Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We've been reading a lot about early Church history, as well as the history of the Roman Empire, but we haven't learned much about the archaeological discoveries that have shaped historians' views of how people lived in these times. Learning about history through archaeology, particularly how that pertains to Bible history, was an exciting prospect! Drive Thru History® Adventures gave us access to their new Bible Unearthed course, and it was engaging and fun for all the kids, ages 5-11.

Home School in the Woods: Family Learning & Projects

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We're at it again with Home School in the Woods! If you're a new homeschooler this year, you must check out their offerings - so far we've tried two of their products that have aligned with our history studies, and both were so incredibly thorough they could stand on their own as a complete history curriculum! We prefer these as a supplement, since we already have all our books picked out for the year. This time we tried one in their Time Travelers U.S. History Studies series, and we chose Time Travelers: Colonial Life. They also have studies available from New World Explorers through World War II, so there's sure to be something for everyone.

The Mayflower at Cape Cod Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We just finished studying British history and are getting ready to move back to American history when we start up the school year again in August. It's always interesting learning from different sources about the first settlers of our country, so even though Rebecca Locklear's eBook,
The Mayflower at Cape Cod - Stories, activities, and research that connect 1620 with life today is intended for a slightly older age range (6th-12th graders) than most of my children, I thought it would be worth a read!

School in the Time of Quarantine: Home School in the Woods Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

We are BIG history fans in this house. After studying Ancient Greece for the past year and a half (it... took us a while to get through the longer book I chose, which apparently we were supposed to be reading three chapters from each week instead of two. Whoops!), it was finally time to move on to Ancient Rome! Hurrah! So the timing was perfect to try out some of the supplementary activities from the team at Home School in the Woods.

Carole P. Roman Review: Picture Books That Bring History to Life

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.



We are BIG history lovers in our family, and I'm always on the lookout for more books to keep on our shelves that will correspond with different historical periods we study. Lucky for us, Carole P. Roman has a whole series of colorfully illustrated reference books that appealed to all the children in our family!

Mattie Richardson's Horses of History: A Homeschool Review Crew Post

Cecilia went through a phase last year where she read a couple horse books and desperately wanted to read more written from the horse's point of view. But... There just aren't that many out there. Most are (obviously) written about people and their horses just figure prominently. So when I saw Mattie Richardson's Horses in History Series from Author Mattie Richardson/Appaloosy Books, I knew it would be right up her alley!

Why I Worked, Part 4: Another Baby, Another Move, Another Job Search

Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here

Here we are right after John Paul's birth - I was excited to go back to work for my first FULL year teaching, and not even a little bit concerned about leaving my newborn.  We had a sweet babysitter hired for the times when Andrew couldn't watch him at home, my freezer stash of milk was huge, and I was reeeeeeeeeeeally ready not to be nursing a baby all. the. time.

Dad in grad school = LOTS of father-son bonding time (when Dad's not studying, at least...)

Yeah, John Paul was one of those babies.  He would nurse for like, 45 minutes to an hour, and then 30 minutes later he would need to nurse again.  After all my pre-labor research and the information at the hospital saying "every 2-3 hours" I was a little disheartened.  So it was actually a HUGE help to my mental health that I could be at work and just have to take pumping breaks every 3-4 hours (which worked out really well with my schedule, and my body has always responded well to a pump).

My students were so sweet and SO excited.  Being a choir teacher is seriously the BEST job (if you're doing it right), because teaching kids who want to learn and want to be in your class is so rewarding!  I learned a ton teaching them that year, but there was a lot of uncertainty brewing underneath...

We were waiting and waiting and waiting for a job offer, any job offer for Andrew.  And my school was closing, staff being transferred to a new school that had just been built that year.  Meanwhile, my sister had moved in with us after a brief stint in the convent, and we were pretty cramped in our 2-bedroom apartment.  She was moving out that summer, but we needed a bigger place so that we had space for a new baby due in January!

We waited.  Still no job offer for Andrew.  I threw myself into visiting elementary students and recruiting for what *might* be my new choral program the next year, assuming we were still in the area.

We waited some more.  Still no job for Andrew.  I signed my teaching contract.  And got an ego boost when I found out that my program enrollment had increased by almost 100 students over the last year!  I took a tour of the school, including my gloriously huge classroom, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a pond.  We found an adorable condo in a nice neighborhood that would be perfect for our growing family.



Andrew graduated.  Still no job. We packed everything up for our move and a few days after our lease started at the new place (but right before we moved) in July?

Andrew got a job offer.

2.5 hours away.

Yeah, that condo wasn't happening.  I started searching for jobs in the area where we both grew up, but it was July already.  Pretty much everything had been filled.  We moved in with Andrew's dad and I resigned myself to "just" being a stay-at-home mom for now, until I could find another job (Andrew's job had a pretty low starting salary and no health insurance for us, so I really needed to find something if we were ever going to get out of his dad's house).

The school year started.  I was feeling, once again, really fabulous about the fact that I was AGAIN unable to find a teaching job.  And this time I even had experience!

Then of course on the first day of school, I got a call.  They needed a long-term substitute at a local high school because the teacher had to go on bed rest for her maternity leave.  They needed someone NOW!  And it worked out that that someone was me.  The pay was practically nothing (just enough to cover daycare for John Paul), but it was a great way to get into the district and hopefully find something for the next school year.

It was a blast, even though I had to teach show choir (don't even get me started. Those kids would sing SO well in rehearsals, and you put them on the stage and add choreography and 90% of them are just screaming the melody. Ugh.).  I got the lovely runaround when their teacher couldn't decide if she was going to come back from maternity leave or not, but I finished up my stint, we moved into a townhouse closer to Andrew's job (the hour+ commute every morning and evening was KILLER), and got excited about the prospect of a full-time job for me!

But apparently it was still not to be.



Cecilia was born and I got used to being a stay-at-home mom.  I joined a mom's group, a book club, met up with other moms at the playground.  I even started a blog!

I kept applying for jobs in the spring and summer, but nothing was opening up and I was kind of okay with "just" staying at home (despite the fact that we really needed the money, or at least the health insurance. I try not to think of what a horrible financial situation we were really in at this point...).



We spent a lot of quality time with "The Baby in the Mirror" that year

The summer was almost over, and I had no leads.

Then I got a call from a local high school director who needed someone to teach a class or two at the middle school.  It was a secondary school, and the choir position had never been full-time for middle school.  I took John Paul and Cecilia to a playground nearby where a sweet former student from my subbing watched them, and talked to this director to see if we were on the same page.  It seemed kind of perfect, so we set up a formal interview for the next week.



Incidentally, I got the call very conveniently while she was passed out!

Did I really want something part-time?  They didn't even know if it would be one or two classes...  After much prayer and deliberation, I accepted the position.  And then found out I would be teaching ONE class.  Thankfully it still qualified me for part-time benefits, so it was worth it financially.

I was so excited to be back teaching again!  We had a really sweet babysitter lined up.  And the schedule was weird, but nice - I could still do all my stay-at-home mom things, and every other weekday afternoon I headed off for a few hours to teach choir.



I was ready for a much-needed break from these two, no matter how adorable they were!

The only issue?  I got my final enrollment numbers shortly before school began.  69 middle school girls.  One class.

Coming up next: My last teaching job, the craziest maternity leave ever, and why I left teaching for good. (Read Part V here)

Why I Worked, Part 3: A Job, Finally!

Part 1 here, Part 2 here

When last we met (to talk about THIS at least), I was unexpectedly (although really, unsurprisingly...  NFP has rules, people!) pregnant, working 4 jobs, and had been applying for teaching jobs for nearly a year with no luck.  My most recent interviews were in school districts that were both about an hour away, and I never ended up hearing back from either of those schools.  And at this point in the year (November), either somebody was going to have to get sick or get pregnant for me to have a chance.

Well, as luck might have it, I got another call for a position open at a school only 5 minutes from our apartment!  And it was a middle school (my favorite)!  And it was actually full-time!  And the teacher was pregnant and didn't want to return after her maternity leave, so I would actually be under contract, not just substituting!

And I was convinced that I was out of luck again.  Because really, what had I learned from all these interviews?  That nobody wants to hire a wet-behind-the-ears new graduate with no experience outside of student teaching.

Morning sickness was bad.  I was puking more times than I could count every day.  I was starting to get things under control by the time my interview rolled around, only to wake up that morning feeling worse than ever before.  Apparently on top of the morning sickness, I had also caught a stomach bug!  Hooray!

But I had to go to this interview.

So I puked probably 10 times, squeezed myself into the new suit I had bought weeks before John Paul was conceived (I think I was about 10 or 11 weeks pregnant at this point?), and did my best on the interview.  Days later I actually got a call - the job was mine!

Luckily my due date wasn't until a few weeks after school was out for the summer.

What an exercise in trust, huh?  And I certainly needed it - I was so cocky about the fact that I was so qualified that I'd get an awesome teaching job right off the bat.  And we'd obviously postpone kids for a couple of years so Andrew could finish law school, and that would be no problem, right?

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

16 weeks pregnant

Things went a lot more smoothly at that point, although it wasn't exactly the cushiest teaching job...

See, I had inherited a choral program from a very nice lady who seemed to attract some of the less-than-savory characters in the school to her choirs.  For example, one of the groups I taught started out with two of the kids on long-term suspension, one of them (a girl) for smashing another girl's head into a locker and giving her a concussion.  The other one, a boy, had such anger issues that I had to send him out of my classroom one day for throwing a chair across the room.  The girl with anger issues also very frequently complained in class about how racist all white people were, and how slavery was all our fault and we should be apologizing to her for everything we made her ancestors GO through.

So that was fun.

Then there was the time some kids ratted on some other kids in the class for going to McDonald's after school before they had a rehearsal.  They thought I was the one who had snitched (like I really cared? Hardly.), and at the prospect of their punishment (not being able to go to the dance), one of the girls told another that she was going to punch me in the stomach and kill my baby.

So that was cool, too.

Honestly, it was a good place to be for a first teaching job.  My standards stayed low, I worked with some really tough kids and got good experience in those types of situations, and I learned how to work with choirs that had absolutely no training.

I took my 6th graders to Festival (or Assessment, or whatever they called it at that point), and they were pretty terrible but scored higher than any group at that school had for years.  That's how low expectations were.

The position was kind of a revolving door - two teachers before, a group had gone to Festival and performed an original song with a rap section that made fun of a rival school, including profanity.  They got a IV.

37 weeks and looking large

Meanwhile, here I was hugely pregnant with John Paul, and just holding on until the last day of school, at which point I would drive up to Northern Virginia to be with Andrew while he finished up an internship and we waited for John Paul to be born.  And everybody kept saying, "So you're not coming back next year, right?  You're going to stay home, right?"

Um.  Husband in law school.  Zero income.  I'm coming back to work.

And honestly?  I wanted to.  I mean, I wanted to stay home with my kids eventually but just one newborn and me?  I didn't think I could do it.  And when John Paul was born and I got a taste of life with a newborn?

"Newborns nurse every 2-3 hours"  HA!  Not him.  Every 30-45 minutes?

It sounds terrible, but I was really glad I had signed that teaching contract.

Andrew had a year left of law school, at which point we'd see where he found a job.  But for now, I was ready to return to the same job in a new year, with students who actually signed up for my class and not just an "easy A."

Coming up: my 2nd year teaching, moving for Andrew's job, not finding a job again, having Cecilia, finding a job, having the twins, getting pregnant with #5 and quitting teaching... (Read Part IV here)

Why I Worked: Part 2

For Part 1, click here

So here I was in college, getting the very practical degree I wanted, on a beautiful campus, with awesome people around me.

I did a lot of really important things, like dress up like a ninja and febreze the boys' rooms on our hall:



Dress up in crazy outfits for our weekly "Hump Day" dance parties in a friend's dorm room:



Audition for American Idol with my sister (we didn't make it):



And just generally have a fun college experience that didn't involve getting drunk or doing drugs or any of those "typical" college experiences.

Along the way I still knew that this was definitely the major for me, and definitely the career for me - every experience I had teaching cemented that, which made life a lot easier!  Meanwhile, Andrew added a history major and decided that maybe singing wasn't the way he wanted to make his living...  So it started looking like maybe I *wouldn't* need to work forever, and he might end up with a promising career making loads of money doing...  Something?

He graduated and took a year to work.  I returned to school for my Junior year with an engagement ring on my finger!

He decided to apply to law school, and ended up at William and Mary in Virginia.  I started researching jobs in the area and realized that there really weren't a ton of schools around there...  But I was going to HAVE to get a job, because we couldn't just live off of student loans and love!

I started sending out applications in January of 2008, planning our wedding and planning for my graduation in the process.



Not a single bite.  Teaching certification and a degree from one of the best universities in the country, and nobody wanted me.  Nobody was hiring music teachers ANYWHERE!

Meanwhile, friends were getting job offers left and right.  People who weren't constrained by location could go ANYWHERE and get a teaching job!  People like me who were limited to one geographical area that wasn't heavily populated?  Not so much.

I graduated.  Still no job.



We got married.  Still no job.



We went on our honeymoon in Jamaica and I got a call from the local school district asking me for a phone interview!  They suggested it for the day that we were driving all my stuff from Chicago to Virginia, but I figured I'd stop at a rest stop for the interview.

Meanwhile, we paid like $70 in roaming charges so that I could set up the interview...

I had my interview (while driving somewhere in Ohio, because I waited at a rest stop for an hour and they never called, so we got back on the road) and it went really well - they called me in for an in-person interview!

I had the interview, and it went really well.  The principal loved me, and talked about all the ways that they'd be able to help me get ready for the upcoming school year, and I impressed him with all my philosophical knowledge of music education.  The department chair seemed unimpressed and unfriendly, but honestly?  He was a high school band director.  I didn't take it personally ;)

Weeks went by.  No call.  I finally called to find out if there had been any decision, and they were shocked that HR hadn't informed me the position had been filled.  Don't you love it when they just leave you in the dark like that?

So we got ready for Andrew's upcoming school year and I kept filling out applications for school districts that were farther and farther away...  I had a few interviews, but nothing panned out.  And suddenly the school year was starting and I was still jobless.  

I filled out a profile on an online babysitting website and immediately had job offers.  I started working two babysitting jobs, and added a job at a local tutoring center on top of that.  Andrew and I decided that he probably needed to keep his church job in Washington, D.C. because that money would *really* help pay the bills, and they offered me a spot in the choir too.  So we commuted to DC every weekend and I still had NOTHING to show for my very, very expensive teaching degree.  

Talk about depressing.

Then, after 4 months of marriage and some very half-hearted NFP practicing, we found out we were pregnant.

And we were terrified.

No insurance, no actual job (or job prospects), and a baby on the way.

To be continued... (Part III here)

Why I Worked (Outside the Home) and Why I Don't Anymore: Part I

Would you like to hear the story of my career?

No?  That's not why you read all these mom blogs?

Well, I don't blame you - it's gonna be a long series of posts sharing my experiences in various jobs, which I haven't really shared publicly before...

Ages ago, Colleen had a Working Moms link-up, which I meant to join but never got around to writing a post...  So here's my contribution now!

We're gonna start waaaaaaaay back in elementary school - I went to a kind of swanky private school (scholarship + financial aid, not exactly rich kids...) where the teachers got INCREDIBLE presents from students at Christmas and at the end of the year.  Which led me to the belief that I wanted to be a teacher.  Because presents.

Adorable? Yes. Materialistic? Heck yeah.

Fast forward to high school, where all I really wanted was to get married and have babies.  Job? Maybe I'd do something while I waited for the first baby to be born, which would obviously be approximately 9 months after getting married.

But college was kind of a non-negotiable, and there's no way I even would have considered not getting a degree.  And there wasn't exactly a husband on the horizon, plus NOBODY got married out of high school in this area.  So the plan was to go to college, get some sort of degree, get married right after graduation and work until we had our first baby.

Then I started dating Andrew, who soon went off to college to major in...  Vocal Performance.

Yes, he's a lawyer now.  I don't think I have to tell you that plans change!

So I realized that if we were going to get married, probably I was going to have to work to help support our family.  But what was I going to DO?  I went to a math and science high school and had decided pretty early on that math and science were NOT my thing.  In fact, nothing was really my thing except singing.  And if you didn't know it already, sopranos are a dime a dozen.  Ain't no way I was gonna make a living singing...

Look!  High School us!

But I did a whole lot of choir stuff for fun, in any case.  And ended up doing rather a lot of rehearsal-leading and leadership stuff, and eventually realized that actually, it would be kind of awesome to be a music teacher!

And so a career choice was made!  And it all would have been smooth sailing, were it not for the fact that I didn't actually get into the music school of my choice come senior year...  See, I only applied to one, because if I wanted to go to music school I only wanted to go to Northwestern (I said because the academics were excellent, I wanted to get off the East Coast, and it was the program I wanted it.  I probably meant, "Because Andrew goes there.").  And I was wait-listed at Northwestern.  And also at Notre Dame, where I would have happily gone and majored in... Something, because music education isn't a major there (or at least wasn't when I was applying).

Something tells me my less-than-stellar attendance record in high school had something to do with this...

Anyway, I accepted a spot on both wait lists, figured, "Hey, God's will!" and accepted a spot at UVA (yeah, not everybody's safety school, I know...).  At this point I desperately felt as though Notre Dame was where I needed to be.  And then I went to All State Choir and had one of those life-changing experiences (I'm talking 100 sobbing choir girls singing Z. Randall Stroope with an amaaaaazing director) and I knew that music teaching was all that I could do.  And that Notre Dame wasn't going to happen, because I didn't want to have to get a master's degree when I still wanted to have all the babies.  

Long story short, I ended up getting into Northwestern and, RIGHT after I accepted, I got into Notre Dame.  And I excitedly started packing for Northwestern, imagining my future life as a music teacher with an awesome husband and a million kids (the logistics of this hadn't yet entered...)!

So young! So in love!

To be continued... (Read Part II here)

An Amazingly Awkward Love Story

I think I need to preface this by letting you know a little bit about my high school experience...

See, Andrew (my husband, his snarky input in bold) and I went a high school especially for nerds.

No, seriously - The Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (say that 3 times fast, k?) was the place we both called home for 4 years of our lives.  It's a magnet school especially for students with a high aptitude for math & science.  It has a lower acceptance rate than most colleges.  And it's a haven for nerds.

Also, it was the best high school in the country for five years in a row until last year.  I'm still bitter.

Now, most students in 8th grade don't exactly know what they want to do when they grow up, so if you get into TJ, you GO.  Even if you don't particularly like math or science.  And Andrew actually really enjoyed science (and still does, the astronomy nerd).  Whatever, John Paul loves astronomy too.  And I enjoyed math and science to a certain extent, because they were pretty easy.

However, when you get put in a building with 1600 other students who eat, sleep, and BREATHE math and science, you figure out your real interests preeeetty quickly!

Our high school mascot was a calculator (it started out as a TI-83, but was upgraded to a TI-83+ by the time I graduated).

Our chess team had been undefeated for 14 years when I started.  Our freshman football team had never scored a touchdown.

Our cheerleaders routinely got perfect scores on their SAT.

So it was somewhat surprising to many that we both found our niche in...  Choir?

...

The real story begins:

I was a freshman and he was a junior.

I, with my braces, lopsided bangs, and overly-peppy personality was most likely not the most attractive thing to him.

What, you mean YOU didn't have an ugly phase?

He, with his glasses, butt cut, and mom-chosen wardrobe?  Yikes.  False.  My mother had not chosen my clothes since at least sixth grade.  And he was a tenor (well, still is).  No way would I ever go for a tenor!

He perfected his condescending glare early on, as you can see

We had virtually no contact my freshman year.  He was in a different choir, but we were in the musical together.

Kismet.

(That means fate)

No, the title of the musical was Kismet.  It's perhaps one of the worst musicals ever written (False.  Borodin's music is awesome.), and DEFINITELY one of the worst to perform with a high school.

He was the romantic lead.  I was a slave girl.

He was seriously interested in a girl with a boyfriend.  I remember seeing them sitting close together in the halls, him with his hand on her knee, hoping that they would get together some day.  After all, he had been into her for a LONG time.  I didn't really care about him, until I heard him sing.

Hooooooooooooo boy!  I thought I like basses, but this tenor had me converted.  The sweet, lyrical tones of his voice were enough to make any girl look past the hair and the lack of a car.  But still, I wasn't romantically interested.  And I'm pretty sure he had no idea who I was.

Out of nowhere, his best friend asked me to the Valentine's Day dance.  Huh?  I said yes because hey, a junior asks a freshman to a dance?  Why not?

In an exceedingly awkward "date," I was forced to go to dinner alone with my friends, find my own ride to the dance, pay for my own ticket, and meet him there.  I remember slow dancing to a Backstreet Boys song, which he sang VERY loudly in my ear.

No, the best friend was NOT the one.  (Especially since he has turned out to be a militant atheist.)

Then came the Rob the Cradle dance - my sister and her friends all conspired to ask choir freshmen to the dance.  She convinced Andrew to ask me, because she knew I was enamored of his awesome voice.  We went to the dance together and didn't dance together the whole time...  I couldn't seem to find him, and he never asked me to dance.

Apparently he was behind me the whole time.  As I remember it, she was too busy dancing with approximately 4,325 other people to notice me.

So...  Not the best first date?

Fast forward through the summer, and we were in the same choir together!  But he in the tenor section, and I in the soprano section never sat together.  We were in the same after-school singing group, and at some point my dad got tired of picking me up two afternoons a week.  Andrew told me it was on his way home, so he started driving me home most of the time (I later found out that yes, it was sort of on his way home if he took the most traffic-filled way to get home...).  (No, it actually was on my way home.) (But NOT the way he normally drove home!!!  This was a lot more romantic when I thought he was wasting a lot more time...)  We bonded over our love of baseball and soon started having long AOL Instant Messenger chats about nothing in particular.

Then another friend of his asked me to the homecoming dance.  Again, upperclassman asks underclassman.  Sure?  But this guy had just broken up with his girlfriend of several years, and to make it worse, another one of his friends had asked HER to the dance and we were all in the same group.  AWKWARD.  Andrew didn't even go to the dance.  I'm pretty sure he was still in love with the same girl as the year before.

No, I think I was pretty much over her by then, but I was also into someone else who would have been a disaster in the end.

I was a shameless flirt.  I would have HATED being friends with me back then.  But I was totally not interested in Andrew - after all, he was a Baptist.  No.  Way.  I was going to marry a Catholic, and there's no way I was dating anyone that I wouldn't marry!

At the same time though, we had an awesome time together.  So I started singing alto (HA!), and we sat next to each other joking through much of class.

Sometime around February I started thinking, "Hey, I've never had a boyfriend!  Look, that guy in my chemistry class wears a scapular, we should date!"

So we went about it the high school way - my friends told his friends that I liked him, his friends told my friends that he reciprocated, my friend brought him flowers to give to me to ask me out.  You know, typical high school stuff.

We went on one date.  To see A Beautiful Mind.  He tried to kiss me with his mouth open and I ran into his teeth.

SO romantic.

And thus began my first high school relationship - he didn't understand why I wouldn't sit with him at lunch (his friends had a conversation about how long one of their poops was.  Cecilia would have loved it, but not I...).  Or why I wouldn't let him grab my butt.  I realized that every time he leaned in for a kiss I thought, "Ick!"  So we had "the talk."

Me:  I think we should break up.
Him:  Yeah, we never see each other anyway.

Incidentally, he's married now (to a really beautiful woman) and not Catholic.  So good for both of us!

I still haven't let it go that I married the first girl I dated, but Rosie can't say the same... (You can see that we've both matured a LOT since high school)

Throughout our "relationship" I had many phone conversations with my sister in which I extolled the virtues of the untouchable Andrew Hill.  There came a point where she asked, "So...  Why don't you date HIM instead?"  "Because he's a BAPTIST!" I replied.

At this point, I'm not convinced that we had actually talked about anything faith-related.  So I'm not sure how this was such a large sticking point.  (Because.  BABIES!)

And thus our friendship continued, him driving way out of his way to take me home twice a week, hours and hours of IM conversations about nothing, and what were clearly hints that were TOO subtle on my part (so subtle that they were nonexistent), trying to get him to ask me to his Senior Prom.

WILL ROSIE DISCOVER A CURLING IRON OR SIDE-SWEPT BANGS?  WILL ANDREW STOP PARTING HIS HAIR DOWN THE MIDDLE?  WILL THEY EVER STOP BEATING AROUND THE BUSH AND START DATING???

To be continued...

Stay tuned for Part II, in which a choir bus to NYC brings us closer than we ever would have expected!  Oh and if you're an addict like me, check out more love stories at Camp Patton!