Calm Before the Storm

Today was the vernal equinox. The first day of Spring!

I celebrated the end of winter by skiing at Snowmass with some awesome girls. The season ended with a few runs in the miniature terrain park! I'm slowly getting more comfortable on my skis and have joined the hundreds of young children in the mini- half pipe and the jumps!

Here are a few shots from the end of Winter.

I couldn't be more excited about the coming of spring. . . my favorite season.

After several days of sun and warmth, I woke up to this on Friday morning.

The snow melted away by lunch.

Making ice cream with the kiddos.

Constructing 3-D shapes out of toothpicks and clay.
Children are pretty amazing!

Busy Busy

With Spring Break rapidly approaching my to-do list is growing by the day. Hence no post yesterday.

My week thus far has been jam packed with meetings, meetings, and more meetings.

BUT, it's been absolutely beautiful outside. One might say Spring like!  There's nothing that gets me more motivated than perfect spring weather!

The warm weather inspired me to take the class on a shape hunt around the neighborhood.  The children were overjoyed to be outside and were eager to point our every shape we passed!

Here they are posing in a bus stop.
They REALLY wanted to ride that bus somewhere.

Journals!

This was a gift from Keith Ladzinski.
Very classy!

Identity Thieves are not my Friends

Having your debit card declined is always embarrassing. You just stand there blabbering about how you know you have money in that account and you can't believe this is happening to you. Also having you credit card declined within the same week is REALLY embarrassing. Now you have to explain that no you don't have another card they can use. Then you start pulling cash out of your wallet. Cash that amounts to roughly $17 and some change. Here you go convenient store clerk, I hope this is enough to get me where I'm going and back. Guess I won't get that car wash after all.

Both my checking account and my credit card have been compromised in the last week. I have no idea what happened, all I know is that I'll be dealing in cash until further notice.  Whoever has my information is really into online shopping and has attempted to buy a large number of domain names.  This person is not my friend. In fact, I feel a bit of hatred towards them right now.

I just hope this all gets sorted out before I leave for Spain on the 26th!

Good bye!

Sunday. . . Climbing Day

It officially feels like spring in the Roaring Fork Valley. Warm sun, blue skies, mild temps.  A girl can't complain about that.

It's amazing how much my energy level goes up when it's beautiful and warm outside. Today I climbed at the Puoux. It was a "get back in shape" day, that consisted of 8 pitches and soaking up the sun. I don't think I've gotten in that many pitches since Rifle season ended in early November.

Just one more weekend of getting in shape before I head to Spain for Spring Break!

I-70, Colorado River, sport climbing!

Day Eighteen. . . Saturday = Ski Day

Today was a beautiful "blue bird" day in Colorado. I took advantage of the perfect conditions at Snowmass Mountain. It was a perfect day.

The parking lot at Snowmass.
Kind of strange to see it without snow on the ground.

Taking the bus to the slopes.

Lauren showed up dressed as my opposite.

Day Seventeen. . . Friday

My alarm went off at 4:40 am this morning. The first mission of the day was to drop Andrew off at the Aspen Airport in time for him to catch his 7:00 am flight. He missed his flight, but it wasn't my fault. I got him there on time.

Those of you who know me will know that I am not a morning person. That is not an exaggeration, I truly despise the morning. I often say the the single hardest part of my day is physically getting myself out of my bed. And that's something, considering the rest of my day consists of convincing 19 kindergartners that they should, in fact, listen to me and maybe learn something in the process. I can only compare that to nailing jello to a wall!

Anyway, it turns out there are some perks to waking up before the sunrise and driving for an hour and some odd minuted up to Aspen and then back to Glenwood before work. Watching the sun rise over this valley is an amazing thing to witness.

And a few others from the day.

I believe in lucky things. Currently these are my lucky shoes.
I even made some fish earring to match them!

Day Sixteen. . . Thursday

A beautiful day in Colorado

Super Happy Fun Time, Happy Fun Time

My teaching mentor and friend, Shannon! 

Day Fifteen. . . Wednesday

A walk about town

Keith Ladzinski explaining a photography concept that I simply do NOT understand!

Carbondale recently got a brewpub. They serve beers and hot dogs in a relaxing and comfortable environment. Who could ask for more.

Tie-Dye shirts in the making.

Day Fourteen. . . TNB

This teddy bear was given to me last year by a student. He likes to hang out in our classroom library.

Tomorrow we tie-dye these shirts. They will be out costumes for our Kindergarten Program. The children did all of the rubber banding. You'd be amazed at how difficult it is to explain how to use a rubber band to an entire class of 5 year olds. 

Love Wendy's eyes in the picture.

And check out the extra mustache these shadows have added!
Awesome!

This little guy is mesmerized by the giant television!

Day Thirteen. . . Monday

Thirteen is suppose to be an unlucky number. Today however, was actually a very good day. Very productive with some small victories!

With a morning like this, how could a day be bad?

Sunrise over the Rio Grande Trail

Monday evening at the grocery store

Limes, an ingredient in one of my favorite foods. . . guacamole!

Day Twelve. . . Sunday

Danny and Wendy got a new dog, Cali. She's excellent.

Fish earrings

I'm making massive amount of these origami earrings to sell at Mountian Fair.

And Journals too.

Day Eleven. . . A Video for Saturday

Yesterday a box of prAna clothes arrived on my doorstep. I love getting boxes! Especially ones filled with beautiful clothing.

I was so excited about my new clothes that I decided to make this little video.

Click here to watch with MUCH better picture quality!

Day Ten. . . First Friday

Lined up and waiting

At Sopris Elementary, Frebruary is I Love to Read Month. Our school is challenged to read 500,000 minutes. For their success each child receives a root-beer float and a free book. That's about 600 root-beer floats!

With February out of the way it's on to March and a First Friday celebration.