Day 5

Me again. These pictures are from our helicopter ride yesterday along the Kohala Coast which is just north of where we're staying. Riding the helicopter was the most expensive thing we'll do while we're in Hawaii, but totally worth it. It was awesome!This is the helicopter we rode in. Our pilot was SO Andy Bernard from "The Office."Feigning a smile as we are about to lift off.Poor Chad was so afraid, he almost backed out and got off right then. Can you see the fear on his face? Gotta love the photo quality taking pictures in a moving vehicle through a window.

Does anyone know how to rotate video? I was an idiot and took a couple videos vertically. Why did I do that? I have two more videos to upload but don't feel like doing it right now. So look for those later if you're interested. And sorry about your neck on this one.

Days 3 & 4

Hey guys, thanks for the recent comments. It makes me feel better knowing that some people are still reading the blog and looking at the pictures I'm posting. I'm trying to do this in chronological order, so let me start with yesterday. As I mentioned in the last post, we went snorkeling. We went out on this boat with a guide company, and it was totally worth it. There's nothing like seeing the shoreline from a little boat off-shore, and then having that little boat take you to, in their opinion, the best places to snorkel on the island. We had a lot of fun snorkeling yesterday, but I am actually kind of sore today. I don't think I'm supposed to be. Sad. Notice in this first one how I strategically cropped it to get lots of the shoreline and none of us in our swimsuits. This was at our first snorkeling stop, right before we got in the water. Erin, I was thinking about using this dorky tourist picture for our new profile picture for the blog. What do you think?Can you even tell what this is? And why is my typing blue and underlined? I did not authorize that. Anyway, it's a sea turtle! It was right by our boat and so cute. These are the results of a sea turtle picture taken with an underwater digital camera. Sorry, I tried. And sorry about the underlining. That's really annoying but I can't figure out how to change it. I think this was the best shot of fish I got from underwater. This was at the second snorkeling stop. It was so beautiful. Another cool thing that this excursion company did was take us by a bunch of lava tubes and caves. In the middle of the photo there is an opening in the rock that the water was sloshing through. On this day the water looked so fake blue it was hard to believe. Day 4: Here's Chad looking cool by the convertible. Whew, my writing is normal again. Today we drove about halfway around the island to a city called Hilo. Along the way we stopped by a couple waterfalls and on the north part of the island are these beautiful rolling green pastures in what is known as the Kohala area, with a little town called Waimea. The picture below was at a scenic stop on the side of the highway. This is the first waterfall we stopped at, called Akaka Falls. I was wearing my A&M shirt today and on the way to the falls a guy said "howdy" to me. Also, there were three other people on the plane from LA to Hawaii with A&M shirts on. Small world.
In front of Akaka Falls.After Akaka Falls, we stopped at this little roadside farm. They were selling coconuts, beets, lychees (never had those before, but they were yummy), tomatoes (yes we bought some and yes we ate them tonight because they were organic and grown in Hawaii), and papayas. Being a dorky tourist again. The lady at the farm said they had just put this thing up and I was the first person she had seen use it.
Paul and Chad are chowing down on the coconut the guy cracked open for us. It wasn't my favorite, but if I was starving I wouldn't turn it down. Okay, the next stop was Rainbow falls. Check out this tree. That is Paul standing at the base of it. Just like my grandmother always said, it's real dangerous.
Rainbow Falls. Ironically, there was no rainbow at these falls, but there was one at Akaka Falls. I guess we were just at those at the right time of day.
Chad took this photo on our other camera on the first full day we were here. Tomorrow (day 5) is our helicopter ride, so look for pictures from that in the next couple days. Thanks again for looking at our pictures.

Days 1 & 2

Here are pictures from our first two days in Hawaii. All right, here is a self-photo of us actually on the plane to Kona in Los Angeles. We got to sit in the first row of first class. It was great. I actually kept the menu to take a picture of it to post on the blog because I'm a big dork who probably won't ever sit in first class again. These are a few dolphins that were part of a much larger pod we saw right off the coast outside the place we are staying. It was hard to photograph them because everytime I saw them, they'd go back under. This one and the next two were taken right outside our hotel. It was overcast all day so the water looks a bit grey, but today it's been sunny so the water is very blue. Almost fake-looking.

I keep seeing all these bright yellow birds around. They are so pretty. Chad has already told me to stop taking pictures of birds, but I thought mom might like to see them because she likes birds.Okay, this one needs explaining...we went into downtown Kona yesterday and stopped by this place called the Pearl Factory. So I got to pick my own oyster and I got the pearl inside. It's this beautiful bluish-grey pearl and I got it put on a pendant with a tiny little diamond so I can wear it on a chain. I'll take a picture of that when the glue is dry. Eating dinner @ Bubba Gump's.
Hey, look at those dorky tourists outside Bubba Gump's. Get it? Chad is Forrest Gump and I'm random person he's telling a story to.Sunsets outside our hotel. It was still a little cloudy so I'm going to try to get some more this evening.

Today (day 3) we went on a boat tour where we got to go in a bunch of caves and see lava tubes all off the coast. We also got to snorkel in two different places, which was a fun new experience for us. All of those pictures are on a disposable camera, so I'm going to try and get the pictures put on a disk so I can upload them later on. Thanks for checking in!

Aloha

We are here in Hawaii. It is beautiful. I woke up at 5:40 this morning like a little kid on Christmas day, because we got here last night after dark and I wanted to wake up and see everything. I had about an hour and a half to myself before everyone else started waking up. Also, I took my camera to take a few pictures of the view from our hotel so I could post them right now, but I forgot the uploading cord in the room and I'm too lazy to go get it.

My first view from the hotel this morning was the huge blue waves crashing against big black volcanic rocks, and then when I went up to a higher floor, there was a large school of dolphins just off the shore. I got a picture of that and I'll post it later.

I'm going to try and update the blog every day or two because I won't have time to do that when we get back before we leave for Blue Haven. Thanks to everyone who said a prayer for our safe travel. I'll keep you updated.

Also, we are 5 hours behind Texas here (note my early wake-up time) so please don't call me in the morning. But feel free to call!

Travel plans

Let me just say that there have been many times in my life when I have been made fun of because I am exceedingly anal when it comes to planning for travel. I search every fare, check and re-check flight itineraries, and like to get to the airport a couple hours before we take off...something that my own husband gives me a lot of flak for. Today has re-confirmed what I always knew, and what my mother has always instilled in me. YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO SURE.

And the case of our trip to Hawaii has been no different. I have checked our itinerary at least 3 times, and we've had our plane tickets booked for over 4 months. Well, this morning Chad and I woke up ready to pack and prepare to leave for Hawaii at 6:55 a.m. tomorrow morning. He asked if I had checked the itinerary, and I said yes, but we better check again "just in case some of those flights don't exist anymore." Chad told me I was horrible, meaning I have a pessimistic outlook on traveling. But our itinerary had already been changed once, and it's not like airlines have the most stellar reputation for getting people to places on time. So yes, I am pessimistic. But is it pessimism if what you are pessimistic about actually happens?

Fast forward a few minutes later. Chad is looking up our seat assignments on seatguru.com, some random website where Chad wanted to find how much storage space was under the seats on the planes we are going to be on. So he gets to the leg of the trip where we are supposed to fly from Oakland, CA to Kona, HI on ATA (our other flights are on American). This random website tells us that ATA filed for bankruptcy, and that we might want to get a refund. Um, no, we want to go to Hawaii. The weird thing is that I had checked our flight itinerary through travelocity, who we made our reservations through, and the American Airlines website, who all our flights are with except the ones directly to and from Kona, and they all show that an ATA flight still exists for us. I'm sure both places got the memo that ATA didn't exist anymore, but for some reason didn't contact the passengers (I'm sure they thought that was ATA's job). So Chad tells me what the website says and then said, "Maybe we should check that out." Ya think? So I go to the ATA website and here is what it says: "After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 2, 2008, ATA Airlines, Inc. discontinued operations and cancelled all current and future flights on April 3, 2008. Following the abrupt loss of a key contract for our military charter business, it became impossible for ATA to continue operations. Accordingly, we were not in a position to provide our customers or others with advance notice. We regret the inconvenience and the impact on passengers, employees, suppliers and other parties. ATA is in the process of permanently winding down its business. We do not expect the airline to ever resume operations. After May 27, 2008, ATA will no longer be receiving or responding to any inquiries via US or electronic mail, nor is telephone contact available. Many customers have inquired about how to receive a refund for unused ATA tickets. ATA is unable to provide any refunds and, therefore, will not be providing any refunds."

Awesome. So basically, tough luck. And by the way, we don't have to tell you that your flight has been canceled, and also, no one else is going to tell you that our airline is now defunct, including the travel website that you booked the tickets on. By this point I am freaking out a little bit and about to cry. So, I am trying to stay calm, because I am telling myself that no matter what, we WILL be in Hawaii tomorrow. So I call Travelocity. I actually got a person fairly quickly, which was a plus. I chose to forego chewing this person out for Travelocity not contacting us about the airline going out of business, and just be nice about it because of attracting more bees with honey rather than vinegar or something like that, and also I'm a Christian and should act like one even when I'm freaking out and not too happy. I had to tell myself that a few times. Now, fast forward an hour of being on the phone with the Travelocity guy, who is also on the line with someone from American Airlines trying to help rebook the flights. He was on the phone with that person for a really long time, so I was worried that they were going to come back and say they couldn't take care of us, since the flight is supposed to leave tomorrow and all. Meanwhile, I'm looking up alternative flights on the internet, and the best ones I can find are like $2500 a person round trip. So I'm really hoping we don't have to resort to that. So the guy, let's call him Steve, because that's what he called himself although I'm pretty sure that is not his name, finally got back on the phone with me and told me that it was all taken care of, and we still get to go to Hawaii tomorrow, just 5 hours after we were originally scheduled to arrive, and we get to go to church in the morning instead of missing it because our flight left before 7 a.m. Now, we are on all American Airline flights, and I'm just crossing my fingers that they don't file for bankruptcy today. I mean, what are the chances? And the best thing is it didn't cost us one extra cent (except now that our tickets were technically booked today, we'll probably have to pay that baggage fee, which I'm TOTALLY okay with). But I'm really glad Chad saw that ATA was out of business or tomorrow we'd be stuck in Oakland with no way to get to Hawaii on any other airline, because I'm pretty sure all the other airlines fly from LAX to Hawaii which is what we're doing now. After I got our new itinerary, I checked the seats we are assigned to, and here's something funny and awesome: on our new flight from LAX to Kona, we are now in first class. FIRST CLASS BABY! On a 5 hour flight. I guess those were the only seats they had available at the last minute. Awesome.

So here are the new lessons I've learned when it comes to traveling.
1. Always, always, ALWAYS check your itinerary often.
2. Then, if you've booked a trip on multiple airlines through some type of travel booking service, check the individual airlines' websites to make sure they have not filed bankruptcy in between the time that you booked the flight and the time you're taking the flight. Cause you never know.
3. About #2--don't wait to do that the day before you leave.
4. Be nice to airline and travel people, because they have a lot of power when it comes to helping you out or making you miserable.
5. You should still get to the airport a couple hours before your flight leaves. Just in case.

Well, I THOUGHT the flight was confirmed

On the phone with Travelocity. Checked ATA website this morning. This is the airline that was supposed to fly us from Oakland, CA to Kona, HI. Airline has gone bankrupt. No flights on or after April 3, 2008.

Will keep you posted...

Get some Goop

Have you tried this stuff? I got a bucket of it for a little over a dollar yesterday at Wal-Mart. Some friends of ours suggested it for getting out grease stains on fabric, although I guess its main purpose is to get all kinds of grease/tar/etc. off of hands. Well, last week I did a load of laundry and a tube of chapstick had been left in there...a pretty common occurrence in our house, given our affinity for chapstick. Anyway, it ruined a pair of my pants in the dryer, or so I thought. Then I remembered Goop. I just rubbed it all over the spots on my pants, and out came the greasy chapstick spots! Amazing. I have been raving about how amazing this stuff is to Chad and mom since yesterday, and thought if you who read my blog haven't heard about it yet, you NEED to KNOW about it. And, if you HAVE heard about it, I don't think it was very nice to keep it to yourself. You should have told me about this stuff a long time ago. So go out and buy some Goop.

This week's events, and cabin update

I need to clean my house. I don't want to clean my house.

Today mom is coming to visit. I am looking forward to it since the last time she came was in October. I can't believe it's been that long! Plus, we've changed a lot in the house since then, namely our flooring in all the bedrooms and the front living room. And I know I can count on mom to always be interested in that kind of stuff. That's what moms are for! We (mom, Chad and I) are going to see "Texas" at Palo Duro Canyon tomorrow night. It should be fun and not too hot because we've been getting rainy weather lately.

On another note, we just heard from our builder yesterday, and he said he still plans to have the cabin finished by the end of the summer. He must be a really speedy builder because we haven't even finalized a floor plan yet! He sent us another floor plan that is a little bigger than the other one, 1300 square feet, and said it shouldn't be "too expensive" to build. So I emailed him back and asked what not too expensive meant, since that's a pretty relative term. I'm not holding my breath or anything but that would be so fun to have it at the end of the summer and still get to go there this fall before the snow hits. Um, have I mentioned that I love Blue Haven?

Oh, goody! Another post about our tomato plants

But...this one has pictures! I promise I'm not really obsessed, but this is literally the most exciting thing that is happening in our lives this week. Chad and I decided to rig up a little cage for the tomatoes so the numerous living things around our yard couldn't get to them without trying really, really hard. So here are a few pictures of what we worked on this afternoon (thanks for the chicken wire, Talin & Amanda!) We're not quite finished because it started getting really hot outside, but we are almost done. Chad is quite a trooper to do so much for a vegetable (fruit, whatever) that he doesn't even like. He must love me a lot!!!!!
Chad looks like he's trapped inside one of the tomato stakes from this angle. Haw haw haw. Here's a new picture of the garden...nothing is producing yet, but we're hoping by the time we get back from out of town we'll have some veggies to eat. And check out our new cat! Just kidding. Remember a couple weeks ago, we went to the farm of one of our friends for Memorial Day? She had 3 kittens there she was raising to be barn cats. I played with them a lot that day, and kittens are adorable, I don't care what you say Chad's side of the family. I was just practicing with a new lens and that's why I took pictures of a random cat that's not my pet. Just thought I'd share a photo of something other than plants on my blog. Don't worry, I'll start putting people pictures up here in a couple weeks.

It seems like only yesterday that I was telling you about my stupidity in leaving my car in neutral with the door open and allowing it to smash the glass of one of the panes in our garage door. But, it was actually three days ago (I know! Time flies!) so you might want to scroll down and read that entry in case you missed it. Anyway, today was the day to fix the garage door window, and we decided to do it ourselves. Chad went to our lovely nearest big box home improvement store, bought a $10 piece of plexiglass, came home, cut it down to size, and installed it himself. The guy is pretty handy and pretty smart. I had gone a few days before and asked the people at the same store if they cut glass, thinking we could buy ourselves a piece of glass. When they said no, I gave up, and resigned myself to the fact that we would be paying almost $100 for something I didn't even care about, and left. Anyway, Chad asked me if I looked for a piece of glass or plexiglass that would fit while I was there. No, didn't even think about it. Plus, what are the odds that they would actually have a piece of glass in the exact size we needed, since they wouldn't cut it for us? Slim to none. But I didn't think about plexiglass. Anyway, it's all fixed. So I'm glad I didn't freak out about it or anything like that. Because nobody likes a freaker outer. Turns out it wasn't a big deal at all. The only downside is that now we have to clean the other windows on the garage doors because they are all a lot dirtier than the new, clean one.

Today was pretty uneventful. We slept late, I went running, we did some work around the house and in the yard, I made ooey gooey chocolate marble cake, which Chad asked if any more adjectives could possibly be put into the title of that recipe, and then we brainstormed and decided yes, there were plenty, and we got two DVDs of "The Office" from Netflix today, so I am pretty sure about what our plans are for the evening.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

The latest on the tomatoes...

Good news for now...it's 3:00, almost the hottest part of the day, and my tomato plants are not wilted! Maybe the water, mulch, and a little bit cooler temps helped. I don't think they have that fungusy wilt thing, and they seem to be holding on. They're tough little things. Thanks for your concern. I do still need tips though.

I never thought gardening would be something that I thought was fun, but it is turning into quite the hobby that Chad and I enjoy. Just call us retired. One thing we've learned, though, is that you don't really garden to save money, unless you really know what you're doing. Right now it's just a fun experiment, and maybe we'll get a few veggies out of it. Maybe we'll know what we're doing in 5 years or so.

Last day of work

Well, I'm up at work for the last day until I come back in August. That's a nice feeling! It's been a pretty laid-back week, and I've come and gone plenty because of all the errands I've needed to run (most of them were work-related). Today on my agenda, among other things, is to order white boards for my room to replace the chalkboards. I really, really, really hate chalk and using chalkboards. It's so messy and hard to read and it feels like a lot of work to write with chalk. And yes, I am being whiney. Thanks for noticing.

Remember a couple days ago I mentioned that I was going to go buy some tomato plants and pepper plants? Well, I did. I bought 4 roma plants, 4 beefmaster, and 4 jalapeno plants. I wanted serranos too but the two places I went had already sold out of serranos. Anyway, I picked the hottest day so far to buy the plants-I think it got up to 103 that day-and waited until the evening to plant them. The jalapenos are fine, but the tomatoes don't look good at all. The only one that looks decent is the one I've been growing from seed, and the only explanation I can think of for that is that my plant had time to harden out in the heat and the other plants were in a greenhouse and not used to the heat. So, by the end of the day the last couple days, the tomato plants have been totally wilted. I have given them plant food, and watered in the evening, and yesterday I mulched them to keep their roots cool. I researched a little bit about why tomatos might wilt during the day and then pick up at night, and a couple places said that it's from some type of fungus, but I haven't even had them long enough, I don't think, to have developed this fungus. I just think it's too hot for them. We've had 3 or so days in a row of highs over 100, but today it's "only" getting up to 95 or 96 and will be even cooler the rest of the week, so maybe that will help them perk up a little bit. Now, I just hope I didn't make them mold by watering in the evening and then mulching over it. So if any of you have any suggestions about how to grow tomatoes or what I'm doing wrong, your suggestions are welcome. And don't tell me to go buy some at the grocery store. I don't want salmonella, thanks.

Chad and I have about 10 more days until we leave for Hawaii. I have already made a few reservations to do stuff, like a helicopter ride, a snorkeling/lava cave tour, and tandem parasailing. We also plan on doing some hiking as well. I think we'll have internet while we're there so I'll bring my laptop and try to blog while we're there.

That's about it for now. And remember to leave suggestions about growing tomatoes, if you have any.

Stupid is as stupid does

Today something happened that reassured me that it would be the stupidest thing I would do all day, so now I don't have to worry about doing stupid things.

It began as a normal day. I woke up, got dressed, and got all my stuff together to come up to school and do a little work. I got in my car and started it up. Then I remembered that I forgot my big Rudy's cup that I like to fill with icewater, and that is so important that I put the car in neutral, left it running, and got out to run inside and get the cup. Because it is so important. One thing I did not check is whether the emergency brake was on, mostly because I almost always put the emergency brake on when I park the car. Anyway, I ran inside, and as I'm looking for this really important cup, I hear the sound of shattering glass in the garage. Never a good sound to hear. Did you know that Lubbock is not completely flat? Well, it's not, because my car rolled backwards in neutral, and the open door shattered one of the panes of glass in the garage door on Chad's side. Awesome.

So I've been calling glass companies all morning trying to get this thing repaired, and I think I have finally found one that will do it for under $85, and they are only a week backed up instead of 4 weeks like a few of the companies I've called today. I am scared to check about the car. The rubber stripping inside the door got pretty torn up, and the force of the car pushed the door open further than I think it wanted to go, so I noticed a pretty distinct wind sound on my way to work (yes, I actually came! Give me a cookie.) and the door doesn't want to close all the way. I mean, it closes, but the top of the door does not really line up with the car like you want it to.

Anyway, lesson learned. And I am really glad that I didn't back up into my garage door with my car, because that would mean lots of body work and an entire new garage door. That happened to my mom once, and she can tell you that story on HER blog!

On another note, today is my sister and her husband's 8th anniversary, and to celebrate, they are MOVING! Happy anniversary, Erin and Josh.

**Update on the car...I called my brother-in-law's dad, who lives here, and is one of those folks who knows a lot of people, to see if he knew of a good quality body shop. He knew of a guy who's retired and unlisted and does all his work out of a shop in the back of his house, so we drove out there and the guy fixed my door for me (pretty much bent it back into place) and told me where I could get some bonding glue to repair the weather stripping myself. He was super nice and I'll definitely go back there if I ever need any repair work done, because he doesn't charge! Just kidding, he does, but he didn't charge me to bend my door back into place. Also, I'll have to call Josh's dad again, because I could never find that place on my own. So the cost to repair the car was an $8.75 tube of 3M (shout-out to my mom) bonding stuff, and I fixed all the tears along the stripping myself. Now, I can't hear the wind outside while I'm driving 30 mph, so that's a good thing. I think today's happenings could be classified into the "could have been a big deal and a lot worse, but wasn't" category.

Hmmm...other things I've done today...well, I went to Sears to buy new tires. Tires are one of those things that you have to buy, but you hate to buy, because you spend money and it's not any fun. But, before we start driving quite a bit this summer, and also because my mom nags
encourages me when my tires need to be replaced, and because she's visiting next week, no, because I need new tires, I bought new tires. Well, really I just ordered new tires because they only had two and my car is not a bicycle, so I need four. And they'll be in next week, so I'm sure I'll let you know all about it when the tires come in.

Also, the AC guy is coming to my house today. Before all of you bring out the kleenex to cry for me because my AC is broken and it's 102 outside right now, don't worry. It still works, but in the furthest rooms in the house from the AC, it is significantly warmer in those rooms. And since one of those rooms is our bedroom, and we have to sleep in there, I'd really like it if it was cooler in there. So I'm going to ask that guy if our AC needs to be replaced or serviced or something else that would make the entire house cool, or if it's just something we're going to have to live with in those rooms.

I think when Chad comes home, I'm just going to tell him to read the blog, because I'm really not sure I have the energy to relay that entire story again.

We had another good weekend. Saturday we spent a lot of the day working in the yard and working more on our garden. We've already uprooted all the spinach (it's getting too warm for it now) and have replanted those two rows! Having a garden is such a fun experiment...learning what works, what doesn't work, and having something to take care of is fun for us. I know I mentioned the tomato plant that I have been growing, and I will soon buy a few more plants to go with this one, along with some jalapeno and serrano pepper plants so we can have a little "salsa" area of the garden.

We had a fun evening yesterday. Our Bible class teacher, who is an elder at our church, and his wife invited our entire class over to their home for a Bible study. While we were there, we played a little game, and the prizes to correctly answered questions was some spending money so we could all go to Main Event together and play games. They provided babysitting for the people with little ones, dinner for us, and a fun night out for everyone! I thought that was so nice and generous of them to do that for all of us. I had never been to Main Event before, and we got to bowl, miniature golf, play pool, and some people did laser tag too.

Today I've been running errands for work and tying up loose ends there. Chad works all week, so it's good that I have plenty to do to keep me occupied. I think this evening I will go get those plants to start my salsa garden. Hope everyone had a good Monday!

Today was the last day for teachers at my school. Next week I have to work some because my contract is a little bit longer than a regular teacher's contract, but I don't mind because it will give me a chance to tie up some loose ends to get things done. After the brunch this morning, we cleaned out my classroom and it took about 4 hours. There was a lot of stuff in there and the custodians started giving me dirty looks after they had come by about 3 times to pick up the trash I kept leaving outside the door. Oh well, it will be nice and clean and organized when we come back from summer break.

The brunch this morning was kind of a bummer. At the end of the whole thing my principal announced that he was leaving and moving to a position at the district office. I am pretty bummed. He is a great guy and an awesome boss, and I have no idea who will be replacing him. This will be my 4th principal in 4 years of teaching, and those of you who teach know how important it is to have a good principal that supports the teachers. Anyway, kind of a stinky way to end the year, but I should have known since I haven't worked a year yet without the principal announcing they were leaving. Anyway, enough gushing over my boss. I am happy for him if he is receiving a promotion and this is a job he wanted. I'm just sad for the rest of us. :(

I hope everyone has a good weekend. I know I will enjoy mine, knowing that I don't have to teach next week. Now, what should I make for dinner? I am running out of ideas. If anyone has any good, simple dinner recipes, please post them here. Preferably ones that include chicken, ground beef, bacon or pasta because those are the things I know I have.

Some simple things that make me happy

1. The last day of school.
2. Naps in the middle of the afternoon.
3. Not having a place I need to be.
4. Sleeping late.
5. Soda and big slushes from Sonic.
6. Having two books I am just starting to read and having the time to read them.
7. The feeling of having a whole summer ahead of me.
8. Having a yard and a garden to take care of (even though Chad does most of this...)
9. My family.
10. My friends.
11. Freebird's.
12. Eclipse peppermint gum.
13. My house.
14. Not having to pack up and move this summer.
15. #14 should count twice, because it makes me REALLY happy.
16. A new niece coming in August.
17. Cherry flavored Chapstick.

Random end of school stuff

Not much is going on here. Tomorrow is the last day of school. Chad is well into his job and liking it. He has decided that the 7-3 shift is better than the 11-7 shift, so he'll be working 7-3 the most while he is a nurse tech. Friday all they have us doing up at school is a brunch and then check-out. My editors are coming up at noon and we are CLEANING!!! Yay! They actually wanted to, believe it or not. The room is really dirty and just needs to be cleaned out. We'll also be doing a little planning for next year...like deciding what the t-shirts should look like and getting white boards for the room. Very important.

So...tomorrow is my official last day with students ending my first year at a new school, and I can say that the first year was great. I'm actually looking forward to next year, which I think will be even better. But not before one awesome summer vacation filled with Hawaii, camp, family and friends. I can't wait!

Memorial Day weekend

It's been a good weekend. Dad flew in on Friday to spend some time with us and my pee paw who lives here in town. Friday night we just went out for dinner and had a little mini-"Office" marathon at our house. Saturday, we had previously committed to some plans with some friends of ours from church. One of them is from about an hour away from here, and his mom has a farm out there with a really nice house, a pond with a diving board and paddle boat, stuff to shoot things with, etc. so about 8 of us went out there for the day and played games, went swimming, cooked hamburgers, and just had a good time. The guys went out to shoot skeet I guess and came back smelling like a skunk. Guess what they had ended up shooting instead? Also the girls drove out to the pond (probably 1/2 mile away from the house) and the driver who will remain unnamed (although it wasn't me) accidentally locked the keys in the car, with the extra key on the floorboard. So, her husband called AAA and they came all the way out from Lubbock to unlock the car, and did not charge them anything to do it. This has convinced me to purchase a AAA membership. Oh yeah the house also had 3 tiny little kittens that were so adorable and I got to play with them quite a bit. So...that was Saturday. Lots of fun.

Sunday was church of course, and dad flew out in the afternoon. I took a nice long nap and we had a game night over at some friends' house last night. Since none of us had to work today, we stayed over there pretty late playing different games and had a blast.

So today we slept late and have just piddled around the house and played some tennis. I made a few reservations for our Hawaii trip, stuff that we want to do and is cheaper to book ahead of time than just to pay for when we get there. It's almost a tease thinking I have to go back to work tomorrow, because it already feels like summer vacation. Anyway, it's been a nice little break before the last push to the last day of school. Only three more days with kids and 9 more days total of work. Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Fun with plumbing

So, if you've read our blog since we moved in to our lovely home, you already know that our house has issues. Plumbing issues. It's to be expected that not everything is just super perfect in a home that is almost 50 years old, but I have to say that sometimes I feel like we are keeping our local plumber in business. I know, that's very conceited of me. And we are well aware that our problems could be so much worse.

Today I left work at lunch because the plumber was supposed to be here sometime after 1:30. "Sometime" meant 3:00, and he got to work on our first problem which was a leaky pipe behind the wall of our guest bathroom. Luckily, the paneling was still cut open from the pipe that was busted by plumbers in January, so no further wall damage ensued. He couldn't find a leak, but in between the time we called about the leaky pipe and today, both this sink and our bathroom sink decided they didn't want to drain anymore. At all. Coincidence? I have no idea, because I know nothing about plumbing. Obviously.

While I was showing the plumber these two issues (leaky pipe and standing water in our sink), he asked if there was anything else. As a matter of fact, there was. While he was here, could he check the cold water pressure of our kitchen sink? Those of you who have visited us know (and may have forgotten, because it's really not memorable) that our kitchen sink dribbles when it is on cold water, but if you turn the faucet towards lukewarm, it scalds you. This has been like this since we moved in and hooked up our ice maker to the water line. We thought some sediment had gotten jostled in this process and was clogging the cold water. This was true, and the plumber finally fixed this. He had to call in a second plumber to come and clear the pipe, which this guy did while on the roof. I had NO idea that you got to plumbing from the roof. Shows how much I know. Anyway, back to the original problem, leaky pipe. He still couldn't see a leak, but took off the fitting on the pipe joint anyway. Long boring story short, the pipe fitting is round, and we have old copper pipe there, which is not round. Kind of a polygonal shape. So after being here for about 2 1/2 hours, we scheduled another appointment for tomorrow afternoon to finish up the job.

So, I learned a couple things today. One, if you have a minor plumbing problem, save it up until you have more than one thing. They charge by the hour, and a clog only takes about 5 minutes to fix, so we got our money's worth with the multiple fixes in one afternoon. Two, if you are graduating in May and still haven't figured out what you want to do with your life, consider plumbing. I don't think this profession will ever be not needed. Especially at this house.

Glad to be home, and a garden update

It is good to be home and not be traveling anywhere for a month or so. I had a good time in Austin over the weekend. It was weird to be back at my old school with quite a few people I didn't know at all, but most of them were kids that were 10, 11, 12 years old when I graduated so I remembered them as little kids. It was fun, and I'm glad I went. Not much to report though. I did get to spend the evening with Shawn, Emma & the gang. That makes 4 times I've been to their house in 4 months! I think it's time for them to visit us in Lubbock, don't you? I know, gas prices long drive blah blah blah.

I know I've been promising an update on our garden. Something I glossed over a bit in this entry was the incredible amount of rain we got last week (over 3 inches overnight, which is a lot for that short amount of time in this area) and it was accompanied by hail. This did not bode well for some of our plants, especially the seedlings. I can't remember if I mentioned that while Chad was out of town, I was in charge of his plants, and being locked out of my house for the night that it rained so hard I was not able to move the plants under the cover of the porch. But the rain worked wonders for a lot of other stuff, so here are some updates about what these things are doing.

This is the rosebush that wasn't doing too great where it was, so Chad transplanted it a couple months ago to make room for other stuff and it has started producing the most vibrant shade of pink blooms. I cut a few this afternoon to make my house look prettier. Flowers, especially free ones, make me happy. They smell really good too. Rosemary. I bought it as a small plant and it's just started getting much bigger. I think I'm about to transplant it to the ground. It smells delicious. Dill. This thing has just taken off. Dill is super easy to grow and shoots up so quickly. I've started drying it just to keep up with how much it's producing. I don't know if you can tell but the plant itself is well over two feet. When I bought it, it was maybe 7-8" high. Basil, thyme, and parsley. Still researching how to keep these. I've been reading about doing emulsions with olive oil, freezing in ice cube trays, and saving in the freezer in baggies to use when a recipe calls for fresh. Has anyone done this, and how did it work for you? My tomato plant grown from seed! This one really took off. I planted a bunch of tomato seeds and only two have survived. They are finicky little suckers. This is about 6-7" now and I will be transplanting it to the ground as soon as the weather stops being chilly at night. The back garden. You can see between the rows where the rain washed everything. The rows were flooded with water the entire day after it rained. On the two rows on the left are two different kinds of spinach. We like growing spinach, obviously because it likes us. I think I counted 21 plants the other day, and they get bigger all the time. The next row of plants is broccoli. These are doing well too. And on the far right of the picture is squash. These just showed up a few days ago and they are growing super fast. I can't wait until everything is ready to harvest and we can enjoy it! One sad little lettuce plant survived the storm. It's still growing and the bugs seem to be leaving it alone. To the right of this (not in the picture) we have a few cucumber plants growing as well. There wasn't much to see yet so I didn't take a picture of it. This is the other side of the backyard. Chad put these up over the past couple days to grow melons. I think he's planted canteloupe and a few other things...bell peppers, pole beans, and other miscellany. Our friend from church got us all this chickenwire so we are putting it to good use. We may have to eventually put it over the other side of the garden to keep squirrels and birds away.

Stay tuned for the next installment of gardening by dummies. Hopefully, I will have some vegetables to show you!

Also a few of you have sent me articles about this. In case you don't feel like clicking on that link, basically a large portrait photographer altered numerous student photos for a high school yearbook in McKinney, supposedly per school request. Anyway, heads ended up being put on the wrong bodies, apparently one girl looked nude in her photo, and they delivered the yearbooks last week and didn't know this had happened until parents and students started complaining. The photographer (which my school used when I lived in AZ) has agreed to pay for the reprinting of 1100 books, which is $85,000. Poor kids. Poor adviser. THIS is why I get nervous when the yearbooks come out. The whole thing is bizarre.

Have a good week everyone. I am headed to do typical Sunday afternoon things like take a nap and read more of my book.

WHAT?!

As I was driving to work today, I heard a request for an NKOTB song. That's New Kids on the Block for those of you who were not born in the late '70s/early '80s. And it was not one of those flashback things where they play old stuff like "Hangin' Tough" or "Please Don't Go Girl." It was a new song. I was aware that NKOTB was getting back together, since I saw them the other day on "The Today Show." I think they're performing tomorrow on that show for those of you who are able to see it. But I have to say, this new song stunk. Sorry NKOTB, I will not be going to any concerts on your reunion tour, even though I used to be the proud owner of one of your tapes and also a button with all of your pictures on it. I am interested to see if their concerts are populated with 20- and 30-somethings or screaming little 13-year-old girls who like their new stuff. That's kind of creepy, since they're probably in their 40s by now.

Also, I heard from a friend that I used to teach with at my last school that their graduation is the 22nd. That's a whole week earlier than we're done. This is the only time all year that I've been jealous of them. Other than that, I love my job. And speaking of jobs...my principal just told me that he'll be coming in to observe me next week. The last week of the year is not the greatest time to observe teachers or students, because everyone is pretty much done. So that should be interesting. He's come in a lot this year to see what we are doing, so I feel confident, but it's always nerveracking when your superior is observing you.

I had the worst dream last night. I was flying from Lubbock to Austin, and before I boarded the plane to Austin, I left all my carry-on luggage at the terminal. This included my wallet and everything. Anyway, they wouldn't stop the plane, and I landed in Austin with nothing, so I couldn't rent a car or take a plane back. Couldn't call anyone because I didn't have my cell phone. Then I woke up, glad that it was just a dream. Then when I went back to sleep, it continued. Don't you hate that? Anyway, I was back in the Lubbock airport, but it was one of those things like in that movie "Labyrinth" where I could see my luggage on some other escalator or staircase, but then when I went over there it had moved. Anyway, very unsettling, but also eerily accurate to my plans this weekend. And please refrain from telling me what this might mean subconsciously. It's probably some serious mental problem, but I'm just going to say I have a severe fear of not making it to the airport on time and missing my plane. I get that from my mom. Chad always laughs at me because I like to be at the airport so early and I always double-check to make sure we have everything we need, but have we ever even been close to missing a flight because of bad traffic or oversleeping? No.

Well, that's it for this post, which I'll subtitle "Multiple references to '80s and '90s pop culture." Aren't you glad I didn't mention David Bowie's horrendous clothing and hair in "Labyrinth"? Oh wait, I just did. Have a good Thursday!

Miscellaneous stuff

I've been in a very bloggy mood recently. Unfortunately for you, there's not a whole lot to blog about right now (that's very interesting), but I'm sure I'll have written multiple paragraphs by the time this blog entry is said and done. You're welcome.

I want to read A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner. My mom, who is an avid reader, says they are two of the best books she's read in a long time. Does anyone own these books and would be willing to let me borrow them for the summer? I'm sure our wonderful public library has them, but then I'd have to get a library card and read it in three weeks, and that would never happen. I've never been able to keep to a timetable when reading. It takes all the enjoyment out of it. I'd like to read a bit this summer while I have the time, and also while I have hours to kill on a plane.

Chad got paid today for the first time since he started his new job. I'm lovin' it. We never reverted back to a one-income budget when Chad quit his job and started school again full-time in November, so I'm glad that we will have two incomes again to recover from that lack of discipline, and also to be able to pay back his nursing school. We also just got our economic stimulus check from the federal government, and used that to pay off some of the debt from nursing school. I am pretty sure that's exactly what we weren't supposed to do with it. We were supposed to go out and spend it on more stuff. Well, we didn't, and I guess now the United States is in even more debt, and the economy is still bad because of people like us who used it to pay off debt or put it directly into savings.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned this or not...but I am headed to Austin this weekend for a reunion at my old school. I was in a singing group there, and it's the director's 10th year, so it's a surprise for her. I don't think many people from my year are going, and I probably won't know very many people, and I'll definitely be the oldest one there. But I do know that if I was the director and nobody showed up to a reunion planned for me then my feelings would be really hurt, and I really liked her, so I'm going, despite any social awkwardness that might occur. I'm sure I'm putting way too much thought into it anyway. So, that'll be my last trip to Austin, which will make 4 trips in 2 months. It's been a busy spring and I'm glad for the trips I've been able to take, but also glad for some weekends off.

A great weekend

My weekend was fantastic. The house was already clean, I didn't have to travel, and the weather was perfect. So basically, I did nothing. Chad and I went to bed early Friday night (since Chad has started having to be at work at 6:45 a.m., we actually get tired at the same time) and I got to sleep in on Saturday morning. I ran a couple errands Saturday morning, went running, and then went to a little party for a friend who graduated with her Ph.D. on Friday. When people your age start getting PhDs you start to feel a little behind on your life checklist, but since I probably won't ever get a PhD I guess I better get used to that. Anyway, the day was fun. It was just so nice to have a weekend where there was so much downtime, especially after the week that had just happened. Now, we are really counting down the days until school is out...only 12 days after today!

I just remembered something else that made my weekend so great...the new Social Security top names of 2007 came out! I've only (?) spent about 20 minutes looking at it so far, but I'm sure that won't be the last 20 minutes I spend. What is so completely fascinating to me about seeing what people name their babies? I don't know, but I'm not alone. There are thousands of other name geeks out there. I love looking up a name and seeing how it has increased or decreased in popularity over the years. I mean, don't you think it's crazy that Hannah Montana's real name, Miley (which isn't even her real name, but I digress...), wasn't even in the top 1000 until 2007, when it was #278? Such a statement about our culture. I don't know exactly what the statement is, but anyway it HAS to say SOMETHING about us and how we choose names for our kiddos. See http://www.babynamewizard.com/blog for more about the fastest risers of 2007, and I think soon she'll be posting about those names that are dropping hugely in popularity.

Thanks for reading and being interested.

Update

Things have calmed down around here quite a bit over the last few days. Only one more out-of-town trip, most of the yearbooks have been distributed, and the sick bugs have passed. After today, there are 13 days of school left, and 2 of those are finals which means early release, so we essentially have 2 weeks of real classes left. All my classes will be turning in final projects or presenting portfolios for their final exam, which means I don't have to write any tests. I can definitely tell I'm losing steam. Anyway, Chad officially started his first day of work today, and he gets off at 3. He actually woke up and left before I even got out of bed this morning. I think that is the first time that's happened since November.

That's about it for now. I'm looking forward to a weekend in town, which means sleeping late tomorrow!

The Longest Day(s), or "A Series of Unfortunate Events"

I think that this post would better present itself as a timeline of the past few days.

Monday, May 5
Receive yearbooks. No one can see them because there is secret stuff in them that won't be revealed until the awards ceremony on Tuesday. Move all 65 boxes into the secured office in my classroom. Really should have appreciated a little bit more being at home with nothing to do Monday night. See Tuesday.

Tuesday, May 6th
6:15 a.m. Wake up, get ready, leave for airport
8:10 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Fly to Dallas, tour printing plant, eat nice lunch, fly back, come home to change clothes
5:30 p.m. Get back up to school to begin getting ready for yearbook distribution beginning Wednesday.
6:45 p.m. Recognition ceremony begins
8:30 p.m. Recognition ceremony ends
8:30 p.m. Move 35 boxes of yearbooks into classroom. Empty boxes of personalized books on to bookcases in room in alphabetical order for easy distribution.
9:45 p.m. Get a call from Chad. Chad scolds me that I am up there doing this by myself with no help. I am tired at this point, not too happy about it myself, and don't really feel like talking about it. By the way, Chad is in New Mexico, which will become more important at 11:30.
11:30 p.m. Finish getting books ready. Go into my classroom office to change message on answering machine. Grab stuff to leave. Leave school keys and house/car keys on floor of office. The only keys to this office are on the keychain of the aforementioned school keys (locked in office) and in the school vault. Really want to say a bad word at this point.
11:31 p.m. Find custodians. They don't have keys or access to the vault (secured room, duh). Call LISD security. She shows up 15 minutes later and finds 11th and 12th grade girls camping out in parking lot so they can sign up for powder puff the next morning. She deals with kids before she comes inside, only for us to find that she doesn't have a key either. All this time I am thinking about who I can call to come get me since Chad's out of town, and who will also be okay with me spending the night at their house and bringing me to school early the next morning so I can get my keys, go home, change clothes, and get ready for the busiest day of the year in yearbook life. I call Lynn and Celia, because of COURSE they don't have anything better to do at midnight than come get me from work and bring me to stay at their house. Oh wait, yes they do...it's called sleeping.
11:58 p.m. Lynn comes to get me. It is pouring rain outside.
1:00 a.m. Go to sleep.

Wednesday
6:45 a.m. Wake up and go to school
7:20 a.m. Show up at school. Powderpuff girls are waiting inside the door. More than one of my yearbook girls notices I am wearing the same outfit as I was at the awards ceremony yesterday
7:21 a.m. Walk in to my principal's office. Become the object of his audible laughter, based on my exhausted and pretty much frumpy/frazzled appearance. Principal gets the magic key from the vault.
7:25 a.m. Get back in room. Amazed at the power tiny little pieces of metal have.
7:35 a.m. Go back home. Change clothes. Brush teeth. Put on make-up.
7:50 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Kind of a blur. Pass out a lot of yearbooks. That's really all I can remember. I did get a couple really nice emails from parents saying how great they thought the yearbook was, and a few of my own students in other classes said it's the best CHS yearbook they've seen.
1:30 p.m. Friend across the hall brings me a sonic drink AND lunch at separate times during the day.
Soon: bedtime.

Are you still reading? Wow.

Lessons learned over the past couple days:
1. Make sure you have your keys in your hand before closing a self-locking door in a practically vacant school at night. Once you've locked these keys in the room twice, it's time to not do that anymore.
2. Never take family or friends for granted, or their hospitality or willingness to help. (Thanks again Lynn & Celia)
3. If you act tired and frazzled enough, people will feel sorry for you and bring you Thai food for lunch and a big drink.
4. Don't wear the same outfit too frequently, especially two days in a row, even if it was just to an evening function the night before. Students DO notice, and they WILL make comments.
5. If it's a funny story less than 24 hours later, it is not a crisis or a big deal and I shouldn't act like it is.

The end. Goodnight.

Hi out there to our loyal blog readers. I know you guys are interested in every minute detail of our lives, so I'm here to tell you about the weekend. Our weekend began on Thursday afternoon with a flight to Austin. We accompanied a student of mine to the UIL state convention where he was an alternate in one of the competitions. Let me just say this was not the most pleasant traveling experience I've ever had. Right after breakfast on Friday I started feeling pretty much horrible. I don't get sick very often, but when I do, I don't want to be on a trip in Austin sponsoring a student. Well, we still had to get him to the competition to see if he could compete. He found out at about 11:05 on Friday that he would not be able to compete because they didn't need any alternates. So, we have already checked out of the hotel, and we have 6 1/2 hours to kill until our flight leaves. Awesome. I kept thinking about who I felt the most sorry for that day...the 17-year-old who had to hang out with his sick teacher and her husband, the sick teacher, who really just wanted to curl up in a dark hole somewhere, or the husband, who had to make conversation with the 17-year-old when the teacher left them to head to the bathroom. Hmmm. It's a toss-up. Anyway, let's just get to the point without being too graphic. We are finally on the plane headed home (thank goodness for direct flights), and my body decides that it is time to purge whatever small amount of liquids I have been consuming all day. I think it was trying to eat that last Pepto Bismol tablet that sent me over the edge. Those things are disgusting. Anyway, much to my delight I did not throw up all over the plane, and I didn't have to use the barf bag either. I actually made it to the tiny little airplane bathroom, and afterwards felt much better. I only wished that had occurred about 5 hours earlier. Sorry. This was probably too much information. On to other things.

Saturday was a good day. I had a lot of high hopes for things I was going to get done since I have not been in town for a weekend in like a month, but the bug still wasn't gone, so I was really useless. I slept late and sat around for most of the day, except when Chad and I went shopping for work shoes for him. Even then I was still pretty weak from the previous day's shenanigans, so we left the shoe store pretty quickly after he found a pair that would work for him. I had to save up my energy for last night, which was prom. My friend who teaches across the hall from me is the prom sponsor, and I had told her a while back that I would help. So I got to take tickets all night and see all the kids all dressed up, and I also got to peek at the hilarity that is high school students dancing. Seriously, it is so entertaining. Anyway, by last night I was feeling a lot better, but I have still not been very hungry even today. And you know if I'm not hungry then I am not 100%.

So all that stuff that I wanted to do, I got done today. We went to early service and when we got home, we got to work. I mowed the lawn while Chad worked in the garden (update about that to come. We've got a ton of spinach and broccoli coming up, plus our rose bush that we transplanted is blooming all over the place!). I did laundry and cleaned the house while Chad folded clothes and made lunch. By the way, I don't know if I have mentioned lately that I have the most awesome husband ever. He is so helpful and considerate and he does stuff like folding laundry, making meals, working in the yard, and washing the car without even being asked! (Okay, well maybe I asked him to wash the car, but it was just once and he was very happy to do it). We even squeezed in a little time for a nap.

So that's about it for the weekend. It started off not so great, but got a lot better. Thanks for reading. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, yearbooks come in tomorrow. This is the part I like the most, but also dread the most...because I get some phone calls from not-so-happy parents about one thing or another. I guess I'll just unplug my phone for the next few weeks.