Almost...

Almost needed a jacket today! OK, only really early this morning, but still. I'm super excited that fall is here and hopefully the weather will be cooperating. I'm feeling much better and am ready to get back to (dare I say) work tomorrow. I went to an Arbonne party at a friends house yesterday and am currently waiting for my lash revitalizing serum to arrive. I sure hope it works. Apparently its supposed to be like Latise, only with all natural ingredients and won't change your eye color. We'll see. Also, last night we tried a new spot called Yucatan Taco Stand. It was pretty good, but not the best I've ever had. I ordered the garlic shredded beef nachos. Note: this nacho platter is so big that you need to share. Toody had the beef fajitas. We're so wild... and old! We were in bed by 10:30. Up with the roosters, we went to a new breakfast joint down the street. It was pretty good, but I'm not sure it beats our fave pancake spot. After breakfast we headed with friends to a gun store. I was hoping to find some super cute girly gun accessories, but no dice. Apparently, the only people who shoot guns (other than my girlfriends and I) don't care about fashion. Something needs to be done. We also went in search of the perfect Halloween costumes. Not an easy feat. Apparently, all women are supposed to look like hookers on Halloween. I'll keep looking. Well, I've got to get dinner going and iron clothes for the week. Chili tonight! Toody won't eat it, but I'm making it because I love it and its lower than 80 outside!

P.S. Go Cowboys!!!!

Boo!

Well, this week didn't go the way I planned. I woke up feeling horrible on Thursday morning. I did my best and made it in to work before I realized that there was no possible way I could teach all day! I called in a sub and headed home. I slept off and on all day and ended up with a migraine. If you have never experienced the pain that goes with one of these babies, kudos. My husband knew it was bad when I was standing in the shower crying my eyes out... in the dark. He left and came back a few minutes later with a magic pill that let me sleep all night long! Needless to say I didn't work on Friday. I woke up in a daze, but feeling slightly better. Around 1:00 p.m. I pulled myself out of bed and watched movies all day. I also posted a project on www.donorschoose.org. This is a wonderful website that donors can give money to classrooms that need things. You must go visit it! I started feeling much better last night and now I'm pretty much back to normal. On the agenda for this rainy, lazy Saturday: laundry, Arbon party, and hopefully a nice dinner with friends. Can you believe its fall already? Sure feels like it. The weather widgit on my T.V. says its 71 outside! Too bad it's raining. Oh, and by the way... I chopped my hair off. I'll post a pic when I take one. Have a great weekend!

Jeesh!

I can't believe how fast this school year is flying by! Next week is the last week of our first grading period. Crazy, huh? Well, I've been rockin' and rollin' with my 16 boys and 5 girls... Lets just say that we have to do a lot of movement activities to keep us paying attention. Also, we have gotten some great feedback from the first grade teachers about how prepared our kiddos are this year for them! On another note, this year I made a decision. I decided that I was going to work out at least three times a week- no matter what. I beat that and am working out four times a week. My workouts come in two forms: Zumba and Cardio Weight Training. They are polar opposites. Monday and Wednesday are devoted to Cardio Weight Training and Tuesday and Thursday are for Zumba. The two couldn't be further apart, I mean completely polar opposites, but I love them both!

Been a while...

Well, it's mid-September and fall should be in the air but its sticky and hot as you-know-what out there! I want to decorate the house for fall, but I can't bring myself to do it when it's ninety-something degrees out. Well I haven't had much excitement lately so there is not much to write, but I do have some great news. A dear friend of mine has been wanting a baby for so long and guess what!!! She is preggo! I am so happy for her and her husband. They will make great parents. In other news (I'm sure I've already mentioned this but...) I have 16 boys in my class. Crazy huh? I know. It's pretty wild. We don't do much girly stuff anymore. If anybody has any good "boy" ideas, let me know.

Ugh!!! Already?

Is this weekend really almost over? Already? Wow, that went fast. We had a super relaxing weekend around here. I started feeling sick on Friday and realized that allergies were in full effect. I went straight home, self-medicated (Mucinex and Sudafed) and tried to take a nap. You would think that with all those drugs I would sleep. NOT! Misty texted and asked if I wanted to go to Target. Uh, duh! I heart Target. Its prob. my favorite store-EVER! We wandered around for a little bit and headed home. By the time I got home, Toody was home. I tried to get him to take me to dinner, but he had eaten a late lunch, so no dice. I put myself to bed super early. I woke up early (ugh!) on Saturday morning. I did a small amount of laundry and called up my momma to see if she was up for a little shopping. It was super nice outside, so we decided to meet up at an outdoor shopping mall. First let me say: I love Fiesta. There are some great new pieces out right now and it took a bit of self control not to buy it all! Second: I love Tervis Tumblers. They are the best cups I have ever owned. Now, third: Fiesta has commissioned Tervis to make tumblers that match the Fiesta line! O-my-gosh! Excitement? Uh, yeah! (Please remember that this happens as we age, folks. We get excited about things like dishes and bath mats.) I will proudly say that I didn't buy any of it. My hope is that we get them as Christmas gifts. Next, on to the real task at hand: the hunt for black capri pants. I went to several stores and searched through many sale racks only to find nada. I finally found a pair I love and had to spend much more than I had wanted to. As we are leaving we realized that Estee Lauder would be having their free gift! It would start on Monday (today) so we automatically made plans to go Monday and get it! Saturday night Toody and I went out to Shuck N' Jive and had dinner and a few beers. Sunday brought grocery shopping and pure laziness. We had our parents over today for burgers and hot dogs and now I'm enjoyed watching TV with the dogs while Toody plays his war games.

Day of Rest- I mean running around...

Well, I made it through week one of school. Everything went pretty well, but man- I'm exhausted! We went out to dinner and karaoke with friends on Friday. After two hours at the restaurant, we finally got our food. The problem... we weren't even hungry by then. After dinner we headed to karaoke and watched some fantastic singers! I'm not even joking absolutely fab! One lady had the most beautiful, raspy, soulful voice that I have heard in a while. If you closed your eyes, you would thought you were listening to the radio! We watched some of our friends brave the stage, and I must say, they did great! I even got up there with a group of girls and sang "livin on a prayer." Mind you- I stood behind them and didn't sing directly into the mic. I'm glad Toody was ready to go before my song came up... Saturday treated me VERY WELL! Got a much needed pedi and did a little shopping. When Toody got home, we headed up to Choctaw for a little slot machine time for a friend's birthday. We didn't win anything, but we played for a while. After about an hour I started getting a headache. Does anybody else get headaches in casinos? I always do, but it doesn't keep me away. I think it has to be the lights and all the loud bells. I usually like to play a little blackjack, but all the tables were filled to the gill! We headed home and hit the hay. On the agenda for today: headed out to the lake to check out some possible properties, grocery shopping (I can not eat another sandwich for lunch), and laundry.

The longest/shortest day ever...

I can't even believe that today was the first day of school! I always forget how crazy the first couple days of kindergarten are! It was the longest/shortest day ever. I will say that I ADORE my class and they are soooooo cute! We spent the day learning about our rules and procedures and doing a few activities. I think the highlight of the day was our "magic play dough". I explained to the kiddos that the play dough was magic and if it changed colors, we would have a great year. As they played with the dough, it changed colors. The class was ecstatic. It was great to see their little bright faces. They loved it! Although it was a great day, I'm exhausted. It was about 107 outside today and I feel horrible. I've already had a bath and tried to take a nap. Sleep wouldn't come so I got up and did a little prep work for tomorrow. We will read "Chrysanthemum" and discuss our names. Each kiddo will decorate a large bubble-letter name. I hope they love it as much as they loved our activities today!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow...

Well, it's official: today is my last day of summer vacay! I go back tomorrow and the kids come on the 23rd. I'm having mixed emotions. Part of me is ready to be back in the swing of things, part of me wants to sleep until 9 everyday! I wonder if the school district would consider changing the hours for me? I know, long shot. I did get up there earlier this week and pretty much finished my classroom. For you non-teachers out there, this is a huge deal. It totally stinks to be in meetings all day long then have to work in your room. Now I'll be able to go home at a decent hour all week long! I also have spent a minimal amount of money this year! I bought a new 100's pocket chart, some new border, magnets, a new book, and some pillows. You should know, that's great for me. I'm semi-excited, semi-depressed, and semi-nervous, all signs of a teacher at the end of summer! Well, I'm off to get my house in order (cuz who knows when that will ever happen again!).

Ok, ok, ok, ok

So, I know, this day by day recap is getting a little ridic! Let me just sum it up for you right here: super fab vacay. While at the pond we relaxed, hiked, and ate. We took a trip up to Quebec and had an awesome time walking around, taking a carriage ride, watching the street performers, eating, drinking, shopping, and staying in our super cute boutique hotel room. We also visited the Citadel, which is a fort that is built around the city. Apparently it was built to ward of the Americans, but tsk tsk, it wasn't us to attacked. There was a 20 minute battle with the British (who won) in a farmer's field. At the Citadel we watched the changing of the guards. What is hilarious is that the guards wear British red coats, but the whole ceremony is done in French. Oh another hilarious note: their mascot is a goat. You must go to my facebook page and check out the pics! After Quebec we had another relaxing day at the pond before heading to Booth Bay Harbor, Pemaquid Point, and Christmas Cove. Booth Bay was so much fun and had tons of shopping and great food! Maine shrimp... yes please! Pemaquid Light House is sooooooo beautiful and has this gorgeous rock surrounding it. We walked the rock down to the water and played around. Of course we had to hit up the gift shop and get some ice cream too. From there we headed to Christmas Cove. That is wear Toody's g-pa used to stay when he was younger. He showed us the house they owned (hello- fabulous) and the club he used to life guard/pool manage at. It was awesome! We headed back to the pond for another relaxing evening and I started to feel nauseous. You may be asking- was in the shrimp? NO- it was the thought of our impending river rafting adventure the next morning. I was soooo scared. I had done it once before, but not since I was 12. Bed, sleep, anxious tummy, sleep. Wake up- scared to death. We get dressed, head to the rafting company and sign our lives away. We got on the bus, I was freaked the whole way. Well... long story short we flipped. Only one guy stayed in the raft and of course I was taken the furthest way by the river. When they got be back in the raft I was totally freaking out. We pulled over where I got out and pretty much refused to get back in. I have a fear of drowning and the water rushing at you doesn't exactly make it seem unreasonable. The river in down in a gorge and you can't hike out. The only way to get out is to take the river. I'm telling you- I was ready to live on that tiny beach for the rest of my life. There was nooooooo way I was going back on that river. Well, they talked me into getting back on. The thing is: I knew the big rapid was coming and I figured that if we got thrown out on a smaller rapid then hell was awaiting. I sat in the bottom of the raft until I knew we were in the clear. The rest of the trip was soooooooooo much fun. Met some great folks and have new friends. Well that's pretty much our trip. The day after rafting we headed to Portland, then headed home. Good times, great people, awesome food. Love Maine!

Total relaxation!!

So, I totally forgot that the sun comes up super early in Maine! Brian and I woke up (in separate beds) every hour from 5:00 to 7:00. The separate bed thing- the one we were both supposed to be in is a full. Toody and I both sleep with our elbows out and that just wasn't happening in that bed. After a few hours of tossing and turning, he finally went upstairs to sleep on an air mattress. After giving up of sleeping in, we headed to the main house to eat some breakfast. I went with a toasted English muffin and a piece of cheese, and Toody went with a yummy Maine blueberry muffin and coffee. After breakfast, we went walking down to the stream. I'm not kidding when I tell you this: in the stream, there is a cold spring that you can drink out of! So neat. Apparently that is where you used to get drinking water from. Toody said that when they were kids they would take cups down and get water! The last time we were in Maine we went to the side of the mountain and got jugs of water out of a pvc pipe sticking out of the mountain. Now we have a water filtration system in the house. We basically did NOTHING all day and it was great. Later in the evening we went down the mountain and got some dinner at one of the rafting/bar companies. We got home, lit the fire and settled in for another early night.

Up to the pond!

Maine Day 2

We woke up early, enjoyed our free continental breakfast and headed out of Portland. We got to Scowhegan and hit up the last McDonald's for miles. I am not even joking when I tell you that it is the busiest McDonald's that I've ever been in. It is huge and run like a well oiled machine. Insane I tell you. After our last fast food for a while, we went to Hannaford's. The closest thing to compare it to is our Tom Thumb. The best part is all of the locally farmed produce- and what I'm really talking about is the super sweet corn on the cob! I usually don't like corn, but this stuff is life changing. After a short shopping trip for snacks and beer, we headed up to the pond. I love the trip from Skowhegan! You can see beautiful mountains and rivers along the way. There are also Moose warnings everywhere! About an hour later we were headed up the mountain through Caratunk and up to Pleasant Pond. We arrived, unpacked our stuff and settled in. Memaw and Papaw cooked a yummy dinner of steak, corn and potatoes for Toody's birthday! Deelish! We sat on the porch for a while and headed to bed early!

Oops, day 1

Well, I totally did not post one single blog about Maine while we were there (no internet)! So I am going to kind of back track. Imagine that I'm in Maine and this is day #1!

We woke up at the unGodly hour of 3:30 in the morning to make our 5:30 flight. I was sooo tired. I took two Dramamine before we got on the flight and slept the entire first flight. We had a short layover and got on another tiny plane and headed for Portland, Maine. I heart Portland! We got a hotel room and headed downtown for some shopping/eating/drinking. If you have never been to Portland, Maine, I highly suggest you go. There is so much to do there. My faves: the Portland Headlight (a beautiful light house), Dimillo's (a floating restaurant with awesome fried Maine shrimp), and walking around downtown. We went straight for Dimillo's and I had the Maine shrimp and Toody had the fried lobster. We were both skeptical about the fried lobster, but it was really yummy! After an early supper we walked around downtown for a while and got some delicious ice cream. After the ice cream we were both exhausted so we went back to the hotel for some shut-eye. Next stop: Pleasant Pond!!!

What time?

This has been one full day! Our first flight was at 6:50 am, meaning we had to leave our house at 4:30!!! I set the alarm clock for 3:30 and rolled out of bed at 3:45. Up and attem' in the wee hours of the morning, we made it to the Park and Fly. I quickly realized that I shouldn't have waited to take my Dramamine! Our shuttle driver was rocky to say the least. When we finally got to our gate, I was ready to ralph. We got into the terminal and ate some breakfast (Dunkin Donuts chocolate munchkins.... heaven...) and I took not one, but two Dramamine. Guess what...?... I didn't get the non-drowsy kind. I was ready to pass out before we even boarded the tiny little plane. When we got on I went out like a light. I didn't exactly get good sleep, but I did sleep. We landed in Cleveland for long enough to eat a little lunch and get on our next flight to Portland. I had enough time to read a few articles in my new Woman's Day before we landed. I found some yummy recipes that I've got to try when we get home. We got out of the airport, got our rent car and found a hotel for the night. After a short rest and freshen up we headed out for an early dinner and stroll around Portland. We ate at Di Millo's which is kind of a tourist trap, but we just love their fried Maine shrimp. If you haven't had Maine shrimp, I totally recommend it. They are tiny and super sweet. After dinner we walked around for a while, had an ice cream and came back to the room. We party people are exhausted! Tomorrow we will head up to the pond.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow...

Well folks, tomorrow is the big day. We are leaving our house at 4:30 in the MORNING and landing in Portland, Maine at 12:50. We are going to spend the day in Portland and head up to the pond on Tuesday. On the agenda... nothing! We're gonna to go with the flow.

Happy Birthday!!!

Tomorrow is Hubby's Birthday. 29! Doesn't seem to bother him, but kind of bothers me. That means that in a few months I'll be 29... forever! We started his birthday weekend with a dinner at Cheesecake Factory with my parents. When we arrived the computer system was down so we had a thirty minute wait. Lucky us! We had time to do a little shopping! We wandered down the path to the outdoor mall and did a little window shopping to the tunes of a live band. As we were headed back to the restaurant, we passed Vera Bradley and got a great little surprise. Lunch boxes on sale for $20! I know. Lame, but when you are a teacher and brown bag it everyday, a good lunch box really makes a difference. The problem- limit one per customer! Hubby to the rescue! He came down so we could buy several of these bad boys:

When we finally got a table we enjoyed a great meal. Mom and I split a sandwich so big that I had to take all the lettuce and tomato off to eat it. Dad ordered a huge burger and only ate half of it. Hubby ordered fish and chips and ate the whole thing! For dessert a giant slice of Snickers cheesecake with four forks. Well happy birthday Toody, I love you!

I did it!!!

So we aren't leaving for a few days, but I'm packed! With the new charges on checked luggage (don't even get me started...) I decided to challenge myself to pack both Hubby and I in one suitcase. I did it!!! Ten days of clothes for two people in one bag. I'm not one to brag, but I think it is pretty impressive. Now... mind you, it's Maine. Its not like we'll be dressing up or anything. We packed pretty scarce... well for me anyway. This is the same suitcase that I had packed so tight that I had to sit on it for a seven day cruise where all I really wore was my bathing suit. The best thing: we will have access to laundry facilities, so I really didn't pack much because I'll do laundry halfway through. Any way you look at it, packing for two people in one suitcase is hard. I'm pretty proud of myself. My hope is that the clothes are so tightly packed that they won't shift around and get all wrinkled up. But alas! I have something for that too.... Downy Wrinkle Release. I always take a small travel sized bottle. Also, a small spray bottle of Febreeze will almost always save the day!

Watch out Maine... the Texans are coming!

Four years ago I married my best friend. We've been lucky to be able to take a few amazing vacations and one or two not so great ones! One of my faves has to be Maine. Hubby's family has a lake house (camp for you Mainers) on Pleasant Pond in Caratunk. If you need a great get-a-way, I highly reccomend Maine. I had such an amazing time on our last Maine trip that I decided to blog about this trip. The trouble.... there is no internet access and no cell coverage on the mountain! I'll try to keep up when we go into town or travel to Quebec or to the coast. Last time we visited Moxie Falls, Scowhegan, Portland, Old Orchard Beach, Bar Harbor and Camden. Not sure what this trip has in store, we are just going to throw the die and see where it takes us. Hope this Texas girl has some great adventures to share!