AC is Cool

Get it? AC...cool?! Ok, I chose the title because at the moment, our apartment is slowly getting hotter and hotter. Our moving company is FINALLY delivering our stuff, and we have the air off because the door is open. Yeah, it's getting hot, but not having to carry all those boxes up 3 floors is a pretty good trade off. The guys' shirts were soaked through by the third trip up. After about 20 minutes, they brought our couch cushions up, and one of them was soaked just from leaning against the guy. GROSS. At least it was the part that you don't sit on towards the back. One of the guys has changed his shirt 3 times. I feel kind of bad for them... Not too bad though, since they're a week and a half late. Now we just have a ton of unpacking to do this weekend. But no other emotions can compete with the euphoria I feel about being able to SLEEP IN MY OWN BED TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!

Since I have no pictures of the guys moving our stuff because, quite frankly, I'm way too hot to even move, here are some old ones I just never had to time blog about. Here's our kitchen, close up and clean (but empty still):


Here's Lee making our first homemade meal in Texas... Pizza sandwiches! You put pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni between two pieces of bread and cook it like grilled cheese. Yum. (That's extra pizza sauce on the side.)


I'm so glad I will be able to eat at a table, on real plates. Here's the set-up we had for a while in our dining room, before we had to move it to the office for the desktop. Thanks again, Gramma and Grampa, for letting us borrow it!


And the office/guest bedroom.... This is how Lee did almost all of his grad work, before we moved the table in there. (Oh by the way, I got an A and A- already...just waiting to see about the third class. Heck yes!)


While I'm SO happy to have our stuff, I have to say that I learned a lot about how to get by. First and foremost, the many uses of this pan... To make grilled cheese and pizza sandwiches, boil spaghetti, toast a bagel, and even....


...to mix brownies! I guess that's what happens when you plan for 2 days and end of having to make it work for 2 weeks.

And we're becoming pros at how to deal with this:


We now know when it's "worth it" to turn the AC on in the car, or if it's too short of a drive to even get cool before we arrive at our destination. Putting down the windows is always the first thing you do, in a [somewhat vain] attempt at getting out the hot air trapped inside the car. Sometimes it works. Oh, and I finally went to the pool! It was warm - probably 90 degrees or more - but it felt refreshing compared to the outside temperature.

Lee and I went to work this week to meet our mentors, work on our classrooms, go to a new teacher induction, and start staff development. The new teacher thing was held at the M.O.C. Center, which is where our district hosts tournaments, or sometimes games played against two in-district schools. We got free books, office supplies, and other goodies, and Lee and I both won door prizes on top of that. This is the Center, with pictures of the basketball arena and football stadium.


Since we didn't have our work clothes yet, we had to go to Kohl's the night before to get outfits. I hate it when I'm forced to go to Kohl's! Oh wait...NOT.


Staff development was kind of "duh" stuff, but good to hear, and we are each building relationships with our colleagues already! Everyone is so nice and supportive here. Collaboration is key, and you know you are never on your own. One of Lee's fellow teachers even invited us over for dinner already. I think we're going sometime this week (?).

Finally, some random things that don't really fit anywhere... First, we set up our Skype and talked to Ben this morning. What a treat! Miss him so much. :(

Second, a sign in the window at WHATABURGER....


*Sigh* I love Texas. The head honchos in the district also prayed before we started the new teacher program! Craziness!

And last, we were trying to be like the locals here, since the dumpster is all the way down at the other end of the complex...


It fell off after the first speed bump. So we went back to our "safe in the back seat" version.

Well, they're done bringing the stuff in, so I think we are going to get to unpacking pretty soon. We love and miss you all. More pictures will come when we have everything set up!

~Hooks