My new house :)

My friends Brenda and George are gone to London for a couple of weeks and I get the wonderful job of housesitting for them. I even have a pool guy. I was hoping he would be as cute as the one on Desperate Housewives, but no such luck. :) They have a pool in the back but it's rained every stinkin day since I've been there! And the weather channel says it's going to continue raining almost until they get back next week! Ugh! This isn't a very good picture but I knew I was coming over to my apartment tonight to download some other pictures so I thought I would take a quick pic in the rain.

This past weekend my mom came in town for a visit. She brought me a book she had heard about called On My Own Two Feet...a modern girl's guide to personal finance. I'm already about halfway done and learning a lot. If only I had thrown away my credit card a few years ago! :(
Friday night we went to the Dancing with the Stars show at the American Airlines Center. It was SOOO much fun. Here are a couple of pics I have so far. My camera batteries died halfway through the show so I will have to wait on more pics from my mom. Then I'll make a slideshow. The 4 stars were Joey Lawrence, Joey Fatone, Joey McIntyre, and Drew Lachey. The dancers were Cheryl, Julianne, Kym, and Edyta. The guys did a lot of singing. They all performed really well...both singing and dancing! We moved closer during the intermission and I was so ticked that my camera wasn't working! But here are a few...

The 4 guys

Joey Fatone and Kym

Joey McIntyre and Julianne
Joey Lawrence and Edyta
Edyta signing autographs

Saturday night I went to Jen Ken and Brad's wedding in Fort Worth with Jill and Demian. My camera was acting up so my few pictures turned out blurry. :( But Jill has posted some good ones and Ashley will have some soon. It was fun seeing lots of Tech folks. I can't remember the last time I saw Brandi Howard!!! She hasn't changed a bit! :)

Sunday morning we got up and went to Denton Bible Church. I went about 5 or 6 years ago with Coreen but haven't been since they've moved into their huge new building. I was hoping to run into Coreen's parents but no such luck.

That afternoon we went to Sam's and Mom bought me another early birthday present. You might recall that I love the Deen boys, right? Well, they have a new cookbook that just came out. My goal is to get it signed by them soon. :) A girl can dream, can't she?!?!

summer fun...

I went to Ruston last weekend for a few days. While I was there, I got to see Reanne's new smile...minus a few teeth. And I got my haircut and highlights done (it's so much cheaper than in Dallas!). Reanne said we had matching hair except hers is not blond like Aunt Mandy's.


Last summer I went with some friends to Addison for the 4th of July fireworks show. Well, several of my friends pulled out their college chairs and it made me want one. I put it on my Christmas list. But when my mom checked at the Tech Bookstore in December, they said it was a seasonal item. But now they have them, so she got me one. Isn't it cute?!?! (Mine is in my trunk, this pic is from their website) Now I'm ready for the 4th, BBQ's, picnics, etc.


Wednesday my friend Mike was watching Emeril on the Food Network and got inspired to cook an Italian dinner for several of our friends. So we went to Sprout's and got all the ingredients and BAM! here is the final product...pasta con pesto siciliano and eggplant, asparagus (made my yours truly), and chicken in a lemon and white wine sauce with capers on top. It was sooo yummy! And it really wasn't that hard. I should try to cook more often. Anybody want to be my guinea pig that will eat what I cook?


And here is Mike and Wendi's little boy Connor that you've seen before. He loves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles right now. He went to watch his sister's gymnastics class the other day and saw a "ninja class" going on (tae kwon do) and decided he needed to join. So here he is in his "ninja" outfit.


I'm enjoying my summer so far. I had a technology training yesterday and learned lots of great things for my classroom. We'll see if I remember any of them in August. :) Today my plan was to lay by the pool (I know, what a hard life, huh?) but it's supposed to rain...again! Tonight we're having a baby shower for my friend Krista at Bunco. Should be fun. Have a good weekend!

the beginning of SUMMER!!!!!!!!

Today is my first official day of summer. Woo hoo!!!! I got to spend some time with my little buddy DeWayne. Isn't he the cutest thing? Last week some friends and I went to GameWorks to act like kids again. We had fun being silly. And at the end are a couple of pics of Carson and Connor, DeAnn's little boys. I kept them while Anna Claire had a dance recital.

Concerts and such...

Here's what I've been up to the past few weeks...

Now the countdown to the end of school has begun! As of today (Sunday), there are only 8 more days with kids and 1 workday. Woo hoo!!! :)

Procrastination 101

So last time I was telling you about Flat Stanley. Well, I thought I read the letter and it said he was due back to Ruston on the 27th. But come to find out, he's due back to school on Tuesday!!! So he and I had a very busy day on Saturday. My good friend Sarah (that I now owe big) took some pictures of Stanley while I went to Jill's wedding on Saturday. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the wedding to show you because my camera was with Sarah and Stanley. But the wedding was wonderful and Jill was a beautiful bride! I do have a pic from her shower the other day though.

Here are some of Stanley's adventures while in Dallas. Here are his "before" and "after" shots, thanks to Shandra's suggestion. :) The hat is a little out of proportion, but he had big feet to cover up! His Aunt Mandy definitely isn't an art teacher!

Our state flower, the bluebonnets...

Texas Stadium...

My school...

The letter that came with Stanley asked for me to send back some souvenirs and stuff that tells about my city. I found some Texas postcards at Wal-Mart so I bought enough for the whole class. Then I went to a hotel and got some tourist brochures about Six Flags, the Dallas and FW zoos, the wax museum, and all that kinds of stuff. I also sent the program and a pom pom from the Desperados game and a light-up necklace from the Stars game from last week. And you'll never guess how much it cost to ship little Stanley overnight to Ruston?!?!?! I don't even want to say! Someday I'm going to stop being so good at procrastinating! Someday! :)

This afternoon I went with some friends to my first Rangers game of the season. They were playing the Oakland A's. We won 4 to 3. I got to see Sammy Sosa play, although not very well.

For those of you that are familiar with the Ozarka Dot Race, they've added life sized dots this year that race on the field...
Jeff, Melissa, Me, and Scott (almost) all decked out in our Ranger gear.Now I can't wait for July when Dave Dellucci comes to Texas with the Indians!!!

April...

I've been getting my class ready for another TAKS test lately. They took the Math test yesterday. But now the hard part is being quiet the rest of the week while all of our neighbors are still testing!

Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley? It's a kids' book about a little boy named Stanley . One night while he's sleeping, the bulletin board on his wall falls on him and flattens him. It's a really cute story about how he can do neat things now that he's flat. One thing is that he wants to go visit his friend in California but can't afford to go. So his parents mail him there. In class, the kids make a small sized Stanley and send him somewhere. Then the person that receives him is supposed to take him places and take pictures of him doing things in their city, etc. I 1st read this book when I was student teaching with Mrs. Liz Hood. Now my niece Reanne is in her class and has given me her Flat Stanley to take around Dallas. So far, he's met my 3rd grade class (which I guess I better not post on here) and been to a Stars playoff game. I want to take a picture of him with our state flower (the bluebonnets) but every time I drive by the field in the airport, there are always several people taking family pics, etc. And I would feel a little funny pulling out a little paper boy to take a picture of. But I'm going to do it this weekend...I keep telling myself. :) On Saturday, Stanley's going to visit Texas Stadium and the Rangers Ballpark.

Here are some pics from the pre-game activities at the Stars game.

Those Stars fans are serious about hockey! These are some of the best-dressed fans. Our favorite was the guy with the green mohawk who painted himself green with blue stars. They got a free ticket to the game if they dressed up crazy.

You gotta love when there's a fight at a hockey game! :)

Monday night I went with a couple of friends to another Desperados game. Once again, didn't really want to take Stanley inside so he stayed in the car. :) I got to see history in the making. Dallas' quarterback Clint Dolezel made his 800th touchdown in his 12 years of playing arena football.

Here's a picture of the hail that hit my car last Friday night. There were reports of baseball-sized hail a couple of miles away, so I guess mine wasn't too bad. But watching it hit my car and listening to the sirens going off was a creepy feeling! Luckily the tornado passed me by though.

Here are a few pics from when I went home for Easter...

Spring Break

It's been a good Spring Break!!! I hate to see it end. :( I went to a Dallas Desperados arena football game last weekend with a few friends. I didn't get very good pictures though. My camera batteries died halfway into the game!



I went home for several days to visit my family. Since my nieces weren't on their Spring Break, I didn't get to see them much. But here's a pic of Reanne posing, as she loves to do!!!



I also got to go visit Megan and Jolie at their house. Unfortunately Todd was at the BCM that night. Megan and I had a good time catching up and Jolie is precious! I hate that I forgot to take pictures!

My friend Sarah and I went down to Greenville Avenue in Dallas to the St. Patrick's Day parade yesterday. It seemed more like a Mardi Gras parade because they throw beads more than candy. It was fun! Then later that night we hung out with some friends in Addison and Bedford.

I have a prayer request...tomorrow my aunt is having triple bypass surgery so please say a prayer for her. She's in the hospital in Shreveport. Thank you!

Now I'm off to do some lesson plans and probably take some tylenol pm soon. My body is not used to going to bed early so tonight is going to be fun. But waking up early in the morning is going to be even worse! Have a good week!

Pics from the last couple of weeks...kinda random...

Last Saturday we had a wedding shower for Jilly Bean at my apartment. It was good to see everybody and catch up. Here are the hostesses with Jill. And here are some other girls that came. Several people were already gone by the time we took this picture.

I've never even been to the real Mardi Gras...don't particularly want to go actually. Remember when we used to get 2 days off for it in college though? It happened to fall on the TAKS Test Day this year. My friend Sarah and I found a Cajun restaurant that was giving out beads. Now I'm craving crawfish. :)

My friends Mike and Wendi invited people over to watch the Oscars a couple of weeks ago. We all filled out a ballot sheet but I had only heard of about 4 of the movies. So needless to say, I did not win! I didn't think the Oscars were ever going to end that night! Here's a self-portrait of me and my friend Jeff. He brought a Oscar-like trophy that he had received from work and we were over in the kitchen making acceptance speeches.


My niece Reanne emailed me today. She was at home sick with my dad. It was such a sweet email. My mom told her I'm coming home for a few days over Spring Break next week. She can't wait for me to come home. She loves her Aunt Mandy...what can I say. :)


We have Open House at school tomorrow night. That's where the kids bring their parents and show them what all we've been doing this year. We've got all kinds of projects hanging up everywhere, power points will be on every computer, the whole nine yards. We make the kids be their parents' tour guides so that keeps them busy and they won't want to conference with me...hopefully! Have I mentioned that I am ready for Spring Break next week?!?! :)

I'm sad there's not going to be a new episode of Grey's tomorrow night. I got spoiled to those for a while there. Like the title of this post says...random! Have a good weekend!