Labor Day Weekend

Our first week of teaching/classes has gone by. So far, Paul is loving his new school. Unlike previous experiences, he actually has a lunch break, variety in his schedule, and he gets out on time! It is wonderful that he is having a good time. My week was great as well. I think I can manage a healthy balance of teaching and studying. I haven't decided if it is a good thing or a bad thing, but it looks like every week will be different. (Good thing: variety is nice; Bad thing: it will be more chaotic for me to keep everything straight). For example, I don't have discussion every week, but some weeks I will be grading intensely instead, and others I will have a light teaching load. Another example is that some weeks I will have more research/reading to do than others. I hope I can keep organized!
Even though our first week of work was great, it was still exhausting. I suppose it is a combination of getting used to waking up on time and getting used to a new environment and new faces, but Paul, me, and Rick (all teachers) were crazy exhausted by Friday. It gets better as time goes on. Paul and I took a nap almost every day!
It was nice to have a break with the weekend. And what great weather! Labor day weekend can be frosty or rainy, but rarely is it sunny and 70s! On friday, we played halo and board games with Rick. Always a fun friday activity! Saturday was super special. Paul surprised me with a chance to go to a renaissance fair. Bristol Renaissance faire is one of the biggest ones in the country and only an hour south of us. Even though I am a historian of the renaissance, I have never been to one! It was alot of fun. We saw some great jousting, acrobats, etc. We wanted to go back on sunday to do a cool interactive quest.
However, on Sunday, we woke up very tired. (At Bristol, we were on our feet and doing stuff from noon-7pm). So Sunday we worked on our front yard. We have been slowly getting it ready for my perennial garden, and we finished getting the stumps from the ugly bushes out. They took a long time and alot of hard work, but we got there! We also watched 'Harry and the Hendersons' with Rick. What a funny movie! I recommend it.
Today we were going to go back to the fair as well, but decided it would be better to sleep in extra long. Then we worked on the yard again. This time, we started the fun task of transplanting flowers around in our backyard. The people who lived here before us had a dumb garden going through the middle of our backyard. It makes it difficult for our dog to run around and it makes the yard look smaller. So we are moving the plants to other places. It will probably take the rest of September, but in the end, our front yard and back yard will look great!
Then we went grilling with Rick and Benji and ate ice cream at culvers and watched a movie.
Good times. Overall, it was a great weekend mix of fun yard work (I LOVE it!) and fun activities. Perfecto!!!
~Cris