School Christmas Activities

Today was Polar Express Day at Indian Land Elementary. All students and teachers wore pajamas to school and participated in various activities related to the storybook. My class took time to discuss the story before we watched the movie together. After completing the movie, each child wrote a story about their trip on the Polar Express and what they would choose if they were given the 1st gift of Christmas. Their stories turned out super cute and very creative.

Erica and I showing off our pj's :-)

My kiddos glued to the movie

Later in the day, the kids performed a rehearsal of their Christmas concert, before heading home for a few hours before the real performance. I had about 14 of my 20 kids that came back for the concert in the evening to perform their "O Hanukkah" song for their parents and families.

ILE Teacher of the Month

I am super excited today!!!! This morning, I was named the ILE Teacher of the Month for all of my hard work and dedication to our school and my classroom. It was announced on the morning announcements, sent out in an e-mail and sent home in the parent weekly newsletter. I was very surprised and honored by this. Our school technology guru made a poster with my picture on it and posted it on the entrance door to the main hallway of the school. This was just the little boost I needed to encourage me to keep working as hard as I do!!

Erica's Birthday

Erica turned 29 this year and we took her out for a night on the town. We started with dinner at Charanda's and then headed to uptown Charlotte. Starting at Howl at the Moon in the EpiCenter and then heading to Dixie's Tavern, we enjoyed a night full of drinks and music.

Erica after they sang to her at dinner

Valerie and I

Aimee and I

All the girls (+1 random in the back)

ILE Staff Christmas Party

As part of my duties as Sunshine Chair for our school, I was put in charge of planning our school Christmas party. It wasn't too much trouble, since the country club house did most of the work. I picked the menu, bought/designed the table decorations, planned the gift exchange, got the dj/music, and did the set up/clean up. It turned out really nicely and everyone had a lot of fun!! (I know I had more fun than I needed to have on a school night!) Somedays, I want to quit teaching and take up party planning full time.

Erica, Brittany, and I

the dinning room

ribbons, floating candle holders, and snowflakes on tables

entry way into the club house

Tar Heel Game

Erica invited me to a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill basketball game to wrap up our Thanksgiving holiday. We sat in traffic for 5 hours on our way to the game and didn't end up arriving until half time. We were able to get back in half the time that it took us to get to the game. I enjoyed checking out the stadium, first visit so I had to take it all in. Here are a few pics.

The Marsters' Wedding

Aaryn Campbell, the second year teacher on my team at school, got married on Friday, November 21. She had a very nice, small service held at the Springs Dairy Barn in Fort Mill, SC. The reception was held immediately after the service in the downstairs of the Dairy Barn. All of the ladies that I teach with were in attendance. We all enjoyed the time hanging out together outside of the halls of the school building. Aaryn looked beautiful!!!!

Jessie, Sherri, and I
Tricia, Judy, and Sarah

Our new girls~Tricia, Jessie, and Sarah

Our team with the happy couple!!!

Mr. and Mrs. John Marsters

Flo-Town in October

Columbus Day weekend getaway found Erica and I in Florence spending time with Aimee. Friday found us cooking at home and enjoying a few drinks. Staying up late, with a combination of vodka, jaeger bombs, music and a camera lead to some random pictures.

Saturday, after sleeping in to recover from the long, late night, we headed to the mall for some shopping and fun. While looking for shoes for school, I found the perfect pair. Aimee and Erica also found some pretty cool shoes that we could not resist!!! (JK :-)

While at the mall, Aimee found some tounge tattoos that she just had to have. They came in different flavors and actually burned a little while putting them on. After attempting to put on multiple tattoos, my 5th one finally came out to where you could tell what it was. Below are the pics of each of our tattoos.

Me

Aimee

Erica

You never know what will happen when we all spend a weekend together!!!

Nicholas Sparks Book Signing

Nicholas Sparks........my FAVORITE author of all time!!!!!! Friday night--Erica and I attended the opening of the movie "Nights in Rodanthe," based off of the book I just finished reading 3 weeks ago. Tuesday--"The Lucky One" is released, the newest book. Thursday--book signing at Barnes and Noble at the Arboretum in Charlotte. He is wonderful and so nice to his fans!!!!

Labor Day Weekend "Exercising" in Kingsport

I spent the Labor Day weekend in Tennessee with Alanna and Craig, hoping to relax. Needless to say, relax is one thing that we did not do!! Saturday, we went white water rafting. I was a bit scared, especially after our orientation training...ouch was the main thought going through my mind. However, once we got on the bus I was more excited (of course, there was a boy). John, one of the raft guides....who I did all possible to make sure we were in his raft. Below are a few of our rafting pics (all on land b/c we were to worried about taking a camera in the boat).

So, cute couple or what?!?

Sunday, we went on a 17 mile bike ride on the Virginia Creeper Trail. It started out as a lot of fun...casual trek down the mountain. We enjoyed the scenery along the way. A little more than half way through we stopped to eat lunch. Unfortunately, the restaurant was very busy and we had to rush through the last half of the bike ride. We were very worried that we wouldn't make it back in time to the meeting place to catch our van for the ride home.

After our full day of fresh air, we were exhausted and decided to go out to dinner. We ate at Cootie Brown's, since I had never been there. I really liked the decor inside the restaurant, as much as the outside.

Kenny Chesney Concert

As a celebration of completing my first day of school (with children), I spent the evening with some of the ladies from school at the Kenny Chesney concert. We did some chatting and played some cornhole before the concert started and then headed in to find seats. We caught a bit of LeAnne Rhimes before Kenny came out. I met up with Mike and Ashley and hung out with them for a while to listen to Kenny perform. It was a really good concert and a fun way to relax after day one of school.

Charleston, here I come!!!

I took a weekend excursion to Charleston the first week of school to visit with Kerri for a bit. I haven't really spent much time with her at all in the last year and a half or so. Even though we talk about once a month, it was nice to hang out with her like old times. We spent all day Saturday walking around the market and downtown Charleston. We took a walk along the Battery and ended up down in Battery Park. Luckily, we made it back to the car before the flood poured down. We went to California Dreaming for dinner. Sunday, we met Emorie for lunch at The Crab House. It was on the Intercoastal Waterway, so we sat outside while we enjoyed our meal. It was a nice relaxing weekend before the start of a busy school year.

Sweet grass baskets in the market

Along the Battery

Believe it or not, pirates used to 'hang' here

to warn others to stay away

Kerri Lynn, Emorie, and I