The calm before the storm

I spent this past week getting my classroom ready for the first day of school - which is tomorrow (Monday). The thing that I think most people outside of education don't realize is that the "teacher work week" is not just for us to spend in our classroom. We have professional development days every day except one. So, to work in my classroom, I have to start at about 4:00 after all of my meetings. This makes for a long week.

Plano is all about "teamwork". Everything that is done has to be done as a grade level team. I am not used to this. So, setting my my classroom and preparing lessons for this first week of school was much different than it has been in the past. Different = longer hours. So, yes, by the end of the week I was exhausted. The good news is that my room is ready and I do know what I am teaching the first day of school!

On Friday night we had a "meet the teacher" night. The parents and students can come in, find their classroom, meet the teacher, drop off supplies, etc. I think this night went really well. I can already tell I have wide variety of personalities in my class, but that is normal. I met some parents that seemed really great. I also got some interesting comments from parents. My favorites are below:

Comment #1: I hear your husband teaches at the middle school and you just moved here from Lewisville. (i.e. this parent checked up on me)
Comment #2: You come highly recommended. Linda (my principal) had a lot of good things to say about you. (i.e. this parent checked up on me with the principal)
Comment #3: You aren't at all what I pictured. I knew a lady growing up named Hattie and she was a 65-year-old African American woman.
Comment #4: Everyone on this hall is pretty. This is like the pretty hall!

Below are pictures of my classroom.

Standing in the doorway.

Another one from the doorway

My favorite (on only creative) bulletin board. It is for when we find great words that we want to use in our writing.

From the front of the classroom looking back at where I was standing before. Please note the lack of a door. Plano is very "open concept", meaning no doors and everyone can hear everything you say.

Catching up

You might be asking yourself, "Where did Hattie go?" The logical answer would be that I have been watching the Olympics. And, while that is true, there is a much more prominent reason I have been absent. It is called Plano ISD. Oh me, oh my! What have I gotten myself into? But, more about that on a later blog. While working my little tail off, I have managed to squeeze in a few enjoyable things over the last few days.

On Saturday, I helped to host a baby shower for my friend RaeAnn. She is going to have a little boy in October, and we are so excited for her and Cody.

RaeAnn (in pink) with all of the hostesses

On Friday, Justin and Alli had their twins - Jake and Mallory. They are absolutely adorable! We went to see them on Friday, but we didn't get to hold them because they were being taken back to the nursery for a while. Well, I just couldn't stand not getting my hands on those cute munchkins, so we returned on Sunday. We are so excited for you, Justin and Alli! Congrats!

Proud mom and dad (I think they might be a little tired from lack of sleep!)

Holding Mallory
Yes, you are seeing clearly! Mark is holding Mallory!
Little Mallory
Little Jake

Haylee holding Jake and me holding Mallory

Finally, today I got a wonderful treat at school! My mom sent me a cookie bouquet my first year of teaching, and lucky for me, she decided to turn it into a tradition! So, every year, during teacher inservice week, I am so unbelievably lucky to get this little pick-me-up!
I think I'll go have one now . . .

U - S - A!!!

Yes, yes, I LOVE the Olympics. I am not, and have never been, good at sports. So, I live vicariously through all of the athletes. So, in honor of the 2008 Olympics, we held an "Opening Ceremony" party last night. We had 15 people in attendance and we all crowded around the T.V. in our living room. The night was filled with great food (pizza and brownies!), great conversation, and great friends. Hearing everyone's comments about the performance was very interesting, indeed! Then, when it got to the parade of the nations, we kept taking bets (don't worry, no money involved) on who could guess how many athletes different countries had participating. I won the bet on the USA with a guess of 633 and it was really 647, I think. The United States had the most athletes participating, but China ran a very close second. Props to the Stringers for sticking it out and staying all the way to the end of the ceremony with us! Then, this morning in my groggy state-of-mind, I remembered it was Olympics time and hopped out of bed to turn on the T.V. I watched the USA women's volleyball team beat Japan in 3 sets to 1. What a great way to start the weekend! Happy Olympics watching to you all!

Our living room was full!

Oreo, on his perch, keeping watch over everyone.

The All-American Breakfast Burger!

Mark here, Hattie is up at her school working in her room, and I'm at home left to my own devices, mwaaahahha.

I love the traditional American Breakfast. Fried eggs, sausage, bacon, ham steaks, hash browns, I love it all. Breakfast foods are greatness.

I also like hamburgers.

I don't know if you've ever seen one, but some restaurants will put a fried egg on a burger. I already liked bacon on a burger, and then they put fried eggs on a burger, so I thought to myself, "breakfast foods make burgers better."

So I figured if a few breakfast foods make a burger better, than all the breakfast foods will make a burger FANTASTIC!

So today I began the All American Breakfast Burger, of which I recently finished eating all of it that I could.

The cast of characters: Beef patty, sausage, bacon, egg, cheese, ham steak, hash browns, jalapenos, and a kaiser roll. Not pictured: the egg, it was still in the fridge.



Burgers cooked on Foreman grill, everything else on the electric griddle, I also toasted the bun on the griddle.







Assembly was as follows, from bottom to top:
cheese, bacon, beef patty, hash browns, sausage patty, cheese, bacon, ham steak, hash brown, bacon, egg, jalapeno.

Look at it. Isn't it glorious?


Physically speaking, it was very hard to eat. My jaw just doesn't open that wide. But it was SOOOOO GOOD! Seriously. This burger was awesome.


I ate about 70% of it I think. I'm gonna go succumb to a meat coma now...

7 years . . .

At 2:30 in the afternoon, on August 4, 2001, we became Mr. and Mrs. Mark Fowler! It was, by far, the happiest day of my life. I feel very blessed to be able to share my life with such a wonderful, sincere, faithful, and generous man. Our life together has taken us through joys and trials. All of these things have helped us to grow closer and stronger as a couple, and we wouldn't have traded them for anything.

Here are just a few of the blessings of our marriage:
- we serve a loving God together
- we laugh together every single day
- our families are very supportive and loving
- we have many wonderful friends we enjoy being around
- our cat provides daily entertainment for us
- we have a beautiful home in a neighborhood we love
- we both have secure jobs less than 10 min. from where we live
- we attend a church that challenges us to grow closer to God

The list could go on and and on. We have been so very blessed by our Lord. Mark, I am proud to be your wife. Happy Anniversary!

The dreams . . .

I am a teacher, and therefore I am very blessed to get the summer off. Nonetheless, eventually school must begin again. Usually, about the beginning of August, while I am trying to deny the fast approach of a new school year, my dreams will clue me in that my mind knows what is coming! I will start to have dreams about the first day of school. In these dreams, things are never as they should be. I might, perhaps, be trying to finish putting up bulletin boards while students arrive on the first day. Maybe I am standing in front on my new class and realize that I don't have any lesson plans. Or, the worst one of all, it is the first day of school and my students are already out of control and not listening to me. That usually doesn't happen until the second day of school! Just kidding! But, you get the picture. While my wakeful mind in trying to fervently deny that my days of sleeping in until 9:00 are rapidly drawing to a close, my dreaming mind is telling me "It's coming . . ." To anyone else who is a teacher, I'm sure that you have had these same dreams happen to you, unless you are really, really good at denial! Unfortunately, these dreams did not wait until the beginning of August to start this summer. No, no. I started having these oh-so-relaxing dreams at the beginning of July. I know that it can be attributed to my changing jobs. You may say, "But, Hattie, you are still teaching the same grade." I know, but I will be at a new school, with new teachers, in a new school district, with new expectations. And the worst part is, I don't even know what those expectations are yet! I think that is what make me more anxious than anything. The not knowing part. But, alas, in one week I will start my new hire teacher training, and I'm sure they will give me all the info I need to know, plus some. So, in conclusion, I am a bit anxious about this school year, but I am also excited to start a new adventure.