livin la vida loca

this may sound odd, but one thing i absolutely love about my job is the constant training we are provided. just when you think you know everything you need to know about childcare,and have used every single idea from your head that you could use, and exhausted every possible resource, there is some kind of training or event that is thrown my/our way to help us get some new,fresh thoughts in our head.

every year the company i work for gets all the area centers together and holds a "professional day" at the starbucks headquarters(or,sbux hq as i will refer to it from here on out). this may be the most dorkiest thing ever said in the world,but i LOVE professional day at sbux hq. free coffee/tea,catered breakfast(this year is was by krispy kreme),catered lunch(two words:JIMMY JOHN'S),there's raffles to win gift cards donated by parents, AND we get paid?? YES,PLEASE!!!

basically we all meet in the morning,eat breakfast, listen to the keynote speaker, head off to our first chosen class,eat lunch,head off to our second chosen class,then meet together one more time before heading out for the day(about 6.5 hrs total).

...here is how that day went for me. in pictures. duh.

first thing i did was check in and put on my fancy shmancy name tag:


i got there a tad late so i grabbed a banana,my first of many cups of coffee,and headed to sit with my coworkers and watch the keynote speaker,who had some interesting thoughts and ideas that i'm totally excited about bringing into my classroom:


after an hr of that,it was off to our first class,"documentation and display". the meeting rooms in sbux hq are all named after countries. my first class was in YEMEN(anyone who is a fan of the tv show friends will completely understand why this excited my soul)(also,for some reason my hand looks tiny,like the guy from the burger king commercial.i assure you i have normal sized human hands):


needless to day, it was a tad boring. we were definitely the troublemakers of the class who giggled and told lame jokes and tried to decide whether or not our teachers shirt CAME wrinkled,or she just forgot to iron it.

katie was a tad bored:


as was i:


so,as most of you know,the teaching profession is one that is dominated by women. and,well,the bathroom on our floor only has so many stalls...and when you gotta go,you gotta go...so me and my friends went. in the mens restroom.(this is something we also did last year. pretty sure it's become a tradition):



helllloooo from the mens room:


next it was the BEST part of the day...LUNCH!!!

so much jimmy,so little time:


yes,please and thank you:


the popular kids table:


it was at this point that i learned that i had won the raffle for a gift card to ross...which i promptly traded in for a gift card to the itunes store.

this may the biggest coffee cup i've seen in my life,as well as the coolest pot for plants:


after that amazing lunch it was time for our second class which was actually pretty fun. it was taught by one of the members of our leadership team. we played a game and our team won! i looooooooooove being a winner! our prize was these sweet foam fingers which we were proud to show off.

we got out of class a bit early and it was a gorgeous day so we went outside for a breath of fresh air...and discovered these AMAZING chair swing things right outside!(note:the foam fingers):


we ended the training at 3 pm. it was then a bunch of us decided to go to a local bar and unwind after a looooooooooooooong day. and by "unwinding" i mean we made friends with the new bartender at fado's, chewed out a friends ex husband for being an ass,tapped the back of a vw bug, getting lip sync serenaded to by a gay mexican liberace elvis,and learning how to salsa dance!
(my phone died around this point,hence the lack of pictures)

me and katie discovered we were feet twins! do you have ANY idea how hard it is to find someone else with a size 10 foot? trust me,almost impossible:


ohh la la,new glasses??? what do you think??


that's it for now...til next year!(assuming they let us back in,ha)

p.s. this is my 100th post!!! i'm going to celebrate by going to bed! goodnight!!!