True Love

This past weekend I indulged myself.
NCTE + Liz, Austin, Leah, Sarah, Caleb, Joshua, & Emma = True Love.

When I found out that the NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English) Conference was to be held in Chicago this year, I knew I had to go. What could be better? Taking time off work to go to Chicago to see my nieces and nephews AND getting to go to the Mecca of English Teaching conferences. I certainly couldn't think of any better way to spend my weekend.

For those of you who care far less about both of these things as I do, I will spare you the detailed version--though I am more than happy to share all the delightful details if you feel so inclined to listen--I will share a few highlights.

*Bounce Town with Sarah, Joshua, and Emma. Bounce Town is a place where they have tons of those blow-up contraptions with slides. The kids loved running around and jumping from place to place. Poor little almost six-month old Emma was probably thinking all this bouncing and shaking was a little bit crazy as Liz and I dragged her up ladders and down slides. Jumping with kids in a no-danger jump zone = very fun. You should try it.

*Meeting up with Amber at the NCTE conference. Despite eating sub-par sandwiches, I love my rekindled friendship with Amber because she only indulges me in talking about nerdy English Teacher stuff. It was nice having a conference buddy to discuss what we were learning.

*Attending Debbie Dean, Jon Ostenson, and Chris Crowe's presentation at the conference. Debbie and Jon were two of my professors at BYU. And I <3 them. A lot. I pretty much want to be Debbie. Debbie Dean (in my mind she will always be Dr. Dean) does it all. She teaches English Ed. classes at BYU, teaches one class at Provo High School, writes books, bakes, reads and plays with grandchildren. She is pretty much my idol. Their presentation on the English Journal was really interesting and it was so good to chat with them before and after--and then have lunch with Debbie and Amber the next day.

*Going out for Thai and Culver's shakes with Liz and Austin. The Thai restaurant we went to was really good. It was one we hadn't tried before and I think it was the best one we've been to so far. Austin thought it would be brilliant to prolong our outing so the babysitter would have all the kids in bed and asleep by the time we got back. But as soon as we walked in the door, all of the kids came running out of their room. So much for that plan!

*Babysitting all of the kids Saturday night while Liz and Austin attended the adult session of Stake Conference. So much fun! Because I attended the conference, I didn't have as much time to spend with the kids during the day, but Saturday was a blast. The kids performed a play that they made up, we ate treats, watched the video adaptation of the book The Monster at the End of this Book, got ready for bed, read scriptures, said prayers, and got everyone to bed and the kitchen cleaned up with time to spare. I'm a super babysitter--what can I say?

Okay, so maybe this doesn't seem like the condensed version of the weekend, but trust me, I could elaborate much more than I have! This weekend was pretty much perfect. I felt intellectually rejuvenated and inspired. I felt reconnected with home--which was especially nice since I've been pretty homesick lately, and I felt overly loved.