Fall Break (Gran's Cooking School)

The highlight of the week was Gran's Cooking School. This experience was so good , that it CAN NOT be lumped in with the other events of the day.

We love spending time with gran. Not only because we always get a good meal at her house, but because she is a dear lady who has a wonderful sense of humor. She is one of my favorite people to be around. She really means alot to not only David but also to me.

Cousin Sherry wanted to learn how to make Fish Cakes and Fried Corn Bread. Once we heard that Gran was going to give a cooking lesson we wanted in on the fun. We had a great time learning how to make the family favorite- fried corn bread. Don't ask because I won't tell, it is a secret recipe. The tips Gran and the others gave were great. Maybe one day I will become an expert with making these two dishes, but I doubt mine will ever be as good as Grans.

Somehow we got the wild idea to do "Corn Bread Fish Patties." So we took a lump of the fish patty mix and pressed it together with the corn bread mix and fried it up. It was wonderful. Everyone really liked the end result.

Madilyn had some corn bread and loved it, so I guess I needed to learn how to make it. I will have to try to make some soon.

It was a great day, and we all left stuffed. This is a day I will remember for years to come.

Fall Break (Saturday- Kennedy Space Center)

We have always wanted to visit the Kennedy Space Center but have never had the time. We decided that now was a good time to make time for a visit to the space center. Caleb has always loved space and we thought that this would be a good side trip that he would enjoy. We left our hotel around 8 in the morning and headed to the space center.

We decided to participate in the "Up Close and Personel Tour." This tour was about 2.5 hours in length, and took us all over the compound. We had several stops along the way in which we were permitted to get off of the bus in order to get a better view. These stops were a life savor to us, because while Madilyn was pretty good on the tour she did get a little restless and these stops permitted her to get down and run and explore on her own.

We only got to see about 1/2 of what the Kennedy Space Center has to offer. We plan on returning again, so that we can see everything that we did not have time to see on this trip. Caleb really enjoyed the tour. I am glad that we finally made time for this.

Fall Break (Friday- Day 7)

Today was our last full day in FL. We spent the moring at the pool. We then went and had lunch with Gran, Poppa Judah and many others. We spent some time at Diane and Aubrey's prior to going to Jermey and Jan's for a family dinner and a party for Diane's birthday.

It was a long but fun day.

Fall Break (Thursday- Day 6)

Today we visited the Sebastian Inlet and Fishing Museum. This museum has artifacts from David's family on display. It was interesting to see family history on display. We had planned on swimming in the inlet but changed plans when we arrived. The inlet was full of 3 bus loads of happy elementary students who were enjoying a field trip. So instead we spent time at the pool, had dinner at Diane and Aubrey's and returned to the hotel a little early in the evening because Madilyn was teething and wanted to go to bed. One of the best things about having a 13 year old and a toddler at the same time is that the teenager can babysit the toddler so the mom and dad can have a few minutes alone.

Madilyn was asleep by 8:00. David and I decided to take a walk and find a nice quiet place to get a cool drink. We found The Green Cabin Room on the resort site. We sat on the porch and enjoyed each others company, shrimp cocktail and a cool drink. We could not see the sunset but it was nice to feel the ocean breeze, and see all of the stars in the sky.

Fall Break (Wednesday- day 5)

Enjoyed another lazy day in Florida. I love having a fall break. We ate breakfast at Shutters again. We all tried something different. We learned that the flooding in GA was pretty bad. However, we have learned that our town has not been hit hard. That was a bit of good news.

We spent the day being lazy. Madilyn really loves the water and Caleb enjoyed the pool slide. The beach was basically not an option due to the harshness of the tide. It was too dangerous to take Madilyn on the beach when the waters were so rough.

Caleb went to church with Jeremy and Jan, while David and I took advantage of having a "date night." We had heard the Ocean Grill restaurant was a great place to eat. It was wonderful. The view was awesome, and the food was mouth watering. It was nice to spend time alone with David without worrying about the kids or anything else. We do not get very many date nights, so it was great to have one while we were on vacation.

While we were at dinner a storm came through. It was a sight to see the waves get rough, and the clouds rolling in over the water, really beautiful to watch. It moved through quickly, which was good because as much as I liked watching it, I did not want to get soaking wet going back to the car.

Fall Break (Tuesday- Day 4)

Today David, Madilyn and I walked to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was cloudy but still a great site to see. I have always loved watching the sunset and sun rise on the beach. Later we went to breakfast at Shutters. This resturant is at the resort and had a wonderful ocean view. The food was pretty good.

After breakfast we decided to take a trip to the pool and spend the morning relaxing. Madilyn once agian enjoyed playing in the water. She thinks she can swim and wanted out of her float. Caleb enjoyed the waterslide. We all enjoyed that the pool was not crowded and that it was well maintained.

Later we went to Jeremy and Jan's house for dinner and to spend time with family. We had a good visit. Madilyn loved playing with her cousins Victoria and Preston.

Fall Break (Monday- day 3)

We woke to find a beautiful day awaiting us. We ate breakfast and headed down to the beach. Madilyn did not like the beach very much. It was high tide and the waters were rough. She did play in the sand with her bucket and sholvel. We cut our beach trip short and headed to the pool. Madilyn did much better in the pool and loved playing in the water.

After pool time we cleaned up and headed over to spend some time with the grandparents.

Fall Break (Sunday- Day 2)

We got up early and had breakfast at Cracker Barrell prior to hitting the road for another long day of driving.

We arrived in Sebastain around noon. We first stopped in to visit with Gran and Pappa Judah prior to going to David's parents house. We had a nice visit with them. We then went to Diane and Aubrey's for a family lunch. Geremy and Jan also came over. It was very nice to see everyone.

We left around 4:00 to go and check into the hotel. We stayed at the Disney Vero Beach Resort. It was a very comfortable resort. We decided on a 2 bedroom villa, so that we could have space. The villia also had a living room and kitchen area.

We had, had a long day so we decided to stay in for dinner and had room service delivered to our room. The food did not disappoint. We had a nice quiet night with just the four of us.

Fall Break (Day 1)

We spent the morning getting ready for our family beach resort vacation. We left home around noon and arrived in Savannah, GA around 5:30. We decided to have dinner at The Crab Shack. We had eaten there while on Spring Break and loved it so we decided that while we were in the area we would enjoy the place once again. We were not disappointed. The food and atmosphere were just as we remembered. Caleb really loved the seafood platter that we ordered.

The day was long with the drive but the night was very enjoyable.

Leadership Academy 1

A few weeks ago my school Principal rec commended for admittance into the Cherokee County 2009-2010 Superintendent's Leadership Academy 1. I have received notification of acceptance into the academy today. This academy is sponsored by the school board and is used as a "growing" ground for the future leaders of Cherokee County Schools. The school board will usually hire people from this academy for leadership positions throughout the county. This will be a great venue for me to be seen and possibly may lead to my receiving a job as an AP.

One of the best aspects of this program is that it is during the regular school day. My participation in the program will not cut into my family time or conflict with my going to KSU in the spring.

Back to school (Maybe)

I decided that I want to go back to school. Yes I am that crazy, 6 years of college has not been enough. I have applied to KSU to work on my Specialist in Education Degree (Ed.S). This degree is NOT required in order to become an Assistant Principal or Principal but is recommended. I researched several programs and decided on KSU. Other schools had the program, but some of them are coming into question about the quality of the degree and some counties are not wanting to issue pay raises upon completion.

I had to take the GRE to apply to KSU. It was rushed since the deadline for the application was September 1. I had no time to prepare for the exam. I did alright, but not as well as I would have liked. The test had a lot of math on it. And face it anyone who knows me know that I am not good at math. I actually only graduated college the first time because I met a cute blond hair, blue eyed boy who was a math major, and he helped me out and he has been helping me with math and life since then.

I will not know if I have been accepted into the program until late October or early November. So we will just have to wait and see if I am going back to school, again.

September Updates

I thought August was busy. September has been even busier.

• David spent the first week of September in business meetings with his client from London and his contracts from Michigan. So he stayed in a small town outside of Detroit for about a week.
• I spent the first week of September miserable and sick as a dog. Of course I was sick when David was out of town, so it made things seem much worse than they actually were.
• Labor Day was a nice quiet event at our house. David grilled some ribs (which were yummy) and we just watched movies all day.
• Caleb has had several Scouting Events, including Water Mania and the Great Allatoona Lake Clean Up. Both of these events started with a Friday night camp out. During Water Mania Caleb was able to participate in a variety of water sports. He had a great time. The Great Allatoona Lake Clean Up, was all work. Scouts from all over the area gathered and picked up about 24 tons of trash from the lake shore line. Caleb has participated in this community service event for the past several years.
• I have had to attend 2 Open Houses and 2 different schools and have been working like a mad woman to get all of my student records entered into the state C-Net Data Base. This is a very time consuming task. The website is not very user friendly, but I am required to use it to record the activities of all of my Work Study students.
• This coming weekend we leave for our Fall Vacation. We are looking forward to having some down time.
• Our church is still looking and praying for a Senior Pastor. We have had a variety of guest speakers since June. It will be good to have a full time pastor again. We are just praying for the right one to come along.

Maybe this time I will keep this blog up to date.

Busy, Busy, Busy (August)

My last post was in August just prior to the school year starting. Since then we have been going almost non-stop.

Here are a few highlights from the month of August

• August 3, was the first day of school. Caleb started public school this year. He is at Creekland Middle school and is adjusting well. He is currently in all Advanced classes. I wonder who he gets his smarts from me or David. It must be a combination of both since David and I both have our strengths and weaknesses.
• I am still at two schools this year. Creekview High School and Sequoyah High School. It is hard but keeps me pretty busy. I am hoping to get enrollment up high enough that next year they will have to hire another Career Pathways Facilitator.
• Caleb has earned the rank of Star Scout and is now working on his Life Rank.
• Madilyn is a joy. She is into everything, but I would not change that for the world. She is always so happy and I love to hear her laugh.
• David took a much need vacation, or should I say "staycation". He was off work, but Caleb was in school. David used this time to work on a few of his own projects and try to unwind prior to having to take a week long trip to Detroit.
• David picked up a new hobby-- Beer Brewing. He went to a brewing event with a friend and then decided that he would like to try it. His first batch will be ready in September.
• For the first time since Caleb has been in school he and I have the same schedule. We are looking forward to Fall Break. We will be going to Vero Beach to see family. However, we will be staying at the Vero Beach Disney Resort. So we will be spending time at the beach and pool as well as spending time with family.