Me: “Noah, will you stay 4 forever?”
Noah: “No, I’ll be 5 then 6 and older.”
Me: “Why do want to get older?”
Noah: “Because I want to get smarter.”
I’m okay with that reason.
Really Not A Vacation
Travel with little ones cannot be called a vacation–there was super little vacationing that occurred during out time in Cali. Very little. One night–a mere 2 hours of vacation in the 7 days we were gone. Not bad considering. But I am exhausted. Even my toes are tired. These kids wear us out. The one night in Santa Barbara was gorgeous. We sat on our patio, drank wine, and listened to an up and coming singer/songwriter put on an impromptu show for the 8 people hanging out in the pool (our patio faced the pool). It was great. Almost like we were on vacation.
Here are a few photos–I’ll post more about the trip later (although it was fairly uneventful–as my children were extremely awesome the whole time–it was scary how awesome they were).
Vacation
So far the trip has been awesome. The kids are awesome. Only a few minor “tired” moments with a few tears. But mostly it has been awesome and so much fun. Disneyland was a blast and the kids lasted 10 hours. We have seen and done a lot-driving, eating out, entertaining and waiting with the kids weathering it like pros.
The End
Of my community college teaching career. I am taking a break from teaching to focus on my doctoral work and research for more possible articles. I am torn about this. It has been really fun to teach and I have really enjoyed it. It has been hard and it has been trying and frustrating as well. I’m not sad, as I knew that when I started working at the community that it really was just a way for me to get out of the house a little and then it became the way to pay for private school for Noah. It has been my savior and also been the biggest time sucker in my life. Teaching is really hard and time consuming. It is sometimes full-filling but mostly it is a time-sucker.
What I’ll Miss:
- The students
- Intellectual development (of students)
- Sharing my passion for writing
- Helping students become better thinkers, writers and students
- Challenging thoughts
- Being able to say I’m a teacher
What I won’t Miss:
- Plagiarism
- Excuses for why assignments aren’t done
- Failing students
- Grading papers
- Creating assignments
- Having a 3rd job
- Being an adjunct and treated like on
- Feeling frustrated that I can’t fix the system
Good-bye community college students and colleagues. It has been fun and I have learned so much. But I am happy to be moving on to a full-time job (one job) and being able to work on what I want to work on in order to begin to make an even bigger difference.
On The Right Side of Crazy
We are leaving in a few days for out family vacation to California. We’ll only be there for 5 days (not including travel days). We’ll be spending all of our time in Southern California. As someone who live in California we just have too much we want to squeeze into our short time there. We will of course be visiting Disneyland (even though we were just at Disney World last year) and Legoland. I’m excited that Legoland actually has a water park now–that should be fun. There are too many friends to see–sorry to most of you and of course we are planning on hitting our old stomping grounds in Santa Barbara–where it all began.
We’re lucky (I guess) to be staying with my mother-in-law for most of our trip. We are going to stay one night in Santa Barbara for a family day/night. That should be fun. This will certainly be a whirlwind trip that will certainly tire us more than it refreshes us. But I am so excited about taking the kids to Disneyland this year. Noah can ride nearly all the rides (depending on how accurate their height things are) and Zoë is so excited about seeing Princess and she can talk and experience so much more and ride rides. Last year when we went the only thing she did was Pirates of the Caribbean and The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. It’ll be much more fun this time around.
I’m getting ready to pack but have to remind myself of So Cal’s wonderful weather. I think I’m going to be chilly while I’m there. Have to remember to pack pants for the kids. When you are use to 3 digit heat indexes and oppressive humidity (don’t get me wrong I love the heat), one tends to be chilly when the high is only 81 and the lows are in the 60’s. I don’t remember what the 60’s feel like.
So, things are going to get crazy as we pack up and load ourselves onto that plane for 4 hours and drive in that great LA traffic (have I mentioned how much I despise LA traffic?) and wait in line for rides and characters, etc. But it’ll be a blast because my kids are awesome and my hubs is awesome.
Can’t wait to get there and have fun away from work with the kids. Will try to post several times while on vacation. I’m sure there will be much to write about.
Embracing Imperfection 