The long awaited Test Track Picture

You've all been waiting, and we finally figured out how to capture this picture and share it with you! If you missed the story behind this, scroll down and read "Disney Memory #2.

(Note the perfect stranger holding on to my husband for dear life...)

Trying to have a good attitude...

It could be a lot worse.

At least I still have a job.

I'm sure I'll still enjoy my year.

I'm just disappointed.

I just found out I'll be teaching 3rd grade instead of 4th next year. Any of you who are teachers know what a pain it is to change grade levels. And now my coming experience in 3rd grade will complete my elementary repertoire. I will have officially taught every elementary grade 1-5. The thing is, I know that I'm capable of being a fantastic teacher if I could just have the opportunity to actually build on a grade level for once. That first year is spent just trying to stay two steps ahead of the kids. The ability to enhance and dress up my lessons will only come with either working 12-14 hours a day or a little experience. I want my students to be able to have the great teacher that they deserve. It's just so disappointing that everything that I worked so hard to create and develop last year is now wasted and I'm right back where I was a year ago. I'm trying to have a good attitude and look at the bright side; I'm just disappointed and frustrated that it's going to be so much work. The irony is that when I decided that I wanted to be a teacher (when I was in 3rd grade), it was 3rd grade that I always wanted to teach and it's the only grade left for me to experience. If I had any kind of assurance that this would be the last time I have to change grades for a while, I think it would make this a little easier. Unfortunately, that is not very likely.

Fun with Dangie!

We spent Sunday evening with Dan and Angie. We took Allie over to socialize with Maestro and Mini (I think Maestro has a bit of a crush...) and we adults had a nice dinner of shrimp and crab legs (YUM!) Afterwards we dragged Angie to the bowling alley and bowled a couple of games. They have a really nice new bowling alley in Blaine that is complete with a rather large arcade area that we played in for a while on our way out. It was a fun evening, as always, with the Leverences!

Dan and Angie are picking out their prizes for our ski-ball winnings!

Autographs

When you're at Disney World, you can get almost any autograph that you want, but we were impressed at how God and Jesus decided to handle it. They decided to use a much bigger piece of paper!

More Disney Thoughts

There were a few new additions to the Disney parks since our last visit over 5 years ago. I think we both decided our favorite was the new roller coaster at Animal Kingdom called Expedition Everest. It was an awesome ride and unique from any other coaster I’ve ridden before. I’m just thankful for the Fast Pass system that allowed us to ride it without the 90-minute wait.

Another great addition to the Disney parks is called “Lights, Motors, Action!” at MGM. It’s a live stunt show featuring a variety of different “movie” stunts with cars, motorcycles, and jet skis. It was incredibly impressive and very enlightening. We’ll never watch a movie car chase scene the same way after learning some of the tricks of the trade.

We also enjoyed the new “Finding Nemo” musical at Animal Kingdom. It replaced the Tarzan show that we’d enjoyed so much the last time, but it was really good. Unfortunately we had to be there an hour early in order to have seats. It’s a good thing we made a habit of carrying the Gameboy and iPod to help pass the time. I know, so romantic, huh? But in that heat and humidity you’ve got to have something to take your mind off of your “suffering.” J

Happy Anniversary to us!

Six years ago today we were married:-) It's been a fun 6 years!

In case you're wondering...

We've gotten a few calls today from people wondering if we are ok (after the bridge collapse in Minneapolis yesterday). Rest assured, we're just fine. We're pretty sure we've never even crossed that bridge since it's north out of Minneapolis and we're east of St. Paul. So far we've not heard of anyone that we know that was involved... Hopefully it stays that way. The whole twin cities area is pretty heavily affected by this disaster. It's weird to actually live where something like this happened. Normally I'm just watching it happen somewhere else in the country. Praise God that though we were close to the event, we weren't involved in any way. I just wanted to put you at ease if you were worrying about us:-) (As I'm sure you ALL were...)

Disney Memory #2:

(This is out of sequence because I was hoping to post a picture with it, but I'm not having any luck. I may have to just add it later if I ever get access to the picture.)

It seemed as though Disney was bombarded with tour groups from South America this past week. Everywhere we turned there was another tour group all wearing the same color, following someone carrying a little flag. We didn’t usually mind until a group of 80 got in line just as we were approaching the ride. Many of them often got into the “single rider” line to try to speed up their wait. During our second time riding Test Track a young girl from Brazil (maybe 10 or 11) ended up sitting on the other side of David in our car (because she was a single rider). He tried to make small talk with her before the ride started but she didn’t speak English. However as soon as the ride began and our car climbed a bit of a hill, this poor little girl grabbed David’s arm with both of her arms and held on to him for dear life through the entire ride. I laughed so hard; poor David didn’t know what to do! He just kept trying to cheer for her and say encouraging things to her (even though she didn’t seem to speak English). The greatest part is that Test Track is one of those rides where they take your picture, so we have documentation of David with a different girl on his arm!