Right before spring break, I found out that the media specialist at my school was leaving our library. In December of 2010 I finished my master’s degree from Mankato in the middle of a blizzard. You can read about that adventure here. Spring break gave Jesse and I the perfect opportunity to talk about next year at Diamond Path.

In the fall I will no longer be a second grade teacher at Diamond Path. Instead I will be taking over as the library media specialist at Diamond Path. I will teach first through fifth grade students library skills and a love of reading and books. I am very excited but also very nervous. Thankfully, when I told my class of second graders, they boosted my confidence…because they cheered!

We spent our third day at Magic Kingdom…classic Walt Disney World.

Our favorite rides included Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. Jesse was devastated to find out Big Thunder Mountain was closed for remodeling. We snacked on Dole Whip and waited in the longest line for the smallest glass of water.

Throughout our trip, Jesse began to admire the vision of Walt Disney, and the brand he worked so hard to create. We relaxed on a railroad ride around the park and enjoyed a spooky ride through the Haunted Mansion. The visit would not have been complete without a spectacular fireworks show on a balmy Florida evening. It snowed Monday in Minnesota, so I am especially missing the warmth and magic of our trip.

We also rode a couple of rides that made me feel a bit queasy. The Star Wars ride and the Tower of Terror were not my favorite! I didn’t even try Mission: Space.

We really enjoyed the shows at this park. We saw Lights, Motor, Action. The stunts were amazing. We also saw Beauty and the Beast, The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, and American Idol Live. American Idol was really fun as they had live singers audition and perform in front of a live audience. We then got to vote for the vocalist who moved on to the finale evening performance.

We finished the day at Hollywood Studio’s evening show of Fantasia. It had awesome effects, fireworks, characters, and favorite Disney tunes.

Our first day we visited Epcot.

After entering the park, we went straight to the most popular rides…Soarin’ and Test Track. Test Track takes you through different tests they do in creating cars and Soarin’ flies you above the scenery of California. Jesse also braved Mission: Space, but with my history of motion sickness, I decided to sit out.

We appreciated being in Epcot during the Flower and Garden festival. Horticulturalists made organic creations of lots of different Disney characters.

We at lunch in “Germany” and enjoyed seeing the “streets” of many different countries.

We had a few sprinkles while we were listening to a Canadian celtic band, but we had a bench spot under an umbrella. The rain stopped by the end of the show.

We were tired at the end of the first day but ready for another day of action at Hollywood Studios.

We had been waiting for his arrival since February 16. Knowing our busy schedule in March, Jesse and I decided to head to Neenah for a weekend visit even though Alaina was not in labor. Saturday morning we headed to Cedar Grove for a visit. We enjoyed a walk, dinner together (at Texas Roadhouse of course), and playing games.

Early Sunday morning we began receiving texts that Roman was on his way. My parents headed to Cedar Grove right away, and Jesse and I packed up and relaxed throughout the morning. In the early evening everyone headed to the hospital, and Jesse and I joined my dad for the vigil. At 2 AM Jesse and I decided we needed some sleep and headed to the hotel for the night. The next morning we awoke to no news, so we headed back to the hospital. Roman decided to wait until 4:21 PM to join us.

Coming Home from the Hospital with Grandma Lashbrook

You may notice that there are no photos of Jesse and I with Roman. Because we had to work on Tuesday, Jesse and I headed back to Minnesota at 4 PM on Monday, March 5 and didn’t get to meet our adorable nephew. We were so sad but are looking forward to meeting him this coming Easter. More pictures to follow.

This week they were predicting a huge snow for the Twin Cities on Tuesday into Wednesday. All the teachers I know started crossing their fingers. As it rained all day onTuesday our hopes were dashed. I was out and about on Tuesday night as the rain began to shift to snow, and the puddles became ice. I slept with my phone by my bed.

At 5:45 A.M. the phone to rang to announce a glorious late start. School was delayed for two precious hours. It truly is the simple things in life…two hours that make my day.

Last summer, I only completed one of the projects on my to do list: deep cleaning the entryway. This involved taking my area rug to be cleaned (this took 4 weeks…long story), vacuuming out the entryway closet, thoroughly cleaning the baseboards and banisters, and repairing cracks and repainting the wall going upstairs. I intended to get the area above the closet decorated, but I am still working on this.

If my summer to do list remains undone, it usually waits for the next summer. But this year, I have actually been motivated to continue some of my projects. I deep cleaned our laundry/utility room and re-organized one of the downstairs linen closets.

Another project on my list is photo albums. My mother-in-law always prints out pictures from each year and puts them together into an album. I enjoy computers, but it is nice to look at photos in an album or photo book, and it is so much easier to share those photos with other people. For one of our anniversaries, I started this project for Jesse and I but never continued it. This winter I began again. I am now current through 2009 including some of our big vacations.

But, of course, every project has multiple steps. Every time I look at the photo albums, I have to take them off the shelf to determine what year I am looking at, so I have also always wanted to label them in a cute way. On President’s Day, I enjoyed a day off making labels for my photo albums. If only I didn’t have two more years to finish before I can check this item off of my to do list…

My co-worker, Anna, is also a huge fan. She and I decided to set aside a Saturday afternoon for crafting. We began by spray painting a Christmas star my parents gave me (it was gold and my Christmas color is silver). We also fixed the ties on my guest room curtains. Lastly, we decided to reuse a teacher gift we both received.

As a Christmas gift, we both received this bear.

The bear was a little awkward and plain. We decided to repurpose the bear as a Valentine’s bear. I think it turned out very cute in the end.

Maybe my cute bear will one day show up on Pinterest???

For Christmas this year, my brother and Alaina bought me a beautiful chrome KitchenAid. I have already used it twice to make different recipes. I love that my arm doesn’t get tired when I mix anymore. I can’t wait to make Chewy Sugar Cookies. You can find the recipe here.

Adding the Ingredients

It's Mixing!

There are lots of places we want to go…California, New York, Boston, Hawaii…but the best place to go for spring break has always been Florida. It is the warmest place to visit this early in the spring, and we haven’t been there since we visited friends in Tampa in 2009.

This year we decided to tackle Orlando…and DISNEY! We have friends who honeymooned at Disney World, and I was inspired to do Disney as a couple. I am ready to enjoy the magic!