across the ocean floor

i've officially become the teacher crying children go to, regardless of who their regular teacher is. don't know how you could turn away a crying kid, no matter how silly the reason they're crying seems. sheesh.

getting really excited for this weekend! we're celebrating my birthday, abha's engagement, guillermo's welcome to austin, and andy finding out he has job stability. should be fun.

lazy weekend

this weekend we got a "cold front" and it was in the 70s on saturday morning, so we opened the windows!

and now of course we're back in the 80s in the mornings and i just wanted to post the pictures to remember how nice it was. it's supposed to cool down again this weekend.

jeff found all of dad's old cameras and filters and books, so now you always see him with a camera around the house.

one day he walked over to the train tracks a block from our house and this guy called to him. turns out he was a professional photographer. he wanted to adjust his lighting so he asked if he could take a few pictures of jeff and ripley.

random/cool. i'm surprised ripley didn't try to eat him.

pocket full of diamonds

becca sent the link to the professional photos of her wedding and i'm sharing some of my favorites. first, let's just marvel at what a GIANT i am:

the ceremony room was so beautiful and i'm glad they got this picture of it because it was impossible with a regular camera.

same with the reception room
the photographers were what you would imagine indian gangsters would look like. fedoras. odd facial hair. kinda gangly. anyway we were all trying to be very serious when they were having us take these 'fun' pictures..

and the rest are pictures where you can just seeee the love between bec and nirav. so sweet.

(these two are my favs)

but now it's found

these two boys, chase and leon, haven't been able to remember my name all week. i greet them as they come in off the bus and they put their hand on their foreheads and tryyy to remember, but they just haven't been able to. they're two of my very favorites, too. well-behaved, nice, honest, awesome. but todayyy chase came bounding up to me with a big grin and said 'HI MS. MEGAN!' and leon was a few yards behind him and got up to me and just smiled and said 'hi ms. megan.' so cute.

my birthday is a week from today!

andd i found out they sell koala yummies at HEB in the international foods section! they're expensive, but they're there. on a side note, half the people who find this blog find it because they googled 'koala cookies' and i have that one post on blonde in taiwan about them. weird huh? p.s. they were apparently recalled in hong kong and macau for high levels of melamine during the great chinese melamine scandal of 2008. OOPS. maybe that's why they're so tasty.

shutterfly

i'm not even being paid to say this, but you really need to sign up for shutterfly's emails. they have a deal twice a year or so where you can make a free photo book and just pay for shipping. i've made one of taiwan, one of studying abroad and now i'm making one of camp. the quality is really good and it's something like $9 for the shipping. it would normally be $30 for the book (8 by 8). above all, it's nice to have your pictures of something all in one nice little hardcover book with typed out captions. you get to choose your own layout and colors and font and everything. pretty fancy.

on the topic of consumerism, will everyone do me a favor and please go out and buy lavender scented ivory body wash. i think they're phasing it out because you can only find it once in a blue moon at HEB. maybe if we allll buy it, they'll keep it around. :)

just got home from grocery shopping. love grocery shopping at night. and i got to read two stories with the cutest boy in the world while everyone else was sleeping today. good day.

second tea of the day

i found the cutest boy in the world. he goes to my school. he's blonde, adorable and his eyes turn into little tiny winks when he smiles. i love him. he is the best.

much better day today. but man it's been a looonggg day. woke up at 7:30 and couldn't sleep. busy nonstop since 10. i have no juice left in me. not even enough to write this.

take it easy on me

things i learned today at school:

1. i love rules. i need rules.

2. you have to teach kids to greet you

3. it only takes two tries to teach them to say please and thank you reflexively, especially when snack is involved

4. second graders are too cool to sit in circles

5. my name is easily confused with 'martin'

6. kung fu originated in china

7. a whole set of math bingo flashcards fits in my pocket

it was a crazy first day. tomorrow will be better because i'll have some idea of what's supposed to be happening. that will be nice.

p.s. my smart boyfriend saved us each $70 on tickets from china to taiwan today. bless you, bad chinese websites and cheaptickets.com.