Phew it's been a while

I had such high hopes and good intentions when I began this blog.

And then life happened.

Things have been busy, to say the least. I am now in charge of a preschool room and before and after school care room. With that comes a raise, a crazy schedule, the loss of two close friends, school work, and probably a billion other things I can't think of at the moment. On top of that a kid my brother and I know has recently been diagnosed with cancer again and is very quickly losing his battle, I am trying to get back to school in January, and in a month I will be moving out of my parents' house and into an apartment with one of my best friends' sister.

We'll see how well all of this goes.

Sunshine and Summertime

It's official, I want to live on the water and I want to spend every Fourth of July having a backyard cookout, swimming, kayaking, sailing, with cake and strawberry shortcake for dessert and watching the fireworks from the beach or boat. Seriously. 4th of July on the water is amazing.

comfort vs. new and more

A few months ago I applied to work at the daycare on the navy base where I live. I received a thing in the mail asking for a copy of my high school diploma and that was the last thing I heard for two months. Well today I got a phone call asking me to call some person there back.

I don't know if I want to. Despite the recent tensions at work I like my job and I am comfortable there. But on the base I will probably earn more and get benefits which I'll need by the end of this year. Which do I choose? Of course just because they want me to call them doesn't tell me anything. I'll have to do an interview and who knows if they'll like me after that. I interviewed at both Dressbarn and Hallmark before getting my current job and wasn't offered anything by either. And if they do want to hire me they could just want to hire me as part time. It's hard. I need to earn more so I can finally get back on track with credit cards and move out. But I'm established where I am.

Any suggestions?

Transformers and the beach, a great way to spend a Saturday

Yesterday was a good day. I saw Transformers with my brother and sister which was amazing, then after that I went down to the local beach with my co-workers Nikki and Mary. It was kind of planned last minute and it was crowded, but it was nice to just go somewhere and relax and have fun without worrying about money and such. We all brought our own food, found a spot down away from most of the people and just laid out relaxing.

Our beach is actually a state park, Point Lookout State Park to be exact. It's a penninsula, the southern most point of Maryland. During the Civil War it was the sight of a Yankee fort, named Fort Lincoln, and a prisoner of war camp for Confederate soldiers. There is also a lighthouse that is #5 of the top 5 most haunted lighthouses in the United States. The whole place is considered extremely haunted and the park police actually keep a record or every reported ghost sighting. It's an amazing place and I absolutely love going there. The lighthouse isn't open very often because of it's age and problems they've had in the past (and it used to belong to the US Coast Guard) so I've never been in it, but I always go see the reconstructed Fort and the in construction prison pen. In short I absolutely love Point Lookout.

plants

In April we decided to have our boys plant seeds as part of our Spring theme. We used potting soil, random wildflower seeds we somehow acquired, and Breyer's 100 calorie yogurt cups.

I took craft sticks/popsicle sticks, stuck a foam flower sticker to the end, and wrote everyone's names on the flowers to stick in so we knew whose was whose (because believe me, they asked!) We did this on a Thursday and by Monday morning we had sprouts! And we really weren't expecting anything to happen. Every other day we handed out the plants and the boys counted how many plants they had. After the first time the answers started becoming 100, 2 million, too many, 1001 (I really got this response from one of them!) but they still were actively looking and understanding their plants. Heather and I decided to send the plants home as Mother's Day presents so we replanted them in cheep colored plastic cups from Wal-Mart. The moms really enjoyed them and the boys were proud of what they had done!

new to this

Where do I begin? I'm new to blogging, but not new to the online journaling thing. I've been a member of livejournal for...four years? But blogging just seems different. After enjoying several blogs on here, mostly http://www.flipflopsandapplesauce.com/ and http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/, I decided to try my hand at this thing. We'll see how it goes.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Shannon, I am 21 and live in Southern Maryland. I graduated with honors from high school in 2005. I have two associate degrees, one in elementary education and one in early childhood education. I will be continuing school this fall after taking a semester off in between associates and bachelors. I started at the St. Mary's County Recreation and Parks Licensed Extended Day/Youth Camps in October 2007 as senior staff (now called child care teacher) and worked for one year in the infant/toddler room. On October 1, 2008 I moved to a pre-school room located in an elementary school. My coworker and friend Heather and I are in charge.

I am at that point of my life where I'm no longer a kid (flip flops) but not quite an adult (martinis) even though I will be 22 at the end of the year. I am a mix of adult and child, girly girl and tomboy, naive and experience, weak and strong, and free spirit and responsible worker. Here's my life, my work, and everything else I come across.