Summer So Far

Last week marked halfway through summer “break.”  For me, I’m not sure “break” has been the word—more like “busy.”  Please accept my apology for lack of blogging and the ensuing list of excuses as to what I’ve been up to.

As soon as I packed up my classroom and finalized grades, I hit the road to help chaperone our youth group at church camp on Oak Island.  Caswell has been a longtime summer highlight for me; I always love making some summer memories with the teens that I’m so blessed to help lead at church year-round.  Caswell is an amazing place for strengthening friendships as well as that most important relationship with God, and I highly recommend that anyone involved in youth ministry check in out!

I plan to enroll in graduate school classes this fall, so when I got back from Caswell, I had less than a week to study for the GRE.  I quickly found myself regretting some of the “this is a piece of cake” pep talks I had given my own students only a month before.  I ended up with the scores I needed but not without reaching my limits of frustration and exhaustion.  Being on the taking side of a test again was an eye-opening experience for sure; I’ll take more pity on my students next end-of-grade testing season!

Next came Fourth of July week and we headed off to my parents’ vacation home at White Lake for a few days.  Our dog, Skittles, loves when we go to the lake because it’s the only time she gets a vacation.  She was even more excited this time because our friend Amy was both her backseat and bedtime companion.  My husband Brent, otherwise known as Olan Mills, did some Internet research and came away with some pretty cool fireworks photographs with his Canon digital SLR, even if I do have to admit this after making fun of him for a half hour straight.

The lake weekend began a three-week stretch in which Brent and I lived out of our suitcases and next we headed to Las Vegas.  The reason for the timing of the trip was that I attended the Teachers Pay Teachers Conference at the Venetian, where I learned so much about taking next steps on my TPT journey.  Teacher friends, stay tuned for some major changes from me to this end come fall.  However, the trip wasn’t all work and no play and we also had a great time with our friends Jeff and Janice who came with us for their first trip to Vegas.  We all enjoyed an amazing view from our 53rd floor hotel room at the Elara!  

We were home for less than a week after Vegas before heading to Florida with my sister and brother-in-law.  We visited Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in Florida for the second time in three years.  Our love for Harry Potter sucked us in both times, but our love for these theme parks will keep us coming back!  We were very impressed by the new Diagon Alley section in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  The Gringotts ride is amazing and Universal outdid themselves with the Hogwarts Express.  It’s definitely worth a trip in itself If you’re a Harry Potter fan. (And who isn’t?)

In a completely unexpected turn of events, I also braved my first real roller coaster EVER when I decided to take on the Hulk.  Anyone who knows me knows this is shocking (I’m afraid of heights and my adrenaline threshold usually maxes out at about 20 mph).  I'm still not sure what got into me and I honestly wasn’t sure I could do it until it was halfway over and I acknowledged to Brent and Donnay that I was still conscious.  I wouldn’t say that I loved it, but I do think I could learn to love it.  I blame my friend Lisa and her daredevil kids who have been dragging me to theme parks and water parks the last few years and slowly testing my limits.

Over the weekend, my parents joined us and we enjoyed a relaxing couple of days by the amazing pool at the Parc Soleil in Orlando.  This was perhaps the first time I had stopped to breathe in weeks and this is when it occurred to me that summer was over halfway over.  While it’s been a whirlwind, I certainly can’t complain about summer so far. 

Now it’s on to next week’s adventure: Vacation Bible School!  I can truly say I’m super excited.  Anyone who thinks teachers prop their feet up all summer doesn’t know what makes a real teacher tick.  Can’t wait to see how much I can cram into these last four weeks! 

God Blessed Texas (and NCAA Basketball)

A few months ago, my mom posed a question to me and Brent, my sister and her husband: “Would you all be interested in going to the NCAA Championship games in Dallas next spring?”  Three of us immediately said YES, with no hesitation. 

I raised an eyebrow and started to protest, but as soon as I saw the look on Brent’s face, I knew it was over.  We were going to the 2014 Final Four, even though there wouldn’t be the slightest hope of Wake Forest being there.  Despite the fact that my mom works for the athletic director at Wake Forest (who was chairperson of this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, hence the connection), Brent is a closet Duke fan.  Actually, he’s a loud and proud Duke fan, but I’m always trying to stuff his enthusiasm in the closet (without much success).

The rest of my family had that same enthusiasm for going to the Final Four, no matter what teams were going to be there, and pretty soon, even I caught the excitement.  I’d never been to Texas and I DO love college basketball (I can fill out a bracket with the best of them).  What did I have to lose?

Even though Brent’s beloved Blue Devils somehow lost out in the first round, NO team from North Carolina made the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1979 (before I was born!), and the ACC was COMPLETELY absent from the Final Four festivities, it was still by far the most exciting sporting event I’ve ever attended.  AT&T Stadium (a.k.a. Dallas Cowboys Stadium) was packed out, setting an attendance record for both games, topping out at nearly 80,000 people per night.  Brent, Brendan, and my dad even spotted a few famous people; by famous, I mean, athletes that I’ve never heard of BUT there were some other well-known sightings on the big screen.  

Perhaps the most exciting part was getting TO the event.  We were lucky enough to be included on a charter bus shuttle from the hotel to the stadium, complete with police escort!  Having motorcycle police officers clear the highway for our arrival definitely made for a memorable life moment. 

Thanks to the opporutnity to purchase tickets from my mom’s boss’ allotment, we also had awesome seats.  And we decided that it wasn’t SO bad having no one to cheer for, because there wasn’t any need to get nervous about the outcome.  We cheered when we felt like it, sat when we felt like it, and mostly watched other fans who were totally freaking out the way we would’ve been had an ACC school made it. 

In addition to the games, we visited a fan event called Bracket Town on Sunday, complete with an afternoon performance with the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders.  I was excited to spot Judy from the CMT show Making the Team and Brent was glad to see the cheerleaders, for the obvious reasons PLUS the fact that he’s ALSO a closet Dallas Cowboys fan (Brendan’s the only one trying to keep that closet door closed). 

The trip wasn’t all fun and games.  On Saturday, we visited The Sixth Floor Museum, which is located on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository from where it is believed that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shot that killed President Kennedy.  We were all really impressed by the museum and we learned a lot.

As a teacher tip, a few years ago, I started a new tradition in gift shops when we travel.  I try to find a book that suits the reading level of my students for my classroom library.  When I return, I either read it out loud or tell the students about it and encourage them to read it.  This was my classroom find for this trip:

  

On Sunday night, we planned to celebrate Donnay’s birthday since we’d be flying home on the actual  day.  We picked a restaurant on Open Table (I highly recommend this website and/or app when you’re out of town).   We ended up about a ten-minute drive away from downtown, and we all enjoyed the modern décor, quiet atmosphere, friendly waitstaff and delicious food at DISH.

We had some free time on Monday when my parents went to visit Southfork Ranch, where they filmed the TV show Dallas.   I said I just wanted to do something that made me feel like I had been to Texas, not just any big city, so Donnay and I picked out Fort Worth Stockyards, about half an hour away… think Old Salem, but for cowboys. 

   

Mom and Dad reportedly had a great time too…

Rounding out the weekend was the awesome hotel we stayed in, Omni Dallas.  It had a view of Reunion Park, which hosted concerts all weekend that we could hear in our rooms (such as Jason Aldean, Fun, and Bruce Springsteen) as well as fireworks on Sunday night (which were pretty cool from my parents’ 21^st floor room).  To top it off, there was a TV IN the bathroom mirror.  The only disappointment for me was that there was no CMT…even though we were in Texas?!?

The hotel also had a restaurant with one of the best breakfast buffets we'd ever had, complete with Texas-shaped waffles and a waiter who found me a Mountain Dew in the bar AND brought me an extra plus a to-go cup.  He must be an addict too.  :)

Overall, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat given the opportunity.  Hopefully, with Wake Forest there next time…go Deacs!