My fellow teachers...

Here are the lovely ladies that I teach third grade with.

(I must not have realized everyone was going to wear blue or white that day - the pink isn't blending in too well)

From left to right:

Sara Rice, Me, Michelle Stapp, Holli Richerson, Lorena Perez and Katie Foust.

I see them all day every day.

We have great conversation.

I'm always laughing my head off.

We're good at complaining together to "get over" something.

We've shed a few tears together.

We already have code words.

They're honest and real.

 They've helped me more than I could have imagined.

I love working with them!

Let's be honest... coming to Texas wasn't my idea. Not. At. All. I wasn't completely on board but I took a huge leap of faith (my biggest leap yet) and came with Ken - the alternative was him moving alone. A lot of the time I wish I were home in Utah. I won't lie about it. I miss my family, home, friends, and former school and coworkers. But I can say one thing... I have completely fallen in love with all 17 of my students and cannot imagine not having met them or any of the wonderful women in the picture above. 

I love this quote!

I've learned a lot about each of my coworkers and am amazed by their strengths - a lot of battles no one would know about. Coming to Texas has made me realize how strong I am as well. I love being surrounded by people who are strong. They're helping me adjust to a life in Texas that still feels very much outside my myself. I am truly blessed to have landed a job with this group. It has made the transition a little easier.

Paper Sale and Bar Louie...

I was sooo happy that the weekend came. Fridays at school are test day. Lots of testing in my classroom - it's a district thing. I cracked up because in between tests I have a student who is obsessed with making things out of paper. About every fifteen minutes or so, she changed the paper item on her desk and advertised a new one, complete with a for sale sign. To my knowledge nothing sold. The paper store had an unsuccessful week of business.

Some of the teachers decided earlier in the week that Friday after school was going to be teacher happy hour at a favorite restaurant/bar in downtown Fort Worth. All of the teachers know that I'm Mormon and don't drink alcohol but they wanted me to come anyway. I know this sounds sad and pathetic but I was really glad to be included. They told me that even though I don't drink I would love the appetizers. I LOVE that my coworkers don't care at all about personal choice to not drink - they just wanted me to come. I'm really glad I went. We had a fun time!

Here's the gang!

This is Katie. She and I teach third grade together. She ordered the calamari. I went to take a piece (as in one ring) and pulled out the body with the tentacles. I screamed. It scared the heck out of me. Katie decided to nibble on it as creepy as she could. I love this girl!!

A few drinks in and a bunch of appetizers later.

 

I've got to say... nothing is better than being the water girl at the bar. Ha ha! The appetizers were REALLY good and the conversation was fun. I love my coworkers. I'm looking forward to to our next outing together!!

The Henderson Bizarre...

Every morning on my way to work I pass the empty site of the Henderson Bizarre. It's permanent site for a flea market and had evidently been there for 25+ years. It's only open on Saturdays and Sundays and the curiosity of it has been getting the better of me. I decided on Saturday that Ken and I needed to head out to Fort Worth and wander through the bizarre. Not knowing exactly what to expect (I was afraid that we would be the only white people there speaking English) we grabbed two Diet Cokes and hit the freeway.

 

Here we are!

There were rows and rows of little booths.

Do you need paint? Here's your booth! The colors were already mixed, and some of the gallons were partly used but you can make it work, right?

Cowboy boots?

Weird produce?

Ken and I got brave and decided to have a little lunch. We stopped at this little taco truck. It's the only one that was displaying a food handler's permit so we took our chances.

We made two little friends at the taco truck. This cute boy and girl were the kids of the taco truck owners. They were so cute! They acted like we were dining in a five star restaurant. They were SO PROUD of their parent's little taco business. They seated us at our folding table, got us our can of soda and bottle of water, got some napkins for us, and told us how much we would love their dad's cooking. They also told us about their dog getting ran over by a car (or "crashed by a car" as the little girl kept saying), their elementary school, and their recent move from California. They'd come back every minute or two to check on us and tell us something else. They made my day!

Here are our tacos!

And here is the quesadilla Ken and I shared.

We passed a booth of nothing but soccer jerseys,

and questionable power tools - is that a meat cutter on the bottom right by the rubber boots??

This guy was selling tires and car batteries out of the back of his truck.

There were a lot of booths selling movies... out of sleeves. A little weird.

This was BY FAR the scariest thing I saw there. I'm not really sure if this little doll of horror was an intentional look or just a really used up toy. I didn't venture to find out.

 

 

We did make a few purchases there. We bought a plant that we'll be potting and putting out on the patio. A cute little elderly Asian woman with crispy looking hair sold it to us. 

 

We also bought (knowing that it is most likely the worst $10.00 ever spent) on an F/M iPod thing that Ken wanted and a Bluetooth ear piece for me since my nice expensive one vanished in the same car that my brand new smart phone disappeared in. I swear whoever owns my car after I do will hit the jackpot. It's the black hole of lost electronics that I can't seem to find. I haven't tried out my wireless ear piece yet. We'll see how legit it is...

 

 

 So now I've got the "Henderson Bizarre" bug out of my system. I went. It was interesting - like a giant combination of Goodwill, a garage sale, and the dollar store all rolled into one place with taco trucks. Uh huh. It was kind of a little cultural experience and as long as we're here we should be having them! I hear there is a REALLY fun on a few miles outside of Dallas. We may have to explore...

 

 

Where we are now...

It's amazing how things can work out sometimes. It's amazing that Ken's parents happen to own a home in Texas that they don't live in. It's amazing that my work and Ken's school is a reasonable drive from the house. We're very blessed for how this has worked out.

Since my mom and dad won't be able to come visit due to my dad's health, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures for them. Here's where we're living!

It's a cute house in a cute neighborhood. In fact, if anyone asks where we live and I tell them the name of the development, everyone knows exactly where is it and tells us how lucky we are to be there. Here's a little peek at our street.

It's still nice and toasty here. I snapped this last week. It's the middle of September and it's 102 degrees outside. The water parks are still open.

Ken and I went to Home Depot last week. It was so weird to see all of the flowers and plants for sale. They're fully stocked. In Utah, all of the plant shops are closing up.

I need to take some interior photos and photos of the yard at the house. I'll be more diligent to get some updates on the blog!

A peek inside my school...

I thought I'd let my family (and whoever else looks at my blog) peek into my school. I have soooo many things I could blog about but I thought I'd start here since it's where I spend the majority of my time. Sadly, by the time I get home from work, I eat dinner and go to bed. I'm too exhausted to even blog! 

I was fortunate to be hired just before we moved to Texas. It's challenging to teach here, and some days downright discouraging, but I'm grateful for the employment and the fun people I am working with. I have a lot of tests I need to take to become fully certified here but I'm taking it one step at a time. After teaching first grade for 7 years I am now teaching third grade. I won't lie... there are some things that are A LOT easier teaching this age group. I'm enjoying it for the most part.

My commute is about a half hour, give or take depending on traffic. I come off the freeway and go right through the center of Fort Worth. I didn't take any photos downtown... too busy trying to not cause an accident by snapping a photo.

 

The school I am teaching at has been around for many, many years. Their old building was built in 1945. The district just built a new building for the school and this is the first year in it. It's a beautiful school.

My classroom is on the second floor.

The door right ahead goes right into my room.

Setting up a classroom is always a nightmare! I brought everything from my old classroom with me. A lot of it is in the garage at the house here. There just wasn't enough room.

My "desk" is a podium. I am lucky to have a Smartboard, document camera, and projector - all a teacher's dream!!

After many, many hours I have my room all put together.

My room is much smaller than I'm used to. You can see the entire width from it in the picture and this was taken from the door into the room. I only have 16 students so at least I'm not trying to cram a bunch of kids in there.

Another thing I'm not used to... textbooks! I'm getting the hang of them, I think.

I pledge allegiance to the FLAGS. Yup. Texas has their own pledge that we recite in addition to the pledge to the American flag. We also have a 60 second minute of silence each day.

Here's my back to school board right outside my classroom. It says "Look who's cooking up some fun in room 214" with all of the students names on little chef hats. I've used it before but I thought it turned out good. The yellow is actually fabric on the bulletin board. It turned out nice.

 

 This is probably one of the strangest things I've ever gotten from a student. Keep in mind that I teach in what is considered to be a poverty area. This student was thrilled to give me this. She told me that she bought it for me. It was hard for me not to laugh. The balloons were about the right size to "enhance" a flat chested woman. Ha ha! I kept them about a week and then slipped them into the trash can after school one day. Random gift but it brought me a few smiles.

I have a cute class. I'm learning a lot about them as individuals and about the community. It's very much a change from what I'm used to but it is certainly opening my eyes to new situations and adventures!