First Day of Teaching!!!

I would like to introduce you to:

Bethel Christian Academy's

First and Second Grade Class '10-'11

Today it was official! I was done with all the training and preparation...I officially became a teacher today! What an amazing feeling! What a incredible responsibility!!!

I was sick to my stomach this morning as I prepared for the day ahead! I don't remember ever being that scared! The nervousness lasted about the first half hour of the school day and then I was able to enjoy myself! I had a blast! My 12 kids are absolutely ADORABLE!!!

Here is your chance to see some of them!

Gabrielle and Gizelle

(complete sweethearts)

Austin (goofy)

Obi (cutest kid ever! but kind of an airhead:)

Twins Ashley and Melissa (super sweet) and Katrina (cute and very well behaved!)

Yahir (quiet and kind) and Victoria (sweet and great personality)

James (stinker but he makes me smile too)

So that is most of my class... as you can see I so far have very positive things to say about them! We will see if I am still saying those things after the first month! :)

Now, here are some pictures that my husband was snapping at the beginning of the day. (This is about the time when my stomach was in knots and I was very nervous!) I met most of the parents and children for the very first time this morning! I stressed a lot over those first few minutes b/c at our school the parents are welcome to stay in the classroom for however long they wish on any day of the year! Now, thats pressure! I am just glad I had some warning about that! So not only did I have 12 children to introduce myself to and establish my role as their teacher but the entire time I had parents around the classroom "checking their child's new teacher's teaching skills out." Ha..let's just say...I am glad that is over! :)

It actually went very smoothly! That probably had something to do with the fact that I had the exact words I was going to say in that first half hour basically memorized! :) Also, a HUGE plus is that all the parents seem super nice and supportive!

This is leaving the basketball court where the whole school participates in pledges to start the day off! I mainly posted this b/c my best friend Michelle is in this picture as well! Michelle and I grew up together and now we are teaching in the same school 2000 miles away from where we grew up! It is so nice having her in the next room over!

That's me in the distance meeting some parents as the kids are going to the classroom!

Meeting Yahir

Now here are some pictures of just my classroom! I love it! I spent a lot of time on it the last couple of weeks and it turned out better than I imagined!

Me at my podium!

The front of the class. I love my little stool! We all have one in our classrooms! It's nice to be able to get off your feet a little bit during the day!

From the back view! Love my big desk!

Teacher's desk

sink, microwave and book shelves

If you can't tell my classroom theme is flowers this year! We have to pick a theme for the entire year and I thought flowers was nice and simple for my first year!

Reading table and cubbies

Front view of the room!

There it is! My domain! I love it!

Please pray for me this year! I am realizing more and more that teaching is HUGE responsibility!

I am sure there will be more teaching post to come!

Reality Check!

Well, I officially had the BEST summer of my life!!!!!!!!! (so far!)

....And....

It is officially over!

We had our first day of teacher orientation today!

I don't know if I was ready for my wonderful summer to be over but it is.

I am so excited about all that is in store for this year! I am sure that you will be reading about most of my teaching experiences on here! By the end of this week I will post pictures of my classroom!!

...It's super cute!...

California Reception - July 24, 2010

Our church out here in California gave us a wedding reception on July 24. It was so beautiful and we were once again spoiled! I had the chance to meet the rest of my new relatives and had a wonderful time with my new church family!

There were so many pictures so I just decided to put the link to the pictures that I posted on facebook. You should be able to click the link below to see the pictures (even if you don't have a facebook!) :)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=193284&id=789139444&l=d8b15f5557

This is my new hair-do! I was hoping for a "wife" look..I think I got it!!!

Our New Home!

Welcome to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Julian Balatbat!

~Our Kitchen~

~Our Dining Room~

~Our Living Room~

~Our Hallway~

~Our Bathroom~

~Our Bedroom~

~Our Guest Room/Office~

We absolutely LOVE our little apartment! It is so perfect for us! We have had such a fun time putting it together and decorating. We were given so many beautiful things to help start our new life and all of it together makes up our home! We are so blessed!

HONEYMOON!

This post is basically all pictures of our honeymoon...for those of you that are interested! For those of you that are not..:)...you might not want to waste your time because I'm warning you...there are a lot of pictures of Julian and I in this post!
We had a great time on our honeymoon! It already feels like it was ages ago. It went by super fast. We spent our first weekend in Downtown Chicago and then went to San Antonio, TX. for the next Monday-Friday. These pictures will pretty much fill you in on what all we did!

These first pictures are some of my favorites from our "honeymoon." This (as you can see) was actually our wedding night. I have to say these pictures were all my idea..but I'm so glad we did it..it was so fun and we made great memories!
...so happy to finally be married....

...haha...yes we are jumping on the bed...:)

good stuff! :)

Saturday we spent time on Michigan Ave...

Love this one!

Downtown is so pretty!

Saturday night we went to Dave and Buster's

We won a lot of tokens!

Julian got me this ring with our tokens! :) I thought this was a good way to start our marriage! :)

July 4th

We went to Navy Pier

Decided to go on a lake tour! It was so beautiful and so much fun!

On the boat

Love the skyline of Chicago!

Riding in the water taxi back to our hotel

Waiting for the firework show at Navy Pier!

yay! I love fireworks!

Our room was the middle of the three with lights on (far left corner)

Our room was so beautiful! We had an amazing view of downtown and the lake!

On the airplane..heading for San Antonio!

One of the first things we did was do the boat tour of the river walk. This was Julian's first time here in San Antonio so it was a great way to start our week here!

The river walk is beautiful!

I loved this building! It looks like it's paper thin! My husband knows how to keep me happy! :) Mt. Dew!
We went to Sea World two days during our time there! It was a lot of fun! The first day we watched all the shows and road the dry rides. The second day we went prepared for the water rides! We had a great time!



A 4D show...fun!
Waiting for Shamu!!!!
There he is!!!

Watching the shows!
Me and fake Shamu!
We were feeling like real tourist!!!!
Back on the riverwalk! We stayed right on the riverwalk in downtown San Antonio so every day we would just walk up and down it! It never gets old..it's a beautiful place!

The Alamo is right downtown!



Right outside the mall on the riverwalk there were these men that played their instruments all day long. It was so nice just to sit and listen!

I loved the mall! All the glass windows make it look very unique!

After our second day at Sea World! (Notice the wet hair) :)

On our last night..we dressed up and went out!

We had Ben and Jerry's for dessert! YUM!!

This was our last morning..we went for one last walk before we headed to the airport!