Hurricane Ike

Well, it's the closest we've been to a hurricane since moving to College Station in 1995. This morning about 6am the wind started picking up with about 40 mile per hour winds and went up from there. At it's worst, we had Category 1 wind gusts at 90 miles per hour from Hurricane Ike, but luckily, we were blessed to be pretty much free from damages. We lost a few plants from the front flower beds, but our trees held up thank goodness! Some others around us we not as lucky, with downed trees and fences, but thankfully we didn't have significant damage. Here is a little clip from the camera... towards the end of the segment, Ryan asks where her playset is--we took it apart and put it on the side of the house with the fewest windows just in case! We took this just after the worst of the winds began to die down from the back porch. Anyway--we're fine and now the rain and wind are just steady without being menacing. So long, Hurricane Ike--thanks for the day off from school yesterday! : )

What a week

So there's the old saying that teachers have three months off in the summer, which has never been true for me. But now that I'm an administrator, it is REALLY not true--instead it is more like 2 weeks. However, it is much different once the teachers start back as well, which officially happened last Friday. SIX FULL DAYS of staff development before our students (18 short of 2700!) return to campus. Let me let you in on a little secret....six days is too much.

It all started last Friday, a week ago today. We had things like training and 3 hour long faculty meetings to fill our day. Not the most exciting way to start things off. Coming back on Monday, things were a bit rough--some communication issues and such made for some negativity among the staff and really got to me. Today, Gwen and Scott (two other great Asst. Principals) even said that they had seen that I was "down" the past two days, but that they could tell things were better today, and they were. There are a couple of reasons for that: 1) The Obvious (it was Friday) 2)Yesterday many things that had been weighing on me got worked out in a 4 hour long meeting with the principal --yes 4 hours unannounced..... 3)I was reminded of one of the reasons I love my job--the fantastic teachers and staff I work with.

You see, this year, I get to work with my old department--the English Department. They are truly dedicated people who care immensely about doing great things for kids and are passionate about making a difference. I LOVED seeing that again and sharing ideas. We even had a short answer meeting today which probably should have been a real snoozer, but the group made it fun and we laughed and learned together. I was so refreshed!

Sometimes, as my friend and English department head, Stormy said so well in her blog this week, sometimes it takes a low day to help you appreciate the great days. That definitely happened this week--thankfully ending with the great day!

Somewhat relevant story that may apply: Some of you know that story about the guy eating dinner who was approached by a man who said he knew him. The second man said that he used to pack the parachute of the first man when they were in the army together. The first man said that he was so happy to finally know who had saved his life by so carefully packing his parachute because he had never really met the man before. The first man had always wanted to thank the second man but didn't know who he was. Anyway, long story short....the moral is: Consider who is packing your parachute--who is it that supports you each day to "save" you when times are tough? So let me say thanks to my "parachute" (or maybe my parachute packers?...anyway): my family, friends, and husband who offered me words of encouragment and rejuvenated me this week--I am truly blessed and could not have made it through the week without you!

Murder Mystery Dinner

Last night we went with our friends, Mike and Laura, to a murder mystery dinner at a local winery. They have them each weekend during harvest time (the grapes were ripe and gorgeous on the vines!). We had SO MUCH FUN! There were about 80 people there and about 12 were "suspects" including our friend Laura! We were told our parts ahead of time (I was the victim's lawyer, Chris was a "social worker" and of course, you can see that Mike was a minister while his wife Laura was a nun! The case was of a missing matchmaker who was just matching people up without looking at their information because her database went down--she just matched using names and addresses only--of course, people found out and had their reasons for being angry at her and whammo--you have a murder mystery dinner!

Of course, there were all kinds of costumes and people there--the pilot here won for best costume!

The food was fantastic as well and the wine with each course was delicous! We had a really great time with our friends and we decided that we should plan for this every summer before starting back to school! Thanks to Mike and Laura for a fun evening! We truly enjoyed it!

Hot Dog!

Ok, so maybe my day wasn't quite as planned.....I didn't actually get anything on my list of things to do done. I shopped for the necklace and jeans, but didn't buy (found some jeans but they were $100, meaning I definately had to think about them before purchasing!). Didn't get to the nailpolish (I think I found some pink we havn't tried before when I was cleaning out the cabinets in our bathroom last week so will do that tomorrow night with Ry). My hairdresser was not in today (why take Monday off???? Does he think he's the post office or something?) and just didn't make it to get my eyebrows waxed. (p.s. am I the only one who wants to do that right before you go home for an hour? I feel so goofy with bright pink eyebrows--even if it does only last a short time!) Anyway, I did get my sister Kimber's baby shower invitations done (and they are adorable if I do say so myself).


But back to the reason for this post: I have to tell you the one thing I get excited about when Chris is gone (yes, there really is just this one thing because I love Chris dearly and hate it when he's gone). Here it is: hot dogs! I really love hot dogs--and not just plain old hot dogs, but Chicago Dogs like my mom used to make for us when we were kids. Here it is, in all it's glory:

Wondering how to make your own tasty morsel? Make the hot dog (I get the 98% fat free kind but not because you have to), then add tomatos, pickle, cucumber (I swear it's good), mustard, onions (I didn't have any today) and sprinkle lightly with celery salt (did I swear it was good yet?) Chris won't touch it with a ten foot pole (nor any hot dog for that matter, Chicago style or not), so when he is gone, it is my little treat. And guess what?? Ryan loves 'em too!! Check her out! Ahhhhh--a chip off the "not-that-old-block"!Hot dogs--they may be mystery meat to some, but to me, they are a little slice of home!

Back at it...

Well, it's official. Today is my last day off before I have to start back to work for the 2008-2009 school year. Sooo....since Chris left this morning for Coaching School in San Antonio (yes, he'll be gone for our anniversary tomorrow!), I have a day of girlie stuff planned including but not limited to:
getting my eyebrows waxed
getting my hair cut (hopefully!)
shopping for new jeans
searching for the perfect new necklace (which may double as a lanyard for school sometimes)
updating my blog (yay!)
buying new nailpolish so Ry and I can paint our nails this afternoon
going to Michaels (big sale this week!)
etc.

Wish me luck in getting it all done, but more importantly, wish me luck in making it to work on time tomorrow! This sleeping in until 6:30 and bringing Ry to school at 7:45am has been GREAT! Tomorrow, that alarm is going to be so loud and annoying at 5:45am!!! URGH!! Plus with Chris being at coaching school, I don't have a back up in case I'm running late getting Ryan to school--pray for us! : )

On vacation!

I will agree that for any of you who are actually checking this again to see if we are still alive, you all are patient folks! June 1st until July 21st? Who waits that long to blog? Well, me, I guess. You see, we have been so busy with summer school and hiring personnel at school, then with my grandmother's passing and going to Iowa, that time slips by and nothing gets blogged. THEN, we went on vacation (Seattle) and I have one week left until I'm back to work again! So here goes--a little taste of our week last week in Seattle

Chris and I decided to hit the Oregon trail and discover the great Northwest. It was the first time we'd gone on a trip without Ryan just for "fun". It was beautiful, great weather and a nice chance to just be a couple--but I have to say, we missed Ry SO MUCH!! In fact, we were thinking of going on a long trip to Europe next summer, but after being gone 5 days and missing Ry so much, we are rethinking that to a family vacation in the states!! Ok-some pics for ya:

Stops on the way to Mt. Ranier:

At one of the many stops at Mt. Ranier National Park. The real mountain is to our left, but it was over the ridge and you couldn't see it from this angle. I have great pics of the mountain, but they're on my other camera which is giving me fits this morning! It was beautiful though, and a great change from being in the big city of Seattle where we stayed downtown (see below).

Us on the Bainbridge Ferry with Seattle's Space Needle in the background.

We stayed at a hotel at 3rd and Cherry (near Pioneer Square) called The Arctic Club. It used to be an old gentlemen's club for the guys who were part of the gold rush and then made bookoos of money when Seattle declared itself the gateway to Alaska (uhh...did they forget about CANADA??...but people believed it so I guess they were pretty clever!). Anyway, they just updated the old building to a hotel with 120 rooms and the coolest decor ever, with a nod to the gold rush and Alaskan explorers also. All in all, a great trip with great weather and fantastic food (the best meal of Chris and my LIFE at Cosmopolitan Grill!). But as I said, glad to be back home with Ry and enjoy a little down time before work starts up again on Tuesday of next week. I'll try to be a little better about blogging more often, too! My sister Angelia just had her third kiddo (my nephew is just as adorable as his brothers!) and has already blogged like 15 times since getting back from Omaha on Wednesday with him!! I'm such a slacker.....sorry ya'll! : )

Way Behind...

It has been some time since I really caught up on blogging. Chris took the camera to the Spurs game last week and now I don't know where it is!?....soooo, thought I'd do a little journaling which I havn't done in forEVER! This week has been crazy, hectic (well, I guess you could say the past year has been that way!) It was finally the last week of school. It really started for us last weekend though--Memorial day weekend. We (thank GOD) had a three day weekend. My sister Kimber's boys were having their 4th and 2nd birthdays (respectively) so we headed to my parents house to hang out by the pool and enjoy cake and family time. It was FABULOUS! Kimber decided to have a smaller party with just family and then later a party with the boys friends. It was so relaxing and fun--I'm so thankful to have a family who enjoys each other's company and can be casual! My mom cooks the perfect meals and dad puts on music and plays with the kids. Ryan even put on a little "show" for us with the piano and old, beat up guitar my parents have in the den, singing every song she knows while playing the same one note on the piano and strumming the same notes on the guitar (for different songs of course). It was quite the trip!

So then it was back to school on Tuesday--the kids this week were NUTS! There were fights off campus during open campus lunch so we had to separate kids when they came back and have others taking finals in the office so they didn't carry it over into the school....it seemed like EVERYONE had some issue that needed to be resolved through the office (and that most of the culprits were in my part of the alphabet!) I was super worn out by Thursday evening, plus we had NO groceries due to being out of town over the weekend, so Chris took me out to Outback for dinner and a glass of much needed wine. Also, we scored playoff Spurs tickets on Tuesday night, so Chris and his good friend Mike drove to SA and back (got in at 2am!). We all saw how that game turned out, but at least Chris and Mike had a great time!

So finally, it was Friday--graduation! I got put on the worst duty ever--"the middle" which meant I was between the two groups of about 500 seniors. We were supposed to be sure to keep the kids in the proper rows--in reality, I was on "beach ball duty" snagging three balls from the groups of seniors. Even worse was the bouncy balls. You know those little balls you can buy from the $.25 machines? Well picture the seniors each with 1-5 of those balls--we tried to confiscate as many as we could beforehand, but not much we could do when hundreds of seniors all decided to bounce them among themselves towards the end of the graduation ceremony. Oh boy, and these kids are about to be on their own in college or running businesses? Heaven help us! No really, it was great to see the kids graduation who I taught 4 years ago as freshmen and those I met this year as an administrator. I'm so proud of them for working so hard to get where they are.

Ok, so then yesterday was one of my good friend, Erin's, end of the year party. The theme was "trailer trash bash" and it was awesome! Our friends Courtney and Rodney really stole the show, but Tiffany and her husband Noah were also very trashy! I wish I had pictures to post, but with us being "public figures" and all, they wouldn't have been to happy to have those on the internet!! It was great and the kids had a blast at Erin's--thanks for having us over!!

So summer school starts tomorrow, as does our new principal. I'm not worried about summer school at all (read: I'm very nervous about our new principal). We'll see how things turn out, as we have meetings starting first thing in the morning. Sorry for no pictures this post. Next time--or once I find the camera!! : )