bloggers and more time with the kiddos! It is so addicting and I love it! But perhaps I should spend a little less time blogging. Oh well, my blogging days will be less once school starts in 3 weeks.