So Sorry We Haven't Updated

Wow, I am so sorry we haven't updated this in a while. We are still alive and using our blog. We have been without Internet for almost 2 months now (I did not realize how much I used the Internet until we did not have it anymore. It is a pain to be without it especially since we don't have TV, we feel very out of the loop). I try to check email and what not when I am at work but have not gotten a chance to sit down and update this. I plan on adding another post really soon to let you know all the things that have happened since the beginning of June. Things like, we went to the beach this summer for my b-day and we went to Alaska in July. The brand new school year has started and I am already into the 4th week of school. I will write more about these when I post again and put in pictures. I need to bring my laptop so that I have all the pictures. Well, I hate to make this so short but I want to leave work. The day is done and it is time to go home. :) We love all you guys and I hope you keep checking our blog. :)

Whoville is missing a Who!

Our niece, Lanie, just celebrated her 1st birthday in May. Katie, her mom, put Lanie's little bit of hair up in pigtails (well that is all the hair she has) and I thought she looked like a little who. Let me show you what I mean. :)

Ok, here is Cindy Lou Who from the Grinch.

This is Lanie and Kaite. I think the little pigtails make her look a bit like a cute little who.

I just wanted to put in another picture because I thought it was cute. She really liked climbing through the coffee table more than playing with her new toys.

Only 2.5 days of school left. I think I can make it. :)

So a new building is more of a nessecity now.

3 day, holiday weekends (Memorial Day weekend) are supposed to be fun and relaxing, right? Not so much today. We were helping Jeff's older brother move to his new townhouse out here in Sandy when Andrea, the school's secretary, called me. Our school got vandalized sometime during the night. Whoever did it threw large rocks through several windows, 2 of the windows were to my classroom. Wow, what a phone call to get. The vandals had thrown rocks through my windows, the other 1st grade room's windows and 2 other classrooms' windows. The windows are plate glass so there were shards of glass everywhere. Nothing in the classrooms was stolen or broken. What an amazing blessing. Jeff and I went down to the school as soon as I got the call to help and to clean up my room. Jeff got to help board up the windows and clean glass out of every nook and cranny in my classroom. It is amazing how far all the glass pieces went. We definitely need a building now. The possible new building is in a much better neighborhood. Our poor school has been vandalized 5 or 6 times just this school year.

Here are my broken windows. :( So sad.

The end is near!!!

Only 10.5 more days to go!! I think I can make it but I am not sure if my sanity shall remain intact. First grade has had some exciting times lately. I think my kids are just sick of each other and so they are arguing a lot. It is just a little annoying (okay, it is a lot annoying).

We have had some good excitement, too. In first grade we study the frog life cycle which means we get to raise tadpoles. (this is my favorite unit since I love frogs :) ) Some of our tadpoles have matured into froglets. They are so cute and tiny )about the size of my finger tip). Today I released them back into the pond that the tadpoles came from. Here are a few pictures of the froglets. They are a little like a hidden picture, you have to find the baby frogs.

Hint: There is one by the stick and one in the water.

Can you see it on the big rock?

Okay I know it is blurry but this is just to show you the size of the frog baby. (It is hard to take a picture of something so tiny with my little digital camera. It can only do so much.) They still have little tails left.

Well, I think the frogs are exciting anyway and so I thought I would share. Some other exciting things for my little school are that we might be getting an actual building with a roof and walls and staff restrooms (currently I use the same one that the kids use and they are not always the cleanest. yuck!) and a multipurpose area so that the ankle biters would not have to eat lunch in the classroom anymore. Please pray for us that we get a building. We only have one more year to be at our current site but with adding a second 4th grade next year we are out of room. It will mean a lot of work this summer if we do get a building but it is so that the school can stay operating and I would still have my job. I will keep you posted on building progress. Well, I am going to end this one for now. I will post again soon.

Is It Over Yet?

18.5 days left of school and the count down has begun. I can't wait for this year to be done! I get to pass my little chittlins (not sure if that is word but oh well) on to the second grade. (Yeah!!) We are pretty excited about summer. We are planning to go up to Alaska for the first week in July. I got to see it in the winter. I am excited to see their summer weather. We are going to visit Jeff's Mom and step dad. I can't wait to get away and relax. On another note, Earl was the Survivor winner this season. (In case you are not into Survivor you may want to skip this part.) We like our weekly fix of survivor. This season was not the greatest but it got pretty interesting toward the end. One guy, Yau-Man, gave the 60,000 dollar truck that he won to another player for immunity. But then Dreamz, theguy who got the truck, decided to go back on his word and kept the immunity. It was all quite crazy. But fun times any way. Well, we will update again soon. I will let you know how the count down is going (if I survive). :)

New Niece

Sorry we are so bad about updating our blog (it has been awhile). We have a new niece in the family. Jeff's sister Paula just had a baby girl. Sadie Josephine Booth Born: May Day, 2007 21" tall ~ 8 lbs. 15 oz. Parents: Jeff and Paula Booth :) Here are a couple of pictures of the cute little girl. We will write another post again soon. We hope everyone is having a fantastic May!!!

Yeah!!! Spring Break!!!

Spring break came at just the right time. I needed the break. Jeff and I headed to the beach for a day. The coast is so beautiful even if it was raining. We went to this little waterfall near Tillamook. It was amazing and we had never heard of it before. It is way off the beaten path but well worth it. It is called Munson Creek Falls (now you can visit it when you are down in that area). We tried to hit the Tillamook cheese factory but they weren't packing :(. I guess it was time to do routine maintenance this week. We were a bit bummed. But hey, we still got our squeaky cheese. :)

Here we are at Munson Creek Falls. The next one is just of the falls.

During the break I also got to babysit my niece, Lanie. She is such a cutie and I just couldn't resist taking this picture of her. She is almost walking and she loves playing in the water. She took one solo step for me that day.

oops, it has been awhile

Wow! It has been a long time since we updated. Well the school year is half over for me. Spring break is in a week. Yeah!!! I get to sleep in. Jeff and I got to go snopwboarding a couple of times this winter. I somehow managed to not get hurt like every year prior. I think I must be getting better. :) The times we went up the snow was awesome, lots of fresh powder.

Here we are dreaming at the car show. It is fun to sit in all the bright shiny cars and inhale that new car smell. The mini is my dream car. Jeff got to sit in a brand new porsche and various other cars. We walked around for quite a while. We had a lot of fun. The other picture is of Jeff playing a video game with the guys from Suburban. They had the ultimate tailgate party set up.

Ok, I better go for now. I will try to update more.

Summer Update

Wow! It has been a long time since we updated this. The end school was crazy busy for me and Jeff is taking summer classes that have been keeping him quite busy too. The last few days of school were just crazy. The parents of some of my students decided to throw me a surprise birthday party the 2nd to last day of school. It was very sweet of them. One parent even made me a frog shaped cake.

The last day of school was nutty. We had a school carnival for the last day. Wow! I don't think that I can say much else except that I survived. Nikki, my niece, came along to help out that day. I was sure glad she was there to help and she provided good moral support.

Backtracking just a bit, in May our new baby niece was born. Little miss Lanie Mae Catt was born on May 23rd. She is super cute and growing fast. She seems to change every time I see her. I think she is now 12lbs. I think Vance and Katie are very blessed by their new little one. I have been told she is a good sleeper at night and not very fussy unless she needs to be changed.

Jeff and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary this summer too. We went to Cannon Beach for 3 days. It was so much fun to bum around the beach. We went down to the tide pools at Haystack Rock one day. We walked back to a different part of Hug Point that you can only get to when the tide is out. Seaside had a really good firework show for the 4th, and Cannon Beach had a cute parade that reminded me of our Sandy Mountain parade. I just love how relaxing the beach is. It was a very nice get away. Oh, and of course we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. There is nothing better that an ice cream cone and squeaky cheese. :)

Jeff's summer classes are going pretty good. He just finished his business class and is now on to accounting. His group project in his business class went so well that the teacher told them they didn't have to take the final. That is about all for our summer. We have mainly been doing little things here and there (going hiking with friends, catching a movie, etc.). It has been a nice summer. I don't want it to end but I still have a few weeks left. Well, That is all for now. I will try to update more often.

Happy Mother's Day and Jello Frogs :)

We just thought that we would say Happy Mother's day to our mom's. You are wonderful and we love you a bunch. We would not be who we are today without you.

Here is a picture of my mom and I during my sister in law's baby shower.

Here is a picture of Jeff's mom and step dad when we visited them last spring up at their place in Alaska.

What is with the Jello frogs? My first graders are learning about the frog life cycle and one of the lessons is about frog's and toads. So, to introduce the differences between the two they get a jello frog and a rice crispy toad because frogs are smooth and toads are bumpy. The other first grade teacher and I decided to split the task so she is making toads and I am making frogs. Well, I should say that Jeff and are are making frogs. It has been a challenge to get the jello frogs off the cookie sheet once they are done. We had to add extra plain gelatin to the jello mix to make them stiffer. Then once it is set we cut it with a cookie cutter. Then the fun part comes with getting them up without tearing them apart. The first batch made it with no casualties just a few misshapen feet. We'll have to see how the next batch goes.

Life so far

May has been off to a busy start and I don't really think that it is going to slow down any until the school year is over. I have survived my first field trip with my 1st graders. We took MAX (that was truly an experience that I never wish to have again :) ) to the Children's Museum to take a clay class. The kids loved it. We have another field trip this month, too. I don't know what crazy notion caused me to save field trips until now. But hey, what can you do. We also have tadpoles in the classroom which I hope survive and turn into frogs. At least a few anyway. Jeff is busy taking classes at MHCC. It is midterm time so he is studying away. Plus, to add to his work load :), he is helping to design the church's student ministries website. The stuff he has done so far looks really cool. Here are some of my adorable 1st graders on our field trip to CM2.

Max with 1st graders, Yikes! Clay Class, what messy fun!!

First posting

Welcome to our blog. This should be fun. Here is Jeff and I at the beach during spring break! The sunset was so amazing.