Post-Thanksgiving and vacation week blur!
I enjoyed a spectacular week away from school and with loved ones. The doggies have also been thankful for the arrival of fall weather in Texas.
My week began with a jaunt east to one of my favorite small cities - Charleston, SC. How I adore the palmetto state! Charley worked the Charleston Classic basketball tourney, and I played. We spotted Bill Murray at one of the Chuck Town games, but he didn't volunteer any details of that mysterious ear whisper he gave ScarJo in Lost In Translation. From SC, we road tripped to Savannah, GA - a MUST return-to-town on my list of get-to-know locales. The history! The charm! The culture! The food! Onward, we parked in Orlando, FL, where Charley headed up another fall tourney, The Old Spice Classic. Though I'm American, I freely admit that I'm no fan of Orlando, and even Disney (where The Old Spice Classic is nested) being the fine institution of resort excellence that it is, I've simply never been bitten by the mouse bug. My grandparents took me to Disney when I was a child, and while I greatly appreciated the experience they provided me, I remembered thinking, even as a 13 year old, "huh, ok." I suppose I'm more of a Dogpatch, USA kinda gal. Silver Dollar City, anyone? Dollywood? I regret that while in Orlando, Charley's three week work on the road (including a fantastically executed basketball event in Germany - think: Air Force hangar transformed into a basketball court) extravaganza illness germs caught up with me, too, and I missed out on meeting up with the always precious A. Thomas family at Universal Studios. Walking like a hooker in Charleston and Savannah played a toll on my near-concluding appendix removal recovery and I laid low a day or two to prevent any other organs from squirting out of my incisions.
Despite my feelings about Orlando and Disney, I do want to take my niece there at some point to provide her with that classic childhood experience. Speaking of that little cheddar bite, here she is doing what she does best - being utterly charming:
Back in Tejas, I spent a glorious few days in east Texas, mostly lounging around in pajamas. Life doesn't get much better, folks. Mudda fed us well, and we accomplished nothing other than sleep and laughs. Bentley is still a bit unsure about my niece since he probably harbors memories of her digging tunnels through his food bowl, so there was a small scuffle between the two of them, and now Maggie is a wee bit skeptical of Grace. My theory is that Grace's voice is even higher pitched (read: loud) than mine, and Maggie isn't so sure that the seven year old isn't out to steal her canine soul. Here are the two of them, both intent on sitting in my chair:
The fall in a public school that is on a semester schedule is bittersweet in some ways. The anticipation of long breaks is so tasty and 100% warranted given the breakneck pace that is demanded during the start up months. Yet, we educators know that with the passage of the new year, the spring semester trudges on like a line at the driver's license renewal office. This perspective convinces me, mostly, that I'd be a prime candidate for year-round school. I suspect the student brain would benefit, too. Learn for a few weeks, break for a bit, repeat. The majority of our nation isn't agrarian now, so the traditional school year schedule is not the only option any longer for many children. In southwestern states, however, it'll likely never happen unless electricity miraculously emerges as a free commodity, though. Texas schools in particular save, literally, millions of dollars in utility costs by being non-operative most of the summer months.
Back to Thanksgiving, though:
In homage to a season of family portraits, I give you a list of tips that a mother provided for professional photos attempted with family children: Check your expectations at the door and go with it...
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