LADDventure

Thank You & Airplane Pants

I have no words to express how grateful I am for all the support of my book this week. So, I'll stick to two...Thank You!

I am in Wisconsin visiting family and friends, so I'll leave you with a little midwest love to kick off the weekend. I'm from just south of Milwaukee and will be attending a wedding there tomorrow. This video demonstrates all that is good and right with that lovely city on Lake Michigan...

I bought these pants from Target for the airplane ride. So comfy and cute. Obsessed.

Also, Airplane Passengers as Explained by Their Pants. Hilarious.

It's Finally Here!

Friends, that right there in my hand is my book. I can hardly believe it, and I've never been more proud of anything in my life. It's been the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever worked on. It's a dream come true, a year and a half in the making, and I am so excited to share it with you today!

This book is a combination of cherished stories from my years as a teacher and the valuable insight and practical tips for parents and teachers those years have taught me. Being a teacher will always be a part of who I am, and this feels like the perfect way to bridge the transition from teacher to writer.

Whether you're a parent, a teacher, or just anyone who has ever gone to school, this book is for you. It's officially available on Amazon now, and I'd so appreciate it if you'd buy a copy, leave a review, and share it with anyone you think may enjoy it.

I can't thank you enough for your excitement and encouragment throughout this entire process, and your continued support as I share it. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some celebrating to do!

New Year, New Look, What's Next?

Happy 2104 everyone!  I know I've been absent here at LADDventure for a while, and for a few good reasons:

1.  Holidays, hosting, hustle. Enough said.

2.  A book.  The first draft of my book is done, and my manuscript is being polished up and sent off this week for review!  Revisions, designing, editing, and ongoing promotion will be the next steps.  Candid Classroom:  What Parents Want to Know & Teachers Want to Tell Them (yup, we have a title folks!) is due out in April.  Stay up to date on book news over at The Candid Teacher.

3.  A makeover!  This space was in desperate need of a fresh new look, so I've been hard at work to move the blog from Blogger to Typepad and give it a face lift.  I've repaired my dysfunctional relationship with Photoshop, and we are starting over together to bring you a redesign, and a much more functional blog.  What do you think?  Click around, comment, and enter your email address, so you always get updated when a new post is ready.  Besides having other things going on, I've truthfully not wanted to spend a lot of time here because it was ugly, but now it's pretty and inspiring! My head is full of post ideas and new directions for LADDventure, so be expecting lots more in this personal space in the near future.

Speaking of the future, I have some thoughts on 2014.  I don't typically stick to resolutions very well, so I've decided to start picking one word instead - a theme really for the year.  Resolutions are easily broken, but one word can be a guidepost.  I use it as a benchmark and a reminder of how I want to live out the year.  So my word for this year...

I have done lots of thinking about what I want 2014 to look like, and I feel like I have a lot of big things coming up.  With big things comes the tendency to get overwhelmed and discouraged by the enormity of it all.  But, I've found I'm most proud of myself in handling big things when I'm just focusing on the very next thing; taking things one step at a time and doing the next thing that's in front of me. 

I want to focus on doing the next small task toward the book and any other creative projects.  I want to make the next right food or activity choice instead of falling on and off the weight loss wagon.  I want to do the next right thing in terms of being a better wife, friend, sister. 

Most of all this year, I want to take the next steps toward starting a family one step at a time because, we have some news...

photo credit Gretchen Wakeman

We have officially started the process to adopt (hopefully two siblings) from the foster care system, and are both nervous and thrilled.  It feels good to have decided on a definite direction, and while we are super excited, we know there will be many questions and challenges along the way.  So, my personal goal is to take one step at a time, and not be overwhelmed by the process.  I want to just focus on the very next step in front of us, as it comes, to bring our future kids home.  Tomorrow I'll be sharing some more details about where we are in the process, how we told our families, and what's next! 

2014 is going to be a huge year!

An Invitation From The Candid Teacher

Hi everyone! I have been absent here at LADDventure for the last couple weeks, but not for lack of adventures.  We've been busy with guests, and Jeeping, and I've been working away on my book about what teachers wish parents knew. To give you a quick update, the book manuscript (rough draft) is due December 31st.  I am giving myself an even closer deadline of December 18th, because I like Christmas, and would not like to spend it working frantically on my manuscript.  I'm about halfway through the manuscript currently, so I did some calculating, and that means I need to write 4,000 words a week or 800 words a day Monday-Friday from now until then.  Doable, but I need to buckle down.  This is the homestretch, and it's exciting, scary, and lots of work but will be so worth it when I hold a book in my hands that I freaking wrote come spring!

So, besides plugging away on the manuscript, I've been hard at work creating an online space for the ideas in the book at The Candid Teacher.  I've posted about everything from bullying to talking to your child's teacher, and have lots of new ideas in the works.  The site now includes a mailing list to help get the word out and keep everyone up to speed.  I'm inviting you to come connect with me over there and subscribe to get regular email updates delivered to your inbox.  Just click on the CONNECT button, then type in your name and email address to get all the latest about parenting, teaching, and the book.  You will get an email only when I have a new post for you, and I promise not to spam you or share your email address.  It's just my way of creating a community to share these ideas with, and keep you up to speed with book news and exclusives.  It would mean a lot to me if you'd add yourself to the list.  The more, the merrier.  The Candid Teacher is also on Facebook.  You can click here to like my Candid Teacher Facebook page and see ideas and other fun things that aren't included on the blog.  Thanks so much, and I'm looking forward to sharing lots of exciting updates soon.

photo credit: zappowbang via photopin cc

The Bridge Between

This space has been pretty quiet lately.  Part of that is because much of my creative effort  has been going into the book project.  But also, it's because I feel like this blog, and our lives are in transition. I started a second blog, The Candid Teacher, as a space to try out content for the book, and build a community around the topic of raising and educating kids.  It's been awesome, and that has freed this blog up for more creativity and personal stories.

So speaking of personal stories, there are things I've been processing, and words I've been searching for to describe recent events in our life.  I want to share with you here as a way to continue to think out loud, reach out to others who might be going through the same thing, and share a perspective, while documenting our journey.

We got some hard news a couple months ago, the kind that knocks the wind out of you and has you gasping for air and answers in the following weeks.  We've been trying to start a family for the past year and a half or so, with no luck.  I had previously written a little about it in this post.  We finally decided to get some testing done to determine if there were any issues.  There is an issue, a major, unexplained one, which nothing really can be done about, and it sucks.  We are both completely fine from a health standpoint, but we found out it will be nearly impossible for us to get pregnant on our own.  Basically, the best chance we'd have would be to go straight to IVF (In Vetro Fertilization), which is something we had already decided at the very beginning wasn't for us.

It is one of those heart wrenching cases of not really knowing how much you wanted something until you can't have it.  There have been lots of tears and hugging.  We've gone to some counseling to process things out loud, and grown closer to each other in these past couple months than I think we've ever been.  And after much thinking, praying, and discussing, we will most likely adopt, and are looking at getting the process started after the holidays.

I realize this is the very short version of the story, and I'm planning on openly discussing more about infertility and adoption on this blog in the near future.  But, this is just a quick rundown of where we are right now.  We're kind of on the bridge between two worlds.  We're taking some time to research, process emotions, and make decisions.  It's also a great time to enjoy our carefree kidless-ness, and focus on some things we already have going on.  Even the timing of this book project is really kind of neat to me when I think about it.  I have this window of time to write a book about bridging the gap between the classroom and parenthood, while I'm quite literally transitioning from being a teacher to being a mom, hopefully.  So our next adventure is going to be a big one, and I'm looking forward to sharing the story of our path to a family in an authentic way in this space.

My Most Embarrassing Moment

I was inspired by Kaia over at Musings of a Musician's Wife to share my most embarrassing moment with you today.  Venture back with me, if you will, to the year 1992.  I was in 5th grade.  The year of awkward crooked teeth and an even more awkward perm.  The beginning of adolescence, when even the slightest mishap is cause for mortification.  Well it was the last month of school, and Field Day was upon us, which meant all day outside competing in various relay races and team events.  My 5th grade teacher Mrs. Ruined My Life Hansen would not let me go back in the building to use the bathroom despite repeated pleading on my part.  I really had to pee, but she would not give in. I'm sure you can see where this is headed, but click here for the dramatic/even worse than you're imagining conclusion.

My New Website & A Book Update

Click here to check out the new site!

I couldn't be more excited to introduce you to The Candid Teacher (that's me)!  See that right there? Up at the top of this post?  That is a little sneak peak of my brand new website!

As some of you know, I am writing a book this year about things teachers wish parents knew. I am about a quarter of the way through the rough draft writing phase, and the book is due out in Spring 2014.  It's time to start getting the word out there, and test out some material.  So, I've decided to create a space online to keep everyone updated, but also to post more informally about all these teacher-ish and parent-y ideas I now have swirling around in my head 24/7.  It will be a launching pad for the book, but it will also include parent and teacher resources, and of course, honest talk about educating and raising kids. To me, the real beauty of the internet is the ability to interact.  So most of all, I want it to be a place for conversation, a spot to sit down with a cup of coffee or glass of wine and interact about this important and crazy business of rearing humans.  I would love for you to join in.  Everyone's invited to comment, respond to others' comments, or email me with ideas.  Even if we are not parents or teachers ourselves, the experiences around going to school and growing up are fairly universal. Therefore we can all find common ground, and I can't wait to spread out a big old blanket on that common ground and have a chat.

I will still be writing here at LADDventure, and in fact am excited to just be able to keep this space more personal.  Trust me it's about to get even more personal up in here.  I'd love for you to stick with me here, but also check out The Candid Teacher.

Here are a few ways to keep up to date with what's going on over there:

Subscribe to my post feed, so you always know what's new.
Like my new The Candid Teacher Facebook page
Follow me on Twitter.  You'll be seeing a lot more content related to this over on Twitter.
I even have a Candid Teacher Pinterest account now, which the teacher in me is absolutely giddy about cause y'all, there are crazy good teaching ideas on Pinterest. Parents, I promise no pins about making animal pancakes for your kids or other such nonsense.  Ain't nobody got time for that!