Definitely NOT Old Enough!!!

Okay, so we are now in the middle of our second week of school and so far it is going very well. Despite being worn out at the end of each day, I am finding it hard to imagine that I ever wanted to do something else with my life. I am truly happy. :) But here's the deal...tomorrow night is Back To School Night (a.k.a. OPEN HOUSE!!) for parents to come and meet the teachers and learn about the classes their students are taking. I cannot believe that I will be standing up in front of all those parents telling them that I am the adult in front of their kids each day!! I am having a serious age crisis here!!! Yikes!!

Anyway, in an effort to lighten the mood of the evening, my teammates and I decided to take an interesting twist on introducing ourselves. We have written our introductions in the form of dictionary definitions! They are really hilarious. I have posted mine below. Enjoy!

More soon...

Meghan Daniel n ( dan-yull)1: posing as 8th grade wacky science teacher, singer, actress, wife, sister, daughter, friend, pet owner, movie buff, master klutz and first-time-Coloradan 2: former life: professional student, server, barista, student supervisor, tutor, production safety assistant, charity recruiter, and turfgrass specialist 3: origins from the Wolverine state, though proud Spartan (see flag in classroom); has been known to spend long days on shores of the Great Lakes; world traveler 4: VIRGO! – and yes, slightly over-organized 5: current Master’s degree student in Secondary Education 6: lover of practical jokes and often the receiver; professional college football fan 7: has been known to tell dumb stories and lame jokes 8: suspected to know almost every person in neighborhood – and their dogs! 9: shoe size: 8.5 or 9 – depends on the day and weather 10: otherwise known as – Meg, Megs, Meg-A-Roo, Roo, Smiley, Miz. D 11: hobbies: sleeping, singing, acting, reading, hanging out with hubby, chasing Jack-the-Cat (a.k.a Kung fu Kitty) around house as Layla-the-puppy follows behind, hiking, biking – being active! 12: mmmmmm food –‘nuff said 13: entertainment – could have bought new wardrobe instead of movie tickets, NPR, Jack Johnson, classic oldies, show tunes, laughing at husband 14: mirror, mirror on the wall – 5’7”, brown hair and eyes, glasses or contacts, classic, yet trendy, has tendency to have curly hair days. ant Mrs. Daniels

Lazy Sunday Morning

Hey there everybody! Well I can't seem to sleep in on the weekends like the rest of the bunch here. I guess getting up @ 7:00am on the weekends compared to 5:30am during the week does give me an extra 1-1/2 hours. But I just can't seem to compete with the other three sleepy ones. My weekend morning ritual is usually sneaking out of bed a little before 7:00am and taking Layla down the block to Fluid Coffee Shop (Meg's summer employer) and chatting with the owner. I then get a cup of joe and take Layla on a walk until it is gone. Then I go home and make lots of noise whippin' up some breakfast. Either the noise from the silverware and cereal bowl clinking or the smell of pancakes and bacon/sausage gets my girl a'stirin from Mr. Sandman's grip.
Today I did the later (quick breakfast), read a good chunk of the Sunday Denver Post, put away my Bronco good luck memorabilia shrine from the victory against Indy from the night before, talked to G & G and Uncle Dick and Aunt Joyce on the tele, and dinked around all while the others decided to go back to slumber land. Aren't they cute, and there I am wide awake.

Welcome To Mrs. Daniel's Room!

Okay, so they aren't the best photos, but I'm sure you can get the idea of what my room looks like. I couldn't snap any pics during the day when the kids were in there for safety/security reasons so, you'll have to ignore the chairs up on the tables. Also, lots of things are still under construction or in progress at school- hence my makeshift screen at the front of the room!
Enjoy the tour! :)


My classroom skeleton, "Bones" guards my Michigan State flag with pride as he wears his own lab coat!


Standing behind my desk in the corner, I have a view of all the kids. On my desk I have a lava lamp, an Albert Einstein action figure, and lots of other doo-dads that are super-enticing for the kids to play with. They think I am a total dork, but then follow their attitudes with, "Ahhh, hey, um, Mrs. Daniel? Can we play with Albert Einstein?" I just have to laugh...to be 14 again!


And finally...what science room would be complete without huge atom models and a life-size DNA strand climbing up the wall? Let's just put it this way...no student will ever be able to fall asleep in here! :)

Operation Protecting Humpty Dumpty

Well, I have offically survived the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Woo hoo!! I am pretty pooped after a fun-filled weekend with Kristen and Penni in town AND preparing for school to start, so just a quick note...

Instead of the typical rules and regs stuff on the first day, I had my students partake in an egg drop contest affectionately named, Operation Protecting Humpty Dumpty. The day was a huge success and I was thrilled to have had it run so smoothly. (There's something about being able to throw stuff that makes kids want to take part in your class!) Of course I didn't make it through the day without dating myself..."Please look at the dittos in front of you."..."Mrs. Daniel? What's a ditto?" I couldn't believe that the word ditto had been completely replaced by "worksheet". Yikes! Am I really getting that old?

More soon on the Adventures From the 8th Grade!

Fun Pics From The Weekend!

Kristen and I hanging out at Uptown Tavern while she and our friend Jonathan (Penni) were in town. It was a blast having them here!


Our first Denver Broncos game! They played the San Fransisco 49ers. It was a fantastic night and the Broncos won too!


Is this real life or a cartoon? I was fully expecting an anvil to drop on us or this tunnel to be nothing but a painting on the side of the mountain! :) (We made it through for those of you who were guessing how it all ended up.)


The Rockies versus the Cubs! Chris and Penni managed to catch the historic team in action on Friday afternoon. The Rockies ended up winning the series 2-1, despite their not-so-hot record.


Who's the # 1 fan? Take a guess!


Layla definitely had her fill of hiking and playing this weekend.

Hiking in the Rockies!

Chris here - Wow, what a view! While Kristen and Penni were in town this weekend, we decided their trip to Denver wouldn't be complete without a venture to the mountains. The four of us (and Layla) and our friends Matt, Stacey, and their dog Jake took to the mountains and hiked Guenella's Pass, a trail out west by Mt. Evans. We had to drive through a quaint little mountain town to get to our starting point at an elevation of 12,160 ft above sea level! The actual climb was only 600 ft over a few miles in length, but it was breath taking in more ways than one. We all had to stop every few hundred feet to take in the new view and a few gasps of air. We took the trail to a lake who's name escapes me and were in awe of the creation of it all. The stream in the picture was a small little stream filling up the entire lake. There were actually large pieces of ice on the sides of the stream. If you look closely at the picture of the lake, you can see Meg in her red hat and our two other friends at the far end. It really puts the lake's size into perspective, especially from looking down on it from higher up on the mountain. Later the weather began to turn, and it was time to start getting ready for the Broncos vs. 49'ers game, so we began our descent back to the cars. After the hiking was complete, we knew climbing the stairs at Invesco Field at Mile High would an easy task.

P.S. Thanks, Mom for the cherry bars. They were enjoyed to the fullest and all seemed to have disappeared. A little touch of home! Mmmmmm......

Rollin' in Red Rocks

Greetings from the Mile High City on yet, the end to another wonderful weekend. :)

With the summer quickly coming to an end, one of my teammates opened an invitation to attend a concert with her on Friday night with a group of her girlfriends. The concert was held at Red Rocks, an outdoor natural amphitheater with one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life. Picture this: to the East, the city lights of Denver twinkling in the distance; to the West the sun setting behind the majestic Rockies. (Yeah, I thought it was pretty amazing too.) The headlining group was a band that I have really liked for a while called The Killers so I was really exicted to have been asked to go with Carrie and her crew. The show ended up being so much fun and the music was phenomenal! Even more so, it was so much fun have a "girls night out" and meet some new friends (all of whom were teachers). I know I have said this before, but I truly feel fortunate to have met so many genuine people out here since our move.

Saturday and Sunday brought errands, cleaning the house and relaxation! :) My prinipal opened the school for us workaholic teachers on staff (read: ALL of us!) this weekend, so Chris and I headed for Aurora (city where school is), shopped at teacher store, lamenated posters, cut lamenated posters, hung cut and lamenated posters, organized, cleaned classroom, and finally took a big breath as I shut the lights off because my room was finally finished! Yay! I will get some pictures this week of the school and my room and post them so you all can see it.

On a side note, I have to laugh at Chris and I. What do you get when you marry an engineer with a science teacher? Answer: A couple who sits on the couch together at night each with their laptops in front of them clicking away. Yes, we are oobernerds! :)

Have a fabulous start to the week! Kristen and Jonathan (Penni) are coming on Thursday and I see students for the first time on Friday! Big week!! Off to get some rest....Layla is providing an excellent model of how to do it. :)

The latest

Hello friends!

My brain is very tired and my fingers are moving slow. Our teacher trainings have gotten under full swing this week and I am simply...pooped. The sick thing about it is that I LOVE every second of it! Something seriously must be wrong with me! Because the school is opening for the first time, we have to learn everything from staff development stuff (normal for each year) to how to work the phones, copy machine, and check out books! It is kind of funny - everyone is a first year teacher at Sky Vista! A week and a half more to go of trainings and then the kids come! Yikes! Chris came to school tonight after he was done working and we set up my FIRST EVER science classroom!!! Soooooo fun! Did you ever have a giant DNA strand going up the entire wall of your science classroom????? :) It was so sweet of Chris to come and help - I never would have been able to get it all done without him.

In other news, Layla the puppy continues to do well in her little puppy world. We are currently working on sitting on the street corners before we cross the street. She is usually pretty good about it, but it always seems to be the occasions that there are tons of people sitting or standing outside when she doesn't want to sit. I'm sure you can imagine the scene as Chris or I continue to say, "Layla, sit." over and over and OVER again. It's almost as if she wants us to look as incompetant as possible at being her owner in front of an audience. It is actually quite comical!

I am really looking forward to having some visitors this fall. Next week, my sister and Chris's best friend are coming to visit! We have a lot of fun things planned so I am really excited! The Cubs will be in town, so we are going to TWO games and will also be attending our first Broncos game in between!!! Definitely a weekend catered around the boys, but the company is all that matters. My dad and youngest brother (3 years old) will be visiting in the middle of September for a week and Walker has already started to tell people how he is going to go visit his big sister in "Cololado"! ( and no, that is not a typo - Walker can't pronounce the r's yet.) Wrapping up September will be my mom for a long weekend. Woo hoo! I am REALLY excited to see so many of our friends and family!!

Alright, tomorrow is just a short few hours away and my eyes are getting very heavy. More soon...

Holy Huge Zucchini!

Yes, this is real. This has not been digitally enhanced or grown with any of baseball's steroids. I picked this out of the community garden in our building's courtyard. They are also growing a variety of peppers, eggplant, green beans, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries, to name a few. It looks like you have to be quick on the ripe strawberries or the garden critters will get them. I am going to look for a good "zuc on the grill" recipe for this sucker. It is way too big to be diced down and sauteed, and it would also be way to much work! I am going to keep a sharp eye on the couple of eggplants coming in. If they are even close to this size, I will invite you all over for some eggplant parmesan.

Meg's week of AP training went well, despite the elitest attitude that most of the men had in the class (she was 1 of 4 women). She rocked and held her own though. Monday she starts at school with all her meetings, staff training sessions and setting up her classroom. She and I will be helping to register students on Wednesday night and should be lots of fun. I am really excited for her year to begin!

Miss you all and take care.