Next year, I have to figure out how to do this differently. I had ALL of my classes' project end pretty much at the same time. 98 projects in total between 7 different classes. (Last semester, projects came down to the wire at the end of the semester when final grades were due, so I wanted to launch right into them this semester so it didn't come down 'til the end.) But.... there's a competition that we enter in the upper levels each year that is due at the end of March.
Spring break is at the end of March / beginning of April. Grading is due the week after Spring Break. It was INTESNSE this year! (hence the really big delay in posting. I had to get through that and then RECOVER!) I'm not technically done grading, but got over the major hump / got through the deadline. Now, I have to grade the final presentations that students gave after break, but... the drawings and the heavy work is over-ish.
Between the last post well over a month ago:
- Todd & I celebrated our 25th anniversary in early March. We remembered this year! (and went to brunch at a nice restaurant on the square) - but - years ago we said we should go on a Greek Isle cruise for our 25th. Well, that didn't happen. hmmmmm.... maybe one day!!
- Isabella had a school dance. She wanted to get dressed up (so we went dress shopping - @ consignment - the week before. She found a very fancy dress. She also wanted to do her hair "just right."
She said some people had dates, but she promised that she did not! (couldn't tell if that bugged her or not?) I guess she's getting to the age where things are starting to matter to her more.
After the hype of the dance, she said it wasn't that much fun. People just walked around a lot.
But - I think she still had a pretty good time / still glad she went.
- I took my students on a spring field trip again. This year, we went to KSU (Kennesaw State University) architecture & construction management buildings. Then we went to a local general contractor who has a cool office with a slide! One of my student's dad works there / I've been before. It's a green building and since I had several students interested in sustainability / thought it would be a good field trip. It was. They were so attentive and spent a lot of time with our students + gave them snacks. :) I think the students had a good time. It was nice to be out and about, too, for a day with a group of good kids! (Also, this field trip wasn't as long of a day / not as much walking as the one at the conference last year at Ga Tech... so the kids didn't get cranky by the end. ha!) Wonder where we'll go next year.... The only accredited architecture program we haven't visited yet in Georgia is SCAD... in Savannah.... hmmm... ??
To round out a very busy week, Isabella and I went on a church retreat. Mercer and Todd were supposed to go too but that was the week he got clearance from the doctor regarding his finger and was eligible to play again. (I watched the game on Game-Changer from the retreat in NC.) Our church went to a place called Montreat. Our pastor went there as a kid - he grew up in our church and apparently they used to go every year. We've been going there 13 years. He said it had been TWENTY since FPC had gone!
Montreat is a Presbyterian retreat center and college campus in the western NC mountains - outside of Asheville. It was really a pretty area.
We got there really late at night b/c I should have taken a half-day off of work, but didn't plan ahead in order to secure a sub. When we arrived, we didn't quite know what to expect. We were not in the main retreat center (which all of these photos are of), rather, we were in a converted house (loosely - a converted B&B) that was 100+ years old.
Here is the "luxurious" interior of the retreat center / hotel.
There were things about the house that were quite "campy" -- it was definitely not as upscale / nice as the retreat center - which according to the other church members was like a standard hotel, but in a historic building.
The one good thing about the house, however, was that there were some common areas -- and Isabella made some new friends -- while the adults hung out on the porch each night.
At first all of us were feeling a little slighted b/c of shared bathrooms (minus a sink - which was in each room?!?!), walking up the big hill multiple times a day to the retreat center to participate in activities and for breakfast / dinner. But - we did have a good time getting to know the families in the house better. This is something they did not have in the main retreat center where people pretty much hung our in their rooms each night.
So, with (lower) expectations... we all said we wanted to stay there as a group again next year. :)
I signed up for a painting class during one of the planned activity times. Isabella was with the other kids at planned activities just for them.
The other planned activity time, I didn't sign up for anything, rather, wandered around the campus.
There was a really unique style of architecture there that I've never seen before with tall, rounded columns. The river-rock is pretty common in that area and was definitely a feature of all of the buildings in Montreat.
I found this quiet little spot off the beaten path - just a few steps inside of some bushes. I thought it would be a nice place to stop and sketch, but kept wandering and then found the part of the campus where the kids were at - on a playground where a stream ran through. I captured this image of the bench and maybe will draw it one day? but will definitely remember the trickle of water running through just beyond those branches and those few moments of serenity that I was able to capture!
On Saturday night, there was a "barn dance."
(the barn had an interesting texture of wood on the outside - and it was then covered with lichen too.)
I participated in the activities, as I've neer been to a barn dance. Our little did not participate - she watched.
Sunday, we went to a church service. Isabella REALLY enjoyed that service and asked if we could go back! (it was less formal, they had a whole cart full of kid's stuff to do instead of just an envelope with coloring sheets). She wanted me to take pictures of this design she made during church in honor of Ukraine.
They acted out some scenes in the Bible during the sermon with different people from the congregation. Plus they had "jazzy" music (according to her)!
After the service, we headed back home. It was a whirl-wind weekend, but it really was nice to have been able to go!
- Mercer had an "ok" baseball season. He had the injury at the beginning of the season that kept him out for much of the season. He played for a week or two and was - admittedly - a bit rusty, then got into a situation with some grades at school and had to sit out 'til his grades got up.
But, he worked really really hard over break + on weekends at Todd's office to pull up one of his grades for a graphics class. Because of it, he got to play the last week of the season. Thankfully, he had a pretty good "last game" playing in most of the game + hitting a long ball to outfield landing him a triple + getting 2 RBIs. Later he made it to home on a wild pitch. He was greeted at the dugout by his teammates.
The JV team didn't do too well, so it was nice that their last game - they went out with a bang.The Varsity team had a fantastic season. They went on to attempt to go to State, but got knocked out in the 1st round. But - it was the 1st time they had been since 2016... so that was certainly an achievement.
(A memento from this year's baseball season: a "souvenir" over break... his fingernail finally fell off. ha!)It sure does look weird! (so I made the photo as small as possible here. Wow - our dining room table is really scratched up!)
- We went up to SC and NC for a few days over break.
The last several times we were passing through Greenville, we really didn't get to spend any time with my friend Cindy or her family. So we spent some time with them - staying overnight near downtown. We hung out at their house for awhile (so Mercer, Daniel and Trevor could interact - and so Isabella could play with their dog, Tadashi.) No photos of the boys but Isabella and the dog, yes.
We met Cindy and her husband later downtown & checked out Fluor Field where shoeless Joe Jackson played (maybe we can catch a game there sometime?), walked around the river that cuts through downtown, then went to a restaurant that was way too fancy for all of us.
Their downtown is so cool! (main street is nice, but the river running through the back-side of main street + the pedestrian bridge going across -- it's so scenic. And there are so many people just there hanging out enjoying the rocks, the river and the scenery.)
Ms. Isabella was too engrossed in a book (reading while walking) to look up and notice~
Just before we left Greenville (since we had a little down-time while we still had the air b&b, Mercer and I coordinated references then filled out an online application for a job. Weeks later + after an interview + some back-and-forth about his baseball schedule... he's got it! He will be working at a "sprayground" (playground with water features) near our house! Over the past 2 weeks, we have since been doing all of the adult stuff you have to do - get a physical, background check, fill out all sorts of forms, open a bank account, etc. Yikes! We'll probably have more info on that in the next blog post.
We continued up the road to mom's house for a couple of days. We got to visit with my uncle Eddie and my Aunt Becky again. These trips have been really quick there and we haven't seen as many relatives as we'd like.
But - they're close and we're grateful to have seen those that we did! I hung shelves in her (new) garage and also drew up plans for a screened-in-porch. Here's a photo in front of the garage - which matches her house that she bought last year.
Before we left NC, we did something different: played "soft golf" - oversized (softer) golf balls with oversized clubs. Mercer seemed to enjoy it. Isabella did too until the bugs got to be too much for her.
Back at home - we got together AGAIN with Cindy's husband and youngest son, Trevor. They were staying about 30 minutes north of us for a Regional tournament in a robotics competition. It was insane. It reminds me of swim team... event after event after event. You have to be queued up to go and every few minutes as there was always another event!
There were 3 teams that moved on to the National competition.... and the "Green Villains" were one of the 3 teams! (Now John gets to drive to Texas to sit and watch robotics competitions over and over and over again!)
The only other thing we did during break was go out for a movie as a family.
It was busy - but we did a few things!
Easter rounded out the end of the break. We went to church, came home (I graded some)... we made a late Easter dinner (which Mercer plowed into) ... and we did a "night-time" egg hunt because we did not get it done earlier in the day. We did not dye eggs or decorate cookies this year.
Sadly, I was too busy with grading to get these little traditions done with the kids... but we did the main thing: church, of course!
Isabella's school had an evening of the arts - students sang and during one song, some played instruments. She was an "egg-shaker."
She was pretty proud of that. ha!
I took her to a girls in engineering event where she saw a couple of school mates too. This was my 3rd trip to the local architecture & engineering school - KSU in a month!
Todd & I got out for an evening (actually 2!) - one - we went to a concert - a symphony performance of a music group we liked: Radiohead. It is moody unique music. It was really interesting how the guy explained how many different musical beats were used and how they overlapped.
The concert was at our local theater on the square. Thought some of the detail was lit up interestingly!
We also went out to dinner with friends - not to a too "fancy" restaurant (like for our anniversary) but - holy cow - it's the most expensive dinner we've ever had! It was very good, though!
WOW - in the past 1 1/2 months - we've had 3 "dates!" which is unusual! :)
We also had a "big" dinner out with the kids too:
We celebrated Isabella's 10th Adoption Day!! we took her to Medieval Times - a dinner show with horses / games / jousting. There were some people there (in front of us) that were REALLY into this. They were adults - no kids there - dressed up like a princess + the guy was wearing chain mail. No kidding!This is our "knight" - (based on the section we were sitting in) red and yellow. In the skit that the knights, king and queen followed, however, he was not very honorable - so it was hard to cheer for him!
You had to eat with your hands - no utensils.
Mercer was soooo not excited... at all.
Isabella was really into it, though.
(Todd & I took a tour of this building pre-kids... one of his colleagues was the project architect for it. When we took a tour, we saw the stables, the kitchen, the arena, etc. So it's interesting to have gone back and see it again.) It - um - smelled more this time (smelled like horses)
So - we're glad we (finally) took her!
Whew - what a ride the last 10 years has been!
Just like our little one... we're a little worn out too.
Here are some random pet photos to round out this month's blog:
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