I just got back from the Imagine Schools national forum in St. Louis!  (Imagine is the charter school operating company for which I work.)  Although it was long and definitely boring at times, I'm sure I'll go again next year.  The good points were seeing my friends from work, staying at a nice hotel with good wine at the bar, tasty food, getting ( Read more... )

Mike's mom and her friends threw me a shower yesterday and it was soooo fun!  First of all, I had my hair trial before.  I was at the salon for 2.5 hours because I had it highlighted and then I had the updo.  But, it looked great and I'm definitely sticking with the chosen style for the wedding.  It still looked great this morning after I slept on ( Read more... )

First of all, my 4th was lots of fun.  Mike's parents invited me to the cottage where they spend every July 4th week with several friends of theirs, so we sat on the beach and drank cocktails all day, grilled, had a bonfire with s'mores, and set off fireworks over the lake.  I also went with Mike's mom and her friends from the cottage to the retro ( Read more... )

Today, I ate lunch with Missy and met with Nick, our photographer.  I also left a voicemail for the event coordinator at our bar catering services to ask her some questions.  Mike picked up our programs and I paid the rest of the balance, and he assures me that they look great.

We also had a conversation about how I don't like the size or the ( Read more... )

I'm listening to my Disney music.  :o)

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I usually have a lot of time to update when I'm in Holland, but I've been very busy with wedding stuff.  The last month is definitely crunch time, and even though I've been spreading out the work over 18 months, there are so many things that you can't do until the last month or ( Read more... )

On Friday morning, I got up at 2:15, showered, braided my hair, packed remaining items, finished loading the car, and hit the road to Holland at 3:15 A.M., Jetta time.  I made ridiculously fast time and arrived in my parent's driveway in Michigan at 9:24 P.M. for a total drive time of 18 hours, 9 minutes.

I only stopped thrice:  for Starbucks and ( Read more... )

I'm done!  Report cards are out, my stuff had been packed and stored in my new room, the LA department resources have been organized, and I handed in my key and checked out!  I know that this sounds like I'm leaving, but really, we have to do that every year.  We are constantly moving rooms to accomodate enrollment and new hires.  For example, I ( Read more... )

It's the last week!  Final exams are being given and my room is being packed.  I've got a majority of things boxed up and ready to move to my new room, which, ironically, is my room from last year!  I've also had all our department resources getting dumped into my room.  I'm moving them all to the storage space in my new room to inventory them and ( Read more... )

I think the lat time I really updated, I was just getting over the laryngitis and getting ready to take the kids to Grad Jam.

The Disney event was a blast!  Our 8th graders were really well behaved, it was fun to hang out with my fellow chaperones, and it was great to ride all the MGM rides with no lines.  The kids were so funny; they were like, "I ( Read more... )

I'm taking 40 eighth graders to Disney's Hollywood Studios until 1am tomorrow.  Well, it's not just me because I have four other chaperones there helping out.  I'm really hoping nothing goes wrong.  What started as myself and some other staff members thinking that the 8th graders deserved a fun graduation field trip has turned into a massive enigma ( Read more... )