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Top Ten Things You DON'T Learn about Teaching in College

Cheesy? Yes. . . but still so true.

Updation

• Visiting the day spa was a good experience. I drove about half an hour to Crawford, home of President Bush AND location of The Spa at Canyon Oaks. Each guest at the spa gets her own suite (complete with bathroom and sun room) where the spa treatments come to her. Despite my preceding nervousness, I was able to relax and enjoy the pampering. I am oh-so-spoiled by my husband! :) My verdict: Visit a spa for massages and facials. Visit your local salon for manicures and pedicures. Completely skip the lunch and makeup.
  
• School started back up this past week. Imagine my surprise when I got to school on Tuesday to find that my 22 student class had increased to 27! Thankfully only 25 showed up that first day, which means that only two of my students did not get a desk. Our school, particularly in the upper grades, is overcrowded. The good news is that there is a state law limiting 4th grade class size to 22 students, so hopefully by the end of this upcoming week they will begin transferring students to other schools.


• With school starting back up, I am beginning to question my career choice. I honestly can't say that I wake up in the morning wanting to go to work. I also honestly can't say that I come home in the evenings and relax. For me, it is work, work, work all the time. I know this isn't how I want to live my life, but I'm having trouble thinking of alternative careers. I'd love to go back to school and get my masters in something, but first I have figure out what that "something" is. . . .


• Last but not least, Eric and I recently began sponsoring a little girl through Compassion. Her name is Sada and she is a little five (almost six) year old girl from Tanzania. She is too cute! We are super excited about the chance we have to pray for and develop a relationship with her.

Laredo and a Day Spa

Eric and I just got back from a short trip to Laredo to visit his friend Josh. It was a sports-filled weekend complete with a softball game, baseball game, and of course watching the Olympics. We also went and saw The Dark Knight which I did not like one bit. I'll stick with my feel good romantic comedies.

Tomorrow Eric is treating me to a day of pampering at a day spa. I've never been to one and I am NERVOUS! Hopefully I'll come back more relaxed than I am right now. :)

Summer in Pictures

Eric and I have discovered the best thing about being teachers--SUMMER! In just a couple of months we have vacationed in NYC, moved into a house, celebrated our anniversary with a day trip, worked hard on a week long New Orleans mission trip, attended two Texas Ranger games, spent a weekend hanging out with friends from college, and our next plan is to spend a couple of days with Josh in Laredo. After realizing how long it would take to actually write a post about our summer fun, I decided I'd just put together a post made up of pictures. After all, a picture's worth a thousand words. . . . :)

No, we don't own Rangers jerseys. . . .

Yes, the rally cap worked. The Rangers won with a walk off homerun.

We toured the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham and. . .

visited the site of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Indepenence.

Happy 1st Anniversary to us!

We worked with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans' 9th Ward.

My group did roofing and siding on this house and one other.

We had the awesome opportunity to see a house dedication ceremony.

It was good to catch up with friends,

catch a MercyMe concert (with Josh Hamilton) and,

sit in the stands hoping to catch a fly ball.

That has been our summer so far. We have a week and a half of freedom left, then it's back to the classroom for another grueling 9 months. But do you know what follows those 9 months? That's right, SUMMER!

A Word Cloud

Busy Bees!

Eric and I have been going, going, going since my last "real" update. Instead of writing one massively long post, I think I'll break it into two parts--one about our trip to NYC and one about our new house.

"Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today. I want to be a part of it, New York, New York! . . . " Ok, so really we left nearly two weeks ago, but nonetheless our trip really was a lot of fun. The pace of life there was crazy fast. I learned that I definitely belong here in Texas where people walk, talk, and simply live more slowly. It seemed like all of the New Yorkers were always in such a hurry to get everything done.

Our first full day in NY was packed full of touristy things to do. We began our morning by taking a cruise to the Statue of Liberty.

I was shocked by how incredibly big she is. Take a look at this picture of Eric standing in the grass by her pedestal. Yeah, that's him--the little blue and orange speck.
Unfortunately I ordered our tickets too late, so we weren't able to go inside of the statue, but it was still neat to be able to walk around Liberty Island. We also cruised on over to Ellis Island which now houses a museum dedicated to the history of the island and immigration.

Not long after getting back to the mainland, Eric and I rushed uptown to the Ed Sullivan Theatre for The Late Show with David Letterman which is actually recorded not so late around 4 PM. If you remember, in a previous post I had mentioned that I couldn't figure out who the guests were going to be. Well it turns out that The Late Show didn't even know who the main guests would be until late the previous night when the Celtics won the NBA Championship. The surprise guests? Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Apparently they're a big deal to basketball fans. Jane Krakowski and Martha Wainwright were there as well. It was fun being in the studio audience and watching the precision needed to record a live show. They wouldn't let us take any pictures inside, so this is our only memory:

After getting out of The Late Show recording we headed even further uptown to Yankee Stadium for Eric's favorite part of the trip, a Yankees game. Now if you want my honest opinion, the Ballpark in Arlington puts Yankee Stadium to shame. I'm sure it has a wonderful history, but I can also see why they're building a new stadium. Free hats were given out at the game to the first million fans. . . not really a million, but it seemed like nearly everyone had one. Please notice that Eric refused to wear his. . . and THAT was the end of day one.

The next day Eric and I went to the American Museum of Natural History, the setting of the movie Night at the Museum. The AMNH was great with the exception of the food in the food court and the hordes of school children who were there on field trips. This museum has something for everyone whether your interest is animals, space, dinosaurs, different cultures, etc. The most popular exhibit at the museum? The Easter Island statue. Throughout the hall you could hear little voices saying, "Hey dum-dum, you get me gum-gum! "

That evening Eric and I went to see the Broadway musical Wicked. Wow! I had read the book, which is very dark, but I had also read reviews of the musical that said it was light-hearted and family friendly. I really didn't know what to expect, but it was AMAZING! There were tons of differences between the book and the musical, and I would have to say the musical won me over. Obviously I couldn't take pictures inside the theatre, but take a look at the trailer below:

After Wicked Eric and I walked through Times Square in all its glory, and on the way back to our hotel we ran into Paris Hilton. I am not a fan of hers, but it seemed kind of surreal to be standing just a couple of feet away from the oh-so-famous heiress.

Our last full day in New York was the most laid back. We slept in, explored Times Square in daylight, and ate lunch at the ESPN Zone. Then Eric and I headed to Central Park where we spent a couple of hours wandering around. Towards the end of our time there we rented a row boat and Eric rowed us around in one of the lakes. I really enjoyed it. :)

After our boating excursion we headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we were scheduled to take part in a scavenger hunt. Talk about fun! Eric and I were one of twelve teams participating in the murder mystery hunt that took us to look at art ALL over the Met. In the end we came in third place which I thought was pretty impressive for us.

Well that was our trip in a (slightly large) nutshell. So much for a non-massive post. Just be glad I didn't report on the house! :) I am definitely glad for the opportunity we had to go to New York, but I think I'm good with waiting several years before returning. . . .