Spring School Time

There has been a TON of stuff going on at school these days. We have been jam packed with tons of exciting stuff including the 100th day of school, Valentines Day, Clubs and today we celebrated

Character Dress up Day!

Me, Deiley, Ramirez and Gurka in the gym during synergy rally! 

The kids thought it was hilarious and all the teachers got really involved this year. Adminstration and 3rd grade were "Where's Waldo", 1st grade was "Miss Nelson is Missing" , in 2nd grade there was a Captain Underpants and 5th grade had a teacher who did"Bad case of Stripes". We will all vote for who is our favorite next week and the winner I believe gets catered lunch and their class covered for extra 30 minutes. Our kinder team won last year when we dressed up as "Hey Diddle Diddle!" Hopefully we will win again.


100th Day of School!
SO the 100th Day of School was last Wednesday and the kids had a blast. We were busy filling in 100s charts, doing 100 exercises, counting out 100 pieces of snack, making 100 fruit necklaces and so on. It was great that we got to watch 101 Dalmatians in the afternoon to get a brain break from all the work.

Classroom signs. The skid were so pumped to see this when they walked in. It was a celebration all day!

Hats that we decorated to show the school we were 100 days smarter!

blurry picture of snack. They got 10 goldfish, marshmallows, pretzels, apple jacks, cheese balls, rice chef, m&m's,cheerios teddy grahams and cookie crisp. All add up to make 100 things to eat! 

Fruit Loop Necklaces! We used counting mats to make sure we got all that we needed and we used gummy lifesavers to separate each group of ten. I forgot to get a picture of a finished necklace :(. 

I gave each group a 100 piece puzzle to try and complete. Winners got to take home a puzzle!

Filling in the missing numbers to the 100s chart!

 Here are some of the 100 collections that the students brought in. 

Valentines Day

Student sorted candy hearts by color then graphed how many they had of each. They LOVED this. I was nice and even let them eat one candy. They had to save the rest for home. 

Clubs!
A new thing we just started last week is clubs. This year I am on the Foundations Team and also the Lighthouse Team. Between both groups, we wanted to do something where every student felt like they belonged to something important. We wanted to be able to reach ALL students and the idea of clubs arised. It is AWESOME. We had an early dismissal schedule so we were all packed up by 1:30. Then the ENTIRE school went to clubs for 45 minutes.  Some clubs were just k-2 and some were 3-5 and some were all grade levels welcome. We had kids that could go to a play dough club, sign language club, origami, cheerleading, line dancing, rumba, running, fitness, bubbles and chalk, poetry, reading, cake decorating, no bake cooking, gardening, art etc. It was SO fun to see kids so engaged and excited. Administration said they had zero issues with behavior. All the students were excited to be where they were. The reading coach and I were in charge of the cheerleading club. It was so fun to teach old cheers from years ago. We also tried to do some jumps but were afraid of ending up in the hospital!!

The plan is to have clubs meet 3 more times this year and possibly be able to switch the club they go to each time. It was fun for all, teachers and students.

Well March is almost here so I am sending positive thoughts to all you 3-5 teachers out there who are prepping for STAAR. I know you have all been working so hard and so have the kids. Celebrate how far your kids have come and how you have impacted their life. It may not show on a test, but I know it shows in their hearts.

Happy Friday Everybody!!

Valentine Dinner Recipes

I had some friends on Facebook who wanted the recipes for the Valentines dinner that we made last night! Like I told y'all, these are simple and easy to do.

Spinach, Butternut Squash, Ricotta Stuffed Shells

I was on Pinterest and found a picture of this but when I clicked it had no recipe. So, I improvised! 

You need:

- box of jumbo sized pasta shells

-2 jars of favorite marinara sauce(I usually get tomato basil). 

-large container of ricotta. (I used the one with skim milk but you can get original).

-half of a butternut squash cut into small pieces. about 1/2 in thick. 

-3-4 cups of fresh spinach

-1 tablespoon chopped garlic

-salt and pepper to taste.

The night before I boiled the butternut squash until it was done. I then refrigerated it overnight and made the rest of the mixture the next day. 

First thing, start boiling your water for your pasta. You need a huge pot. Follow the directions on your pasta box for cooking time. I cooked until they were done done but you don't want for them to be falling apart. 

Holland sautéed some onion for about 4-5 minutes than added the spinach and cooked for 2-3 or until wilted. We use veggie stock when sautéing but you can also use water.  

Put ricotta cheese, cooked (then cooled) butternut squash, spinach and onion mixture, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix all ingredients together with large spoon until ingredients are spread evenly. I used an ice-cream scooped to scoop mixture into shells. Place stuffed shells in glass baking dish that has your jar and half of pasta sauce in it.  

Bake at 350 for 25- 30 minutes. Top with parmesan cheese and broil for about 3 minutes to finish off. 

This is just one of the dishes! It also made another dozen or so shells in another dish! This is a great leftover recipe!

Zuchinni Brownies
You can find the recipe for the zucchini brownies here.  These are good, but they are not like a typical brownie. You will deifnately get your chocolate fix, but they are not as rich as they look in picture. Still delicious! ( probably a little more healthy than a regular brownie, too) Unfrosted they have 103 calories and frosted they have 183! Not bad!

Hope you all had a great Valentines Day! :)

Bleu Valentine

Seven years ago today, our baby Bleu was born on a farm in Elkhart, Texas.  We should have named him Romeo since he was born on the day of love and also because he is such a loving dog. However, Holland wanted to be able to say " You're my boy, Bleu!". 

It all started with Holland saying that he wanted to go LOOK at some Catahoula puppies on this farm and I said YEAH! Lets go for a look! Well we made the 2 hour drive and talked with the breeders and they showed us the entire bloodline of Bleu's ancestors.  We weren't so interested in that since we weren't going to breed him or anything. However, I specifically remember the guy saying that 

These are WORKIN' DOGS. They are no sit around the house dogs. They need to be out chasing hogs, hunting and such". We totally agreed that we were going to WORK him. :)  He was just too cute, we couldn't pass him up.....we had to lie :)

 We got Bleu in May( the end of our first year of college). Holland was living in the dorms and I was living in my first apartment by myself. We had this brilliant idea to keep Bleu in my apartment without paying a pet deposit since he would only be there for two weeks. Holland and I made sure he was never alone, it was like baby duty. We were busted within a week and we took him to Austin to stay with Hollands sister until we finished our finals and went home for the summer. It was a sign of things to come because while Bleu was staying with Hollands sister and her husband, Bleu pooped all in his crate and then stepped in it and somehow flung it all over their guest room like a crazy spider monkey.

Needless to say, we rented a carpet cleaner and I can still see the image in my head where Holland is carrying Bleu with his arms stretched out to the tub to rinse off all the mess. Thank goodness Allison and Kevin were renting!

As I just mentioned with the crate incident. We had it coming. Really it was our own fault because we had picked a dog breed that should be working and not staying in a house. Well if someone ever tells you this please see below for a clear image of what can happen.

Yep, thats our boy!!! So proud that he is so smart. If you want to see or hear some other mischief he has gotten into read here: Bleu's Chocolate Pie

 Regardless of all the trash, throw up, mess we have ever had to clean up from Bleu, he has truly brought us a ton of joy and I am so glad we drove to Elkhart that day to "look" at puppies.

Some things that Bleu LOVES:

1) Bleu LOVES the lake. He was afraid at first to swim but that quickly changed and we still have a hard time getting him to stop swimming near any body of water.

 2) Pools. Bleu always likes to swim in my parents' pool. We call it "Doggie Day Care".

 3) Watching TV. He got really great at this when Holland was in college :)

 4) Relaxing.  I have been telling Holland we should send this picture to the people we bought him from and tell him he is a good working dog. :)

 Oh Bleu, I cannot believe you are seven today.  I cannot even begin to think how different our lives would be. You have taught us to be patient, how to become extremely OCD and lock everything up including the fridge. The biggest lesson you have taught me is to forgive, move on and get over it. All the messes can get cleaned up and as long as you are safe, that is all that ever really matters.

Happy Birthday Bubby Bleu! We love you.

MAYBE...

I really try to be a positive person. I like to think that I am the kind of person who sees the glass as half full vs half empty.... Even in the most difficult times, I try to see what the lesson is. However, I had a hard time with this tonight.

Holland and I have gone to this Vegan restaurant multiple times and I have fallen in love with their peanut butter smoothie. It is like my go to thing on tough days at work and a quick fix on a sweet tooth. I never feel that bad drinking one because its all organic, agave sweetener and such to make me feel like I am kinda being healthy.  After dinner I told Holland "LETS GO!!

While Holland waited in the truck I hopped up the steps to the familiar sweet haven of this restaurant and was ready to place my order! Just to give you a feel of the place it is very small. They had about 3-4 tables of couples for dinner and two servers.  I have been here MULITIPLE times just to order a smoothie.

The lady asked me if I was placing an order to go and I said well not for food, just a smoothie! (literally with a smile on my face).  She said okay, here is the menu, tell the guy behind the counter what you want when you are ready. I did not even have to look at the menu, I already knew what I wanted! Then she came back and said "oh, you know... let me check with the chef to SEE if we can even do that". In my head I knew it would be done because it had been done before. THe guy then asks for my order and I say what I want. THIS LADY comes back and says " I'm sorry, we only have one chef tonight so we aren't going to be able to make your smoothie......"

My face literally went from a smile to something like this

I found this on Pinterest but totally think this girl is a pretty good representation of our future child.... 

She said she was sorry and that she recommended Thunder Cloud Subs for their smoothies.......

I walked back out to the truck where Holland was waiting and he said " Oh, they didn't have the stuff to make it?" With that same look on my face I said "NO! THEY HAVE THE STUFF TO MAKE IT BUT CAAAAANT BECAUSE THERES ONLY ONE CHEF!"

As we drove back home I started to kinda clam down and started my MAYBE positive thinking.

I do this when I get frustrated at silly stuff like when a car cuts me off and speeds away on the highway. I say well: MAYBE their wife is in labor and they are trying to get to the hospital.

So I told Holland " MAYBE the chef was overwhelmed and didn't feel like she could cook all the food and take the 5 minutes to make the smoothie and she wanted to please the OTHER customers..."

I took a deep breath and told Holland I wasn't being positive enough.... he agreed and said he loved how I was trying to be positive but it still came off a little( What's the word that rhymes with witchy? you get the picture)

 The I said okay let me try again...

"Maybe the chef didn't usually make the smoothies and felt completely overwhelmed on taking on a task that she had never done before while making the food".

Holland agreed that that could have been true.

In the end, I did not get my smoothie....... but MAYBE its because Holland can make me a better one at  home instead. :)

Movie Go-ers

THIS IS OUR 50th post!!!! Time to do a little dance and celebrate. It has almost been a year that this blog has been up and although there are times I wish I would have done post, I have been keeping up with this one way better than I did my first one!

So, Holland and I have been seeing a bunch of movies lately. It is a very exciting thing for us because the movie plot is usually a surprise since we do not have cable! Therefore, we never see any previews and/or spoilers that show too much of the movie. We usually go to the Alamo Drafthouse and are spoiled with choice of craft beers and we have servers to bring us our food.

We recently went to the Palladium with our friends, Jon and Sarah to see Gangster Squad. First off yummy Ryan Gosling was so handsome, Emma stone was gorgeous and Sean Penn was ridiculously scary looking which fit his role.  So back to the Palladium. It was our first time going to the Palladium and the only reason why we went there was because the Drafthouse was sold out of all their movies.  We go in and Sarah and I decide to have the guys save our seats and we will get food and beer. We go to order food and ask about their beers. The woman tells us the beer selection and when she told us the options that ranged from Dos Equis and Shiner, Shiner and Shiner. Sarah and I were both like " yea..... we don't drink that".  The woman continues to tell us to just get Dos Equis and how everyone loves Dos Equis.. Sarah and I started to giggle a little and were like um yea... thats okay... we will take some cokes.  After she rings us up she THEN tells us there is a bar upstairs with more beer choices. How convenient! We go upstairs(which by the way the Palladium is on steroids, so we took an elevator) we order some beers and take them back to the guys then go to get our food and sodas (since we thought they had nasty limited choices on beer). They give us the cups and inform us that we need to go to a drink station to get our sodas.  When I walk into the madness of about 20 people trying to get their sodas, I am filling up our cups and the lady next to me has a XXXL cup of purple slushee(like in Glee!) and drops it all on the floor. Thankfully it did not get on me and we walk to our theatre and realize that having servers is so much more fun and relaxing.



While watching any movie,  I have to admit that I have a tendency to ask questions (respectfully!). I always whisper to Holland and ask things just so I am sure I understand and sometimes I just turn to him and say " OH MY GOSH!!!". I cover my eyes thinking that will help and I have to remind myself to breathe during battle scenes and I cry.... I cry very easily.

Whisper convo during Argo:

me:" so are they trying to rescue the entire US embassy?! How are they going to do that?!"
Hol(still staring at the screen): They are answering your question right now.
me:" I MISSED IT, what did they say?"
Hol: Just watch the movie!"

AHHHH I get so invested in movies. I am that person that really feels like I am there. I held my breath and felt like passing out, my heart was beating so fast when they were going through the airport and then I cried and clapped with the rest of the audience when everyone was safe.

Last night I had the same exhausting feeling when we went to finally watch The Hobbit.  I was never really into all the Lord of The Rings movies. I saw the second one before the first and I really went to see them because Holland loved them so much. So I was totally caught off guard with how engaged I was watching the 3 hour film last night. It took me until I was 25 years old to finally understand Hollands passion with these stories and films. After the movie I was asking him questions about the rest of the movies because it had been so long since I saw them. NOW I WANT TO REWATCH THEM ALL! I let out a huge sigh of relief when all the dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf are all rescued by the huge   eagles.  When the movie ended I was shocked! I said WHAAAAT? Its over? We don't get to see them try to get into the lonely mountain?! HOW UNFAIR!  Hollands mom suggested I read the book and I will have to do because Holland cannot remember and it unable to answer my questions.