Mel's Box of Chocolates

Since it's been over a year since I last blogged you can imagine that some adventures have been missed. I'm not sure that I'll be able to write posts to fill in all the gaps so going with some bullets because who doesn't love a bulleted list. So here's just some of the memories that were made since last April as in April of 2015... Dylan conquered his first year in high school! Zoe conquered her last year in elementary school! Both kids maintained high honor roll for the whole year. I finished my first year teaching accelerated students in a brand new program. I completed more college classes and earned my certificate so I could teach gifted and talented students. The whole family visited Tulum, Mexico (our first trip to Mexico) in April 2016. Maybe this will make it's own post sometime soon! Dylan swam on the high school swim team and was invited to swim in the team relay at state champs where he realized he was a little fish in a BIG pond, but that sw...

Ask me to describe myself and "driven" is a word I would probably list in my top 5, maybe even top 3. I always have a plan for the what next . In my daily schedule, in my personal life, in my career...I enjoy setting goals, working hard to meet them, and celebrating when I accomplish them. However, my celebration is short lived as I immediately begin contemplating my next move. The other day I was listening to a podcast on the topic of "drive" and the speaker (sorry, I wish I could remember which podcast it was to give them credit) talked about how sometimes driven people are so focused on their next move or meeting their goals that they're pretty much blinded by the future. They are so farsighted , they can't see what's right in front of them. Instead of putting all their effort into the current activity/task/job to the best of their abilities and enjoying the moment, they are just going through the motions and thinking what they should do next to...

I've had an itch to write lately. There is something therapeutic about putting feelings and thoughts into words and letting them flow. It's been awhile since I've visited my blog. Today I spent some time reading old posts and recounting memories. There are a lot of memories recorded on this here blog considering it has been documenting my family's life since Dylan went off to Kindergarten and he will be heading into 10th grade this fall! Today, was a pretty emotional day. One of Dylan's friend's dad passed away from brain cancer earlier this week and today was his funeral. Dave and I have kept open communication with Dylan throughout everything. We discussed the funeral and Dylan said that he felt that it would only be right that he attended. We are not friends with the family, but I told Dylan that I would be happy to go with him if he would like. His response, "No thanks, mom, I've got this." This morning I dropped him off at the church to at...