I don't remember how to get in touch with all of you, although it appears that many of you have not posted in a long time. We will see how it goes.
I just finished my third year teaching and it ended nicely. Students learned, I taught, and seniors graduated just as they are supposed to. I taught my first year of AP Chemistry, and I ran the state required testing for the school. I figured out how to set up a classroom so that 20 students could tie dye without dying desk and floor tiles, and I managed to go from terrifying students (why I can't imagine) to having them confide in me. Such is the life of a teacher!
I am really looking forward to this summer. I have no big plans, but I want to make sure and include time for the things I always want to do, but seldom take the time to do. My mom and dad gave me an awesome drawing book (bird!) for my birthday last weekend, and I am looking forward to taking some time to do art. I also have a pile (really - a pile…) of books I want to read. I have a sun hat and a cute backyard too. I want to rearrange my AP Chemistry Scope and Sequence a little and work on updating some other curriculum, but I think that can wait for the beginning of August. I need some time off!
Matt and I celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary (yesterday). We got up with the sun (I still can't sleep in when the sun is out - but I will get better at it as the summer progresses…) planted some flowers, cut back the out of control chocolate vine and rehabbed holes in my planters made by those conniving squirrels. (I hear squirrel tastes like chicken….) We had previously decided to go the beach and had talked about Newport and the Aquarium. We weren't sure which way to drive (I really don't like the Corvallis route), but we decided to drive out to Cannon Beach and then south along the highway. About 1/2 way to the beach we ran into some uncharacteristic traffic jams! We were not only going slowly, but were stopped for several minutes at a time. We couldn't figure out what was going on until we saw a sign for the sand-castle competition at Cannon Beach. We decided not to stress out and just enjoyed the day and the drive (windows can be down when you are going under 5 miles per hour.) When we got to Cannon Beach we decided to drive down some back roads we have never taken on the north side of town to look for parking and found a great parking spot next a park with AWESOME bathrooms. Ironically, that is the worst part about Cannon Beach normally - the downtown bathrooms are GROSS. That marked the beginning of a fabulous beach visit.
We walked down to the bakery and got mocha horns (a tradition from when we honeymooned) and then went down to the Cannon Beach Treasure Cove where Matt got me a Roman Buckle (from about 500BC) that was found in England. We then headed to our favorite "dive" where we had fish and chips and some chowder. (The breading on this stuff is as close as I've had to NanNan's outside of England.) After lunch we went to the bookstore and found a couple of books. After a couple more stops we had acquired a floppy hat for me and gummy bears and sea foam for Matt. We walked out past the whale statue and found an obliging log and laid out in the sun (I had actually remembered to put on sunscreen!!) and read for a while. Laying in the sun with a cool breeze was AWESOME. We always talk about relaxing at the beach, but we never do… It was so nice. After a bit we noticed the hoards of people down the beach and realized that was where the sand sculptures were. We strolled down and enjoyed looking at them. Even took this selfie with a grinning sea monster behind us! It was quite a walk back to the car, but we were able to cross a small "stream" and walk across beach to where we had parked. We are ALWAYS parking there from now on. When we got home Matt suggested a chick flick (Letters to Juliet) that I happen to enjoy (wasn't that nice of him) and then we called it a day. Best day at the beach in years!!
