Memories--like the corners of my mind...

If you started thinking about Tom Hanks in the movie BIG then you are not the only one! I pictured the scene where he was wearing that crazy white tuxedo at the company party eating the small corn. LOL!

Today I have been scanning up a storm! We are preparing for my Grandmother's 75th Birthday bash on Saturday. It is going to be some party! 200 guests have been invited, and I get the pleasure of putting together a slide show celebrating her life. Looking at all these pictures and seeing my Grandmother at different stages of her life makes me marvel at the life she has had! No, it hasn't been perfect and there have been struggles, but in every picture she is smiling and there is always family around her.

What an amazing woman! Part of my new journey as a writer began with a narrative that I previously mentioned about the extended family. I will not post this piece today because I am reading it at the party so I don't want to ruin it. I am also tweaking the piece and adding some Spanish flair to it. :)

I pray that in my future--if I am so blessed to make it to 75 years old that I have pictures of myself to look back on. Not the ones just of me, but those that document those treasured times spent with family.

What's Up with This???

I've wiped out the old blog and have begun anew! SO many changes over the past few months and I will take time to eventually write them all down--but not today. :) Today is officiallly Day 2 of my summer vacation and I've already done so much--except clean my house. :(

Last week, I attended a Writing Workshop that my school signed up for. I was not looking forward to this week-long training. I just didn't know what to expect, but once there, the "greeness" of my attitude as a teacher shone through. Our instructor in the morning sessions was interesting...but he gave great instruction! We were there to learn how to develop a writing notebook and teach it to our classes. It was stressed that writing is such an integral part of learning. Yep--I knew that; but how am I, not a writer, going to teach writing to 5th graders? Scary.

Our first assignment was to decorate our writer's notebook. Not scary. My over-achieving self found some cute scrapbook paper at home and got to work. The next day, we took 20 minutes and wrote about forgiveness. Really? That's pretty deep for a workshop. I filled up 2 pages in no time! We then worked in groups and developed ideas that just came into our head. The two ideas I had were "Technology and Family Life" and "The Fall of the Extended Family." Deep. Where did those ideas come from? I chose to elaborate and wrote about the extended family, which turned into a short narrative.

I was excited!!! But, where did this excitement come from? I never got excited about writing and somehow the words began to flow. Initial feedback from our instructor was that "I was a writer." A what? Never. But deep inside I knew. I wrote last night in my notebook and can't wait to write more. Where will this take me--I am not sure. I do know that there is a desire that I never knew I had and I want to use this for the betterment of my students and to fulfill God's purpose in my life.