Schools out... for the summer!

At this very moment - I am sitting my in classroom, looking around and thinking, "How in the world is it June already?" The past six months have flown by. It's been a great ride, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't excited for the summer. Things have been hard for the past couple weeks. The students have wanted to be done and my patience levels have been wearing thin. I think it's a good thing to have a summer break.

This will be the first summer break that i've ever not had a summer job since - I don't even know how long. I guess back to when I was in my early years of high school. I've thought about getting a small summer job to keep me busy - but when it comes down to it, summer break really isn't that long. I have a Math-in-CTE conference that I will be attending from 8-5 everyday next week, then the week after that I will be presenting at the FACS Summer Conference. (That means that I still have two weeks until my summer even starts.) Calculate a summer vacation in there and the fact that I will be back at school halfway through August and I start to get panicky! My summer is already slipping away. So instead of trying to get another job - I am going to just focus on Red Ladder Design and have as much fun as possible.

David and I have repeatedly discussed how grateful we are that David took the job with Hansen, Barnett, and Maxwell. Not only have they been an amazing company to work for, during the summer they get off at noon on Fridays! Isn't that the greatest? It makes me so grateful that this is where we are - and that they are the kind of company who realize that the summer is a slow time of year and are okay with people taking off early on Friday. I think that it probably helps the employees to work harder during the week, and I know that it makes me loyal to the company as a wife. I just love them over at HBM.

I've been thinking a lot about how much has happened in the 5 years since I have graduated high school. Five years ago, I was in a white cap and gown wondering what my future held for me. Yesterday I was a faculty member in a gold hood and gown watching as the students that have become so dear to me turned their tassels from the left to the right - signifying their own journey into the future. In the past five years I have graduated from college, married an amazing man, gotten a real job, and started my own business. I think that I am pretty close to what I would have said if you had asked me where I would be in five years. I hope that the next five years is as good to me as the past five have been.

I guess this is a pretty random post - and it's super uninteresting because I don't have any pictures. (Hopefully that will change this summer when I start blogging from home instead of blogging from school.) But - there you have it. Shantel's thoughts on a Friday afternoon. Now i'm headed home to clean my poor, neglected house. (It's been quite the busy couple of weeks - don't judge me.)

Happy Friday to all of you!