Mountain Mamas

I'm flashing back to early December when I ventured to Blowing Rock and Valle Crusis with a college friend and one of her friends. Look at all that candy at Mast General Store!

The area had already seen some snow and more was to come. A LOT MORE!!!

This is my new friend, Nan. We had fun trying on hats. It was so windy that I nearly bought one!

This is my college buddy Erinn.

Could've worn this one to the Christmas Eve service but I used my better judgement. I resisted the temptation to make a purchase. I didn't have such self-control with the candy.

We headed to Shoppes on the Parkway. Haven't been there in years. We ate dinner at The Mellow Mushroom (my 1st dining experience there) in Blowing Rock.

I was looking for a dress to wear to a Christmas party.

I went with this one minus the frilly shrug. I enjoyed my spontaneous trip. Erinn had called me the night before and asked if I wanted to go. I even turned down a day substituting that morning. It was SO worth a day's less pay. Hope to make it back up the mountain soon!

Spring Tease

We've been enjoying springlike temperatures lately. Perhaps that groundhog in PA and the hawg here in Lexington were accurate! Regardless, we welcome the warmth. It sure makes us want to get outside and play.

Or clean vehicles.

This is Hayden before his haircut

and Drake

after his!

Drake's soccer season kicked off on Saturday and they were victorious!

Go "Rooster " go!

I'm sure the cold will visit us again before Spring actually arrives. We are thankful that here in North Carolina we get to experience all of God's seasons.

Speaking of seasons, we're beginning another busy season filled with soccer practices, school chorus rehearsals, EOG skills labs and the like. Plus, we're hoping to break in our new pop-up camper before too long. "Y'all come back now, ya hear!"

Kindergarten and More

I've been teaching Kindergarten (one of the students took this pic) and I am thoroughly enjoying it! I'm in the same classroom where I taught 1st grade years ago. I've got 5 more weeks and then I will finish out the school year in 2nd grade for another teacher goes on maternity leave in early April. God had been faithful in providing me with opportunities to teach Pre-K, K, 1st, and 2nd grades during the past 2 school years.

Here I am at the SMART board station. Each classroom in the city school system is equipped with the latest technology and I have learned to use it. I am continuing to pray about whether God is calling me to pursue a full-time job for next year.

The Kindergarten class has been a pleasure to teach.

It is exciting to see the children developing a love for learning.

Our 100th day of school was Friday and we had ice cream to celebrate. Only 80 more school days til summer break!

Friday night, Alston Brook had their Valentine's banquet.

Corinna had a classmate over to spend the night.

Saturday, I took them to see the Justin Bieber movie (it was better than I expected)

and then to Mickey D's. It was a fun girls day. Soccer season begins next weekend so stay tuned!

Destination Disney: This Is It

Well, here's my last post about Disney. It was so hard to condense our trip... and it's taken me three weeks to get some of our memories recorded. But, I've been busy teaching Kindergarten. I'll tell you more about my Kindergarten adventures later.

We stayed at Disney's Pop Century Resort. It is a value resort and met our needs and expectations. We got 2 adjoining rooms and honestly were only in them long enough to sleep. Our long days at the park were exhausting and we had little trouble falling asleep in our double beds.

The resort highlights the decades beginning with the 1950's through the 1990's. Pop Century features giant icons that salute many of the 20th century popular culture crazes--including toys, gadgets, music, movies and catch phrases. We stayed in the 1990's section. Currently, the 2000's section is under construction.

The dates we selected for our trip qualified us for free dining. We chose the quick-service option and had so much food. I am so thankful we did not have to pay Disney food prices. We got 2 meals and 2 snacks a day per person. I think we brought about 40 snacks home because we could not eat them all while there!

Here are some of the pictures from the Pop Century grounds:

The pools were heated!

After begging to go swimming all week, we finally let them in.

J.J. used to have one of these phones!

I had a big wheel!

One day it poured down rain. It was the only day we returned to the resort for a few hours. We dried our clothes and some of us took naps.

The food court at Pop Century had a variey of offerings. We ate there several times and most nights went for some ice cream or another late-night treat.

This picture was taken the morning we arrived. We really got a lot of use from our refillable mugs that were included in our dining plan.

Kay and Corinna do the twist!

We have no complaints about the resort bus system. We parked our car when we arrived and didn't move it until departure. Most of the time our wait for a bus was under 10 minutes.

We did a little shopping, but not too much. The kids received gift cards that they used.

Ma Ma bought each kid a special souvenier.

Hayden and Drake found their treasures in Downtown Disney.

We splurged a bit and paid for a couple of meals that weren't included in our free dining package. We headed to the Polynesian for a luau. It was a neat experience and the food was extremely tasty.

We headed over to the Contemporary Resort for a character breakfast on the Sunday morning of our trip.

We were greeted by some of Disney's classic friends such as Minnie.




The next few picture are with characters from throughout the parks. I forgot to include them in my first post.

Tigger was bouncing around and accidentally hit Hayden in the eye with the autograph book.

Jasmine and Aladdin

King Louie and Baboo



Our Disney World trip was phenomenal. Honestly, I hope that we can go back in a few years.

So long!

I'll leave you with a little flamethrowing!