25. A Night Out on the Town Dancing

I love the Valley (a little less in the summer) but every now and then a girl just wants to go dancing and the Valley is not meant for that.  So for my birthday weekend Alison, Jennifer, and I were going to cut a rug OUT of the Valley.   The plan was to go to Hollywood but apparently they have a cocaine problem so we moved the party to Santa Monica.  I had so much fun!  Santa Monica reminds me of San Luis Obispo, just bigger.  Everyone was so nice.  I wore a tiara and a birthday button and everywhere I went people wished me happy birthday and went out of their way to make me feel special!  It was a fabulous night and a great way to end my 30 before 30 list! 

16. Survive This School Year

This time last year my principal approached me and asked if I would take on the role of Activities Director.  ASB in itself is an awesome yet time consuming job.  But I was crazy enough to say yes to ASB and to continue my job as Yearbook adviser.  And to top it off my principal is retiring and I set out to make four, yes four, videos for the party!  Thus started the craziest school year of my life!

It has been a year of extreme highs (I got to meet members of Starkid when they came to speak to my yearbook class) and incredible lows (Kevin, my favorite kid in the world, lost his battle with cancer in March).  There has been lots of laughter and lots of tears.  I’ve learned that it’s okay to say “No” and that it doesn’t show weakness to ask for help. 

But I wouldn’t have been able to survive this year or to accomplish everything if I wasn’t surround by an AMAZING team!  The staff at Alice C. Stelle Middle School is the best around!  They are always willing to help and aren’t afraid to execute my crazy ideas for the kids!  But the biggest thank you goes to Mary, Josh, and Sandy (My principal, vice principal, and ASB partner in crime)!  They are the true reason that this year happened.  They have been there through it all the sweat and tears and have showed me that I can do anything.

Yes there is one month left of the school year.  Bring it on!  Together AC Stelle can do ANYTHING!!      

Staff Gifts

Chinese Delegation Visit

Green bags for the homeless

First balloon bouquet

Go Eagles!

Starkid visit!!!!!!!!

First school dance

Movies for Mary's retirement party

Trip to the California Science Center

Crazy Hair Day

Food Drive

I miss you every day Kev!!  Courage. Strength. Believe.

#4 Face a Fear

Snakes.  From an early age you are taught not to trust these slithery creatures.   Whether it be Harry Potter, the Jungle Book, or the first story of Adam and Eve, snakes have always been portrayed as untrustworthy and associated with evil.  So it is not crazy of me to have an unwavering hatred of them!  I mean come on…how could you trust a creature that God forgot about.  It’s like he started creating them and then got distract and never got back to finishing them.  They don’t have any limbs... that’s just not natural!

When I told my mom that facing a fear was on my list she suggested that I visit the reptile room at the zoo and see the snakes.  Now if I haven’t convinced you of my hatred/fear of snakes yet, let me just tell you that after she suggested it, for a month I would wake up convinced that there was a snake under my bed ready to strike as soon as I put my foot on the ground.  So when I say going to the reptile room is a fear, it is a FEAR!  But I wasn’t going to let this item stop me from completing my list!  I made a zoo date with my friends Heather, Nicole, and Nicole’s little girl Emmery. 

When we got to the zoo we ended up at the reptile room sooner than I thought we would.  I tried to work up the nerve to go inside but it got pretty crowded so we decided we would go back.  When we went back Emmery was amazing!  She went right up to the glass and put her face right at snake level.  She wasn’t scared at all!  So when I went in I had her with me so I could get down and take my pictures.  Some would say I used her as a human barrier but I don’t see it that way.  As I was reassured the snakes couldn’t get us through the glass so Emm was in no danger!  Plus it helped to focus on her and not the snakes. 

Overall it was a great day with friends, even if it did involved snakes.  After checking this item off the list I only have two more left!  I can’t believe this journey is almost over.  

#19: Trace My Family Tree

Being a history teacher, I find that students are able to love a topic better if there is some personal connection to it.  I’m constantly trying to find what my student’s interest and background are so that I can make my class personal.  I, though like most students, don’t really know much about my background.  Of course there are the stories that have been passed down but how many of you can say that you know who you are and who you come from?  This year I set out to learn more about my family tree.

I started by contacting my aunt who had started work on a family tree for my mother’s side.  Taking that and using Ancestry.com I was able to have somewhat of a head start.  Once I put in a few names, clues started popping up right and left and I was amazed at what I was finding.  There were marriage records and gravesite photos.  I found countless applications for the Sons of the American Revolution and Census records for both the States and the UK.  I come from a long line of Ichabods and John Smiths.  I learned that an ancestor on my father’s side was captured by Native Americans and scalped.  I was shocked when I saw that both on my mother’s and father’s sides my ancestors arrived in America during the mid-17^th century!  We helped build this country!  I was able to trace my mother’s side back to the 1200s and learn that we come from a long line of Earls and even have some Cromwell blood in our family tree! 

Some of the lines of the tree were dead ends, whether it was because the records were in German (which I have to confess I don’t read) or because the records just went cold.  I have some more research to do (I would like to contact the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution to see if they can help with some relatives).  Although this item is still done I will still continue researching and learning as much as I can about where I come from.  Who knows, maybe I’ll find that I’m next in line for the throne! :) 

#6 Watch the Batman Movies and Inception

Let me start this post out by saying I was never against watching the Batman movies or Inception, I just never got around to watching them.  These four movies are a huge time commitment.  But this blog is about making time to do things so I set out to watch what some would say are “the greatest movies of all time.” 

I knew that having never seen these movies I was going to be judged so I only told one person that this was one of my items, Ashley.  For Ashley’s birthday in December she had her family over for Benning Movie Night (which by the way is one of my favorite nights)!  Ashley had decided to watch The Dark Knight Rises.  So I watched the 3^rd Batman movie first.  Yes it was confusing but you know what, I loved it!  During movie night Ashley told her aunt that I have never seen any of the Batman movies or Inception.  Her aunt was appalled and said that we must fix this!  She also said how lucky I was; lucky that I was going to get to see these movies for the first time (she actually has a list of movies that Ashley has to show her if she gets amnesia so she can experience them for the first time again).

Next I watched Inception at another Benning Movie Night.  I really enjoyed it as well.  Batman Begins and The Dark Knight came next and this time it was just Ashley, her dad and me.   I realized about 2/3 of the way through Batman Begins that I had already seen it.   But I have to say that The Dark Knight was my favorite out of all four movies.  Kevin had told me this a long time ago but I never truly understood until I watched it. 

The best part of this item was not the movies, but watching them with Ashley’s dad.  You can tell he loves them so much and his reaction to certain scenes and characters are priceless!  Thanks Ashley and Dave for helping me complete this item!

PS~ Now that I have seen Batman 1 and 2, I have decided that I need to go back and watch 3.  I’m sure it will make more sense. 

#21 Read 30 Books

Of all my 30 before 30 items I thought that this one, read 30 books, might not happen.  Don’t get me wrong I love to read but this year has been crazy with what feels like, my 10,000 jobs at work, I was finding it difficult to make time to read.  But I did.  And I am really proud of myself.  30 books in one year might not seem like a lot to you but I think it is a huge accomplishment and those 30 books added up to 10,755 pages!!  I owe this item to Stelle’s AMAZING library, the public library digital download system, my book club with students, and a couple of well-fought book races with students!  Check out the list below of the books I have read this year.  I highly recommend all of them!!

1. Coraline
2. Ms. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
3. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
4. Jefferson’s Sons
5. Discovery of Witches
6. City of Glass
7. Sister’s Grimm: The Council of Mirrors
8. Disney at Dawn
9. Divergent
10.  The Maze Runner
11.  Insurgent
12.  City of Fallen Angels
13.  The Scorch Trials
14.  Reached
15.  An Abundance of Katherines
16.  The Death Cure
17.  The Selection
18.  Midnight in Austenland
19.  Ashes
20.  A Very Potter Senior Year
21.  Order of the Sun
22.  The Elite
23.  Shadows
24.  The Project
25.  Lincoln’s Last Days
26.  The Witch of Blackbird Pond
27.  The Prince
28.  The Name of the Star
29.  The Madness Underneath
30.  A Great and Terrible Beauty

#22 Fly a Kite

Growing up we lived next to a park.  And not just any park, it was the most amazing park!  It had swings, a slide, monkey bars, a basketball court, and so much open grass area.   I remember one time we put together a bunch of slip-n-slides from the neighborhood and made a giant one.  Growing up it was the coolest thing.  I remember rushing through my chores on the weekend so that we could go play next door.  We would spend all day at this park.  A kid really couldn’t have a better childhood then I had!  I loved when the winds would pick up and we could take our kites out and let them soar.  My sister and I had the most amazing kites.  They were huge and I think one had a bear on it!  Anyway there is something so peaceful about flying a kite.

I put on my 30 before 30 list to fly a kite, mainly so that I could relive that childlike wonder.  And really, when was the last time you flew a kite?  Mom got the cousins and us small kites for Easter.  It was so funny to see everyone outside Easter afternoon flying his or her kites and laughing.  I didn’t fly my kite that afternoon but it was so fun watching.  I did take my kite out today.  The winds were crazy and I thought what better time?  My little kite did really well but the winds got too strong and started to attack my kite.  It took a nosedive a couple of times but it kept going strong. 

I think I’m going to save my kite and bring it to the Homeroom Beach Contest reward trip with the students and try again then when hopefully the winds aren’t so crazy.  I think my favorite part of this item was the phone call I got from my sister yesterday.  She had just gotten off of work and “was having a glass of wine and flying my kite.”  Bert was right “When you send it flyin' up there, all at once you're lighter than air. You can dance on the breeze, over 'ouses and trees, with your first 'olding tight to the string of your kite!”  Consider this item done and one step closer to the list being completed!