I walked!

Well, the Avon Breast Cancer Walk was this past weekend in Charlotte. I raised the $1800 and walked with my four teammates. It was so great! We had sore feet and tired legs pretty quickly, but wow, what a weekend. There were over 1300 people who walked this weekend, and together we raised 2.8 million dollars for breast cancer research. One lady who walked this weekend has walked 98 Avon Walks. She has single-handedly raised over $1 million for breast cancer research. She has also walked over 5000 miles. Can you believe that??? I'm whining about 32 and she's trucked over 5000. WOW!

I did go to work today and will still be going tomorrow...moving around at work helps with the stiffness. My students helped me raise the money, so they were pretty excited about what I did this weekend! I love my students!

I'll be posting some photos of the walk soon...visit again soon.

Finally settling in...

Well, we have about two and a half weeks left in the first nine weeks and I feel like I'm finally settling in with my students. Is that bad? There are so many things that have come into play this year which seem to hamper the building of relationships with my students. That is one of the things I love about my job...getting to know these children...the precious, the not-so-precious, the smart, the popular, the struggling, the unparented, the unlovely...I truly enjoy getting to know them all. Our schedule this year is...in a word, UGH...so I don't have time to spend relating. I have also never taught math on a four person team...this means that I have about twice as many students as I've had before and it just takes me longer to get to know them.

Me having moved to a new school makes it a little different as well. I'm not only trying to develop relationships with new students, but new faculty/staff as well...sometimes the adult relationships are harder to develop than the student/teacher ones.

So almost seven weeks into this school year, I'm beginning to feel like some relationships are forming, and I'm finally feeling like a decent teacher again.

Disney Pics

I mentioned yesterday that we had a great time at Disney World. For Greg and I, watching the kids have fun was just as much fun as doing the stuff ourselves! Caleb and Sarah both loved being there. Every time we rode a roller coaster, before we got to the end of the ride, they were both screaming "I wanna do it again!!!!"

We arrived around 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday the 17th. We slept in a bit and then left our hotel for Epcot.

We rode the bus from our hotel to Epcot...we had to stop into the gift shop at the hotel on the way to the bus, and the kids went crazy!!! They had some really great stuff in there...this is one of my favorite pics, and I took it on the first morning in the gift shop at All Star Movies Resort.

The next day we went to the Magic Kingdom. We did Space Mountain first...and second...and third! "Let's go again!" was definitely the phrase of the week. There were so many photo opportunities at Magic Kingdom but these are 3 of my favorites.

If you look VERY closely at this photo, right in front of the man in the red shirt is Sarah. She is in a white shirt...she HAD to have her picture taken at Cinderella's Castle!

Animal Kingdom was our third stop and it was my favorite! I know the kids loved it and I think Greg did too. Exhibition Everest is a fantastic roller coaster...it takes you very high, then fast for a bit, then backward, then forward again, really fast and take a HUGE drop!!! It's awesome!

The kids were waiting in line and Caleb was being silly...had to snap a picture!

The last full day was Caleb's 10th birthday! We went to Hollywood Studios to celebrate. We had a great time! One of the highlights of the day was our lunch at a drive in theatre...Sci-Fi theatre. We actually sat in a car to eat. Sarah's favorite was DEFINITELY Tower of Terror...I think she rode it three times!

Definitely a great time was had by all!!! Can't wait to go back!

Think PINK!!!

Hi everyone! I know, it's been a long time since I updated and I'm sorry. I've been very busy! We had a blast at Disney and I have some really good pictures! I'll try to post some soon.



The biggest item on my radar lately has been fundraising for my Avon Breast Cancer Walk. I don't know how many of you remember this but I blogged about it several months ago. I will be joining several thousand people in Charlotte, NC on October 25 and 26 to walk a total of 39 miles. I'm on a team of five women and I've really enjoyed getting to know them through all this fundraising and getting prepared for the walk.



I'm much closer to my goal of $1800 than I was several months ago...I think I'm close to $1000. I really would like to be able to go to the walk for check in and have all my funds raised, rather than hope that someone will give me any extra they may have. At this point in the game, I only need 32 people to donate $25.00 and I will reach my goal!



Please visit my Avon Walk site and consider donating. It's very easy...just go to http://tinyurl.com/3xonrz. Once on the site you should be able to easily find the button that says "make a donation." Just click on that button and enter the information needed. You should receive a receipt via email for your tax purposes. I am so grateful for everyone who has already donated! You have no idea how much this means to me...after my step-mom's survival of breast cancer, and my scare last spring, the effort to find a cure is more critical to me than ever before.
The walk is fast approaching and any help I can get with fundraising would be fabulous!