The first snowfall in Reno.

Today it snowed for the first time this winter. It was so pretty to see all the white covering the ground. The kids at school were so excited and wanted to play in it. The snow only lasted a couple of hours and then it all melted. I ran outside and took a couple of pictures of the street and the school with the snow falling. I love that I have big windows in my classroom, so we could all look outside at the snow falling. We sang Christmas songs and made red and green paper chains today to decorate the classroom. I read a story about a snowy day and the kids loved it. I still have some problem children but I can see some changes and school is getting easier to teach. I have a new carpet for the kids to sit on and each child has a letter of their own. My class is earning a popcorn party. They have to be good during calendar and do their seat work and then I put marbles in a jar every day. I have tables labeled with shapes and each table gets points for good behavior. The table that has the most points wins a prize at the end of the week. I am trying more positive things to get the kids to behave. It also helps that I finally have all the teacher supplies that they ordered for me instead of always borrowing things from other teachers. I think that by January I will have everything organized, filed away, and unpacked and have a good behaving class. I remember my first year teaching kindergarten that by January things settled into a good routine and the kids learn so much from that point on to the end of the school year. My fingers are crossed!!!

Lunchtime recess. Most of the snow was melted already by 11:30 am.

Thanksgiving in Reno.

For Thanksgiving this year we are in Reno, NV. It is definately harder to be away from family during the holidays. Barry and Tony did all the cooking of the food and we had lots of leftovers. It was fun to eat good food and watch a fun football game together. I made the veggie tray and the yams with marshmallows, since those are my favorites. It was nice to have four days off from school. I loved looking at all the pictures on people's blogs showing their meals and families. I took pictures with Barry's regular camera. Mine was on the fritz again. I hope to save up money for a new digital camera for myself this Christmas. I will post pictures of our Thanksgiving soon. After I get them developed and a picture CD made too.

I've been tagged!!!

OK, I have been tagged by Erica. I think this is actually fun. You can learn alot about someone by what they choose to share with others.

1. I have a collection of DVD movies that have to stay in alphabetical order. If anyone wants to watch a movie they have to put it back in ABC order. I think my time in the library at UNLV made me this way. When Dad came over to stay with us in Newport, he would watch a DVD that he hasn't seen before and he didn't know about my rule. I showed him that the movies had to stay in order and he did it. I like to know what movies I have at a glance. Sometimes a new release movie comes out and Barry will say, "Do we have that movie yet?" And all I have to do is look over at the letter the movie starts with and say yes or no.

2. I hate, hate, hate, watching sports!!! Barry and Tony watch hours of baseball, football, racing, basketball, etc... I'm always out-voted 2-1 on what we watch together in the family room. Of course I could watch TV in my bedroom, or the kitchen, but the couch is more comfy in the living room. Sometimes Barry gives in to me and we watch other channels that we both agree on. Early in the morning I find Barry and Tony watching billards, darts, bowling, fishing, hunting, any kind of sport you can think of and ESPN is always on. Yuck!!!!

3. I like to do yard work now. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a cheap rake and some garbage bags. Today I raked all the leaves in our yard and I made 12 big piles of leaves. Barry helped me bag them all. I want to plant flowers and plants in the spring. It's different when you have a house, even a rented house. You can buy patio furniture and bird feeders and take care of a yard. I find it fun and good exercise. I get bored staying in the house all weekend. I need projects to do.

4. I love to eat guacamole flavored tortilla chips. I discovered them recently at the store and want to eat them all the time. The best part is that Barry and Tony hate anything with guacamole on it. So, the chips are all mine!!! Yes!!!

5. I like to fall asleep with my light on now that we have a new place to live. I like to feel warm and safe with the light on until I get really sleepy and then I turn it off. Barry doesn't understand why I don't feel safe with him there to protect me. I hear any sounds outside and I jump up and say, "Barry, go check it out. It might be a burgler." He does it to appease me. After awhile I probably won't do that anymore but where we used to live was so quiet and seemed safe in Newport. Now, we are in a bigger city with a train blaring its horn at night, helicopters circling overhead and police cars that race by at night.

6. I think that I am getting fat because I'm pregnant. I ask Barry if I look different and he says "no." Then I say, "yes I am." I can tell that my waist is increasing and I have to wear bigger pants. I think that I am showing now but he disagrees with me. The baby is only the size of a walnut now. I act like I am already five or six months pregnant with aches and pains and heartburn from eating a big meal. He always keeps me laughing and loves to tease me. I can do or say anything to him and not worry about how he will take it. He has been great so far and takes good care of me.

That's it for me. I'm going to tag six people now. I tag Aubrey, April, Ashley, Alanna, Kris and Jamie, and Rhiannon. I will post a note in your blog to let you know that you have been tagged. Mom, you will have to help Nan with hers.

Pics of my class and of the halloween party.

24 wild and crazy kids in my kindergarten class.

Another picture showing the kids at the pumpkin patch.

The front of Robert Mitchell E.S. My room is the 2nd and third set of windows to the right of the red door.

Another pic of my room from the outside.
The front of the school. You can see the name of the school above the windows.

Classroom pictures and our field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Another view from the classroom. Behind the bookshelf is an old-fashioned heater that makes my room like an oven. I have to open windows to let in cool air, but then you hear the noise from the busy street outside. My desk is to the right.

More of the classroom and my desk and kidney shaped table for mini-lessons with kids.

This is the back of the classroom. The door is to the right where the kids come in. You can see the Halloween decorations hanging up.

I have these six cupboards that open up for storage. The doors are covered in chalkboards and some dry erase boards. They are original to the school about 60 or 70 years ago. The kids made bats with patterns on them and we traced our feet to make ghosts.

This is kind of dark but it is the hallway looking down to the other kinder room. The floor is all tiled and the walls are tiled. We have a small corkboard that runs the top of the tile to hang artwork from. I think the ceilings are over 12 feet tall.

This is looking the other direction towards the office. The door to the left is the teacher's lounge and the bathroom. Lucky for me it is right next door.

Here we are at the pumpkin patch. The first three boys in this picture are my "special" boys that have to be watched at all times. This was my group to watch. I picked two bright girls to show the boys how to act. There were about 4 or 5 other schools there that day.

Showing all the crazy shapes and colors of the pumpkins. The kids were very impressed.

More students from my class. We had great weather for October 30th.

We are on the hayride being pulled by a tractor. Everyone is sitting on bales of hay.

This is the cute tractor driver. She was fun to talk to.

View of the pumpkins in the field. Some of them were smashed and rotten. All the good ones were already picked from the field.

More pics from the hayride. Notice all the buses. There were hundreds of school children there that day.

One of the teacher aides helping get the kids off the hayride.

Barry came to help on our field trip. He is writing the kids names on their pumpkins.

My students had a great time picking out the biggest pumpkins that they could carry. They all behaved so nicely on this trip.

I only had one parent volunteer. This is a specialist from our school who came to help watch kids on the field trip.

The woman of the left is our school counselor and on the right you see Barry in blue and next to him is the parent who came with us.

Here is a picture of me and my group. My hair is a little shorter since I got it cut.

Pictures of my classroom and house.

Moving around the room, this is where the kids play in housekeeping and where the computer is. The tv and vcr are on the moveable cart. The blue shelf is our library and it can roll out of the way too. My room has three big windows that let in lots of sunshine.

My classroom at Robert Mitchell school. This is where I do morning calendar, pledge, shapes, colors, etc...

This is the back of the house in the alley. This is the door that we enter through and it opens up to the kitchen. It makes it easy to put groceries away and not too many stairs to climb. We love not living in an apartment with neighbors slamming doors and kids bugging us every five minutes. Our neighborhood is really quiet. We have met two neighbors and they are both very nice.

The small kitchen. The next room behind it is the living room.

Our living room is tiny. The door leads out to the front yard. Tony and Barry doing what they love best. Watching sports. Yuck!!

This is our front yard that faces Moran St. But you can't get to our front yard from that street. We enter the house from the back through an alley. We have to walk across the yard and through a fence to get our mail which is on the Moran St. Pretty confusing. The owner will put in some grass in the spring after all the snow is melted. We will have snow sometime, but for now, it has been in the 70's and warm.

This is the side of the house and the little garage that we put some of our things. Barry's red truck is in the driveway.