The World According to Leslie

I can’t believe that I haven’t written in over a week. How could I let that happen?  I have had so much to talk about in the past week!   1. Yesterday was my brother’s birthday. He is now 39 years old.   2. School has been great. The students are good. They announced yesterday that they are officially finished with schedule changes, so I should not have to worry about any kids moving into or out of my classes now.   3. Over the weekend, Tony, my parents, the Princess, and I went to Boone. We stayed in an awesome condo. I now have more things to check when I ask about places to stay. Internet….check. Handicap accessible…sorta check. (It was all one level, but the doors were very narrow and there was no walk in shower.) Central heat/AC….NO! Well, I don’t know about heat because it was in the 80s while we were there, but there was only a WINDOW unit in the place!  Can’t believe I didn’t see that on the description!   I will check better next time. ...

As promised, here are some of the pics from Hilton Head.  We arrived on Friday to this room.  Nice…right?  The only problem was that we were supposed to have queen beds.  We had doubles.  (A little short, but they worked!)   That evening, Tony and the Princess walked to the beach.  It was a little far for me.  My legs and back were hurting from being in the car for so long.   In order to get the fabulous deal we got, we had to go to a 90-120 minute presentation on Saturday at noon.  It started at noon, and we were back in the car by 2pm.  If we were going to buy a timeshare, these would be the people to deal with.  They weren’t pushy.  When we said “no,” they did make ONE more effort (change price, down payment, etc.).  BUT…after we said “no” again, they shook our hands and took us back to the front door.  Friendly.  Polite.  Did not seem upset that we did not purchase.  Nice. W...

Today is the last day of school.   It really is bittersweet.    This has been an awesome year.  It is amazing to work with the teachers at my school, the parents at my school, and the kids.  This year has been so much better than last year.  It’s amazing how different 365 days can be!  I’m in a totally different place.   That’s what makes it so bittersweet.    I am so looking forward to sleeping in and doing a little writing from home this summer.  I’m looking forward to spending time with Tony and the Princess (and my family) at the beach this summer.  I’m looking forward to finally finishing the unpacking of my house this summer.  (May even have a yard sale to rid myself of some of the junk!)   But… I’m going to miss the kids. I’m going to miss my colleagues.  I’m going to miss the schedule.  There are many things I will miss…..      So it’s bittersweet!   ...

In NC, we get LITTLE snow.  So...when there is snow, we get time off school.  (As a teacher, I get time off work too!) I think we could have survived with a 2-hour delay today.  However, at 6:30am, they decided to cancel school for the day! Hooray for 4 day weekends! Boo for having to work next Saturday!  Our make-up day is going to be Jan. 26th.  No sleeping in for me that day!  lol  Well.... we are planning a little road trip to the beach.  So.... my SNOW DAY became a beach weekend! :) LOVE IT!

Here is Part 1 of this story. Now we are up to May. In May 2012, Tony and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. The last time we really went anywhere (like a trip) was in 2002—our first anniversary. The only reason we went anywhere then was because my best friend was getting married the day before our anniversary. So Tony and I took off to Kentucky (or West Virginia, I can’t remember). Anyways, we haven’t been anywhere since then for our anniversary. So this year, our anniversary fell on a Saturday. That was the first time it has been on a Saturday (since we got married)!!! So after the softball game that day, we left for the beach. We took all the stuff with us in the car. We changed clothes in the bathrooms at the ballfield. We left! The next morning, before we headed home, we walked on the beach for a while.    School let out on June 8th. On June 14th, we had to take Chasity to the ER. She couldn’t breathe. She...

The sunrise over the Atlantic.... on a warm July morning.... can be imagined.... 100 times.... but is experience for the first time.... every time. Until next time........

WOW! I can't believe that I have been home since Sunday. We left around noon on Sunday to head this way. After stopping at a shop or two, we finally hit TRAFFIC! lol What better way to spend your day....right? As soon as I got home, I had to start working on stuff to finish up for Girl Scout Day Camp. That started Monday morning. I have been there all day every day this week. It is hot, but I think it's worth it! The girls are loving it! Chasity is there as a Daisy. She is loving it! Today, they had the pumper truck from the Fire Department come out. They sprayed water on the girls. YES.... the parents were forewarned about this! Today was "Water Day" so all afternoon, the girls were outside playing in water and water games. I am looking forward to getting some rest next week. I totally need a vacation from my vacation. BUT..... I had day camp so there went the rest. Now, I'm just trying to make it past tomorrow so that I can sleep a little on Sat...

Day 6 is coming to a close.... WOW! Only 2 days left of vacation, then it's back to the real world! lol So this morning, we got up and cleaned the house so that it would look great when my family got here. My sister, niece, and two other teenagers got here about 1pm. They went to the beach and Tony, Chasity, and I headed to downtown Myrtle Beach. We bought me some cute salt-and-pepper shakers.... I'll try to put pics of those up here. We went to the arcade. That's something we always did when I came here as a kid! Then we picked out an airbrush shirt for Chasity. We have to go get it tomorrow. The guy had a lot of shirts in front of ours to do! :) My sister sent me a text message with a list of things to get at the store on the way home. So we stopped for a few groceries and headed back to the house. My brother and his family were already here and were getting ready for the beach. So we put the groceries up and changed to go to the beach. We got down there onl...

WOW! My vacation is almost over! Yesterday, we went to hang out with Debbie and her family at the pool. They moved to a different hotel and it had like 5 pools. It was awesome! Then we came home and it started storming.... again! lol Well... that's hot weather with high humidity for you! :) BUT... that's ok. We ordered pizza in and ate that for supper. The day ended with us falling asleep watching MY favorite movie on TV....Gone with the Wind! So far today, we have cleaned the house up a little. I am sitting on the front porch waiting for my sis and my brother to get here. Lisa should be here anytime.... but Donnie is a couple hours out still. I'm getting excited to see everyone! Until next time........

Whew! I can't believe our first family beach vacation is 1/2 over! This is crazy! So, what did we do on day 4? Well... day 4 did not go as planned, but it really did go well. We got up early enough and started to get ready to go to downtown Myrtle Beach. On the way, my sis-in-law Debbie called. She said they were at the Tanger Outlets . It's a really cool place with outlet stores and walkways....covered walkways. That way key in our decision to going to Tanger Outlets yesterday. When Debbie called, the bottom had just fallen out and it was storming. There was no way we were going to go downtown Myrtle Beach to walk around in the storm. So, we decided to go to Tanger Outlets. It was great. We got a couple outfits for Chasity. We also got a couple of things for Tony's new great-niece, Lenna-Grace. She was born in April (I think) and we had not gotten her anything yet. Because of the weather, we never actually made it to the beach or the pool yesterday. However,...

So yesterday started well. I did my 1/4 mile walk. I showered and waited on the family to get ready to go. Unfortunately, my family was in SLOW MOTION so no one else was ready before 1pm. I wanted to go walk through the shops in downtown Myrtle Beach, but I was not going in the hottest part of the day. The temperature here has been 88 with about 95% humidity! OMG! That's too much for me! lol So, we sat around the house so long that I finally fell asleep. I took a TWO HOUR NAP! Can you believe that? I can't! I rarely do that! Anyways... when I got up, we started making plans to hang out with Tony's sister and her family. They wanted to go to a place called Captain George's to eat. I'm sure the food was good, but I didn't eat any. I know we are on vacation, but I did not see a need to pay $30 per person to eat a seafood buffet. It ws not worth it to me. So while everyone else ate, I talked to them. We ordered Chasity a cheeseburger with fries, a...

Yesterday was pretty cool. We slept in for a while. None of us woke up before 9am! lol It was great! We ate breakfast, watched a little TV, and got ready for the beach. We spent 2 hours at the beach (NONE of us were sunburned)!!! Then we came back and showered. We ate lunch and watched a little more TV. Tony fell asleep on the couch for almost 2 hours, but.... it's a vacation! lol After we rested, we went "Golf Cart Exploring". All that means is that we took the golf cart out for a ride... and had NO planned location to go to. Then we finished our grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. The Piggly Wiggly was WAY too expensive for us! :) After that, we came home, ate supper and just hung out at the house. It was nothing amazing, but it was totally amazing. Today, (Day 3), I have been up since before 8am. I ate breakfast and walk a 1/4 of a mile. I know it's not far, but I walked it... and I felt good doing it. I like walking, but I had to scope out the dog situat...

I have been awake since 4am. I got up...showered and got ready. We still had a few things left to get together, but Tony didn't get up until 5:00am. We were supposed to leave at 5:30, but we really did leave at 6:30. After stopping to change drivers (because I couldn't stay awake) and a couple of pit stops (one for each of us), we arrived around 10:30am. That's not bad considering that the MapQuest directions were not great. LOL Anyways, Chasity slept until about 9:30am.... we stopped for breakfast then. :) I have pics of every room in the house plus some of the decorations/plaques to put in Chasity's scrapbook. I will try to post some as soon as I get my computer back. By the way, they are sending me a new one because mine can not be fixed! :) Yipppeeeee! After we got here, I drove the golf cart (YES ME!) to the beach. Chasity got to play in the water for a few minutes. The bad thing is that she had on regular clothes... but I got pics of that too! Then we g...

Thursday night, we went to downtown Kannapolis for fireworks. They were awesome. I got some pretty good shots to put into Chasity's scrapbook (for her 5th year--lol)! It was fabulous! Then Friday night we went to my sister's house for a cook-out. The 3 of us were there. Lisa, Joe, Toby, and "Devo" (the dog and a munchkin she was babysitting) were there. The preacher, Sis. Hayes, Michaela, Graciey, Mom, Dad, Victoria, and Trevor were all there. Chasity and the girls got in her little swimming pool and played in the sprinkler. We had hamburgers and hot dogs. I didn't really have a good attitude, so we left about 9:30...right after we finished eating! :( I should have had a better attitude, but we did still have fun! Then last night, we went to see more fireworks in Harrisburg. It was really cool. We got there a little later than we normally do so there weren't any good spots to park. Well...we found a spot and walked to a grassy area with our fold-...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama . You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. So it's Monday again! WOW! It was not me who was totally did not do any dishes this weekend. I did do laundry, but it was not me who avoided dishes ALL weekend! Since my weekend dishes were not piled in the sink (although we have a dishwasher), I was not just totally embarrassed when two ladies from church (that I'm helping with VBS) came over to get some papers for VBS. They came in the house and I was NOT totally embarrassed by the dishes in the sink. I always keep my dishes done! As for Chasity, I have not been counting down days until she starts Dance Camp. She starts tonight, but I have not been looking forward to it so that I can have 3 hours/night for 3 nights that I don't have to hear her ask me to take her outside or to watch cartoons! I would not do that! I am not planning on doing so many things t...