Summer is here...time to catch up! Part 1

Phew! I survived my year back in the traditional classroom as a full-time teacher and mommy. Of course, I have taught many years before (9 to be exact) but this was my 1st year juggling the demands of mommyhood, wife, and being at school. It was definitely exhausting at times! For those of you who didn't know, I did work the 1st year of their life, but I "taught" from home through the Florida Virtual School. It allowed me more to do the mommy things and take care of our house, but it was exhausting. A different exhausting than the regular school though. It was mentally exhausting and highly stressful. Being in the traditional classroom can be stressful too at times; however, when I leave work these days (well since being back this past year), I "leave" it all there. I do not stress about it.

Not to be cocky, but I have discovered in my 10 years of teaching that there are many "bad" teachers. Some of the bad ones are bad for different reasons...some just don't care, some do not have a clue about what they teach (which at the high school level can be diastrous), some have no classroom management, some lack all creativity...the list could go on. Anyway, so I am not saying I am a great teacher, but I am definitely a good one. There are plenty who are better than me, but there are *plenty* who are worse. So this lessens my stress in the traditional classroom some. Of course, there are days when being with 150 or so 14 & 15 year old hormone driven students for 7 hours makes me want to pull my hair out. Luckily, those days are not that many...well, at least not that many until May. ;0)

Moving on, the chaos of school ending made it difficult to post the last few weeks, so I am catching up now. I gave this "blog" a new face. I hope all of you reading like the new look and the music. Let's begin the catching up with May 31st...our good friends, Alisa & Harald, have a son London who just graduated from high school and that Sunday was his grad party at their house in Lakeland. It was fun! Lots of people, some amazing food, and great people.

On our way to the party, I convinced Tycho to bring us to Hollis Gardens in Lakeland to take some pictures of the kids. It is a beautiful garden. Unfortunately, Quinn saw the water almost immediately and wanted nothing to do with pictures after that. So most of the pictures are of Leyla, who cooperated for papa & the camera, while I was chasing Quinn, trying to stop him from climbing into the water structures. Anyway, here is a short slideshow of pics. Enjoy! :0)