HOT

I can sum up the time I've been away in one little word: HOT. Once school was out, we headed off to Disney World, a trip we've been planning for months now. I'm nearly certain that the term "hell on Earth" was coined by someone visiting the Magic Kingdom with small children in July. There are no other words to describe that particular place at that particular time of year.

I called my mom on her birthday while we were away only to hear that the weather back home was glorious. Not 12 hours after we landed back home, the craziest heat wave to hit our area in years descended upon us. I'm beginning to feel punished! It's supposed to be 100+ degrees for the next few days... I may or may not survive.

Oh, the actual trip to Disney: it was fun. I will now admit that I "get" what people are talking about. Since I'm safely ensconced in air conditioning I can also now admit that we didn't get to see enough while there. I went into the week wanting to just enjoy our time there and make sure no one got sick in the heat. Modest goals if you ask me.

We did accomplish both of those objectives and managed to find plenty to make both kids happy. I can definitely see why a trip sans children would be a fun time. It just may happen for Kelli's 40th in January, too. I'm sure I will have far more patience when the weather is in the 60s/70s!

The highlight of the trip for both boys turned out to be -- who knew? -- Donald Duck. Max went silly screaming "DUCK!" every time he saw him. Thank goodness no one thought there was a heavy object coming their way. He was quite forceful about his shouting. Sam also quickly discovered the whole pin trading phenomenon and set out to collect every unusual Donald Duck pin he could find. He was pretty successful, too. It was so cute to see him approach any and every cast member he could find to trade. I've managed to block out what this little activity cost... To be fair, he did "earn" $100 in Disney gift cards for good behavior in the weeks leading up to the trip. He also did a fantastic job of budgeting what he had while we were there. We only added a bit extra at the end (he doesn't realize he'd run out, which is fine...) to acquire one particular pin that he was DYING to nab but lost out on.

It's hard to believe I'm back to work tomorrow. What's even harder to believe is that I only have nine days left with the American Cancer Society. I'll wax more nostalgic about that in a few days, I'm sure. The reality hasn't completely set in just yet. Well, it's set in somewhat, since I've already had two meeting requests from fellow staff members at church! They are being incredibly gracious about asking me to put things on my calendar for the first week. For now, I'm focusing on leaving things as tidy as possible at ACS and making sure I feel ready for such a big shift in gears.