It's Getting Hot In Here

Memphis is hot. Crazy hot. And right now, my life is hot. The AC in my car broke last week and our house AC has been out for a few days. We're planning on having both up and running by Wednesday. But, for now, petals are falling off of our beautiful center piece entirely too quickly and all of my showers are cold. My constant sweating has left me longing to return to the precious day last week when the heat was beat: Water Day.

Work

You want to know what I did at work today? I took a few trips down this 100' water slide, among other things, of course.

A Trip, a Visit, and a Puppy

Goodness gracious, so much to write about.

On May 7th, I left for Washington, D.C. with my coworkers and 30 middle schoolers. Despite some major anxieties about the logistics and the Metro, the trip went extremely well. In 4 days we managed to: tour 3 buildings, visit 5 museums, see 4 monuments, shop in 2 malls, see the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, and effectively wear everyone out. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack my camera charger {though, eventually it did catch up to me through the efforts of a very loving husband} so I had to limit my photography in D.C.

Newseum: A wall of front pages in an exhibit that, "explores the horrendous events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the extraordinary challenges that faced the journalists trying to report the news to a shaken nation and world."Newseum: The Interactive Newsroom gives visitors the chance to try reporting. The Lincoln Memorial Marketed to the kids as our "fancy dinner", one evening we walked into Old Town Alexandria to eat at the Warehouse Bar & Grill. It was scrumptious. Really. Following our trip to D.C. I headed to Baltimore. I was off the 12th-16th and seeing as how I had not been back in a year it seemed like perfect timing. I asked my boss if I could skip the bus ride back to Memphis and he said, "Sure." Seven dollars and a train ride later my mom was picking me up at Penn Station.

My time in Baltimore was jam packed visiting family with just a bit of time to see a couple long-lost friends and one's new baby girl! My dad had a little party on Friday night where I got to catch up with a few people that I hadn't seen since our wedding {Yikes! Time flies}.

Ali, a beloved Clemson friend, lives exactly 2 hours from Baltimore, a bit outside Philadelphia. Because we are both resourceful, we opted to look at a map and meet for lunch in the middle. The middle happened to be Rising Sun, Maryland. Which I'd never heard of. After a bit of research we found a restaurant in Rising Sun that turned out to be perfect for lunch: Buck's. Don't be confused, we were in the middle of nowhere, but that was just fine. We had a nice lunch where Ali got to meet my sister, before Kelsey and I headed back to Baltimore. Back in Baltimore, I was asked to make some of PW's Cinnamon Rolls. Actually, it may have been more of a threat. I believe I was told, "Don't even think about leaving without making those rolls." Needless to say I made the rolls and decided to make some Orange Marmalade Rolls as well. I am so glad! The Cinnamon Rolls are very good. Excellent, in fact. But the Orange Marmalade rolls are out of this world. I ate one. And a half. And another half. And so on and so forth....Somehow I imagine if I eat extravagant things in small portions {despite the high frequency} they will be less hazardous to my health. I am pretty confident that I am wrong. In other news, Babe {mom} and BD {Rodney} got married a few weeks ago at the Courthouse. Since then, lots of exciting things have occurred: their basement flooded, Kelsey graduated college, Ginger {the new puppy} got worms, TJ and Ryan came home for the summer, Ginger broke her leg, etc. etc. And life goes on, you see.

So about Ginger. Ginger is a Boston Terrier. After Betty had to be put down, Babe and BD decided they wanted another Boston. Ginger is awesome. But, she needed some training. While I was home, I had to train Babe not to carry her around all of the time {even with the broken leg}. Ginger had a few nasty habits that are starting to be broken and hopefully the house training will continue to go smoothly. I introduced Babe and BD to Ceasar Millan and they promptly bought his book. Ginger is a lover of the sun and will work tirelessly to find it. She also loves sticks and the outdoors in general. For those of you that know him, Toby is still trucking. He is 14 and grouchy. But, somehow he graciously welcomed Ginger to the family. Since she broke her leg he's been looking out for her. I had a great time in D.C., Baltimore, and Rising Sun, though I wish it could have been longer. I never feel like I'm in Maryland long enough to visit with everyone I would like. But, I am so glad to be home after 10 days of food from other kitchens.

In other news: while I was gone Peter celebrated his 27th birthday and his family came to visit. I should be posting soon about a lovely project they worked on.

Beautiful

As previously mentioned, I went to the SLE End of Year Banquet. It was just lovely. We had a buffet followed with hot, fresh beignets for dessert. The girls were given awards, some funny other sentimental. It was remarkable to see so many of the students I work with out of their school uniforms and acting grown up. Below are just a few of the beautiful and talented young ladies I get to work with each day.

Preview

I just got home from a wonderful celebration of commitment and talent for the SLE Step/Dance Team. I'm sorting my pictures now but here's a preview.

This is Banana. Banana is a ham. She won the Drama Queen Award along with the Show Stopper Award. Neither was surprising.

Crystal Palace

A few Thursdays ago, as an extra work trip, we took some kids to Gospel Night at the Crystal Palace. It was a blast! The Crystal Palace is a roller skaking rink in South Memphis {it can be seen in some Memphis based movies}. Some of the kids were learning to skate while others were basically pros. The crowd on Gospel Night was great; the kids got to be kids. We'll probably head back there some time in May as a last hurrah at the end of the school year.

Incredible!

As a Spring Break reward, we took some of the Bible Study students to Incredible Pizza. I had never been and I was looking forward to the trip. Since moving to Memphis I have worked exclusively with middle schoolers. Whether teaching, advising, or mentoring one thing can be agreed upon: KIDS LOVE INCREDIBLE PIZZA!

Whats not to love? There is lots of junk to eat {in an endless buffet!}. Mesmerizing games to play. Tickets to win. The ever alluring chance of hitting the jackpot. Along with go-carts, bumper cars, put-put golf, air hockey tables, and bowling. When it's time to redeem the tickets for prizes, Incredible Pizza has a store- not just a counter- where kids can go and spend their winnings. 3.5 hours after arriving, we left with one water bottle, three whoopie cushions, two bottle poppers, one bracelet, two necklaces, a deck of cards, three key chains, a pair of sticky eyeballs, a blue teddy bear, and at least two sets of light up teeth.

Tennessee Tuesdays

From 2:00 until 5:00 every Tuesday, the Memphis Zoo offers free admission to anyone with a TN Drivers License. Taking advantage of spring break, the nice weather, and the free admission, my coworkers and I decided to take a few kids to the zoo. Evidently, over 25,000 people had the same idea (along with some other not-so-bright ideas).

A patch of spring in Overton Park.
(For those of you that are not familiar with Memphis, the Zoo is in Overton Park.)

This mini cow was ready for a close-up.

A couple of the girls LOVED the polar bear exhibit.

Do you see anything wrong with this picture?
Perhaps something bright pink on the right side of the Zebra?

A few monkeys were hamming it up!

The next Karate Kid.

ABC's of Zoo Rules.

Yours truly and D.