Chris' deal...

Chris has been super busy getting ready for another camp season. He has been hiring tons of staff and organizing all the Teen Travel Program's trips. They have had lots of tours and new families and are doing several big renovation projects around camp so it looks like it will be another good year!

School

For those of you who don't teach April is budget month. Due to the changes in state funding, our school district had to cut 300 dollars per student. With 4 elementary schools, a middle school and a high school that added up real quick! Cutting money means cutting activities and jobs and that is just what they did! As a non-tenured teacher, it has been a little scary. They had their first round of cuts and I'm still here but we don't get out "You're been hired!" letters until late May so fingers crossed!! If i make it thought this year, i get tenure in September and then they are stuck with me!!!!!

Excuses..

Reasons why i have not posted anything in...um... months?

1. Chris hogs the computer.
2. It has been really nice out and Cooper and I have been playing outside.
3. I have a student teacher in my classroom right now and she is awesome! She is really good and I don't have to do anything right now! I spend a quite a bit of time online doing "research" and therefore don't go online much at home.
4. We are boring and I don't have much to report!!!!

Enough Said

Our latest update....Dani sucks at blogging.

Near Death Experience....almost

Monday was beautiful so in the afternoon i decided to take Cooper for a nice long walk. We had been out for about 20 minutes when we turned a corner and found a dog wandering the street. It was quite large and looked like a husky mix. (Please note that my fear is that I'm out walking with cooper one day and a stray dog attacks cooper and there is no one to help and nothing i can do...). So i turn around and start walking the other way. Of course the dog bee-lines it for us (no tail waging I'll note) and starts following us. I start to get worried and cooper senses it and starts to growl. Now the dog is walking at my side and I'm super nervous because i have visions of the other dog starting to growl too and attacking us!! So i pick up cooper and keep walking. The dog keeps following. So i start to yell at the dog , hoping it would go away or someone would hear me and come help me. Nothing... So now what!?!? The house in front of me had two cars in the driveway and a fenced yard, so i rang the doorbell and ask if i could go in their backyard and wait for the dog to go away (keep in mind the dog is still standing next to me) Luckily the woman was VERY VERY nice and invited Cooper and me inside. She knew the dog's owner and called them. Apparently the dog is half wolf and not too friendly. The owner knew the dog was out but said she couldn't get him back inside! Long story short, I ended up going out the nice lady's back gate and walking home a different way.

While i know the dog never actually attacked Cooper or me, it was horrifying to think that it could at any moment and i wouldn't have been able to do anything other than scream or try to kick it! After a bottle of wine and some ice cream, I am feeling much better about the situation and will not be walking anywhere near that street again!!!

Health Status

I am happy to report that both Chris and I are feeling much better! We are both still very drained from the flu and have been eating dinner and going to bed very early! I make Chris eat dinner as soon as he gets home and I have been in bed by 8:00 every night for the last week! (Chris says I should move to Florida with the rest of blue haired old ladies who eat dinner at 4:00 and are in bed by 8pm!)

This week is also my Spring Break! However I haven't done much relaxing and have been filling my days with appointments! Monday was the Spa (Lauren the one you and I went to!), i had a 50 minute massage and my nails done. It was AMAZING! Tuesday was the dentist (for 2 hours!), Today was the chiropractor and the girlie doctor (boo!), Thursday is the dentist again (i grinded through my night guard and Chris is sick of listening to me grind my teeth at night so i have to get a new one!) and a hair cut, and Friday NOTHING!!!! I plan to sleep, walk and do nothing!

Chris now has the flu

See the title of this post. Enough said.

Dani has the Flu

Even though she had the alleged "flu shot", Dani has the flu. She is soldiering through, so we are waiting to see if the rest of us that live here (that didnt have the flu shot) will get it. Actually Cooper is a dog and cant get it, so i guess i am SOL.

UCONN V RUTGERS

What a game. We had the worst seats in the house (nosebleeds) and the best seats in the house (courtside) and were able to rotate between them. Overall a great night and great result. Awesome job by Gary to get the seats in the first place and good to see Kimmy, Ian and meet Rob. The pics explain the rest.

Rock Star!

So a few weeks ago we went over to our friends Lori and Nick's place to play Guitar Hero...As guitar hero virgins i was a little sceptical but Chris was ready to ROCK!! Chris was awesome of course and i made the band fail every time i picked up the guitar. So later that week Chris decided we needed to be able to ROCK whenever we wanted. One game and two guitars later we were trying to ROCK! However poor Chris was stuck with someone who lost their ROCK gene (that would be me!). Luckily, i have a friend who ROCKS 24/7...Kristy was happy to offer her ROCKING and came over to ROCK with Chris. After a little practice and a lot of concentrating i was able to ROCK a little.

OK so fast forward to last weekend...
Kristy (with the ROCK gene) and her boy toy (otherwise known as Sean) got Sing Star!! Now again i was nervous (due to my lack of the ROCK gene) but we went over to try it out. Apparently the ROCK gene is not related to the singing gene because I kicked butt!!! Everyone else did well too but really i was a star...

Good Times in the Cold Weather

You are all probably very concerned about our well being due to the record low temperatures and snow/ice/slush that we have had to endure...let me set your minds at rest....we are alive but barely!

Monday was the coldest day on record with a fantastic 8 degrees! Tuesday promised to be just as cold (and it was) but with the added joy of a snow/ice storm rolling into our area about 11 am and sticking around till about 10 am on Wednesday. In the midst of all that cold weather, snow and ice at around 3 pm on Tuesday one of the kids at my school thought it would be a good idea to pull the fire alarm. Which was wonderful because i was really thinking to myself how great it would be to stand outside in the cold, snow and ice with no jacket and a bunch of kids for 20 minutes and wait for the fire department to come and turn off the alarm! Good times....

Because Lauren Says So....

According to Lauren, we have been "tagged" and now are responsible for posting 5 random/weird facts about us and five places we want to see or want to see again. Chris isn't home so I will post some of mine and he will have to add some later!Weird/Random things about

Dani:
- I am an organizational freak when it comes to where i work (i.e.- my job, my kitchen and my make up) but a slob when it comes to everything else (i.e.- everywhere else in my house and my car!)- I really want a great dane but don't want their huge tail knocking everything over!
-My nick name is Dani because my dad really wanted a boy and started calling be Danny before i was born....he got stuck with a girl but kept the name!
- I can remember every face i meet but couldn't tell you any of their names.
Places Dani wants to go or wants to go back to:
- Great Barrier Reef, Australia (haven't been to)
-Chincoteague Island, Maryland (go back to...i want to see the ponies!)
- Darling Harbor, Sydney (go back to)
- A hut on a tropical island somewhere (haven't been)

Chris:
- I have a metal pin in my ankle which makes going through the metal detectors at the airport a new adventure every time we fly!
- I love cherries but hate everything that is cherry flavored
- I know that if a blue ringed octupus bites you in the shallow waters or rock pools of Australia you have about 3 minutes until you stop breathing.

Places:
- Wherever Dani is willing to go (usually means it has to be a 5 star hotel)
- Pyramids in Egypt (want to go)
- Japan (have been several times)
- Oklahoma (havent been but want to visit Brad, Lauren and B Shatz Jr.)
- Treviso (a little city outside of Venice where my dad was born and grew up)

Carpet Update!

It has now been about two weeks since we found out the carpet was coming a bit early. In that time we moved every piece of furniture we own out of the rooms being carpeted through the halls, down the stairs, out the front door and into the garage! It felt like we were moving again. We ripped up and rolled up all the carpet and then had to clean every room because the pad had disintegrated and left 1/2 inch coatings of dust over every floor. The carpet was delivered and took over 7 hours to install (but it looked amazing)! We then had to carry everything out of the garage, back through the front door, down the hallways and back up the stairs! While i had been able to help move the stuff out of the house i killed my back doing it so poor chris moved most of the stuff back in my himself and enlisted a little bit of help for the larger items.

At the end of it all, the house looks brand new! The color is exactly what we wanted, Cooper hasn't ruined it yet and the new carpet smell is fading!

Can't wait for you all to come see it ....just remember to take your shoes off!

Operation New Carpet

After a year of explaining to Chris the importance of new carpet, a few weeks ago we finally got around to ordering some. We were informed that we could save about $600 if we ripped up and threw away the carpet ourselves...which of course we agreed to! Based on the info they gave us when we bought the carpet, they shouldn't be installing it for another two week, however, surprise! It is being delivered on Tuesday! While that is fantastic news, it means we need to move all the furniture, rip up, roll up and get ride of four bedrooms and family room worth of carpet!! Add to this that we both are not only working this week but both days this weekend too!! So the super fun job of moving furniture, ripping and removing has started tonight....

Stay tuned... i'm sure there will be horror stories to follow....