Former Teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Brown

My mom and I went to the store yesterday, and we ran into my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Brown, while we were shopping. She recognized my mom right away, and said hello to us. I'm not sure if she would've recognized me without my mom, since it's been over 20 years since I was her student and I'm now an adult (and disabled), but I definitely recognized her, since I think she looks exactly the same! I remember her reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to my class. I wonder if she remembers the time she busted me for writing my Christmas list when I was supposed to be doing something else?! :)

I asked her about her husband, who was also one of my teachers. She said he was shopping with her and was elsewhere in store. Mr. Brown, who was my College Prep English teacher when I was a senior, was one of my favorite teachers ever, so I was tempted to hunt him down, but I didn't want to seem like a crazy stalker, so I refrained and just told Mrs. Brown to tell Mr. Brown that I'd said hello.

About 15 minutes later, I thought I caught a glimpse of Mr. Brown, so I backtracked and sure enough, it was him. We talked for about a little while, reminisced about the old days and caught up with what's been going on with the Browns. Mr. Brown taught at Windsor High School (the school I went to) for 32 years and retired from Windsor in 2005. Then he taught College Prep English part-time at another local high school, and did that for an additional eight years. He retired from that school in 2013, after he'd been teaching for a combined total of 40 years. Wow! Imagine all of the students that he's impacted over the past 40 years...the number must be in the thousands! (He taught all of my sisters and me, except for my youngest sister, so six of us had him.) Mr. Brown said that the students he taught his first year of teaching  are now 60 years old! (Mr. Brown is 67, so he must've been around 25 when he started teaching.)

When we were talking, Mr. Brown said that he'd actually just gotten a phone call while he was out shopping from the school he taught at part-time after he left Windsor. They offered him the same position teaching College Prep English part-time again, so he said that he's thinking about doing it. He really was/is such a fantastic teacher, so any future students he might have would be very lucky, indeed! 

It just made my day running into the Browns! I asked them if we could take a picture together, and they obliged me. Here I am with my former teachers:

Another Royal Baby

Where does the time go?! I feel like I was just writing about Prince George's arrival, but that was close to two years ago! Anyhow, I've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of William and Kate's new baby for the past several weeks, since I knew the baby was due mid-to-late April. They've been talking about the new baby on the news a lot for the past several weeks, and everyone's been speculating about when the baby would arrive, and if it would be another boy or perhaps a girl this time.

On Saturday morning, May 2, I heard that Duchess Kate was in labor and had gone to the hospital early that morning. She went to St. Mary's Hospital in London, and had her baby at 8:34 AM, roughly three hours after arriving. The baby weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz and was a little girl. Yay…just what I was hoping for! The Duke and Duchess emerged from the hospital a few hours later. Kate looked extremely beautiful in a pretty, yellow dress (she looked amazing, especially for giving birth just a few hours previously). They both looked so happy!

Lots of people called their babies "little prince" or "little princess" but there are very few people who can say it, and actually have it it really be true! Here are two of those select few, with their sweet princess:

I'd been expectantly waiting for the big name reveal ever since I heard that the baby had arrived. Everyone was speculating on what it would be. Some of the name contenders I heard tossed around were Alice, Victoria, Charlotte, Mary, Elizabeth, Alexandra, Frances and Diana. I'm not sure why, but I was thinking they might choose Victoria. It was just a pure guess, though, and I did absolutely no research, which would probably be why I was WRONG! Instead they went with Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.

Named for: Queen Charlotte (wife of George III), Queen Elizabeth II (her great-grandmother), and Princess Diana (her grandmother)

Here is a little background on the name: Charlotte is the feminine version of Charles, the father of Prince William and is a version of Carole, the name of Kate's mother. Charlotte is also the middle name of Pippa Middleton, Kate's sister. Elizabeth is the name of the current Queen of England and Prince William's grandmother, and Diana is a beautiful tribute to the late Princess Diana, the baby's grandmother.

The name "Charlotte" has certainly made a resurgence in the past decade. 10-15 years ago I wouldn't have cared for the name, and would have thought it old-fashioned since its popularity had faded in the latter half of the 20th century. But it's been growing on me in recent years, and I actually like it so much now that it would probably make my top 10 list of favorite girl names. I also love the name Elizabeth, so I'm glad that the new princess has that as one of her names, as well as Diana. I know Diana seems to be unliked by some in the Royal family, but I always felt like she really cared about people. She was definitely the most humble and down-to-earth one of the Royal bunch! I'm so glad the new Princess carries the name of Diana, since she is the Princess' grandmother, after all!

Charlotte is fourth in line to the throne. That's a mighty big responsibility for a little lady that is not even a week old!