Christmas

It's hard to think about summer as 1-2 feet of snow fall outside the window!  I can barely see across the street.  We are going to leave for our vacation on the last day of school.  That is very stressful.  The last few days of school leading up to the last day are stressful and filled with a million details and paperwork that has to be completed, but I always know that I have a few days after the last day to finish up and pack up my classroom for the summer (everything needs to be packed away in boxes and cupboards because they use it for summer school).  So now I not only have the normal stress and end-of-year work, but I have to somehow get my classroom boxed up before the school year actually ends (teaching without materials-hmmmm), and shop and pack for a 6 week vacation!  Aaaaaaaaack!!!

Oh My Gosh!

Hi! Anneliese here!

We're going to Australia and New Zealand! I can't wait. It will be so cool to see the home of the Lord of the Rings movies, and to perhaps snorkle in the reef. Not only that, but I can't wait to see the Outback as well!! So fun!  

Getting started!

Well, now we've told the children where we're going--which is New Zealand and Australia.  In past travels, I've kept a travel journal of where we go, what we see, our thoughts, etc.  I have over 20 years worth of these in the bottom of a drawer.  Part of the reason for the travel journal was to label the photos when we had them developed.  I can be a bit obsessive-compulsive so everything had to be dated and labeled correctly, then placed in a photo album in chronological order.  Now that we're digital with the photos are on our computer and my husband makes a DVD of the vacation, it's a bit less necessary.  But I still have thoughts and details and other observances of where we are.  And I have a favorite quote:  "how do I know what I think until I see what I've written?"  But last summer, my husband's blog of our vacation made my journal extraneous.  My then-13 year old daughter wanted to blog, but didn't keep up with it very well--always other things to do.  So this year, I will blog instead of keeping a travel journal and let my now 14-year old daughter add to it when the mood strikes her!  My husband's blog, which has details of our upcoming trip is at:  lee-reidfamilytravels.blogspot.com .   I may occasionally blog, but will become better the closer we get to leaving in June.