Rope Rug- I want to make this! Any ideas how? I cannot find instructions. Mary- I'm talking to YOU!!

D'Ann sent me back to school goodies in the Mail! You ROCK!

HOMEMADE OREO COOKIES
1 devil's food cake mix 1/2 c. shortening 2 eggs Mix the above ingredients together. Roll the dough into dime-sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Cool cookies. FROSTING: 8 oz. cream cheese 1/2 square butter 2 tsp. vanilla 2 to 4 c. powdered sugar Mix all of frosting ingredients until smooth. Frost BACKS of cookies and place together to make sandwich cookie.

Yeah, I could skool you!

 So, this is the fortress in which I spend my day to day now. I am at Canyon Ridge Middle School which is located in a gated sort of community on Lake Travis. And, no, it is not a private school. It is however one of the nicest public schools in Texas. It is in the coveted Leander school district which will be awesome when we have kids someday! (no mom, not anytime soon) My drive to and from work is gorgeous... doesn't feel like the Texas I'm used to.

Also, my kids are awesome. I went from the slums of S. Fortworth to the Ritz. You cannot live inside of Steiner Ranch without a 400 grand house or more. Wow. And best of all, the parents expect an education when they send their kids to school, who knew! This means I actually get results when I call home. Yay!!!!! I have open house tomorrow night, and I will get to meet ALL my parents. I took some photos of my giant classroom as well. My mom's been hassling me about putting up photos. Also pictures of the apartment coming soon. 

Altered Art Door Sign!

My Desk & Agenda/Unit Board

Back Bulletin Boards, Desks, & Lab Stations

More Classroom

Front of Classroom

Ginormous Closet!!! It connects to the other Science teacher's room.

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed your tour of Canyon Ridge Middle School! 

The beginning...

The beginning of the school year has to be the best time to start blogging. Mostly because this is when I am starting. We just moved to Cedar Park, TX, which is near Austin, and now Casey's family is a little bit closer, but mine unfortunately are further away! You can keep up with me now guys when I drop off the planet for a few days!

I also have friends with Blogs, and I think if Reed and Mary Hamm can blog about me, I should be able to blog about them! Ha! Done.

Well, it is a lazy sunday afternoon, and last week was my survival test of "Can I hack it in 8th grade?" I survived! And actually the kids were WAY better behaved then at my last school. Also, I am not coaching this year, so "Hello, a little more free time."

Kyle and Jennifer Barron came to visit us last week... Oh I have missed them so. It is nice being a little bit closer so a weekend visit can be just that and not a trek across the world. It's a weird kawinkydink for those of you that do not know, Jen was my college roommate, and Kyle was Casey's. We were their only single friends, that's how we met. So, we knock out visits with both of our roommates with one stone. :) Reed and Mary hosted our weekend get together... so much fun! Reed is such a sorry loser at games though... Girls DOMINATED!

In other news, Bugsy is living with us in Austin currently, but Bowser is home with PeePaw and Granny. I miss him very much, but we were going for a divide and conquer. You see we got Bugsy in Late January/ Februaryish... and Casey then moved to Austin. So, with coaching late and being at school early the whole potty training thing had not been accomplished. Bugsy is on his way to being "a big kid now." Yay! Oh, now I dream of a yard for Bowser!

Casey is busy as ever. I like to call him Mr. Cedar Park, because he is becoming quite involved in local community activities and maybe even politics soon. He is an Ambassador for the Chamber of Commerce, he was selected for a city goverment group called "Leadership Cedar Park," he's involved in an org called Leadership LISD( he's met my school superintendent- not me), and he has a city councilman and friends in the community encouraging him to apply for a position on the Parks and Tourism board. I wonder if that would score us free tickets to Schlitterbahn in a couple of years when they are finished building. I'm really proud of him if you can't tell.

OK- That should catch us up for now... keep reading!