Thankful Thursday

While in Ireland Reagan turned to me and said "Thanks Mom for doing what you did to get us here."

Oh my soul!

All the guilt I felt for working summer school and leaving her at home more than 1/2 the day all of June just evaporated.  Knowing not only did she understand that my hard work got us to Ireland but also the extra hours I put in and the extra duties I worked helped pay for a good portion of the trip.

These are all things Jay and I have tried to teacher but I think this trip really made an impact on her.  Hard work really does pays off.  Sacrificing our time and saving our money really does pay off.

And really, how often does a teenager sincerely thank her parents?  I didn't thank mine until after Reagan was born and I realized all the sacrifices they made for me.

I'm treasuring this moment in case I don't get one again until she has kids of her own.  Ha!

Beach vs Mountains

It's hard to tell but that little dot is Jay.

One of the things I found interesting while we were in Ireland for my conference is my preference for the beach verses my husband's preference for the mountains.

Every time we pulled over on the side of the road to enjoy the scenery Jay always tried to climb the mountain and I always tried to figure out how to get down to the beach.

I know I love the water and Jay does not.  I know I'm the first one to jump in the pool at a hotel.  And I'm the first one to plan a trip to the beach.  I know I'm the one who talks about tubing down the river or heading to lake.

For some reason seeing our choices in action on our trip really made me notice it.

I love water.  I was a water baby.  My parents put me in swim classes at 6 months old and I've loved it ever since. We had a pool when I was kid that I spend all summer in. Except for the days I got swimmers ears.  I can remember bugging my mom everyday till I was able to get back in the pool.

I remember my mom and aunt taking my little cousin and I to the beach a few times each summer. We use to go camping on the river and tube all day.  We'd also camp by the lake and swim all day.

I love the water.

Jay nearly drowned in high school on the lake.  One of his buddies noticed him going under and was able to grab him and get him to shore.  Needless to say he does not have the love of water that I do.

Back to Ireland.  That's one of the awesome things about Ireland.  The beach and mountains are all

The beach at Ventry-Coumeenoole.

right there together.  Some of the houses have front porches that faced the beach and back porches that face the mountain. That would be the perfect house for us except we might never see each other. Ha!

Don't get me wrong.  I do love the mountains but I'd pick the beach over the mountains any day!

What do you prefer?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

For Pleasure:

I finished listened to Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. It is a young adult historical fiction set in 1941. Lina & her Lithuanian family are taken from their home by Soviet officers. Lina, her brother, their mother are separated from their father. They end up spending 12 years in an imprisonment camp working in terrible conditions.  They are malnourished, mistreated and watch new friends die. 

For School:

Last week I read Are Pirates Polite? by Corinne Demas.  Tuesday, September 19 was Talk Like a Pirate Day so I wanted to read a pirate book and dress up like a pirate.  The students LOVE it!  This is the second year I've done this and will keep doing it as long as the kids keep loving it.  Are Pilates Polite? teach children about manners in a fun piratey way.  We learn that sometimes pirates push forward in battle but they never push in line.  We learn that pirates never interrupt.  Don't you want to have manners like a pirate?!?

Ireland-Conference

I've been trying to decide how to write about my time in Ireland. 

Do I go day by day? Do I write about our sight seeing? Do I write about the conference? Do I write about the conference in general or my present?  Do I write about the looonnnngggg flight? Or the sheep? So many adorable sheep!

And when I do write about these things how do I organize my thoughts? And all the bazillion pictures we took... do I add those? If not all the pictures how do I choose just a few pictures?

All these choices!

It doesn't help organize my thoughts that when people at school have asked me how Ireland was all I have had time to says is "Ireland is beautiful. The conference was great! The food was yucky."

Those 3 short simple sentences aren't enough for a blog. Ha!

So....

The conference. I think I'll start there since it's the whole reason I ended up in Ireland. Specifically my presentation. 

The conference is call International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement. IARSLCE for short cuz mercy that's a mouth full!

I quickly learned this conference was geared for university faculty and staff. I always got funny looks from other attendees when I told them I was an elementary librarian. Then I'd explain I was presenting a project a professor and I did together. Then everyone (yes, everyone) would then nod and smile in understanding. Ha!

The professor and I did a PechaKucha.  It's Japanese for chit chat. Luckily the secondary lead librarian had taught us librarians about a PechaKucha so I had some prior knowledge. 

Our presentation was called "A Reversal of Service-Learning: When Young Students Teach Student Teachers." We did 20 slides in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. 20 seconds for each slide was not nearly enough time. Ha!

There were 4 presentations in one session. After all the presentations the audience was able to ask each set of presenters questions. We had 3 professors ask questions. After the session 2 of them came over to ask more questions and got our contact info. 

At lunch another professor asked if she could sit with me and ask more questions. While we were talking and eating 2 of her colleagues walked up. She introduced me as "This is one of the presenters in that awesome session I told you about."

Dude! How cool is that?!?

She went on to say that the professor and I need to write a paper on our project and offered to send me lit reviews. 

I made so many great contacts.  I learned so much about what colleges and universities have to offer the community. 

Five for Five

1.  Tired

2.  There's no tired like the end of the first week of school tired.

3.  My feet are tired.

4.  My back is tired.

5.  T. I. R. E. D