I was just looking at the calendar and realized that tomorrow is the end of March! That seems impossible. Wasn't it just Christmas? I can't believe how fast time is flying. With the exception of this week, I think I'd really like for things to slow down just a little bit. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to this school year. Tonight was open house at school and for the first time ever I wasn't racing against the clock to get everything ready. This amazing triumph was not the result of my wonderful time management skills (yeah right!) but instead was the product of my wonderful class literally doing everything to get ready for the night. They did it all. I'm one lucky teacher! I'm going to try hard to really enjoy every day with these kids because if I don't, I'll really be missing out.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
My little run-in with the FWPD
I was going to write a fun little post about how exciting it is that my parents are putting a pool in their backyard. And they started digging it yesterday. And it's a big hole in the ground.
But instead, I'm going to write about how I had to call the police for the first time ever in my life tonight. First of all, don't worry, everything is ok. My sister and I headed out this evening to go pick up some food for the family. Since we were leaving from my parent's house my offered to let me drive her car. I believe my response was, "SWEET." She has a very nice, sporty car that's really fun to drive so I was pretty excited. In fact, as we were pulling out of the driveway I was telling Ashleigh about how Mom has come a long way in offering to let others drive it. So we go get food, we're on our way home, minding our own business when the car right next to us totally runs into the back driver's side of the car. I'm like in shock that someone has just run into us and start to pull off the freeway. The other car starts to do the same thing and then just keeps going! They didn't even stop! This made me very angry, and I don't really get very angry easily. So, anyways, after a brief consultation with Dad, we decided we needed to call and report it to the police.
I call 911 and report the accident and the nice dispatcher says she will send someone out. After waiting about 15 minutes two very nice police officers arrive and take all the information. Also, because my sister is a genius she actually got the license plate number of the car, so that was helpful. After asking me a thousand questions they let us go. The damage is minimal and luckily we weren't hurt, but it isn't really something I want to live through again. And, what are the chances something like that happens when I'm driving someone else's car?? Crazy.
Here's a picture of the pool in it's current state and one of the police cars that came to our rescue...
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
3 States in 3 Days
Sunday morning my sister and I got up super early to leave for a little Spring Break Road Trip. We were headed to Nashville, Tennessee. Ashleigh was going to visit her BFF, Stephanie, and I was just going because I've never been to Tennessee and I'm never going to make it to all 50 states if I never leave Texas! So, off we went. This is what it looked like for the first couple hours of the drive...
We made it to Arkansas in record time...
After we crossed the border we stopped at a truck stop to take a quick break that turned out a little longer. It is very difficult to get out of these places, especially when there is a long line of truck drivers purchasing fuel. They have to give everything short of a blood sample it seems. Anyway, we hit the road again and before we knew it we were across the Mississippi River and into Tennessee...
I loved driving through most of Arkansas and Tennessee. The hills and trees made it a very pretty drive.
Monday morning, Ashleigh and I got up early again (something that is so NOT a gift of either of us) and explored Nashville. We saw the Parthenon. No, we weren't actually in Greece. Nashville has the only full-scale replica of The Parthenon in the world. I'm not really sure why. We also saw Opryland, some Civil War-era Plantations, Civil-War battlefields, Hard Rock Cafe, Music Row, Vanderbilt University, and many other things. 
In the afternoon we headed to a little suburb south of Nashville called Franklin. The cool thing about Franklin is that pretty much anybody who is somebody in the Country/Christian music world lives there. It's a really cute little town but, unfortunately, there were no star sightings. We did, however, find Steven Curtis Chapman's house! I mean, we found the driveway. But still, it was very cool.
After we were finished stalking, I mean sight-seeing, we spent some time learning about the Battle of Franklin. This was the bloodiest 5 hours of the Civil War. We also saw a house that still has bullet holes in the walls. We just talked about the Civil War in Social Studies at school so all of this was a little more interesting to me. Here's some more pictures from the Carter House...
Monday night we went back to Franklin with Stephanie and her husband, Ryan to eat. We had a really fun time and laughed a lot! Tuesday morning we got up early AGAIN! This time we hit the road to head home. We made it to Nashville in about 10 hours but it took us about 14 hours to get home! We made several interesting stops along the way...
GRACELAND
I'm honestly not really a huge Elvis fan but felt like I'll probably never have the opportunity to tour Graceland again, so we went for it. I do have one concern. If you're going to charge $33 to see the house maybe you could at least have free parking? Ashleigh lucked out because she still has her Baylor ID card (they don't have dates on them) and she got the student price. A few hours later she realized she was wearing her Baylor ALUMNI shirt!
The tour was interesting and I'm glad we did it. My favorite part was watching the people who were obviously huge Elvis fans. I'm talking Elvis shirts, Elvis pants, Elvis everything. I think I even saw some people a little teary-eyed at his grave. We also got to see Elvis' cars and go inside his airplanes. It isn't documented anywhere but Elvis may have been a Baylor fan. Green and yellow were used often throughout his planes. 
THE LORRAINE MOTEL and NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
The Lorraine Motel was where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while visiting Memphis in 1968. It's actually closed on Tuesdays so we didn't get to go in the museum. It was very cool to see a very important part of America's history, not really good history, but history none the less. 
BIG DAM BRIDGE
After our two Memphis stops we were back on the road again. We drove about two more hours to Little Rock, Arkansas. In Little Rock, there is a dam on the Arkansas River. In the last couple years the city built a pedestrian bridge that goes over the dam. People walk, run, and bike across the almost 1-mile bridge. I guess they felt like calling it what it is, a Big Dam Bridge. It was a beautiful day in Little Rock so there were tons of people out exercising on the bridge. We walked about halfway across and then turned around. It was good to get out of the car for awhile.
After Little Rock it was long 5 and half hours home. We made it home at about 10:15. It was very quick, but very fun little trip. I think I can officially cross Tennessee off my "States to Visit" list.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Well Hello There
I'm not really sure what caused my blogging hiatus but I'd say that I've certainly had one. Of course, I could totally blame my lack of blogging this week on Daylight Savings Time because seriously, losing ONE HOUR of sleep has made me SO tired for a whole week! Three out of four nights this week I was totally in bed going to sleep at 8 o'clock and having no trouble sleeping all the way past my alarm. All I can say is, thank you very much time change! Fortunately, next week is Spring Break so I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of catching up.
In some slightly more exciting news, check out what came to pick me up for lunch at school today:
I know right?? Seriously, it did come to pick me up for lunch. But...it also came to pick up 11 fourth graders and we were just going to lunch at CiCi's. Not quite as glamorous, but still super fun!
Today was also a very big day for the Baylor Bears! The 9th seeded Bears knocked off the #1 seed Kansas in the Big 12 Tournament. Winning this tournament is basically Baylor's only hope of making it into the NCAA tournament. They will take on Texas tomorrow night! I'm seriously considering wearing these tomorrow to show my support:
I've been meaning to blog about my new favorite pair of shoes but I guess I've been sleeping. I was able to custom design these shoes as a gift from my great friend Kristy. It was very cool to pick out colors and see them on the computer screen and then in just a few weeks be able to wear them! I can now officially be decked out in Baylor gear from head to toe! One of the best gifts I have ever received, no doubt! Thanks Kristy!
Well, that's all I've got. I think next week is going to provide some real excitement so I'll save some news until then. Happy Friday!
