Crawling out from under my long "to do" list...

Poor blog. I've been so negligent lately...

The past couple of weeks have been ridiculously crazy and tiring.

For a little over a week, Darryl was in Australia. That's right. Australia. And, of course, after he left all sorts of things came crashing down. Nothing tragic happened--and I'm probably being a wee bit melodramatic--but it was lots of little things just piling on top of one another.

Here's just a list of some of the things that went on:

--I help sponsor an academic club at school (we put on a program every year and give out money for scholarships and stuff), and we found out that a local business that gives us most of our money is having to cut their donation in half because of the economy. That's completely understandable, but what isn't understandable is that some higher-ups knew about this back in January and didn't tell us.

--My students started to have their typical attitudes toward work at the end of the school year. Need I say more?

--It seems that I had a meeting of some sort every day after school.

--I got brave (or stupid) and decided to take Amelia to Moe's by myself for dinner. It was AFTER I had gotten our food that I realized none of the high chairs had working safety belts, so I spent the entire meal trying to get her to stay seated in her chair. I finally gave up and took the rest of our food home.

--The same night after Moe's, I gave Amelia a bath and was putting her to bed, and she had her first puking incident ever...all over me, her, the glider, the floor. I had to clean that up and bathe her again. Good times!

--I took Friday off to--get this!--grade papers. More good times!

--I took Amelia to the doctor Friday afternoon to make sure she didn't have an ear infection. If you've ever had to keep an active child entertained in a doctor's office while you wait to see the doctor, you understand how that was stressful. (I had also been informed by the daycare that every kid except one little girl and Amelia had been sent home with pink eye, so I was fully expecting for pink eye to rear its ugly head over the weekend. Fortunately, we were spared.)

--Saturday night, Amelia acted like one of those horrible kids you see on Supernanny. There was kicking, screaming, shrieking, crying, hitting, scratching. I was really wondering what happened to my child. (Sunday, she was sweet again.)

--Sunday just involved a lot of coming and going.

It was just one of those weeks, you know? Now D is back safe and sound, and this week--though better--seems to be d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g by. The one thing getting me through, however, is that the end is definitely in sight.

And not a moment too soon.

I'm still around

I will probably blog some this week. Last week was just crazy, and I just didn't feel like blogging. I'm hoping things will get back to normal--at least somewhat--this week, and then I can blog about what's been going on. (Don't get too excited--it's mostly just overwhelmed working mom kind of stuff.)

Twenty more days of school, people.

Meltdown Time

I think I've written about 30 blog posts in my head last week but never got around to sitting down to type them out.

I was going to post about how I've been in a better mood lately and felt like things were going well.

And then today I became fully aware of everything I need to do in such a short amount of time. I have a stack of grading up to my eyeballs. Every time I knock a little off the stack, something gets added on. I want to say, "Okay, no one is turning in anything else until I finish grading what I already have!" But I can't do that.

I say I'm going to grade after I get Amelia to bed, but then I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open.

I try to grade in the afternoons, but interruptions--people, meetings, students, parent emails--keep happening.

Okay. I'm going now. It's ridiculous for me to post about how I don't have any time and then spend time blogging. :)

Happy Easter!!

Here's Amelia, enjoying the gifts left by the Easter Bunny:



And here she is outside the Smith House, where the three of us had lunch after church:

London, Days 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

Obviously my plan to update every day about our trip never reached fruition. Oh, well. We're now back in the good ol' USA, and we had a great time in London. I'll give you a very Spark Notes version of our trip, and if you have any questions about any of the things I mentioned, feel free to ask. (By the way, Jen is the only one showing me any comment love lately. What's up with that?? And thanks, Jen, for commenting!)

Monday, we...

...went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. It was pretty cool, but we didn't have a good enough place to stand to see/hear everything. We got the gist of it, though. Darryl and I would have been okay with it being about 20 minutes shorter.

...went to Trafalgar Square and ate lunch at Cafe in the Crypt.

...went to Harrod's. Y'all, that place is insanely ridiculous. Where else can you buy a 6-carat diamond and pick up a 10 pounds of shrimp at the same time? We had a dessert there (surprise, surprise) in a big frou-frou cafe.

Tuesday, we...

...went to the Tower of London. This was probably one of my favorite touristy places that we visited. So much sick and twisted history there. We saw the Crown Jewels, of course, but what I was fascinated most by was the exact location where Anne Boleyn literally lost her head.

...went to the British Museum. Darryl and I were both disappointed by this museum, but primarily because we didn't really understand what it was all about. We thought the museum housed collections from the ancient past to the present, but we were wrong. It is room after room of Mesopotamian pottery, Egyptian tombs, and such. Now if you're into the artifacts of ancient civilizations, you will love this place. If not (and I'm in this group), it is just like one long 10th Grade World History video. The building is impressive, however...and I did see the real Rosetta Stone.

...walked along the Thames to see Big Ben and the House of Parliament "lit up" at night. Beautiful.

Wednesday, we...

...went to Westminster Abbey. I loved this as well. I think you could spend a full day here and still not see everything.

...kind of saw St. Paul's Cathedral. The only reason I wanted to go there was that Charles and Diana were married there. (It was a wedding I reenacted MANY times with my Barbie dolls.) There was a long line, however, and we were both tired, so we pretty much just stuck our heads in the door, looked around as far as the eye could see, and ducked out.

...went to the area known as Piccadilly Circus and bought some souvenirs.

...saw the musical Billy Elliott at Victoria Palace Theatre. I love, love, love musicals, and this one was wonderful. The choreography alone makes this production worth seeing. It is based on the movie of the same name that came out about seven years ago. So, so good.

Thursday, we...

...did the London Eye, which is a huge ferris-wheel type contraption that allows you to see London from "way up high."

...took a train to Oxford. I really wanted to see the school (which is sprawling and all over the place). We also had "cream tea" at a little tea room called The Rose and had some awesome scones with clotted cream and jam. (I agree, Tim..."clotted cream" is a really gross name for something that tastes that divine.)

...did NOT go to Stratford-upon-Avon. It was in our plan all along to take a tour of Shakespeare's birthplace, but by Thursday, I wasn't up to it. Will my English degree be revoked because I was in London and failed to make that pilgrimage??!?

Friday, we...

...walked around the area where our hotel was, soaking in the last bit of London.

And then we left.

A little something extra that probably isn't covered in any tour guide manuals...The public restrooms in London are nothing short of amazing. Spotlessly clean, and, AND...you get your own little "closet" with floor to ceiling walls. (I really had nowhere to work that in earlier, but it is something I thought y'all should know.)


We really had a wonderful time. We missed Amelia terribly, of course, but it was also nice to spend time just the two of us in such an interesting place. I've wanted to go to London since I was in college, so I'm thrilled we had the opportunity. We're also very grateful to my parents, who kept a very, very active 17-month-old girl for a week. I think they may need weeks to recover. :)

London, Days 1 & 2

First, I need to assure my mother that London is so big and sprawling that I feel perfectly okay in revealing that's where we are.

Yep, Darryl and I are in London.  We left Friday evening and arrived in London late Saturday morning. 

Saturday-- When we arrived in London and got to our hotel and showered (because we felt nasty, y'all), we went to the Tate Modern museum, which features modern art pieces.  Darryl and I aren't necessarily art buffs, but we'd heard the museum was cool from a couple of people, and we wanted to do something that was interesting but not necessarily on the top of our list--we wanted to be more awake and enthusiastic for our "must see" attractions.  Anyway, I have to hand it to Dr. Hockett (or Hackett?), my one and only art history teacher, who taught me enough so that I don't feel like a complete moron in an art gallery.  We saw some Picassos, some Matisses, Rodin's The Kiss, as well as some images that were a little, for lack of a better word, disturbing.  There was also a room that reminded me of the episode of Designing Women when Charlene tries to make a phone call on a pay phone and is asked to hang up because the phone is actually an art piece.  (Seriously...a string of bars of soap...that's art?)

We also walked a lot around that area of London, primarily because certain lines of the Tube (subway) were closed, and here is where I'd like to add this request:

Dear London,

If a portion of the Tube line is closed, could you please post a sign at the bottom of the stairs instead of the top so maybe we could see it BEFORE we climb all the stairs instead of AFTER?  My quads are killing me!

Sincerely,

Amy, an American Tourist

Sunday--Today we did quite a few things.  We started out at the National Portrait Gallery, which contains painted portraits and some photographs of everyone important to British history, beginning with the Tudors.  Darryl was thoroughly bored with this (which surprised me, as he is such a history buff), but I enjoyed it.  (In his defense, I probably would have been bored, too, if I didn't teach a good bit of British history and literature.)  I particularly enjoyed looking at the portraits of the writers like Jane Austen (whose drawing is a small sketch done by...oops, I forgot...her sister? her niece?), the Brontes, John Donne, and such.

Afterward, we went to the Covent Garden Market area, which is basically a bunch of shops, street vendors, and a collection of various entertainers like magicians, living statues, and such.  After a leisurely lunch at a French cafe there, we headed to Kensington Palace and Gardens.  The coolest part of that, to me, was the exhibit of some of Diana's dresses.  At some point in my commentary on this London trip, I'll probably get into the mild obsession I had with Diana off and on over the years, but it was cool to see some of the dresses I recognized from over the years, like the black dress she is wearing in all the pics of her dancing with John Travolta when she came to the U.S.  She was obviously very tall and thin.

We also went into Hyde Park and saw the fountain that was built to memorialize Diana.  (Had we realized how far the walk was from the palace to the fountain, we probably wouldn't have gone.  I've noticed some of the London signs can be very misleading for how near or far something is.)

We stopped at a French pastry shop and I had a delicious espresso chocolate tart that was to die for.  We're walking so much that I feel absolutely zero guilt for anything I'm eating.

I know I should probably post pictures and links, but that takes more time, and I'm very tired.  Maybe later this week...