*Steps up to the mic…*
Is this thing on?
I just went to see what my last blog post was, and I realized that it was an entire year ago. Where did the time go?! One day I was flying home from Florida, the next day I was dropping my daughter off at kindergarten, and then the next day she was coming home from her last day at school.
Some things that have happened in the past year:
That whole kindergarten thing. We had a few bumps along the way, but mostly I think the year went really well. Lilian is legit reading now. Like, can read the first Harry Potter novel (albeit slowly) reading now. It was so amazing watching it all happen in real time. First she had a few sight words, then she was sounding out words that she saw out in the world… then she knew enough to really read things. Once she was reading, she progressed really quickly. She’d grab a book and figure it all out herself. I take just about no credit for any of this, except that we have a lot of books in our house.
Lots More Travel. It is a blessing and a curse that I travel for work. The curse part is that work travel is exhausting, leads me to bad habits (less working out, more eating junk food), and takes me away from my family. The blessing? Cashing in points for fun family vacations. This year we took a bunch of weekend trips, as well as a big family vacation to Mexico. And, in April, Lilian and I went to California for a combo work trip and girls trip. We saw lots of friends and family, I introduced her to In N’ Out Burger, we went for a walk on the beach, flew a kite, did a day at Disneyland, and did a quick tour of the Getty Museum. It was awesome. Exhausting, but awesome. Especially the part where we got to meet Chewbacca.
I won another big award! This one was for AVIXA (our trade industry) Educator of the Year. I secretly suspect that it was their way of saying “sorry everyone makes fun of you about living in the future now.”
Lots More Sewing Projects. I am working on a big project that’s eating up most of my sewing time (I hope I finish soon so I can show you all!), but I’ve made a bunch of stuff that I’m really proud of. I need to do a roundup. Given my track record, this will happen approximately… oh… never. There were quite a few baby quilts. There was a giant sampler quilt for my Grandma. I made some little projects here and there. Sometimes, I wish I could shut myself up in my craft room, put on audiobook, and sew uninterrupted for like 8-10 hours.
And here we are, back at the part of the year where I’ve recently returned from a trade show. This year, it was in Vegas (the show alternates between the two cities). This year, I went by myself (see: Family, Vegas not friendly too). There may or may not have been an adult beverage (or three) involved. I also got to see Cirque Du Soleil from the AV booth (#BucketList), and got an invite to one of the industry parties that I have never been able to get an invite to before. Which somehow meant that I got to dance up on stage with the band. It was pretty amazing, even if I do keep referring to the evening as “Aging Rockstar Karaoke.” Macy Gray sang, and that was all kinds of amazing.
Unfortunately for my polo shirt game, the trade organization completely rebranded this year. I had to toss my spare polos, because they had the wrong logo on them. Which means I got to wash my faculty shirts in my hotel bathtub (again). The re-branding is good for our industry. I guess this shouldn’t all be about me.
(But I’d better be able to re-use these dang shirts again next year….)
Ps. I made hats using my friend’s face (his last name is Watts) in the power equation. They were pretty rad. I’m still wearing mine all the time. #PIEinyourEAR
PPs. I think at least half of our students passed the certification exam after our class. I had sooooo much fun teaching this year.
I’m going to go ahead and assume that a lot more than that has happened in the past year. This is just what I remember/instagrammed. I suppose this is why people write blog posts more than once a year? I finally upgraded my personal laptop (it was older than my child who is going into first grade). Maybe that will make it easier to post more? Given my track record, probably not. :p