Taking Lessons from Lucy ;)

Life Lessons Learned in a Little Classroom Setting

Lead America was a long toll. Looking back on it, already only just one week out of the intense craziness, it was a great experience. Chance of a lifetime to visit so many different places, leave a mark on so many different high schoolers lives, learn such great lessons, test my limits, be educated on medicine/gross anatomy/and leadership, and be surronded by a great team to learn from/work with/ and play with. A summer full of adventure.

But, I'm also happy with my decision to end after the chicago conference and not to engage onto san francisco. It was a tough call to make. So many people in my life- that I look up to and truely value their wisdom- said I ought to push through. But in the end it came down to this... throughout the course of the ten days I spent a lot of time talking to my students about life values and helping them identify theirs. From these, I instructed, you can always make good sound decisions. When you are at a cross roads look back on your values, see which path follows most closely to what's important to you. I felt conflicted with the challenge of whether or not to do san francisco because it placed two of my core values against each other.... family and commitment. But it's here that I learned the important lesson, simply because commitment is one of my values doesn't mean I have to be commited to everything. I can have commitment as a part of my core and still leave Lead America early. Family/balance/having time to play are important to me; therefore, coming home and being on vacation for a week with no work obligations made sense. I wanted to enjoy my summer by just being home as well.

Making decisions and following my heart.
No regrets.

Windows Down Music

YouTube - Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On: "

It's summertime. Yes.

End of Summer Computer Background

Girl's Got Ingenuity!

It's done, the second conference that is. Deep sigh, how akward it feels to have more then 40minutes to myself. In an effort to relax and enjoy myself I decided to test out my little dorm oven and bake brownies.

Note to self, baking brownies with nothing more than brownie mix, an aluminum pan, a fork, eggs, and vegetable oil requires some creative thinking.

Problem 1- lack of mixing bowl. Solved, just put all the ingredients in the huge aluminum pan and mix there!


Problem 2- lack of mixing spoon. Solved, just use a fork (but be careful not to mix too much for fear of poking a hole in the aluminum foil pan).

Problem 3- lack of measuring cups for the water and oil. Solved, oh look! the nearby nalgine bottle measures out oz in four, go online and figure out how many ounces are in a cup (make sure to wash nalgine bottle out completely before drinking usages).


Problem 4- the dorm oven's door falls out completely on one side when you open it up. Solved, somewhat, balance the door on your knee and stick the brownies in really fast.

Not gonna lie, I'm feeling pretty domestic with a little ingenuity on the side!

An urge comes over me. I feel like being artsy this afternoon. Bringing out the paints, traveling to downtown boston and painting the harbor as the boats settle into the evening sunset. Or whipping up a batch of chocolate covered strawberries, going to sit by a stream, and dipping my toes in the water as I enjoy the colors of my surrondings. Opening up all the windows in a house and rearranging the furniture. Grabbing a tall double chocolaty chip frappachino from Starbucks (a new find, slightly classier than my usual hot chocolate), and placing myself at a small little table outside in the middle of the city; a prime spot for people watching.

My hidden secret pleasures. For now, writing about them is going to have to provide enough fresh breathe to the day. Off to Boston's Museum of Science and dinner in Harvard Square. I like to be a traveling girl.

Fourth of July- Boston Edition

Nothing beat rallying in the 4th of July for 2008 then being in one of the cities in which our very nation was established- Boston. We honored the countries date by walking the freedom trail in the afternoon- special pit stops and interesting facts (faciliated by yours truely) including the state capital, ben franklin's gravesite, the first public school house, the park street church, mother gooses gravesite, the site of the boston massacre, and ending up in quincy market.

Reading the history and walking the trail made this holiday come alive for me. You could feel everyone's excitement rise as red, white, and blue shirts/polos/hats/and flags began to fill the town. Note to self, on commerative holiday's such as this historical trips always are a must!

After the freedrom trail the STAFF met up for a nice sit down dinner. Somehow I get puruzzled into eating at "dicks" with a quite hysterical and roudy enviroment. Not a typical "heidi" place, but the laughter that filled the table was worth it.

However, the highlight of the evening- fireworks in Walthum. In this football field, the entire town of Walthum could be found. Lawn chairs. Blankets. Little kids playing chase. Sparklers. Fire men. Ice cream trucks. Fried dough cakes. Those glow in the dark necklaces. It felt like I was back in my good old, small hometown of Crystal Lake again. The city's government came out with big speakers that played cottoneyed Jo, and Bye bye miss American Pie. Laur and I made a pit stop at the ice cream truck and then jogged over to hop on the swings and play at park. The loud bangs lit up the sky. What a great celebration!