Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to our wonderful fathers! Nate and I are both blessed with such wonderful, caring, special dads! I thought I would take some time to reminisce about my dad. I have so many great memories as a child.

One of my most favorite memories of my dad is spending time with him in the coffee shop. You know how police officers love coffee and donuts! My dad and I would go to a donut shop in Grand Haven. He would order his coffee and I would get to order chocolate milk and a chocolate donut. Yummy! My dad and I would sit at the counter on stools and hang out. I miss those days. Just me and my dad! Now when I go over to visit we sit on the deck, admire his lawn, and drink our cup of coffee. No donuts included.

Another favorite memory of mine, even though it was stressful at the time, was practicing my driving with my dad. When I got my permit I was so excited, but I knew that my dad and I would spend hours driving around town and on the back roads. He wanted to make sure I was a great driver before I got my license. I was always so nervous, but I loved having that time alone with my dad. He taught me to look right, look left, look right again. I find myself still staying that to this day. Thanks dad for teaching me to drive!

I have to tell you that my dad is great at yard work. The summer before Nate and I got married he helped us put in a yard. My brother Chad came over to help too and we put rock around our house and filled the yard with grass. I think when my dad retires some day he will own his own lawn care business. He is very gifted at lawn care and I am so glad because I don't know anything about lawn care and he knows that!

My dad is so important to me. He has always been there to help me make those important decisions and I still call him to this day and ask his opinion on things. I know he loves it! My favorite memories now, sitting with my dad and drinking a cup of coffee.

My mom, dad, and me a very long time ago.

Oh the memories of Christmas morning! My dad always holds his gift, shakes it, feels it, shakes it again, and tries to guess what it is. I don't know how he does it, but he is usually always right!

One of my favorite memories of all...dancing with my dad at my wedding. What a special moment the two of us shared. I will always cherish that time together.

The School Year is Almost Over!

It is that time of year! Schools are letting out and summer is in the air. Nate finished his year on Friday and I am still going into my hot and muggy classroom until Wednesday. Oh well! I actually have a fun group of second graders and will miss them next year. It seems like every year I get more and more attached to my group of kids. I will tell you the one thing that I will not miss is hearing my name, "Mrs. Mihalek? Mrs. Mihalek? Mrs. Mihalek?" over and over again. Oh and the constant little line of 5 kids that follow me around the classroom. They are my little ducklings. I always call them that and they finally understand why. This time of year they are really needy because they know that the year is almost over. Only a couple more days with my ducklings.

I look back over the year and truly feel blessed that I have the opportunity to do what I do every day. I love how teaching makes me feel; happy, excited, overwhelmed, tired...the list goes on. I love looking at their faces and seeing them so excited about learning (2nd graders get excited about anything you do). I love the look they get on their faces when they understand what I have taught them. I love how they come to school ready to learn, well most of them.

I thank God every day for allowing me to do what I love to do. Wednesday will be a day of mixed emotions. I know I will probably shed some tears because I really do love this group of kids. After I have escorted them out of the building I will return to my classroom to clean up and pack everything away. Then summer will officially begin and I can begin to relax. I can't wait!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! I look at my life and I am truly blessed. I have one of the coolest moms in the world! And I have a wonderful mother-in-law. What more could you ask for? I'm so blessed!

As I am sitting her thinking about what I could write about, I start thinking of all the wonderful memories I have with my mom. One of my favorite things I used to do with my mom involves hot chocolate, graham crackers, and Anne of Green Gables. I remember curling up on the couch with my favorite treat and watching Anne of Green Gables, feeling so special because it was just the two of us. I really loved when she would braid my hair in pig tails like Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. And we would watch The Wizard of Oz together. I would sit behind her in the rocker sometimes because the monkeys would scare me so! She would always protect me.

Now I am older and I love the friendship that we have made. I love talking to her on the way to or from school some days. I love sitting down and having a cup of coffee with her and just talking about life. (She makes the best coffee!) I love calling her and asking her for advice and I do that often. I love calling her or emailing her during the school day just to say hi or wondering if she could do me a favor. I love when she gives up her time to come into my classroom to help me with a craft or just to say hi to the kids. I love her passion for life and how she will do anything for anyone. I love everything about my mom! She means the world to me and I can't thank God enough for having her bring me into the world.

So today on Mother's Day I want to thank my mom and Nate's mom for bringing us up with the Christian beliefs and values that they both grew up with. We are both so blessed to have the two of them in our lives. I know some day I can't wait to be a mom and experience all of the greatness that our moms have. I can't wait to impact a little life in the way that I was!

Here are some pictures that I found of my mom and me growing up.

My mom and I at my Uncle Brad and Aunt Robin's wedding. I was the flower girl and was told I did a very good job. I remember just loving the peach colored dress!

Here we are at the zoo. Don't I look so stylish with my jeans and sweater? My mom looks pretty stylish too!

Almost Summer?

Well today it sure felt like summer! The kids arrived to school in their shorts and t-shirts and their brains were shut off! My classroom felt like a sauna and I couldn't wait to run out to the car after school and turn the air on! Now don't get me wrong, I love this weather, but it needs to wait 26 more days until I can get outside and enjoy it. It's too hard to get the kids focused when the sun is shining through the windows. Okay I admit, I have a hard time focusing too. Here is a conversation that I had with a couple of my students today...

Student: (from across the room) Mrs. Mihalek?

Me: (continuing to walk around the room, helping students)

Student: (now approaching me) Mrs. Mihalek?

Me: What do you need to do if you have a question?

Student: Stay in my seat and raise my hand?

Me: That's right, now show me please?

Student: (stomping back to their seat, sitting down, raising their hand, and shouting) Mrs. Mihalek?!

Me: Yes?

Student: Can we go outside now?

Me: Not now we have work to do.

Another student: Oh yeah, can we go outside?

Me: We have work to finish.

Another student: Mrs. Mihalek it's too nice to sit inside. It's summer. Look I'm wearing my shorts and t-shirt. This is what I wear during summer and I play outside when I wear these clothes. I put them on today hoping you would give us more recess. Don't you want to go outside too?

Me: (looking out the window as if the sun was calling my name) We have work to do right now.

Another student: (walking over to the student who kept asking the question) Didn't you hear her? She said we have work to do. Maybe if we don't bother her any more she'll take us out. She is a nice lady. Let' s just keep working.

Me: (5 minutes pass) Okay kids time to go outside.

Okay, so I gave in. Sometimes as I walk around the room, I see how hard they work and how long they've been working. I have to remember they are just kids and they need to get outside and release their energy. They are only 7 and 8 years old. I can't imagine sitting as long as they do at times. To tell you the truth, I needed to get out of the room too. So I was being selfish! The kids had no idea. They thought I did it for them. Truth is, I wanted to take a break too!

Summer can't come soon enough. I love what I do, but I need a mental break. I need to sit on the beach with a good book and just relax. I can't wait!

Our Spring Break

The week Nate and I had so patiently been waiting for finally arrived! It is a teacher's favorite time of the year...SPRING BREAK!! Now some people decide to stay home and do some spring cleaning, some decide to go to warm tropical places (like my mom, dad, and sister), and then some decide to get away for a couple of days, hoping to escape a bit of cold and the work that should be done during break.

What did we decide to do for spring break? Well, I really wanted to fly some place warm and lay on a beach all week and read book after book, but I couldn't make up my mind on where to go. After much debate we decided to travel to the windy city of Chicago for a couple of days.

So how did we get there? With gas prices so high and parking in Chicago very expensive, we decided to take the commuter train out of Michigan City. It is a cheap way to get there and you avoid the massive headache of driving around Chicago, draining your wallet of money to park every night. Our hotel was about a mile from the train station and the weather was gorgeous on Sunday, so we were able to sit in a park, read, get a little sun on our cheeks, and then begin the hike to our hotel.

Monday's Activities: A visit to Shedd's Aquarium with hundreds of kids on field trips with their schools. I think every school in Chicago was at every museum we went to! We felt like we were back in the classroom! This is the dolphin show that we attended. It was a beautiful sunny day and you can see the view of Lake Michigan.

Monday was such a beautiful day in Chicago. We even took our coats off outside while we were walking to Shedd's Aquarium. I can't wait for spring's nice weather to stick around!

After our visit to Shedd's Aquarium we walked along the shore of Lake Michigan to our next destination...Adler Planetarium. Nate being the science guy was pretty excited! Here he is acting like one of his seventh grade students. We were waiting for a 3-D space movie. My husband is such a kid!
Monday evening we headed to the Hancock Observatory. It was a beautiful evening to see the many lights of Chicago.

Here I am on the outside deck of the Hancock. It was really windy and really cold. I wasn't too excited to go out there, but Nate thought it would be fun.

Do you know what Nate wants to do after he retires from teaching? I think he mentioned that he would like to wash the windows of the Hancock. Good job Nate, but I think you missed a spot!

Tuesday's Activities: A trip to the Field Museum with more kids on field trips! Oh my goodness! Oh well, we still had a lot of fun exploring. Nate enjoyed the exhibits especially the one on "What is an Animal?" It went a long with what he is teaching in science.

What does every child do when they get back to school after spring break? Bring pictures for Show and Tell about what they did that week. So being a teacher, and kind of like a big kid, I had my picture taken with a dinosaur because my kids love dinosaurs! I even got some pictures of this really huge anaconda. My kids know how much I had snakes, so I just had to be brave and take the pictures.
After we were through with the Field Museum I took a picture of Nate by Soldier Field. I guess that is where the Chicago Bears play.

Here is a picture of Nate waiting for the bus. I think he was a little tired after all of the museum stuff we did over our couple of days in Chicago. I know I was! Our last night in Chicago was fun! As a thank you to Nate for taking me to Chicago I took him for dinner at a place where men like to go...ESPN Zone. He loves sports and big screen TVs so what better to do than combine the two and eat a nice meal. What a fun time!

This year's spring break was a lot of fun. I love spending time with Nate and getting to travel to different places together. The only bad thing is, it's hard to get pictures of the two of us together. Oh well!

A Girl's Night Out

Monday night was a fun night out for Jaime, my mom, and me. We began our evening preparing for our night out on the town by making sure we looked nice. You know girls! I think Jaime took the longest to get ready. Teenagers! Then we ventured out for a lovely dinner at...Subway! After our extravagant meal we headed over to the Carrie Underwood concert at the VanAndel Arena. The three of us were so excited!

Jaime and I just before the concert was about to start! Jaime loves taking pictures! We must have taken this picture 10 times before we got a decent one.

I love my mom so much! Jaime and I were so happy that she wanted to come with us!

Our seats weren't this close. I found these pictures on-line.

The opening act for the evening was Josh Turner. He is a very talented singer. His deep, country voice just made you say, "Wow!" and Jaime didn't think he was that bad to look at. He has a couple of songs that really talk about his faith. After one of his songs there was a cross that shone on the black curtain. Very cool! But the coolest was when he announced a soldier that was back from Iraq. Josh Turner thanked him for his service and the crowd went wild, but even more so when the soldier proposed to his girlfriend. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. What an amazing moment for that couple. Of course I had to share that with Nate!

The moment we had been waiting for for about a month had finally arrived. Carrie Underwood came up from under the stage and we went wild! Her first song was amazing and then the songs just kept getting better and better. I have to say I have been to quite a few concerts, but this concert was the best so far. I can't believe the magnitude of her concert considering she is still fairly new in the country music business.

Jaime and I were amazed when she took out her guitar. We had no idea that she played! This was one of my favorite songs of the night, "Don't Forget to Remember Me." Of course I got a little teary eyed. It is about growing up and leaving your loved ones behind while you journey out into the world on your own. It's a powerful song and a reminder that we all just want to be loved and remembered by our family.

My favorite song of the night..."Jesus Take the Wheel." The background was a lovely blue sky with a few white clouds floating all around. It looked heavenly. This song constantly reminds me that we can't do everything on our own. There are times where we just have to say, "God take this from me. I need your help and I can't do it on my own. I need to let go of this burden because I know you will help me through." Some days when I'm frustrated driving home from school I turn this song up and sing it real loud. It makes me feel so much better!

Just when you thought she was done and the concert was over, Carrie came out and performed a couple more songs getting the crowd back on their feet in excitement. She is such an entertainer!

What a fun girl's night out we had! I love spending time with my mom and sister. I think my mom really enjoyed the concert! She's a country girl at heart! Thank you mom and Jaime for making the concert such a fun and memorable night! We'll do it again next year! Maybe next year we'll get to meet her backstage. Probably not, but we can hope!

Congratulations Nate!

So it's been awhile since I've posted. Nate and I have been extremely busy with school! Nate had his regional Science Olympiad competition at Grand Valley today. It is a busy day with a ton of middle school and high school kids competing in brainy science events. Jaime was so kind to accompany me to GVSU. We had a lot of fun walking around the campus, enjoying the sunshine and getting a bit of exercise. We just had to walk off the treat that we had! Jaime passed her driving test today, so we had to celebrate! I can't believe that my little sister will be getting her license in just a week!!!! Watch out drivers! Just kidding. She is a great driver!

Oh, getting back to Nate's competition. They placed third and will be going on to the state competition at the end of April at MSU! Yea!!! Another couple of busy weeks for Nate, but he loves doing it. I love watching him interact with his students. They just love him. I really love seeing how happy he gets when they get excited about what they are learning. These kids amaze me! They are such hard workers and very smart.

So that is all that has been going on in our little world. We are very excited for spring break! Just one more week of school and then some relaxation. Any advice on where to do? We just can't decide. We'll probably just stay around home. I'm praying for sunny weather!