Keep an Eye on Summer

It doesn't seem much like summer has come yet. I had only two days off between teaching school and going to school (and one of those was spent getting a second root canal and a temporary crown). My classes are almost half over now, and they're much more demanding than I had anticipated. I don't know why I thought six graduate hours in just 13 days would be a piece of cake. Nothing is actually all that difficult, it's just a lot of assignments all together and such little time to get them done. I have been learning a lot and have gotten several really good ideas to use at school next year.

John took the kids to Branson last Wednesday and spent several days there without me. It was a good time for me to work on class stuff without the interruption of family. Ann and I also had some great sister time. We ate out each night (David was in India, and Lisa is still in Germany, so she was alone too) and watched movies until late. Of course, I tried to work at the same time and did get some done. I would have been more effective if I'd just done school work, but it was so fun to just do some girl stuff.

I drove to Branson when my class got out on Friday afternoon. I met John, the kids, and my parents at Branson Landing. We ate some dinner, walked around a bit and then headed back to the condo. We spent all day Saturday at Silver Dollar City. The kids had already been once during the week, so we had a pretty leisurely day doing the things they really wanted to do again or the few things they hadn't gotten to do. Hannah is now big enough to ride lots of rides. She could ride all the little kiddie rides in the Grand Exposition and could also ride the big swings and the swinging pirate ship. We also got her onto Fire in the Hole (that may not happen again for some time). Jacob is the dare devil of the group. He rode this twirly thing all by himself because the round and round things make me and John both sick. He was in line with John to ride WildFire but wasn't tall enough. He actually seemed kinda sad. Oh well - next year.

Here are some pics from our weekend.

The kids after playing Pirate mini-golf

Hannah waving from the butterflies

Jacob riding solo on the ElectroSpinner

Samuel and Hannah listening to the teacher comment on their work

Watch out, Tiger!