Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The great city of Pittsburgh

I arrived in Pittsburgh, PA yesterday to stay with Hugh and his parents for two weeks. Traveling is always an interesting experience, and other than 1 delayed bag and some confusion in the Denver airport, all went smoothly. I was thankful to have over two hours of reading time while on the plane! I am almost done with my book, Three Cups of Tea, about a man building schools in Pakistan.
Last night I watched the Penguins win game 6 of the Stanley Cup playoffs from the comforts of the Gallaghers lovely home. I wore my new Penguins shirt in support, and I am excited to have the opportunity to wear it again on Friday. Possibly in Detroit at game 7!
Pittsburgh is really beautiful...having lived in Tucson and Denver, the lush green hills are a novelty for my desert accustomed eyes.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Happy Birthday, Mason Joseph!









It's hard to believe that it's been one year since Tracy and Justin welcomed Mason Joseph Huff into their family. I absolutely adore my nephew and I'm glad I was able to be there for his birth day and his first birthday.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Congratulations class of 2009!

Graduation is a time to put on a cap and gown and celebrate the winding road the led us to an end. At this crossroad, we remember the journey that is ending, and we prepare to embark on the journey that is beginning. When I graduated from high school, I was preparing to move into a dorm and study to become a professional flutist. When I graduated from college I was preparing for a job as a family and consumer sciences teacher. As a teacher, each graduation is a time to be honored for your contribution to the academic development of the graduates. Tonight, as I watch students that I have had walk across the stage, I am proud of them and excited for them to begin the next stage of their lives. As I reflect on experiences I've had after my respective graduations, I hope for them to have the courage to face the unknowns of their life without fear. I sometimes feel unable to move ahead because I am overwhelmed with fear of the unknown. The truth? If I had known what was going to happen to me in the future, many times I would have been too afraid to move ahead. Having to face each day not knowing what is going to happen is a way for God to encourage us to trust and live boldly. This allows us to fully experience the joys and sorrows that are inevitable; to embrace our lives as they are and continue to grow and change. As I have watched my students grow and change, I know that I have only seen the beginning. Congratulations, class of 2009-may you face the future with warm courage and high hope.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

"love is friendship on fire"

Thankful Thursday


Things I am thankful for this Thursday:

*a boyfriend who makes me soup and special salads and biscuits and then cleans up the mess after!
*Colleagues who are passionate about making a difference in kids lives.
*Waking up before my alarm ready to go.
*How inexpensive russet potatoes are.
*My sister! Who is coming to visit me tomorrow!

Which leads me to "things I will soon be thankful for:"
*my sister
*leo's mexican food
*yoga
* a massage
*anthropologie
*art museum on the first sunday of the month.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

You can take the kids out of Sahuarita, but you can't take Sahuarita out of the kids


One of my duties at Sahuarita High School is as the advisor to FCCLA. What exactly is FCCLA? I am still not exactly sure. Although I am a devoted advisor, Ihave yet to have a positive experience with these Family, Career and Communitly Leaders of America. The end of April brings the annual Spring Leadership Conference, where students in Family and Consumer Sciences Classes (Culinary Arts, Early Child Development, Fashion Design and Merchandising and Hospitality, can assemble to showcase all of the skills and experiences they've acquired of the course of their education. In my case, these fieldtrips are the perfect place for my students to showcase other talents learned in high school: making bad decisions, evading adults, and challenging any applicable rule. The weekend started at 4:30 am when I rose to take my 6 culinary competitors up to Scottsdale for their culinary competition. We arrive in tact and virtually on time only to discover that we are missing one pair of chefs pants, one chefs coat, spoons and prep dishes. This year the competition went fairly well-no students removed the tip of their finger with a knife or threw up in the industrial kitchen. After the plates were set out and the floors mopped, the students piled back into our school van to drive 2.5 hours back to Sahuarita. When we arrived it was time to get dressed for prom, and soon we on our way to teenage paradise. Having been to prom on multiple occasions, the magic soon wore off and we were on our way home...kind of...only to return hours later to transport kids back to sahuarita. After a bedtime of 2:30 am, and going to mass by 9:00, the impeding re-departure to phoenix at 2:30 pm came all too fast.

A Sahuarita van filled with my students drove to Phoenix that afternoon, only to begin what could possibly be the worst trip in FCCLA History, complete with complaints to management, students slamming doors at me at 11:30 PM, multiple team meetings, a chaperone who doesn't respond well to annoying teenagers under the influence of exhaustion or hunger, point deductions due to missing the mandatory meeting, students lying about their implementation of a seat belt safety project in our school to judges, a student caught sleeping in a room next to a boy (and being sent home), issues with check out, and my favorite, my students provoking sketchy Mesa citizins into such a rage that they exited their car on a busy Mesa street to fight. Our future is truly bright with my loveable future Family Career and Community leaders of America. To make matters worse, I'm not even getting my free summer vacation to Nashville for nationals.