How 'bout I just be a Bear??

Sometime last year the school district where I teach started encouraging this little saying...

Someone says, "Who are you?"

Everyone yells, "I'm a Brewer Bear!"

While I LOVE the attempt at building spirit amongst students, teachers, and the community I was having a hard time buying into the whole I'm a Brewer Bear thing. Reason #1, I am indeed not a Brewer Bear. I am proud to be a graduate of North Crowley High School which made me a Panther, not a Brewer Bear. Reason #2, I was having a hard time reconciling being any kind of bear other than a Baylor Bear! Silly reasons of course, but I'm kind of known for holding onto things even if it doesn't make sense.

All of that has started to change this school year. I've caught the bug and I'm buying in. It helps that my former students are now of the age where they are participating in Brewer athletics. However, the thing that really sealed the deal for me was getting to enjoy last night's first football game of the season in the VIP room at the new stadium. It was pretty cool. I totally stole these pictures from Kristy and Deneise:




I'm not quite ready for a sign in my yard or anything, but I am proud to be a part of a school district that is working hard to instill a sense of pride in our kids and community! Sic 'em Bears!! Ooops, wrong bears. Oh well, it works! :)

Technology...new and old!

Well, tomorrow is the big First Day of School 2009! I must say that I'm kind of in a weird state. I'm not really nervous which is kind of making me nervous! :) I'm sure it's going to be a great day though, it always goes by really fast.

Anyway, I've learned some new things about technology this week that have opened up my world to a ton of new possibilities. My good friend, Deneise, was showing me her parent letter and I was absolutely amazed at the finished product. It seriously looked like something that was professionally published. Imagine my surprise when I found out that she did using a clip art BOOK! I didn't even know such a thing existed! I'm guessing you make a copy of what you want to add to your document and then tape it on there or something?? This piece of "old" technology is definitely something I want to know more about!

I was also introduced to another amazing Apple product this week! iChat is a program that runs on Mac computers that allows you to instant message or video conference with other people. It's basically the same as using a webcam but it's so cool the way iChat works! I was talking to my friend Meagan the other night and it was so cool because even though she's a thousand miles away it seemed like she was sitting in my living room! I see many more iChats in my future.

Here are a couple screen shots from the other night...



Happy First Day of School everyone!! :)

Numbers

If you didn't already know, I'm a bit of a numbers geek! Here are some significant numbers from my week:

24.8 - The number of pounds my sweet little puppy weighs! She's not going to be little much longer. She has gained 8 pounds in three weeks!

16 - The number of days until Baylor Football begins! Enough said!

4 - The number of days until the 2009-2010 school year begins! Yikes!

212 - The number of degrees (Fahrenheit) needed to boil water. As part of our staff development this year our principal showed us this video. It has really stuck with me and challenged me to do everything with that extra degree of effort! That extra effort has the potential to do incredible things and make an incredible difference.

20 - The number of kids that are counting on me to give that extra degree.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. 

~Colossians 3:23~

It was fun while it lasted...

Tomorrow is my last day of summer...bummer! It has been a wonderful summer and I can't quite admit to being ready to head back to school. Usually by this time I'm a little bit excited about it, but this year, not so much. Oh well, it's coming whether I like it or not.

Adding a puppy to my life definitely made the last few weeks very interesting. It's amazing what you learn about yourself when someone, or in my case, something, is dependent on you. For example, who knew you could survive on so little sleep? Baylor's definitely had some great nights but just to be safe I'm still getting up every 4 hours to let her outside. She's also kept me a little closer to home the last couple weeks and somehow that has led to more laundry and more dirty dishes. I haven't figured this out though because she doesn't wear clothes or use my dishes! She's learning to appreciate her "free" time inside the house and can usually be found at my feet. She's mastered "sit" and amazed our puppy class teacher tonight because she already knew the command. I'm also pretty sure she gained about 4 pounds last week! I think she's going to be a big dog!

I spent Monday night away from home which added up to about 24 hours away from Baylor. I was really surprised at how excited I was to see her when I got home. She seemed pretty happy too! :) I think I'm quite attached to the little fur ball, who just so happens to be sporting a green and gold collar for the first time tonight!

It's been one week since you looked at me...

I can't believe it's already been a week since I got Baylor! Wow, time is flying!

I promise I won't only blog about life with a puppy but that's pretty much all I've been doing this week. I must say, while it's been exhausting, it's been a great week. Baylor's still doing great and seems to have fallen into a bit of a routine. She's even sleeping all the way through the night!! Yay!

Baylor's also doing a great job learning some new words. Here are some of her favorites:

* No
* Sit
* Tile
* Outside
* Inside
* Eat
* Water

She's also been working on a couple tricks:

* Raising her paw when you say Sic 'em
* Growling when you say Aggie :)

We've got a big visit to the vet tomorrow morning which will include scheduling "the surgery" for Baylor. Hope everything checks out ok!