Everyone say hello to Toby

The newest member of my pet family is my puppy, Toby. I got him back in December, and am just now taking time to add him to my blog. He was born on November 3, 2007, and came to live with me when he was 5 weeks old.

Here he is during the first week - he was so small, he'd fit in the palm of my hand and barely weighed a pound!

Here he is at 10 weeks old - growing like a weed! For the record, I'm not one of those people that always dress up their pets - he had to wear a sweater because it was freezing that day, and he had to go to the vet. I couldn't look like a bad pet parent to the vet and have my poor dog shivering!




He's now up to 5 whole pounds and is super hyper, so it's hard to get a good picture of him. I'll keep trying and will post updates. He's tons of fun though and I'm so glad I got him!

Don't Eat the Hotdogs

I returned yesterday from our Annual Staff Conference in Orlando. It's so hard to believe I've been with FLVS for a year now! This was my second staff conference - I was on-staff an entire week before heading down last year. I have to say that this year's experience was entirely different, which was wonderful. It was great knowing names and finally being able to put faces to them. Even if there were 600+ of us in attendance, it just didn't seem as overwhelming this year.

On the first day, Ron Clark was our keynote. Now I've seen a lot of keynote speakers in my 10 years in education and he was by far the best. His passion and enthusiasm for teaching is incredible and contagious. For those that aren't familiar with Ron, he was selected as America's Teacher of the Year several years ago. He worked as a teacher in Harlem with the most troubled students in the school and had such an impact on them, that by the end of the year they were the top performing class. He's appeared on Oprah twice, has several books out, and is even the subject of the movie "The Ron Clark Story" which stars Matthew Perry. After listening to him talk, you really do leave feeling like you CAN make a difference! It really makes me rethink my decision to not go into teaching. Guess I have lots to think about.

Working from home and not ever seeing the team of people you work for is surprisingly difficult sometimes. It was awesome getting to spend 3 days with them. Even though I did end up with a touch of food poisoning from eating a bad hotdog the first day, I pulled myself together and had so much fun at our banquet.

It was an amazing week and I can't wait until next year!















Me and my boss, Tina

Bandwagon Jumping

Well, thanks to my sister-in-law, I have decided to join the world of blogging. For several years, I have journaled, but never really though it was interesting enough to share with the world. Well, Jill makes a great point that this is a great way to keep you up to date with what's going on in my life, so here I am. Stay tuned for random thoughts and revelations!