National Board Update

Well, today was the day for the scores to be released. Thanks to the awesome video "Mitchell 20" I was very well prepared to not pass over 3 years the Mitchell school district had 20 teachers attempt at least 1 area of National Board Certification. Only 3 ever achieved. In order to achieve national board status, you have to have a composite score of 275 or higher. The picture shows my composite score...





Looks like I'll be trying again if I want to be a National Board Certified Teacher! Congrats to everyone that made it!

We're Done

This will probably not come to a shock to many people, John said he's known this was coming for a while now.  However, if you're offended I didn't tell you in person, I'm sorry. Don't take it personally, it wasn't a decision I was talking over with people or getting input from others on, not even John. He's always said this was my decision and he'd support me in whatever I decided.  I just finally told him what I had finally decided.

So, after attending an adoption orientation meeting last month in attempts to gather information, I can, officially, say we're done.  I will not be putting myself through any more treatments to become a parent nor will we be filling out mountains of paperwork trying to prove we're worthy enough to parent.  I informed John that I'm done.  I can't do it any more. It's not worth our relationship, which after being separated for 42 days this summer, I was reminded it is certainly the best part of my life.  So, we're done. Right now, I don't foresee us, as long as we're in a similar situation to now, ever changing this decision and I'm okay with that.

So, needless to say, I'm not sure what to do with this space of mine on the internet.  I could keep it, or not.  I could delete it, or not. I will still be blogging occasionally at my personal blog and I'm hoping to jump into the teacher blogging/creating world. Not sure if I'm dedicated enough for that, though! I've learned so much from this community and I've grown very attached to so many of you. I will still be following each of you, for sure!  Thanks for all of the support!  You're the best!

San Francisco and Airplanes

 We had a wonderful time in San Francisco!  The fun started right away.  We flew Virgin America.  LOVE them!  As we were coming into land at SFO we were looking out the window and saw this...

 The following videos show our landing... 

yeah.  SCARY! 

I'm sure I wasn't supposed to have my camera... but I couldn't help it.  Hopefully I don't get in trouble! 

However, just so you know, SFO has parallel runways, and two planes can land at virtually the same time and everything turns out alright.


While we were sitting on the runway, waiting to take off to come home we also saw this...

 What?  You don't KNOW what this is?  Why it's an Airbus A380 the largest passenger jet in the whole world! 

As you can see here one plane can land and another take off almost simultaneously, too!

 Then after take off when they told us we could use electronic devices again I got these great shots from the air. 

 The whole peninsula.  Such a great shot I can use to teach my kids at school about geographical landforms!

I love views of the ground, especially the beach, from the air!

San Francisco, Here we Come!

We're headed to San Francisco for the weekend. 

One of my college roomies is getting married!  This gave us the perfect excuse to take a little vacation. 

I can't wait to have delicious sourdough bread, visit fisherman's wharf, and see the Golden Gate Bridge.  Not to mention, see the town that played the setting for one of my most favorite TV series growing up! 

Plus... big city!  I'm SO excited! 

I'm so thrilled to be headed on vacation!  Pictures when I get back, promise!  

Denver Children's Museum

Who said children's museums were just for kids?  I must say, even though its in the top 12 in the country... it's NO Indianapolis Children's Museum!  I guess we've all been a little spoiled.  However, we still had a blast!

We explored most of the entire museum.  A hit with John and Logan was the rocket room. They got to design their own rockets and then test them out on the launchers.  These two were so involved they didn't even realize I had taken their pictures! 

 

My favorite part was definitely the bubble room.  However, I LOVE bubbles, so that shouldn't surprise anyone. 

blowing big bubbles.

Logan in the bubble box and dry ice filled bubbles (the white things) that you were supposed to try and catch. 

Me trying out the bubble box. 

Finally figuring out this giant bubble making.

Ready set twirl!

We had a crowd watching us!

My favorite picture.. half popped, half not!

 Then, Lilly created her first works of art!

finger and toe painting.

A family affair.

getting into it.

I'm done!

Getting cleaned up in the sink.

Proud daddy with a souvenir.

 Finally we headed downstairs and found a whole area for kids 0-4.  There was a crawling obstacle course which Lilly loved.  Everything in the 0-2 areas were super soft all the treas were squishy.  the 3-4 year old ares were harder, but still everything was accessible. 

Finally, a place for little ones!

Fishing with Uncle John

 Thanks for a fun day out!!

Spring Break 2012

This year for spring break we headed to Denver to see my brother, sister-in-law, and our niece.  Oh my gosh is she the cutest thing ever!

My brother promised it was just as warm there as it had been at my house the week before... This is how our car looked when we woke up the first morning! Luckily we packed warm clothes!

Sweetest little girl ever!

Daddy's home from school!  Yay!

Sleepy girl!

LOOK AT THAT HAIR!!!

Playing with Uncle John

It had been a long night for this little one and her momma, so I went a took her around 6 am when I had stirred.  A couple hours later John took this picture of us.

Trying pickles for the first time.  She LOVED it!

Bass Pro Shops... we spent a lot of time wandering around this place while it was snowing outside!

We tried out the cots... so that I'd know what I wanted for Girls Camp this summer.  Plus Logan had been up since 4 or so that morning for class.  Lilly acts like she's done this before! (wake up daddy)

Downtown

We visited Peyton Manning's new home, Sports Authority Field, home of the Broncos.

Out to dinner!

 Here are some scenery pictures from our 11 hour drive!

One of the many ski resorts in the mountains. 

Can you see the snowboarder up in the air in the half pipe?  Yeah, I captured this lucky shot driving down I-70.  So cool!

Celebration Dinner

My mom was just as excited for me to get the blue monster out of my life as I was and treated John and I to an AMAZING dinner!  We went to the restaurant at Sun River.  It was divine!  Thanks mom!

My boursin (my favorite cheese from France) stuffed filet. 

John's brie stuffed chicken

Bob's lamb.

Mom's vegetarian platter. 

Goodbye Blue Monster! Rebel Success

Its done!  Yesterday afternoon Delna and I packed up our boxes together with John being very dutiful and helpful and wonderful because he stayed and helped me!  He was in charge of making copies and keeping the whole process organized.  (Cheryl decided she needed those last 24 hours, so she ditched us) ;) 

Here's pictures of the hour or so process... We completely took over the entire library!

Delna making final printouts and Cheryl and I in the background making labels so we wouldn't have to write our candidate ID number 100 times.

It was so nice to do this with someone else who was feeling as anxious as I was to get it out of our lives!

From mock box to the real deal!

4 entries and 1 forms envelopes all packed up waiting to be sealed

5 duplicate envelopes just in case something happens to the blue monster.

Sealing envelopes after one final check through.

Packed and ready to be sealed.

Sealing the blue monster.

Do we look thrilled enough!!?!?

Good bye blue monster!