The Weekend, Heat, and Other Stuff

This past weekend, we went to Florida again. Darryl needed to do more work at his dad's (his dad probably kept every used checkbook and every bank statement since the mid-80s--lots of shredding to do!).

On Saturday, my dad's brothers and sister and their spouses came over for a cookout. This was the first time they had seen Amelia, so it was a big event. I could kick myself now for not getting more pictures, but I did get a good one of Amelia with her Great Uncle Joe:

Sunday, I was able to take Amelia swimming with her Aunt Ashley and cousins Madison and Avery. Amelia loves the pool!

Afterwards, she had even more fun by swinging in her swing at Nana and Papa's house.



As for me...I played Guitar Hero for the first time ever this weekend. I loved it--definitely my kind of game. It's probably good I don't have it at the house.

Mr. Benny's dog (and now Ashley's dog) Lily loves my niece Avery's bouncy seat probably more than Avery herself. Any time we couldn't find Lily, she was usually curled up asleep here. Forgive the wicked eyes...I couldn't fix them on my computer. Oh, you can see just a tiny bit of the "to be shredded" pile behind her.


In other unrelated stuff...it is so HOT here. I had been getting up in the mornings and walking with Amelia, but it has been in the high 70s by 7:30. The other day, I had decided to walk in the evening, but at 8:00 (still light outside), it was 90 degrees! Ugh!

This, too, is completely unrelated and random, but I've mentioned before how much I like Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts. If you like them too--or even remotely like them--you should pick up the latest Ladies' Home Journal. (I had to buy it immediately when I saw them on the cover.) There is a wonderful interview with them about their friendship through Roberts's cancer--apparently they are extremely close friends in "real life." I think I loved this article so much because it is such a positive picture of female friendship. Women often have the reputation for being catty and jealous--and in my opinion this reputation is often earned--but here are two women who have tremendous respect and gratitude for each other. (And Sawyer is a hoot, too.) It made me even more sure that I want to have them over for chips and salsa and board games. :)

And on the school front...yesterday, Amelia had a somewhat impromptu day at daycare so I could start working on stuff for school. I'm not sure why I do this, but every year I have all these ideas of how I could reinvent the wheel, and then I get overwhelmed by reinventing the wheel. My American Lit class is pretty straightforward--it is taught chronologically. However, I'm thinking of teaching my 10th graders' class with a more thematic approach. This is requiring a bit more thought than I have energy for, however.

I know this post is rambling, but I figured I would just cram all my thoughts into one long one instead of dividing it into several. Anyway...