I had a very relaxing summer and stayed home for the very first time since my husband and I have been married (8 years this past June).  We are normally travelling across the country to see my family in Washington State and Montana.  This summer we focused on adopting a baby!  After spending the last 3 months on nothing but paperwork and meetings, we will officially be able to be picked by a birth mom by the first of September.  We are really excited and hope that this is our year to add a new little one to our family!

I have more exciting things to share with you about my summer vacation, but will save that for a future blog.  In the meantime, I would love to hear what you are excited about, nervous about, or just anything you want me to know about you.  Your comments will not immediately show up on the blog as I have to approve them for safety reasons, but I will make sure to check the blog out each day and get your comments up and out there. 

Again, welcome to my class, or welcome back 7th graders!  Don’t be strangers this year!

See you all in a few weeks,

Mrs. N

We pulled into Dewey Short, helped my friend unload her kids’ bikes, only to find out that the trail was closed on this end due to the extreme flooding we have had recently in B-town.  We loaded back up and headed to the state park end hoping for more success.  Needless to say, this end of the trail was also closed.  An elderly couple informed us that we could go around the barrier and walk for a ways before the trail would get bad.  So, I thought, “How bad could it really be?”  Let me tell you, the water was sooo high, you could not even see the paved trail anymore!  This weather is sooo crazy!

Well, we headed back to the picnic area with Sadie thinking she was adventure dog and running through every puddle she could find.  Remember, my dog is vertically challenged, so it made for a nice wet belly mess in my car.  At the picnic area, we encountered all the tables and barbecue pits submerged in water all the way to their tops.  My friend’s daughter decided to run down and wade through the flood to climb up on a half submerged park bench.  We both yelled at her to get down as it probably was not safe, but kids will be kids and she paid no attention, that is, until…

“Snake!”  yelled her sister’s friend, Amber.  Now, you know Mrs. N and snakes, they do not go together!  I looked straight down to where she was and swimming right next to her in the water was a Copperhead!  She flew off that bench faster than Superman to a rescue!  How she got away, I do not know, but I was not about to go to her rescue.  My feet were glued to the pavement.  It would have taken an army to get me loose!

So, that is a slice out of my spring break life.  Let’s hear one of yours.  I am sure you have tales to tell:)

Mrs. N

Mrs. N

 I was so impressed with your poems on our last One Word Wednesday that I thought we needed to make this a habit!  Your words for this week are:  Hope and Create.  I sure HOPE you CREATE some meaningful memories through your poems!  What a play on words:)  Get writing!

 Mrs. N

 We all miss you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much that we thought we should blog about it.  Hope you enjoy our ode to you!

Mrs. Neal’s Class

I am really enjoying Clemency Pogue and hope you are, too.  The writing is amazing, very vivid in details and new language (which I know Bailey is loving) and it is holding my interest, plus tickling my funny bone.  Wasn’t the peeing on the couch scene hilarious?!?  I know many of you had text to self connections, especially with little brothers and sisters running amok in your lives. 

I never knew, until this book, that there are so many different fairies around the world.  Sometimes I wish one would come visit me, such as the fairy of medical malfunctions (who might keep me from being so clumsy) or the domestic goddess fairy to clean my house in the wave of a wand.  If a fairy could come visit you, who would you want and why?  Do some thinking about it and share what you come up with here.  I can’t wait to read what you have to say!

 Mrs. N

You walk two steps ahead
I’ll walk two steps behind
It makes sense for you to lead
And me to follow
Always two steps behind

Still I wait in quiet agony
For the day
That I can walk beside
Instead of always
Two steps behind

-Author Unknown

Mrs. N

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