Last week was teacher appreciation week and it was absolutely wonderful. I ended up getting Arbonne shampoo/conditioner, body wash and a super cute little makeup palette. $50 in Starbucks gift cards and the most adorable coffee mug that one of my students decorated for me(see attached). One of my favorite gifts was when my amazing husband sent pizza, dessert pizza and diet Pepsi to my school for teacher appreciation week. I was sooo popular during lunch! The best part was that he had the pizza guy write me a note and give it to me with the pizza. It was super cute! Then, today my parent coordinator came up to me and said, "Mrs. Jones I am so sorry I haven't given you your gift cards, hopefully I'll have them ready tomorrow. " I'm not sure what she has up her sleeve but it sure feels good to be appreciated!

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We had our young marrieds group last night and had a "make your own sundae" party! Wow...people brought some really good toppings. Our friends, Becca and Scooter even brought a chocolate fountain. : ) I had vanilla ice cream, hot fudge and gummy bears. YuM!

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Life's been a little busy lately but good busy so there is no complaining here! : ) Joe and I have been hosting a "young marrieds" group at our apt. every other Saturday which has been a great way for us to connect with other Christian couples. We have also been house hunting. I attached a picture of a house we recently put an offer on. It is a short sale so it may be a few months before we hear back from the bank. I'll post more pictures if we find out our offer was accepted.


Lastly, the school year is wrapping up and since we get a year end bonus, a bunch of data was due Friday. I'm an amazing procrastinator so of course I started and finished everything last week. : ) Anyways, the end of kindergarten is sooo fun! I am proud to say that everyone in my class is reading and majority of them are reading at a first grade level or higher! Even though teaching K has caused me to consume A LOT of caffeine, be constantly exhausted and spend a small fortune at Starbucks, I wouldn't want to teach any other grade.

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Joe and I went to my coworker, Nicole's house, for Easter. Nicole is my very fabulous K Aide who is notorious for doing late afternoon Diet Pepsi runs for me. : ) She is also a great teacher and friend. She and her husband made a really nice meal and we really enjoyed spending Easter with other Christians. Since I was in charge of dessert, I decided to make a carrot cake in the adorable bunny cake pan my Grandma Mooney got me for my wedding shower. I think it looks a lot better then the banana spice cake I made for Joe's birthday! (Maybe I should turn this into a baking blog) HAHA

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Joe's birthday was yesterday. I took him to the Denver Aquarium because if you don't know my husband, he has a small obsession with fish. We had a fun time and got some cute photos...























After we went to the aquarium, I took Joe to Texas De Brazil which is a Brazilian Steak House. It's a buffet but essentially all you can eat meat. The waiters bring around different cuts of meat to sample. It was so good and I definitely filled up on red meat since we don't eat a lot of it at home.

We had dessert at home, I made Joe a cake. It was a Old Fashioned Banana Spice Cake. It didn't turn out quite as pretty as the picture but it was still good! I don't get how people get cakes to look so beautiful. This cake looks like it was thrown together in 2 minutes but I promise I spent hours on it...maybe i shouldn't admit that. : (

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My good friend, Nicki visited last weekend. She was the first person from out of state to stay with us. Who is going to be 2nd?!?!? Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures except for this one. I had to share this great face mask I have. : )

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Joe spent the weekend in MN to close on our house. I was so happy that he stayed with my family even though I was a little jealous. My mom had everyone over for dinner to spend time together. Here is a Joe holding my new little cousin, Diana. Isn't she sooo cute and Joe's not too bad either! ; ) (My step-dad, Nick is in the background.)

Joe has a tradition of tying my brother Colton up. Colton is so independent that he doesn't let anyone help him escape. Somehow, he always manages to get out. Even though it's strange, I'm glad they have fun together and do something besides playing video games.

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We finally sold our house in MN!! It's such a relief that we don't have to worry about tw0 payments anymore. Joe's going to MN Thursday-Tuesday this week to sign papers and do a run through at the house. Since we lost so much on the house, we are hoping we can find an awesome deal on a new home. It's really fun to look but I am not very picky and have already found my dream home. : )
We still have a to wait a few months before we can put in an offer because we need save up money for a down payment and our lease isn't up until August. I hope the house stays on the market so we can put in an offer when the time is right. I want to post pictures but Joe would accuse me of getting too attached!!

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Joe made me breakfast in the bed this morning. Mmmm... he makes the best french toast. : )

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Viva Las Vegas... wow it has already been 2 weeks since Joe and I went to Vegas. We had a great time! The best dinner was at the Stratosphere. The restaurant was actually called, The Top of the World. The restaurant revolved 360 degrees throughout the meal so you could see all of Las Vegas. (See photos below) The view was absolutely amazing and the steak wasn't too bad either. : ) The best show was Ka by Cirque Du Soleil. I was in awe throughout the whole performance and I highly recommend it. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

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Okay... so I love playing scrabble and Joe is learning to love it! : ) I grew up playing with my grandma, mom and rest of the family and it was never super competitive but more of just a good time. As you can see by the above photo, my husband is competitive and he forced me to post his amazing, bazillion point word. Yes, he put aspires over a triple word score which also connected to beloveds so he got triple word on that as well. I don't remember how many points it was but I think you get the idea. I am happy to say that I didn't lose by that much!

P.S. Vegas photos are coming soon. Also, I have to write about my adventures coming home.

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I had my second formal observation of the year last week and I was super nervous. Older kids are usually scared of the Principal but I have some K students who find a visit from the Principal a chance to show off and be as obnoxious as possible...it's great fun! Anyways, when I went for my post-observation I was pleasantly surprised that Mrs. Leger thought I was doing a great job. The best part is that she asked me to teach K again next year!! I was so excited that I nearly jumped up and down. For those of you that don't know, there are 3 K classes this year and there will only be 2 next year so I really felt as though I had to work for the spot. Even though I am exhausted at the end of the day, I love teaching K! I think I have one of the best jobs in the world. : )

Top 5 funny quotes/stories from the past few week...

1. A little guy is walking into the classroom from gym class after he just got in trouble says, "Mrs. Jones, I'm sorry I got in trouble but I forgive you!"
2. After recess as the class is sitting on the carpet for phonics, a girl is crying and I ask her what is wrong. She responds through the sobs, "I am so embarrassed because I got kissed at recess"
3. During writing, one of my easily angered little guys asks, "How do you spell like?" I respond by saying, " Like is a sight word. I want you to do your best and sound it out." He responds with a loud, "UGGGG! You're a teacher and you won't even help me?!"
4. "Mrs. Jones, do you want to have a sleepover this weekend? We can play my new video game."
5. I am teaching the class about democracy ( in K language) and explaining that in the US we are not ruled but a King. One of the girls raises her hand and says, "Mrs. Jones we are ruled by a King, his name is Jesus!" Knowing that I don't have a class full of Christians, I'm not sure how to respond but simply say, "Yes, Jesus is a King for some people"

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As I was driving to work today, I heard the most beautiful song on K-love (local, Christian radio station). It's called, "When I say I do" and it's written and performed by Matthew West. K-love did a competition for the best love story and this song was written for the winning couple.


You can download it free on http://www.klove.com/

I tried to play it on here but I can't seem to figure out.

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Today is Presidents Day and I have the day off...one of the many benefits of being a teacher. I've just been lounging this morning and decided to make my favorite smoothie. It includes: frozen strawberries, blueberries, rasberries, yogurt and orange juice. I was so excited to drink my smoothie and update my blog BUT before I could do anything, the following events occurred...

As I am walking into the office, my smoothie flies out of my hands and spills all over Joe's white leather chair, the printer and of course the carpet. : )



After several minutes of scrubbing, rinsing, scrubbing, rinsing (you get the idea). This is the end result! If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I would like to get the stain out before Joe comes home from work.


After the whole ordeal, I sit down and enjoy what I have left of my favorite smoothie. (Yes, I had to get a new straw because the first one was crushed in the fall).

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Yah! Joe and I are going to Vegas at the end of the month. Joe always gets to to go to fun places for work and this time I get to tag along. The best part is that we are going to Cirque Du Soleil... I've been wanting to see Cirque Du Soleil since I first heard about it in high school.

Here's the link to the show if you're curious... http://www.cirquedusoleil.com

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Joe and I celebrated our first 6 months of marriage last week! With that, I had to stop and think of all we've done in the past several months. We...got married, went to Jamaica, moved to a new state, started new jobs, started a new church and a whole bunch of other fun stuff in the mix. Here are a few of my favorite photos to capture this hectic but fabulous time in our life.




Beautiful Jamiaca...Joe and I decided we are going back on our 5 year anniversary ( I have a feeling it might be before that)













Camping in Estes Park, Colorado. Joe does a good job at capturing the "real" me. : )







Our first time out snowboarding...I decided to ski instead of snowboard last weekend when we were out and I decided that I am never going to snowboard again. I may look cool with a snowboard but skiing is so much more fun and it doesn't hurt as bad!





Having fondue with our friends from Denver United (church). The cheese fondue was amazingly cheesy! God has blessed us with meeting so many new friends.

Joe got court side tickets to the Denver Nuggets basketball game. It was so much fun! I decided that sports are a lot more exciting when you're up close and personal! : )

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