When In Rome (Day 2)

Ah, day two. After being up for almost 48 hours, sweet sleep was welcomed.  I woke up on day two feeling energized, renewed, and ready to explore everything Roman.  While getting ready for the day, I encountered a small issue, though.  My flat iron, my most prized "getting ready for the day" tool, decided to up and blow up on me. Warned about the higher voltage in Europe, before I left, I ordered one of the nicest, priciest voltage converters I could find off of Amazon.  I mean, a girl's got to have good hair, so having a converter was a must.  Excited to make myself look presentable [remember, I was coming off of a 48 hour stint of wearing the same clothes, makeup, and having my hair on the top of my head], I plugged my flat iron into my voltage converter and proceeded to start putting my makeup on.  A few minutes into creating my masterpiece, complete with under eye bag coverage, I hear what sounds like a light bulb popping. You know, how they sound when they go out.  I walked into the hotel room to check out where the sound came from and was greeted with the aroma of burned up electronics.  Specifically, my precious flat iron. It was a goner. No amount of CPR was bringing it back to life. Saddened, and not looking forward to any more bad hair days, I went back to getting ready, trying to figure out how in the world I was going to make this mop of hair I have look decent.  The answer came in the form of a pony tail for three days. Three days of selfies with pony tails. :/ #bummer

Now, we've all heard the phrase "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," but I never really realized until day two just how true that statement is.  I travel a decent bit, but I will be the first to say that I am truly a spoiled American girl.  So, when I went down to the continental breakfast area only to be greeted by the looks of sweet bread, deli meat, cheese, and pomegranate juice, I must say, I reacted like a typical American.  [Insert nose in the air here.]  Where are the eggs, Fruit Loops, orange juice, toast, bacon...OATMEAL?!?  Breakfast was hands down my least favorite meal of the day during my time in Rome.  Every morning I would walk down hoping for something different that day only to be met with the same sweet bread, deli meat, cheese, and pomegranate juice as the day before. 

Never fear, though! I wasn't going to let breakfast get me down. It was day two, I had energy, and we were going to see the Colosseum and Forum! 

I was in awe of the Colosseum.  Built between 70 and 80 A.D., to think that the Romans were able to create something so architecturally advanced and beautiful is amazing.  The Colosseum

was built by the emperors of the time with the purpose of providing entertainment and enjoyment to the Roman people.  It could hold approximately 70,000 people. Think about it. AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, holds around 80,000 people, yet the Colosseum was built almost 2000 years ago!  It was used for gladiatorial contests, animal hunts, executions, reenactments of famous battles, and for dramatic mythological performances.  Here are a few pictures I took while I was there.  Obviously, time has not been kind to the Colosseum, and it is definitely showing its age, but for being almost 2000 years old, the structure itself is in amazing condition.  The Romans were impressive architects!

        

After visiting the Colosseum, we continued our tour moving into the Roman Forum which was directly next to the Colosseum. The Forum is an area that houses the ruins of ancient Roman governmental buildings and during its heyday was the center of Roman life.  It was the place of elections, trials, and commercial business.  Today, in 2014, it looks something like this.

These doors are over 2000 years old! Talk about standing the test of time. AND, the lock still works!

Following our morning tour of the Colosseum and Forum, with extremely loud bellies [remember breakfast?], we were released for seven hours of on foot free time.  First stop, FOOD!  Now, let's talk about the food in Rome. You have two choices, pizza or pasta. Or, pizza and pasta. That's it.  Seriously.  Honestly, though, I was so hungry that day, that they could have given me dirt to eat and it would have been delicious. 

Maybe it's my lame sense of humor, but when reading over the menu, I came across this and it gave me a chuckle. Fish...poisson? Maybe that's why I don't like fish. Oh, and did you notice the third menu item?  Grilled dory fish?!? Don't eat Dory! She's special!

After refueling, we headed out in pursuit of the Galleria Borghese which was supposed to be somewhere on the grounds of Villa Borghese.  Villa Borghese is like Rome's version of Central Park. It's huge, beautiful, and full of winding pathways for you to get lost and turned around on. Did I mention that the walk there was uphill and full of stairway after stairway?  Did I mention it was miles away?  Miles and miles of uphill, stair filled treachery.  Let me be the first to say, there was absolutely no guilt in the carbs I ate that day at lunch. Nor was I guilted by inhaling that treasure of a Snickers I found in a remote store while perusing the streets. Getting back to Villa Borghese, though, it was seriously a beautiful park,  complete with a fabulous view of the city.  Here is the Galleria Borghese. It houses many famous pieces of art.  The Borghese namesake can be found all over Rome. Consider them the Kennedys or the Trumps, if you will, of Rome. 

Galleria Borghese

During those seven hours on foot, I'm pretty sure we traveled anywhere from 6-8 miles; who knows, maybe more. If there was a place to see, we saw it.  If there was a street to get lost on, we did it.  We ended our free time with dinner at a fabulous restaurant, Grazia & Graziella. 

Finding our way to the restaurant proved to be another treacherous walk filled with wrong turns and less than helpful directions.  We did meet a kind man who offered to walk us to our location. Being the cynic that I am, that made me nervous.  He walked with another girl we were with and they just carried on a conversation like long lost friends. I, on the other hand, lingered behind planning my course of attack the minute he detoured us in to some dark, abandoned alley.  Maybe I need to stop watching so much Criminal Minds.  I just knew we were going to be his next victim, bait for his sick mind, and end up on the nightly news.  Much to the demise of my over active imagination, just as I had finalized my "crotch shot, boobie twist, and run for your life" plan of attack, he safely dropped us off at our desired location.  #thankthelord  

At Grazia & Graziella, the sign outside boasted they have the best staff in Rome.  We decided to put them to the test, and let me tell you, they did not disappoint! What nice people they all are!  It honestly was the first time in days that I felt like I might be at home.  The people were friendly, you didn't feel like they were judging you or sizing you up as a stupid American, and the food was delicious!  Grazia & Graziella is a must visit when in Rome, but I suggest waiting until you're feeling a bit homesick.  You will leave feeling renewed, as if you just visited a restaurant close to home.

Day two was great.  When I walked back into my hotel room, my calves were tight, my memory card full, and my eyes very heavy.  After a quick FaceTime with Chloe and daddy, it was off to bed for me.  After all, I must be reenergized for my meeting with the Pope!

Till next time,

Lori

Il Mio Viaggio A Roma (Day 1)

Last Friday, despite a crazy two days of a fevering, grumpy toddler, I packed up my carry on (which proved to be too big to actually qualify as a carry on), and set out on across the Atlantic Ocean headed for Rome.  ROME! Rome, ITALY! 

When I told my classes where I would be going, one bright student chimed in, "Rome!?! Like, as in Rome, Greece!?!" LOL! I'm pretty sure some of them were as excited as I was for this opportunity of a lifetime.  I would be traveling and touring Italy with 40 other teachers from across our great nation to prepare for our own upcoming school trips. 

Our first plane took off around noon Texas time.  By the time we landed in Rome, it was 2 am Texas time, 9am Rome time.  The plane ride across the Atlantic was an overnight flight, but I couldn't sleep at all. Like, not one bit. I watched a few movies and several tv shows, though. By the way, a word to the wise, never, and I mean NEVER, watch The Fault In Our Stars on a plane filled with 250 other passengers! It is sad, it is sappy, and you will be caught ugly faced crying. 

Thirteen hours after the take off of the first of my two flights, I finally arrived in the beautiful city.  Let me tell you, if I was to chronicle everything we did over the span of our trip, it would take hours to write. Hours that I don't have. Plus, I'm not narcissistic enough to think that you care to read that much about my adventures.  However, at the request of my students, here it goes; my trip to Rome, day one, summed up into a few paragraphs and lots of pictures.

Upon landing, all of Rome was waking up bright eyed and bushy tailed, while all of us teachers were sleep deprived and still wearing yesterday's clothes. Sleepy eyes and dirty clothes couldn't slow us down, though. I mean, we're teachers...in a city so rich in culture and history.  There was no time for naps, no time for showers. We brushed our teeth, slapped on a little eyeliner to make ourselves look alive, and hit the streets of Rome.  First stop, the Pantheon. 

 

The Pantheon dates back to B.C. times, finally being completed around 126 A.D.  It is rich in history, being used to honor the Gods, bury the most honored and revered of their times, and is now the site of masses and, of course, a tourist hot spot.  It's so crazy to walk into a building as architecturally beautiful and think that it dates back to the times of Christ and shortly thereafter.  Within the Pantheon, you can also find the tombs of many previous Roman emperors and even that of the illustrious Raphael.  I was awed.  What a way to start my trip!

After a lunch of traditional Italian cuisine, PIZZA, we headed out to do some more exploring.  Now, here's where I really must put in a disclaimer.  I learned a few things about myself on this trip. 1. I suck at speaking Italian, learning Italian, and remembering anything with an Italian name that I wasn't already familiar with.  Trying to remember the names of everything I saw was so hard for me.  That being said, bear with me.  2. Italian streets and I don't see eye to eye. They're tricky! They don't just run North/South and East/West. They do this funky looping around stuff and really mess with my inner compass.  I learned to be a follower, not a leader, while in Rome.

Directly in front of the Pantheon is the Piazza della Rotonda.  Piazza basically means "city square" in Italian, and let me be the first to tell you, Italians are very fond of city squares. They. are. everywhere.

Apparently, I was too taken aback by the hilarity of this goofy looking guy to get many pictures of the fountain that sits in the middle of Piazza della Rotonda.  However, I must say, for being up about 36 hours at this point, I don't think I look too bad!

 

  

We walked and we walked on that first day, taking in the sites and learning about this great city.  Some areas were literally straight out of a picture you'd see on a wall at the Olive Garden. Other areas, so different from what I expected.  AND, the cathedrals! Did I mention the beauty of the cathedrals?!?  I'm fairly sure that I have set foot in 90% of Rome's Catholic Cathedrals, each one beautiful and unique in its own way.

 

Let me enlarge this picture below, so you can see JUST how populated Rome is at night.

 

The last three pictures above were taken at the Spanish Steps, yet another "square" in Rome.  I knew Rome was a highly populated area, but until you set foot onto the Spanish steps at night, you have no idea just how densely populated this city of six million is. Try finding your tour guide in that crowd when he looks just like every other Italian man in Rome! 

Day one was exciting, exhausting, and even overwhelming at times. While hanging out on the Spanish Steps, Rusty was whisking my sweet girl off to the emergency clinic for her second visit to the doctor in two days. Chloe just couldn't quite seem to shake her high fever.  He was worried. I was worried.  Heck, I even threw out the idea of hopping a plane home to be with her.  There's nothing worse than not being able to be with your baby when she is sick.  Overall, I'm glad I didn't catch the first plane home, but boy did I feel terrible for jet setting it across the world and leaving my sick girl at home without her mommy. :(

 

Tomorrow, I will chronicle day two in Italia where we took in the sites and sounds of the Colosseum, the Forum, and walked about eight miles of uphill, step filled treachery to see every last nook and cranny of this great city.

 

Till tomorrow,

 

Lori

For Them

It's exactly 11:16pm on a Monday night. The last thing I should be doing right now is blogging. But, the fact is, I don't have a free moment between the hours of 6:00am and 10:00pm these days. It's always like this in the Fall. Only, this year, it feels like it's ten times worse.  Between teaching, coaching, sponsoring the Journalism class, being in charge of all the pep rallies, managing the TV's around school, planning the school trip, being a mom to a toddler pretty much on my own most of the time, and being extremely perfectionistic in everything I do, my plate is full. Like, running over the edges and spilling out everywhere full.  I am one of those people who lives by the motto of "Go Big Or Go Home." Literally. If I don't think I can accomplish a task perfect and to the biggest vision possible, I simply don't do it.  That's why there's so many tasks unconquered around my house. Or, at least, that's what I tell myself.  Point being, I can't just do an "okay" job at any of these tasks, so I am burning both ends of the clock these days, insisting on outdoing myself in whatever task is in front of me.  At this point, I am just counting down the days until I leave for Rome. In exactly 2 weeks, 4 days, I will be jet setting off to Rome for five days child, husband, and student free.  Bliss. That's what I call it. Pure, uninterrupted bliss.

Tomorrow I have a presentation at 8:30am. I might have forgotten about it until about 9:30 this evening.  Not because I'm unorganized. I'm so far from that. Rather, because I worked until 7pm tonight, came home, fed my little, bathed her, read her a book, and began working on this...

If ever asked what I dislike most about my job, this would be it.  Honestly, it's really the only part of my job that I even slightly dislike. I love teaching. I love my students. I adore my cheerleaders. I love my summers and holidays off. In the end, I even enjoy the challenge of taking on more tasks than one person can sanely handle. But grading essays, I. DO. NOT. LOVE. GRADING. ESSAYS.  This should be the work of prison inmates and not the ones in for petty crimes. Reading upwards of 100 mediocre middle school personal narratives should be the work of the hard core lifers.  The ones who will never see the light of day again.  Torture, I tell you. Pure torture.

I would be long done by now with all my work if I had a child that slept. Laying in my bed right now, she looks so peaceful. Little would anyone know what it took to get there. Let me condense it for you into a short, bullet pointed list:

• Two meltdowns
• One visit to her room to think about her actions
• One book
• One sippy cup of chocolate milk
• One baby doll, a monkey, and a bear
• One blankie belonging to Chloe and mommy's blanket
• One couch
• One fall to the ground from the couch
• Half an hour of wailing post fall to the couch. HALF. AN. HOUR. PEOPLE.
• Daddy's spot in the bed
• One wake up from daddy's spot in the bed once again wailing
• Finally, ah....peace. Silence....at 10:35pm...

And, on that note, I'll say this. Tomorrow, I'll be tired. Remember that stack of papers a few paragraphs up? Yeah, I will be attacking those in a few minutes.  I have a game tomorrow night, so we won't get home before 8:00pm at the earliest...another late night to add to the books. Be kind to me...

I do want to leave you on a positive note. I'm not one to whine and complain or even really be negative, so I don't want to close out all cry babyish.  This video makes me smile every time I watch it. We had a great group of students dance with my cheerleaders at Friday's pep rally and this little boy is just the bees knees. I adore him. He stole my heart two years ago, and he's just the best.  All my kids out there reading this: this is the owner of Fred and friends! ;)  He just has the best spirit and dance moves to boot! #lovehim

Truth be told, my students are my world. Aside from my family, of course. It's videos like these that remind me of my place in the world, why I do what I do, and why I'm still up (it's now 12:06am) on a Monday night. I simply adore them. I miss them when we have extended breaks. I enjoy their presence and those "teenagery" talks we have. I love building life long relationships with them. Doing things like this with them is why I'm a teacher. It's not about teaching them Language Arts. Although, I'd be lying if I didn't proclaim my English nerd factor, but I'm also not ignorant enough to think that at the end of the year they're going to walk away from my class remembering how fabulous that lesson on vivid verbs was...nor am I. We both walk away with fond memories of times like these spent together, bonding, being silly, having fun, and building relationships. And, that, my friends, is why I'm uploading videos of my loves at 12:10am on a Monday night...for them.

Till next time,

Lori

#picadayfriday Has Returned!

Alas, it returns!!! Today marks the official end of the second week of school for me and the second week of preschool for Chloe. Two things are certain: we are both dog tired and we have both met a lot of amazing young people. :)
Being back in a normal routine also means the return of daily "daddy" pictures. Each morning on the way out the door, Chloe poses for a picture for her daddy. We started taking morning pictures last year when Rusty was traveling a lot and not getting to see his little girl much. Now, it's just engrained in Chloe's little brain. "I HAVE to take a "pipure" for daddy or he will be sad, mommy!"  Long story short, you can expect to see a few "daddy" pictures each week, for sure. I'll try to spare you as much as possible.
Without adieu, here is our week in pictures...

Friday:

Rusty finds this funny. Me, not so much. Chloe has gotten so tall that I now have to stand on her step stool to be tall enough to do her hair. I officially have short girl problems. :/ 

Saturday:

We took Chloe out to eat some Mexican food for lunch. I looked up from my menu and she just looked so cute sitting there pretending to read her menu. 

Sunday:

Swing 'yer pardner roun' and roun' ... We took a quick, like maybe less than 24 hour trip, to Emory last weekend to mow for Mamaw. Rusty forgot an "I'm going outside to get dirty kind of shirt," so he went looking in the closet to see what might be there that he could wear...and found this beaut.  Size 16, $2 thrift store tag, and complete with shoulder pads and leather fringe.  I mean really, it was a no brainer. I HAD to try it on! I don't know about you, but I think it does AMAZING things for my waistline!

Monday:

Our pretty little chef. She's so cute I could just eat her up!

Tuesday:

We started our week off HAPPY! She was excited to get up and go play with her friends! YAYAYAYAYAY!

Wednesday:

These gorgeous girls have been staring at me all day at work. Chloe must have found this in my desk drawer. Oh how I miss their sweet smiles.

Thursday:

Well, it's not a picture, but it's pretty stinkin' cute. Last week, the color of the week was red. They learned this cute song, and it's been stuck in all of our heads ever since.

Friday:

These beauties shipped today! Picture this: you log in to your Just Fab account only to find out that you have credit to spend. CREDIT!!! Like, English for FREE SHOES! See that invoice?!? I got $80 in shoes for a total of $0! I'm pretty excited to get my new red pumps, for sure, and now I'm also super anxious for some cooler weather so I can sport the new boots.

That's all I got for now, folk. Have a super fabulously great weekend!

Lori

Long Time, No See

Today marks the official second day of school.  In celebration, here's the picture I posted to my student Instagram account.

I'm sure they think I'm a complete loser.

To be perfectly honest, summer wasn't long enough by any means, but any angst I had about coming back was quickly dismissed when I saw all my sweet, and ornery babies yesterday. Yes, even that one who talks really REALLY loud, always interrupts me at the most inappropriate times, and could argue with a wall even when she knows she's dead wrong...I even missed her. (You know who you are!) She tends to read my blog a lot, so I figured I may as well make it worth her time. ;) 

So far, everything has been super! At first glance, my kids seem to all be really great, well behaved, smart, and eager to learn 11 year olds. They even laugh at my jokes which I know are super cheesy.  Tomorrow, we start diving into the world of blogging and blog stalking. Which, of course, leads me to why I am on here at 10:20pm when I made a promise to myself to be asleep by 10pm.
When summer started, I was just so tired.  I needed a break from everything.  Even when you love your job and what you do, sometimes you just need to veg out and do nothing at all. Thus, I took a summer long hiatus from anything work related, including my blog.  My summer consisted of a whole lot of laying out by the pool, three vacation trips, and lots of mommy/Chloe bonding. 

Although my blog isn't solely written for my students, (it's actually written for Chloe to be able to look back on years from now and get to relive some of our crazy fun times and see how much I loved and adored her) it is something that I do with my kids at school and many of them keep up with my posts. Every Thursday and Friday we blog together. They sign on to theirs, I sign on to mine, we all blog about whatever is on our mind, and then we blog stalk each other.  It's honestly quite fun, and I enjoy getting to read some of their more personal writings that aren't so formulaic and based of a prompt.  I think at least some of them enjoy it too. At least, that's my impression based on comments like this:
 

 and this...

I'm honestly not sure if I'm more giddy that I'm reaching and connecting with students in a new way or that sweet Kaylah spelled "you're" correctly. #englishteacherobsessions 

I'm SO behind from not blogging, though. My goal in the next week is to back track to June and make a post about Chloe's fabulous Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 3rd birthday party and talk about all of our summer travels.

For now, I'll leave you with this. Chloe started preschool last week. If you follow me on Facebook, you know it's been hard on my shy little lamb.  Here she is on her first day.

Excited. Rotten. Ready.

Chloe thrives with familiarity, routine, and close relationships. It's so hard for her to find her comfort zone and open up...even with family!  I will say she is a TON better than she used to be, though.  That doesn't dismiss the fact that it's still quite a feat for her to hurdle before she starts kindergarten. Every day since day two has been a struggle. See exhibit A:

I swear she did this ALL morning long.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  She wakes up and almost immediately starts in on the, "I don't want to go to school today. I want to stay home with you." whining.  Oh, the whining. If you're a parent, you know what I'm talking about. The most wretched, makes you want to pound your head into a wall repeatedly until it goes away kind of sound. (Insert high pitched toddler-like squealing) "Mommmeeeeee, I don't waaaaannnnnnnttttt to go to Roxannnnnnneeeee's hooouuuuusssseeeeee." which is often accompanied with throwing herself on the ground, stomping of the feet, or any number of other dramatic options.  Pretty much like clockwork, it almost always turns into tears when the reality of getting dressed so we can head out the door happens.  The tears continue pretty much ALL.THE.WAY.TO.MRS.ROXANNE'S.HOUSE. It's exhausting. 

Please, pray for my sweet girl. Pray that she finds the peace and comfort to open her heart to this new school and learn to love Mrs. Roxanne as much as she loved her Jakki.

Here is a barrage of our pictures from the last few days. *Special note: Somehow, by the grace of God, I got a smiling picture out of her today. Don't be fooled though. There was enough whining, crying, and all out belly aching that went on before and after the picture to put this sane mommy in a state home.

Day 1: Cuz I'm happy, happy, happy....

Day 2: Like, seriously, really? Could she be more dramatic? I promise no elephants were hurt during this meltdown.

Day 3: Cuz I'm happy, happy, happy...until drop off time...

Day 4: Here we go again...

Day 5: It's pretty much all down hill from here.

Day 6: The things we do to try to bring a smile to our little's faces.

Day 7: Don't be fooled. See that red nose and puffy eyes?

Day 7 Continued: Drop off. That poor elephant has had a rough week.

OH, and one more thing before I go. Today would have been my dad's 70th birthday. Somewhere up in heaven, there's a party going on! HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Till next time,
Lori