What a Spring Break

I had a fabulous spring break. I ended up doing a little work, but very, very little. 

Issa and I spent the first half of the week getting facials, cleaning closets, and generally just resting a bit. I think we both needed it, and it's always good to have her home.

The second half of the week Brad and I took Evan to Cleveland. The main goal was to tour CWRU:

Brad loved being on his home campus, and Evan loved the campus and the opportunities he would have:

I only cried a little when I realized I could really see him there. They have a great program for his data analytics goals, and the gen ed program is really cool. He was so enthused he actually spent the evening capturing notes:

He says if he gets in he will go!

We spent the rest of the time helping him to get to know the area. We took him to our favorite coffee house, which is right across from the freshman dorms are remarkably unchanged. We also took him to our favorite bakery which was radically different:

Sadly, Presti's no longer does donuts, but it was great food. We stayed in an AirB&B in Little Italy, so we had two great dinners, and we spent all of Friday at the NCAA wrestling tournament:

We saw some incredible wrestling.

I also did a ton of reading, finishing books 9, 10, and 11!

I'm loving the Bridgerton series:

It is different from the show, and unsurprisingly I think the books are better.

The next book was for book club:

I don't think I ever would have picked this up much less finished it if it wasn't for book club. It is a really interesting non-fiction book about the history and future of biomedically engineering.

The last book is one I'm hoping to use with some incoming freshmen:

It is really well-written and comprehensive!

We are all back to reality today, but I'm very grateful for the break and core memories made.

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.