August Left Me Exhausted

How is tomorrow already September?!!!

Whew!  August has been a whirlwind of a month.  Here is the highlight reel…

1. I met up with an old classmate from high school while he was in LA at the beginning of the month.  Although we weren’t really close back in high school, we’ve been connected on FB for a few years and share some interests.  On this day, shared a vegan meal together.  He’s been a vegan for 20 years, I think.

   Vegan lunch at Real Food Daily in West Hollywood

2. Also, at the beginning of the month, I went to school early to start setting up my classroom.  I opted to exchange my individual desks for tables to help create a more collaborative environment.  Unfortunately, I did not account for the possibility that my nicer desks would be replaced by old, mismatched, graffiti-laden tables.  I thought I’d be inheriting some of the nicer tables similar to the ones my colleagues had– some of them were getting new tables so I thought I’d be getting hand-me-downs from them.  I guess I was wrong.

   Last year’s desks to what I found in my classroom this year.

   With my wife’s help, we spent the weekend before school refurbishing the tables.Sadly, the new paint barely lasted the week… Oh well, at least I tried!

3. My kids and I started school on August 11 this year.  I was a bad parent and didn’t take the traditional “first day” photos.  But I’ll try to redeem myself with pics of the kids from the week before school.

   Ben at Freshman Orientation at his high school.

    

   Miss K after she found out which 6th grade teacher she would have at her school this year.

   This wasn’t taken on the first day… but close enough.

4.  After the dust settled a bit from the first week of school, I dropped my kids off with my parents in San Diego for the weekend so I could drive my wife to Fresno to spend a week (and her birthday) with her mom.  Maria’s school doesn’t start until September 2.  After a short rest, I made the solo trip back home to Orange County.  Thankfully, my parents were willing to drive the kids up to OC at the end of the weekend.  We decided to meet up at the Irvine Spectrum and dine at the Yard House.

   Apparently, taking pictures of our food runs in the family.

5. The kids and I survived the week unscathed while Maria spent quality time with her family up north.  The kids and I left OC for Fresno early Saturday morning to pick up Mommy.  We took our time, making a couple of stops along the way.

   A short pit stop at Starbucks in Valencia.

   We “discovered” a cool stop at Bravo Farms along Hwy 99.

   We reunited with Maria then made our way to the River Park Mall for lunch.  Two cool things happened at the mall: (1) I stopped in to visit a runner friend, Trace, who used to live in Orange County but now lives in Fresno and works at the Sole 2 Soul Running Shop at the mall. (2) The CCSPCA was holding a pet adoption drive at the mall and we ended up adopting Scooby!

   Bravo Farms, Wifey, Scooby, Trace B.

    

Now, it’s Labor Day weekend.  No long drives for me this weekend.  I’m just going to try to take it easy and rest…  Who knows what September has in store?

Photo Credit: the Wifey

How was your August?  How are you spending Labor Day weekend?