So, this is my first attempt at blogging...well, kind of. I had a website back in the days of Geocities that was similar to what a blog is today; we just didn't have the term "blog" back then. :-) I'll fumble along until I figure it out, but if anyone out there is reading, I hope you'll enjoy it. If not, well...there's millions of other blogs to go check out (but please stay!).

I'm not sure what exactly I'll be posting about, but most likely it will vary with my mood and interests. I know I'll be doing some posts about teaching (I'm posting my classroom pictures tomorrow!), life in general, maybe some writing, Japan, and my desire to live overseas.

Here's a quick intro (stuff other than what's already in my intro blurb) before I head to bed (because it took me a ridiculously long time to upload a picture as my background & in the end I still wasn't successful in making it a single image versus a repeating image *grrr*): I married my high school sweetheart, David, over 17 years ago and we have three children together. Two boys (Kiefer -18 & Brody - 16) and a girl (Ramey - 9). I call my page Misawa Mandi because I claim Misawa, Japan (三沢、日本）as my home even though I was only there for a couple of years. Misawa holds a special place in my heart because I met my husband there, we both graduated from high school there (but he was a year ahead of me), and our eldest child was born there. I love my family, God, Japan (and pretty much everything Japanese), Disney, Nintendo (especially Zelda games!), and Christmas. Not necessarily in that order. :-)