Pat Green concert

Some friends and I went to New Braunfels to float the river recently. Mike's brother and sister-in-law live there and are the ones we stay with when we go. They are teachers but this summer they've been earning some extra money by working at this place that has concerts on the weekends. Well, this time when we were there, Pat Green was performing. Here's the first view we have of Pat singing... we're at the back of the crowd and having fun.

Then Jeff took us backstage and this is how we enjoyed the rest of the evening...up close and personal with the band. :) It was really neat. Pat's wife and kids and mom and brother were there too. We were just a few feet away from the band.

here's the hot fiddle player :)

Most of my pictures ended up being blurry because they were moving around so much.

Here's Pat singing to his daughter

his mom was beaming the whole time

his wife taking their kids to the tour bus for the night

me and Melissa

Cory Morrow and Django Walker stopped by to play a song with them

And here's a little video from the concert...

my 31st birthday . . .

(Once again, it says I'm posting this on Tuesday, but that's just when I wrote it.)

A group of friends took me to the Cheesecake Factory in Southlake the night of my 31st birthday. Most of them I have taught with at some point in the past. Some are in my Bunco group too.

Kristi has met some of them so I was glad that she came too

Mike and Wendi

Koby and Gina

Me getting sung to

my peanut butter cheesecake

(my favorite part is the glob of creamy peanut butter stuff on top)

Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. :)

Tim and Krista

Chris and Sarah

Greg and I (also a La Tech graduate, but several years before me)

Melinda and Wendi

Audra and I

Then a few nights later Kristi and Jill took me out to Mi Chula's, a new Mexican restaurant in Southlake. We usually frequent La Hacienda Ranch but we decided to branch out. Jill brought yummy Sprinkles cupcakes for dessert. Thank you, girls! It was fun!!!

Then Kristi and I went to see Mamma Mia. I had already seen it but was willing to go again so maybe I could sing along this time. The theater got crowded and I, unfortunately, had to move over right next to a stranger. I hate sitting that close to someone I don't know in a movie, especially when I have intentions of singing along. :)

Then a few days later some friends from my 1st school in Irving took me out for my birthday dinner. We try to get together about once a month but it doesn't always end up happening. Kelli (in the blue) moved to Oklahoma last summer so we haven't seen her all year. Luckily she was in town for a wedding so she got to join us. Brenda (standing up) teaches Read Right like I do. Karen and Lisa teach in HEB now, but they also live in Euless and are members of my gym so we see each other pretty often. I'm sure our waiter loved how long we stayed at his table visiting after we finished our meal.

Thank you to all of you that sent me a b-day message on facebook, myspace, etc. I really appreciate you helping make the 1st anniversary of my 30th birthday special! (That's what Koby calls it.)

more of july...

(This says I'm posting this on Tuesday but I actually just wrote it as a draft on Tuesday. I can't get the date to change when I post it.)

The day after I got home from the beach, my mom and nieces came to visit me for the week. The girls had never been to an amusement park so my mom wanted them to get to experience Six Flags. What a great Gran and Aunt they have because it was HOT out there!!!

Reanne and I at the 3D Space show ride

Ree and Jaisle at the Cirque Dreams Coobrila show

J and Gran on the hot air balloon ferris wheel ride

I introduced them to iFratelli's pizza

There was lots of time at the pool.

We spent an evening at Incredible Pizza (like Dave & Busters for kids).

We went to see the Space Chimps movie. When I was home for July 4th I went to see the Kung Fu Panda. I've now met my quota of kids movies for a while! I want real live humans in my movies for a while. :)

I took them to play at Pump It Up which has 2 rooms full of huge inflatable games. It makes me think of the Temple Tech Welcome Back party we used to have in the Family Life Center at the old Temple building. :) Good times!

Their last night here we went to Babe’s (Chicken House) for my b-day dinner. Chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes is my most favorite meal. The girls tried to find me a date but this guy was a little too shy for me! ;)

Reanne and I enjoying our meal

Jaisle and my mom after dinner

Then we tried to go up in the Reunion Tower to show them the view of Dallas but it was closed for renovations until next year.

My mom made a chocolate sheet cake with peanut butter icing for my 31st birthday. YUMMY!!!

It was a great week. On the way home my nieces were already talking about how we need to go a waterpark next time. My apartment sure was quiet after they left since I was used to having roommates at the beach for a week and then my family here for a week. But things haven't slowed down much since. The day they left was my birthday so I'll post pics from that next time.

july

Wow, July really flew by! Lots of fun things happened around here. I'll start with my trip to Navarre Beach in Florida. It was a blast! Unfortunately my tan is already fading. :(

On our first day we found this blue raft that someone had left on the beach. So Mike and I headed out to float and there are Wendi and Jaleen on the right floating too. Looks fun, right?

Well it was until the bottom of the raft tore and we fell out. It was hilarious. No wonder someone left it on the beach!

The next day Jaleen and I ventured out in one of those orange kayaks. It reminded me of canoeing at Cho-Yeh. :) The jellyfish and algae showed up our third day there. Needless to say, I didn't get in the ocean after that! Here's a blob of jellyfish that some kids had collected from the water and dumped onto the beach. We watched several people come in from the water after getting stung. Luckily no one in our group did. But we decided we liked the sand and pool just fine.

We drove to Pensacola 2 different nights. Isn't the sky beautiful?!

Here are the tan girls after a couple of days in the sun. We're waiting for our table at Flounders.

Here's a cool sandcastle. I told them I was going to blog and say we made it. But we didn't really. :)

Our condo was on the 10th floor in the 2nd building from the left. What a pretty view! I could sit and listen to the waves forever!

Here are Wendi and I in our opposite outfits ready for a night out close to Destin.

On our way home Mike wanted to take a little detour and have beignets for breakfast at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. Notice the powdered sugar on my pants. :) I swear there must be a pound of sugar on your plate! We decided we wanted to get home in the afternoon instead of late at night so we left Florida around 2:00 a.m. and got to New Orleans around 5:30. There are some interesting folks out at that time of the morning. I think most of them were still up from the day before. Here are Melissa and I after breakfast, so anxious to get back in the car for the rest of the drive.


It was a great trip and was so relaxing! The day after I got back, my mom and 2 nieces came for a visit. I'll blog about that next. :)

off to the beach

I made a spur of the moment trip to Ruston this past weekend. Since I've moved to Texas, I haven't been back for the July 4th program at Temple. I drove in right in time to go. It was very good. I always get emotional when men are in uniforms. ;) jk! I even bumped into Jeff Lewis and Sue Ellen. It's always fun to see people I haven't seen in a while. I can't get over all the changes around town and campus. I think in a previous post I mentioned how Ruston was getting another I-20 exit but I was wrong. It's not an exit, just a bridge by Wal-Mart. I got to enjoy some of my Ruston favorites while I was there--a peach icee, a Johnny's pizza, and some Hot Rod's BBQ (although it's still Cowboys to me). And of course time with my family is always great. My nieces are growing up so fast!

Some friends and I are heading to Navarre Beach in Florida on Saturday to spend a week. I haven't been to the beach in a long time! It reminds me of some Gulf Shore trips back in college. Those were good times! Ashley, I wish you were here to help me pack and make sure I don't forget anything. You were a pro at getting ready for the beach and getting us there! :)

who's got a boat???

This past weekend some friends and I went to a restaurant on Lake Grapevine called Little Pete's. Ohhhh, it made me want to go out on a boat so badly! Anybody have one and need an extra passenger every weekend? :)

the birthday boy Tim and his wife Krista

Mike and Wendi

the girls

Woo hoo, only 2 more days of teaching summer school. Next Tuesday is the TAKS Math test. I hope my kiddos do ok! I know they're going to miss me terribly after that. I'll think of them when I'm sleeping past 6:30! And I'm sure they'll do the same. :)

lazy summer days

Ahhh, I love Fridays! I've been teaching summer school Monday through Thursdays and it's really not too bad. I have a couple of kids that have a bad attitude about being there (who can blame them!), but other than that, it's been ok. One day last week we were working on decimals so I had found 2 really good websites that had a ton of fun decimal games. Right after I started them on the computers, a district coordinator walked in. I could tell she wasn't happy to see them on the computers. But I figured we have 3 1/2 hours to work on one concept then by golly I can use some of that time on the computer. It wasn't like they were goofing off or I was sitting at my desk. But no, that afternoon she told my summer school supervisor that computers weren't allowed. Hello?!?! All year my district brags and brags about how computer savvy we are and ahead of other districts, blah blah blah, but apparently when it comes to getting ready for the TAKS test, computers don't help. I was just a little frustrated, can you tell? Anyway...sorry to go off about that. :)

But what I really enjoy is having Fridays off! :) Unfortunately it's been cloudy or rainy the last couple of days so I haven't been able to go to the pool. But the "cooler" weather is nice. It's been nice having some down time lately. But unfortunately I start shopping when I have free time and that's not good. Last weekend I bought some closet organizer stuff. Now if only I would use them! :) This week I went to the Sam Moon area and bought a purse and jewelry I didn't really need. Who knows what I'll buy today. I've also been enjoying going to hear some live music lately. My friend Sarah went with me to hear Deryl Dodd. He's a great entertainer and such a cutie.

He didn't know I was going to be there so he was excited to see me in the crowd. We're tight like that. jk!

Last weekend I went to see one my favorites, Walt Wilkins.

His wife Tina was with him too.

Some of the gang at my friend Mike's b-day dinner at Red Hot & Blue--

he's the tall one in the middle

thank you, kristi

Saturday night Kristi and I ventured out to Dallas to listen to some live music with our sunburned selves. (We had enjoyed a little too much pool time that afternoon.) I know we'll regret it when we're old and have wrinkly leather skin, but until then...oh well. So we went to a late dinner and then to listen to one of the Texas country singers I like, Josh Grider. Kristi probably won't admit how much she loved the music (yeah right!) but she was a nice friend to go with me. I guess now I owe you one, Kristi.

Here are some of the lyrics to one of his songs "Crazy Like You" that I like...

Well people sing songs all the time

Bout fallin in love and losing their minds

But it ain't love that drives folks mad

It's livin this life day in, day out

Tryin to figure out what it's all about

The who's, the when's, the where's, the why's, and the maybe's

I looked high, I looked low, looked far, looked wide

Before I looked in a mirror and I realized

I spend my time lookin for the wrong thing

A perfect insane would be so mundane

A man like me, I'm subject to change

And I'm lookin for someone whose tracks'll fit my train

I found me a girl and she's five foot four

And I never found a girl that I dote more

We are in tune and out of touch with all the same things

And she's as wild and mean as a deep blue sea

And pure and sweet as honey from a bee

And I love her to death, cuz that girl's crazy just like me

The chorus:

I say everybody's crazy so what you need to do

You need to find somebody crazy like you

Someone you can fuss and fight with

And when you make up then you can kiss all night with

Someone who shares your particular point of view

Oh they're bound to be crazy, just make sure they're crazy like you

So I guess I've been going at it all wrong. What I should've been doing was looking for someone crazy like me. :) Now I get it!

here's Josh singing at a music festival I went to in April