A Birthday, a Bridal Shower and a Baby…

oh boy! I look forward to the weekends so much and by the end of the weekend I wonder why?  My weekends are just as jammed packed as the week, if not more.

This weekend was filled with a Saturday morning run and a bridal shower.  Then, Sunday, I headed into Omaha  to celebrate my brother in-law Brian’s birthday.  This included quality Pieper time, steak and cheesecake…mmm.  Had a little theme for the birthday boy this year…Huskers.  He just recently did a little remodeling in the basement…aka the man cave…so my mom wanted to get him a new Husker sign to hang down there.  I took it from there and decided he needed new Husker coasters to go with his basement.  Totally lame birthday gift, but made with love.  To balance out the gift I included a new Husker Big 10 t-shirt and some Corona!

Yesterday, my friend and co-worker Sarah had her new baby, Elijah Grizz…What. A. Cutie.  That meant today I needed to go to Omaha so I could meet the newest member of the Pearson family.  It was so fun to see the happy little family.  It seems like just yesterday we were carpooling to good ole' AGES! 

I think that this weekend I needed an extra day just to recover.  No such luck.  Instead I spent all of today thinking it was Wednesday instead of Tuesday.  Big disappointment.   I had my kids all ready for our fire drill this morning and couldn’t figure out why it didn’t happen.  In my head I was thinking that somebody really dropped the ball on that one.  Came to discover it was me! 

Happy almost Wednesday.  Mark your calendars… 11 days until the Huskers take the field!

{The Launes}

Obsessed…

One day down and 174 to go : )  I survived another great first day of school, but I am ex-haust-ed!  I am super excited about my new class and can’t wait to get to know them better.  They are awesome!  So polite and sweet and I think it was a little more than just first day jitters.

Aside from school my life is a mess.  Trent came home last night for the first time in almost a week since he has been in Seward for two-a-days.  I quickly apologized for the mess hoping he would reassure me and tell me that it wasn’t that bad.   Instead, he just said that’s okay.  What he didn’t realize was that it had been worse…I had picked up a little.  Hopefully this weekend I can do a little cleaning.

Now, for my current obsessions…I have two.  Check them out below.

Saw this video on the Disney Channel and it is my new pump up song.  Basically, it get’s me out of bed in the morning.  I think I should probably download it to play for my kids...  Share the love. 

The new Yoplait granola yogurt is my favorite.  I tried it out because I had a coupon and I am sold.  The best part is that the store has it on sale this week…$1.48.  I will be picking some up ASAP.  Happy TG-almost-IF!

{The Launes}

Ready or Not…

Tomorrow is the day…the first day of school that is.  I’m just like a kid.  I really don’t want summer to end...not because I don’t like my job, but I love summer.  I also am not good with change and a new school year brings lots of change.  New students, new curriculum, new expectations and the list goes on and on.   I have spent the last week living, eating and breathing school.  I had all kinds of ideas that I wanted to do, but there are not enough hours in the day.  I stayed up way past my bedtime and had so many tasks going on simultaneously that I couldn’t keep my train of thought.  (I even had return to sender mail today because I forgot to add postage…ohmyword!)

While it’s hard to go back, I also love this time of year.  I walk into my classroom to find it as a blank canvas waiting for my attempts to cutesy it up.  Thank goodness for Pinterest!   Most of my inspiration came from the website along with a handful of teacher blogs that I am obsessed with.

My canvas…

Definitely a work in progress…I did some major de-junking and reorganizing!

I randomly came across some super cute and super cheap postcards on vista print that went along with the bulletin board set I ordered so I could resist!

My new and improved Café Menu for Daily 5.  Better location, better looks and ready to be used!  Found the idea on Pinterest and added my own touch…

Another Pinterest idea…behavior management.  I love it because it is going to reward my kiddos that never “pull cards.”  I think they’ll love it too!

Star of the week board…

I also bought a new calendar set.  I added Velcro for the dates instead of pins like my last one…uh-mazing!

My final Pinterest idea…they suggested it for sentence strips, by let’s face it…I don’t use sentence strips, but my borders are a mess!  Now they hang beautifully in my cupboard.

My bulletin board I’ve been planning since last April…

Now, I am off to finish my last minute q1to do list.  Then it’s off to bed so I am bright eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning! I can’t wait for tomorrow and everything it will hold!

{The Launes}

So Long Sweet Summer…

Last night I stayed up way too late for no real good reason other than nerves, excitement, disappointment and so on.  Then, worried I’d sleep through my alarm clock, I woke up way too early this morning.  So I got up and played So Long Sweet Summer by Dashboard Confessional as loud as I could, dabbed away my tears and got ready.

You see, today brings big changes in the Laune household.  I head back to work and Trent officially start GA-ing and two a day football practices at Concordia. 

So last night we celebrated the end of summer with an impromptu trip to Dairy Cone for ice cream.  Made my day a little brighter… 

So long sweet summer…

{The Launes}

Staycation or Bust…

Trent and I spent the last few days on “staycation.”  In theory, it seemed like a great idea, but at times, it really did seem to be  a bit of a bust.

We started out Saturday with swimming and then planned to go to the Storm Chasers game at Werner Park.  I was excited because I hadn’t been to the new ballpark yet and also they were going to have fireworks after the game.  It was a beautiful night so we headed out to the ballpark.  We thought about buying tickets online first, but didn’t figure it would sell out so we’d just buy them at the gate.  However, when we got to the game they were only selling tickets for the grass berm.  There were so many seats that weren’t taken and we had to sit on the grass.  Without a blanket.  Strike one. 

So we were taking in all the sights of the baseball game when a storm began to brew to the west. 

Midway through the third inning there was a major downpour but no lightning.  Then in the fourth inning the lightning and thunder began to come so we decided to go.  Strike two.  Fireworks were not looking promising.  So of course we were hungry and close to 0ur favorite restaurant…El Bee’s…so we stopped by there for dinner.  El Bee’s was definitely the highlight of our night!  Thinking things were looking up, we headed home only to get stuck in this…

Strike three.  No worries, nothing serious.  Just a little fender bender on the shoulder that stopped traffic for miles.  Ridiculous!

Thankfully the rest of our week didn’t go quite like this.  I was not very good about taking pictures though.  However, it include lunch at Platte River State Park…Trent’s favorite place to eat in the whole world.  Swimming at Mahoney…where I discovered that you have not truly lived life until you have experienced the wave pool, shopping at Menards and Border’s and sitting in a ginormous chair!

We ended the staycation with s’mores at Trent’s parent’s house.  I bought all the fixings in case we went camping, but cooked them over the fire pit instead.  

Somehow we convinced this little one to eat a s’more!

While it was not a total bust, Trent is already planning Summer Vacation 2012.  He had fun, but traveling is a necessity.

Now, Trent and I are both getting ready to head back to the real world.  I will miss you summer vacation.  Until next time…xoxo

{The Launes}

Game Night…

It’s official…we are on “staycation.”  If you are unfamiliar with a staycation, it basically means that we are sticking around here and doing some of the touristy things that we normally wouldn’t do.  It also involves a lot of eating out!  We started it off Friday night after I finished up summer school and took an apparently much needed 3 hour nap.  We had no real Friday night plans so we jumped at the chance to head to Lincoln and play Acquire with the Vests, our go to couple.

If you have never played Acquire before, you should.  They introduced it to us about a year ago and we’re addicted.  We introduced it to several others and the consensus seems to be the same.  I’m not really sure why I like it.  There’s not a lot of conversation, I rarely win and I am pretty sure my blood pressure is off the charts when I play!  However, it has kept me up way past my bedtime many times over the last year and Friday night proved no different.

Acquire Game Night…

It’s on like Donkey Kong…

Trent reaches for his stock after making a game changing move…

Maybe this is why I love the game so much…sometimes I win!

Jessie won once too…

Thanks to the Vests for having us over, for the delicious snacks and for putting on Big Brother After Dark!  Now back to staycation…

{The Launes}

Girls Night Out…

With the new school year quickly approaching, there were only a few nights left for a girls night out that has been talked about since last September!  We originally planned it to celebrate the end of the school year, but our schedules never meshed.  With only a few possible dates left, we jumped on Wednesday night.

I picked up Maggie and Naomi and we headed into Lazlo's to meet up with Barb.  I teach with an amazing 1st grade team.  The only problem is that after having four sections last year, we will only have three sections this year.  That meant one of us had to go.  While I am thankful to be staying in first, I am also sad that I am losing my next door neighbor to kindergarten.  Good news is that she is still my sister in-law outside of school so I will still get to see her plenty!

It was good to see everyone again and catch up on life.  That doesn’t happen very often during the school year.  Of course most of our conversations go back to school and getting ready for the new year.

Next up on the agenda is vacation…or staycation.  Not sure which one yet and it officially begins in 13 hours.  Never have I been so indecisive in my life!  Where it the world are the Launes?  Stay tuned…

{The Launes}

National Watermelon Day…

Happy National Watermelon Day!  August 3rd is the official date of this “holiday.”  I don’t know about you, but I love watermelon!  I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

To celebrate National Watermelon Day I found a cute little treat on another blog.  It looked like oodles of fun, but I needed someone to share it with.  That’s where my summer school kiddos came in.  They gave me a reason to make the cute little watermelon look alike treats. 

A little lime juice in the eye later, these tasty little treats were ready to go.  Some of the kids loved them and some of them didn’t go for the leftover lime taste at the end of the Jell-O…to each their own! 

Now it’s time to get out and celebrate the few remaining days of summer vacation with a little BBQ and some watermelon!

{The Launes}

Okoboji…

Summer is winding down quicker than I can squeeze in all of my summer to-dos’s.  Friday night we made  a last minute decision to go to Okoboji for the weekend…my favorite lake to go to!  However, if you  know me at all, I am not spontaneous.  First I panicked a little and then decided that there won’t be many more summer weekends so we should just go.  So Saturday morning we packed our bags and jumped in the car to make the four hour drive. 

Trent’s aunt and uncle have an amazing “cabin” out there that they so graciously let us stay at.  It is a very modern house, and beautiful on the inside.  It’s fun to watch boats creep up in front of their house, point and chat about it, snap a picture and then take off!  

The weekend included…Napping in the hammock…

Playing on the jet skis…

Soaking in some sun…

Beautiful views…

A delicious dinner…

Pondering life…

More fun in the sun…

Sister in-law love…

Time spent with family…

And a man on a boat…

But, all good things must come to an end. 

Now, it is officially August.  That means one more week of summer school!

{The Launes}