Giving kids

So I have said many times that the school I work in, the families have well.... no other way to put it... a lot of money for the most part. They are so giving though and always want to help. But I always wondered... just because the parents are giving are the kids? Do the kids get everything they want?

Well, I can't answer the last question. They might get everything they want but I do know this -- their kids are UBER GIVING! I cannot believe my ears when my students come in to my classroom and tell me what they did over the weekend. Do your kids do this? I hope to do this with my own children whenever I have them to teach them the importance of giving.

• During the first week of school they take books. pencils, crayons, and other school items to children in need at the Salvation Army downtown.
• During Halloween they take most of their candy to the kids in the hospital who weren't able to go trick-or-treating.
• During Christmas they pass out books to kids in the hospital.
• Also during Christmas they fill up goodie bags with crayons and coloring books for kids in the hospital.
• They go to nursing homes to sing not just during the holidays... all the time.
• And my favorite one, if you get invited to a birthday party they ask you to NOT bring a gift. They ask you to donate to a charity of the CHILD'S CHOICE! This amazes me because it shows that even 5 and 6 year olds know what a charity is and have favorites! (one little boy asked for money to be donated to the ASPCA because he is an avid animal lover)

I love that the kids do this. And it's not because they have money ... they GIVE THEIR Halloween candy, THEIR books, THEIR time and THEIR birthday presents. Now, not all of them do this but I really hope that I can bring these traditions into my family when the time comes:)

Happy Holidays from 20 degree Ohio... ah!!

Mom's visit = long recovery

Shew! My mom and Darrell came to visit me the day after Thanksgiving. I was off Wednesday-Sunday so we figured since I had so many days off my mom would have her first taste of TX and Austin! Many of you know my mom but for those of you that don't here are some minor facts to describe her in a nutshell:
1. She is always first in everything she does. She taught us at an early age that we will lose at most games (Uno, Go Fish, Life) - it's part of life.
2. Goes along with number 1 ... she is ALWAYS in a hurry. For example, she runs when she mows the lawn. Seriously. My friends and old neighbors used to actually make comments about how fast she is.
3. She is a busy body beyond belief. From the moment she wakes... around 3:30 because 'she had too many things she was thinking about' she is up and off. She is EXHAUSTING!
4. She only partly listens to anything and everything you say (because she is busy thinking of other things like I stated in #3 and how to beat you to them like I stated in #1). To add to this she then will repeat back what she heard... but her version. More to come on this post as I collect my evidence.

Well.... because she is always in a hurry she made 1 minor error in booking her flight. She got here on Friday but she was supposed to get here at 10:30 AM... yea.. about that AM PM stuff. She got here at 10:30 PM! And sorry mom... the "your time, my time" stuff doesn't pertain to this one. AM time is AM time and PM time is PM time no matter what time zone you are in:) Oh well... lesson learned that even if you swear you double checked everything sometimes you just have to slow down and double check ;)

Here is the breakdown of our weekend -- hang on to your seats it's quite a busy weekend (and of course... we were always first)

So she got in on Friday night and we went to bed around 11:30. I drove them through downtown so they could see it slightly lit up at night and it was only a couple minutes out of the way (we weren't racing anyone so it was okay that we weren't "first".)

Saturday

• we woke up early (well early for me... my mom had been up all night - couldn't sleep and was thinking about too much... what IS she thinking about I always wonder?? maybe I'll interview her and get an insight into that busy brain of hers)
• drove 45 minutes to look at a possible vacation sight in the spring, then 45 minutes back
• went to a cute, very austin-y (hippie) coffee shop called Spider House Cafe - a must if you come here
• showed them around my school and area
• picked up Derrick from the airport
• went downtown to see the capital, Lady Bird Lake, late lunch, and UT campus.
• home for dinner - meatball subs and chocolate fondue with dippings:)
  
• played Euchre and The Game of Life (mom did NOT win)
  

Sunday:

• Woke up early
• went to out to breakfast
• drove an hour to San Antonio
• Saw the Alamo (guess who was first out of the building?)
• walked around the Riverwalk
• drove an hour back
• Walked around Zilker Park and Barton Springs
• Went out to dinner
• Played Euchre and The Game of Life (mom did NOT win)

Monday:

• Derrick drove me to school to take the car for the day
• Mom and Darrell layed by the pool
• Celebrated Derrick's birthday with an amazing dinner (that he cooked)

Tuesday:

• Mom and Darrell took me to school to borrow the car for the day
• Went to Botanical gardens and Mt. Bunnell then picked me up
• Derrick made our first Thanksgiving dinner
  

Wednesday:

• Derrick took me to school
• Took mom and Darrell to the airport
• Came home and went to bed at 7:30PM....

Shew! Exhausting but I think they really enjoyed it here. What is there not to like? Darrell and my mom are the most active people I know and make me feel like the laziest bum created. Here are some photos from our awesome visit!

Me at Spider House Cafe

The capital
All that Texas pride inside the capital

Ready to head downtown
Lady Bird Lake
Mom and Mia - best friends for life
Great shot of Derrick and I at the Alamo
Our first Thanksgiving dinner

Merry Christmas (early from my class!)

On Thursday we had our class party (I know a little early but I was informed that many of the students leave before the winter break starts to go to Paris, Australia, ya know... the usual) and boy was it an eye opener for me! I'm used to having the plan the entire party, have it filled with junk food, and usually it was the one day that ALL of the parents would come. Why you ask? FREE FOOD of course! Usually there would be grandparents, cousins, you name it - they were there. Sometimes I would get gifts (not to complain but they were usually dollar store presents or something random and broken like the one time I got an old nutcracker that didn't even work) Well that was then... this is now!


I have 2 room parents that planned the entire party... I didn't know even what we were eating! They showed up 45 minutes early while my kids were at music to set up and organize. We had 3 stations - wearing reindeer antlers and making reindeer food (adorable - dried oats, sugar and glitter, shaken together and put into a bag. Sprinkle it on your lawn on Christmas Even to help attract the reindeers of course -- and my 1 Jewish little girl who said the reindeer don't come to her house... oh honey, sprinkle it on your bushes and the magic fairies will come! DUH!) The next station they wore snowman headbands and made reindeer using their hand prints and a paper bag (glue handprints to the bag, add googly eyes and a sparkly red pom pom nose - hello Rudolph! sorry Jewish little girl... it was Rudolph, no changing that - but now she was cultural!) Lastly was the ultimate experience for them and me! A 4 tier chocolate fondue fountain! Bananas, strawberries, pretzel sticks, brownies, and to top it off sprinkles to roll it in afterwards. The kids just dipped away (not sanitary by any means but so awesome). Who would've thought at a 5 and 6 year old party that would be our treat. They spent 13 minutes at each station, a timer was set, and when it went off they switched. After 45 minutes to the dot I released them out my backdoor to play on the playscape and when we came back in 30 minutes later I swear little cleaning fairies went nuts in my room. The room was spotless and you would have never known there was party! AHHH what a dream:)

I also received my class gift which was amazing. At the beginning of the year the room parents send home envelopes with their name addressed on the outside to mail back to them and the parents can enclose as much as as they would like to "donate" to our parties and to... me:) The room parents can then use it as they would like. This year I was given one of my favorite perfumes -- an oldie but a goodie.... Dolce and Gabanna Light Blue -the gift set:) Also a gift card to Nordstrom and my favorite... a canister of sour patch kids.

AWESOME:) What a difference this party was from my previous and it was so relaxing for me to just enjoy it:)

So the holidays have gotten to me

I'm retarded (so not PC but it's the holidays I can say what needs to be said).... as I was re-reading and noticing all of my mess ups in my blog that need to be fixed I noticed that I keep on saying "more to come on my 5 1/2 hour house hunt". UHHH EARTH TO KATIE!?! I already wrote about it!

Can you tell I've been stressed to max? Oops:)

Derrick thinks I might be going slightly crazy since he found a measuring cup under the couch last night... obviously I didn't put it there - I don't even cook or touch those things. He said well then how did it get there Katie?

ummm....


ummmmmm...

Low and behold .... the reason I got a dog -- "Mia put it there. She likes to hide her toys she must've gotten confused... silly puppy!"

Well Derrick puts Mia up on a pedestal higher than me so he looked at her and said "no Katie... she didn't" (geez take the dog's side!).

Well I'm very sure I did not put it under there but hmmm how did it get there??

Is it Winter break yet for me? I need to unwind!!


PS --- My sister thinks I am hilarious (I am.... so I guess it's more that she knows I am hilarious) and shares my blog with a lot of her co-workers! To Beth --- thank you for the book suggestion I will definitely be looking into it! And to all of you Denstply Caulk readers --- please know that I am only slightly crazy:)

On a side note

Just a couple funny conversations between Derrick and I in the past of days I thought you might enjoy:

Tonight Derrick and I were talking about crocheting (don't know why...?) and he was explaining to me the difference between knitting and crocheting (again... don't ask why he knows more than I do - maybe I should've gotten HIM the sewing machine) and he said "you know when you put up a tent, oh wait you don't put up tents. Well like when you go camping... oh wait... you don't go camping. Geez Katie..... you live in another world". hahaha I just smiled and sipped my wine (that he poured me and refilled twice .... ahhhh my life is grand - Nikki I know you are shaking your head. Mom, you are wondering how I found someone to deal with me).

1 more funny one....

My frustration over house hunting hit the roof over the weekend (again.. more on that to come. I need to still wind down some more) and I just want to find the right neighborhood but that is really hard in Austin because the neighborhood "feel" is so different than what I am used to. So Derrick asked me "Katie, what do you want in a neighborhood?".

Well... call it the sorority in me... or just wanting to live the life of a perfect person but my response was:

"I want a neighborhood that it's okay to wear a dress, pumps, and a headband everyday and walk across the street to my neighbors house for wine on the porch. Like the Stepford Wives" IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!?!? I really want to be Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl - that is my ultimate dream!!! But the Manhattan life is not for me so I will settle for Stepford Wives (totally off topic but I love Blair so much I had to get her into my blog somehow).



**see that is my dream of me and my friends just hanging out, you know a normal Monday, waiting for our kids to get home from school**

Derrick's response was "Katie... that's not real life. We obviously are not buying a house anytime soon".

Looking back on it I laughed and do find it to be funny but still .... very true. I want to live in Pleasantville... where the basketball always goes in the hoop, it only rains to create a rainbow, and everyone walks places. Okay.... I get that this is a fantasy place and it doesn't really exist but is it too much to wish? I mean he did ask me what kind of neighborhood I wanted to live it. I told him the truth!! Besides... who can look at this and say they don't want to live that life and go grocery shopping like that (even if they were evil robots in the movie). I LOVE THEM!


So those are my side notes tonight ... hope they made you smile.

Winter wonderland:)

No... not a winter wonderland in TX!! Are you crazy!?! This past Saturday I went Christmas shopping (after my 5 1/2 hour house hunt... more to come on that later) in shorts and my new cowboy boots:) That's how warm it was here! I love how cowboy boots are appropriate with everything here... and they are my FAVORITE type of shoe. Someday I hope to get some "bedazzled" ones and really step out in style.

I am sure I have mentioned this before but I have wonderful parents at my school. One in particular, Katie, is my girl!!! I not only love her daughter and have a special relationship with her, but her mom and I are great friends (oh yea and my new claim to fame... her dad is also famous!) We talk about everything after school and email throughout the day different blogs that we love to follow and funny quotes. Well she is an amazingly crafty person. She helped me through gingerbread men, amazing story telling, papier mache, pumpkin carving, and next week gingerbread houses. She also noticed that next to my classroom was a storage room with 2 bookshelves, an old broken filing cabinet, old stuffed animals, and a million bajillion old teacher manuals from a previous teacher that retired and somehow all of her junk (lack of a better word) ended up in MY storage room. The room has a huge window that looks into my classroom.

She asked me about a month and a half ago if I would want to clean this out and let her (LET HER.... HAHAHA I LOVE IT) paint it, HIRE A MURALIST, and paint a jungle scene in there to go along with my monkey theme in my classroom. She then wanted to put either a desk and lamp and turn it into my office since she feels bad for me that I don't have my own area or make it a small group instruction area where my kids could be working in the classroom and I could still see and hear them but was in a quieter place.

Well.... upon cleaning it out we noticed there were HUGE cracks in the walls. I talked with our custodian (who by the way won EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR last year!) and he wanted to have our district come and approve it for safety and see if it needed to be fixed.

Unfortunately the mural had to be put off but do not worry. She told me last week she thought she might be able to do something small to the room...

SMALL!?!

SMALL!?!??!?!?!


This room is AWESOME (da bomb-diggity as I like to say). With Christmas music playing in the morning and the lights going (the snowflakes can be set on many different settings) it feels so wintery in my room:) The kids love it and it is a great way to help us get into the holiday spirit! I call it my "Macy's Window". Jealous?? I know you are:)

Part 3 of the house hunt

How many parts will there be I wonder?? Maybe I'll this into a little contest -- how many times do you think I will go out with a realtor before finding "the house" that we both agree on and move into?? I hope this 3rd time was a charm and it all works out because I AM SICK OF IT! I know I know... be patient... don't rush this... I'M NOT RUSHING IT but I am so tired of it already:( Now onto the next 5 1/2 hour day I spent exploring 10 houses!

The first house on our list was actual up north, on the same street we live on but just down about a mile in a cute neighborhood. It's about 10-13 years old (the neighborhood) so it is still new but the trees are developed more and it is established. I also know my way around the north so I'm more comfortable with it but we aren't sure we want to stay up here. Although it is a great area and Round Rock is becoming a popular area to move to and commute from, we aren't sure it is for us. After seeing this house though my decision may have been swayed:) It is gorgeous. It has a loft on the 2nd floor looking down, a beautiful lay out, love the master bedroom, laundry room upstairs, kitchen and living room combined and the island is made out of layered stone, outside patio has a ceiling fan, and ALL appliances convey!! WHOO HOO!

We then moved onto 2 more houses, one which was sold (the sellers realtor updated the listing with a lower price but ACTUALLY showed the price it was sold for and didn't take it off of the market... moron!) and one that was so odd and confusing we spent a little bit of time in it just trying to figure out who would ever live in such an odd house.

Like I said we visited 10 houses, and of those 10 I liked 3 of them. Pretty good I guess... 30%. Eh.... patience:)

So I liked the one up north, another house that had a cute back yard and a nice layout - very open and interesting. Just the master suite was upstairs and everything else was downstairs. The last house I liked was awesome - no other way to describe it. It was an entertainers dream with a ton of upgrades already in it. The inside was nice, cute, and cozy. Smaller than the others that we had been looking at it but really ... why do we need a huge house?? The bathrooms were upgraded with stone showers and granite counter tops, but it was the backyard that was a selling point for me and a point that I know Derrick will love! It had a limestone patio with a full wood roof covering. It had 3 ceiling fans, awesome lights, huge floor heaters, a POOL TABLE, awesome wicker round chairs, a built in bar, and... BRICK OVEN!! This outside was like being on vacation! Now of course most of this stuff will not stay but boy did it win me over!

So Derrick is going to go see these 3 houses sometime this week (prob Tues or Wed) and we shall see what else we find out from the sellers and the surrounding areas. Fingers crossed!

House hunting! And so it continues...

I'll start off with updating you on our house hunting expedition (I can't think of a better word to describe this adventure). So I last left off by discussing the condo hunt I went on with the realtor and not liking ANYTHING. 2 days later we went and looked at 7 houses Derrick and I had picked out. I brought along the trusty Flip Video to video any houses that I liked to show Derrick.

The first house we went into I liked. It was in a cute neighborhood, nice brick front, nice deck on the back, but the lay out was not what we wanted. Since we ... I mean Derrick.... hang out mostly in the kitchen and living room we want them to have a nice flow to them - specifically be open to one another so we can still carry on conversations while cooking (Derrick) and drinking wine or taste testing (me -- ahh I'm so lucky). I video taped it though because this was my VERY FIRST house I ever went into and thought AWESOME - this is so fun!

We then went into another house in a cute neighborhood, huge, brick front, and nice upgrades throughout! And it had the flow that I was looking for. Flipped that one too. We then went across to the street to exact same house only this one was foreclosed -- yuck. The previous owners pulled out almost everything that was probably nice and it was replaced with junk. They also were asking the same price as the one across the street so I "xed" that one.

We then went to another one that I had gotten my hopes up for and although I liked the downstairs, the upstairs wasn't that great. The master was very small and we had a hard time figuring out which bedroom was which.

Then was the ultimate experience -- we walk up to a house and it had a junky rusted shopping cart outside of it (swear the neighborhood was nice) and when we opened the door the SMELL was overwhelming. There was dog poop on the floor, the refrigerator hadn't been cleaned out but the power was off and the refrigerator doors were WIDE open just letting out the rotten food smell. The walls were black from soot from the fire place. It was horrible! I thought someone had been murdered in there because of how bad the smell was! X!

Then we ventured over to a new neighborhood that was really nice. The house we looked at was HUGE and I could not believe it. We were just in shock! And it was so nice also!! I definitely flipped that one and said Derrick would definitely have to visit that one.

We had one more on the list, which turned out to be a dud. So 2 out of 7 wasn't bad:) I had decided that Derrick would go back and see the second house and the 6th house.

When Derrick got back to Austin he contacted the realtor and they said the 2nd house, with the same house across the street only foreclosed, had been sold. So all that was left for him to see was the HUGE house across the way. He went, saw it, and said he liked it. He had found many problems with it though that of course I didn't see. After discussing the issues with our realtor, the realtor contacted the sellers realtor to get a feel for them. Once we found out more information about the house (the builder and reputation, problems with it) and the sellers (not willing to come down at all before negotiating even started and no flooring allowance) we scratched it.

Back to stage 1 for me! 10 houses next time!!

I disappeared!

oops:) These past 2 weeks came full force and were CRAZY BUSY for me! I apologize for 2 things... number - 1 not updating as often as I should and number 2 - updating a TON over the next week!

Please note -- you might want to read these next couple of posts in baby steps -- it's a lot of info to catch you up on!

Without further ado.... my updates on house hunting, Thanksgiving, my mom's visit, and my awesome "macy's" style window in my classroom!

First official hunt!

Yesterday began my first day of Thanksgiving break - and it was wonderful. I woke up early because I went to bed super early - and didn't feel guilty about it at all:) So what if I didn't have to wake up early and still went to bed at 8:15 (which is earlier than I go to bed on a normal school night). I slept till 6:30 and felt fabulous! I have to say that it feels great making a pot of coffee in the morning and being able to enjoy it on your couch:) And it feels even GREATER when you can enjoy the coffee - on your couch - on a WEEKDAY! I swear coffee at home on a weekday tastes so much better than on a weekend:)

I was in contact with our realtor, Chris, the night before and we had set up an appointment to meet in the afternoon to view some condos that we had picked out via our online search. I wanted to check out all of the condos together so I could compare them that same day rather than trying to remember each detail of each one. I had 6 of them picked out and they were all in a great area - close to my school and close to downtown. The first one we went to was so cute and I loved it, but it was super small. The next one we went to was junky on the outside - I took 1 step inside and said "eh, I'm good" and we left. It felt worse than being in an apartment. The next one we went to we actually didn't go into - I spotted some people digging in the dumpster (so much for a great area!!) and the outside porch was smaller than my apartment porch. How could I fit a grill and patio set out on that?? Ugh!! The next one we went to was beautiful inside, but had a motel feel to the outside. It was hard to get to the actual condo and there was no other easier way - you had to walk up a flight of steps, then down a flight of steps to get reach the door. The condo had floor to ceiling windows along the entire back and looked out onto a park which was gorgeous. The actual kitchen though was about as wide and long as my arms length and the living room was on an angle and I just could not figure out how to arrange my furniture. The fifth condo I was excited about because it was almost 1600 sq ft which is so big for a condo! It was also in a cute neighborhood that had a "house" feel to it. Unfortunately... it was taken off the market so I couldn't go see it. The last one had an adorable walk-up entrance but the inside was super small and old. So out of 6 condos --- I chose 0! Since Derrick isn't here as often as me I am kind of doing the "dirty" work but checking out any/most places we like online and then if I like them then he will go back to see them when he comes back.

This was slightly depressing because of the great locations of the places, but the last thing I want is to feel like I still live in an apartment! Tomorrow we have picked out our top 7 houses in south Austin and I hope to find wonderful neighborhoods and maybe even a house (or 2.. or 3) that I want Derrick to see on Monday when he gets a chance to go look while I am at school! Fingers crossed:)

PS --- Happy Thanksgiving!

Weekend recap

On top of going to see Cirque du Soleil on Friday we had a jam packed weekend. Once we got back from Cirque du Soleil on Friday we changed and headed back out for sushi with one of Derrick's friends and girlfriend that were in from CA for a mini getaway. We then went out downtown for our first time together since moving here (so pathetic) and had a great time!

Saturday was crazy busy which proved exhausting also! First we did major grocery shopping for when my mom and Darrell come next weekend. We are making our first Thanksgiving dinner (not on Thanksgiving though... a couple days later) and also meals throughout the time they are here. Thursday-Sunday was Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republics big sale that they have twice a year and I hit it up on Thursday because I wanted to get there the first day to make sure they had my sizes but Derrick wanted to go so we went on Saturday. He then decided he wanted to get something "burnt orange" because we were planning on tailgating later on that day for the night UT game. While at the outlets we went into a cute TX apparel store and I found a super cute shirt that said I (heart) and then the hand symbol for the longhorns. I grabbed it and an adorable longhorn headband. We then proceeded to go all over town (about an hour and a half) to find what Derrick was looking for and all we could find was a shirt for $75. Totally not worth it. We get back to change for tailgating and I realize that in my excitement of finding this cute shirt I didn't look at the size - LARGE!! Ugh!! No time to return it and now my headband didn't match my other shirt because they weren't the same color orange. grrrr!! We headed off to tailgate and were pretty tired from all of the errands we ran during the day so the plan was tailgate, nap, then go out for round 2. Some friends from school were going out to a bar that I really wanted to go to and this would be perfect since we had time to nap in between.

We were a little better looking this time tailgating - at least we had the colors on:)

We had a great time tailgating (Derricks' cousins live in San Antonio but come down almost every home game to have a great tailgate) and then came back to nap. We both set our phone alarms for 2 hours later - 9:30. I wake up to Derrick on his phone texting and look at the clock.... 2:15 AM!! What the **BLEEP**!?!? How did this happen??? I vaguely remember saying to Derrick "your phone is ringing". He doesn't remember but he must've turned them both off and away we slept (they weren't on my side so not my fault!). We ended up going back to bed and waking up at 7:00.... sleeping for almost a full 12 hours.

We got up, cleaned, ran more errands, and had to meet our realtor, Chris, for the first time for a late lunch. We headed out to meet her which went great. She is a chatter box (eh... no room to talk) but she is definitely full of knowledge. We told her we didn't really have a specific location in mind so this upcoming Sunday she has blocked out her whole day to driving us around for what she said will be 6-7 hours and giving us a giant map to "x" off or circle - yay or nay - for the locations here. Shew... exhausting for sure! Once we were done meeting with her we took out the handy gps and some addresses of houses we had found and wanted to look into. Some of them were really nice and we really like them... others... well it's amazing what a picture can do because the house looked nothing like it in person!

Crazy busy weekend ---- welcome to the holidays and house searching:)

Vegas!!... scratch that

Derrick and I had a super eventful weekend full of fun activities! His birthday is right around the corner, November 29 to be exact, and we try to go on trips rather than buy each other things because we already have a lot of stuff and who doesn't love a good trip that you don't have to pay for!?! The past 2 birthdays Derrick has taken me to Cancun and Bimini. Both were amazing and I LOVED THEM! In case you forgot here was the GORGEOUS location of my 26 birthday to Bimini.

On top of the infinity pool
heading out into the beautiful crystal clear water

Gorgeous sunset view
Snorkeling:)

Unfortunately, it is much harder for us to go on a vacation for his birthday because it falls in November. I do not have have a 3 month break from teaching in November like we do in July and it also falls right in between to 2 pretty big holidays that I don't want to miss for school. But this year my friend Danielle messaged me over a month ago asking if we wanted to go to Vegas. I said sure!! Then I got to thinking and thought... heyyy Derrick loved Vegas! I'm going to surprise him for his birthday!! So we had it all planned out. Booked the hotel, we were looking into coupons for a nice dinner and going to see a show, and the best part of all - DERRICK GOT THE WHOLE WEEKEND OFF!! That never happens and/or works out when we need it to!

ugh! I had been monitoring the flights and they were looking wonderful for us all to fly stand by until about the week before ... they took a nose dive. They looked terrible. I had to make a decision because the hotel had to be canceled 4 days in advance. So, I canceled and told Derrick we were not going (ps... I cannot keep a secret and I got diarrhea of the mouth and told him a couple days before). Then we started looking up places we could go! I had already taken off and gotten a sub for Friday and he was off too so we figured the possibilities were endless! Cancun? Playa del Carmen? Costa Rica? Bahamas? ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh... allll bad flights! PEOPLE WHERE ARE YOU GOING RIGHT BEFORE THANKSGIVING!?!?! Stop hogging all the seats and let us people who don't pay for seats get on!!! I was starting to feel frustrated and sad. Poor Derrick plans these amazing vacations for me and I can't even pull together a 3 day vacation!?!

Then I decided to google Cirque du Soleil - Alegria. We both love seeing the shows and Derrick's favorite song/soundtrack is the Alegria one. Maybe by some miracle Alegria will be showing somewhere around us on that weekend.

O M G. It was! It was playing in Houston for 4 days only!! I booked the tickets for Friday afternoon, the 3:30 show, that way we still had the night to get back to Austin and meet up with his friend who was in town from San Jose. PERFECT!

My plan was to get up early on Friday, get my new TX drivers license, go get Derrick, drive to Houston together, grab lunch, then go see the show:) UGH! How many ughs can there be?!?! Derrick didn't set his alarm correctly so he missed the flight to get him into Austin on time. Instead I was just going to pick him up in Houston. I didn't bring enough supporting documents to get my license (you'd think after doing this for the 4th time I'd know the drill) so I couldn't even get it that day. It took me way longer to drive to Houston because my GPS is set to "avoid tolls" in Austin because I don't need to drive on a toll road when there is a free road right next to it that is just fine. Well... I wanted to ride the toll roads in Houston because Houston is a disgusting disaster and full of traffic if you're not on the toll roads. Welp... I sat in all of the nasty traffic because it didn't click to me that I forgot to change my settings until I was almost there!

Oh well! I picked him up -- we met up with one of his college friends and grabbed lunch, then headed to the show. Houston is a pretty city on a gorgeous day and I snapped a couple shots. Alegria was UH-MAZ-ING and if it is ever traveling around you I highly suggest you see it. There isn't a bad seat in the house and the clowns were hilarious. All in all it did work out for the best and we really enjoyed the entire day.

Whoo hooo - we were there:)

City view of Houston

Us getting ready to go in!

Magical - what an amazing word

There are so many things that can be called "magical" and it really does make that thing so much better! Disney World for example is called magical because it makes you feel like a kid again. A wedding can be called magical for is beauty or its memories made. At my school we have a forest that has old playground equipment in it and my class calls it "The Magic Forest" and because of its magical-ness it is such a special treat for us to go there and let our imaginations run wild. The reason why I love this word oh so much is because I was observed last week by my principal for the first time. Now many people get nervous about observations and think that they are unfair, but they have never really bothered me. I love showing off what my class is capable of doing and I love to hear back feed back on ideas or ways to improve. But I will say, being new this year has made me feel as though I have to really be on my A game at all times to prove myself. Although I know I am worthy of this amazing job I still want others to feel the same also. And... being observed by my principal really meant that I wanted her to see me at my best. If you have ever been in the teaching profession though, especially with ump-teen 5 and 6 year olds, planning can only get you so far.... then your real teaching will show. The students will hold nothing back and usually if something wants to go wrong, it will on observation day. I have an amazing class and they are beyond the hardest workers I have ever had. They love to learn, ask to do more, have amazing questions, and are eager to get to work. All of this showed during my observation and my real teaching as able to be seen. I was so happy and pleased with how they did but of course I wondered... did she like it? Was it what she expected or are my expectations too low?

After my observation she left me a card on my desk (well table... I actually don't have a desk in my classroom - ask any teacher - they never get used they just hold our junk). This is the card that was placed inside.


Upon reading that I was just filled with smiles inside and out. What an amazing feeling and amazing word to use to describe my classroom, our classroom. I smiled ear to ear and really feel that she could not have picked a better word to make someone feel all warm and gooey inside! So I guess I "proved" myself. And yet again, another hard days work at this place of work I like to call "Disney World".

We got approved!!

The house process continues:) Derrick and I have been gathering our information for applying for a loan. He contacted a loan officer and on Thursday when I got home from school he said we were going to swing by and drop off my paperwork (his was all sent electronically - fancy pants). So we went to go drop it off, and low and behold an hour later we were approved:):) The process was super quick and the guy was so efficient, friendly, and full of answers (and I was full of questions) :). Since we knew what we were working with we began seeking out areas and communities. At first this was fun but once the real hunt began... well it's not as fun. It's overwhelming! There is way too much to look at, too big of a city with all of these outskirt areas, and it's just intense!

On Saturday after we went to the winery we went to a new housing development to see what it was all about and find out more about building. We went through 4 model homes, discussed pros and cons of each one, and then a spec house that was up for a great deal for immediate sale. We left and discussed the neighborhood on the way back. It was depressing for me because I like everything I see and I am an impulse buyer... if I like I go with it. I have patience in many aspect of my job so I guess I feel I do not need to be patient with anything else hahaha:) We spent 2 hours there and do not plan to buy there. Although the houses were wonderful, well in price range, and full of great amenities, we did not feel 100% secure with the area/neighborhood. And so the hunt continues.

We spent a lot of time today googling and searching on line (seriously... how did people buy a house before the internet?? It is so convenient to check distance, surrounding areas, grocery stores, everything!). We found a lot of great houses in the surrounding areas of Austin. We will more than likely not live with 10 mile radius of downtown Austin due to pricing but we can get a wonderful house on the outskirts. Also, since our lease isn't up until February we are able to deal with what Derrick says is a "slower process" of a foreclosure or a short sale house. This will definitely benefit us.

Derrick is calling a realtor recommended to us by the loan officer tomorrow. He says she is very efficient and hopefully she can take some of the overwhelming-ness off of our shoulders. That's their job right!?!

And so the hunt continues... patience Katie.. patience:)

Jeggings... the best excuse to be pregnant!

...I'm not pregnant just some thoughts on the hot new item this season...

Ahh jeggings... my new best friend! What are jeggings you ask!?!? ONLY THE GREATEST CREATION IN HISTORY!! Jeggings are the perfect combination between jeans and leggings. Jeans.... the go to, staple item in your closet. They go with everything - at one point it was even trendy to wear them under dresses! They go with all shoe types, all shirt types, all hair types, all seasons, and are built for every body type. And then you have leggings.... the most comfortable item in my closet next to loungepants!! They are now a staple in my closet because they go with so much and so many shoes and although they are not built for every body type they are a must for me!! Take your 2 favorite things and mash them together and you have JEGGINGS!!

Jeggings in my opinion are amazing. They make it fashionable to have an elastic waist jean! Who would've thunk this would have ever been okay?? They make it okay to not have back pockets on your jeans... yet again - who would've thunk it?!?! It's like they looked at little old ladies in their fake blue baggy elastic waisted jeans and thought... those look so comfy - how can we make them trendy? Ah ha! Make them in a better color and tighter!! LOVE YOU LITTLE OLD LADIES FOR THIS IDEA! ... ps ... am I the only person who thinks old people and has to say "little" in front of it although neither of my grandparents are "little" old people??

I called my sister then and repeated my new found theory.... that jeggings are giving every woman a new excuse to get pregnant! Of course, eventually maternity clothes are needed (I think?) but with elastic waisted, stretchy jeggings in season and in style you can go so much longer without having to buy new clothes to look trendy! They are MADE for pregnant woman! There are only 3 other instances in fashion history that I can think of that women could be pregnant and still wear normal sized clothes for a little while longer. Those 3 instances were babydoll dresses (not cool anymore), overalls (I wish they were still cool because I definitely rocked my Gap ones weekly in middle school), and maxi dresses (still cool but for how much longer?).

So to wrap this up... jeggings I love you. And although I know this style will not last forever, you will always be a #1 favorite in my heart <3

The Proposal

and no NOT MINE! Before you get overly excited this was not my proposal but still such a fun story to tell because Derrick and I got to be part of it!

On Wednesday afternoon I received a text from one of my college friends, Alex, who lives in Austin with my sorority sister Danielle. He was asking what we were up to this weekend, I told him nothing much but I was excited Derrick would be here and thought we should get together. He told me he was planning on PROPOSING to Danielle and wanted us to help out!! Um yes!!!! He was planning on taking her to this little winery out in hill country and then proposing there. He wanted us to take pictures and video it to have it as a memory and also to see if Danielle would want to go so she was thrown off track. So Mission #1 - get Danielle to go to the winery.

I texted Danielle asking her plans for the weekend and said someone at school had mentioned this little winery and I wasn't sure if they had heard of it or if they were interested (sneaky me... they had been there before but the less you act like you know the less questions people ask!) She agreed.... Mission #1 complete

Mission #2 - ride separately to the winery so we could leave immediately after so they could enjoy their engagement - I called Danielle on Friday asking the time she thought we should go and said that we had a ton of errands to run the morning so it would be best to ride separately - Mission #2 - complete

Mission #3 - what's our cue? Alex called on Saturday morning to discuss final details. Our cue was he had a picture of their dog Sebastian with the ring and a message saying "will you marry me?" on it. He was planning on dropping the picture, asking Danielle if it fell out of her purse (that's our cue) having her pick it up, read it, and he would be down on one knee. Mission #3 complete

We arrived at the winery a little before them and since we had never been there I took that opportunity to take some pictures. It was a gorgeous day - couldn't have been more perfect.
Riding through hill country -- beautiful!
Hanging out by the barrel that collects the rain
Walking through the vineyards - tadaaa:)
At Flat Creek Estates

Once they arrived we headed in for brunch. It was a little chilly in the restaurant so Danielle asked for Alex's coat. Mission #5 - get the ring out of the coat!! Alex said his coat was stuck and Derrick distracted Danielle by asking about the wine list while Alex put the ring in my purse. Mission #5 close... but complete

Mission #6 - close the purse! Alex put the ring in my purse but I didn't realize it! He started talking to me about his iphone and said "see these are how the pictures look on an iphone" - really he had written CLOSE YOUR PURSE on the iphone hahaha. Mission #6 complete

Mission #7 - get the ring out of my purse!! I walked by Derrick and quietly mumbled "get the ring out of my purse and give it back to Alex" while we were wandering around getting ready for the wine tasting. He took my purse to a table and was "looking for his phone" and got the ring out. Mission #7 complete.

About 15 minutes before the proposal:)

Mission #8 - proposal!! We finished up with the wine tasting and headed to the vineyards. We were supposed to trail behind so we could get the cameras ready. I was trying to fall behind and asked the dumbest questions about grapes hoping they would continue walking. Eventually they did. I saw the picture fall out of his pocket, he asked Danielle if she dropped it, she said no, I said yes it fell out of her pocket, she bent down and said "aww it's Sebastian.... are you shitting me!?!" - we had the cameras out and the rest is history:) There is now a future Mr. and Mrs. Glass and we got to be a part of it:):) Congratulations!!

Such a fun week!

Not to make this entire blog about my teaching, but it is where I spend majority of my time! This past week was insanity at our school. It was of course the week of Halloween and it was our huge annual Carnival on Friday. Not only were the kids excited about Halloween, they also were watching our carnival be put together each day and having everyone and anyone remind them about it. Our Carnival is huge and is a biggest money maker of the year. It brings in six figures from what I have been told and well after experiencing it, I'm not surprised! It is such a fun event for all! I chose to add to the insanity of course... if you can't beat em... join em:)

Like I posted earlier, we worked on our papier mache projects Mon-Wed. On Wednesday morning 1 of my families paid to have a live animal exhibit brought into our room for a 1/2 hour for my kids to see, touch, and hold various animals. It was really fun for them and I loved seeing how excited they got. He didn't bring sweet little furry animals though. He brought blue tongued lizards, huge cockroaches, tarantulas, frogs, and the worst was his collection of snakes. I was "cheered on" to hold the GIANT snake and so I did. Here are some photos to show proof!!

Huge tarantula... scary and gross
Gigantic cockroaches... they shouldn't even come that big
Smiling because my kids where there... I was freaking out on the inside because that thing was squeezing tight!
He told me to touch the scales because it felt beautiful... yea... real awesome - get it off of me!

On Thursday was the Kindergarten and PreK Halloween Parade. We parade through each classroom, say our name and what we dressed up as, and move onto the next room. It takes about an hour total to go into each class and then be visited by each class. We listened to "Monster Mash" while enjoying everyone's costumes:)

Once the parade was complete my awesome papier mache mom, Katie, stayed and helped me with my next 2 pumpkin endeavors. We split the kids into 2 groups, 8 kids in each group (thank god 1 went home with a fever so it provided equal groups!). I was the cooking station and she was the carving station. They spent 15 minutes with us, then we switched. With me they helped me to add all of the ingredients, mix, and pour, to make a pumpkin pie. With Katie they helped her to carve the pumpkin (of course she cut), scoop out the goop, draw on a face, and she carved it out. They loved it! We made 2 pumpkin pies and tied it in with science (mixing materials to make something), math (measuring, counting) and then science again (5 senses). There is so much you can learn from cooking and baking I just love it! I put the pies in the oven and a couple hours later before our snack time I took them out, and although they were still warm, we smothered our slices with cool whip and enjoyed:)

The kids really enjoyed this and I know they really understood what a pumpkin looks like inside and out and things it can be used for. They also could retell you how to make a pie and all of the key ingredients (ie: nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves - they know it all!)

Next week we will do our apple unit and then compare and contrast apples v. pumpkins. We will of course bake our own mini apple "pies" or tarts using a grand biscuit, some butter, apples, cinnamon and sugar. I'm so excited for these fun units!

I did take pictures of this but I am still trying to figure out how to better remove the children's faces. Until then... no pics:(

Moldy papier mache!?!

Who would've thought that papier mache could go moldy?!?! Not I that's for sure! Our papier mache experience was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed making it. But... they were not the ones that had to pop the balloons and release the moldy and stinky air.

On Monday morning I got to school in a nice top and cute skirt. I had not planned on the balloons exploding goopy mold onto me or else I would have worn something else and put a cute apron (thanks to my mom) over the outfit. Needless to say I wasn't prepared. I collected all of the kids papier mache which were still in their plastic bowls to provide stability while drying. The first few balloons went great. I peeled them out of the bowl, popped the balloon, and moved on. On about my 4th or 5th bowl I peeled the balloon out of the bowl and smelled something TERRIBLE. I thought it was my air conditioner or something but not the papier mache! Once I popped the balloon this goop splattered onto me. And then... the smell became over bearing! It was NASTY! I looked into the bowl and it had cream goopy liquid still not dry from the papier mache and green mold growing in the bowl! Then I looked inside the hole of the papier mache and saw it was still a little wet with green mold spots too! DIS-GUST-ING! I still had about 10 more balloons to pop and was not looking forward to this. For some reason... I didn't think any of the other ones would be bad so I still didn't put on an apron to prevent further splatter. Well low and behold, I was wrong. I'd say about 9 out of the remaining 10 were moldy and left some amount of liquid on my clean clothes that have to be dry cleaned.

Once I was done popping all of them I thought to myself...gross.... now I have to clean out all of these bowls!!! I told my parent who provided the bowls what had happened and she found it to be hysterical. She insisted on taking the bowls home with her and washing them which took the smell out of my room! Phew!!

We painted our pumpkins orange on Monday and a second coat on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we painted silver faces on them. I made two holes, one on each side, and then put string through it for them to carry their goodies home in. Here are the finished products.... lumpy, dented, and everything in between! And don't worry, I ended up wiping out each inside of the pumpkins to kill the mold as much as possible:)

Making the pumpkins! This was the beginning... it got very ooey, gooey, and fun!

This one resembles a helmet more than a pumpkin... like I said - this was all them - no help from me:)
Hers turned out much better:)

Papier mache was a success!

As I explained last week in my blog I was planning on doing papier mache with my sweet little class of 17 Kindergarteners this past week. Well, low and behold the day arrived. We had a field trip on Wednesday to the farm which was so fun, but exhausting. It was very hot, no breeze, and hard to find shade so needless to say I slightly regretted planning on doing papier mache the very next day! But, it could not have worked out better! I have an amazing parent who is super artistic and full of ideas and willing to help! Here was a little break down of how the papier mache came to be a success:)

2 weeks ago I sent out an email requesting all parents send in 1 Sunday newspaper to supply our strips for papier mache. Live and learn, I did not request that they pre-cut them into strips so that became my job.

Last week every night from Mon-Wed I sat and cut strips for about an hour. Derrick also helped me a ton with cutting. Doesn't seem like it would be hard but let me tell you, it SUCKED! In the end I came up with a huge paper bag filled to the top with strips of newspaper (and no... we did not use even close to all of them. We used about a 1/4 of the strips which means I did 3/4 extra work!)

I got to school early (like usual, around 6:16/6:20am) to make up the paste and blow up 17 balloons. For the paste I used the good ol' fashioned recipe of equal parts flour and water until it had the right consistency. I filled 5 small bins about half way with the mixture and filled 5 other small bins with paper strips.

We went to the library from 8:30-9 and my parent helper, Katie, was going to set everything up for while we were at library. And boy did she:) She brought 2 large folding tables, covered them with orange plastic table cloths, put down a painting tarp underneath to prevent any mess on the outside patio, put out all of the bins and then she was SO SMART! She brought 17 little plastic bowls to put the balloons in rather than taping them down. This also allowed for the students to only papier mache the top 3/4 of the balloon and left the bottom part plain. This way when I pop the balloon the "lid" is already off and they have a bowl - which is what I was turning them into. Little pumpkin bowls to put their treats in this week after our costume parade. Katie even brought pumpkin balloons to decorate!

When we got back at 9 she was ready for us. She took charge and showed everyone what to do and they got started. It was so funny to see all of them so scared of getting messy! Usually I have to remind to not use too much of something, but now I was telling them the opposite! It took us about an hour and a half to papier mache our balloons and at the end Katie and I were just going around, putting our hands into the mixture and scooping out globs of the glue, plopping it on the top, and smothering the paper down. The kids had so much fun getting messy and did such an awesome job with it!

We then carried them inside and put them on newspaper to dry. Some of them were soooo goopy that throughout the day the newspaper underneath was even getting goopy from it dripping down the balloon, down the bowl, and onto the other newspaper. Mission accomplished:) So many times I heard them say 'this is so awesome' or 'this is the best art project ever'!. That reminded me that I made a great choice! Other parents and teachers walked around too and thought it was so neat what we were doing that although it was messy and I had papier mache 'hightlights' at the end of the day, it was so worth it! Besides, it was just flour and water and it washed and cleaned up so easily!!! I plan to post pictures but I want to fuzz out the kids faces so look for the pics to come:) And for anyone who has kids -- this is a must art project at some point in their lives!!

60 hikes within 60 miles

A couple of weeks ago Derrick bought a book that he saw on a friend's coffee table, 60 Hikes within 60 miles. It is based in the Austin area and gives you well... 60 hikes in the surrounding 60 mile radius (go figure). It's a fabulous book and it breaks down the hikes into tons of subgroups such as, 1-3 miles, 3-6 miles, 6+ miles, scenic, wildlife, and tons more categories. Last Sunday I decided to venture out and start on the first of many hikes. I read through the first couple of hikes and decided they all looked awesome and eventually I would like to do all 60 of them, but baby steps of course. I chose to start with Hike #1. It's description was that it goes along the Colorado River, it was 4.8 miles long, free, and would take about 2.5 hours to complete. Perfect! I packed a bag for Mia and I of water, a water bowl for Mia, my camera, an apple for me, and some treats for Mia. And we were off!

Ugh... well let's just say the address was wrong for starters, along with so many other things. It took me about 45 minutes to find it (should have taken 20) and I definitely ventured into a bad area of town where people drive on the wrong side of the road, have shaved heads with scary mohawks (not cool mohawks) and definitely witnessed some drug dealing. There were cops everywhere so at least no one could kill me. Finally I found it! We got out and saw... no one. A little eery being at a huge park with no one around. There were 2 baseball fields, a batting cage, a random trailer, and tons of construction equipment like bulldozers and other giant trucks. Great... this is going to be a fabulous hike. And take note of what I said was around me... there was no trail!?!? Okay well we came all of this way I guess we might as well try to walk around somewhere! We walked towards an area where you could see they bulldozed a ton of trees and were doing construction there but not at the time. We did end up finding a trail and walked for about 30 minutes (definitely not 2 and a half hours), came to a CAUTION sign and were told to turn back due to construction, and not once saw any type of water let alone the Colorado River!! I did get some decent pictures though to show how beautiful a day it was and although it wasn't what I was expecting we did get our dose of Vitamin D for the day!


As we were getting into the car I saw a group for 5-6 people come up from the direction I was in wet, presumably from this Colorado River I was supposed to see, and that gave me hope. I was going to write off this hike all together but now I think I might try it again with someone else and maybe go a different way. The water must be somewhere!! Below are some pics from our day last Sunday:)

Beautiful day - look how blue the skies are!
Cactus plant:) They were all over the place and Mia was smart enough to steer clear!
This was our view when we made it to the CAUTION sign -- maybe the Colorado River was here and it dried up?? Nope, I saw it on my drive back and it was on the other side of where I was hiking!


Although it was really short we were in the sun the entire time and Mia was beat! She found some shade at the end and refused to move for a couple of minutes:)

Dog discussion

This is a very random blog but I wanted to share some thoughts/ideas/discoveries with you about dogs.

If you own a dog I think you know that the moment you got him/her your life changed. I know mine did - but in such a great way. And of course, I think that my puppy is the cutest puppy ever and the sweetest (and craziest, most spoiled, rotten, etc). Here are some flashbacks of Mia before I give my opinions and get on my soapbox:)

Mia during the first couple of days that we had her -- already attached to Derrick:) They are best friends and she is OBSESSED with him. She follows him around everywhere he goes, doesn't like to go outside without him, races back in the door when we come back inside to find him instead of getting a treat, and pushes me out of the bed to sleep next to him.

Mia's first grooming:) She looks so precious!

Mia's first Christmas! My mom bought her this little sweatshirt - 'Reindeer in Training'. This was my Christmas card:)


Mia on her birthday. Doesn't she look like she is so proud to be 1??

Okay, now that I'm done bragging about how adorable and silly she is here are a couple things I have discovered about dogs.

1. I hate Frontline Plus. I know hate is a strong word and that is a bold statement but I truly do. I used Frontline Plus for over a year, from the time we got her until we moved to Austin. As soon as we moved here Mia became infested with fleas. We are assuming that the fleas were here when we moved in since we did not bring them with us. We did everything we could think of - flea baths, apple cider vinegar, bombing, professional exterminators, vacuuming daily, washing the sheets and pillows and her toys daily. Then one weekend we watched my friends dog and I prepared them about the fleas. Their dog was here for 5 days, never saw a flea on him and he didn't go home with them either. That's when I started thinking --- hmm.... I started a new box of Frontline when we moved here. Maybe it was a bad box. Also, my mom 's friend suggested using Advantage. She said it works better on fleas and although it doesn't cover ticks, Mia is an indoor dog and gets brushed daily so we can check for them more. Well, I looked up Frontline on the computer and it said "100% one time money back guarantee" as long as you had the lot number and original receipt. Check. So I called and explained my situation and asked for my money back. The lady told me no, I didn't qualify because I didn't follow the directions on the box. I had told her previously that my mom's friend (who is a vet tech) suggested that I put it on every 3 weeks, not 4, because that is the cycle of the flea. So the lady claims that because I didn't follow the directions I was not allowed to have the money back. WHAT!? That makes no sense! I only did that twice and wouldn't you think it would have been more effecting!? It STILL didn't work. I told her, 'okay, forget I said that - now can I have my money back?'. She said no and that they record all conversations so I wouldn't be getting it back even if I called back (she must've had ESP because I was definitely thinking that). BEWARE --- their little advertisement is unfair.

2. I LOVE ADVANTAGE! On a brighter note, Mia's fleas are gone:) In a matter of 2 weeks from applying the Advantage the fleas are gone. Well, let me rephrase that. Mia still has the occasional flea on her, but it moves like molasses and sometimes just falls off of her and is dead. The Advantage works wonders. I cannot believe that after battling for 2 months, after 1 application of Advantage they are dying and gone. I still vacuum and see them in the canister so I know they are still here and that will take a little time to get rid of ALL of them but they are not leaving flea dirt on Mia and cannot survive on her anymore. SWITCH TO ADVANTAGE if you can:) It works miracles and I think they do have a kind that does kill ticks too but I don't use that one.

3. Lastly, if you have a dog and you don't clip coupons - YOU'RE CRAZY!!! You can save SO MUCH money with the dog treat/food coupons. Some of the treats are 4-5 dollars and I average spending 1-1.50 per bag of treats. Mia has so many bags of treats its kind of disgusting. Right now we have 8 opened bags and 9 unopened. I guess I kind of think of her like she is a human (go figure... if you're as crazy about your dog as I am that is no surprise) so I feel that she needs variety. It's kind of an addiction for me... to see how cheap I can get treats. I think the best buy that I have gotten are the Cesar treats that come in the little silver bags - usually 2.98 at Wal Mart and they have $2 off coupons so I get them for .98 and you get 75!! It awesome and they are small and perfect size for a little after-bathroom treat:) I also love to go to Petco and go to their Rawhide bar section and buy a couple different kinds. She doesn't get them often but when she does she LOVES them:)

So there you have it:) Happy Sunday and go buy a Sunday paper for the doggie coupons at least:)

The talks

In a relationship there are many moments for talking. You have to talk about everything to have a great relationship I think. Derrick and I spend a lot of time talking and just hanging out. We own a very small tv but it is not hooked up so I don't even own cable. When he isn't here I catch up on my shows through hulu.com. We drive at least 25 minutes each way to the airport so yet again... more time for talking. And now that the weather is nice we love to take Mia across the street to the lake and walk, and talk... :) Because we are getting ready to make a huge commitment (no not marriage... that's a whole different talk that we don't have which I talk about more in later on.... buying a house/condo commitment) we are doing a lot talking. Each talk has a different title and theme I feel:)


The "what kind of place do you want" talk: house or condo? outskirts or downtown? big or small? Derrick and I continue to have this talk and I think it goes to show that we are still not sure what we want. We have so many different ideas but we have definitely found some great places thus far. I'm excited to see what we find and finally end up buying! I think he has finally got the point that I will not buy a studio or 1 bedroom. To me it just makes no sense.... I want a place that has space. The apartment we are in now is smaller than my old one so many of my boxes I couldn't even unpack:( Outskirts or downtown is very back and forth. Initially I thought downtown was pointless, but the more that we venture down there I realize I was wrong. We do go down there a lot for dinner and/or drinks and I would love to be closer. Hence our next "talk"

The "are you planning on going out every night if we live downtown?" talk: A couple weeks ago we went to dinner downtown and then decided to walk around and see the city at night a little bit more. As we walked we talked about where I could take Mia if we lived down here, where I would run to the store, traffic, and my big question - why? Why do you want to live downtown? Is it to go out all the time because I did not want that. (ps... his answer was no ... shew). Once we talked more I realized that I did like the idea. It is convenient to live downtown actually. Close to my school, closer to the airport, and close to a lot of great places to see and things to do. I'm coming around to the idea and although we wouldn't be able to live centrally downtown I think the outskirts of downtown are looking pretty good:)

The "how will we buy furniture" talk: Furniture is tricky. We need it, but how do you split it up? I know he is sick of moving my bedroom furniture, especially now that it got ruined by my awesome moving company (grrrr I still hate you because I still haven't received all of my money!). I want to keep it of course for a guest room but maybe not the giant dresser that is now lumpy and lopsided. I'd love a new bedroom set eventually to go in a new place:) We also need and want a desk for our computers. Well, it was decided that we wouldn't split the furniture. We would just take turns buying what we needed. And he made it very clear to me that I would not be sharing a desk with him for our computers. He claims that I would "rearrange" everything when he left so his desk will be off limits to me. (puh- leeezzz... he acts like I clean and move everything around when he leaves to a more organized place so it looks better.... okay... I do do that, and so does my mom and my sister! look people, it's our way or the highway when it comes to clutter!)

The talk we are not having - marriage: And no, not because neither of want to be married. A lot of people ask me, 'so, have you talked about marriage yet?' No... we haven't. And no... it doesn't bother me - for many reasons. I for one do not want to have a part in an engagement, if and when it does happen. I do not want to have a clue about anything. Besides that, I just don't find it necessary. I know we have a strong, healthy, and happy relationship and I don't need to have a weekly or monthly discussion about getting married to feel better about it. If we are planning on buying a place together then things are going better than great... end of story:)

So those are the talks we have had thus far. No arguments and really I am enjoying this process with him. I'm hoping it stays fun and laid back:) Because we are in no hurry to buy I think it will! Positive thinking!!

A little ambitious I must say

My life hasn't been too exciting the past couple of weeks so I haven't had much to blog about, but next week should make for an interesting one! We have parent teacher conferences on Monday, which means no kiddos but sometimes I'd rather teach them and be crazy than sit and say the same things over and over again to a different set of parents every 20 minutes. The upside to this is that the parents can stop asking , 'How is ____________ doing really? Are you concerned? Should we be?'. Now they will know:) Don't get me wrong, I will totally be that parent too, but I hope to try my hardest to remember all of the unnecessary conversations and questions from parents that irk me when I have kids!

So, we only have a 4 day teaching week, but also next week is my first field trip with my kids! We are going to a farm and it sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun! I'm expecting a ton of my parents to show up (they don't have to sign up because we know enough will show up to help us out) so I'm excited to not feel so overwhelmed with all of the students!

Then comes my ambitious act next week.... and I hope that I am overly preparing myself and slightly overly stressing myself out about this. I am papier mache-ing (for the first time ever for myself and with my class) with my class of 17 students.... we are going to make pumpkins.

Am I crazy!?! I hope not! One of my rock star moms suggested doing it outside and she is going to come and bring table cloths, giant folding tables, and help out with mache control:) I know the kids will enjoy it so much and I hope this is one memory they take with them forever... so in all reality - do I really care if they go home with it in their hair? Of course not!! We are going to have a blast!! I hope to remember to post pics of the finished pumpkins (without kids of course) so you can see their wonderful, independent, no help from me, papier mache! Who predicts lumpy, lopsided pumpkins??

The students don't know they are doing this huge art project yet so I know they will be uber-excited when they find out. I'm sure I'll hear wonderful questions such as this one I heard last week from my hilarious, favorite little girl when I pulled out paint and just let them go to town, "are you going to rip out your hair and be bald if we spill it?". So funny:) And for those of you wondering... no paint was spilled and even if it was I would very calmly say, 'go get a paper towel and clean it up'. They're 5 (and 3 of them are 6), what can I expect?

Wish me luck!!!

Fell off the work out wagon:(

Well folks... I heard on the radio when I first started working out that if you make a public announcement about a goal that you are more likely to follow through with it. I not only made an announcement, I have a full on lengthy detail description of it!! And now I'm publicly letting everyone know.... this week I did not follow through and I actually feel guilty. I did work out, but not nearly as much as I am supposed to. I ran 2 miles (yep, didn't even do a 3 miler) and swam 1 day, which means I came up 2 days short. I'm not going to make excuses but... really... well I am - I have a TON of them (obviously none of them my fault - just like the other night when we went out to for a 'glass of wine' and the next morning my excuse for a terrible headache was that it was the last bottle of the specific wine for the season, of course I had to not only order the whole bottle but also not share it). I'm going to explain why I fell off the wagon and hopefully next week I will have a better update.

Excuses:
1. Derrick was here all week and I really wanted to hang out with him
2. All of the 5K's for the next couple weeks are not in Austin or they only have 10 K's or marathons which I'm not ready for so I haven't signed up for anything, leaving me not working towards a goal
3. I already reached my goal and know that I can run 3 miles... time for a new goal?
4. Last week my legs started to hurt reallllly bad and on Saturday they became very crampy and uncomfortable. My thought was it must be all of the running I was doing because this has never happened before and I had never run this much before. I mentioned it to Derrick and he said, 'you're fine, go eat a banana'. AND THAT'S WHEN IT CLICKED! For the past 2 years every morning I have eaten a banana. Once I moved here though I stopped. **WARNING ... VERY FRUGAL EXCUSE WHY COMING NEXT** In Charlotte produce was expensive, so the cheapest fruit to buy was a banana. In Austin all of the produce is cheap so I have been enjoying other fruits. Guess I need to go back to bananas and a bonus fruit:)
5. I was getting back in shape and toned up for a cruise we were planning on taking for NY's. The cruise sky rocketed in price the day I went to book it so again... nothing to work towards.

Really... I have no excuse. For the past month I have ran almost everyday in the blazing sun and heat... now that the weather has turned BEAUTIFUL I have stopped! I'm a moron. So now after pep talking myself I hope to get back on the bandwagon of running and do this again. Time to go find a 5K!!!!! GO KATIE (Yep... I cheer myself on)