Hey, world. It's been an awfully long time, hasn't it?

I think this is the longest I've ever neglected my LJ, which is sort of sad, I suppose, but I guess it's just an indication of the shift in my priorities. A lot has happened since January, some good, some bad. May has been a difficult month for me because I lost my uncle and godfather, who passed away unexpectedly last week after being in a coma for a week. I'm still reeling from that blow, but I am lucky to have a wonderful family and friends who love me. They've taken care of me through the rough patches and now I am taking care of my mom, who is struggling to deal with the loss of her only brother.

Over all, it's been a rough year. I have been overwhelmed pretty consistently at work since about February and it looks like that is not changing anytime soon. I feel like I'm constantly struggling to stay on top of things but having difficult things happening outside of school isn't helping.

Thankfully, I have friends to help keep me smiling, and, of course, ballet. We are preparing for our June performance now, which has been a blessed distraction from life. I am going to be in three pieces this year, one of which is on pointe, which will be something of an accomplishment for me. I am most excited about the Memoirs of a Geisha production, however, because it is simply stunning. I am so thankful that I have dance back in my life.

In other news, I was a dork and went to the midnight showing of Prince Caspian, dragging my friends with me. I, of course, loved it. I want to go see it again, just as I did with the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It's just so expensive to go to the movies. We'll see what happens.

Tomorrow, I will be going on a field trip with the fifth grade at my school, which I am excited about. Also, we're hatching chicks and ducklings and they should be hatching within the next couple of days. I am quite excited by this, hopefully all will go well!! I have never seen anything hatch before! The ducklings were quite an accident, really. The eggs were abandoned because a raccoon got into the mother's nest and ate most of the eggs and then men with ladders came to work on the roof without realizing there was a nest there and the mama duck took off. So we added the duck eggs to the incubator with the chicken eggs. We lost one duck egg because it was cracked but hopefully the other two will survive...

I suppose that's all the news I have for now. Lots of love to all of you, hope you are all doing well.

I am alive! January is so crazy at work. But my journal is not Christmasy anymore and it's pretty. It's snowing!

...I really have nothing of interest to say. Sigh.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I know I'm a day late but I was too tired yesterday to post an entry. I had a lovely Christmas with my family even if it's been a little crazy around here! My grandma is here from Florida, as are my aunt and uncle, and we had fourteen people for dinner last night and Christmas day isn't even our big night! Christmas Eve was even bigger! It was nice to spend time with the family. I even saw my brother's godparents from Georgia, though they did not make me happy by showing up on Christmas Eve without warning at 9 AM. My grandma decides to give them a tour of the house, including my bedroom while I was sleeping in it. I woke up to the sound of strange voices in my room, it was very scary. But it was nice to see them once I got over it and got dressed and such.

I finally got to sleep in today for the first time this vacation which was nice, though I am running all sorts of errands today. I have to take my car to emissions and exchange something at Best Buy and I am meeting some friends for dinner later. Tomorrow, my mom's family will be here all day for Nonni's birthday and the 28th I'm supposed to meet up with my high school friends! I don't know what's going on the 29th and 30th yet but I need to go shopping for the New Years party at some point and prep all the food because the 31st I am going to a basketball game and then having a big party at my house!

I love vacation but I don't think there is much relaxing going on this time, hee.

In any case, I hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday!

I feel like life is going at breakneck speed sometimes! I can't believe we're into the second week of December already and I still have so much to do! People on my friends list, please don't forget to post to my last (friendslocked) entry if you want a holiday card! I am serious when I say I don't have most of your addresses! I have to buckle down and just do cards and wrap gifts, etc. I hope my shopping is done but I think it is! At least, it most likely will be after I go to the Scholastic warehouse sale, tomorrow if all goes as planned. YAY. LOVE the scholastic warehouse sales!!!!

In other news, I really need to sew the ribbons on my new pointe shoes. I got them in August so they really aren't that new anymore. My old pointes are SO dead and I took Susan's pointe class for the first time today and yeah, dead shoes are not going to cut it. Man, I love her class but she definitely makes me work! I think it will make me such a better dancer! I took an extra class last night after my usual class with Irene and she let me do some pointe because it was a lower level class than mine. Definitely was beneficial! Sorry about the ballet rambling but MUCH love on ballet lately! Apparently, I am going to be in THREE numbers in this recital, yikes! Susan's piece is going to be so fabulous - Memoirs of a Geisha! The music is SO gorgeous!!

We had a baby shower after school today for one of my co-workers and it was nice. The best part was the free food and getting to chat with some co-workers. We are planning happy hour for Friday. I am going up for my cousin's graduation party on Saturday and then coming back for Danny and Katy's Rudolph Rave! SO BUSY! My principal asked me to work the after school program on Wednesdays (my ONE free day, blah, and even that isn't free when we have character ed committee meetings!) The money is good though and it's only once a week...

I thought today was Wednesday this morning. It was so disappointing to find out that it wasn't. Oh, well. I hear we might have bad weather this week? It's sad how excited TEACHERS get about snow days. I get more excited about them now than I did in high school. I want real snow though, none of this ice crap. I want to go sledding. I wonder if there are any places to go sledding nearby that don't go directly into the lake... One of my co-workers was talking about sledding with her kids and it made me want to go!! I doubt I could convince anyone to go with me though, haha. I don't know if I have a sled still. We've moved twice since the sledding glory days at my old house.

So perhaps I should stop rambling and get my room cleaned up and get in the shower. Hmm. Well, kudos to you if you actually read this.

I decided to make my journal all Christmasy and get some Christmas icons. Getting in the spirit and all. I can't believe it's December already! I have SO much shopping to do!

It's scary how quickly I fall into the pattern of not working. Seriously. Long weekends and lots of sleep? Lots of love.

I know this is a couple of days late but Happy Thanksgiving to my American LJ friends! Hope it was safe and full of good things. I spent the holiday with my family at my grandma's house. It was rather quiet and uneventful but the food was good and it is always nice to be with my family. My cousin Adam brought his Nintendo Wii which was fun because I love Mario Party. Yeah, I know, I usually hate video games but I am beginning to find these games where you move around a bit to be more engaging. Like last weekend at Steve's party when we played DDR? I totally dug that. Dancing in a video game, how win is that??

In any case, I have much to be thankful for. I have a good job, a wonderful family that loves me, a safe and warm home, and amazing friends. It is always so nice to have that warm fuzzy feeling of thankfulness. I am so blessed.

Well, now I must go since I promised Mom I would go out with her this afternoon. Lots of love!

I got to see Wicked last night!! Even though Broadway is on strike, the touring company is NOT so I got to see it in Hartford and OMG it was AMAZING! Everyone assumed I had read the book (because that's just the sort of person I am) but I had NOT and I am so glad I hadn't because there were so many interesting plot twists and such. I am glad I didn't know about them in advance! I might try reading the book now to get more details on the plot but I am not sure. I am not really a fan of the author. We'll see!

Now I shall do this meme from jadeblood because she mentioned me in it and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy!

( not because you feel something or don't feel something for me )

Kids had no school today, it was Professional Development for us.

It was terrible. Ugh. The only good thing was the free bagels, seriously. We had a morning session on the newly revised DRA2, which was boring and as we didn't have the actual materials to look at, hard to follow. The afternoon was about fluency but it was more theoretical than practical. I don't care WHY they need to be fluent readers I just want to know HOW to help my kids improve their fluency. OH, we also had a really boring morning session on technology. The only good part of that was when we were allowed to just poke around and explore some programs and websites.

Oh, well. I voted. Also bought girl scout cookies because when I went to vote, half the 5th grade girls from my school were there and I always buy cookies even if I rarely eat them all. I can't help but support the kids, what can I say? I am also glad students saw me voting. It sets a good example.

So today I had PD, went to vote, then went to the grocery store, cooked dinner, did a load of laundry, went to dance class, did two more loads of laundry.

I think I shall go to bed.

Well, it's been a rough week. My (step)grandfather passed away on Friday night. I was on my way to Florida to see him at the time. I didn't make it in time but I sort of think he wouldn't have wanted me to see him that sick anyway. I'm told there was no pain and he was 94 years old. He had a long healthy life but it was still really rough this weekend. I helped out my mom and grandma and tried to be cheerful for everyone else's sake.

Today was my first day back at work and it was crazy. Stupid meetings all day. The third grade teachers got emotional and crying and stuff at their meeting which was pretty intense. I wasn't sure what to do. But at least the weather was nice and I had recess duty.

Halloween sorta sucked this year for me though. I did get to go to one party but not THE party I look forward to since I was in Florida (which I don't regret - family first - but I am still sad) and I didn't get to go to the classroom parties at school because of the meetings. And we only got one group of trick or treaters, which were former annoying fifth graders from my school.

Oh, well. Life goes on.