Happy Easter

Well, here I am again.... BIG NEWS! My sister and Pete adopted my nephews on Thursday. As it was April Fool's Day, I was worried the entire time that the birth mother would show up and change her mind....but that didn't happen. We are very blessed with the two boys in our lives. Dawn and Pete had a big party Saturday night with all of their friends that live at the lake and all the boys friends came over to play. It was a good time, but as I am not much of a partier anymore, I had to head home early. I could only handle so much.

Today for Easter, Dawn and Pete and the boys came over to my parents' house for lunch and family fun. I coaxed my sister and brother to play a little bit of Frisbee....and who knew my brother would love it. Every time he would throw the Frisbee to me he would use all of his might and I would have to run after the Frisbee. I don't think I actually caught it once....but it was a new experience that was a lot of fun. I love this beautiful spring weather.

On a sad note, I have decided to postpone my trip to Europe. I was planning on going for three weeks this summer, but with the economy, summer school might be cancelled and I will be nearly $2000 short for my trip. I will try to put what I have into a new savings account and add to it every chance I get....next year will be a for sure deal. I am so excited to venture out and see the world. I figure, as a history teacher, I should see some of the places that I teach my kids about. Personal pictures come in handy and capture the attention of 12-14 year olds.

As we are losing 5 positions in our school next year, I am looking at the possibility of teaching 7th and 8th grade Social Studies. I wasn't sure how I felt about that at first, but the more I think about it the more I feel eager to see what all I can learn. It will also be exciting to teach two different subjects to help avoid burn-out and boredom. I love teaching US History to my 8th graders, but I notice by my 4th and 5th classes of the day I forget what all I have said and start to get bored with my lessons.....if I am bored, aren't they bored too? If I get to mix it up and teach a few classes of 8th grade US History and a few classes of 7th grade World History, it should be quite interesting. It will also help my department do a lot of planning and grading together....which is what the district wants. We'll be quite cohesive. :)

I am still looking at graduating on May 1....I had to take my comps and I am not sure I passed. I should find out in a week or two. They were awful; half of the questions on the test were never covered in class. They were not in the psychology language that we were used to either. My teacher said she would take our complaints into consideration; hopefully it will be enough to boost my score high enough to allow me to pass. I am ready to be done with grad school.

As for this summer, I am still planning on taking a vacation somewhere. I'd really like to make it to a beach, but my parent's are offering their timeshare in Colorado. I guess I could go hike and white-water raft for a week. It's no Europe, but it would be a nice getaway. We'll see.

Hope you all had a happy Easter; He is Risen. God Bless.