Back to School

Back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool (Billy Madison... anyone??)

So I have finally decided to take the plunge.  I am heading back to school to be a school librarian!  All my other teacher friends have long since gone back to get their masters, and I put mine on hold.  It financially makes sense to get it, but I was waiting for Chris to be done with school, and honestly, I was still dreaming up what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

I love teaching.  I get a thrill out of being so important to the kids in my class and and, in some cases, being their biggest advocate.  I love, love, love teaching math (anyone who knew me in fifth grade would never believe this...).  I love watching kids get passionate about civil rights issues in social studies and stand up for what they know is right.  I love watching their eyes light up when we prove that every action has a reaction, and teaching them life lessons through books like Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing :).

So you may ask.... why not get your masters in curriculum and instruction?  I have always known that I wanted to have options other than classroom teaching.  I might be a classroom teacher forever, but I really don't know how I will feel about it when we start a family, have a house, yadda yadda yadda.  I just wanted to be able to do something a little less emotionally draining if I needed to one day.  And the great thing about education is I still get the pay increase for having my masters, even if I want to stay in the classroom.

There are a ton of choices when you want to go back.  I could have decided on reading specialist, special education, gifted and talented, administration, ect.  I decided on "Educational Technology" with an emphasis in Library Media Specialist because I am passionate about reading and getting kids to love reading again.  Because of state testing and all that comes with it, I think a lot of kids have lost that love of picking out a "just right" book and loving every word.  Also, I am going to be taking a ton of technology courses, and that is where it is all going.  Teaching teachers the awesome powers of the smart board??  Yes please!

I am going to Pittsburg State and I start this summer.  The program is offered completely online and it will take 6 semesters.  I was getting really antsy to start and even though Chris is still in school, I decided to go for it!

So, if you are still reading this, there must not be anything good on TV.  But thank you for making it to the end:) I'll keep you posted on how everything is going.

 I will leave you with my first "young adult fiction" recommendation:

Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone -  If you want to learn more about the "Jamestown" era and the start of our county, this is a great book.  I am finishing reading it to my fourth graders and it is historically accurate and they are eating it up!

Also... don't worry.  I won't turn into a grouchy librarian.  I am thinking book blogs, digital textbooks, and grants for things like kindles and i pads... cool?

Forganics

My brother Ryan was recently on the production team for a documentary about local farmers and eating organic entitled Forganics.  If you have a few minutes check it out, it has been posted to the Garmache website.  I especially like the voice-over work (yeah, that's Ryan!).  I am sure he would not mind if you pass his name along to any movie producers you may know!  Enjoy!



The teaser for "Forganics."  If you follow the link above to the Garmache website, you can watch all five parts of the film.  Ryan says it was made to watch in any order, so after you watch the introduction you can move to any section you want.

Random Tidbits

So Lauren has been getting on me for the past few weeks saying, “Chris, you have to blog or people will think you are dead” and “Look at our friends blogs [special shout out to Ali’s new layout—oh Frank . . . ], they are so much cooler than ours!” Well faithful blog followers, I am alive and well, but frankly I cannot compete with all of your blogs. Nonetheless, here is my lame attempt at filling you in of what has been going on in our lives over in the Mid-Atlantic. (On a side note, that is where Washington, D.C. is located—the Mid-Atlantic. When we moved here I made a comment about how I was excited to live in the Northeast, and one of my new friends looked at me like I had a third arm . . . Turns out, after all, we are South of the Mason-Dixon line).

I know, it came as a shock to me as well . . .

Although there is nothing show-stopping happening in my life right now, I didn’t have class today (one of the perks of still being a student—we get more time off for holidays) and so I have no excuse not to dust off the old laptop and share a few “Random Tidbits” of the day in and day out of our lives. Enjoy!


We are Jealous of Your Houses and Dogs

That’s right, your houses and dogs rock. Lauren and I both left great dogs behind in KC (Gunner & Holly) and moved to a tiny apartment (580 sq. ft) that doesn’t allow pets (yuck). In order to stay sane, we have been vicariously living through your blog and facebook posts, creepily stalking pictures of your houses and new puppies and secretly wishing we had your life. Usually, our stalking goes something like this:

Lauren: “Chris, look at what [insert friend’s name here] did to their Dining Room. It is beautiful. I wish we had a house.”

Chris: “Wow, that’s awesome. Even better, look at [insert name of friend’s dog here] in the background. I love that dog.”

Lauren: “Chris, you haven’t even met that dog.”

Chris: “I still love him. Why do you hate fun?”

This usually results in Lauren logging onto FrontDoor in order to browse houses for sale that we can't afford, in a city we don’t live (hey, but we can dream, right?!). We have also started going to the local Petsmart on “adopt a dog” Saturdays to play with all dogs they bring in from the local shelter. Anyone looking for a new pup check out your local shelter first, they have some great ones there!

I stole this picture of Frank off Ali’s blog. I haven’t met Franklin (yet) but he is in my top 5 list of favorite dogs (don’t worry other blog followers—your dog is in my top 5 as well—in fact my top 5 really has about 15 dogs). We will meet some day my friend . . . some day!

Book Club

Lauren and I have gotten really into reading and decided to join a book club. Okay, that was a bit misleading . . . Lauren and I formed a book club of two (her and me). Our first book was The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (I know, very trendy). Great, fast read with interesting plot twists, I recommend checking it out. (If you need to borrow a copy let us know, we have two . . .)

Check out this book if you are one of the 15 people in world who has not read it yet.

Basketball

I play on an intramural basketball team—3 on 3 in the Fall and 5 on 5 in the Spring. Most likely you have heard of us . . . we are the powerhouse “Air Matlock” and I play under the pseudonym “Special K” (that’s right, “K” for “Kansas”!). We just advanced to the playoffs last Thursday night with an outstanding performance from yours truly (just kidding . . . I had a single double, 0-2-0, thank goodness we have some studs—shout out to “Buck Nasty,” “Hog Wild,” “Sam Wow,” and “The Ham Slamwich”). I’ll keep you posted on our post season progress!

Hot item here. I am thinking of signing it and throwing it up on eBay at the end of the season.

Recycling

We watched Prince Charles's “Harmony” the other night. In case you missed it, this is eerily similar to Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” only with a British accent (who knew the King-in-waiting was such an environmentalist!). Anyway, Prince Charles kept talking about how there are “bloody fools” out there who are destroying the environment (that’s a made up quote, he didn’t really say that but I thought it sounded British) and I realized I was one of them. Lauren and I thus ramped up our recycling efforts and set up a whole new recycling center in our kitchen this week. I am excited to take recycling serious once again (although there is not much room to move around in our kitchen now).

A Clip from Prince Charles’s “Harmony.”  I'm a bad person.

Well, that’s about all going on around here. We are having a blast and starting to feel like we are blending into NOVA (Northern Virginia in case your didn’t know!) more and more every day. Can't wait to see all our family and friends over break (and perhaps meet a dog or two?).

So Thankful...

With Thanksgiving coming up, I thought I should blog about some of the things I have to be thankful for.


- I am thankful that I have two more days of work until BREAK!  It has felt like a marathon to make it to this break and I am ready.


- I am thankful we get to spend time with my mom and Steve this Thanksgiving.  Chris hasn't been able to spend much time in Chattanooga, and I know my mom cannot wait to show him around.


-  On that note... I am thankful I have a mom that doesn't care that all I want to do over break is eat turkey and lounge.  She just can't wait to cook for all of us, and I am so good with that :)


-  I am thankful for my in-laws and how understanding they were about us not coming home for Thanksgiving.  On that note... I am just thankful for my new family in general.  I am a lucky girl!


-  I am thankful that I get to spend Christmas break with my dad and Marilyn... and the rest of the Pederson clan that we miss so much.


-  I am thankful for the families of my students.  I had 100% of my kid's parents show up for conferences.  That is the FIRST time that has EVER happened.  I feel supported and appreciated and it means a lot to me that they made it there.  This may seem like a small act to us, but most of my families don't speak english, had to walk/ride a city bus to get there, take off work that they really couldn't afford to miss, all because they care about their kids education.


-  I am thankful that I get to see the Lincoln Memorial all lit up every Thursday night when I go pick up Chris from his night class.  Pretty awesome... right?

-  I am so thankful to have girlfriends that love me and always support me.

-  I am thankful to have a husband to come home to every day.  He cleans the apartment every Friday so we can start the weekend with a clean house.  He cooks after I come home exhausted after parent teacher conferences.  He does the dishes EVERY NIGHT!  He takes out the trash EVERY TIME.  He is the best husband (and come to think of it, he is very domestic.. :)

-  I am thankful that Chris got an internship in KC this summer!!!!  Kansas City here we come :)

I am so blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving :)

Seattle

I just realized that I never blogged about my trip with my mom this summer.  We went on a fabulous trip to Seattle and had the BEST time.  My step-sister, Lyndie, lives in Tacoma and we got to spend some time with her too.  Seattle is such a fun place to be.  My dad grew up in Yakima, and although I have been to Washington a handful of times, I really haven't spent much time in Seattle.  We had great weather, wonderful company, and a great trip.  I am working on a scap book as we speak. Lynda gave me this awesome software that is going to make a really neat memory book both of us.  Enjoy!

 "Mr. Gates... we're here!"

 University of Washington's football stadium 

 Sleepless in Seattle house.  I am obsessed. 

 Love her.

 First Starbucks... EVER!  Mom's favorite part.

 Lyndie and I

 I am so jealous of her life here!

 The weather was perfect!

 Beautiful!

 Watch out for flying fish!

I am so lucky she is my mom and my friend.  

Random thought

Random thought of the day from Chris Dawson....

"You know what is going to stink about having kids?  When you are tired, you can't just order pizza for dinner.  They might die or get fat or something."

4th Grade

I just finished up teacher work week and it was really good to see everyone and get started on a new year.  I finally feel settled into my new room.  I took over for a teacher that went on maternity leave and then moved to be closer to family, so I really never had time to makes my classroom feel like mine.  Some people were asking for pictures of my classroom.  If you aren't interested... just skip this post :)

The teacher organization area behind my desk

The paper turn in table

Binders, binders, and more binders...

Job board - I decided to go with a week helper instead of switching 10 different jobs every week.  That is too confusing for me!

Student supply table

View from the front

Do you think this will help them keep organized??  Me neither.. but I tried, right?

Cubbies

Calendar

Small group reading area

Using windows for more space :)

I love you, IKEA

The whole room from the corner

Word Wall

So there you have it.  A lot of the space is empty so I can hang student work when they get there.  I didn't show a pciture of the front of the room becuase when I took these, all that was there was the smart board (which I LOVE, by the way).  When it is ready, I'll post what the students see everyday from their seats (beside me;). 

Here they come, ready or not ;)

Summer in the City

**Warning: This is an extremely long post. Unless you are really bored at work or forgot to record “The Bachelor Pad” and thus have nothing to watch, I suggest you just look at the pictures and forget about trying to read everything . . . . For those of you brave enough to forge on, I have provided links to some country classics for each event to provide a soundtrack for the summer and to break up the reading. Just right click on the link for each and select "open in a new tab" and let it play while you read. Enjoy!

Hello blogosphere! Last time I posted (early May) I had just finished finals and so I have a bit of catching up to do . . . These last few months have been a whirlwind, and here is my lame attempt to summarize everything in one post. This should give you a brief overview of the Dawsons’ life in the mid-Atlantic (and beyond) for the past few months.


May 14th-16th – Fishing Trip
Fishin' In The Dark, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

In mid May, the weekend before I had to start my internship, I flew home to attend our annual fishing trip at one of my favorite places on earth – my grandpa’s fishing cabin on the Cottonwood River in the Flint Hills of Kansas (no girls allowed). As always, we caught more fish than we could handle and drank enough beer to make it difficult to handle the ones we could. It was another successful weekend at the cabin and it was nice to get away and forget about school and work for the weekend.

The fish we caught - day one of two. From left to right: Andrew (my cousin), Ryan (my bro), Yours Truly, David (my pops), and Randy (my uncle). Grandpa (not pictured) is taking the picture!

May 17th – Summer Job Starts
Hard Workin’ Man, Brooks & Dunn

Monday morning following the fishing trip I started my internship as a Summer Associate at an intellectual property law firm in Washington, DC. During my tenure this summer I have had the opportunity to draft and argue patents for some pretty cool companies and technologies. I even drafted and submitted a motion to a federal district court that was argued before the federal judge by one of the partners at our firm. I have no idea why they took a shot on me, but the experience has been challenging, educational, and memorable. I wrap up my summer this Friday (Friday the 13th. . . .) but am so thankful for such a great experience.


May 28th-31st – Memorial Day
American Soldier, Toby Keith

What a great way to spend Memorial Day weekend – with Anna Brawner in DC! Brawner came up from Nashville and we tore the town up! We started off the weekend by hitting the Irish bars in Old Town Alexandria and hanging out with none other than a real-life “well-oiled” (hammered) soldier we met that night. This guy: (a) loved – I mean loved – Anna’s hair (and the rest of her too), and (b) swore he was a cousin of my brother-in-law John Rhoads (the next day I called John – he had never heard of him). Saturday we walked around the national mall where there were thousands of veterans who had rode their Harleys in town for “Rolling Thunder” (consequently I happened to be wearing a lavender polo and drinking a frappuccino at the time – I felt a bit out of place . . .). It was pretty powerful experiencing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with veterans who had been in the war and whose friends’ names were on the wall. Sunday (I was wearing a black t-shirt this time to blend in a bit better) we went to Arlington cemetery and capped off the night with a memorial concert on the lawn of the capital building featuring none other than the great Brad Paisley! Great weekend!

Ice cream in Old Town, Alexandria

Lauren, Brawner, and I at Rolling Thunder. Notice the motorcycles in the background and that great lavender polo I decided to wear!

June 12th-13th – Camping Trip
Mountain Music, Alabama

A mid-summer break from our calendar allowed Lauren and I to try out our new tent given to us by the Scotts and Burresses. We packed up the pickup and headed to Shenandoah National Park (about 2 hours west of DC) for a weekend of hiking, fishing, and camping. Unfortunately after pulling in and setting up the tent, it turned into a weekend of heavy thunderstorms. So we scratched all plans and sat in the truck drinking Bud Light. We had a great time anyway. It was nice to leave the city behind and see the beautiful scenery located only a few hours west of us. We can’t wait to go back!

Look at that tent! Nice!

Drinking beer in the pickup while waiting out the thunderstorm

June 18th-20th – Pool Party

Summertime, Kenny Chesney

For those of you who haven’t seen our apartment yet, our complex is sort of like a small city – it has over 100 buildings, a grocery store, dry cleaners, ATM machine, and a Chipotle. As such, we have four large pools (with deep-ends – diving allowed!) but with our full schedule this summer, we had not had a chance to try them out until we finally stole a weekend in mid-June. The rest of the summer has been great, but there is nothing like a lazy day at the pool!

June 25th-27th – Joel and Hannah’s Wedding
She’s In Love With The Boy, Trisha Yearwood

For the last weekend in June we headed home to Kansas City for Lauren’s step-sister, Hannah’s, wedding. It was beautiful ceremony and an awesome time! It was great getting to see family and friends and getting to meet everyone from Joel’s family. Congratulations to the Delagardelles!


June 29th – Brittany’s Birthday
Here For The Party, Gretchen Wilson

Happy Birthday to my cousin Brittany! We are excited you had your 21st in DC and we had a great time in Georgetown celebrating it with you! Manhattan, look out, Brittany is 21!


July 1st-5th – Fourth of July
God Bless The USA, Lee Greenwood

The Fourth of July in Washington, DC! Woo-hoo! Chase and Meghan came up for a long weekend from Bartlesville and we had patriotic-hell-of-a-good-time! We had a drink on the roof of Hotel Washington (great views of the city), went to a BBQ at Chase’s friend’s house on Capitol Hill (literally the only house on Capitol Hill that has a swimming pool – confirmed by Google Earth), and saw the country’s best fireworks show at the Washington Monument. We even rode the Metro home with millions of other fireworks watchers – Lauren riding for four stops with her head in some random guy’s armpit. Once again, a great weekend. We are so thankful we have such awesome friends and family who come see us and help us enjoy our time here.

This has nothing to do with our weekend.  I couldn't find the pictures of Chase and Meghan from that weekend so I creeped this one off of Chase's facebook . . . . Hope he doesn't care . . . .

Lauren and I at the Fireworks

July 10th – First Year Anniversary (Holy Cow!)
Keeper of the Stars, Tracy Bird

On July 10th Lauren and I celebrated the best year of my life. I cannot believe it has already been a year since we were married – it seems like only yesterday we finalizing our seating chart for the wedding, stressing over which ones of my non-RSVPing friends we thought would actually show up and trying to remember their current girlfriend’s last name for the place cards. I miss all that wedding planning . . . . Anyway, we did what every normal couple does on their first anniversary – went to a company barbeque (seriously, we did). So, maybe we didn’t have the most orthodox first anniversary, but we were able to eat our frozen cake (just not on the 10th – we had to wait until we were back in KC – sorry Lauren) and we did have a late dinner downtown just the two of us (although we were a bit full from the BBQ). We chose to spend our first year together in a strange place, full of very strange people, but I wouldn’t take a minute of it back. It has been great.

One year ago in Maui

July 16th-18th – Guy’s Weekend
Drinkin' Bone, Tracy Bird (I know, two Tracy Bird songs in a row . . . weak)

So technically this weekend was a "girl’s weekend" for Lauren and the women from my family, but, in order to not feel left out, John Rhoads and I had an impromptu guy’s weekend. This consisted of batting cages, pizza, beer, and, of course, Zombieland! Great flick and great time! Thanks for putting up with me John!


July 23rd-25th – Taylor and Molly’s Wedding
Something Like That, Tim McGraw

Congratulations to the Hartleys! We were able to come back to Kansas City in late July for our good friends Molly and Taylor’s wedding, and it was another beautiful ceremony and another great time! It was so nice seeing the whole K-State crew and it made us realize that there is no substitute for the friendships we created in college. As a bonus, since the wedding was on a Friday night, we were able to go out Saturday with Donna, John and Marilyn, David and Lynda, Chad, and Ryan. The night started with Ryan making pitchers of his famous Margaritas, and ended with Lynda forgetting people’s names and Donna trying to leave by walking into a closet. That story needs no picture – it pretty much speaks for itself. It was great seeing everyone!


July 28th-August 1st – Chi Town!
These Are My People, Rodney Atkins

Following a short three-day workweek, Lauren and I met Ryan in Chicago for a long weekend. What a great city Chicago is! Lauren and I met up with Maggie and Dwayne on Thursday night and saw a sketch comedy show at Second City. They did a sketch about Alf that I literally almost died laughing from. My favorite line (said in Alf’s voice): “Relax, Brian, the cat is in the dryer.” Ryan got in Friday morning, and while I was busy all day, Lauren and Ryan saw the city from the comfort of a top deck of a double-decker sight seeing bus. We left Friday evening for Naperville and spent the rest of the weekend with the Wands. Our weekend was so fun and action packed, I couldn’t possibly tell you everything that happened, so I will summarize the highlights in list form:

• We stood in the middle of a golf-course community and shot cans with a red rider BB gun . . .

• Ryan gave us a five minute lecture on how he doesn’t use lids on his fountain drinks because it is his “one thing” he does to help the environment. He then subsequently dumped a full sprite, sans lid, on himself in the back of a cab and had to walk around damp for the rest of the afternoon.

• Hayden got us tickets to Blue Man Group. Awesome! If you are in Chicago, go see it.

• Everyone made fun of me for the cocktail I kept ordering, and Hayden eventually renamed it the “Bachelorette” – not sure yet if the name will catch on or not.

• We spent Saturday night bar hopping in Naperville and ended the night by sharing a bar with a Bachelorette party and their blowup “props.”

Needless to say, we had a great time and can’t wait to spend some more time in Chicago!

Trump Tower, Chicago

The Chicago Skyline

 August 6th-8th – Winding Down
All Summer Long, Kid Rock

We started this last weekend with a happy hour (that turned into a happy 5 hours) in Dupont Circle on Friday night, and then spent Saturday catching our breath and hanging out at the pool. On Sunday, we met Donna in Baltimore and went out at the inner harbor. Lauren and Donna got on a plane early Monday morning to head to Seattle for the week, and I stayed home to finish up work and catch up on blogging! We have had a great summer and can’t believe how fast it went. We are looking forward to football season (Go Cats!) and another great year of teaching (Lauren) and of being taught (Chris). We miss everyone and can’t wait to see you all soon!

AC

We have been without air conditioning for two days now.  Thankfully it hasn't been as hot as it has been this summer the last few days, but it is still in the upper 80s.  I have called the front desk no less than 5 times to complain.  They always tell me that someone is on the way.

Now I think that I am generally an understanding person.  But after the third call to nicely ask for a matinece man to come and look at our ac, I get testy.  Actually a little more than testy.  I can get really mean.  I try my best to stay calm and have patience, but when they act like they have no idea who I am or that I have spoken to the same person a million times, I start to lose it.  I had Chris call today because I thought I was going to yell at the front desk girl.

Well, the guys finally came and I was so relieved that I almost gave the two hispanic gentlemen a hug (even though I am pretty sure they are the ones who messed up).

How did our parents grow up without air-conditioning?  I was born in the right year.  I don't think I could have handled that.  Am I a huge baby, or what?  :)

Year 1.

This post is a little belated, but Chris and I celebrated our first year of being officially hitched last weekend.  I can't believe it was a year ago that we promised to love each other forever.  It was the best day surrounded by the best friends and family in the world.  Here is a little photo recap of the big day for those of you that need a refresher...

For our blog followers that we have just become friends with, here is a brief recap of our lives together before dc.  Chris and I met in high school through mutual friends, but it wasn't until college that we realized we were meant to be together.  We started dating our Freshman year at K-State when Chris said "I don't know what they call it in college, but will you be my girlfriend?"  I obviously said YES (who could resist that pickup line?)  The next four years were perfect, filled with wonderful experiences and meeting some of our very best friends.  A few of the  friends we made there were some of the ones that stood up at the church with us when we said "I do".  They have always supported our relationship and we love them dearly.  The next two years I lived in KC and Chris was in Manhattan (Kansas that is.. for you east costers...) finishing his masters.  Those two years were tough, but we made it through by lots of trips to see each other.  On August 15, 2008, Chris asked me to be his wife.  It was the second best day of my life (see first paragraph for the BEST day of my life).  Now you are up to speed ;)

This pic is from our graduation dinner with both of our families.  Little did we know that two years later we would be husband and wife.

We celebrated our one year with gifts, a company bbq (romantic, I know), and a trip to McCormick and Schmick's.  Chris got me a spa day complete with a massage, pedi, and mani.  The perfect day of luxury.  

I am so lucky to have the best husband and I know that the best it yet to come.