Bragging

  I'm so proud of my little sister!  My older sister and I have always struggled with procrastination, and its been a trial both in and out of school.  The latest of our family to join Dad at the high school, however, is experiencing none of these difficulties.  This morning she asked me for help on an essay... an essay that isn't due for a month.  She'd already done her other homework, because she gets up early on Saturday morning to work on it.  Wow, I wish I'd done that... maybe I can learn to be as responsible as a 15 year old :).  She also just came in second at state for declamation, at STATE! This is the girl who doesn't like talking in front of people, and now she can't wait to do it again next year.  I am SO impressed :)

Growing up, a little

I'm feeling accomplished today, I knocked several things off my to-do list that I'd been avoiding :)

Call Western
Buy tickets
Return library books

Now only these left:
Do taxes
Clean Room
Write up week
Finish various sewing projects
etc... still daunting :P

  I would also love to actually get eight hours of sleep, but something tells me these are mutually exclusive goals. I must be getting old, I'm starting to reminisce about how easy life used to be, and wish I'd realized the value of naps ;)

  You know, I realized yesterday that it was my first valentines day since I started dating that I'd been single.  It was fun to work at the school, and remember the years where valentines day meant a sack full of candy and a passel of "best friends." The dread of giving a card to that one kid you never liked, and the tingling excitement of giving an extra-special card to the cute guy who sits near you, hoping he notices, but being scared he will at the same time. It was all so simple then, but of course, not to us :).  I guess it's still simple though- love from friends and family... and LOTS of chocolate ;)

Weary

  Tonight, I'm the sort of tired that makes coming up with a unique title more work than it's worth.  I worked the games room at BGC for the first time today, and even though it's only 3 hours it wore me out.  Seems to be a theme lately really- always tired by the end of the day, but dealing with kids that are out of control makes it that much worse :-/
  On the plus side, I made plans for spring break... Cali! I'm taking the train down at the end of March to stay with Grandma F for a week, and see my cousins and all. I'm really looking forward to it :).  Oh, and I drove the white truck for the first time today, it takes some getting used to, but I like it.  Jealous yet Amanda? ;)

A semi-productive existence

There are a lot of things in life that I enjoy having done, rather than doing.  Work for one, and exercise.  In the past two weeks I've done a lot more avoiding of aforementioned items than actually doing them, but yesterday I finally buckled down, and am very happy I did.  I am now caught up with my lesson reviews (supposed to be a weekly report of how each lesson went etc), and have planned my lessons up to the middle of March...Yay!!! There possibly was a victory dance involved.  I have also started taking walks on the farm- rain or shine they are surprisingly enjoyable :)

I also got caught up with organizing my photos.  If you haven't yet seen the rest of my trip photos (I even captioned them on Facebook) these are a few from Alaska:

Lara's birthday dinner- A scrumptious prime rib roast

Special meetings are over now, and I had the privilege of getting to three- Lebanon, West Albany, and Medford.  I am especially appreciative of the Nelsons and the Garretts who gave me rides and house-room so that I could get to more special meetings, and to a workers lunch :).  It's been a very special two weeks.

Right before winter break, I finally got a library card, and it came while I was gone.  I checked out a bunch of books online the very first day, and then promptly lost my card.  I was so disappointed that I even cleaned my room twice in an effort to find it.  Imagine my excitement when I moved my bed on Monday, and realized it had merely fallen behind the dresser- I even had the day off! I was about to go rushing off to the library when I remembered... I had the day off because it was MLK day, MLK day is a national holiday, ergo, the library wasn't open... sigh.  I have to admit I moped for awhile, but then remembered that I had something fun to do after all.  While I was in Medford last weekend, Shelley and I went shopping and I found the awesomest 3-D puzzle of the Tower Bridge in London.  So I spend an enjoyable day putting it together, and finishing a book I bought the weekend before in Corvallis.

The finished product

<3

And as reward for my productivity this week, I've promised myself a trip to the library on Friday! Yippee!!! :D

Havaii

No, that's not a spelling error, that's the traditional pronunciation of "Hawaii." Due to a pronounced lack of letters in the original alphabet taught to Hawaiians, however, it is spelled with a w not a v.  You learn something new every day- including that if you want to teach 7-12 year-olds to hula, it's best to start with the hand motions, and forget about the feet.  Today was my first day back-to-work after an amazing two week vacation, and I discovered something.  Teachers don't want to come back anymore than the students do! Seriously, waking up at 6 this morning was brutal.  I still love my job, it'll just take me a little while to get my act together again :)
  Speaking of vacation, Hawaii was AMAZING.  I could happily move there, just give me a reason :).  It was warm, and sunny, and I even got used to the humidity.  It was also beautiful, and relaxing, and beautiful, and sunny, and warm, and... sigh, I miss it dreadfully already.  To keep this from becoming a blow-by-blow account of my incredible trip, I shall instead post a plethora of pictures

Gimme a break, gimme a...

Haha, I wonder how many people recognized that reference :)

Well, anyway, I had a lovely week last week, and have had an amazing start to what I know will be an amazing one this week :D

Last Wednesday I went out to the school early to watch the 5th and 6th graders show off their dancing skills and compete in waltzing, tango, and freestyle.  That was a blast, and I was SO impressed by the students, they've worked so hard and did an amazing job.  It was especially fun to see how proud they are of what they have accomplished :).  On Thursday night I got to go and see the kids' Christmas program, and it was fun to see their weeks of hard work come to fruition.  I also recognized a few of the songs I'd been serenaded with recently ;).  Thursday and Friday were also training days for me at the Boys and Girls Club, so that was nice.  They were especially nice, because I got to spend a couple hours exploring Lebanon, and found some fun shops, and now am the proud owner of a library card :).

This week promises to rival the last though, because as well as being Winter break.... I'm off to Hawaii! On Tuesday! And my family will be there :) I can't wait! I'm going to go finish packing now ;)

A new discovery

Well, I suppose its not exactly new- just a random fact that hitherto had escaped my knowledge- being laid up STINKS.... prodigiously.  I managed to hurt my knee yesterday, and as a result spent the vast majority of today in bed, which was fairly pleasant.  For the first few hours.  Even bribing myself with a new book didn't do the trick however, and I don't care if it hurts, I'm NOT staying in bed tomorrow.