Candice & Todd's blog: Not too exciting, but at least we had a bit of a break....

School has been OK. It's just a lot of work - especially with the lack of 1 planning period every-other day + the extra grading from the extra class (which has seemed to level off at about 15). There was a student-leader in our school who passed away in an accident in late September, so the mood has been somber at the school.

Isabella was suffering from her 1st migraine just before break AND was also sad because she did not go on a field trip with her classmates -- which -- after it was too late, she was regretting her decision not to go.

It was definitely time for a break!

I was *REALLY* wanting to go somewhere / do something to recharge, but.... apparently there were other plans in store for me, as I was sick most of the break. So sick that I took 2 covid tests! (both were negative - just suffering from bronchial stuff, but I lost taste & smell for a day - which I've never experienced).

I did get a lot of rest over the break. So, I guess that's positive?!

I was mentally chilling on that start-of-break Friday afternoon and snapped a couple of photos from the parent gazebo near the barn at her horse lesson.

I kept having "someone" check in on me to make sure I was ok - Shiloh was spying on me! It was BEAUTIFUL afternoon at the barn. Well, actually, it was beautiful weather all week -- finally!

The week before this, we were at the same barn and the indoor arena down below the barn for a horse show. It was rainy and yucky, but the event still happened -- just under cover instead of the normal arena where it is held outdoors.

Isabella happily rode Glory indoors and had both parents watching.

She had to go around obstacles, trot, and stop the horse. At the very end, she was supposed to "back" the horse up (beep-beep-beep.... like going in reverse), but her horse had other ideas!

Mercer worked his last day (during operation) at the Sprayground. We "celebrated" this milestone by taking him food from a restaurant - instead of him packing a PB&J sandwich like he normally did. ha ha. Actually, he ended up working an extra day after the official close of the season by going back up and helping to winterize the park one day during break. He was excited because they treated him to lunch in addition to earning the extra hours that will go on his last paycheck.

As mentioned before - it was a good experience overall for him. I emailed the director (who doesn't want to deal with parents) but... said thank you for giving him this opportunity / working around his baseball schedule / that he'd like to work there again next summer if there's room on her crew. We'll see.

While Mercer was at work, we took Isabella downtown to a light show at a local planetarium.

We asked him before we got tickets - he was not upset that we did not take him... and - honestly - I don't think he would have liked it.

It was interesting / different! Something unique to start off our week.

We weren't supposed to take pics during the show, so these came from the internet as reference.

We were just a few minutes away from a friend's house downtown / she happened to reach out to get together, so we made an evening of it too -- meeting up with several friends for dinner at Pullman Yards and dessert at the Beltline. (I snapped a photo of something unique that I've never seen: someone doing ballet in a mirrored dress?!!

AND - another photo of the spot on the Beltline that was an empty parking lot during covid... I have based two student projects in this exact spot. Now, it's built-up!

The developer left the "bridge-to-nowhere," though / didn't take it down during construction.) Todd & Isabella hung out with the husband of one of our friends. She was happy because they had 2 dogs and a cat. Todd was happy because he got guy-time and I'm sure talked about a lot of sports!

The next day, Mercer had a tournament with his new team. Since it was the start of break + it was NOT a sweltering 100 degrees, Isabella and I went to the tournament.

It was a long day on the other side of Atlanta -- 2 games guaranteed, but a 3rd game if a team made the winner's bracket - which it did. So... we got to drive to another location and play the championship game. They came in 2nd. The boys on the team got a ring - it's the 1st one he's gotten as a part of a travel team. ~~The team last year never made the bracket. ~~ A nice surprise: my childhood friend's mom (Karla) came out to the 3rd game and we got in an impromptu visit. She said the school we were playing at was only 10 minutes from her house.

Mercer pitched a little. His elbow has been hurting him the past few weeks, so he only pitched one full inning. He played out in center field the rest of the time... and he played the whole time (which was refreshing from the "token" inning he'd play in any game on last year's team)!

The vibe with this team was already better from what I could tell.

Fingers crossed it will be a good year!

Isabella and I did the butterfly stuff again from our garden -- harvesting the eggs from leaves that were growing in our plot / raising the hatchlings into thriving caterpillars - which most of them have made chrysalises at this point.

The first one emerged and she released a butterfly on the last day of break.

This year, she did not want to take caterpillars and leaves into her science teacher (she had the same one for 3rd & 4th grade who loved having them). Her new science teacher supposedly does not like bugs, so she didn't want to take any in this year.

This may be the last year we do this. :/

She IS taking a Hercules beetle into her old science teacher, though. (she found this at Mercer's baseball game. and - yes - we brought it home in an empty paper cup. It is outside in a jar for her to take to school... not in the house. ha!)

Cool thing she discovered while playing with it... if you get it wet - it turns black. When it dries out, it goes back to light blue with black dots.)

We had a busy weekend, but during the week - blah - sick / the kids nor I did much. (they got way more computer time than I had hoped for)

Isabella and I did go into my classroom one day to unbox monitor lifts and I only got 6 of the 31 installed... boo. Mercer was at home taking his driver's ed course.... which he finished finally! (and passed. yay!)

So, we "made up" for it over the weekend - taking the kids to Six Flags. We hadn't been since before covid and it was on Isabella's list of things to do this year (summer, actually). They're doing Boo-Fest and Fright-Fest right now. Little kid activities during the day and scary people coming out at night. We didn't see too much of the scary stuff, but our kids weren't phased anyways.

Fun picture. Amazingly, as the swings were twirling, I was just snapping... and caught them!

Mercer - after lunch - went off with our neighbors + their boys. No pics of him.

Isabella, Todd and I went another direction. Unfortunately, she hurt her neck on 1 of the rides. We paid a visit to the Six Flags medic who gave her the OK and an icepack. Then, after awhile, she wanted to ride more rides. We tried to find ones that weren't too rough. (Like the original Scream Machine - it's made of wood and seriously rickety)

There was one, though, that was SOOOO intense (but smooth) - it laid you down / you rode facing the ground - until you twirled and did roll-overs. "Superman" was scary, but a lot of fun. So much so that she wanted to do it again!

We also did the low-key Hansom Carts. I think I remember doing these when I was younger! She would have hit the side rail a couple of times if it weren't for the track keeping her in line.

Eek. (Two future drivers... can't handle it!)

Except for her getting hurt, for the most part - it was a good experience. We'll go back b/c we got season tix (for only $7 more a ticket than the 1 day).