Home again, home again

Yes, we are now home safe and sound. We had a couple funny things happen on the way home that I took pictures of. Unfortunately, my camera had a meltdown and deleted everything. Bummer. So you are now going to have to close your eyes and make a visual image. I guess you can't do that and read at the same time, so just close one eye and imagine. Stephenie, Melissa and Rosie were experts at getting free stuff from the education vendors. One of the people gave Stephenie a whole file organizer with free samples, so she put a bunch of stuff that she received in it and carried it onto the plane. While going through the TSA screening the screener had a concern about this organizer, I saw her talking to another screener about long pointy things. Well, it was opened and frisked thoroughly. It was none other than.....fake spiders. :) It was funny.

I also found out that the other members of our DW team are not very good at playing "name that musical." Luckily, there was another lady on the plane that was! It's a fun game. Y'all should try it. :)

I also learned that Melissa is very proficient at taking wheelchairs and using them to her best advantange. (You can ask her for details.)

Well, thank you for reading, I will put on additional pictures that I receive from Melissa and Rosie, but pretty much I am finished blogging on this Nashville Adventure blog. I hoped you enjoyed it!! Maybe I can find something else to blog about soon! Sara

last night in Nashville

It was our last night in Nashville. We went out on the town. We stopped by a couple of the historical music places such as Tootsies and Ernie Tubbs Record shop. Apparently every Saturday night after the Grand Ol' Opry there is a jam session at Ernie's, and there are celebrity guests. We didn't go. It would be like midnight and we wanted to watch Arizona. Not that watching them right now at half time is very fun.

We had great bbq at the Wild Horse Saloon. We watched some great line dancing. I am not a line dancing fan by nature (too slow and conformist) but there were a couple of people out there that made it look a lot more fun than I had ever seen it before. I also decided I needed to learn to two step.
OH YEAH!! We tried fried pickles! They were suprisingly yummy, we all liked them. Don't think its gross until you try it...you would be surprised. Hey, its deep fried, that makes everything taste good. Stephenie has come very close to having me try sushi for the first time, I told her I was fine with it as long as it was deep fried!! :)

We have one more part of the conference tomorrow. We are hoping for Dolly still, but we know we are getting Ted Kennedy. So Dolly-Ted-Dolly-Ted...who would you rather listen too? :) Goodnight! (Please come back Cats)

creepy vine lady

Here is a video of creepy vine lady. WooHoo!!

Saturday a.m.

We are done with classes for the day. We heard some great ideas. They were mostly about how to bring back language and literature into the classroom and the need to remove fear and replace it with trust and thoughtfulness. It was inspiring. One of the best pieces of advice for me, as a fairly novice teacher, was that I cannot accomplish all that these world renowned educators can right now. I just need to add one thing a year to what I offer my students, and play to my passions and strengths. This is a little bit of a pressure reliever to someone who wants to be perfect at teaching all the time :) We are going to try again to do bbq and live music and to watch UA/ UCLA tonight. Go CATS!!

The pictures that I am posting are of me serenading the teacher convention, dentist convention and log cabin builders with my awesome musical skills! I also am inserting a couple pictures of waterfalls and flowers in our hotel. So beautiful! But I got to tell you...I miss the sun. So I am also adding a picture of me sticking my face in the window to enjoy the feel of the sun on my face. It felt so good. We are in a climate controlled area, with a greenhouse type roof. It just isn't enough sun for an Arizona girl. See y'all soon!!

Friday p.m.

I always find it amazing how tired one can be after conferences. Maybe I do too much thinking. Nah, not possible :) Well, we went to the mall and it was cold, but a really nice walk. I took pictures of us walking in the middle of the road, what good role models! The mall had a cool aquarium and manta ray petting area. Well, we did get some live music from a couple of cute Tennessee boys, but I am going to bed now. Wooooo, exciting. Goodnight!

Friday a.m.

I realized today why I don't wear shoes with heels at school (well besides the tripping thing) they hurt!!! Today started off well. We have been to three classes and have another to go in an hour. I have been pleased with the classes thus far. However, Debbie S. commented on the blog that many of our pictures seem to have us eating on the floor. Now I have a picture of us sitting on the floor during the classes. The classes have been booked to overflowing, so we have learned the Nashville motto, "We are the floor city." or something like that. It is a pretty good motto I think. The best class I took today told me that I am awesome. Those are always the best classes I decided. We take many classes that tell us new and revolutionary ideas that can change the course of our teaching, but when you come to a class that tells you what you are doing is great, but here are some ideas on how to make it better, is a wonderful class for me. I feel success in what I am doing but excitement to be able to apply the more extensive techniques. I won't get into it here, but if you would like to be bored by my droning on when I get home, I will drone away!!!

I am sorry the horse racing has not loaded, it didn't for me either. I tried it several times, but it seems that the blog will not allow frightening and embarrassing material to be uploaded. You will have to bribe me to see it, but I promise it will be an experience.

The other pictures I will be uploading is the creepy, but cool vine lady. She looks like a vine and moves around and sort of climbs the walls with her viney tentacley thingies. It is cool, but somewhat disturbing. Now every time we see leaves rustling we begin to wonder if she is following us. There is also a picture of Nashie, the Nashville water serpent. (I don't know if that is his real name, but I liked it. Nashie. Cute. Maybe that is what I will name my first born.) We also found the poster we made for the conference, it looks awesome!

Well, we will be looking for barbeque tonight and maybe some live music. Have a nice weekend. I will continue to blog this weekend, because we have classes through Sunday. But we will be at work Monday! Thanks for reading!

Second day in Nashville P.M.

Well, what an afternoon we have had. Somehow Rosie, Melissa and I ended up on a bus this evening to downtown Nashville. I took a picture of Rosie in front of Ryman Auditorium. We didn't go in, but we did go in to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I was surprised at how much I knew about country music. Not that I would pass the country music Mensa test. Cuz I wouldn't. You will also probably notice there is a strange picture of myself and Melissa in a reflection. I noticed how thin I looked in it and took a picture so all of you will know how I will be looking in a few months. Of course, that may be slowed down by the fact that Stephenie and I discovered Key Lime tart and room service. Panna Cotta tomorrow!!!! Calories Shmalories. :) We had a big shindig tonight called Nashville Nights. They had a lot of fancy type appetizers that we enjoyed...a lot. Our greatest enjoyment was the chocolate fountain. See the picture of me licking the plate?...I thought everything could be dipped and eaten. hmmm....lesson learned. We had some country dancing, and met a Garth Brooks impersonator. Stephenie and I also raced beanbag horses...I do have video....it is frightening. Mostly because I got caught up in a cone and started losing, so I had jump off my horse and slide into finish. I sort of like to win. Well, we have some cool classes to attend tomorrow. I will post my analysis of the functionality and usefulness of each class I attend. Yeah right! Goodnight. mmmmm...key lime tart