Favorites Friday II

Greetings from Sewanee!

To capitalize on my time while Riley is sleeping and I can be getting work done for graduate school, I will keep this post short and sweet. Enjoy!

Favorite restaurant in Sewanne (out of the three there are...):

Crust (an awesome pizza place with cracker-thin crust)!

Favorite things about being at Sewanee:

The breeze, the beauty of the Tennessee mountains, and the serenity on the Domain

Favorite Mario Cart Character:

Yoshi

Favorite Sport to Play:

Basketball (we just started playing some pick-up here, too!)

New Favorite Workout:

Allison's core routine (If you want the details, I can email you! It is fifteen hard, hard minutes, but so worth it!!)

Favorite Friday: The Beginning

This morning, while I was eating breakfast and blog surfing, I came up with an idea for a weekly feature on my blog: Favorite Friday. Every friday, I am going to feature a few of my favorite things: a song, a movie, a person, an idea, a thought, a moment - something, anything. This way, I can share some of my interests and current passions. Week one, here we go!

Favorite Song:
Matt Nathanson - Come on Get Higher

Favorite Moment of the Day:
Any time Riley runs over to give me a hug.

Favorite Food:
Kettle-cooked chips and calzones

Favorite Story:
The Little Kingdom of J. Franklin Payne

Favorite Thing to do to Relax:
Watch chick flicks with Netflix's watch now feature.

Book Blogs and a shout-out!

So I just discovered a whole new layer of blogging while enjoying lunch and getting ready for a meeting: Book Blogs. I added a new sidebar with a list of a few I browsed and liked. I think it is cool that there is a culture on the Internet so dedicated to reading and reviewing books. For me, as an aspiring writer, it is exciting to see these blogs and consider the interest they are generating. Who knows? Maybe one day they will be reading and reviewing one of my stories....

Oh, and a big shout-out to Lauren in New York! It was awesome to see you at Allie's graduation. I cannot believe so much time has past since we first became friends at Columbia freshman year, and I am glad we have managed to keep in touch. I hope the market and the city are treating you well. You inspire me everyday with your work ethic. Miss you!

Best Day of School Ever!

Today at school, we had our Upper School Awards Convocation. It is a time when the entire Upper School student body and faculty gets together to recognize the extraordinary achievements of our students.

We also recognize one teacher whom the student body votes on for the Teacher Appreciation Award.

This year, I won that award!

I cannot tell you how exciting and wonderful it felt to receive such an honor. I am so thankful to everyone who helped me to receive this awesome award:

1. Above all my students. I am blessed to have had three amazing groups of amazingly talented girls and boys over the past three years. They make going to work every day a fun and meaningful experience. I have learned so much from them - probably more than they have learned from me!

2. My co-workers. I love working at Oak Hall. I have some awesome colleagues who make me want to work harder and be a better teacher. For the most part, it is a very friendly and welcoming place to work, and I am honored to be a member of the Oak Hall community.

3. My awesome support staff at home. Seriously, I would not be the teacher I am today with all of the people who work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep me sane! Alli, thanks for being the best twin ever and talking me through all of my stressed-out times. A big shout-out to Caroline and Irene: for being incredible friends. Mom and Dad, thank you for being the role models I aspire to be. Brendan and Claire, thanks for keeping it real for me and for loading me up with some awesome teaching ideas! And last but not least, Shawn and Riley! You two know why...:)

To celebrate, Caroline had an awesome idea to go out to dinner and grab some ice cream afterwards. So Shawn, Riley, Irene, Walmir, Christian, Caroline, and I enjoyed dinner together at the Flying Biscuit and then had some D-Lites afterwards. Yum! Thank you all for helping me celebrate this great day! What a surprisingly terrific way to end my third year at Oak Hall!!

I'm Published!!

Great news! Last week, the editor for Wanderings Magazine emailed me to inform me that he wanted to publish my story in his magazine. So exciting! So after sending back the publishing agreement and a proof copy, the story is now posted online. You can check it out here:

http://www.wanderingsmag.com/fiction.html

Also, feel free to leave a comment, too. I like getting feedback on my writing!

So on my quest to become a published author, this is definitely a good sign!

Enjoy!

PS This is a story I wrote for my graduate creative writing workshop two summers ago.

Mother's Day Weekend 2009

What a busy and wonderful weekend! Yesterday, Shawn and I took Riley to St. Augustine to enjoy the beach for a little while. She was such a trooper and seemed to really enjoy herself. She went into the water all by herself (with us very close by) and let the waves wash over her feet and legs. Towards the end of our time at the beach, a wave got her in the face as she was crawling away, but being the awesome baby she is, she barely even cried. She just sputtered once or twice. We met up with Caroline and Dewayne for a little while before it was time to go, too. Then, on the way home, we stopped at Friday's for dinner. All in all, it was a great evening and night.

Then, today Shawn and Riley made breakfast for me in bed. Yum!! Pancakes!! This afternoon, Shawn and I watched a movie and then we went out to Bonefish for dinner. So good. For my gift this year, Shawn and Riley let me pick out a new light fixture for our house. We found this awesome fan for our bedroom. I cannot wait! I will definitely post pictures once it is up!
All in all, this was a wonderful second Mother's Day for me to celebrate! A huge thanks to my sweet, sweet husband and my adorable and fun baby girl! Thanks for a great day.

I have been thinking about this day a lot, and how much I have learned in a year. Enough to fill blog posts for a lifetime! But one key lesson that I will share is how thankful I am to have and be close to my mom. I am so fortunate and blessed to have such a loving, generous, kind, hard-working, and inspiring mom. Thanks, mom, for everything. Each day I spend with Riley, the more thankful I am for you. I love you so much!

Our big, independent baby girl!

Riley playing with daddy's credit cards...let's hope that stops before she becomes a teenager!

All of us at Friday's after our beach day!

Girl loves her sand!

Daddy and Riley! How sweet!

I love this picture!!

My Mother's Day flowers!

My Mother's Day balloons!

A few of her favorite things...

For starters, Tupperware!! How cute is this picture. And, the pool and the great outdoors. Riley has been in her pool or our neighborhood pool at least 5 out of the last 7 days. She loves the water, and she loves to be outside. She will wait at the front door for one of us to take her outside.