"I've gone Identity mad!"

Okay, get ready for a doozie.

Due to the intenseity of the last several weeks I have been unable to document the number of memorable events that have occurred.

They are many and there are pictures to go along with each of them. So I'm just going to start.

First things first. Working at Salvation Army was an interesting and exhausting experience but it was not without it's perks. Bob, the man we worked with, gets free tickets to concerts and events at the Verizon center. He got tickets to Stars on Ice. Guess who got to go?

This, my friends is Evan Lysacek. Yup. Got to see him on the ice. He skated to Man in the Mirror. It was pretty amazing.

Alright, it's blurry. My camera is not the best. BUT, I got him in the middle of a splits jump. (I'm going to tell you this now, I really can't tell you who's in these pictures because I am not an ice skater expert and because I didn't have a camera. Sorry).

We were actually pretty close. About 5 rows back from the very front.

Yes, he is skating while playing guitar. He was playing the Olympic theme here.

The only good skate by picture that I got.

Most of the good pictures were of guys but that's because they don't have flowing dresses that got in the way and made things blurry. Thank goodness the girls sometimes stopped long enough for me to get a good shot.

I wish I could remember this guys name. All I know is that I have seen him perform on television before and I always liked him.

This was a cool piece where they represented how love progresses from childhood into adulthood. In each progression they took off another layer of clothing so that their wardrobe matched the age they were representing. It was pretty cool.

Intermission. You are looking at the beautiful face of Max. Looking wistfully off into the distance is Kelsey.

This was an amusing number that lasted a portion of the end of the first act. Very synchronized, and very well done.

I have more pictures and even 1 video (I didn't know going into it that recording was not permitted. A security guard came up to me and was very stern. It was embarrassing. Apparently I have an un-trustworthy look about me because the guard at the front asked me to remove a bottle from my bag before proceeding. It was hand sanitizer. I don't know what he thought it might be...) but I am not going to post them because the video would take too long and the other pictures are rather blurry. Those skater are fast!

Next up we have the last class days of team Y.O.E. at Hillside Middle School. We played games the whole time. It was great.

Red rover. We discovered this was not the best idea.

8th graders will never turn down a chance to pose for a picture. This was one of my favorite classes...sometimes.

Elbow Tag. I think Jonathan runs like a gazelle. One if the kids thinks differently, and I quite: "He's like Jesus, he's flying!!" I think it has something to do with the fact that with his beard, Jonathan kinds of looks like Jesus.

On Friday it was raining so we switched it up. We played quiet ball. You pass the ball around the room in silence. If you speak, you are out.
Some girls got bored with this, so they went to draw on the board.
This young man obviously thinks he's all that. I'm pretty sure he lost the game shortly after this picture.
This one couldn't stop jumping into my pictures.

These are the winners quiet ball from the gifted class that we teach. The girl holding the other girl is Dominic. A problem if not controlled properly but easy to get along with.

The next week, me and my team cooked for the last time. I, of course, wanted to go out with a bang. Here is what we made.

Deviled Eggs. Dill, celery seed, mayo, mustard, paprika, eggs, and tons of love. Amazing. These were requested after I made them a week after easter with my painted eggs. I would post pictures of these amazing colored deviled eggs but the pictures were taken on someone else's camera and I don't have those pictures yet.
Tofu (bleh) and stir fry veggies! Courtesy of Jonathan.
Asian Dumplings courtesy of me. Not all of them looked this pretty. This was a hard recipe to get right.
The filling was amazing though.
Nate and Jonathan chop it up.

Oh! I forgot. A few Pictures from Teacher Appreciation. These are not all the teams, but the ones I got pictures of with MY camera.

Team Earth, Wind, and Fire. AKA Whitney (bottom), Abby Foster (Middle) and Matthew (top)
Team Whistlin' Dixie (Because they are all from the south). Josh (bottom), Abby Miller (middle), and Martha.
The Lean, Mean, Teaching Machine. Kyle and Jenny (Kate used to be in this team before she left.)

And then we have Tri-Force. From left we have Rachel Ryan, Melvin the moose, Kelsey, and Will.

Okay, last for now we have the few pictures I have pertaining to Earth Day. I forgot my memory chip so I couldn't take pictures during Earth Day. More will follow.

This is the Henna I got at the event. Jenny does Henna. It was a big hit at Earth Day.
Every single bit of this was made by me. I am going to brag because it took me all day.
Origami butterflies and ladybeetles, hand cut paper grass glued to the board piece by piece, a paper flower cut and glued.
I can't take credit for this nice blue flower. Abby made that and the Tulip.
There it is in almost all it's glory (some more picture were added to the right side later. I actually enjoyed making it. It made up for all those weeks we were doing research while the other teams were doing crafts for their 4th graders.

So, three other grand events occurred since my last post. Earth Day, my Birthday, and the planting day for our service learning project.

These will be posted the next time I have a moment to do a blog post.

It is Sunday. That last day I will have off for 10 days. Tomorrow we begin Wilderness First Response (WFR) training. I have heard over and over just how intensive this training is. We are all preparing for 12 hour days if not more, late evenings, stressful tests of our comprehension, and general exhaustion. I'm a little scared. But this is a very important certification and they have to be sure we are well educated or we won't get sent into the field.

Wish me luck.

After that I have several days prepping Bear Brook for the 4th grade field trips. Those will go on for two weeks with sporadic days off (and a Fisher Cats game) and then, MID-YEAR BREAK! I am so excited.

Okay, gotta finish a reflection for education season and the watch a movie and get to bed as early as possible and prepare myself for WFR.

Fare thee well.

"Pay no mind I'm doing fine I'm breathing on my own. I'm here and I'm on the mend."

This is not a visual post. I'm afraid I must ask you to endure nothing but words.

I actually feel that in the number of photo posts I have done, I have not done verbal justice to the experiences I am having out here.

I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a brief (by the way, it took me 5 times to type the "f" at the end of brief because of my weird proximity to my keyboard at this table) synopsis of a week in the life of Sarah Lambson.

I do this for two reasons. 1 because I feel there may be some of you who don't actually know what a typical week is like for me. 2 because education season is ending and soon my weeks will be very different.

Here I go.

Monday:

8am-10:30 (or 11:00, or 11:30 or 12:00): Community meeting

This often lengthy event occurs every single Monday. Topics and events are as follows: -Community game (birdie on a perch, Sherman tanks, mail call, samurai, etc.)

-Check-ins (human barometer, what color are you today?, rose/thorn, one word on how you feel today, etc),

-Agenda items (items that are meant to be discussed pertaining to the community. Today it was overconsumption of alcohol. Fun times)

-Weekly reading (it can be a paper, a chapter from a book, a poem, etc. Today we discussed a paper that suggested we need to stop procreating because we are increasing our carbon footprint with every child we have. It was the most heated discussion we have ever had)

-Announcements (short little blurbs that can usually be said in one sentence that may or may not have an effect on the community. For example I am constantly reminding people to be kind to my DVD's and return them to their proper place)

-Leardership Team Check-ins (The teams we have joined check-in. For example, I am on the "Outside Bear Brook"Events planning team)

-Shout-Outs (Just what it sounds like)

After community meeting we either have lunch or start our weekly ream of the lodge (this of course depends on what time the meeting ends).

Once ream is over (a complete and thorough cleaning of the Bathrooms, Kitchen, Dining hall and living area, and the office) we are free to do what we want or need to do. This can be lesson planning or we could spend the afternoon "sharpening out ax"-If you know the story, that just means allowing ourselves to recharge.

I typically do a little of both. Today, I finished coloring posters to hang up around my school for Earth Day and Planting Day. I also got into a spat with my teaching team member. Yeah. Typical Monday.

6:00pm-Dinner

7:30-Call Mom and Dad

Tuesday

The day begins at 9:00 usually. It kind of depends. We usually say we want to start at 8:00 but that never seems to happen.

This is a planning day. Me and my teaching team (Jonathan the oldest member, and Nate the youngest member for those of you who forgot) don't teach until the end of the week so we spend the day planning our lessons. This can mean lots of research for all of us. Usually it just means we have to make an outline to send to our teachers and write up a reflection of the week before for the education coordinator Marlee. For the majority of the lessons we break up the work and go off on our own. We discovered early on that we do not work well sitting together and hashing things out (sadly, this is how I like to work. So this was a challenge for me at first).

This takes me to between 4pm and 5pm depending on when we started the work day and ehather or not I decided to take a full hour for lunch or not.

6:00 is dinner

7:30 is Writing circle when we have people dedicated enough to come and not flake out at the last minute. There are now usually 3-4 of us regulars and we just decide on the days that work best for us.

I try to get to bed early on these first weekdays because I know I am going to get much less sleep. For me this usually means I walk back to my cabin between 9 and 9:30. Then I read and fall asleep sometime 1/2 an hour later.

WEDNESDAY

Another planning day. This one is usually filled with research. I take to opportunity to go to the library often enough on Wednesdays. Of course Lost usually interrupts my research as does maybe a little skype conversation here or there with whoever is on. But I get a lot of work done. Really. I get back in time for dinner at 6:00.

Every other week, my teaching team gets to cook. So far we have made papas majadas, some kind of Greek pasta with feta, olives, lemon, etc (don't know what it was called), curry (yuck), tomato zucchini casserole, and a wonderful veggie frittata. I think that's it. We don't cook this week, but next week I am going to try to convince my teammates to make veggie Asian dumplings and won-tons. Or maybe just Won-ton soup. The dumplings would be quite a task because we would have to make the wraps instead of buying them. I would gladly do that ahead of time. Anyway, I don't know how it will fly but I like the idea.

Wednesdays, I shower right after dinner and then head immediately to bed. We have to be up early on Thursday's. In order for me to get the 8 hours of sleep I need to function on a good workday, I have to get to bed by no later than 10:00 and usually earlier. I guess that isn't that different that other days.

THURSDAY

I will spare you a detailed play-by-play of Thursdays. You can find a more in depth look at a Thursday by going to my post on February the 5th.

But here is the schedule

6:00am-wake up

6:40am-leave to drive to Manchester

7:20-arrive at Hillside Middle School

1:00-finish teaching for the day and head to Salvation Army

1:15-3:00-relax, or grade, or nap

3:00-tutoring. I get to tutor at least one kid. If not, I read the whole time. It's great.

5:00-Kids Cafe. Loud kids, worse than cafeteria quality food, not the best thing but a good growth experience whatever the case

7:00-exhausted drive home

8:50-get home and go right to bed.

FRIDAY

Same as Thursday except two out of every three Friday we finish teaching at 2:00 and go right home. Every third Friday we have Teen Night where we just chill at the Salvation army for 3 hours. Actually we chill there for 7.5 hours but only 3 of those is when teens are there. The rest of the time right after school is spent relaxing and napping. Without naps, teen night is death.

I get to bed as early as I can.

SATURDAY

I wake up whenever. I don't like wasting my weekend. So that means maybe 8:00 or 9:00 which for me is sleeping in. I make a yummy breakfast. Lately this has been two eggs over medium (Yes, let it be known that Sarah Lambson has converted from Over Hard or scrambeled eggs only to eggs with runny yolk.), a mix of veggies (tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, kale, onions) over toast (asiago cheese or tomato basil bread when I can get it) with feta sprinkled over the top. Best thing in the world.

I clean up, drive to Hooksett where I do laundry and read a book. Depending on time I might stop off at the puppy store. Then I usually spend the rest of the day at the library taking advantage of the free internet. They close at 5pm.

Saturday evening events depend on what I feel like. Sometimes people have a bonfire where there is drinking. I opt out of these. But sometimes people go to see a movie which I am almost always up for. Lately though, I have been going on the Parana bread run. That's when few of us travel to Concord to the Panara bread there. We wait for them to close, eating delicious panara food all the while. We are on the list for receiving donations. Once they close, we take what they give us and leave. Sometimes it's a lot. Sometimes it's only 1 box of several loaves of bread. I'm not going to complain. It's free!

SUNDAY

Church at 9:00am. I'm almost always late. Sometimes Abby goes with. If she does we go to the laundromat afterwards for her to do laundry. If not, I spend the afternoon until 5:30 at the library again. Then home and dinner of some kind. Whatever I can whip up. Maybe just cereal. And usually a movie or whatever other people are watching. Or maybe an early night.

See, that wasn't too bad was it?

Now allow to toss out a few more facts and details. THIS IS FOR JULI WHO HAS BEEN ASKING. But if anyone else wants to continue to read, feel free.

I am now officially an interpretive ranger. In all honesty, this is all I know about this.

-I will be spending my whole summer at one park in New Hampshire

-I will be doing interpretive ranges duties. This can be any number of things. This can mean going around trails and seeing if people need help. This can be taking visitor surveys. This can also be organizing activities for kids or educational seminars.

-I think I work in that park with one other ranger.

I am bursting with excitement for this. This is the thing for which I have been fighting for the past two months or so. The only sad thing is I wont have the chance to work with some of the people I was really looking forward to working with. Like Abby, Sarah, Lil, Z, etc. Do not misinterpret me. I am as happy as can be that I get to be an interpreter. Even better, I can become certified! That means that for a time (1 year or 2?) I am certified to be an interpreter and as far as I've it's a certification that is nationally recognized.

Over the next couple months, I also get Wilderness First Response certified and Leave No Trace certified. All for free!! So exciting.

The next week and 1/2 is going to be stressful. This weekend is Earth Day (something I think we are not that prepared for. Anyone want to mail me a sound system?). Then it's a full week of organizing the rest of our service learning project and then planting day next Friday. AHHHHH!!!!

I feel like it's finals week except with finals, the only person that your failure effected was you. If I fail any of the things in the next couple weeks it not only reflects poorly on me professionally, it also effects students and team members and the like.

Okay. Too many words.

More to come later. If I am lucky I will have time for one post a month. As it is, I would LOVE to go for once a week like I used to. Who knows.

Time moves on and I can't believe we are in the middle of APRIL!!

I am going to end with this thought. You remember the movie The Watcher in the Woods, right? Do you remember the sound the "watcher"made as it shot lightning (or laser bolts from it's eyes according to the alternate ending)? My plate made that sound this morning as my fork scraped across it.

"Let it go, this too shall pass. (You know you can't keep lettin' it get you down. No, you can't keep lettin' it get you down.) "

First things first.

A moment of silence for Maplewood Barn.

A little part of me died when I heard that this community theater burned down. I know that I hold many fond memories of the place. I also know that each and every member of the Lambson clan will feel this loss.

But let us not dwell to much on what has passed and cannot be un-done.

Here is the next batch of pictures.

The lovely array of things sent in a package from Elise for Easter

Twinings Herbal Unwind tea, Yummy chocolate eggs, Reeses pieces carrot, YUM!

More cadburry eggs, Peppermint tea, A fun card, 24, body wash

Two entertainment Weekly's, egg coloring kit, a book I can't wait to start!

The fruits of my labors. Some gold, some not. It took a while, but it was fun.

More eggs! One is still drying.

My color pallet. Look how artistic I was, mixing colors and everything!

This was my attempt to make the traditional "brown" egg. It turned out more bronze. I actually like it better this way!

Me trying to be creative and getting fun with my brush strokes.

The striped egg. But it didn't turn out how I hoped.

Abby M. made this egg. She rolled her hands in the gold to do it. The stripes happened somehow. It was kind of cool.

Purple, orange, green. I have never painted eggs before. It was always just coloring with food coloring. The result was kind of cool!

Bronze and gold.

This is Lulu. This is Lulu cooking our dinner. Cook Lulu, cook!

And then lastly, this is me. This is me with my new haircut. This is me not being very photogenic. Oh well.

So overall things are going well.

Last Monday was Teacher Appreciation. Guess who was the event coordinator? That's right, yours truly.

I have to say, it was pretty hectic. I was so afraid that things weren't going to come together because people weren't stepping up. But the day of things started coming together. I felt like a bee going from flower to flower. I buzzed from project to project making sure things were going well and as planned.

Sadly, none of my teams teachers came. So that meant I spent the whole time moving back and forth between the kitchen making sure that food was replenished and drinks were replenished and that everything was going okay even though we assigned people to do those things.

It was a success and everybody thought so. I don't have pictures of it because I was too busy but maybe I can get them from another person.

I wish I could say that I had fun. It was a busy night and I felt like I didn't get to enjoy myself. But it's over now. It was a big step.

We are on our last week of teaching. This means Earth Day next Saturday and a week after that the panting day for out service learning project. We are not ready and I am trying not to let it stress me out and have faith in my teaching partners.

Anyway, I'm not going to bore you anymore.

Things are going along. I can't believe it's April already!