New site/glasses shirt

I promise a real post is coming soon, but this is easier than posting pics. I found some new site, OneJackson.com,  through hip2save.com (check that out, too) and they have really cute (sort of hipster) kid clothes. You get $10 off your first purchase and they have free shipping on $25 AND they have an adorable glasses shirt!!

Use the link that you can't see, but it is right after this.... Use this link and I will get $10 credit if you sign up & order something. I promise I am not being totally selfish, but the shirt I ordered came in and is super great quality, really nice AND HAS GLASSES on the bear AND is green!


Here is the link to the ADORABLE green shirt with a bear in glasses that I got for Anderson. Because I got it last week when they had a free shipping on any purchase & I used the $10 off, I got it for $4. Plus, they sent me a tote bag with the same design on it! Love the glasses, of course.

https://onejackson.com/shop/products/jackson-bear-tee?color=GRS

Anyway, just wanted to share...

firefighter, family pics & skating

Anderson's first day of "Mother's Day Out" this year! I'm going to take a pic of his "job" every year on the first day of school!  Anderson wants to be a firefighter most days, but a police officer for Halloween he tells me. And, it can never be "fireman" or "policeman", just like fire trucks have to fire engines. Very particular. One of my favorite thing he does is pretend everything is an emergency. Everything. If you watch him, you will randomly see him pretend to buckle his belt or pull on his fake boots  before he does things. Or, I will hear him say, "There's a fire" very quietly under his breath before he opens doors or turns the water on in the tub. He either has an awesome imagination or he is crazy because he talks to himself. Either way, it is precious. 

No glare in this one. I like to get pics in jammies because I really just love little kid pajamas. 

Anderson has continued to have the time his life with NoniBop. I think this is a visit to the zoo (I love that I can't even tell the outing because there are so many field trips)

Lily was here for a bit and it was wonderful, as always. I will say that I discovered having a tea party is not really my thing. I love this girl, but boy games/toys are just more fun.

A pic from awhile ago at Nicole's. I don't know what we are doing, but I love our focus.

From when the cousins were visiting a month ago. I just got these pics from my mom. Anderson seriously thinks he is playing. And winning, I think.

Loving on Bop.

How many memories do I have from my childhood of people gathered around a table talking? ALWAYS. There was always some family visiting from Chicago or friends of my parents or the fam or just whoever. I remember thinking I was such a grown up the first time I was able to sit at the conversation table.

Fire. Love.

And, I am pretty sure this sums up the difference between a boy and girl.

Anderson was so excited to pick out treats for the girls at Petco. He got a red one for Chloe and yellow one for Gabbi. He told me those are their favorite colors. 

Playing with the busy bags from Bobble Cole at a very rare restaurant outing. (Yes, that is his pj shirt. I don't fight the getting dressed battle because he is a boy and nobody cares what he wears.)

A very elaborate police/fire station. Anderson wanted one and the toy ones are expensive, so we just made our own. 

Anderson locked himself in the bathroom, so I broke in and found him fully dressed "skating like the girl at Sonic" in the tub. He dumped almost an entire bottle of Suave 3 in 1 kids bath stuff in the tub and was fully clothed playing (or skating) in it. Later that same day I found him "skating" using a bottle of lotion. No more trips to Sonic with skating carhops. *Note: he did get in trouble, I just took a pic first...

Well, it's about time...

that my sister did a blog post on the fact that my new little nephew (yes) or niece is going to be here in February!!!

I. cannot.wait. 

So proud of my sister for dealing with pregnancy on top of a move (her 4th one) to a brand new place where she doesn't know anyone and she is trapped at home with a 3 year old. 

Meanwhile, I must begin buying some presents for my new baby boy (or girl?). I am going to be a busy Aunt Sissa. I love it. 

weekends and birthdays.

Heads up...lots of pics from the last month.

 Straight up walked into the room to see him about to put the fire out in the house. Note: there was not really a fire.

 We took the kids to the zoo a few weeks ago & thanks to my mom's generosity we rode the camel. (It was $20, I was not paying that for a camel ride. Love you, Mom)

 Once it started it was a little scary, so I frantically started clutching them. I loosened up a bit, but I am telling you it was not a super smooth ride up there on that hump.

 The imoms will only need a second to figure out what he is doing here. Whenever there is a pause, you know something is coming off!

 Splash pads really are better without patches!

 imoms...do you notice the ortopad patches having weird gummy stickiness? There are sticky strands from the last shipment of patches that we ordered.  I never noticed them in the past, but it seems like all of the latest ones gum up.They leave stickiness on his face.

My mother is ridiculous. She has such patience. I think Anderson is pumped that I am working more because he gets more Noni time.

Austin celebrated his bday and in true uncle style he let Anderson crash the candle blowing part of the event. Seriously, look at the obsession of the fire in my kid's eyes. Almost creepy. Love you, Austin!

Playing with Uncle Austin, who clearly is a trooper because being spun around & around & around is not really fun, but he stuck it out to entertain Anderson!

Jessica sent me a delicious fruit flower arrangement when I started my new job! We ate almost all of it in one sitting. It was delicious and I love you, Jessica!!

Brandon is ridiculously perfect and arranged to have a friend of a coworker take him to Sally's & use her discount card because I wanted a new curling iron. So, he went overboard & got me all of this stuff (for less than the price of the curling iron...I think that was the true gift)

I always crack up at all of his toys at GGs. He is such a creature of habit, they have to be arranged perfectly every time.

 Celebrated Brandon's birthday! I love my husband's constant ability to entertain with random things like playing with fire.

The Glover boys.

 Because they knew that this last month has been crazy/difficult/overwhelming, Clare & Chelsea arranged to have Brandon drop me off at a nail place to get pedicures! I was surprised and so excited to see them since I don't get to hang out with them as much anymore. I got orange for Powell and UT!

 My cheerleaders surprised me with some really thoughtful surprises at a farewell team dinner. I .Love.Those. Girls.

 How awesome does JPa look?? He is seriously the poster child for kicking lymphoma's butt.

 Play date with Jack & Yilly!

Speaking of Jack, how great is this book from GG? The patch is on the right eye, the friend has red hair and it says, "one good eye" and he goes on to win all the treasure!

Our birthday.

NOTE: Blogger is mad at me because apparently I have used up all of my pic space and now I have to pay $2.50/month to upload more pics. I am planning on doing this, but I can't bring myself to commit yet. So, this post doesn't have as many pics as I wanted to include. Boo. I will stop being cheap soon and upload some more soon. 

Our (mine & Nicole's) birthday was last month & Brandon, A & I drove up to surprise her. We haven't spent our birthday together in years! Because we both have been teachers for the past decade, we haven't been able to just take off to hang out. August is an intense time for education, there is no sitting down, much less days off. Anyway, she was surprised and thanked me for coming. I kept trying to explain that it was my birthday, too, so it was like my present to myself. It was such a great day. 

Tubing with my bug. 

I love random shots that really capture life. 

I'm totally going to pretend this is me with Anderson (it's Nicole) and use it as my new profile pic on Facebook.

Captain Hughes. He is the one who helped plan the day because my contribution consisted of texting him & asking if we could come up for the day. He is the one who organized all 3 meals, the boat, bought A a fishing pole, etc. 

Really tried to get a pic of the 2 of them. Hilarious. Lily was the typical teacher's pet & kept smiling very intensely. Anderson was a typical 2 year old & kept standing up thinking he heard an airplane. 

First time fishing-he caught one!!

Love these two. 

I gave Nicole a book (that I totally read first. Again, it was sort of my bday present,too) called, "One & the Same." A journalist who is an identical twin did a lot of research about twins. It was pretty interesting. Here are a few of my favorite parts/quotes: 

 "Being an identical twin—I can’t speak for fraternals—is intense. It’s all the clichés: feeling like you have an unwavering partner in life, knowing exactly what another person feels, wanting to tell her a story before anyone else, confiding with unrestrained—sometimes shocking—candor, valuing her opinion above anyone else’s, taking on someone else’s pain to the point of vicarious depression, being incapacitated by any minor dispute."

(ha ha, so true. We literally live each other's lives.)

I'm too lazy to type all of this, but in one chapter she interviewed Ronde & Tiki Barber (identical twin NFL players) and it was hilarious. Ronde said he never measured incomes." If Tiki made more than me, he took care of me. Same for me with him. We will do that forever. I know that to be a fact." (When Nicole & I worked at Sonic (Shout out to Shannon!!) we would balance our tip money at the end of the day, so that we each left with the same amount. We seriously did it every day without even questioning it. We are the only example of socialism actually working.)

 Tiki was later asked if it bothered him that Ronde had a Super Bowl Ring and Tiki responded, "It was the greatest moment of pride that I have ever felt. Cynics will say, 'Oh, your're jealous', but those same people have no idea what we have.'" (When good things happen to Nicole I am usually the one crying with happiness (along with mom, of course) and vice versa.

"What I find most moving is that her children & mine have the same DNA, which makes them not cousins by half siblings. There's a potency in that, as if our twin connection is sealed in our sons's & daughter's bodies." (Sounds a little creepy, but how cool is this? I mean, really.Plus, Anderson & Lily look so much alike, so there's that...sarcasm)

If you're thinking, "I bet it would be so great to have an identical twin, " you're wrong. Great is a word to describe your day or a snack, not the deepest, most indescribable because words really aren't enough kind of relationship that we have. The single most shaping factor of my life is the fact that my genetic identical was born 4 minutes after me. We knew each other before we met our own mother and there are some things that exist without being able to explain them. For all the moms out there, imagine how you feel about your kids. How the instant they were born you became a different person because of the bond you now shared with them. That is the best way to describe what we have because it is one of those things that you can never understand unless you are a part of it. Anyway, enough rambling. It was such a  fun day!!

Numbers & too many pics.

21: The age I was when I started at Farragut High School as an intern in the Social Studies department.

6:00am-the time I arrived at FHS during my first few years as a teacher when I taught a 7am class

44: The number of cheerleaders I have the privilege of knowing/loving/supporting/learning from

5: The number of Homecoming dances I was in charge of (A Night in Paris, Friday Night Lights, Glow in the Night, On Cloud 9, The City that Never Sleeps) 

66: The number of classes I have taught

3: The number of preps I had each semester my first official year teaching (Government, Fundamental US History, Bible History)

2: The number of classrooms that I had at FHS (my perfect trailer and my loud room)

4: The number of interns I was able to work with (shout out to Jessica!)

1650: the number of students (estimated) that I taught

4: The number of student Europe trips I was lucky enough to chaperone

0: The number of years that I have spent in education NOT at FHS

1540: the number of texts Clare & I have shared in the last 3 months (I met Clare at FHS about 9 years ago!)

2: The number of presidents I became obsessed with as a teacher (Andrew Jackson & Teddy Roosevelt)
A LOT:  the number of tears I shed as I realized I was leaving all of this

In case you are very confused, I am no longer a teacher at FHS. I accepted an Assistant Principal job at Powell High School the day before teachers arrived back for the year. It was a very tough decision to leave everything I know about education/life, but I know this is going to be a great opportunity for me. 

I was a lucky, lucky girl to have spent the last decade as a teacher at FHS. I made awesome friends, realized that I am meant to be in education, loved days/hated days, ate a lot of Lean Cuisines in the yellow wing workroom, graded a TON of essays, learned what a "lib" is in cheerleading, realized the joy of helping a kid realize that he really does like History he just didn't realize it, completely immersed myself in everything that is being an Admiral. I met Clare, Chelsea, Elizabeth and all of these other great people who are just a part of my life now, so much so that I can't remember them not being there. I fought the yellow wing restroom every day in a battle to win just a little bit of toilet paper and I dressed in a tshirt decorated like a can of spaghetti o's for the can dance every October. There really is just too much to list, so I will stop. 

Just a few of the posts that I have done on FHS related activities....
DC trip, Homecoming dances, football games,  my classroom  memories, perks, more perks the cheerleaders,
Europe trip 2012,

I can't find my first badge, but here is an early one.

My last pic in my room!

The "crack" that Angela & I used to talk through to each other. a story about the crack...

My notebook. Always. I kept everything in there-attendance, grades, cheer info, work to do, notes for class. I remember my printer was not working last year so I just wrote my name on a piece of paper until I could print a title page. Never got around to that...

Entering for the last time. I was literally throwing stuff into boxes when I started packing. One can accumulate quite a bit over the span of a 9 years. Mostly it is random stuff that I used as props in teaching. I am a firm believer in props.

Quaker Man. I used him for random things during the Colonial American unit. He has been with me about 4 years, I think. Sort of like a colleague.

My awesome podium. Pops and Uncle Frank made it for me a few years ago and it is so great, I am taking it with me. You just never know when you are going to need a podium. Check out the note Pops wrote in it for me when he made it.

Random. I think this was from World Culture's Day and my room was Italy. Apparently I wore this?

One of my bulletin boards.

Another one. All kinds of random stuff. I keep everything that has a story.

This is from a few years back, but a teacher left and gave away all of his stuff. I did not want this giant, heavy copy of the Emancipation Proclamation but I sort of felt bad throwing it away. So, I gave it to a random kid who carried it around and brought it back! Hilarious. We started a game where the student who had it got to pick the next kid to give it to and they got to sign it. (There are a bunch of names on the back) The catch was that you had to carry it around all day and if I saw you without it, you lost it. They took it very seriously. I love kids.

Found this from my first year of teaching when I lost my PowerPoint remote. My class was trying to raise $ to buy me a new one. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I found the note. Do not hate on teenagers in front of me because I will disagree with you!

 I grouped my kids using President faces. They were each assigned an awesome president and had to get the laminated head from the Hitler tissue box when it was time to work in groups. I loved looking around and seeing floating heads of Truman, Lincoln and FDR.

 First Powell shirt! In some twisted version of irony, Powell played Farragut in the football jamboree, which was my third day at Powell. My brain was struggling with "We" vs. "Us"!

One of my cheerleaders brought me flowers to my new office. Which is, of course, one of the many reasons I am going to miss them.

Speaking of, this is my last pic with them. I cannot express enough how much I love these girls and what being the cheerleader sponsor has done for me. I had no idea to know that the day I said yes to taking on this responsibility was going to be one of the best days for my life. While the beginning was rough (ROUGH), the relationships, life lessons and rewarding days that I gained from this will never be able to be replicated. Anyone who knows me has heard numerous references to, "my girls", "the cheerleaders", and "I'm planning this project/ordering these things for the girls."    These girls and their families have honestly been a huge part of my Admiral family and telling them goodbye was very difficult. I started crying before I even opened the gym door, so it was definitely not one of my better moments.

FHS was truly an amazing part of my life. The memories and relationships I made there will always be with me. I love you all!