No, it’s not Christmas. It’s FALL! The beginning of the school year! Football! Crisp weather! The list could go on…
If you recall, one of my most favorite, simple pleasures in life; the first day of school! I am giddy when I wake up in the morning and know I will be meeting my students for the first time. They are such shy, cute, little seventh graders. They’re eyes are as big as marbles when I give them my class syllabus. They are afraid to laugh at my jokes. They’re excitement grows when I ask for volunteers to perform embarrassing human tricks. It’s the best!
The first morning is always the hardest with Ace. I always feel so guilty. I let him out right before I leave, (Tony lets him out when we get up about an hour previous to this time), and the first couple days, he never senses any amount of urgency. He sniffs around, runs some hot laps, etc.. even if I’m dangling a treat in front of his nose, begging him to go to the bathroom. After the first week, he catches on to the new routine, but I always giggle those first mornings.
Our middle school is under construction this year; we are in the process of building, using the structure of the building that currently exists, a new middle school building. It’s an exciting time for the community. In addition to a new middle school, (that I will get to teach in!!), a new community center is being built next door. The word isn’t official, but there’s talk district teachers will get to use it for free! I would LOVE to run around the track when school gets out every day! Since our school building is an official construction zone, we are going to experience some not so hot moments while teaching – cue power outage. The Friday of the first week of school, our building lost power. Classrooms were pitch black. So what did I do? Rolled with the punches; played twenty questions with my class – students had to describe a class mate that was in the class using yes or no questions. We laughed a lot! The power came on after about twenty minutes – but man, was that a talked about topic in the hallways!
In addition to the first week of school, another favorite that happened over Labor Day weekend – a state fair visit!!
EVERY year, from the time I can remember, I’ve gone to the state fair with my dad. When I was in elementary school, I used to tag along with him and my uncles and watch the stockcar race the fair used to have every Monday of Labor Day weekend. My mom would lather me up with sunscreen, pack ear plugs, and send me on my way. My dad and I would spend the morning walking the fair grounds – we saw EVERYTHING. We would walk through the barns, the heritage grounds, and machinery hill. Looking back, I can’t believe I was entertained by staring at tractors and eventually watching stock cars drive around a track for three hours.
I’m pretty sure it was the time with my dad that I loved. I remember always looking to his face for a reaction; whether it was looking at the Harley motorcycles or listening to the KFAN radio booth. Anything I asked for, his answer was yes. I have memories with him that are so special to me.
When Justine got old enough, she started joining us on our fair visit – the race is no longer at the fair, and the grandstand got changed into a infomercial’s dream. Here and there, my other sister, Alissa would come, too, but for the most part, it was my dad, Justine and I. We would walk the entire grounds, eat A LOT, and watch Justine shoot hoops at the Midway.
Tony has joined us the past couple years and it has turned into a favorite for him, too. It’s been so amazing that we have kept this tradition all these years.
I tried to take a picture of everything we ate, but I was too excited to get whatever it was we ordered into my belly! I did remember to take a picture of one of my favorite fair foods – cheese curds!
Get in my belly!
Man, those were good! Our list of fair food this year: Australian battered potatoes, (an every year favorite), deep fried lobster on a stick, mac and cheese on a stick, cheese curds, Sweet Martha’s cookies, (another favorite), and we also sampled s’more beer!!
Beautiful, right? It wasn’t as delicious as it looks, but it was still fun to try!
Overall, the state fair visit of 2014, was a success!
