It has been a little over a week since I wrote my last blog, but it feels like it has been longer. We have been staying busy and so much is going on right now.

Last Saturday, we went to visit the Murphy's at their house at the beach. We had a blast! Austin was able to visit with Barry and I think the visit did him good. They talked non-stop. We had not taken Owen to the beach this summer. I will say, he had a much better experience this year then he did last year. He had fun playing in the water and got quite upset when the seagulls few away. He was fascinated by them and would run up to them saying "mine." Owen made friends with some people who had their chairs in the shallow water. He decided he wanted to sit with them for a while. He walked right up to them, sat in one of their chairs and said "hi." He was so well behaved and we all enjoyed our day.

Austin and Owen

Owen visiting with Barry

Q.T.I.P.--Quit Taking It Personally is the motto for our new school year. Tuesday and Wednesday I attended a retreat for work where we learned all about QTIP. This is all part of PBIS Year 2. PBIS is our school's discipline policy. In a nutshell, the program teaches us to teach the children how to behave because we cannot assume that their parents will. It is a good program, but that is a topic for a new blog on a new day. Back to our retreat, it was held at Camp St. Christopher on Seabrook Island. It is a really pretty place and we were able to take a little time for ourselves. We spent the majority of Tuesday working. We began work at 3:00, ate dinner at 6:30 and finished up working around 8:30. That evening we took a walk on the beach. The beach there is extremely secluded. You can see all sorts of beach wildlife that you rarely see at the local beaches. My friend Sandie snuck out and took some wonderful pictures and I hope that she doesn't mind that I borrowed a few.

Tonight, I went to a movie with my mom. We haven't gone to a movie together in a really long time and it was nice. We saw Pineapple Express. Now, with this movie being in the theater's right now I will not say much about it. I will tell you that the message from the movie is that drugs are bad. We all know that. The movie was hilarious! It is not my "type" of movie, but I laughed so hard I had to pee. I am so glad that I went.