Bible Study and BBQ

Some of the ladies at my church decided we wanted to do a Bible study this summer and I have been looking so forward to it. Today was the first meeting and we are going to meet every Tuesday for six weeks. We picked, "Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed: A Study of David" by Priscilla Shirer, Beth Moore, and Kay Arthur. With those three names on the Bible study you know it is going to be good! I love Beth Moore and Kay Arthur and I have had the chance to hear Priscilla Shirer speak at a Women's Conference in Houston and I really liker her too.

The Bible study was at Linda and Jerry's house in Silsbee. You might remember that Jerry is the sweet man at church that shares his homegrown vegetables with us. In the picture above he is slicing peaches he picked off his peach tree this morning for us to have in our peach tea.

This is a picture of Jerry's amazing garden! Every time I go to their house I go outside and admire their garden. You name it they pretty much grow it. They have sweet peas, potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes, jalapenos, green beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, eggplant, and much more...it's like having a produce department in your backyard. I would love to have a garden like this one day. I would really love to have a gardener to take care of it too :)

After the Bible study, mom and I had to go to West Texas Style Bar-B-Que for lunch. It is one of my favorite barbecue places and since I hardly ever go to Silsbee I try to eat there when I do.

I ordered the chopped beef sandwich and potato salad. It was so good! Besides the amazing barbecue the other reason I really love this place is........

The pie!! They make the best pie I have ever eaten....just like grandma would make!

Look at that meringue...so beautiful!

Mom and I both love barbecue and could eat it for every meal so we were two very happy people when we left :)

Last Class!!!!!

Today was my very last class EVER in the Masters Program at Lamar!! After class today my mom took me to eat at Jason's Deli to celebrate.

Of course, I had to document the occasion so I had mom take a picture. I realized after I looked at the picture that I had my Lamar shirt on. I didn't plan on wearing it on purpose but it was an easy (didn't have to iron it) choice to put on as I stumbled out of bed this morning. I felt sort of sad today as I got in my car thinking that this is the last time I will have class in that building, but I got over that by the time I drove out of the parking lot  :) I do have to go back to Lamar tomorrow to take my principals test so please pray for me  that I will pass it. I finished the coursework and will graduate in August whether or not I pass the test, but I have to pass the test in to get my principal certification in the state of Texas and be able to get a job as an administrator one day. You can take the test as many times as you need to to pass but I am believing I will only have to take it once! Thanks for your prayers!

Old Friends

Mom and I got to have lunch today with some old friends. Not old as in age but old as in known each other a LONG time :) Linda is one of my mom's best friends from high school and Roxan is her daughter. Linda lives in Round Rock and Roxan moved to Port Neches a year ago when she got married. Roxan is also a teacher and we have been saying that we need to get together and it's sad it took this long, but I am glad we finally did. Her mom happened to be in town this weekend so it worked out great that our mom's could get together too.

We had so much fun catching up. Linda and her family lived in Port Neches when we were kids but later moved to Round Rock near Austin. My mon and Linda would get together and all the kids would play for hours. Roxan is my age and I have such great memories of those times. It's crazy because Roxan lived in Round Rock and met her husband online...he is from the Fort Worth area...after they were married he got a coaching job in PNG...where Roxan grew up and went to school. Roxan said she could never have guessed that she would be teaching in the same school district she went to school in or living in Port Neches where she grew up. Funny how life works out!

Me (holding Stephanie), Katherine, Roxan, John Paul, Glenn, Tracy

This is a picture of all of us at Roger's Park when we were little with Jennifer's (another friend of mom and Linda's from highschool) kids too. FYI-that's our station wagon in the parking lot on the left :)

After lunch mom and I went shopping on Boston Ave. I am not in that area much so whenever I am I love going shopping at the cute shops in the downtown area.

I especially love this little antique shop. I love looking in antique shops although I never buy anything. Most things are way too expensive and I wouldn't really use any of it but is is fun walking around just looking. You never know what you will find. 

It was a great day and I am looking forward to getting together with Roxan again soon!

Rainy Day

This morning as I woke up to the sound of thunder and rain falling from the sky I thanked God for the rain! I don't know exactly how long it has been since it really rained in Southeast Texas (we've had only a few short sprinkles here and there), but I know it has been a VERY long time to the point we were in an exceptional drought which is the worst category of drought there is. I looked on the KBMT website and found this information on the drought..

"The 2011 Drought is the 3rd worst since 1895. Only 1918 and 1956 were worse droughts in the state's history.  The eight month period from October 2010 through May 2011 was the driest ever.  Half of Texas is in an Exceptional Drought - the worst category."

There have been too many wildfires to count and I know seeing the rain today was an answered prayer for many people all over this area especially the farmers. I know my little blackberry bushes and the grass were thankful for a good drink of water.

I love rainy days when I am home and get to stay in my pj's all day and not do much of anything. Today was one of those days except I did work on a project I have been wanting to do. I updated my planning journal that I made a while back.

This is the first one I made. I found the idea on a blog and printed the free printables from that blog to make the journal. They are cute but they really aren't my style and I never did like it that much.

So, I bought some decorative paper at Wal-Mart and made it more me. I love zebra print and pink together and I like it so much better now. I am thinking I want to decorate my new classroom in zebra print and pink or red..but that's another post :)

I also updated the sections in my planning journal. The sections I included are: budget, goals, to do, to buy, ideas, crafts, important information, and contacts. Most of the sections are pretty self explanatory such as budget, goals, contacts, and to-do. The "ideas" section is for blog ideas, organizational ideas, decorating ideas, craft ideas, etc. The "crafts" section is for information on crafts I want to make or pictures of crafts that I would like to try and make. The "important information" section is for any information I want to store and keep such as passwords, important paperwork, phone numbers, etc.

I used the extra paper and made pages to put in each section. I made a page to record my spiritual goals, long-term goals, my bucket list, and a wish list and put this under the "goals" section.

I made a spreadsheet for my finances on Word and put it under the "budget" section.

I found this to-do list at http://www.printabletodolist.com/ and printed several out and added it to the "to-do" section. I love that website because everything is free to print and they have several different types of to-do lists to choose from.

I printed out Karen's Kingsbury's book list and added it to the "To do" section because I want to read all her books and I can mark them off as I read them.

I added this information on how to crochet under the "crafts" section.

I found a 2011 at-a-glance calendar and printed it on the zebra paper and added it to the "budget" section.

I love how cute it turned out and it is such an inexpensive and easy way to keep everything together and stay organized. The binder cost me $3.00 (I used the same one from last time), the paper was $1.50 at Wal-Mart, and the printables were all free or I made my own. It's crazy how much I enjoy doing things like this :)

Days Gone By

My Great Aunt Lillian died this past Wednesday and her funeral was this morning in Sour Lake. We always called her Aunt Nuna...which was her nickname as a child. She was my mom's aunt and my Grandmother (Grammy's) sister. She lived to be 91 years old and still walked her dog around her neighborhood twice a day. I hope I have as much energy as her when I am that age. The funeral was beautiful and she will be greatly missed.

Mom and I rode with Grammy to the funeral and afterwards we were talking about the house where Grammy and her siblings were born and raised. I mentioned that I had never seen the house, which is in downtown Beaumont, so we decided to drive by and see the lot where it use to be. The house was actually torn down years ago and the lot cleared.

The house was on Shamrock road in Beaumont

This is the lot where my Great Grandparents house use to be. Grammy and Mom described it to me as a simple white house with a front porch. Grammy and all her siblings were born in the house. My Great Grandfather died when my mom was very young and my Great Grandmother lived in the house until she moved into a nursing home later in her life. I remember going to the nursing home when I was little with Grammy to visit my Great Grandmother. I also remember us sneaking in M&M's to give to her since they didn't give her any candy and me feeding them to her.

My Mom has many memories of staying here with her Grandmother during the summers when Grammy had to work. She remembers how her Grandmother would get her and her brothers all dressed up and they would walk downtown to get ice cream. How times have changed....I can't even imagine getting all dressed up just to go get an ice cream cone. I really wish the house was still there and that I could have seen it, but it was still a neat experience to get to see where my Great Grandparents lived.

Zumba Fun!

I have been wanting to take a Zumba class forever and it is actually #16 on my Bucket list. I am happy to say that I can now cross it off my bucket list because I went to my first class on Monday with some ladies from my church. We all had so much fun that we decided we are going to do it every Monday this summer. I might even try to go on Thursdays too.

Ready for Zumba

I won't lie, I was a little intimidated to go because I would not call myself a dancer by any means but I do love to dance. I took dance as a kid but then became interested in cheerleading and tumbling so I really haven't danced in years. I cheered in high school but cheering is so different than dancing. I think everyone was feeling like me but our instructor was so nice and made us feel very comfortable. Zumba reminds me of Salsa dancing and my hips don't really move the way our Zumba instructors did but it didn't matter..all you have to do is keep moving and you really do start to catch on. We had so much fun and I now LOVE Zumba. I liked all the variety of dances she did..some fast and some slower and the music was great.

 I exercise at home by doing a walking video that lasts thirty minutes but I have wanted to find another form of exercise that is more fun. Zumba is perfect because you are dancing and having fun and it didn't feel like we were there for an hour at all. I had asthma as a kid and still have troubble with high impact exercises liek runnung so I was worried that it might make me wheeze or get winded but it didn't. After each song we would take a short break to drink water and catch out breath and that really helped. There were women of all ages in the class. I was so proud of my mom for coming with me. She did great and wants to go back too.

After Zumba we went to the Yougurt Spot for frozen yogurt. It was the perfect treat after our workout.

Kathy enjoying her yogurt

Melissa enjoying hers too

Next time I hope more of the ladies from church can come and try it out. It's always more fun to exercise with friends!

Girls Night In

I always look so forward to girls night each month with Katie and Alecia. Usually, we go eat and then go to Rao's for coffee and dessert, but this time we got to spend time with a really handsome boy....

There he is sitting in my lap :) We went over to Katie's house on Saturday so we could see her little boy Ryan. I hadn't seen him in a few months and I enjoyed playing with him and seeing how much he has grown and changed since the last time I saw him. He is so adorable and I loved this moment in the picture above when he crawled in my lap and let me hold him...so sweet :)

We ordered a pizza,  picked up some rocky road ice cream and talked for hours. It was the perfect girls night in! 

Summer Salsa

Mr. Jerry from church grows a huge vegetable garden each year and is so kind to bring fresh vegetables to church and give them away. Since I am not growing vegetables this year and my blackberry bushes are withering away from the heat I am always willing to take them off his hands :) This past Wednesday he gave me a cantaloupe, tomatoes, and some peppers. I love salsa and chips so I decided to make homemade salsa with the peppers. I combined several recipes I found online and created my own recipe (look below). 

Jerry's beautiful peppers...aren't homegrown vegetables just prettier than the store bought ones?? I can't remember the name of these peppers, but he said they are about the same heat wise as a jalapeno.

Summer Salsa

1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes with their juice

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 small green bell pepper, seeds and veins removed, and minced

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chilies with their juice

1 clove of garlic (I used 1/2 tsp of the garlic in a jar)

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

chopped pepper/jalapeno to taste (I like mild salsa so I used 1 of Jerry's peppers)

2 limes, juiced

chopped cilantro to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and chill. I like my salsa chunky, but if you don't you can put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until you like it. Serve with chips and enjoy!

It would also be good with diced avocados, red onion, or even chopped mango or pineapple for a summer twist.

Summer is Here!

Today was the last day of school and summer is finally here! I am excited that school is out but the last day is always bitter sweet. I get really sentimental on the last day of school. We had our fourth grade award ceremony this week and that always gets me. Each teacher takes turns and tells the students how proud they are of them and this year one of my coworkers read the sweetest poem to them and we all got teary eyed. It's always sad for me saying goodbye to my students on the last day because you spend nine months with them and then it's over and you are not sure if you will ever see them again. Some will move away this summer and some I will get to see next year as fifth graders. I was taking my students pictures off a bulletin board I made at the beginning of the year and it is crazy how much they have changed from the beginning of the year to the end. They have not only changed physically but they have learned so much since the beginning of the year. It's fun to see them grow and learn all year and be a part of that. I am so proud of our students this year. We had a great group of kids. I will miss them next year but I know I will have another great group of kids to get to know. 

Until then, I am really looking forward to this summer. I have taught summer school every summer for the past four years and this summer I decided to take a break from it. I already have a list of many things I want to do this summer but most of all I want to spend time with my family and friends and enjoy the break.

  While teachers and students are resting this summer the construction crews will be busy building our new school. Last we heard they are ahead of schedule and we will move in in October of next year. I am so excited about it and I drove by the other day and took a few pictures of the progress...

The Front of the school



Wonder where my classroom will be???

The Gym