Still celebrating

Last night I went to eat at Texas Love & War with Kristi, Jill & Demian, and Murry in Grapevine. We highly suggest the fried pickles and fried green beans! Then we went to Kristi's house and had birthday cake! It was sooooo yummy! It was the Sacher torte from la Madeleine's.

yep, I still like to use the automatic timer on my camera,
just like in college :)

Kristi cutting the cake

Sacher torte

Jill & Demian re-enacting their wedding reception...

I really appreciate all your birthday wishes, e-cards, gifts, and even a post about me for my birthday! This past week I have really been reminded of what great friends and family I have! Maybe I'll turn 30 every year from now on. :)

30 is the new 20, right? :)

Since 30 is the new 20, I shouldn't feel any older, right? But I do!!! Some friends took me out to dinner last night. We had loads of fun! My friend Greg (in the white shirt below) works for Nokia and got me a new phone that's out in Europe. It's sooo cute! And it's red, my favorite color! It's a slide phone with an MP3 player, radio, camera, etc. I love it!

The group after dinner at Monica's...

Me and Koby

The black and white girls...Wendi, me, and Melinda

So far 30 hasn't been that bad. I already had gray hair, wrinkles, and bad eyesight so what else is new!?!? :)

Monday I went with some friends to a small waterpark called Bedford Splash that's here in HEB. My friend Karen has 2 sons. This one is DeWayne. Isn't he so cute in his floaty suit? The faces he can make with those eyebrows crack me up!

My friend Krista had her baby last Thursday. Her name is Hannah Marie. How sweet!!! I started tearing up when I first held her b/c they've been wanting a baby for a long time! There were some difficulties with the pregnancy so I was glad to finally have her here and healthy.


A couple of weeks ago my friend Margaret from Ruston came to town with her 3 kiddos. I entertained them some while she had some meetings and things to do. It's a rough life swimming with the kids at the 4 Seasons Hotel. :) Will chose for us to go to the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field. It was really neat. They knew the names of all the planes because their dad is a pilot. Me? I knew Jay Jay the Jet Plane in the kiddie area. :) James chose the Bass Pro Shop. And Sarah Margaret wanted to swim!!! I don't get to see them much since I moved to Dallas so it was good to hang out with them. Sarah looks like she's about to cry but that's her "say cheese" face.

And one more picture...my soon-to-be 2nd grade niece Reanne--chewing her food has got to be difficult!

New Braunfels

The river...

Last week, even though most of Texas was flooding, some friends and I headed down to New Braunfels to float the river. We usually float the Comal River but it looked like chocolate milk and was closed. So we drove to the San Marcos River and it was just fine. It was flowing a little faster than usual, but other than that, it was perfect.

On Friday while the guys went on a little road trip, the girls got to visit a previous Bunco member Karen who lives close to Gruene now. Karen was my librarian my 1st year in Irving. She's a hoot! She now lives on the river and loves it. We ate lunch at the Gristmill. Yum!!! Right next door is the oldest country dance hall in Texas called Gruene Hall. George Strait started his career there.

Chris, Sarah, Karen, Wendi, and me

We floated once on Friday and twice on Saturday. On our last trip down the river, it started raining. It had been sunny the whole time. We even got sunburns. The San Marcos River doesn't have any waterfalls or chutes so there was going to be no losing hats or sunglasses this year. And then what do I do?!?! Lose my sunglasses! We had pulled over to the side to hang out in the water for a little while. I had my glasses on my head and leaned back laughing and off they fell into the river. Luckily they were a cheap pair I had bought especially for times like this.

We bought some new tubes this year. Sarah and Jeff live in New Braunfels so they're going to store them for us until next time. Usually we rent the big black tubes that get so hot in the sun. So the new blue and white ones were nice!

Jeff getting the new tubes ready

Don't forget Mike's feet!

hot mamas!

Wendi and I after the rain (see--no sunglasses)

Special Ed...

Ok, so I have a question for you smart people. I'm interested in trying to get a "Read Right" teaching position in my district. I won't bore you with the details of what it is. Anyway...most schools have to use special ed money to help pay for these teachers so you have to be special ed certified. So I signed up to take the special ed test and printed off a study guide that gives you samples of the types of questions you'll have. So here is a math one that I don't get. Remember that I haven't done anything above 3rd grade math in the last 7 years! :)

Using a protractor, a student measures the sum of the interior angles in a triangle and obtains 176 degress. What is the percent error of this measurement?
A. 0.04%
B. 2.22%
C. 2.27%
D. 4.00%

It told me the correct answer, but I don't have a clue how to find it. Can anyone tell me? It doesn't really matter because it was just a sample, and I already took the real test today, but I was just curious.

4th of July

Here are 2 of my favorite little friends on our way to see fireworks for the 4th. Connor loves to see the pictures and my camera is kinda slow so he usually moves before I have the shot. But I finally got him to stay still on one.

Riley and Connor

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!!!