Rummage Sale

We had our rummage sale for the season this weekend!  Yahoo!!!  We got rid of a lot of stuff.  We made enough money to consider it "worth our time."  I officially got my first sunburn of the season.  (face, neck shoulders, arms, and tops of legs)   I will look freakish when we go to the pool now.  Wonderful....just what one needs....to be self conscious AND have freaky tan lines when heading to the pool!

Needless to say, I was exhausted at the end of the second day of rummage organizing!  I DID have fun playing with a little 5 year old while his parents shopped around.  He found a flying penguin in our box of stuffed animals.  I showed him how to use it, and he was SOLD on it.  Once it landed, it made penguin sounds.  It was a Super find for a rummage sale, if I do say so myself.  Well, before long, he was getting pretty good at aiming it.  I put a laundry basked out and told him if he could hit the basket, he could HAVE the penguin for FREE!!!  I konw...big deal since it was only a quarter to begin with.  Haha!!

To finish the story...he hit the basket on the second try and we all jumped and cheered for him.  The whole group began to applaud, whoop and holler!  (We may have been dehydrated, sun-baked, and VERY sleep deprived by this time...I'm not sure.) 

Anyhow, this whole little episode sparked the idea for our next rummage sale.  We decided to set up carnival games and snow cone machines in the yard for the kids and the sale items in the driveway for the adults.  Can't you just see it???  Banners, streamers, balloons, and games set up in the front yard.  I think it would be a hit!  Sounds like a winner to me.  Ahhhh....maybe by next May I'll have a better head about me, but right now, I don't want to think about another rummage sale until then.  It was delicious, but SOOOOO exhausting.

(And I wish I had taken a picture of that sweet boy with the penguin.  You would understand the whole carnival thing if you could see his face!  He was so excited.)

Day of Unity

Yesterday was a busy day for the citizens of our area.  We commemorated the one year anniversary of the May 22nd tornado.  I could write a lot.  My heart still grieves for those who lost loved ones.  It goes out to all who have lost their homes.  I tear up when I see pictures of daffodils waving in the breeze in front of a concrete pad where a home used to sit.  I hold my breath when I drive through certain parts of town.  In a few spots, I still feel as if I could throw up. 

Much has changed in one year.  Debris is cleaned up.  Homes are being rebuilt.  Businesses are coming back.  Lives are still changed forever. 


Here are a few pictures from the day....

In honor of the

"Angels Among Us" or the "Butterfly People"

who protected people from the storm.

Bright, colorful collage made from debris

My kids sitting in front of the reflection pool

with St. John's in the background.

St. John's is being taken apart piece by piece. 

It still feels like an anchor.

Stained Glass Theater will rebuild on the hospital property!

A small area in the playground where volunteers and visitors

sign the structure.  It has many beautiful words and prayerful thoughts.

Very touching.

In the midst of all the debris, cleaning up, and rebuilding,

American flags have been visible throughout town. 

Kansas City Search and Rescue dog.

Joplin Fire Department entering the park in preparation

for the Unity Ceremony.

Everything is wrapping up for the day. 

I have a picture of this lot just after the tornado.

It looks so bare and empty now.

Tomorrow is a new day, though, and

who knows what the future will hold for this spot!

This storm changed a lot of lives ...more than we will ever know.

The Day of Unity will forever be (in my mind)

a day of

remembering, restoring, and rebuilding.

I am eager to see how far Joplin can go in the next year

of rebuilding efforts. 

My prayer is that the efforts continue

and this town DOES come back bigger and stronger.

After seeing thousands of people in the Unity Walk yesterday,

I believe Joplin certainly will continue to grow.

Long live the delicious "Spirit of Joplin!"

I have the best job!

May. 

School is out for summer. 

Endings.

New beginnings. 

Unknown. 

Possibilities. 

Tears. 

 Joy. 

Sighs of relief! 

A time for rest. 

Also a time for reflections. 

With all that being said....

My first group of Kinder Kids just graduated from high school last weekend!  WOW.  It was a terrific ceremony, and I was so proud of each of them.  Of course, not all were there.  But whereever they are....I hope they know how proud "Mrs. Schmidt" is of their accomplishments.


 
                               2 students from the early years!!!  Congrats you two! 

Yesterday was the last day of school for us. 

Every year I have an awards ceremony with the kids.  I invite the parents and pass out diplomas and individual awards.  We also have a Best Boy and Best Girl Citizen award.  I show a movie of all the pictures I have taken throughout the year.  This year I had a video that was 48 minutes long. 

I cut it down to 31 minutes and 19 seconds....at 3 seconds per slide, you know that I had to cut out a LOT of pictures!!!!

  

Anyhow...at somepoint in the video this year, I noticed that children were up and interacting with each other, parents were visiting with each other, one preschooler (shown below with a hilarious grin) was spinning in every spinny chair he could find after eating most of the candy in my room, and I realized that people really were not watching the video.  Oddly, this was okay by me this time because I had something important to finish our day with.  

I stopped the movie and told everyone that I had one more thing to tell them before we ended our school year.  I gathered all the children to come sit by me at the front of the room.  Parents were waiting for the kids to settle down and to hear this one last piece of information.  Finally, the room was settled and I got to announce that I had been given an amazing opportunity and that next year I would be teaching first grade.....with this class!  I will be looping into First grade and then going back to Kindergarten the following year.  Once the news hit them, there were cheers, some tears (Hoping they were all happy tears), and a whole lot of hugging going on.  It was fantastic! 

I am so excited about teaching this group 1st grade next year.   It will certainly stretch my brain after being in Kindergarten for 13 years.  I am excited about the possibilities and for the opportunity to keep these little monkeys around for another year. 

One more piece of terrificness???  I don't even have to move to a different room.  We'll all gather in Room 29 just like we did this year.  Now....do I change up the decor or not?  Hmmmmm. We'll see how much time I have left after all the reading and preparing for a new curriculum. I think they'd be happy with the same old sock monkey theme. 

These twins just "graduated" from Kindergarten.  This picture was taken just after I announced that I would be looping into First Grade with them!  We are SO excited for this opportunity!  See the little brother off to the side?  Yes...the sugar rush was BIG.


                                             

     This little man is about as hard to say "No" to ask anybody I've ever met.  Do you see those big brown eyes!?!?!????  So happy to be able to be his first grade teacher, too.  Sigh.  Everything about this new opportunity is so delicious!

Pinterest...seriously!

Who knew it could get any better?  Pinterest, that is.  I love finding amazing recipes that are new and exciting as much as I love running across a blog that posts an old favorite recipe.  I love drooling at the pictures and nearly licking the computer screen when I see a luscious dessert or a cool refreshing beverage.  Seriously....I drool.  And yes...at times I wish I could scratch and sniff the monitor to get all the senses involved in the blog. 

I have found so many amazing teacher blogs on Pinterest!  Teachers who have time to regularly blog about their classroom ROCK.  I admire their talents of juggling home, school, babies, laundry, dinner AND classroom blogs.  I started a school blog and failed miserably at it.  Heehee.  I can admit it, so I can giggle, right?  I have not made the time to write about what is going on in the classroom.  Maybe that can be a goal for next year's students.  I can have THEM take pictures with the iPad and then we can put them into the blog.  Hmmmm...I might be on to something there.  Writing about their learning could be a good goal.  Thinking out loud here.......loving the thought.  I better write it in a calendar so I won't forget!  (or pin it on a School Board in my Pinterest account)

Teacher blogs are incredible.  I have found resources for assessments, parent information, lessons, activities, anchor charts, recipes to go with letters of the alphabet, and SO. MUCH. MORE!!!!  I guess I know how I will spend my summer vacation...researching information on Pinterest for my next batch of Kinder Cookies.  (pool side, of course)

I'm just going to have to say it again...thank goodness for Pinterest and the plethera of information that one can find.  It's so delicious!

Have a blessed day my friends! (4 days of 2011-2012 Kindergarten remain)

Fire!

We were scheduled to have a normal day...I had 1 meeting at 9 am, class as usual until 11 o'clock, lunch, rest and then a fire drill at 12:45.  The day was buzzing along.  I had just settled the kinder kids into their sleepy nap nap time, and I was working on grading my small mountain of grade card assessments when.......the fire alarm went off...at 12:20.  I sat in disbelief for a moment...but then quickly jumped up, grabbed the class roster while saying... "FIRE DRILL...."  I'm sure my voice was shrieking by this point.  I had kids sleeping...soundly...on their cute little nap mats....I'm talking face in a pool of drool here, people.  This was not just a simple rest your eyes moment.  I'm talking FULL SLEEP.  Poor kids.  I saw one sweet little precious jump up, turn her head to look around as if searching frantically for something or someone.  She quickly grabbed a sleeping beauty beside her and SHOOK the living daylights out of her saying, "Fire drill!  Fire drill!"  Both of these girls were the last ones out of my room as I ran from the front to the back and back to the front again checking to be sure everyone was off their nap mats and out the door.  I couldn't be sure that I actually HAD everyone because I had not counted heads as they darted past me.  Once outside and across the street, they quickly got in their 2 lines, sat facing me and waited for instructions.  I did a head count three times to make sure everyone was present.  Whew.  RELIEF!  I couldn't believe how fast we reacted to the sound of that fire alarm.  It was like slow motion, but in panic mode.  Haha!  I've never seen my kids move so fast.  I hope to never see it again.  I AM very proud of their quick efforts to evacuate the room/building and to listen for instructions.  Maybe the surprise drills are best for kids and teachers alike.  I'm pretty sure that even though the kids were sleeping, we must have evacuated at record breaking speed!  Heehee.  With 8 school days of school remaining, life certainly IS delicious!