"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.