Nice Neighbors and Classroom in Del Rio

While we were away on our honeymoon, our neighbors across the street took care of our house and got the mail.  We came home on Sunday morning at 2am with a big trailer full of my stuff.  We parked in the driveway and went straight to bed!  After flying and driving all day, we were exhausted!!  When we woke up the next morning to unload the trailer, we found that our neighbors had put a fun sign on the trailer to welcome us back:

Our house and my classroom were a mess for several weeks after the honeymoon (it's only been five...), and we are finally finishing up and getting things clean!

The weekend before school started, I finally got my classroom ready for my students!  We started school a week ago, so it is not quite as clean as it was in all these pictures... The piles on my desk have grown to immense proportions, and the desks aren't in straight rows anymore, but it still looks pretty good! :-)

Here are some pictures (click on the collage to make it bigger)...

My classes are packed to the brim, so I have had to add 8 extra chairs so all the kids in my geometry class don't have to sit on the floor!  Luckily, the school likes to freeze us out in the mornings, so it doesn't get hot and stuffy until about the end of 7th period.

School is going pretty well, although it is quite an adjustment to go from 75 students to 175!! (Actually, I haven't done official class counts in a few days, and they are changing almost every day, so I'm not really sure how many kids I have....)  I have learned all the names of the kids in 5th period, though, and know all of them by sight (almost).  I'm still working on the other classes, but I feel like I am making good progress!!  The papers everyday, though, are a little staggering, but I think I can get used to it.

The kids make me laugh everyday, and some of them drive me to the edge of frustration every day.  They are just your typical 15 and 16 year olds!  I actually received a hug from a kid the other day...one of the freshman boys in my class.  I was a little shocked, but it felt nice to know that I was accepted by at least one person!  Another kid wanted me to pound fists with him the other day...I'm still learning those moves. :-)  I've had a great time getting to know the kids and the teachers, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year.  Busy, busy, busy!!

And, on top of this, I have started a master's program at the university in Del Rio.  The school district is paying for the math and science teachers to get their master's degrees as part of their school improvement plan, so of course, I had to jump on board.  Who would turn down that kind of opportunity?!?!  So, I'm going to classes on Wednesday night and working on an online math class as well.  It's all very exciting, and I am glad to be doing it!

Now, off to grade papers and finish planning for tomorrow...

Wedding and Honeymoon!

The wedding was amazing and beautiful and was everything we hoped that it would be!!  We have so many pictures to look at from all of my friends, family, and professional photographer!!  If you want to see the professional photos, here's the link to the website: www.blackburnstudios.com.  Click on the "more photos" icon in the bottom left, and scroll down until you see the "Kinley-Daniels wedding".  Then, you can click on the photos to see them bigger than thumbnail size!!  My cousin also took some amazing pictures, and I have a great assortment to look at from my friends!!

Here are a couple of my own pictures:

My bridesmaid and house party at the Chocolate Bar in Houston!

Left side: My sister and I

Top right: House party girls - Sarah, Jen, Sperry, and Niestradt

Bottom left: my bridesmaids - Kelly, Katie, Jen, and Catherine (my friend Laura showed up later, on the day before the wedding!)

Getting our hair done and getting moral support from my bridesmaids!

Getting dressed before the wedding!

Why I love my friends :-)  (We were all laughing so hard over this...)

My dear friends Brad and Jen Ragan and my new husband! :-)

Our honeymoon was amazing.  Costa Rica is a beautiful place, and we absolutely loved it.  We arrived there the Sunday night after the wedding and had private transportation to our beautiful hotel in San Jose.  The next morning, we had another private van to take us to the Tabacon Springs in La Fortuna.  The trip out there was beautiful, and we had a very talkative guide who told us many things about the country!  I practiced my Spanish a little bit and was so glad he was so patient!  We stayed at the hot springs for two nights, enjoying a horseback riding trip by the famous volcano which led us to a beautiful waterfall!  Travis was also really excited about eating a banana straight off a tree.  We couldn't find the perfect one, though, until we made it to our next stop!  Here are some pictures (you can click on the collages to make them bigger)...

After our two day stay at the hot springs, we had (yet another) private transportation to our next stop.  We were heading to the river for a rafting trip which would take us to Pacuare Lodge, a "hotel" out in the middle of the jungle!  We met another couple from North Carolina, and they joined us on the river for the six mile raft into the jungles.  We stopped at the lodge, where we stayed for two nights in our own, private honeymoon suite.  It was quite a hike to get up to our lofty residence, but the view was stunning, and we enjoyed the seclusion.  We were waited on, hand and foot, by really nice people the entire time.  They cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday for us, and the food was amazing.  We took a canopy tour on the ropes course they had on the property, and we hiked to a waterfall (twice!).  It only rained once while we were there, and it was the most relaxing morning I have ever had.  We sat in our room and watched the rain come down.  There wasn't any electricity, so at night, we saw by candlelight.  The dinners were candlelit, and the rooms were also full of candles.  It was amazing!!  Here are pictures...

Along the way, our driver stopped to show us this really cool tree full of iguanas!  The man who owned the "Restaurante Las Iguanas" apparently feeds the iguanas so they will stick around, and has about 45 - 50 giant ones hanging out in the tree outside the restaurant!

This was our private honeymoon suite! :-)

After our two day stay at Pacuare, we got back in the rafts with two other couples and a family and started out on the 13 mile rafting trip back out of the jungles.  We stopped at a beautiful waterfall along the way and also had a stop for lunch.  The guides, again, made an amazing lunch and treated us like royalty.  Our rafting guide, Jose, was so awesome and made the trip really exciting.  Even when I lost my paddle, he still had a good attitude! (It floated downstream later, all bent and gimpy...)  He ran us straight into a rock at one point, and almost all of us fell out of the boat.  We almost lost him in one of the rapids, but we finally all made it out together.  A kayaking guide was also there, and he would speed ahead of us and take pictures as we were coming down the rapids.  This is why we have so many amazing pictures to share!!

This was the beautiful waterfall where we stopped along the river...

And, some of our fun river pictures!!

Once we got off the river, we had a four hour ride back to San Jose.  We dropped the other couples off at their hotels, got stuck in traffic, and FINALLY made it to our hotel by the airport.  After all our beautiful lodgings that week, the Holiday Inn wasn't really that exciting. :-)  We were so tired, though, that it didn't matter.  We laid out all our damp clothes from the rafting trip (which smelled awesome, by the way), had some dinner, and went to sleep.  We didn't really want to leave, but we drug ourselves to the airport the next morning to catch our flight.

The trip was absolutely amazing, and we both really enjoyed it!  We are looking forward to the chance to do something like this again.  Pura vida!