Race to the Finish

Sorry we haven't updated our blog for a couple weeks. The world around us is abuzz with end-of-school fever, and it's making our lives busier than usual.

Tomorrow our kids will begin their end of year testing. It's basically the tests to determine whether or not they get promoted to the next grade (or in some cases, graduate). Our superiors have been talking about this week since the first day of school, emphasizing its importance to us (the teachers) and to the students at every opportunity. In a way it kind of reminds me of the tests that the kids had to take in the movie "Lean on Me" with Morgan Freeman. The state is watching very closely, and a lot is riding on these kids to pass. Sometimes I pretend that I'm in the movie "Lean on Me" and go through my workday with an awesome old school hip-hop soundtrack. Speaking of which, they ought to make a movie about Celeste and I being teachers. They could call it "Double Trouble" with a tagline like "The students of Vance County thought they could run the show. Till they met..." I'm going to talk to some people about that. I think it's magic in the making.

In other news, Celeste and I have been gearing up for some major traveling. We're going to the mountains of NC over Memorial Day weekend to do some mountain biking and to see the Biltmore Mansion (which, if you haven't seen or heard of, just take a look: http://biltmore.com/ It's incredible).

Of course, this trip will pale in comparison to our version of European Vacation, for which we depart in exactly one month from today. We're starting to finalize our plans, buy our necessary items (like cool matching fanny packs, Hawaiian shirts, straw hats, etc.), and study our history to make this trip as memorable as possible. Right now our itinerary calls for Ireland, London, Paris, and Spain. We'll see everything from Buckingham Palace to Notre Dame, and we'll do everything from float the Seine River to swim in the Mediterranean. And all this is just the cake. The icing on top is that we're still collecting paychecks through the summer - we're just not working.

Well, that about does it for this week. Check back next week for more fun stuff and an update on "Double Trouble"'s productions plans.

Cheers!