yesterday and today.

So I spent most of yesterday up at school, doing this...

 Moving 90% of the things in my room out. And into the music room, which is the room that is the absolute farthest away from my classroom. Awesome. 

I opted for just carrying things loose, instead of boxing them up (for the most part). Mainly because I didn't have any boxes, but also because it was easier and will be faster to put away. (I think.) The kids and a wonderful para did a lot of the moving for me on Wednesday. They thought it was great fun! (The kids anyway... I'm not sure about Brenda.)

If anyone bumps into any of these tables, though, or things get knocked off... we'll be in for a mess. Especially all those tubs of books that I spent hours leveling and labeling and sorting. 

I got officially "checked out" at 3:00 and am done up there for awhile! (Nothing I can do since I'm kicked out of my classroom...)

Then spent a couple hours here... (which ended with a black eye for Lawson)

 Then we spent about 30 minutes here...

{imagine a picture of our van, pulled over on the side of the road, in the dark, with Corey and I outside, trying to change a flat tire. We've never done that on the van before, so it took us awhile to actually find the spare tire and get it out. A little bit longer to figure out how to get the jack out. No flashlight in the van, so I'm holding my cell phone, trying to give Corey enough light to see what he's doing.}

The spare tire was pretty low on air, so we limped it in to town on a backroad and paid $1.00 for air at a gas station. Finally made it home about 11:00 pm. Making memories. =)

Ran a few errands in town this morning, (including a faux hawk for Lawson.) Not my idea and not my favorite thing, but I'm telling myself it's only hair. =)

Now to tackle cleaning this disaster of a house that somehow looks like it threw up on itself again. (Didn't we just have it clean last weekend?! Or the weekend before?!)

Luckily I got some boxes in that the FedEx guy dropped off before the rain started. A new little adventure I've started (because apparently my life wasn't hectic enough)...

 (cute little photo bomber, huh?)

Off to tackle the list!
Family reunion starts tomorrow at noon and my sister and her family are driving to Kansas right now! (The kids are just a tad excited to see their 7 cousins!)

last day.

Last day with these little people. 

They make me smile. (most of the time) =)

Love, love, LOVE how this turned out! (Their names are blurred out... no fuzzy spots on the real thing.) 

I *might* have realized last night (as I was making tin can treats for teachers at midnight) that I completely forgot to make the little bags of fish that I usually make for the kids. Teacher fail. 

I did have the beach balls, but totally spaced on the Swedish fish. And since it was after midnight, I couldn't do much. 

I'd seen this idea before on Pinterest, but always forgot to do it. I decided to see if I could pull it off. 

It. was. perfect! I loved it... the kids loved it... and it was crazy easy! After I took the pictures, it honestly took me 10 minutes to create the collage... a few minutes to print them out... and a few more minutes to laminate them. 

I will definitely be doing this again! =)

3 more days.

 All school field trip to the roller skating rink yesterday...

Last year we had a para with a broken arm... this year a para with fractured shoulder. Boo. (and this is the exact reason why these feet stay in tennis shoes at the skating rink! Although my students said I would be fine, since it's only paras that get hurt.)

Three more days with these crazies...

And then I'll be spending my summer days at home with these crazies... 

(plus their little sister. But she's the least crazy of the 3.) 

Anxiously awaiting the more relaxed summer days!
After I empty my ENTIRE classroom, that is. New paint and carpet.
I'm super excited.
Or not.

today.

I told someone yesterday that my house looks like it threw up on itself.
She didn't believe me. She said my house never looks like that.
I reminded her she's been to my house three times. And every time, I knew she was coming.
It's bad. Really bad.

My to-do-list today had things like "dust, vacuum, clean windows" on it.
I went to throw in a load of laundry this morning and then spent 1.5 hours deep cleaning my washing machine. (Seriously... how did clothes get clean in there?! Gross.)

So far today, I have...

* checked Facebook

* syringe fed a kitten in a shoebox that I was pretty sure was almost dead. (I was right. Poor little Juniper...)

* deep cleaned the washing machine

* deep cleaned the dryer

* cleaned and rearranged the freezer

* unloaded and organized 1/4 of beef in the freezer

* cleaned the dash and doors of the van and Corey's car with my awesome Envirowand (more on that later...)
{it was already dirty from me shoving it down the dryer vent, so I might as well get it more dirty by doing the car dash and doors. See how my brain works? So distracted sometimes.}

* pulled out the ice container to get my mom a Dr. Pepper after she delivered our beef (thanks, Mom!)... got a new bag of ice to refill it, but wanted to clean it out first... walked away and left them both on the kitchen counter and ended up cleaning out the sink in the mudroom... came back later to find a big puddle of water on the kitchen floor and the ice container and bag of ice still sitting on the counter. Sheesh.

* cleaned out the kitchen freezer while I was putting the ice container away (what is that thing called? A drawer?)

* Finally threw in the load of laundry that I went to go throw in 2.5 hours ago.

So... I have accomplished absolutely nothing that was on my list... I have a shoebox with a dead kitten in it in the garage... our house is still a complete disaster... the things that I have cleaned are things that no one is going to know I cleaned (who looks in your washer or freezer?)... I feel overwhelmed by all the mess and clutter... and I just realized how hungry I am... I never ate breakfast (or lunch) and it is almost 1:00 pm.

Most of the time, multi-tasking is great and I feel like I do it pretty well.
Days like today... not so much.

Top priorities right now...
1. Eat something.
2. Add "clean washer, clean dryer, clean freezer, organize beef" to my to-do-list so that I can cross 4 things off.

You knew that was coming, right? =)

kitten love.

We have a little something precious living out in one of the barns... 

Meet Pickles...

and Juniper... 

There are not many things cuter than baby kittens. They are the softest, fuzziest, sweetest little things.

This is their sweet mama, Treelah. We got her off a Facebook Buy/Sell/Trade site when she was pregnant. It took her awhile to warm up to us, but she is a super sweet cat. Oh my goodness, you should have seen the excitement the day that she was suddenly skinny!

Ignore the tired momma look. It was a Friday evening. And 1st graders are exhausting.

We're all making pretty frequent trips out to the barn now to soak up the kitten love.
It's my favorite.

circus.

Our trip to the circus last year was pretty exciting. We were pretty sure that the whole "tiger getting loose and walking around the arena" was going to be hard to top. But the kids were pretty pumped at the thought of going again. Sophie and Lawson got free tickets at school, and we got an extra free ticket for Gretchen from a friend. (It was still $32 for Corey and I, I think?! Crazy. Thankful for the free kid tickets, that's for sure!) 

No loose tigers this year. I remember saying last year that I was pretty sure that was a mistake that was *never* going to happen again!

This is the same kid from last year that we were so impressed with. It's a whole family... mom, dad and the two brothers. We wondered what it must be like to grow up in the circus and travel all around...

I spent most of this act trying to decide if the person on the right was a man or woman. Awkward. They announced later that they were brothers. Good to know. =)

A couple of the same acts... tigers and elephants, juggling and clowns... but several new acts, too.

This act was the most impressive...

She ended up falling off this time...

It wasn't as exciting as last year... partly because no tigers escaped, but also because it didn't have the "first time" experience.
Still fun, though. And still a good memory.
I like making memories. =)