Laughable Moment

In my necessity for a moment that was not school related and multiplied by the fact that my cable was out this morning and I missed my daily dose of Stan Stovall, I took some time to read the news online.

I came across this article: http://www.wbaltv.com/news/17314012/detail.html

What is a counterfeit shirt??!??!!!

Being a Teacher Is Like Being A Rockstar

I'm not kidding... today, I felt like a rock star. Ok, so this might be the biggest understatement of the year, but I have LOVED (and really LOVED) 99% of my students for the past two years - probably more so than a normal person would. I cannot help it! My ultimate goal, moreso than any other thing on the curriculum, is to make my students feel safe, feel important, and feel taken care of. I do things purposefully to build relationships with each one of them because I truly care about each one of them. I am seeing the fruit of these investments as time goes on. Which brings me to feeling like a rockstar today.

This year, my students from my first year of teaching are in 8th grade and my loves from last year are in 7th grade. Yesterday, I had a handful of 7th graders stop by to say hi and tell me about their summers.

However, today, there were 3 occasions where 8th graders came SCREAMING "Ms. Walker! Ms. Walker!" down the hallway, only to practically tackle me to the floor with hugs and "I miss you! Why aren't you teaching 8th grade?!" Is this what it's like to be one of the Jonas Brothers??? (jk) It really made me laugh (and of course, I was happy to see them as well). And it gave me that warm feeling inside. These girls know that I adore them and I care about them.

I just loving teaching - it is so rewarding. Even on my toughest days when I feel like I have nothing left, my students can make me smile. Getting waves, smiles, and high fives down the hallway - man there is nothing like it! Thank you, Jesus, for putting me here in this place. There were times where I was unsure, when I was scared, but time and time again, you remind me that you have me exactly where you want me and need me. :)

Anyway, I've had some people ask, so I will leave you with some pictures of my classroom! Trust me, it does not usually look this neat.... it has only been 2 days! hahaha
My second favorite bulletin board of the year (my first happens 3rd quarter). The welcome board with all of my students on it and my supply shelf! :) (like my pencil holder?)


The back of my room


The front view from the inner pod door


The front of my room! (That chair is deceiving... I never sit! haha)

It's been two days... I'm starting to remember how to do this whole "school" thing again. :)

Wow... I survived the first day.

I don't have much to report on the subject because I am way too tired to think. It is interesting how my body needs to readjust to life in the classroom. My leg muscles are tight... I wonder what my mileage equivalent would be? I walk around my room A LOT! (I basically do not sit down from 7:30 to 1:45). My voice is scratchy... I know that I have not talked that much all summer! haha Ehh, by the end of the week, I'll be back to normal.

Well, in light of the first day, I'm going to share some pictures from Hannah's 2nd birthday. Why, you ask? Because the first day of school as a 6th grade teacher sometime feels a lot like herding around toddlers. You have to show them where the bathroom is, guide them where they are supposed to be, help them keep track of their belongings, and dry their tears when they are scared, lost, or confused. I often feel like mother duck trying to help all of her little ducklings get in a row. :)

Well, without further adieu... Hannah turns two!!! (Note: These pictures were taken with my point and shoot... I forgot the big boy :( )

Birthday Beauty

Christopher eating a hot dog in the hammock.



Hannah's friends :)

Blowing out the candles :)


Ella praying for cake? :)

Lexi and Erin


Hannah asked me to take this picture and then quickly said, "Lemme see"



Hannah REALLY liked this shirt

She also really liked her bike helmet :)

There are many reasons why I love Hannah. She is funny, sweet, kind, and fun to be with. She has a personality all her own. I love spending time with her and even as her two-year-old self, she makes me feel special when she gets happy to see me or when she runs to give me hugs. Hannah, I am so very glad you came to this world. You have brought me joy every time I see you. Thank you for being a little ray of sunshine. :)

And just before I go, enjoy this video of Hannah eating birthday cake ;)

Last Week of Freedom

This past week I found myself back in my classroom, excited for the new year, slightly overwhelmed with my new roles this year, frustrated at our MSA scores, happy to finally know most of the kids in the whole school because it's my third year, and slightly sad that I don't get to teach my lovelies from last year (they stole my heart). I really can't wait for the new year to start. Usually the night before school leaves me feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve - I usually can't sleep because of the excitement and anticipation. We'll have to see what happens tonight.

Anyway, last week also brought some fun and excitement outside of the classroom as well. On Thursday night, I had the lovely opportunity to go to dinner in Annapolis with some very important friends. My dear friend, Brad, was visiting here in MD after being in Laos for some time teaching English. He goes back Sept. 2nd, but stopped down here for a visit (his family lives in NJ). So, to celebrate him, some friends from college organized a dinner. These are friends I haven't seen 3, 4, 5, years!!!!! They were juniors and seniors when I was a freshman and sophomore in college. They played huge roles in my spiritual growth and life in Salisbury. As I was anticipating this night, I found myself reminiscing about my life with these people. I would not have survived Salisbury without them. They took care of us crazy and unknowing freshman. It reminded me of a simpler time with loving and genuine people around me. Ra, Alan, and I often like to reminisce about these times because they were so important and so much fun.Jenny and Tori!
Favorite memory of Jenny: Sitting on my bed freshman year and talking for hours
Favorite memory of Tori: Having "musical day" where we could only sing all day... then she sang on the bench and fell into the bushes... where there is still a hole


Ra and Haas (Heather Haas)
Favorite memory of Ra: Too many to count... really every time I am with her
Favorite memory of Haas: Any time she sings... and getting to hang with her during musical theater

Tom and Bryan
Favorite Memory of Tom: Tom being "The Pulse", leading worship with him, and hanging in his St. Martin's room
Favorite Memory of Bryan: Being movie soulmates


The Man of the Hour! Brad!!!
Favorite Memory of Brad: Again, there are a lot - watching 24, writing songs, his radio show with Seth, stargazing, Counting Crows concert, good talks

Hayden James! (son of Tom and Renata)
Favorite Memory: The evidence on the table... coloring and counting and taking a walk around Emily's yard to find the "kitties" :)

Ok everyone who knows me knows that I cannot get enough of children. I melt into a little puddle of love and joy around kids. This is evidenced throughout my life including Hannah's birthday party (coming soon to this blog!!!) and the fact that I will play with them at a moment's notice. So, on Friday night we celebrated Emily's birthday! Wahoo! She had a party at her house... and because of my baby-blinders... the only pictures I took after taking one of Emily were of Hayden... oops.... sorry Emily!The birthday girl!!! Emily and her typical China pose. LOVE HER!

And because Hayden is soooo cute and has a great smile... all the other pictures I took were of him. So here are a few of my favorites because he is incredibly photogenic.

Playing with Vespa and Anna!



Great smile!

Great time with great friends! And now it's time for a new school year! Wahoo!!!

One more from dinner: Me, Brad, Alan, and Ra
3 of my most favorite people

08-08-08

My cousin Amy was married and celebrated with many other couples the "perfect" date of 08-08-08. She got married on friday to Nick. My family was there, it was fun and different (ask me later if you want to hear some stories). There were a few things that I loved:

1. Being with my extended family - we only usually go to WI once a year, so it was nice to see everyone again
2. Seeing my cousin Jackie, her husband, and her baby - I don't get to see Jackie often, even when we come once a year. Growing up, we were really close, so I love getting chances to see her
3. Dancing with my siblings - It isn't often we let lose and even my brother got in on the action. The more times I spend this strange "adult" time with him, the more I think my brother is incredible and will make some girl an amazing husband.
4. Staying in a hotel - It is way better than someone's floor and this one had a pool. Again, I had a great time hanging with my brother. We played variations of catch in the pool for 2 hours all by ourselves. He is great.
5. Taking pictures - This is quickly becoming a beloved hobby of mine and I am also quickly becoming known as the family archivist. hahah But in all seriousness, my aunt asked me to take pictures with my camera all night. It was kind of fun to feel special and try and capture moments of this wedding through an eye that might have been different than their photographers

With that said, I decided to share some of my favorite, funniest, and,

in my opinion, best shots.

My handsome brother :)

Jackie's daughter, Xochitl (pronounced Zoh-schul)

Sister of the bride (and my cousin Britteny) looking for Amy (the bride).

FOB and Bride (Amy and Uncle John)

Proud Papa looking on to see his baby get married

"You may now kiss the bride." Amy and Nick Hirsch

My sister laughing because they couldn't start the music.

Honeymoon Fund

First Dance

Daddy/Daughter

Me Mum and Dad

My goofy brother DJ

My sister, Whitney, pretending to be Wilson from Home Improvement (because we watched it that day).

Mama and Xochi (my cousin Jackie & her baby)

My pretty cousin Angie (Jackie's sister)

And one more of the party: Emma, my brother DJ, my sister Whitney

(I love the look of the hair in this!)

It was quite a party, and we did have a great time. Congrats to Nick and Amy!

Adventures with Emma, p. 2

Wow... I have so many blog-y things buzzing around in my head. So many ideas, so many stories, so many pictures I want to share with the blogosphere. But I have this OCD compulsion that is making it really hard to go out of order. "One thing at a time... and at the right time" is what my brain is saying. So I decided to quickly wrap up my summer in this post and keep my fingers crossed that nothing exciting or blogworthy will happen between now and when I finally get all my other things out of my head (does anyone else see a problem with this theory? because i do). Oh well, here it goes anyway.

Ok, Emma was here, we had many adventures. I already told you about the aquarium, I'm gonna wrap up the rest right now.

We took the kid to NYC!!! She had never been there before and it is a city that I LOVE! PLUS my great friend, Kodi (the art teacher at my school), was living there for the summer, so we got to hang with her. We did way too much in one day, but it was awesome. We: went to the Virgin Megastore and the giant Toys R Us in Times Square , at lunch at this incredible place in Greenwich Village, walked through Washington Square Park (CC sidenote: the whole time, all I could think of was Counting Crow's song called "Washington Square"), went and saw Hairspray on Broadway, saw Rockefeller Plaza, Radio City Music Hall, NBC studios, MTV studios, walked through Central Park (another CC sidenote: I saw Sullivan Street... another song title), saw Lincoln Center (under construction... I was mad), drank Starbucks (because it's almost a sin not to in NYC), rode the Staten Island Ferry, saw the Statue of Liberty, ate dinner in Little Italy, rode the subway an umpteenth number of times, and rode around Brooklyn behind a dump truck. Yeah, we did A LOT!!!!!! We didn't leave Brooklyn until midnight and didn't get home until after 3:30am. Needless to say, the next day Emma and I had a movie marathon and pretty much didn't get off of the couches all day. We were wiped. The epitome of our lazy came when Emma said "Can we make a cooler of drinks so we don't have to go upstairs?" Of course we did.

Another day we took a ride on the Baltimore Ducks. It is a great land and water tour of downtown Baltimore. We had a BLAST! Even living here, I would recommend this tour. It is kid-friendly, you get to see a lot of Baltimore, it goes in the water, and the drivers are hilarious! My mom just laughed at me and Emma the whole time. I was able to take some great pictures of downtown B-more from the tour. It was a great time!

Other than that, Emma and I had fun just hanging around town. I even got to introduce Emma to what a snowball is and I took her for her very first one at THE Snowball Stand (yes, the snowball stand has a blog... why? i have no idea. this is definitely not the same stand i know). She LOVED it.

Our adventures came to a short end when we had to go back to Wisconsin for my cousin Amy's wedding. (Pictures to come next entry).

All in all, a great time with my cousin! Here's to next summer... I'm going to have to come up with something good!

I love this girl :)

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program...

I know I said I would post more about my adventures with Emma.... but I need to take a little break from that just to express my excitement!!!

Tomorrow brings a day in which I have been waiting from since April... yes, April.

Tomorrow night I will be at the lovely Nissan Pavilion to see my favorite band - The Counting Crows!!!!!!!

Words cannot explain the love I have for Adam Duritz. I can't even really explain it. In the traditional sense, he is not cute and he is old. But there is something that just makes me swoon. You're right, it doesn't make sense.... but I can't help it. I've thought about what I would say if Adam ever asked me to have his babies....

Anyway, not only will I be swimming in Adam's sea of swoon, beforehand I'll be enjoying other bands that I love. It is not too often that the opening act is someone that a) you've heard of or b) that you very much enjoy. That is not the case for this concert. Maroon 5 is joining CC on this tour. Thankfully, the night at Nissan CC will be closing, but I am sure that I will enjoy Maroon 5 as well. However, I am more excited for the other opening act - the incredibly talented, raw, and soulful Sara Bareilles. I have been a fan of hers since before she was on the radio and major stores carried her album. Her voice is amazing and her piano playing can make you weep. She is like the cherry on top of this awesome concert-sundae.

I had the opportunity to see Counting Crows last summer during their tour with Collective Soul and Live. It was the best concert of the summer and I knew that it would not, it COULD NOT, be the last time I see them live.

To make it even more exciting, Counting Crows has launched a new website LiveCountingCrows.com. This enables you to download or order on CD ANY of their live shows from this tour. Meaning, that not only will I get to enjoy an incredible concert, but I'll get to listen to it over and over again!!!

So here's to an incredible night with incredible music! AHHH!!! I LOVE CONCERTS!!!
Enjoy a few pics from last summer and considering I will be oh-so-close to the stage for this concert, you better believe I will post pics after!

hey adam, let's make out