What's Love?

It's a signature and special message in my 2001 Forbush Falcon yearbook
It's a chance I took in December 2002
It's the stuffed turkey that still sits in my living room floor...in full strut
It's my ridiculous shedding habit which I'm trying to get under control 
It's listening to Pretty Little Liars on Tuesdays for half the year and listening to any type of sports broadcasting imaginable the other half
It's him pushing the grocery cart and paying while I try to check every item off the list and overly rearranging the bagging job
It's me getting frustrated at cooking new dishes and him rescuing my efforts before they turn to inedible carbon
It's Duplin wine, any variety, flavor, etc. will suffice
It's making decisions of what color the trim will be throughout our new home
It's his ability to beautifully miter a picture frame window after numerous You Tube videos, HGTV shows and DIY Pinterest pins
It's the fact he pumps the gas and I run in for the beer
It's trips to Taco Bell, Dick's Sporting Goods and New Town Bistro date nights
It's a 3:45 alarm on a Sunday morning, a text before he takes off, when he lands and a weekly "Good Luck Bebe" tweet/text around noon
It's a cheers at the bar with friends once RCR takes home a win
It's a snuggle on the couch watching those cars go around and around, waiting patiently for a shot of a man dressed in Caterpillar yellow with a large gas can thrown over his shoulder wearing a shiny apron
It's he takes out the trash
It's I lay out the bills with sticky notes every month
It's the echo of a staple gun Monday-Saturday after 4pm
It's the slop of a paintbrush Monday-Sunday (minus Fridays, sometimes)
It's the way I have to hoist myself up into a big blue Dodge Ram
It's the way he makes fun of me when I fall (out of the truck)
It's the numerous nights we didn't speak more than 30 minutes because I had a paper to write
It's the special message on my graduation cap that I wore on December 16th 2012 because he made that dream come true
It's our Boone
It's our Lizzie
It's a snapchat mid day
It's dressing by the flashlight app on my iPhone because he got in at 5:00am from the race
It's him dressing by the flashlight app because he's leaving at 4:00am for a race 
It's cussing the numerous number of black Sharpies I've pulled from my laundry
It's him cussing because I forgot to dry the laundry twice
It's 2,500 square feet of hickory hard woods on a po-dunk trailer and a diamond ring on a frosty December 31st morning



That's love. It's all love. <3

Curriculum-What? What's THAT Mean?

So…..WOW!  Long time, no post!  It seems like just yesterday I was packing up my 5^th grade classroom, moving boxes of odds and ends out and starting my summer job at Fo’ Tech!  Summer has come and gone and I’m now settled into my new position as Curriculum Coordinator.  (Well, settled might not be the best word at the moment, because I swear I find a way to make a new mistake almost daily and tend to choose the worst possible way to get from my butt to my elbow in every possible situation, but I am at least in my office now!)  Those two “months off”’ that us teachers/educators get just don’t seem quite long enough. 

As I've settled into my new position, I’ve learned quite a bit over the past month.  I began the journey by stopping in one or two times a week during the summer, just to get myself moved in slowly.  It helped with feeling overwhelmed and where to put all my stuff.  I began to learn who to ask for help, who was the guru of what information and who would be able to help provide me with guidance when I needed it the most.  This proved successful, because once I moved into the “meat” of this job, organizing an office was the least important thing on my mind! 

So what does a Curriculum Coordinator do?  I get this question a lot…and not just from kids, but parents and grown-ups too.  Well it’s a big mix of a little bit of everything!  To this current minute, hour, and day I know that my technical titles include, but are not limited to: Testing Coordinator, Limit English Proficient Coordinator (LEP), Curriculum Coordinator (CC), Learning Team Facilitator (LTF), third in line administrator, School Improvement Team (SIT) member, Behavior Support Team (BST) member, and Intervention Support Team (IST) member.  Even listing these jobs makes my head spin!  I tend to be the bearer of the chocolate, the hidden color printer office, the AR student putter-inner, the queen of scheduling trainings, the organizer of mass paper distribution from the district’s literacy, math, social studies and science departments, the official site of close-the-door –and-scream-because-your-class-is-driving-you-bat-ish-crazy,   the liaison between teachers and the central office, the short term technology-fixer-upper, the academic and sometimes behavior resource suggestor, and one of my most favorites, the official bus-rider hug-giver-outer as students depart for the day. 

Just in the month I’ve worked with the fine teachers and staff at Moore Magnet, I count my blessings every day.  I have always been a part of Moore up in room 215, but now being down in my office (or hotbox as I like to classify it) I don’t think I could successfully pull any of this off without the help from those wonderful souls.  I’ve come to learn that a whole lot of this job is being a working wealth of knowledge for people who need it quickly.  Not one person has been impatient with me when trying to get answers to their questions or concerns.  It’s sure nice to love what I do. 

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.”-Confucius