Warning: Brain Overload!

No, my face has not been distorted by trick photography, nor has it been disfigured from a horrible accident... this is my 'seriously stressed-out' look. Yep, it's a pretty scary look. (WARNING: This blog will be a 'venting-session', so thank you in advance to those of you that actually read this all the way through!)

So, many of you have heard it over and over and over and over and over again, but this gal landed her very first teaching gig. I have been giddy, all smiles, ecstatic, celebrating with joy, and super-anxious to get my very first classroom set-up! Everyone that knows me has been telling me how natural I am at teaching and how good they think I will be at it; this kind of encouragement and kind words have been very uplifting and brought me much confidence! Now, a few warned me there is a lot of paperwork involved, but I've always been an extremely organized person, so the paperwork part didn't scare me. BUT, you know what's funny? Not one of those people put too much emphasis on the phrase "a lot of paperwork". Shame on yall!!

I have been in training sessions ALL DAY for the last 7 weekdays... today was my last training and I've had a 3-day headache, that frankly, I'm going to blame on stress from my brain being on severe overload!

Things I've learned about so far, but do not necessarily remember:

1) The Brigance Screening Process (Assessments) 2) Ongoing Class Monitoring Processes 3) Individualization/individualization transition processes 3) GOLD Assessment processes 4) School/teacher Readiness Plans/Implementations 5) Family Communication Engagements 6) What the Head Start program is about 7) Home visits 8) Payroll/Insurance 9) Signs of Sexual/Non-sexual Abuse 10) Frog Street Curriculum 11) How to log parent volunteers/donations 12) Student Support Services 13) Speech Screening processes 14) ARD Processes/Requests 15) How to calculate a child's 'true age' 16) Intervention Assistance process 17) Behavioral/Social-Emotional Screening processes 18) Family Wellness 19) Health Screening process 20) Nutrition Curriculum 21) The fact that I have to brush teeth every morning for 20 3-year old 22) How to enter ALL the above mentioned processes into a specific computer program 23) My deadlines for when certain assessments, data entry, reports, and home visits are due 24) And a whole bunch of acronyms like CPR (Child Profile Report), ICR (Individual Child Report), IEP (Individualized Education Plan), IEG (Individualized Education Goals), IFSP (Individualized Family Services Plan), ILG (Individual Learning Goals), FDW (Family Development Worker), FIE (Full Individual Evaluation), ITP (Individualized Transition Plan), CPS (Child Profile Report), RTP (Report to Parents), there's a ton more, do you want me to keep going??? Because I can if you really want me to!! Hahaha!

First thing Monday morning I get to go into my classroom for the very first time to take "inventory" of the items the school provides for me, then I can begin arranging my room and I get my list of the 20 3-year old that will be in my class. On Tuesday I am attending an all-day orientation, so no classroom arranging will take place, but then on Wednesday-Friday I get back in the classroom to finish setting-up. Also on my agenda for next week's chaos is to prepare nametags, cubbys, analyze each child's information, begin calling parents to set-up times/dates for my home visits, begin preparing each child's informational binders, get their 'journals' ready, and begin organizing the gobs of paperwork I have to have in place for each of these 20 kiddos. (Another stresser is that returning students will already be in the computer system from last year, BUT my class will consist of ALL NEW kids... this means more work for me; oh happy, happy, joy, joy!)

Now can you understand why my face looks the way it does in the picture above?!?!?

I will graciously end my 'venting-session' here, and many of you who actually read my blogs know I always end my blogs with the phrase "Until next time...". Well, if you don't here back from me within the next 2 weeks, send a search party out for my body. It will probably be buried near my desk, underneath the large pile of paperwork. Oh wait, Pre-K teachers don't get a desk. Ha!

Until next time...

Zombie Fest Fun!!

Zombies were EVERYWHERE at our house on March 9th, 2013!! Thank heavens they were here as friendly dead folk, and not here to eat us!

Katie celebrated her 12th birthday with 'family & friends' dressed up as "Zombies"! And it was a blast!! As many of you know, Katie is a huge Walking Dead TV series fanatic, and so it was only natural for her to have a Zombie-themed birthday party this year! A lot of work was put forth preparing for this party, but it was SO worth it! We hired a make-up artist to come out and paint the kid's faces if they wanted, and that lady did a fabulous job!! Her name is Jessica Nielsen, a fellow Houstonian who has a business called "Let's Face It". (If any of you are interested, you can find her on Facebook, or even here on Blogger using her business name... she RocKeD!)

This is The Brown Family "Zombified"! Don't we look totally disgusting! That's what we were hoping for! Thank you Jessica for doing not only our make-up, but the other party guests too!!

Now, one of the big hits of the party was the decorations! I have to thank Pinterest for most of my ideas, and a business on Etsy called 'Party Scribbles'! Party Scribbles provided the Zombie themed labels for the food table, the drinks, and the goodie bags! In addition to the 'signs', I came up with the idea to make the house look as if it was a 'safehouse' FOR Zombies vs. a 'safehouse' for humans... so, we got some red paint (thank you Jason!) and decorated clear painter's tarps to hang around the house! They came out perfect!

Overall, a wonderfully fun time was had by all, and this birthday party can go down in the books as a very memorable experience! (Unique to say the least!)

Below are several pictures of the decorations... ENJOY!!

Silver bucket tub holding sprite/water... there was another tub holding Big Red... AKA: Spinal Fluid!

This is a sherbet ice cream/ginger ale punch with green food coloring... this was the favored drink! Oh, and we had fake plastic bugs floating around inside the punch bowl; loved it!!

Black plates and blood-splattered napkins were not complete without a 'helping-hand'!!

Eyeballs... AKA: garnished deviled eggs.

Zombie Boogers... AKA: Popcorn with a green candy glaze.

Brain Dip... AKA: Cheddar/bacon flavored dip with Ritz crackers.

Veggies from Hershel's Farm. (Hershel is a character from the TV series The Walking Dead who originally made his farm into a safe house for his family.)

Guts... AKA: Rolled bread cooked with pizza fixings inside.

Oh, this party was SO much FUN!!! I also want to give a special thanks to my friend Gracie for coordinating the party games for all the pre-teen Zombies! You were a HUGE help!! BUT, the biggest thanks goes to all of Katie's family and friends who came to celebrate her 12th birthday with her in lou of it being the beginning of Spring Break! The party would not have been successful without the party guests!

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST... Our Zombie guests made the video below! Please ENJOY!

THE ZOMBIE HARLEM SHAKE!! (Click on link to view!)

http://youtu.be/8XwfuER0Bj8

Until Next Time...

"Love Day"

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FROM THE SUPER SILLY BROWN FAMILY!!!

Now that our "communication board" has officially wished everyone a Happy Valentine's Day, I can move on with how exciting 'Love Day' has been for my kiddos!!

For Katie, her Valentine's Day began yesterday!!! Nathan and me left the house to go pick Katie up from school, and when we all returned home, there was a non-labeled pink envelope and a box of chocolates sitting on top of our mailbox. Katie opened it, and the front of the card had her name written on it, but the inside of the card was unsigned! Hmmmm, secret admirer?? Whoever it was, is NOT coming forward because we still can't figure out who sent it! And Katie really enjoyed those chocolates! ToO cUtE! (See picture below!)

Okie-dokie... onto Nathan! Some of you may have heard of a game called "Mindcraft". Well, Nathan absolutely positively without a doubt is totally for sure addicted to this game! The whole game is pixelated like the old Atari games, and you 'build' houses out of 'blocks' so 'zombies' don't come get you. One of the 'bad guys' is called a "Creeper". Well, Nathan's class was given the option to bring a decorated box to class on Valentine's Day to store all their goodies in, and there were going to be awards given for various categories; he wanted me to make him a "Creeper Box", so a "Creeper Box" he got! Even though Nathan's Creeper box did not win any of the prizes, he REALLY likes the box I made for him!! (See picture below!)

Katie was kinda bummed to learn that junior high is not very welcoming of exchanging Valentine anything. Apparently they were told not to bring any to school because it was "just a normal school day"... between you and me, she did take 5 of her friends 'disguised' Valentine cards in hopes of not getting caught; I'm guessing she was successful because she didn't get in trouble for anything! BUT, Nathan is still in good 'ole elementary school and Valentine's are VERY welcomed! Pinterest helped me locate a CutE idea for Nathan, and with Nathan's FULL approval, we made them! He was looking forward to passing-out his 'special' Valentine to all of his classmates today! (See picture below!)

Finally, no Valentine's Day is complete without a special Valentine from Mommy & Daddy! Both Katie and Nathan got these cute stuffed doggies that hold a gift card with its mouth... BUT, as soon as you pull the gift card out of the doggies mouth, it barks and pants for a few seconds! These were too aDorAbLe! When we gave Nathan his, he gave it a huge hug right after he heard it make noise! LovE! Katie was too 'shy' to take a picture with hers; hahaha, 'tweens'! (See Nathan's picture below!)

Even though my kiddos are going to be hopped up on sugar for the next week, they have had an awesome day! They are DEFINITELY loved!! (Mostly by ME!! Hehehe!)

Until next time...

IMPORTANT Communication!

The above picture is The Brown Family's "Communication Board".

We use this board to 'communicate with each other in various ways. For example, in the top left corner, I am keeping track of how many girl scout cookie boxes we have ordered and not yet received. Katie's friends also like to 'sign' it, and Nathan has been keeping track of how many days are left until Valentine's Day. We also keep a list of what kind of groceries we need, to remind us of things we need not forget to take to work/school, and we write little cute 'messages' to each other.

However, this morning I woke up to the ALL CAPS message from Katie to remind us that The Walking Dead TV series starts back up tonight! Yes, I have to agree that this particular type of communication is seriously important to us! Even though we are not one of those families that have a backyard bunker full of supplies in preparation for the "Zombie Apocolypse", we are a family hooked on the fascination of Zombies period! We watch this TV series 'as a family', so tonight marks very important quality family-time! Ha!

Katie has been oh-so-patiently waiting for tonight to finally come! Katie is our biggest Zombie-fan EVER, and will probably even change clothes into one of her many Zombie shirts JUST for this show! (She will probably hate me for posting this, but she is Carl's #1 fan!!!)

We are ALL looking forward to "Family Zombie Night" tonight!!

Until next time...

100th day of school... Well, actually the 95th. Ooops!

For the past few years, the 100th day of school has been getting more and more popular. Each year the elementary school has the kids do something different. A couple of years ago, the kids were asked to make something using 100 items... Nathan made a Texas flag using 100 Lego pieces, and Katie made a VOE sign using 100 orange and white pom-poms. This year, the second graders have been asked to dress-up like a 100 yr. old! Can you say FUN!?!

Nathan was really excited about this one! Equipped with a cane, reading spectacles, shirt tucked in with a belt, socks up to his knees, and baby powder hair sprayed into his hair to make it look 'grey', I sent Nathan to school... and posted this very picture on Facebook!

Within an hour, I got a couple comments from other VOE moms. Apparently the 100th day of school was not until NEXT week!! All I could think about was how much Nathan was going to hate me and be SO mad at me for getting my days mixed up! I even emailed his teacher begging her to please tell Nathan I was SO sorry! Then I texted my mom to tell her what a bad mom I was, only to get a response telling me that her entire office was laughing at me! Geez!

Apparently I wasn't the only mom that got her days mixed-up... there was one other child that dressed-up too! BUT, I was SO relieved when Nathan told me he wasn't mad at me at all... he said he had fun with it! Ahhhh, instant stress-relief! (Of course, I found out the other kid that also dressed-up wasn't so lenient on his mommy! Ooops!)

What lesson did I learn from this mix-up????

That I need a vacation! Hehehe!

Until next time...

Most "Magical" Place on Earth!

Disneyworld... Affectionately called, "The Most Magical Place on Earth".

Even before we met, both Chris and my families have visited this 'magical' place. While we were dating, Chris and I visited this 'magical' place with his family. The day after Chris and I got married, we honeymooned for a week at this 'magical' place. Then we took our kids to this 'magical' place for their very first time for our 10 year wedding anniversary. And most recently, my parents enjoyed taking our kiddos to this 'magical' place...

They drove to Disneyworld the day after Christmas and stayed at the newest resort based on the Disney movie 'Cars', and enjoyed all the different Disney Parks for 6 days before driving back home.

Now here comes the 'funny story' behind my kiddo's 'magical' trip...

You see, this mamma is surgically attached to a camera at all times. I'm one of those moms that takes 100 pictures during a 15 minute event. Since I wasn't going to be there to experience the 'magic' with my kids this time, my daughter specifically asked for a good camera for Christmas so she could take lots of pictures for me. And a good camera she got. Wanna guess how many pictures she took?? Anyone?

43... in 6 days.

Well, that's OK. I'm super-thrilled my kiddos had a fantastically 'magical' time, and in all fairness, my poor daughter was actually sick for 2 of the days there. Poor baby! (Nathan got to enjoy one of the Disney Waterparks while Katie was resting in the hotel room, but she didn't mind since she failed to bring a swimsuit anyway...)

Anywho, out of those 43 pictures taken on Katie's new camera, please enjoy 6 of my favorites!

Until next time...