Kid Puzzles - Summer Vacation Day 6

Personal Accomplishments: **
Memories: **
World Impact: **

So the kids made their puzzle pieces today. Initially, I was worried that they might all try to copy my lame example, because that is what so many of my other students try to do. So today I learned one of the greatest things about working with kids with severe disabilities: They are NOT typical kids. Now this may sound obvious, but it was really a pleasant surprise in terms of their art work. I will take pictures to show you tomorrow, but they came up with some of the greatest combinations for clothes, hair, shoes, it was wonderful.

After work I went to the dentist and almost fell asleep in the chair while she was cleaning my teeth. Afterwards, I had that great, clean feeling where you can run your tongue across your teeth and feel the spaces between them. I have never been the best at brushing and flossing so I get a lot of gunk in my spaces. So for me, getting my teeth cleaned is like a new beginning. Every time, i promise myself I will brush three times a day and floss before bed. My resolutions never last more than a few days, if that, but who knows? Maybe this will be the time I stick with it.

Back at home, let Finn hang out in the living room while i did some stuff on the computer. I kept hearing a thumping, but every time I would go look in the living room to see what the noise was, all I would see was Finn sitting in the middle of the floor, not near anything he could be destroying. I figured it was his tail wagging and hitting the floor. So the last time I went in, this is what I saw:



In case you can't tell, there is a big hole in our carpet. How could I have guessed Finn was eating our carpet!? I was so ticked. We really need to get some more bones.

Camp Tejas Set-up - Summer Vacation Day 5

Personal Accomplishment: ***
Memories: **
World Impact: **

Today I set up my classroom for summer school. This year, I am the art teacher for Camp Tejas. No, I do not have any artistic ability. Thankfully, that does not matter much as my students will have severe mental and physical disabilities, so we'll have to do most projects for them anyhow.

As long as there's color and lots of stickers, these kiddos are happy. Tomorrow we are making kid puzzles that they can each decorate however they want. My example is ridiculous looking, so hopefully they can overlook that and show what great artists they are. Anyhow, tomorrow should be fun as it's the first day the kids are there. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone.

Surprise Party- Summer Vacation Day 4

Personal Accomplishments: *
Memories: **
World Impact: *



Monday night Trey and I went to a surprise 30th birthday party for my brother, Gavin. It was at Reata's in downtown Fort Worth. The restaurant was pretty good and the servers were incredibly nice seeing as how we were a huge group with quite a few demands. We all managed to keep the party a secret, so Gavin was actually surprised to see everyone. It was a lot of fun to see all their friends and Elizabeth's parents. Eli was super cute, especially with the little baby that was there. He kept leaning over right in his face and saying, "Hey little baby. You're so cute!" He loves to mimic so he sounds like an adult a lot of the time. At the end of the meal, I got to eat my dessert of Molten Chocolate Cake with Drunken Berries. It was a volcano of chocolate flava. I tried to find a picture of chocolate lava cake, but they all looked fake, so I thought I would share this picture, which also appeared as an image option for chocolate lava cake:

Movie Day - Summer Vacation Day 3

Personal accomplishments: N/A
Memories: *
World Impact: N/A

Yesterday I was very excited to go to church as we finally found one we liked, Frisco Bible Church. A woman from church called since I had filled out the guest card and we ended up having a long conversation and I looked forward to meeting her. Anyhow, I set our alarm and the next morning I woke up at 11am (yes, I can sleep that late) to find that I had neglected to click the switch to actually turn on the alarm. So annoying. As a result, yesterday was spent avoiding the dishes and dog hair in our apartment instead of going to church and being productive.



We did watch a few movies. The first one was The Painted Veil, which was an ok movie, nothing I'd necessarily recommend to anyone.









We also saw Alpha Dog. That movie was actually pretty good, surprisingly as Justin Timberlake is in it. Even better is that it's based on a true story. The end made Trey so anxious he had to leave the room. Of course afterward I had to look up the story on wikipedia. Very sad.

Family and Fighting - Summer Vacation day 2

personal accomplishments: **
memories: ***
world impact: **

Yesterday would have been considered a wasted day by most people, but I quite enjoyed it. Trey and I lounged around most of the day. I watched The Family Stone, an unbelievable but mildly entertaining movie. Then we finally headed out to Gavin and Elizabeth's to have dinner and watch UFC 71. I got to play baseball, football, soccer, tag, keep away, and lots of other games with my little dude, Eli. It was the perfect day to play outside as it wasn't too sunny. Trey and I brought Layla and Finn with us. Eli seems to love both of them, but he REALLY seems to love Finnigan's penis. Eli kept telling Elizabeth and I that he really wanted to look at Finn's penis. He wanted us to make him roll over so he could see it. That cracked me up. We tried to explain to him that it's private, just like his, but it did not seem to make a difference to Eli.

Then we went to Mark and Liz's (Elizabeth's parents) to watch the fight. While we were there I was able to spend just about all night with beautiful, little Ella. I changed my first tiny, baby diaper (I am now an expert) and fed her. So much fun. Unfortunately, Chuck Liddell lost his fight pretty quickly, but the rest of the fights were pretty good. All in all, a great day.

Punk Rock - Summer Vacation Day 1

personal accomplishments: **
memories: ***
world impact: *

Yesterday was my first day of summer vacation and it was pretty fun. I spent the day vegetating and picking up around the house, but nothing more serious than hand vacuuming, which by the way is one of the greatest inventions ever. That Friday night, Melt Banana was playing at Rubber Gloves in Denton. Melt Banana is this punk, noise band from Japan.



We bought our tickets and then went to meet Micah and Ashley at J&J's Pizza in the square. They are both moving to Austin Saturday so they couldn't come to the show, but we had a good time hanging out for a bit and laughing about old Chappelle show episodes.

So we headed back to Rubber Gloves and met Jared and Tim there. The place was packed with punk kids and hipsters. A lot like this:


Mixed in with a bit of this:


It was hot and crowded, but a good show. I also ran into my hairdresser, Isabeau. She's fantastic and it was funny to see her in such a random place. Afterward, we headed up to Ethan's studio and the guys messed around playing some music and I ate my Good 'n Plenty and laughed a lot. Successful evening.

Austin Weekend

This weekend Trey and I went to Austin to compete in some races and to see some friends and family. Things started out rough as my parents decided they no longer want to watch our dogs for us when we go out of town. They decided to let me in on this Thursday afternoon.

Layla


Finnigan


We figured we would bring Finn to Austin because he is easier to take care of than crazy Layla. Plus, Annalee and Evan have a dog and Layla can be a real B when it comes to other dogs. Now to find a place for Layla. Ian was having 3 people stay with him this weekend, so he was not a possibility. Gavin offered to keep Layla, as did Alana, but we finally decided to board her at a vet. We then found out her shots were way overdue, so a $30 stay turned into $170. Also, Trey and I were going to have to drive seperate so he could drop Layla off Saturday morning. Oh well, what can you do?

So I drove up Friday and got ridiculously lost and it took me 5 hours to make a 3 1/2 hour trip. On Saturday morning I got up and talked with Annalee and Evan and then had to rush to make it to my Saturday afternoon race on time.


So, when I saw the blip about Urban Dare in a magazine, I thought it sounded fun, but I was completely unprepared for how intense and serious some of these people were! Here's the website of the team that won. Wow.

Anyhow, Urban Dare is kind of like a scavenger hunt for locations. A little like Amazing Race, but not as difficult and in one city. I raced with my old high school friend, Jessica. As she is in great shape and a spinning instructor, she kicked my butt. The race has a five hour time limit and while planning for it, Jess and I had scoffed at anyone needing ALL that time. Well, in our face because we barely made it in time. Basically, we ran or speed walked for 5 hours. It was worth it though as I was able to go all over Austin and see places such as:
Daniel Johnston's Graffitti


Stevie Ray Vaughan statue


Barton Springs Pool


So, Jess and I had a great time and we're definitely racing next year, but I will be better prepared so I don't become a human anchor. We'll also ride the bus more than just at the very end.

After the race, I wanted to pass out and never wake up. I had the Austin Statesman 10K the next day, but there was no way i was ever going to be able to do that. I had planned on meeting an old roommate from Oxford, Christiana, for coffee or a drink, but I was not even sure I could pull that off. I decided I had to see her so we met at Freddie's since Trey and I could bring Finn.



Jared and Kristy met us there and while I originally intended to stay for only about 30 min, we ended up staying out till 3am. We had such a blast that we closed down Freddie's and headed to Spider House, another outdoor bar.


I had a great time talking and tipsily pontificating with Christiana and Kristy. I am now in love with Austin so Trey and I have decided if we must stay in Texas, our permanent home needs to be Austin.