Dance in the Rain...

One of my favorite quotes recently has been,

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain."

It seems to me that sometimes it's easy to look around and think about how hard or stressful life is. Really though, there is so much happiness to be found in every situation. This quote just makes me remember being a little girl, running out into a storm with an umbrella swinging, singing and puddle stomping. I think I should react to more things in life the way I did when I was seven.

While we're on the subject of good quotes, here are a few other good ones to think about:

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved." ~Helen Keller

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." ~Jimi Hendrix

"Everything is okay in the end, if it's not ok, then it's not the end." ~Unknown

Itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny RED polka dot...

Here is my newest splurge (The picture shows it in coral, but I got red with white polka-dot). I'm so excited about it that I just had to share. Since I'm headed to Hawaii in a few weeks (which is hard to believe in and of itself), I decided I needed a new bathing suit. I fell in love with this one on LandsEnd. They are just about the only place that I have found modest bathing suits of high quality that don't have huge tucans across the front. If you're ever in need, they are a great company and worth the cost.

P.S. - I learned that you can buy their suits at Sears and if they don't have the one you want, they will order it online for you through the store. They don't charge shipping and the products are sent directly to your house. Okay, sorry, I'm done sounding like their poster child.

The Countdown

Hooray for summer vacation! I only have 11 teaching days left before I bid a fond farewell to my students for this year. I'm not sure what they learned, but at least we all survived to try again next year.

Here are a few of my favorite things that I've learned this year from my students:

1) "Americans need to eat more VEGETARIANS."

2) Classrooms are a good place to practice skateboard moves, though necessarily without the skateboards.

3) Pencils lodged in the ceiling are more interesting than anything I could ever say.

4) All the frustrations of preparing for a student talent assembly pay off when you see them on stage and start to get teary-eyed as if they were your own children.

5) leap frog, doing the wave, and hula hooping are essential parts of a seventh grade education.

Those are just a few, and my brain feels too fuzzy to come up with more right now. I wonder what else they'll come up with before the year is over...