Longing for a Lesley Weekend

So, it's Friday night......I'm missing our monthly Friday night dinner to Noodles. Anyone else in the same boat? As much as it was tolling to go to class on the weekends, I'm REALLY missing our time together to connect and pursue the arts. I'm feeling a little art deprived. I just looked back through the blog and all the pictures...I sure do miss you all!

Back to School

I hope this finds all of you back at school and getting settled in for another exciting school year.  Kelli and I are slowly getting back into the early mornings and earlier evenings.  I call it getting into 'teacher shape' as I worked all summer, but nothing prepares you for the classroom.

I am managing with my left hand in the classroom.  Kelli claims my writing is neater, but only because I have to write slower.  I see my doctor next week, so we will see what he says.  This coming Saturday marks 4 weeks.  

Speaking of four weeks, who is hosting our next gathering?  

Good luck to you all as you strive integrate the arts and invigorate your classrooms!

Lesley Party Estacada Style...

This one was all about the dogs.  By my count there were eight dogs that had a fun afternoon romping about as did Walter the cat who was not the least bit bemused by the whole affair.

We were also treated to a mural unveiling on a wood shed which also should get an award for being a 'green' building with the heavy use of recycled materials.  

It was a great afternoon of food and camaraderie with my Lesley friends catching up on family vacations and house projects.  Thankfully there was not too much talk of the impending end of summer that is coming a few short weeks.  

Finally some advice from Linda-Claire, next time I go to Estacada I will remember my double underwear as it can get pretty wild in the woods!

Randy

Pics from Hawaii

I am learning more and more about blogging and all the cool things. The trading card is one such cooli-o thing.

Wild Lesley Party

Well, it took me until almost Wednesday to post regarding the Lesley party at Toni's this weekend.  First, according to the official Catan Almanac I am the reigning Lord of Catan, until dethroned.  Secondly, I did not see Toni wearing a lamp shade, but her dining room table made its maiden voyage into the living room.  This naturally led to some after hours dancing on the new dance floor.  I am not making this up, Nehemiah has some wicked moves, some of which I am sure came via osmosis from Lesley classes.  Also, if you are playing Fascination, make sure you pay your damn dollar for the '12 games for a dollar' special because even the old guy with the lucky poodle in his arm won't bail you out.  Thanks again Toni and Erin for having us, looking forward to the next happening at Margie and Dante's.  

Beach Trip

Thank you Toni and Erin for hosting this month! We had a great time and you were so hospitable. We'll definitely have to have another slumber party and play another game of Settlers of Catan. Randy CAN NOT be the reigning champion. Here are some pics. Those of you that couldn't make it, we all talked about how we miss you and can't wait to see you at another upcoming event.

Summer Fun!

Greetings!  Kelli, Leo, and I just returned from a wonderful weekend of camping at Silver Creek Falls.  Jennifer, your Roth's grocery store was deluxe and provided much needed ice cream relief from the heat on Saturday!  Leo is as tired tonight as when he comes home on a day care day.  

We are wondering what is happening regarding the next cohort gathering.  Who, what, when. where; you know, all the details.  I hope everyone has been enjoying their first couple weeks off from school.  Kelli is busy with summer school and I busy with the teen volunteer program in Tualatin again.  For now, get busy living!

The Bar Mitzvah

Wow, what an event! The Bar Mitzvah was an absolute smash. I couldn't have been prouder watching my son read his Torah portion and standing in front of the congregation as a leader. I have to say that I did NOT cry during the service , made it through reading my little speech to him and then cried during the closing song. I had family in from all over the country - and we celebrated up until today when my sister and neice left town :(

I will post pictures soon.

BTW - I am taking on some leadership things at school next year! I am scared and excited and going to Chicago for some training next month. Stay tuned for details.
Deb

Graduation, etc

Hey Friends,
I too check this blog off and on and I realized that if I did not post something about graduation, no one else would because no one else was there! I was so lonely for all of you. It was an awesome experience and it somehow solidified (Sp?) that I am truly a master, of what...that remains to be seen. The only professor that I saw was Bard. She was the leader in a whole line of faculty. She had on all her regalia and carried this scepter thing, I suppose because she was in the front. Visiting with all the other grads while we were waiting in line, we compared faculty and classes. The only teacher I could find in common was Evette. They LOVED HER. She was their first and last. Another group had her as their Kinesthetic Movement teacher. It was interesting to her their opinions. It was too nice of an event to voice my own opinions. I did not want to burst their bubble on such a happy day. I was from the farthest away. I met one person from Idaho. Overall it was a wonderful trip. Too fast to say the least. It didn't help that I left for outdoor school the day after I got back and we got back home after 10:00 that day. I will show pictures later because they are all on my moms camera. I left mine at home...I couldn't believe it! Not like it was an important trip or anything.

Now for some of the questions. The hoods are mainly black with green (Lesley colors) on the outside. It is light blue on the inside which is the color for education folks. We do not officially get hooded. We just put them on when we are waiting in line. They have mirrors set up with directions for how to wear it and get it just right. Made for some humorous viewing while waiting for the line to move.

We had one huge ceremony with everyone and then we split up into separate areas by degree. We waited in our seats and our rows went one by one to get our degrees from a long table. We walked up a ramp to the stage. Handed them our diploma (in the snazzy green padded folder), they read our name, we shook hands will someone, smiled to the camera, shook someone elses hand, and then went off of the stage. I can't remember who I shook hands with but it is in the main ceremony book. I have extra books for anyone who wants them. I spent most of the main ceremony looking up all of your names! :)

That is the short of it all. We tried to get Sox tickets because they were in town all weekend but alas....they were sold out. We did find a Walmart, which made my mother dance in her shoes. We just had to see if it was like our Walmart. We got lost a lot but saw a whole lot of country side between Boston and Framington.

I hope this is a little look into graduation. I really missed you all there to add some humor during the waiting and some celebration to the finish.

So what's next? Who's house in July? Does anyone really read this thing.....?

May drags on...

Greetings friends!  I swear May seems to drag on forever and that our three day weekend will not get here soon enough.  Kelli and I are doing well, enjoying our kids of course.  we have been busy working in our yard and my garden is planted and sprouting.  I hope all is well with everyone and their families.  I am curious as to how Cambridge was this past weekend for those who were in attendance.  Here's to the rest of the school year, looking forward to seeing my friends soon and hearing about the happenings in your families and classrooms!

Birthday Cake

Thought you all would enjoy this picture. Can't wait to see everyone on Saturday!

Celebs!

As Randy put it, "Holy hell that's Margie on Rosie's website!!". This was posted on Rosie O'Donnell's website today. :-)

Kelli

Inviting myself and Irishing it up!

I did not receive Deb's initial email, so I have invited myself to contribute to this fine forum.  

First, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Jury duty was my civil obligation and a pain at the same time.  I hate sitting around all day doing nothing, yet it ended up being two days of sitting around before finally finding out I was not lucky enough to be picked to return for a third day.  

As for me, post-school I have been l-a-z-y.  I started a new book, which means the 'To Finish' list has now also grown by 1.  Looking forward to spring break with Kelli and our kids and getting conferences behind me for another year.

Thank  you all again for an enjoyable graduation ceremony!!!  See you soon!

Off I go....

Hey everyone. I just finished paying for a trip to....Boston! We are going to go back for graduation. I am so excited. We'll leave on Friday and return on Monday. The only catch is that I leave for outdoor school on Tuesday. It will be totally worth it though.

Hooray for Blogging!

Yea! I'm so glad that we have this blogging thing up and going. Thanks Deb for setting this up. I also agree with you DebE and Nanci....somehow life continues to be as busy as ever, but I'm not sure what takes up the time. I'm very excited to see everyone in April. Here's the only picture I

took at graduation.

Whew, I feel very LAZY to have an open weekend with no homework to worry about! 

Graduation was great, thanks to everyone who helped make it a hit! We had a good time. 

We had a family and friends open house celebration on Sunday. It was so nice to keep the celebrating going! Mom had the food catered and decorations/flowers and balloons brought in so we really didn't even lift a finger! We were able to share all of our pictures from the Eastmoreland event and brag about all of our wonderful grad friends!

Randy was selected for jury duty this week so he was able to "ease" back into the work week at school. It was kind of like coming home to a housewife as he cooked dinner every night, did the house work and was actually waiting for me to get home from work! 

I hope that everyone has an enjoyable spring break and VACATION from work. :-) Can't wait to see you all in April.

Kelli

Greetings

Hi everyone,
It seems so strange to be not worrying about Lesley work. I agree, DebE - why do I not feel less busy? I have managed to read my book club book way in advance so that's been a nice change, but other than that I don't know what's consumed my time.

I have been thrilled to see the pictures that you guys have sent along from last weekend. I was so bummed to get there only to realize that once again I forgot the video and still cameras. Story of my life.

Looking forward to seeing you guys here on April 12th. Don't have specifics yet, but will get on that shortly and send emails out. I'm thinking along the lines of a pot luckish thing - I'll let you know.

Hope you guys all have a very restful spring vacation. It'll be different won't it - not worrying about a project? I'm heading down (as we've done the last 9 years) to my folks' house in L.V. The boys have a blast just swimming, hanging out with Nana and Papa and eating out. Don and I enjoy the lessened responsibility of taking care of the kids that always comes when we are at my parents' house down south. They sort of take over so we're able to take long walks, have a date night on the strip, play family games, watch some baseball, and just relax.

See you all on the 12th I hope.

Love,
n
ps - I am feeling good about figuring out how to get onto this blog and "communicate".

A few graduation pictures....

Coming in..... Kazoo playing.....
My dad was just taking random pictures, I wish I had more of everyone!

Thanks for the nice picture Margie!

I Miss You All!!!!

What an amazing group of people to have had the pleasure of learning with for the past two years. You all are WONDERFUL and I MISS YOU ALL!!!!! Ok...enough of the sappy stuff! :-)

Hey, wasn't life suppose to slow down now that school is over?????? Scheez!!! My Winter group has their final tomorrow...and I was dumb enough to make it a big take home final...what was I thinking?????...now I have to correct them...good grief!!! And then....I could not understand why one of my students...who is an excellent student...was not getting an "A" in one of the classes...she had done all the work and such...hmmm...mystery...well I solved it...the formulas were messed up on both of my excel grades gizmos!!!!! AAAAHHHH!!!! My NEXT educational endeavor will be a crud load of computer classes....!!!!! If I EVER get this computer business I will be happy!!!

Working on some new puppets...I am also looking for books to adapt my puppets(or new ones) to. Any ideas...let me know. I am looking to work with some of you in the next school year...so if you have ideas as to how I can use puppetry in your classroom...let me know.

Ok..I will stop...hugs and loves to you all...

DebE :-)

Graduation

What an amazing afternoon/evening. I was so excited to see all you again and this time knowing there was no homework required, no syllabi to stress over, NO MORE OF ANYTHING - except fun times. Thanks for the great journey. You are an amazing bunch and I am honored to have learned with all of you.

Erin& CeCe - the party was a smashing success! THANK YOU!