so much to say....just not today

Here is a sneak peek of some blogs I really need to start working on.....we have been busy bees for the last month.....lots of travels....full of fun, family and friends! More to come.....

a pancake party for Cooper.....

a soccer game with Ethan....

a trip to Destin for vacation....

Orie's 30th birthday....

and a magical wedding weekend.....

Happy Birthday CGV

It's such a treat when we get to see this sweet boy's face! Last weekend we celebrated his 1st Birthday Party and today we celebrate his actual birthday.

Happy Birthday Cooper! We hope it's full of block building, walking every which way, eating some yummy cupcakes, and terrorizing your big brother!

Substitute Teaching.....WOW

So....on the job front.....I am still in contact with the Catholic schools in the Dallas diocese. I hope to go by most of them in the next few weeks and let them know who I am, I want to sub, my background, etc. Until then......and until a permanent position.....I am picking up work subbing in the DISD. It has been......fun?!?!

My first job was at an elementary school in an "early childhood" room....basically kindergarten. I was not the only teacher (thank goodness). I had a nice afternoon with the kids and everything went pretty smoothly. We sang and danced around the room a lot and played lots of center activities. It was a little frustrating to see the children participating in a curriculum and classroom activities that I did with my 2's and 3's at Mandell in NYC. There seems to be a huge gap in DISD children and those that I have taught before. So - my soap box for a bit - the importance of quality public education being available to families AND helping families understand that early childhood education is NECESSARY and not just an added bonus! Overall it was a nice afternoon and I told the teacher I would love to come back whenever she needed me. She e-mailed me later with nice remarks and that she would call me next time she was out and also share my name with her colleagues....how fun....I'm building a network!

My second job was at a high school. I signed up for this job that was titled business education at the ....Career Academy. I assumed it was a high school for kids who aged out of HS and wanted to go back for a GED or skills training in business. I was a little bit off.....

When I arrived, the teacher asked me if I had ever been there before....when I said no she immediately made me aware that they were a high school offering career clusters training to special needs students. A little different than what I thought but special needs does not run me away. Her room was the Hospitality Training room and she left two activities....napkin folding and making a place mat....9 kids for 4 hours and only 2 activities! I asked where her sub folder was and she showed me but it hasn't been updated since the beginning of last year - so helpful. I had to think quick.....I began brainstorming additional things we could do with her two activities....I looked around the room to see if there was something else we could work on.....I saw that caring was their Character Counts word of the month......I can handle that....I'm a school counselor. Quickly, I came up with a few activities and got some notes together on the way the afternoon would go. The kids came in and were lovely. They folded napkins better than anyone I have ever seen.....just for the record....I can't fold a napkin to save my life. I even had instructions and visuals from a book....no swan for me, no bishop's hat for me, no fancy fan for me.....however....I can come up with an impromptu napkin ring just for effect - a rubber band...the kids LOVED having a "napkin ring" for some of their creations!

The aid in the room kept complementing me on how great I was and didn't I want to teach there full time and how patient I was and how kind I was.....and how hard it is to work with "these children".....don't get me wrong....it was flattering....but isn't that what we are supposed to be? I am still not sure why some people think a teacher would act any different towards a child with special needs than to my 2 and 3 year old kids or my middle schoolers....it baffles me and it's not the first time something like that has been said to me. Soap box again.....kids are kids and people are people.....don't treat anyone any differently than you would want to be treated....

I have several other jobs scheduled for the future within DISD and I am really looking forward to some private school work soon....it's my way in the door:)

What are you doing with your days?

Pink Slip Gourmet

Oh friends....what a tasty treat we had this week.....

On Sunday, my girlfriend over at Pink Slip Gourmet, brought us some yummy treats she created in her kitchen. Boy oh boy did we love being on the receiving end of her recipe/cooking/baking exploration....it was DELISH.

PSG brought us shrimp cheesecake that was excellent and chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse filling and caramel sauce topping that was TO DIE FOR. I'm trying not to be biased here but I do love anything chocolate so the cake was definitely the winner for me.

It was amazing to have a gourmet meal prepared for my husband and have no clean up!

Thanks PSG for being such a fabulous chef.....we'll be your taste testers/leftover garbage disposal/test kitchen recipients any day of the week!

So friends.....run your fingers, don't walk....over to Pink Slip Gourmet and let Chef Lee create something wonderful for you. She will not disappoint!

what we have been up to......

Wow - time sure seems to be passing quickly....here is what we have been up to the last couple of weeks.

Orie has been pretty busy with work....lots of billable hours which is great and he has been working really hard on a court appearance for work. This is great for him in terms of experience and confidence but also on that good ole' resume. He still seems to love his job which is excellent since it is truly where one spends most of their life.

We enjoyed a great Labor Day Weekend with friends too.

Friday night Orie and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather we were having. We grilled out in the backyard and sat outside most of the evening just chatting and getting bit by mosquitoes. I could do without the mosquitoes but I love hanging out in the backyard....especially with Grace and Orie.

Saturday night we watched the LSU game at the house with some friends....it ended up being a pretty fun night. We had some out of towners come over to watch....old friends of mine and some of Orie's and we shared lots of fun laughs as we watched the HORRIBLE LSU game. At least we won though right? I cooked some yummy tailgate treats and we all had a really fun night.

Sunday we just relaxed most of the day and that night I got together with some girlfriends for a glass of wine. It was fun getting to catch up with them and just have some girl time.

On Monday we ran some errands and got our life in order to start another week. Days like that are never super fun but it's nice when we get to have them together.

This week went by pretty quickly since it was a short work week. It was also my last work week at HHH. I put in my notice about two weeks ago and Thursday was my last day. It is definitely time for me to move on and get back in to education in some fashion. Today I had a substitute interview at a school in west Dallas and I will go this afternoon to meet with one of the Catholic Schools in the area. I am so excited about these possibilities! I even have my first DISD sub job on Thursday.....it should be exciting.....a business education class at a tech school! I have to start somewhere right?

We are looking forward to another great weekend! Tonight I am getting together with some work friends and Orie has to work a little bit late. Tomorrow we will enjoy a little Top Golf action with Audrey and Chris and then get ready for LSU/Vanderbilt Saturday night. Gosh - isn't football season fun? If we could just get some of that cool fall weather!

Hope your week has been great and you are looking forward to the weekend....it is almost here! Have fun!

another goody from JSS

For this week’s selection…we present The Commodores performing a musical homage to Patrick Peterson…to the tune of their 1977 hit song Brick House

Yeah he's a freight…train
He's mighty mighty just bringin’ em all that pain

He's a freight…train
The dude is jacked, that’s a fact,
ain't holding nothing back.

He's a freight…train
He’s the baddest everybody knows,
This is how the story goes

You know he got everything
to make the other team outmanned, yeah yeah
How can he lose, with that stuff he use,
Got the size, got the strength, got the speed, what a winning hand!

Yeah he's a freight…train
He's mighty mighty just bringin’ em all that pain

He's a freight…train
The dude is jacked, that’s a fact,
ain't holding nothing back.

He covers and hits, he’s got fearless ways,
make a young receiver wish for better days
He knows he's built and does what he please
Sure enough to knock a bigger man to his knees!

Yeah he's a freight…train
He's mighty mighty just bringin’ em all that pain

He's a freight…train
The dude is jacked, that’s a fact,
ain't holding nothing back.

He's a freight…train
He's the one, the only one,
A real All-American

Shake it down shake it down shake it down now...

GEAUX TIGERS

!!!!!!!!!!!!

LSU Football.....we're ready

Hi blog friends! We are so ready for some Tiger football this Saturday night. I thought I would share some clever inspiration from a family friend of ours. She sends one of these out for each game day and they are awesome. I will try to post each one.....hope you enjoy.....


Just win, baby!

The opening game, the national stage
The Fighting Tigers storm the dome
The crowd goes wild, the band strikes up
We make ourselves at home

And then it’s time for the other guys
Their fans are highly stressed
A bunch of squinting skinny white guys wander out
The coaches look depressed

The Tigers are seething, their energy is fierce
They’re tired of getting no respect
The skinny white guys have turned a pale shade of blue
They’re terrified of what they expect

LSU is fast, lightning fast
The blue guys are confused
They’re caught in a storm of Purple and Gold
Bodies battered, egos bruised

The coaches in blue don’t know what to do
There’s simply no time to adjust
As the time runs out and Tiger points pile up
Their fans file out in disgust

We all lock arms, we sing, we sway
Our hearts a tender glow
Football time is finally here
Hey Fightin’ Tigers, let’s GEAUX!


GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JSS

Grace......

She went for ANOTHER follow up yesterday to the vet. Orie has been so great about dropping her off before work and going to pick her up on his lunch break. He definitely gets canine Dad of the year!

The Doc (LSU VET SCHOOL ALUM - Geaux Tigers) said she looks great and is healing nicely. The sutures (sp?) have dissolved and the swelling has gone down tremendously. He also said her blood pressure had gone down as well but wanted to continue with the medication a little longer.

We still give her two kinds of eye drops 6 times a day and then a morning pill and evening pill. She is much better at it after all these weeks! We are allowed to take her cone collar off while supervised. He said if she doesn't rub her eyes then we can keep it off, if she does rub her eyes then we have to wait another week before we take it off for good. What do you think she did when we finally got home yesterday to take the collar off?.......................of course, she rubbed her eyes immediately! we yelled at her so quickly and loud i thought she would never take the tail out from between her legs.....such an obedient girl....i just wish she knew it was for her own good!

So, we'll see what supervised no cone collar time looks like this evening.....hopefully she can have it off for a couple of hours again.....she had so much fun being able to walk around without it!

Have a super duper Wednesday.....are you getting ready for your long weekend? We are!

the horizon.....

big-fun-exciting-new....things on the horizon.................................................


i'm an official DISD substitute! i gave my two weeks notice at the baby store today and will hope to start subbing full time in about 2 weeks. now don't worry....my new career will not be substitute teaching.....this is just my foot in the door for a counseling position.

i am considering going back to school to get my teaching certification so that i can be a counselor in public schools.....i am also going to sub in private schools in and around Dallas.....hopefully they will see how great I can be in their school home and give me a counseling job!

as i am sure you would assume....orie has been exceptionally wonderful throughout my career dilemmas.....hopefully this is the last step in the right direction and i will be back in a school soon....wish me luck!

babies, parties and babies

I have had so much fun lately with all the special occasions going on... Last weekend I headed to Shreveport for my bestie's baby shower and my sister's wedding shower. What more could a girl ask for on a Saturday?

Carie's shower was perfect.....we had such a great group of hostesses and I really think everything turned out great. I so wish I had pics to show but oh well....go on FB and I am sure you can find something! She got some adorable presents....many of which I totally approved of....!!!!! Lee and Pink Slip Gourmet did an amazing job with the food and presentation. We hope to steal some of those yummies down the road!

That evening I celebrated with Kat and Josh and some of their friends at a couples shower. It was such a fun evening and obviously another wonderful reason to celebrate. No pics of that either....:( We did have some delicious food and great new party recipe ideas...I am sure I will share some of those later too!

Orie had to stay with Grace in Dallas for the weekend while she is recovering. We missed him but I am sure he enjoyed having a little alone time. I am also sure that he got in a little computer gaming time as well!!!

This weekend I celebrated some more! Carie drove over to Dallas and we went to a baby shower for Kaysie. It was lovely as well and so fun to see some old TCU friends. She got some great presents....of course I don't buy off registry since I have so many wonderful "pretty" baby gifts at my fingertips.....hope sweet baby Emily enjoys spitting up on beautiful bibs and burps - cause I love to give them!

After the shower Carie and I went full force to finish off Charlie's nursery and baby gear. I would say we did quite well. She saved a ton of money with coupons because we were smart shoppers! We only had to stop at the glider section one time for a break and didn't even need a coke until our 2nd to last stop.....I would say that is pretty impressive! It was really hard to shop all day with someone and not buy anything though...I tried to sneak in a sweater and hat set for Charlie but Carie said he has plenty.....boo....I tried Charlie!

Orie was a good sport putting up with our nonsense....he helped move gear from my car to Carie's car....grilled some fabulous yummies for our Friday night dinner....rented our movie Saturday night from Apple t.v. and again enjoyed some computer gaming time while we ran our errands Saturday.....I am sure he was not complaining about me being gone!

We hope your last few weeks have been fun....what have you been up to?