thursday, august 26

since moving to kingwood, we have discovered a local establishment that is everyone's favorite: chelsea's deli. they are known for their chicken salad and for good reason. the chicken salad croissant with jalapeno chips on the side is my favorite combination. lee prefers the po boy and says it hits the spot every time.

wednesday, august 25

the finished product of my classroom!

tuesday, august 24

i finally got into swagbucks this summer and racked up enough of them to buy a couple of amazon gift cards. the gift cards went toward the 6th and final season of LOST on blu-ray...picture of that delivery to come soon!

monday, august 23

the first day of school means back to making lunches everyday for school!

sunday, august 22

my love for cupcakes was deepened this weekend as i took it a step further and tried my taste buds at sprinkles cupcakes. for me, it is a bit difficult to tell the difference between sprinkles and crave cupcakes. sprinkles was quite delicious...so much so that i did not even leave myself time to take pictures of the actual cupcakes once we finally got inside and through the long line.

saturday, august 21

katy, lee, and i went to kemah today. with one last weekend before teaching began, we thought we would explore a part of houston that i had never been to and that they had not been to in many years. it did not quite live up to my expectations, but we did not stay long enough to enjoy one of the restaurants which i hear is the main reason for going. we did enjoy a few rides and a nice view of the boats out on the water.

friday, august 20

i stayed the latest i hope to ever stay at school working in my classroom. i left at 7:30, but i did not have to go back saturday morning so it was all worth it. here's a peek at the classroom:

thursday, august 19

a glimpse into our kitchen...not many changes from the last shot, but it does look more lived in now. :)

wednesday, august 18

one perk to teacher inservice is the extended lunch breaks we get everyday. today, i tried smashburger for the first time. yum. yum. for those of you who don't have one nearby, it is comparable to five guys but way better :)

tuesday, august 17

i blogged about this on our other blog but i was very impressed with myself for attempting a DIY project for decorating our apartment. this is such a genius way to hang pictures because you don't risk multiple holes in the wall when the frames don't align the first time. it took a while for the pictures to arrive in the mail so the finished project picture will come later.

monday, august 16

our first day of teacher inservice was an all-day event of activities, competition, and getting to know our staff. our team did not win, but i think we had a pretty good time in the process.

sunday, august 15

i decided to continue my decorating and unpacking throughout the weekend because i knew once all day staff development started the next week and then school the next that i would soon run out of lots of free time. we have an extra "sunroom" area off of our living room that is great space for a mini office. we bought a new bookcase and i setup the office space as one half of the sunroom. the other half will hopefully become an area for lee's sports memorabilia, but that has not been completed yet.

saturday, august 14

i had the pleasure of spending the evening with some pretty amazing women for a girls' night at "the melting pot". such a fun environment, and combine the delicious food with good friends, and a wonderful night is bound to happen. it was good to see some girls i had not seen all summer, too.

friday, august 13

i was finally able to get the keys to my classroom and begin the process of setting it up for the school year. everyone knows the first step to a well-setup classroom is an organized drawer of school supplies, right?!

thursday, august 12

another day of orientation. today we heard a pretty reknown speaker of classroom management in the education world, randy sprick. we got a free book!

wednesday, august 11

today's pictures are in honor of those close to us who celebrated special days:

mr joe's birthday

jonah's 8th birthday

my mom and dad's 26th anniversary

tuesday, august 10

our first day of "new hire" orientation at summer creek high school, the newest high school in the district where i teach. yes, i had to attend new hire orientation because even though i worked almost an entire year last year, i did not attend new hire orientation last year, and it was expected that i experience it to its fullest.

monday, august 9

we had to make a morning trip to the woodlands so i decided to introduce lee to cafe express since i had thoroughly enjoyed my first trip there a few weeks prior. plus, it was also a nice way to avoid a morning of inservice as well :)

sunday, august 8

this weekend also happened to be my last weekend of summer because my two weeks of inservice were about to begin. we ended the weekend trip with a stop at the outlet mall in san marcos because my husband knows one of the ways to my heart is a day of shopping for good deals.

this is a shot from the drive home as lee was reenacting a clip from our favorite comedians:

saturday, august 7

floating the river definitely lived up to its hype except for the wicked sunburn that followed. oh and that genius cooler definitely broke when we hit a rapid about not long after we started down the river.

thursday, august 5

we spent the night in college station with katy in prepartion for our trip to san antonio for the weekend. we spent the evening loading up on groceries and a floating cooler for our weekend. these things are genius!

friday, august 5

our hotel for the weekend was a very old historic building with a leaky sink in our first room and an extremely old a/c system in our upgraded second room. once we added to box fans, the room was much more enjoyable.once we cooled off our room, we headed down to the riverwalk for dinner and later walked to the alamo. i felt like i needed to witness this part of texas history live and in person since i haved lived here for over a year now.

wednesday, august 4

day 2 of inservice. they told us to wear tennis shoes this day and be prepared to do a ropes course. turned out that by ropes course they meant team-building games. anything to fill a day, right?!

tuesday, august 3

today was day 1 of a 2-day inservice we had with the staff at my school. it was good to see some people i had not seen all summer but not so fun having to get up early again!

monday, august 2

we bought a new couch! this is our first big furniture purchase together. i don't know if i like the chaise or the color more!

sunday, august 1

one of our new favorite desserts that i make: blueberry cheesecake bars. thank you, emily for the recipe!