The First Year

If you ever decide to start teaching, you will hear several veteran teachers tell you the same thing..."Your first year is all about surviving." Nice huh? Inspires a lot of confidence? No? :)

I've heard lots of terror stories of teacher's first years of teaching. I tried to put on a strong, confident front, but I was absolutely terrified that first day. I looked like one of the students, and my biggest fear was that they would totally ignore me and I would have ZERO control over my classroom. I'm pretty sure I had the same dream for weeks before school started. I was at the front of the classroom trying to teach, my students were going bananas.

I'm proud, and blessed, and happy to say that I had a very good first year of teaching. For the most part, my first year was pretty non eventful and I have a lot of people to thank for that. So here goes...

1. God - I know, it sounds extremely cliche and cheesy, but its the truth. I prayed, and prayed A LOT! I prayed weeks before school started. I prayed in my classroom before school started during professional development and on the first day of school. I prayed in the car EVERY day on my way to school, several days on the way home. I prayed in the shower. If a particular student was giving me trouble, I'd sit in their seat before school in the morning and pray for that student. Absolutely, hands down, no way I could have done it without my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have no idea how people do it without Him. I would have floundered, BIG time.
   
2. Nathan - Nathan has a few years of teaching on me, and he started teaching at a fairly rough school, especially compared to Klein Oak. He gave me his rules and procedures that he uses with his classes. He gave me a realistic idea of what to expect that was much more helpful than my certification classes ever were. He gave me countless pep talks and advice and helped to give me the confidence to kick my first student out of class! (Trust me, the student deserved it and it was long overdue.) He allowed me to talk nonstop about school even though the last thing he wanted to hear or talk about was school. He let me show him new things I learned with the computer even though he had no idea what I was talking about. He held me and let me cry when a class was giving me a hard time. He encouraged me when I got nervous about something at school. He was a big reason of why I got into teaching and my first year of teaching would not have been as successful without him. THANKS BABE! I LOVE YOU!
   
3. My "official" mentor teacher - Cindy Eschenberg - I like to call Cindy my school mom. She reminds me of my own mom in so many ways, and they have so many things in common, its scary. Cindy was/is my big emotional supporter at school. We didn't teach the same classes, so she couldn't always help me with lessons plans, but she was/is the best person to vent to. I remember running into her classroom during my conference period, balling my eyes out because of an awful class (more to come on that class in another post). She just let me cry, hugged me, and then gave me some rather useful ideas of how to handle the class. On the one class that I taught 2nd semester that she could help me with, she let me bounce ideas off of her, and gave me great ideas and resources to use as well. We had the same conference period my first year, and we spent a lot of time talking and her encouraging me. She was/is my biggest cheerleader and fan, she inspires a lot of confidence.
   
4. My "unofficial" mentor teacher - Don Sajda - Don definitely took me under his wing that first year. When I first met Don I was standing in front of the hallway gate, looking longingly (as opposed to walking INTO the hallway gate, that's another blog) at my classroom door that was on the other side of the gate the first day of professional development. I think at first he was trying to figure out if I was a student or a teacher, but he showed me how to bypass the gate through a back stairway. He stood and talked to me at the CTE professional development where I knew no one and the people that I did know hadn't shown up yet, keeping me from feeling even more awkward and out of place than I already did. Little did I know that that day was "Tell-the-new-teacher-she-looks-like-a-student-Day", as before he saved me, I had about 5 people tell me that. He let me sit across from him at the lunch table and always provided great conversation. Or depending on other people's conversations, we'd throw looks at each other like "Oh my gosh, if he/she doesn't shut up we might have to get the duct tape out". He gave me his homemade beer at Christmas, which Nathan thoroughly enjoyed. I was happy to return the favor with a homemade "25 Years of Service" clock when he got stiffed for his 25...I think 25 years in Klein ISD clock. He invited me to throw darts at Molly's, (which I finally beat him 3 years later, so he'd had a few beers and I was totally sober, I'm still claiming the victory!) He reminds me a lot of my dad, typical engineer. Not the most sensitive guy, but always ready with practical advice and encouragement, and a soft spot for cookies. ;)
   
5. Ms. Ditta - Ms. Ditta was my supervising principal my first year. She was a huge encouragement and always willing to talk. She also happened to be the principal of one of my most challenging students, and thanks to her, there were lots of days that student was in ISS and I didn't have to deal with him.
   
6. My department chair - Pat McClintock - I was slightly nervous about having a department chair. Nathan had a truly awful team leader at JV and she made his life miserable. Thankfully, that was not the case with Pat. She was there when I needed her, but she didn't hover and micro-manage. And she pretty much made my year at the end of the year when she told me she was really glad she hired me.
   
7. Mr. Dristas - He hired me, so obviously, he makes the special list. Even though he signed me up for some really lame training this year that made me want to shoot myself in the head...I suppose I'll forgive him. ;)
   
8. Ms. Kirksey and all of the amazing secretaries - I learned real quick who was REALLY in charge of the school. ;) They answered my hundreds of questions and always with a smile.

There is another teacher who was a big part of my success. She basically gave me all of my lesson plans and really helped with the actual "teaching" part. Unfortunately, some things happened at the beginning of this year and we have since gone our separate ways. But I will never forget all of her help.

Those aren't all of the people who made my year successful, just some of the major ones. I'm thankful that I work at a great school, where it truly feels like a family. I was so scared to kick my first student out of class, thinking for sure the principals would send them right back to me saying "It was no big deal, deal with it". But that never happened and I've always felt supported.

Kids come and go, but its the staff and how they work with each other, that either makes or breaks a school.

Back Again

I've decided its time to pick my blog back up again. I knew when I started the blog it wasn't going to last very long.

Truth is, I just don't have a lot of exciting things to write about or that I think anyone would be even remotely interested in reading. Or sometimes I would have something exciting to write about, but the last thing I wanted to do was sit down and type on the computer.

So...I've decided to make my blog about one of the few things I can talk a LOT about. Teaching. I know, I'm lame. Its okay. I can accept it.

I feel in my short teaching career, I have had a lot of interesting things happen. Lots of great kids, a couple not so great ones, and I have stories out the wahzoo. So here I go.

I'm going to break these up daily, so I don't overwhelm everyone with a ridiculously long post. See my Bahamas trip recap below for a prime example of a ridiculously long post.

So tonight, I'll start with how I got into teaching.

I did not go the traditional route into teaching. I had/have plenty of friends who's life dream was to be a teacher. They were/are all super creative, they loved kids, it was just natural. If you would have told me when I was in high school, or college, or even 5 years ago that I would become a teacher, I would've told you that you were nuts. I didn't see myself as being very patient, and I wasn't all that crazy about high school kids. What did I have in common with them?

I had tried a stint in teaching 9th grade sunday school at our church in Florida and that didn't turn out very well. It wasn't bad, I just felt awkward, I didn't feel like I connected well with the kids. I'm now blaming it on the fact that they were freshman and freshman are just awkward all in themselves. ;)

My first job out of college was my true dream job. Motorsports marketing. I got paid to go to NASCAR races, drag races and driving schools. It was a blast. The pay sucked, but the perks of the job definitely made up for it. The company ended up going under (that's a WHOLE other blog I could write about) and we were all forced to find new places of employment. Seriously, how do you find a job when you've just had your dream job?

I was blessed in that I found a job very quickly. I started working for a software company, basically in their customer service department. It was another small company, only about 10 of us. I absolutely LOVED the people that I worked with, but the job itself? I pretty much hated. Okay, hate is a pretty strong word, so maybe not HATE. But I was bored out of my mind. They loved me because I was always asking for something to do, but I was slowly coming to the end of my rope. I learned real quick that a "sit behind the desk and wait for the phone to ring" was not the job for me.

In my job I was constantly having to help people with their computer. Not just with the software that our company provided, but with just about everything, from how to place an attachment on an email (no, I am not joking), to using any number of Microsoft office products, to helping people get their printer back working (which 9 times out of 10 the correct answer was to restart your computer). It definitely taught me patience.

The people I worked with also thought I was somewhat of a genius because I could do all sorts of fancy things with Microsoft office. Things that I learned in my high school computer class, which was one of the few classes that I truly enjoyed in high school.

So I thought to myself, why don't I just try teaching? I'll make more money (yes, sad but true), Nathan and I will have the same schedule, summers off, 2 weeks at Christmas, no crazy 290 traffic. Why not? So I enrolled in the alternative certification program that Nathan used and off I went.

The alternative certification program was necessary, but completely worthless in my eyes. Did it prepare me for the classroom? Not really, but it was one of those necessary evils. Anyways...

I finished the program, passed my tests with flying colors, and started looking for teaching jobs. I figured Cy-Fair ISD would be the place to be considering I'm a product of the Cy-Fair school system and Nathan was teaching at Jersey Village High School at the time. But I applied just about everywhere to keep my options open.

I had a rather awkward interview with the HR person at Klein ISD. Truth be told, at one point in the interview I wanted to get up and tell the guy thanks, but I don't think this is going to work. Until he said "Tell me about teenagers". I had no idea what to say and so I just said "I think they WANT to learn, but they don't know how". I thought it was a really dumb answer but he seemed to like it and the interview did a complete 180 and he started calling people while I was sitting their in his office.

I ended up getting an interview at Klein Oak High School, not long after that awkward interview. This interview went MUCH better and I felt really confident about it afterwards. But still, who would want to hire me? I've had ZERO teaching experience, I hadn't even subbed, and only spent a day observing classes.

My mom had taught me at a young age, that when you want a job, persistence is the key. So I kept my name in the loop with emails to the assistant principal in charge of hiring. He had said that they would be calling for 2nd interviews soon.

A few days later I was at the software job and missed a call from the assistant principal, Mr. Dristas. I was all excited because I thought I was getting a 2nd interview. So I got my pen and sticky note pad all ready to write down the date and time and then called him back.

I will never forget Mr. Dristas' exact words: "We'd like to know if you'd...(slight pause) like the job?" I.was.shocked! What? They actually want me? ME? Do they realize I've never stepped foot in a classroom before?

My exact response was "(Pause)...Umm...yes, yes I would!" And I believe he laughed at me after that.

My FIRST interview I got the job? Out of all those people who I'm sure had much more experience than me? I didn't even have hook-ups in the Klein district. It was most definitely a God thing.

And that's where my journey into teaching began.

A Letter to the President

President Obama,

I would like to voice my 1st Amendment right and voice my opinion on your decision to address every student in our country's schools this next Tuesday. I also have some questions for you, regarding your decision to give this speech. This is all I will say about this event. Once I've said all I have to say, I will respectfully step down from my soap box.

1. Why did you decide YESTERDAY to give a speech to every student this next TUESDAY? Your administration said that you want to simply encourage students at the beginning of the school year. I'm sure you are aware that the school year begins around the same time every year, so why not give the school administration and teachers more time to plan for such an event?

For the record, I don't really believe this was a spur of the moment decision. I believe that this was highly calculated. It is so convenient for you to plan it for this Tuesday, and not tell the districts until Thursday afternoon, with most teachers not finding out until late in the day.

So the district has to scramble as they are getting irate calls from parents, prompting them to send a letter home allowing parents to opt their children out of the broadcast.

The letter goes home today, except that a lot of students forget them in class. It is a holiday weekend and a lot of families are traveling this weekend and will get back late Monday night. It will be very easy for them to forget to sign the paper that will opt their children out of it. This is happening Tuesday, so there won't be another day for students to bring home the form that their parents might want to sign. This also doesn't take in account the students who were absent today and unable to bring the letter home.

Very clever, but you are not as sneaky as you think you are. You remind me of my students who try to use their cell phones in class, thinking I have no idea what they are doing. I do, they are blatantly obvious, as are you. If this was simply a motivational speech, why not give everyone a heads up earlier so that everyone could be more prepared. Now, lessons plans have to be changed at the last minute, tests have to be pushed back. I'm sure you don't think that taking 4 minutes out of my morning classes to accommodate your speech is such a big deal, but the truth is, 4 minutes is a LONG time when it comes to class time.

2. Is this how you plan to "unite" the country?

When you were running for the office that you now hold, you said you wanted to unite this country. However, with this one move, you have failed. Parents are opting their kids out of watching your speech, some will probably keep their kids home. A lot of people are quite passionate and outraged about this.

A typical day in a high school has enough drama as it is, was it really necessary to add more drama to one day? Now on top of all the regular drama, we have the drama that will surround your speech. Kids will be fired up on both sides.

Any person on my facebook friends who make a comment have started a mini-debate in facebook world. This does not make for a very united country.

3. Why not do an evening broadcast so that students can watch it WITH their parents and discuss it with THEIR PARENTS? Which is who they SHOULD be discussing it with.

Some people make the comment "Well, not all kids have parents to discuss this with." That is very true, some kids don't, and that's a sad thing. But what about the underprivileged schools who don't have the means to show your speech?

Those are all the questions I have for now. I'll end with saying that I just really don't appreciate you taking over my school. You and your administration have your hands in enough cookie jars as it is. By all means, encourage our kids to get an education, I'm just asking that you please leave my very valuable classroom time, and my school, alone.

Sincerely,

Angela W.

Back from the BAHAMAS!!!

Boo. 5 nights was not long enough.

We just got back from the BAHAMAS about 2 hours ago. Since I'm pretty bad about keeping up with this whole blog thing, I figured I'd better go ahead and take care our BAHAMAS trip recap before I get really busy and decide not to write one.

I also took a trip to visit my fam in Ohio, but that's another blog for another day that should've been written two weeks ago.

I'm going to write this blog on a day to day recap because its easier to remember everything that way.

SATURDAY, JULY 4

We woke up pretty early to catch our 10am flight. I was concerned that Nathan's bag might have weighed too much and wanted to give us time to rearrange things at the airport if we needed to. Thankfully, his bag was juuuuust UNDER the weight limit, 48.5 pounds, whew! We breezed through the whole check-in process and had enough time to grab some breakfast tacos from Pappasitos before making the long hike to our gate. Our gate that was at the very, very end of the terminal. We worked off those breakfast tacos.

The flight was pretty uneventful. I had checked in online (LOVE THAT!!) and was able to change our seats to an exit row. No one had the window seat next to us so we got the whole row to ourselves, that was really nice! They served us a rather yellowy looking green salad, and a knockoff bbq turkey hot pocket thing. Nathan declined, but I decided I was hungry enough to actually brave the airplane food. The salad was salad, the hot pocket was ehh...the meat inside it was actually pretty decent but the "pocket" seemed a little doughy and not very tasty. Unfortunately, I didn't think to just eat the meat out of it until I was mostly done with the whole thing. Ah well.

We arrived at the airport in Nassau a little early, but had to wait on the plane for a good 15-20 minutes because they didn't have a gate for us. That was slightly annoying, but hey, we're in the BAHAMAS!!!

Thankfully, none of our luggage was lost, we checked in at the Sandals desk, found our shuttle bus and were the only people on it. Private shuttle, all right!! LOL!

Check-in was easy, and our room was ready right away. We had a little tour and were taken to our room. Two words. AWESOME.VIEW!!! We were on the top floor of the Windsor building and had a full on ocean view. Other than that the room was pretty average, nice, but nothing too exciting. But oh the view. I will definitely miss that.

We got to the hotel around 4pm and it had just rained, so we didn't really feel like jumping in the water at that point. We decided to go to the Orientation that they have twice a day. When we first got there it was pretty intimidating, everything was big and colorful and you're like "What is all this?" The tour they gave us wasn't that helpful, but it did give us a better idea of where everything was at.

We went back up to the room and changed clothes and went down to dinner. We decided to go to Kimonos (think Benihana's type place). I had read in some reviews that this is a good first night place because you can meet people. The reviewers were right, we met 3 really cool couples. One from New York, one from Pennsylvania, and one from South Carolina. Unfortunately, they were all leaving within the next day or so, booo!! But we had a great dinner with them and ended up chatting with them long after dinner and dessert were over. I really wished we could've hung with the NY couple a few more days, they seemed like a lot of fun.

We went back up to the room, changed into our swimsuits and hit up the hot tub that is closest to the beach. We got a drink from the bar and watched an amazing fireworks show. Apparently, you don't have to be in the United States to celebrate July 4th. They did a really good job with the fireworks and it was so cool to be able to watch it from a hot tub right off the beach.

At this point I would like to make it known for everyone that I did fully finish my alcoholic drink. Those of you that know me well, know that I don't drink. So this was kind of a big deal. Ha!! It was called a Goombay Smash and I had them add cranberry too it. I have no idea what's in it, but it was pretty good. My sister had told me to ask for a Malibu punch. They didn't have that but they gave me that Goombay Smash with cranberry, so there you go.

SUNDAY, JULY 5

We woke up around 8 am. This is actually pretty early for us, since we really like sleeping in during the summer. I had read reviews that said the good chairs get taken early, so we grabbed some towels and saved 2 chairs under an umbrella at the Manor Pool on our way to breakfast. The cool thing is that no one messes with your stuff when you do that. The Manor Pool is the really laid back, quiet pool.

We ate at the breakfast buffet. They had a lot to choose from and it was fairly tasty.

We spent half the day at the pool, lounging in our pool chairs, and floating around on the pool floats. I drank ANOTHER Goombay Smash (I know you all are SO proud of me), although for the record these are like small 8 oz dixie cups.

They have a pool/beachside pizza oven. The pizza was SOOOO good! We ate it in the shade while looking out at the ocean. After our pizza lunch we went out to the beach, found a couple chairs to dump our stuff and chilled in the ocean.

The water was SOOOO pretty and it felt really good too. Around 3 pm we had enough sun and headed back to the room for a little break.

We went back out to the Windsor pool (this is the crazy, loud pool) and played some ping-pong. Nathan totally kicked my ass, but we had a good time trying to keep the ping-pong ball from going into the pool. We were successful about half of the time. Thankfully, everyone was pretty nice there (at that point, most of the people in the pool were tanked, they were having a GOOOOOD time, ha!) and threw the ball back to us.

We jumped in, Nathan got us another drink and played some pool basketball. Nathan beat me at that too. At one point my bikini top came untied. I was jumping for shot, Nathan grabbed at it to mess me up and OOPS!!! No one was really around and it didn't happen until after I was back in the water, so I don't think anyone noticed my wardrobe malfunction, but it certainly gave us a laugh.

We went back up to the room to shower before dinner and found that we were a little "well-done". Or actually, I guess I should say medium to medium-rare. That last dip in the pool got us a little toasty. DOH!

We ate a Cassanovas, the Italian place. They had this really cool antipasto and salad bar. I ordered the lasagna and Nathan had the spaghetti and meatballs. They were both pretty good! The dessert was just okay, nothing exciting.

We went back up to the room, chilled for a bit and then decided we were hungry again. So we went to Cricketeers Pub where Nathan had a burger and I had some potato crisps. Basically they were like English nachos. Fried potato crisps (think potato chips) and they had this white, kinda blue cheese tasting sauce on them. They were quite tasty!

MONDAY, JULY 6

We had breakfast at the breakfast buffet again and then took the boat over to Sandals private island for our massages on the beach!! Although, for the record, a massage overlooking the ocean is slightly overrated because you are face down most of the time. But it was very cool, and I'm glad we did it. The massages felt really good too. And we scoped out the perfect place to come back to the next day.

We decided that today would be a good day to go into downtown Nassau and do a little shopping and check out Atlantis. Nathan's shoulder's were still a little crispy and we figured this would be a good way to keep them out of the sun a little.

We took the #10 bus to downtown Atlantis. Nathan got a t-shirt and I found my mom a really cheesy souvenir (she collects them). We then took the water ferry over to Atlantis.

I can sum up Atlantis in a few words. Big. Loud. Expensive. Way too many obnoxious kids running around. We didn't really explore Atlantis for very long for the above reasons.

We did however check out the casino. Neither of us have ever been in a casino, or gambled before (unless you count SNAP in which I totally owned the blackjack tables my junior year, the dealer, a friend's dad, was awesome and always busted and gave us "hints", good times), so we thought we'd try it out.

It took us a few minutes to figure it all out. I'm sure we stood out like a sore thumb trying to figure out how to get chips. After watching a guy at the blackjack tables just hand over some cash we figured it out. There was only one spot open at the cheapest table, $15. Nathan decided that I was probably the luckier one and let me have at it.

Since the minimum bet was $15 I handed over $60. I figured this would give me at least 4 hands, and if I lost all 4 hands, then we were done for the day. I think I lost the 1st hand, but then came back the next hand. It kept that way for a while. I had a pretty good pile of $5 chips at one point. I have no idea how much because I kept remembering Kenny Roger's advice "You never count your money, when you're sitting at the table, they'll be time enough for counting, when the dealing's done".

Plus, since I was a newbie I was trying to make myself look not so newbyish. Nathan told me I had a pretty good poker face. Don't get me wrong, when I got that first blackjack I was dying to whip out my camera and take a picture of it, but I kept my cool.

Towards the end, I decided to go against Kenny Roger's advice and put $60 worth of my chips to the side. I played, and lost a couple more hands and decided to leave the table. I won 10 bucks, woohoo!!! :)

I really should've have stepped away from the table sooner and probably would've won like $30. But it was a fun time, and my goal was to gamble, and come out ahead, which I did. We went in with $60 and came out with $70. I wish I could've been the guy next to me, who came in $400 and left with $700...yeah...that would've been nice. But alas, I'm happy with my $10 gain.

On our way out of Atlantis we stopped by their cigar shop and Nathan bought his first Cuban cigar. We hopped back on the ferry and were entertained by the ferry tour guide person. He was really funny! He pointed out Nicholas Cage's house (although quite honestly, we all just took his word for it because all you could see was a bunch of palm trees). We also learned about the meaning of the colors on the Bahamian flag, how spending money in the Bahamas is like recycling because they import about 85% of their food from the United States, and how their most famous fish dish, Conch (pronounced conk, this was also news to me as my entire life I've pronounced it phonetically), so Conch is apparently good for your sex life. Who knew?! And as if we hadn't figured it out already, our tour guide told us "In the Bahamas, we do everything SLOWWWW, because there ain't no where to go." That is the truth! If you ever go to the Bahamas, don't be in a hurry, and just relax, because they really are super slow.

We got off the ferry and hit up one of the liquor stores to buy some rum, because, well, that's just what you do when you can buy it tax free right? Ha! And then we went by the infamous Straw Market. Its this market where you can buy straw items (imagine that) and knock off handbags. I am not really into handbags and the ladies are like WAYYYY aggressive, calling out to you to come check out their goods. I knew I wanted a straw fan, because I had seen a girl with one on the ferry and thought it looked pretty cool. I took one look inside and saw how teeny tiny the aisles were and decided it wasn't a place I really cared to go. There was a lady selling the fans right out front so I bought one off of her. We were told you are supposed to haggle with them, but I'm not really a haggler, and my fan was only $5, and I could hardly see myself saying "Uh how about $4" when the lady had to give me change for my $20 bill anyways. Anyways, I could say that I actually went to the Straw Market, check that off the list.

We got back on the #10 bus, along with like 20 other people, some of whom, you could tell had not bathed in a while, and headed back to the hotel. It was nice to be back where there were no screaming, obnoxious kids.

We ate a the Crystal Room. It was kind of a jazzy, real classy type place. Our waiter, Duke, was awesome. Nathan had the salmon, which was really good, but I wasn't really impressed with my prime rib. I was however, in complete awe of our dessert, the chocolate volcano. WOW...sooooo good!!!

We went back to the room and chilled on our balcony. Nathan smoked his Cuban stogie. I was just looking around and noticed a guy on his balcony. He didn't have a shirt one, no big deal right? And then he turned around and bent over and I saw his bare butt!!! NO JOKE!!! I was like "Nathan!! Look!" We had a good laugh and figured that was the end of it when the guy went back inside and the lights went out.

But the show was not over yet. Oh no, he came out again, this time with his girl. She was blindfolded...yep, BLINDFOLDED!!!! Craziness! They totally went for it on their balcony!!! It was nuts. No pun intended, ha! Our balcony light wasn't on, but surely, SURELY they could see us right? Or maybe they just didn't care. Either way, it was highly entertaining for us.

TUESDAY, JULY 7

We decided to skip the pool, because well, we have a neighborhood pool at home. Granted, said pool does not have a bar, or awesome chairs, or no kids around, but all the same, its a pool. We had breakfast and then caught the first boat over to the private island.

The day before when we were there for our massages we found this perfect little tiki hut that had padded cushions on it, overlooking the water. Being the over analyzer that I am, I remembered which side of the boat got off first over at the island. We conveniently let everyone else get on the boat first, and then we sat down, right where we knew we'd get off first. We got off first and high-tailed it to our spot.

It was pure awesomeness!! We were in the shade the entire time, so we didn't get burned that day. The beach on the island isn't as nice as the one at the main hotel. It was however, great for snorkeling. We had brought our own snorkel gear and checked it all out. We found a little reef off the east side of the island that had tons of fish in it. We didn't see anything exciting like a sting ray, just lots of colorful fish and spiny sea urchins. There were a LOT of those. Some little, and some really big ones. The big ones were a little intimidating. Thankfully, they don't move much. Although I just thought for sure when we were snorkeling in the shallower water that one was going to jump out of the coral and get me. I'm not going to lie, it made me a little nervous.

We spent the entire day at the island and took the last boat back to the mainland at 5 pm. We ate dinner at the Italian place again.

The resort had a chocolate buffet at 10:00 that night. We got their at 10:10 and all the plates were gone and the buffet was almost gone! It was crazy! So we had a couple chocolate things, it was dark so you couldn't really tell what you were eating until you bit into it. I tried one thing and couldn't figure out what it was until Nathan tried it. It was a grape. A chocolate covered grape. Pretty good actually.

There was a singer on the other side of the resort by the Manor Pool. So we hopped in the Manor Pool and swam around a bit, and then got in the hot tub.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 8

It was our last full day, (tear) and the night before we were trying to decide how to spend it. Go over to the island and get the little tiki hut thing again? Spend it at the pool? Try to get an umbrella on the main beach? We decided on the main beach, and I got up early and staked out our spot. I had our magazines and beach bag strewn across 2 chairs, and then put a beach towel through the the spokes in the umbrella. Most of the chairs under the umbrellas were reserved by the people in the butler suites, so I was way excited to find such prime real estate that hadn't been reserved yet. I went back to bed for about 45 minutes and then we got up and went to breakfast.

No one messed with our stuff, so we chilled there for most of the day. Rearranging our chairs when the sun moved and spending a lot of time in the ocean. We got to witness a bunch of Italians totally snake a butler suite person's umbrella and chairs. They were quite proud of themselves in all of their speedo wearing glory. I was really hoping for some really big dude to come down to his reserved spot only to find the Italians in their speedos had taken them, and then a hilarious confrontation would ensue. But the rightful owners never came to claim their spot and the drama did not happen. Boo.

We went back up to the room to get out of the heat, and then went to dinner at the Crystal Room again, because this was our favorite place. We asked for Duke, our really fun waiter from the other night, but unfortunately he wasn't working. Bummer.

I had the salmon this time, which was yummy, and Nathan had some kind of chicken dish. And of COURSE we got the chocolate volcano again. So. Good!

TODAY, THURSDAY, JULY 9

The day we left. Boo. They were picking up our bags at 10:30, and we had to leave at 11:30 to go to the airport. That didn't leave us time to really go to the beach or pool, and we didn't want to mess with trying to pack a wet swimsuit. So we slept in, went to breakfast, got one last tropical drink from the bar and then headed to the airport.

On our way, the shuttle driver had to stop for a motorcade to drive by. It was the Prime Minister, no joke!

Customs was a breeze, and had we known that they wouldn't actually check our bags or ask what we were bringing back we would've bought another bottle of rum.

The airport was pretty lame. There was one cafeteria style cafe, we took one look at the options that looked like food poisoning on a plate and decided that wasn't a good idea. So instead we got raped by the Dunkin' Donuts. We spent $23 on 2 sandwiches, 2 drinks and a dozen munchin donut holes. They charged me $6 for a dozen donut holes!! If we ever get back to the Bahamas I'm going to make sure we eat A LOT before we get to the airport.

We were on a little plane this time, the kind that has 1 seat on 1 side and 2 seats on the other side. It was not a comfortable 3 hour flight. We were jammed in, and there was a baby screaming every 5 minutes. The iPods were mostly helpful in drowning that out, but you'd still catch it, especially during the landing when you weren't allowed to use your iPods.

Once again, both of our bags made it. Nathan was most concerned about my bag, because it was the one that had the rum in it, LOL!!

Pictures will be posted soon on Facebook. We took a bunch of pics with an underwater camera, and those will be a little later in coming as we actually have to get those developed.

We had a GREAT trip! Hopefully we'll be able to get back their agin someday.

Random Sayings from the Madhouse - Day 1

I'm in Ohio visiting my family. When we are all in one place together it is truly a madhouse. I feel bad for the people who live below my parent's apartment. 

Here are some random sayings from the day:

Gracie Mae: "Bonk bu donk" - My 2 year old niece trying to say "Badonkadonk". Classic! Reading it in black and white just does not do it justice. 

Mom: "I like watching your butt when you do that" My mother said that to me as I was showing my mad skills at the table tilt Wii fit balance game. I'm a champion...at the ADVANCED level. 

Joshua: "UNDERWEAR!!!" My 5 year old nephew says this at the most random moments. Its his favorite word.

Joshua: "Aunt Cathy is WIERD!" - Joshua whispered this to me after my sister Cathy "raised her eyebrows" at him. 

Zachary: "Oh my gosh! This is the coolest toy that just came out!!!" - My 9 year old nephew, Zachary, said this after I handed him the Hot Wheels color changers car and ramp that I got him. That's right, I know how to pick out the BEST toys.

Zachary: "She is REALLY good at this!" Said after Zach and Hailey had been looking for me for a good 5 minutes during our impromptu hide and seek game. Consider we are in a small 3 bedroom apartment playing this game, I'm quite proud of myself for finding such a good hiding place.

That's all for now. Stay tuned, you never know what will happen next!

Earlier today I updated my status and made a comment about Weird Gym Guy. Some of you, may not know about WGG, so feel free to read along and let your imagination go wild.

On second thought, your imagination doesn't hold a candle to what WGG actually looks like. I've posted my previous blogs and notes from Myspace and Facebook, for those of you who may have missed it the first time.

November 8, 2006
The weird guy at the gym. I've seen this guy before. But now that I'm "officially" blogging I just have to write about him. (This is when I was blogging on myspace.)

Okay, so this guy is a pretty tall guy, he's in pretty good shape and pretty thin, but he's one of the weirdest looking guys I've seen. He's got bleach blond hair that comes down to about the middle of his face. His head kinda looks like a mushroom, that's the best way to describe it. He ALWAYS wears these big sunglasses. They are the Oakley ones with the radio attached. But note, we are INSIDE, its not that bright. But maybe he has really sensitive eyes, but my guess is he's just trying to look cool.

Now you're probably all thinking, that's not so weird, right? Well, this guy's shirt looked like mine. I was wearing one of those work out tank tops with the racer back and the built in sports bra (I've probably lost most of the guys by now, but my point being, its a definitely a girl's shirt). Well, he was wearing the same thing essentially. It didn't have the racerback, but it was definitely not a tank top I've ever seen on a guy before. And it only came to about the middle of his stomach. Nice... Now like I said before, he's not fat so its not like he's got a huge gut spilling over. But seriously, if a guy wants to show off his abs, they usually just take their whole dang shirt off.

Now to his pants. They were suck tight black yoga pants (once again, probably lost the guys). And the top of the pants around the waist was the same color as my tank top. My tank top was black and this light bluish green color, not a color that should be on a guy's pants. Now not only were these pants suck tight and well...girly, they were really, really low on his waist. And I mean REALLY low, like I'm almost seeing something that I REALLY don't want to see, low. Its really quite disgusting, but at the same time, quite comical.

So that's the weird guy at the gym. What is really funny is to see people react to him. There was a couple on the elliptical machines in front of me. When he went to get on the elliptical machine in front of them, the guy nudged the girl and said something I couldn't decipher (I was rocking out to Family Force 5 on the treadmill) and then the girl looked over to the weird guy and then back at the other guy and smiled. And then there was this other lady who noticed him and then turned around and looked at everyone as if to say "Am I really seeing this?!" Ha! Quite entertaining.

June 18, 2008
I now have an update. The weird guy is still there...and even weirder.

Last week, I went to the gym without Nathan because he was going to go play tennis with a buddy. And this was the first time in over a year that I've seen this guy. He was wearing a tank top, that was made out of super thin material and ripped so that the only thing that was covered by the tank top was his chest. Like if he was a woman, where his boobs would be. He was still sporting the super tight, ultra low (gag me) yoga pants, but he had a new addition...a slut sticker...or tramp stamp, whatever you want to call it, but a tattoo, right there on his lower back, right above his butt. Not that I've seen a lot of bare backed men, but this was the first one I've ever seen with a slut sticker. I kinda thought that was a 'girl' place to put a tat, but I could be wrong, please gentlemen, correct me if I am.

So I am absolutely giddy at this point because I think this she-man, himshe, shim, whatever, is absolutely hilarious. I mean, it puts a little excitement in the daily workout. Everybody notices this guy, and its quite fun to see the reactions. So I really wanted Nathan to see this guy. And today he saw him.

The weird guy was wearing those short cotton shorts, they have a brand name, soffe, like what cheerleaders wear. They were a melon color, kinda pinkish orange. He was also wearing a white sports bra.

Now you're probably saying to my blog "But Angela, I didn't know they made sports bras for men." They don't...it was a WOMAN'S sports bra top. You're probably wondering how this can get better? Oh, but it can.

Along with the melon shorter than any man should be wearing shorts, and the not made for a man sports bra, he was wearing...wait for it...5 INCH PURPLE HEELS. In case you didn't get that...5 INCH PURPLE HEELS!!!! And these were like platform heels.

He was walking out of 24 hour fitness, and I would've missed him but Nathan bumped me out of my iPod induced 'zone' and asked "Is that the guy?!" Oh yes, yes it was. There were 2 really big buff guys standing by the door when he went out and from what I could tell they were laughing after the guy left, and they actually went out the door to see the guy again. Words cannot describe this guy. So if you want some entertainment while you work out, let me know and I'll tell you when and what 24 hour fitness to go to. You will not be disappointed.

TODAY, Monday, May 4, 2009

Weird Gym Guy is now sporting a super long, blonde hair extension. In a pointy tail mind you.

I saw him as I was getting on the treadmill today. And I literally almost busted out laughing. I'm serious, I spent a good 10 minutes trying not to laugh or smile. I'm sure people who looked at me thought I was nuts, because you know you always look like a total goof when you are trying not to smile and failing miserably at it.

I also had the pleasure (or lack there of is probably more correct) of having to see him in the reflection of the mirror when he was doing his arm moves. He was taking a big barbell and raising it high over his head and stretched back really far.

You can only imagine where this brings the top of the front of his super low, suck tight yoga pants. DANGEROUS TERRITORY my people, dangerous territory.

At one point I was quite certain his pants had slipped to the point of no return, but thankfully, it was just a shadow on the lower part of his abs.

I'm sure you are all thinking to yourselves "But Angela, why not just look away?!"

Are you serious?! YOU CAN'T JUST LOOK AWAY!!! Its like a train wreck, or trying to eat just one Lay's potato chip...not possible. I'm pretty sure I did more reps than I meant to because I lost count on more than one occasion by this distraction.

So stay tuned to my little blog here. I don't blog about EVERY time I see him. Just when something new pops up.

Pursuit of Honor...

...is the title of the new book by this man here (in the black jacket of course):

His name is Vince Flynn. He is AMAZING! This was at a book signing for his last book he published this past November.

He writes about top secret CIA, black ops kinda stuff. A friend of mine describes Flynn as similar to Tom Clancy but 10 times easier to read. Basically if you like to read about a badass who goes around torturing and assassinating terrorists in the name of keeping the good ol' US of A safe...this is your man. And you all know how much I enjoy reading about terrorists being tortured and assassinated. Mitch Rapp is his badass. If Mitch Rapp were a real person, he would totally be my "Get Out of Marriage Free" card. 

Unfortunately he's not a real person, so I'm going to have to stick with The Rock or Vin Diesel, or maybe Mark Wahlberg. 

Anyways, so yes, Vince Flynn's new book will be titled "Pursuit of Honor". It comes out October 13th. That's a little under 6 months away. It might as well be an eternity for me.

If you think Vince Flynn and his character Mitch Rapp sound like your kind of fun, you should pick up his book "Term Limits" or "Transfer of Power". 

"Term Limits" is his very first book, but it is somewhat hard to find. It is more like a prequel to his Mitch Rapp series. Its good if you can read it first but you can get by without it. "Transfer of Power" however is a complete must. Do NOT read any of the other books before it otherwise you'll ruin other parts of the books before it. 

My personal favorites of Flynn? Probably Memorial Day and Executive Power. Although his newest book, Extreme Measures was really good too. I got a friend of mine hooked on them and we both started reading it at the same time. We were constantly texting each other "Have you gotten to this part?" or "Oh my gosh! It gets SOOOO GOOOD!!!" It was quite fun. But honestly, all of his books are pure genius, suspenseful, an awesome good time. I read them in like 2 days. 

Here is a little excerpt from Memorial Day...quite possibly one of the best lines of all time.

Quick little background - Mitch Rapp (CIA guy, basically he goes around and assassinates terrorists...like I said, my kind of guy) is in this meeting with a bunch of overzealous liberal bureaucrats. Meanwhile, there is a credible threat that a nuke has made its way into the Washington D.C. area, set to go off on...Memorial Day! 

On a side note, CIA if you have stumbled across my blogs because of the terms "nuke", "terrorists" or "assassinates" or "nuke in Washington D.C." I would love an intel analyst job. I'm just saying...its an option...I'm sure you know how to find me. 

Okay, so here is Mitch Rapp telling off one of the liberal bureaucrat ladies...

Stealy stood so she could face Rapp eye to eye and started to lecture. "You have no idea what you're talking about. We can't simply deport American citizens and hand them over to the CIA for torture."

Rapp cut her off with a booming voice that was almost a full blown yell. "The debate portion of the evening is over. You are an idiot! You have no idea what you are talking about, and you have no idea what it takes to wage this war. Now sit down, and don't interrupt me again or I will throw you out of this room by the scruff of your neck."

Seriously...I laughed out loud when I read that. I just pictured this big bad ass guy saying that to the likes of Hilary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi...awesomeness.

That is all the little tidbit that I am giving. Trust me, once you get started, you are completely hooked. Its better than Twilight. I've never actually read Twilight but seriously...teenage vampire love or bad ass terrorist assassin? I'll take the bad ass terrorist assassin any day. 

Vince Flynn = Mitch Rapp = AWESOMENESS

Go check him out while I start a countdown for the book release.