Christmas 2012

2012 Christmas gifts As always I am spoiled. Here is what my class got me this year: It is like the 12 days of Christmas :)Sing if you wish. 31 Monogrammed Bag orange boutique bracelet 3 Use anywhere Gift Cards (Visa, AmEx, Wells Fargo) Panera Gift Card Barnes and Noble Gift Card Starbucks Gift Card 6 Target Gift Cards 5 Sweet Treats! Garden Lotion Kit 3 candles 2 ornaments Tea Set and Buffet From Friends: Teacher Calendar-white elephant Scarf and gloves-Xander and Family Light up Snowflake necklace-Yvonne Homemade Snack Bags-Bennetts Cupcakes-Karissa From Family: $Money-G&G Cavallaros Ballet Flats running skirt 2 shirts dress calendar Mom & Dad necklace and earrings socks footies stud earrings 4 shirts Stocking Meal planner list Hand mixer Santa Vacuum iPad keyboard

Summer 2012

Why didn't I blog this summer? Well its mainly because I did not get to use my passport so I was not feeling it. So here is a short recap of my summer which was wonderful. I spent it I did, however, have a wonderful summer. I went lots of places all in the USA. I spent a lot of time in: Atlanta for Julie's birthday and then in July for my half birthday. We swam a lot, visited the zoo, shopped at IKEA, made lemonade, and played and played!

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Seattle, Washington and the Northern Oregon Coast with the Bennetts. I got to meet beautiful Brit who rolled over just for me as well as visiting a lot of potties while helping Tali master potty training :)and read lots of books with Risa. (See Toni's blog for the entire trip with great detail.) Here is a short slideshow of the few pictures I took:

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Steamboat Springs, Colorado with a day trip on the way out in Denver with the Porter crew.

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The summer ended with a road trip to Michigan and back to Atlanta. In Harrison Township, Michigan I got to see and stay in the Tuladziecki's new house. We also spent a lot of time fun filled time floating on Lake St. Clair while drinking and eating stromboli. I went to Rochester Hills, Michigan to catch up with old friends and meet Lillian. We had lunch with the other Najera's in Pontiac too. I went back to Atlanta for a reading conference. I enjoyed one last time being submerged in the neighborhood pool. I enjoyed lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Then it was back to work and a visit to my former student teacher's new classroom.

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Summer in Durham, NC starting with a fender bender between my friend and neighbor and ended with mesoaking up the rays in my neighborhood pool and not thinking a thing about the new curriculum I was going to have to teach.

Carolina Beach 2012

Summer began with crummy weather so I started my to do list. My wonderful dad and mom did some house upgrades while I agreed to do interviews for the new teacher librarian. The garage is now a gorgeous gray with an expoxy floor with colored flecks. They finished up while I went to the beach. Thanks mom and dad! My first vacation this summer was with Hao and family. They rented a glowing green little beach shack a block from the beach. I arrived late Wedensday evening. On Thursday I got up and went for a run. It was not too hot and not too breezy. Here are a few pictures from my run. We went to the beach but had to move locations because Baloo (Luuly and Brad's new puppy) was only allowed in one part of the beach. We had great fun in the morning. That afternoon a cool breeze blew in and it was a bit chilly to sit on the beach. That night I went with Hao, John, HaLien, and Hoang Linh to the little carnival. The kids had fun riding a few rides. We also enjoyed Britt's donuts. After the carnival fun we joined Brad and Luuly back at the house for a crab boil. First we had to find a pot big enough. We had to ask the beach neighbors for a big pot which turned out to be the same size as the pot we started with :) When it was finished it was delicious.

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The next day we had more chilly beach time but it was still fun. That afternoon we enjoyed a swim at Brad and Luuly's hotel in Wilmington. It was a quick trip but a perfect start to summer!