Third Grade

Well, my blogging has totally taken a hiatus in the past three weeks! I am happy to report that I am back! School starts on Monday and therefore my classroom is "almost" complete.

We had open house for the Third Graders on Thursday. It was fun to meet so many of my students and their parents. Tonight was open house for the entire school and parish community. We received a great turn out and it was nice to meet so many kind people.

I just can't believe our summer is over...I can't believe I am teaching third grade...I also can't believe that I have been blessed to be a part of this amazing school.

Our classrooms have Ebeam interactive boards, iPads, document cameras, and outstanding curriculum programs that challenge the kids to use incredible critical thinking skills.

This first week we have half days--thank goodness! It will be wonderful to get to know the kids and start our year off slowly.

Tomorrow I will go to school to put name tags on the desks and to finish a few last minute items...and to mildly freak out :) but Monday morning I will meet my 27 little humans at the door of 3A, with a bright smile and butterflies in my belly...prayers for peace of heart are welcome!

FOX FAMILY FUN

Normally, the Fox Family is just David and I...but we were so excited that last week life with "The Fox Family" included David's parents.

Seeing them Monday was so great, and we were able to connect with them again on Wednesday night.  We met them down on the Strip for some true Vegas fun.  We walked to Lagasse's Table (Emeril's sports bar and grill, complete with stadium seating) and enjoyed a delicious meal!

Between the four of us, we devoured cold beers, perfectly unique sweet potato fries served with cinnamon dipping sauce, BBQ chicken pizza, hamburgers, BBQ pork sandwich, and a wedge salad.  It became a group meal for some of us--sharing, sampling, and tasting one another's food choices. Everything on the table was really fantastic!

We then walked to the Bellagio to enjoy the fountains and a brief stroll through the casino.  The night was truly perfect and could not have been more fun.

It worked out that on Thursday, we were able to have more Fox fun!  I went down to meet Walt and Kris at Table 10 in the Palazzo.  We had a wonderful happy hour and lots of great conversation and completed the afternoon with a relaxing stroll along the Venetian's canal.

David was in court all day, so he did not get to join us, but after our walk through Italy...we drove to Nellis to meet up with the Captain.  David toured his parents around the base and we had a brief stop of to explore the commissary and class six...always a great adventure to be had at the liquor store.

The evening ended back at our house.  A dinner of BBQ salmon, couscous and salad accompanied by a brief night swim and a lightning storm (don't worry--it was in that order and no one was harmed)!

 

It was an absolute delight to have The Fox Family here and although we missed Caitlin, we were excited (and a bit jealous) that she only missed out because of the amazing European adventure she is on! We are so thankful to Walt and Kris, it was such a joy to have them here and we can't wait to see them again!

DINNER GUESTS

In just four days we were able to unload and put away all but *two* of our indoor boxes! Yahoo! The garage has about twenty to put away still, but those are things like Christmas decor and golf clubs...things that are not necessary for our daily life to continue so no judgement please :)

It's a good thing we hustled and got the majority of our stuff put away last weekend because tonight was a big night for us...we had our very first dinner guests...The Foxes! Kris and Walt came to Vegas for vacation and a visit and tonight they came to our new home for dinner.

Plans went a bit crazy because David is working a lot of extra hours this week (he has a case that will start Thursday) so I ran out to The Strip and brought them back to our place.

After a brief tour, they settled right in loving on Mac and Walt even went swimming! I ended up going to get David because his truck wouldn't start :( and then we were back in a flash ready to eat.

David grilled blue cheese burgers on the BBQ, which we accompanied with Harvest Grain from Trader Joe's--a favorite of ours that you must try! We enjoyed chatting by lamplight on the patio, and we were able to catch a few of the Olympic Track and Field races.

It was a very low-key evening and it was very special to have Walt and Kris be our first dinner guests in our Nevada home. We are so excited to see them throughout the week ahead, for more catching up and some wild shenanigans!

MOVING IN

On Thursday our things were delivered...four burley men would bring boxes inside, yell out a number to David--who would check it off the inventory sheet, then I would look at the contents written on the side of the box and tell them where to put it.

In three hours they had unloaded all of our stuff, set up the beds, and unpacked the kitchen and stemware boxes. By having them unpack some of the more fragile items, you ensure that if something is broken it will be documented on the spot...one less paperwork step (and in the military the less paper you can deal with, the better).

We spent the rest of the day unpacking our things and trying to figure out where furniture needed to be put to make our new space fit our needs. And after a day of unpacking, the only logical place to eat dinner is at your neighborhood casino's Mexican restaurant...right? Oh, Vegas.

On Friday, David returned to work and I took my boxes of school stuff to my classroom. I unloaded my stuff and tried to get a vision for what my classroom will look like. After a few hours of moving desks around it was time to step away.

One thing we have learned in all the moving is that sometimes you have to make yourself walk away. To continue staring at the same space or continually moving box after box around a room--you just have to step.away.from.the.stuff. So, Mac and I decided the only true solution was a swim in the pool to cool off and recharge before conquering the unpacking and organization of the kitchen cupboards.

It is now Sunday and the entire downstairs is put away. Today I will tackle the upstairs and David will go into work for the day (he was already put on a case for this week) and tonight we will be trying out the UNLV Newman Center for mass.

Life in our new home is exciting and it will continue to be even more so as the boxes unload.