Help! I need your Disney tips

My daughter is taking the test for AG placement today.  It surprises me that I'm not nervous.  Each time I think about it, I don't even dwell on it at all.  Something might be wrong with me.

She and I have been making bracelets on the Rainbow Loom that everyone seems to have these days. Actually, I made one bracelet and then she took over while I sorted the bands into an egg carton.  It was nice quality time spent with my girl (and Josh had fun shooting the rubber bands all over the room).

My brain is all over the place today.

You know what?  After school detention really stinks.  For the teacher and the students.  It's kind of like when your child does something wrong and as a parent you have to punish them but the punishment turns out to be worse on the parent than it does the child.

OK, last thing before I go.  I need some tips for Disney. I'm too lazy to go read all of those Disney websites. We're staying on the property for an entire week and we will have a meal plan. We're flying. Anyone got any advice? Any big secrets I should know about? Specific places to eat?  Carry a backpack with water bottles? Souvenir shortcuts? What else?

bullets of randomness (brought to you by Speculoos Cookie Butter with Cocoa Swirl)

• Julianna was chosen from her class to receive the Good Citizen award.  She wants to know, "Why do they always pick me?"
• Josh being in the mountains last week was a good change of pace for both kids. Julianna has especially enjoyed it.  She says she doesn't want him to come back, but I know that's not really true. A midst the "I'm bored" and "It's too quiet" complaints I've heard from her this week, she has also gotten to select prizes at school and she's brought home extras for him too.  Then we talked to him on the phone the other night and he told me about going to the Candy Barrel in the mountains and selecting two pieces of everything so he could share one with Jules when he got home.  These moments are few and far between so I better make note of them when I can!

• Our 11th anniversary is next week.  A sure sign that I'm either getting too old or I've been married too long: I tried to look myself up in a high school yearbook the other day and I couldn't find my name in the index.  It turns out I was looking for my married name not my maiden name.

• Along the same lines, Jonathan's mom came over to keep the kids one night so we could go out to dinner and celebrate our anniversary.  It was so nice to squeeze in some time for just us in between all of our other commitments.  We ate at Carrabba's and then went to see Gravity.  I was skeptical about the movie but it turned out that I liked it a lot. It took a bit for my heart rate to come down after it was over.

• Trader Joe's now carries Cookie Butter with Cocoa Swirl.  It would just be mean to tell you how good it is and not share with you so let's just leave it at that.

• Yesterday my mom was talking with Josh about what presents he wants for his birthday. After telling her he wanted dinosaurs and a Spider-Man shirt and a few other silly things he said "I think Jules wants a new Lucy. Give one to me and I will just give it to her."

• After a horrible day at school yesterday I went to the track to work out with my running group and we did something new and fun. Between everyone in the group we completed 500 miles in just under an hour. It was pretty amazing to see the tick marks fill up the board and giving high-fives to each person as we each completed 400m was encouraging.  The 40-second-turned-3-second recovery in between each lap made it a pretty vigorous workout, which is the perfect cure for a horrible day.

I'm out of time for today. Have a good one!

it was a nice idea

It was a nice idea to think I could read 50 books this year, but I'm so far behind now that I know it's not going to happen.  Set goals, try to meet them and then revise, right?

It was a nice idea to volunteer for several committees at school. Then when I realized I would have less planning time than I've ever had in a teaching job before and they told me first year teachers weren't required to serve on a committee or sponsor a club it sounded better to wait until next year.

It was a nice idea to think that I would be getting home from school around 3pm each day since I knew students were dismissed at 2pm. It turns out that staying and working a little later so that I don't have to take work home is an even nicer idea.

It was a nice idea to schedule two half marathons for one training program with FF this fall, but what was I thinking planning to run one right after we get back from Disney World?

It was a nice idea to stay up late trying to catch up on episodes of How I Met Your Mother, but the reality is that I am super tired today.

It was a nice idea to think skipping the Dixie Classic Fair this year would be wise since we are going to Disney after all.  Really I just want to listen to Mandisa and eat a funnel cake.

What nice ideas have you had lately?
Have they worked out well for you?

I love Cow Tails

We had a fabulous, albeit busy weekend.  Friday we did laundry and packed for a trip to the mountains. Saturday morning we got up and did our long runs and in the afternoon we headed up to Banner Elk, NC with my family.

We got there late Saturday afternoon and played on the playground and went paddle-boating. We picked up some pizza for dinner and settled in.  We all did our crunches before bed for the October Challenge.

I got to love on my niece for entirely too short of an amount of time, but I did get her to smile once or twice and that's worth plenty.

Sunday morning we started the day off with coffee and putt-putt at 9am.  Just like any typical day, right?

Then we headed to walk around Bass Lake which was beautiful.

We ate lunch in Boone at the Come Back Shack. I ordered the fried green tomato, pimento cheese burger based on a recommendation from someone in line.  It also had special "Come Back Sauce" on it and it was so good.

We took the kids swimming after lunch.

We packed up, made a quick stop at the Mast General Store in Valle Crucis and then headed back to Boone to visit Jonathan's brother for a bit.

We got home late last night, exhausted but in a good way.

How was your weekend, friends?
Have you ever been to Blowing Rock/Banner Elk/Valle Crucis?
What's your favorite kind of old fashioned candy?

up to (in pictures)

Enjoying my latest NatureBox including the new Salted Caramel Pretzel Pops and especially loving being able to customize my box each month. You can still get 50% off your first box with my referral link here.  

My child karate-chopping in the swing.  We've had some beautiful park weather days lately.

Having fun watching my big girl at the Fall Festival at her school.  She's growing up too fast!

Dodging the road construction going on very near my house. We're getting a major highway interchange and widened roads as well as big-time traffic delays whenever we go somewhere around rush-hour.

Laughing with my dad doing planks at the track.  Also, join our October Crunch Challenge on Facebook for some extra core work. I don't know how to link for it, but it's a public group on FB. Just search for the event "October Crunch Challenge" on October 1st.

What have you been up to lately?

trail runs and sweet notes

On Saturday my half marathon training group had a recovery run scheduled for seven miles. Some of the group was doing the Salem Lake Trail Race but we decided to just get up earlier and go run Salem Lake Trail without racing.

It was absolutely gorgeous.  I love running in this kind of weather. Perfectly cool and beautiful views.

My dad ran with me and for a long time at the beginning I couldn't keep up with him.

There was also a 30k going on that morning as well. After we finished our run, Jonathan and the kids met us and we handed out water and Gatorade to some of the 30k racers. Julianna helped but Josh mostly sat and avoided talking to people.

Some cute little boy brought me a note at one point.

Not much could have started my day off better.

another trip to the pumpkin patch

On Sunday my sister and I took our kids to my parent's church to visit the pumpkin patch.

The kids had a lot of fun running around the pumpkins and climbing on the hay bales and nearby trees.  Well, my kids did. Jane is still a little young.  She mostly just slept and fussed when we put her down on top of cold pumpkins.

We did get a few good pics of the different families, but I'm betting that Seth's camera did a better job than my little phone camera.

This is the 35th year that Maple Springs United Methodist Church has sold pumpkins which is probably why it's sometimes referred to as "The Pumpkin Church."  The money raised goes to Missions.

Happy October, Y'all!