sorry...

ok, so it's been awhile.  i'm now officially in st. louis!!!  i have no internet yet so i haven't been able to update this page really.  the best way to talk to me is email and facebook at the moment.  hopefully, this will be up and running again soon....

oh yeah... and i start teaching a week from Monday and due to the totally insanity that is st. louis public schools i still don't know where that will be, what i will be teaching, and what grade i will be teaching it to... but, other than that tiny little detail life here has been pretty dang good! 

no time to write really, but here's a very brief summary...

i work nearly 18 hours every day, hmm... maybe that's an exaggeration... it's probably 17 if you subtract when i eat and shower. (not an exaggeration, i swear.)

last week was pretty horrible, i won't lie. (for SO many reasons.)  i seriously considered leaving.  but, as things always do, life got better this weekend and today was probably my best day here so far.  (my boys got recognized on the afternoon announcements as an "exemplary class" for the whole school!  hooray for the boys of 210!) 

and to make my life the living soap opera that it is (and to ensure that no day is ever perfect) i had to be retaught long division with decimals by a 14-year-old AND i fell down the stairs on to my knees holding graded papers and a coke right in front of another teacher, 2 of her students, and our school (head) director.  neat.

and...OKLAHOMA HERE I COME... Traci May's wedding is just 4 days away!!!  yea!!!

back to work. sigh...

p.s. i'm now totally convinced tthat his is a cult and that it's paper consuming needs are responsible for destroying a sizable portion of the rainforest.  but don't worry i haven't touched the kool-aid.  not yet anyway...

hello all!!!  greetings from Atlanta, GA!

i'm FINALLY in ALT starting training intsitute after a CRAZY five days in STL trying do a million things.  but, good news!!!  i found a place to live!!!  it's this amazing little duplex (or cottage as i like to call it) that is located on the cutest street you've ever seen and with in walking distance from the biggest (and coolest) public park in the nation (yeah, like way bigger than central park in NYC).  i'm will be living with two other girls who are pretty freakin' awesome, but we are a pretty random mix.  there's one from Utah (yes, she is a Mormon cuz i know you would ask) who is way outdoorsy and kinda quite and the other was born in India but grew up in Wisconson and is a crazy social girl and then there is me.  like i said, random... (but totally awesom!)  and we live next to a ton of other people in the corps, so that's going to make for some very good times!

this week i am in classses all the time and next week i start teaching summer school in eight grade reading.  i don't have the time at the moment (i NEED a nap) to explain how everything works here in TFA land, but it's pretty intense and always moving and it's kind of like a bit of a cult at times... (but i love it deep down inside.)

i will try and keep everyone informed as best i can, but it's hard.  and for those of you that call me and i can't call back for a few days, i will try my very hardest to but everything runs a mile a minute here.  everyone in my corps is so great but i miss everyone SO much, i think this is the first time in my life i've ever really been homesick... sigh...

but, like i said i will try and check in with everyone as much as possible!  i've got to go nap, i've now been awake for over 12 hours and it's only dinner time...

sigh...

so, yesterday i officially made the move out of Norman, Oklahoma. tomorrow, i leave for St. Louis for a week before i head on to Atlanta for 5 weeks of training.  for the last few months i've been so excited about this transition and today, as i sit here not packing, i can't really feel much at all, except sad.  it all hit me on saturday night, and when i say "hit me" it really did, all the crying has made me look like someone has punched me in both eyes.  now, in an attempt to not get myself (or any of my readers) all worked up again, i will keep this short and sweet. 

i simply want to say thank you.  to any and all of you who have touched my life in even the smallest way over the last five years.  when i moved out to go to OU i knew exactly want i wanted from college, what i was going to do to get there, and i knew i had all the answers for what life would throw at me.  luckily, i couldn't have been more wrong.  and i couldn't dream of life different than it is today.  so to those of you who have been a part of it, i really do mean thank you because so much of who i am today is because of your influence in ways some of you may never know. 

and a specific shout out to those of you who have been a part of the last year (you know who you are)... last year during may's graduation ceremony, i packed my room by myself throwing an anger filled pity party all alone and swearing that the next year better fly by because i wanted to move on too.  but, as God always seems to do, he gave me exactly what i needed instead and this year has been filled with memories and experiences to last a lifetime in ways i never expected.  i can't even explain how or why everything came together the way it did, but i thank you and love you for making this year that was supposed to suck one of the most memorable of all...

now, it's time for me to stop and go pack or i will be up all night, but at the rate i'm going i will be anyway...