A Christmas Without Snow

Today's HIGH: SEVENTY TWO DEGREES!

It's so strange that Christmas is right around the corner, yet there is no snow. In fact, it was t-shirt weather today. That's crazy. Two weeks worth of vacation started last Friday for me. A much needed two week vacation. The kids were getting restless, crabby, and unmotivated ... as well as I was. The last week of Kids in Motion was pretty much a party week. I brought in candy coal and candy canes for the kids on Thursday and we had a free day where we painted and did whatever. It was great. My class has been so great, they deserved it.

Work has been crazy. I have been assigned the PR and Marketing specialist at the Apopka Family Learning Center. I have started two initiatives since I've started working at AFLC. The first is a pen-pal program. A lot of the kids can't afford to be in the program we run so many gracious people have donated a lot of money to sponsor a few lucky children. So, I decided to put a face to the name of the child these big donors are sponsoring. I have picked 16 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to correspond with their sponsor. This didn't seem like it would be that difficult at first, but it turns out, coordinating this pen-pal program has been exhausting. The kids have made and sent out two cards with letters in them and unfortunately only 3 sponsors have responded to the pen-pals. However, it was exciting because one of the pen-pals of the kids actually came into AFLC to meet with their child and brought with them a whole bunch of Christmas presents for the family, namely, gift certificates for Publix, the local grocery store. It was so nice to see the impact this one woman was able to have on her pen-pal. It made all the hard work worth it, I just wish more of the sponsors would be more receptive.

The second initiative that I am working on is setting up a reading program for all of the kids and parents of the kids on the computer. So far I have made an account for all the classes but there was a stall in implementing the reading program because unfortunately we didn't have any computers. I got in touch with IBM and being the gracious company they are, they are going to be donating 4 computers to our center :-) I guess being persistent often pays off...even if it does irritate lots of people.

So, that's what I have been doing at work.

I'm also volunteering in other ways down in Apopka. Yesterday there was a toy sale at one of the local churches. People donated many gifts to HCC and as a fundraiser we resold the gifts at a VERY reduced price to people who otherwise couldn't afford to go Christmas shopping for their children. One of the coordinators made a good point about this- it's nice for the families to be able to come in and pick out their own presents and be able to actually purchase them, make it feel like they're not just receiving a hand-out from some charity.

The toy-sale in itself was pretty crazy. Over 200 people came to buy toys over the span of 6 hours. It was a really great experience.

Today has been pretty lazy. I cleaned up a little bit and then did a ton of art projects... It has been very relaxing. Also, my first day without my roommates, the house is eerily quiet...

In other news. My family is coming down for CHRISTMAS! On Friday my brother coming in from Kansas with his wife, Lucy, and his son, Eugene. I'm planning on taking them to DINOSAUR WORLD! in Plant City. Exciting times. Then, on Monday my mom,dad, grandma, sister, brother-in-law, and niece are flying in. We rented a house in Kissimmee. It has a pool. SWEET! I'm excited to see everyone! I think we have a lot of fun activities planned.

Only a few more days until Christmas, yay!

Underachievers please try harder...

So, it's been a very long while since I have last written. To sum it up I've put everything I've done into short phrases! If anything sounds interesting, let me know and I will most definitely elaborate for you :) Happy Wednesday!


Magic game with students.Perseverance.Florida.Turkeys in the sky.And on my wall.And Alisha’s wall.Dinosaur World.Cirque du Soleil.Community dinners.Hookah.Garibaldi.Cocoa Beach.Orange trees.Gleaning.Gnomes.Eye Spy.Red wine.Murder Mystery party. Mini golf. Birthday surprises.Old Spice Classic.Jacksonville.Hispanic Festival.Christmas concerts and an introduction to Posadas. Empanadas.Tampa.The Village Inn.PetsMart.Fernando.Sand dollar party.Surfing.Austins.New computers for AFLC.Apples on the beach.New friends.Art.Family.Pumpkin Smashing on a Sunday morning.Lizards.First class.Feeding gators.Roosters on the road.South Apopka and the railroad tracks.