Summer Camp: Weeks 2 & 3

Good Evening!

SOOO SORRY I HAVE BEEN SLACKING!!!! I get home from work each night and literally all I want to do is sit on my fat butt and watch TV..these kids wear me out! (I ought to get used to it though because it's what the rest of my life is going to entail, ha! Oh the joys of working with children :) Last week was crazy, no INSANE. We went on a field trip every single day, and they were huge ones. Monday we went to the neighborhood park, Tuesday we went to Powell Gardens, Wednesday we went to Worlds of Fun, Thursday we went to a T-Bones game, and Friday we went to an indoor pool. An eventful week to say the least, which meant tons of hilarious comments out of the kiddos. I hope you enjoy a few of my favorites :)

Monday:

"See Miss Brittany, the reason I like you is because you have skinny muscles."

I was out on the playground with one of the kids and I grabbed him and lifted him up into the air. He quickly said the above statement. I laughed, and asked him what he meant by that and he proceeded to tell me that I was muscular because I could lift him up, but I was skinny because he could wrap his arms around me. When in doubt, count on a kid to make you feel good about yourself :)

Tuesday:

Bu-ske-tee=Spaghetti

We were doing a get to know you project and the kids had to write down their favorite colors, subject in school, and their favorite food. I looked at one of the kids papers and couldn't help but chuckle at the way he had spelled 'spaghetti.' In his defense, he spelled it exactly the way he says it, so props to him for "sounding it out." Dr. Levin would be so proud.

"Field Trip Name: Jurrasic Park."

As stated earlier, we went to Powell Gardens on Tuesday for the Jurassic Adventure. The tour guide walked the kids through the pre-historic dinosaur era and explained all kinds of interesting facts about life during the dinosaur age. When we got back to school, we had the kids journal about the field trip. At the top they were to write the field trip name, and one of the kids wrote "Jurassic Park" instead of "Powell Gardens." Priceless.

Wednesday:

We went to Worlds of Fun which was an adventure in itself! As my group was walking to the Spinning Dragons (yes, these children conned me into riding a semi-roller coaster. Although I was not happy about it at the time, I screamed the whole time and somewhat enjoyed myself :) we ran into another group. One of the boys was holding a giant dog that he had won! What are the chances that in ONE TRY he would hit the bulls eye, but he did and had to carry this huge black dog around the rest of the day. On the bus, the dog occupied one seat position, and one of the kids fell asleep on the dog on the way back to the school. It was so cute, so we just had to snap a picture to remember the moment. When we got back to school, we found a piece of paper on the floor that read:

"Beware of the teachers when you sleep."

They had seen us snap pictures of kids sleeping because get real, sleeping kids are just hilarious to watch, and so they wrote this on a piece of paper so their classmates would beware next time when they sleep on the bus!

Thursday:

"I can do it myself, Mr. Bossy Pants."

I don't totally know the background on this story, but two kids were playing a board game and one of them kept insessantly bossing the other around about what to do and how to play, so the other kid quickly responded with the above statement. Haha, whatever works to defend yourself!

This job keeps getting better by the week, and I hope the quotes will inspire, or maybe just brighten up your day just as they did mine! :) I have more interesting things to blog about, and I promise to update more frequently, so stay tuned for the next post: Cheesecake and Wine Extravaganza! :)

Until then,

Brittany

Weekend of Inspiration

Good Evening!

It has been a long few days, but so worth it! This weekend my family (and Cam) made the trip to Peoria, Illinois for my cousin, Nick's wedding. I never turn down an opportunity to attend a wedding, so I took off work Friday and made the trek with the family there! It was a good bonding time, and we got a lot more than just ideas for a wedding out of the trip.

We enjoyed some leisure time together in the car listening to music, watching Marley and Me (tear-jerker for sure) napping, and having good conversation together.

Cam decided it would be a good GREAT idea to start taking pictures of all the capitols in the US. Who knows if this will actually happen or not, but it is a good goal to have! This is in Springfield, the capital of Illinois. One down, 49 to go :)

We also made a stop in Hannibal, MO to see Mark Twain's home he grew up in! Yes, kind of lame, but my father and Cam were eating it up, as they are huge history buffs so my mom and I humored them an we got out and looked around too.

Famous portion of the book Adventures of Tom Sawyer...anybody?

Sarah Thatcher, Tom's sweetheart, lived in this house!

In front of Mark Twain's childhood house!

After a few stops, we were finally in Peoria. Friday night it was perfect weather so we sat on comfy lawn chairs outside and played catch up with some family members. (My dad's family lives in Ohio so we don't get to see them as often as we would like, so we like to just sit and talk when we get the chance!) Saturday morning we had a gourmet breakfast at the hotel (Embassy Suites) and then went downtown to do a little shopping, and made it back to the hotel in time to shower and get ready for the wedding!

Their guest book was custom made by their photographer and they had visa-vie markers for the guests to sign different pages of their engagement  pictures. I had never seen this idea before, but it was cute and creative, especially for those of you who love pictures!

Pretty white card holder...very romantic looking :)

This was their guest seating board...another great idea if you love photos! My mom and I were assuming their photographer made this for them as well...but it was really well laid out and allowed guests to know exactly where they were suppossed to go to sit!

The following were all pictures from the reception. It was STUNNING and people were talking in a great way about it as we went in! It was a bit much for my taste, but there was no contest that it was beautiful, and I have pictures for proof.

It was a beautiful weekend of inspiration in many ways and I hope it inspires you just as it did me! Happy beginning of another work week!! :)

Until then,

Brittany

Just Call Us Martha Stewart

Good Afternoon Bloggers!

Ever since I started blogging, I began searching for awesome craft blogs I could follow. Although I am not the best at implementing things (anyone will you tell you this), I am great at digging for good ideas and putting a creative spin on ideas to make them more exciting! I found some marvelous ideas on different blogging sites of DIY projects for the house. Since I am FINALLY getting my own room next year (I love you Kappa Kappa Gamma, but my time of living in the house has officially passed) I needed to find decorating ideas they were not the KKG letters, fleur de lis, and owls ha!

Kimmy and I spent the weekend looking for the best deals on decorating things around town. Some things we bought because we found a great deal such as

...this mirror, a STEAL at Hobby Lobby. Rod iron, originally $80 on sale for $25!!! I am going to buy some turquoise color and paint it to match my room and it will be totally pretty....fingers crossed :)

...or, this beautiful pearly white lamp from Kirklands. A sale in the store plus a 20% off coupon took this lamp from $40 down to $21!! The flowers were originally priced at $20 (way overpriced if you ask me) and I got them for $8.50 :)

Other ideas I found on blogs, as stated above, and my mom and I spent yesterday and today creating the perfect decor for my room such as...

...these super cute clothes pins. A pack of 24 was $2 and then I bought three different sheets of scrapbook paper that matched the color of my room. I cut the pieces to fit the clothes pins and then used rubber cement to glue them on. I am going to hang black and white pictures from a clothes line on the top of my room with these pins. Great idea and very inexpensive.

...I found a heavy duty insulated bin on sale from Target for $5, and I picked out this beautiful fabric ($1.80 from JoAnn's) and covered the box with spray adhesive. It was a bit hard getting the edges on there, but the final product looks great! My mom found some crayon fabric so she made one too for an extra crayon holder at school! Cheap and cute idea to bring in the colors of a bedroom, hold extra papers/mail, or use for many purposes in a classroom!

...these four were my personal favorite thing we made. You can buy sets of 2 of art canvas on sale at Hobby Lobby for $3 a pack, and then find some fabric that you like. We covered the canvases and then they can be placed on the wall as decorative art that you made all by yourself as opposed to purchasing it for way more money!

Thrown in the mix was also a pencil jar I made with extra fabric out of a green bean can, a candle that matched perfectly on sale for $6, and some other white flowers I got from a friend for Christmas ($10 at Pottery Barn).

I have loved doing the projects and can't wait to fill my room with all this stuff and see how it turns out!

Until then,

Brittany

Week 1 of My Job is Awesome

Good Evening (night??),

Week 1 of work is over and I am still awake right now, which is incredibly surprising given that these kids are emotionally DRAINING!! However exhausted I may be at the end of the day, it is all worth it. These kids (the 20 that I have met already, this number will double next week) are incredible kids! They are respectful, have undeniable manners, and play together wonderfully (for the most part). Sure, kids will be kids so there are moments where I don't hear "thank you" or they are arguing over who gets to read with the pretty "zebra striped pillow" but for the most part they are great kids who are looking forward to an awesome summer :) Every week I am going to try and track the funny comments I hear so I can blog about them, because let's get real, kids are hilarious. I will give you the funny quote, followed by the story. I hope it entertains you as much as it did me :)

Day 1:

"No I get the top bunk and you can crash on the floor because that's what you do in college when you have a book report due." 

The kids each have a pillow they get for free reading time, however since we only had 20 kids this week, we had lots of extra pillows. A group of 3 girls going into 4th grade created a "Book Club" where they each read a book and write a summary of each chapter (golly, as a future educator I was BEAMING as they were doing this all on their own!) They created a pile of pillows and called it their "bunk beds" as they worked on their book reports, which is where this quote was said. To be honest, this is not far from the truth. I can remember many late nights freshman year in room 238 where Breanne, Steph, Whitney and I were all crammed in my room attempting to get some homework done :)

Day 2:


"This is scary, am I going to die here in this room, right now? Everyone assume the correct positions."

We had some bad weather earlier this week, and the tornado sirens went off around 11 AM on Tuesday. We quickly got the kids into one of the director's office downstairs and closed the door as we waited for the tornado to pass. The kids were freaking out, as you could expect, and a precious little boy who is going into 1st grade was worried that this tornado would be the death of him. After saying the above statement, he quickly knelt down and covered his neck with his hands and assumed the "correct position." It was so endearing and it made me fall in love with this cute blondie :)

Day 3:

"I'm sorry Miss Brittany, but it was a sneak attack water puddle. I couldn't help it."

We took the kids to the park the day after it had rained an extensive amount. We specifically told them not to go anywhere near the mud or any  puddles. Within 10 minutes of being at the park, the same kid I talked about above with the tornado story was running around with his shoes off. When I went up to him and asked why his shoes were off he said the above statement. It was one of those moments where it took everything that was in me to not bust up laughing. Instead, I calmly said, "Okay buddy, we will dry them off when we get back to the church." Priceless moment, this stuff is so not scripted.

Day 4:

"No no, it's an underwater roller coaster, DUH!"

A new kid to the camp this year, has a wild imagination! He is constantly off playing by himself and creating extravagant stories and characters. We were coloring and he was avidly drawing a picture...he even had his tongue out which is a true sign of an artist hard at work. One of the little girls were quite confused about what his picture was of, so he responded with the above statement. HA, it was awesome. He could be one of the funniest kids I know. He's great.


Day 5:

"Well in my house my mom cooks, my brother and I do the dishes, and my dad sits on his butt and watches sports center."

On the bus back from the pool today we were talking about the roles of men and women in the house. A going to be 3rd grade girl said her family was a little different than others. She followed by saying the above statement. We laughed and with the straightest face ever she said "You think I'm kidding...well I'm not. That's all he does..hogs the TV with sports center alllll theeee timmmmeeeee." HAHA, I laughed out loud at that one, I couldn't help it. I so badly wanted to say, "Well, your dad sounds like the typical American man," but I refrained. She will learn that lesson sooner or later :)

It was a great week, and when we double the kids next week I'm hoping to have double the stories! Have a fabulous long Memorial Day weekend!! :)

Until then,

Brittany

Teacher Practice

Hello Again!

Work has been boring to say the least for these past few days. The beginning of last week we were busy setting up, but these past few days have been a lot of sitting around, talking, playing ping-pong, card games, facebooking, etc. No, we are not being lazy, we just don't have anything else to do until the kiddies get here (which should be tomorrow afternoon, fingers crossed!!)

We finished setting the room up last week and it looks just like a real classroom, except for less educational stuff and more games! Making the bulletin boards, organizing things, and setting up cabinets was good practice for when I will do it on my own (next year hopefully!) Enjoy the pictures of the "Explorers Summer Camp!!"

Our pillows for "rest time." Yeah right, like 12 year-olds are going to want to do that? I think not.

My co-worker, Adam, and I put these together from SCRATCH! It took us forever to figure it out, (one of them came with no instructions, awesome right?) But they looked good in the end...they are all labeled and ready for kids to use!

Setting up was fun and good teacher practice. Now all we need is the kids. Bring. It. On.

Until then,

Brittany

Weekend Festivities

Good Evening!

I have decided to write a blog post of my weekend activities before I go to sleep for the night! Working full time results in bedtime at a much earlier time than usual...sigh, I am a real adult now. THAT SUCKS. Although now I do understand why adults live for the weekend; those two days are absolutely precious.

Saturday a friend of Cameron's family was turning 5, so we ventured to their house for a SWEET birthday party. Not only did I get some babysitting jobs, but I also got some great ideas for future birthday parties. This party was legit, as seen below.

They had a moon bounce, balloon maker, pinata, face painter, TWO birthday cakes (for two birthday girls) and so many other awesome things, INCLUDING...

this sweet treehouse! I was talking to Gary, the owner of the house, and he informed me that he built this all by himself! Not only was I quite impressed, but I took a picture so Cam could remember what it looked like so he could replicate it a few years from now when I need him to :)

We also went to Crate and Barrel to buy a wedding gift for my cousin's wedding in a few weeks (that store is AMAZING and so decently priced). Cam and I found some great lawn furniture that we tried out :)

This chair was very cushioned AND, it rocked! So fun, we may have to buy one of these someday for my white wrap around porch that may look something like...

this! We drove around Gardner today to house shop, (just for fun, no we are not actually BUYING a house, calm down!) This house was BEAUTIFUL and I loved the wrap around white porch. That chair that we found at Crate and Barrel would look marvelous as a part of this house :)

Saturday night we went to dinner and a movie with the wonderful Ashley James and her BF Jordan. We saw Bridesmaids which was funny, yet somewhat disturbing at certain times. We found a theater with tickets for $6.50 each so it was well worth it! After the movie we went to Olive Garden for dinner and had a waiter that sounded JUST LIKE Kurt from Glee. Haha, good thing I am now referencing Glee as a part of my daily life :)

I told Cam I would take him on a shopping spree if he got the internship, so we took a family trip to JC Penny's today to shop and we all had quite a good time as Cam tried some stuff on...

He found some good stuff and is now ready to "Dress for Success."

I also have been looking for a bedspread that can be used for my room next year, and beyond for a guest room someday. I found a GREAT deal at the Home Goods store for a comforter, 2 boudoir pillows, 2 pillow shams, and a pillowcase so I snagged it! I am going for a light and airy feel for my room (since it is so small, I don't want to use dark colors that will make it look even smaller). The color choice, after much dismay, has been decided as light blue (teal-ish) and white! I am looking forward to finding more cheap, cute decorations for my room throughout the rest of the summer.

I hope you all had a great weekend and are looking forward to another busy work week! :)

Until then,

Brittany

A Farmer in our Midst

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a farmer in our midst!! Okay, not a literal farmer, but if you are curious as to what I am talking about, read on.

Last semester Cameron FINALLY decided on a major; personal family finance. This semester he finally got into classes that actually mattered to him, and he sort of began to enjoy school (ha, who thought I would ever say that about Cameron Thomsen). Since he was late to switch majors, he had not looked into any internships in the fall when most of them were being offered. He frantically began searching for an internship in mid-January and caught a break with a company that called him for an interview in mid-Febrary. He got all geared up, put on his Sunday best, and headed to Holtz Hall at KSU for his interview. They told him he was a good interviewer, however after not hearing back from them in over three weeks, he figured that job was a bust.

Feeling rather down on himself, he continued on with the semester and continued searching for other internships opportunities, but it was truly slim-pickins (sp?). In the beginning of May, my dear friend Valerie Fernandez (holy cow, that still sounds so weird!!!) alerted Cameron of an opportunity with Farmers Insurance (her company) that was a nine week internship program. He immediately applied and was notified that the process to get an actual internship was rather grueling--it began with an intensive background check, followed by a series of tests that he had to pass, a phone interview was next in line, and if you made it through all that, then you got an actual interview.

To Cameron's surprise, he quickly passed all the tests and was given a phone interview. Alex, the HR College Recruiter that talked with Cameron was extremely helpful with offering advice on how to become a more effective interviewer. Cameron tried to take all of this advice in as he spent the remainder of the week studying for finals, while trying to prepare for the big interview (he was totally stressed this week, so he was a bit a LOT moody this entire week!)

His interview went well and then it was a waiting game for the next week as they conducted more interviews and deliberated over who would be a good fit for the company. Farmers likes to find people that are there for a career, not just a job, and getting an internship with them really opens the door for future employment. We spent the last week praying and trying to surrender to God's plan for Cameron's life. We had to realize as heartbreaking as it would be if he did not get the internship, that God has something even better in store for him.

This afternoon, around 3:00, I had a phone call from Cameron saying he got the job! I was beyond words excited, and I couldn't manage to say anything other than how proud of him I was. He had done it and this wonderful summer opportunity was just beginning!! I promised Cam I would take him out to a nice dinner and then treat him to a shopping spree to get some awesome new "professional" clothing. Tonight we had a celebration night in honor of all that Cameron has achieved!!!

The card I gave Cameron right after he first found out!

I gave him a little car to symbolize him "zooming" into a new opportunity in life! Cheesy, yes. It was SUCH a teacher move on my part...oh well!

I surprised, (well, attempted to surprise Cameron) with a trip to the Melting Pot for a little celebration!!

Us at dessert...sorry my neck looks like a total giraffe :(

Kimmy and JC joined us as well :)

It was a great night, and very relaxed to show Cam how proud we were of him. I sound like a parent to proud of their child, but it was an awesome day that deserved to be blogged about! I hope it was some good Friday night reading for you all :)

Have a wonderful weekend and try and stay dry....and enjoy your last night before the "end of the world at 6 PM tomorrow" ;-)

Until then,

Brittany