My Upcoming Classroom!

Andrew and I have been working extremely hard in my classroom. Seeing how we are going on a four week vacation, that only leaves fives days before school starts. Not enough time to set up a brand-new classroom. Even though after all these years
I have gotten really good at setting up
classrooms in a day or two.

***Second year teaching--got hired the Tuesday evening before school started the following Monday---however, it was Back to School night on Thursday. It gave me one and half days to set up the classroom. But Wednesday was full of meetings, so I had Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Not only did I have to put my stuff into the classroom I also had to go through all the retired teachers stuff that was left behind. Good thing I had Sarah, Ben, and my mom to help*** ***5th year teaching I got hired in January at Meridian Private School. But I did not start teaching until the end of February. Oh wow, Margie you had a whole month to set up your classroom....wrong...the previous teacher didn't leave until Friday...I was starting on Monday. The school was being used on Friday night and Saturday morning. That gave me Saturday afternoon and into the wee hours of the morning. Good thing DeeDee and Erin Jo were there to help. Oh and did I mention I had to go through all of the stuff that was left over and basically clean out the entire classroom and then move my stuff in. It was a mess.*** ***7th year teaching...I got hired a week before school started and had only a couple days to set up my classroom. Luckily I didn't have to clean out too much in that classroom. It was actually pretty nice setting that one up. Plus I had the pleasure of Sandi's company! ***8th year teaching---I thought I would have so many weeks to set up my classroom, seeing how I moved to Rexburg at the beginning of August and didn't start teaching until the end of August. A whole month...oh but we quickly forget that a week of that was spent in the hospital and another week was spent recovering and the next week I couldn't really move too much. Thank goodness I had the Chapman's, Natalie, and my husband to help set up! Again I had to clean out all the old stuff left over from the previous teacher and move my stuff in.
Why do teachers think that is okay!! ***

Back to this classroom! The last couple of weeks, Andrew and I have had to rely on the custodians to get into the school...seeing how I did not have a key. There was only one day that I was not able to get in. I still worked on stuff at home. A teacher's job is never done. Yea for us, when we were up at the school on Tuesday, the secretary was there and she gave me my keys!! I feel so independant now.
I can go up there whenever I want!

Andrew has been so good. I really did score with an amazing husband! He has helped me out so much in my classroom. He actually put together my favorite place in the classroom. THE BOOK STOP! I have had one in every classroom I have set up...all 7 of them! The last two Andrew has created my tree. They are much better than what I ever made in my previous classrooms. He is an artist! Today, I took some pictures of The Book Stop. I will put other pictures up of my classroom when I take them. I just look at this corner and relax!!

I am really looking forward to this school year.
I think it is going to be the best yet.The Book Stop
(Richie made the sign back in 2001,
for my very first classroom)
Look at this awesome tree!
I organized all my books this summer.
They are all in an ExCel Worksheet.
They are now in the Book Stop
in Alphabetical Order by Author
All of the books have a label on them,
like a real library!

One Fine Day!

We began the day early by having a yard sale. Well we didn't have the yard sale we just piggybacked on our friends. It was a long and enjoyable morning as we sat and watched people rummage through our stuff. We ended the sale with $100 and sunburns.This is how we got the Fooseball table to the Yard Sale!
We are so creative!
Ah...the sights of a great garage sale.
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We love visitors so much we decided to have more. The Uminski family came up for a BBQ. We had a blast. After dinner the kids watched a movie while we played some Bohnanza. We love having the Uminski's over. The kids are getting so big and continue to be super cute.Forrest eating a cookie!After eating a cookie, Forrest had chocolate
on his face and he could not get it off. Enjoying our backyard...yet again!"Say Cheese, Nadia!" "CHEESE!"The Uminski kids watching a movie. Marek was so exhausted.

We love having VISITORS!

On Thursday, Kate and Branson came with Will and Dan, Branson's brothers...and oh yes, let us not forget everyone's favorite....JAMESON! The cute little one that grabs everyone's heart with his smile! They had been spending time in Lava Hot Springs for the week with Branson's family. They then decided to come and spend time with us! We felt so blessed to have company! It is hard to play games when there are only two of you around. So we took full advantage of having lots of people here!Playing Settlers! Will won!
We don't speak to him anymore! =)

Playing Bonanza! Such a fun game!
Branson, "That is not funny"
Playing Curses! Oh goodness this is such a wonderfully fun game!

Cake Tragedy

Oh how I love to watch Ace of Cakes, Food Network Challenge Cake editions, and look at people's blogs that show their amazing talents when it comes to decorating cakes. Unfortunately, I am still lacking in that talent. As for right now, I am blaming it on the altitude of Ashton, ID! It is a good thing they TASTE amazing. Andrew says my homemade icing is the best. Which, I am proud to say that my frosting really is fantastically wonderful! Well anyways...here is the sad attempt of a double layer cake made for Kate's birthday! Come back in a few years and you might see some better looking cakes!

Our Home which we LOVE!

Well seeing how we took a leave of absence from this here blog for quite some time we have yet to put up our home which we bought! We closed on our home on April 20th! That was a great day! It was a bit hard, because we signed the papers at 9:00 in the AM and didn't get our keys until after 5! But the wait was well worth it.
The first thing we did was PAINT some of the rooms. The MEDIA room is a deep red and our bedroom is a soft gray! Reminds me of my high school days...Hey, Hey, Red and Gray, Judson Rockets Fight. Hey, Hey, Red and Gray, Judson Rockets Fight!! Judson Rockets Fight! Gotta love those High School years. At any rate, we painted, and painted...three coats of the red!
Then the big move was a week later. (We went to South Dakota that weekend to celebrate my Grandma's 90th Birthday, which kept us from moving in until the following Wednesday!)
The Davis's helped us move. They have a nice trailor and the Chapman's were also there. The main tragedy came by way of the Chapman's tarp. On the highway it shredded into a million pieces. Awesome!

That night....April 29th we slept in our house for the very first time! What a fun night! We absolutely LOVE our house! LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It is just perfect. Andrew has been amazing and fixed some things up that needed fixing and we are living happily ever after.....until the winter comes!

Here are some pics of our lovely home!

Andrew is what we call AMAZING!

We have this HUGE tree in our backyard that gives us amazing shade over our deck! Sometimes the tree is a bit frustrating, like when the wind blows really hard and the all of the dead twigs cover our yard......or when the seeds fall and cover our entire deck and yard.....and we have yet to experience what will happen when the leaves fall....but as for now it is serving us a beautiful purpose. About a month ago we were in IKEA and we saw a display that had lanterns hanging from branches and we thought..."Wow, that would look so cool in our backyard and we have the best tree." However, we of course could not afford the lanterns at IKEA, so since then we have been trying to figure out what we could do to have lanterns hanging from our tree...
So, like with anything else that Andrew puts his mind to, he made it into a reality! He figured if he had votive holders and wire he could make it happen and he did! He made the wire holders.

In order to get the candles on the high branches, he attached string to a padlock and swung it around the branches!h Then attached a paper clip to the end of the string and then at the end the lantern was added on. It looks amazing! We put up seven as for right now, but will most likely be adding more later. It was 11:30 at night when we were outside doing this and the padlock kept falling on the deck making a really loud noise!

It looks amazing! I love it! It just makes our backyard look even better. I just love our house so much! It will be hard to leave it when that time comes, but as for right now, I know I have two and half more years to live it up!!!!!

Stargate SG1

Our new addiction is the show Stargate. Andrew has all ten seasons on DVD and since we don't have actual TV we watch this show all of the time. Margie has been working hard to categorize all of her books so it is nice to have something on while she does that. Unfortunately, it has been keeping us up pretty late each night. Luckily, it is summer and we can sleep in! It has been relaxing. We really like the show. Andrew has already seen all of the episodes before, but this is a first for Margie! We have really been enjoying this show.

Fourth of July in Ashton

This year the Fourth of July was spent in Ashton, ID, the cute town in which we reside. We were very fortunate to have the Chapman's come visit for the entire day. We first went to the parade. The fun of this parade is that you get to see it twice. It goes down Main Street and then it comes back down, so you can see it again! We collected much candy and got two free shirts from Frostop restaurant.
After the parade we made a pit stop at the Davis's garage sale and then to the City Park. We didn't spend much time at either place because we all had BBQ on our mind!! Andrew made some scrumptious hamburgers, hot dogs, and even grilled pineapple! It was a feast to be had. We all enjoyed the grub...potato salad, watermelon, chips, cookies and so forth, then headed inside.
It is a Uminski tradition to watch 1776 on the 4th of July. We tried to watch in on Netflix Watch Instantly, but our internet was too slow. It is okay, I at least got to hear my favorite songs, Lee, Sit Down John, and Mr. Adams. I don't know if they are the real name of the songs, but anything will do!

After the movie we played some fun games. Andrew and I have a new game, Curses, which we love! It was so much fun to play with the Chapman's. We also played Pitureka. It is also another really fun game.

We filled the remainder of the afternoon with outside games and singing in the Living Room and other fun things.

Finally it was time to go to the fireworks. We were all impressed with the show that Ashton put on. We throughly enjoyed watching the great fireworks. It was a great way to end the day. You know..I haven't had the chance to celebrate too many fourth of Julys the last six years and it was so nice to enjoy this one. Last year we were in Pfluergerville, this year we were in Ashton. Both of which were AWESOME days in our lives. It is just such a fun day to spend with family and friend. We loved having the Chapman's over and wished that they lived across the street from us!