it's not over

finally went with a new look on my blog.  some people thought the stripes made it too hard to read my posts!  summer is almost over, my classroom is almost ready, we go back to work on monday.  scout is kicking all over the place.  he kicked the heart monitor yesterday at my check up!  i think he already has more clothes than his dad!  next month i have to take the glucose test and have blood work done.  i hate having blood taken so i really hope the test works out and i don't have to take another one!  i know i'll be getting all kinds of iv's and shots when i'm having scout, but that's different.  i'll be preoccupied.  i don't like going to the lab and having to wait for them to call me back so they can stick me.  i am so ready for fall...these 100+ temps everyday are getting old!  i have to go to the grocery store later, but for now, i'm going to go watch tv and try to work on getting my 14 glasses of water!  really hard for someone who drank no water at all before she was pregnant! 

bump in the road

yes, i know...it's been a month since my last post. k-dogg was off work, and i can't sit in my computer chair comfortably anymore, so i didn't have much access to a computer. he went back to work this morning, so i'm in his office. july was pretty uneventful. usually, one of us is out of the country, or i go on a mission trip. but, no trips this summer with the baby on the way! when i went to california, k-dogg was still working. our youth group is in san antonio right now on their mission trip and the trip to mexico was cancelled anyway. we have tried out 3 restaurants that we hadn't been to yet. actually, i've been to newks, but i went alone so it didn't count. smashburger was pretty good. osaka was awesome and i don't know why we hadn't been before. i got pork katsu and fried rice. it's easier just to not even try to eat any sushi or rolls right now. most of the ones that are all cooked and safe for me to eat have jalapenos or avocado in them, so i don't even try for now. k-dogg made homemade gyoza last night! we had gyoza in tokyo and he has been wanting it again. we actually had some fried gyoza at osaka, but i had already bought him the ingredients to make it at home, so we had steamed gyoza last night. gyoza is basically like a dumpling and the kind he made had pork, onion, and cabbage inside/ he doesn't cook often, but when he does, he goes all out. besides the gyoza, he's made french onion soup and pasta from scratch! i have a sono appointment this afternoon. we should be able to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. we will post on facebook and everything. just don't expect to see any pictures online. i just think that's weird. same with the "baby bump" photos. my mom has some of me on her blog, but other than bean, i don't really care if anyone sees me. we didn't get very far at all on the nursery while k-dogg was off, but after this afternoon maybe i'll be more motivated. the nursery is going to be be black, white, and apple green no matter the gender. but, even with black and white, some stuff is definitely more girly than other stuff. tomorrow, my mom and i are going shopping. i think the suspense of not knowing has been bothering her more than us!

ventura highway

going back to cali

i'm leaving very early in the morning to go to the airport. 4 days of shopping, sightseeing, swimming, and hanging out with bean in california! i'm really tired right now after the district meeting this morning and working at the school for 4 hours with out any air conditioning! but, i'm completely moved out of my old classroom and everything is put away in my new room until after summer school. then i can go back and get everything set up. right now i'm updating my ipod and my phone, then i gotta go pack. i'm sure when i get home i'll have lots of pictures to share and maybe some stories!

back in the saddle

ok, my mom and sister will not leave me alone about my blog...so, i'm back. since march 22, let's see...we found out i'm pregnant. i'm due at the end of november in case you're one of the last two people on earth my mom hasn't told! my birthday was two weeks ago. k-dogg got me a new tv and blu-ray player! my parents got me toms, and bean got me a scrabble necklace with van gogh's starry night on it! very cool! we still have 3 days of school left and i'm about to go crazy. i'm glad the kids that passed taks got a reward by getting out 7 days early. but this is torture having to stay 7 more days with the kids that failed or missed too much school. we're supposed to keep them contained and engaged. i've got the contained part down, but i'm not sure how engaged they are. we found out our new room assignments and teaching partners for next year, so maybe my kids can be engaged by packing my stuff and getting it ready to move two doors down the hall. almost all of my summer plans have changed. i'm still going to see bean next week, but i'm not going to youth camp or on any mission trips this summer. i was not happy about that at first, but at least i'll have a lot of time off to get stuff ready for school in august and hopefully get some stuff ready for the baby. we shall see!

birds

saturday it was in the low 70s and sunny. yesterday it was in the mid 30s and SNOWING! as bad as this seemed to most of us that were wrapping up a pretty nice spring break, it must have caused major problems for the animals. i was on the couch watching tv and heard a noise outside. k-dogg looked out the window, called me to the window, and we saw this...



big scary black birds everywhere from our yard over to our neighbors' yard! on the house, in the garden, in the trees, and eating everything in sight! our patio was overtaken by little gray birds. they stripped the bird seed bell i had out there and dug through the leaves and the rocks! the big birds stayed out there for a few hours. it was wild!

Oklahoma!

very good baseball player for an almost 3 year old!

i was just playing with the color swap on my camera, k-dogg said it reminds him of twin peaks

kinda creepy tree trunk
the real reason everyone goes on the campout...sno cones!
"why so serious?"

Comfortably Numb

What is my family going to do if I ever start losing MY memory???

give me a reason

I have to have a more recent blog entry than Bean...so, I'm blogging! not much has been going on. work is great. some mild craziness thursday, but nothing like what i'm used to from going and working at my old school. i had two students withdraw last week. it's a little calmer in our room now and my homeroom class is even with my other class, so that's nice. the snow last weekend was so much fun. however, i think i'm glad we don't have snow like that all the time. saturday felt like spring, so i went antiquing and burger-eating in mineola. i got a really cool purse. it's olive green, wooden, and has a big owl on the front! and it was only $8! pictures soon. speaking of pictures, my mom took some pictures of my house while it was clean! she doesn't clean my craft/computer room...so that's why there aren't any pictures of it.

this is our front door right now, but i'm changing it this week. i got the swag 50% at target's after Christmas sale and added the silver leaves, the icicles, and the sparkling dangling things. they were all half price, too!

this is k-dogg's office. he picked out the red paint and did most of the painting himself. i now know why everyone said not to do red. we love it, but it was really hard to paint with! my mom and i decorated his fireplace for him, but it's all stuff he either picked out or really likes...comics, pirates, squirrels, and a few other random treasures!


this is our living room. you can't see the stove, the built-in shelf, our massive dvd collection, or the built-in tv stand in the corner. i was thinking i wanted a new couch, but i waited so long that i'm thinking i'm ok with this one for a little while longer.

as promised, this is the picture of our new quilt. the green and khaki pillows are from target, the copper/orange pillow is from wal-mart, and the roll pillow is actually from our old bedding! doesn't everyone accessorize a beautiful pottery barn quilt with stuff from target and wal-mart :) if you noticed, we have the word peace all over the house. i don't think it's in either bathroom or k-dogg's office, but only because i haven't found the right thing for those rooms, yet! my mom did take pictures of my kitchen, but she didn't get my favorite wall, so i'm gonna take some more and add those later. for now, i'm going to go make a bologna and cheese sandwich and collapse on the couch. i have a workshop, a funeral, and taks training this week. taks writing is next wednesday. i can not wait until that day is over!

winter wonderland

snow day! see bean, see what you're missing living out there in california! :)

switch

it's hard to remember to blog when i'm hardly ever on my desktop computer anymore. k-dogg and i accidentally switched pillows friday night and my shoulder and neck are killing me now. we switched back this morning and my nap was much better. when he thinks his pillow is going flat, i buy him a new one and i take his. it works out quite well for me, but i think he really could sleep on anything! the knot in my shoulder could also be from stress, since the two aleve i have taken today haven't done anything. the idea that how well a bunch of 9-10 year olds do on a writing test has a direct connection to people's jobs can tend to cause a little stress. i still love my job, but i really wish taks had never been invented!

in other news...we got a new quilt for our bed right after Christmas. i like it much better than the covers we bought last year and whenever i get around to it, i'll post a picture of our actual room, but for now, this picture from pottery barn's website will have to work...

down on the corner

ok, the end of tokyo...

i said on facebook that shibuya crossing is the busiest crosswalk in the world. just in case you didn't really believe me...here's a picture of ONE corner of the crosswalk! and on a thursday evening is not really the busiest time!
crossing shibuya crossing
shibuya 109...the craziest mall i have ever been too...about 9 stories high...4-6 stores on each floor...wall to wall people...only, there aren't really any walls...the stores wrap around the escalator that runs through the middle
this isn't the busiest we saw krispy kreme...a few times the wait time was at least an hour...that's like waiting to ride a good ride at six flags!
the front desk of our hotel
this was our hotel room from the doorway. you can see one side of the bed. it's a full size bed and it's against the wall on the other side! that table goes all the way across the room and there's a tv on the other end with a small refrigerator and hot tea maker underneath. i had to take my backpack off before i walked in the room or it would scrape against both walls at once!


this is the bathroom. you're not missing anything! the toilet was right up against the wall. when k-dogg stayed here this summer, he was in a single room so there was a window over his bed that looked into the bathroom and the door to the bathroom was see-thru!
you hear about celebrities making commercials and ads in japan for things they'd never do here (ever seen lost in translation or the episode of friends with joey's commercial for men's lipstick?) that's a billboard with tommy lee jones for a beverage company. we also saw beyonce on a bottled water ad and sarah jessica parker on something...i don't remember what it was

on the way to the airport
the Christmas tree at Narita Airport. our flight was at around 1 on friday afternoon. we flew about 11 hours, kyle drove us home from dfw...and when we got to our house it was around 1 on friday afternoon! i saw the sun set and rise within less than 8 hours. got to see it rise over the rocky mountains! and still went shopping on black friday that afternoon!

one

yea, first post of the new year! i decided i better finish up my tokyo pictures before i go back to work tomorrow. (ugh) i wish we were off tomorrow so i could have gone on the girls' winter retreat in dallas. staying in a hotel and shopping at the galleria sounds much better than going to work on a cold monday morning! obviously, i needed to stay home and rest anyway. i got home from church and lunch and took a 3 hour nap! it messes me up when i sleep so long and then wake up and don't know if it's 4:15 am or pm! i finally decided that it was too light outside to be am...so i figured i better get up. k-dogg is watching the cowboys game (ie...snoozing in his chair) so i came in my computer room. my team is out of the playoffs, so they aren't showing that game.
Merry Christmas from Louis Vuitton!
we had 3 starbucks within about 2 blocks of our hotel. kinda weird, the only real difference was the menu and all the japanese customers. otherwise, i could have been in any starbucks in the states.
tokyo from the 47th floor of the municipal government building. when it isn't cloudy, you can see mt fuji. i think it's almost always cloudy though.
subway map...simple enough, right??
Christmas lights

zest cantina...texmex in tokyo. we ate here one night and it was pretty good. the walls were covered with texas license plates, john wayne pictures, and a buffalo and jackalope. the waiters wear jeans, cowboy boots, and western shirts. they just need some help on their portion sizes. a plate of nachos had about 7 chips and you don't get chips and salsa before the meal. we had a good time laughing at the people we saw drinking a bud light that cost $8 a bottle! according to k-dogg, this is THE meeting place in shinjuku...or was it shibuya? i don't remember where we were!
it looks like all these people are out really late at night, but it was probably only 6 or 7pm. the sun set at 4!
yes, it's blurry, but that's how fast you have to walk so those nice polite people in tokyo don't run you over!