Spring Break fun!!!

Disney World provided us with entertainment between Sunday and Wednesday. We hit Magic Kingdom twice, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Epcot is fantastic this time of year because even with the insanely high volume of people that visited on Monday, the immense park dilutes the truth so you feel like the park is less crowded than it really is. The International Flower & Garden Festival was well worth the visit. Gorgeous flowers. I am now inspired to do more gardening in my yard. Coincidentally, Stacia & Steve visited Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, too, so we dined with them for lunch and dinner, and rode on a few rides together. After we left the park that day, Stacia & Steve got engaged! Very exciting! Stacia promises that Addison will get to be a flower girl! So thrilled! (See full photo recap of our trip here.) We came home Wednesday afternoon, exhausted but relieved to still have two days left of Spring Break. Robert went back to work, so Addison & I ran errands and hung out together. We spent some time yesterday dying Easter eggs with my mom and grandfather, Papa. We made 18 eggs, but two fell victim to falls and did not make the final basket count. Addison is eager to see where the Easter bunny hides her eggs tonight and optimistic that he will leave some goodies for her in the empty basket.

Today was a family beach day. It was windy when we arrived and quite chilly. The water was unbelievably cold but did not deter all swimmers, including my brother Hoyt. It quickly warmed up and we had a fantastically relaxing day. Addison ran, jumped, and splashed for hours. She built sandcastles with my dad, buried my brother and watched as his friend, Kat, sculpted a mermaid out of sand around his buried body. (Addison was given a choice of mermaid or princess. She chose mermaid.) We grilled chicken and ate lots of junk food. It was an ideal trip to the beach. You can see photos from our beach trip here. Sadly, I ended up with ZERO photos of my mom, but I want you all to know - she WAS there. :-)

quoteable Addy, Senators not making good choices

Addison: "Mommy, I'm so proud of you for putting on your shoes all by yourself! Good job!" Funny stuff.

This Senate Bill 6 stuff sucks. I may change careers. So far, I'm thinking of working at Hallmark. I've always loved Hallmark. With the variety of outside influences that overwhelm my students' each day, there is no way that I will show enough student gains (at least when measured by standardized testing) to be retained. I am so disappointed with the 21 Senators who think Senate Bill 6 is a fair and equitable way to manage teaching and student achievement/learning.

recent Addison-isms

1. Uses "from" instead of "when". Ex., "Can we go to Nonnie's house from we are done with dinner?"
2. Acutely aware of sounds and often says things incorrectly, but will correct you if you try to correct her: "Whistle Man" instead of "This Old Man". This causes us to be aware of our pronunciation.
3. Ability to replace words in songs with other rhyming words.
4. Enjoys replacing words in songs with silly words just to make us laugh. Particularly fond of using "booty" or "goose".

thoughts from my brain

First, I need to clarify - my sleepless night on Friday was not at all related to my caffiene overdose, but rather the steroids that were injected into my hip late that afternoon. The steroids were given to reduce my hives that I'd been battling for a week. I only just yesterday figured out what was causing the hives. My Snuggie. My cuddly, fuzzy, pink Snuggie. It now must be retired...to the garbage, unless someone claims it first. Any takers? Perhaps my brother Andrew is interested...

I love days like today. The weather was chilly but great. My students were cooperative and compliant, for the most part. I had a long-overdue and much needed parent meeting where the parent appreciated and praised us for our efforts with his child. (It was at this point in the day that I realized I was still wearing my "Belle" sticker that Addison adorned me with earlier this morning!) I got to give my intern an excellent evaluation (she really is going to be an awesome teacher). Then I got to go pick up Addison and Robert. We shopped at Kmart (Addison's first ever visit there), stopped in Toys-R-Us and bought Addison an adorable Princess castle alarm clock (yes, she really did need a clock for her room), and then headed off to eat yummy pizza at Barnaby's. We came home and have been lauging for the last hour. Now I'm stoked to play "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, thanks to Jason who shared an online version with us!). I absolutely adore days like this.

Looking forward to breakfast for dinner tomorrow with Uncle Patrick! Yum!

happy times

Thankfully, the last few weeks of school have been better, but not stellar. I blame any negativity at school on the fact that this "9 weeks" is actually 57 days long. For those of you who can't/don't like to do math in your free time, that adds up to an 11.5 week "9 weeks". 9 weeks my foot. Anyway, the extra weeks leading up to spring break have been trying on everyone at my school. We are now only 5 days away. Wish us luck.

HUGE yard sale at Betty & Phill's tomorrow. They sell their house in early April, so we're clearing out the clutter tomorrow from 8 - 1. Come say goodbye to the house that we all know & loved...and buy some stuff while you're there.

You will never believe this but, TWICE in the last seven days, I have voluntarily eaten broccoli! That has never, ever happened before in my lifetime. Robert is on this whole, "I'm going to eat vegetables now" kick, and I certainly can't let him best me there. Though so far he's ahead due to his eating zucchini and squash last week. Addison still can't handle broccoli, but she tries, bless her little heart.

Some of you may notice that I am posting this at 3am. Why, you ask? Because I had a gallon and a half (ish) of soda at Sonny's tonight (you know how humongous their glasses are!). Problem was that we ate dinner at about 8pm...so the caffeine continues to surge through me and gives me so much excess energy that I can't sleep. I got about two hours and have been awake since. Being ready for the yard sale may not be too much trouble for me, if I don't get to sleep soon.

Happy weekend everyone!

Show off!

Addison spends a great deal of her free time attempting to whistle. This video captured her best efforts to date. She beamed with pride afterwards, continually repeating, "I'm a big girl now that I can whistle! But I still can't snap." I guess we know what her next project will be.

thank heaven for weekends

While I may have endured an exceptionally horrible week (there were several events that transpired this week that I am choosing not to blog about), I intend to stay positive. Last night, I pulled a "Power Thought Card" that one of my fabulous Aunts (don't remember which one) gave to me many, many years ago and it read: "I turn every experience into an opportunity. Each problem has a solution. All experiences are opportunities to learn and grow. I am safe." Wow. I haven't looked at those cards in forever plus one day, and when I finally decide to open the box again the card is completely relevant to my current situation. Some (Read: Robert) will say that those cards are so generic that their 'meaning' could be made to fit any situation. I say that I can take it to mean whatever I want...and if that one little card is going to inspire me to keep going with my head held high, then so be it. If all else fails, at least the weekend is here now. All is well in your world when you're with the ones you love the most.