"I Need A Vacation From My Vacation!"

Have you ever heard that saying? Whew...it's been a busy week! One of you dropped me a comment asking how my vacation is going so I thought I'd update you:

I've been up in the northern tier (Blossburg/Mansfield) for most of the week. Celebrated my niece's 1st birthday on the 23rd with a big bash...of course, she didn't have a clue what was going on!


Came back to Williamsport that night and then headed back up there the next day for Christmas Eve. Went to church and then had a big dinner with the family. Opened presents Christmas morning (I'm going to need one of you to show me how to load songs on my new MP3 player because I just can't seem to figure it out!), had brunch at my brother's while watching the niece open even more presents (their house looked like Toys-r-us!), and then my cousins and god-daughter Heather were up to exchange presents. Heather found out that the big present I had previously put on the blog was a leopard print bean bag chair! Christmas night I slept at my brother's so he and his wife could get a full night's rest...I had baby duty...she did pretty good, just up a few times during the night.

I came back to Williamsport Wednesday afternoon just to catch my breath and check on Joey, the super cat :-) My cousin and her husband picked me up an hour after I got home and we went to the movies to see National Treasure...pretty good/action packed. Then we went to the mall, where I bumped into a few of you, and Wegmans before I finally got home for the night.

I went back up to the northern tier Thursday for a girls' day of shopping at the Arnot Mall in Horseheads, NY and eating out at our favorite spot up there, "Bernie Murray's"! Then visited with my great aunt until bedtime.

Friday morning I visited Ms. Carman, our horticulture teacher, who lives close to my parents. She and her fiance are building their house themselves and are doing a great job! Then I met the family for an afternoon of bowling. I tied my 6 year old god-daughter with a score of 87 on the first game and barely scored over 100 on the second game...but it was fun! Yes, we're all wearing the same shirts...it's a long story...ask me about it in school and I'll give you the scoop.


Met some friends for dinner and then came back to Williamsport Friday night. I need a day of lounging around my house and today just may be the day :-)

Hope you are enjoying your break as much as I am. TELL ME HOW YOUR BREAK IS GOING AND IF YOU GOT ANY COOL GIFTS (please put your name in there so I know who's commenting)!!

Advice From WAHS Grads

Thanks goes out to two of my former students, Naja Thompson and Kirsten Schuyler, who came in today and discussed college life with our Keyboarding & Careers classes. We've been busy researching careers and college options over the past week and felt that hearing from some current college students might be beneficial to our freshmen. Naja & Kirsten did a great job explaining their majors, college life, and more importantly what our high school freshmen need to be doing now and throughout high school to be prepared for their futures.

What I was most proud to hear was that they both felt Williamsport Area High School prepared them very well for the demands of college. They both said that they've seen other college students struggle because they didn't get the level of education that students at our school receive. THIS IS GREAT NEWS FOR US! Many times we, as your teachers, don't hear from our students again once they graduate so we never know if what we do every day makes a difference or not. It's very rewarding when we do hear positive feedback from our graduates or hear that they are doing great things with their lives and for our society.

I couldn't be more proud of these two Millionaire alums. They are set to graduate this spring and you can bet I'll be happy to be there cheering them on as they cross the stage to get their college diplomas. GOOD LUCK to Kirsten as she begins student teaching at Cochran in January and to Naja who will finish up her studies in Communications! THANK YOU LADIES FOR VISITING & SHARING YOUR ADVICE....YOU ARE FINE EXAMPLES OF THE GREAT THINGS WAHS CAN DO FOR THOSE WILLING TO BE ALL THEY CAN BE :-)

Door Decorating Contest

Freshman ELO's were encouraged to decorate their ELO doors in a holiday/winter theme over the past week. The doors were judged today and the winning ELO will be announced tomorrow. I'm hoping my ELO students won (I think they should...AWESOME JOB GUYS/GALS!) because winners get a pizza party on Thursday. GO G202!

Mrs. Baier had a tough time keeping the paper on her door, but I let her borrow my duct tape and then all was well! Her students did a nice job too!


A few other doors that I managed to get pictures of included:
Mrs. Dincher's
Mr. Weaver's
Mrs. Butler's
Miss Saxon's

GREAT JOB EVERYONE....many ELO's participated & your "spirit" is to be commended :-)

It's snowing in Tennessee!

My God-daughter Heather called this morning from TN so excited she could barely form a sentence. She HAD to tell me that it was snowing there. It was great to hear her excitement...made me not want to be miserable with today's weather here. They don't get a lot of snow and this is the first they've seen a flake this season. She was outside with her snowsuit and boots on with a bucket trying to catch all the snow she could! My cousin said it was only flurrying....however, life according to Heather is a winter wonderland in TN! Can't wait to see them...one week from today they'll be here to celebrate Christmas and I'm sure Heather will insist on building a snowman and sledding if we've still got snow :-) In that case, I don't mind being cold and wet from the snow.

HOW DOES YOUR FAMILY CELEBRATE THE SEASON?

SNOW DAYS!

Don't like them for 2 reasons: (1) we end up losing a scheduled day off where I can actually plan to do something or go somewhere, and (2) I'm stuck shoveling snow and not doing anything else. I HATE BEING COLD!

That being said, last Thursday's day off was ok because I got all of my Christmas cards written and presents wrapped. I really hope we don't have any snow days this week. We have a lot to get done before leaving for break! One thing I've told myself over and over again though is that we can't control the weather so it is what it is :-) What do you do on snow days?

And the trend continues...

I truly think I'm doomed in sports this year...don't feel bad if you don't see me at any of your sporting events cheering you on...I don't want to jinx you!!!

Did you watch any football this weekend? Lots of upsets in college football on Saturday. I watched Boston College, Tennessee, & West Virginia all lose...what a shame :-(
Then, of course, the Eagles couldn't get a victory today! I'm speechless...and winless this weekend!!!

'Tis the Season

The tree is finally lit and decorated...now all I have to do is finish my shopping...that'll have to wait until next weekend!
FA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA :)

I did manage to wrap some presents today. My 6 year old God-daughter, who lives in TN, called tonight as I was wrapping her gift...I told her it was HUGE and of course, she's desperate to know what I got her. It's a good thing she only has 23 days to wait! Here's a picture of it in front of my tree...she won't sleep if she sees this picture (notice Joey the supercat napping on the sofa!):


Which reminds me....last weekend I tried getting a nice picture of my soon-to-be one year old niece Madeline in front of my parent's tree for a sentimental gift for my brother and his wife. Although I did get a couple of good pics, Miss Maddy seems to have a mind of her own and didn't really want to pose...check out this shot:



ARE YOU READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS? Drop me a comment and let me know what your family traditions are.

Good Test Scores!

Nice work on your second test! Here are the results, by class:

Period 1 = 91.6%
Period 2 = 91.6%
Period 4 = 86.0%
Period 5 = 90.4%
Period 7 = 90.7%