My Public School Life

Today was my last official day of school, not just for 2014, but for the rest of my life!  I have given 25 years of my life to educate the students in the great state of Missouri and I have been so grateful for the opportunity to do what I love.  Selfie outside of my last school I did my student teaching with Willie Strickland at Lee School in Columbia in 1989.  Mrs. Strickland made me learn the song "We Shall Overcome" before I could start teaching the class!  I loved Mrs. Strickland.  Even though she was a different teacher than I was, she embraced my style and encouraged Dr. Ron Schlimme to hire me when it became apparent that there would be a need for two third grade classrooms at Lee. I started in Columbia Public Schools in 1989 at Lee Elementary School after graduating from Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education.  I taught third grade for three years and then was switched to sixth grade.  I was scared to go to the sixth grade but it pro

Our 37th Anniversary Celebration

For a couple who regularly dines out, it was quite the conversation to choose a restaurant for our anniversary.  One of the very reasons we chose to move to St. Louis was the variety of opportunities for fine dining.  One restaurant was on our list that we hadn't yet tried, and that was Tony's . Tony's is that restaurant that still has a dress code, but doesn't have to enforce it... you WANT to dress up when you come here.  That's probably one of the reasons we hadn't ventured out to it, we wanted to save it for a special occasion.  It reminds me some of the Gaslight in Macon, for those of you who read my blog and remember this fine dining establishment that was so popular.  It is where Bob and I held our rehearsal dinner.  Loved that place! We are seated quickly and served a beautiful bread tray immediately.  We are introduced to our table captain, who I believe was Bruce. He got us both a cocktail and took our order for appetizers.  We decide

Bucket List Check Off-Alaska Cruise!

Sometimes things don't turn out the way you think they will.  I have dreamed about going on a cruise to Alaska for some time, probably ten or more years, and I added it to my Bucket List so that I would really try to make it happen! Ashley had a proposal accepted for presentation at a conference and the location?  Anchorage, Alaska!  I hemmed and hawed about going, the timing wasn't great and it wasn't really what I wanted, but I was getting hints that perhaps I should take her up on the offer to go and see some of Alaska.  At first it was just Ashley and me but later on Bob learned he could take some vacation days.  Eric was just at the beginning of his summer internship, so he couldn't go. The airplane ride was hard!  To Phoenix and then to Anchorage and reverse on the way home.  We had fun as usual, being silly. As usual, Bob planned our meals and found some wonderful places for us to eat.  Most are posted on Facebook so I won't go about posting thos