My little boy is back!!!!!

I don't know if you have been reading my blog lately but one of my student's has been in the hospital. He had pneumonia. He was very sick. He was in the hospital for almost 2 weeks. He was on a breathing tube and at one point, it was very hairy. It was like touch and go for a few days. I went up to see him at the hospital 2 times and then when he got home from the hospital I went to see him at home 2 times too. I missed him so much. Each time I saw him, he was so happy and we were so happy to see each other. We have such an incredible bond, it is unexplainable. It is just speechless to see me and this little boy together. It is definitely God's work through me to touch him. Anyway, he has been out of school for the whole month of March. He was rushed to the hospital on March 1 and has been in the hospital and out of school since then. Man did I miss him at school. WELL TODAY HE CAME BACK TO SCHOOL!!!! He was so happy, everyone was so glad to see him. He was just excited to be back to school, seeing all of his friends, and he came up to me and just laid on me and stayed with me for what seemed like forever. I had tears in my eyes. He missed me just as much as I missed him. He can walk, but he can not talk, he can not take care of himself. He can not do too much of anything by himself. BUT HE KNOWS what he likes and who he likes. The other girls at work saw it too. They saw how much he loves me and stayed with me, some of them had tears in their eyes too. It was just a very emotional morning. He knew he was back in school. He knew he was back with his Miss Patti, and he knew he was going to have a great day is school with all of his friends and Miss Patti. He didn't let go of me for a long time. IT was just magical. (due to security reasons, I will never mention his name or post a picture of him on here) but know that he is a very very special boy in my life and I am so glad I work with him. And I am so glad that God put the two of us together. There is a reason. Just like there is a reason why I work with the kind of children I work with. IT is what I have been placed on this Earth to do. It is my passion in life. Working with handicapped children is ALL I HAVE EVER DONE IN MY LIFE. I have been doing it for over 25 years now and
I LOVE EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY JOB!!!!!!!

Sunday's Newsflash!!!!

Well encase you don't know it is Sunday again. Man where has the week gone by. It went so fast. So today is my weigh in day and again I have stayed the same. I have lost 108 lbs so far. I don't know why I didn't go down this week, but that is totally fine with me. Maybe I am hitting a platoe for right now for a few weeks. Last week I lost some, the week before that I gained some and the week before that I stayed the same too. So I don't know and quite frankly I am not complaining at all. I am happy with everything that is going on and the number on the scale is just that--a number on the scale. The number does not reflect who I am and How I FEEL. So even though I did not loose any more weight this week, that is perfectly fine with me. I am still celebrating and sharing the joy with all of my family and friends on my blog page. Thanks for checking up on me.
Oh so I have to tell you something that I did on Friday night. I have NEVER EVER EVER COLORED my hair before I have always just let it go naturally. But I have been wanting to color my hair for a good month or so now. I have a lot of gray hair and I also wanted to try something new that I have never done before. I wanted to try and go lighter with the color. I have very dark, black, very curly hair and I wanted something lighter and softer and less curly. Well, I did color my hair. It didn't do anything to all my curls. Maybe I need a relaxer. The color did not change that much at all. It did cover all my grays. So that was good. But what the color did do was give me like highlights in my hair. Not too much but just a little highlights. BUT it is like reddish brown color. It does not look bad at all it is cool and I really like it. I took a picture of it when it was done but you really can't see that much of it. You can only see the top of my head I guess that is the way the angle of the camera was. My friend took the picture. Plus the light was not good. SO here is my hair after I colored it for the first time EVER in my entire life. What do you think??
The next time I color my hair I am going to pick a lighter color. My friend was with me and she helped me pick the color. She said and I agreed you don't want to go to drastic on your first time because you don't know how it is going to turn out. But I think it turned out really good. Especially for the first time doing it. It is not permanent. It is growing on me. I don't look as old as I did before. I don't have any more gray hair and that is good because I am only 39 years old after all.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK EVERYONE!!!!!

Rings Sized!!!!

I forgot mention that I had to get my wedding rings sized because of loosing so much weight. I went to the jeweler the other day and I told him I needed my rings sized. I have been loosing them ALL the time every time I would move my hands anywhere they would fall off. One day I was in the pool at work and when I got out, my rings just fell right onto the floor. Thank God I found them. Anyway, NOTHING was holding my rings on anymore at all. The jeweler told me that if I was driving with my hand out the window they would have fallen off and been lost. It was time for me to fix them. WELL I had to go down 2 1/2 sizes on my rings. He said that that was the most he has ever had to resize a ring before. I was in desperate need for them to be done. And I am so glad I got them done. They look amazing, you can't even tell he did anything to them. Now they are on there and they are not going anywhere. They are actually a little tight but at least I won't loose them again and I am still loosing weight so they will get loose again I'm sure. And SO BECAUSE I know EVERYONE (it seems) in Dover Delaware. I knew the jeweler and his wife really well. So he cut me a wonderful discount and did it for me for next to nothing. He usually charges $40 per ring just to size it. Well, he did my whole wedding set, both rings for just $25 I could not pass that up for nothing. IT REALLY PAYS TO KNOW PEOPLE. And you know me I KNOW A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE IN DELAWARE!!! LOL. My family calls me the "mayor" sometimes because I can not go ANYWHERE without bumping into someone I know or someone who knows me.
SO my rings are fixed, I won't loose them anymore.

Here is a picture of my wedding rings. It is not my actual set it is a picture of it I found online.

8 Months and a few Days Later!!!!!

WELL it has been 8 months since I have had my surgery. I am so excited. I am so happy. I am just speechless as to how I feel. If you have been keeping up with my blog, I wrote about how I FEEL a few days ago and now it is time for you to SEE HOW I LOOK after 8 months of having my surgery. I have lost a total of 108 lbs so far and it is just incredible. So check me out!!!!!

And Here I am when the journey began. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!

It is Thursday already

Yes I know it is 6:50 in the morning and it is Thursday and I am blogging already. I shouldn't be blogging I should be getting ready to go to work. I leave at 7:15 so I have a minute or two. We have such a routine in the mornings in this house that everything is going so smooth and that I had a minute. I had to check my bank account so while I was on here I just wanted to write in here this morning too.
Yesterday was my 8 month anniversary and I have not had the chance to get pictures on here yet. I will take them today and post later tonight or tomorrow. I have had meetings and appointments every day this week and I have been really busy. Yesterday I had a meeting with one of the paras in my district and she needs to hire a lawyer and press charges, this is the first time ever dealing with something like this and I have a lot of work ahead of me on this case. So I was emailing DSEA about it this morning and I am waiting on the next step to help her solve this problem. When you are the president, you have to be there for everyone and everything. So I feel sad for her and I hope everything works out ok and I will be there for her with anything I can do to help her.
So last week I told you about one of my little boys is in the hospital. He had pneumonia. Well I went to see him yesterday after work. I miss him so much. He was in the hospital for 2 weeks. He finally got home on Monday. Thank God. But he is not back to school yet. Should be back on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. He has dr appt on Monday and Tuesday next week. He is doing better. Still has to be on Oxygen at night when he sleeps and has to be on a pulse/ox machine while he sleeps. His breathing is still not right and they are trying to determine if he would need a private duty nurse when he comes back to school. Some of our kids have private nurses. But overall, he was very happy to see me and excited to be back home in his own home and his own bed. We laid on the couch for like an hour with each other. It was so sweet. He just laid on my lap and hugged me and just was smiling the whole time. I had tears in my eyes cus I missed him so much and he knew I was there just for him and I think (or I know) he missed me too. His grandmother who has custody of him, was in tears too at the way the two of us were interacting. It was just natural and beyond describable. That is what she said anyway. I believe I have a connection with some of my students that is beyond words. You would have to see our students to understand what I am talking about. Well I am just glad he is home and coming back to school soon. I miss him and I am glad he is better.
Got to go to work now, more blog news later. Have a great Thursday everyone!!!!

Tuesday's Thoughts

Hello everyone today is Tuesday. My week is going by so fast already. Our state, as many other states in the country, is having a really hard time with the budget. Right now the Governor has proposed an 8% salary cut for ALL State employees plus an increase on our health care costs. Well, personally and as president of my local union, I have been worried and bombarded with questions, concerns, and all. And I don't have any answers for everyone and it is frustrating. But we will get through this. The only way to get through it is to UNITE as ONE and stand up for what we believe in. More on this later. The more I think about it and talk about it the more upset I get about it. How can we live with LESS money then we are already making. It is crazy.
Anyway, every day this week, I have had and I have meetings. SO I am so busy but that is my life. Full of work, meetings, appointments, and family. But I wouldn't change a thing.
Guess what tomorrow is already???? Tomorrow is the 25th. It is my 8 month anniversary of having my surgery already. Can you believe it. It has been 8 months. I will have to post pictures of me on here hopefully tomorrow. If I can get it done by then. We'll see. If I don't get them on here by tomorrow I will have them on here by the end of the week, I promise.
One other thing I wanted to talk about, WEATHER! What the heck happened to Spring??? Now that I have lost a lot of weight, I am FREEZING all the time. And man I am tired of being Cold. This weather has been teasing me and I am tired of it. I want Spring. I want Sun. I want Warm. I want to NOT BE COLD ANYMORE. LOL!! But if that is all I have to complain about with me loosing weight, I will take it.

Well gotta go, hopefully I will post more pictures on here of me tomorrow.

Have a HAPPY HUMP DAY TOMORROW!!!!

Sunday's Newsflash!!!!!!

I just realized that in all the months or maybe the year that I have been blogging and posting about my life, this is the ONLY DAY (SUNDAY) that I definitely post something. It is the only day that has the same title and the only day that is consistently posted about. I guess it is because when I started this journey and decided to make Sunday my weigh in day, I wanted to tell all my friends and family about my progress so I chose Sunday to do that. It is also one of the only days of the week that I have some chill out time, no meetings, work, appointments, errands, etc. to do that I can actually sit down and pour my heart and soul out to all of my blog buddies.
SO today is Sunday, (just encase you didn't know that) LOL. It is my weigh in day, I do it every week on Sunday. SO today my total weight loss is now at 108 lbs. YES You read that right I have lost 108 lbs so far and I FEEL AMAZING! I FEEL WONDERFUL! I FEEL HAPPY! I FEEL EXCITED! ~~~~~~ I JUST FEEL ~~~~~~~. I have never ever felt this good about myself ever, even though I was and always am a happy person, loving, caring, excited about life; I never ever FELT it like I feel it now. I have a "glow" an "Aura" around me now that I have never had before, I have a permanent smile across my face. I look at life differently now. I look at food differently now. I have changed my whole life around. I have made some incredible lifestyle changes. And I JUST FEEL SPEECHLESS!!!!!!! I have to tell you and most of you that know me would know this. In the beginning, I was very against having Gastric Bypass Surgery. I was like it is not for me, I don't need to do that, I don't want to do that. I was like, surgery, what can surgery do for me that I couldn't do for myself. It took me OVER a year to decided to do it. I was perfectly healthy, I am still perfectly healthy. I didn't have ANYTHING wrong with me, but I still could not loose weight. No matter what I tried, did, or didn't do, I just could not loose weight. I was tired of caring it, I was tired of my back, knees, legs, ankles, stomach, aching all the time. I was heading in the wrong direction. I was putting myself at risks for a ton of health problems and I was going backwards. Then one day, I just woke up and said to myself maybe I should look into it (surgery) what can it hurt. Information is free, knowledge is free, answers to questions are free. So I said what do I have to loose. So I found a Dr. and I attended a seminar with a whole list of questions. I was inspired, I was amazed at what this surgery did to others, I was amped up to at least pursue it. Then I made my initial consultation and what I realized then was my weight problem was a combination of things both hereditary and environmentally. Some people, no matter how much they diet, exercise, do all that they do to try and loose weight, it just does not come off because it is in our GENES (thank your parents & grandparents). It is hereditary. It is in our metabolism. It is just in us that we are not going to loose weight. Yea we can loose 10, 20, even 60 lbs but it would come right back on us because it is how our body is. Then our environment does not help. The big portions we eat, especially in restaurants, how often we eat, what we eat. There is so much that contributes to our weight problems. So after learning all that and knowing my options, I made the decision to have this surgery. It know and I still know that this was not a Quick Fix. It is a TOOL. A tool that helps you to eat right, exercise right, feel right, and Do right. And now that I have done this surgery I have changed my ENTIRE life around. I eat ALL DAY LONG. I eat every three hours. I eat very small portions. My life revolves around food. I have to pack things all the time at work, mtgs, or going out, I have to make sure I eat. I find that by doing this, my metabolism is working right, my skins feels great, my hair feels great, my mind is working right, Everything is just RIGHT! AND because I exercise my ass off, I FEEL AMAZING. So this week it will be 8 months since I have had my surgery and I thank GOD every day for allowing me to find the answers, to help me make the decision to do this, for showing me the way. Because if I had not done this and had gastric bypass surgery, who knows what or where I was headed for. So I am celebrating every day, every Sunday when I step on the scale and realize that I have made the right decision to help me live a longer, healthier, happier life. So when I post about my weight loss and my accomplishments I am NOT BRAGGING. I am CELEBRATING and SHARING with all of you, my family and friends, that I can live another day, healthier, happier, and ALIVE!!!!!!

It's Wednesday Already

Hi Everyone it is Wednesday Already. I have been very busy that this week has like flown by.
I am getting excited about this weekend. I am going to Dover Downs for our Annual DSEA Representative Assembly. It where the who's who of DSEA and many of my closet friends will get together and make the rules and bylaws of DSEA. There will be like 500 people there and it will be so exciting.
I know, if you are not involved in it you could care less. But anything I do with DSEA is very exciting to me and those of us that are involved.
Not much has been going on here. We are going through the week just like a normal week.
I did go to Happy Hour with some of my friends yesterday for St. Patrick's Day. YES, I went to a BAR again. I have been going out A LOT more lately. This weekend will mean I will be out 5 weekends in a row partying. So we went to the Bar for like 2 hours right after work. They all drank green beer and green drinks. Me, I had REGULAR ice tea. They asked me if I wanted it to be green tea, I declined. I know I was a party pooper. No we had fun. They had an Irish Folk band playing and they had all kinds of Irish type of food for everyone. It was free as long as you bought a drink. That was cool. Lots of Corn beef and cabbage. LOL :)

Everyone Enjoy Thursday Tomorrow!!!!

Sunday's Newsflash!!!!

Hi Everyone it is Sunday again. And I am actually staying home all day. I have been so busy lately and I have been going and going and going just like the energizer bunny that I decided to just stay home today. I did my weigh in today and I lost 2.5 lbs. So that brings my total back up to 105 lbs. I stayed the same last week and I gained some the week before so it is back on track again and I am doing wonderful. 105 lbs is a whole LITTLE person. I can not believe it. I think one of the reasons I have not lost any in a week or so is because I have been very busy and active that My body had to get caught up with itself. You know what I mean. I am loosing so quickly that my body has to catch up. But I feel FANTASTIC and I feel Amazing.
I am cooking a real dinner tonight, something I have not done in a long time. With Sam working nights and the boys not really liking "real" food. I have not really cooked that much lately. Besides I can't eat that much so I don't cook unless Sam is home too. So I am making a roast with potatoes, carrots, broccoli and onions and gravy. IT has been cooking for 1 1/2 hours already. It is going to be so tender and nice when it is done. I am actually looking forward to it. Something different, I haven't made a roast in a long time.
This week should be fairly easy for me, as far as work and meetings go. I only have one meeting type of thing on Wednesday, actually we are putting a basket together to raffle off at the DSEA RA next weekend. So it won't really be a meeting. Then next weekend. I am going to a conference again with DSEA. SO I will be gone again all weekend. I won't be spending the night though because it is in Dover and I don't want to sleep in a hotel if I live 4 minutes away. Save DSEA money.
Well that is about all that is going on with me today. Everyone else is doing wonderful. Sam is still working and doing good. The company is struggling a little right now but they are trying their very best to keep everyone busy and keep working. So far so good. He has a job and he is doing good at it, so keep praying that he keeps his job in today's economy. Lil Sam is in drivers ed at school and he is doing great. The kids only have like 2 1/2 months left of school can you believe how fast the school year is going already. Cody is kind of struggling through the 7th grade, 7th grade is a tough year. But I think he will manage to pass and do good. Tyler is doing wonderful. He is on High Honors at school. He is in the 5th grade and he is doing fantastic. Reads on an 11th grade level. Loves to read. Kimi is doing good too, she took the practice test for the GED test the other day and we are waiting on the results for that to see if she can take the GED test. Once she takes and passes the GED test, she will be done and able to move on to college if she chooses to. We shall see what happens next when she passes the GED. One step at at time.
So everyone have a wonderful week ahead and enjoy the weather, I hope it is going to be SPRING AGAIN SOON!! I am sick of cold weather.

It's been a few days

Hi everyone, it has been a few days since I have been on here.
Friday, I signed our new Contract for the Capital Paras. It is a very good contract. In case you don't know, I am the president of our local union of Paras in Capital School district and we have been negotiating a new contract for all of us Paras in the district. So it is finally done and I signed the new contract and we are all happy with the outcome.
Friday night (3 Fridays in a row) I went out with some friends. My kids are like mom your turning into a teenager. But I went out with some friends to this bar/restaurant and had dinner because it was one of my friends birthday. We had a good time. It was not as good as last week. I was home by 10 pm instead of 3:30 am.
Then this morning I went to the hospital to visit one of my students, he has pneumonia so bad that he was a on breathing machine, the machine was breathing for him. He had to be so heavily sedated that he was asleep all of the time. Well, his grandmother called me yesterday and told me that he has now been taken off the machine and is breathing on his own. I was so happy and relieved that he is doing better that I had to go up there and see him. He was so HAPPY TO SEE ME (this is the same boy that I had over my house a few times). He is being moved out of the ICU tonight and put into a regular room and should be able to go home on Tuesday or Wednesday. But he has to go home with a machine to sleep with that will help him breath during the night. It gives him oxygen during the night. I was so happy to see him and it really made both of our days to see each other. I miss him so much when he is not in school.
So when I came home, I did laundry and things around here and then I paid some bills and now I am on here playing around.
So that is about all I did today. Tomorrow is my weigh in day and I will post an update as to how I am doing. I have been so very very busy this week, that I have been tired. But tomorrow I am not leaving the house at all. I am going to chill and relax.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, WHAT'S LEFT OF IT

YEAH ITS GONE!!!

Thanks Peg--that cutes blog thingy is gone. Cool. It was annoying me. But it is gone now.

I am doing great. I have been extremely busy. I am just checking things out real quick before I have to leave for work. So this is just to tell everyone that the thing is gone and I am happy about it. I will post more later when I get home tonight. I don't have a meeting or appointment.

Enjoy Your Thursday Everyone!!!! It is almost Friday!!!

Sunday's Newsflash!!!!!

Ok so it is Sunday and it is a my weigh in day. First of all I have to tell you what WE ALL did today. It was so much fun. We all went to play GOLF Real GOLF. It was the 18 hole, par 3 course. It was SO MUCH fun. Par is supposed to be like 54 for the whole course. The best any of us got was a 92. WE are so pitiful. It was such a great day and we wanted to do something we have NEVER done before. SO we decided to take the boys and Kimi and Andy and went to play golf. It took us over 4 hours just to get through 18 holes of golf. It was so funny. We were cracking up most of the time, because we all pretty much suck at golf. But it was the time spent together and the fun we all had that made it all worth wild. They don't have those little golf cars so we all had to walk the whole time. WE were all so tired by the time we were done. Some of the holes actually had little benches to chill for a minute. But it was a lot of walking. Sam came in 1st, Andy came in 2nd, and then it was Kimi, lil Sam, Cody, and me and Tyler tied for LAST place. Oh well better luck next time.

So I did weigh myself today and I actually gained 2 lbs. I don't know why but I did. But I am not beating myself up about it. It is bound to happen every once in a while. Especially on certain times of the months. SO my total weight loss right now is 103 lbs. Which is still OUTSTANDING!!! I am so excited and happy with my progress. I feel like a totally new person. I feel like I have so much energy right now and I feel AMAZING!!!

So here I am 7 months later!!! My actual 7 months after surgery was last week.
But here I am now!!!!! Look at me compared to when I first started. What a DIFFERENCE!!!!

It's been a few days!!

Hi my blog friends. It has been a few days since I have been on here. I have been very very busy and I have been having a lot of fun. First I still want to get rid of that little "cutest blog thingy" in the corner and I still can not figure out how to do that. I have tried everything I can think of without ruining my page.
I have not posted an updated picture of me on here yet, my 7 month anniversary of my surgery was last week. I will post it ALL tomorrow. It is my weigh in day and I will post all about my progress. Let me just give you a hint: I can not stay still anymore LOL. I am like an energizer bunny lol.
Our snow is ALL gone. We got like 8 inches of snow on Monday and by Thursday Most if not all of it was gone. This morning the weather was beautiful, so all the snow is gone now. I am glad though I love snow BUT I am tired of winter now. I am ready for it to be spring and have nice weather.
Last night I went out with some friends and had the time of my life. AND I didn't get home until 3:45 IN THE MORNING. I can not even remember EVER when the last time I did that. AND I don't even drink LOL. It was just the best time. SO you know I like to PLAN things. I am a big planner. Especially when it comes to having a party. Well the teacher I work with, Joyce, turned 50 yesterday and her and I have been together for 13 years now and I wanted to do something nice and different for her birthday. You only turn 50 once and it is a big number. She is all excited about turning 50 (just like me--I am almost 40). Anyway, I planned a surprise party for her. I called her husband, told him what I was doing and told him I wanted to have her all night long. He was fine with it and he promised not to tell anyone. SO I invited all of our staff and some friends of ours to go to this place called Lockerman Exchange. It is a bar/restaurant. So I followed her home so that she can leave her car (encase she wanted to drink) cus I don't drink. And we "stalled" a little so that everyone would get there. I told her I wanted to take her out to dinner for her birthday, she didn't think anything of it at all. So we walked in to the place, I reserved the back room just for us, and everyone was there. She was so surprised, didn't know anything about it. We had a little buffet set up, mingled, partied. It was a lot of fun. Then we broke into "Rock Band" on the Wii. The bar had it set up in that room. IT WAS so much FUN. We were singing, playing the guitar, drums, dancing--all to this Wii game. IT was so hilarious. We did that for a long time. Having so much fun. Then at 9:00 a DJ came in and we then danced our asses off (two weekends in a row for me dancing my ass off). We danced till like 12:00. Joyce was having so much fun, I am so glad we did this for her. Then after that, we decided to go to the slots for a little while. So about 5 of us went to the slots and played for a while. I didn't win anything, Joyce won $200.00 (good for her on her birthday). Then we went into one of the bars at the casino and danced and drank some more. Oh my what memories we have now. Then at like 2:00 in the morning, we went out to eat at this little restaurant in the casino. LOL I have never eaten that late before. WE JUST had so Much FUN all night long. IT had to come to an end sooner or later. So after we ate I drove Joyce home and I did not step foot in my door until 3:45 AM. WOW and that is AFTER we got up at 5:30 am and WORKED all day Friday. So talk about tired. BUT I didn't get to sleep in this morning, because I had to go to a funeral this morning (a friend of mine--her daughter died of cancer). Then I came home and cleaned and took a much needed NAP. Now I am on here catching this blog up. It feels like it has been forever since I wrote anything on here at all.
So tomorrow I will update you all on my progress. Until then, have a good night and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

SNOW DAYS!!!!!

So Friday all day it was gorgeous outside, like 50-55* beautiful. Then on Sunday we got SLAMMED with snow. The biggest snowfall Delaware has seen in YEARS. IT was amazing. We didn't have school yesterday or today and I don't know if we are going to have school tomorrow either. We got over 8 inches of snow. And if anyone knows Delaware, they do not know how to deal with snow very well, they panic. So We haven't been out of the house in a couple days. I have to go to the Eye Dr. in a little while so I am going to venture out and see how the roads are. But I don't know if we will be in school tomorrow. We'll see. So this has given me the chance to get caught up on things around the house. I had to do laundry, vacuum, etc. I made a cake yesterday because it was my birthday last week and we didn't get the chance to make a cake. I made a pineapple upside down cake, YUM!! I will post new pictures of me on here very soon. I have them in my camera but I didn't down load them yet to get them on here. That will be my next post maybe tomorrow. It is my 7 month anniversary of my sugery. I have now lost 105 lbs. Can you believe it. For now I am getting off of here and going to dig my van out of the snow. Have a great day everyone and talk to you all later.

What a weekend!!!!!

Oh my Gosh Where do I begin????? What a weekend I had. I went to a DSEA conference (Delaware State Education Association) in Rehoboth this weekend. It was AMAZING. Guess who came to speak to us???? The VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES----OUR VERY OWN JOE BIDEN----. It was fantastic. We stayed at the Atlantic Sands Hotel. The secret service was ALL OVER the place. I have never seen anything like that in my entire life. Only on tv and movies. They blocked off 4 blocks around the hotel. No one was aloud out of their house unless it was an emergency. No one was aloud in the area unless you were with DSEA. The whole hotel was locked and closed off to just US DSEA people. WE FELT HONORED. Our cars had to be searched, our bags had to be searched, we had to be searched. We had to go through metal detectors and all of it. When we got in the hotel and go to our rooms then we had to be to the ballroom by 6:00 pm. Once we were in the ballroom, the entire floor was shut down, no one was aloud in or out of the room or the floor it was on. Talk about an experience of a life time. They had the podium just like on tv with the VP seal and everything. It was so cool. We always thought of Joe Biden as our friend and neighbor because he is from Delaware and we have seen and met him before when he was the senator. But Now LOOK at him. He is the VP of the United States of America. So he and His wife Jill came in about 7:30 to talk to us about the future of education in America. The country is in some serious financial times right now, however, education is our future. So Obama and him are doing everything in their power to try and not cut things that would effect education. Including programs, transportation, staff, buildings, etc. We need education in America he said and how can we have quality education if we make cuts. He was so glad to be "home" for the weekend. He thanked all of us for being there and supporting him. It was just AMAZING!!! We were all AWW inspired. There were just about 200 of us there. AND~~~because I am one of the DSEA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS, I got FRONT ROW SEATING. SO I got to take some awesome pictures. And when Joe Biden was done speaking, he came down to greet and thank all of us and we ALL got to get our picture taken with him. AS soon as my friend emails them to me, I am going to post some on here. (I DIDN'T bring my camera, DANG!!!!).
So besides, Joe Biden being there for Friday night's dinner. And speaking to all of us Educators in Delaware. WE HAD A KICK ASS PARTY FRIDAY NIGHT!!! DSEA supplied a DJ and drinks and snacks and all kinds of prizes and all kinds of FUN!!!! OH MY GOSH talk about F*U*N*. WE had a BLAST. We were all so HIGH from seeing Joe we danced and partied our ASSES OFF. Some of us (like me) never left the dance floor. We had so much fun. And some of my friends that were there haven't seen me in a year and what a difference I made in a year. So I was all over the place talking to people, dancing with people, having a wonderful time. IT WAS AMAZING. We partied till 12:00 in the morning. Then we had to be up by 7:00 in the morning for breakfast and the meetings and trainings for the whole day. So talk about not much sleep for us. But it was all worth it. The next morning we were dragging. I know I was. But the buzz in the air was so electric and amazing. It gave us all excitement and hope for the future of our Country. Then the morning's speaker was the Governer of Delaware--Jack Markell. And he talked about our State's financial crisis we are in and how he is going to do his very best to protect the education of Delaware. He said pretty much the same thing as Joe did that education is our future and if we want quality education we can't afford to make cuts in our education systems. However, some serious cuts are going to have to be made in other parts of the state. And in someway, it may effect us personally. But we are all hopeful and supportive of our future of education in Delaware and across the country. I Tell You, this weekend sealed the deal for me, that I have made the right decision when I chose to be a paraeducator for children with disabilities. It is my passion in life, it is what I have been placed on the Earth to do and now our President and Vice President of the United States of America realizes how very very important EACH AND EVERYONE of us in EDUCATION Really ARE.

~~~~~WHAT A POWERFUL WEEKEND IT WAS~~~~~~