School's out

Well, today was Maor's last day of school. On Tuesday the 4th-8th graders went to an amusement park, Great America, and I accompanied them. They divide the kids into groups based on ride thrill levels (low, medium, high) of the rides they want and a teacher or parent accompanies each group. The eighth graders got to walk around in pairs or they could hook up with a group. Another parent and I had a medium level group of 7 kids (including Maor) and an eighth grader hung out with us. I only went on one ride, the tame (despite its name) Rip Roaring Rapids. The kids had a great time.

One of the nice things about this year has been that I've had the opportunity to volunteer at Maor's school since I wasn't working. In Israel I rarely was able to accompany her class or do much during the day. I volunteered one day a week in the school library and helped out with various activities, such as the Scholastic book fair. Today I helped with the end of year teacher luncheon that the principal's wife hosts.



Now I am in high gear for getting ready for our trip to Israel. I am a bit worried that I'm going for too long (2 months) and I hope we don't wear out our welcome. I know Maor will have a great time but what am I going to do?! I bought myself a new toy and downloaded 4 audiobooks: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, Exile by Richard North Patterson, The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I am also bringing 2 books with me, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon and Independence Day by Richard Ford.

I also have a big cross stitch project which I haven't started yet, Kimono Row, from a book called A Cross Stitcher's Oriental Odyssey by Joan Elliot.


And of course there's the new Harry Potter book to look forward to, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which comes out 10 days after the fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Here's a cute song by Urban Tapestry about the upcoming book.

Yesterday I ran around buying paper goods for Maor's bat mitzvah party which will be on July 26th, 11 Av, im yirtze Hashem. I thought I had so much time to organize and buy everything I wanted and all of a sudden I'm leaving in 10 days and I'm not even done printing out the invitations (why am I doing it myself?!). I've also been buying things to decorate the tables. It seems that I'm doing all the work and Arthur and Maor are just going to show up. Story of my life.

Yesterday evening I registered for school for Fall 2007. I am taking 3 classes next semester: Information Organizations and Management (a requirement), Vocabulary Design, and Information Technology Tools and Applications - Advanced -
Library and Web 2.0. All 3 classes are online only. I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew. I would like to find a part time job as well, in the library field, but for that I need to redo my resume which I have been avoiding. Maybe over the summer.

Okay, my eyes are getting tired and Maor is screaming for the computer so I will sign off for now.

No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks!