Teacher of the Year

 When my oldest son told me he wanted me to be a teacher - I'll be honest, I had my reservations.  He has some anxiety and anxiety and teaching don't go very well together.  

But I kept my mouth shut and I am so glad I did because 9 years in, he is a marvelous teacher!  This year he finally got the recognition he deserves when he was named Teacher of the Year at his middle school.

Even though that decision was announced back in August, the awards dinner was not held until Friday evening January 30.  He was able to bring one person and I felt honored to be his plus one. 

Held at the Rosen Shingle Creek and called the Orange County Stellar Awards, it was really a formal event. 

The dinner was delicious and I enjoyed myself very much.  It was a bit like the Oscars with finalists announced for administrator of the year, teacher of the year, etc., winners announced, and acceptance speeches given. 

Once the teachers of the years were announced and CJ got his trophy, we left to beat the heavy traffic.  

It was definitely one proud mom evening. 

Visit Up North

 I just got back from a wonderful trip up north to visit family.  

My aunt (my mom's sister) was like my second mom when I was growing up.  I was very close to my cousin so I spent a lot of summers at their house in Waukesha.  

After losing my parents, I felt that I had to make an effort to see her again.  I booked my flight a few months ago, but I guess I didn't tell my sister because when she found out I was going (only 5 days before) she was upset and wanted to go too.  Fortunately, we were able to find her a seat on the exact same flights as me.  

We left on February 6 and went Orlando to Milwaukee. Things got off to stressful start as we had trouble checking in and then we ended up sitting on the plane while they tried to fix the navigation system.  They tried for an hour before deciding that we needed to get off the plane, switch gates, and get on another available plane.  So instead of leaving at 4:30, we left about 6:05. Very uncharacteristically, I slept through most of the flight. I only woke up when I heard the pilot say we were landing in 1/2 hour. 

My cousin drove in from North Dakota and was there to pick us up.  And it was COLD!  Over the next three days we had a wonderful time visiting with friends and family. My best friend Carey drove down on Saturday and spent the day, we had a couple of my aunts over pizza, and met my cousin's partner, Wade.  We had a wonderful time - even though it was COLD! Somehow, this is the only picture I got. 

Every Christmas our parents would make us line up like this on the steps for a picture. 

We flew back late on the night of February 9 and both decided we need to make an effort to go back very soon - this time in the summer.  

HHN The Next Two Houses

     Universal took another step this year to alleviate unnecessary walking time.  These final houses (plus Terrifier) were all in close proximity in the front of the park.  Walking between houses was done behind the buildings this year instead of the front.  It saved a lot of time.  

    Our next house was Grave of Flesh.  The house theme according to nbcuniversal.com was: Welcome to your funeral, where things go from bad to worse. You'll enter your grave and then the underworld, where flesh-eaters who feed on the dead will hunt you for all eternity. 

    Overall, I liked this house.  It had a good setting setting and I enjoyed the soundtrack.  It had some good jump scares. It was a visually interesting house.

*pictures from Inside Universal

Walkthrough video from Attractions Magazine

Next up was usually Five Nights at Freddy's.  The best scene in this house was the first room when you come face to face with full-scale replicas of the characters on the stage singing.  The rest of the house consisted of iconic scenes from the movie as Freddy, Chica, Foxy, and Mr. Cupcake stalk you. According to nbcuniversal.com, the characters were created in collaboration with Jim Henson's Creature Shop who created the animatronics and costumes for the movie. 

* picture credit: Spectrum News 13

*picture credit: Orlando Informer

I liked the house, and there was really only a couple times where the wait time was absurdly long. There was also a couple times when we could basically walk right in with no wait time.  In general, though, it was a very popular house (of course).

Walkthrough video: Attractions Magazine

Up Next: The final two houses