Moment of the day!!!

A fellow teacher yelled to me from the teachers' lounge down the 2nd grade hallway:

"Miss Tholand, did you know at Jcrew if you show them your teacher ID you get 15% off!?!?!?!"

"WHAT?! No way!!"

and apparently, one of the 2nd grade teachers and her entire classroom heard this interaction and about 5 seconds later I hear a chorus of 2nd grade voices yelling

"YES WAY!!!!"

Reason #2873128612 why I love my job.... sometimes ;-)

First Day of School!!!!!!!

Wish me luck for Monday, the first day back!! This first week is a bit of a different schedule, but full of getting to know my new babies! Excited, nervous, anxious, ready to go... Mostly just glad to be getting back to what I do best. :)

Fighting the habit...

A pessimist through and through, I try to motivate myself, even when feeling so down in the dumps, against all odds, I try my best to find the silver lining in all situations. It may not change how I feel, make any difference in the outcome, BUT, atleast I can say I tried. There are those times though, when you just simply can't find a silver lining. When you don't have any inclination of even trying. When plain and simple, you're in a funk. You know you're in a funk, but like certain times of the month when you're crying at the drop of the hat and though you know it's that time of the month, it doesn't stop the tears..... but you just can't shake the funk. Well, welcome.

I take after my mother in that when I'm feeling down, I shop. If you have nice things, nice things should happen. It's like when I'm feeling sick, etc, I try to dress up, put on a little extra makeup; cuz if I look good, shouldn't I feel good? BUT, as it is (part of the funk) I'm B-R-O-K-E. SO, there will be no shopping for me. What's the next step you ask? Eating. YEP, I'm an emotional eater. So all those wonderful miles run and calories burned these past 2 weeks with the field hockey team... will be shot to hell by the end of the weekend :)

So what do you do to pick yourself up?

4 things....

1) The Hills is on tonight!!! Are you watching?!!?

B) Only 1 more day of 2-a-day practices!!! Woop Woop!!!
1) 2 girls have gone down with Mono.... eeek

3) School starts in less than a week!!!
a) There is a cutie-pa-tootie new 3rd grade teacher. All the singles at school are in a frenzy. It's quite amusing.. gonna be a good year :)

and

D) Bunco is tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Means I need to clean!!!

Beer, BBQ, and good times

The party was a wonderful success. WIDD came and Barefoot and I had a great time gettng to know her a bit more. Though over on my side of the court I was a little ADD and with so many people in attendence I found it very hard to stay in one room for too long and had to keep rotating finding new people to talk to!!!

Today was utterly lazy, except a much needed outing with Barefoot to buy provisions for our Bunco night this week and a little pizza snack :) I love just lounging around with the guys. We watch random History Channel shows and random things that I honest wouldn't watch by myself, but with them, it's great!! They let me lounge around all day eating leftover BBQ and being completely worthless.... It was much needed and greatly appreciated.. But it's late and we still have a practice in the AM that I need to be prepared for. Gearing up for full time back at school!!!!!!!! Summer, where did you go?!?!?!?!

Good Question: Bunco, What is it?

Well, let me tell you about Bunco:

Game Overview
Strictly speaking, Bunco is a game of dice, played in rounds. Players take turns rolling the dice and trying to accumulate as many points as possible to win each round. The game is played at tables of four in competing teams of two.
Players score points by rolling three dice and trying to match the number they're supposed to roll for that round. They get a point for each die that rolls the number, and if all three roll the number they score 21 points. They also score 5 points for rolling three of a kind of any other number. They get to keep rolling as long as they score one or more points with each roll. Once they fail to score they pass the dice to their left and the opposing team gets a chance to score.
During each round the teams at the Head Table try to score 21 points. The first team to score 21 points wins the round and play stops. At all other tables play stops when the Head Table play stops and the team with the highest score at each lower table wins the round.
At the end of the round players change seats, the winners at each of the lower tables move up a table, and the losers at the head table move to the lowest table. Players also switch partners at the end of the round, so you never play with the same partner twice in a row.
During play, players track the number of rounds they win and lose as a team, and the number of Buncos scored individually, on their personal scorecard. At the end of the night wins/losses and Buncos are tallied and prizes awarded.

NOT.. I mean, that's all true, but MOST IMPORTANTLY Bunco is a social game. It is meant for groups of ladies to get together, have a 'purpose', and leave everything else behind. No husbands, fiances, boyfriends, anything, new and old friends getting together, downing a few adult beverages, and catching up on all the good gossip, be it Raleigh gossip, Gossip Girl details, or what have you. It is a mindless dice game that you can most definitely get hyped up about, but you do not need to know how to play to play :) There are definitely rules to follow, but to be honest, as many times as I've played Bunco, I don't even really know how they count up all the points. I just smile and nod and hope I either win the big pot or get the biggest loser prize!!

So get a group together, try it, it's not as lame as you may be thinking. I judged at first too (sorry girls). But I think it's so fun because it brings people together, you meet everyone there, get a chance to talk to everyone, and it's just fun...

Bunco, field hockey, and kindergarten OH MY

I can't beleive a) how bad I've been this summer about posting and b) how quickly summer has gone by!!! This upcoming weekend, my boys are having a end of the summer bash and I just remember a couple months ago how far away it seemed and now all of a sudden it's here!!! What do you do to close the summer season???

Next week I, with Barefoot in the Park, get to host Bunco Night!!! It's a great group of girls who I met through Barefoot and though I've been a little slack in my attendence the past few get togethers, I'm so excited. I think some new comers will join us too!!! Yay Red and White Preppy and Well, I Do Declare!! Hope y'all can make it!!

Today is the first day of Field hockey practice at SMS. Last year it was a fantastic year and the girls were awesome. We went all the way to the States Finals, first time in school history, and lost in double overtime in strokes. If you don't know what that means, it's like in soccer when you have penalty kicks; one player vs. the goalie. I think one of the most unfair ways to determine the outcome of a game; but so be it. We lost pretty much ALL of our starting lineup to graduation, so it's a bit of a rebuilding year, but I can't wait to get started. (a little nervous too though!!) I'll be keeping you posted how we do!!

AND school starts sooo soon!! First day of classes on the 25th, but I'll be going in a bunch all of next week to get things all set up. OH I can't wait. As intimidating as the beginning of a new year is, I like how we have a staggered entry. We only have 5 or 6 kids come in each day so we can do initial assesments on them and see where they all stand coming into school for the first time. It's so eye opening every time I do it to really see what you're getting yourself into.

EEEK, still working at the toy store so I better get going before I'm late!!