...Or Not

I won't keep you in suspense. We didn't win a Porsche. :( We got one of those things in the mail - you know: "You have won one of these exciting prizes! All you have to do is come claim it!" I know what you're thinking...scam. But we had actually entered a drawing at the State Fair in October, and Lee's entry form was included with the flyer. So we decided to take an overnight trip up to Tyler, TX (near Dallas) and find out what we had won.

It turned out as we expected - salesmen pressuring us to buy a timeshare, a tour of a crappy resort, and no Porsche...but we did end up getting a cruise and an "exotic island getaway." The island vacation doesn't include airfare, so we probably won't be able to do that, but we could do the cruise at virtually no cost to us, since they have ships leaving from Galveston (about an hour away). And even if we decide not to do any of that, at least we got a nice weekend together. We stayed at a Courtyard Marriott that was really nice! Thanks, Lee! :)


Of course, my favorite part was the jacuzzi. DUH. So here it is, the saga of the tub...


Yes, indeed.

~Hooks

And We're Off To Get Our New Porsche

I'll update you tomorrow. For now, I'll just keep you wondering...

No New Blogs In Over a Month? WAY Too Long...

I'm sorry! I think about blogging all the time when we do new things or when students say/do funny things, but I just never seem to get to it. I mean, I haven't even blogged about Christmas yet, and that was 2 months ago! What gives?! I finally realized my problem is that I keep thinking I can't blog about new things when I haven't finished the old stuff... but I recently decided to let myself off the hook and blog about new things -large or small. And the old stuff? I'll get to it when I get to it. Hope you don't mind. (Plus, Jackie taught me about Blogger's post-dating feature. Basically, I can lie about when I write things...muah ha ha ha haaaa! What's that you say? Of course I wrote about Christmas on December 26th!)

In addition to my apologies, I thought I'd also use this post to upload these ADORABLE pictures of Ryan helping his daddy wash my car. No, it was not forced child labor - he wanted to do it.


Here's how it happened: A few weekends ago, Becca came over to my house to read. YES, we had a reading date - don't judge. We ordered fajitas for lunch, and talked for a while before we got into our books. She had been telling me about how often Peter cleans their van, and the wheels in my head started turning. You see, remember the post about our move...when I described how our little African violet took a tumble in the car? Yeahhhh. That dirt was still in the center console. I know, I know. We're disgusting. But there's also no Delta Sonic around here (sad face), and plain old Sonic is NOT the same thing. I checked.

So I told her to talk with Pete, and see if he would be willing to clean my car for me if I paid him. They went through the whole, "Oh you don't have to pay us" thing, but I was like... Umm, dirt from 6 months ago? YEAH. I do... And thank goodness they accepted because I was beginning to fear my car would never get clean. Plus, I got the bonus of spending Saturday afternoon outside with my cousin and her family, watching the "show" while sipping coffee. Ahh, that was the life.


See what I mean? So stinkin' cute. His shoes and pants were soaked by the end of it, and I think he sprayed Pete a few times too (hence the "show" lol). And you should have seen him when I gave him a dollar later on as a tip. His little face spread into the biggest smile as he ran to go put it in his bank.

Saturday's like that should be bottled and kept forever... :)

~Hooks

It's January 16th

We're heading out to go grocery shopping on our day off. I'm in a t-shirt, capris, and flip-flops. Jealous?

Too bad I'm still on a NY-winter shaving schedule. ;)

~Hooks

Work = Crazy Busy

I put a Post-It on my to-do list today. You know it's bad when you need notes for your notes...

~Hooks

And She Didn't Even Knock Over My Coffee

While I don't have time to blog about Christmas break right now, I just HAD to write about this...

In the middle of the practice TAKS test, one of my students told me she was really hot. She usually complains about the room being too warm, so I didn't think much of it. Then she asked to go to the bathroom, and I said ok. As I was looking down, writing her a pass, she started to walk over to my desk. I didn't see her until she was right in front of me. I looked up at her, and she was extremely pale. She looked at me and said, "I feel really diz--" and then she passed out, bent at the waist. On my desk.

Immediately, I stood up and grabbed her shoulders (across my desk) to keep her from falling and hurting herself. There was an empty chair about 2 feet behind her, but since I already had my arms completely extended, I couldn't reach it to set her down. So we were stuck - her on one side and me on the other. Luckily, this happened to be the one period that I have an aide, so I called to her, "Umm, can you come help me please?!" She came right over, and helped the girl into the chair. We propped her feet up, and the aide started fanning the student. Surprisingly, the situation was so quiet that almost none of the other students even heard/knew what was going on.

Then I ran to get the nurse because, of course, our rooms don't have phones in them. When I finally got there, she told me that there had been a blood drive today. Bingo. When we got back to my room, sure enough, the student had given blood the period before. We asked her if she had eaten breakfast; she told us she had. She was still pretty out of it. She was saying things like, "Did I faint?....Wow, I don't feel good....How long am I going to be like this?...." They sent a wheelchair for her, and she was wheeled out of my class and sent back to the blood drive to lie down for a while. Poor thing. I felt bad for her, but it still didn't cut the hilarity of the situation.

To lessen the "you-had-to-be-there" feeling, click on this link. In honor of my poor student. What a trooper... Fainting = Funny

~Hooks

Back to the Grind

Hello lovelies... Yes, it is true that I just went an entire Christmas break without blogging. Soooo much to catch up on, and I had the time to do it. But sometimes you just need to sit around, do nothing, and continuously eat food. And that is exactly what I did. We spent about a week at my parents' house and about a week at Lee's parents' house (pictures still to come) watching movies/tv, playing tons of games, and eating...A LOT. Especially at the Hooker's house. Funny how that always seems to happen. ;)

Now, we're back to school and in the swing of things once again. Having 2+ weeks off was perfect though. It was long enough that I felt rested enough to come back, without detaching me from the reality that I actually do have a job. Plus, we had Staff Development on Monday (no students), which eased us back into the work scene. And my kids are also taking a practice TAKS test for 3 out of the 4 days this week so planning is a breeze. I should [probably] have time to blog more and post all those vaca pictures sometime later this week.

Until then, I'll leave you with this picture: my board at school, written with my new whiteboard markers from my awesome Sibling Secret Santa! Thanks, David! :)


~Hooks