A Good Tired

School went by fast today. I had quite a bit to do. I got started on my debate notes but didn't get finished. I listened to speeches in debate class, lectured in comm. app. and let my students work in the interp classes. During lunch, I went to Walmart and got lunch at Subway. I printed invitations for our Orators Banquet, but found out that the date isn't going to work. I'm going to have to figure out another date and correct the invitations. I still have to get substitute stuff ready by Wednesday. After school today, I started working on my flag routine. I have one written of sorts, but I'm having to modify it quite a bit. I worked for about an hour straight and worked up a good sweat. I am certain I'm going to pay for it tomorrow, but it really felt good to get such a workout. I really need to do it more often. I am going to have a nice bruise on my calf where I whacked it pretty good with my flag. I made some good progress. I have most of it figured out with bits and pieces of trnasitions that I need to work out.

I started dinner when I got home (mexican rice caserole) and ran to the store while it was in the oven. We got some good rain here and several of the streets were flooded. I've had dinner and now I'm watching t.v. and writing this blog. I have a feeling that I'm going to sleep well tonight. I'm thinking that it's going to be an early bed time for me as well.

Restful Weekend

Dinner on Friday was very good. Saturday morning I tried to sleep in, but the dogs wouldn't let me. My aunt brought her dogs which is fine because they're good dogs and one of them can't even bark (it's vocal chords were cut before she got him)... but they did drive my dogs (actually Mollie) crazy. She wouldn't shut up on Saturday morning. I finally got up and put her in my room which helped for a while. I then went back to bed for about an hour. I was up by 8:30 and made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. I took a shower and got dressed. We went over to my dad's shop to check out the kittens that one of his rescued cats had. There are three of them and they are very cute. There is a calico/tabby one, a himalayan, and an orange tabby. I'm glad Josh didn't go because he would want one of them. After that we went to the craft store and then to the mall. My aunt was going to buy me clothes or something but I couldn't find anything I wanted. I am feeling very fat these days and it sucks. I really need to do something about it. I did get some new underwear, however. My aunt also gave me some money to get something another time. I'll take it on my trip to Austin instead. As soon as I got home, I had to change and get ready for Church. I played for the confirmation Mass on Saturday. That meant I could sleep in this morning. Of course I was awake by 7:30, but I stayed in bed for another hour or so. I called my brother and found out that he was on his way to Canyon to go to Church. I would have met him there, but I didn't know until just before it started. I was happy to know that he and his sort-of wife are giving it some thought. After church, they came over and Tim (my brother) brought his pole saw and trimmed my apple tree, cut down the broken branches (after last winter's ice storm) from another tree, and then cut down another tree that I didn't want. (It looke more like an overgrown bush.) They left and I made sausage pizza for lunch. It was very yummy. After that, I was tired and went to take a nap. I needed to get some school work done today, but I don't think it's going to happen. I think I'll finish the book I'm reading and just veg out some. It's been a fairly relaxing weekend, which is a good thing. Next weekend I'll be in Austin and the following weekend, I'll be going to Albuquerque so my aunt can help me make my costume. I haven't even started on it yet. I haven't been able to work on my flag routine either. I did find my copy of the routine written out and I think I remember most of other than a few moves. I'll have to edit it some, but it shouldn't be too difficult. At least I'll be getting some exercise which is something I need. I hope all of you had a nice weekend as well.

No time for blogging

Sorry I did not blog yesterday. I had a full day at school, then I came home and started cleaning since I have company coming tonight. It really wasn't too bad. I did almost everything except vacuum which I did when I got home today. The guest bedroom isn't clean, but it's cleared enough. I still have lots of junk everywhere and maybe I'll get to it this summer.

Today at school was nice. I got to work in my room all morning. I was able to get papers graded and put together the stuff I needed for my comm. app. class when I'm gone next week. I found most of my debate stuff that I'm going to use next week as well. I just have to work on sorting it all out. This afternoon was an inservice that was actually pretty good as far as inservice goes. I intended to start working on my flag routine, but didn't have time. I'm going to have to get cranking on it soon.

I don't have much more to say. My life is very unexciting. Still no interesting people to write about (i.e. no dates) unless you count Josh who has been my only "date" of sorts for the past two years. At least we share the same taste in music.

I think I'm going to go take a quick nap and then when Josh gets home we'll go to the mall to find him new shoes and then meet my aunt, uncle, brother, sis-in-law 0f sorts, their kids, my dad, and his girlfriend for dinner. We're going to Golden Corral.

Back to work

I got a good report from the substitute which is a good thing. Today was filled with filling out forms for our Nationals trip, grading papers, and catching up on everything. I had some students from the local university come up and work with my students that are going to state. I think it was very beneficial for them. Now if I can just get them to work on their stuff for the next week. I think I'm going to offer to have them perform for other classes just for the practice. I was at the school until 6:30 today. As soon as I got home, Josh and I headed up to the store for some groceries. I spent $47 which I think is a record for the lowest amount ever spent on groceries at Walmart. Generally I buy too much, but this time we're only covering the next few days until Monday since Josh will be leaving on Tuesday for state and I'll be going on Wednesday.

I haven't started cleaning house and I'm certain that I'm going to procrastinate tonight and wait until tomorrow. It's already fairly late and we haven't even had dinner yet (though it's in the oven finally). I need to do some laundry so I don't have to go to school naked tomorrow. I think I'll at least load the dishwasher tonight.

I'm tired. I'm going to turn on the t.v. and get my book out and veg for a bit.

Whirlwind Trip

My students and I left Hereford dark and early Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m. We go to Dallas around noon and had to deal with lovely traffic delays due to construction. We stopped for lunch and then headed to Six Flags. Yes, I finally got another chance to ride some coasters. It was heavenly! It was a very nice day at the park. It was not very hot at all as it was very overcast. But it wasn't too cool either. The wait time for rides was around 15-20 minutes. We were able to ride 4 coasters in a little over 2 hours. I did some shopping and got a Marvin the Marvin bobble head. I now have a season pass so that I can visit other parks (hopefully) this summer. I gave my students "coaster lessons" at each coaster. I was amazed at the fact that they were completely worn out and they had to keep up with me. I guess just being at a park gives me an extra boost of energy.

We left Arlington around 5:00 and headed towards Austin. The drive was uneventful and amazingly I was able to get to the hotel easily. We checked in and I just had to be upgraded to a King room because there were no more queens available. Darn. The hotel was very nice. We then headed out to eat. We tried to go to Chili's but they were closing at 8:45 which is weird. We then went to Fuddruckers and got burgers. They also closed quite early. We came back to the hotel and I was able to soak in a hot bath which was quite lovely. I finished the book I was reading and went to bed around 10:30. The next morning I had a quick breakfast at the hotel. (I love the free breakfasts.) It was really quite good. They had eggs, potatoes, ham, sausage, biscuits and gravy along with pastries, cereal, yogurt etc. I had potatoes and sausage with some juice. We left around 7:45 to go to the competition. Amazingly, I found it with no problems. We registered and my students drew their speaker numbers which were 24 and 34. We had a long day of waiting as both students didn't speak until after lunch. We also found out that there was a hostage situation going on in a building just a few blocks from the place where we were. I started another book and read most of the day. They provided lunch - sandwiches from a local deli. My students did their speeches and then we waited for the awards. Neither of them placed in the top three, but they did get a $100 savings bond for making it to the state level.

We were out of there by 3:00 so we went back to the hotel so the kids could change. We went to a mall that was close by and hung out there for a couple of hours. (Mostly in the bookstore) Around 5:20 I heard from my friend Mary (the choir director at my church who was also in Austin at the time) and she was going to meet us for dinner. We headed to the restaurant (Pappasitos) and waited for her. She arrived and we enjoyed our meal and good conversation. When we left, the kids didn't want to just go back to the hotel and they wanted to try and find a movie theatre. I didn't want to just drive anywhere so I stayed on I-35 and there is not a movie theatre within 10 miles of our hotel in either direction. We played the alphabet game in the car while looking for a theatre (that we never found) so we just drove around the city for a while and then headed back to the hotel.

I took another bath (a luxury for me) and then got ready for bed. I watched a little t.v. but started to fall asleep by 10:30. I gave up and turned the t.v. off. I got up this morning around 7:30. I checked out around 8:30 and had breakfast again. We left Austin around 8:45. The kids fell asleep right away. Around 10:00, one of them was having a nightmare and yelled out waking everyone up. He said that he was dreaming about spiders and he hates them. It was funny. We stopped in Abilene for lunch around 12:30 and then got back on the road by 1:00. We got into Hereford around 5:30 and I made it home by 6:00.

My aunt called and she and my uncle are coming to stay this weekend. That means I have to clean my house. Oh well... I needed an excuse anyway. I caught up on blogs and then I called in dinner. I just finished a short while ago and now I'm going to take it easy for a while.

A Laugh from Google

I printed out maps for our trip down to Dallas/Austin tomorrow, but did not print maps for the trip home. It's not that I can't find my way back, but I like to have the maps just in case. I decided tonight to check the possible routes. I went to google maps and typed in Austin, TX to Hereford (but I hit enter before I typed the TX) Instead of taking me to Hereford, TX it gave me directions to Hereford, UK. Below is the map it gave me.

I don't know if you can read it, but on the directions it says "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 3,452 mi."

I needed a good laugh today!

To Do List

It's been another long day. School until 4:00 and I didn't finish what I needed to get done. Came home, went to the bank to get six flags tickets and cash the check for meal money. Then I came home to get ready to go to the symphony. I had to iron Josh's shirt, put on make-up, and get dressed. Josh and I went to eat at Olive Garden. It was quite yummy and very filling. After that, we went to the Globe News Center and picked up our tickets. We took our seats around 7:35 and the concert started at 8:00. The first half was good. They had four guest vocal solists that each sang a song accompanied by the orchestra. I think it was in french and was written by Berlioz. They had the words translated on a large screen, but to really see it, I had to crane my neck since we were so close. (2nd row from the stage) But after intermission was Mozart's requiem and it was amazing. I may have to go find the CD or download it at some point. Now I'm thoroughly exhausted and it's waaayyy past my bedtime. I used to be such a night owl, but I guess I'm just getting old.

Here's my to do list for tomorrow:
Sleep late - done
Contact rhapsody about my account (when I tried to update to my new email, I mis-typed it putting .com instead of .net and now I can't access my account.) - done
Go to school and finish grading papers and leave my sub information
Do laundry and pack
Go to the 5:00 Mass since I'm leaving early on Sunday.
Go to grocery store so Josh won't starve
Pay bills for the month

I'm sure there's more, but that's all my brain can handle at the moment. Good night.

I can't think of a headline

Today was a rather mundane day. It was another day of TAKS testing. The students finished early and I got some puzzles out for them to pass the time. I ate lunch in my room as always. (Frozen dinner of pasta and chicken) I should have graded papers and got things ready for my sub, but I didn't. I guess I'll do that tomorrow. When I got home, Josh and I went to the grocery store to get dinner. We got some ribs and chicken along with some garlic mashed potatoes. Josh had to be at school early for a performance so I didn't really have time to cook. I went to watch his show again tonight. To answer Susan's question... they're doing Taming of the Shrew again, but this time the director got the adaptation approved ahead of time. It is such a cute and clever show. They had a good audience tonight.

Now I'm home and I hope to go to bed early. I was tagged for a meme so I guess I'll go ahead and get that done.

What I'm reading now:

Currently I'm about halfway through a book called "The Amber Room" by Steve Berry. It's getting pretty intriguing right now so when I read, I hate to put it down. Most recently I read a book called "Hide" by Lisa Gardner and I really enjoyed it. I discovered this author a few years ago and I have thoroughly enjoyed her books.

I have a few more books sitting around that I may get to, it just depends. I am waiting for Janet Evanovich's next book that will come out in June. I plan to re-read the Harry Potter books this summer just before the last one comes out on July 21.

I wish I had more time for reading. I have been able to read more since I've been going back to tournaments. I'm going to have to have something to read on Monday while I'm in Austin. Well, that's it for tonight.

Getting Crafty

Well, I'm going to make an attempt at least. A few months ago, the principal sent out an email requesting that teachers with some kind of "talent" volunteer for a talent show for the students that pass the TAKS test. Well, the show-off that I am immediately volunteered. Of course I couldn't decide if I want to play my clarinet, do a flag routine or perform an interpretation piece. I decided on a flag routine. The talent show won't be until May 21, but I have to start getting ready. I have some ideas for a routine. (I'm probably going to use one I've done before and adapt as necessary - I have most of them written down.) But then I started thinking about what I should wear. I have decided to make my "costume." I went to Walmart tonight and found a pattern that I liked and even found material on sale for it. I am hoping I remember the few sewing skills I learned the last time I made something which was ... oh about 16 years ago. Well, if I don't remember everything, my aunt or sister could probably help me out. I'm kind of excited about it. I really like the material. The top is going to be a dark teal color that is kind of crinkly. The pants are a kind of crinkled crushed velvet. I think it will be quite classy. I just hope I'm up for it!

Honesty Pays

For the most part, I've always been an honest person. I am never brutally honest to people; generally I keep my mouth shut if something is going to hurt someone's feelings. I rarely lie and I don't take advantage of others. One of my responsibilities this year is keeping up with money and budgets within the speech department and team. I've always made sure that I return extra money leftover at tournaments and always write a receipt for money I've received. It drove me crazy when I discovered that I was $10 off with our stock-in-talk fundraiser. I worked for two hours going through receipts and matching them to the my excel file until I finally found the discrepancy.

Earlier this year, I received some prose and poetry books to review. If I wanted to keep them, I was to send a check to the company and the books were mine. If not, I could send them back. In addition to the books, they sent along a DVD that was free if I paid by a certain date. If you know me, you know that I didn't really do anything until well after that date. I finally decided to keep the books because they had several potential pieces for my students and so I had a check cut to send them. I sent back the DVD that I didn't even get a chance to view (it ended up in one of my piles) because I had missed the deadline. Today, I got the DVD back in the mail. With it was a thank you card that had the following message written:

• While wrapping up this year's record keeing responsibilities I noticed something interesting. You placed an order for two books, Prose To Be Read Aloud and Poetry To Be Read Aloud, but sent back the DVD. Your order form and handwritten note is enclosed. You are the only person who did this! Others simply paid for the books after the review time was passed without sending the DVD. Thank you for your honesty and integrity. Please accept the DVD enclosed as a gift for me.

How cool is that?