Happy Birthday, Uncle Nick!

We made a whirlwind trip to Atlanta to celebrate Uncle Nick's 80th birthday:

We left early Saturday morning, and we made it just in time for the big surprise:

The party was a bit of a blur of cousins, but we had the best time at Nick and Beth's house that night. We very rarely get a lot of time to just be together, and I think we all laughed until we cried. 

We were home again by dinner last night, and we are all very tired today, but it was absolutely worth it for these family memories.
 

A Weekend of Rest

After a last weekend's conference followed by a very busy work week, we all decided we needed a weekend of just nothing. For the first time in forever we had nothing on the calendar, and I barely moved from the couch Saturday. I did watch the entire season of Bridgerton, which did not disappoint. We also go plenty of snuggles with the pups, one of which is much better about napping than the other:

Sunday, Brad and I did venture out to take an easy hike in the spring air:

The Occaneechee Speedway is an easy hike, and it's still fun to see all of the old cars and remnants from when it was an actual race track. We are really trying to get out every weekend to get ready for our hikes in May!

I also finished book eight:

This one was a tough read for anyone in higher ed right now, but it also had some great strategies that I hope to put into practice in the near future!

To NOLA and Back Again

Thursday, I traveled to New Orleans for a conference with AACTE. Because I am the president of our state organization, I had some extra meetings to attend, but I also got upgraded at the hotel to have this amazing view:

It was an engaging and exhausting four days of connecting with colleagues from across the country, and I spent the vast majority of it in conference rooms. However, the little bit that I was able to get out made me want to spend more time in New Orleans! I even managed to sneak in a fun solo breakfast:

All the airport time also let me finish book seven:

 This is the next book club book, and I loved it. It reminded me a lot of Remarkably Bright Creatures, minus the octopus. The themes were very similar, and it was an easy read. Definitely recommend!

We had a lovely Valentine's Day. It's always a little extra special for us since it is also the anniversary of our first date! This year, we went for a hike:

In December, we said we were going to start hiking very Saturday to get ready for the Old Man of Storr, and this is the first weekend it didn't snow since then! This hike was about the same distance as the Old Man, but only about a quarter of the elevation.

Brad also made us a fabulous steak dinner complete with two sauces.

I also finished a very seasonally appropriate book six this weekend:

 It is just lovely fluff and I thoroughly enjoyed every page!

Book 5

Book 5 was a professional development book:

 Published in 2015, it's a seminal work in the higher ed field. I have read a million things that cite it, so I decided I should probably actually read it.

Here is the problem. It is not ground breaking. I think most people would agree with the arguments and paths forward in it. I'm super annoyed, though. This was published 11 years ago and it still totally applies. Sigh. Onward...

Valentine's Fun

I may work at a college, but the teacher in me runs deep, and sometimes I just need a little of my K-12 days back in my life. Holidays seems to make that desire stronger. Enter some extra time because of snow and ta-da:

 You can't tell in the picture, but each of those hearts has the name of a licensure student. It's been fun to watch students looks for their heart--totally worth the time it took to make them all.

Snow Days and Book 4

I fear Evan may never return to school. He was out all last week because if the ice storm, and Saturday we got another almost five inches of snow:

We very much enjoyed snuggling in with a fire and watching it snow, and Bella is living her best husky life:

I also finished book four:

This is our next book club read. It was an interesting story, but it was not particularly well-written, and I wish it had ended a chapter sooner.