WDW August 2026

Even though I’ve been back at work since July 28, teachers return tomorrow and that’s when it really feels like the new school year gets underway! And there’s no better way to kick off a new school year than a quick trip to WDW!

We flew from D.C. to Orlando yesterday morning, stayed at Grand Floridian for one night, and are currently at the Orlando airport waiting to board our flight home! We went to Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot and even though is was disgustingly hot (the real feel today was 115°), we had the best time!

Cheers to a great school year ahead!

Happy Tails to you!

Take Your Leave!

I'm proud to say that during the 2025-2026 school year, I successfully failed to accrue any leave...in fact, in addition to the 77 hours of sick leave that I "earned" during the year, I used a few hours of sick leave I had banked from previous years as well! Obviously I used every moment of my personal leave, too!

As I've shared before, I have zero interest in having a balance of unused leave when I retire. I know how little it's worth if it's cashed out compared to what it's worth when used as intended!

In my post about using my leave last year, I acknowledged that not every other teacher is in the same position that I am and I'm also well aware that when I was a classroom teacher, it was easier to drag myself into school feeling awful than it was to write sub plans and hope that not only would a sub pick up the job, but also that they would follow those plans that took me so long to create!

In my opinion, that mentality is very pre-pandemic. I'm happy to see my teacher friends refusing to feel guilty about taking sick leave because they know they have to take care of themselves if they are going to be at their best for their students. Bravo! The idea that we all have to run ourselves ragged for our jobs is changing for the better, and as the saying goes, if you die, your job will be posted before your obituary is, so please, use that leave as needed!

EXACTLY!

Happy Tails to you!

Continents Challenge

While we were all quarantining at home back during the pandemic, C and I were dreaming about being able to travel again and came up with a plan for where we'd like to go in the coming years. As we mapped out dates and locations, we knew a huge priority would be getting to all seven continents, which we accomplished this past December when we went to Antarctica!

We originally planned to try to do the seven continents over seven years between 2021 and 2027. What we realized is that if we were strategic, we'd be able to get to all of the continents in much less time than seven years!

Back when we were doing all of the 50 states in one year, we really just had to figure out Alaska and Hawaii first, then worry about the other 48 states. For the seven continents, the trickiest one would obviously be Antarctica, so deciding when we'd go there was our first decision, and we slotted in the other continents around that. I knew I wanted to be IN Antarctica for our 31st wedding anniversary since our wedding date is December 31 (and I have a thing about numbers!), so we worked out getting to the other six continents before and after our Antarctica trip and devised a plan to get to all seven continents within a 24-month period.

As with any travel, so many things can go wrong to disrupt the best laid plans, but the travel gods were on our side and everything worked out pretty much how we planned it, with the exception of us flip-flopping the summers we went to Australia and Africa because of safari/hotel availability.

During these 24 months, the three continents that were new to us were Australia in 2024 and Africa and Antarctica in 2025, as we'd already been to North America (obviously!), multiple trips to Europe starting in 2007, Asia in 2017 and 2020, and South America in 2023. We technically went to Asia twice during the 24 months because we added Dubai to our Africa trip in 2025, but as you can see from the signs below, our plan was always for Asia to happen in July 2026. We also went to Europe thrice during these 24 months because in addition to the trip pictured below, we went to Frankfurt and Budapest last summer and Paris this past May!

North America / July 2024

Chicago

Australia / July 2024

Sydney

Europe / December 2024

Vienna

Africa / July 2025

Nairobi

South America / December 2025

Buenos Aires

Antarctica / December 2025

Antarctica

Asia / July 2026

Tokyo

Several years ago, B1 said to me, "You guys really do love a checklist," and yes, we certainly do! We've got two other almost-completed checklists that we'll finish up in a matter of weeks! LOL!

Happy Tails to you!