*Tap, tap, tap* Is this thing on?

Hi Friends:

Firstly, I apologize for my prolonged absence.  Much like Madam Coffeyhouse, I was clearly misguided when I thought summer meant oodles of free time.  Quite the contrary.  I wrapped a whirlwind 4 week course focused on curriculum theory and development.  Our instructor squeezed in a full 16-weeks worth of material into those hectic 4 weeks.  Needless to say, I learned a lot but that's about all I did for the month of June.  I hope to finish my other two graduate courses this month and defend sometime in August.

Secondly, I gain access to my classroom in 5 days. I have no clue where to start... so I'm reading The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong to get some inspiration. Very excited to start contributing to society by shaping the minds of our future!

Thirdly, my brother, niece and two nephews are coming up to Wichita this weekend to visit :) I have NO clue where they're all going to sleep (bathtub maybe?) but we'll make it work.  After my first attempt at making homemade whole-wheat pizza dough, I think I'm going to try it again... but this time with kid-friendly white dough.  I'm excited to have them create their own pizza flavors! I might be bold and make a pesto, chicken, sundried tomato pizza. Very different from my staple pepperoni.  Then I'll make some scrumptious sloppy joes and oven fries for Saturday night and depending upon how ambitious I am, I may make homemade cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning.  With all of this cooking and hosting, what are Chad and I going to have tonight for dinner? Hamburger Helper... because that's how we roll.

Until we meet again...