Jumping for Joy....

Do you have any idea

how excited I am to have

Thanksgiving break next week?

Let's just say

that I am

jumping

for joy!

Fall Beauty

Today began like many of my Saturdays. I stretched my arms over my head after I woke up, relishing the comfort of my warm bed. After a chat with my sister, I moved into the living room and settled into a chair by the fireplace to read the newspaper. Then, I did what I inevitably do... I pulled out a batch of papers and began to grade.

A little while later, that girl of mine asked if I would go outside with her. Not really in the mood for a walk in the woods, I took her up on her offer anyway. We made our way over broken logs and pushed past some of the last bits of fall foliage, stopping every now and then to take pictures.

It didn't take me long at all to enjoy the moment. The sky enveloped us in a deep blue; trees towered over us casting dappled rays of sunlight across our path. We climbed up hills and remembered days long past when the woods were a wild playground for a little girl and her mom.

It was a beautiful fall day.... A beautiful moment with a beautiful girl.

Maybe They're Growing Up...

Or maybe their teachers from last year exaggerated a bit to induce a sheer state of panic among teachers on C hall. Either way, I'm pretty proud to be teaching this year's 8th-graders at my school. In fact, after hearing all of the horror stories about what was headed our way, I'm really happy. They're really not so bad. In fact, I like them. A lot.

What makes things a little more difficult is the fact that we are short one teacher on our hall this year. Instead of dividing our students among seven teachers (or even eight as it was my first four years of teaching), we are dividing them among six teachers. I'm on the four-person team, which means I have ninety-nine students this year. Yes, that's ninety-nine. Or one hundred if I have one more student enroll. Let's keep our fingers crossed about that....

In the meantime, I'm still getting to know the ones I do have, and they're still getting to know me and what I will and won't put up with. Which isn't very much since I have a lot of teaching to do this year.

And I think they've just about figured that out. Maybe.

It Was Just One of Those Days...

when expectations and disappointment collided, leaving my hopes dashed and crumpled at my feet. No one likes to think of those two words together, yet invariably, they meet and crash as they did with me last Friday.

Talk about high expectations...! My airline ticket had been purchased months ago and plans had been made to spend the weekend with four of my blog friends. I had never met any of them in person; this meeting, this get-together, would be a first. I even left work early to keep from being late and missing my flight.

But once I got to the airport, I sat and waited and sat and read and sat and chatted for what seemed like forever. There wasn't just one flight delayed due to weather, but several, including an earlier flight to my same destination. And all the time as I sat there, I remained patient. I waited. I watched the hours go by, planes land, passengers disembark. Finally, my plane did arrive. But just as we began boarding, we were told there had been a mechanical malfunction of some sort. They grounded the plane. And while other flights continued to take off right there at my gate, I still had hope. I still had high expectations.

Then there was a new gate and the promise of a plane sitting and waiting for us. Another hour ticked by. More minutes, perhaps a half hour, passed, when finally, I noticed the captain making his way to the desk. He didn't look too good, I thought. He looked off. Tired. I wondered if he just got in from one of those flights full of delays.

And then, more than eight hours after I had arrived, they made the announcement. Our flight was cancelled. The crew had too many hours and couldn't fly. Cancelled. Finished. Over.

Rebooking didn't help. I was politely told that my new flight would land after 9 p.m. on Saturday. The few seats available on other airlines showed promise of an earlier afternoon arrival, yet there were lay-overs and plane changes. Even a four-hour layover before a 50-minute final hop to my destination. And what if I encountered all of this again on my way home... With ninety-nine students waiting in my classroom first thing Monday morning, could I risk it?

Oh, I wanted to keep going. I so wanted to be there with my friends. But by then, I knew it was over. And disappointment got the best of me.

I walked away and found a seat away from the crowd. As I leaned my head against my bag, my tears began to flow. I had been patient, and trusting, and filled with expectant joy all day awaiting this wonderful weekend with friends, only to have my expectations end in such finality.

Then she appeared.... This angel of a person. She came up to me and asked if I was okay. I couldn't speak, of course.... I nodded and managed to tell her that I was fine. "Are you sure," she asked. Yes, I nodded. I'm okay. Really.

And at that moment, it all came into focus. A new perspective had been found. While I was due my disappointment, I couldnt' stop my thoughts from turning to the other people on my flight and the one before it. I thought of the stories I hadn't been told. Of the man dressed in his Navy uniform heading somewhere... home, perhaps, after being away for a long time? To a waiting wife or an ailing mother or father? Who knew what stories each of those passengers held close to his or her heart.

It was at that moment that I had to accept the collision course of expectations and disappointment. I had to tell myself that a greater power was at work, that it just wasn't meant to be. Why? I'll never know. But it happened. And for whatever reason, I knew at 1:30 a.m. that I would not be visiting my friends. I headed to my car and drove home.

I confess that I did check flights again on Saturday morning. Bleary eyed from little sleep, I tried to convince myself that catching another flight and visiting with them for even a few hours would be worth it. From what I could tell from the rates, a rental car would add about $300 to my trip. Gulp. Or it would be a two-hour round trip drive for someone to meet me at the airport. That's when I closed the computer and tiptoed into my daughter's room.

Quietly I slipped into her empty bed and peeked over the blanket, just waiting for her to walk back into the room. And when she did, I smiled at her look of surprise. I was home.

Peggy, Annemarie, Wendy, Julie and I first met several years ago on Scrapblog.com. We continued our friendship on our blogs and joined together last year to share and post reflections on the words we chose for the year.

I Know It's a Bit Incongruous...

to have a summer rafting picture on the same page as this winter header, but I figured that if I had limited time, I would be better off sharing about our recent trip to North Carolina than to worry over getting my header up to date. That's my thinking at the moment anyway.

Anyway, that's Hannah and me in the raft, along with our guide, Cotton, who is in the very back, and another guy who just happened to be put in the raft with us. He's the one who is definitely not paddling or attempting to paddle as evidenced by his outstretched arms and hands proudly hoisting his oar high into the air when he was supposed to be paddling forward. (Just between you and me, I think he knew where the photographer was standing).

We were on the French Broad River near Asheville. It's a slower trip than the Ocoee River in Tennessee, with a little less action, but the scenery comes close to that of the Chattooga River area. We also had a chance to jump off a cliff (okay, maybe it wasn't as high as a cliff, but it was at least a rock outcropping pretty high above the river) and picnic on a little island.

Craig, as you can see, decided to try his skills in an inflatable kayak.

Before I go, I'll have to brag on the food we ate while in Asheville. I'm not sure if it's my age, or what, but this is the first trip I've taken that turned out to be such a culinary delight. Our first dinner was at Bistro 1896 (or some number similar to that). The berry dessert there was scrumptious. At Vincenzo's, a cozy little Italian spot, the pasta was both plentiful and savory. During our shopping expedition later in the week, Hannah and I stopped in at Early Girl Eatery for lunch where we feasted on a grilled chicken sandwich. Did I mention that the sandwich had goat cheese on it? In fact, we were so impressed with Early Girl that we brought Craig back the next day for breakfast. Our two other dinner time triumphs were the Tupulo Honey Cafe where I ordered an appetizer of fried green tomatoes on a bed of grits and the Sunset Terrace at The Grove Park Inn. The food, and the view from the terrace, were excellent.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever carried on over food the way I have this week. In fact, I don't think I've been so gastronomically happy in my life!

How about you? Do you have a favorite restaurant that you always look forward to visiting?

I couldn't resist...

playing with more beach pictures tonight. Instead of creating my own layout, I decided to use two theme pages from Scrapblog. It was a very time-saving way to highlight a few of my favorite photos from our afternoon at the beach.

Shades of Summer

I would love to tell you what I've been doing for the past three months, but it's really rather bland.... I've concocted blog posts in my head many times but never seemed to find the time to sit down at my computer and compose them. I've kept them close and have been at home just being a wife and mother, a sometimes housekeeper, well, I'm sure you understand how life just takes over at times and pulls one away from keyboards and monitors and mice.

Pictures always seem to tempt me back to the computer though. Especially pictures taken at the beach. So, here I am once again sharing my favorite subject with you... my daughter. I think she's gorgeous, and sweet, and smart, and about 100,000 other wonderful things. But for now I'll just leave you with it.

I hope you're enjoying your summer. I am.