Happy New Year!

Hope everyone's first day of 2013 is off to a great start!

We head back to school tomorrow!  I'm anxious to see my little friends again and am kind of surprised that I haven't bumped into anyone over the holidays except for a few little friends at church.  At least it's a gentle start to the year...we start off with a 3 day week this week, a 4 day week, then a full week before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  So although it might be nice to think about these shortened weeks, I'm also a little stressed because January is going to be filled with district assessments.  Let's think about this...so far, the month of September was filled with testing (yeah...let's test the children on their academic abilities after they've had a full summer away from school), the month of January is going to filled with testing (again...they've been away from me for a full week and although I would love to believe that my families really did make time for reading during our Christmas break, I'm not naive either).  (Did you insert a tone of sarcasm when you read that last sentence?)  CRAZY!  There has to be a better way!

Oh well...onto celebrating the New Year with my kids!  Last year I read a post by some amazing blogger, who for the life of me, I can't remember who he or she was!  This teacher planned a little New Year's Party for her kiddos when they returned to school and I thought it looked like fun!  So last year, I went shopping for some fun New Year garb and have been saving it in my garage and praying that I wouldn't forget about it.  I found plenty that didn't have the year on it and it was super cheap because I purchased it after the holiday!  Here's a picture of the garb my kiddos will receive tomorrow!


My teacher friends agreed to starting our switching (we departmentalize) a little later tomorrow so that we can do a countdown and have a New Year breakfast together!  We'll be dining on donuts and juice, do a little celebrating and then get ourselves focused for the New Year!  I even found a safe countdown video on You Tube that we'll watch!

Click Here for the Link!

I decided to join in on Jen's New Year's Linky Party!  Just in the knick of time!

Haven't joined yet?  Click here for Jen's link!

So I'm going to follow her lead and share a personal and blogging resolution for 2013.

Personal Resolution
So 2012 kind of was a new year for me.  I'm a pretty private girl and don't share a lot but my sister and I embarked on a journey to get healthy last year...and despite the cookie coma that we're slowly coming out of currently we did make significant changes in our lives.  Between the two of us we've lost about 50+ pounds and started running 3 miles three to four days a week.  (Except when it's cold, wet, or snowing.)  I pretty much went from a size 18 to a 12 and my sister got back to her pre-baby weight.  So for 2013, I need to make a full recovery from my cookie coma and I'd like to do a few 5Ks with her....maybe even the Half-Marathon at Disney World next year!  (We're definitely going to attempt to do the 5K @ Disney in January 2014...but we'll be taking an unpaid personal day for a 35 minute race??  Thinking we should suck it up and attempt the half-marathon...we'll see!)

Blogging Resolution
So...it's no secret...I need to become a more consistent blogger.  I love sharing the cool things we're doing in our school and classroom but I just don't make the time to share it with other bloggers...some who have even become friends.  This year, I'll do a better job...promise!

So, there you go!  :)
Bring on 2013!

Thanks for the kind words about my dad.  We're still in the hospital so we'll see what today brings us.  Thinking I might go into school to drop off some stuff and get organized so I'm not dragging everything in tomorrow morning.

Wishing everyone a blessed New Year!