Weekly Post: 6/5 - 6/11

Sunday, June 5:

Don't remember much that happened that day other than that Ben made a delicious breakfast. Avocados with eggs, peppers, and sausage inside. Yum.

Monday, June 6:

My last day of review before final exams. My student Jordan spent more time taking selfies than doing practice questions. I exasperatedly tried to get my phone back from him. [I had 20 other selfies/faces to choose from] 

Tuesday, June 7:

 The weather was so beautiful, I decided to spoil Ben's birthday present from my parents/his parents, a grill! We love it and have used it 4 times since getting it

Wednesday, June 8:

Wednesday was a hard day. Many of my students who didn't skip my final  complained about it. Eye roll. Many last-minute tasks were heaped on my plate. Eye roll. Kingsley was a handful. Eye roll. There were a few bright spots though. 1. Ty'Ras, one of my favorite people, texted me thanking me for supporting him this year. and 2. my amazing husband made me cookies and let me eat an obscene amount without judgment (or at least no discernible judgment).

Thursday, June 9:

I had kids test out some of my ideas for my mini-unit for the next few weeks on center of mass and torque. They had me laughing!

Friday, June 10:

PROM!  Prom looks good on my kids. They made Ben and I look casual by comparison.

One of the only pictures of my co-workers and me. Justin Hetherman, Lakisha Jones, Marlon McDowell, Vladimir Sreckovic, Voletta Bonner, me, and Asha Washington. I'm really good friends with everyone except the two guys in the middle here.

Ty'Ras, girlfriend, and me. 

Jayla, Recara, and me.

Last but not least, here is a group from my advisory (missing a few kids out dancing). Jayson, Kajara, Orlando, Jajuan, Melvin, Darnelle, Odell, and Randy. History repeated itself with me getting the best advisory in the school. The good kids. The fun kids. The smart kids. The cool kids. They are one and the same group. They are my advisory.

 Saturday, June 11:

So much happened on Saturday. In the morning, I went and volunteered at a friend's ballet recital. I was a stage hand who helped the girls get dressed and undressed and on and off stage. I really enjoyed it for someone who knows nothing about dance. It made me reconsider my vague opinion that no Salazar children would dance ballet.

Next, I went to a brunch with some good friends from TFA. Afterwards, Lexi came over, and we chatted and played with Kingsley.

Meanwhile, Ben organized a group of people from church to help out the brother of our neighbor. Their house was severely damaged in a fire. On Saturday, they removed the subfloor and began to replace floor joists. They worked all day. Ben was extremely impressed (yet again) by our neighbors and their family who worked alongside him despite the fact that they were fasting from both food and water because of Ramadan. 

Weekly Post: 5/29 - 6/4

Sunday and Monday we were still camping in the Smokies! So nothing extra to add there!

Tuesday, May 31:

Tuesday we went to Cedar Point on our field trip. It was a smashing success from the beginning to the end. First, I ended up surprising my kids with charter buses for the 2-hour bus-ride. I told them we would be getting the cheese buses (aka yellow school buses), but they ended up being slightly more expensive than the deal I guilted out of the charter bus guy. So we surprised the kids with nicer buses. They wouldn't stop talking about it on the way there, and their excitement about a bus with a toilet at the back boded well for the park.

The kids had an amazing time. It brings tears to my eyes to write about. Virtually none of my kids had been out of Detroit, not to mention to an amusement park. Although many of them tried to play it cool, it was clearly a big deal. It's not an exaggeration to say it was a trip of a lifetime for many of them. Thanks isn't enough for those of you who helped make it possible (Mom and Dad, I'm making a hard look at you!). The kids virtually all wrote it as their favorite memory of high school on their end of year surveys. These pictures are from some of the check-in texts I got from students. 

Wednesday, June 1:

Wednesday was a big one! We got Kingsley and were immediately obsessed. But I had already committed to going to a students 'pop-up'. One of my students, Deshawn, who is out-of-a-movie amazing, is involved with a non-profit for kids interested in culinary arts. Long story short, I had to leave my brand-new puppy to go to a pop-up for his cooking team.  A delicious 4-course meal as a way of supporting a hard-working kid was the only thing that could've pulled me away from Kingsley.

Thursday, June 2:

At first the separation during work was really hard. Kingsley knew just how to play it, manipulative little puppy! Right before I would leave for work he would be the most adorable ever and cry just a little. Several days I had to run past (crying myself) his crate to actually get out the door. These are some of the million obsessive pictures we've taken of him (some of them are from when Ben came home for lunch and I insist he sends me pictures).

Friday, June 3:

Kids presented their research projects, and some kids were more creative than others! Loved it!

Davy and Nena came over to meet and play with Kingsley. We went out to Brome burger so Kingsley could enjoy the outdoor seating with us, and then we watched a movie at home. Great time. Great friends!

Saturday, June 4:

 Ben went somewhere. Kingsley and I joined some of my friends/colleagues at the district softball championship where Central's girls were competing (they won by the mercy rule in 3 innings. Woot!). After the game the girls fawned over King, but we took no pictures. And then Ben made an amazing dinner. Ben's turned into a chef! This is the one picture we have of the day - interesting choices we make!

Smoky Mountains Camping Trip

Memorial Day weekend we drove down to camp in the Tennessee Smokies with our good friends Davy and Nena and their dog Alex.

On the way there, we stopped at Waffle House for some midnight shenanigans. Davy and Ben impressed us with their familiarity with the menu and ordering expertise. It's good to have some natives with you when you're in a foreign land.

At first our campsite felt really foreign to me too. The family next to us used the big screen tv in their tent until past 5 AM. To make matters worse, they argued loudly and consistently enough that I couldn't quite make out the dialogue of the Law & Order SVU episode they were watching.

But the next morning, I discovered that I had more in common with our neighbors than I might have thought. A kid abruptly opened his trailer door around 7 AM and yelled, 'Momma, are you gettin' me ice cream?' To which, she naturally replied, 'In a few minutes - just eat another pop-tart for now!' The native Tennessee diet more closely resembles mine than any other I've ever observed. Ever since that moment I felt a kinship with the golf-cart riding, steak-on-a-fire cooking campers around me.

We met up with other friends on Saturday afternoon, Whitney and Austin, and their two dogs, Ernie and Moe. We were now a party that was 1/3 dogs and 2/3 humans.

We spent most of our time either hiking or eating. The Smokies are beautiful, and we saw waterfalls, mountains, and some wildlife.

For future reference, we need this photographic evidence that Ben and I successfully made a Dutch-oven breakfast casserole. It was delicious and looked surprisingly fancy considering that all of the ingredients came from a Dollar General. We will attempt to recreate this in the future, but there is a part of me that already knows something this beautiful can only happen once.

We also went white water rafting, but we didn't take any pictures (classic). We had a really fun time, and our raft guide told us that we were very advanced. And yes, we did tip him to say that.

Most of all we really enjoyed our time around the campfire with friends!