Front yard slowly being transformed

Before I left for OR I noticed that my front yard bushes were dying.  With end of the year schedule and preparing for my trip I  only had time to hedge the suckers down, water the heck out of them, and put some 'miracle grow' down...in hopes that the name would make some amazing 'miracles'.

I felt bad for my neighbors...because my hedging job made the bushes look worse.....

But I had places to go and people to see....the bushes were going to just have to deal with disease and a Texas summer.
When I got back I decided to give some of the bushes a lot of TLC.  The 'miracle grow' name did not live up to it's brand name.  So I got out my big whacking tool and started chopping the bushes down.

I replaced them with bark dust, hanging plants, and some succulents.  A quick fix to a problem that I need really big power tools, time to do research, or having my dad come down to help me out.

Road Trip

Made it to OR in two days!  I loved gaining the two hours!  I made it to OR right in time to put the kids to bed and give my sister some TLC while she was dealing with a mean streak of Strep.

Love the graffiti!

Found 'Happy Jack Road'.....

My cat not happy.....  We didn't take that exit.

Going back to Texas was a bit rough.  Losing the two hours seemed like I wasn't making good time and it also meant an end to my wonderful summer.  One thing that kept my mind on the road was paying attention to the welcome signs when I entered a different state.  Sadly, my pictures got worse and worse as I made it closer to home.  And those darn bugs kept making my windshield dirty!

Sad leaving the beautiful waterfalls.

Goodbye....

Love the rocks in Utah!

I need to go some day.

Buffalo farm!

I swear these are camels!

Took forever to get through Kansas!

It was dark and I was tired....but made it to Texas.

Weekends

 Friday nights are usually us visiting a football game...this is Texas.  There is always a football game on a Friday night.

 Saturdays are the big days filled with activities to spur imaginations, start conversations, involve kinesthetic learning, and to get lots of picture taking opportunities (and wear the kids out).  We usually start by having breakfast, playing with dress-up clothes, making cupcakes, feeding ducks, playing in the park, swimming, decorating the cupcakes, eating lunch, bringing the cupcakes to the fire-station (getting a free tour),  getting books and videos at the library, playing board games, making dinner, playing the Wii, watching a movie, showering, reading time, pray and bedtime.

Sundays involve going to church so they can mingle with kids their own age and hopefully learn something good.  After church we pick up our pictures, come home, and eat lunch.  After lunch we make our scrap-books so they can remember all the fun things they did while they visited my house.

The weekends go by fast but it is so much fun to see them soak up the information, interact with people in my community, and have some time to just be a kid.

Yard Transformation

So after spending my summer in Oregon, I came home to a back yard that needed a lot of TLC and weed killer!  The grass was knee high and there were some plants/trees growing that I didn't even remember planting.

So I came across a three day weekend and put my garden gloves through some painful experiences we are not going to be discussing.  By day two my yard was looking a lot better.

I even found some fruits and vegetables growing.

Here I am at 7:15 AM.....no one should be this sweaty that early in the morning!  No one should be gardening that early either....but this is Texas....so 97 degrees is a lot cooler that when it is 110 degrees in the afternoon.

By day three all was complete, beautiful, and ready to be enjoyed by all.

Too bad the Home Depot guy didn't get a chance to see the end product.  He was quite confused to why I was buying 32 bags of bark-dust.   But a big shout out to our trash people for picking up the 13 bags of yard debris that didn't fit in my garbage can.

I love this binding machine!

So a teacher left last year and gave her binding machine to my co-worker.  This year has been very interesting because I am teaching three different spelling lists.  And trying to keep their lists, rapid word charts, definitions, and study strategy sentences all organized is a pain.  But thanks to this machine I was able to organize all my papers and put them into cute little books!  No more binders with worrying about dividers, three hole punching, pages being ripped out, or shelving space.

Making the cover.

Making the holes in the pages.

Action shot!

Picking out the right size binding end.

Adding the pages to the plastic binding ring.

For those who teach different curriculum sections during the day I highly recommend getting one of these machines....if they are even available.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

School days have begun and it hit me so fast I never had time to record the last days of summer.  And between two laptops and a cell phone I never know where my pictures are when it is time to blog.  So, here's what I got.

Blueberry, Peach, and Nectarine picking.

Tía teaching 'aggressiveness' so she could get a picture.

Yes, I did encourage the colored popcorn even if it tasted terrible....she is 7.

Does he realize that superman doesn't stand like that?

Thank you to my family for having my last night be a 'game night'.

My road trip back home was uneventful.  It was a lot harder coming home then going out to OR.  Losing those two hours was brutal!  Between texting and instagraming, I didn't get a chance to put my pictures on this computer.  But I got a picture of every state welcome sign, some buffaloes, and I swear I saw camels!

On a sad note, I started the school year with the hard reality that I was not going to be teaching Spanish this year.  I wish it would have been one sad day, like ripping a Band-aid quickly off.  But everyday I have had either a student or a teacher comment to me on how sad/shocked they are that I'm not teaching Spanish.  However, the other day a smile did emerge on my face when administration asked me if they could use my Spanish curriculum.  Maybe a little bit of my Spanishness will continue on through the work of others.

So, I finally have a year where I am not designing some type of P.E., Health, Ethics, Reading Comprehension, Language Therapy, or Spanish curriculum.  And God has answered my prayer on being able to host more foster kids.  So far, I have had two weekends doing respite. We have been busy making cupcakes, doing nails, going to the library, the pool, museums, football games, fire stations, feeding ducks, and playing board games.

Here we are dissecting fruit fly larvae.

And lastly I did have a free weekend to re-landscape my backyard.  Six years ago I dug out all my grass in my backyard to I wouldn't have to mow.  I leave for a summer and when I got back, grass was everywhere....knee high!  Luckily, I had a really bad day at work so I was ready to release my frustration with the aid of my power tools, a shovel and grass killer.