spring break 09

The week did not hold exactly what I expected but it came with a few surprises and some very happy times. It started off feeling more like winter break than spring. I spent a fantastic Friday night in Southlake complete with scarf, gloves, and umbrella! The weather was icky...but inside Kirby's Steakhouse it was very cozy! This evening moved up the charts to rival some of my most romantic evenings. Hehe! Possibly more details to come in the future.

Lauren turned 9 years old this week! It was my honor to help her celebrate at The Rainforest Cafe on Saturday. It is fun for me to go and watch the girls giggle and if they watched closely they even saw mom and me do it too! :) Here are a few of my favorite shots from the lunch outing...

In the middle of the week, I vacationed in sunny Tyler, Texas, a little known tourist hot-spot this time of year! The weather had warmed up creating a perfect day for sporting shorts. The highlights of this visit were lunch with Grandaddy at Spring Creek Barbeque, lunch at Higgins Elementary school, shopping with Nana, and a birthday dinner with Jenny and Penny at Tyler's own Mercado's Mexican Restaurant. Truly, it was a wonderful visit with family and friends. What more could I ask for?

Back at home for the weekend, Ashley and I took a grand tour of Dallas on Saturday. Our adventures began in Shoe Shopping Heaven aka Dillard's at Northpark. This is where I grabbed some sassy new high heels for spring...be watching for their much anticipated debut--possibly in mid-April. Later, we mosied on into The Porch for lunch. So much for eating light...but it was a fun change of pace! On our way home, we took a detour through the Arts District. It was a special birthday treat for her! :) Later that evening a group met at Joe T. Garcia's for a dinner celebration. It was a lovely spring evening for sitting on a patio with friends.

Now it is 9:51pm on Sunday night. I have successfully procrastinated the school work that must be completed by morning. Now that the closets have been cleaned, the trip to the storage unit is complete, items are ready for Goodwill, belongings have been returned to their proper owners, books read, taxes filed, bridesmaid dress picked up, mail dropped off at the Post Office, pictures uploaded and shared, e-mails sent, and groceries bought...I suppose I must turn to TELPAS. Goodnight.

work?

Today in the middle of a lesson it came to me...my next blog topic! I even announced it right there. Sometimes working with kids can be a lot like working in a jungle! At that moment, I was ignoring the behavior of one student, trying to recapture the attention of some, and maintain the attention of the others. It was comical. I am not capable of describing the situation in a way that would allow you to envision all that the was happening among 20 students and 3 adults at that moment in time. It was all I could do to maintain enthusiasm about communicable diseases! The students were beat from the TAKS test yesterday and I am exhausted. The most interesting part is that when things reach this point in my classroom I tend to have the opposite reaction. Today contained a lot of whispering and signals to students. It makes me laugh and tires me even more. To teach respect, patience, compassion, and acceptance while guiding students toward achievement in reading, writing, social studies, science, health, and math is a light and easy job. After all, we only work from 8:00-3:00, nine months a year!

Now that I've had a glass of wine and dinner...the day is looking better and I'm nearly headed to bed (it is currently 6:06pm).