This Time of Year

Monday through Wednesday my sister, Amy, came to visit. We had a great time. On Tuesday we did fun stuff like "Ride the Ducks" to see the city and go to the Cincinnati Museum Center to watch an Omnimax film about Australia and the Cincinnati History Museum. We had a great time! I miss her already!

Amy, Me, and Brent getting ready for our ride.
The picture that the guy wanted us to buy was better, but who wants to spend $20 on something I can print myself?

We each got a duck caller. There's a picture of Amy with hers in her mouth, but I promised not to post it. Brent never used his, so I think Dallas, my nephew, gets it.

Amy and I in front of the Museum Center.
Aren't we cute?

Now that the house is finished with Phase 1, I have started working at school. The first day for students is August 18, and I have to go back on August 14, with Meet the Teacher that night. I'm really excited for this new year! (I know, I'm a nerd!) I spent about four hours yesterday and the same amount today just making the classroom feel homey.

I know that a lot of teachers like to do the same thing every year, but I'm not one of those. I get bored with monotony and have to change it up. I'm kinda excited about my set-up this year because even though I did not get windows, I am on familiar territory by having the same room. It's nice being in the same room two years in a row. This comes from someone who has been at 4 schools in 6 years. Crazy, I know!

One crazy thing that I did was get another teacher to help me take up some shelves from the floor with a power drill and stack them on top of each other. "Why is this crazy?" you ask. Well, because they had not been moved since being put in and it was DISGUSTING underneath them. I had to borrow a big scraper on a stick to get all of the junk up off of the floor. Despite the nastiness, I gained a lot of space from moving the shelves.

Now the room is pretty much set up, but there's a list of about a million things on the board that must be completed before the 14th. It will get done; I have no worries.

Here's where I need your help! I need a cute name for my class motto this year. I want something that starts with the "K" sound, like Carney. Here are names I have used before:

• Carney Cougars (2005-06)
• Carney Crew (06-07)
• Carney Clan (07-08)

I was going to go with "Carney Camp" but don't know how much I like it because one of the 3rd grade teachers does a camping theme every year. You know how kids are, "This is what Mrs. R did" even though it's nothing like her because I'm not doing an entire class theme, just a bulletin board and a class name. Seriously, I'd love suggestions!

So that is what's going on here, as similar to this time every year.