SAN ANTONIO

My trip to San Antonio has been one of the biggest, and funnest things I have done this summer, so far. A few months ago some of the girls I work with and I were talking about Wicked, the Broadway show, and how we wanted to see it. We saw that it was coming to San Antonio and the next thing I knew we had a trip planned. This was months ago, and with the busyness of the end of school, it came as a really nice surprise come June!

There were 5 of us that went: Hillary Goll (1st grade teacher), Jana Sallee (2nd grade teacher), Ashley Crumpton (2nd grade teacher with Jana, and she is in my Sunday School class), Ashley Henderson (music teacher), and myself. Ashley Henderson's parents live in San Antonio and they were so nice to let us take over their upstairs for the weekend. (You would think it might have been difficult with 2 Ashley's, but at our school we tend to call everyone by their last names. So technically, the 5 of us that went were: Goll, Sallee, Crumpton, Henderson, and Levesque.)

We left Friday afternoon and drove to Round Rock, which is North Austin. There is a HUGE IKEA there that we spent a good amount of time exploring. I bought a few little things, like a vase. I did see my entertainment center there marked at $300. (I will talk more about my entertainment center another time.) We decided to eat dinner in Round Rock so we wouldn't get stuck in the Austin evening traffic, so we headed to Chipotle...yum! We drove the remaining 2 1/2 hours listening to music and just chatting about life.

The next morning we were given a pancake breakfast before we went sightseeing. We started off with the Alamo. Here we all are in front of the sight of the 1836 massacre. (As you can see I learned a lot of my Texas history on this trip!) I had never been to the Alamo, nor had Jana. The other 3 girls were great teachers!

Henderson, Levesque, Sallee, Crumpton, and Goll

After the Alamo, we went to the Market and looked around. There were hundreds of booths in a flea market atmosphere with a Spanish flare. We ate lunch at a delicious Mexican food restaurant at the Market. It was the most authentic Mexican food that I have eaten in Texas. (There were very few Tex-Mex options on the menu) All the walking around, and the heat, had us all worn out. We went back to the house and got ready for Wicked! Of course after some relaxing and lying around.

Now, I have heard good things about the show Wicked. I have had the pleasure of seeing 2 shows on Broadway but this was my first traveling Broadway show. Like I said we bought tickets months ago. We decided on balcony seats, mainly for their price. What we didn't know, was that we were in the last row of seats in the highest balcony. Being so far away did not stop the quality of the show, however. It was such an AMAZING production. I had so much fun watching it.

Here we are all dressed up, after the show

On Sunday we loaded up at left to head back to Waco. We did this fairly early because we had some shopping planned, of course! We stopped at the Tanger outlets in San Marcos. I have traveled around and been at quite a few different outlet centers, but this was by far...THE BEST! You name a store and they had an outlet for it. Ann Taylor, Victoria Secret, Crocs, Under Armour, and the list goes on, and on, and on, and on...

We shared lots of ideas about teaching on the way home. This weekend helped us to relax from the year, get to know each other more, and it got us really excited to try out some new things for next year. I am so blessed to have such great friends!

Here I am at the Alamo and a few more shots from the weekend! SO MUCH FUN!!!

Check out Facebook or http://picasaweb.google.com/socaltexan1/SanAntonio# for my complete album.

Summer Time

Summer Time has officially hit Waco, Texas. Steadily and consistently for the past week the temperature has reached triple digits everyday! I shouldn't just say everyday, for there have been many times I have gotten in my car at 5:00 and 6:00 at night and have seen 100+ degrees staring back at me from the dashboard. Heat is one thing, then add humidity and we have a full-blown heat wave. That is summer in Texas....and it's only JUNE!

Technically for me, summer doesn't start with the hot weather. Summer actually started 17 days ago when school ended! And, it's summer vacation that actually reminds me of why I teach 10 months out of the year. Teaching is SO rewarding and I love every hour of it (I hesitate to say second or minute), but it has been days like the ones that I have had this June that have given me the frame of mind to return to it again in August!

We had a discussion with some friends over dinner tonight and one of them said, "Man it must be nice to be a teacher. You really have the best gig!" It sure would seem like that when I actually have all day, any given day of the week to do what I please. However, ask me to do something during August through May and I might (probably will) have to decline.

But, that is another discussion, for another time. Tonight I am releasing the peace that I have been experiencing the last 2 and a half weeks. Even though I am thousands of miles from my family (whom I love so much) I am SO blessed to be surrounded by such GREAT friends here in the Lone Star State.

I might have mentioned that I have had everyday to do whatever I please, but that however does not mean that I have done nothing! On the contrary, I have done EVERYTHING! Read this blog as the introduction paragraph to my "What I did this Summer" essay that I am in the process of completing. (I really need to step out of the 4th grade mindset....I guess 3 weeks still isn't enough!) Needless to say, come back to see what I have experienced so far this summer, and to take part in my adventures yet to come!