Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. This weekend was filled with friends, family, relaxing and lots of food. Late Wednesday night, Adam, Ginger and I headed up to my parents in Beaverton. My sister flew home for Thanksgiving, so it was good to have her home. We had 20 people at our house for Thanksgiving, including Adam’s parents. With so many people, there was lots of food to go around. Needless to say, we all got our fill of food.

On Friday, we headed out to Ikea to pick up some new living room furniture. After being over stimulated by Ikea, we came home to rest. While my parents and my sister headed out to my high school’s football game, Adam and I had a wonderful romantic dinner at the Chart House (I will spare you all the details). We had a leisurely dinner with a nice bottle of wine and delicious seafood…yum! Saturday morning, we headed to breakfast with some of my friends from high school. Later that day we headed back to Eugene in time to watch the Ducks beat the Beavers over beer and pizza with Dylan and Susan. It was a busy weekend, but it is good to be home.

I am so thankful for all the blessings in my life. I have a wonderful family and group of friends, good health, a house and car I own, financial stability, a job which I excel in, a lovable dog, and an amazing boyfriend whom I love more and more as each day progresses.

Pretty good day today.

Kids were okay.
My advisor from my master’s program observed my classroom today and told me how proud she was of me.
Had a successful meeting for one of my ‘hard’ students.
Went for a nice long walk with Ginger tonight.
Had a yummy dinner with friends at Mazzi’s for Sara’s pre-birthday celebration.

It was a great Monday to start the week!

Saw the new Bond movie last night, Quantum of Solace. It was awesome. I suggest you go see it. However, having not seen Casino Royale first, I would suggest you see that first before you see the new one!

Sad but true fact: This was the first Bond movie I have seen!

Well, today I did something I never do…I ran around with Deanna (Adam’s mom) getting various items for decorating my house. For those of you who really know me, I hate decorating and have little sense of style, so I was pretty impressed when we started at 10:00am and didn’t stop until 9:15pm. The result is amazing. I never realized how much a little bit of color and accents can make a difference.

Thanks to Deanna for all of her help and putting up with me!

Take a look…

I am currently in the middle of a much needed four day weekend. After a week of late night conferences, I have four days to relax, rest and be lazy. It’s great.

Friday night some friends came over for food and games…a great start for the weekend. Saturday we decided to not risk the chance of being soaked during the Duck game and watched it from the comfort of the couch. The rest of the day was spent with a little cleaning, some video games and a nice Sweet Life dessert.

With still three days left of my long weekend, I have plenty more to do. Lots more house organization activities are planned. On Monday, Adam’s mom is going to come down to visit and help out me out with my decorating ‘deficiencies’. We plan to get pictures hung on the walls and some shopping done for house stuff. Hopefully after this weekend, I will have a clean, organized and decorated house.

I paid $40 to fill up my tank in my car. I almost cried with joy!

Something to be positive about.

Today I survived work…much needed.

Right now my life is totally dominated by work. Right now I feel like I am doing ‘triage’ in my classroom. I feel like I am constantly putting out fires in my classroom, and trying to stop others from joining in with other’s misbehavior. I spend hours writing behavior support plans for my students taking up what little of free time I have left. I have never been so frustrated with my job as I am now. For the first time in my life, I am not excited to go into work.

Still, I head into work everyday with the hope that one of my ‘high flying’ students will have a successful day. It’s hard for me to be positive but I know that with an optimistic attitude I will be able to be a good model and face my challenges with confidence.

Life has given me lemons and I am determined to make lemonade!