Live From Kent...: Oh geez it's February!

I have had tons of things on my mind the past month, but haven't had the desire to do much blogging since my New Year's Eve post! It's not that nothing has been happening, but sitting down and writing something about it is another thing. I've mostly been busy with subbing in Kent and finally subbed at Maplewood for the first time last week. Not only was it one of the easiest subbing jobs EVER, but I also got to see one of my friends (and 2009 Hero) Erica Woolf. It was great to see her again! I've mostly been subbing at the various schools in Kent. After having to commute to Southeast Middle School (20 minute drive) for student teaching, being able to commute as close as a half-mile to Stanton, Roosevelt, Franklin, or Davey (and Walls isn't much further) is a welcome change. Overall I've enjoyed the experiences I've had subbing. I've learned a lot more about classroom management and more of what I like to do as a teacher. My favorite placement (besides manning a bunch of study halls!) is going to the elementary schools as an intervention specialist. There I get to work with students either one-on-one or in small groups during the day. I have really enjoyed that and have done it at Walls, Franklin, and Davey. Also, I start Akron After-School again tomorrow at the same school I had in the Fall. I'm looking forward to seeing if I have any of the same students. Hopefully these next 8 weeks go as well as the last 8 weeks in the Fall.

So I had been wanting to get some pictures around town during the winter, but was waiting for a fresh snowfall. We really haven't had as much snow this winter as we normally do, or at least that's how it seems. Well, that changed Friday night as we got part of the huge snowstorm that dumped nearly 3 feet of snow on Washington, DC and Philadelphia. Initially, we were under a Winter Weather Advisory for 2-5 inches of snow. I remember thinking if the storm just shifts slightly to the north a little, we'd get a lot more. That's pretty much what happened. It started snowing Friday afternoon after I got home from subbing at Roosevelt. Mom and I went to dinner at Olive Garden around 5 and by then things were getting slick with heavy snowfall and sticky, wet snow. By 10:00 we were put in a Winter Storm Warning for over a foot of snow. I'm not sure how much we ended up getting since there was a lot of drifting, but it seems somewhere between 12 and 16 inches, maybe slightly more. It was quite the job cleaning it off the cars the next morning and shoveling it, though I was grateful to not be shoveling the 200-foot long driveway at our old house. Well, after the huge effort in shoveling the driveway and clearing the cars, we were still trapped because the street had not been plowed, so once we backed out of the clear driveway, we'd get stuck in the road. The street wasn't plowed until 2:00 PM, showing we're on the bottom of the importance heap! It cancelled our plans to attend the funeral of a family friend in Akron (I was supposed to sing, Grandpa was supposed to conduct the service) and mom's hair appointment downtown.

Left: looking out the front window Saturday morning! Yikes!

Right: cleared car and partially cleared driveway but an unplowed road!

Despite the storm, most of the day Saturday was bright and sunny (today too), so it was VERY bright! I was able to get a few pictures around town and was overall happy how they turned out. Every time I take pictures I wish I had a better camera, but these ones aren't too bad once I edited them a bit for lighting.