Sinterklaas!

Tonight is the night in Germany and many other European countries when children will be leaving out their shoes in the hopes that Sinterklaas will leave presents in and around them! Don't forget to leave your shoes out!

Google Sinterklaas or check out these websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=78

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J'ADORE PARIS!

We are absolutely in LOVE with Paris! It was amazing. I will blog the details tomorrow...exhausted! Yesterday I had school (and was there til 5:30 preparing for the week-and still didn't finish) then we had to get Matt home and packed up to leave for Sgt. School (WLC). After that we wanted to cuddle and watch one last movie together. Facing the Giants. It was amazing- very powerful as Matt said. Today was school again, faculty meeting, then CCPP. I'm pooped! Tomorrow I just have school so when I get home I can relax and share all the Paris details. Check back soon!

December 5, 2009

Ok so I've been to busy/tired to post any sooner. Our adventures in Paris started off with us getting off an hour later than planned and then when we got 30 minutes away we realized we forgot our camera and turned around. So 2 and half hours late we were on our way to Paris. The drive was dull- the autobahn doesn't have great scenery, or really anything to look at as its got trees on both sides. We payed nearly 30euros in tolls on the way there- crazy! One toll alone was 13euros. Luckily the rain that was supposed to happen stayed away and we had a pleasant drive. About an hour into France I started driving and I was the one who drove in Paris- including the CRAZY Paris traffic circle. Needless to say we have video of me saying not such lady like sayings!! It was awful. Paris roads have no rules, signs, or lanes. Its a free for all where the weak don't survive.

Our first night we walked down to the Louvre which was only a 2 minute walk down the street! The Louvre was so beautiful at night. We decided to go in- it's cheaper on Friday's after 7pm. We saw the major things: Mona Lisa, Madonna of the Rocks, Venus de Milo, and others that I recognized but don't know the name. We were very bundled up so in the Louvre we were sweating our butts off- plus we didn't realize how far apart things were and how many stairs were involved! Make sure you're in shape before visiting. We spent 2 hours in there and still saw only a small fraction. I am dying to go back with my art expert Adri and walk through it all! Well after the Louvre Matt was hungry and we had seen a McDonalds so we went there. Actually we went to McDonalds for random things about 3-4 times on the trip and it was ALWAYS packed. I was pretty tired and so was Matt and we also didn't know where anything was so we decided to go back to the room. We tried to watch Twilight since we were going to see New Moon the next night (and Matt has yet to watch it all the way through)...we were too tired so he still hasn't seen it all LOL.

The next day was suuuuuper busy. We got up early- but not early enough to make it to get in line for the Eiffel Tower before it opens- and we went to enjoy a Starbucks coffee...which was disappointing to say the least. We then went to get on our Hop On Hop Off bus.

Quick note about the Hop On/Off bus: for the first visit it was neat because you could go on and off as much as you wanted plus there was commentary BUT you stop at every place for like 10 mins (which when its freezing or sweltering is miserable). The Metro (subway) is SUPER easy to figure out AND cheap so I recommend getting a map of the lines and using that! We will from now on (oh yes- we will be back!).

On our way to the bus stop by the Louvre we were hit by our first scam artist. LUCKILY I had read in Rick Steve's about the lady who pretends to ask if you dropped this gold ring- when you say no she looks at it and tries to convince you there's markings that mean it's real gold and then she tries to sell it to you. As SOON as she walked up with a gold ring and tried to talk to Matt I jerked him away and we kept walking. We saw her every.single.time we walked to that bus stop!! Once a girl was screaming at her about it and another time we sat there and watched her go after several people...it was funny to watch. Anyways we rode the Hop On/Off bus around a full time to see all the sights. It was freezing!!!!!!! But you couldn't get good pix/views from the inside bottom portion so we stuck it out and rode on the open air top part! After the tour we went back to the room to change into warmer clothes, including Long Johns for me (Christmas idea people!!). On our way we stopped at the Cafe de Comedy right beside the Comedie Francais which was also next door to our hotel! We both had different paninis so we could share and we shared a side of FRENCH fries. Matt had an amazing beer that tasted sweet and fizzy like cola and I had a very VERY dry warm glass of red wine that had me feeling PURDY good for 1pm...I was tired the rest of the day from it! Phew.

Next we went to Notre Dame which was amazing but full of beggars right outside- including a muslim woman who asks if you speak english then shows you a paper that says something like she's a refugee here and trying to get back home...I don't know I walked away but Matt read it. We did some shopping right beside the cathedral then headed to see the Eiffel Tower from Trocadero (the best viewing spot). No we didn't go up the Eiffel Tower because it was too cold and windy. When the wind blew it felt like you were being burned alive! We decided to save that for when we go back after it warms up a bit. This was filled with African or Jamaican people pushing anything and everything on you. After this we went to try and get to the Musee d'Orsay by 5pm to get in right before closing when supposedly you can get in for free. We got in line five minutes til and a guy came out and said no one else could get in- bummer. We stopped in a cafe and bought a cafe au lait and warmed up a bit. It drizzled most of the day and was again- FREEZING! Then we got back on the bus to do the tour again but this time after dark when the City of Lights comes alive! It definitely lives up to its name! It drizzled the whole time but the first two seats of the top part of the bus were covered so we could enjoy the views. I fell in love with the city that night. After a very very cold ride we went back to the hotel. We attempted to find some of the restaurants from Rick Steve's on our map but no luck. And the GPS wouldn't come on- go figure. So we opted for McDonalds and then walked down Ave de l'opera (isn't that much prettier than Oberfarhtgetzen or anything else in German??) The opera is my favorite building and even prettier at night. When you get to the front of the Opera you go right and one block down there's a movie theater. It was playing New Moon (Tentation) in english with french subtitles. MUCH better than Twilight AND I picked up more french watching those subtitles!! When we got out of our movie it was after midnight but unlike Germany everything was still hopping. We walked around some more and window shopped then went back to our hotel (Hotel Montpelsier) and crashed. From our hotel room you could see the spot light flashing from the Eiffel Tower (the "batman beacon" haha).

I'll stop right here and explain the hotel. It was 6 stories- and we were on the top. Our room looked over a courtyard type area. The rooms are SMALL. But we were expecting that thanks to Adri's heads up about European hotel rooms. You literally had a foot around 3 sides of the double bed. There was free WiFi in the lobby and we luckily booked a room with a bathroom. Some rooms at the hotel- the cheapest ones- don't have restrooms in them. Some have just toilets but no showers and some have nothing. They use community showers/toilets on the floor. We looked in one for curiosity and it was NASTY! So paying an extra 20euros a night was well spent. But honestly the size was no big deal considering you're never in your room and when you are you're sleeping. Nothing could beat the location though!!! We were a 2 minute walk to the Louvre, the Opera, and so much other stuff!

Ok our last day in Paris we checked out of the hotel with no problem. The problem came when we were walking with all of our luggage and trying to find our parking garage. We tried tracing our steps but no luck. And the signs LIED ugh. We were sweating- even though it was cold- hungry and pretty pissed when we finally found the garage. We were more pissed to find the lift broken and we had to go down 3 flights with our luggage. Oh well. We dropped off our luggage and went back the Louvre where we bought our first crepes. We bought one sucre (sugar) and one ham and cheese. The sucre wasn't impressive but the ham and cheese was to DIE for!!! I wish we had tried them sooner- we could have eaten those the whole time! We got the bus again and went to the Musee d'Orsay and stood in a long line to get in. Luckily it was only about a 20minute wait. Then we walked all around that confusing museum and couldn't find what we were looking for. Finally we realized they had free maps. I did see some of Degas' ballerina paintings but not as much as I thought. We also saw many Van Gogh's but never my favorite- Starry Night. Oh well. The modern stuff like from the 60s was pretty cool as well!! After the museum we were going to go get falafels in the Jewish Quarter but it was too late so we went back to our car. Our GPS STILL wouldn't turn on (it has a habit of doing that now right when you need it) but luckily I had printed map quest directions. Unfortunately they were from the hotel and it wasn't easy to figure it out. I had Matt drive around following traffic and we ended up by the river. THEN I was able to find a familiar place on the map that matched Map quest so we basically followed the river out of Paris. Matt was lucky enough to not have to battle the evil traffic circle that I had to! Ugh.

Our ride home was a long one. Besides the fact it was raining and that slows up the autobahn tremendously half way through the trip our GPS comes on so I put in the Home directions and then it tells us to exit meaning we had to pay another toll. Well after driving around small towns and back roads for an hour and a half with the estimated arrival time saying noon on Monday I finally remembered the GPS was set to pedestrian!!! UGH! So we finally find our way back the autobahn and get going. We stopped just inside Germany to get gas with our ration card and grabbed some not as delicious german sandwiches. We FINALLY got home at 11:30 (we left at 2- we should have been home at 8:30) after going to pick up my friend's dog from their babysitter. Luckily Elvis' babysitter offered to keep him another night so we could get home sooner.

Well that's Paris! I wish I could remember much more details but I was in such a daze! All we kept saying was "I feel like I'm in a movie!" For pictures see our albums on facebook. I always have problems loading pix on Blogger!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033892&id=202500066&l=c6e8944e0e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2033889&id=202500066&l=2c31f31f70

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Lots of Learning!

This last week was wonderful. Of course there were a few moments of frustration with some kiddos- especially since I didn't have much of a voice the first half of the week!- but for the most part the kids and I enjoyed each other. I even had several who didn't want to go home for the weekend- they wanted to stay in school with Mrs. B! That's always a good feeling.

The previous teacher had left me lesson plans for last week and that was a help because I was able to focus on getting to know the kids and their learning styles and behaviors and not stress about what to teach. However this week I am on my own! I went in to school today to work with my mentor teacher but instead the previous teacher happened to be there so she talked with me for awhile. I got lots of insight into why the class is the way they are. I think the teacher was a very nice woman and her heart was DEFINITELY in the right place but, and she agreed, our styles and philosophies are way different. She also informed me about other teachers in the hall and the way the administration is- from her point of view. Some of it I had already figured out and others...well... that's her point of view. I did NOT like when she told me that she was ok with a handful of kids not being able to read at the end of first grade!! She said this happened every year and she was ok with that because they just weren't ready to learn to read and hopefully they picked it up later but if not that's ok because there is plenty of adults in society today who are just fine and can't read!! WHAT?! Not ok with me. But overall I really liked chatting with her and it broke my heart when she started to cry- she really loves teaching and her kids. I think she is sad that she is retiring and she even told me she envies my youth but she hopes I will understand her more when I am her age. I told her I envy her experiences!! Teaching is such a fine balance- yes experience is a big part to a successful teacher but you also need to stay young at heart and stay abreast in new theories and willing to try new things. A teacher should always be learning how to be better! Needless to say it was an eye opening few hours.

So instead of working on lesson plans and learning about the 6+1 writing traits I talked with her. Tomorrow and Tuesday I'll go in after lunch and get some actual work done. It's only a 3 day school week because of parent teacher conferences but luckily the principal is conducting those for me. I also have to give a unit test because the kids just finished the end of unit 2 in the curriculum the previous teacher used. I'm excited/nervous/overwhelmed and all kinds of emotions to have so much responsibility! I'm going to be bored in student teaching the first couple of weeks when I'm supposed to just be "observing"!!

Matt is doing great. He had a wonderful 24th birthday. Thursday I picked him up from work and I had brought clothes for him to change into (instead of going all the way back home). After he changed I took him to his favorite (well, the only one we've tried) chinese restaurant. We bought everything he wanted so we would have plenty for leftovers (and boy did we)! After that yummy dinner we went home where I surprised him with an acoustic guitar (a Fender)! He had NO idea that I had bought him that. I ordered it 2 months ago from guitarcenter.com and it has been SO hard to keep it a secret!! Especially when during one conversation he was saying he hated that brand and all sorts of stuff (he claims he was talking about electric guitars). I had the guitar shipped to our friend's house and it got here while Matt was gone- thankfully, because lots of times the two guys check their mail together and he would have seen it! I also had made him a cookie cake which turned out yummy if not so pretty. Overall I think he had a great day- even after a bad day at work. Yesterday we bbqed and the Barreto's stopped by and ate with us. Ribs, burgers, chedder dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans, buffalo chicken cheese dip, and of course more cookie cake! We stuffed ourselves and then he had to go to guard duty =-( Luckily it was only 12 hours 6-6 but that still stinks for me- I hate going to bed alone!

So now both Barr's are working hard and staying busy. Little Barr (Elvis) is doing what he does best- sleeping! We are dogsitting 2 dachshunds for this lady at church so he'll have some buddies for a few weeks. Good practice for Matt who swears he wants another dog even though he complains when he has to walk this one!! Oh and no Paris for the Barr's this Thanksgiving. Army stinks but oh well. We've got great Thanksgiving plans with two other families and a couple of singles soldiers and we plan on seeing the new "Christmas Carol" which comes out here that weekend. Matt is planning on taking leave so we can travel without problems with the Army!

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Long Term Sub

Today I was asked to be a long term sub in 1st grade. Originally I thought I was headed to a 5th grade class for 2 days but they decided they needed me in 1st. So what is a long term sub? Well just like it sounds a sub who is in the same classroom for a "long" term! The first grade teacher resigned for personal reasons and they do not have a replacement so I will be subbing until they find one. This could mean this week or for the rest of the month or semester! Unfortunately I can't sub any longer than this semester due to student teaching. Several teachers and I agree that UTT should allow this to count as student teaching! Grr. Oh well its more experience and I am grateful for it! Today the class seemed pretty good. There are some definite kids who are used to being "babied"- when if they just listened the first time instead of talking then they'd know what to do! Then I have other kids who are GREAT helps- couldn't do it without 'em! :-) There are a few minor things I am going to slowly restructure beginning tomorrow (well I started today with seating arrangements on the carpet!) but for the most part I want to keep it running as is. I'd hate to change them now then when the permanent person takes over it get changed again! But in the mean time I can think of a couple of things to make the class run a little more efficient as well as teach the same material but in a different manner. I don't think the old teacher would mind- she seemed like a great lady!

Today I went to the Dr. For those of you who spoke to me this weekend you know how awful I was starting to sound. Well last Monday my throat started hurting. By Friday I was coughing/having chest pains. Unfortunately it was a 3 day week so the clinic was closed and I was not about to wait in the ER for 8+ hours for chest congestion- especially not here where they're so quick to admit you for any tiny thing!!! So I saw the Dr. right after school and he scolded me for waiting so long yadidadada because now the crud has gotten in my lungs and I have early signs of bronchitis. I could of told him that- I seem to get it at least once a year! The main reason I went to the doc was because my ears were beginning to hurt (they're fine- its just the pressure) and because the mucus has been so bad its literally choking me, especially in my sleep! So he gave my a antibiotic, a pill that will stop the cough so my throat won't hurt (it's so raw that touching the OUTSIDE of my neck hurts!), and an albuterol inhaler because I can't breathe. Plus he said I can keep on the tylenol severe multisymptom and mucinex (however that just seems like WAY to much to me so after today I'm not taking that stuff). Through all this I haven't "felt" sick i.e. tired, etc but I took it easy this weekend hoping I could rest it away (so such luck).

Matt is doing fine. He's still waiting on seatbelts for his car so he's annoyed at "me" right now ;-) Naw not really just annoyed that he's got to shower/change at the gym after PT since I have to get to work as well. However I think he'd rather do that then have less money and an unpleasant bored wife! He's sluggin his way through 2 college classes this term and trying to get them finished before he goes to WLC (see below). We've been watching Christmas movies every night and he's super excited that "Jingle All the Way" has arrived in the mail today! (Why this and not the seatbelts???)

Hope everyone else is doing well! Please keep the families of Fort Hood in your prayers as well as the families who's soldiers are about to deploy from here. Also the families who's soldiers are returning now! People don't realize that they still need your prayers when they get home- it's a tough transition (I always thought that was silly but it is SO true!)

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Christmas Cheer!

Yesterday I finally got Matt out to Rothenburg ob der Tauber and it is now his favorite city just like me! Unfortunately we forgot how early it gets dark now (4:30!) so we only got to see the Christmas stores but that's ok. Matt was in HEAVEN (as was I)! We even gave in and bought a few more items. After a doner and a schneeballen (a traditional Rothenburg desert) we were headed home only to hit HORRIBLE traffic on the autobahn. Silly me hit the detour button on our GPS..never again at night! It sent us through pitch black twisty roads and lots of villages- probably beautiful during the day but terrifying at night!

Today we were lazy (well, I am sick- sort of). I skipped CCPP because I didn't want to be coughing all over the kiddos and instead Matt and I watched Eagle Eye- Awesome movie! Then Matt was dying to put out the new Christmas items and seeing as how he was in Iraq the last 2 Christmas's and this is our first Christmas together since 2004 AND since he'll be gone most of December I gave in and while listening to Christmas music we decorated our house. The house looks great and we can't wait to get our tree!! Now we are watching The Grinch and I am enjoying a cuppa (cup of hot tea- it's what my British friend Lisa says)! Here are some photos of the Christmas decor- but see Facebook for everything!:

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I fell asleep at Taco Bell!

So I am physically and emotionally exhausted so this is going to be brief:

Matt had to go 5 hours away on Tuesday to drop off Ammo. On the way there his humvee ran out of gas (broken gauge). They spent 4 hours on the side of the autobahn and were never "rescued" so finally the other humvee left got a tank of gas and came back. After getting to the barracks room he shared with 3 other guys- all on cots- at midnight they were woken up at 5am to begin the day. They got to the ammo place at 8 but weren't seen until 1pm. They never had ANY food thanks to a Sgt. who wanted to get going (yes, hurry up and wait). At 4ish I called Matt and they FINALLY stopped at a McDonalds for food. He got home at 9:30pm and crashed. So in my book he was gone 2 nights because I didn't really see him last night. Thankfully they didn't make him come into work until 10am today so he got to catch up on sleep.

As for me well a friend of mine is out of town for the week leaving her husband with their 4 kids (10, 8, 6, 2). He called Tuesday night and asked if I could help him with the kids this morning because he had a doctor's appointment in Heidelburg. Of course I said yes! So this morning I got up at 4:45am (yes shocker for me I know I know....LOTS of coffee) and got to their house at 5:30am. He left at 6am and I had the 3 bigger kids getting dressed, eating, etc. About 6:45 the 2yr old was up as well. The big kids took the bus (I offered to drive since I was going to their school anyways but they took the bus) and I took the 2yr old to his babysitter then went to school. It was great for me- felt like I was home with all my rugrats!!

Today I subbed in the same class I had on Monday. It was 90x better than Monday and I hate to say it but partially because one student was absent so it just made the whole day less stressful and easier to focus on teaching and not disciplining. Don't get me wrong- its still a tough group but I'm pretty tough too ;-) I am very proud of myself though- even when the kids were being SO loud I just talked in a quiet calm voice and one or two kids would hear me and they would start quieting others and it was a chain reaction! So you DON'T have to yell to get what you want *hint hint* It may take a little longer (we were late to library because of certain chatter boxes) but the kids and I were certainly less stressed. At the end of the day one boy told me I was "like the best teacher EVer" and then the 5 around him agreed hahaha :-D I saw their actual sub after school and told her the good report and she agreed that one student CAN make a huge impact on the day. She also agreed that while they are a handful it is fun being challenged every day AND it makes the day FLY by!!! I'm going to be so bored next semester in my student teaching class- they are SO "easy" and good!

Well at about 1pm one of the girls I took care of this morning came to tell me she wasn't feeling well. I don't know why her teacher sent her to me- its not like I could leave school and take her home?...but we called her Dad and he picked her up. Then later he called and asked if I could get the other kids picked up and brought home (he was pretty medicated from his doctor visit). After going to ACS and getting the ball rolling on becoming a Respite Care Provider, the library to pick up some books, and SATO to get info on our Paris trip I went and got the little one from his babysitter and the 2 remaining big kids from their daycare. Got them home safe and sound and then had to go pick up MY big kid from work.

On the way to get his haircut (and some Taco Bell because I was/am too exhausted to cook-and yes I dozed off in the food court of the PX eating my crunch wrap- and later while Matt was finishing eating!!!) he broke the "good/bad" news. First off is that tonight he has duty from 10pm-2am so another night I have to go to sleep alone. Second is we wouldn't be able to attend the marriage retreat because he was going to be gone for 18 days in December. Why is this good/bad? Bad because there goes most of Dec. when I wanted to travel to all the Christmas fests with him. We have not spent a Christmas together since 2004- senior year of HIGH SCHOOL!! Yes I know we'll be together for actual Christmas but we had big plans of Christmas fests, Christmas movies, and Christmas decorating/baking to fill up the month of December. Ok so that's the bad. The good is he's going to WLC (Warriors Leader Course) which is "Sgt. School." No he's not being promoted but he has to have WLC to be a Sgt and this also adds to his promotion points towards making Sgt. He still has to get his points to cut off AND pass the PT test.

Ok good night one and all I am soo stinking tired its not funny. Oh one more thing- props to my little brother Cody for being the only sophomore to make VARSITY BASEBALL!!! You are AMAZING and I am SO proud and happy for you :-D !!!!!!!! One step closer to making the Longhorn Baseball team ;-)

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1st Day Subbing

Well first day at SES. I've subbed before but MAN I forgot how much kids like to say: "But Ms. SoandSo does this or that or doesn't let" BLAH! I even told the kids at the beginning of the day: I am NOT Ms. SoandSo. We will do things my way today and there will be no arguing. Ha. Some kids were so bad with this the other students were getting annoyed and reminding them to quit saying that! I can handle "bad" classes but today there were several moments I wanted to put my hands on my ears and sing "LALALLALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" because these kids act so helpless/argue with ME/annoy each other/stay off task!! Thankfully I did NOT do this ;-) In fact the principal was in the room for about 20 mins in the morning helping schedule conferences and I thought the kids were acting so bad while she was in there (that was one of the times I thought about covering my ears and screaming) but that afternoon, in front of me, she told the secretary that I did wonderful in that class and that I even handled a certain child very well. Props! Still, I HATE having to make kids be silent but I hate repeating myself 10000000000 million times even more. Even though we ended on what I thought was a bad note- having to scold the kids for behavior problems right before I dismissed them- and as I was dismissing them!- I still had 2 kids say that I was a very nice teacher :-) I will be back in that classroom on Thursday- wish me luck!

Sorry this is short- dinner's almost ready and I am STARVING!!! All I had today was some grits this AM and a PBJ for lunch. I was going to start going to the gym after school but I forgot how exhausted I get. I figured that I'm barely eating and walking/standing all day so that's good enough for me ;-)

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