Disnay!!

Remember when I wrote that post about Disneyland and promised to post pictures soon?  Well what does "soon" really mean?  A month, 2 months, 3?  It's all "soon" in the grand scheme of things right?

Photos from the first day:

Leaving the hotel.  We were like 3 blocks from Disney.

Grizzly Something Water Ride.  I almost lost this hat on one of the waterfalls.

 My all time favorite Disney ride, The Tower of Terror. 

I just love this picture. This was right after the Toy Story ride which is basically a huge video game.  We had fun competing for the most points but I was no match for the Shumway boys with their extensive video gaming background.  

Disneyland!! I love you.

This is when we were asked to be IN a parade.  It was basically the best part of our trip.  Hundreds of people waving at us, expecting candy except we had none to throw out.  But we waved a lot and smiled until our cheeks hurt.  We were asked to be in the parade because Dave's mom, sister, and grandma volunteered to hand sew school bags for children in need.  They are amazing women!

Everyone that was in the parade!  Why am I standing by the parade guy and not Dave?

Bug's Life 3D (you can see my volunteer pin, pretty special)

This ride was scary cool, The Maliboomer.  It felt like you were going to fall out when you're at the top.

Dave's feet on the far right. :)

Day Two!

Waiting in line for Space Mountain! 

Pretty much Dave's favorite ride in the world.  

Such a fun ride! Roller coasters in the dark = coolness.

Outside Indiana Jones

A nice little old man Disney worker let us cut in line and go again.  Love it!

 

The Matterhorn behind Dave

Teacups!

We had a fun lunch at this cute little restaurant.

We even got to meet head chef Oscar who has worked for Disney for 54 years!  He gave us his top secret potato soup recipe. :)

 

 California Screamin gets the best roller coaster award.  Loved this ride!

Favorite Rides:

1. Tower of Terror

2. Space Mountain

3. California Screamin

4. Soarin over California

5. The Maliboomer

6. Indiana Jones

And now that I have done this post, I want to go back already!

How I Became Brave

Remember the cricket problem I told you about in the last post?  Well my classroom has crickets.  And I don't mean to semi-tolerable green ones that are tiny little jumpy guys.  I mean the mean mother cock roach crickets that are slimy and have wings and horns and venom and teeth.  Some of that may be exaggerated, but not all of it.

These guys:

Can I just say that googling black cricket to find that picture almost made me sick.  I hate these things!

So what just happened 10 minutes ago that prompted this post?  One jumped on me.  My students are silently working on the computers, I am typing an email, and boom cricket hops on my leg, arm, and squirms away under a nearby baseboard.  What did I do?  Stand up and scream, "CRICKET!!!!!!"  No one came to my rescue but all thought I was crazy.

I immediately googled the words, "How to kill crickets" and now have a plan.  I am going to come Monday prepared. There are still about 30 in the lights, and I have (asked a student to) killed over 15 on the floor between yesterday and today. 

Dave and I are going to have to move if this doesn't stop.  And sources say that the crickets get worse in September.

Want to know the worst part?  My classroom is the only classroom in the school with the problem.  Something about an improperly sealed roof, foundation, doors, windows, etc...who knows.  All I know is Monday, I will have cricket traps, cricket spray, cricket vacuums, cricket killers, and cricket demolishers.  No more jumping around, afraid in my own classroom screaming "CRICKET" for all to hear.

That may have been a little harsh, but I am serious here.

In other news, while I was typing this blog post, the handsy cricket that jumped on me earlier returned and I screamed like a 12 year old girl. You win today cricket.  You win today.

Visitors Thrice

School started for teachers about 2 weeks ago and the kids came back yesterday.  Life has been busy with lesson plans, moving my classroom around, sweeping and mopping up crickets (have I mentioned the cricket problem we have in Austin?).  Luckily Dave came with me one day and spent 4 hours helping me clean ALL the cricket (parts) up.  I guess that's the price I pay for teaching at a school with portables. I almost took a picture of the pile we had swept up, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  So for now, you'll have to just imagine. 

Now on to more lovely things...

Before school started, we had some wonderful guests in town, 3 times over!

First Dave's youngest brother Bryan came for a visit.  He had a wedding to attend in Dallas and made the extra trip out to see us in Austin for a few days.  We took him out to eat at some of the yummiest eateries in town (Chuy's and Rudy's were included of course).

He also helped Dave put together our new bed:

Don't you think they look alike?  It was so fun to have Bryan here (and not just for his crazy good bed-putting-together skills).

So Bryan headed out for the wedding, we tossed the sheets and towels in the washer, and were lucky to have my good friend from high school and college, Natalie in town with her family.  Granted, most of the time we just ooo'ed and aww'ed over her adorable 1.5 year old son Owen. At first he wasn't too sure about us, but then we let him play with Dave's PlayStation remote and all was well.

On Sunday afternoon we "hiked" up Mount Bonnell (on the day that it was 104 outside of course).

At the top of Mount Bonnell: Natalie, Soren, and Baby Owen

We also spent some time at a local water park, went outlet mall shopping, and spent some time at IKEA!  We had such a fun time with them.  Each night we were so exhausted from being out in the heat, so we just ended up making some kind of yummy dessert (i.e. Soren's famous brownies) and watched a movie after putting Owen to bed.

Just look at his cuteness though:

                          

Ok now on to guest #3.  We had Dave's friend from high school/college Jake in town!  We took him to our ultimate most yummy favorite delectable Indian restaurant, The Clay Pit.  It is this cool place in downtown Austin that used to be an old mansion and was restored and turned into a restaurant.

                                

We rented movies, showed him some more favorite local spots to eat, and ate Blue Bell ice cream. :)  Our favorite.  Try the homemade vanilla if you have Blue Bell in your city.

It was such a fun couple of weeks.  When everyone left the house felt a little empty, but we didn't take long to jump back in to remodeling!  We just ordered a new couch yesterday and Dave started ripping up the baseboards in the entry and living room.  We are replacing them with nice tall ones.  Pictures to follow!