Happy Birthday to...ME!

Today I turn the big 2-6. In honor of my birthday, Mt. Vernon closed school for the second day in a row. OK...maybe the snow had something to do with it. Nonetheless, I've had an awesome two days off with Justin since his regular days off are Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

I've spend my unexpected days off working on school stuff, so nothing fancy. But sometimes I think teachers enjoy a snow day just as much as the kids do. I was reassured of this as myself and two other teachers poured over the radar on Monday during SRT (student resource time) to see just exactly when the snow would hit so we knew the likelihood of a snow day yesterday. I would have been OK with just that one, but they threw in another one today, and well, I'm not complaining.

However, I do hope to go to school tomorrow without even a delay. We have a speaker coming in the afternoon that I do not want to miss. His name is Sam Childers and the work he has done to help African children that have been affected by the war in northern Uganda and southern Sudan is extremely commendable. I am currently reading his book and you can find more information about his mission and organization here and here. I taught a class this past quarter that included reading the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah about his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. It's hard to imagine that children are still going through experiences like this in 2010.

On a much, much lighter note (and what seems somewhat trivial after writing the last paragraph) Justin has made this birthday fun even though we haven't been anywhere since we didn't want to brave the weather. In fact, he just got done making me the best birthday cake...Funfetti, of course!


And later he is making my favorite dinner of cubed steak with mushroom gravy, homemade mashed potatoes, and white corn. Good for you? No. But delicious and completely acceptable to eat on your birthday? Yes.

Well, back to working on things for school.