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

HHN 2025 - The Next Three Houses

 The next house on our tour was Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters.  I'm not sure why, but this house seemed to have one of the longest wait times. 

This house was based off of one of the movies from Slaughter Cinema 2 which was a house in last year's HHN.  According to Wiki, Hatchet and Chains are Bounty Hunters Chains is someone who can see and interact with demons and kills them with a mystical chain. Hatchet is a demon who saved the life of Chains. They work together traveling the Wild West hunting demons. 

Pictures from Wiki: Halloween Horror Nights Fandom

While not one of my top favorite houses, I generally enjoyed it.  The characters and ambiance were good, just not really many scares. 

Walk through video from Attractions Magazine

Making our way to the front of the park, we stopped along the way at Jason's Universe. 

Try to escape Jason Voorhees as you walk through Jason's shack in the woods and the summer camp that started it all. 

Pictures from Wiki: Halloween Horror Nights Fandom

This house was a solid medium for me.  I enjoyed it for the iconic Jason Voorhees scares, He was literally everywhere!

Walk through by Attractions 360*

Moving to the front, the next house we usually hit was Terrifier.

The house was based on all three Terrifier movies; of which I have not seen any of them. In this house, Art the Clown recreates some f his more famous kills.  

I enjoyed this house even with not seeing the movies.  Detailed sets and the fun factor, balancing the brutal kills with dark humor.  At the end you could choose to exit on two different paths (blood bath or dry path).  We did the blood exit on our night, but really it was just globs of water falling on you. Did not impress me. 

Pictures from Wiki: Halloween Horror Nights Fandom

Walk through from Attractions 360*

Christmas Traditions Part 1

As I attempt to ambulate through the one year "anniversaries" of the three deaths, I cannot help but torment myself by mentally reliving the worst 46 days of my life. In addition to grieving the loss of them, I am, at the same time, saddened at the loss of our Christmas traditions.  

In addition to the traditions we enjoyed recently, I have been reflecting on past traditions which were revised as my sister and I grew up and expanded our family circle to include boyfriends/husbands/in-laws, etc.   

Aesthetically, my earliest Christmas memories included a real white flocked tree with blue lights and ornaments, along with a cardboard fireplace where we would hang our stockings.  That is until one year, the white flocked tree wasn't so beautiful to us anymore and my sister and I begged our parents for a green tree with colored lights. They were happy to oblige and I vividly remember making a trip to the Sears store in our local mall to purchase a fake green tree.  😁

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Renwick-7-5ft-Pre-lit-Pencil-Artificial-Christmas-Tree-with-Warm-White-Lights-Lake-Blue-Gradient/11173472998

As for traditions, we always had a ham dinner on Christmas Eve and usually either apple pie with ice cream or strawberry shortcake (my dad's favorite) for dessert.  After the dinner clean-up we would make our way to the basement where my dad would pull out his guitar and we'd sing Christmas Carols.  I remember this being one of my favorite things.  I always loved Christmas music and enjoyed the sound of my mom and dad's signing voices.  

Later on in the evening we would pile in the car and drive around looking at Christmas lights.  There was a street in the city that had these beautiful Victorian houses and they were always decorated so beautifully. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChristmasLights/comments/zea8z8/my_house_in_salisbury_nc_decorated_for_christmas/

https://www.dreamstime.com/display-christmas-lights-house-display-christmas-lights-house-illustration-extravagant-victorian-grand-abundance-intricate-image317372503

Christmas Day would begin very early with two excited children!  We'd open presents and get ready for church at 10:00.  Then we'd leave straight from church to drive to my grandparent's house near Milwaukee and spend a full day there.

The day after Christmas we would drive the opposite way to Iron Mountain, Michigan to celebrate with my dad's side of the family.  Due to the three-hour travel time, we would stay overnight at my grandma and grandpa's house.  

The next day would begin with a full breakfast before leaving - you never left hungry from their house!!!  We would not drive home though, instead we would stop at a Ramada Inn in Green Bay for a night.  My sister and I would swim all day.  The pool had a dome roof similar to this one.

photo credit:    https://www.vintag.es/2023/06/ramada-inns.html