Mel's Box of Chocolates

It's Memorial Day! A three day weekend that I've been waiting for since...well, since spring break. It's been hot, hot, hot here in Delaware.  Not so fun when you have to go to work, but perfect weather to kick off the summer season. Yesterday was a perfect summer day as I worked in my weed garden in the morning, then we took the boat out for fishing, and ended the day riding bikes to the Bethany Boardwalk for dinner and to listen to the Army Band perform. Pretty perfect summer day.  Too bad I have three more weeks of school to go until I'm officially on spring break! Today it feels like its gonna be another scorcher so we are beach bound with friends.  The kiddos have been dying to get back to the sand and waves and I hear my beach chair calling.  I'm excited to take my brand new beach bag and cooler I got from thirty-one!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend!  As you head to the shore, enjoy bbq's, watch the parades, and enjoy the three day we...

For the past two year Shannan and I along with our kiddos have particpated in our local March of Dimes walk.  We teamed up to walk in honor of Maddie, Moses, James and Jake, Thalon , and all the other angels who are playing in heaven. This year I have another reason to walk.  His name is Rory . I'm so excited to say I've been able to hold him and snuggle him and inhale that wonderful baby smell. Nothing beats a happy ending. I am so blessed to have had {and still have} very healthy kids. Dylan and Zoe have walked with me each year and every year as we walk together I say a prayer of thanks that my two children can march right along next to me.  As we walk up to the registration desk it is amazing how quiet they become as they look at the pictures of the children lining the path.  The first year, they asked who the children were and I explained that those were children who were born with health problems and that many of them had died.  We had al...

In March, I had the privilege of earning the title of Teacher of the Year for my school.  It was an honor to know that  my colleagues believed in my teaching so much that they would nominate me. A few people have asked what I received as a reward for this award and seem surprised when I respond with a parking spot, a little cash, a medal, and a name on a plaque at district office.  Oh and a lot of extra work! The extra work comes in to play as you then go on to attempt to win District Teacher of the Year.  This past Thursday night was when we had our final presentation.  There are actually three steps to the District Teacher of the Year process.  You first complete an application which is pretty much a resume of your work along with essays answering three questions.  Next you submit a video of your teaching showing your interaction with students, classroom management, and organization.  Finally you create a 15 minute presentation to present to a...

Aaahhh, Saturday!  What a week and boy oh boy am I glad that it is over. This week was quite crazy with two days of DCAS Reading {our state testing program in Delaware}, a field trip, my district teacher of the year presentation {nope, didn't win}, a 31party, two days of gymnastics practice, and gymnastics pictures. No wonder I'm just waking up from a two hour nap! The good news is that most of students did well on their state test.  One day I'm just going to put it all out there about what I feel about this test, but I just don't have it in me right now.  I was so proud of how well my students stuck with it though.  This week we tackle two days of DCAS math and I'm hoping they show their smarts again! After two days of testing the kiddos were ready for a field trip and we all had fun learning about Civil War times on Pea Patch Island .  I must confess that history is not my thing, nor is wars for that matter, but I enjoyed the trip this year.  It wa...

My favorite part of blogging is the opportunity to meet bloggers in real life at some amazing events.  I've made some awesome friends through this here blog and look forward to making many more. A month ago {wow...once again time flies} I was able to go into New York City for a Getting Gorgeous event hosted by the uber amazing Audrey McClellan and Vera Sweeney .  I had heard so many wonderful things about the event during BlogHer so I was thrilled when I had received my very own ticket to go this time. I headed up to Philly the night before to drop off my kids with my aunt and then got up bright and early to meet some PSMM girls at Bryner Chevrolet to pick up our Equinox that they were kind enough to let us borrow for our trip into the city. They even gave us breakfast before we headed out to get a tour of our car and be on our way. Jo-Lynne was brave kind enough to be Hillary , Jen , and my driver and she did a beautiful job. As you can imagine with four...

Lately, I've heard a lot of talk about how it is believed that some people are using social media to create this perfect {and delusional} world they are living in.  There have been references made on twitter to those who are "impostors".  These are the people who talk about their perfect life with their perfect spouse and their perfect children living in the perfect house.  Ring any bells?? While I could probably name a couple people who may fit the above description for the most part the bloggers and/or social media mavens that I engage with the most, keep it real.  As I thought about it more though, I started to think.  Surely I'm not one of these people. Am I? I feel that what I write is the real me.  I put it out there as it is.  Sure there are things that tick me off, make me sad, or frustrate the heck out of me that I don't share here {although some I most definitely do}, but mostly because that isn't how I am in real life.  I'm a pretty p...