Last Sunday, Jimmy, Nic, and I ventured to Sweetwater, TN, to spend the week with my brother and my nephew. My sister-in-law and my other nephew were going to a youth conference in Daytona, and my brother needed somebody to babysit while he continued to work during the week. The result? I ended up with an unplanned vacation, a week away to relax and not worry about anything. It was a great week.

After our nightmare on I-75 South on Jellico Mountain when we made our anniversary trip to Pigeon Forge, we found a detour and used that to head south. The detour did add some time to the trip, however, unlike in March when we spent over two hours on Jellico, moving six miles in two hours, I didn’t mind the extra time from the detour because at least we were always moving at a regular, normal rate of speed. Since I-75 North on Jellico isn’t really a problem, we didn’t use the detour coming home, but we did get a look at the slow, snail-like traffic heading south, and it actually brought back horrific flashbacks of our trip in March. I was thankful we chose to take the detour on that Sunday afternoon when we headed south. If any of you are going to be heading south and will be using I-75 through Jellico, I strongly recommend that you use the Internet and find a detour. Your trip will go smoother and you will still be sane when you arrive at your destination.

My nephew is almost ten, so it’s not like babysitting him was a lot of real work. He slept in, so I didn’t have to get up until between 9 and 10 each morning. I fed him breakfast and lunch. He played video games and watched TV, and every day, he chose a movie for us to watch after lunch: Monday – Toy Story 3, Tuesday – Shrek 2, Wednesday – Hoodwinked, Thursday – Ice Age, and Friday – Alvin and the Chipmunks.

I hadn’t seen Toy Story 3 yet. I kept putting it off. Everybody who had seen it and who knew me told me I would cry, so I had been avoiding it. As we watched the movie, the closer it got to the end, he kept watching. I’m proud of myself. I didn’t bawl, but he did notice that I did get teary-eyed. But I have a question. Really, who completely empties their kids’ rooms when they leave for college? Do they not plan for the kid to come home on weekends? Or Thanksgiving, Christmas, or summer breaks? It was totally unrealistic for Andy and his mother to be standing in a completely empty room, just because he was going off to college. My kids still have plenty of their stuff in their rooms, and they still use those rooms. Had the ending portrayed a more realistic point of view, I may have bawled. Since it didn’t, teary-eyed will have to do.

When we watched Hoodwinked, I told him I really liked that movie because it was a great illustration of point of view. We then started talking about things “literary,” which he did not enjoy. He pointed out that it was summer and we didn’t need to talk about school stuff during the summer. I told him I had let some of my students watch the movie and they had to do assignments based on the literary elements in the movie, and he thought that was awful. And he really wasn’t happy when I pointed out that all movies had things literary in them. From that point on, when I attempted to talk about things literary (which he called something like “literee” the first time he said it), he would cover his ears to let me know he didn’t want to hear it.

And later, he broke my heart. He did start by telling me he hated to break the news to me, but grammar stuff and English stuff were his least favorite things in school. Poor kid. My heart healed a little when he said that his favorite subject was history. I am, after all, a history minor, so even if he doesn’t like both my passions, at least he’s fond of one of them, so that’s something. The poor kid even tried to play games on my iPod, but he pointed out that all my games except for Fruit Ninja were grammar or word games, and he just wasn’t interested in those. He did become quite good at Fruit Ninja, though.

While he played, I accomplished a few things. One day, I got quite a bit done on my project. Another, I organized all the folders on my jump drive and fixed my blank calendars to get ready for the 2012-13 school year. I also found a couple great ideas that I’ll use for my classes this fall. During the rest of the time, I read a book and half of another. My AP kids will be thrilled to hear that I’m going to see if our librarian can get me a class set of the one I read so that they can also have the pleasure of reading it.

I’m not an NBA fan. I enjoyed watching Brandon play high school and college ball. I enjoy watching my niece Kayla play basketball. I enjoy watching the UK men’s team play ball. Other than, I’m not much for basketball. My nephew, however, watches a lot of different sports, and seems to have a favorite team for nearly all of them. Given that, we watched the NBA Finals games. His favorite team is the Heat, and his favorite player is Lebron, so Thursday night, he got to stay up late to watch the game, and it was fun to see him so excited that his team won the championship.

Even though for the most part, we just hung out at the house, the week flew by. We had a great, relaxing time while in Tennessee, but as with any traveling, there’s always the long drive home. I love to travel, but when it’s time to go home, I’m just ready to be home. By that time, there are two signs that make me extremely happy. The first is the big blue and white one that says, “Welcome to Kentucky.” About 2 1/2 to 3 hours later, I see the other, a smaller green one that says, “Breathitt County.” Regardless of what’s wrong with Breathitt County (and really, don’t all places have their problems?), it is home, and I’m always happy to return to it.