Super Staffulty, to the rescue!

Hello loved ones! Just a quick update from me before I slip back into a pseudoephedrine coma... just kidding! But I am truly not feeling well... I've been doing so much better this year than last year as far as headaches and illness, but this four day President's day weekend was a signal to my body to unleash whatever my immune system had been holding back. Not quite how I'd planned spending my first true weekend off in a long time (from group, worship, other responsibilities), but oh well! I even had to take today off, which I didn't want to do because I'm in such a good groove at work and, well, in all honesty I should start saving sick leave up now for when a little Falk is on the way (DON'T FREAK! I mean in a few years... but I have to start thinking ahead). I plan to bank at least 8 of the 12 days I get this year anyway, assuming that there are no other "cruds" coming my way *fingers crossed*

I don't have a ton to update at this point, but want to stay on top of it (aka keep the mamma off my back, if you know what I mean :) ) so here's the latest and greatest! We've been getting into a good groove as far as the new life we've started with church, choir and other fun things. Still staying busy, but loving what we've gotten ourselves into. On top of that, second semester has already begun and I'm still wracking my head wondering what happened to the beginning of the year. It truly is speeding by this time, faster than ever before! Thankfully, the rearrangement of classes has made my groups much easier. Classroom dynamics are much better this time around and my rough groups are broken up, so I can focus a little more on learning and a little less on keeping my hair and nails intact. I've also been working really hard on some of things my school is trying to navigate, such as the new PGES (basically teacher evaluations) that is replacing last year's TPEP pilot that I went through. My principal has named me an exemplar (yay! I'm finally contributing!) and so I've been helping people work through the process in my spare time. On top of trainings and things I've been sent to on behalf of my team, I am feeling much more like a contributing member of my staff. As a matter of fact, at last week's staff meeting I was named Staffulty of the Month! It's only been a "thing" for our school since this year, but I'm honored to be one of the first to receive it, especially being such a young teacher. That, and they posted a picture of me in a large foam novelty cowboy hat with my plaque in the commons for all my kiddos to "admire" (I use quotations because I'm sure "admiration" means "to laugh at"). So at the end of the day, I feel as though the hard work is starting to pay off and I'm beginning to be valued, despite my novice :) but more importantly, I feel like this professional development is helping my kids learn more! And isn't that the end game after all?!

Anyway, that's about as much update as I can give at this point. If anything truly spectacular happens in the near future, I won't forget to post it here... otherwise, you'll hear from me again in a wee while :) I love you all so much, and don't be a stranger! Rainier is harder to see with all the rainy weather, but we've still got the best view around up here in Bonney Lake! Would love to share it with loved ones :)

Love and peace,
Chelsea

Catch-Up Time!

Huhm... so in my last blog, from August, I said that I would update you only a few weeks after about the start of the year... huhm. Well, I guess weeks technically make up months, right?! Needless to say, it's been a crazy year so far. Despite the busy nights and demands of adult life (which NOBODY told me about, by the way... or if they did, I ignored it), this has been the most meaningful and blessed year of my life by far. With 2014 fast approaching, it's easy to fantasize about where I was a year ago this time... of even five years ago this time! I never thought I would be where I am, career and home and husband in hand, and all within a short period of time! God is too good to me, beyond my deserving, and I hope to live each day to put a smile on His face and give that love back to Him and His world. But enough of that, let's catch up!

Since my last blog, the school year has started in full force. Each year has a new set of demands, this year being that the current sophomore class may not be as wild and have as many discipline problems as last year's group but that they are extremely apathetic about just about everything, especially their educations. Also, I'm getting much more involved, which means a lot more responsibility. My friend Joanna and I will be starting a science club very soon (with over 50 kids already expressing interest... wowza, apparently it was meant to happen!), I'll be helping out with a new joint-venture school play come January, I'm leading and creating, along with my biology team, an after-school intervention for students who didn't pass the Biology EOC last year, and am slated to start ProTeach in January as well. Put that on top of the normal lesson-planning and the fact that I'm still on a Comprehensive PGES (which used to be the TPEP I piloted last year) for my FINAL provisional year, it's been quite the to-do! But I feel as though I'm teaching better than ever before, that my kids are learning more meaningful and useful things despite the continual constriction of my curriculum, that I'm building better relationships with coworkers than ever before, and that I'm doing MUCH better of leaving work at work and intentionally relaxing when I do have time at home (Richard confirms :) ).



This is my staff badge this year... I'm strangely proud of it, and my kids were ecstatic when I showed it off afterwards. Usually they don't let staff do this, but I apparently caught the photographer when the head lady (mean) was in the restroom and he was itching for some mischief too.

Speaking of relationships with coworkers, I have become extremely close with Joanna, another science teacher (she actually gave me my last haircut! Now that's friendship) and have also been building a great friendship with Leigh-Ann, our resident pottery/art teacher. We've gotten together once a week after school to spend time together in fellowship and crazy fun, including but not limited to learning the pottery wheel and school sports games and such. I've actually missed them over this break, but we're getting together for a girl day on New Years Day which I am extremely excited about :)

I'm also still a part of Sonoro, the women's choir. We've had quite the influx of new members, which has been lovely, and I'm loving it as much as ever! The women are phenomenal and probably one of the closest communities of caring, uplifting individuals I've ever been a part of; when one of us is struggling, the ENTIRE group meets the need. I've never seen anything quite like it. They are a shining part of my week and I love the therapy of good women and music. Oh, and we sing prettily too.

This was from our October retreat this year... I love my Sonoro girls :)

 

But on top of that, I'm retrying my musical chops on one of my church's three worship teams. I'm up every three weeks with some of the most talented musicians I've ever worked with and am absolutely loving it. The best part is that, despite all the church music groups I've been a part of, I've never been with a group so worshipful and grounded in what our job truly is; I think that is the part I appreciate the most.

Oh, and speaking of church (man, I'm on a roll!), Richard and I have joined a Life Group twice a month! It's a lot like my parents' Cove Group was. We get together with five other couples and eat, potluck style, and share about life and it's struggles. It's been a fantastic learning experience for a young idealistic couple like Richard and I, with learning and conversations born from simply listening to other peoples' life stories. We've apparently become the pet project of the group; most of the group members have joined due to struggling and even failing marriages to try and work things out after years of difficulty and they don't quite know what to do with us. They're proud that we're making the step to have an honest, great marriage so soon but openly say they don't know what a marriage looks like that hasn't undergone years of issues. So we're their project to see what a marriage might be without it, I guess! Flattering, yet kind of intimidating. Thankfully, we've learned it's okay to get things wrong in our marriage as long as we make it right :)

The last few months have been absolutely wonderful for Richard and I; we feel as though we've grown more than we could have ever imagined and are working really hard at our marriage. I don't think I've ever found something so worthwhile as working to make our marriage great; we've got a long way to go, of course, but are both committed to doing our best :) I'm one lucky, blessed girl!

As for the mister, he's still working for XPert PC Plus and his bosses are slowly but surely realizing how valuable he is... but along with that, they are also realizing his kind heart and work ethic, meaning that they know he will do his absolute best without complaint even without paying him competitively. He's determined to stay there for a bit to get some certifications under his belt free of charge (they usually are over $300 a piece to take and his work pays for them... it's the equivalent of computer nerd college) but is excited to explore other opportunities! We're also getting him set up with a business license pretty soon, which has been his dream for years! Just struggling with a name... there have been many a funny ones with the word Falk in them, as you can imagine, in an inappropriate way. Either way, a dream is being realized :)

Richard is also part of a men's group each Thursday night that has been a wonderful growing experience for him. It's organized through our church and led by the man who officiated our wedding, Pastor Roger. They've become close and enjoy man time each week to the tune of a campfire, scotch, cigars and I can imagine some grunting. Either way, it's one of Rich's favorite parts of the week that he will rarely miss!

Phew, what an update! I think I've let you in on the ins and outs of things that will hopefully tide everyone over for another month or two (I'll try! I can't promise that it'll happen, but I can promise that I'll try!). There have been many, many stories over the past few months of fun times (see fort picture below) and visitors (almost each weekend! Good thing we have four bedrooms...), which I've obviously missed in telling, but I'll try to be better to post the little stuff. Instead, I'll leave you with some pictures of our Christmas season! We had our very first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs. in our forever house (hopefully) but absolutely loved seeing y'all around as well, between the Falk Christmas weekend where we celebrated his Great Grandma Juanita's 99th birthday, Christmas Eve at the Books (sadly just me, Rich was sick and didn't want to pass it around), and Christmas Day at Aunt Tawnya and Uncle David's house. We felt extremely loved and hope that you felt it right back, thanks for including us in the festivities everyone! Next stop: Sunriver with my folks and the Halls before heading back to school!

 Fort time, as promised!

 

This is maybe 1/3 of Richard's mom's side of the family... his dad's side is bigger. Quite the difference in family dynamic between us, huh.

 

 Christmas with the Falks!

 Little present opening nap... and yes, that's Lily's tail in the box. Merry Christmas, cat.

 I made a nice big Christmas breakfast for the two of us using leftover place settings from Aunt Tanya's Christmas Eve table... she's too creative for her own good! Thanks for setting us up!



I love you all so much, I hope you had a Merry Christmas, hope you have a Happy New Year, and am praying for a 2014 filled with life and love and other mysteries :)

XOXO Mrs. Falk

 

TADA!

Why hellooooo everyone! Well, the end of the summer is creeping upon me, I've already been retrained and started frantically preparing my curriculum much like I feel Santa's elves do the week before Christmas... but I wanted to make sure to post the before and after pictures from the housework we've done. It looks amazing! Just a little more work on the yard and we'll be good... to see the improvements on the INSIDE, you have to come and see it for yourself :)

 

Tada! Sometimes I just look between the before and after pictures and think "holy crud, we did (well, planned) that!" Cousin Ryan Cook executed the immaculate paint job, and the landscaping was the wonderful Mr. Falk :)

It's been a crazy summer! Full of building relationships with friends, hard work, and some relaxation :) I've been able to see family near and far and just wish there were a few more weeks to continue the perfect summer. Hopefully next year, it'll be slightly calmer though!

Love you all, I'll let you know how the start of the year is in a few weeks :)

XOXO Chels

P.S. I have officially deleted my chelsea.casebolt@gmail.com account has been closed, so all email can be sent to my new email account chelsea.ann.falk@gmail.com! Looking forward to emailing with you :)

A picture of yours truly's on a hiking trip with friends this summer, Glacier Basin Trail at Sunrise, Rainier.

From Caseboltude to Falkdom...

Dearest family and friends,

Hello from the official Falk household! I guess I can honestly say that a LOT has happened since my last blog... more so than I have ever been able to boast in the past. It's funny, because so much of life is the same. And yet, we've entered into a whole new stage of life. This year has been so growing and changing! We purchased our first home (and have no plans to leave before beginning to rear our family and hope to stay in this perfect neighborhood until they're grown), started our life together as husband and wife, and have begun to build stakes here in our friendships, hobbies and faith. I've had a lot of people commenting on how happy we looked in our pictures, and I can honestly say I have never truly been this happy before. I have never been more aware of how blessed I am with the people in my life and where life is heading right now. So, without further ado, I'd better get started enlightening you with a brief (unlikely) synopsis of the goings on! I'll try to cover our wedding and honeymoon with a few choice pictures so that your whistle is wet enough to want to come visit us and see the full albums :)

The school year ended much more quickly than the previous year and with big aspirations for the next year. Many of the programs I want to implement have gained interest and I've basically been given a blank check for mayhem for the year as long as I plan well and test drive them on my classes first. Many of you may not remember the Life Project my mentor teacher Dave Gamon began a while back that models the scientific method through application and community service... well, I'm planning to bring the same idea to White River! I hope to instill in my kiddos the idea of thinking outside of themselves into their community or another and to actually USE their problem solving and critical thinking skills learned in science towards issues that EVERYONE deals with. I know not all kiddos will go into the science field, but every kiddo will need to learn how to impact others in a positive way using cause and effect and trail and error. Anyway, I don't want to take away from the obviously more interesting blog topics, but I am excited to be starting my third year in about a month and to get back into school mode in the next few weeks (I didn't let myself think about it until after all this wedding madness and wrap-up was finished so that I didn't go crazy).

After the school year ended, there were just two short weeks to finalize some wedding things and get ready for the big day! Thankfully, it was very low stress; as long as I was married at the end of the day, the rest was just details. My mom moved in the last week to help finish up some wedding projects... thanks for the help, MOM! Couldn't have done it without you :) not to mention, she was practically homeless since they sold their home in Gig Harbor. I guess there's so many bloggers in the family (now that my mom has one), I won't bore you by repeating the details :)

And finally, the big day came! The day I married my best friend, the best man I've ever known, the man I'll spend the rest of my life with through thick and thin... my Richard! Since most all of my blog followers were there, I think you know the jist of the story... but here's a few pictures of our special day :)

I adored my dress... I knew it was right because it made me feel as beautiful as Richard tells me I am :)

After our first sight!

My wonderful bridal party (missing my sis, Jen... if my photo editing skills were better, I'd put her in there!)

The Casebolt Crew missing a Hall

Probably my favorite :) my boys!

The new in-laws!

Just before the ceremony started, my MOH pro tem Chelsea Jackson brought me a vase of carnations and roses that had a note inside from Richard. It was an incredibly sweet and special moment. So blessed!

I missed Jen terribly but think it was the right decision for her to stay behind... and thanks to incredible technology, she didn't miss a thing! She was actually probably happier this way, sitting in her air conditioned home :) I'm so thankful for her and my new baby nephew!

My handsome groom :)

We were SO PROUD of your little bridal party members! We honestly didn't think Payton would make it down, but they were both perfect and good for the entire ceremony. Little kids for the win!

Husband and Wife!

Another favorite... I love how happy he looks :)

Our first dance to "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)"... this particular moment was one of the "I just wanna STOP" parts of the song. Couldn't expect us to be serious for too long.

My dad gave me three incredible things on my wedding day: the wedding of my dreams with the man of my dreams, a beautiful and tearful toast that didn't have a dry eye in the house, and wrote/performed for Richard and I a bagpipe tune called "Chelsea and Richard's Bonnie Wedding". It was amazing, we were floored! All Richard kept saying was, "this is the coolest gift EVER!" Love you Papa, with all my heart... I'll always be your little girl :)

So those are a very short few of the two thousand or so I've collected from our fabulous photographer Matt and some family friends with cameras. If you'd like to see the more extensive collection, again, I would love to show you in person :)

The day after our nuptials, we had as many family and friends as we could cram in our cute little house over for a brunch of leftovers (that barely seemed touched... but thankfully a friend of mine stayed at our house and was able to feast a bit! Not enough to finish it off before it went bad, but still...) and gift opening. We are totally set! Then our wonderful neighbors Luke and Tiffany, who have actually become very close friends and huge blessings to us, drove us to the airport where we boarded our red-eye (NEVER doing that again with drugs, booze or a combination... neither slept at all) and arrived in Miami the next morning for our Caribbean cruise! Again, we have about 900 pictures from our honeymoon (about 300 of which aren't blurry... winning) so I'd love to show them ALL to you if you can stomach the motion sickness! Otherwise, if you'd just like a taste, here ya go:

The cruise terminal with our boat!

 

The atrium of the boat... there's about three more levels above where you can see in this photo. We called the ship "Vegas on Water"!

Okay, so story... the boat had kind of a Luxor Vegas feel to it and the casino floor on the boat had pillars with Sphinx-like women on top of them. These Egyptian statues were, well, bare breasted... and we laughed quite a bit because they were all gold minus the nipples of each one. The most inappropriate area had obviously been rubbed off of EACH statue because of people touching them, so each one was either bright orange or green plastic. SO naturally, we had to have a picture helping to cover the indecency.

Key West

Key West boasted a lot of fun things... we went on the Conch Train (after a failed attempt to snorkel... sadly the weather stunk most all of the trip), went to the Shipwreck Museum and Aquarium, etc. But one of our favorite things was the plethora of statues. I could fill an entire blog with us act-posing with them, but just chose this most strangest one...

Puffer smile at the aquarium!

One of the things we were most proud of on our cruise was our choice to eat the strangest food we could find. These are conch fritters... you know, the aquatic snail?! Twas... interesting... we also had alligator, strange fishes, avocado and strawberry soup, and every dessert they pretty much offered. These fritters were in Key West, but we got pretty much all our food on the boat's phenomenal seated dining room!

Fancy dinner night that they almost wouldn't let us into... we didn't think to pack formal dress shoes and slacks on a Caribbean cruise so they almost didn't let Richard and I in. We had to plead our case to Guest Services and the maître d'hôtel to let us eat. But it was worth it for lobster night!

Our favorite towel animal :)

When we arrived in Cozumel, Mexico, we took a ferry to the mainland town of Playa Del Carmen and then a bus to Tulum, an area known for it's ancient Mayan ruins. So much culture and fun! Tada! I have tons of stories here, but again am short on blog space :) by far our favorite part of the trip!

Newlyweds! Just before...

The downpour that came from NOWHERE and dumped a few million bazillion gallons of water on us.

Yay! On Miami Beach waiting to hop back on the bus for our flight home.

We have so many stories we can't wait to share with you all, like how we became celebrities on the boat the last day of the cruise because of the Love and Marriage Comedy Show we competed in (were basically forced since we were the "newest newlyweds" on the boat by an hour...) and videotaped (yes we have a copy, and no you can't see it...), our Key West fiasco, etc. We realized we're not really cruise-type people, but still had the time of our lives! We were there for the opposite reason of most of the cruisers; it seemed like no one was really interested in the port excursions and we saw that as the point of the cruise. That and you only really have 5 hours at most anywhere. But it was an awesome experience and we want to send a HUGE thank you to my parents for helping make our honeymoon possible! We owe you BIG!

Once we got back, I ran around the greater Pacific Northwest area to see my new nephew (as shown below) and visit friends around us. Not to mention people visiting us, like my parents this past weekend who came for Falk time and the Highland Games (have an impressive burn to show for that one!) and some friends from Idaho coming up tomorrow for some camping. On the two to three days off that I had in between each trip up until this week, we started wrapping up wedding stuff. I'm thankful to say that my two-page to-do list of dress preservation, guestbook framing, house work and repairs, organization, filing, cleaning and sorting gifts, and much more is done as of the end of this post! Well, minus my last little project of painting our vows on canvas to hang above our bed :) and the big to-do list of house things like painting the inside and landscaping and such. I know I've been busier, but I'm starting to feel like a true homeowner. I can't imagine how people do it while they work, much less with children running around! So props to all you peeps out there makin' it work with the 9 to 5 and little 'uns :)

 Well, we've felt like we've had a child the last few weeks... my friend who lives and teaches in Alaska was in a tight spot with a dog she rescued up there (literally rescued from being shot and thrown in the ocean... oh if I could tell her stories from Little Diomede!) so we offered to hold onto her in our nice, big, fenced backyard. She's awful cute, but awful destructive and, well, unintelligent. We're about at our wit's end! But it's perfect puppy birth control for Richard... he grew up on a farm where there were always animals and has wanted a dog for a while. He didn't want to tie himself down yet, but this might have clinched it for a longer period of time. So yay for me! :)

Baby Boy Carter Scott Hall, the most perfect little baby boy I've ever seen! So excited to have another nephew! Ya did good, Mama Jen :)

Okay, I know this has been a beast of a post... but one last thing! Our WONDERFUL cousin Ryan is painting our house for us this summer, so we're going to be looking pretty different pretty soon! He's finished two sides of the house and will be wrapping up the rest in the next week or so and it looks fantastic! We also have started demolishing our messy flowerbeds in the front yard and by the door; they're just too overgrown from being unkempt and not being taken care of while the place was empty, so we have to rip it all out and start from scratch. We're hoping to have new bark and the beds cleared at least by the time the house is done, so here's some "before" pictures to compare to when I post the "after" pictures when it's all done! No more being the messy, trashy house on the block!

 

Well, I guess I'll let you all go for now. Again, let me know if you want to get together for more wedding and honeymoon pictures, I'm just itching to share :) hope to see you all soon, thank you for being my family and a part of my life! I don't know where I'd be without each and every one of you :)

 

Peace and love,

Mrs. Falk :)

A Long Time Coming...

Beloved friends and family, hello! I know, you probably gave up this blog like a bad habit, continually disappointed by my lack of additions to it in the last few months... this was not an intentional abandonment, but it was there none-the-less. So, I'm back! Not sure for how long, but long enough to enlighten you about the goings on of the Falk-Casebolt household!

This evening, after a beautiful day at church followed by a not-so-beautiful day organizing the garage, I sit in the crook of my super comfy couch with my monkey-picked oolong tea (according to the "tea expert" at the store, the monkey's where an old collection system? I won't question it, it's divine for this non-coffee person), looking back at my perfect home and wonderful life thinking, "how am I so blessed to have all this?!" Granted, each day has not been that way lately... and for only one reason. My new home is absolutely perfect for us (thank you to those who shared it with us this Easter!) and slowly but surely becoming our permahome, I'm falling more and more in love with Richard each day (not in the googly eyed sense, but in the more mature, partner in crime for life whether he likes it or not sort of way), my choir has been a phenomenal source of sanity in my week, I adore those women, Lily is feisty fun as always, and wedding plans/work are, well, done for all intensive purposes (all that's left is finalizing the ceremony and making the programs... everything else is set, invites are addressed, gifts are done, decorations and attire is complete, etc.). BUT, work has been quite the exhausting endeavor lately.

Apart from 14 hour days regularly (well, at least the last two months regularly), the demands and stresses of the job are definitely taking their toll. Taking enough of a toll to prompt me to explore other options. I know that I have been called to education in some form and building relationships with students is where my heart really lies, but I'm beginning to recognize that this calling can take many different forms! I've been looking into a masters potentially in school counseling to take that aspect, or I could continue my original plan of attaining my masters in educational psychology and, potentially, getting my doctorate in a related field to teach pedagogy at a university. But, at the same time, I love my kids and know that it'll get easier with time so don't want to abandon it so quickly. At the risk of building and living on a soap box, I'll just quickly say that I am not extremely pleased with where the educational system, including my school, is leading our youth. I think the whole picture is responsible, including family dynamic, but I'm looking forward to a cultural change altogether.

Anyway, enough of that. This upcoming week should be MUCH easier than last week was so I'm very happy! That and my wonderful father is coming to be a community member judge for our senior projects this week, so we'll get to spend a little time together :) two quick things that are upcoming though!
----- My choir has a performance coming up on June 1st at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Lakewood called "The Show Must Go On". It's our spring concert except this year we are doing a Broadway review as opposed to the tried and true choral-type arrangements. If you're looking for an amazingly good time and have always wished me to play Maria in The Sound of Music (I'm no Julie Andrews, but... well, that's it. I'm just not. And I'm mortified :/ ) then come on down! It'll be between $15 and $18 a ticket I believe. Oh, and I'm going to swordfight as a Frenchman if that's an incentive :)
----- Second, and this is kind of weird, my friend has a 7 year old male cat that she needs to find a good home for; she is moving in with new roommates who are extremely allergic to cats. Apparently he is an unbelievably relaxed cat, lets you clip his nails and everything, loves to play but is also a cuddler, and his name is Chronos. If you're interested, let me know! It's weird to put out there, but I feel terrible... I just really don't want another cat (nothing against the guy, really!) and will feel like less of a jerk if I at least TRY to find him another home other than mine. It's either that or the Humane Society :/

Well, I'm spent! I'm really looking forwad to seeing some of you ladies next weekend at my most surreal bridal shower (only because I still don't see myself as old enough and mature enough to be making these choices). I'm unbelievably excited! YAY! And I hope every last one of you knows that you are welcome at our home at any time :) speaking of which, here's a picture!

Love you all with all my heart,
Chels


"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."
 - C.S. Lewis

A Portly Post of Predominantly Pictures

Well hello, didn't see you there! Actually, that's a lie... I knew very well who *cough* parents *cough* have been breathing down my neck for a new blog :) not that I blame them, quite a lot has happened with very little communication which, so I've learned in my relationships, can be quite detrimental? Yes, I believe so. So much has happened since we spoke last that I'm finally starting to realize why little blogs of seemingly little events is the way to go. Thankfully I took pictures over the last few weeks and they have jogged my memory about fun little outings and events that I've had with my wonderful fiance, my family, and others! But first, a quick update about life in general...

Well we're about five weeks (I think... it's about this time I lost all dimension of time last year) into the school year and, even with it's ups and downs, this year is a VAST improvement on last year. I have a lot more students/bigger class sizes and some interesting characters to say the least, but I am legitimately beginning to love what I'm doing! Don't get me wrong, I could really use a break from pubescent teenagers (especially with this past week being Homecoming Week... basically all my students were stir crazy because one dance per semester equals all the drama involved being crammed into one week. Oh, and add onto that funny costumes each day... but I felt pretty good on Superhero day with my cape, wrist cuffs and goggles; they called me Super Casebolt) and our administration are cramming meaningless tasks onto our plates with unreasonable timetables and I'm working later nights than I did last year (shockingly, but this time it's WITH students and to refine the stuff I already did last year for better learning/rigor)... but all in all it's been amazing :) over the summer, some good spiritual and emotional R & R inspired some mental growth on my part and my mindset has completely changed. Likewise, this means my attitude and outlook on my work has completely changed, making life so much easier, more enjoyable and comfortably out of my hands. If you would like specifics, I would love to share! But otherwise, I won't risk boring the masses :)

I have three honors classes, all pretty large (one is 35 kids... and they're loud... but they're really great kids, kind, funny, and HOLY NERDS! I call them my nerd herd) and two general classes. It's been fun! Also I've been in charge of my PLC's efficiency, been helping out a new student teacher (can't wait until I can have my own... the conversations about pedagogy and why we do what we do are phenomenal, and sadly often lost upon the veterans in my district), and have already been asked to do drama by some students... we shall see, the plate is fairly full. OH! And in case you're wondering how the biology state testing went for your kids last year, the results are in... two years ago our pass rate was 54% and this past year our pass rate was *drumroll please* 76%! I'm so proud of our improvement, we bumped from one of the lowest schools to being the 3rd in the state for science. Not too shabby! In general though, the year has gone well :) maybe to the point where I may want to stay here?! We shall see...

Okay, I've not delivered a very "portly" post so far so I promise I'll try to make this brief before tomatoes come at me through my computer screen... choir has been aMAZing as well! It's been wonderful getting back into a group of girls and working to create something great :) I wanted to let you know that we have two concerts each year and the dates for them are as follows (no pressure):

Christmas Concert: December 8 & 9 (we think...)
Musical Theatre Concert (he's made me Maria from Sound of Music... I'm no Julie Andrews, but hey, you know me!): February 16

And now on to the pictures! See attached captions to truly drink in the eventful goodness that has been my wonderfully blessed life these past few weeks!

 Thought I'd start us off with a nice dead animal carcass hanging in our neighbor's back yard and a lovely sunrise on the way into school.

 Richard and I took the gondola up Crystal Mountain one Friday evening and had a picnic dinner :) it was beatiful and somewhat comical; he's afraid of heights but wanted to go, so I neglected to tell him how high the gondola really went. Quite the ride!

 Happy Birthday Grandma! Love you more than words can say!

Rich and I also took a different afternoon to enjoy Mowich Lake with our books and lawn chairs :)

The Puyallup Fair was clastrophobic as always but too fun! And obviously included invisible sheep (as seen by the sign)... for some reason, Richard didn't want me to post this one...

The weekend after the fair was the state's free museum day; Rich read in an article that you can sign up to attend any museum in the state for free, so he took the day off and planned a full-on day date for us. And, like the good little frugal man I love, he of course tried to find the most expensive museum to visit so we got good bang for our buck. So this is a gorgeous piece of Christ asking for water from the Samaritan woman at the Seattle Art Museum!

 Ahh the Seattle Aquarium! Don't remember ever going, so we just HAD to :)

And my boyo was, quite literally, the only adult basically jumping into the tide pool... not surprising

 

 A b-e-a-UTIful Seattle sunset to cap off the perfect day on the town :)

 :)

Thought you would like to see the inner workings of a high schooler's mind... I had my kids create mnemonic devices to remember the order of "kingdom phylum class order family genus species" in organism taxonomy. Got some interesting ones in there... made a fun classroom competition though! Got donuts for the student who won "best device" in each class, even though I had to sneak them past admin (we aren't allowed to give treats to our kiddos).

I got a video of my classroom so that you all can see it... I feel truly accomplished in how I've made it home and my own. Took a while and some "borrowing" from abandoned rooms, but I absolutely love the outcome :) welcome to my second home! Sometimes it feels like my first though...

My first staff badge! I didn't get one last year because (honestly) I didn't shower on picture day. But now I'm all staffed up!

 

Some pretty flowers from my honey :) I think I've got a future in arranging! Not really... but not shabby.

And finally, my Lily of the day is actually a video. We've discovered over the past few months that the absolute BEST toy we have ever and can ever get our fur baby is actually not really a toy at all... you know those rings from milk gallons? Those and the lids are hours of limitless entertainment for both her and for us. So enjoy!

 

Love you guys, hopefully it won't be so long before an update :)

Chels