Wimberley Post 1

My family has been going to Wimberley, TX since way before I was born. We stay in a cabin by the river. We always had the time of our life growing up. I have many fond memories of my grandparents taking us there. The days are filled with swimming in the river or pool, snow cones, eating, and lots of relaxing.

We get at least 1 snow cone a day. The snow cone guy,Scott actually knows us because we go to his snow cone stand every year. He has the smoothest snow cones ever and more than 100 tasty flavors.

This is the view from our cabin. Sorry it’s a bit blurry. It’s from my phone. We can see the river and watch cars cross over the bridge. We are also right next to the pool. It’s so relaxing to just sit and watch the birds and to watch everyone on the river. This year, we saw a giant charter bus go over the bridge. I still don’t know how he made it as there is a very tight turn to get on the bridge. When he made it, he asked my dad for directions. He was down there walking the dogs. We were laughing so hard. Apparently the bus driver’s GPS took him that way.

I read,and read, and read some more while in Wimberley. This year I read two books and about 100 pages from the last Harry Potter book. I used to read the whole HP series every year at Wimberley. Notice my tabbed version of Deathly Hallows. It’s just so good that I had to mark all the awesome lines.

I also read Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal and The Westing Game.

Wimberley will be continued tomorrow.

Been a While…

Wow, things have been super busy the last several weeks and I definitely need to do some updating. I still want to do a post on our anniversary, our trip to San Antonio, and a few pictures of my new classroom (which is looking pretty spiffy if I do say so myself.) Someone walked in and said that I was “so organized!” Ha, if only she knew…

Anyway, let me get you up to speed. I had my appointment with my neurofibromatosis doctor and he had some suspicions of what could be causing my issues, so he ordered a couple of MRIs. Let me just tell you, those are not very fun. The one of my c-spine was HORRIBLE. I was fine at first, but then I got really hot, like drenched in sweat hot. Then there was also the fact that my head was taped down in this frame thing, and the fact that it took like    2  1/2 – 3 hours. I don’t know, there’s no clock in there, lol. My 2nd MRI of my pelvis was a piece of cake though, and just lasted 45 minutes. I did a follow up with my NF doctor and he showed me the MRI results. Apparently I have 2 tumors that are compressing my spine (not an emergency though) and also some tumors on my sciatic nerve (also not an emergency). He told me it did need to be taken care of within the next couple of months. All the tumors appear to be benign, but tomorrow I’m having a PET CT just to make sure. Then on Sept. 6th, I’m meeting with a neurosurgeon to discuss my options. I am relieved to finally know what has been causing all my random problems. Hopefully, I care take care of one of those issues during Christmas break.

In other news, school starts on Monday and I met my kids tonight. I think I have a pretty good group! Third grade will be different, but not in a bad way. More on that later; I’m exhausted! 

5 Question Friday

1. How close to your childhood dreams is your life now?
I'm on the right track, but haven't quite made it. I have an amazing husband and a college degree (Gig Em). I'm a teacher. Now all I have left, is the be a mommy part. I can't wait until that stage and neither can Zach. That one won't be for a while...

2. What is one must have item for the summer? Shorts. It's so HOT here in the summer. This summer, I'm also loving my TOMS. They are so comfy and light and perfect for summer.

 
3. Do you have your kids stay up on school stuff during summer vacation? (Or, if you don't have kiddos, did your parents make you keep up on school stuff during summer?) No kids yet, but when we have kids I do want to start doing activities with them when they are young, and this includes summer. I don’t want to homeschool, but I know that learning happens at home too. My parents didn’t make us do anything, but I read a TON, which is supposed to prevent/lessen the “summer slide.”

4. Do you can or freeze fresh produce? Our freezer is tiny and currently can’t handle stocking up on things. One day?

5. Do you get ready for the day first thing in the morning? If I’m working or have somewhere to be, yes. If not, then mostly I do not. I like to be comfortable, especially if I’m working around the house. The hideous pile of laundry I recently spoke of is gone.

Feeling Crafty

Well it's day 2 into my summer vacation and I was feeling the need to cover this box (that I've been saving for a couple of months) to use in our bathroom to contain the clutter. I used a red box from a gift set I received, and covered it with wrapping paper and card stock to match our bathroom.

Here is the result:

No, this is not our bathroom. It's our living room. A lot of things in our apartment are green and brown... Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the results, especially since I'm not very talented in the crafting/artsy area. However, I was thinking that I should seal it somehow since it will be in the bathroom. Any suggestions as to what I should use? Modge Podge? Ha, I've heard of that but I don't actually know what it is. So yes, please assist.

Speaking of crafts and time off from my little firsties, these are some projects I would like to do this summer:

• Make/buy a ton of felt stories. I LOVE this Etsy site and all the things she has for felt stories. There is no way I can make them look this good.
• Laminate and make literacy centers.
• Find cheap headphones and personal CD players for a listening center.
• Make a felt board. (This really means get my husband to make one, which he has already happily volunteered to do.)
• Organize our closet and the laundry "closet". Sadly the 2 feet of space between the washer and dryer has become storage for our clean clothes. It's just impossible to hang anything up when the closet is so disorganized, and it's impossible to organize the closet when there is one tiny closet for the entire apartment. We have NO storage. Ha, we're storing our wok in the drawer under the dryer...
• Organize the pantry/spice cabinet. (No idea how to tackle this one.)
• Take up sewing?

Well we shall see what projects get accomplished. First on the list will be the pile of clean laundry.

Been a While

I know it's been a long time (huge understatement!) since I last blogged, but I'm back. I do have a good reason for my long hiatus. I got a teaching job! Praise the Lord, I was hired at the very beginning of August and have been going non-stop since then. I'm working at a charter school teaching first grade. In August, I would have told you that I wanted to be at a public school. However, I can see the big picture now and I'm almost certain that I would have been let go by default as a first year teacher. I'm fortunate to be at a school that is not taking a big hit by all the school budget cuts. While I am still waiting to meet with my principal about renewing my contract, I am hopeful that I should still have a place at my school. I'm just going to trust that God still knows the big picture and that He's going to put me where I need to be.

I am definitely counting the days left until summer. I need a break; my 25 kids need a break! I can't wait until summer! My husband and I definitely have some big plans up our sleeves. We're hoping to visit his parents in England for a couple of weeks. I'm super excited about that. I love Europe, but it's been a while since I've been there. I make it sound like I visit there frequently, but I've only been to Germany once and England once. I've also got a ton of stuff do do for my classroom. I'm going to attempt to make some felt storyboards and some other centers and knick-knacks. I also want to take up sewing. I guess I'll need a sewing machine before I do that...

Anyway, kudos if you're still reading! Now that I'm caught up, hopefully my next post will be more entertaining.

Back Home!

We are home for good for a while, from vacationing with our families. Zach's back at work, and I am back to the job search. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do, but it may or may not consist of phone calls, school visits, emails, and who knows what!

Image via Wikipedia

We had a great time in Florida. We ate lots of great food, spent some time at the beach, visited a couple of cool places, ate lots of good food, and just had fun with my family. The beach was pretty good. The weather started out a bit rainy and there was a bit of algae and seaweed at first, but everything cleared up real nicely. I somehow managed to get some oil on my foot and swimsuit the first day, but really the oil is all cleared out at Pensacola at the moment. We didn't have any more run-ins with oil and I don't think it's a problem right now.  Boy, that stuff it hard to get off! We also went to the Pensacola Lighthouse, Fort Pickens, and The National Naval Aviation Museum. The Blue Angels were in town practicing for their air show (which was earlier today). We weren't able to stay for the big air show, but we got some up close and personal views of them doing stunts. It was pretty spectacular!

On the way home, we decided to stop and have a dinner and a movie date night. We went and saw Eclipse at one of our favorite movie theaters. [Zach is really the best because he likes all types of movies (except Lifetime!). I love not having to convince him to see certain movies. He still likes very boy/guy movies that I'm not always super excited about seeing. Most of the time, I don't mind because I usually end up liking them more than I expected.] I enjoyed it, probably the most of the three. Now I am no Twilight Fan. It's way overrated in my opinion. I started the first book, got about 50 pages in, put it down, and never picked it back up. I really don't think they're very good or very well written. Just my opinion. Read if you wish; I won't think less of you. Now I AM a huge Harry Potter fan. I love the books and can't wait for the next movie. In fact you should check out the trailer here. I also can't wait for the next Narnia installment, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. You should watch that trailer here. I basically jump and quiver with excitement when seeing these trailers on the big screen. Still waiting for the HP trailer to be in theaters. Speaking of movies, what's with all this 3D movie hype?!?! I don't buy it.

Well that's it for now. Maybe later I'll come around to uploading some pictures, maybe...

P.S. I added this Zemantra Assistant, but I think it's making typing out my blog suuuuuper slow. I like it because it makes it easy to add pics and stuff, but this is ridiculous. I suppose I will look for something else. Any suggestions?