Adventures in Twist Ties and Bert Hats

I don't know about you but I find checking out of a hotel to be depressing. No matter how long you stay at the hotel, it always feels like two seconds earlier that you were in the same lobby checking in. I know I was only on a two day vacation this week, but it felt like about 3 seconds. And yet, all the ridiculous meetings I have to sit in always feel like 3 weeks long. Why is that?

Are you sick of seeing pictures of Eric and his brothers yet? Too bad...

We arrived to our hotel, Newport Wyndham Onshore nice and early on Friday afternoon and had some time to relax before dinner. I don't think I'll mention the place where we ate dinner because Erin may or may not have found a twist tie in her chicken... wish I was kidding.

On Saturday, Eric and I introduced the rest of the family to 2 of our favorite Newport locations that are winter-friendly: Newport Vineyards and Newport Storm Brewery...

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Newport Tokyo House.

The menu amused me.... note "interesting wine"...

Also the food was delicious and no twist ties to be found. Wahoo. I have high expectations for my food as you can see.

This morning we ended the trip on the best note possible...

Yup. If you go to Newport, go to the Cookie Jar.

Also, give event gifts for Christmas, then you get to enjoy them too :)

I'm done being demanding now. Oh wait, one more thing.... universe, I'm begging, please redirect any blizzards headed to Boston this weekend. We literally have no space and I really need to teach some kids to read about now.

Taking a Day Off- The Teacher Version

Teachers, for obvious reasons, don't get the typical "vacation" days. Though it can be frustrating that we always have to pay ridiculous prices to go away during school vacations, it makes sense that I not take off for Florida while my class just hangs out for a week.

Instead, we get what's called "personal days." In my district we get 3 per year and in Eric's they get 2. These do not carry over each year so if you don't use them you loose them. I don't know the exact statistics but I would guess that the majority of teachers do not use all of their personal days. This attitude is definitely encouraged by the districts which vary between a yearly reminder that personal days are for things you really can't do any other time like "closing on a house" (my principal's favorite example) and actually making specific rules about when you can take them, what they can be for etc.

I don't think I took a single personal day the first two years I taught, and since then I take an average of 1 a year. This year I might be setting an all-time record of 2 because Caroline is graduating on a Monday. Today I also took a personal day so we could leave earlier for our big Newport trip with Eric's family. Perhaps if I had known how many snow days we were going to have this January I may have not taken this day off, but you have to reserve days off in advance so, oh well.

So yeah, I have the day off, YEA. But just for fun, let's talk about what went into this particular day off...

It all began about a week ago when I realized how busy this week was going to be. I decided it would be best if I started writing my sub plans as soon as possible. In order to do that I had to do a rough sketch of my whole week so I'd know where the kids would be come Friday. After I finished that I started to write up my plans. By Saturday morning I had a rough sketch of what my kids would do today without me to teach them.

On Monday morning I started the process of getting the materials ready. I started with the arm strength draining process of writing on the easel (oh how much I wish I had a smartboard). I had to write the morning message, followed by a lesson for writing workshop, followed by visual cues of what to do during writing workshop, followed by the sound we'd be learning in reading workshop, followed by the reading workshop choices, followed by the math lesson on teen numbers, followed by the visual cues of what the kids will do independently during math, whew. I really need a smartboard. (oh by the way, this is what I have to write on the easel every day, not just when I'm out- it's worse on days when we have science in the afternoon, fortunately Friday is not one of those days). That's only the beginning of the prep. Then I had to go create a sheet on "About the Authors" for our writing time. Of course kindergartners can't read perfectly so I have to find a clip art picture to go with every question I want the kids to answer. Then I have to cut and paste that into a word document, organize it all, adapt it for some kids who need it, print out both versions. Now I have to create a sheet for the Teen Number search the kids will be doing in math. I don't think I need to really tell you every aspect of my plan, do I?

So Wednesday after I am finally released from a 3 hour long IEP meeting, I run through all the plans with my classroom assistant who is running the day today. I just want to take this moment to say how THANKFUL I am that I have someone I trust running my class and who knows and loves the kids. I know this will not last forever especially in this economy so I appreciate it while it lasts. Moving on. On Wednesday afternoon I thought all was ready.

Then yesterday comes, ANOTHER snow day. Obviously I anticipated this, which is why I had everything ready on Wednesday. But now I have a whole day to remember I forgot to give the poster to the child who will be Star of the Week next week, oh and did I put the schedule on the board? Where is the attendance folder? What if my special needs children don't get this About the Author concept? What if the rest of the class is calling out "What does this say?!" or "I need adult writing!" or "I don't know what my favorite book is!"

Nothing a little trip into school can't fix. So there I was, wandering around the school trying to find someone to let me in on a snow day. Twenty minutes and a little snow climbing later and I'm IN the building. An hour and about 7 e-mails to my classroom assistant later, things are set.

Fast forward to this morning. I feel like I should be at work, but I'm not. I'm thinking about what my kids are doing. I tell myself to go to yoga to calm down and actually enjoy my extra long weekend. Halfway through yoga I remember that I recently learned that a teacher can actually be sued if something happens when they are not at work (I don't know if you can WIN this lawsuit, I'm guessing no, but the fact that it can even happen is scary). Yeah, I'm calm right now... I swear.

(before you enroll me in therapy asap... writing this post made me feel a lot better haha).

Now off to Newport, will bring computer :)

Rudeness

By now you may have heard of Travel and Leisure's Rudest Cities in a America article. Since Boston was labeled #6, I thought I'd comment on my thoughts...

#1- What does rude exactly mean? I always hear midwesterners commenting on how people are "unfriendly" because they don't talk in the grocery store line in Boston. I don't find it rude at all to mind your own business in the grocery line and that's what I generally do. However, Eric gives off some kind of "you should talk to me" vibe and people always talk to him in lines or everywhere we go! Anyway, do people really want to talk to people in the grocery store line THAT much?

#2- Can you judge the rudeness of a place where you grow up? I don't find people in Boston to be rude at all (I mean other than some people obviously!), but maybe I'm just used to it?

#3- One of the comments that someone made on the rudeness article was that some cities have people who tend to be rude behind your back. Would you prefer someone be rude to your face, or behind your back? I'm not sure... sometimes I think it's better to keep your mouth shut and then tell someone later :)

#4- I find in general rudeness/niceness stereotypes about cities/countries are completely incorrect every single time. I wonder if this is because of expectations or luck, or because some stereotypes are just wrong. Some examples:

*Australia has a reputation for kind and welcoming residents. Please know that I love Australia and it will be a happy day in my life when I return there. The people that I met and became my friends were amazing people. But I have amazing friends here in #6 rude Boston too, and I found random Australians to be relatively rude towards Americans. There was a point while I was there that my Australian friend had to stand up for me because someone started yelling at me electing President Bush. Personally, if I met someone from North Korea, I would not start screaming at them about their country/leader etc. This happened to me more than once in Australia. Oh and don't get me started on the bus drivers over there, oh boy! The accents did make them sound slightly more friendly...

*Similarly, Eric and I were told about the welcoming personalities of the Greek. Um... really? We did not find this at all. In fact, this was the only place on our Europe trip that was not at the very least amused by Eric's attempt to say hello and thank you in the native language of the country we were visiting. They would actually look at him kind of weird...

*On the other hand, we had the opposite experience in France. Everyone knows the French, especially in Paris, have a reputation for being rude. However, not one single person was rude to us in Paris. In fact, when we looked extremely lost with a map on the side of the road, a random French guy stopped and attempted to help us without us even asking! Despite the fact that he spoke no English at all, he used the map and gestures to help and didn't give up on us even when we were confused. I call this, the opposite of rude.

Did your city fall on the list of Top 20 rudest cities? Do you think that's right? If you don't live in the US- do you think your city is considered rude or not? What rudeness stereotypes have you found to be false?

Ten on Tuesday

As I've mentioned, life is crazy right now so I don't have time for a great big blog post, I do have time for Ten on Tuesday though :) Thanks Lisa for inspiring me every week!

1. Do you decorate for Valentine’s day?

Obviously...

Haha alright fine, that was freshman year of college :) I don't really decorate any more but I still think Valentine's Day is a great holiday. Why not celebrate the people we love (friends, family, significant others) with some pink and chocolate? This doesn't mean I love crazy sappy romance or anything, but I did enjoy my surprise feety pajamas last year!   

2. Does your desktop have a picture or computer graphic? Is it organized?

My desktop has a picture of Eric and I at our wedding :) It's not organized but it doesn't look messy because everything saves on top of one icon... don't know why but don't care. I never pay attention to where anything is saved on my computer because i just use the search feature.



3. Do you use a paper planner, electric planner or no planner at all?

All about my paper planner, tried to adjust to electronic but I like that my paper planner is available all the time and I can break it out in the middle of a meeting and not look like I'm texting :)



4. Do you change purses or bags often or stick with a good thing?

I am obsessed with purses and bags. I change them pretty frequently but not ridiculously so. I'm using the one I made at my bachelorette party last June still... but I got a new teaching bag, so you know I feel fullfilled on the new bag department.



5. What’s your favorite YouTube Video?

Kinda hate YouTube. Eric and my brother watch YouTube for hours after everyone else has gone to bed. I just don't find it amusing...

That being said, if I had a smartboard in my classroom I'd use some of the videos on it I think. Just found an awesome one on teen numbers yesterday haha.



6. Do you use Turbo Tax or a real person to pay your taxes?

I use my Dad, who is definitely a real person :)



7. How many states have you set foot (or tire) in? Which ones?

Let's see... Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, NH, New York, Conn., Rhode Island, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma (at age 2 and don't remember it, if this counts) Utah, Arizona, California, Hawaii... I think that's it. So 18. Not bad, but I'd like to see a lot more.



8. How many countries have you been in? Which ones?

US, England, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Scotland, Ireland... that's 10 if you include the US. Also not bad, but let's be honest I can do better- I just need an endless supply of money and time...anyone have extra?



9. How many pillows are in your house? (Sleeping or decorative)

I think 4 on my bed, 2 in the guest room, and maybe 3 downstairs. Very random question, not gonna lie.



10. How cold is too cold for flip flops?

This is a tough question for me because I LOVE flip flops, but I hate to be cold. How about we just change it so it is just NEVER too cold for flip flops (aka never gets below 60 or so haha).

Parties and Inner Zen

So you know how Eric and have a 30th birthday party practically every weekend? Last night we went to a Surprise 30th, 40th and 50th birthday and graduation party for Eric's aunt Nancy. Does that count as a 30th birthday? I think she would say yes. Apparently, she has never had a party thrown for her- so Eric's mom and cousins (her sons) decided to throw one to celebrate everything :)

Eric's mom was obviously in charge of the cake...

Yes, it tasted as good as it looks. I checked, just for you guys.

The surprise itself went beautifully. She had literally no idea about the party at all. I think part of the brilliance of it was that it was a really random birthday and it happened a few weeks ago, so she had no reason to think there was a party for her. Eric's mom told her she had to stop by and visit a friend from party at a party. Nancy was thinking, oh god I hate going to parties where I don't know anyone... hahaha. My picture of her arrival is terrible (and this is the edited version, but I tried!)

Trust me, she was surprised.

During the night I got a lot of good pictures...

Eric + his brothers, cousins and Nana:

Eric's brother Josh + Nana (they had just taught her the "rock on" symbol):

Nancy's sons + nephews + grandson:

The Girls:

I know I joke about the insanity that is 30th birthdays and weddings, but I actually do love parties for people. Especially ones that start at 5 and I'm home by 10:15. I'm not tired today at all and I ran this morning. Wahoo, why can't everyone get on this time schedule?

On another note, work has been massively stressful lately. I mentioned that right? Also we've had 2 snow days in 2 weeks, and there is a serious possibility we are getting another blizzard this week. I've had meetings scheduled and rescheduled up the wazoo and I'm seriously concerned that when I have to write report cards in a few weeks I'm going to be writing, "your child would've made some improvement if we ever had school...." This added to a million IEP meetings, an aide "swap", this terrible class I'm taking...etc, etc. = I am stressed.

But even so, I am going to channel my inner-zen-yogi-self (hmm haven't seen her in about 10 years?) and I'm just going to be zen. Seriously. It's not going to make any 20 page long checklists disappear if I complain about it. It's not going to make meetings quicker if I get stressed... right? So I'm not going to. Just this week, which is only 4 days because I am taking Friday off to go to Newport with Eric's fam (delayed Christmas present from us). Taking days off when you are a teacher is actually more stress than being there, so I need this challenge this week. 4 days of no-stress. There may be some deep breathing and a lot of laughing involved... I'll let you know how it goes. Ready, set, GO!

How do you channel your inner-zen?

Snow Day #2

Hello from snowy Massachusetts where I am enjoying yet another Snow Day... the second in 2 weeks. Not sure I've ever had 2 in a year since I've started working.

See the snow reaching the top of my fence? A few more inches and we will be officially out of space :)



Anyway, "enjoying" is the wrong way to describe both snow days so far since they are basically work at home days that I will have to work AGAIN in June... so yeah. Work has been literally a crazy place for me lately as I seem to be getting more and more on my plate every day. I even said the dreaded "no" a couple of times this week and it still didn't seem to help the situation much. I actually did want to have school today because I had a lot I needed to get done and 2 meetings that will now need to be rescheduled. But, what's the use of dwelling on it? Plus I have a cold so it's nice to get a little extra rest time. Speaking colds, has anyone ever used a Neti Pot? Seriously try it, it's pretty hilarious. Though I don't recommend laughing while doing it like I did... seriously I don't recommend it.



In the spirit of happy laughter, let's talk about things that DID make me happy this week, since so many things did not.





#1- My new giant bag :)



It's hard to see the exact color in the picture but it's that beautiful pinkish purple and it's nice a big so it can hold all my ridiculous work, while making me happier about it. The best part? I bought this with one of my Christmas gift cards from Eric's parents so it didn't cost me a cent, in fact I still had money left over. The best.



2. Turkey Tacos.



Eric made turkey tacos on Monday night and they were fantastic. I had ground turkey, salsa, carrots and cilantro in mine. I'm excited to explore future possibilities with these babies.



3. Conversation Hearts.



Who doesn't love these? Seriously. What is better than a heart of sugar with some ridiculous statement on them... what the heck does "head heels" mean?



What is making you happy this week? What are you up to this weekend?

Happy 2011, Take 2

Ah long weekends, I wish every weekend could be a long weekend. Bonus if it happens to fall 2 days after a snow day during which I get a lot of my work done. I actually had time to read this weekend, wahoo. Although like Amber says, we always have time for these things, I just choose to do my work instead (and post on my blog, and read blogs, etc). But this weekend I had time to do all that and read, which makes it a good weekend. Plus I got to hang out with Caroline and Katie as we celebrated fake New Years.

I'm not sure about you guys and New Years, but I was never a massive fan of the holiday. In high school I had so many great, amazing friends, but they were all sort of from different "groups" so I always found it hard to figure out what to do on New Years when my friends were so spread out. College only made it more crazy. I always did something, but it was very built up. Finally, when I met Eric we started coming down to the Cape and that's when our tradition of spending New Years with Caroline, Chris, Katie and Adam began. This year we were in Florida for New Years so we did a fake New Years on Friday night.

Eric was in charge of fancy drinks...

Katie provided the New Years masks... that we later named the "truth masks."

Twas another good New Years. Even if it was a bit late.

Saturday was spent on my favorite winter sport which I do not do nearly enough any more (though more than any other winter sport it seems)...

I love ice skating and I'm going to do it more often this year if it kills me. (I say this every year.)

You know when you are talking to someone and they bring up something that is completely random (happens in Kindergarten every day)? I'm about to do that.

The Kindle. What are your thoughts? For some odd reason I see this going into the Kelly history books as one of those things that I hated with a passion and then loved with an even great passion along with Vera Bradley bags and Ugg boots. But I'm not to the love stage yet, or even the like.

The overwhelming con I can see with the Kindle (or any variation) is the lack of books. I love books, especially the feel and smell of a brand new book. It's almost too amazing to read. I don't buy new books too often, as I am a bit of a slave to the library, but when I do buy a new book I enjoy every second of it's newness. But speaking of the library, I don't want to have to pay for my books! The only reason I'm even considering a Kindle is because I've noticed lately that the newer books in the library have e-book downloads you can do, which I'm assuming are free? But what if I want to read an older book, I have to seriously pay for it? Wah!

My other con is the electronic aspect. Is it really more convenient if I have yet another CORD to charge it? Eric makes fun of me traveling because I have more chargers and cords than I have electronics; the camera cord to plug into the computer, the camera charger, the phone charger, the ipod charger, the ipod cord to the computer (though I do admit you can do both on the ipod with 1, thank goodness!), the garmin charger, my computer plug, the list could probably go on. I realize another charger would probably take up less space than a book, but I don't even forget a book on my trips and yet- how many times have Eric and I made an emergency trip to Best Buy because I forgot and/or lost a camera cord or phone charger? You don't want to know how many, trust me.

But then again, the convenience of being able to access basically book at any time... may someday sell me. Someday.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a Kindle or something similar? Tell me something good about it (or bad!).

Passport to Parsnips

I haven't posted in awhile, lots to catch you guys up on...

On Monday night I made parsnip fries and they were DELICIOUS. I had actually bought the parsnips about a week earlier and I was afraid they were going to go bad, but they didn't- I love long lasting vegetables! Eric wanted to try out the "fry-making" feature on his mandolin so he went to town on my parsnips after I peeled them. He had to put some serious muscle into it when it go to the middle of the fries, and I ended cutting the middle of the last few because I was afraid he was going to chop off one of his fingers. It was pretty awesome to get them SO little though. After Eric exercised all his slicing skills I put all the pieces into a big bag with some olive oil and shook away. Then I put my fries on a baking sheet and threw them in the oven at 400 degrees. I flipped them over about halfway through and they took less than 20 minutes to cook.

Amazing. Make these. Seriously.

Other interesting news this week? We had a massive blizzard in Boston. Last year we didn't have a ton of snow in the winter so I was definitely starting to get cocky about my ability to manage snow. School got canceled for Wednesday early Tuesday night. I immediately started plotting the yoga class I was going to attend the next morning. Um... no, there was at least a foot of snow on the ground when I woke up in the morning and no sign of stopping. Whoops, forgot I live in Massachusetts for a sec.

It was okay to stay home all day though, I got a ton of work done for the language acquisition class that I'm taking, so at least that's good. A lot of schools around were canceled today too, but my district does not participate in this sort of codling... we are tough suburb-of-Bostonians.

In final news, I discovered this REALLY awesome thing called Passport to Prana. It has a ton of different locations in both the US and Canada. Basically, you purchase a Passport for $30 and you can go to any yoga studio on their list for FREE until the expiration date. Considering most yoga classes are $15-$20, this is an amazing deal, especially if you like to try out new places. I'm not going to buy a Boston one this year because I already have a pass that expires at the end of January for my studio and the Boston pass expires at the end of January, but some of the locations have much later expiration dates. I'll definitely be taking advantage of this when they offer the next one! I think it even mentioned somewhere that most places will honor their "it's free the first time" promotion for you even if you have used a Passport to Prana before which means 2 free classes at some places. Anyone else love free stuff?

I'm off to the Cape this weekend to celebrate fake-New Years with Caroline, Katie and the boys! What is everyone up to?

Things I Want to Love...

...But Don't.

Hi everyone, sorry about the hiatus :) I've been working hard on my new teaching blog which is now up and running. Yay! It's a bit weird to start over in the teaching blog world where I have maybe like 2 friends (Katie and Emily haha). It's also kind of funny because in the healthy living blog world it's definitely "cool" to have a self hosted blog, but in the teaching blog world it seems like blogger is where it's at. So, I'm just not cool in either place, oh well! I actually wouldn't care at all except it's getting a bit complicated when I comment on blogs. Just wish everyone would allow Name/URL... and get rid of word verification while they are at it. Just me.

Anyway, today I thought I'd do a post on things I want to love, but simply do not love. Maybe someone will hear me on some of these...

1. Cooking. I want to love it, but let's face it, if someone offered me a personal chef tomorrow I'd take it. I basically only cook because I have to eat. I try really hard to get excited about new recipes etc, but really all I get excited about is really easy recipes that somehow taste amazing.

2. Hour and a Half Long Yoga Classes. WHY?! WHY MUST YOGA CLASSES BE SO LONG? How can anyone relax when they are giving over 2 hours of their day (by the time you get there and get back) to a yoga class?! I've tried to get on board with this because I understand my attitude is the reason why I need yoga in the first place, but seriously people, offer more hour-long classes, please?!

3. Ballet Flats. They are SOOOOO cute and they SHOULD be comfortable. Seriously, don't they just look comfortable? Maybe it's just my feet, but I kind of want to cry every time I wear them. But they are so cute.

4. Chaos. I'll be honestly, no one has ever really referred to me as "neat" (well except I did on my roommate survey haha, what can I say? I don't want to deal with other people's mess!). I am organized though and I do not like chaos. The only reason why I even want to like chaos is because life = chaos and I hate that I get stressed with my life is in chaos (which is basically all the time either at school or home). As of Friday our house was chaos for a few reasons: Christmas, a project we have going on in the living room and this crazy class I am taking... the papers are taking over my desk at home AND at school. Yesterday Eric and I went to Target, which is always the first place to begin an organization project. Less than an hour later all of our Christmas stuff was packed away and now it's up in the attic. Wahoo!

You know one thing I DO love? Containers. Ask Eric, he thinks I may have bought stock in containers before I started teaching :)

5. In Person Classes. That's right, I admit it, I am a teacher who hates school. I did not always hate school by the way, when social = some occasional learning with a big splash of social time, I was all for it. However, now I am NOT all for it. I think if I told my principal this she might actually be shocked. Between the ridiculous number of books I read per year on teaching and the speed with which I started and finished my masters, I don't SEEM like a person who hates school. The difference is, I LOVE learning new stuff. Honestly, if someone offered me every single teaching book in the world for free I'd probably have them all read and post it noted in the next year. I love visiting teachers.net for new ideas, teaching blogs... I'm nicknamed the "internet queen" at work for a reason. But classes... AH. Sitting in one place while someone lectures at you for hours on end (after a long day at work!)? Not for me. In theory, hearing others ideas in the class SHOULD be good, but instead I just end up hearing that one person who loves to hear themselves talk... and I challenge you to find one class that does not have at least one of these people!

Oops, I can feel it coming... my plug for online classes!!! Seriously they are the best. I know they are often more work than regular classes, but at least I am doing work that might actually help me rather than just starring at a teacher for several hours. Plus, I like being on my schedule to do the work when it's good for me. A lot of people tell me they think they'd miss the in-person interaction and learning from their classmates. I'm telling you, you learn more from your classmates in an online class because most of the work is discussion. Also, you can read everyone else's work and discussion so more people get to talk than would in a classroom. Plus you can avoid that person who just loves to hear themselves talk but have nothing to offer. Wahoo. I'm telling you, don't knock it til you try it. It's the best.

So back to in-person classes. THE ABSURD AMOUNT OF PAPERS. I'm not kidding, this class is taking over my 2 desks. Well, it was until chaos-hating Kelly took over the situation...

That was only the papers that were at home, the school papers will get added tomorrow.

Yeah- a few trees had to die just for me to take this class. If you saw the amount of paper a teacher uses in a given day, you'd understand why I might be concerned about my classes adding to it.. Online is the way to go.

I'd still like to take a really good in-person class someday, but for now... I don't love them.

6. Snow. I see my kids get SO excited about snow every year and I feel like there was a time when I really liked snow. But now it's just something to shovel, interrupt my plans and make it take forever to actually get my kiddos outside to recess. I don't even like snow days, I'd rather have the time off when it's nice out in June.

That's my list for today :) Do you agree with any of these? Do you have your own things you want to love, but just can't?

Tuesday, the new Friday?

So yeah back to the grind over here and nothing fun about it. It might be more fun if I wasn't being yanked from my class all week (aka at the most prime time to be in my classroom) to administer the DIBELs test to my friend's classroom. Obviously we cannot be trusted to administer a test to our own students. Please! I'd rather see her kids do well than mine because I know how much she's kicking her butt to improve the literacy skills of her low group of kiddos. But, obviously teachers are selfish people right? Anyway, it's more fun this way because then I get to say to Eric, "I'm DIBELing Kathy's kids tomorrow" and he gets to laugh at home ridiculous that sounds. Yes DIBEL is a verb people. Anyway, enough about teaching, now that I actually post on my teaching blog you can go there for that :)

But I do have some good kiddo stories (teaching is not the same as kids, kids make great blog material... so I think anyway).

E: Ms. She Wears a Red Sox Cap, did you go anywhere over the vacation?

me: Yup, I went to Florida.

E: Oh, so is that why we had a vacation?

me: so I wish my friend, so I wish

IMAGINE the travel deals i could get if the vacation days revolved around my life :)

And another good one. As I'm DIBELing Kathy's kids today I'm trying to make conversation so I'm not just some mean scary teacher who has no sense of humor once the timer starts (which is actually the truth of me but anyway)...

me: so, your name is Michael, I love that name.

Michael: me too!

me: is your dad's name Michael too?

Michael: no, his name is just "Dad."

Hehe. So good. So good. See why I couldn't teach college? College students do not make such funny comments. Okay fine, I really can't teach college because I don't have and will probably never have a PHD. Oh well.

On an entirely different note, for you Barney Butter fans- you can win a year's supply of Barney Butter just by liking them on facebook! Might as well try, right?

Tell me some fun stories about how to make a Tuesday into a Friday. Now, GO!

Peace. Love. Ice Cream.

It's back to reality tomorrow and I've spent today trying to catch up on my life. I actually posted twice on the teaching blog... who am I?

But let's not get to that when I haven't finished telling you about Florida yet :)

We went to more delicious restaurants...

Things also got a bit more "Florida" when the weather warmed up a bit. We went on an airboat ride in the Everglades. Did you know the Everglades is not just swamp land, it's a river? The widest river on earth. That's your fun fact for the day!

On New Year's Eve Day we went to Hollywood FL Beach to run the boardwalk...

Now it looks like Florida, right?

New Years Eve night we headed to a great Italian restaurant on South Beach. I've heard SO much about South Beach, but I could never really picture it in my mind...

But the night was not over, soon it was time to head to the Seminole Casino for a Beach Boys concert...

Yes, yes that IS Uncle Jesse, the highlight of the concert for the Full House fans among us.

Happy New Year!!!

It was a lovely vacation, and I have to admit I'm not ready to be back yet. But I can't really complain, I've already started the countdown to my next vacation!

How was your New Years? Anyone else back to work tomorrow?