People often ask why I decided to become a teacher. Well, as anyone in the profession would tell you, that’s a loaded question. There are many reasons why I chose to go into education, too many to list, really. One reason is I am a highly passionate and very excitable person; teaching seemed like a […]

“Oh, she loves the outdoors!”   This was absolute music to my ears when I suggested that Ivy, the pretty little lady I’ve met one time before, spend her three-month session outside. As I’ve said a couple of times, it’s been kind of a mucky, yucky, rainy summer up north; I had hopes for some […]

Kids, they grow up too fast. Am I right, or am I right?   My best friend/basically sister Dawn could probably speak to this much better than I can; she’s the one with kids. With that said, however, her girls are my nieces, and I cannot get over how big they are. It as clichéd […]

It’s been a week since I met little Freja, and I just cannot get over her hair.   Dan and Elizabeth’s sweet little lovely lady has just this amazing mass of dark, dark hair that, according to the parents, was styled into a Mohawk the day she was born and has remained that was since. […]

It happens every single year. Guaranteed.  We wait and wait and wait, only to have our hopes raised and then dropped like snowflakes—just heavier and harder with a lot more uffda.   But then, it happens.   It’s suddenly summer in Minnesota.   When it decides to become summer, it does in fine style. Between […]

  Our language has a lot of uses for the word “face.” It can be a noun, describing the outward appearance or expression or front part of the head; it can also be a verb, meaning to confront or to look forward.   High schools are the epitome of the use of “face.” They are […]

When people say that it’s a small world, they don’t know just how small until they have lived in a small town. Life in northern Minnesota some days, though, it seems so much more than small, but rather incredibly intricate; really, each one of our stories so interwoven that we all make up the delicate […]

When I rolled into town, my Corolla informed me that is was 92 degrees. For the first Friday in May, that was just too warm, even for the southern half of the state (we hadn’t done much better in the North…we clocked in at 86 degrees before I made my exodus).   By Saturday morning, […]

I hope you all have the opportunity to meet as selfless people as Dan and Elizabeth.   They have truly lived love in the name of their first born son Leo, a beautiful boy born an angel to them. They have jumped head first in their support of the March of Dimes, doing all that […]

I am such a dog person; I am surprised I don’t have fur. My last best friend was a miniature toy poodle named Fifi (because what else would a French Canadian name their poodle?). She was my partner, my alarm clock, my food vacuum cleaner, my toy thief—she was everything to me for nearly seventeen […]