- 5th grade field trip all day in Springfield, MO- children's discovery museum, Incredible Pizza, and the zoo with 50 fifth graders, a few parents and two awesome teachers
- Henry's 5th grade celebration (that night after returning from Springfield) at Carousel Park here in Joplin
- Taysom's high school graduation (future blog post)
- Joplin, MO F-5 tornado (future blog post)
- worry and prayers
- clean up debris
- chainsaw trees
- move displaced families
- do laundry for tornado victims
- make phone calls to students and staff to account for everyone
- have house guests
- school cancelled for last couple of weeks
- organize all of my students' stuff that was left in classroom
- create 5th grade video to give to students
- finalize grades
- Joplin students go to various places to pick up belongings etc.
- Mike salvages what he can from his classroom
- 5th grade end of year pool party
- more clean up and helping tornado victims salvage what they can
- pack and move people's belongings
- Helping Hands (yellow shirts) service projects
- church is moved to Carthage, MO building (2 weeks of sacrament only while Church tries to figure out what to do with 2 displaced wards)
- Taysom and Tucker head to Nauvoo for Youth Conference
- prepare for family reunion in Nauvoo, IL (dog stuff, car stuff, packing, little shopping)
- Taysom and Tucker return from Youth Conference and quickly get ready to return to Nauvoo two days later
- WONDERFUL CROSBY REUNION***** (future blog post)
- Ilah stays with G&G Crosby to head out West for a little vacation with family
- WONDERFUL quick visit from Lamb family
- get Tucker ready and send to EFY in TX
- WONDERFUL quick visit from Keyes family
- start subbing for June session of summer school
- drive to Denton, TX to pick Tucker up from EFY
- help Tara move
- pick Ilah up in Kansas City, MO from her summer trip (Thanks Mom, Dad, Zadi, Russ, Nat, Chris, A, Mom and Dad!)
- get email (on July 3rd) about teaching summer school for July session (SURPRISE! Didn't really want to, but college tuition changed my mind)
- host 4th of July party at our home with four famililes
- start teaching summer school on 5th of July
- Mike gets a taste of summer school as he had to cover my subbing commitments (I'll have him write a blog about it... FUNNY!)
- finally celebrate Taysom's graduation with a trip to Bentonville, Arkansas for dinner at PF Changs (Taysom's new favorite chinese restaurant)
- get van ready for Tay and Tuck to take on road trip
- take Henry to Sirloin Stockade for early birthday dinner
- sneak in an orthodontist appointment for broken retainer and a doctor visit for possible UTI before they leave (morning of)
- send Taysom and Tucker off to Iowa for their 1st official job! (Thanks B&B for your wonderful hospitality!)
- Henry turns 11
- miss Lincoln's blessing
- get Ilah ready for her 1st year of girl's camp and send her off to 110 degree camping - Oh, how we miss the mountains!
- have my summer school students perform three reader's theaters for entire school that we worked on for past two weeks
- Mike finishes his masters program - Woo Hoo :)
- field trip with summer school kids in 108 degree temperature... outdoors all day at boy scout camp. I survived!
- summer school DONE (on July 29th, Friday)
- on Monday, August 1st, meet with fellow 5th grade teachers to start brainstorming for 2011/2012 school year
- on Tuesday, August 2nd begin working in classroom - which continues to this day.
- take Ilah to get physical so she can participate in school sports
- Henry starts Camp Invention (lasts all week- awesome program right up Henry's alley)
- find out that Snoop has diabetes
- host going away party at our house for our friends the Cramers who are moving to Kansas City, MO area. 6+ families over - home made slip and slide, water tramp fun, karaoke singing, guitar playing, eating and visiting
- Taysom and Tucker return from Iowa after a tiring yet fun 3 1/2 weeks
- start 'encouraging' Taysom to get a job (see Taysom's post below)
- prepare for and present mini workshop on prayer for stake Activity Days activity
- register Ilah for EMS (Mike's school)
- help Mike move school "stuff" to the 'Far East' warehouse that will be EMS for a couple of years
- help Mike clean and organize classroom
- try out Zumba with Taysom and Ilah (pretty fun!)
- Henry goes to 3 day Webelos camp which culminates with a pack meeting where he received his Arrow of Light and advanced to a real scout
- Attend all day mentor meeting - UGH
- attend Royal Heights "retreat" (fancy way of saying all day meeting)
- girls and I get our hair cut (and mine colored - bye bye gray)
It doesn't feel like we had a summer per se. But here we are starting the new 2011/2012 school year tomorrow. Crazy. Just plain crazy!
5 comments:
That is one seriously busy summer. Good times and great accomplishments.
That was impressive! No wonder you haven't had time to post for months, or feel like you've had a summer vacation. While you have accomplished some wonderful and worthwhile things, and in the process blessed the lives of your family and many others, I can't resist the impulse to advise you to use caution and not overextend yourself ALL the time. I think the scriptures have something to say about that.
Here's hoping a return to the routine of a regular school year will provide some respite.
Love you!
Holy Smokes! Take a Breather! Yikes that is one busy summer, hopefully a regular schedule during the school year will be more relaxing! You guys are awesome.
Whew! I bet your summer did fly by! Are you teaching 5th grade again?
Taysom, did you get a new job?
Love you guys!
What can I say? My head is spinning. I hope you found joy in your accomplishments.
I don't know why I'm writing, you don't have time to read this.
Love forever,
G and G. Wallace
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