Updates of end of May early June

We have been busy lately. May 14th was our 5 year wedding anniversary. We realized that we've been together happily for 8 years and cannot believe it's been that long. With that said, it'd been 8 years and I've never gone to the Dayton Hamfest with Dustin. I documented with pictures as to why I don't belong at such "fests."

You see that antenna on his helmet?! Wow!

Mary Kay and Rachael put on a very nice baby shower at work for me on May 20th. I got a lot of very nice things that are definitely going to be put to good use. I'm very excited to see the little man in order to use these things!


I told Dustin I wanted to raise our flowerbeds and update them because they have been settling for too long and there isn't much separation in the grass and the pavers. Here's the almost finished product. The Rose of Sharon has always been there, but we just outlined it and raised it a bit. The only thing I want to add are some annuals.
Here is the second to last day of school, June 2nd. These are my 7th graders I had for a 100 minute block periods 1 & 2. They are a very loyal group, and very well trained by me. I teased them and told them I don't like 7th graders (which is true), but they ended up to be pretty good kids.


Here is my 8th grade 100 minute block periods 3 & 4. This group challenged me the most because it was an ENL inclusion group, but also most of the Hispanic students are in either Sur 13 or Latin Kings. These students definitely are a tight group and very protective of me.
This was my 6th and 7th period block of 8th graders. I loved this group so very much. They were great kids and always knew how to make me smile and make class fun. They were very mature and loved to discuss major topics. I will miss this group big time! A great way to end the day, that's for sure!
June 2nd was the 8th grade celebration night. This is a night dedicated to 8th graders' achievement and a farewell to them. Here is a group of my boys that I adore.

I must have done something right, I had students come back to visit me that night. This was my first real class I let go to the high school. Very sad and they'll always have a place in my heart.


The last day of school I allowed students to take pics, but it ended up that they wanted individual pics with me. Here is Nikko, a fine young gentleman that started a rumor about me. Warren Central was playing football at the Lucas Oil Stadium. Dustin and I had a bottle of water walking around and he said it looked like we were sipping on some 40s. SO my nickname from this class was D-40. Cracks me up, but they said it only respectfully! This is also the student that stalked me and kept asking me if I was pregnant. Knew my bathroom routine, doctor's appointments, watched my stomach expand.... Gotta love middle school boys haha.
Students leaving!

The best sight on a daily basis, but even moreso on the last day of school: knowing I sent these students away with the best I could offer them since July.
And the teachers breathe a sigh of relief and ready to celebrate surviving another year!

Baby Boy Hofer Waves

So I totally forgot to post this video, but here is the precious boy waving at the world! Ok I know he's not really waving, rather practicing movements, but I like to think he's saying, "Hi world! I'll be here soon!"

Baby Boy Hofer!

It's a boy :) Dustin likes this pic! It shows my manly man :)

Baby's face on right.

Baby's heart beat.

Video of baby moving

House renovation pics

As we have been coming to reality that we are to become parents, we are totally renovating the house. We spent the second week of my intercession cleaning my office/den out and organizing the storage room at the side of the house. The third week of my vacation through now we've been working on the living room and hallways. We ripped up the carpet, the padding, and pulled up all the padding staples. We then sealed the floor (the white color on the subflooring). It was A LOT of work and a ton of strain on Dustin since he had to do all the lifting himself. Bless his heart he took it on like it was the only job of his life. So here are some shots before and after. We don't have the furniture yet, but hopefully it'll be here within the next few weeks and I can post that as well.










Tonight since we still can't get too far into the kitchen to cook, we went out to Applebee's in Greenwood. It was supposed to be a purposeful trip to find some kind of audio/visual cabinet for our stereo/dvd player etc. Well, wouldn't you know it Best Buy didn't carry one that was a stand alone. Everything they carried was for those tvs that you set on top of. So we decided to go to Value City to see what they had--SAME THING! So no cabinet for us tonight. Maybe we'll get something this weekend after checking out Fry's.

Preparing

In preparation for our new addition to the family we have been hard at work making some drastic changes to the house! Eric and Dad came down two weeks ago to get the spare queen bed out of the spare room. It was a good deal for Eric because he now has a bed for his room at his own house. We bought some new carpet and furniture for the living room. Our carpet now is Peptobismol pink and we have never had new furniture. So here's what the new furniture looks like before we get it!

More pics to come as we are installed! We will def do a before and after pic :)

Catch up

I cannot believe I haven't blogged since October! I guess that means we've been terribly busy since then. Christmas was great and went by too fast. New years came and went. We've been back in school since the 4th of January and I can see spring intercession in sight. But there have been a few things on my mind lately:

1. ISTEP- please can take the pressure off of this test? Middle school students could take the exact same test the next day with completely different results.

2. Budget cut- Why should a teacher have to worry about his or her job? Aren't we creating the future in our classrooms? Wouldn't we want the best for our children? It seems as though the US is heading toward privatizing schools making parents pay for it. Doesn't sound so competitive does it? What happened to honest and frugal spending?

3. School start date- I am a huge advocate for year round schools. The climate in the schools are so much more calm and there is always hope of a break soon. We get 3 weeks off in the fall and the spring and around 6 weeks off in the summer. The breaks are necessary to keep the mind from becoming dull and numb. The students actually remember things we have talked about from July. How many traditional calendar teachers can say that? I have seen it and experienced it with my own eyes, otherwise I wouldn't have believed it.

4. Future- I don't know what I want to do with my future. It seems that education is going by the way side and now I'm just not so positive about my career choice if there is no support. Too many hands are in the public education systems and it doesn't seem to make sense to me that a businessman can tell me how to run a school and how to teach?
- Also along with the future we have some things changing in our lives, positive and exciting things, and again it throws up some questions as to what we want to do with our future! Dustin retires in 5 years and we can move to a new house hopefully in the country but close enough to a city to have a day out.

5. Brother- I'm thankful for my brother. I'm so very excited he is coming to hang out today with his fiance, Dora. I cannot wait for their wedding in October! She definitely makes a good match in our family.

6. Dustin- Last but not least I'm so very thankful for Dustin. He's an amazing man and puts up with me no matter what. He helps me out and makes life so much easier. I don't know what I'd do without him.


I will try to keep this updated better as the spring progresses! We are going to San Antonio :)

Date Night--Dinner, Drinks, Rocky Horror

This weekend was a great finish to a crappy first week back at work. Friday night Dustin made me his soon-to-be famous homemade chicken tenders and some waffle fries. We went to the Rathskeller for drinks and dessert. Afterward we went to the musical Rocky Horror Picture Show. Now Dustin is absolutely in love with the movie. When I first saw the movie I hated it! So I was a bit skeptical at first, but I know I love plays. Dustin was a bit worried that it wouldn't be like the movie and wouldn't be good acting at all.

So we get there and the green phantom is staring at us and sitting on the banister by us. He asks us if we are going to do the Time Warp dance. We say yes, me knowing full well I don't know it. Dustin warned me that they aren't kind to virgins there so I just went with it. It was quite creepy how he sat there staring at all of us too.

So the play starts and here are some pictures that we could get:









Halloween is Uncle Mike's birthday so we threw him a party. Butch & Taunya, Dennis & Becky, Scott & Masha, and Mike & Sherry came for the festivities. Dustin fried some catfish, fresh cod, I made a roast, cheese balls, and made home made peach cobbler. Sherry brought the salad. We all dug in, listened to music, told stories, laughed beyond breathing and had a blast.

Here I am highlighting Sherry's hair. Like mother like daughter--guess it's almost destined that I should know something about hair care?! I mean come on Eric was even the "barber" at Vincennes haha.