Second to last day...

So on my second to last day of spring break... I had another very nice day :) Sherlock and I went out and played in the snow some more! He is such a silly dog. It was actually pretty warm, so he got very wet rolling and playing in the slushy snow. He chased snowballs, slid down the hill on the snow, and buried his kong and dug it out again. He makes me laugh :)

Then I had a wonderful belated-birthday lunch with my local-Jessica. (I have to clarify because there is St. Louis Jessica from college, and then local Jessica from CC. Next year, she will NOT be local in Africa, but... hopefully I won't be here either! Either way I love both my Jessicas :) hee hee) She took me to a super-yummy BBQ place in Manitou Springs. MMMMmmmmmmm meat :) We had a fun lunch and then I spent the afternoon grading papers, cleaning up the apartment, and playing with the puppers some more.

This evening I was delighted to find that the Disney Channel is doing a movie marathon!! LOVE IT!! So far I have watched Tarzan, Hercules, and now Aladdin. Is it wrong that I know the words to all the songs? :) Of course I am also grading papers, so I AM getting something done too! Tomorrow is the last day of freedom before the stress starts again... it's been delightful but too short!!

Fun Birthday :)

So yesterday I met Marci and Jeff and Nathan and Pat (Marci's mom) at the movie theatre to see Monsters vs. Aliens. It was pretty cute :) I also enjoyed the popcorn, soda, and candy (those Eckles do movies right!!) Then we went to Old Chicago where Nathan treated everyone to birthday-pizza dinner. YUM!! :) I also LOVED the multiple rounds of the birthday song. Here's how it would go:

Marci and Jeff: Happy Birthday to...
Nathan: YOU!
Marci and Jeff: Happy Birthday to...
Nathan: YOU!
Marci and Jeff: Happy Birthday dear Poll...
Nathan: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Marci and Jeff: Happy Birthday to...
Nathan: YOU!
*clapping clapping clapping*
Nathan: HAPPY DAY!! HAPPY DAY!!

Marci got a video of it, so i will have to see if I can get it on here eventually :)
It was a very nice birthday!

Twenty-ten!

So I just can't bring myself to say I'm th---y. I'm twenty-ten :) Maybe when I have a job and am feeling like I am ready to step into the next adventure of life I will be ok being th---y... but for today... I'm just not quite there yet.

However, I am totally ok with it being my birthday!! :) It's snowing like crazy outside, so I am not venturing out for a while, so I think I will watch my birthday present from my nephews - Horton Hears a Who! I might have a piece of cake for breakfast too :)

A Better Checklist :)

sleep late (check!)
play with my pupper dog (check!)
paint my toes (check!)
go shopping with my bff Marci (check!)
have dinner and watch Ratatoullie with my favorite Nathan (check!)
sleep late again (check!)
have lunch with my Mums (check!)
find some cute shoes while shopping with my Mums (check!)
be lazy all afternoon (check!)

I'm on spring break :)

Hey Spring Break! Nice to meetchya!

So I am FINALLY on spring break! YAYAYAYYAYAY!!! I slept for 13 hours... not including the 3 hour nap I took when I got home yesterday. I was a little tired :)

So Friday I left school, came home and packed up and then drove up to Frisco. It was a gorgeous afternoon with the sun peaking through dark rain clouds, and it just reminded me how much I want to be living back in the mountains. We stopped at the top of the pass between Fairplay and Breckenridge for some play-stick-in-the-snow time and then met up with Aunt Barb at the hotel. She took Sherlock for a walk while I did some last minute reading up on interview stuff.

The next morning I got up and drove the rest of the way up to Edwards. Of the 5 districts I planned to interview with, my bottom two (Aspen and Steamboat) were not hiring any elementary people... so while I think it would have been good practice to interview, I was not really that disappointed. Summit County was only taking applications as they didn't know what they would have available yet, so I gave them my stuff. So first I interviewed with Roaring Fork (Glenwood Springs Area). I interviewed with one of the elementary school principals and I think I really impressed her. The only downside is how uber expensive it is to live in that area. Then I interviewed with Eagle County. I was suppose to interview with another one of the elementary principals, but she was very pregnant and apparently needed a break, so I interviewed with the head of the HR department instead. I don't think he was expecting to interview anyone, but he was really fun, and he flat-out said he liked me a lot. So overall I felt good about how the day went. I still don't have any concrete prospects, but I am glad I went! I think the combo of a good day and lots of sleep helped too :)

Sherlock had a super-fun day with Aunt Barb too! I met back up with them and then Sherlock and I drove back home. And now I am OFFICIALLY on spring break! WOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!

Last Lap....

Well the finish line (for this particular race at least) is in sight. I just finished researching and writing cover letters to the 5 districts I am interested in that will be at the job fair Saturday. I have to do a table of contents for my portfolio and print some resumes and these letters and then I think I am ready. I have to say I don't give a hoot what happens at school tomorrow as I will just be counting the hours until I can leave. Luckily we have an assembly in the morning, and specials in the afternoon, so it should go by fast. I will be leaving school early so I can come home, pack, feed the fat kitty, and drive up to Frisco. My wonderful Aunt Barb is meeting me up there and putting Sherlock and I up for the night in a hotel, so I don't have to drive through skier traffic on Saturday morning. Then my aunt will have a dog-day Saturday while I go job hunting. She rocks :)

I am enormously stressed, nervous, and really really tired... but 48 hours from now, I will be officially on spring break!! :)

One day at a time...

Report cards done (check!)
MR chapter turned in (check!)
Technology paper/project turned in (check!)
Last waste-of-my-time technology class (check!)

3 out of 6 researched and individualized cover letters to school districts (check!)
90+ % of my portfolio done (check!)

Haven't gone crazy on any kids (check!)
They have actually been pretty good so far this week :) I'm a lucky teacher!

Wonderful long chatty conversation with an old wonderful friend (check!)
Thanks for calling Stephnerninny! :)

Hey and it's only Tuesday night! Yay for productive-me!

Did you see my weekend?

Apparently I lost it because I sure did not get one :( Saturday I went to my second-to-last waste-of-my-time technology class. Then I had lunch with my friend Jessica (yay!) at Jimmy Johns (yay!) and then went to CC to work on stuff. I lucked out since one of the staff was there working also, which meant I had unexpected access to the copy machine and other helpful stuff. Sherlock came too and made me take breaks now and then to play frisbee with him :) I spent a very productive 4 hours working there and came home and worked for another 3 before going to bed. I got a lot done, but it wasn't exactly fun.
Today I was planning to stay in bed for a long time, but since I am so stressed, that didn't happen. So I got up and organized some stuff, then took the pupper dog outside (as it was beautiful!) to play in the park while I graded papers. After a couple of hours I was getting sunburned and he was pooped, so he took a nap while I worked on the computer. Then I took a nap too. This evening has been more work, and I am not going to get done before bed, so tomorrow will be another long day because:
1. Grades for report cards are due tomorrow
2. The third chapter (revised) of my MR paper is due Tuesday
3. The final project/paper for the tech class is also due Tuesday as the last class is that day
4. This is the last week before Spring Break, so the kids will be horrendous if I don't have interesting things for them to do.
5. Saturday is the Rocky Mountain job fair, so I have to have my portfolio, resume, and all my cover letters ready... and be prepared to interview my tail off. I have a meeting with Marsha (the queen of job-getting at CC) on Wednesday to make sure I am ready.

Well... a week from now, it will be over and I will have a whole week off! Let's hope I survive until then (and maybe even have a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

There Goes Maximus!

Those were Max's first steps!!
Isn't he so stinkin' cute?!? :)

That's What Friends Are For :)

So while I was not super happy about having to go to another waste-of-time technology class, I was glad that my friend Marci was there with me. She makes me laugh so hard I cry. We were looking at Imovie in the Mac lab. While the teacher was getting stuff set up, we played with photobooth. It has all these different effects... kind of just like a fun-house set of mirrors. We were laughing so hard my tummy hurt!!! Ahhh... we had fun. Then when we got to play with the movie maker we made a hilarious mini-movie where Meckles (aka Marci) was attacked by a Pollysaurus (aka my hand). I have it on a DVD, but haven't figured out a way to put it on the blog. I hope I can because we are just too funny :)

Then we had pizza, after which I came home and took a snooze. Now I am making a dent in the stack of papers to grade as report cards are due in a week. At least I get to sleep in tomorrow! :)

I might have a cold, but I have PIZZA!

So today I decided that I deserved pizza for dinner! I ordered the pizza and then ran to the grocery store and the bank and then went to the pizza place. When I got there, there was only one guy running the whole show. He was making the pizza, answering the phones, folding the boxes, etc. So when he said "it'll be a minute," I figured it would be more than one minute... so I sat down. Next to me was a lady, yacking on her cell phone. Then she turns to me and starts ranting about how rude poor pizza guy has been to her and do I smell something burning and how it better not be her pizza, etc. So pizza guy finally brings out her 4 pizzas, and she starts in on him. Without going into the nasty things she said... she ended up storming out. So nice pizza dude thanks me for waiting and asks if I would like her 4 pizzas along with my one. So for $7 (I had a coupon) I got 5 large pizzas. Pretty good deal huh? :) I have another stupid-waste-of-time technology class tomorrow... but then me and the girls will be having a pizza party for lunch :)

All in all, other than the sniffles, it has been a pretty good week. The theme of our reading unit this week was "Making a Difference," so I had my reading class do a cool project. After reading a book about Fleming's discovery of penicillin, they had to come up with a project or invention that would do something to make a difference in the world. It had to be practical and possible, but not something that they actually had to make. I had them do a poster and write a paragraph to go with it. They were fantastic!!! We had a chameleon security robot who would blend into the building and then be activated when buildings (like banks) were broken into to capture the bad guys. I loved that one because the boys remembered an article from National Geographic about scientists getting ideas from nature, and combined it with another article we read about chameleons. It is so exciting to see their brains in motion!! Other cool inventions included a boat that had all kinds of water-pollution-cleaner-uper gadgets -- including motion sensors to stop if there were animals nearby. There was also a street-cleaning car robot that could separate trash into trash and recyclables. There was also a system to be built into parks that would sense litter on the ground, activate blowers which would push the litter towards tubes which would suck it into the ground and down into trash/recycling bins. A couple others did projects to raise money -- one for orphans and another for hospitals so they could treat poor people who needed help. These kids are so wonderful... it gives me faith that they will indeed grow up to make this world a better place!

Anyway... I am glad it is Friday... and now I am off to eat some pizza :)

That is quite enough!

Ok... so I am actually having a decent week (worrying about life, job, and grandmother stuff aside) and now this evening I have a sore throat and a stuffed up nose.
Grumble :(

Happy Birthday Seuss!

If you haven't Googled today you definitely should... it's super cute :) Gotta love the Seuss. So in honor of this wise and wonderful man... some of my favorite quotes:
“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” (This one is especially dedicated to my Big Sis Bridget HaPPY BiRTHDaY!)
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose."
"And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed."
"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities."

And... in the spirit of trying to juice up the Optimism meter:
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."
I care. A whole awful lot. :)

P.S. If you are a Seuss lover like me, check out these super-cute sheets.
http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/ks535/index.cfm?pkey=cboys%2Dsheeting%7Ck
Marci was picking out stuff for Nathan's new big-boy room, and while she did not end up getting these... I LOVE them! Would it be too silly to have those on my bed? :)

Redirect the Warm Fuzzies

I want to thank you for the warm fuzzies you've been sending... but I need to redirect where they are going. My grandmother had an accident this weekend and broke her hip. She had surgery which went ok... but is still in the hospital for a while. If you could re-direct the warm fuzzies and send them her way I would appreciate it!