Winding Down

As the school year winds down I am overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I have! Yikes...3 suitcases a few MFIs and many hand-me-downs sure does add up!
AND then I think of all the stuff I need for next your to become a good second grade teacher. God will provide he always does. I may have to wait for the new things but it will be worth the wait.

URGENT prayer...sort of silly/selfish/actually legit...my computer has been malfunctioning for the better part of the last few months. I will need to purchase a new one this summer most likely. Please pray for a computer to be provided as money is very tight OR a quality used one will be found by Ash who has been so helpful to me but also to my friends here. He's sort of a celeb among all of us who he has helped...without him we would have waited months to get any sort of help. so a big thank you!!!

i need to go before my keyboard completely makes everything disappear. :(

MAYO en la Republica Dominicana

Sorry for the lengthy absence...they do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder...so without delay let me fill you in on my life while I've been away from the blogging world.

May 1st - 3rd grade field trip to Santo Domingo. I know I went on long adventures in elementary school. BUT I never realized the dedication and patience it took on the part of the teachers.

Needless to say there were rewards too. Like the aquarium/McDonald's and lots of singing on the bus.

Here are some snap shots of that day.

May 5th - Cinco de Mayo - first one in a Spanish country but sadly it means nothing here

May 28/29th - Volcano Days

May 30/31 - La Playa

Brief Hello

Greetings from the Dominican Republic where it is nice and balmy.

This entry comes after a long last few days. This week was our last short week before school is done on June 10th. Today much like the last day or so I spent in my room with a migrane. Thankfully this migrane was not accompanied by virus bug that I had Thursday night into early Friday morning. It has been a long few hours since solid food. Thankfully I have wonderful friends who bring me Gatorade and sub for me at school on short notice.

Home in just about 40 days.

Blessings

Just received word from Amazon that 2 of my items on her wish list have been purchased! PTL! Thank you to the person/people who did that. I am so excited to start DLR and DMR with my students next year. :)

The weather here has not gotten utterly unbearable yet...relishing that while I can.

Tastes of Home

Today has been a good day with lots of tastes of home:

1) 24 hour power! Today was the first day that we have had power all day in about 2 weeks. HAPPY DAY

2) Hot shower! a full 8 minutes of hot water...rare.

3) America Water Pressure

4) THUNDER - it normally doesn't thunder here but tonight it did and it was glorious! I miss Indiana thunderstorms.

5) Bubbles. I got to watch my kids chase bubbles today with no reserves as too who was watching. so cute.

T- 2 months

In only a mere 8 weeks I will be setting foot in the United States for only 6 weeks.

Before I can come back there are some very important things that must be done here.

1) Finish writing the 2nd grade spelling curriculum...yes, I, am writing - more like modifying the A Beka first and second grade curriculums into 1 along with the East Lansing School Corp. Sitton Spelling program. I am not a huge fan of the current curriculum so I'm supplementing it and using the best parts. AND making it ESL friendly.

WHY undertake such a huge task...well it's easy save money on one part to get more money for another part. WOOT. all this in hopes to have a decent Reading curriculum or at least a better Math.

2) Grades...always and forever on the minds of every teacher.

3) Packing up my life, but I'm getting ahead of myself with that one.

But back to the curriculum. I have created an Amazon.com wishlist of several curriculum supplements I would like to use next year. The beauty of Amazon is you can buy used. :) below is the link to my wish list. The items are ranked in order of my highest priority...once you see them you'll notice most of them are high.

You can see Brooke Anne Jantzen's entire Wish List at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/PW5BXWCQLNY7

More later. That's it for now.

Remember when...

...I first posted about my beautiful new stairs to my roof?



Sadly they will soon lead to another house. That's right our landlord is building a second floor! :(

Today when I got back from town I saw
one GIANT cement truck with powder and cinder blocks.
about 15 Dominican men only 3 of which were the workers.
and one very happy and busy Guido.

Goodbye to the sweet view of our surroundings.

Goodbye peace and quiet.

Goodbye carport for drying clothes.

To see some pictures of our lovely pile of blocks/wall/fortress we now live in visit Natalie's blog.

*** do not believe everything you read--refering to the last portion of her blog...i did not talk to any of them except our landlord Guido.