Spring Pictures...2009

In our school district they do both Fall & Spring pictures. The fall pics are just headshots so I prefer the Spring photos. Notice the band-aid on Austin's finger-click to make the picture bigger.

Check This Out!

Happy St. Patty's Day! Check out our Irish Jig!
I'm not sure why the boys are wearing dresses. When I set it up it asked for gender and I correctly chose male for them.

Submission....

It's been a stressful couple of weeks, but I packed my box and I'm mailing it tomorrow...yes I have completed the most comprehensive part of National Board Certification. I can honestly say I feel very conflicted. I feel happy it's over, yet I am constantly thinking of new ideas I could have used for it. I'm told that's normal and a good thing. I think it's very akin to your child attending kindergarten, you are happy to see them go, but sad and maybe worried and you're thinking... "are they ready?" That's how this feels. I put so much into it and now I have to let it just go away to Texas where it will be taken apart and shipped to 4 different areas of the country to be evaluated in depth. I scheduled my exam for May, so I'll begin to study and review (what I do on a daily basis) , but I want to be prepared.... GEE...-can anyone say over-prepared? Here are some pictures to laugh at: The crate-loaded with some of the stuff I used (believe me there was more-due to confidentiality I couldn't photograph or show it all-the directions alone were over 500 pages)-Notice the box(click the photo to enlarge)-notice the ENTIRE roll of packing tape around the box 'cause you can't be too careful! Seriously though....Please keep a positive thought and prayer that I pass!

Spring Fever!

The weather was nice this weekend so we visited my school's playground...

The ducks...

We also stopped at Bushkill Creek to feed the ducks...

New colors...

Ray is almost finished painting the dining room(living room is done). The colors are light sage(wall) and deeper sage crown molding and bottom. Here's a pic...

Another Snow day......sigh......

Here's a pic I shot from inside my house, you can see our new deck. I love a snow day like any other person, but we've had quite a few in my district and we'll be going to school till July at this point! Austin & Timmy's school district took away 2 days of their Spring break to make up 2 snow days (when I taught in the Poconos it was ALWAYS like that-in fact I worked there 10 years and never had a Spring break...ever) personally I am in favor of the idea...mostly because our school has NO AC! The upstairs temps actually reach to 105 degrees in May-June-at least I work downstairs. My district doesn't take spring break days away because...get this...Parents would lose money on their vacations! That's the rumor anyway! One more thing-I work in an urban district-who goes on vacation anyway?

There is one wonderful benefit to these snowy days-I am getting my National Board submissions finalized! I actually would have lost a lot of weekend time if not for these days-Austin & Timmy play in the snow, while Mommy loses her mind typing, editing, revising, and more, so I can submit this March 31! Here's another secret...I'm actually done! I just have to get my videos completed and burned onto cd's, all the writing analysis & reflections are complete! I plan to mail my portfolio box mid-March and my exam is in May. The results are not released till late November-December-so keep a good thought and a prayer for this. If I pass I will be 1 of 2 in the Lehigh Valley and 1 of 44 in the whole state of PA, with this honor for Literacy-the other person who has it(locally) is a school district Director of literacy, so it's quite a huge deal.