Happy Birthday Colt!

I have a new nephew today, Colton Foster. Born this morning at 8:45am weighing in at 8lbs 4 oz and 20.5 in long. Wow! Big boy! Everyone is doing good and I can't wait to see him. I didn't get to go today because I just don't have the days to take off, but I will be spending the weekend with them! I can't wait! Pictures to follow!

Florida Football and Playtime

Well here is our family picture in our UF jerseys. Soon Ellie will have a cheerleader outfit to sport, but unfortunately she didn't have it in time for the first football game!! Saturday was the day Josh couldn't wait for and it was the day I usually dread. I am now officially a football widow. Oh well, I love football too so it really isn't that bad. We decided that since we all have jerseys with #1 on it, we thought we would take a family picture. I thought it turned out great!! Ellie actually smiled!!

We went to the Kelly's house and watched football and let the kids play together. They had so much fun and was the best!! They played better this weekend then they have so far. They are getting older and loving the company. This morning Ashley and I took the kids outside to play on the swing set. Of course they loved it. Ellie loves to swing. We let them go down on the slide by themselves and they loved it. Ellie was all about it at first, but when she went down it too fast the first time, it scared her and mommy had to hold her the rest of the time. I was taking pictures and me nor Ashley thought she would go that fast since Carter didn't. But Ellie just took off and fell all the way off the slide. She never cried though. Tough Girl! Here are a few pictures to enjoy.

Pee Wee Football

Josh is coaching again!! He is helping coach the 9-10 yr old pee wee football team with some of his buddies. He is having a blast! I think it shows him how much he really enjoys doing it. So far they are doing great!! 2-0 is their record. This Saturday was a close game, but they pulled it off. It was a great game!! Here are some pictures to show you! Oh yeah, he hasn't thrown his hat down!!! (remember when he coached high school... that was all he did when he got mad!!)

Chad Bolton, Josh Wilbourn, Josh Etheredge, and Keith Jarrell

One of the boys making a great play!

Doing what he does best!!

Touchdown Indians!!!

Update

Since it has been a while since I wrote a blog, I thought I would update you now (seeing as how I have a second finally). But I am tired so if I ramble that is why.

School started off great. I think I will really like 7th grade. They seem to respect me more. I guess because I don't quite look like a 7th grader. That was my problem with high school. I looked like one of them and they didn't respect me. So, school is going really good now. I am having to start from scratch with the class, so that is keeping me tied down. Since we have no teacher money this year, I am trying to find ways to keep the students engaged without having to make copies. That is actually really hard!!! I have a smartboard in my room, so I have been making powerpoints of my notes and making the students copy them. It's been working out fine. I find games online and let them come up to the board and play them. They love playing with the board.

Other than the classroom, I have a grant to fix up the greenhouse outside my room. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM DOING!!! NO idea where to begin!! I know what things probably need to be fix, but I am afraid that I will miss something. With it being a grant too, I have to keep up with everything. So that means lots and lots of paperwork and pictures to prove it. Crazy! I think my head is going to spin off!!! Too much stuff!!

On a different note (basically I have to stop talking about school before my BP rises to a deathly level), Ellison is talking so much now. I mean actually talking. She is picking up on everything and saying everything. She surprised me Saturday morning. I turned the TV on for her to watch cartoons and she said "Mommy, Manny." And yes, Handy Manny was on TV. I have never heard her say it before.
Here are some more conversations:

Josh: Love you Ellie, be back in a minute.
Ellie: ove you in minute bye bye daddy

Me: Lets go play with Mrs. Sarah and Jessie (as we get out of the car at daycare)
Ellie: no no mommy, no no
Me: yes I will be back this afternoon
Ellie: no no mommy...(and a bunch of gibberish... probably cursing me for leaving her there)

Ellie: ELMOOOOO
Inez: yeah there is Elmo
Ellie: I get it I get Elmo
Inez: Okay you can get Elmo

Ellie: Mommy Elmo (whining and crying and crawling up in my lap while I am on the computer)
Me: not right now Ellie. Mommy is working on school stuff.
Ellie: No no, Elmo mommy (continues until I give in or she gives up)

As soon as we come in from school (or actually anytime we come home), Ellie will walk to the TV, turn it on, find the remote, give it to me and shake her head yes. Apparently I am suppose to know what she wants (obviously to watch cartoons). She then signs "more", which now means eat. So I fix her a snack and let her eat it in the living room while watching cartoons.

So as you can tell, our lives are interesting. Ellie says something new everyday, but of course I am so tired that I can't remember everything. I think I need to keep a book about it. She is so fun right now. I love coming home to her!! I still don't like our night time. She will fall asleep on her own now, but she will not do it when she wakes in the middle of the night. And this week she has decided that she wants mommy to rock her back to sleep. Mommy doesn't like this. She did so good for a week. She slept thru the night and all, but I don't know what happened now. Oh well. One day she will sleep.

Pictures are to come in the future. Stay tune!!

Overwhelmed

Wow! I got an overload of information today! Today was our offical day back to school (for teachers anyways). We had inservice at the high school which was really neat. They did a "virtual" inservice, where they had 5 host sites and we didn't have to travel to far. It was good. I liked it. That only lasted about an hour and a half and then we had to go to our lunchroom and have a faculty meeting. Well, I got stopped about 100 times on my way to the meeting. I guess it was actually good, because it was people who didn't know me. Anyways, I was flooded with information at the meeting about all the stuff that I have to do. I never had to do most of this stuff before. I feel so lost!! I know that I can handle the classroom and the material. It is the same as my high school biology lessons. So I am not worried about that. I am worried about the lesson plans (how in depth, long etc...), and all the other little paper work that I have to do. I know that this is a bigger school and I should have been prepared a little better, but WOW...

{takes a deep breath...}

Anyways, I can do it and I am really excited about starting this school year. I have really high expectations for myself and my students. I can't wait to get to coaching!! I am excited about all that. Can't wait for softball especially!

Anyways, I got to get ready for the rest of the week. School starts Monday!! Hope everyone is ready!!

Update on Ellie's Hand

Just thought I would show everyone Ellie's hand now. It was 3 wks this past Sunday that Ellie burnt her hand on a light bulb. She is a tough little girl. They were blistered for a week and then popped. She fought us for a while to put bandaids and her cream on it, but she finally figured out that we were not hurting her. We were actually helping. You can still see her holding her sippy cup without those two fingers, but she really acts like it never happend. Although, if you ask her to show you her hurt finger, she will show you the correct hand. Here are the before and after pictures for you to see.

Ellie's Swimming Pool

Here is Ellie's Swimming Pool that we bought her. She had so much fun at my sister's house in Gage's swimming pool that we wanted her to have fun at home. So we went to Wal-mart and found this one on clearance. Best $20 I spent. She loves it!! She was shivering at one point but did not want to get out! Once I showed her how to use the slide, she was trying to do it herself. Of course, she wouldn't make it half way up before sliding back down. The dolphin shoots out water from the mouth, but she really didn't like that, so that stayed off. I got really scared about her jumping from the big pool side to the little pool side and visa versa. She fell in head first once and from then on she decided that she would go in feet first instead. I guess she doesn't like going under. She didn't cry though, she actually laughed. Anyways, I thought that I would show you the pictures of her new toy. Come and join us if you want!