Mexico!

Ok, so I am the biggest procrastinator on the planet.

During the first week of June, we were in Mexico for my little cousin Marquel's wedding. It was an amazing time. We got to relax on the beach, swim in the pool, get sunburned (ouch!), ride horses, ride waverunners, and just spend some quality time with family. The finale was the beautiful wedding which I was honored to be a part of. Here are a few pics.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you get to read this before the day is over. Momma, I love you so much and I am happy to be your daughter. Some things I love about you:

1. Your cookin! I'm telling you, you are amazing in the kitchen!

2. Your love for gardening! I thought about you this weekend as I shopped for plants for my first real garden.

3. Your compassionate heart. Even though I make fun of you for saving every animal you come across, I know that it comes from a heart full of love.

4. Your friendliness. You seem to make friends so quickly and relate to just about anyone. You see the good in people.

5. Your hospitality. Staying at your house is like staying in a fine hotel! I never feel as spoiled as I do at your house.

6. Your beauty. You never believe me when I say it, but you are beautiful inside and out.

7. Your love for the "simple things".

8. The fact that you're my one and only momma! Even though you are far away, I look forward to the times we have together.

I hope your day was wonderful!
Love, Amanda

Oh, and happy Mother's Day to all of the other mommas out there!

NEW SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!

We are FINALLY in our new school building! This has been a long process. We began the year in portables. We had music, lunch, and library in the classroom. PE was held in a small portable. Our playground was servicing 3 schools, a total of 1,800 students. Fire drills were crazy--we walked from our portables into the school whose campus we shared. Parking was a nightmare. Air conditioning didn't work. Etc, etc, woe was me...

But now we have a BEAUTIFUL new school! We were supposed to move in January, but of course that was pushed back. We were finally given the dates of April 27 and 28 to set up our classrooms. We didn't get into our classrooms until the afternoon of the 27th because the fire marshall hadn't done the inspection yet. We are official now, and we had our first day with the kids today. They were SO excited! They just kept commenting how roomy it was! We toured all day, and I was so exhausted when I came home that I took a 3 hour nap! I am so thankful that I get an opportunity to work in such a beautiful environment in my first year of teaching! One of my coworkers has been in a portable for 9 years. I feel so blessed!

True Identity

Today we went to the dog park with Charlie after his obedience classes. We tried to get pictures, but it was too hard to capture the action. Let me just use words: Sniffing, lots of sniffing. And jumping, and running, and some more sniffing, followed by ball chasing (Charlie was uninterested in playing fetch, but plenty of other dogs were happy to oblige when Doug threw his ball). Also a little humping, mostly by the biggest dog there and the smallest dog there. Charlie was much more respectful than that. He got along with all the dogs, big and small, and perhaps even found a girlfriend, "Gracie" that was about his same age, and let me tell you, she was the belle of the ball!

We had a lot of fun, and we are pretty sure that he will be exhausted tonight. Definitely a good thing! We saw a Great Pyrenees there (could it be Charlie's long-lost father?) and a Brittany Spaniel, both of which Charlie is a mix of. Or at least we thought. We've just been taking the Pyrenees on faith (and size!), but upon seeing the Brittany up close, there is no way that he is mixed with that. So, I looked it up and we think he is instead mixed with English Springer Spaniel. I'm sure you have all been losing sleep over that. Rest well, my friends.

English Springer Spaniel



Plus Great Pyrenees



Equals Charlie, the best pup ever!

A Day in the Life...

Good morning! What are we going to do today?



Boring! I guess I'll chase my tail!



Ooh, what's over here?



I want to go for a walk!



Seriously, I really wanna go on a walk!

Garden Statue

Ah, Charlie. Things are never boring when he's around. Today, we got our first request for a play-date for Charlie. About five neighbor kids came to the door and asked if Charlie could come out and play. How cute is that! We let them babysit him for a while, and he was in hog--er, dog--heaven. Later on, while he was in the backyard, we figured we'd check on him. This is what we saw:




Notice how he doesn't move. I think the neighbor kids must have taught him "statue".