I have seen this floating around Facebook and it is a very accurate description of how I currently feel on August 3rd!
June:
Taught summer school, began 2 summer courses, had 9 hours (3 half-days) of professional development, and was on the hunt for a new teacher for our team. There it is....
July:
I started the month off with a fun trip to Indiana and Chicago! My Gran and I flew to Indianapolis to visit with my Aunt Dori and family and we then road tripped it to Chi-town for 2.5 days. What an AWESOME city!!! If it wasn't so cold in the winter, or dangerous in the streets, I would really love to live there! I am a city girl, love the sky scrapers, and Chicago is definitely a place I need to go back to! I could write an entire blog post about Chicago!!! SO fun! We did the John Hancock Observatory, plus the tilt on the 94th floor, Dori and I did a Segway tour and saw Barack Obama's house and visited his barber shop, went to the top of Willis (Sears) tower of course, rode the L, had some deep dish pizza, oh and we did an Architecture boat tour! After Chicago, Gran and I spent another 2 days in Indiana checking out the town of Noblesville. I am so proud of my Auntie and all of her accomplishments!!! Only bummer was that Gran, Abby, I were involved in a car accident. We got T-boned, but everyone was fine.... minus Abby's car. :(
When I returned from Chicago, I had 5 days at home. It flew by, because I had to catch up on homework that wasn't being worked on while I was in Chicago. The fact that I was taking 2 summer courses really stressed me out. I was trying to get ahead, but was barely making deadlines!
I went to Houston, TX for a few days to visit my friend and former room mate Caroline, her husband, and sweet baby boy. I am so glad I got to make this trip happen. I saw Alden when he was 3 weeks, and he is already 6 months! It was so great getting to catch up with her and play with the baby! Craig was super sweet and kept the baby for the evening so Caroline and I could have a girl's night at Gringos in Houston. Oh. My. God. The food there was incredible! When Caroline and I get together, we can throw down some dinner... felt like old times!
I got back from Houston and had a day and half to do my laundry and prepare for New Orleans with friends from school. This was also revolving around a lot of stress with school. I was able to work on some school work while in Houston, but it wasn't enough. I was playing catch-up, again, and also trying to get ahead before heading off to New Orleans!
We left for NOLA on July 20th. Melissa was our wonderful driver!!! She came and picked me up at 6:00am, and we went to pick-up Rachel and Heather who live by the school. We stopped a lot along the way for potty breaks, and lunch, but the drive really wasn't bad at all. Rachel's husband John got us the room hook-up for the Sheraton on the 31st floor. That first night we shared a subway sandwich and went to see Beyonce and Jay-Z at the Super dome.
Day 2 was a lot of walking around, sight-seeing, had some beignets, toured some cemeteries, indulged in an AMAZING dinner (ultimate splurge and my favorite part of the trip), and went out to Bourbon St. that night.
Day 3 we walked around some more, did a bus tour, kayaked in Bayou St. John, and that night we explored Frenchman St. and ended the night/morning on Bourbon St.
Day 4 we woke up, checked out of the hotel and went out to the Oak Alley Plantation for a tour. It was so cool! and felt nice to still feel like we were on vacation even though we were traveling back. We stopped in Baton Rouge for lunch and by mid day we were only an hour closer to Dallas. The drive back felt much longer than the drive there. We were all exhausted from the all the fun, and then hit some crazy wind and rain in our final 3 hours!!!
I could not have envisioned a better trip to NOLA! I love the girls that I went with and everyone was just down for whatever came our way! Trips with family are fun in their own way, but a trip with friends is a different experience! I love travel and I hope to make more trips like this happen!!
As soon as I got back from New Orleans, I got to sleep for 5 hours before waking up to drive to Fort Worth for a doctor's appointment. I got to see my dad for breakfast, and then worked in a Starbucks on the last few assignments of summer school. I did not work on ANY homework while in New Orleans, and although my goal was to be very much ahead if not totally finished with school work before the trip, it didn't work out that way. I spent the next day and half typing away on my computer to get everything turned in. I am not sure how this worked out, but I pulled off 2 A's in in my summer courses! I will never take 2 classes at the same time again. My sanity couldn't take it.
This past week I had 3 professional development classes that I had to go to. One was about student achievement, one for technology, and then the other one covered the new math TEKS that are coming our way.
In the technology course, everyone got iPad minis to use in their classrooms! How cool is that?! I work in an amazing district, and definitely signed up for the right PD. This iPad mini is checked out to me and will stay with me for as long as I am a teacher in the district!
At the end of June, it was revealed to us that we were getting a new Principal! Surprise! She is so so so nice and I am confident that my school is in great hands! I got to meet her, and do some more interviews for our open position. I also worked in my classroom for an afternoon with my mom, and I am feeling good about my set-up this year. Another change that happened is that instead of me teaching all subjects, I get to teach Math again! I am excited to be an expert in a subject area and have all of the students come through my room.
August:
So, as you can see I haven't had much down time to relax, much less, keep up with my little blog. In the upcoming weeks I have meetings, more professional development, lesson planning, and set up to do in my classroom. I officially go back to work on August 18th, and students come into my classroom on August 25th!
Marathon training officially starts on August 11th, and Fall classes begin on August 25th!
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