4th Annual Collins Girls' Weekend

The first weekend of November, Leslie, Anna, Mom, and I loaded up the van and headed to Boone for our 4th Annual Collins Girls' Weekend. Mom's good friend is gracious enough to let us use their family condo for the weekend and what an amazing place it is. The view is simply breathtaking.

The trip started Friday night when Mom made it up to Winston. We quickly loaded all of our stuff and took off. You put a movie in and Anna gets those headphones on, and everyone is good to go. Between watching Anna and gabbing away, we were up there in no time!

We got to Boone and made our Harry Peter run. We stopped by the RedBox to get a movie, and against some Yankees suggestion, we went with Nights in Rodanthe. There is no way Richard Gere + Diane Lane + Nicholas Sparks can be a bad combo. Damn if they didn't find a way to make the badness happen! We couldn't complain...we each had a Blue Moon and a carton of ice cream to ease our troubles!

The next morning we got up and headed to the porch to soak up the mountain view and to sip on some coffee. Anna wasn't quite awake when we got out there, but it wasn't long before she was sampling (quality control testing) everyone's coffee. It was quickly decided that Anna needed her own cup to feel like one of the girls.

Wakey, wakey!

Anna and her own coffee cup!

Happy as a clam! And the gang's all here! Bobo, Elmo, and Llama llama. We're ready to go!

After a few hours on the porch we suited up and headed to The Mountain House for an unbelievable breakfast. It truly was a smorgasbord and the ridiculous 2 year old we had with us said that right with us. She was even able to repeat it for her Datty!

The rest of the day was consumed with shopping at the Tanger Outlets and then stopping to get some Mellow Mushroom pizza to take back with us. We are so adventurous that we were almost ready for bed at about 7 when Anna went down for bed since she missed her nap. We did manage to watch Must Love Dogs and stay up for a bit, but it wasn't too long after that we were all cuddled up in bed.

We had such a great weekend! It's always so good to get away from the grind and just be able to sit back and relax. Next year we'll have another Collins girl to add and I'm sure in the future there will be plenty more!

You don't like it...get out!

This week we are having one of the Tuskegee Airmen at school to talk to some of our students. He was also a POW and was held at a Nazi camp. His name is Alexander Jefferson.

In his biography he has a quote about America that I love. It pretty much sums up how I feel about most things in life.

'America is the best country in the world. You don't like it? Leave it. The only obligation? Make it better. It ain't perfect, but it's home.'

There are a lot of things in this world that you are not going to like. People you aren't going to like. Obligations that you are not going to love. Places that you want to improve. But seriously - if you don't like it, leave. If you don't enjoy your job, move on. If you are going to stick around - do what you can to make the person/place/situation better. Things aren't going to be perfect, but it is your life so you might as well make the best of it.

Well said Alexander, well said.