Memorial Day weekend

I had a good time at home last weekend. Friday night my brother and 2 nieces came over and we grilled. I didn’t get to make those stuffed peppers for Bunco a couple of weeks ago so we tried them out Friday night instead. They were yummy!

It’s funny how some peppers were hotter than others. The hot ones would always catch you off guard, for some reason. My dad made the Pioneer Woman’s chocolate sheet cake.

It was very similar to my mom’s recipe. We have some picky eaters that don’t like walnuts, so some of the icing has nuts and some doesn’t. When I was growing up I had to learn to like them or I wouldn’t get dessert. But now for the grandchildren, we do whatever they want!

Jaisle and Ree playing with makeup

I told them when I was their age and my brother would see me playing in makeup, he would say, “I didn’t know we were playing clowns!” It used to make me so mad. I thought I was doing such a good job and then he would make fun of me.

J doing what she does best!

Chad and his girls

Saturday night I met Tina and Cynthia, a couple of friends from high school, at Ponchatoula's for supper. We ran into Andrew and Ashley James there. I hadn't seen them in years! It's funny how when I'm in Ruston, I feel like I'm supposed to know almost everyone I see, but it's getting less and less like that. But sometimes I like knowing that I can run to Wal-Mart here and most likely not bump into anyone I know. Depends on how bad I look and if I'm in a hurry. For those of you that haven't been back to Ruston in a while, you would be amazed at all the changes, especially on Tech's campus. Be careful on the new one way street in front of Wal-Mart. :) And there's a new exit off I-20. They are moving on up...now there are FOUR exits.

On another note, please pray for my Bunco friend Melinda. She was put into ICU last weekend with viral spinal meningitis. She is out of ICU and hopes to go home today. Doctor's orders are to rest and she is going to have a hard time doing that. Thanks for your prayers for her!

one last pic of Aunt Mandy and her girls

graduation and puppies

It's 95 degrees outside right now at 6:00 in the evening!!! I hope that doesn't mean we're going to have a miserably hot summer! Ugh!

Last week I went to see my friend Karen get her masters degree at DBU. We taught across the hall from each other in 2nd grade for 6 years. Her family was not fond of the "behave yourselves" rules about no cheering for the graduates until the end. It was quite funny. All you could do was quietly stand and show your support as they walked across the stage. Her dad was frustrated at this rule. I sat next to her son who is in the 4th grade. He had quite a short attention span so we entertained each other. After it was all over, I thought I was going to have to call for help to find my car. A good sense of direction is something I was definitely not born with! But luckily I remembered my way back. :)

Congrats, Karen!!! You're going to make a great principal!

This past weekend I went with a friend to pick up his new puppy. Isn't she adorable?!?! It makes me want one sooooo badly. But I don't think I'm quite ready for the responsibility and expense of having a dog. I'd have to leave it in its crate a lot and I would feel bad about that. And I'd also hate having to take it out if I got home late at night. Plus it wouldn't have a yard to play in. See? I'm just not ready. But the summertime sure would be a good time to get a puppy because I'd have time to train it. No, I better not! :)

She likes to sleep as much as I do!

I think I'm going to go home for Memorial Day weekend. We're off on Friday because it's a bad weather day we never had to use. So I think I'll take advantage of my 4 day weekend to go see my nieces. I bought Reanne some books at the Book Fair last week. I guess now I need to find something for Jaisle.

Mother's Day and The Pioneer Woman

My mom came to visit me for Mother's Day last weekend. A little backwards, I know. But she hadn't been to Dallas in a while so we decided it would be a good weekend for her to come here. She's a good sport like that. :) If you've never been to the Dallas Farmers Market, I would highly recommend it! We went there on Saturday morning and bought some vegetables. The flowers were gorgeous too but with living in an apartment, I have no place for them. My one pot of petunias is all I have room for.


We also went to see Made of Honor. It was such a cute movie! Michelle Monaghan's red highlights made me want some. We did some shopping after church on Sunday. I can always trust my mom's judgment when I try on clothes! Then I took her down to the Ft. Worth Stockyards for dinner. We had fun. Thanks for coming to visit, Mom!


The Pioneer Woman

A few months ago I came across http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/. It is my new favorite website. It's this lady that lives on a ranch in Oklahoma and she blogs alomost everyday. My favorite part is her recipes she puts on there. She puts a picture of EVERY step to the recipe as she's making it. It's quite helpful for people like me!

Every now and then she has giveaways of really cool stuff. Today it's a kitchen aid mixer. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ All you have to do is leave a comment answering the question she asks. Then she uses a generator that picks a comment randomly and that's the winner. She loves photography, obviously from her great photos, so she's given away a camera and a printer before too. So I was looking at her blog this morning and she already has over 5,000 comments after posting just this morning!

She writes all about her life on a ranch, how she met her husband after moving back from California, cooking, etc. She hass a great sense of humor! She's even thinking about hosting a ranch version of the Bachelor to help find a girlfriend for her husband's cousin. (http://thepioneerwoman.com/2008/05/heels_to_wheels_part_deux.html)


I'm going to make her stuffed jalapeno recipe (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/bacon-wrapped_j/) for Bunco Friday night. I've made them on a campfire and a grill before but never in the oven. Yummy! Just reading her cooking site makes me hungry! Next I want to try her chocolate sheet cake but I'm afraid I'll eat too much of it.



Anyway...just thought I'd share this website with you in case you needed some good recipes with easy to follow directions and pictures. :) Enjoy!

my sweet teeth

Yesterday after work I headed to Kroger's to buy stuff to make dinner last night. The frozen dinner I had eaten for lunch was long gone and I was hungry. I know better than to go grocery shopping when I'm hungry, but I didn't really have a choice. So what did I buy while shopping...Hostess Donettes!!! Thanks to Angie's recent post, I've been craving them for several days now. Thanks, Angie! :)

Almost everything else in my cart was pretty healthy except for these yummy donuts. As soon as I got home I ate a few while I cooked dinner. Then once we sat down to eat, I wasn't as hungry. Oops! :) On my way to work this morning, I remembered the donuts and was sad that I had forgotten to get some for breakfast. I guess I know what my snack will be this afternoon. :)

When I googled for a picture of hostess donettes, this cake came up. Now that's my kind of dessert right there! :)

Spring has sprung

I sure did enjoy my Spring Break! Sad thing is that it just makes me more ready for summer break. Pitiful, I know! :) Zane was in town for several days. We went to dinner and a concert in the Fort Worth Stockyards one night. Sunday afternoon we (ok, mostly he) planted a pot of red and white petunias at my front door. If only I could keep my upstairs neighbors from dropping their cigarette butts down onto my new Spring mat and into my flower pot! Does anyone have some extra money they'd like to invest? I have a suggestion. :) Buy a house in Euless and let me rent it from you. Pleeeease! :) I'm sooooo tired of my noisy neighbors and they don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. :(

Last night my friend Karen and her family were going to the High School Musical on Ice show. Honestly, I've never even seen that movie all the way through. I've only seen some of Part 2 with my nieces. Karen's mom was sick and couldn't go, so she asked me to use their extra ticket. I was really wishing my nieces could be there. They would have loved it! I kind of compare it to us watching Grease and Grease 2 when we were young. But High School Musical is squeaky clean, but just as cheesy. :)

My 2 week observation window opens tomorrow where my principal will come to watch me teach. I don't know why but I always get nervous for that! She's going to watch me do Read Right and a special ed inclusion group. I can't wait to get it over with. Instead of working on my plans right now, I'm blogging instead. :) I guess I better get busy. Have a great week!

Brandon Rhyder

I'm all into Texas music lately, thanks to Zane, so tonight I went to Ft. Worth to hear Brandon Rhyder. I've learned a lot of his songs over the last few months and thought, what the heck, it's Spring Break, so I can stay out late on a Sunday night for once. :) Since Zane's in Austin right now, I asked my friend Sarah to go with me. She had never heard any of Brandon's songs but she became a fan quickly. It was just him playing his guitar without a band so you can really focus more on the words and get a sense of his personality. I made a little video clip of one of my favorite songs "Freeze Frame Time." How cool to write a song and have 150 people sit there and sing it with you. That's got to be a neat feeling. If only I could sing and write songs! :) I like the sign behind him. It says Sit Down, Shut Up, and Listen.

Don't forget to wear green for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!

Wanted...

Tonight was Open House at my school. It was nice not having to get a classroom ready for parents. :) The program I teach is called Read Right. Every time they read outloud to me, they have to decide if it was "excellent" or not. And on Fridays we read a story then discuss and prove our answers and it's called "critical thinking." So I made this bulletin board about rounding up excellent readers and critical thinkers. I googled "wanted posters" and found a website that you could make them on. The posters say "Wanted for excellent reading" and the reward price. Pretty cute, huh? :) I found the plastic hats at Gardenridge last night. And you can't really tell, but the bandana is a real one stapled up there. My friend Sarah found the bandana border for me. Anyway...that's what I did this afternoon. Only 1 more day of school till Spring Break. WOO HOO!!!!!!!!

lots and lots of birthdays

Even though I haven't seen her yet, Kristi celebrated a birthday this past week. We were going to go to dinner Thursday night, but with the snow we decided to wait till this week.

My little buddy DeWayne turned 3 last week. He had a party at Pump It Up. A couple of weeks ago we worked on holding up 3 fingers. It took him a while, but finally he can do it.

And my friend Audra has a birthday tomorrow. We went to PF Chang's. They gave her a little tiramisu. It was so cute. She brought us Sprinkles cupcakes. It was my first time to try them...yum!

Friday night Sarah and I went to see Wade Bowen in Fort Worth. We had a lot of fun!

Only 1 more week till Spring Break...woo hoo!!! :)

This past weekend several of us got to “shower” Meg with baby gifts. There was lots of going on! :) Look at these adorable shoes Ashley P. gave her…

I didn’t end up with many pictures but Jessica and Jill had their cameras too. I’m sure their blogs will have some pics ssoon too. :)

My friend Gina turned 40 this weekend. We had a birthday dinner for her at Palomino’s in the Cresent Hotel in Dallas. I had never been but it was very nice. Her cake looked like it was straight from Ace of Cakes on the Food Network. There were even cookies shaped like the #40 at each place setting. Happy Birthday, Gina!!!

lights, CAMERA, action!!!

For about 5 months my camera has been broken. If you know me very well, you know that I've been lost without it. But finally...I have a new one!!! I found one on sale the other day that had all the features I was looking for. I've played with it a little but haven't had time to do much more yet. The other night I went to dinner with Karen, a 2nd grade team member of mine from my 1st school, and her son. Isn't he adorable?!?! He says some of the funniest things! He was quite entertaining at dinner. He's got me, along with everybody else in his life, wrapped around his little finger. But who could resist a smile like that? I sure can't!

addicted...

So, I'll admit...I'm addicted to my DVR. It can happen so fast! There really aren't that many shows I keep up with anymore but the few that I like, I record. Well, last weekend I was trying to catch up on some shows I'd recorded back before Christmas when things were so busy. I had saved several weeks worth of shows and wanted to watch some. I could see the list of shows but when I would push play, a black screen would pop up and nothing would happen. At first I thought I had messed something up so I pushed every button possible trying to get it to work. My DVR kept recording stuff but wouldn't let me watch it. Finally on Tuesday night I had had enough so I called Time Warner. She said they would have to send a technician out. Luckily they're open on Saturdays so he could come between 2:00-5:00. He just came and guess what...he TOOK my DVR, said it was frozen, that happens sometimes, and gave me a new one. Do you know what that means?!?!? He took all of my recorded shows with him!!! And now it just dawned on me that I have to start from scratch with all my settings. I think I'm gonna cry...

The other day Kristi suggested that I call Time Warner and see if they would credit my account. So I just called and she said she could credit me for the day I called (Wed.) until today. The DVR only costs $5 a month so the grand total is 66 cents! To me, it's more like the mastercard commercial:

my old DVR with all the shows on it....priceless!!!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

but the fire is so delightful!
I can count on 1 hand my Christmas decorations this year. That's not usually like me! I've had to make myself not walk down the Christmas aisles at stores because I have an addiction with buying more stuff every year. I got out all the boxes from my storage room after Thanksgiving, but then decided that I didn't want to have to put it all away in a few weeks. Pretty pitiful, huh? But this little Santa made the cut. And I hung a lighted wreath on my door...that way all the neighbors can just assume that the inside of my apartment is decorated as well. I'm using a poinsettia that was given to me as my "tree."

A couple of weeks ago Zane and I went to the Gaylord Texan Hotel in Grapevine to the ICE sculpture exhibit. It's 2 million pounds of ice hand-carved into 3 slides, the nativity, toys, gingerbread people, etc. They keep it at a chilly 9 degrees so they give you a lovely parka to wear. Cute, huh?


I used to teach a penguin story to my 2nd graders so now I love penguins!


the nativity...
and the disposable camera wasn't so great, but this is me coming down the slide...

Merry Christmas!!!

Kumbaya

Well, I survived camping and it was lots of fun. There were 10 adults, 3 kids, 3 dogs, way too much food, and tons of laughs! We didn't completely "rough it" because we slept on air mattresses, but I was ok with that! The bad part of camping is that it takes a lot of effort getting everything ready to go and then a lot of time setting up just to "rough it." That part was funny to me. One friend Krista said her husband Tim spent so much money on camping supplies that they could've gone to a 5-star hotel for that price. But we reminded her it wouldn't have been as much fun. Here are some pics from the weekend...Once again, I'm at the mercy of other people and their cameras so I think there are some other good pics out there, but they haven't been sent to me yet. :)the girls

me, Wendi, and Sarah

my buddy Jeff and I waiting on breakfast

the chefs--Tim, Zane, and Melissa cooking breakfast

Jaleen, Emma, Wendi, and Connor watching breakfast cook

where Krista spent most of her time...in her chair watching the fire

me and Sarah with no make-up!

Then Zane and I figured as long as we were outside, we might as well go hunting for some dinosaurs...
the t-rex and the brontosaurus

Alright already :)

Apparently Shandra and Carrie are bored with my old post so I guess it's time to update. :) If only I had something to blog about...

Only 2 more days of school till Thanksgiving break! Woo hoo!!! Friday night I'm hosting my Bunco group at my apartment. I think all I have left to do is vacuum the living room. It should be fun times. It might be a little different than Todd thinks, but we still know how to have a good time. :)

On Saturday a group of 12 friends and I are going camping. I've never been camping in a tent so it should be quite interesting. I'm not sure if I can handle "roughing it" or not. I do get to take an air mattress though, so that's good. If nothing else, I'll get to make a s'more while sitting by the campfire.

Unfortunately my camera is broken so I have no pictures lately, and you know how much I love taking pictures! It's killing me! Sometimes I can talk friends into taking their camera but then I have to bug them about sending me the pics and all that. I do have a few pics from a trip I took last weekend. I went with my friends Mike, Wendi, and Tim down to New Braunfels where we float the river in the summer. We stayed with Mike's brother Jeff and his wife Sarah and went to a festival Saturday night. It was lots of fun. I wasn't able to go last year because that's when I was having to work in my classroom every weekend. But this year I don't usually have much weekend homework so I was able to go. Anyway, we went shopping at the big outlet mall down there too. It's hard for me to look at sweaters and such when it's 85 degrees outside!

Here's the group from Dallas that drove down there...Wendi, Mike, me, and Tim
Mike, Wendi, Jeff, and Sarah

Jeff is a junior high football coach. There is a lady at his school that has cancer and lost her hair. So Jeff and some others shaved their heads to support her. I thought that was very sweet of them! He loved it! Don't they look just a little bit alike? :)

So that's about all that I've been up to lately. I'll try to get someone to bring their camera on our camping trip this weekend and post some pics of that. I'm excited to finally get to see my family next week for Thanksgiving. Has anyone started their Christmas shopping yet? I haven't even thought about it yet!

Blue Man Group

This goes with the post below...soemtimes technology is smarter than me! :)

What a busy week!!!

I love living in a place where so many fun things are constantly going on! Unfortunately I don't have real pictures for most of these things because #1 my camera is dead and #2 these places wouldn't let me use it anyway.

Last weekend my friend Koby invited me to the Meyerson to hear the Dallas Symphony. There were honoring the group ABBA. We didn't really know what to expect. After the intermission, a group from Sweden came out dressed up like ABBA and put on a concert with the symphony backing them up. It was great. We even got to stand up and sing along. All of you that liked Mamma Mia would have been singing with me. :) being silly on the way home
Audra

Last Wednesday night I went to see The Lion King at Fair Park. Oh my gosh, it was sooooo good! If you get the chance to go, you should!!! I've always liked that movie and the music in it. But you would not believe the costumes! It was amazing! We had great seats on the floor in the middle section, 13 rows back. I've never sat down there!

Then last night I went to see The Blue Man Group at the American Airlines Center. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was a good show. I've never been to Vegas, but if I went, this is one of the shows I would want to see there. So I was glad to hear they were coming to Dallas. Here's a video someone put on youtube from the show the night before.