Summer Crazy

When the school year ended in a immense push to simply finish, I felt like I was crawling to cross that finish line. Various things came up that veered a truly excellent first year off course, and all I could hope for was to simply finish. Summer hasn't been so welcome since college graduation!

My school finishes the Friday before Memorial Day. That holiday was the most relaxing day I had experienced in ages. I determined that I wouldn't think about school or anything that constituted as work (unless I wanted to) until the end of July. And that is exactly what I have done! It has been an excellent summer filled with great trips, part-time flexible work, time with friends and family, and a few days that truly felt like a vacation.

Here's what I have been up to:

Tampa, FL. My husband and I drove a vehicle down to Florida to deliver to a missionary friend, then spent a week with my husband's parents, unintentionally swam with a small shark in Clearwater, earned free airline tickets after an eight hour flight delay home, and overall had an excellent time.

Pelicans from Tarpon Springs, FL.
You have to visit the sponge docks if you are in the area.
Tarpon Springs is a Greek tourist town and just a fun family experience. 

Thank you, Panda! I appreciate the advice on my first day of vacation. 

Nice little museum sponsored by the Smithsonian.
Focuses on the American Indian history of the Tampa Bay area. 

Antrim, New Hampshire. My husband and I had an amazing time sponsoring teenagers from our youth group to go to the Wilds New England, a Christian teen camp hidden in the hills of New Hampshire. We had an awesome time!! My husband has been called to be a youth pastor, God just hasn't led us to the right place yet, so in the mean time, we are thrilled to help with the youth group and spend quality time with the junior highers. There wasn't couples housing at the camp because it is still fairly new, so we stayed at a little bed and breakfast in Antrim.

I have to say I don't like bed & breakfast's at all! The concept of paying to stay in someone's home and sharing a bathroom with other strangers just doesn't appeal. Yes, I think I will book that room at the Best Western Plus, but I must say... This little bed & breakfast won me over. Really, it was the owner who won me over. He was an accomplished businessman and a truly interesting person. Brian and I enjoyed speaking with him every morning about life, and religion, and Christ. We had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with him, and were joyed to see his interest grow as the Word of God penetrated his heart. We are still praying for this bed and breakfast owner. 

Camp Director Rand Hummel leading the campers in Christmas carols of all things
to remind the teens to celebrate their King all throughout the year. 

Boston, MA. We figured since we had made it all the way to New England, we might as well spend a day in nearby Boston. We loved this city! Brian said he actually wouldn't mind living in the Boston area, and he hates downtown areas. We took one of the hop-on hop-off tour buses and thought that was an awesome decision. The drivers were able to take us to some sights that we would not have visited otherwise and filled in the gaps between destination stops. Aside from one rather boring driver, we were thrilled with the decision to take the tour buses. It was money well spent. 

Something that we discovered is that although Boston is not a large city, it has so many sights it cannot been seen or enjoyed in a single day. Be sure to schedule at least two days to appreciate all of the museums as they deserve. 

The Old State House and sight of the Boston Massacre.
Worth the visit & time. 

A well-timed quote. 

The Old North Church. One if by land, two if by sea. 

This last picture is of the house that Paul Revere lived in as an adult and where he conducted business and raised his family. There is a welcome center being built on the grounds so the sight was largely under construction. The house itself was built in the 1660s, hence the colonial English style. But it is so old it literally felt like it was built out of toothpicks. It did not seem structurally sound. We could see the lower level sway as people walked through the second floor. It was rather unnerving. Maybe we will visit again after the welcome center is completed and building is restored, until then - skip it! Unless of course you are dying to be in a home that old and want the thrill of taking your life in your own hands. 

Having missed a few sights such as Fanueil Hall and Quincy Market (I know, I know! Tragedy!), we are looking forward to going back. 

Greenville, SC. I returned from the Wilds on Saturday evening and left before daylight on Monday morning for Bob Jones University. It was a whirlwind! Bob Jones University was hosting a teacher's conference which I have been very much looking forward to attending. It was a good conference and there were several things that I was able to take away. They were short on the history sessions, while heavy on math and science. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with my fellow teachers and making some new friends. 

Now that the travel is over... Did you catch that I drove the entire East Coast of the US, except Maine? It was an adventure. When I realized we missed Maine, I was so disappointed that we were back in Pennsylvania. 

Now that I am home, I have started working on school items. In fact I hit the teacher supply store today and bought some fresh letters and borders. I designed a few bulletin boards, scoured Pinterest for new ideas, and made plans for this year. 

Did I mention that we are buying a house? No? We are! Yay!!! 

We live in a very expensive housing market. Like single family homes on average run $400k. Brian & I are in ministry and we love it, but we aren't necessarily living the lifestyle of the people in our community. So we had to take a realistic look at the best we could hope for and started chopping things from there. We looked a little farther away from the church and found a great neighborhood that met so many things on our checklist. In fact at the end of the day, our townhouse will meet every single checkbox. It is an end unit, therefore one less neighbor and a few more windows. It is in the back of the community so it has a little extra privacy and it backs up to a tree line. The best part is that it is three bedrooms, 2.5 baths, has a finished basement, and central air. That is completely unheard of in our price range!! We were seriously going to be lucky if we found a house with one bathroom and no central air, let alone all of those other extras. We having been looking since January and God just brought us the perfect house at the perfect time. It wasn't an easy road, but it was entirely God, and we are so thrilled!

So now that school starts in four weeks (for me, not the students), I am busy prepping for school, scrubbing my apartment to "better than professionally cleaned" as instructed by my landlord, and packing. 

Life is awesome!