Happy 1st Married Valentine's Day!

Josh and I had a great weekend! We definitely needed it after the week we had. Josh was in exams which meant 6 tests over 8 days. Whew what a relief it is for him to be done with that module. I had a pretty busy week at work. Found out Monday that I needed to have a teacher folder ready by Friday when a man from our central office would be there to observe me. It pretty much needed to have everything in it. (grades, TAKS stuff, a copy of every worksheet I've ever given out, a copy of one of those assignments graded, calendars...ugh wish I would have known that in September?!?!?!) I managed OK and even found time to help out the 4th and 5th grade math teacher who is Turkish.

Monday: the girls went to dinner for Alyse's birthday at Nicha's Mexican food and had a mini cupcake from Kate's Frosting. (both definitely worth trying) When I got home that night, I was in the kitchen when I heard strange popping above me in our fluorescent light bulb. Apparently the ballast in it was faulty. It smelled awful and honestly made me think our house was on fire! Turns out it just needs to be replaced, but I am very thankful to have my father-in-law Ronnie, who is a Battalion chief at DeSoto FD, to come to my rescue!

Tuesday: I brought Josh and Jose dinner at school. (forgot utensils :P so they had to get creative) I went to the gym to workout, shower, and head to a fellow SST-D teacher's house for a visit! Stephanie is our art teacher who has the most precious 4 year old, Jacques Henri. We had fun. When we got home that night, I discovered that a realtor had left our house unlocked...grrrr.

Wednesday: Josh studied at home! I think my french dip sandwiches in the crockpot had something to do with that. He loved them!

Thursday: Very fun day! Bible Study was at my house. I served chocolates and strawberries, and made some crackers from a recipe that Alyse gave me.

Friday: OBSERVATION DAY! I was a nervous wreck all day because my principal couldn't tell me what time the guy would be there. Josh and I went to lunch at Jason's Deli, yum, but my nerves wouldn't let me eat much. There was a Valentine's day potluck in the teacher's lounge, but I decided to spend some time with Josh instead. The man showed up to observe me LAST period! 7A - a very chatty, low motivation group... not one of my good advanced classes. I also have them after their PE class. I just knew this was a recipe for disaster. BUT they were actually very good! They were into the lesson, eager to answer questions...definitely blew me away! The only problem was the observer was dozing off in the back of my classroom! lol the kids kept turning around and laughing...one in particular tried really hard to whisper to me "MISS he's asleep" It honestly was just icing on the cake to my week. When I was facing the board away from the kids, I had myself a little chuckle about it. My VP even came in to make an announcement, and the observer stayed in the back of the room with his eyes closed. WOW. He ended up giving me a good review, probably made the stuff up. Oh well. I was really proud of 7A and also excited about the Vday gifts from my students...one gave me a Kate's frosting cupcake! My family showed up after school and finally got to see where I work. We went to Little Italy for dinner...yum.

Saturday: Region 20 in the morning...ugh. Josh and dad had golf lessons and played La Cantera all day. I came home around noon, with Diet coke in hand for my addict...I mean sister lol. My mom was cleaning up a storm! Our house is spotless. Alyse came by for a visit which was really fun. That night we went to dinner at Roaring Fork and had an awesome meal.

NO I'm not going to write a novel each week, just wanted to share how busy it was for us! Today we said goodbye to our house guests this morning, went to the mall and batting cages and ate leftovers. We watched the Time Travelers wife...and were a bit disappointed. Hope everyone had a happy heart day!

Love,
Ashley & Josh