Mrs. Grubbs

At Burke Basic School, there is a classroom with my very own name outside the door! Yes, I am playing teacher this summer! I have my own class of 13 kiddos moving up to second grade. A few of them are even the ones I had working in Meowmeow's class. Now mind you, these are some of the lowest 13 kids out of six first grade classes so pray for me, cross your fingers and/or send me positive energies. I will need it.

Saturday night I had a nightmare, one of the worst ones I've ever had. Instead of having 13 kids like I expected and prepared for, in my dream I had like 40! I didn't have desks or supplies or worksheets for all of them, and they were going nuts. You know that scene in the movie Billy Madison when the students are running around and dancing on their desks, imagine that. I was so frazzled and was running around trying to get more supplies and desks while trying to keep the kids in order. I was failing miserably. Then the owner of the school (who I very much respect) came in and told me that it wasn't working and I was fired!  I felt like such a failure! I woke up Sunday morning with that feeling and ran right to work to prepare and prepare more, until I felt better.

That nightmare made me all nervous and whenever I thought about teaching I would get these images in my head of kids hula hooping on their desks.

Today was the first day of summer school and it was a success! I did have three criers and a few kids who tested my boundaries but I made sure they know exactly what I expect from them and overall, it went well.

Wish me luck on the rest of summer school!

Today the weight of my semester and work caught up to me. I have been fine with my work load until this morning from 8 until 11:20. It hit me like a load of bricks. I was exhausted.  exhausted. The thought of getting off work and going to school until ten PM didn't help. Then the most glorious of lunch breaks saved me in my despair: a voicemail from my teacher canceling class! Instead of class I read some book, took a nap and watched some private practice. and ate five oreos. And I am alive again! I will kick the last month of this semester in the @%#!

Spring break is a gift, use it wisely.

Yes ma'm

Desert with mia familia and some family friends.

Me on a giant grill. Because that's your first instinct when you see a giant grill. Lay on it.

My favorite girl ever.

Roxy is "jus tastin da ice cream"

 My favorite girl again.

Mike taking some ukelele lessons.

Desert bbq yum yums.

"The wow factor"

Mike and James have been watching a little too much storage wars. If you don't know what that is, it's one of those shows where people buy things and try to make money off of them. When they find something great, one guy calls it "the wow factor". James has taken this idea to the extreme. They searched every corner of goodwill muttering things like, "is it the wow factor?" "could this be a wow factor?" "I think I might've found the wow factor". This is them looking for a pair certain pair of jeans that one guy on the show dubbed "the wow factor".

I made some yum yums.

Zucchini frys with mozzerella sauce

Carmel popcorn

apple cinnamon muffins

 pulled pork bbq sammies. and picnic in our front yard.

 Sometimes a girl just needs to do something funky with her nails while watching "my fair wedding".

 And sometimes a girl just needs to see a movie solo at a random matinee showing.

 And sometimes a girl just has tons of homework to do.

But when it's all done, it feels so good.

Farewell spring break! Until we meet again in 2013!

Lumberjack

I am officially a Lumberjack! I start NAU's elementary education program with an emphasis on early childhood tomorrow. I am taking my classes at South Mountain Community College but earning my bachelors. I am so very excited. It took a lot of thought, a lot of prayers, and  a lot of time to decide if I wanted to continue forward with my education at this point in my life. I am thrilled about my decision to become a college graduate and an elementary teacher. It is going to be so hard working full time while taking 13 credit hours a semester and still being dirt poor, but the hard things are the things worth doing. At least that is what i am telling myself. I might think otherwise when I am neck deep in homework and sleep deprived, but once that passes, my education is something I will never regret. Wish me luck! 

Go Lumberjacks! 

*Esther doing a swinging motion with her fake ax*

Two weeks ago, the semester ended

And it was the best thing of my life. It's so nice to have the evenings free to spend time with each other. The other night I was baking cookies just because I wanted to, and Mike was playing his guitar, just because he wanted to, and I thought, "this is a perfect moment." Just the casual togetherness, where we are both doing something just because we want to is heaven.

Lately we/I have been....

Baking up the wazoo! I finally defeated my long time enemy, the chocolate chip cookie! I love to cook and bake. And I'm pretty good at it. Except when it comes to chocolate chip cookies, the most basic dessert ever. If I am going to make a dessert i don't bake chocolate chip cookies, A.) because they are no fun, everybody has had chocolate chip cookies and its not an adventure to make or eat. B.) because i just plain suck at it. They are ALWAYS flat.

A few weeks ago a it was a friend of mines birthday and she wanted chocolate chip cookies. So reluctantly I made them. And they sucked.

Flat

Flat

Flat

It had been a rough day and i was pretty angry that they were not delicious. In my rage, I swore to myself never again to make chocolate chip cookies.

Then the next day my dramaticness wore off and I realized that I COULD make some puffy cookies. So I searched and searched and tried some recipes and on round 3 I made these beauties. Mike dubbed them the best chocolate chip cookies he has ever had. And I feel good again.

It is so fun living right next door to some of our best friends Hillarie and James. Then I can make fun of how awkward Hill looks when trying to play rockband with her baby bump.

BBQ!

My grandmas beautiful lakeside backyard + bike rides + kayak rides + food + nice weather + family = perfection.

Gotta love the pizza sauce faces.

My niece Roxy has the best pouty lip out there. So glad I captured it on camera.

She loves her uncle Michael.

Doesn't this precious look like the caterpillar from A Bugs Life?

Cheers to an entire summer of free nights!

Goodbye kiddos

A lot of my posts have been about work lately, but I couldn't not share some of these with you.A bunch of them wrote little thank you notes for me and they are so precious and hilarious. Here are a few. Note-I can't correct any of the punctuation or spelling... it's just too cute.
"Mrs. Grudds, thank you miss grudds for helping us at math and reading and when we need help you are there to help us and when I need help you help me. - Bryan"
"Thank you Mrs grubes it was so fun at the feald trip. I liked the part when we whent to the spining thing. but the most emportant thing was that she help us. - Sebastian"
"You made me bloom! - Selina" (Ha! I made her bloom.)
"Thank you for helping us in erythings - Uriel and Oscar" Then off to the side they wrote their phone numbers! HA!
"Thank you Mrs. Grubbs for all your help this year and will miss you and never forget you! I will never forget the day i met you. You looked so nice when I saw you! - Alicia"
And my personal favorite. This one has no pictures, no colors, no nothing except these words, "Dear: Mrs. Grubbs I hope you pass grade and so you can be a real teacher."
I love my kids so much. It was harder than I expected to say goodbye to them. Especially when I was hugging Selina goodbye and told her that I couldn't wait to see her next year.... and she replied with, "I won't be here next year." I just about cried. I'll never see her again! What do I say to her then? "I hope you have a fantastic life?" Gosh I will miss those guys.

This is a speech I did a for my public speaking class and I thought it turned out so good that I'd share it with all of you! I think my grandpa is just so precious. I can't wait to get to know him better. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it..
On July 30, 1945, a member of the air force serving in World War II wrote in his personal journal the following, “In a letter Jean once asked me to “dream a pretty dream for me.” Little does she know. Just how many I have could only be compared to the stars that come out at night.”
The speaker is Stanley Porter, my grandfather, and the Jean he refers to is my sweet grandma. Stan and Jean grew up together and fell in love at 15. My grandmother fondly recollects the times he picked her up on his tandem bike to go out for a date. My grandparents were “going steady” up until Stan enlisted for the war and was sent out. In response to my grandmas request to “dream a pretty dream for me”, my grandfather wrote, “Dream a pretty dream for us sweetheart, That we may be together, not apart. Dream that I love you with all my heart. And you’ll have the dreams I dreamed from the start. From distant states I dream of you, Dreams that come from a heart that’s true. Dreams that make up all of our tomorrows, Dreams full of life’s sweet love and sorrows. Dreams now take your place, my only. Dreams bring you back when I am lonely. For now let our dreams suffice Bridging the gap to our happier life.” When Stan returned home from the war, he and Jean were married. Together they had 7 children, 35 grandchildren, and a constantly growing number of great grandchildren. They were both great examples of acceptance and kindness, and their love for each other was apparent. My grandpa is no longer with us , and I can only imagine what kind of emotion the last verse holds for my grandma. "Dreams now take your place, my only. Dreams bring you back when I am lonely. For now let our dreams suffice, Bridging the gap to our happier life.”

Mike got a letter in the mail..

That looked like this...

And I knew what it was. He wasn't home from work, so I got all excited and cleaned the house and put it where he could see it right when he walked in. When he walked inside I was waiting for him and I started yelling at him to "OPEN IT! OPEN IT!"

And he got into ASU! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Okay okay, now your thinking that I am crazy for being SO excited that he got into ASU, which isn't hard. You are thinking right. Yes, he kept telling me that It's not that big of a deal and we both knew he would get into ASU.
But I am still so proud of him. He works SO HARD in school. He works full time (with his commute and lunch break, he is gone for 10 hours everyday). AND he is going to school 2 credit hours short of full time. He does everything he can to get straight A's. I love his motivation.
I am so excited that he is moving forward with his education. With him transferring, it feels like the end is finally in sight. Kind of.
We celebrated by eating at Neilsons. (Were we celebrating or did I just not want to cook?? You'll never know!) Neilsons is the bomb. They have the best fries ever. You know how people argue about who has the best french fries? In n out, burger king, wendys, mcdonalds, red robin blah blah blah... Neilsons are seriously the best. Also their grinders are heavenly. PLUS it was TURTLE TUESDAY! Caramel custard with fudge and pecans. My.favorite.thing.ever. Neilsons should pay me for this post.

On a more serious note, I just finished this book...

I highly recommend it. Holy cow. Did you know in 1994 there was a holocaust in Africa and over one million people were brutally slaughtered in only 3 months? I didn't even know that happened.
This is an autobiography of one of the survivors. I was a little hesitant to read it because I thought it would depressing. It was not. In fact, it is one of the most spiritual, inspiring books I've ever read. Read it. Come borrow it from me if you don't want to buy it or library it.
Recap:
*Mike is going moving from MCC (yuck) to ASU (Wee)
*Mike is smart and good at school
*Neilsons is bomb
*Read Left to Tell

Thanks for reading. I love you all.