Adventures in Tonga

I've been away with no access to internet (decent internet) for 2 weeks while away on the Pacific island of Tonga. I can't lie having no TV or internet for 2 weeks was blissful. Life in the pacific is sloooow paced. Least stressed people on earth. Have to be somewhere? Don't worry, they are in no hurry. Tonga was a fantastic trip and I THOROUGHLY enjoyed myself. It is nice to be back where I'm not sweating all the time though. Being smelly 24-7 is not exactly ideal. But I learned some great things about the people, the culture, and how much I love being with my husband. We spent our 2 year anniversary there and it was fabulous. Some pics from our trip...

We found some incredible shells and coral while swimming/snorkeling through finding nemo worthy waters. The people in our group probably thought I was strange for swooning over the different types of broken coral, but they had such great texture! No one else seemed to appreciate them as much as I do. My husband also picked up 14 WHOLE beautiful sand dollars just hangnin out on the ocean floor. Each had to be washed and bleached cause they STUNK. I intend to draw/paint all of them and maybe have my advanced art students draw their beautiful twists and turns next year too.

I painted this artichoke before leaving for tonga. I admit the purple swirls around it were probably a mistake...I will fix them. But I loved painting it. I was inspired by Kal Barteski.

Teacher time

Image from Kal Barteski

This girl rocks. I love her blog. I love her art. And this print of hers explains my current thoughts.

Today I was feeling rather bored and disappointed with the lack of things I’ve accomplished in the past few days. As a teacher I am pleased to enjoy to benefits of summer. I thought, oh yes I will have so much time to make and do what I please. However I’ve been sick all week and that’s kept me from doing all the art I had dreamed about making with all my spare time. So today…while sniffling and sneezing...I arrived at a studentless school. To my surprise the principal (my boss=) was there and needed to talk to me. Over the last weeks of school he came to me several different times to tell me he had found one more class for me. Each class meant a bump in salary and more time for me to get to know peeps at lunch!

On the last day of school I left thinking next year I would be 83% meaning: one class short of full time. And, I was happy with that. Today he told me I will have a full schedule next year!!! Wahoo. I’m a real teacher. Even though, yes, technically I was a real teacher this year…I was only half day. So when people would hear that they’d say apologetically…oh but that’s ok. Being half time I felt like people were thinking…oh she's just HALF day no biggie. So now I am SO SO SO excited to have my classroom ALL to myself and be teaching the 2 things I love to teach: Art and Spanish. And yes I know teachers don’t make squat, but it’s more than I’ve ever made in my life and as the saying goes….having dreams is better than having money.