Happy Holidays!

I know, I know it's been a while! It always gets so busy in Nov...Dec. that I don't take the time to sit down and really write anything.

Last week we had "Resiliency Training"...which was a code phrase for let's get some random people on our staff some therapy!! NOT kidding. Some of us were 'chosen' to attend the 'training' but all it was was a therapy session with a woman who was trying to play at being a psychic!! All I can say is, it was weird and she picked on people. I stopped making eye contact and quit participating. It was uncomfortable and sad to listen to another teacher who has been at Burnet for like 20 years talk about how it would hurt her if they close that school and she sat there and made this person say back to her, "It will not hurt me." Over and over!

Her psychic vision for me was that I'm supposed to get my Doctorate. After I had introduced myself and basically only said that I wasn't from here, was from north TX, we were affected by the hurricane because Warren and I were split up and not living in the same place, had to move, yadda yadda...she says so when are you going back to school? I said I already have my Masters. So then she says, no you are supposed to get your Doctorate, it's supposed to be Dr. and Dr. I'm like, I don't think so! I'm not going back to school for that...then it was why not...and she kept coming back to it...

Anyway, she picked on me about it, I didn't like it or her and it made me mad and I have to stop typing about it now because it's making me mad again! Who does she think she is? She doesn't know me!! I've already been through my own "resiliency training" it's called LIFE!!! GRRRR!!

List-o-rama:

1. Warren gets to do Internal Med. in Galveston starting in January!! His two classes after that are schedule for Dallas for now, but his director says it's a possibility that they could open up down here in the area.

2. Grace and Pete have settled into the apt. Grace has the routine down now and Pete is working on it. He had a hard time with it being new territory but he likes the windows and he likes trying to open ANY door or cabinet! I may have to get childproof locks for the cat! ha

3. Keep Aunt Lisa in your thoughts please, her surgery is scheduled for this Thursday. She is having her heart valve replaced.

4. I'm sooo glad I have only 2 days of school left! (I took off to come up for the surgery so I could be there).

5. I dislike unpacking. Who knew I had so much kitchen stuff! I am repacking some things to just store away in the extra closet. Tonight I'm going to try to tackle our closet and get everything hung up.

And...I think that's it for now. School is out :)

Yay, Warren came down on Saturday and we laid around and watched a movie & made some soup. It was nice to relax. On Sunday we went shopping for certain necessities...like a couch...and (Warren is rather insistent) a flat TV. I think I may have to give in on that one. He's been hounding me for it since we got married! But it might be best because I don't know that we'll have bedroom space to hold a dresser-type stand with a TV. SO, we might have an extra TV floating around if anyone needs one...that is if they work.

Ugh, we marathon shopped too. I think we went to like 10 places and some of those were the same place, we just went twice!! We ended up going back to some to re-sit on the couch and then take a photo on our phones to remember what we'd looked at.

BUT long story short, we decided on the couch at RoomsToGo last night and a TV at Sears and we've looked at lots of stuff at Target & Wal-mart & IKEA that I'm not sure if we'll need until we unpack cause I'm not sure what kind of storage stuff we'll need in the apartment. Like an over the toilet type cabinet, or a closet shelf, or another dresser. I've no idea what kind of sheets made it or got tossed (but I did find a Tuesday Morning store last night)...random stuff like that.

Also, I am supposed to be getting our deposit back today from our landlords and we are going to sign the lease on the apartment today after school. Warren has been great getting on the phone to people to turn on electric, set up installations, etc. It has been nice to have him down here to do that stuff. Too bad he goes back and starts Family Med. on Monday! Lol, we had actually had that planned pre-Ike because it puts him in the Dallas area for the holidays already.

I am excited to move in! I'll be glad to sleep on a real matress! And get dressed without worrying about flashing anyone! (Luv u Mark! But tired of the air matress and wearing all the clothes!!).

It will be nice to have Grace and Pete move back in over Thanksgiving too...I miss them!!

1. Our date night turned out to be tickets to an Alanis Morissette concert in Houston!! SO much fun!

2. We got to play with baby tigers that same weekend!! So CUTE!

3. I flew up for Halloween weekend and we carved pumpkins at Wanda's and spent the weekend at Mom's relaxing.

4. We heard from UTMB last weekend and they asked for Warren to rank the cities where he would like to start off starting in January...so his top three are Galveston, Houston, and Dallas. Hopefully he will be able to maybe at least go back and forth between Houston and Galveston.

5. We also heard from our landlords on Saturday and she said they had nailed down a time frame with their contractor and he said it would be next spring. (Duh) So she said she needed to give us our deposit back so that we could find a place to live.

6. All of that spurred us to decide to move into an apartment. So we checked on Mark's apartment complex to see if they had anything open and they did. So I got an apartment this past week.

7. Our new address is: 3045 Marina Bay Drive, Apt. 14109, League City, TX 77573.

8. We get to move in next week! I think she said it will be ready on Wednesday of next week. Woohoo :)

9. I went to Ikea and repurchased our bedroom nightstands (thankyouthankyou to those of you who sent us some $$) and a few other things that I knew we threw out...like a set of curtains and a new floor lamp, etc.

10. I also checked to see if they could replace our two bottom dresser drawers that got damaged and moldy...like if they could order the spare parts or something. BUT they had it all right there in their parts department!! So I walked away with new drawers to put together for the bottom of our dresser!! FREE!! yay :)

& that's it for now because school is over and I've been writing this for like 4 hours now! lol

Date Night!

Yay, tonight is date night! But it's a secret! Warren hasn't told me where or what we are doing! He likes to do that sometimes...I like it, I think it's fun...my only requirement is that I have to know how to dress for the event. :-) It's soo nice to have date night again...I've missed spending time with my hubby!

Tomorrow we are going to come down to Galveston to participate in early voting and then going to stop by Mall of the Mainlaind and play with some baby tigers! I'm excited! (I learned about it from the librarian at Parker, she went earlier this week.) Then we will go sit at a restaraunt somewhere to watch the Texas v. OSU football game! Go Pokes!

Also, I scheduled internet hookup for Mark's apt. for NOV. 4th!!!! It was their earliest appt.!!!!

K, later...gotta get ready for my date! Eek!

Also, another Burnet news article...

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=94a1a6b9043c8b81 ...all of the teachers in the article are people I work with...Kusnerick is my Kinder team leader.

Yarn Goodness!!

Yay! Today at school I had WONDERFUL raverly (http://www.ravelry.com/) friends send me yarn goodness to replace what I had lost in my stash. Linda contacted me via ravelry and was asking about the hurricane, etc. and come to find out her sister is the music teacher at the school we are at now! What a small world!

Anyway, Linda and her super friends were all so sad about stinky Ike and wanted to help me rebuild my stash from the yarn I had lost. So a big Texas-sized THANK YOU to Linda, Beverly, Ann, Barbara, Peggy, Amy, Virginia, Laura, and Lianne and to Jolynn who is acutally here at Parker with me! Also, thanks so much to the businesses that helped them too...special thanks to Nancy of Knitting Under the Influence...who I could not find online but I did find a nice article about her here: http://www.giftshopmag.com/news/2008/08/new_knitting_shop_opens . If you have a website or blog then comment me Nancy! And also special thanks to the owner of NimbleFingers a LYS in the Houston area that Jolynn goes too...she is at the following address: http://www.angelfire.com/ok2/knit/shops.htm . Also if you have a website or blog comment me so I can save you and write more about you! I'll have to come for a visit!

Also, ya'll click on Crazy Aunt Purl over there on the side and enter to win the yarn & needles she is giving away!

Anyway, thank you thank you thank you so much for the wonderful yarns & needles that you all sent. It was so sweet of you all. Friend me on Ravelry at kareberrie & keep up with what I am knitting...at some point I'll start adding more projects (cause I have more I'm working on than what is posted of course!) and more yarn!

THANKS, omg you all are so SWEET!!!

XOXO!!

Edit: Yes, thanks for the reminder, Mom...THANK YOU also goes out to the Woolie Ewe in Plano, TX for the two sets of needles you donated to Mom when she went shopping there for me! :-)

I wish I could download a picture of Mark's measuring cup...he has the largest glass measuring cup I've ever seen!

I go to make cornbread yesterday during my stay-at-home sickness (I've had strep the past two days) and I'm at the point where I've got the egg and need to add 2/3 c. of milk and I go to get the measuring cup down wondering to myself if it has a small enough scale to even measure 2/3's with....

OMG, the lowest mark on it was a pint!!! Holy freakin' cow! Why do you need a measuring cup of this size for one person?!?! Maybe his mama sent it as a mixing bowl...cause it is ginormous...and send him a freaking measuring cup set, ok?

Roomate shenanigans!

OMG, so I got locked out of the apartment last night!

Mark texted me about 9:45-ish and said for me to call him when I got to the apartment and he'd unlock the door for me. I was only about 15 minutes away so I thought that would be okay and there'd be no problem.

So, I get there and park and carry all my stuff up and had called and he hadn't answered. So I thought well maybe he got in the shower or something. When I got up the stairs though and called again and knocked, then I thought...omg...he's fallen asleep?!

So I call and call and send 3 text messages, but of course I know his phone is on vibrate b/c that is how it usually is...I call my mom and his mom and they remind me what a HEAVY sleeper Mark is...great.

So after banging on the door for about 30 minutes to no avail and scared that I'm going to wake the neighbors, I punch in hotels on the Garmin and go to the closest one (half mile away) and get a room for the night!

Yay hotels with availability! Boo for not being FEMA approved!

Fun and excitement...Mark of course felt horrible when he woke up around 11:40 pm and realized that I was not there and of course read my texts that were telling him to open the door! I had put my phone on silent b/c I wanted to sleep without being woken up by a panicky roomate and we chatted the next morning. No harm, no foul.

Burnet News Article

On Friday there was a news article about Burnet...

http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=cedc4d33dc85e942

Also, some of you have asked me what our enrollment is running, this was in an email from the Super this morning:

Since GISD’s reopening on Tuesday, Oct. 7 when slightly more than 4,450 students returned to eight of 12 Galveston ISD schools, enrollment has grown by more than 900 students and is now at 78% of the first day 2008-2009 enrollment.

The number of students returning when school reopened was nearly 65% of the enrolled students (6876) who reported on the first day of school in August. While enrollment numbers are not finalized until Oct. 31 each school year, the beginning enrollment was similar from 2007 to 2008.

I am so tired of Galveston. Driving to work in the morning is the most depressing thing, it sets the tone for the day & kills any kind of positive attitude I have going. We drive by (I'm commuting with the Art teacher) piles of trash & debris, houses that are leaning sideways, boats still sitting on the highway, flashing red stop lights, traffic that is made worse because of all the workers coming to work on the island...

Last week when the list I posted yesterday was told to us, it instantly killed any kind of work ethic I had going. If my school isn't opened up then why should I try to solicit donations of books and materials? If there is going to be a RIF, then why should I spend any time or effort on my job to filling out disaster relief forms for the library? Besides all that, what about UTMB? Will we even be living here come January?

I searched the 7 school districts north of Galveston that wouldn't be too far of a drive for job postings...but everyone has a full staff at this point.

Austin has one elementary librarian position open and 3 children's librarian openings in the public library system. Maybe moving wouldn't be so bad.

My body is so stressed from all of this that I missed my monthly last month, which I NEVER have ever had happen...but no worries I started yesterday. lol

I'm just tired. Tired of it all. Tired of seeing it; tired of smelling it (no kidding, it stinks still); tired of being here; tired of being in someone else's space both as a job and living arrangement. (For those of you who don't know, Warren is in our FEMA hotel and wrapping up surgery this week, and I am living in Mark's dining room on his air matress in his apartment). At this point, all I do is show up and get paid and at least there is some security in that. But I really just want to walk away, walk away and not come back. Thank God I don't have to deal with insurance people, although we still haven't gotten any money that I know of from FEMA so we are probably going to have to re-file or do another claim or something.

K, I'm going to go drive by my school that I'm contemplating breaking & entering to steal MY OWN THINGS back from. Then will drop some cat food off at the humane society and go drink half a bottle of wine & go to sleep.

Oh, & p.s. I have no internet at the apartment now, the network we were using secured themselves.

Later,

GISD Update...

Last Thursday & Friday, I was called over to one of our closed elementary schools to help clean out the library part of the building for, I was told, so families who are camping in their field area to be able to move into the school to live. So I guess when FEMA housing runs out, then Alamo Elementary will be opening up to those already living in the field around it to move into.

Per the notes my friend took from a small meeting with the Super last week...she said:

1. Right now Burnet's building has been stablized as far as carpet, dehumidifying, and spraying (?)...maybe for mold?

2. We are losing enrollment.

3. They can't keep putting money into a building that they may not use in the future.

4. The middle schools, Central & Weis, are priority because of over-crowding.

5. January will start looking closer at enrollment numbers and March will have a better idea of if/which school will need to close (right now there are 3 elementary schools closed, two here in Galveston and the one on Bolivar).

6. A district-wide RIF is possible but wouldn't happen until March.

7. If they do RIF, they will look at first your certification, then PDAS, and finally tenure.

8. Scott & Burnet may close if enrollment doesn't rise (if it gets up to 6,000 then they may need to keep both).

9. They are as of now not going to let people back into the buildings to collect personal items.

10. Pre-paid legal says that if they keep denying people access then we can file suit for our items in small claims court.

Note from Mom:

Kim says, "I am not able to post to my blog because 1) I fried one computer; 2) my backup computer is infected with about a dozen viruses/worms and has been in for cleanup for six weeks; and 3) the loaner I have doesn't not let me post to my blog!!" Eek!

Living in Limbo...

Well school started back this week and I am shocked...absolutely shocked at how many students returned. We had alot of Burnet kiddos...they are being bused from all over some as far as Texas City and La Marque (which is across the causeway on the mainland). Our host school(s) Parker and Oppe are seeing less students return because their children feed out of the west end which received much more damage than the middle of the island which is where Burnet students are. Yesterday was tearful...but anytime one of their little faces saw me, or Mrs. Bacon, or another Burnet teacher that they knew, they just lit up and smiled and waved and hugged. It made us all feel better to see one another. Today I saw a rough count of our attendance (Burnet only, we are doing separate attendance for now so we will know how many from each campus are here) and it was hovering around 300 for us. When we left for Hurricane Ike our ADA was about 530. So, roughly 60% of our kiddos are back! Yay!

In other news...read the article entitled, "UTMB avoids massive round of layoffs" here: http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=4c2d61ba4eec5c48 . This worries me. It sounds very ambiguous about if the med school will return?! We could end up in Austin. Time will tell I guess...it sounds like the director is supportive of keeping the school here, but unless they find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and some patients to start rounding on...who knows? Warren is still hearing that they will more than likely start back in January after December break, which is what we had been thinking all along.

There is a rumor that can neither be confirmed nor denied by Warren's UTMB director-man of a 30 ft. alligator running around in UTMB. Eek!

Our landlords are making progress on housing renovations, they got out the flooring and are getting new sub-flooring in already as well as making other little changes too. We'll see. Apparently plumbing is too much to add the W/D inside the house, but building a walkway and carport to have a covered walking area isn't. She is also looking at enclosing the deck, putting in darker wood (or some type of wood-like, pet friendly flooring), putting french doors in the dining room and closing off the kitchen door and putting the fridge there w/ more cabinetry, and an island. Cool! I hope all that pans out :-) Maybe we can move back in over Thanksgiving. Anyone wanna bring down their turkey fryer and some blow-up matresses?! We can have a moving in party for Thanksgiving! lol

Refugee Update:

I hardly know where to begin. First of all, go here for pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sassyartz/sets/72157607602254393/ . Mom is faster than I and has put hers up on flickr...I will probably dump mine there too when I pull them from the camera.

1. We arrived Wed. at Mark's apt. Thank goodness he had just moved to League City. I don't know what I would have done without him. Thank you Mark for opening up your home to us so we would have a place to live while we cleaned out our house! Unfortunately he did not have an internet connection (He'd JUST moved in!) so no blog updates while we were there.

2. It took us 5 days to clean out the house. Wed. thru Sun. all day everyday.

3. Anything salvagable was moved to a storage 1 mile from Mark's apt. Thank you Natalie for finding the storage!! & a free month's rent on it too! Yay! Thanks!

4. Salvagable items are things that are wooden (like kitchen table, bed frame, etc.) and things that were higher than knee deep (like pictures on the walls, some books, hanging clothes, dishes, etc.).

5. I threw away ALL bedding on the beds including matresses. (Still kinda pissed about that, had just bought a nice, new queen matress in our bedroom in July).

6. We duct taped the fridge and thank God a truckload of Mexicans drove by on that first day when we were so overwhelmed and I hired them out for $150 to move out all the large ruined items, like fridge, matresses, entertainment center, couch, chair, washer, dryer, etc. and other things too that we loaded to storage like TV's (dunno about those, they were above water line, but the cords were submerged) bookcases, bedframes, etc. Those guys were a blessing and a HUGE help!

7. Mosquitoes were the largest I've seen since Alaska. Hummingbird size! Lol

8. FEMA lady came and did a walkthrough and the paper work for us to get assistance. Asking what did we lose in each room, etc. She said we would get monetary assistance but she just did the ground work and submitted the paperwork; she was not in charge of approving money. We should get a deposit within 7 to 10 days from Friday (I think that's when she came, it is all a blur now).

9. Warren was able to come down on Thursday to help clean. His butt is draggin from working 13+ hour days on the stupid surgery rotation that A&M has it's student do.

10. I've done laundry for the past two days from 10 am to like 3pm. So far I've done about 48 loads. Yesterday I did about 30ish but it was alot of re-washing things, like first cycle in ammonia, next in detergent+borax, then I inspected each piece and if it needed to go again I'd make a new pile/load and if it didn't then I'd go ahead and dry it. So far, I've only thrown away a little less than a large trashcan full of clothes. I've taken a little bit to the cleaners too. So far I've gone through about $65 in quarters! I have a little bit more to wash tomorrow and that should wrap it up. Then I need to hose out the car! Stinky!

11. I'm sure our hotel housekeeper is wondering what the hell we are doing in here! Lol, each day has added new things this week. First a fish, then a plant and large black trashbags (full of washed clothes), then our entire wine fridge collection is sitting in a chair, now two more plants, and many many more trashbags full of washed clothes. HA!

I'll stop for now, but I do have more stories to tell about our week there...like the looting Mexicans, so stay tuned!

GISD Info

I received the following email today,

"Dear GISD Employees,

We want you to know that we are working diligently to restore our schools for your return. Each and every day we are meeting to receive the latest updates from Arnold Proctor and Fred Niccum about the conditions of our facilities. Additionally, we are attending all of the meetings with city and county officials, as well as, many other key people that are working around the clock to restore the infrastructure and city services to our Galveston community.


Report on the Conditions of Our Facilities/Campuses
The five campuses most adversely affected by Hurricane Ike were Ball High, Central, Scott, Burnet and San Jacinto, mostly due to flood and water damage. We continue to inspect our facilities daily and the reports seem to change as quickly as I can report/update the conditions. At the present time, the District has retained outside contractors that have access to heavy equipment and generators to come in and begin work on our most severely damaged buildings first. The majority of our campuses will be repaired and cleaned within the next 3 days; however, Ball, Central, Scott, San Jacinto, and Burnet will need some additional repair time. As soon as we are able, the HVAC systems will be checked for viability of operation. The number one goal of the entire clean up/restoration process is to dehumidify all of our buildings and keep them dry. GISD wants our facilities/campuses to be ready to go when the power and water come on line, whenever that might be. The GISD Transportation Center experienced high water levels on the west end of the island and plans are underway to evaluate the entire fleet. Seven of our school buses are continuing to assist the city of Galveston. Additionally, the Sheriff’s Department/Fire Emergency Response Services and the Department of Public Safety are using the Crenshaw campus on the Bolivar Peninsula as an Emergency Command Post. The Galveston Independent School District continues to partner with the city and county to lend a hand whenever we are asked to assist during this disaster aftermath recovery phase.

The following conditions need to be up and running before the District will be able to consider opening our schools:

· Safety -- Our facilities must have fully functioning (electricity, water supply, sewer, natural gas)

· Transportation

· Food Supplies

· Support Services (technology)

· Return of our Staff Members – - We are attempting to poll our staff members to see how many will be able to return to work between September 29th and October 3rd.

Please e-mail dyann_polzin@gisd.org to report your individual status!

Please state:
Your name
Assigned Campus
Grade Level/subject you teach
Job Assignment (non-teaching staff)

Presently, we will continue to work on the restoration and dehumidifying of our facilities. We are meeting daily to come up with the best plan possible for our children to return to GISD. We must consider safety first and we are continuing to partner with the City of Galveston as they work to bring our island back. We would like to aim for the target date of October 6th as our starting date to reopen the District; however, let me be very clear this is a TARGET DATE ONLY. Certainly this date is contingent on the city of Galveston being able to have the entire infrastructure functioning and working properly.

Communications Update
Currently, we have large generators set up at the District Support Center and our data systems and servers are functioning and we now have our GISD e-mail https://12.228.125.109/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.gisd.org/remote or https://12.228.125.109/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.gisd.org/mail system in place.

Additionally, the district Website is fully functional. Please go to https://12.228.125.109/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.gisd.org to read the most current updates available, as we proceed with our plans to reopen our schools.

Also, the phone system at the District Support Center (409) 766-5100 is working and we plan to update the recorded message on a regular basis (English and Spanish). Please feel free to call in for the most up-to-date information. We want to keep you informed and we will share as much information as we possibly can…

If you have not been able to return to the Island since Hurricane Ike and you plan to come back to the Island on Wednesday, September, 24th we plan to have staff members present at the re-entry point to distribute a GISD informational flyer along with other information that will be distributed by the City of Galveston.

I hope to see all of our GISD family soon!"

DO NOT go to Houston or Beaumont!!!!

This was the signage on the electronic highways signs (ya know, the ones they use for the amber alerts) leaving Dallas on 45 & 35 "Do Not go to Houston/Beaumont! Limited Fuel!"

I'm thinking, OMG!, I don't have a choice! I MUST go! I want my stuff! If there's any left!

We had fun keeping Olivia yesterday and enjoyed the Plano Balloon Festival. I would post pictures of it but I'm really tired and worn-out and don't really feel like messing with it. Eventually I'll put a slideshow on my MySpace, b/c I'll need to clean off my xD card to take a zillion pictures this coming week.

Here is the new plan...We are currently in Temple, TX...on I-35 between Waco and Austin staying at the Hampton Inn & Suites. We have a double bed room, all that was available. We went and bought a tiny fridge for the room, none of those rooms were open either. Warren begins/finishes out his surgery roation here which begins tomorrow, 8 a.m. & will go for 4 weeks.

Wednesday the island opens up again.

I'm rounding up Mom & Aunt Lisa & Lori to go invade on Wednesday. Mom & I will go stay with cousins Cheryl & Mark who live in Houston area. L&L will come down later...maybe Thursday after we assess the damage. We will try to take out all the stuff (good or bad). I talked to my landlord today and she is hot to trot to begin repair work on our house. She was concerned if we would be returning to Galveston! I told her that Warren would be up here for a while, but that I would be back whenever GISD decided to open the doors and would therefore need a place to stay. She is thinking she will have our house whipped back into shape in 3-4 weeks. I think that would be a mircle in itself! We'll see if that happens.

Tomorrow I have to deal with getting a brake light fixed, a minor amount of laundry (Wanda washed almost all, but I want to wash what we wore yesterday and a few things that I hadn't sorted out for her to wash) and file a claim with State Farm because my passenger side mirror on my car got smacked off my some damn politician sign that flew out of a U-Haul today driving down the road!! Just one more thing to deal with! Like I have time for that! Grrr...

I guess that's all for now, Warren is enthralled by the Cowboys game and I am getting sleepy...thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and for any items that you contributed to us for the clean up of our home!

Today's Info...

Ok, so far no definite word or confirmation that Warren has to go to Temple yet to finish surgery. We are hoping to know by the end of the day...we were thinking they wanted students placed and ready to start on Monday.

GISD has the following news article on The Galveston County Daily News: http://galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=5af1a840c6959d1a

I have finally had a posting from the prinicpal via the secretary on: http://www.gisd.org/1635109142535307/Blog/browse.asp?C=54743&A=398&DomainID=&PostID=36&Month=0

She said, "I'm sending this message on behalf of Ms. Wiley. I spoke to her yesterday and she is well. Her regards to everyone and hopes everyone is fairing well through this ordeal. She asked that I share the following information with you: 1. PAYROLL- Direct Deposits will go out on time. No Checks will be mailed out! GISD will have a check distribution setup on Sept. 25th at the LaMarque Walmart from 8:00a.m.-12:00noon (this is ONLY for those who DO NOT have Direct Deposit). If you are not able to go to this location please email Elsie Schiro (Business Dept.) at elsieschiro@att.net let her know where you need your check mailed. Payroll corrections will be handled at a later date. We have not had many subs but if you see anyone that does sub please let them know about the check pickup location. 2. Several Galveston families are in shelters in Austin and San Antonio. Spread the word that they should be enrolled in that district (temporary). 3. Building status is stated on this webpage-please read. 4. Once cleared to report to school, we will go straight into work mode; making sure classrooms are ready and operable for students return. Ms. Wiley requested facilities place all teacher items in an area to be checked through before discarding. We will see what happened. 5. All CPU's should have been on tables. NO ONE should have had them on the floor since MIS came through to check they were off the floor; but if you moved them, then they are ruined. 6. TEA signed a 10 day waiver for days missed. WHEW!!! I have read everyone's comments and just feel numb. Take care everyone. I'm ready to get back. I have my boots and gloves and God will give me the strength. Syl".

News, finally...

Finally we have news on something! There are NO surgery slots available in Dallas...we think because their surgery courses run differently than UTMB's...they look like they are year long instead of blocked. Warren would have wrapped up trauma surgery this past week and moved onto plastics for the next 4 weeks but now we think he will just be placed into some kind of surgical rotation.

So, we may be relocating to Temple, TX where he can finish up his surgery rotation. He did have the option to take an Incomplete but he doesn't want to lose time on graduation. I am torn between going with him (GISD said that payroll will still be posting to our bank accounts) and staying and subbing in school districts that I am familiar with (Sam Rayburn, Bonham, Whitewright) not to mention connections at each one.

We will look into FEMA housing/hotel in Temple tomorrow.

Nothing new to report as of yet, there is supposed to be an announcement of some sort around noonish, although we are both feeling rather disheartend with the whole project. We are past the point of really caring what they have to say and if and when they decide to keep it open and keep it open for more than a day then we will begin plans to go back down. We both are kind of feeling like we just want to be done with it so we can move on and re-locate.

Please keep Vickie and her family in your prayers, her dad passed away this past weekend and we are going to the funeral later today.

Warren has no word yet from UTMB on placement. We are hoping to hear something soon.

Just Kidding!

Ok so they said for everyone to 'come on down' but then that caused such congestion that they had to change their minds...so now they aren't letting people in and we are out $150 for a U-Haul, or well FEMA is anyways...and we are back to the waiting. Grrrr.....

Into the debris....

We got word today that we can go back. Island will be open from 6 am to 6 pm and we can get our stuff out. $2,000 fine if you stay after 6pm!! We have a u-haul and gas cans, water, bug spray, flashlights, rubber boots, camera, etc. Off we go...

List-o-rama

Even though we don't know when we will be able to go back, we've got a list started of stuff we might need to take...so is just sort of a list to start with of things that we may take back with to start clean-up, so if anyone has these type things we could borrow to use let me know and I'll put your name on the list. I'm not sure that we will take all of it to start with, because no power for one, even w/ a generator...we need to just get stuff out initially before we can start the clean up. The mayor of Galveston is saying that it is just not livable down there and won't be for a long while...I know there is a news story on bodies floating out and a man stung a thousand times by mosquitoes swarming and sewage in the streets, etc. So it may be a very long while before we can get back. I personally would like to get there just to get our stuff out and then begin clean up so repairs can start...living there is the last thing on my mind at the moment!

Also if you think of anything that isn't on the list please comment it.

Here's the list...(Thank you Aunt Lisa for the wonderful list you and Aunt Lori brainstormed!!)

U-haul (checking on it tomorrow)
Storage (checking on storage in Bonham tomorrow)
Shots (I need a tetnus shot, will go tomorrow, and am thinking will get a maleria shot as well)
Generator (Twila)
Ice chests (Aunt Lisa)
Shop-vac (Aunt Lisa and Uncle Steve)
Gas cans & gas (Lisa-1, Mom-1)
Water, for drinking and cleaning (Lisa has 2 gal. collapsible container & 5 gal. non-collapsible)
Coleman stove (Lisa)
Propane for stove (Lisa)
Fans (Lisa has two, Mom has two)
Tools, like axe, pry bar - in case door is swollen and won't open, chain saw - case of tree limbs (Lisa)
Extension cords (Lisa, Mom-2)
Buckets (Lisa, Mom-2)
Bleach
Rags (Mom)
Paper towels
Gloves (need leather & rubber)
1st Aid kit (Warren, it is in his cool F.J. Cruiser that came with a first aid kit inside!)
Rubber boots (Lynn for me, need for Warren)
Face masks (Mom)
Hand sanitizer (Mom)
Soap
Trash bags (Mom-1 box)
Trash can
Boxes or RubberMaid tubs
Packing tape (Mom has 1 duct tape, but we will need more)
We have a lot of carboard boxes that we think are high enough up in our storage that might be fine.
We also have a friend who owns a Taco Bell and he will begin saving all boxes so we will have lots.

Lori said we can probably save our mower & weed eater, just don't pull the cord on them.

NOAA Satellite Images!!!

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/29094C7_IKE.HTM here is the general link for all the island.

My school has lots and lots of damage. :( The roof is very very bad.

Here is the link for our house:

http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IMAGES/ike_c25885903.htm We are 4 streets from the ferry and then looking from the left of that street we are the 3rd house, the one with all the white siding laying around the yard. yay no roof damage!!

Some News!!

Here is a posting direct from the khou.com website, someone finally got someone in there...so now we kind of know what to expect inside our house...

"I live in Fish Village on Trout street and the news is not good. This is a very credible source. My landlord is a retired Galveston PD, so he used this to get onto the island today. He called me a couple of hours ago, while standing in my house on Trout, and told me that basically everything is ruined. Our house is about 2.5 to 3 feet off of the ground, and it still had around 18 inches of water in the inside! He told me that the smell is so bad that everything will have to be thrown away. He also said that the house is not liveable, and won't be for at least 6 months due to the flooding damages. This is basically all we know for now. I'm so sorry for everyone that has damages. I completely understand, my life was in that house!!!!"

Then I said:

"Hi we are on trout too...what is your house number? so we can kind of guestimate what our damage might be on 110."

Then he said:

"We are 107 trout. (the small yellow house) My landlord said that the whole road was pretty flooded. He said that from what he could see, he thought that every house had at least a foot of water. Even the ones that were raised. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!"

He posted this at 3:30-ish today so I'm thinking that this is standing water at this point.

At this point we know it will be at least Tuesday before we could have any hope of even trying to return home -- maybe actually longer. There is no cell phone service there once we go, I'm reading conflicting reports about FEMA blocking cell service. I do know however that AT&T's tower is down and the only service that was still up was Verizon.

I've also read from people that the fish village area of town, where we live, had roughly 2-3 feet of flooding, if that is so then our house may actually be dry. It sits 3 feet off the ground already. I hope and yet I also think it may all have washed away or at least may be so wet as to be ruined. There is also a rumor that two streets in fish village did not flood, but I still haven't gotten a report on which ones didn't or if that is true.

We do have access to many shop vac's and a couple of kayaks if needed. :-)

Also, we do have some furniture in storage both in Bonham and Allen, I may kick Jake out of his bedroom suit and make Lynn get him is own and take mine back! lol Actually I wouldn't, this was part of the reason I didn't take it to Galveston and loaned it out to him. We have an extra washer and dryer in storage. We are possibly looking at replacing a fridge (unless his mom gets herself a new one, we may use her 1968 vintage fridge), living room furniture (some), TV's, beds/matresses?, and various other smaller type furniture items. Clothes I'm hoping can be washed and won't be ruined, although if they sit there for days some of them may get mildew-y.

There is no news from GISD or UTMB as far as school goes. UTMB is posting how things are going at the hospital but no one has thought yet about the med school and what to do with it.

Today we've just watched "Ike TV" off and on all day. No real word or idea on how things are in our neighborhood. I'm currently surfing the forums at www.khou.com for news. I have no news or info from GISD, I cannot log onto email and neither can Warren from UTMB, although they are still posting to that alert page www.utmb.edu/alert . Also if you Twitter, you can keep up with this lady http://twitter.com/leighjones .

They are just saying on the news that UTMB may have a fire or something, they aren't sure where it is located it's just in that general vicinity...check their alert page for more information from them as they buckle down for the night.

http://www.utmb.edu/alert/

Leaving Galveston...

We were leaving Wed. night at 9 p.m.....that is Warren driving in front of me...I was testing out the night effects on the camera...

when we arrived in Dallas at 2 a.m. his sense of humor spoke volumes with the t-shirt he decided to wear as we evacuated...

Computer Model...

Photo courtesy of Weather Underground.com :

Last night's late update...

This was at 10:30 last night...it will begin there in an hour...

Memorandum for Superintendent

Subject: Hurricane Ike Update 6

From: Arnold Proctor

Date: September 11, 2008


Superintendent Cleveland, John Mathis, and I participated in the 9:30 PM statewide emergency preparedness telephone conference this evening. The Emergency Preparedness Center Jack Colley announced that we are now at H-14. Fourteen hours before arrival of tropical force winds. Focus is now on key and essential things to save lives.

The National Weather Service announced that the storm is moving WNW at 12 miles per hour. It is currently 370 miles south east of Galveston. Ike is still expected to strengthen to a category 3 in the next 24 hours. Landfall is expected just west of Galveston Bay. Hurricane winds extend out 125 miles to the right of the storm and 150 miles to the west of the storm. Tropical force winds are expected to reach Galveston at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning. The storm surge is expected to reach 15 to 20 feet along the coast and 15 to 23 feet in Galveston Bay. Rains will begin mid day tomorrow with the heaviest rain from 7 PM Friday to 7 PM Saturday.

State is now concerned about storm surge affecting Port Arthur and up. They expect three to six feet of water in the city of Port Arthur with flooding up to Beaumont.

There will continue to be telephone updates at 10:30 AM , 4:30 PM and 9:30 PM daily through landfall Friday night. I will keep you informed as we know more.

Live Webcam of Ike!!!

Many of us have enjoyed eating at The Spot...well he has strapped down the webcams that they usually have on all the time and pointed them towards the gulf...

http://www.thespotgalveston.com/webcam.html#webcam2

Latest update via GISD --

As of 5:12 pm...

Memorandum for Superintendent

Subject: Hurricane Ike Update 5

From: Arnold Proctor

Date: September 11, 2008


Superintendent Cleveland, Don Roy, John Mathis, and I participated in a statewide emergency preparedness telephone conference this afternoon. The Emergency Preparedness Center Jack Colley announced that Ike continues to move along the same track as a Category 2 but has moved more to the right and is now expected to make landfall just west of Galveston. The wind field extends out 275 miles. Expect a severe threat due to surge. The state is anticipating 14 foot surge along the coast and up to 20 feet in bays and bayous.

The state continues to concentrate on evacuation of special needs citizens. The focus is now on Chambers, Jefferson, and Orange counties. UTMB evacuation is well underway. There are a large number of home health care patients. The state is working with local officials to ensure that no home health care patient is left behind. The state operations center will remain operational throughout the event.

The National Weather Service announced that the storm is a typical symmetrical shaped storm. It is currently a Category 2 with sustained winds of 100 mph. Winds do extend out 275 miles at tropical storm strength. Hurricane force winds are extending out 150 miles. It is expected to make landfall in the predawn hours west of Galveston as a Category 3 storm. There is dry air in the western Gulf that is helping to hold down the strengthening of the storm. The steering currents have not changed. The storm is moving WNW at 10 mph. The storm will track north over east Texas following landfall. Expect tree and power line damage and extensive mobile home park damage. Rainfall is expected to be between 5 and 10 inches throughout the area with some pockets of rainfall up to 15 inches.
There will continue to be telephone updates at 10:30 AM , 4:30 PM and 9:30 PM daily through landfall Friday night. I will keep you informed as we know more.

Memo --

I just received the following memo as of 11:17 AM today:

Memorandum for Superintendent

Subject: Hurricane Ike Update 4

From: Arnold Proctor

Date: September 11, 2008


Superintendent Cleveland, Don Roy, John Mathis, Chief Amador, Officer Brown, and I participated in a statewide emergency preparedness telephone conference this morning. The Emergency Preparedness Center Jack Colley announced that Ike continues to move toward the Texas coast with landfall still predicted along the Brazoria/Matagorda line. Preparation is being made for Freeport to Beaumont/Port Arthur landfall.

Nearly 12,000 special needs citizens have been evacuated already. UTMB evacuation is ongoing now. 600 buses were moved into the Harris County/Galveston County staging areas overnight. The entire statewide shelter system is activated. Six C-130 aircraft are activated this morning and will fly as long as weather conditions permit.

He stated that we cannot overstate the need to keep fuel tanks full.

Twenty five counties are already declared disaster areas by President Bush. More will be added.

The National Weather Service announced that the storm is holding a fairly steady course with the bull’s eye still along the Brazoria/Matagorda line. Ike is a very large storm extending out 275 miles from the eye. There is still a tug of war between the high pressure over the southeast US and the low pressure over the mid-west. Strengthening or weakening of either would impact the direction of the storm. The storm is still over 400 miles away. The storm now is showing 100mph winds with gusts to 120 mph moving WNW at 10 mph. The storm surge is expected to be a Category 4. Tide is now 2-4 feet above normal. Surges up to 20 feet are expected at Galveston.

Mayor Thomas has called for mandatory evacuation of the entire Galveston Island as of this morning.

The storm should exit Texas to the northeast sometime Sunday.

There will continue to be telephone updates at 10:30 AM , 4:30 PM and 9:30 PM daily through landfall Friday night. I will keep you informed as we know more.

Hurricane Ike

It seems that lately I'm doing nothing but post info about hurricanes!!

We are safely away, we left last night at 9pm and made it to Dallas at 2 am this morning.

I left school thinking today was going to be an early release day and did NOTHING to cover stuff in my library then at 6 pm I got a call out that school was closed today and tomorrow. Yay! Oh well, if it's bad enough it will blow away anyways. So sad, I was so happy for my new carpet! And I had just unloaded my new books! :( My principal called at 7 this morning looking for the rolls of plastic that I went and bought two weekends ago. Lol, I was asleep!

Warren came home at 5:30 thinking he was going to have to work some today, then he left for a meeting and came back and said he didn't have to go in at all.

So we ran around outside and stuffed grill, smoker, chairs, table, etc into the garage and nailed up our one piece of plywood (Thank God for storm windows on our whole house!!) to cover the backdoor window. Then packed clothes and the animals...I had already had some stuff packed from the last time or two...wedding pictures, photo CDs, yarn...Warren threw in his autographed George Bush baseball, we loaded computers, the safe, all gaming devices (we were thinking looters) and headed for Dallas!

We thought we might just get to the north side of Houston and spend the night, but when I heard that the eye is going to loop around and Houston would get bad wind and rain we kept driving. I knew that would hit the 10'o clock news and people would start leaving. Traffic was a steady stream most of the way to Corsicana (which is about 30-45 min south of Dallas). We saw many cars with gas cans strapped to the roofs of their cars and lots of motorcoaches that probably had elderly from senior centers and such places. As tired as I was driving, I am so glad we left last night.

Gustav

Hi, we are still here and not planning to evacuate at this time. Our decisions are based upon UTMB...

http://www.utmb.edu/alert/

Go to their link to keep up with what they are telling their students and faculty.

Also, at some point I will catch the blog up! lol

And go to www.wunderground.com for great maps of what is going on w/ Gustav.

Road Trip: Day 4

Today we spent the day running around Colorado Springs. First thing, we got up and baaarrely made it to the Pike's Peak Cog Railway station. If you fiddle around on their site, you will find coupons!! Which we had! Which means we had to get there at 8 a.m.! I think we were the last ones on the train. I jumped out of the car and Warren went to find a place to park, while I ran over and secured us tickets at like 7:58...thank goodness it wasn't full! Below is a slide show of some of the things we saw while riding up the cog...which I would highly recommend by the way...MUCH more informational and it will save your brakes.

Ok so...we went from sea level to 14,100 ft. We definitely noticed! While neither of us got silly enough for an EMT; we did fortify ourselves as soon as we got there with some cocoa and doughnuts. OMG! The best doughnuts EVER! Mmmm...it has something to do with the altitude I think. Go sometime if you haven't...just for the doughnuts. :-)

Then once we rode back down the mountain, we were starving and promptly found some mexican food. Lol. And called and rescheduled another night at our campground, only this time Warren needed a cabin...because by the time our next activity would end it would be too late to leave town...so we headed off to...

...a trail ride through Garden of the Gods!! I was able to talk Warren into a 2 hr ride. Yes! I was so excited because of course 1 hr is just not long enough...you barely get up on the horse long enough to get anywhere! and hey, I'm liking this whole slide show thingy! yea! more pictures!

This was Warren's first time on a horse. heh. But he did really well, his horse even stumbled once and our trail ride captain told him he had a nice recovery. (In other words, good job not falling off!ha). He said he had fun and would do it again! yay!

After all that, we were tired and went and crashed in our cabin. KOA even had pizza delivery!! On a golf cart! ha! We finished the movie we watched part of the night before and promptly fell asleep.

Road Trip: Day 3

We had a wonderful breakfast at Esther & Bill's out on the deck with the geese. I also tried out Bill's scooter!! But didn't take a picture of it...although I probably should have since Warren got excited when he drove it and landed in the wildflowers! (Lol, actually the transition from grass to pavement I think is what caused his momentary tiptoe in the tulips).

Then we headed out to drive through Kansas...(insert cricket chirping sound here)...lol, actually it wasn't that bad. It's just very interesting to see the beginning and ending of a train with nothing getting in the way or half of it disappearing...

We did see what we think was a field or two of lavender...lot's of corn...and wind farms!! The wind farm was neat for us because all the time we see the large propellers leave the Houston area north on I-45...usually we see them when we are driving up to Dallas. We even saw one being assembled!

Finally we made it to Dodge City, KS around lunchtime, where we proceeded to stomp around the Boot Hill area and take lots of pictures. Warren was excited because he got to have a beer in a "real" saloon. I think that was the whole purpose of our going through Dodge City...that and so when we left he could say, "Let's get the heck out of Dodge!" Lol.

I'm trying out a slideshow?! Hope it works!!

When we left Dodge City on the way to Colorado we stopped briefly to see the faint impressions of the Santa Fe wagon trail. I remember them being easier to see when Mom and I saw them roughly 5-ish years ago.

Anyway, we then proceeded on to Colorado Springs, CO and camped out. For the first time. Like ever. Well...it wasn't the backyard anyways!! ha We stayed at a KOA, which had wi-fi and communal showers so it was hardly roughing it. We took a blow-up matress (wonderful!) and our computers and watched about 1/2 of a Will Ferrel (sp?) movie before we passed out. Here was our campsite: it was very dry and sandy! There was a river near it but not easily accessable for photos. Tomorrow...on to Pike's Peak!

Road Trip: Day 2

We set out this morning about 8:45ish, late enough so that by 9 am my optometrist's office would be open and I could pick up my new sunglasses - a must have for a long road trip! Cheapo $5 Wal-mart sunglasses don't do it for me anymore...I need prescriptions! lol

Anyway, knocked that out and then met Mom in Sherman for a quick breakfast at Cracker Barrel and to transfer the animals to her care for a week or so (Thanks Mom!!).



On the road in Oklahoma, we came across our first thunderstorm...Warren got excited and thought it might be a tornado! Ha, I told him that it wasn't...I'd lived in the state all my life and hadn't seen a tornado yet!

We met Ray & Tricia for lunch at Eskimo Joe's in Stillwater. It was nice to get to visit with them and catch up. We came away with a yummie lunch and t-shirts (Thanks Ray!!). Warren was curious to go there and also wanted to see OSU, where I had gone to school and stuff. So we drove around campus and walked through a few buildings and a little bit around the town, not too much cause we did want to make it to Kansas!


We arrived at Esther & Bill's in Newton, KS (about 30 min. north of Wichita) right around dinner time and Bill was cooking a nice steak and some yummie roasted/grilled veggies. About the time we got there it had finally started to rain so we didn't get to eat on the patio! I miss going to their house, it was so relaxing on the river with the rain. Then we played a way cool game Esther had gotten from her sister who lives in Germany called Ticket to Ride (do an ebay search for it), which I will buy when I get home!! We finally crashed after intense gaming! Board gaming that is!

Road Trip: Day 1

Roadtrip beginnings...we waited and picked up Lynn & Steve & kids from their cruise and then followed them up I-45 to Wanda's house. So...day one...we made it to Dallas! Lol. We always get excited when we see the Dallas skyline come into view!

The Arthur's boat came in an hour late, so we didn't get them until about 10:30am, leaving that late makes Wanda's house the perfect first stop!

It was also nice to stop there for the night because we went to dinner with our friend Brian (the best man) and catch up on all that is going on with him and discuss important WoW strategies. :D

Let the fun begin!

Woohoo, Warren took his test!! No more studying!! We were so relieved that we forgot to go watch fireworks yesterday over the ocean! ha

We have also decided that maybe a roadtrip is in order?! Lynn & Steve & kids are on a cruise so we can't go until Monday but I think we may leave out when they do and drive either towards Colorado/New Mexico loop or a deep south loop to Florida and back.

Hmmm...I think the animals may need to go stay with a "grandparent". ha

Antiques Roadshow!

Mom and I started off to the roadshow a little later than the time on our tickets...if we had only known! Our ticket was for a 9:00 am entry time and apparently they have several entry times after that, like every hour on the hour!! So we arrived around 10:30ish and joined a huge line (they really should explain it better...or I should have actually read the back of the ticket!) and you wait in line the whole time until you get close to the end. At least they have something for you to watch...Antiques Roadshow episodes and various facts...and they just show the exciting ones of course to get everyone's hopes up! ha

But standing in line offers many opportunities...to people watch...some people brought truly cool antique items like these people...

I loved the doll buggy...amazing...and I hope the painting makes it on the show. It looks really old & is painted on three wood panels. Very cool.

And then there are the random people with their random items...

I mean how tall is that chair?!?! And the next one!! OMG!! Those are the kitchen chairs Warren and I have right now (thanks Allison) do they really think they are antique enough to bring to Antiques Roadshow?!?

But that's not all...even the white trash people showed up...

Tattoo woman on the left had on a cute black plaid dress...with brown boots! Sooo wrong! But the better to show off her tat's I guess, & she had a nose ring and the front half of her hair was blonde...all that with her kid in a stroller. Then there was old pink hair lady. I think she was trying to get noticed. Ew.

By the time we had stared at everyone and their items for a couple of hours and chatted up the people in line next to us, we finally make it to the entry way. And the pictures stop here because no photos past that point.

When you reach the head of the line, there are six "sorting" tables that you can go to. The line attendant lady will give you tickets for each item you have (two items per person) that tells you what kind of appraiser line you need to wait in. I had an item for decorative arts - I took the mother-of-pearl opera glasses that I bought in Rome - and an item for the jewelry section - Lori had a cameo of her mother's (grandmother's?) that I took for her.

Then you enter the area where they actually do the filming part of the show, which in reality it is very small! It always looks so large when you are watching it on T.V. but they have their camera crew set up in the middle with three areas (left side, front, and right side) with the black covered tables like you see on the show that they prep and then just swing the camera around to film whichever section is ready. They just sort of rotate between each platform/table.

None of our stuff got chosen for filming but we will be in the background of a few items! We were waiting in line for appraisals on what we took. Our totals turned out to be the following:

Mom:
collection of four carved ivory items - about $150 to $175 apiece totaling $600-$700 for the set
collection of ceramic (?) baby dolls - about $15 to $20 each...I can't remember how many there were so not sure of her total...
Me:
cameo necklace - about $50
mother-of-pearl opera glasses - about $125-$175

Our "show" will air sometime next year bewteen January and May. ha We may have forgotten by then!

Are you a rotten neighbor?!

Check out the new link on the side....where you can complain or compliment your neighbors! It is nice because it also will show (on Google Earth) registered sex offenders, area foreclosures, rotten and nice neighbors!

Fortunately we aren't listed either way, ha!

Blueberries Rock!

Today's excursions began with a trip to the blueberry farm. Thank goodness that it was only about 10-15 min. away and not hours! Last year sometime Natalie M. had told me that she had gone to the Canton area and picked so many blueberries that they had eaten on them all winter! I decided I must go! Blueberries Rock!

So, naturally mom and I did some research and found out that there is a farm not far from her, north of Bonham called Walker's Blueberries. We were thinking we would go tomorrow, but when we called to check she was going to be closed to go to a funeral (always smart to call ahead at PYO, pick your own, farms) therefore we were only left with the option of dragging ourselves and Jake (always good to build some character in him when we can) out of bed at the crack of dawn to go pick blueberries (we got there a little before 7 a.m., which during summer is to dang early if you ask me).

It was perfect. We were the only ones there...it was cool...the sun was just rising...the cows were mooing in the nearby pasture...birds were chirping...and blueberries were everywhere!

Blueberries grow on small, bushy trees/shrubs that are not too much over 6 foot. They make for really easy picking, you want "cloudy" berries that fall into your hand when you jiggle them (we were instructed by Ms. Walkers daughter who came out around 7:30, see mom's blog for more 'rules').

Because we were on a tight time schedule, with appointments in Sherman at 9 am, 10:30 am, and then back in Bonham at 2:30 pm, we picked like crazy for about an hour and got almost 2 gallons. Not bad. She charged us for a gallon and a half at $18. Even better!

We were smart and took our own gallon-sized plastic baggies so that what we picked is ready to go straight to the freezer, although she does have half gallon and gallon sized buckets for your use. (Although, if you don't bring bags to take them home in then what do you do I wonder?).

'Driving' me crazy!

I've been at Mom's for almost a week! I swear we have crammed in as much visitin' and runnin' around as we most possibly can in the past 6 days.

I drove up last Thursday a day early because good friend's of ours, Donnas and DeWayne, her mother passed away and the funeral was set for Friday.

So Friday we drove up to Wilburton for the funeral at 2 pm, but before we got there we had to stop at the pajama store in McAlester to buy p.j.'s of course and had to eat the wonderful yummie italian food at Roseanna's. After the funeral we went on to the graveside services. On the way back from the funeral we stopped at Holli and Leslie's where Leslie has a carney wagon full of fireworks!! (see photo for evidence, he even accepts all major credit cards!). We spent the night @ d&d's and stayed up visiting with them. I know they are ready for a breather as they have been taking care of parents (both his and her side) for the past 8 years.

Saturday we drove home to mom's but stopped at an antique store in Atoka where I got a really cool mermaid (she's cast iron...heavy!) and a pulpit. Needless to say Warren thinks I am crazy. But someday when I have a kitchen to my liking I will have a cookbook stand/holder! Brilliant! Then we stopped at the local winery in Caney where mom and them all grew up and I got *almost* a case to help fill up our new wine fridge. Then we stopped at Vickie's will all intentions of seeing her daddy cause he isn't doing so well and I'd like to see him before he passes on. We finally made it to Mom's to change and get ready and then gathered up the rest of the family (everyone except Ashley, who was working, and Warren who is in Galveston studying) and drove back to Durant to see my friend Natalie perform A Night with Natalie Weaver. It was very sizzling with hott red shoes! Loved it! *Muah*

Sunday night we crashed and didn't move out of bed until early afternoon. TIRED! But then we drove down to Aunt Lisa's house to spend the night because we had a workshop just down the road @ SMU the next day...and her house is literally 15 min. down Mockingbird from SMU...so proximity was a must for getting ready and sleeping in! Our workshop was actually in the Methodist church and across from the parking lot was this sculpture...(this is my first video upload and you'll see why a still picture just wouldn't do it justice!)

Monday's workshop was so so...it was on primary source documents but really ended up focusing more on social studies and teaching stratagies not on finding primary sources. Oh well. 6 hrs of prof. dev. knocked out of the way. After the workshop we drove home, of course.

Tuesday we drove back up to Atoka to pick up the pulpit but before doing that we dropped off some stuff at mom's new job at Sam Rayburn (yay! so close!) and then went back by Vickie's to see Earl and had lunch with him. Then on up to Atoka and got the pulpit then stopped at D.C. & Delita's house and visited with them on our way home and then stopped at Vickie's fire work stand because she just had to see the pulpit I got! We finally make it home at some point.

Today, we drove to Greenville for our other workshop and it was all about different technology programs and websites, some we were familiar with and some we weren't. It was worth the 6 hrs...so nice! 12 hrs of PD out of the way! Waahoo! One less thing I have to do during the school year. Then on our way back home we stopped so I could make a pedicure appt. for tomorrow and then went to see Lindsey at her new job at the AT&T store. I added unlimited texting to our family plan (which right now is me, my mother, and my mother-in-law) and to ask questions about adding Warren to the plan.

As you can see...we are TRYING TO SAVE GAS by cramming in as much as possible!! Gad!

I love pie...

I love making pie, even though I don't make them terribly often. I don't shortcut either...I always make my crusts, it's easy for one thing, and it just seems to taste better, in my opinion. I always make the crust from the Better Home's and Gardens cookbook that Gram gave me when I either went to college in Stillwater or got married (the first time)...hmmm...I can't remember, tho I think it was for college. She wrote Bon Appetit! in it and indeed it is my kitchen reference book.

I like the crust found on page 382...

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/3 c. shortening

4 to 5 T. cold water (I always put 5)

and that's it...oh yeah, in the fine print of the first step (if you like to read the directions) add a little bit of salt. Mix. Cut shortening and flour together. Add water. Knead.

This was for a single pie crust.

For a double pie crust make it 2 c. of flour, 2/3 c. shortening, and 7 T. of water. So not quite double the recipe.

Today I made a rhubarb pie. I had never had rhubarb (in anything much less pie) until I went to Esther's house (one of the most relaxing places I've been). Then every time after I went, I would secretly hope that she would make another one it was so good!

Last spring when we had a recipe shower, she sent the pie recipe! Alas, there is never rhubarb in the grocery store! (Maybe people secretly line up and wait for the coveted rhubarb to be shipped in and placed on the store shelves so that they can snatch it away before I get there!)

Last week, there was rhubarb! 8 stalks...I bought 4, hoping desperately that it was enough to fill up a pie crust. I had no idea how much was needed and debated buying it all...but figured that 4 stalks about a foot long each (think of a really large red celery shape) would surely be enough to fill a pie crust.

I made it home with the 'barb and got out the recipe:

3 c. of rhubarb, cut in 1 in. pieces

1 egg

1/2 c. sugar

1 T. flour

1/2 c. milk & cream (half &half or a combo of whatever is available, even yogurt).

Hmm...do I cook the rhubarb?! pre-pie? I emailed Esther and she said, "no, just cut into one inch to half inch pieces and bake."

This sounds too easy.

So I made it...beat egg, add sugar, flour, milk/cream and mix until smooth. I had none of the alternatives listed and so used sour cream...it was the closest I had in the fridge and I thought if I used all milk it would be too runny. Add rhubarb and toss to coat. Make crust. Dump in pie shell. Bake at 400 until custard is set. Hmmm...that turned out to be 30-40 min. Warren saw it below before it went into the oven and said...
"What the hell is that?!"
"Rhubarb," I said.
"Is it good?" he asks...like I would make something bad...

"When have I ever made you something that tastes bad?" I asked.
He retreated back to his studies.

I rest my case.

Top with crumbs and bake about 10 min. more or until brown (crumb topping is...1/2 c. of sugar and 1/4 c. each of flour and butter, cut until crumbly w/ a pastry cutter). DO NOT use spreadable butter in place of the stick kind!! I learned my lesson...I thought about shortening instead but wanted a more buttery flavor...oh well, live and learn. Tho the pie looks edible, no? Also, Esther uses about a third of that topping and freezes the rest for other pies later. I however used it all b/c I like to have the top covered and was unsure how the spreadable butter would bake and wanted enough left on top to cover it. (I thought it might melt down into it...)

Well, about an hour ago he comes out of hiding and asks, "Can I have some pie now?" Lol.
Curiosity got the better of him...and I warned him that it is kind of tart and tangy...sort of sweet and sour. Just so he would know...

So we have some w/ vanilla ice cream and he eats the whole piece (and only made a face once, lol)and declares that he thinks he'll eat the rest of the pie and that I can't have anymore!

Ha! Like I would make bad food! :)

It did turn out really good despite the wrong butter in the crumbly top, which didn't turn out looking very crumbly. Oh well. Taste is all that matters.

Garden Pictures!

I've decided I am a photo blogger. I like lots of pic's to show what I'm talking about...or maybe I just like taking pictures! ha Possibly because I am a visual person...

Anyway, Mom requested some pic's of our gardening adventures here is some before and after herb garden pics...

Going clockwise from the top there is mint, rosemary, mexican heather, dill (not yet up), cilantro, sweet basil, oregano, and lavender in the middle with tyme beside it (not yet up either).

And now in this hot weather we are having (with NO RAIN) it looks like this....

I should have watered so it would look all pretty in the picture. The oregano and cilantro are thriving! The cilantro gets bigger the hotter and dryer it is! It is starting to bloom and from that I will get corriander (I think the flower seeds are called that). It is overshadowing the dill, which I hope will just flower and come back up next year...it is sparse.

I also did some container items...like 4 tomato plants! and two jalapenos and I have a red pepper that needs to go in a pot!

Here they are just planted...with the kitty and a bit of door frame thrown in for some perspective.

I think maybe it had just rained!

This is sooo much dryer than last summer. Last June we had afternoon showers and rain at least once a week. It's rained maybe twice so far since early May...?!

Here they are now...with some door frame for perspective. They are at least chin height (the viney ones on the left). They make the sweet 100's...small cherry type. Mmmm...we've had 4 so far! And there are lot's more on there that I hope will start turning red at the same time! Instead of one at a time! Lol...the other two are patio tomatoes and are a little bit bigger..about the size of roma's. They have lots of green ones too. Must be the tomato miracle grow!

Downward dog...

Grace and I went to yoga last night. Well more like she stretched out in the car and slept while I went and contorted myself into a pretzel!

I've been going to the Methodist church where a guy is doing yoga 3 days a week at 6pm...since...January I think and I love it. His prices are way low compared to a studio only $6 per session or $45 for 8 sessions...WAY cheaper than the yoga studio link I have on the side, but he is also a teacher there so I leave there link on. During school I've only gone 1/week sometimes twice, but I think I'll step it up this summer and go whenever he is there or I am home. It is very casual and relaxed and it doesn't matter if you've ever done yoga or not.

One of my teacher friends from school goes with me, Angi...we also walked after school during the year, but now we are adding it to walking after yoga! OMG! So last night was our first and it felt nice to stretch and get some exercise. We walked about 30-45 min. after an hour of yoga. I took Grace so she could walk afterwards with us and her tongue was draggin by the time we were done! But the nice part was there is a hose and dog bowl on our route around the block...someone obviously walks their dog that way too! How thoughtful :)

Per Mom's request I will take some more pic's of our garden and tomato plants and you can see before and after pic's tomorrow...later!

Summer updates...

I'm as bad as the kids...school's out for the summer and what have I done?! Play WoW of course! ha I'm a video game addict. Hey, at least I'll admit it.

My first week off started with a run up home to see Lindsey graduate high school. Go Linds! Her graduation was much shorter and less tearful than Ashley's for some reason. Maybe cause Ashley was first we were all a little misty eyed, but for Linds we were more just excited. Woohoo!

ALSO...yesterday as I was cleaning through the mail (cause we tend to let it stack at times...I'm bad about not going through it and Warren can't throw any of it away!) I got TICKETS to ANTIQUES ROADSHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! June 28th in Dallas, and you can only take TWO things. Gad. That's a major dilemma.

Around the house, we planted an herb garden this spring along with potting several tomato plants and peppers...all the stuff to make salsa! ha Yesterday, I picked our first tomato, the only sad thing is it's one of the small sweet 100s (like a little cherry tomato) and we may have to slice it in half in order for us to both have a taste of the first tomato. I also planted some patio ones and they are surprisingly bigger than expected. Could be the miracle grow. :-) The jalapeno's are flinging peppers all over the place and the cilantro is growing like a weed.

Warren is studying studying studying and has moved his testing date for the first step of the boards back twice. His date is now July 3rd...his reasoning is b/c the next day is July 4th and he wants to be off. ha Lynn & Steve & the gang are expected down around that time to leave on a cruise. I swear it will be their first time to leave Texas. lol...ok so they do go to CO from time to time. But Mexico?! Maybe they're running low on amoxicillen. They'll have a fun trip. It will be the first cruise for them all...wish I was going too!

That's all for now...I have some knitting to blog about but pic's must accompany it so stay tuned.