Finally, another post

First of all, we need to apologize for not writing for over a month!! We were battling health problems, closing out the first quarter, and planning for field trip week all at once. But that is no excuse for not keeping you posted on all our fun and adventures. So, here's to make up for lost time.

Four major happenings.
Happening #1 Decorating our first home!!! Kyle had seen a picture on my sister-in-law's website that inspired him. He showed me and I got inspired, so I painted our living room. Kyle also wanted to spice up our corner table so he found a sweet looking stick in our yard and placed it between a lot of our wedding pictures. My next task is the bedroom.....wait until you see it!!!

Happening #2…closing out the first quarter. Grades Grades Grades. Oh my goodness we had to write so many reports for grades! And you can't just write the same for everyone, you have to make it personal. It's nice communicate to parents how their children are doing, but it takes FOREVER!! My students are wonderful and I love to talk about them. I love each one of the little rascals! They are sweet, kind, hilarious, and so darn cute! It's hard to ever be mad at them because of their cute little faces. Dimples, missing front teeth, puppy dog eyes, you name and I have it! We are in the middle of studying oceans/water. I will show pictures of all their ocean animals and water experiments soon.

Happening #3…Field Trip Week. Every year the entire school PreK-Grade 12 goes on a week long field trip in the middle of September. Each grade goes to a different place(s) in Southern India. My class gets the pleasure of going to Poondi Camp. The school owns a wilderness campus 2 ½ hours from Kodai in a town called Poondi. Since my kids are so young still (8 or 9 years old) we only went for 3 days. We had an absolute blast!!! Field Trip week is not just a random week off of school between quarters, it's an extension of the learning that takes place in the classroom. The kids were able to experience a wide range of activities at camp: Zip line, rock climbing, archery, team building to learn the importance of communication, hiking, getting lost on a hike and having to find their way out of the woods, how to make rope from leaves, making a fire, rafting, and creating team songs and skits to go along with all they learned. On Thursday, we took the kids to the lake here in Kodai to go boating and had so much fun. Friday was a recovery day because we were so tired! Overall, camp was amazing and we can't wait for next year!

Happening #4…Subduing the jungle. Kyle got inspired yet again to fix up the house. There is a jungle in our back yard with weeds taller than my 6'4" husband. He took our machete and went to work tearing out all the craziness back there. Now we have a pleasant little spot where he would like to plant a garden. While I'm painting the bedroom, he'll be planting a garden of string beans, broccoli, carrots, and who knows what else. Luckily for us, we don't get monkeys or bison around our house like all of our friends. We only have to worry about the darn crows that are always on the roof.

I promise it won't be another month and a half before you hear from us again.

Lynea

P.S. Check out our new picture links at the top, on the left or click here to see some of our newest ones.  Also, look below to see more of our living room transformation!