Summer time fun

This summer has been a busy one! A couple of weeks before school was out I finished my coursework for Lamar. Yay! Graduation is on August 13, but since it’s in Beaumont, I won’t be attending. So I guess it’s not technically official until then. To complete my administrator’s certificate for Texas, I need to attend a 5 day training called ILD – Instructional Leadership Development. My first week out of school I was signed up and ready to go. Unfortunately it was all the way at Region 10 in Richardson. I went on the first day and it was ok. The presenter told us that if you miss a day for any reason, you can’t come back, you have to go to another session later in the summer. For instance, if you miss day 3, you’d have to join in another group on day 3 later. So what happens to me on day 2? My car won’t start! Dead battery! After freaking out and calling my friend Sarah to come take me, I decided that once she took me, I wasn’t going to have a way home and my car still wasn’t going to be fixed for day 3. So I have to go later on this month. Yuck! I can’t take the administrator’s certification test until I finish this course so I’m nervous that I’m going to have forgotten everything I learned in grad school when I take the test. But I guess we’ll worry about that later. Luckily I got my car worked on that day because it took them about 7 hours to fit me in and work on it.

I’ve tried to get into couponing lately. Not quite extreme couponing, like the tv show, but just seeing what it’s all about. Well, let me tell you, it’s time consuming! And I just don’t buy groceries that often. But I did make a trip to Target and managed to save $14. I thought that was impressive! The bad thing about coupons for me is that they make me want to try new products and before I know it, I’m buying things I normally wouldn’t have…and that does not save you money.

my loot

I went to Ruston for about 5 days to visit my family. I enjoyed spending time with them and getting to have dinner with a few high school friends - Tina, Elizabeth, and Cynthia. One day my dad, my niece Reanne, and I went out to the Peach Store and bought some peach ice cream. Yummy! There weren’t any peaches ready that week.

quite the entertainter!

Reanne and GaGa making pizza

We were having fun with the camera timer

I wanted to stay for the Peach Festival, but I already had plans to float the river with some friends in New Braunfels. We had such a great time there! We took about 12 people and stayed in a really nice house outside of Gruene. I made some new friends, some that even live about 2 miles from me. It’s a small world! We ate at the Gristmill, one of our favorites. Larry Joe Taylor was playing at Gruene Hall that night but it was just too hot to stick around.

July 4th was fun. Koby had several of us over to his house for dinner. Greg made brisket, Gina made potatoes, Audra made banana pudding, and I made Wendi’s baked potato dip. It was a crowd favorite and it’s so easy too! We went out to the alley behind his house and watched the Castle Hills fireworks show on the wall. The next day I started housesitting, which is what the next post is all about.

hanging out on the wall

Gina, me, and Audra - about to sing some patriotic songs

My summer is flying by and I don’t like it. I’m having a blast but I want it to s.l.o.w…d.o.w.n!

What a week!

I house/dog-sat for some friends a couple of weeks ago while they went on vacation. It ended up being quite a week! It started with me taking them to the airport at 5:30 in the morning. Whew, that’s early for me, especially in the summer. That night one of the Yorkies, Finley, threw up in my bed. Gross!!!

Finley

I woke up and cleaned it up, scared if I was using the right cleaning product on the really nice duvet. And yes, it left a ring around where I cleaned it, and would need to go to the dry cleaners.

the shy one - Burke

This is little Greta a few months ago. I don't have a current pic of her...

except for this one, when she was swimming. She looks like a drowned rat!

The next day I dropped my phone in the toilet! I was wearing a pair of shorts that have a little pocket. Nice! I tried putting it in a bag of rice like people said, but it just didn’t work. The phone’s manual said the battery was built in and couldn’t be taken out. Luckily my friend used to work for Nokia and had some extra phones in the house.

Thursday I was in the pool when I noticed that one of the wheels on the Polaris pool cleaner broke off. I worried that they would have to replace the whole thing and it would be really expensive. Come to find out, it was a $12 fix. Yay!

For the first couple of days, I guess the 3 dogs were trying to show me who was boss around there because they kept peeing and pooping in their beds. The little yorkie loved leaving me surprises around the kitchen and living room. I felt like I was constantly having to watch where I stepped. After a few days, they finally realized it wasn’t funny anymore. :)

Then Friday night I was heading back to the house after Burger Babes and a rock hit my windshield. As soon as it hit, it started cracking. By the next day, the crack was 2/3 of the way across the windshield. Luckily with insurance, it only cost $50 to replace it. I had a hole fixed on my windshield a few months ago at my school. At that time, I had 2 more holes but they were close to the edge and the guy said he could try repairing them, but the whole windshield would probably crack. He suggested I wait until a real crack happened. When the guy showed up at my house last week, it was the same guy. I told him I hoped we would stop seeing each other so often.

There's a glare on the windshield but you can sort of see the huge crack

I was really beginning to feel like everything was going wrong that possibly could. But after a few days of not so fun things happening, my housesitting time got better. Luckily there was a very nice pool to lay out in everyday…definitely a nice perk of staying there. Audra, Jill, and Audrey came over to swim on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately Kristi had to work both days. I finished 3 books while I soaked up the sun. Also during my week there, I went to Winstar with my friend Melinda and her parents. I won $20. Woo hoo! We had the best time. Melinda mostly played black jack but I preferred the machines.

Sweet little Audrey

I house/dog-sat for a total of 9 days. The best part was the payment I received at the end of the 9 days – a new iphone and otterbox cover!

That definitely made all of the ups and downs worth my time there! I came to the conclusion that I am not ready to 1) own a house and 2) own a dog. But I wouldn’t mind owning a pool! :)

Another prize they brought me from the Grand Cayman Islands - a rum cake