I'm still alive!!!

(T) So i haven't written in a really long time but i thought i's give it a try again. I am also trying it through gmail do i don't know if it will actually make it yo the wall but we'll see. So things that are going on my my life... Well there are only 2 real big thats that are happening right now. The first being that we are really making a lot of progress on the closet. The wall is up and the door is too. Just need to finish some stuff up and we'll be close to done (with the exception of the shelves). The other big thing going on is that abby is staryting to understand how to catch things in the air. She caught the frisbee twice for Sierra and her toy a couple of times for me. It really cool. Also, i just realized that Abby has never been on this blog because we haven't posted since we got her. Well she is a really cute golden puppy and we will make sure to post pictures soon. That's all i really have to say at this time. I don't want to type too much if this whole gmail post for me thing is a flop. Side note-I'm really excited for my mom to come out and visit this weekend. It's going to be awesome. Okay. That's really it. I'll write soon...hopefully.

Tim's a failure. This is now just my blog!

(S) Ok, not really, but Tim doesn't update this darn thing anymore! So I guess I can. Lots and LOTS has happened for use since my last post. We have a house!!! Yay yay yay! It's in Tempe, right next to ASU which is perfect because we eventually want to use it as a rental home. It is a 3 bedroom 1 bath house with a game room and a huge backyard for our puppy! That's right, what good is a house without a dog? My friend Molly's dog just had golden retriever puppies and we're getting one. It's a little girl and we're looking to get it the weekend after Thanksgiving. Her name is Abby Normal Satterstrom after my favorite movie Young Frankenstein. She is seriously the cutest damn thing I've ever seen. It's going to be hard to go to work and leave that adorable face at home.

Next week is Thanksgiving and we're going to Tim's family/friends in California. I'm really excited to meet this mysterious Uncle Tom that Tim speaks of all the time and to see the rest of the family. The one downside? They don't do Leftsa which is a Sommars family tradition and I'm sad to be missing out on it. I love that stuff. It fills you up completely before you actually get to the thanksgiving meal and it's totally worth it. However I guess it's a good trade to get out of here for a few days.

Kid quotes of the week?
Today we were talking about Indians since we are reading "The Indian in the Cupboard". Omri, the main character went to get some food for the Indian, so I had my students predict what they thought he would bring the Indian. One student's response? "Miss Sommars they'll bring him blood to drink!" Me: "What?" Student: "Well all they drink is Turkey blood." Awesome, nice to know they have that wonderful misconception.

Last week we were reading a story about families and came across the term "in-laws" so I explained Mother in law, sister in law, etc. Their response? "Ummm so Miss Sommars...does that make Mr. Tim our Teacher-in-law?" Hahaha adorable. Of course I accepted that answer because it was so cute.

Anyways, that's all for now! Love you all! Here's some pictures of Abby to warm your hearts. <3

Tales of a 4th Grade Teacher

(S) This past week was actually really good and my students were rock stars. We learned about cells all week so on Tuesday we got to make our own cells. They consisted of jell-o, gummy bears, laffy taffy, raisins, a whopper, and some other candy to make up the cell parts. The students then got to label, draw, and identify important parts of the cell. And of course they got to eat them! It was very, very messy, I fount jell-o on my floor a few times but nothing too bad.

Tim came into my class Friday and was a big hit. Here are some highlights from that:

-Students called him Mr. Tim or Mr. Sommars

-“Mr. Tim, how old are you?.....Mr. Tim, how old will you be when you marry Miss Sommars?” – 4^th grader

-“Mr. Tim, have you ever cheated on Miss Sommars?”- 4^th grader (this was followed by a discussion on inappropriate vs appropriate questions.

- Everyone played soccer that day because Tim was out on the field

- He graded all my papers I had to do AND entered them into the grade book!

- He helped me manage some of the wild ones.

- He now knows who Diamond is! (Even though she wasn’t her unruly self that day.)

Outside of school I had a very exciting thing happen. I was able to maintain some energy after school hours! This entire semester, everyday after school I am exhausted, and I miss out on my personal life. But this week was different! I don’t know if I have finally adjusted, or if it was because my kiddos were so good, but it was great having energy to do things in the evenings. This resulted in seeing friends, walking the dog (not mine, I am dogsitting), and playing mini golf with Tim! I also went hiking at the Tonto Natural Bridge on Saturday and that was amazing.

On the plate for this week? Testing, testing, testing! At the end of every quarter we do benchmark testing to see how our students are doing and it helps us get an understanding of how they will do on the AIMS. So this is my first result to see how I am doing and how they’ve improved this semester. Fingers crossed I get good results!

Close one!

(S) So... the other day I probably should have lost my job. Why you ask? Let me tell you a little story!
This past week we have been studying author's purpose. So we have been various books and articles and designating what category they go in (inform, pursuade, and entertain). So we have been reading a wide arrange of things to understand the author's purpose. Thursday, it was the day to learn about writing with the intent to entertain. So that morning I go to my classroom library and grab two picture books out of it. Most of the books I received from a retired teacher's library she had in her class. I grab "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett, and "Draw Me a Star" by Eric Carle. I had read the first book many times and knew the students would be familar with it, and I grabbed the second because who doesn't love Eric Carle books! He wrote, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and so many more!

Well, class comes around and I start reading the books. The first one goes over well, students have read it before, and it was easy to see that it was meant to entertain! The second books is going well, and I have the book open so that my students can see the pictures and I read. As I flip the page I hear squealing and screaming, so I look and what do I see?? NAKED PEOPLE!!!!! Eric Carle had art with naked people!! Now, if you know his work, all of his art is made with colored tissue paper. So the people were a light brown and the girl had dark circles around her boobs and lower area, and the guy actually had a cut out to show his parts. As soon as it registered I quickly turn the book towards me, and tell the kids "Alright guys, enough freaking out, it's just anatomy." If only they knew, on the inside I was resisting the urge to throw up! I kept thinking, oh my god, I'm going to get fired! I am going to get fired! I finished the book and thank GOD the kids didn't linger on the image they saw. I, on the other hand, wanted to cry/throw up/had a hard time breathing every time I thought about it.

As soon as it was my planning period I went downstairs to confess my sins to the principal. Let me preface with I fortunately have an amazing principal! So I went up to her and started my story like this, "Dr. G, I want you to know, I love my job, I love teaching, and I love my class...." I proceeded to tell her what happened and when I pulled out the book she was like, "What?!??! Eric Carle has nudity?" She was just as shocked as I had been! In the end I ended up lucky, she understood the mistake, gave me great advice, and told me I was ok and that I'd be able to keep my job.

What a life, I can't believe that had happened to me. Noted! Just because you receive a book from a prior teacher AND it is an Eric Carle book, does not mean it is appropriate!

Eric Carle, "Draw Me a Star"

Life on the Other Side of the Gradebook

(S)Well! I am officially a teacher! I know that it has been awhile since I have updated the blog but my life is so crazy now! My day looks like this: 

5:30- Wake up

6:45- Leave for school

7:50- Start teaching

2:50- School done

5:00- Leave school

530-7:00- Sit on the couch grading/writing lesson plans/ whining to Tim about how much my feet hurt

9:30ish- Time for bed!

   It’s that bad! I have become an old lady and am terrible because I have been bailing on friends left and right because I am so tired from it all. But I LOVE IT!! I love teaching more than anything in the world. I love my students and have a great time every day with my kiddos. I’m teaching 4^th grade for those who didn’t know so they’re at a great age right when they can catch my sarcasm but before they can dish it out (perfect)!

I figured I’d add a few good comments made or stories that you’d all enjoy so here they are!

“Miss Sommars, you know how it was your sister’s birthday the other day? Well, my hamster died yesterday.” –Johnny

“Miss Sommars I forgot to tell you yesterday! You are beautiful and look like a rose.” –Deziree

“Wish you like it?” – Vanessa (she signs this at the end of every letter or note she writes me)

“But I’m going to miss my brother!!!!”- 1^st grader in hysterics when she had to say goodbye to her brother so he could go to kindergarten and she had to go to 1^st grade.

“Just give me a B”- One of my students when she didn’t want to write an essay she had to do. (Ball of sass!)

“My dog is amazing, and I taught him to jump through a hoop that’s on fire, and swim underwater for 20 minutes!” – Johnny when we were talking about our animals at home.

   -So in my short time teaching there have been many things that should have gotten me in trouble. One happened just the other day…. My students have library every Thursday and so while they were there I was in my room grading papers. I get a phone call saying, “Miss Sommars, your class is waiting for you.” I respond, but they still have 10 minutes of class.” Librarian responds, “Well, you must have forgotten that today is a half day, they need to get home.” So frantically I run to the library and get my kiddos and rush them downstairs to get picked up. Not thinking about anything else, I go to the professional development. I hear from another teacher that my kids were wandering around through the parking lot. Why you ask? Because they ALL missed the bus!!!! I felt so bad! Luckily, there is a bus that goes 30 minutes later to take the middle school students home so my little 4^th graders had to sit next to the big bad 8^th graders.

   -Last week we were studying Arizona animals. I have brought in snake skins, a tarantula, and many neat stories to go with our animals. During javelina day, I brought in my dad’s javelina head for them to see. Everyone was so engaged and they all wanted to touch and feel it. One girl asked if she could touch it’s teeth which I of course said yes! As she was reaching towards it’s mouth, I thrusted it towards her and shouted, “rawr!!” and she screamed! Awesome. I was in hysterics, as was she and the rest of the class. Good times…..

   Anyways, so that’s a few of my stories for you! I’ll try and update on a more regular basis. Or you can all harass Tim because he hasn’t done a post in ages!

 From the desk of Miss Sommars

 This is before I set it up, but it is beautiful nonetheless!

Germans in their "sexy tight leather pants"

     (S) Well this is the first blog post that Tim isn't part of, but since I went on this extraordinary trip with Laci I had to post it! For those of you who don't know, Laci has been studying abroad in Europe last summer so we arranged for me to fly out to Frankfurt to pick her up and we'd have a fun weekend in the city! Side note: if you were wondering the title of this post? Last time I was in Germany I was in a classroom and they asked me what stereotypes Americans had about Germans. I couldn't think of any, so one guy shouted out "Don't you think about how all German men dress in sexy tight leather pants?!?" Well my mom loved that so much that when I went this time she was bringing that up and telling me to watch for the sexy leather pants, and NO JOKE while waiting in the airport I saw two people in tight leather pants. Hilarious.
     Anyways, to be quite honest Laci and I were quite the lame college-age travelers. We didn't get crazy and drink all the time or go to any crazy bars. We spent our time eating amazing food, and walking around the city. The first night we went to a local pub to drink some beer and watch one of  the world cup games. It was packed and I decided that during my time in Germany I wouldn't try any beer that I had heard of the name of before. I chose to drink a "radler" beer that was actually a combination of a beer and sprite. Interesting, but good! Laci got bangers and mash (aka sausages and mashed potatoes) and I had fish and chips. The fish was one huge filet that was the size of a whole fish! I was praying the whole time that I wouldn't accidentally eat a fish head but it was all good. The next morning we got up around 8 and wandered down to the free breakfast. After that we wandered into town following our map. We were looking for Zeil which is a huge shopping center, but on the way we ran into a festival going on! It had a bunch of various vendors with different foods from around the world. We chose to drink some of the local Apfelwein which tastes like the cider we drink in the states. We also shared some fries that were made by a drill. Note the picture below, but it spun around and spiral cut the potato. Awesome. We continued walking through town and came across some street performers. Well, if you don't know me, I LOVE street performers of all kinds. We stopped to check them out and suddenly they starting walking forward down the street. We looked down the road, and realized we had wandered into a parade! Quickly we ran through town as far up as possible so we could see more of the parade. It was called "Parade of the World" (translated by Laci aka made up by Laci) and had tons of different countries and cultures represented. It was so fun seeing all of the costumes and dances! We then checked out an old area of Frankfurt called Rothenburg and bought tons of souvenirs for our friends and family back home. We went through an old church, and walked into a park, and ended the evening going to the top of the Main Tower. It is one of the tallest buildings in the city and had an observatory on the top. B-E-A-utiful! We being the lame-o people that we were, fell asleep by 9 that night! Haha.
     The next day we went on a boat tour down the main river, walked around more of the town, and ended our night on a romantic sister date at a Greek restaurant. I know i know, Tim already gave me a hard time for going to Greek food in Germany, but it was delicious so I don't even mind. But anyways, that's all! We flew back and were happy to be home. It was the perfect amount of time to see the city. Here are a few of the pictures and there are more on my facebook!

Potato maker!

Pizza Restaurant we went to. Delicious!

Part of the parade. Adorable Swedish (?) dancers

My hat I bought! It says "Deutschland." I got Tim one as well, his says "Frankfurt". He loves it.

Sweet beer mugs, that cost an arm and a leg, hence me NOT buying one, but I wanted one so bad!

Part of Rothenburg, beautiful right?

Laci checking out part of the Dom church

KEG BIKE!!! Coolest thing we have EVER seen in life.

Laci on top of the Main Tower

View of Frankfurt

Part of the Frankfurt skyline

We went to a communication museum and they had these phone sheep to welcome us in! Their bodies were made of phone cords, their heads were phones, and their fee were little phones!

Part of the museum and a teacher's dream room. It was all about cheaters in school! Here was one of the images and they had tons of real examples of how students have been busted cheated. In this picture there is a ruler, notes on the wrist,  in a pencil sharpener, carved into CHOCOLATE, etc. It was a room full of cheating ways around the world.

Sister date night

Date Day Up North!

     (S) With keeping up my goal of updating the blog quicker after an event I thought I should do this now rather than later. So....last Saturday Tim and I both lucked out with having the day off. Being the AMAZING girlfriend I am ;) I planned a date day for us. Since Tim has never been to northern AZ I took him up to see the sights! While planning, I had to take into account that I was dog sitting two pups so we had to do things that we could take them with.

     We took off early Saturday morning and headed up to Jerome, AZ. For those of you unfamiliar, Jerome is an old ghost mining town. Now is houses tons of quaint little shops that go up the mountain and you can check out some of the historic older buildings. Unfortunately, they were doing maintenance and construction in the old mining area so we couldn't check that out, but we did go through all of the shops and enjoy the town. Since we had the two dogs we would take turns sitting outside with them while the other person was shopping in the little shops. I completely scored at around 11am because there was an adorable winery that I wanted to check out. I went inside hoping to buy a bottle and what do ya know! They were doing a wine tasting. So I hung out and listened to them explain the different wines and got to try about 4-5 wines (hey, it was 5 o'clock somewhere!). Unfortunately, none of them "sold" me so I didn't buy one, but it was fun to try them all. The last shop we went into was a christmas store. Tim watched the dogs while I ran in and it was FULL wall to wall with Christmas ornaments. It was my idea to start collecting ornaments from everywhere we visit so we can have a christmas tree to show all of our adventures, so I bought a brass Christmas bell that said "Jerome, AZ" on it. It was fabulous in my opinion.

     After Jerome, our adventures led us to the Red Rock State Park. Unfortunately, the pups weren't allowed inside so instead we went to a park right up the road where they were allowed. We had a picinic lunch there and then walked along a trail that follwed Oak Creek. About halfway into our walk we went to the water and tried to get the dogs to go in. James, a Boston Terrier was stoked to go in and was instantly as deep in the water as he could get while still standing. Baja was a little more anxious. He would get in up to his lower belly, and then decided he didn't want to be in and would just back onto dry land. Then he would get back in....and jump back out! That repeated multiple times over until Tim and I were soaked from them. We finished our hike and decided into town. By this time, the dogs were getting tired but Tim and I kept dragging them along. We went to downtown Sedona and walked through all of the shops down there. By the end of the walk we were practically dragging the dogs along. Whenever Tim or I went into a store the dogs instantly laid down outside to rest. What bums!

     Eventually we got back to the car and drove to a small restaurant my parents recommended to me which is called the Hideaway. It had an outdoor patio so we could take the dogs to sit with us while we ate. The second we sat down the dogs were instantly passed out. No joke. Tim and I ordered the Dieter's Demise pizza which was ironic because I broke my diet to eat it. haha! But it was basically a supreme pizza that was chock full of delicious-ness. After dinner we drove back (dogs slept the whole way) and went to Toy Story 3. Which I highly recommend to all! Overall, it was a great trip. I loved it. Tim loved it. And the pups did too!

Part of Jerome

James and I on our way up the steps to the next set of stores!

Tim the dog whisperer

There were these stacked rocks EVERYWHERE on the trail

Part of the gorgeous view as we drove into town

Church up on the rocks (bad...but i forgot what it was called!)

The pups! James and Baja

This was at the Hideaway restaurant with the amazing view of Sedona