Summer is ALMOST Here!

I'm taking a little bit of time to just hang out right now while I wait for the boys to be home, so I thought I'd blog for a few minutes :). 

We are coming up on the last 3 weeks of school.  In some ways, I am more relaxed... and in some ways, I feel like I'm walking uphill. 
Getting through the last few weeks of school feels like the last few weeks of pregnancy... It feels like it'll never end!  I love my students, I enjoy teaching, but I'm so ready to be off for a while. 
We had a meeting yesterday with a list of things to do, and I'm ready to get started (though I'll have to wait until at least this weekend!).  We are moving buildings next year (and I am moving grades), so EVERYTHING has to be packed and we have to take all of our personal things with us.  Luckily I don't have many personal things yet :).  Being a somewhat new teacher, I haven't had the years to accumulate things. 
This weekend I plan to go up there to organize and pack up most of my things.  I'm hoping that the last few weeks I can teach in a room with less clutter :).  Next year I'll only be teaching English/Language Arts and Social Studies, so I won't have near the amount of crap that I have this year.  Math and science bring a lot of manipulatives that aren't used to teach ELA/SS... and I'm glad.  I'm looking forward to a new year and to be able to start looking at things for next year (though we've been told to not work much this summer!). 
Most of all, I'm looking forward to being able to focus on my family, cooking/baking, and training for my childbirth educator certificate. 

I have so many plans!!  The Dallas Zoo is across the highway from here, so I plan to take the kids at least 1-2 times a week, we'll go to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science some, I'll be doing some "school" time with the older two and teaching Karis how to read (I ordered a "guided reading" set of books for Karis), I'll be reading lots of books and doing my childbirth ed training, we're going to Rockport mid-June to see my grandparents, going to Colorado in July (with the junior high at the church where Robert works) where we'll be camping, rock climbing, and white water rafting!  It's going to be a busy and great summer.  We'll take plenty of time to just hang out, sleep, eat ice cream on the porch, and play on the playground as well! 

Robert plans to get some things done on the house... replace the black and white linoleum tile floor (that is coming up in many places) in the kitchen with ceramic tile, replace the cracking pink and blue tile in the kids' bathroom, redo some things in our closed in garage (because it was closed in years ago but it wasn't made very usable), and continue working on our yard (it's looking better, but we have a ways to go!). 

One other thing that I hope to do is wean myself off of foods/drinks that I have been eating/drinking too much of and become dependent on that I KNOW aren't good for me!  The biggest is anything with caffeine... coffee (which I'll never completely rid myself of) and Coke Zero.  Yes... I have been drinking diet soda.  Too much.  I KNOW HOW BAD IT IS, but I'm addicted!  So, I plan to not drink it at all by next fall.  I know that seems simple, but it's not a simple task to stop a major addiction like that!  I really want to go back to eating healthy and to cook/bake extras to freeze so that when school starts I can just pull stuff out of the freezer. 
I might not get all of this done... but they are just goals :). 
I'm mostly excited about being with my family!!!!!!