Another School Year Bites the Dust

Yesterday was my last day teaching at the school my heart will forever be with.

I spent my last two years teaching retained 8th graders. They came to us SUPER low. Our job is to get them up to grade level so they are ready for high school.

That wasn't the toughest part of the job, though. Loving on these kids and trying to get them where they need to be socially was.

Most of them threw out language like a sailor and didn't know how to be socially appropriate for their age.

Those kids are who my heart is with. Those are the kids I long to work with. Those are the kids who need help the most, and those are the ones who NEED it and DESERVE it the most.

I will be hard-pressed to find another school that fits me better, but maybe one day I will.

Because I am leaving to move to Ohio with my soon-to-be hubby, I wanted to make something special for my co-workers. They are amazing, and I will miss them a lot!

I had our awesome students come up with as many adjectives as they could think of to describe each staff member a few weeks ago. They knew it was a big secret for a gift for the staff members, so they kept their mouths shut for TWO FULL WEEKS. I was so impressed, and the adjectives they came up with were pretty stellar as well.

I blurred out the school name, but you get the idea.

That one is mine. My name changed ONE WEEK from today! Ahh!

• What was your favorite job ever?
• Do you hate leaving a job when you move too?

December Update

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. I've been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY, and that is my only excuse for being such a bad blogger.

In December, I have:

• driven across Kansas to return to Colorado from Missouri, where we went for Thanksgiving break
• suffered through proctoring tons of district assessments with my students (BORING)
• spent a wonderful weekend with Dan and friends in Steamboat Springs
• skied my very first BLUE run (Heavenly Daze at Steamboat Springs - thanks again, Aaron!)
• fulfilled 10 magnet orders from shoppers on Etsy (and made over 250 magnets for those orders)
• completed seven canvas collages for buyers from my Etsy shop {click here to visit my shop}
• celebrated the completion of the first semester with my students and colleagues with food, Elf, foosball, ping pong, and dancing
• tried a new (and delicious) cookie recipe
• celebrated Dan receive PILOT as his job and finish his ninth out of ten semesters at the Air Force Academy

As of this this evening, I have ONE work day left for the semester... and it's a teacher work day! Yay! We will soon leave to visit Dan's family in Portland and then a couple friends in Philadelphia. Both trips should be fun, and it'll be nice to experience a new city (never been to Philly).

I just wanted to post a quick update since it had been over a week... oops! 

The Holiday Week

This week has been different from normal, and it has thrown me off completely. 

I'm going to back up JUST A LITTLE BIT, though, and go to last weekend. I started receiving several orders from my Etsy shop (Christmas gifts, I assume), so I'm feeling overwhelmed there, but it's also a great feeling. It was wonderful working on those orders in the sunlight of my home with my two fur-babies. 

Gilligan always has to be near me - even to help me make magnets!

At least Stormy stays away and lounges in the window... in awkward positions.

On Saturday, I drove over an hour away all by myself to see a movie that was out on limited release. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is one of my favorite books, so I headed to a suburb of Denver to see it, and it was INCREDIBLE. Seriously, guys. IT is definitely the best book-to-movie adaptation EVER. Read the book. Go see the movie. Just do it. 

After the movie, I headed to Denver International Airport to pick up Dan. He had been in California at Edwards AFB for one of his classes, and he had a BLAST out there! We stayed in a hotel in Denver that night and headed to Winter Park to hit the slopes with a friend all day Sunday. Skiing was amazing, and the mountains were beautiful, as always.

I had to work on Monday and Tuesday, which is unusual for Thanksgiving week, but it was fun because Dan came in and did physics experiments with my students during their science class, and I got to help out with that. They had a BLAST and paid SUCH good attention to him. It was incredible. I took a ton of pictures, but I can't show their faces, so I'll leave you with this one of three of my rowdy boys completely engaged with what Dan was telling them.

On Tuesday, as soon as school was out, we left to head to Missouri to see my family in Kansas City for the holidays. We always take the cats with us when we drive, but we normally drive all the way through at once. This time, we couldn't leave until close to 5:00PM, so we had to stop in a hotel for the night. Because of this, Gilligan and Stormy got to stay in a hotel room for the very first time. They were skeptical, but I don't think they minded it too much. 

We spent Wednesday and Thursday hanging out with and talking to my family. Thanksgiving was fun, and we are hanging out with some friends tonight. Having five days away from work is nice, but I am ready (already) to get back into my routine. I'm such a creature of habit. Winter break will definitely throw me off this year, as it is two weeks long, and we will be flying to two different places during it. 

Stormy hid from us, of course, but Happy Thanksgiving from us to you.