Electricity is such a WONDERFUL thing!

Do you remember the high school chant we used to do?
"We've got spirit, yes we do. We've got spirit, how 'bout you?"

Well.. this was my chant last night
"We've got power, yes we do. We've got power, how 'bout you?"

We've been without power since about Friday night/Saturday morning. We decided to stay here during the hurricane. We didn't have much damage here. We lost a tree in our backyard as well as some limbs and leaves. We had to clean out our fridge and freezer since we lost power. I guess that was a good thing. I've been needing to do that!

We haven't had school since Thursday. We'll go back this Thursday. I know the kids are probably ready to get back.. yeah right! :D I know I am. I'm tired of just sitting at home watching the same television coverage day and night. I was glad to see some regular programming was on tv last night. I didn't see the Cowboys game though. :(

I've talked to some of my friends who live up north of me in Spring. They still don't have power. They are having to use generators. Pray for them. I know it's probably getting hot and boring up there with no power. Pray for the rest of Houston and especially the Galveston area. If you've watched any of the news, you saw the devestation there is. It's going to take a LONG time to get back to some sort of normalcy.

Well.. I wanted to update you and let you know that I am doing okay. I hope that everyone else is doing okay as well.

"Hunkering" Down

It's either time to start "hunkering" down or leave the homestead and head north. Hurricane Ike is on his way. I'm planning on staying here unless things get bad. Jim's Mom and Sister are here as well. We've got some water, food and batteries.

I have a bag packed and ready to go if they make us go. School is closed tomorrow. Depending on how bad the storm gets, we might not have it on Monday due to down power lines or whatever.

Pray for the people that are staying behind that live right on the coast. Pray for us that there isn't a lot of damage due to wind or tornadoes.

I'll blog once we're in the clear with everything and tell you how things went.

3rd Week and still going!

It's the 3rd week of school. This is actually the first full week that we've been in school. The past 2 weeks we didn't go all week due to just starting or Labor Day. I haven't gained any kids, so my count still stands at 8. Things are going pretty well. I LOVE having a big room. I have a roller chair, so it's easy to roll to one side of the room when I'm working with one grade and then roll over and work with the other grade. It also makes things easier because I'm at their level when I'm writing things on the board.

My kids are pretty good. I have 2 behavior systems in my class. One is where they have their name on a clip and they have to move it through our color chart if they are bad. They start on Green 1 and then move to Green 2, Yellow then Red. Luckily I haven't had anyone get to Red yet. I hope it doesn't start either. The other system is a "gold coin". They can earn these by doing something without being told to, being a good friend and things like that. When you get 10 coins, you can go into the "treasure box". I have been told that I have a pretty neat treasure box. :) I've already had a few get to go there. I hope they continue to be good. I know they can do it.

Other than school, not much is going on. I've just been going to school, coming home and doing a few things around the house and that's about it.

Well.. It's getting close to school being out. Yes.. I am writing at school. No.. my students are not in the room. They are at Art right now, so I had a few minutes. Good grief! Do you think I would write on my blog while school was in session!?! What kind of a teacher do you think I am!?! :)

(Don't answer that last question rhetorically!)

First Day of School

Today was our first day at school. I have 8 students this year. I have 5 in 1st grade and 3 in 2nd grade.

My room is really cute looking. I have my decorations up. I have a bigger room this year and lots of people said that I really lucked out this year. It's like I have a brand new room. New paint on the walls, new carpet, new shelves, a newer desk and more space. (They knocked down the wall joining my old room and the room next door, so I now have both rooms!)

Today went pretty smooth. I went over all the things in my class, like rules and where to find things. We read some stories, played some games and practiced our cursive handwriting. Yes, I did say cursive. I have to teach 1st and 2nd graders cursive. I didn't even learn cursive until I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade. Some of my 1st graders are just learning to print good. Yikes!

I have a good bunch of kids. It should be a pretty good year. I'll blog more as the year progresses.

We'll see what tomorrow holds!

2000 Miles+ 5 States+ a family of 4 = VACATION!

We just got back last night from our vacation. We left last Thursday about 7am and headed for Tennessee. We didn't get too far until we hit a "road block" shall we say. There was a MAJOR wreck on I-30 going East. We were forced to sit on the highway for 2 HOURS..yes, I did say 2 HOURS!

There was an 18-wheeler that had pulled off to the shoulder and had its flares up. A little VW Passat came by and clipped the back end of the trailer and ran up underneath the truck. We still don't know if there was a medical emergency, they didn't see him or fell asleep at the wheel. Careflight had to come as well. The passenger died on impact and the driver had to be extricated from the car. I think they later died at the hospital. The truck driver wasn't hurt. Pray for this family. I know they are grieving right now.

Well... after sitting on the highway for that long we were finally able to continue on. After stopping a few times, we finally made it to our destination at about 10:30 p.m. on Thursday. We stayed with our cousin, Gladys, in TN. Friday we didn't do much. Kelly and I went into "town". It's about 15-20 minutes just to get anywhere. On Saturday, we had our family reunion. It was fun. There are a lot of people there. I don't know most of them but it's fun still the less. Sunday we went to church and just hung out at the house.

We left Monday and started to head to our next destination- Branson, MO. We took our time and stopped at a few antique places. We got to Branson on Tuesday afternoon. We had to have lunch at Lambert's. They're famous for their "throwed" rolls. If you want a hot roll, you have to catch it. So.. bring your mitt! :D

After a DELICIOUS meal, we found our hotel and rested for a little while. We had tickets to go see the new "NOAH: The Musical". We've heard great reviews about it, so we decided to go. OH MY GOODNESS!! If you happen to get the chance, it's WONDERFUL!! You actually feel like you are one of the animals on the Ark. It is expensive but it's about the same as any of the other shows up there. I'd give it 5 stars! :D

Wednesday we got up and did a little shopping. We then started heading back home. We thought we would stay in Benton, AR but the antique shops we wanted to go to weren't going to be open on Thursday. :( So, we ate dinner at Chili's and drove to my aunt and uncle's in Mt. Pleasant, TX. Hey.. it's free and we got to see our newest cousin, who is 6 months old. We got up on Thursday and spent a little time with them before heading back. We got back in about 5:30 p.m. yesterday. We unloaded the car and vegged.

It was a pretty good vacation. Mom celebrated her birthday while we were gone. It always seems to fall on vacation time!

Now it's back to reality. I'm heading back to Houston tomorrow morning. We have teacher in-service all next week, so I have to be there for that. I'll have to blog once I get my new classroom set up. Hopefully all the work is done.

Until then...



P.s. I know Mom took pictures, so I'll try to see if I can upload some. :D

Life This Past Week

Well... life this past week was fun. My friend Jeremy was in town and stayed with us for a little over a week. He left yesterday to head back to Houston to stay with some other friends of both of ours.

We went to the Mesquite Rodeo on Friday when he got here. That was fun. It was faster than I remember it being. We had pretty good seat and the riders were getting knocked off left and right!

Saturday was my birthday, so of course we had to "PARTAY"! ;)

Sunday was church and then we did a little shopping. That night we went to a church member's house and had a swim party.

Monday we went to the Frisco Roughriders game. We sat right behind home plate. It was HOT!!! We were in shade but it was still hot! The game was great. My name was on the big screen during the birthday annoucements. They won the game over the San Antonio Missions.

Tuesday we went shopping at the outlet mall in Allen. Afterwards we went to Stonebriar and did some more shopping. That night we went to see The Dark Knight and then went to dinner at Abuelos.

Wednesday we just stayed here. Jeremy went to the Rangers game that night by himself.

Thursday we went to Frisco and went shopping. That night we went to the Roughriders game again. This time my dad joined us. It was me and the guys! :) We were on the 3rd base line, so it was still HOT but the tickets we got were in what they call the "Teddy" section, which means we get to get all-you-can-eat hamburgers, hot dogs and drinks included with the price of the ticket. I liked that. ;)

Friday I had to take my car to CarMax to get the tailgate fixed. I spent most of the morning there trying to take care of it. Jeremy had to come and get me because they're not going to have it done until probably Monday or Tuesday. :(

Saturday we went to pick up a washer/dryer for my sister. Jeremy was so kind to stay and help us go pick it up and load it on the trailer. :D (Thank you Jeremy!) When we got back, he loaded up the car and headed back to Houston. Hopefully I'll be able to see him again before he leave. He's my friend that lives in England. He heads back at the end of August.

Plans for this week are to get ready for vacation. We're leaving BRIGHT AND EARLY on Thursday morning to travel to Tennessee. We have a family reunion every year at this time, so we just make it into our family vacation. Other than that, I don't plan on doing a lot.

Well.. I better go and wash some clothes so I'll have things to wear on vacation. I'll blog about vacation once we get back. Hopefully I'll have some pictures!

The Dark Knight

Okay... I like Heath Ledger. Come on.. what's there not to like! ;)

He was a good actor that just decided to leave the earth a little too early. The Dark Knight was the last movie he did. It is based on the DC Comic Batman.

This movie is cool. It has some great special effects. Jeremy, Kelly and Charles (Kelly's friend) and I went to see it last night. There was only 1 part that I didn't like but that was because it was gross. (I'm not into gross things like that! Ewww! :) )

Heath did such a great job. You didn't even realize it was him, unless you knew he was in the movie. Jeremy said he didn't realize it was him until the credits started rolling and it said that it was in memory of Heath.

Christian Bale, Maggie Gylenhall(?), Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and others were good as well.

I would recommend seeing it if you're into comics or like action movies. It was pretty good. I'd give it 3 stars.