My Life Lately

Where have I been? I have been very neglectful of my writing. I've been lazy with my other fictional blog about my sisters' and my dogs. I've been crazy busy and engrossed in my reading. I make it a goal to at least read one book a week during the school year. Sometimes I make it, and sometimes I exceed it. But, fall TV makes it difficult to find time to read.

What I'm Watching: if it's on the CW, I'm probably watching it. The Originals, The Vampire Diaries, Reign, Dancing with the Stars, The Voice, Nashville, The Big Bang Theory, Bad Judge, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I'm also consumed with football, both college and NFL. My Texas Tech Red Raiders aren't having a good season, but my Dallas Cowboys seem to being doing better this year. I also like to root for Baylor and TCU in college football when my Red Raiders aren't their opponents.

October was a pretty eventful month for us. We started it off by saying goodbye to an old friend of mine...Old Blue the Cavalier. The first car that I bought way back in my senior year of high school (ten years ago) finally went to "car heaven." It was time to bid it farewell with it's bullet hole, peeling paint, cracked dash and windshield, broken radio knobs, missing hub caps, and the steering wheel with chunks missing on it. It had over 130,000 miles on it and served me well, The past 2 years Mr. B has been driving it to and from work since it was no longer able to be a commuter car. While we were sad to see it go, we were thrilled to welcome a "new" used 2012 grey Honda Civic to our family. It is the fraternal twin to our other car.

On October 21, we celebrated Mr. B's 29th birthday. My honey is mighty fine for 29. We are going to have a great final year of our 20s. I can just feel it! The car was his main present, but I bought him a couple of T-shirts: a new Tech shirt and a Green Bay Packers shirt (still trying to figure that one out). His mom cooked him chili, his favorite. We had birthday cupcakes after our delicious chili. Mr. B loves spending time with his family. 

That Friday, we had a date night doing our favorite new thing: painting! We went to Torchy's Tacos and ate a delicious taco and queso before heading to our favorite place to paint: Art in the Vine. We placed our painting in our bathroom since it went with our color scheme. Mr. B actually won a free class that night. We are already looking for a new painting to try.

Then there was Halloween. I chose to wear a costume to Mr. B's parents' house to hand out candy. I had so much fun seeing all the cute and not so cute costumes. We've developed a Halloween tradition of going to his parents' house and having frito pie and brownies. Highlight of the evening: seeing a little Batman get so excited to receive candy for Batgirl!

November is here and is already looking to be just as full and busy as October. Last weekend, we went to our friend's house to watch the Tech game (and loss). This weekend, we had dinner with friends on Friday night and went to the Eli Young Band House Party as Rangers Ballpark. (I refuse to call it Globe Life Park) After several years of finally having 6 people in our group of BFFs, we finally managed to get not one, but two group pics. Thanks to modern cell phone technology, we were able to set a timer on a cell phone and take a group pic.

Of course, one can't leave out the group "selfie" or "groupie"

Now these girls have been my BFFs since before the term BFF was an actual term. We are going on being friends for over 10 years. It all started our freshman year of high school and is still going strong. I found a pic of us at one of our first Pat Green concerts in high school and put it with our pic last night. Kinda cool to see how 10 years difference makes.

The night was fun. I was a little disappointed because throughout the night technical difficulties plagued a lot of the performances. We didn't get to finish the Eli Young Band's set because they had severe and long-lasting difficulties and the hour was late (and we can't party as late as in our early 20s). Hopefully they come back next year so I can enjoy them. Here are some pics from last night:

Hopefully I won't be so long between posts! Until next time....

What's been happening.....

I've been neglectful since that first week of school. I've just been all kinds of crazy and busy, but I thrive in that environment. The school year has started off pretty good. There have been a couple of bumps in the road this past week, but I think everything will work out OK. I have 20 wonderful children in my class. I absolutely love, love, love my class this year. They are entertaining and so sweet. I have some cute kiddos this year. I am also teaching the first and second grade Bible class at my church right now. I really am enjoying the group I have, my co-teacher, and just the class overall. I just love being a teacher!

Shout out to my sister, Amanda, who has her own blog up and running: absolutelyamandatory.blogspot.com
She's about to finish up her master's degree in December and become a teacher, too! I couldn't be more proud of what she has accomplished. She's been in school for a while trying to find her path. We have a joke about how I took the "highway" route through college while she took the "scenic route." The only thing that matters is that we both finished and are pursuing a life-changing career.

It's finally Fall! This is my favorite time of year. I absolutely love September-December!!! There's so much going on this time of year. I love football. I watch college and pro (Wreck Em' Tech! Go Cowboys!). I love all the holidays this time of year. The food is fabulous. The weather is awesomesauce. I could go on and on. Mr. Hubby's birthday is coming up in October, and my birthday is in December. I'm going to have to think about birthday celebrations for him.....what to do? what to do? It's the last year of our 20's for the both of us.

Things I've got planned:

• Eli Young Band house party in November with "The Gang"
• Mr. Hubby's birthday surprise (still have no clue what that's going to be)
• Handing out Halloween candy with the in-laws while eating frito pie and brownies (kinda starting to become a yearly tradition)
• Another couple's painting class with Mr. Hubby (this time we are painting a guitar!)
• Tomorrow I'm going to try my hand at making a mesh wreath-I've got peacock feathers, teal, brown, blue colors, and divalicious decor (pictures will be coming soon)

I've been meaning to share a recipe that has become a favorite at work and at home. I call them: "Life Changing Potatoes"

• boil 4-6 red potatoes until soft
• mash potatoes with "masher" in large mixing bowl
• mix in the following ingredients:
• 1 stick butter
• 8oz sour cream
• 1 block cream cheese
• handful shredded cheese
• 1 pkg bacon bits
• 4-5 green onions, chopped
• seasonings of choice (I use Mrs. Dash's garlic and herb and onion and herb)
• 1 can of french fried onions (you can mix these into the potatoes or sprinkle them on top...I've done both and they both taste great!)
• you can eat it as is after you've mixed things together, or you can bake it in the oven @350 for 20 minutes-if you bake it, don't put the french fried onions on top until the last 10 minutes

Finally, my sisters and I will be writing a story based on our dogs. We all have a passion for writing, so we are going to try our hands at writing for entertainment purposes. I will be posting these stories to a new blog. These will follow a letter format in which our dogs will be pen pals with one another sharing their adventures and thoughts about their life. I hope to have the first installment up by tomorrow. Be sure to check it out! 

Chipoodle Adventures: Being a Dog is Ruff

Back to School Groove

Well, I survived the first week back to school! I even managed to squeeze some fun in this week, too. I feel I can rightly say I have earned this first 3-day weekend of the school year. I came home exhausted everyday. On the first day back, I left school at 5 and drove my 45 minute commute. When I got home, I cooked a nice, homemade dinner for me and Mr. Hubby. My feet were killing me. I told Mr. Hubby: "I don't know how working moms do this!!!" I just can't imagine going through this first week of school and then coming home to children. My hat is off to those hard working moms that do it everyday. The bright spot in my day was getting to Face Time our nephew, Beckham. It was his first day of kindergarten. Aunt Ashley just had to hear all about it. For those that don't know, I'm absolutely crazy about this little man! I feel so lucky that I've got to be a part of his life from the time he was just a tiny baby:)

Once or twice a week I help out a friend and watch his two little darlings until he can get home from work. I started this on Tuesday. Again, I got a glimpse into what life will be like as a working mom one day. 

I had 16 kids all week. I think I'm really going to enjoy my class this year. I've got some real sweethearts. I've already got some that I can tell are going to be good helpers and good friends to others. I started assessing them right away. The beginning of the year is full of assessments and learning routines. I feel we got off to a good start. That's not to say that I don't have some kids that are going to keep me busy, because I can already pick out 2 or 3 that will keep me on my toes. I was impressed by how many showed up with all their supplies. I gave them several opportunities to write this week. I was pleasantly surprised at their skill level for this time of year. I think I may have a group of writers this year. We did a pizza glyph where the kids could tell about their favorite kind of pizza. They got to make their "pizzas" according to how they answered their pizza surveys. They turned out real cute. I hung them outside our room.

It had a writing activity to go with it. They had to write what they would put on their pizza if it was as big as the sun and who they would share it with.

Please take note of this young man's description of his pizza and who he would share it with:

It says: "On my pizza I will put cheese, peopporoni, pineapple. I will not share." When I showed his mom this at Meet the Teacher Thursday night, she thought it sounded about right. She said he sure does love his pizza. I love that I already get to see some of their personalities this early on.

Every year I read my favorite book: Chika Chika Boom Boom. We talk about the vowels and see how many we have in our names. They get to make the alphabet tree from the story. There is a poem we have that talks about how the vowels are the glue that holds our words together. Then they write their name and circle all the vowels and write how many are in their name. Here is a picture of their trees:

I felt like we had a good first week. I'm excited to see what this year will bring for us. This coming week I am attempting to dive into my normal routine and get things started. I know it'll be a work in progress for a while. This year I have my formal observation by the principal. I know he starts those pretty early on, so I want us ready to show what we know when he comes!

This week wasn't all about work. I've managed to have some fun, too. We made Friday all about running our errands since we were going to have a fun day on Saturday. It was a rare Saturday off for Mr. Hubby, so we made the most of it. I went to one of my favorite clothing stores because they were having BOGO throughout the whole store, so I bought 2 pairs of pants. After a late breakfast, we got to make an unexpected visit to see my coworker's 7 week old baby. Her niece and nephew were there, too. Apparently, Mr. Hubby and I seem to attract young children....

Mr. Hubby and I went to our second ever couple's painting class to paint "lovebirds." We love this place we found in Grapevine called "Art in the Vine." I really enjoy these privately owned studios better than the franchise "Painting with a Twist." They allow for more creativity and are helpful. Here are the pieces Mr. Hubby and I did:

We followed the steps to create our background and traced a stencil for the birds, but the bird tails and all the other designs were completely free lance on our part. We didn't even attempt to make it look like the example. It was so much fun to get creative and see where we went with it. We can't wait to hang these in our bedroom!

Next, we went to Torchy's Tacos for the first time. I've heard so much about it, so I finally tried it since it was on our way home from painting. We shared the queso (you can see Mr. Hubby's hand dipping in the bowl). Mr. Hubby got the "Democrat" taco, and I got the "Trailer Park" taco and made it "trashy." The names of their foods are great! Let me tell you, it was definitely as good as everyone says. We will definitely be going back.

We ended up the evening watching college football. My Alma Mater, Texas Tech, beat Central Arkansas in a close game of 42-35. I'm so pumped college football is back! Mr. Hubby has the day off tomorrow, too! I can't wait to spend another whole day with him. I just love this man that I've been blessed to have in my life!

Back to School!

Well friends, it's that time of year again....back to school time. I went back to work this last week, and the kids come tomorrow! It's really hard going back to work after a 10 week break. Now, that's not to say that I didn't do any "work related" things while I was on said 10 week break, but it's just different. Gone are the nights staying up till midnight or later. Gone are the mornings of sleeping in till 9 or later. Gone are my reading marathons where my bottom becomes infused into our recliner. Gone are running errands in the middle of the week. Gone are the Hurricane Harbor adventures. Gone are the empty laundry baskets (since I wore the same thing most of the week...). I can't even stay up late enough to watch The Tonight Show:( I must record it and watch it the next day. Mr. Hubby doesn't particularly like my back to school schedule either. That means that more than likely he will get up with me earlier than he would normally if I was home. He also can't stay up as late as he normally would because I insist upon us going to bed together every night. I just think that it is important for married couples to go to bed together. I always go up to school a couple of weeks before I go back to work and get my room done. I like to enjoy my last week of summer vacation with no work related items to do. When I do return to work, it's all professional development. I like to use my 2 work days to add any finishing touches to my room and my plans. Here is a look at my room before I did any tweaks these past couple of days. Sorry, no updated pics were taken. You'll just have to use your imagination!

Friday night we had our "sneak a peek" where the kids could come and see their teacher and their room. Out of 19 kids on my list, only 8 showed up. I guess I'll have to wait in anticipation until tomorrow to see who else I have coming. The few that did show up seemed sweet. I have a love/hate relationship with the first of the year. I'm excited/nervous about what students I'll have. I'm sad that SOME of my previous students are leaving me, yet happy they moved on to second grade. I don't like starting over and having to teach the routines. Being a person who loves routine, I just function much better after the first few weeks when the kids finally have the routines down. I feel like a more effective teacher when the routines are learned and performed accordingly.

There are a few changes I'm going to TRY to make. And by try, I mean try to be more intentional about doing. Usually, I wake up at 6:30 and am out the door by 7:00. This year my goal is to be up at 6:00 and out the door by 7:00. I want to allow myself some time to have a cup of coffee, some yogurt, make my lunch, and do some reading. At the first of the  month I started reading daily devotionals from this free book I got. While some days they are good, other days just don't make much sense to me. They are also very short. I felt I needed more "meat" to my daily Bible reading. Our church puts out a weekly bulletin with daily Bible readings for Monday-Friday. They've been there all year long. I should have been putting it to use much sooner. Better late than never I suppose. I've added those readings to my daily devotionals. I've really enjoyed starting my day off with The Word. When you start your day with God's Word, you start off with something positive. It's a great building block for your day. This morning's sermon was titled "God is Calling." One of the points made was God is calling us to prioritize our lives correctly. This point is exactly what I've been trying to accomplish most recently. Instead of opening up email and Facebook as soon as I wake up, I need to be opening up the Bible and growing and prioritizing my life. So far, it's been surprisingly easy. When I catch myself opening that Facebook or email app first thing, I stop and remind myself that there is something else more important that I need to start my day. 

I've had a great and busy summer full of experiences and events that have shaped me for the better. Some things have caused me to re-evaluate how I am acting towards others and reflect on the person I am. I'd like to think that I'm a self-reflective person. Realizing my errors in behavior and way of thinking about certain aspects of how my life is going can be a daunting task; however, if one wants to grow, one must be willing to examine one's self and be willing to accept their faults and figure out a way to change for the better. So, as I enter this new school year, I enter with a sense of optimism and excitement for the lives that I hope to shape for the better. I'm shaping the future, people! For some of you reading this, that may be a comfort. For others, I understand your worries and concerns. LOL!

Stay tuned. Next week I hope to have many adventures to share with you!

Dominican Getaway Part 3: The Final Installment

So here we are, it's now Friday and we have another excursion planned for that afternoon. We get to sleep in before having a nice continental breakfast. We take in a little pool and relaxation time before grabbing a quick lunch. Our ride arrived around 2:00 to take us on our Pirate boat snorkeling adventure! When we arrive, we board a small boat that takes us to this big pirate party boat. Before boarding the "ship", our guides put on a little pirate sword fight for entertainment. We then board our ship to take us on our adventure.

The whole ride on the ship was filled with entertainment and people from all over the world. Believe it or not, there weren't that many Americans aboard that ship. We had people from Chile, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and everywhere in between. Our MC had to speak in Spanish, English, and even Chinese! We had an awesome MC and crew. It was nonstop music and dancing on the party boat. They try to get everyone involved and teach you how to do all the Latin dances. They played a few American tunes, too. The best part of this adventure was stopping in the middle of the ocean for snorkeling! They provided the equipment and life vests and we just jumped in! This was my first time to snorkel, and it took me a while to muster up the courage to just jump in open water (I have a fear of open water). Alas, I "took the plunge" and jumped in. It took me a while to master the snorkel. For some reason I kept trying to hold my breath when I went under.When I relaxed and realized I just needed to breathe normally, I really enjoyed the experience. I saw starfish, reefs, and schools of fish. Here's a selfie of Mr. Hubby and I after we came up from our snorkeling adventure:

I really wish we had gotten some pics of us actually snorkeling, but we didn't have a way to do that:(

There was more dancing and fun times on the boat. 

Our next stop was a shallow pool in the middle of the water where we could all get out and swim. The water came up to our waists for the most part. Swimming in a real life wave pool! The best part was they kept the music playing with the crew standing on ledges still showing us dance moves! It was when the started playing the "Macarena" that the pinnacle of coolness had been reached on the Caribbean! I mean, how cool is it to do a throwback 90's classic in the middle of the ocean! After our swim, we got back to our boat and had a snack of nachos and fresh fruit. We rode back to our hotel for a shower and some downtime before we went back to the Colonial restaurant since we missed our reservations at the Italian restaurant. We called it an early night since the next day was Saturday and we had a full day ahead of us.

The next day we were headed to Saona Island, a small island off the coast of the Dominican Republic. We had an early start. At 7:40am we were headed to pick up other people who would accompany us on our journey. We drove to the island of Bayahibe. That is where we would take our small boat to our catamaran to begin our journey to the small island.

We had someone taking video of us throughout our whole journey. Each group had its own tour guide. Ours just happened to have the name Chanel (as in CoCo Chanel)! This was another party boat with people all over the world and lots of music and Latin dancing. It was a little more subdued than our pirate journey, but still lots of fun. Here are some pics of our view from the catamaran:

The water was absolutely stunning! We had a nice leisure ride to a small beach about 5 minutes from Saona Island.

I know those bandannas look legit, but we didn't feel the need to pay $5 a piece for them. Although, Mr. Hubby has a certain hottness to him with that thing on;)

When we arrived at the beach, we had time to swim and lounge on the beach for a few minutes before lunch was served. This was an all-inclusive trip (and another one of our free ones!). Mr. Hubby and I went for a swim before lounging on the beach before a lunch of chicken, sausage, fish, rice, potato salad, and fresh fruit. We searched for a while for an empty picnic table. We found one at the same time another couple found one and decided to share. It was nice getting to visit with another couple. This couple was older than us and from France. When we sat, the asked if we spoke French, but we had to simply say "English." They said they could do English. They had a son who lived in London and had to learn English. We had a nice lunch and conversation with the couple. We spent 2 hours on this particular beach before boarding a speedboat to a shallow pool where there was an abundance of starfish. We didn't get the best picture of one:

We got to see one and touch one up close. I even got out again into the open water for some ocean time!

Next, we took a short speedboat ride to the Island of Saona:

On this small island, 200 people live there with no water and electricity and small shops. They have to get water all the way from the island of Bayahibe, which is a 25 minute speedboat ride away. We relaxed on the beach for 45 minutes while other swam and shopped.

Those palm trees were our view while we were lazing on the beach. After our lounge time was over, we took the 25 minute speedboat ride back to Bayahibe. A long speedboat ride in the middle of the ocean bouncing up and down on the waves was very exhilarating! We had a long ride back to the hotel. We got our shower and had some time to relax before our 8:30 dinner reservation at the steakhouse. Dinner was great! We went back to our room to do some packing and preparing for our departure the next day. We got to sleep in a little before having a nice breakfast. We departed our hotel at 9:50 to pick up other people who were headed to the airport. We got to the airport and went through ticketing, bag checking (don't even get me started on American's bag policies and the way I was treated at that airport!), customs, and security. We arrived at our gate and waited about an hour before boarding our plane to Miami. Once we arrived in Miami, I understood why we had a 3 hour layover. After deplaning, we had like a 20 minute walk to passport control to fill out immigration forms at a kiosk. Then we went through customs; it was pretty quick even though the lines were long. Next up, claiming your bags. We had a hard time finding out which of the 10 baggage claims our flight was on. It wasn't until we walked all the way down to number 10 that we found out ours was at number 1! We got our bags and went through another customs area before re-checking our bags. Next up, security again! Then we rode the sky train to our gate where I had to grab some food. After all that, it was just about an hour wait until we boarded the plane to go home. We arrived at 9:00 that night. 

We had the best time! We feel so fortunate to get to have these adventures. We can't wait for our next one. In the mean time, Mr. Hubby and I will continue to enjoy each others' company right here at home. We love our date nights and our currently looking for new things to do on those! I love being young and married to my best friend! My summer is coming to an end in a couple of weeks. It's been full of fun and excitement!

Thanks, for coming on this journey with me!