TCU vs. Air Force

Travis and Eric, his best friend from the Academy, came to visit this weekend.  We hung out in Austin on Friday night with Katie and took Eric downtown for his first Austin experience.  (He is from Georgia and hasn't been to Texas before, until he moved to San Antonio for his instructor training.  He is in the same class as Travis, and will be stationed in Oklahoma after he is done with the training.)  We had a blast!  The next day, we drove to Fort Worth for the TCU vs. Air Force game.  We met up with a couple of my friends from college and had a great time hanging out with them!

JJ, Sperry, Jen, and the giant wool gloves I had to borrow because my hands were freezing!

The boys were in their Air Force blues and stood out well among all the purple!

Their team struggled, and TCU won 44-10.  Air Force did score one touchdown in the third quarter, and Travis and Eric went crazy!  It was pretty funny; they were screaming and cheering right in the middle of the quiet TCU student section.

Travis and his friend Eric

During halftime, my friends and I took a walk up to the highest part of the stadium to watch the halftime show.  Then, as we were walking back at the beginning of third quarter, we passed the guy who was holding the falcon (Air Force's mascot!!).  We got to pet the bird - it was pretty cool.  It was wearing a helmet (that made it look like a giant mosquito) so it wouldn't get scared in the crowd of people.

After dinner, we met up with some of my other friends for dinner and then we went to one of the sports bars in town to watch the Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma game.  We left at halftime when the score was 42-7 (or something like that) and went to my friend Jen's house to watch the rest.  We played with her dogs and watched the rest of Oklahoma's massacre of Tech.   Exhausted, we all found places to sleep, and then we had to leave early the next morning to get the boys back to San Antonio on time.  (They had a meeting.)

And now, I am enjoying my entire week off from work.  Today and tomorrow, I am Christmas shopping and running errands.  Then, heading to Houston to spend some time with my family and Travis' mom!  It should be fun.

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone!

Weekend Update!

This past weekend was so much fun!  With all the craziness going on at school this year, I am really taking the time to enjoy the weekends and do something besides work.  So, this past weekend, Travis came down to Austin to visit.  I graded tests on Friday until he got here, and then we went to the store to buy dinner.  We made two different pizzas, one supreme pizza and one barbeque chicken pizza with homemade barbeque sauce on it.  They were delicious, and they were a lot of fun to cook.  Then, we watched the most recent James Bond movie, Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig as Bond.  His fabulous blue eyes were quite a distraction, but the movie was great.  Then, on Saturday, we went to see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.  Again, majorly distracted by the blue eyes, but I thought it was a good movie.  Then, we walked around the mall until I found a shirt to wear for our excursion that night.  (The weather turned COLD and I realized I had no warm clothes to wear!!)

I found a sweater and we went home to change and head to Gruene, Texas, a little city in between San Antonio and Austin.  We met up with a couple of Travis' friends at a restaurant in Gruene for dinner, and then we stood in line outside of Gruene Hall to get in for the Stoney LaRue concert.  It was freezing, but the line went pretty fast and we were able to get in before the show sold out.  We stayed until the concert was over around 1:30am and then Travis and I drove back to Austin.  The concert was a blast and it was fun to hang out with the guys from the base in San Antonio.   A couple of the guys had driven all the way from Del Rio, so it was fun to see them and hang out with them for the night.

On Sunday, we sat around and watched some football until about 1:30pm when Katie called and was ready to go to lunch.  The three of us went to the Cheesecake Factory and had a great lunch together.  Then, Travis had to head back to San Antonio, so Katie and I hung around and chatted for about half an hour after he left.

Then I went home and finished grading the tests and entering the grades (which took a total of 15 minutes).  It was a very relaxing weekend!  And this week is a pretty light week, since it is the week before Thanksgiving, so I am pretty excited.  I am spending tomorrow (Tuesday) out of the classroom for some training, so the week is going to feel pretty short.  On Thursday and Friday, though, I have to work the basketball tournament that is being held at our school.  Then, Travis and his friends (who all went to the Air Force Academy for college) are coming on Friday night to hang out in Austin, and then we are driving up to Fort Worth to go to the TCU vs. Air Force football game on Saturday.  It should be really fun!!  We are staying with a couple of my friends from college, and I am really excited to see them!

And, as a little side note, since the weather has finally gotten colder, Mr. Ed has become more snuggly and loveable!  He is currently curled up in my lap, sleeping and snoring like a baby!

Only four more days until Thanksgiving break!

Final School Volleyball Update

We played our last game of the season on Thursday against our rival school.  The games were pretty good, and I was impressed at the playing I saw on the court.  My B team won their game in three, grueling games; my A team lost.  Overall, my A team finished 3rd in the district, with a record of 5-3.  My B team ended up tying with two other schools for first place in the district with a record of 7-1.  I am so excited!  We now get to have a banner in the gym for the volleyball team.  It is my first banner to win, and the first volleyball banner for my school.   Whoo hoo!  Go team!

And volleyball is officially over.  Basketball tryouts start on Monday!

Travis' birthday!

Monday was Travis' birthday, so I took Tuesday off from work so we could actually do something fun and stay up late!  (My school night bedtime is usually around 9pm...a hard thing to do when you want to go out to dinner and celebrate!)  So, when I got home from work on Monday, we took our time getting ready and went out to dinner downtown at Fogo de Chao.  If you have never been there, it is a must for any special occasion!!  There aren't any menus; once you are seated, you can start at the salad bar (which is always fancy and amazing).  Then, once you are ready for more, you flip over a little green disk on your table, and waiters carrying huge skewers of all different types of meat will start coming by your table.  They will carve off a piece of whatever you want and put it on your plate.  When you have enough, you flip the disk over to the red side, and the waiters stop coming.  After you eat what you have and want more, flip the disk again, and the waiters will come by and ask which meats you want delivered.  It is a great way to eat dinner!  We had a great time.  Then we came home and watched Ironman, and I *gasp* stayed up until midnight on a school night! :o)

After a glorious and wonderful sleep in (so fabulous not to have to go to work!!), we went for lunch and to spend some of the birthday money he got from his mom.  Then, we washed his truck, as it was almost orangish brown (instead of the red it usually is!).  The drive from Del Rio to San Antonio is laden with butterflies and dirt flying in the air, and after a couple of drives, it was time for a wash!

And, because Travis had most of his belongings with him in his truck, we took his golf clubs and went to a driving range.  It was my second time to play golf, and I didn't do too badly.  Luckily I was with someone who knew how to correct the mistakes I was making, and I actually had a few good swings.  When it came time for a little competition, though, I couldn't hit anything, and Travis won our distance contest!

Then we stopped by the 8th grade football game, just for some laughs.  Both teams ended up winning, which was pretty exciting.  I also got to see some of my club volleyball girls that I coached two years ago.  They were there watching the other school play, and we are playing against them tomorrow in volleyball!  I got some great big hugs and we chatted for a while.

Then Travis and I packed up his truck again, and he got on the road for San Antonio.  He's living on the base there until he can find a house to rent with his friends!  The fact that he could wait to leave Austin until 7:30pm was pretty cool, since now, for the next several months, we have only an hour and a half drive between us!!

So, a fun birthday and a nice day off in the middle of the week.  Going back to work, of course, was pretty difficult today, but luckily it was a half day for the students, so the day went by pretty quickly.  After the kids left, I spent the rest of the day with the math teachers, planning and writing tests and quizzes.  Fuuuun.  (Actually, it was good to get a lot of stuff done.  I planned up to the week after Christmas!!)

And, tomorrow is my last volleyball game of the season!  I am pretty excited.  I love volleyball, and I love my team, but practicing every day and having games every week for 9 weeks is starting to wear a little thin.  So, last game tomorrow, no practice Friday, turn in uniforms on Monday and Tuesday, work the basketball tryouts for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and THEN I am officially in offseason.  Then, except for working the clock at the games on Mondays, I won't have anything to do for athletics until track season starts in February.  Whoo!

Two crazy hectic weeks until Thanksgiving!  A whole week off!  Yay!

Frogs, Flowers, and Fun!

Last weekend, I went to Fort Worth for TCU homecoming, which was a blast!!  I met up with some old friends and had a great time catching up with them.   I went by the Sigma Kappa house just to say hi and ended up meeting my great-gran little, who is now the president of the sorority!  I was excited to hear that my family was doing so well!  (When I started in Sigma Kappa, my family consisted of me and my big...and that was it!)  I also spent some time walking around campus and seeing all the new renovations that have been made.  The most outstanding was the fact that they changed the huge parking lot in front of the student center into a grassy area that is now surrounded by all new dorms and a brand new student center!  It is absolutely amazing.  Then, at the game, the Frogs played against Wyoming and won the game 54-7.  Overall, it was a great weekend!

This is a picture of the new grassy area in front of the fountain that used to be a parking lot.  All the buildings all around it are brand new, and all of them are dorms!!!  My old freshman dorm that used to be prominent in this area is now hidden behind all the new stuff.

My friend Sperry and I with SuperFrog in front of the frog fountain!

 

The new statue and extension to the Education building

So, this week has been long and crazy, but many good things have happened this week and last weekend!  On Tuesday, Travis sent me the most beautiful roses just to let me know he was thinking about me while he was in Washington!  He made it through his training and will be heading back on Saturday to get ready to go to San Antonio for his next training.  He'll be living in a rental house in San Antonio until the end of March and doing his instructor training.  It will be nice having him so close for so long!!!  Then, he's going back to Del Rio for the next three year to be an instructor pilot.

Tonight, my volleyball teams played against Henry, the team that my coaching friend from Eclipse coaches.  It was a huge competition, and we played some of the best games that we have played all season!  I was excited to see them play so well, but disappointed at some of the mistakes they were making (missed serves, free balls hitting the ground, etc.).  Both teams lost both the games that they played.  So my A team has a record of 5-2 and my B team has a record of 6-1.  We have one more big game next week, and then the season is over.  I'm a little excited to have a little more time in my life!

And, on a final note, I have been asked to coach one of the 14s teams this year for club volleyball, so I am pretty excited about that.  It will be the same as coaching the 12s, travel and tournament-wise, except the girls will be older and a little more coordinated!  Practice and games will start at the end of November.

3 weeks until Thanksgiving!!!

School....

School is consuming my life at the moment.  Despite the great weekend I had last weekend, last week was CRAZY.  Yes, it was a four day week for the students, but I still had to work for five days.  And, the weather turned colder AND we had a full moon...and I never really believed it would have any effect on anything, but, boy, was I proven wrong!  The kids were so squirrelly and out of control all week, and it was all I could do to keep them in their seats!  A couple of times during class we had to take a minute break to let them all (literally) run around the room and get their energy out.  It was bizarre.  I don't think we learned too much last week....  Teacher morale in the 8th grade math department is a little low due to the fact that the parents are calling all the shots and we are forced to concede.  I really wish we could just start the year over, knowing everything that was going to happen, and do things differently, but that's not going to happen, so we continue having parent conferences over...and over....and over.........

Anyways, three more volleyball games to go, and then the season is over.  After basketball tryouts in four weeks, I will officially be in off-season and maybe I will have some time to breathe at school.  Right now, I can totally understand how the kids feel - we are so busy!!!

Travis is out in Washington state right now, hanging around for the week until he starts his resistance training on Friday.  Keep him in your thoughts and prayers because it is going to be a tough week for him!  He won't be coming back to Texas until November 1, and then he officially moves to San Antonio on November 4.  He'll be living there for four months while he does his pilot instructor training, and then he will be heading back to Del Rio at the end of March to start teaching all the young, new pilots how to fly!

Some fun things to look forward to after this crazy week...  On Friday night, my volleyball team and I are going to the UT vs. BYU volleyball game.  Then on Saturday, I am going to the TCU vs. Wyoming homecoming game in Fort Worth!  It's the first time in four years that I haven't had a volleyball tournament on the same weekend as homecoming, so I am pretty excited!  They have lots of fun events going on that day, so it should be fun to catch up with some old friends and see all the great things they have been doing on campus.

Anyways, papers to grade, parents to please, answer keys to make.....back to work!

8 weeks down, 28 to go.....and only 5 more weeks until our next break!

No work and all play on the weekends makes me happy!

What a wonderful weekend!  My mental health day on Friday was totally worth the stress and anxiety on Thursday!  I cleaned the house, did laundry, and then followed through on my desire to do NO work this weekend by going to Del Rio and leaving my books and agenda at home.  It was fabulous.

Friday night, Travis and I went to another class' drop (the ceremony where the pilots who are about to graduate find out what planes they will be flying next).  It was really interesting because this was the first drop where they were handing out assignments for the UAVs, which are the unmanned planes which the pilots fly by remote control in Las Vegas.  Not the dream job for anyone who wants to fly planes, so of course everyone was there to see who would get them!  They ended up handing out two assignments.  Then we hung around afterwards to watch an old, famous Air Force pilot play the guitar and sing some fabulous songs about pilots!  I caught up with a couple of guys from Travis' class who are still on base, and then I got to meet all of his new commanders and instructors that he is going to be working with next year.

Saturday, the Red River rivalry was in full force, and the Texas/OU game proved to be very exciting and intense.  My favorite part was the 96 yard touchdown run that one of the UT guys ran...awesome.  UT ended up winning 35-25 (I believe that was the score...).  Then Travis and I went to a movie for three bucks each at the theater downtown. (We spent more on popcorn and a drink than we did on the movie tickets!!)  We saw Body of Lies with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.  It was pretty good.  Then we drove around the lake and had dinner at this little bait shop by the water.  It was definitely like walking into a small town restaurant; every person (about 20 people total) said hello as we walked in.  We ordered food from the chef who was standing in the kitchen and started cooking right when we ordered, and the waitress hung around and talked with us for a while.  It was great.  45 minutes away from the base, but worth the trip.

Apparently, the best food on base is to be found at the bowling alley, so that is where we went Sunday afternoon for lunch and ended up playing three games.  Travis beat me pretty badly in the first and third games.  I think he let me win the second game, just to be nice, but I only won by about ten points.   (He beat me in the other two games by at least 60 points each time.)  It's not like I was bowling in gutter the whole time; I was actually doing pretty well and about average for my bowling abilities.  He just kept bowling strikes and spares and I just couldn't catch up!  Then we took a drive around town so he could show me some of the houses he is thinking about buying when he gets back from training in San Antonio.  Then, on main street, we found this tiny little "soda shop" that served ice cream and shakes.  So we had some dessert, and then we walked around the store looking at all the trinkets they had for sale.

So, needless to say, mental health has been restored!  This week should be much better than the last couple of weeks, as my stress level is much lower now and I have had a chance to relax and enjoy some non-school related activities.  (Not to mention the fact that I had a great vacation from all my kids and still don't have to see them until Tuesday!)

7 weeks down, 29 to go!