Sunday, May 29, 2011

Craft Shopping in St. George

Memorial day weekend has been fun so far. Yesterday I was feeling restless and I wanted to get out of town so I txted several of my crafty friends and invited them to join me on a drive to St. George for some craft shopping and some yummy Mongolian BBQ. My friend Diane Striegel joined me and we had so much fun talking, laughing, shopping, and enjoying delicious Mongolian BBQ. I had so much fun spending some one-on-one time with Diane as I never get that with her.




The cooks preparing our food on the traditional hot round skillet


Diane and her yummy food
Just before we ate

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Update - since I havent written in a while

Update on everything -


Recently, I found out that I will be teaching World History for both morning and evening sessions. I am excited about that because it means that I will be able to just create one set of lesson plan each day. Meaning that I will have more time for scrapbooking! Yeah!


On that note; I am almost finished with my Chaparral scrapbook for the year, and forever. At the end of my first year I decided that I didn't want to spend my money on a actual yearbook. Especially since I don't know most of the kids in the school. So each year I make a few scrapbook pages with the kids in my classes and maybe a few pages from events that I attended throughout the year. Next year I was going to have to start a new book so I guess me moving schools next year is a good thing.


I interviewed at a a few schools and I was actually offered the job on the spot for several of them, but some of them just didnt feel right. When I was offered the job at Valley HS to teach in the IB program it just felt like the place I would want to be. I found out the next week that I will have 3 sections of US History IB and 2 of World History. I am excited because I have the WH down and ready, but I will be working on the US IB for most of the summer.


Summer is almost upon us here in Las Vegas and it is getting quite hot already. We have had several days of 90 or above. I am not happy about that. Its a good thing that I will be spending most of my days in one classroom or another.


Mom came for a short visit during Sping break this year. It was really fun to spend some time with her. We did so many things. We attended a wedding of a friend of mine, drove the strip at night to see all the lights. We drove out to see the Hoover Dam and the new bridge that spans the canyon. We drove down to Lake Mead and fed popcorn to the huge carp. We ate a yummy lunch at a cute little cafe in Boulder City and then we headed to the LV temple. We spent some time on Fremont Street where we saw the largest golden nugget on display in the world, a shark tank in the middle of a pool, a million dollars, we played some slots, and we saw the Fremont zip line. It was really fun. The next day we went to a few quilt stores, we visited Red Rock State Park and we met Aunt Judy, Uncle Craig, Eric and Easton at the Elephant Bar next to Green Valley Ranch for "linner". We saw "Water for Elephants", I loved it! We celebrated Easter together the next day and on the last day of her visit she came to school with me. It was fun to show her my school and to introduce her to my classes and my coworkers. After school she had to catch her flight home so I took her to the airport. There was one thing that she mentioned several times while we were driving around the whole few days. She kept saying that she was so "impressed with me and the fact that I just knew where I was going the whole time". I think its funny she thought it is impressive that I know my way around since I have lived here for 4 years. :)









Mom came for a short visit during Sping break this year. It was really fun to spend some time with her. We did so many things. We attended a wedding of a friend of mine, drove the strip at night to see all the lights. We drove out to see the Hoover Dam and the new bridge that spans the canyon. We drove down to Lake Mead and fed popcorn to the huge carp. We ate a yummy lunch at a cute little cafe in Boulder City and then we headed to the LV temple. We spent some time on Fremont Street where we saw the largest golden nugget on display in the world, a shark tank in the middle of a pool, a million dollars, we played some slots, and we saw the Fremont zip line. It was really fun. The next day we went to a few quilt stores, we visited Red Rock State Park and we met Aunt Judy, Uncle Craig, Eric and Easton at the Elephant Bar next to Green Valley Ranch for "linner". We saw "Water for Elephants", I loved it! We celebrated Easter together the next day and on the last day of her visit she came to school with me. It was fun to show her my school and to introduce her to my classes and my coworkers. After school she had to catch her flight home so I took her to the airport. There was one thing that she mentioned several times while we were driving around the whole few days. She kept saying that she was so "impressed with me and the fact that I just knew where I was going the whole time". I think its funny she thought it is impressive that I know my way around since I have lived here for 4 years. :)


Since Spring Break I have been wearing myself out with the hub bub of packing my classroom, grading, creating the final, participating in end of the year get-to-gethers and just life.


Once again, sorry for not updating more since March, but it has truely been a trying few months and it has been a lot just to live my life, without many of the extras.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011