Recharge Weekend

This weekend was a much needed recharge. Saturday morning, I finally did the big spring chop:

I spent a lot of the weekend puttering in my yard and house, and I finished book 12:

I love this series so much, and it is so easy to read.

Work has been a different kind of wild, so I'm especially grateful for the chance to get a little rest.

 

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!