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!