Off to China!

This week I received my acceptance letter to teach in a teacher training program (JESIE) in China! I'm still working on the travel plans, but I will most likely arrive in Shanghai on or around July 2 and travel with my group down to Nanjing where we will be teaching for about two weeks. I will be working with three other teachers from Denver, and the rest of the group is from across the US and three providences in Canada.

Since I began teaching in Denver, I've been working on gaining my ELA (English Language Acquisition) certification. Additionally, this semester I'm involved in the National Consortium on Teaching about Asia, where I've received an in-depth look into East Asian art, music, literature, culture and history. It seems like all of my new interests have serendipitously met in this summer experience. Joel and I are excited about this opportunity and are looking for ways to do this type of work together in the future.

More details to come....

A Great Birthday!

On Thursday, Joel surprised me with an incredible birthday present. He rescued me from parent-teacher conferences a few hours early and swept me away to the Pepsi Center where we had courtside seats to the Spurs Nuggets game. He told me to lay out a fancy dress and heels so he could pick me up from school. When he arrived wearing his favorite baggy jeans and maroon fleece, I was a bit confused, but all was explained when I got to the car to find my Spurs jersey instead of my dress. We arrived extra early to get pics and autographs and then set beside the Spurs bench for the entire game. Our seats used to be owned by Daniel Graham, Bronco's tight end, and we sat about ten seats down from Brandon Marshall. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and we'll never forget it!

 

 

Needless to say, my 30th birthday has been the best two month celebration ever! It all started with a girls' weekend to a spa in Arizona with my sis-in-law, Angela. Then on my birthday we had friends over to watch the National Title game, and Joel bought me a fabulous German chocolate cake and iPod. He told me something else was coming, but I had no idea it would courtside seats to my favorite team. This was a fabulous birthday and start to a new year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Joel and I celebrated our Thanksgiving with a Paris Ranch tradition: beer can chicken. It was our first major BBQ event, and it was a smashing success. We had just enough wood from the ranch to sustain the fire for several hours, and the chickens were perfect. We made some of our favorite Thanksgiving sides to go with. Joel bought us a new Christmas cd so we danced to Willy Nelson and Norah Jones to ring in the holiday season. We are now ready to decorate our tree with brand new ornaments and decor!

We've had a busy and exciting November. My folks came up for a visit and we spent a fun day in Blackhawk, but Joel was the only one to come home with full pockets. We went to the CU-Aggie game in Boulder, but the game didn't end like we wanted it to. We saw R.C. Slocum and spent the afternoon in old town. Even though we lost the game, Joel and I had a blast visiting the little shops in town. Earlier this week we went to the Nugget's game, and even though they won, it was an underwhelming game. Seeing as they played they worst team in the league, there was little to get excited about.

This Colorado Thanksgiving is warm and sunny...Hope yours is just as pleasant!