I've been looking forward to blogging for a while, but I just haven't had time. Seriously. I know most people don't read them, but to me it is like having an online scrapbook (kind of)/ journal that you can look back on and remember the special moments in life that made you feel like getting online and writing or posting pictures. I know having a diary I can write in regularly  would be great, but I'm just not that disciplined.

Anyway, a lot has happened since I last blogged.

First of all, in September there was Hurricane Ike. My family and I camped out in the north side of Houston and watched in disbelief as the news showed the Texas coast flooding 8 hours before the hurricane would make landfall. I stayed glued to the television until 1:00 am September 13. I vividly remember kind of dozing off at about 1:20 a.m. with the t.v. on and then all of a sudden we were in the dark with the wind and rain beating against the wall. I thought, "Wow, I'm experiencing a real hurricane!"

After making myself fall asleep I woke up at 5:00 a.m. (with the storm still going full force) fully expecting electricity back and yet there was none. We lasted until 2:00 p.m. in that hotel. It was hot and beginning to smell because the lack of water pressure was preventing the guests in the whole place to even flush the commodes. I think that's when it really hit me that Ike had cause a lot of damage over which no one really had control.

We all headed back home with a mixture of dread and hope and somehow made it there in spite of the fallen trees, broken telephone poles, and absolutely no street lights.

I walked in with my flashlight and looked around. It all looked good until I walked into my parent's room. Half of the roof had collapsed, so there was water, sheet rock, insulation and dirt everywhere.

I know it sounds like a bad thing, but I am sure God allowed that part of the house to be damaged so my parents could sleep in my room for a few months (while I slept on the sofa in the living room) and realize how cold it really does get in the winter. I'm not making that up.
Okay...well not exactly that maybe, but here is the real reason. The beams on that side of the house were in terrible condition due to a fire that had occurred before we moved in, and we had no idea how much in danger my parents were of having the roof collapse. If Ike hadn't happened who knows what could've hapened in the fututre.

Anyway...we were without electricity for about 3 weeks and it was as you can imgine. None of the stores had electricity, so we had to stand in long lines as security would allow only a few people into the darkened stroes to buy whatever they could get. When I finally went back to work I'd get there a little early so that I could put my makeup on in the car because I couldn't see myself in the mirror at home. Crazy huh? The things you take for granted.

We got back to normal end of March when I finally moved back into my room.

Then there's my class this year. I already knew they weren't going to be an easy bunch because I'd had plenty of warning, but I just didn't imagine how consistently bad from day one to the last day.

At the beginnning it was all about those restroom fights. I (who never venture  to step foot into a  boys' restroom last year) was constantly barging in there to yell and carry on like a crazy woman just for the sake of maintaining order.
Then I had my poor little students' with problems. One who was slashing their wrist with a pencil when I turned my back on them one day. Another one threw himself on the floor outside of school and refused to come in. When he finally came another teacher and I half dragged, half supported his dead weight until we could not anymore. The kid was taller and bigger than we were. Sounds bad right? Well, this kid watched his dad die in a car accident his birthday last year. That is not an excuse, but empathy is in order here. How would I react given the same scenario?

That is why inspite of the rough year they gave me, I cried when they left fourth grade yesterday. My heart aches because I wonder what will become of them. Altough they were tough they had sweet hearts. I don't know how to explain that, but they really were sweet. *sniffle*

Here are some pics of the happy memories from this year...


The fourth grade teachers about to cut the graduation cake.

 
Above: encouraging my students to pull the rope and we won! Below: another bilingual teacher and I during the Christmas party.




Well I'm too tired to try to figure out how to separate the pics so that I can write captions. Anyways that is kinda how my year went. There is more, but I'll save that for later.

Getting ready for Tropical Storm Eduardo...

I need to go through the pics I took while at Becky's wedding (which by the way was a very beautiful wedding!)so that I can post them , so for now I'll put some pics up of our family's Mother's Day.