My dear friend Dana and her son Grayson flew into NC Sunday. Her parents wanted to see their grandchild for Easter, so they decided to fly them home for Dana's break. Trent is still in CO working and probably catching up on some sleep! We met Monday night at one of Dana's favorite places and mine too...PaPa's and Beer. Even though it was a short visit, I'm thankful for the quick time to catch up. I was lucky enough to see them at Christmas and thought it would be summer before our next meeting. What a surprise when she called a week ago to say she was coming "home". And this time there was talk about moving back in the summer of 2011...I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Thursday afternoon I dropped off Pattie at her sister's house and headed to Charleston! Anna, Blair, and I got down there around 9:30 and anxiously awaited the arrival of the others. The next group came in around 10, then 10:30 and the final group got in around 11:00. We sat around, enjoyed a relaxing beer, then headed off to bed around 1:30. Most everyone enjoyed a relaxing morning and joined me with coffee on the beach. I'd say that's a pretty fabulous way to start your day! After showers, we all headed downtown to pick up our race packets and grab some lunch. This all took a bit longer than expected, so our afternoon of beach time turned into late afternoon/early evening which was fine. A little bocce ball, a little splashing in the cold water with the kids, and some sand digging were done before we headed back for a late dinner. We decided to fix a easy spaghetti dinner at the house while we waited for the others to arrive. By 11:30 that night, our party of 14 plus 2 kids had all finally arrived! Saturday morning, we all participated in the Cooper River Bridge Run before enjoying an afternoon of celebration beers and game playing. It was overcast, windy, and chilly so we choose to enjoy the company of friends while watching some tournament ball. A few of us did make it down to the beach one last time before dinner and more game playing. We were all pretty much wiped and headed to bed around 11:30. We did some running and lots of relaxing! Good times!
Sunday afternoon, my good friend Anna went with me to school. We copied my entries then packed my box. Before going, I had already put my entries together according to the "packing slip". So, she called out what I needed and I double checked myself. We checked each envelope twice before putting the papers inside. An hour later, my box was packed and ready to be shipped! We left school today at 4, mailed the box, then headed to Chili's for drinks and appetizers! Since it was snowing, that's right I said the "s" word, we headed home to get warm. Luckily the snow has stopped, the warm ground melted it away, and I'm now on cloud 9! Of course, there will be studying for my test May 1st then waiting until November for my results. Either way, I might fail, but at least my box is in the mail!!!!!!
...minus the book. A few of us from school went out Saturday night. We "read" the beer menu, heard some music, did a little dancing, and enjoyed laughing until our faces hurt!
I have demonstrated procrastination at its finest! I signed up for National Boards last summer. Began the school year knowing I would be tackling this and finally printed the 300+ pages of information sometime in October. I started attending the county meetings the end of October and listened as they told me to get started. Over Christmas break, I finally sat down and made a plan. Only having three months left seemed to be worrying my family more than me! I came back in January with a new plan. I mapped out each task(s) that needed to be completed weekly and set this calendar out to slap me in the face each morning! The first 3 weeks I was highly motivated checking tasks off and also recording my exercising since I was training for this upcoming race. Then, snow hit and I lost all motivation. I got a little more motivated, then snow hit again. This pattern repeated itself two more times until that last turn of the calendar. When I turned the page for March, my stomach instantly hurt and my heart began racing. Only 31 days until my box was due and 27 days until I was running the race! After hyperventilating, I got motivated! Since then, I have recorded my videos, gathered my papers, and written until I no longer even enjoy checking e-mail or facebook since that involves sitting at the computer. Doing webcams with my niece and nephew are still enjoyable though! So, from Sunday until yesterday (Saturday) my week looked like this: *Taught school 4 days, taking off Friday for a National Board writing day. (I get 3 of these from the county) * Attended a meeting after school Monday * Helped with girls on the run 2 days this week after school * Exercised 4 days this week *Tried entertaining an energetic puppy since we had 3 days of rain * Spent 21 hours writing on my boards (11 came from Friday and Saturday) * Ran an hour yesterday in preparation for the race * Ate dinner at some friends' house last night in basically my pajamas because I knew as soon as I got home I would crash!
Lesson learned: don't procrastinate. Lesson I'll follow: I work best under pressure, so enjoy the day after you finish! I look forward to having this box mailed off next week so I can enjoy the race in Charleston with friends and then Spring Break!!!
I got an e-mail titled this today and thought I'd share. Since my National Board deadline is fast approaching and I have been doing some fast typing due to major procrastination; I probably won't be doing much updating until this mess is done!!! So for now, enjoy this:
Jeff Foxworthy on School Employees
~YOU might be a school employee if you believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.
YOU might be a school employee if you want to slap the next person who says, 'Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have summers off.’
YOU might be a school employee if it is difficult to name your own child, because there's no name you can come up with that doesn't bring high blood pressure as it is uttered.
YOU might be a school employee if you can tell it's a full moon, or if it going to rain, snow, hail.....anything--without ever looking outside!!
YOU might be a school employee if you believe, 'shallow gene pool,'~should have its own box on a report card.
YOU might be a school employee if you believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, 'Boy, the kids sure are mellow today.'
YOU might be a school employee if you have no social life between August and June.
YOU might be a school employee if you think people should have a government permit before being allowed to reproduce.
YOU might be a school employee if you wonder how some parents MANAGED to reproduce.
YOU might be a school employee if you encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling and are willing to donate the U-HAUL boxes should they decided to move out of district.
YOU might be a school employee if you think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.
YOU might be a school employee if you can't imagine how the ACLU could think that covering your students chair with Velcro and then requiring uniforms made out of the corresponding Velcro could ever be misunderstood by the public.
YOU might be a school employee if meeting a child's parent instantly answers this question, 'Why is this kid like this?'
YOU might be a school employee if you would choose a mammogram over a parent conference.
YOU might be a school employee if you think someone should invent antibacterial pencils and crayons...and desks and chairs for that matter!
YOU might be a school employee if the words 'I have college debt for this?' has ever come out of your mouth.
YOU might be a school employee if you know how many days, minutes, and seconds are left in the school year
The last weekend in February was busy and had I known a bigger snow storm was coming, I might have enjoyed being outside even more! I will be an assistant coach for the Girls on the Run group at my school this Spring season. So, Saturday was spent at GOTR training along with the other 3 coaches. We finished up around 1:30 and I immediately headed home to take my recycling! Since I can only get to the dump on Saturdays and well there has only been one Sat. since December that wasn't snowy I had to take advantage of this day. The one warm, non-snowy Saturday was last week when I was home for Lena's shower. After dropping off my large pile of recycling and trash, I headed home to let Pattie play. Beginning to not feel well, we played a bit then took the night easy. Sunday was spent taking it easy between church, a funeral, and some more playtime with Chloe. Monday began March and with it came a rush of nastiness in the form of a cold. It had been building for about a week, and hit me full blown when I was at school. My deep manly voice I had acquired with this cold was slowly turning into a non-existent voice as the day progressed. Finally at 1:30 I called defeat and headed home to sleep. My assistant finally looked at me and said, " Little Martha, go home!". I am stubborn and dedicated just like my mother which I feel is a compliment! Who better to be like than her! Monday night the snow began falling and we woke up Tuesday to the ground covered and snow still falling. The final count was 8 inches, slightly above the 2-4 that was predicted! Nevertheless, I didn't let the snow keep me inside anymore. I decided I was making a snowman this time and as I headed out the door, a 22 oz. beer was stuck in my snow. It was payment from the my neighbors for parking in my driveway once again. Not too shabby, of course I'm not feeling much like a beer right now. Still just pumping my body full of vitamin C. So, on to Saturday school we go as a make-up day for Tuesday missed. Make-up day for today has yet to be determined. Anyone have lesson plans for the 4th of July?!
