April 21, 2017: 3D movie newbie

This was mom's first time seeing a movie in 3D.  We mocked her hard core because she had to wear the 3D glasses over her actual glasses.  We don't actually think this is embarrassing, but we convinced her that it was :)  She still rocked it.

April 20, 2017: Evening run in the sunshine

This is me, stretching on my porch at 9PM after my evening run.  I am thankful for the longer, warmer days of spring (ok, sure, I am still wearing fleece lined leggings, so it's obviously not THAT warm, but you get the idea.  I live in Alaska, so I can't be too picky)!

April 19, 2017: Teacher hacks

Michele is a genius!  I love the way she hooked up water bottle holders to her kids' desks!  I'm stealing this idea for next year for sure!

April 17, 2017: ir, er, ur

So many er sounds.  And no way to tell them all apart.  Which is why we created these posters for our classroom.  This one is to help us remember that first, bird, dirt, and shirt all have ir in them.  I took the pictures to put on my class facebook page for parents to use during homework.  And since I took no other pictures this day, they are now blog worthy.

April 16, 2017: Easter brunch

I love fellowship and eating.  And seeing Marcus stretch his legs out under the coffee table like this.  Happy Easter.  He is risen indeed!

April 15, 2017: True Alaskan hiker

Arthur continues to impress me.  I decided I wanted to climb up Old Woman today.  I haven't hiked any mountains this spring yet, but I had heard that this trail was mostly clear.  Meg mentioned to Arthur that I was going for a hike, and he asked if he could come with me.  He was able to climb up Old Woman last summer, but he was exhausted once he reached the top and always needed to be carried down in the hiking backpack.  He's too big for the pack now, so I was a little apprehensive about bringing him with me.  We figured we would try and see.  This little man hiked the entire way up the mountain (except for a tiny stretch where the snow was so deep he sunk in up to his hips) AND all the way back down.  It was hailing at the top, and he insisted we push through until we reached the flag.  He is one strong little guy.  And my new favorite hiking buddy. 

April 14, 2017: Directionally challenged

I went for a quick run out to Boyscout beach today.  When I got to the beach I ran into a couple there who had just moved to Kodiak.  They asked me if I was familiar with the woods and the paths, because they had gotten a bit turned around and weren't sure if they could figure out how to get back to the road.  I have run out to Boyscout dozens of times, so I confidently told them which way to go to get back.  They were beyond grateful as it was getting kind of late and they had their baby with them.  I said goodbye and began running ahead of them, back to the main road.  After a while I came to the first fork in the path and realized I had forgotten about this turn, and if the family followed my exact directions, they were doomed to wander.  I had already covered a decent distance, and they were walking slowly, so I didn't want to run all the way back to where they were.  Plus, who was to say I had given them correct directions for the rest of the path as well.  I decided to make them arrows with the sticks and rocks to point them in the right direction for the rest of the trail.

I put these at every fork in the trail.  I checked the news for the next couple of days, and I didn't hear about any dead families found in the wilderness.  I am assuming they made it out ok.

April 13, 2017: Aunt of the Century

Tonight I was watching Henry and Arthur for a little bit.  At one point, all three of us were sitting on the couch reading a story.  Henry began hitting Arthur with a block, so I leaned over Arthur to try to take the block from Henry.  In the process, I accidentally squished Arthur's foot and he began crying.  I tried to console him for a bit, then I leaned down and looked at his foot.  In between his sobs, he started cracking up.  I sat back up and asked him what was so funny.

"I put a big booger in your hair."

This massive boogie was in my hair.  What a freaking punk!  And while you would think that this is the rudest, most disgusting thing your nephew could do to you, you're wrong.  Last year the kid stuck one of his boogers in my mouth.  I know I don't always set the best example around the kid (I'm the one who taught him that it's funny to fart on people), boogers are off limits.  I deserve a medal for dealing with this :)

April 12, 2017: It's all cool here in Kodiak

:)

April 11, 2017: dad's doppelgänger

THIS MAN LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE MY DAD!!!!

He is the grandpa of one of the first graders at my school.  Every time I see him I try to take a good picture of his face without him seeing me do it.  This is the best one I have gotten so far.

April 10, 2017: regrouping

This is me, doing my teacher thing and laminating new phonics games at 11:30 PM.  While crying.  I'm not always that stereotypically emotional girl, but when I am, there's no stopping it.  Today it hit hard and I cried 3 different times during the day.  We had a meeting where we analyzed data from our classes, and my data was not great.  Looking solely at the graphs, it looks like my students are not learning much from me.  While there has been observable growth in the classroom, it isn't showing in my hard data.  While I know that data isn't everything, no teacher wants to look ineffective, even if it's just on paper.

It isn't a huge secret that I have struggled with my moods and depression this past 8 months.  When that stuff hits, it's nice to hold on to something that I can control.  This time around, school seemed to be my safe place.  I was in control of my classroom.  I was doing really well this year.  Unlike last year when I had no idea how to teach first grade and was drowning, this year school was where I could relax, be myself, enjoy the kids, do my thing and do it well.   So when I was sitting in a meeting comparing my data with the data of my coworkers and seeing that mine is coming up short, I did what any rational human does and just cried about it.  Alone in my classroom closet.  Not proud of that.

Today was a really powerful reminder for me that while it is good to care deeply about my job, my identity is not in my profession.  My identity is in Christ.  Nothing else matters as much.

April 9, 2017: bowling party fail

We got the boys all psyched up for bowling tonight, but we forgot to check to make sure the alley was free.  We got here and saw it was closed for a birthday party.  Luckily for us, we only had about 20 minutes to kill before it reopened, so we hung out in the new van and helped the boys jump from the back seats to the front seats and push all the buttons on the dash.  Then we took this epic family picture in the sunglasses compartment mirror.

April 8, 2017: Scooter Magee

Sometimes I bring Arthur to the gym at school on the weekends, especially if it's really rainy and he needs to get out of the house.  It gives us some one on one time and let's him get some energy out of his system.  His favorite things to play in the gym are scooters, body bowling, and hockey.  Today we spent a significant amount of time spinning him around on the scooter.  I ran 6 miles before bringing him here, and I was dead tired by the end, but that little smile is completely worth it!!

April 7, 2017: Love this little man

There's not much else to say about it.  I really, really love Henry time. 

April 6, 2017: Airedale!

I have become my father.  I used to roll my eyes at him whenever we would see someone walking an Airedale.  He would:
1. Get this huge, goofy grin on his face
2.  Point excitedly and say "It's an Airedale!"
3.  Immediately engage in a long conversation with the dog owner about airedales.  Swap stories, laugh, compare notes.
4.  Leave feeling super tickled.

Today I did exactly that when I ran into this man and his airedale in the parking lot of Safeway.  The man was SIGNIFICANTLY less excited than I was to be talking about his dog, and I can usually pick up on those social cues and respond appropriately, but I could not stop myself from gushing about his dog today.  He'll probably blast me on the Say-What-You-Want-Kodiak facebook page later today and the whole island will think I'm a creepy nut job.  #worthit.

April 5, 2017: Bus Duty is the worst.

So I know that a couple of weeks ago I raved about how much I loved bus duty.  I loved seeing the smiling faces and eager children and everything.  Today I am here to tell you that I was a fool and bus duty is awful.   Well, at least it's awful when it's raining sideways outside and you forgot your rain pants.

You can't really tell in the picture, but my jeans are sopping wet from the tops of my boots up to my upper thigh.  If I could get the wet jeans off, I would have been able to ring water out of them.  My underwear were soaking wet underneath.  I had chaffing on my butt by the end of the day.  The morning smiles were still nice, but I can't say they were worth it.  :)  Lesson learned:  Keep your rain pants stashed in your classroom closet!!

April 4, 2017: Ghost children

This is how my students have started to hang their jackets up in the hallway as they enter music class.  Cracks me up every single time.

April 3, 2017: Car twin

And by car twin I only mean that we tend to pull into the school parking lot at the same time, all the time.  There could be a 20 minute window of when we actually get to school, but I'd say 3 out of 5 school days, we are walking in the door at the exact same time.

As I am typing this and reflecting on this, I am now realizing how insignificant this is.  And But guess what, on April 4 I thought it was a big deal, and nothing else that day was big a big enough deal to take a picture of, so now the world knows that I thought this was impressive, even for just a brief moment.

April 1, 2017: Garage Sale... April Fools!!

There was a huge neighborhood garage sale today.  These are my friends' kids and I am pretty sure their sign says something about all of their prices being fair.  I love it.

I love even more that today is April Fool's Day and it's a SATURDAY so I did not have to spend the entire day hearing TERRIBLE April Fools pranks and jokes from six and seven year olds.  Love them to pieces, but elementary school kids are not even the slightest bit funny when it comes to April Fools.  

"Ms. Kistler, there is an alligator behind you.  April Fools!"

"Ms. Kistler, my name is James.  April Fools!"

"Hey your shirt is blue, APRIL FOOLS!"

Those might be some of the better ones I have heard.  The ones that kinda sorta if you try hard to see make a little bit of sense.   I have literally heard a kid mutter a bunch of nonsense to me and when I asked him to repeat himself because I didn't understand, he just said, "April Fools?"

So yeah, I am happy to be at a garage sale in the pouring, freezing rain rather than at school today :)

March 31, 2017: Hanging out with Monkey

Henry carefully wrapped his monkey up in a little blanket, then tenderly set him on the little couch next to him.  Is this a sign that he might actually be a kind, gentle big brother?  Time will tell!

March 30, 2017: Great dad; part 2

Chasing his kid around the house with a hot pink workout headband.  I'm thankful that I can shamelessly share pictures of my brother-in-law in all his weirdo dad glory. 

March 29, 2017: What a great dad

Putting a random tent tube over your head and letting your 4 year old throw basketballs inside of it...

...that's love. 

March 28, 2017: my twin is 12

Everyone always says I look really young for my age.  Apparently I am starting to take that to heart. Today I was walking down the hallway and literally did a double take when I saw the poster that advertised picture day.  I am dressed EXACTLY like the little girl in the picture.  We have the same hair.  She is probably in sixth grade.

March 27, 2017: Is it spring yet?

As eager as I am for the snow to melt, it makes the woods so beautiful!  However, morning runs will be a lot less slippery!

March 26, 2017: Rhythm Future Quartet

Tonight was the last concert of our Kodiak Arts Council season.  We saw the Rhythm Future Quartet.  They were amazingly talented, and very entertaining.  I couldn't get over how they all seemed to look like other people I knew (or famous people).  The entire concert I couldn't help but see Jared the Subway guy, Draco Malfoy, Christoph Waltz, and Joey Novak.

March 25, 2017: deer spotting

I'm fully aware that this picture isn't that cool.  But, you might think it's cooler if you know that I was walking along a path when I saw it, and that this isn't even zoomed in that much. 

I know, it's still not very exciting.  But I have to admit, I never knew I was a little afraid of deer until I moved to Kodiak.  In Ludington, the deer don't let you get very close to them.  They are smart and fast.  Out here, the deer are stupid and slow, and they aren't afraid of anything.  They walk down the streets and into our yards. They don't run from cars or people.  I don't actually think I have ever seen one run.  They just walk. slowly.  Maybe get up to a slow trot, but that's all I have seen.  The other day I was walking into my driveway with Alanna, and there was a deer in our yard, eating seeds on the ground from underneath the bird feeder.  I was a little startled because it just hung out next to my car and didn't move when we got closer.  I was a little apprehensive when we walked around it toward our door, and Alanna laughed a little at me, but I reserve the right to be apprehensive around a wild animal.  And if I am silly enough to be afraid of birds, of course I am going to be a little freaked out by a deer :) 

March 24, 2017: brewery baby

Catie and Carter move in a couple of weeks, so we went out to the brewery to get some quality time in before they go.  Their little guy, Declan, came along and was the life of the party.  

March 23, 2017: Bloggin

It's no secret.  I get behind on my blog.  Ben and Jerry's is great motivation to sit down and catch up. 

March 22, 2017: Bus duty

Bus duty is my new favorite part of teaching.  Since Jen is teaching in my room full time now, I told her I would take over her bus duty for her.  This means that once a week, I greet the students as they get off the buses in the morning.  I LOVE THIS!  The chipper kids make me smile and I love trying to cheer the grumpy ones up.  My own students are shocked to see me out there, because I have never had bus duty before, which was a fun surprise for them.  Plus, I rarely get to see my students from last year, so this morning I got excited hugs or waves from all of them.  I am tempted to send out a mass email to all of my coworkers and tell them I'll take over everyone's bus duty from here on out!

March 21, 2017: Like a post card

ok, maybe it's not quite that picturesque, but I thought the sunset tonight was pretty stunning.