Good Friends!

This was a pretty good week! For a while it seemed like I was consumed by garden stuff, and now that we have it installed and the flowers planted it is being maintained by everyone! I am caught up on lesson plans, and am right where I should be in terms of keeping up with my Admin. class.
Since I am somewhat on-top of everything, it gave me a little more free time this week. On Thursday, my class was cancelled, so I drove out to Benbrook to have dinner with my long time friends, Julia, Jenny, Rachel and her sweet baby Ethan. We spent 3 hours at the restaurant talking and having fun!
Friday night i also got to have dinner with some sweet friends from work. I am so blessed to have so many amazing friends in my life!

Learning to Love Mornings

I am not a morning person. In fact, I hate mornings. The only reason I get out of bed in the morning, is because I happen to love a job that requires me to be happy and alert. I hate mornings so much that I even have everything figured out to the minute just so I don't get out of bed until I absolutely have to.
Usually I offer tutoring after school Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but wasn't having a good turn out because of busy schedules. I decided to try something new this week. I decided to try morning tutoring from 7:15 - 7:50 am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I was kind of reluctant to try it just because I value my morning sleep to the very last minute routine. This morning when the alarm went off 30 minutes early, I forced myself out of bed. The entire way to school, I was just hoping I would have at least 2 kids show up. When I opened the door to our building at 7:10, I was immediately surrounded by 7 of my sweet kiddos who were giving me great big hugs!!!!!!!! Have I mentioned lately how much I looooooove my class, and their desire to learn? I mean, how many people go to work, and get big hugs from 7 people who are excited to see you? Not one of them complained about how early it was! I even had three parents tell me that their child woke them up to take them to school!!!! I overheard several of the kids encouraging some of their friends to come to tutoring! How cool is that ?!?!
Sometimes, as a teacher, you know that you are making a difference, but you get lost in the paper-work, and the data. I am a data girl. I like seeing the numbers of progress. When the numbers are not changing, I get frustrated and wear myself out trying to improve. I was reminded today, that the desire to learn and come to school is the biggest part of the data battle. Getting the big hugs when I walk in the door, and seeing that many kids excited about coming to school 45 minutes early gives me a reason to be happy to get out of bed every morning! I am excited to see if the excitement will continue for the next 6 weeks of morning tutoring! I'll keep you posted!

Update and things I have learned

Laura, me, and my mom enjoying Starbucks!

WOW! I have really put off this blog for awhile, and am going to try and pick it back up now that life is somewhat less crazy. There has been so much going on, that I don't even know how to catch up, so I guess I will just start with this weekend.

This weekend my friend Laura, my mom and I drove down to Austin. I was a finalist for the ATPE Educator of the Year. I was nervous about the whole thing, but thankfully didn't have a lot of time to think about it before hand.

I had an interview with about 5 judges. I wasn't nervous until I was almost there. I am a people person, and love talking, so interviews work well for me. However, I am Terrible at interviews. I feel like I run off on tangents and completely miss the question that was asked. Good thing, I have a good job, at a school I love, because I am afraid I wouldn't be hired anywhere else because of my poor interview abilities!

After the interview I had to do a video clip where I had to read an excerpt from my paper from a teleprompter. SCARY! We then headed to one of my favorite restaurants, P.F. Chang's.

Friday, we met my mom for breakfast at her hotel, and then headed to the RoundRock Outlet Mall where we did some more shopping and relaxing! Friday night was the big awards banquet. I was more nervous about this than the interview. I am a CLUTZ! I am constantly tripping over my own feet and grace is not apart of my vocabulary! It was fun dressing up! I don't have enough excuses to get all dressed up, so I jump at all formal event opportunities! I was actually very relieved when my name was not called as the winner! One of my strengths is activator and arranger. I love details, and arranging events. I always feel so uncomfortable anytime anyone calls attention to me. It's so hard to explain, because I love being a leader, jut not getting recognized for it!

Saturday was filled with the conference and more shopping! We wanted to go down to 6th street since it was just 2 blocks from the hotel, but had received multiple warnings about how dangerous it would be that weekend. Once we saw all of the police action, we decided it would be best to watch it all from the hotel!

Sunday we came home. We stopped in Waco, and I got to see my aunt! It was so good to see her and spend a little bit of time with her.

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

This has been a HUGE month in all areas of my life. It has been filled with exceptionally high highs, and very low lows.

Professionally, I saw and helped with our school garden and finally have something to show for everyones hard work! Then there was the whole ATPE thing. :)

Academically, I finally took the GRE, I also completed the framework for my Portfolio, and tuned that in. WHEW! I am in the middle of my second class for this semester and am surviving.

Personally, I have grown leaps and bounds. I have always seen everything black and white. not anymore. I have come to realize that life has a lot of gray. I have learned that my family is my biggest support system, and sometimes your nightmares don't go away when you wake up.

I have learned that reading my Bible is a source of comfort and security. I know that God has a plan and a purpose. I am so thankful for an amazing family!