Home Stretch of Summer School

This is the second summer I've taught summer school. It's not a bad gig, but to finish off a long and tiring school year with 5 more weeks of teaching is a bit mentally exhausting. The pay is respectable, though, which helps finance our summer plans in July.

I'm actually writing this blog at school/work. I brought my class to the computer lab to type up their papers, so while they're working away, I have a moment to blog. After today, there are only 4 more days of summer school. We have a lot to do this weekend to get ready for our big trip next Thursday.

The kids are doing well in their afternoon swim classes. This is the first season Bella has had classes where a parent isn't in the water with her. The first couple of weeks were challenging. In fact, the first day had some tears and serious hesitancy. But as the days went on, she got a bit more accepting. She still didn't like going to lessons, but at least she got through them. By the time the third week started, she was really coming around. She loves her teacher, Brandy, and no longer was she the clingy, whiny kid who had to be comforted by the teacher (there were others that filled that role). She was getting into it. In fact, the other day Cristina noticed after class, when the kids get some free play in the pool, that Bella was lying on her belly in the shallow section, doing "bobs" on her own. (Bobs are when you go underwater and bob back up.) She said she was practicing for her next class! So she's done a complete 180 and is now a swim class pro.

That said, our plan was to leave town Thursday as soon as I got done with school at 2:30. Technically, the last day of swim class is Thursday at 4 pm. I wanted to skip the last swim lesson so we could get on the road as early as possible, but Bella is enjoying it so much, I think we'll leave town straight from the pool. The pool is on the south side of Phoenix, which is the way we're leaving town anyway. So the kids will shower off after their last lesson and we can be in Tucson in time for dinner. We're only driving about 3 hours that evening anyway.

I'm going to try to post blogs during our travels. Most of the KOAs have Wi-Fi, and we'll definitely have our laptop with us for dumping pictures. Not to mention that I'm taking an online PowerPoint class that I'll have to work on during our trip.

We're considering buying a GPS thingie for the car. We've admired them ever since Mom and Dad had one in their first Prius. They've gotten pretty inexpensive, so now would be the time to buy, before embarking on a cross-country trip. GPS systems have pretty much made the AAA trip-tych antiquated and obsolete.