Rain, Rain go Away

For those of you that don't know, all it has done here in the metroplex for the past few weeks is rain. I heard on the news this morning that October is usually a pretty wet month, and on average we get about an inch and a half of rain. So far we aren't even half way through the month and we've already had about three and a half inches of rain. I guess we should be thankful for the rain, but enough is enough already. Today's forecast is cloudy and cool and tomorrow... you guessed it, more rain. They are saying the weather is going to be great this weekend, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I'm ready to see some sunshine.

Enough of that, let move on to the more exciting things :-) Everything with me is still going well. I'm just as busy as ever teaching and working the haunted house. I have the day off today and I must admit that I'm enjoying the break from everything. This is only the second day in the last month that I haven't been on the go or had something to do or somewhere to go. The first one was a few weeks ago when I was sick and stayed home and the other is today, a holiday.

Things at the Haunted House are going well and really starting to pick up. We had about 200 people come through on Friday night and 300 on Saturday night. They say that by the time Halloween gets here, we will have about 800-1000 people come through a night. I can't imagine what that's going to be like, but I'm sure it will be even more fun than it already is. It still amazes me how much I enjoy going out there and doing this. There are a lot of high school kids that come out and volunteer for various reasons, and it's so much fun talking to them and being reminded how I wouldn't want to be that age ever again.

As far as school goes, everything is still going great. I had 2 kids move this past week, so now I'm back down to 10 kids, but I'm getting a girl from one of the other classes on Wednesday so I'll be back up to 11. My kids this year are adorable and I love them to death. We have so much fun and I've been able to build great relationships with each of them. I say a little prayer everyday for things to continue to go well with them. I feel so blessed to have this great group of kids since this is the last year my school will be open.

Well, off to do some laundry and things around the house.

Lots Going On

These last few weeks have been super busy and crazy for me, but sometimes I don't think I would have it any other way. Besides teaching, I've spent the last 2 weekends working/volunteering at a Haunted House in south Arlington/Kennedale. When I originally agreed to go up there, I thought it would be a one time thing. Needless to say, I've enjoyed it more that I could have ever imagined and look forward to going out there.

Here are a few pics from the Haunted House for your viewing pleasure :-)

This is the exorcism room. I worked in here the first weekend and had a lot of fun.

This past weekend I worked in the Morgue. It was so much fun standing behind the body bags and making grown men scream.

The finished product... I must admit I think I did a wonderful job on her hair :-)

This is my friend Chris doing one of the things he does best, making people look dead.

Hopefully I'll get more time to keep my blogs up to date, but for right now I wouldn't hold my breath. Life seems to be headed in a good direction and I owe it all to the grace of God.

Busy, Busy, Busy

School is back in high gear, and I'm just a busy as ever. The beginning of a new year is always exciting, but I never seem to remember being this busy all the time. I feel like I never get to sit down and actually relax until I'm going to bed. This constant go is keeping me young I guess, but super tired all the time :-(
On a happier note, I must admit that I have a great class so far. I only have 11 kids and am loving every minute with them. Having a small class is a new experience for me and it makes so much difference. I feel like we get so much more done and I'm not nearly as stressed out. I really hope things continue to go well for me and my students.

Life's Little Moments

This week has been one of excitement and new beginnings. Not only is a new school year getting ready to begin tomorrow, but new lives have begun as well. My friend Azur delivered a beautiful baby girl yesterday afternoon. Lyllian Grace Williams was born at 4:16 p.m. via c-section. She was 8 pounds 7 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. I had the pleasure of going to see her today and she is just precious. I wish I had taken my camera so I could put up a few pics. She has dark curly hair just like her daddy, but we hope it isn't quite as thick as his ;-) I hear she has hazel eyes, but she wouldn't open them long enough for me to see :-( It was so great to see the new family and I can't wait to go back up and visit them again soon. Hopefully I'll remember my camera this time too.

Between all my friends that have had new babies, finding out about new babies to be born, moving, surgery, school starting back up and things in my personal life looking up, August has been quite an exciting month. I'm hoping that things continue to go well and more new and exciting things continue to happen. It's amazing how life's little moments are always so memorable.

Back to Work

Summer vacation officially ended yesterday when I had to go back to work :-( I will admit that yesterday was much better than today. I'm not big on sitting in workshops all day that don't teach me something I don't already know. I am by no means saying that I know everything, but do I really have to sit in 2 two and a half hour workshop over what I need to teach the first 6 weeks when it's all in the computer? I could have gotten so much work done in my classroom had I not had to be there. I will say that I did have a lot of fun bonding and cracking jokes with my team. I don't think the presenters liked us very much though :-)

Since I'm "gimped" out right now it's been kinda interesting doing a lot of walking. Most people just look at me and laugh because when I walk, from the back it looks like I'm 9 months pregnant. I must admit, that I can only imagine what it looks like since I feel like such an idiot to begin with.

Well as soon as soon I get my classroom finished I'll take pics and put them up for you to see. Off to get a glass of wine :-)

Surgery

I had my surgery today and everything went well. Thank you to all my friends and family for your thoughts and prayers today, they really mean a lot to me. I was scheduled to go back at 12:30, but they were running behind in the OR so I didn't get back until 1:30; the wait was the worst part I think. They say it took about an hour to do the procedure and now I have a 2 1/2 to 3 inch incision on my inner thigh. They gave me some pain meds at the hospital so I'm not feeling too bad yet. I also just discovered that it's still numb around the incision site as well :-) I'm looking forward to getting some sleep tonight and lots of rest this weekend since I go back to work on Monday. Hopefully things continue to go well and I'll be good as new before too long. Thanks again for all the prayers.

The Finished Product

So my mom and her friend Sherry came to see me over the weekend and helped me finish doing the last few things around the house. Really all we had to do was hang a mirror in the dining room and a few things in the bedroom. We had so much fun shopping and just hanging out, spending time together.

This is what my bedroom looks like from the closet. I only took one picture in there because I didn't feel like making the bed :-) I promise to take some more pics of it once I decide to actually make the bed.


Here is one of the newly decorated balcony. You can't see all the new stuff out here, but there is an outdoor rug, a new silver sunburst on the wall and 2 new folding white chairs that I can use when I have company. Thanks mom for getting all these cool new things for me to put out here.

My Bathroom


The kitchen/dining room/ bathroom/bedroom separation area.

The Dining Room and the mirror that was a pain to hang.

My Kitchen

The living room wall with the TV. I got some really cute metal butterflies that hang on the side next to the circle candle holder, but you cant see them. This pic is also a little fuzzy, I have a better one but seem to have posed the other one :-)

The kitchen when you look at it from the living room

The living room

My desk area

So I hope you all enjoyed the tour of my new place. I must admit that I love living here now that everything is in it's place and put away. I'm sure I'll be blogging a lot more since school is about to start back up and surgery is scheduled for Friday. I'm not sure exactly how things are going to go after surgery, so I may be a big ball of stress getting things done between now and then. Have a blessed day and a great rest of the week.