UStream

So, I am going to try out this thing called UStream.  Basically, I can stream live video from my iPhone, computer, etc.

Here is the link to old videos:

Bailey's UStream

Here is the link to the live feed! If I am currently videoing, you can see it here!:

Video clips at Ustream

Last Thursday, Tim and I went to Travis and Calvin's baseball games.  It was a lot of fun to watch and they played great!

Then, over the weekend, Sydney and Natalie came to stay with us.  Friday night I met them at the Houston Premium Outlet mall and we shopped around for awhile, then headed back to College Station.  Saturday, we woke up and went to breakfast at iHop. Then, went over to Bryan High to take pictures.  After that, we went to A&M to see the Century Tree and got snowcones at JJ's. Afterwards, we went to Hobby Lobby and Walmart to get tye-dye stuff and went home to tye-dye shirts.  That night, we ate at Potato Shack and hung out at the mall for awhile.

Then, Sunday morning we had Shipley's.  We went to Target to get hair dye and we dyed Syd and Natalie's hair black... Well, the underneath black!  Then, we got JJ's snowcones again and hit the road to meet dad at the outlet mall at about 5 and then we went back home for a good night's sleep!

By the way, HAPPY (belated) MOTHER'S DAY!!

AND... I wasn't there, but Austin and Shan had their senior prom on Saturday!  Here's a picture!

I've been a horrible blogger lately.  Tim and I have been so busy during the week and on the weekends we've been spending our time cleaning up the yards.  The people who lived in the house before us never did any landscaping or upkeep for the yards, so we have spent the last few weekends removing leaves, pulling weeds, trimming trees/bushes, planting flowers, etc.   It is very slowly but surely getting done.  I will post pics when it is finished!

Tim has also been a little under the weather lately.  It's either a cold or allergies, but he's had a sore throat for about a week now.  I think I had it first and gave it to him, but luckily my sore throat only lasted a few days.

This week is TAKS week at work.  Today, the 10th graders are taking the Math TAKS, which means I have been moved from my classroom to the one right above me, which happens to be right across from Tim... Yay!   That also means we get to have the same lunch for once!

Well, 2nd period is about to start, so I better end this.  I will hopefully update sooner!

So, last Thursday Tim and I went to Riviera Day Spa to use the gift certificate Tim got me for my birthday (way back in August).  We paid a little extra for the couple's massage.  It was the first time either of us had gotten a massage, so we didn't really know what to expect.  When we got there, we had to change into robes, and then we got to hang out in the jacuzzi tub for 30 mins, and we had some strawberries and champagne to go with it.  Then, our masseuses came in and we had an hour-long massage.  It was really relaxing.

Friday afternoon and Saturday, Tim had tennis and I hung out at the house and cleaned up a little.

Sunday morning, Tim and I found a park that's about 5 minutes from our house called "Lick Creek Park"  so we went for about an hour walk through the park and geocached a little.  It was a really nice day out.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, we went with Justin and Courtney to see "Shutter Island" and then went out to eat at Boston's. I knew before seeing the movie what it was about and what would happen, but I still thought it was good.

This school week seemed to go very quickly.  On Wednesday, the kids had ELA TAKS.  I gave the 10th grade test and my kids were great.  The rest of the week was fine.  It was the first week that I had my COW, so the kids really liked using the laptops.

This weekend,  we don't really have plans.  We are just looking forward to Spring Break.  One more week of school.  We are trying to think of something to do for the break, but we can't figure it out.  Any suggestions?

By the way, do you like Tim's new hat?

...OK, so it's not really his hat.  He was just trying on hats at Target.  

First of all... Happy Birthday Boppa!  We love you!

This is a really old picture, but it's the best one I could find on the computer!

I don't have much to update today.  School started 2 hours late due to the snow yesterday.  It was so nice to sleep in and have a late start!  If only every day could be like that! 

The only interesting thing I have to update today is that one of my French 1 soccer girls gave me this:

The soccer girls had to choose their favorite teacher and Minerva chose me.  If you can't read the note, it basically says that the soccer girls will buy us "favorite teacher" shirts and we will be introduced with our players for their March 9th game again A&M Consolidated High School. Sounds fun!

Tomorrow, I have a half day of school, because I have a training to go to during the second half.  I am participating in a T3 Technology Grant along with about 15 other teachers and as part of the grant each teacher gets a digital camera, a video camera, and COWs. A COW is a Computer On Wheels.  Basically, it is a set of 30 laptops and a printer that we get to have permanently in our classroom. 

Until now, we only had a few sets of COWs for the entire school, but now, since I'm part of the grant, I get to keep a COW!  Yay!

Well, tomorrow Tim and I have an appointment for a couple's massage and the Riviera Day Spa that is down the street from our subdivision.  I'll have to update tomorrow to let you all know how it goes!

And by the way, SFA and A&M played in baseball today. I'll leave the blog today with "Axe 'em Jacks!", as SFA won 7-6!

Here is a video of us going for a walk. There were some highschoolers having a snowball fight and the Mercers (who live 2 doors down) were building a snowman!

Today turned out to be very snowy....for College Station anyways, but before I get to that, I wanted to post a picture for Boppa.  I wore the necklace she got me for Valentine's Day today.  I got many compliments on it also!  Thank you Boppa & Grandfather!

So, we knew we were supposed to be getting some snow today, but the weather channels have said that many times this year and we ended up getting nothing.  So, we weren't too optimistic.

School went on as normal today, even though there were hopes of an early release.  It started out as a rainy, cold day, but by the end of 4th period, beginning of 5th, at around 1 o'clock, we started getting some heavy snow!  The flakes were huge!  My 5th period students all ran in "PLEASE can we go play in the snow?!"  They were writing stories in French, so they all had to finish their rough drafts first, then I promised in the last few minutes of class we would go out.  So, that time comes, and we all bundle up and run outside to play.  We weren't outside more than 30 seconds and they all wanted to go back in!  The snow was very slushy and we were all soaked and cold!

6th and 7th periods go on as normal, and everyone was glued to the windows watching the snow fall.  They made an announcement 7th period that we have a late start tomorrow, so we will start at 10:30!

This is the view I had from my classroom today.

After school, we go out to the car to leave and this is what we see.

All of the cars were covered in snow! 

So, we drove home to change out of our school clothes before we go back out in the snow.

Here is the house with snow. Our house didn't collect as much snow because we have so many trees. 

After we changed, we went for a walk around our neighborhood.  First we walked down to the park.  Here is the snow covered park and us.

After the park, we walked down to the entrance to our subdivision, by the lakes. 

Someone had built a snowman by the lake.

By this time, I was freezing cold, so we went back home to warm up.  We decided not to make something for dinner, instead we drove to Koppe Bridge (partly so we could look at the snow from the warmth of the car and the restaurant). 

We are now back home, and Tim made a fire.  Unfortunately it is getting dark so we can't see the snow falling.  Hopefully it will stick around till the morning!

So this past weekend, Tim and I chaperoned the AVID trip to Stephen F. Austin.  We left Saturday morning at about 8.  On the way, we stopped in Madisonville at the Buc-ees.  I didn't even realize that they had a Buc-ees, but apparently it's about a year old. Sydney would have liked it... She loves Buc-ees!

We got to SFA around lunch time and ate before we started the "Showcase Saturday" tour.  Once we got our information, we headed to the Math and Nursing building to hear about financial aid.  The room below is where that took place, which is also where we had our French play "Cyrano de Bergerac" when I was a junior at SFA.

Next, we headed to the new Rec Center (which is new to me) where there were booths set up for all the different majors.  The students took about 30 minutes to look around.  While they were doing that, Tim and I went to look at one of the dorms they are tearing down to build a new Freshman center.



Afterwards, we toured some of the dorms such as Hall 14 (now co-ed, used to be all male) and Steen (where I lived my 1st year, which is now co-ed).


The pics below are of Steen, East College Cafeteria (where we used to eat all our meals Freshman year), and the Liberal Arts building (where most of my classes were).

After that, we went back to the (new) student center to get our free t-shirts.  Here is Tim (and me) infront of the new part of the building.

Here is a pic of me with my French students.  From the left is Cristina (French 3), Christy (French 1), Ana (French 3), Kenia (French 4), Sofia (French 3), and me.  Melissa should have been in the picture, but she had gone to the bathroom.  Sofia is definitely going to SFA next year, so she was happy to be visiting the campus (again).

Finally, after getting our shirts, we walked by the Old Stone Fort.

Then, we took Sofia to see a couple of the dorms that she applied for and left campus to get dinner.  

We ate at Clear Springs!  

Tim and I shared the chicken strips and friend shrimp with green beans and corn.  It was just as I remembered!  The only thing that would have made it better is if Paige were there!

After dinner, we left for Bryan and got home at about 9:30.  I was exhausted and fell right asleep.  All in all, it was really nice to go back.  So much had changed since 2006!  

So as I was trying to finish typing the previous blog on my laptop, I had a helper...

Last Friday was the last school day before Valentine's day, so Tim sent me flowers that were delivered during 2nd period.  They hadn't bloomed yet, so I didn't get to enjoy them until Sunday.

This past weekend, Tim and I went to Sugarland.  We had bought Austin tickets to see Jim Gaffigan for Christmas and the show was Friday night.  He is hilarious and I highly recommend seeing his show if you get a chance.

Saturday, we planned to possibly go to some museums, but ended up staying home and watching Couple's Retreat.  That night, it was Cole's birthday, so we went over to Fifi's house for cake and presents.  It was nice to see everyone, but the best part was watching the old movies from when my dad and aunt (Fifi) were little kids.  They were so cool!

Sunday, Tim and I went back to College Station, because he had made reservations for Valentine's dinner.  He only told me that "it's somewhere we haven't been in awhile".  I had an idea and was right: Café Excell.  The food was great and we were starving by 8:30, so that made it even more delicious.  I had a chicken, garlic, rosemary pasta and Tim had salmon with asparagus and potatoes.  Yum!

Before we went back to College Station on Sunday, we went to the mall in Sugarland to get each other Valentine presents.  We both picked out something from the Fossil store.  I picked out the red "love" bracelet and Tim picked out the sunglasses he's wearing below. 

Other than that, not much is going on.  Tim has some tennis this week, as it is finally starting back up at the Christmas break. 

I'm excited about Saturday, because I will be a chaperone to SFASU with the AVID students.  AVID is an organization for students who will be first generation college-goers in their family.  I have quite a few AVID students and I was actually awarded "AVID Teacher of the Week" today!  So, I'm very excited to go back to Stephen F. Austin, because I haven't been back since I graduated! 

 I will definitely update the blog after this weekend!

I have been a bad blogger lately, but its hard to force myself to use the desktop computer when I have an iPhone. If I could easily blog from my iPhone, that would be amazing!

So, today is a typical Sunday morning. Our routine is to wake up early by the sound of Kye pawing at the door, ready to be fed. So, one of us gets up to feed him and at that point it's hard to go back to sleep. Tim starts a load of laundry as I make some coffee and grab the newspapers. Today's Houston Chronicle is the start of a new section that I'm pretty excited about: The Good Life. It is basically a combination of fashion, travel, home, etc. Sounds like my kind of section!

So, we enjoy our papers and coffee, then make something for breakfast. This morning we had breakfast sandwiches: a biscuit with a poached egg, bacon, and cheese. They are pretty good.

Kye has unfortunately been sick the last two days. Apparently it is not good to feed cats ONLY dry food and tap water. They also have to have some wet food and should be drinking distilled water. Now Kye has what is like a bladder infection. Poor thing. He doesn't act like he's in pain, but he feels like he has to go to the bathroom a million times a day, when really he doesn't. The vet said there's nothing to worry about, and it happens fairly regularly, as the minerals in our tap water are the main cause of the problem. If, however, he becomes totally blocked and can't go to the bathroom at all, then we have a problem. His new diet should resolve this issue, though, and now we know what we should have been doing all along! Luckily, Kye really likes his wet food, as the vet said cats sometimes don't. We also recently grew a plant for Kye. We bought the kit at Target, and its supposed to be something cats like to chew on, and it's definitely true. When we finally gave it to him after letting it grow for awhile, he chewed at it for a long time.

Well, I just thought I would update, seeing as I hadn't in a LONG time. I wish I could get Tim to write more for the blog... He's worse than me!