Day of Rest- I mean running around...

Well, I made it through week one of school. Everything went pretty well, but man- I'm exhausted! We went out to dinner and karaoke with friends on Friday. After two hours at the restaurant, we finally got our food. The problem... we weren't even hungry by then. After dinner we headed to karaoke and watched some fantastic singers! I'm not even joking absolutely fab! One lady had the most beautiful, raspy, soulful voice that I have heard in a while. If you closed your eyes, you would thought you were listening to the radio! We watched some of our friends brave the stage, and I must say, they did great! I even got up there with a group of girls and sang "livin on a prayer." Mind you- I stood behind them and didn't sing directly into the mic. I'm glad Toody was ready to go before my song came up... Saturday treated me VERY WELL! Got a much needed pedi and did a little shopping. When Toody got home, we headed up to Choctaw for a little slot machine time for a friend's birthday. We didn't win anything, but we played for a while. After about an hour I started getting a headache. Does anybody else get headaches in casinos? I always do, but it doesn't keep me away. I think it has to be the lights and all the loud bells. I usually like to play a little blackjack, but all the tables were filled to the gill! We headed home and hit the hay. On the agenda for today: headed out to the lake to check out some possible properties, grocery shopping (I can not eat another sandwich for lunch), and laundry.

The longest/shortest day ever...

I can't even believe that today was the first day of school! I always forget how crazy the first couple days of kindergarten are! It was the longest/shortest day ever. I will say that I ADORE my class and they are soooooo cute! We spent the day learning about our rules and procedures and doing a few activities. I think the highlight of the day was our "magic play dough". I explained to the kiddos that the play dough was magic and if it changed colors, we would have a great year. As they played with the dough, it changed colors. The class was ecstatic. It was great to see their little bright faces. They loved it! Although it was a great day, I'm exhausted. It was about 107 outside today and I feel horrible. I've already had a bath and tried to take a nap. Sleep wouldn't come so I got up and did a little prep work for tomorrow. We will read "Chrysanthemum" and discuss our names. Each kiddo will decorate a large bubble-letter name. I hope they love it as much as they loved our activities today!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow...

Well, it's official: today is my last day of summer vacay! I go back tomorrow and the kids come on the 23rd. I'm having mixed emotions. Part of me is ready to be back in the swing of things, part of me wants to sleep until 9 everyday! I wonder if the school district would consider changing the hours for me? I know, long shot. I did get up there earlier this week and pretty much finished my classroom. For you non-teachers out there, this is a huge deal. It totally stinks to be in meetings all day long then have to work in your room. Now I'll be able to go home at a decent hour all week long! I also have spent a minimal amount of money this year! I bought a new 100's pocket chart, some new border, magnets, a new book, and some pillows. You should know, that's great for me. I'm semi-excited, semi-depressed, and semi-nervous, all signs of a teacher at the end of summer! Well, I'm off to get my house in order (cuz who knows when that will ever happen again!).

Ok, ok, ok, ok

So, I know, this day by day recap is getting a little ridic! Let me just sum it up for you right here: super fab vacay. While at the pond we relaxed, hiked, and ate. We took a trip up to Quebec and had an awesome time walking around, taking a carriage ride, watching the street performers, eating, drinking, shopping, and staying in our super cute boutique hotel room. We also visited the Citadel, which is a fort that is built around the city. Apparently it was built to ward of the Americans, but tsk tsk, it wasn't us to attacked. There was a 20 minute battle with the British (who won) in a farmer's field. At the Citadel we watched the changing of the guards. What is hilarious is that the guards wear British red coats, but the whole ceremony is done in French. Oh another hilarious note: their mascot is a goat. You must go to my facebook page and check out the pics! After Quebec we had another relaxing day at the pond before heading to Booth Bay Harbor, Pemaquid Point, and Christmas Cove. Booth Bay was so much fun and had tons of shopping and great food! Maine shrimp... yes please! Pemaquid Light House is sooooooo beautiful and has this gorgeous rock surrounding it. We walked the rock down to the water and played around. Of course we had to hit up the gift shop and get some ice cream too. From there we headed to Christmas Cove. That is wear Toody's g-pa used to stay when he was younger. He showed us the house they owned (hello- fabulous) and the club he used to life guard/pool manage at. It was awesome! We headed back to the pond for another relaxing evening and I started to feel nauseous. You may be asking- was in the shrimp? NO- it was the thought of our impending river rafting adventure the next morning. I was soooo scared. I had done it once before, but not since I was 12. Bed, sleep, anxious tummy, sleep. Wake up- scared to death. We get dressed, head to the rafting company and sign our lives away. We got on the bus, I was freaked the whole way. Well... long story short we flipped. Only one guy stayed in the raft and of course I was taken the furthest way by the river. When they got be back in the raft I was totally freaking out. We pulled over where I got out and pretty much refused to get back in. I have a fear of drowning and the water rushing at you doesn't exactly make it seem unreasonable. The river in down in a gorge and you can't hike out. The only way to get out is to take the river. I'm telling you- I was ready to live on that tiny beach for the rest of my life. There was nooooooo way I was going back on that river. Well, they talked me into getting back on. The thing is: I knew the big rapid was coming and I figured that if we got thrown out on a smaller rapid then hell was awaiting. I sat in the bottom of the raft until I knew we were in the clear. The rest of the trip was soooooooooo much fun. Met some great folks and have new friends. Well that's pretty much our trip. The day after rafting we headed to Portland, then headed home. Good times, great people, awesome food. Love Maine!

Total relaxation!!

So, I totally forgot that the sun comes up super early in Maine! Brian and I woke up (in separate beds) every hour from 5:00 to 7:00. The separate bed thing- the one we were both supposed to be in is a full. Toody and I both sleep with our elbows out and that just wasn't happening in that bed. After a few hours of tossing and turning, he finally went upstairs to sleep on an air mattress. After giving up of sleeping in, we headed to the main house to eat some breakfast. I went with a toasted English muffin and a piece of cheese, and Toody went with a yummy Maine blueberry muffin and coffee. After breakfast, we went walking down to the stream. I'm not kidding when I tell you this: in the stream, there is a cold spring that you can drink out of! So neat. Apparently that is where you used to get drinking water from. Toody said that when they were kids they would take cups down and get water! The last time we were in Maine we went to the side of the mountain and got jugs of water out of a pvc pipe sticking out of the mountain. Now we have a water filtration system in the house. We basically did NOTHING all day and it was great. Later in the evening we went down the mountain and got some dinner at one of the rafting/bar companies. We got home, lit the fire and settled in for another early night.

Up to the pond!

Maine Day 2

We woke up early, enjoyed our free continental breakfast and headed out of Portland. We got to Scowhegan and hit up the last McDonald's for miles. I am not even joking when I tell you that it is the busiest McDonald's that I've ever been in. It is huge and run like a well oiled machine. Insane I tell you. After our last fast food for a while, we went to Hannaford's. The closest thing to compare it to is our Tom Thumb. The best part is all of the locally farmed produce- and what I'm really talking about is the super sweet corn on the cob! I usually don't like corn, but this stuff is life changing. After a short shopping trip for snacks and beer, we headed up to the pond. I love the trip from Skowhegan! You can see beautiful mountains and rivers along the way. There are also Moose warnings everywhere! About an hour later we were headed up the mountain through Caratunk and up to Pleasant Pond. We arrived, unpacked our stuff and settled in. Memaw and Papaw cooked a yummy dinner of steak, corn and potatoes for Toody's birthday! Deelish! We sat on the porch for a while and headed to bed early!

Oops, day 1

Well, I totally did not post one single blog about Maine while we were there (no internet)! So I am going to kind of back track. Imagine that I'm in Maine and this is day #1!

We woke up at the unGodly hour of 3:30 in the morning to make our 5:30 flight. I was sooo tired. I took two Dramamine before we got on the flight and slept the entire first flight. We had a short layover and got on another tiny plane and headed for Portland, Maine. I heart Portland! We got a hotel room and headed downtown for some shopping/eating/drinking. If you have never been to Portland, Maine, I highly suggest you go. There is so much to do there. My faves: the Portland Headlight (a beautiful light house), Dimillo's (a floating restaurant with awesome fried Maine shrimp), and walking around downtown. We went straight for Dimillo's and I had the Maine shrimp and Toody had the fried lobster. We were both skeptical about the fried lobster, but it was really yummy! After an early supper we walked around downtown for a while and got some delicious ice cream. After the ice cream we were both exhausted so we went back to the hotel for some shut-eye. Next stop: Pleasant Pond!!!