Oh 6 year olds...

Me: "G, I am very proud of you, you have been making good choices and working hard, way to go!"
G: "Can you start paying me for being good?"
In his defense, there was a book fair going on, he wanted those awesome erasers.. ohh goodness.


I was reading a big book with my students one day and practicing reading strategies. I pointed to the word "playing" and asked M. "How do you think I can figure out what this word says?" He replied... Mrs. Pennywell, I think you know what that word is.
----Hey, at least he thinks I am smart!

They also are very fascinated with Drew and everything about him.. they keep asking me if I will bring him to show- and-tell. (They have given up asking about bringing Lucy because I told them she was really scared of kids... which sadly is true.) haha



Well, there are a million more but I am tired and can't think of them at the moment!

I need to write this stuff down...

I am loving 1st grade. I have a very "active" class but they are also sweet and funny! Some great moments so far:

* I had a little "come to Jesus meeting" with three of my students the other day because they were being very, very chatty during Writer's Workshop. After letting them know that I was sad/mad and that they would be practicing writing quietly at recess, G. comes up to me crying.. "But Mrs. Pennywell... Do you still love me?" ---He can be so cute sometimes...

*I was teaching my class how to write initials, "You write the first letter of your first name, and the first letter of your last name. Like mine is LP, because my name is Leslee Pennywell"
J: "WAIT... your first name isn't 'Mrs'??"

* me: "G, what can I do to help you to sit still and listen when we are on the carpet?" G: "Well... just tell me to listen and I am gonna try real hard, ok??"

*I was talking to C. while we were writing "Well, I am writing this story about when I was a baby. And I remember because my dad told me about it.. he was holding me, and we were at a wedding, and I kept sticking my finger in his beer and then licking it because it tasted so good" ... alrightyyy.

*When I was about to read a book one day, I was holding it up and talking about it.. I was talking about the author and there was a picture of a man on the back of the book.. one of my students yells "ITS JESUS!!!"

*C: "Mrs. Pennywell, I know not to put my middle finger up because that means you hate God. And No body should ever do that because why would you hate God??!"

They are cute, and innocent. I really need to write stuff down, I laugh to myself several times a day and wish there was another adult in the room because this stuff is hilarious :)

Mrs. Pennywinkle

I know I have SO many avid readers out there who are wondering where I have been (.. ok, I know there are at least like 3 of you...) Well, school has been in session for 2 weeks now, and it has absolutely consumed my life! I could write for days about all the things that have happened, but let me try to summarize somehow....
*Mrs. Pennywinkle: many of my students called me this on the first day, I have no idea why but it helped to calm my nerves and make me laugh!

*Nerves: I was SO nervous, to the point that I knew I was being absolutely ridiculous. Looking back I don't really know why I was... but I am glad I have my very first day of teaching behind me!

*My class: I have 14 students (I know.. that is amazing!) Yes, it is a public school. haha. My school really tries to keep our classes small! They are precious 6 year olds who refer to me as "mommy" about as much as they refer to me as "Mrs. Pennywell".. and sometimes they throw an "S" in there to make it "pennywells". Its ok, my name is really long so I understand the desire they feel to throw other random letters in... ? But they are really a good class. I have NINE boys, yeeeah. I was thinking before I started that girls are easier to teach, and I must say.. they really are! I have one student who is very hard to deal with, of course I won't say names on here but we will just refer to him as C. He does not have a good home life, and he has a muscle disorder which slows him down, and causes him to fall alot. He is precious though, and my heart feels for him everyday. I know he has GOT to be making me a better teacher, haha! :)

*My days: I get to school at 7 am usually (the kids come in at 8 but this gives me lots of time to get stuff ready) and I usually leave around 5:30... yeeah. They are long days, but I have a sweet hubby who is always greeting me at home and ready to hear about my day.

*Speaking of my husband, my students are fasicnated with him. I have not talked about Drew since the first day, and on Wed. I mentioned him.. they were asking "WHO is DREW??" as if I had disclosed very important infromation from them... I reminded them that he was my husband.... Then they all snickered, smiled, and asked tons of questions about him. All the way down to "What color are his eyes?"

*I have learned how much paperwork comes with teaching, there is so much documenting, keeping track of each child... its very tiring. This is something I never had to do in Student Teaching and did not realize how tiring it is.

*I love my job! Sometimes I might not want to wake up, but once I get to school and my kids come in I am always happy to be there! :) I had a part day sub last Wed. because I had a meeting to go to, when I got to school my students were SO excited and acted like they had not seen me in weeks, haha! This is my first class and I know all of them will always be very special to me, my job is very tiring, but has more rewards then I can even count!



Ok, that is it in a nut-shell! At some point I am going to take some pictures of my room so you can see how much it has changed now with students :) But honestly... I don't know when I will be on here again, haha!

Making Progress!

Sorry Blogger, you certainly have been on the back-burner lately! Drew and I have been adjusting to both of us working, he has been an awesome helper which has been great for me :) My kids don't start until Aug. 25 (in case you do not realize.. that's REAL soon..) but I have been very busy attending workshops, new teacher orientations, oh and working on my classroom! I have made a lot of progress though since this. So it is nice to walk in there and not just want to climb in a cabinet and hibernate. (yeah, I seriously felt like that a few weeks ago, haha) I also had about 50 to-do lists going and I am down to one, consolidated list! AND things are getting checked off on it like crazy! Anyways... here are some pictures!





When you walk in the door this is what you see! One of my grandma's friends made my curtains, and next weekend I am going to make pillows out of the same fabric for my kids to sit on at the library station. (take note of the pink bookshelf to the left, I have a story about that...)




Well, that is the progression so far! I can't wait to be finished with it, although I know it is such a work in progress since I will prob. change a lot once my students come and I figure out what works for us and what does not! If you notice some of my walls are bare its not because I am boring.. haha. My school really encourages us to build our classrooms with our students, so my library is empty, and all my other walls are blank besides this one and my calender. As we make stories together on chart paper and sentence strips I will put those on the wall (so yes I get to see my handwriting.. EVERYWHERE.) But it really gives the kids ownership, and they can look at something and remember learning that! So I had to part with a lot of cute posters, signs, etc. But I def. see how important it is that the kids have ownership!


So now my pink shelf story, to the left of the bookcase is all cabinet space (you can see it in my first post..) Well tonight I had Drew come up to the school and help me organize some stuff in my storage room. Anyways.. I found this border my teacher left that says "Reach for the Start" and is really cute! I wanted to hang it above the TALL shelves... so I climbed up there with the stapler as Drew handed me pieces of border! I had a tiny crawl space and got it all done, but was terrified to get down and Drew had to spend a good 2 minutes convencing me I would be ok. Yeah... you prob. "had to be there", but it was pretty funny. I will take a picture of that super cute border soon, it was totally worth it to me :)

Well, that's all from Mrs. Pennywell. Have a great week :)

Silly Me..

I have been so worried/anxious/nervous about the upcoming school year! Today I went to my school from 8:30-3:30 to plan the curriculum for literacy, I was worried about the silliest things such as.. what to wear! ha! I showed up and spent the day with my 1st grade team, they are seriously some of the sweetest women, ever! Oh and amazing teachers! I won't get into all the teaching terms, but God has put me at an amazing school! We have such good resources and they truly truly care about their students. I now am not nervous and so excited :) AND I even have my class schedule.. as I typed it out and wrote "Mrs. Pennywell's Class Schedule" I could not help but smile! Isn't it funny how we spend SO much time worrying even though we have a Sovereign God who always takes care of us, and never gives us more then we can handle? Oh silly me! :)

baking= procrastinating...

Don't worry.. they are not fattening.... I .. promise?
Well I worked on my classroom for a bit.. then decided to come home and bake! For one, today Drew and I have been married 2 months and I knew he would love a baked treat, and two.. being in my classroom reeally stresses me out. I have to make up a class schedule?? So many things I have never thought about... ah!
Anyways, I started to make some sugar cookies, I made these a few weeks ago, but changed the recipe up a bit today and well.. I'm not trying to brag.. but these are GOOD! So if you ever need sugar cookies, this is a good one!

1/2 cup of butter -- I LOVE "I cant believe its not butter" baking sticks--amazing!
1/2 cup of shortening
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
4 tsp. of vanilla (thats a total guess... I just put a LOT, seriously.. you can't have too much!)
2 1/4 cup of flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

In your mixer cream the butter, shortening, and sugar. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl combine the flou, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the egg and vanilla to the mixer(the butter, crisco, and sugar mixture). Mix on Med. for approx. 1 min. Gradually add the flour mixture to this batter. Now, if you want to make cookie shapes I would add a bit more flour, roll it up into a loaf, sprinkle sugar on it, and put it in the fridge for a few hours in wax paper. Today I did not make shapes, so this is what I did:
I rolled the mixture into balls, I rolled the balls in a bowl of sugar (def. do this!) next, put the balls on a cookie sheet and flatten them with the bottom of a glass cup! Bake at 350 for approx 10 minutes, dont let them brown though! Take them out and put on cooling racks, now for the icing.. this is my favorite icing that I use for cookies always, it dries fast, is super easy, and taste great!

1 cup of powdered sugar
2 tsp. milk
2 tsp. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. almond extract
I never really follow exact measurements here, just kind of eye it for how much I need. Just follow this the first time then you will get the hang of it. You just add all of these in a bowl (no specific order) if its too thick just add more corn syrup, but stir it a LOT and it will thin up! And I always add extra almond extract.. I loove that stuff!

One more thing.... My aunt Genie got me this cookie sheet for graduation, it is from "Doughmakers" and it is seriously the best thing...ever! I bake a lot, and I am so picky now I only use this one, its awesome! You can see it here http://www.doughmakers.com/grandcookiesheet.htm ... it has this crackly look to it, I dunno what it is but it makes things bake perfect and never stick!


I love that our oven has this little window, I am sure most people have this.. But I never had one in college, and I really think it just makes baking so much better :)

WHOOP!

The above picture was taken as we were getting ready to graduate, it is of me and my friend Emily! Emily and I met at our first semester at A&M in Chemistry.. yeah Em was def the ONLY good thing about chemistry! We took just about every single class together after that, and were pretty much inseparable! Why am I randomly telling you all of this?? Because Emily got a JOB yesterday! So many girls from my class have been on the job hunt (and many still are!) But Emily got a call yesterday from Midland ISD and will be teaching 3rd grade! Even though our classrooms will be approx 8 hours apart, it is comforting to know we can relate to each other and help each other through this 1st year as teachers!

Yesterday 2 girls from my team (other 1st grade teachers) called me to invite me to come to the prof. development we are having at our school next week (this ones not mandatory, and you get payed!) Anyways, they left the sweetest voice mail and really made me more excited about the school year! Its not that I am not excited... I guess its just mostly nervous right now since I have SO much to do... and not really sure how I want to do anything! haha.. on that note.. I am off to work on my classroom!

update on lucy goose

After writing about Lucy for Mutt Monday I guess she decided she was not getting enough attention.... about 3 hours later she broke out in HIVES. yes, hives. major ones, allll over her body. She was also hiding in the closet and refused to come out. I dragged her out and took her to the vet! She got a steroid shot and a cortisone shot and is now feeling much better! Whatever stung her or bit her she was def. allergic too! Drew and I hate those dang vet bills but it was worth it for her today!

Mutt Monday!

Lucy is not only the star of Mutt Monday today..she was the star the entire weekend. She got LOTS of attention because she kept getting SICK! We were at my aunt's bay house in Galveston and on Saturday morning she puked about 5 times. She would not eat anything, not turkey, ice, sprite, dog food, rice...we tried everything! Well actually my aunt gave her a bit of mint choc. chip ice cream and she ate that..but I felt it would not help the situation! haha! Finally Saturday afternoon she was keeping food down and acting like nothing happend, whew! ... NOT. Saturday around 2 am my mom comes to wake me up (she likes to sleep with her grammy and pop when they are here!) She said lucy would not stop itching.. and her face was swollen. Lucy looked like a pit bull, it was SO weird. Unfortunatly I did not get a picture, at the moment I was too worried! We gave her LOTS of benedryl.. actually she is still getting some! Her face is finally back to normal today, but she is still pretty itchy. I have no clue what she could of gotten into, she was inside so if something bit her it would of had to been inside. It was a busy weekend taking care of my sweet goose, I am so glad she seems to feeling much better! I cannot imagine what its like when you have sick kids, although the ONLY benefit will be when they are old enough to TELL you what hurts and how much, haha Lucy will never be able to do that!

Here is a picture that has nothing to do with the post except that its of Lucy, her with one of her dad's (many) bikes. She loves chasing her dad on his bikes and watching him work on them!

My Classroom...is a mess!

Here it is! Pardon the EXTREME mess! My aunt Kathy and I went today to move stuff in and work on my classroom. Jodi (the teacher whose room I am taking) is no longer going to be a classroom teacher (she is working as a literacy coordinator for the district). So, she left me.. a TON of stuff. I mean.. a TON. Which don't get me wrong, this is a huuuge blessing since I am a first year teacher, but a bit overwhelming! Some of it I am thinking "What is this?" "Will I ever need this?" etc. I don't want to get rid of it and then want it later. I really just want to be very organized.. but I am seeing that is going to take me many, many hours! I know it will all be worth it when I am done, remind me of that please!


My students sit at tables (thank goodness!) there ind. desk ALWAYS migrated throughout the day in table groups in student teaching, which drove me crazy! The only problem with these is the issue of storage.. I have little things to go on the back of their chairs though!

This was taken with me standing in the doorway

This is my window! I have two big windows like this, AMAZING! :) They look out onto the school garden, each grade gets a little section to work in!

Tons of storage.. these are all FILLED with things, mostly manipulatives. Once again..great..But I have to figure out some amazing way to organize it all!


Well that is it, hopefully in about a month I will have some amazing "after" pictures!

Clearance Puppy- Mutt Monday!

f you have seen the movie "Marley&Me" you might remember that Marley was a "clearance puppy!" When they went to pick him out the lady offered to give him at a cheaper price, which is kind of like our sweet girl Lucy :) My boss had Lucy's brother, Major, I went to play with him one day and found out there was ONE LEFT! anddd it was a GIRL! I knew it was meant to be! Drew and I drove to Katy to "look at her" (haha) and of course fell in love with Lucy! She was chunky, had that sweet puppy breath, and already practically potty trained, oh and on clearence too! We still do not know why no one wanted Lucy (actually they had named her "Helga".. no thanks!) She is such a good dog, and was so calm as a puppy. Oh well, we are very happy with our clearence puppy, today I am going to post some pictures of Lucy when she was MUCH smaller!

this was taken the 2nd day we had her, she slept ALL THE TIME... wait.. she pretty much does now too...


this picture shows how small she was, she loved to chew on my hands.. which was not that great since she had SHARP puppy teeth!

This was taken after we had Lucy for around 3 weeks, I am not sure why they both made a terrified face, but I thought it was pretty funny!
Well, I hope you enjoy Mutt Monday today! Head on over to http://www.twodogsagirl.com to play along! I am off to sort out stuff for my classroom becasue guess what... I GET THE KEY TOMORROW! whew, the craziness is about to begin!

Lucy Liberty- Mutt Mondays!

We are very excited about the 4th of July at the Pennywell House! Every year my aunt and uncle have a Fourth Party at their Bayhouse in Galveston! I am so excited to see my parents, since our wedding! Anyways, Drew and I found Lucy a costume... introducing.. Lucy Liberty!


In the above picture, Lucy seems ok with the outfit. Although I captured this picture of her a few minutes later. I am going to say that I believe she is just tired, and is still very happy to be Lucy Liberty, and she WILL be wearing her crown all day Saturday, don't worry!


I hope everyone has a great week, only a four day work week for most :) Why am I excited about this since I am not even working at the moment??? Because I get an extra day with my hubby, duh!

Also, I recently stumbled upon a blog (via a friends blog-thanks Betty!) that is all about dogs! She is a mom to puppies as well, haha! and on Monday's she post what is called "Mutt Mondays" so take a cute picture of your pups and post it on her blog on Mondays, enjoy!
http://www.twodogsagirl.com/

Junie B. Jones

Junie B. Jones is a character made up by the amazing author Barbara Park! She has 26 books about Junie B. and they take place with her in Kindergarten and 1st grade. I L-O-V-E reading these books a loud to my students, and they love them too! They are short chapter books, I can read one in about 30 minutes, and even love just sitting down and reading one! I must give you an excerpt so you can understand how funny they are, then I think you should stop by half-price books and pick a few up yourself, hey they are only 1.98! :)
This is from Junie B. Jones is Captain Field Day.. I can't say its my favorite because I really don't have a favorite.. although I like the ones were she is in 1st grade more, ya know since I teach 1st grade!
"This morning I woke up very excited! 'Cause today we are having kindergarten Field Day at my school, that's why! I couldn't stop shouting that happy news! ' Field Day! Today is Field Day!' I shouted to my dog named Tickle. Then I quick ran to my baby brother's room. He was sleeping in his crib. 'Field Day! Today is Field Day!' I screamed to baby Ollie. He woke up very fast. Then he started screaming his whole entire head off. Mother came running right in there. 'Junie B. Jones! For goodness sake what has gotten into you this morning?' I looked at that woman real curious. 'Field Day' I said. 'Field day has gotten into me, Mother. How could you even forget this important occasion?'

So there is a bit of Junie B. Jones.. I honestly find myself cracking up when I am reading these books aloud to my students! :)

Book Review Thursday!

So I have decided to start recommending a book on Thursdays! Why Thursday.. because today is Thursday and I just thought of it. Will I do this every Thursday? Probably not because I am not very good at remembering to post. Do I have good taste in books? Of course! Ok I kind of just threw that last question in there.. anyways.. I do have lots of favorite books, this weeks book is "Same Kind of Different as Me" it is the true story of Ron Hall, a wealthy Ft. Worth art dealer, and his friendship with Denver Moore, a homeless ex-convict. Sound weird enough yet? It is an amazing story though, and has some great quotes in it! One of my favorite by Denver Moore, is " Just tell 'em im a nobody that's trying to tell everybody 'bout a Somebody that can save anybody." It is a very inspirational book, and a really easy read.

There was another quote I really loved, but I left the book on an airplane on the way to Maui.. and I can't find the quote online, so I don't have it now. But Drew and I are going to buy it again soon.. yep its that good... so I will put it up when we do. I actually saw online that the book sales at Wal-Mart for 9 dollars.. so hey thats not bad at all!

Gotta go get ready for my hubby to get home from work-- have I mentioned how amazing married life is? IT IS! Drew and I just feel so blessed!

Our Home!

Well I thought I would add some pictures of our Apartment :) It is still a work in progress, and I am waiting to hang a lot of stuff until we get our wedding pictures, but here is a bit of it!

This first picture is in our bedroom, it is hard to get whole room shots with a camera I figured out, so here is part of it! haha!

Obviously, this is the other part of our bedroom, to the left is a built in desk (not pictured) that is my desk, and to the right are the doors to our closet(which is huge-thank goodness!) and the entrance into our bathroom (which is very big too and has a double vanity--yay! not sharing, haha!)
obviously, this is our kitchen! the kitchen, dining room and living room are pretty much one great room, which I love!


And last here in the living room, this is the view when you walk in the door!

So that is our home, oh I did not include the study because it is still a mess.. and the bathroom is kind of boring so I left that out too, haha!

I am off to go swimming with Sara (my sister in law) in hopes of wearing Lucy out!

woohoo!

I still cannot believe it is June 3 and May 23 is over! Drew and I are constantly saying to each other "Can you believe the wedding is over?!" That was the best day of our lives! The ceremony was more amazing than I could have ever imagined! SO many people came up to us at the reception and were so genuinely touched by the ceremony, it was the neatest thing. And the reception was so much fun! We just feel so blessed to have such amazing families and friends, so so blessed. Then we were off to Maui! We had a blast in Hawaii and spent a lot of time hanging out on the beach, in the beautiful water, and just driving around! We had a jeep for the week so that was nice to just be able to go places. We went on a dinner cruise one night, a luau one night (our favorite!) and drove up to Hana. Hana is a town reaaaallly high in the mountains of Maui, as your driving you stop at different state parks along the way. Some have black sand beaches, some have red sand beaches, and basically you feel like you are driving through a postcard! I will post pictures soon but am currently borrowing internet from someone living nearby! We just got home on Monday and Drew started work on Tuesday! So he has been so busy and tired. We hope to get a lot done this weekend at our apartment :) Lucy is very happy we are home.. although I will say she is a litttle upset with Drew. haha! She def. is not used to her dad being around all the time, and I think she is a bit jealous of him! She will get used to it though :) Well, I need to go un-pack and write more thank-you cards :) Anyone know how to make my picture smaller at the top?

17 days left!

Tonight Drew and I went to a tasting at Ashton Gardens (where we are getting married). It made it all hit us a bit that we are actually getting married in two and a half weeks. Everyone around us (other brides and grooms) kept asking when the date was and were SHOCKED when we said "May 23".. most of theirs were July or August. It just made me so excited! Our photographers were there too, we just love them. Honestly they are two of the sweetest people I know, and really feel like they are friends now after spending only two days with them for engagement and bridal portraits!
EVERYONE keeps asking me if I am stressed... and it is weird because I really am not! Last week I had a freak out moment because we have SO many people coming to the wedding... but really that is such an amazing feeling, to know that ALL those people want to be there on this amazing day! :) So I am not really stressed... I do have a constant to-do list running in my head though, kind of like a stock ticker on Fox News, but that's ok! Drew and I are getting the keys to our apt. this weekend to start moving stuff in, my goal is just to get all the new stuff out of boxes and the kitchen set up! We are so excited for the next few weeks :)

Dear Blogger..

I am very upset with you, you change my font and I am not sure why.. AND you did not put the picture of Lucy goose up! Come on Blogger... do your job. (I am sure it is totally Bloggers fault and not the fact that I am not very good at using this and currently "borrowing" internet from someone named "house of tim" that lives close by... yeah.
well... I am going to try the photo posting again. I know I prob. had people freaking out that they did not get to see Lucy in a sock.. well, do not fret.. here she is!


ok maybe it was the fact that the buttons are switched on the upload photo thing.. cancel is on the left. that is just silly blogger, just silly.

goose (lucy)

So I am not sure as to why my last post came out SUPER big.. but hopefully this will be normal sized! I cannot believe that it is almost May. I probably say something about this..10 times a day. I feel like my most common phrase is about how close the wedding is, but it really is just all surreal. I have been planning this event for the past 12 months.. and here it is! Crazy! Drew and I are very ready, and so excited! I also cannot believe I am employed, the fact that I KNOW I am going to be spending Aug-May with around 20 (hopefully..less!) 6 year olds is crazy. I miss my student teaching kids so much, but I am so ready to build relationships with new ones :) 1st grade is just so much fun, the changes they make is just insane. I have been collecting classroom things for the past....2 years. Haha, but am going to visit my school soon to see my classroom and really start to get a vision of what I want to do. This weekend Drew and I have our bachelor/bachlorette parties. I am going to Dallas to stay in a Hotel with all my girls, Drew and his guys have a beachhouse in Galveston!
And then.. it is all going to just fly by. I have gotten a lot done and really do not have that much left.. crazy!
I will leave you with a picture of Lucy goose, Drew and I really love her so much... I am pretty sure we spend most of our time watching her, talking to her, playing with her.... yeah. She is such a sweetie though, tonight I decided she should wear socks, it was so funny because one fell off immediately, but the other one she just left on, she is a silly goose.

It is all falling in place!!

I am employed!!!!!!
Yes it is true! Britani called me this morning, the Principal at Stewart Elementary in Clear Creek ISD, I GOT THE JOB! I am offically a First Grade Teacher and am so so excited! She was so sweet and talked about how the 1st Grade Team loved me and that they just knew I would be the perfect fit! :) I am going to go visit soon and see my future classroom, I can't wait to see it and start envisioning all I will be doing with it, decorating will be SO much fun! I am so excited and it is awesome to see how God's perfect timing always works out, and to see our lives just falling into place.

other big news.... Chad and Sara are having a BOY so Drew and I are having a NEPHEW! I am so excited and can't wait until that precious boy is here!

Drew and I are now going through the paperwork of signing a lease for an apt! We are going to live there for a year and then maybe think about buying a house, so Lucy will have to be an apt. dog for a year. She will be fine.. she can't be in a yard anyways because she DIGS. We are getting a 1 bedroom 1 bath with a Study. They are brand-new apartments and super nice:) BIG kitchens and a HUGE master bathroom! Today has just been amazing!

I am still in disbelief that I am already employed, I am def. just feeling super blessed today! Thank you for your prayers!!

done and done!

Last Thursday I finished Student teaching, on my last day my kids and Christie had a surprise party for me.  Over the past few weeks the kids have been bringing "teacher gifts" for me, mostly stuff for my classroom next year, it was so sweet and I was truly surprised! My kids did such a good job at keeping it a surprise!  Then Drew and I headed to Holliday for Easter, we had a great weekend and Chad and Sara were here too! We got to meet Crockett, who is precious :)    I can't wait until my niece or nephew is here (they find out a week from today what the baby is!)  Anyways the other "done" is that this morning I took my last teacher certification test! I took my PPR test on Tuesday morning at MSU , and the ESL test this morning!  So now all I have left is walking across the stage... and walking down the aisle! :)

Speaking of the wedding, I have a shower in Houston on Saturday, Drew has a tool "party" he does not like the word shower... on Sunday!  Then Monday my mom and I will be going to Ashton Gardens for a meeting with the wedding coordinator there!   

The past few mornings when I have woken up I have thought "OH my goodness I can't believe it is so close.." it really is weiiird. 

OH! And Drew got a J-O-B! It was such a God thing and such a blessing, now everyone just say a prayer because I am supposed to here about my interview results tom. ahhh!

pray!

I am pretty much only writing this post right now to let you know to PLEASE pray at 1:30 tomorrow! I will be interviewing with Stewart Elementary (a school in Clear Creek ISD) for a 1st grade position! I met them at the CCISD job fair Saturday, and loved them. They offered me an interview tomorrow :)

Drew and I have so many things completely up in the air right now.. it is so hard to not feel overwhelmed! However, I know in a couple of months it is going to be so awesome to look back to now, and see what God was planning for us! I am really trying to enjoy this last month, but also very, very ready for May 23.
Karla (Drew's mom) asked him the other day if he was getting cold feet, she informed that he replied "No, I think I am getting hot feet!" Haha, when I asked him why he said that he said "Well I just assumed that was the opposite of cold feet." I completley agree!

We are going to Holliday for Easter this weekend, and my last day of Student Teaching is Thursday. We are very excited to get to spend time with family and to meet the new addition to the Stone family -Crockett!
I can't believe I am almost done with student teaching, I am going to miss those 20 kids more than I even realize right now. However, on Friday we went on a field trip to a zoo in Waco. It was a great memory, my favorite part might have been when the male lion decided to roll over and my boys kept pointing out to me that you not ONLY know its a male from its mane, but also from its private parts! yesss.. what a blessing it is that the lion decided to roll over so we could ALL (this includes any other park visitors in a mile raidus) could understand this great phenomenon. awesome.
well, I guess that is all for now, I must say that I am hoping one of the next few "titles" on this blog will read something about me having a j-o-b. :)

ah!

The past two weeks have been pretty crazy so I am going to blame that on my lack of postings!
super quick update:
-we had our showers in wichita falls, they were so great and we had so much fun! we are very, very blessed.
-we spent spring break in houston/ drew's lakehouse... we got a lot of wedding stuff done, and started looking for places to live in Houston! :)
-This past week has been insane, I have a career fair on monday (pray!!) and I only have 8 days of student teaching left.. crazy.
Anyways, the career fair is Monday and I am really hoping to get a job with Clear Creek ISD, it is in Houston, really close to where my aunt Kathy lives, and chad & sara, and Drew's mom! I am very happy to be moving very close to my new niece/nephew! I know I will have to see him/her just about everyday! :) I am sure Lola and Lucy (Lola is Chad& Sara's dog) will be super excited about living close by as well

Drew and I are looking at apartments, we have decided that will be our best choice for now. Lucy stays inside all the time anyways because she DIGS in the yard..yeahhh.
So, if you read this before Monday (March 30) pray for my job fair please! They have 6 schools in their district with job positings for 1st grade positions right now, so I am really praying to get one of those quickly!

ohh life..

I know, you are thinking "Why is Leslee posting at 2:20 when she is a teacher?" Oh wait.. I am at HOME in BED with STREP THROAT. Let's go back to Tuesday morning during welcome time in my class, when one of my precious (bit of sarcasm at the moment) first graders comes up to me and says "Miss. Stone, I have strep throat but my mom says I have been on medicine for long enough to come to school." I say "Ok"... then I am thinking.. she was here yesterday, she is here today... when did she get on this medicine? Yeah, NOT 24 hours ago. So here I am, in bed. I have not had strep throat in a really long time, like probably since I was in 1st grade.. and it SUCKS. Drew has been a total sweetheart though, he brought me a precious Get Well flower bouquet yesterday while I was at the doctor, and has brought me all my medicines, and ice cream. And I am not going to feel bad about eating a whole pint of ice cream, because it feels amazing to my throat! I am on an antibiotic so hopefully will start feeling better tomorrow...since my first bridal showers are THIS WEEKEND. I WILL be better. I may not have a voice, but I will be there.

And it will actually be 24 hours for me and my antibiotics.. so I wont be giving it to anyone.

On another note, while I am laying here I am thinking about the little my class is getting accomplished with a substitute. It really makes me see how much I care about them, because I am feeling bad that I am in bed and not getting them prepared for a math test I wanted to give them before Spring Break. Now I will have to give it to them after Spring Break, which will make it a lot harder. Oh well! Well, I am off to take another Tylenol with codeine and go back to sleep!

Marvelous Monday

Ok So I just could not think of a title for today, everyday on announcements at school the kids say "marvelous Monday, terrific Tuesday"...you get the picture.. so I will start off with that today :)

It actually was a pretty good Monday, I started full responsibility again (I am in completle control of all classroom teacher responsibilities). I have already done this once for 2 weeks, and it went well. I thought today might be crazy since next week is Spring Break, but they were actually pretty good.. almost too good! My supervisor came for the last time (Yesssss!) and I only have 3 weeks left--that is just insane. I had to write a journal thing online about "advice for freshman education majors." ...While I was writing I kind of started to get all emotional for a SPLIT second then thought... Nope, I am so so so ready to graduate! haha :)

I had bridal portraits yesterday, they went so well! It was nice to get to see my dress with the veil, jewlery, etc and see that it all looked well together. Everytime my photographers would show me a picture of myself I would have to do a double-take... it is just so weird to see myself in a wedding dress! My bouquet also was so pretty, I loved it! I did get my dress kiiind of dirty, but my wonderful aunt took it to the cleaners today- whew!

Oh can I also just say that I always HATE when the time changes?! Seriously I am NOT ok with driving to school in the DARK, ugh!

My showers in Wichita Falls/Holliday are this weekend! I cannot believe I am actually going to be the girl OPENING the gifts this time, weird. weird. weird.

1 down, 1 to go!

Well, my best friend is now a married woman! I cannot believe Kailey's wedding is over, and it makes our wedding seem a lot sooner now.. ah! Kailey's wedding was beautiful, she looked stunning, Ryan bawled while she walked down the aisle, and it was such a fun reception! I loved getting to share every second with her and can't wait for her to do the same for me!
This weekend I have bridal portraits, and next weekend I have 2 hours in Wichita falls, I am so excited for the next two weekends! Also my bridesmaids dresses came in, and my wedding shoes :) Things are coming together..

Um.. anyone watch the Bachelor? I am in disbelief right now.. pretty sure I would not depend on Jason for anything... def. not a man of his word, haha!


Ok well Lucy wont stop whining.. so I am going to go!

The writings of a 1st grader...

So many funny things happen with my 20 First Graders each day..but this one might be the top of my list right now....

Today during Writing I was going around and watching students' write. I stopped suddenly at a desk when I saw something on a paper that did NOT look good. After having the student stop and read it to me, she informed me that it said "Today during calender we counted pennies to six" ... I will just let you use your imagination to decide what 2 words she might have spelled wrong that did NOT look good at all! I was so thankful once she read it to me and I discovered what it really said!

I know, I know...

I have got to get better about posting on here! (Thanks for the reminder Jessica, haha!) I had been wanting to change our layout for awhile, and so I never posted because I knew once I got on here I would be busy for awhile. I want to play with stuff more but I will settle with this for now! Drew loves this picture from our engagement pictures, and I think it captures us great. He is always making me laugh!

We are getting married THREE months from today-crazy! The thing that is even crazier is that my best friend is getting married this weekend! Absolutely insane :) I am super excited and cannot wait to be with her on her big day!

In wedding news.. things are going great! I met with my florist again Saturday, I just love her. I think it is so neat how God has just made our vendors to be such awesome people. It seems all of them we just instantly clicked with and loved from the start! After this weekend things will really start happening.. next weekend I have bridal portraits, and then the next weekend are my first two Bridal showers in Wichita Falls (and Holliday!) I am super excited about those! Drew's mom is going to Holliday with us for them, so I am excited she will get to meet so many people and spend time at my parent's house. Drew found an awesome verse I am going to get engraved in his ring, it is Malachi 2:15 but in The Message version it says "God, not you, made marriage. His spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does He want from marriage? Children of God, that's what. So guard the spirit of marriage wihtin you. Don't cheat on your spouse." I really like it, (obviously I will just get the scripture reference engraved inside the ring..) I think Drew and I are both just very ready to be "The Pennywell's" and not the FUTURE Pennywell's haha!
Student teaching is going great, I actually only have 5 weeks left and have been there 8..which is just absolutely insane. All 20 of my students are so dear to me already..the thought of leaving them April 8 and I could already start bawling.. yeaaah I am going to be complete mess! They are hilarious, somedays they can ruin my day..but most days they make it great!

Well, that is about all that is going on here.. Hopefully I will remember to update a LOT sooner this time! :)

Time flies..

Well, obviously I have not done such a great job with keeping up with this blog. I am sure there are more updates than I could ever think of, but here is a quick re-cap:
- I have started student teaching, I am in College Station and working in the 1st grade. I love it and am learning a ton everyday!
-Drew will be starting his last semester of school next week, he only has a few hours left and is ready to get started so he can finish!
-My best friend is almost one month away from getting married.. (feb 28) that is INSANE.. I am so excited for her and still in total disbelief that time has flown by! She has moved into her and Ryan's new apartment to live there alone until they get married, it is so precious and makes me so excited for when I get to have a home with Drew, and be a wife :)
-Our holiday season was great and included driving across Texas..as I am sure it will every year! We got to spend Christmas in Holliday, Houston, and Seguin (Drew's Lakehouse) and see all of our family pretty much, so that was great!
-Wedding stuff is going well, with only about 4 months left I know I need to do a LOT of things...but student teaching is keeping me VERY busy right now!
... All in all 2009 has been great so far, and I know it is only going to get more exciting as I get to see my best friend get married, start having showers, and wrap up last minute details with our wedding! Drew and I are so excited for May 23, but also really trying to savor our last semester at A&M and life with a few less responsibilities for the last time :)