Mel's Box of Chocolates

What a week! As you know, this was the first full week of being back in school and I have just one word...EXHAUSTING! Every night I planned to sneak some blogging in to share some of my back to school stories with you all, but I don't think there was one night I was up past 9pm. One night I was actually in bed at 7:30 and another asleep by 8:30. The week was quite a roller coaster full of ups and downs and times when I just had to shut my eyes and hold on. Here's a quick rewind... Monday - Dave's aunt came to stay with the kiddos since Dyl didn't go back to school till Tuesday and Zoe didn't need to go to daycare until Wednesday. She gave them quite the last day of summer vacation with mini-golf, McDonalds , and ice cream. Meanwhile I was busy putting the final touches on my room and welcoming the students to their new classroom on Meet the Teacher Day. I didn't get home until late and this began my week of early bedtimes. Tuesday - The alarm went off wa...

Today is the first day of the 09-10 school year and life would be grand if I had a student like this... Cross your fingers that I truly am smarter than a 5th grader . We shall soon see anyway! SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

As a teacher, I've always hoped that one day I would have a student come to me and tell me that I made a difference in their lives. So far it hasn't happened, but today I came to the realization that although a student has not said this to me they show it in other ways. Today was Meet the Teacher Day at our school. I always look forward to this day to scope out my kids, see a bit of the family dynamics, and be able to finally put a face and personality to the name. Today I had 16 of my 20 end up visiting me, which I think is an awesome turnout considering it is in the middle of the last day of summer vacation. But even more awesome, was all the children and parents who came to visit me from my past years. At one point I just stopped to look around the room and was astounded at the number of people in my room who were not assigned to my room this year. I had kids coming to say hi, giving me hugs, telling me they missed me, saying how they wished they were back in my class,...

I know I said I was cutting back and blogging just for fun, but I truly didn't mean to drop off the face of the blogosphere. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook then you know it's Tis the Season around here. A.K.A. Back To School time. While most of you moms are hootin' and hollerin' and singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" while you dance down the Staples aisle (that commercial cracks me up!) I'm busy getting ready to take care of your cherubs for the next 180-some days. There is so much to do... sharpen the pencils sort the crayons stack the blank papers mark the folders make the copies decorate the boards hang the posters and so on and so on. But, you know what...I wouldn't trade it all for anything. So, sorry if I go missing in action here and there for the next few days as I get my teacher/mommy/wife groove back. I promise I'll get there and the bloggy world will be made right again...well at least for my 10 regular rea...

If you have been a regular reader around here, especially through the summers, than you know that I love me some steamed crabs. Sit me down at a table covered in newspaper, with a pile of crabs in front of me and I'm one content lady. I will literally sit there for hours gorging myself on the meat covered in Old Bay. My mouth is drooling just from writing this. Throughout the many years of living near the water though it had never really occurred to me that we could go crabbing and actually catch our own. I mean we fish, we clam, but crabbing? Then, the other day, hubby decided it was time for us to become "chicken nekkers" and go out and get our own crabs. He came home with crab pots (he had bought them at work and actually carried them on his motorcycle home...oh yes!) and then went out to get some handlines and chicken necks, the crabs food of choice I'm told. So a couple Sunday's ago we headed out to catch our feast of crabs. I couldn't wait to pull up al...

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I'm going themed this week with my lessons learned. Yesterday I went into school to begin setting up my classroom, which led to many learning experiences. This week I learned that... I took it for granted being in the same classroom for 4 years. I spent about 4 hours today putting up material and border on bulletin boards. While my room looks much cheerier now I did not enjoy the sweat pouring off my face as I climbed up and down ladders, fought a stapler, and pieced together borders. my stapler stinks! Of course that is entirely my fault. I mean how many times can I drop a stapler from the top of a ladder and expect it to work? Adding a new stapler to my Staples list as I type. setting up my classroom is one of my favorite parts of the school year. Everything is so clean, fresh, and organized. The room is just full of promise! I have much to do before I'm ready for the school year to begin. My to do list is never ending and as soon as I cross one thing off I swear I'm addi...