Friday Fotos 2024 #3

Friday Fotos is a post where I can dump some photos from the previous week. The goal is to make me more aware of the beauty and fun in my everyday life. 

Trees in the park were budding at the end of last week.  I love the sign of new life, spring, and warm weather!

This is a horrible picture of a hawk. I hear them all the time in the park but rarely see them. This is a red-shouldered hawk. I hear them in the park, and then red-tailed hawks circle in the field across from my house. They are magnificent birds!

I think this is a red maple. I noticed its color while on a walk. Just beautiful.

This is the same tree as the first picture, but a few days later. 

This pretty little flower is a bunch daffodil. So small & delicate!

One of the signs in the rival town of the Small Town. How many times have I driven by this sign and not read it? I need to learn to slow down and take time to read some of the history that's in my backyard.

I hope you're taking the time to enjoy the beauty that's around you every day. Until next time!

Long Time No Write

I'm amazed that it's been over a month since I last posted! March was busy, busy, busy! I kept meaning to write several posts, but it never happened (obviously!). I was super focused on Lent and spending more time writing on my Catholic Blog that I just didn't have the drive to write anything here. I'm afraid to even open up my Bloglovin'; I shudder to think about just how many posts I have to read!
So, what happened last month? Well, at the end of Feb., CH & I took a long weekend trip to see this one for Family Weekend:

It was a really good weekend. We got to see MS, meet his friends/classmates, sit in on a class, go to the casino and a baseball game, and just get a taste of what his life is like. We managed to get in some good food & drink, too!

(Gator...we discovered that it's acceptable to eat gator on a Friday during Lent!)

 (Oh, yes I did! I also found out that Community Coffee has a King Cake Coffee, so I made sure to pick up a bag from Winn Dixie before we left!)

The live oaks on campus are just beautiful.

As an added bonus, I got to meet another Speech/Language Pathologist who invited me to be a part of an online group. We're called The Frenzied SLPs. It's an awesome group...most of us have at least 10 years experience in the field, and we "talk" frequently through FB Messenger. Anyway, this lady is just a fantastic person. We met in a coffee shop with our husbands for beignets & coffee. It was like we've known each other forever!

A couple of weeks after our visit with MS, I had Spring Break. CH took a week off, and we headed to Edisto Beach State Park to camp for the week. We left on Sat. & spent the night with some friends we met on our trips to The Keys. They live on Lake Murray, so they took us out on the boat to see the sites from the lake. We had Laika with us, and we were concerned about how she would do in a boat...with the noise. She was quite the champ; she acted like she had "been there, done that"!

They have a beautiful house. This is what we woke up to on  Sunday morning:

Edisto was absolutely wonderful. Before break, when someone asked if I was going anywhere & I would tell them Edisto, I was immediately asked where it was. When we got there, I think half of East Tennessee was there! Most of the campers were from East Tennessee. After some boyscouts left, a family who lives a couple of streets over from us moved in! Spring Break deserves a post of its own, so I'll save that for another post. This pretty much sums it up:

I guess that's enough for this post! Next up...Edisto Beach, SC!

Carbon Neutral & Sad Day.

Do you see my new button over in the sidebar?  I got the link from Debby over at Just Breathe.  This is actually pretty neat.  This  was started by a German company; 1 tree is planted in the Plumas National Forest in Northern California  for every person who puts this on their blog/website.  The goal is to reforest the forest, so to speak.  The forest was destroyed by fires 3 years ago.  Planting the tree neutralizes the blog’s/website's carbon footprint for the next 50 years.  I figured it is worth a try. 

Yesterday was a very sad day:  It was my intern's last day.  She did such an amazing job with my students.  When I think back to the first day she came in until yesterday, I realize how much she grew professionally.  She came in kind of meek (especially with the behavior management) but finished very strong.  She was a delight to get to know, and it's nice to know that I helped someone coming into the profession get a good, positive start. Now I have to get back to work and pick up where she left off!  I forgot didn't even think that I had my camera to take a picture before she left.  She is looking at working in a hospital setting in a big city about 2-3 hours away from here.  She is from that city, although I tried to talk her into staying with us since she has a boyfriend in this area.  But, no dice.  She's ready to go home.  And she'll do great, because she is going to be an amazing Speech Pathologist.  But, I'm going to miss her.

Only 1 more Bus Duty Day and I'm done for the year!  YEEE-HAW!  It's probably a good thing, too, since I was late (again) this morning.  But, I didn't have to be in the gym last, which means no little children were crying.  I am very, very thankful that I don't have duty the last week of school...talk about cruel and unusual punishment!  I am, however, really glad that I have the schools that I have.  Both of them are very laid back, but are so caring about the students.  There may be 1 or 2 teachers that I wonder how much they like their job, but for the most part they are there for the kids.  And, they all know how to laugh and have a good time!  It definitely makes it a lot easier to go to work when you have those people with you in the trenches!  Yes, God is good!

Have a fun Thursday!