Vacations on Sunny, Quiet Beaches

Hello! It feels like a long time since I was in the "electronic age" of email and blogs, when in reality, it's only been six days. My four family members and my parents-in-law headed out last Friday for a vacation in South Carolina. We returned home around lunch time today.
We drove, they in their car, and us in our van, each pulling campers; they pulling their hard camper and we pulled our pop up. We drove for about five hours on Friday, then stopped in a truck stop to pull over and sleep. We got up bright and early, grabbed some coffee from the "caffeine giant" and began our drive. We got to our campsites in sunny South Carolina and began our glorious vacation. The beach was not as commercial as the popular spots, the sands were white and the shells were plentiful.
During our week, we drove to Savannah, Georgia for the day one day, drove to Charleston, South Carolina on a different day, and spent quite a bit of our other time at the beach. The breezes off the ocean weren't sweltering, but they were wonderful in combination with the fabulous sun. For regular readers: you can be sure I religiously applied my sunscreen and came away with nary a tan. :) My oldest said, "You look white, Mom!" and I replied, "Thanks!" :) I applied sunscreen just as liberally to my two girls, but they did come away with a slight tan.
We got up each day, all 6 of us, except the days we drove to other cities, and searched for the "perfect shell". We were searching for conch shells but were unable to find any that didn't have cracks, holes or weather damage to them. There were quite a few shells to choose from and a variety of shell types, colors and shapes. We also got up bright and early and saw the sunrise one day, as well as took a night walk on the beach with our flashlights and glowsticks on a separate night.
Regular readers know I thoroughly enjoy scrapbooking and taking photos (although I'm not that great at it, I still love to do it! :)) My camera snapped and clicked away quite often this week. I got photos of alligators, egrets, crabs, pelicans, gulls and the cities we traveled to.
Then, yesterday, the wind picked up and a cold front moved through. It was absolutely freezing. We got packed up and headed on our way towards home... and all was fine until we hit some mountains and blizzard like conditions! We had to go very slow, as did everyone on the road, with hazard lights flashing and knuckles white. My husband did a great job maneuvering and ignoring my gasps. :) We got to the same truck stop that we stayed at on the way down and snuggled in for a chilly night's rest...then at 11:30, there were harsh raps on the side of my in laws' camper... "State police! Open up!"I must tell you that we were all startled out of sleep. The police officer proceeded to tell us that we needed to move our camper and sleep in a different area. He directed us to the back/far side of the stop, I believe, so that other stoppers (due to the snow!) could park in the many spots we were using.
We got up, got our caffeine, again, and drove towards home. We had to stop about two hours from home due to more snow and visibility issues. We made it home fine. The in-laws stopped for a late breakfast and we headed onward. This was before the second bout of snow. Then we called them on the cell phone and warned them. When they headed back on the highway, a car passed them and slid on the ice down into a ditch, causing them to swerve and slide all over the road! Some scary moments for them, but luckily, they were ok, and their vehicles were, too.
I have started the long process of editing photos and working on the mounds of laundry. My husband has unloaded the camper and taken it to the car wash bay to clean off the sand, road salt and muck.
While on the trip, I started reading the Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs. I have mentioned her scrapbooking series, and that I wanted to start these. They didn't disappoint and I have devoured four of them. I am currently into the fifth. My mom had purchased them, and having borrowed all of them from her, I could just pick up the next one after I'd finished! :)
All in all, we had a wonderful vacation with great family time, superb weather and enjoyable sites to see.

"H"

Fellow blogger, Isabelle, had the letter G posted and I volunteered for H. Feel free to let me know if you'd like a letter, too. :)

• Anyway, H was very suiting for me. My maiden name and married name both start with H, as does my mother-in-law's maiden name.

• H is for happy: I am sooo happy. I have a wonderful husband that I am still very in love with after almost thirteen years, and hopefully many more. I have two smart, beautiful and kind daughters. I have a nice home, a garden I love and two dogs who make me smile. As well as family in multiple states that I adore.

• H is for hearing. I have very good hearing. This drives my children crazy, for my bat-like hearing :) can hear them fighting, or getting into something (however rare these events might be...) I can hear. Sometimes the husband and children whisper to tease me...but it's no secret, these ears can hear. :)

• H is for handy. I am very handy...not with tools mind you, but paper and scrapbooking tools. I have gotten better at scrapbooking and I really enjoy it (although I don't claim to be magazine article fantastic, nor do I sit down and put the time into it that I'd like to because there is always something more to be done around here...)
  

• H is for headstrong...yep, my husband would definitely say that describes me....I would firmly disagree. :)

• H is also for hurry: time is hurrying by. It absolutely flies by with the growth and changes, emotional and physical, in our children. I blink and they're another year older or few inches taller....

• H is for homework, as well. I am taking classes, as I mentioned, and will soon be heading off this blog to work on the next two lessons.
  

• And lastly, H is for healthy. I am still running, and have only missed three or four days since getting the treadmill in February, even running outside in the warm weather we've had. In fact, I ran four miles again yesterday, as well as once earlier this week. I also am trying to limit the meats we're eating for better health. I love meat, don't get me wrong, I will never be a vegetarian. However, organic meat is so stinking expensive that it's just easier to eat meatless or fake meat. :)

Hope you enjoyed the H! :)

Books

I love to read. I love to read to myself, my children, and students. Actually, the husband, too. I love books. I just finished another round of adding to library thing. Both of my daughters organized their book shelves, this past weekend. In doing so, they found books they were "too old for" or just didn't want on their shelves anymore. Our oldest was running out of shelf room. They gave me their removed books, and I went through them. They're like me in the fact that they don't want the books thrown away, just moved off their shelves for later perusing. :) So, I cataloged the books that I could use in a future classroom on library thing. When I say use in a future classroom, I mean to read to the students related to a particular subject, or to set about a room for their perusal. If it's autumn, then I will do both: read to the students from autumn books, have lessons related to those books and have them about the room to look at when they're finished with their work.
I had a fun time going through books that have been favorites of both my children's and mine over the years.

Life Speeds Along

Another week flies by. Busy is the word of the day! We had:

• two piano lessons (one for each daughter)
• basketball game and practice (for the youngest)
• father/daughter dance for my husband and youngest which was Hawaiian themed and they had a great time
• meanwhile, the oldest and I had a "big girls' night out" and went out to eat and shopping. We're not huge shoppers, but we got a few things last night like a book we're reading and discussing. It's not our usual, but sounded good: The Mysterious Benedict Society
• Also, I subbed in fourth grade and read aloud to the classes: I got a D in Salami by Henry Winkler, which is a cute/good book for the age group. And I love read alouds. The kids were at rapt attention to hear what would happen next. :)
• I made flashcards for my youngest. Her time tests are subtraction, now, with minuends greater than 10 (minuends are the top number in a subtraction problem). I try to make them in different colors to try to trigger a memory in her brain. Like a harder one may be in blue, but she'll remember it better than if they were all in black and white. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but it's worth a try, and it's more fun than plain black and white flashcards. :)
• We had a family meeting, run by our oldest, covering a "make a word search" game idea. She had fun creating and running the meeting, and our youngest was the "recorder". :)
• I worked on my online class, tackling two homework assignments, as well as my cover letter. It's still a struggle to tell "how great I am" and not "brown nose". A struggle indeed, but I'm trying, so that hopefully the reader of said cover letter will see the real me, and a great teaching prospect in the process.
• I have now ran ten of the last eleven days since the treadmill. The last two days I increased the speed and could really feel the workout! Now, the weather's getting warmer, too, so I will try to get out when I can.
• I also began some spring cleaning: starting with my closet and dresser. I think I need to get rid of more...but I don't want to shop/spend money to replace things!! :) I got the girls to go through their clothes in closets and dressers, as well. They aren't really in the spring cleaning mode I am...and neither is my husband. :)
  

Next week, we have soccer starting for our oldest, and more of the same but daylight savings time will be kicking in. Yeah, more sunlight! :)
Speaking of sunlight: it's been about a year since my pre-pre-cancerous mole was removed (leaving a nice pink scar and a small bump on my head, thankfully covered by hair :)). I do still wear sunscreen or a lotion with sunscreen everyday. Even in the winter or when I think it's going to be a cloudy day! Sunscreen is important to preventing skin cancer, which is a growing epidemic! A chance to "inform" and review information lies here:
National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention
Have a great week, reader!

Treadmill Update & Weekend Plans

I have been running on the treadmill everyday since we got it-three days in a row! Nothing that will qualify me for an olympic team, but a good sweat nonetheless. :) Yesterday there was a thunderstorm and I was running, not having to put off the run until the lightning stopped! Today the wind was crazy: a wind advisory all day, and I had already run on the treadmill. :) So far, so good! :) And I got the runs in before I headed out to substitute teach in kindergarten.
Speaking of the kindergarten, I found a couple ideas I liked and wrote down to hopefully use in my own classroom someday.
Here they are:

• word detective: having sight words on cards (the, and, said, etc) placed around the room, using a magnifying glass they "hunt" around the room like a "word detective". There is a song they were playing that I'd have to hunt for, or I can make my own version! It was fun for the kids, can be modified for older children and they also had to look in books for the words, which was exciting when they found it!
• money races: in relay lines, a pile of coins on a table, and an amount to find. They had to find 57 cents, for example, headed to a coin pile and went and sat back down. The "winners" were the kids who got their amount right, instead of the line that wins!
• Read Chair for My Mother to talk about helping others and get the students started on a writing activity, but I also saw a lot of potential in the book, that I hadn't heard or read in ages. I saw potential for an activity that lead to money, as they save coins in the story, and bought a chair...you could have them think about money they save, look up items in catalogs, make change, and more. There was a fire in the house in the story, which could be used in fire prevention week-October, I think, or talk about how you might feel if your favorite things were lost in a fire. Responsibility, and hard work were themes, too.

Onto the weekend plans, as I'm running out of time before I go cook dinner: My youngest and husband have a pinewood derby race for Indian Princess (YMCA tribe), my oldest will have a Girl Scout Cookie booth, selling the cookies at a local grocery store tonight, and my youngest also has basketball tomorrow.
Things are busy, and it is making time fly by. Our youngest has grown 3/4 of an inch in the last month, as well: they grow so fast!
Hope the weekend goes well!