Meet the Teacher Monday!

Hi there Blogging Peeps!! Kerri here...
I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week 2011! What a fantastic idea! Lindsay is having her baby as we speak (literally! She is in the hospital right now and her Hubs is texting me updates!) so she will have to post her Meet the Teacher later! We were in her classroom today putting up one last bulletin board, and when she got home her water broke. Heehee! That's what happens when you're obsessed with classroom decorating! I am just so happy and excited for my Besty to have her first baby...I can't wait to meet him!


So, here's a little bit about me!

My family in Orlando last summer

I have wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl. I can remember playing school with my cousins and my fondest childhood memory is when Santa brought me vintage school desks filled with school supplies on Christmas. I was 7 and it was like I had died and gone to heaven. What a gift to be living out my childhood dream every day AND getting paid for it!!
 I teach in Newport Beach, California. I have been teaching for 15 years and this next year will be my 16th! WHAT?? I can't believe it! I taught  4th, a 1/2 combo, and then 2nd in my first district, and then after moving to the district I am in now, I taught Kinder for 10 years, before changing schools and grade levels to 1st last year. I LOVE first grade!  I thought I would never leave Kinder, but after 10 years, I was looking for a change and first grade was the perfect grade for me! Plus, my Mom was a teacher for 35 years and taught first grade for many of those years, so I am so proud to teacher the same grade that she loved so much! She helps in my classroom every Friday since she retired and she is SUCH an ANGEL! She literally saves me HOURS and HOURS of prep work, and the quality time we get to spend together is PRICELESS!

My sweet Mommy and I on Mother's Day!

I have 2 sweety little girls who I just LOVE to pieces! My oldest will be starting Junior High in 2 weeks (Gulp! Please pray for us!!) and my little one is going into the 3rd grade. It seems like just yesterday my babies were babies, and I can't believe how the time has flown! 

I am married to a wonderful, Godly man who takes such good care of the girls and I. He is also a teacher (Junior High Science--blech!!) and he is so understanding of my teaching/blogging/crafting obsessions!! :) He is an AWESOME athlete, a super SMARTY PANTS (Thank goodness he can help Sarah with her Math!!) and SO HANDSOME! 

You may not know...
I am O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D with all things Harry Potter! The books, the movie, the spells, the characters, the Theme Park (which I got to visit last summer...TOTAL DREAM COME TRUE!)

Butterbeer...delicious!

Katie choosing a wand in Ollivanders...AMAZING!

Finally, I love Jesus with all my heart. He protected me through a rough childhood, carried me through those crazy high school and WILD college years, and has blessed me more abundantly than I deserve. He has given me so much, and it is by his grace that I am saved!


Thanks for reading, friends! I hope you know how much you all inspire me and give me strength in this profession!