VBS Mania

Whew--the past three days have been a bit of a whirlwind what with work and then VBS until 9:00 at night. But I had so much fun! I knew the vast majority of the kids in my group which was very helpful. I'm pretty sure we had one of the largest classes--16 the first night. The first night our group went to see the drama skit that Travis was in--it was hilarious! I got great pictures and 2 video clips: one of Poptiphar's wife chasing Joseph around (the kids thought this was so funny) and the other of Joseph and Pharoah (our preacher) singing a song. I was so proud of him! By Wednesday night word had got around about the skit and quite a few church members came up just to see it.

At the end of the first evening Travis came to my classroom; I was still waiting for a few kids to be picked up. One of the boys starred at Travis and then he whispered to another boy "look it's Joseph." Then he covered his name tag and asked Travis what his name was. I snuck behind Travis and whispered his name. Travis then picked him up, did a little shake, and said his name. The little boy had a look of amazement. He asked Travis "how did you know that?" Travis told him that he dreamed it!

Coming Attractions

The summer months are here and I have begun using up my crazy amount of vacation days. This week I took Tuesday, Wednesday, and will take Friday off--not for anything in particular just because I need to use the days. I'm really excited because next week is Vacation Bible School at our church. I am co-teaching the kindergarten class which will be the same kids I taught all year! I think I'm more excited to see the skits performed. The story this year is Joseph so 3 different groups will be performing the music from Joseph and the Amazing Technocolor Dreamcoat. And in one of the groups Joseph will be performed by non other that...Travis Bodeker! I can't wait to see him. I hope to get lots of fun pictures!

I have firmly decided to purchase a digital camera--this week actually. I have been researching and I think I have found the one I want: a Canon A570. This will be an early birthday present to myself. I'm getting a little tired of using throw away cameras and I would like to be able to stick the pictures easily on my computer. So it's time to take another step into technology!

Wednesday Happenings

All afternoon yesterday I felt extremely tired--not just a normal tired but a weird, funny tired. When the end of the day came, I made plans to go home and lay down for a little bit. Those plans were irritatingly interrupted. As I drove out of the park, I thought my car felt a little sluggish as it drove down the pavement. My co-worker, who was driving behind me, called my cell phone to inform me that I had a flat tire. Rats--of all days! So I pulled over to the side of the rode--luckily one of the male park workers came by and he helped me get the spare on. Then I drove to Navasota to get my tire patched up. By the time I got back to College Station I was so worn out, I decided I couldn't make it to church. I ran through a drive-thru for dinner and then laid down for about an hour at home.

An interesting thing that occurred on Wednesday was an email I received. In the email I was asked to speak at a session at a museum conference. I was quite flattered but also confused. I have no idea why the chose me--I don't know either of the people in charge but they said that I was recommended. It is still uncertain if I will do it--for one we are unsure that our museum programs apply to the session topic. So we will see what happens. I actually wouldn't mind doing it. I think it would be a great experience and a wonderful addition to my resume.

Gone

Saturday, at 4:00 in the morning, Travis and his brother, Cody, set out for their road trip to Denver, Colorado. They were going to spend a few days with their cousin who lives up there. They reached their destination around 8:30 pm. Personally, I don't know how well I would have lasted in a car for that long. So Travis is gone until Thursday--I'm trying to find things to do to keep my occupied until then.

Sometimes I get, I guess you could call them cravings. Usually it is a form of media--a tv show that I must watch many episodes of; or it could be a desire for Jane Austen movies; or the Anne of Green Gables saga. This weekend I was on a Lord of the Rings kick--not for the movies but for the appendices. I watched a whole bunch of the extra footage of how they made the extrodinary movies. I love listening to stories from the cast and crew and learning about how much work went into those movies. I truly can't imagine doing everything they did!

I think I stayed up a little too late reading last night. I am feeling it at work today. I usually have a bit of tiredness hit me in the afternoon, but today I am truly fighting to keep my eyes open. I only stayed up 30 extra minutes--it's amazing the affect it has on my body. I remember the days when I could stay up until 1:00 in the morning and wake up at 7:00. Those days are gone.

Time Off

Well, I survived last week. By the end of everyday I was completely wiped out--so many kids, so many tours. I'm back on my normal schedule and on the last week of school tours, which begins the thought process on vacation time.

Adding up my vacation and holidays I have 19 days to use as I like. This doesn't include the 6 vacation days that I will hold over to next year. These 19 days will need to be used during June and July as my August is very busy booking school tours. At this moment I have no definate plans for the days. I plan to go home to Abilene during the summer. I also would like to take a vacation somewhere with Travis. Because of summer tours that are already booked, a lot of my time off will be random days throughout the week. I do have my own little projects I would like to get done this summer--one of which is organizing my apartment.

So hopefully I will come up with some ideas to keep my busy during my days off.

LIght at the End of the Tunnel

My crazy 6 day week is coming closer to an end. When you give anywhere from 3-5 hour long tours a day it makes for a rather tiring work day. Any time I've had to sit has been well appreciated. This week I have had lots of evening things to attend or get done so I haven't had many nights of relaxation.

I have been going quite a few days without a day to sleep in (which I love and adore) which may explain what happened this morning. I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing, Travis calling to say good morning. So I woke up at 7:50--10 minutes before the time I'm suppose to leave to get to work. For the first 30 seconds I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I got ready in about 30 minutes and headed to work. Thankfully we didn't have kids coming until 10:00.

We have one more group of kids coming at 3:30 and then the worst week of the year will be over! I plan to unwind tonight by going out to eat with some girls from church and then watching a movie. I'm super ready for my day off!

A New Post!

Oy! Once again I fell into the blog slump and left all of my avid readers in the lurch. One reason for this would be it's May--the busiest month for me at work. The TAKS test is over and the kids are coming out for their fun, educational tour at Washington-on-the-Brazos. It hasn't been that bad this year. Last year I remember feeling wipped out each day after all the tours. This next week however might be a little rough. Because of the tours I scheduled, I will be working Monday through Saturday. So I only get one day off this weekend and let me tell you there will be a lot of sleeping going on that day.

Social life is going well. Travis has finished his finals in his classes and did very well. Last weekend was pretty busy. On Friday night we went to see the new Spiderman with his brother Cody and some others from the AFC. It was good although I think I like the other 2 a little better. We went to the 9:15 showing and we didn't leave the theater until midnight. I'm not use to staying up that late so work the next day was a bit of a blur.

Last Saturday our Gap class met with other Gap classes from around the city and had a swing dance lesson. I was excited to dance with Travis--we haven't ever had an opportunity to do that. The instructor had us make a large circle around her with our partners but because there were a few more girls than guys she made us switch partners after learning each new step. Travis and I were a little bummed about that. I learned the basic step with him and then for the rest of the night we had to dance with other people. Close to the end of the lesson, we were trying to talk to each other from across the circle (he needed to leave early to study). He asked his partner if she would switch with me so that we could dance together. So while the instructor was giving our instructions, I quickly ran to the other side of the gym to be with Travis. Travis is a very good swing dancer--we just need to find a place where we can go dancing.

Travis's Birthday

On Sunday Travis turned 27 and so we threw him a little party. The party was held at Oaks Park where we could either play sand volleyball or disc golf. Beforehand we snacked on cheesecake (his favorite dessert) and ice cream. Unfortunately it was incredibly windy--so we had to pretend the candles were lit. There was one surprise Travis didn't know about. When I sent out the email to everyone about the party I asked them to bring a can of silly string. I had bought kiddy party favors for everyone to take--making it look like a kid's party. So when I told Travis we were going to play pin the tail on the donkey he thought it was part of the "kid theme". It actually was my decoy to blindfold him. While I situated the blindfold everyone else passed out the cans of silly string. As I spun him around the party goers formed a circle around him--some people with a can in each hand. I moved out of the way, counted to 3, and Travis was smothered in silly string of all colors! It was fantastic! We got him so good!

Here are a few pictures (courtesy of my friend David's facebook page):



Getting Travis ready for "pin the tail on the donkey"



Travis buried under silly string.



I did help clean him up...a little.

TAM Conference

This past week I was in Austin with my fellow co-workers for the annual TAM conference. TAM stands for Texas Association of Museums. It's a time to meet others who work in the museum field, attend sessions on new information relating to museums, and in the evening visit museums within the city.

I was excited but also a little nervous. I had never been to a conference before and wasn't sure what to do. Alot of the time I hung around my boss, Anne, who introduced me to different people. As the week went on I started to met some people on my own--people who were close to my age. On Thursday evening there was a dance held at the Bob Bullock Museum. Of course being the Church of Christ girl that I am (meaning I'm not so good at dancing) I spent my time looking at the museum and watching my bosses and others cut a rug on the dance floor.

It was a highly enjoyable week. I truly enjoyed visiting the different museums in Austin--9 in all:

Blanton Art Museum
Harry Ransom Center Galleries
Texas Natural Science Center
Austin Museum of Art--Laguna Gloria (located at Travis Lake)
Lyndon B. Johnson Musuem
George Washington Carver Museum
Umlauf Statue Garden & Museum (Gorgeous!)
Austin Children's Museum (So fun!)
Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum

Christmas in April

Last Sunday I received my fantastic Christmas present from Travis. For those who don't remember, Travis got me tickets to the musical Wicked which was showing in Houston. So at 2:00 Sunday afternoon we headed out, me in my semi-formal dress I had bought a couple months ago and he in his suave suit. We first stopped off in Conroe to see Travis's brother, Cody, for a bit. Then we headed to the Woodlands for an early dinner before the show. After a little bit of confusion (my fault--there are too many buildings out there!) we found our destination--The Cheescake Factory. I had eaten there once before for a bachlorette party and remembered it was pretty delicious. The food was absolutely exquisite! It was hard to make myself stop eating so I could save room for the cheesecake. We split a piece of tiramisu cheesecake which was heavenly!

Once we were nice and full we headed to downtown Houston. We arrived an hour before the show so we had some time to leisurely walk around. We were sitting in the balcony which I think is the best spot because you can see everything that is going on. I was amazed by how many kids were there--mainly middle school girls. As we were sitting we watched one family going up the stairs--the middle school aged daughter was saying to her mom, "I'm so excited. I'm going to die" while the high school aged daughter was telling her sister to shut up. Reminded me of times I had with my sisters.

The musical was absolutely amazing! The music and the story line were fantastic. I've decided I have to get that soundtrack. Travis and I both really wanted to go watch it again.

It was a very enjoyable day and the perfect gift!

Stress...It's a Killer

I personally hate stress. I haven't experienced it in quite awhile--since I've been out of school. During my high school and college years I would push myself to the stress limit. Usually my stress came from having lots of projects all due at the same time. I would loose sleep working on them and also put alot of energy into worrying about each one.

All of these feelings came back to me on Thursday. This week I have been designing a Saturday program about wildflowers. My first time to give it is this Satureday (today). Things were going smoothly on Thursday until I started running into computer problems. I was scanning and printing pictures of the flowers but some were scanning with the wrong color shades or they had blotchy spots that I just couldn't fix. By the end of the day I was stressed to the max!

That evening I went over to Travis's to watch my shows (The Office and Grey's Anatomy) and to relax. I was quite miffed when I found out Grey's Anatomy was a rerun. I was feeling very worn out from the day, I had a major headache, and I still had that feeling of stress in me. It all finally reached the boiling point when Travis said one little innocent thing to me. He made a joking remark to me that for some reason pushed me to the edge...and I burst into tears. Poor Travis had no idea what he had done! I feel sorry for men who have to put up with us emotional women. I felt liberated after the tears--I had let go of the stress.

Thank goodness I don't have one of those jobs that has stress everyday. I'm highly sure it would be the death of me...or Travis :)

The People That You Meet

At work we have descendant cards that visitors can fill out. These cards let us know of people who are descendants of Republic of Texas citizens. Yesterday the front desk lady brought for me to type into the database. As I was typing in the different fields, I noticed the email address ended with acu.edu. So I looked back at the last name and realized I had an education professor with the same name. So I ran up to the front to see if they were still there--and it was him! He retired right after I took his class and he has been living in Minnesota. He remembered me once I mentioned who my dad was and we had a nice little chat. I still am amazed by the people I see out here or the connections I have to others.

This week I am working on putting together a Saturday program. When I was hired the intent was that I would create and give programs on Saturday afternoons. Well, so far that hasn't happened because of other stuff I have been working on. But during the month of April I will be giving a short program about wildflowers. Since most of the people coming out to the park are looking at the bluebonnets, paintbrushes, etc, why not give them some interesting information? So we will see how it goes...

Never a Dull Day...

Over the past 17 months working at the museum, I have come the conclusion that everyday is unique and filled with its surprises. These surprises can be enjoyable, such as visitors from another country; hectic, such as 287 visitors and only 3 people working that day; or down right aggrivating, such as the electricity cutting off.

This past Friday turned out to be on the of the aggrivating days. It started out running smooth with one tour of 4th graders, lunch, and working on booking other tours. Then came my 3:00 tour. Things went fine on the first floor as they worked on their scavenger hunts. Upstairs I spend the whole 30 minutes talking to them about the exhibits and rely on the teacher and parents to help keep them in line. Well the teacher and the parents decided to go off and look at everything on their own leaving me with around 16 students. I kept them together as well as one person could. On the way back down the ramp I had one little boy who was pushing the other children in front of him. I have never had that happen before. I had to stop the line and sturnly command him to come to the front of the line. Once we were down the ramp the students took a restroom break. When the teacher was done she walked outside and sat on the bench--leaving the students inside the museum!! It was unbelievable.

Today I walked into the museum to find out we had partial power--a brown out. I had to call in the problem to the electric company who said it would be back on between 10:20 and 11:00. That meant we couldn't open until all power was restored. The power finally came on at 11:15; eveything worked except the elevator. The doors on the bottom floor didn't open at all and the doors on the top floor wouldn't shut. So I found some stantions and a rope to block off the open doors. And as of now the chiller on the air conditioning is not turning on which means it is beginning to be a little stuffy inside.

Never a dull moment here.

Blarney Good Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Even though it is not one of the most famous of holidays, I really enjoy St. Patrick's Day. Who doesn't like a holiday when it is ok to cause a little bit of bodily harm to those not adhering to the rules? Luckily this morning I remembered to don my green attire. There have been many years in the past when I have made the cardinal sin of forget my green, thus leaving myself wide open for pinch attacks all day. I have found through personal experience that green eyes do not count as your splash of green, nor does it count if you are Irish. There are no privileged people on this day...anyone is game!



Remember back when beanie babies were all the rage? For me it was during middle school. All of my girlfriends were collecting them--buying the new one of the week and making sure they had those plastic tag protectors. I didn't really get into it. I wasn't enthralled with any of the animals...until the Erin bear came out. And why wouldn't I want it? It's name is Erin (just like me) and it's Irish (just like me). Of course when it first came out it cost a pretty penny which I wasn't about to spend for something stuffed with beans. But perhaps now I could find for pretty cheap on the old Ebay and then one of my lifetime goals will be fulfilled (incredibly kidding).

Icey Memories

Yesterday evening I watched Unwrapped, the episode about Hawaian/tropical food. One of the items discussed was shaved ice aka snow cones. Watching the ice being shaved, the syrup being poured, and the happy consumers faces made me think back on all my fond memories working for 3 years at a snow cone stand. At times it could get hectic to the point that you wanted to throw the syrup bottles against the wall or shove your head in the ice machine, but once you got past those moments it was a really fun job. Over the course of the 3 years I had regular customers who I knew by flavor. As soon as I saw them walking up I would begin making their order. There was the family who wanted Strawberry Daiquiri with very little syrup, the lady who liked lots of cream on any flavor she ordered, and then there was the lady who ordered the largest size of just ice...then when she got to her car, would pour some alcoholic drink on top.

I would have to give the snow cone stand some credit in helping me out of my "bubble". The stand I started working at was in the parking lot of Big Lots which was the hang out for the Cooper High kids. And I met quite an interesting slue of people...quite different from the Highland C of C and ACU crowds I was use to. I honestly think it was a good experience for me to realize what people in the "real world" are like.

Sadly, since my last day at the snow cone stand (about 2 1/2 years ago) I have lost my appetite for the cold siren. But back in the day my favorite flavors included:

* Silver Fox
* Lucky Charms (tasted just like the marshmellows from the cereal)
* Banana Daiquiri
* Watermelon with margarita salt (tasted like real watermelon)
* Black Cherry Cola

Stuff

I don't feel like writing my experiences in paragraphs today (especially after having 150 kids come throught the museum). So here are some nuggets of fun to chew on:

* Next week I (and hopefully Travis) am taking a couple of days off and heading up to Abilene! I will get in late Monday and stay until Wednesday. Whoo-hoo!

* A little girl in one of my tours today said "You look like a Barbie doll." Nice self-esteem booster.

* Monday I watched the movie "Mommie Dearest" which is the story of the movie actress Joan Crawford. Wow--what a psycho. For some reason I am entranced by this movie and thoroughly enjoy watching it.

* Monday evening there was a show commeorating the life of Gene Kelly which made my heart smile--he dances, he sings...what more could you want?

* I have fallen in love with the old church songs. Growing up I always went to churches where the newest songs were sung over and over. Our group that sings at a nursing home on Monday nights has brought new appreciation for songs I either heard long ago or never even learned.

* In about a month I will receive my Christmas present--watching the musical Wicked performed with Travis. I'm so excited!

* Is anyone else ready for the new season of Project Runway to begin?

Another One Bites the Dust

(Wow it's been awhile since I posted!)

This past weekend was Texas Independence Day Celebration which means I had to work both Saturday and Sunday along with all of the other staff. Friday night we had a special reception which I bought a special new dress for. Travis came and met all of the people I work with. As soon as he walked in the door the ladies swarmed at him. My family came down for the festivities. Travis spent alot of time with them without me: he rode to the park with them and he took them to church since I had to work. He really gets along well with them!

Today I gave a tour to a wonderful group of 7th graders. Everything was going well until I lead them into the boat. I told the first two girls to spin the wheel. I thought it was weird that one of the girls was right next to the other one. Then all of a sudden she fell backwards, hit her head on the wall behind her, and laid on the floor. She was out for at least 30 seconds. I tried to keep the other kids back while the teachers came to help her. Thankfully she didn't start siezing. One little girl was crying because it was her cousin who passed out. It is unsure what made her faint; the teacher said she was sick last week. My guesses are: 1. she was still sick 2. she got clausterphobic or 3. she has low blood sugar.

The fact that this is my second student to faint on one of my tours is a little disheartening. Either I'm doing something wrong or these kids need to eat more protein.

Valentine's Day

My Valentine's Day was absolutely wonderful! The morning was a little crazy with running late to work and having some unexpected surprises with our tours. After work I rushed home and gathered up my stuff to teach my kindergarteners at church. I am absolutely positive that each one of them had 10 lbs. of sugar at school. They were all over the place! While waiting for their parents to pick them up, about 4 of the kids were playing tag in the classroom. I quickly averted their desire for rambunctious activity by involving them in the quiet game. They immediately became enthused with playing this low-keyed game. They had no idea my ulterior motive.

I returned home a little after 8:00 where I waited for Travis to meet me. He called as he was parking outside the apartment and told me to wait in my room while he got some stuff ready. When he told me to come out there on my chair were two beautiful canvas paintings of flowers. In between the paintings was a single red rose. Travis told me that the rose was from my dad. My dad has always given my a rose for Valentine's day since I was a little girl. He had emailed Travis and asked him if he would get one to give me. Travis then told me the paintings were his flowers to me--flowers that would always last. The first painting was of some type of red flower and the other was of some white flowers--I think they are lilies (I'm not good with identifying flowers). What is absolutely fantastic is the paintings match my living room decor perfectly!

Travis then gave me my card--a dvd. It started out with pictures of the two of us including Halloween, homecoming, New Years, and other events. The song "Only God Could Love You More" played while the pictures scrolled through. That song has become one of my new favorites! At the end of the pictures came the messages that took my breath away and caused some tears to fall:

"I give this not in celebration of Valentine's but in celebration of You! This one day is no different from the 364 that follow. My heart and my soul anxiously await the events that have yet to transpire. May the Author and Prefector of our love continue to draw us closer together."

Let me just say that I have watched this dvd many times now! By the time we finished this it was about 8:45 and neither of us had eaten so we ran to Sonic and then watched the movie Pillow Talk. It was a perfect Valentine's.

I took the dvd up to work and quite a few of my coworkers were jealous. One lady asked if her husband could watch it as a hint for next year!

Thank you so much, Travis. I love you!

History Fair

This week has completely flown by! We have been so incredibly busy this week getting ready for History Fair which occurred on Friday. Every night I have come home so incredibly exhausted and hardly any energy to do anything. On Thursday night I didn't leave work until 6:00--we were quickly finishing up stuffing packets for everyone. Than night I went to bed at 9:30 in order to get up early enough to be at work by 7:30.

We had a small problem arise in that we were unable to use a building for check in. This meant we had to redirect 163 students, plus teachers, and about 50 judges to a much smaller area. Luckily it all worked out well. I spent the first part of the morning helping out at the Judges Table along with Amanda who came out at the crack of dawn to help--as did Aaron (fellow A&M Church of Christers that I recruited).

At 9:00 I joined up with my other two judges and we began judging the Junior Individual Exhibits. We had 10 minutes on each exhibit to look at the display, glance over the students process paper, and conduct an interview with the student. The kids were so cute and also nervous. One little boy (the first place winner) wore a suit and in his interviewed used the phrase "cost-balance analysis"...in the right context!

After judging I mainly stayed in the conference center in case any volunteers didn't show up or something happened that needed fixing. From 1-3 I hung out with Sonya (another A&M Church person) at the Judges Table. We also helped set up more chairs for the awards ceremony which started at 3:00. There were these two older men who were representing an organization which donated money to the fair. They asked Sonya how old she was and then stated that they thought she was 13 and that I looked about that same age. Sheesh! I suppose it is nice to know I look younger--but I'd rather hear it when I'm in my 30's.

Once the awards ceremony was over it was time to relax. We set about taking down signs and gathering up all the paper and packets we needed to take back to the museum. I drove back to the museum to pick up the Blinn van so we could load everything in one trip. Before taking the van up to the conference center I went to take down the signs on the visitor center door. After taking the signs down I started a slight jog back to the van which did not end well. Somehow I tripped on my shoe and fell on the concrete. I ate it hardcore. Thankfully the two busses full of students had left moments before. From what I could deduce only one car with a family inside witnessed the humiliating event. I left the scene with some scrapes on my palms and a very nice strawberry on my knee.

All in all the day was a lot of fun and very rewarding!

Monday

I had a rather unenjoyable Monday this past week. Monday is my day off from work and usually a time when I sleep in and get things I have put off done. This Monday was unbelievably tiring and frustrating. It really all started on Sunday night at 11:00. I was watching t.v. when I heard a dripping noise. I went in the kitchen to investigate and I found both sides of my sink full of brown water...and it was slowly overflowing onto the floor! My initial reaction was to call Travis and have him come help. My next move was to call the 24-hour help line for my apartment complex who said they would send over the maintenance guy. By the time I finished both phone calls the overflow had stopped but it had completely covered my kitchen floor with nasty water. It took me 5 rolls of paper towels to clean it all up. The maintenance guy was able to get the water back down but anytime he flipped the disposal on the water came back up. He said he would have to wait until the morning to get it fixed. That meant I had to be up early on my day off. So at 8:00 I rolled out of bed, put my glasses on, and slept on the couch until I heard a knock. It took the maintanece people from 8:30-11:00 to fix the sink. By that time it was pointless to catch a few more hours of sleep.

I then got ready and went to get my oil changed at Walmart which took an hour and a half. When I picked the car up they told me I needed 2 new tires. So I went to Discount Tire Co. with took over 2 hours. By the time I got back home it was after 5:30 and I was so tired. It was such a frustrating day--grrr!