I'm Back!

So-- I have taken another blogcation. I am back with a full recap of our trip to Belize! Here are Days One and Two!

Day One

I got up at 2:00 a.m. because I could not sleep! We got going at 4:30 to finish up packing and getting ready. Cal got Shipley’s for us! Yipee! Mom dropped us off at the airport, and we flew from Waco to Houston to Belize City to San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. I have never had such a smooth flight experience in my life! All the planes were completely on time. I did have a little anxiety on the plane to Belize City. Out flight said we would be there at 10:30, and we had another flight at 11:40. 10:30 came and went, and I was sure that we had missed our plane. We landed and the flight attendant said it was 10:30—oh there was a time change. Oops! How did I miss that? (I found out later that Belize does not have Daylight Savings Time. Their time never changes. Oh well—everything was great.
We arrived to San Pedro on a TINY plane. Let me repeat TINY!!! We were the last people on the plane, so I sat in the middle. Get this, Cal got to be the co-pilot! He said it was such a rush! That plane flight surprisingly was the smoothest of all of our flights. We could see dolphins jumping out of the water!

Our first Casita

We got to the airport and a man from Victoria House met us there and quickly whisked us away to VH. It was a short two mile ride in our taxi. Let me tell you. These taxi drivers are nuts. He was passing golf carts left and right. Quite a lot like Mexico in that respect.
We got to the hotel and were promptly shown to our room. Check in was not until 3 p.m. but at 12 they had our room ready to go. NO waiting! We jumped in our swim suits and headed to the beach! We laid on the beach for a bit and then went to the dive shop to make our arrangements for our excursions. 1 day flats fishing for Cal, 1 day reef fishing for both of us, ½ day snorkeling, 1 day cave tubing and ziplining on the mainland. We have a fantastic week ahead of us! We ate lunch at the bar, and I had the most AMAZING fish and chips I have ever eaten. Seriously, I don’t know if it can get better! We then laid out at the infinity pool overlooking the meticulous grounds and the beach! Hello!?! It’s perfect!

Some serious hammock laying outside of our Casita

For dinner we went to Elvi’s Kitchen. It was really good, and a fun beach atmosphere. They had a sand floor, pretty cool. I had a really good strong Mai Tai. Oh yes. We came back on an eventful taxi ride and went to bed! Remember I have been up since 2 a.m. ☺

Day Two
So—Cal had convinced me to go on the fishing trip with him to the flats. The more I thought about it and he thought about it, we decided it was not a good idea. I didn’t have any protective sun shirts and I was going to have to reapply sunscreen like every 30 minutes not to get burned. So—we had breakfast at Pamilla’s and I saw him off! I had like 4 cups of coffee on the deck of the bar and checked email. This place is so nice! There are people constantly taking care of the beach, raking the sand, pruning the greenage, etc. They really take care of the resort.
Then, I got a massage on the patio of our Casita. It was heaven. Seriously, heaven. The rest of the day, I just laid by the pool and worked on my tan.

Cal and his guide, George Bradley

Coming soon: Lindsey fishes for the first time since she was a girl, and swimming with sharks!

Pond

At Hillcrest PDS, your job is not just to teach. With such a small campus, we all have to chip in and give an extra hand. It just so happens that the pond and outdoor areas are mainly maintained by the K-1 team.  Many of you who know me well know I am NOT an outdoor person. Pools, yes. Decks, yes. Gardens, working on it. Yard maintenance and work where I sweat and don't get a tan? Not really my cup of tea. 

So, this year has been a huge learning experience. The pond is a super cool area where our kids can take part in Inquiry Science and learn all about the outdoors. The catch is... someone has to take care of it. This is a massive job! Especially since our pond has been a little (LOT) difficult to deal with. We have had constant algae that has plagued us this year. 

Enter Harv Peterson!

He is a master naturalist, and the president of the Heart of Texas Pond and Water Garden Society  He has helped us immensely with his vast knowledge of ponds and his incredible willingness to help us out of the kindness of his heart. The pond is now recovering with constant maintenance. I don't have any before pics-- I will get some from Kathleen.

No pictures this time-- I am going to link you to my facebook album. I tried to load pics 4 times! I QUIT! Anyone know how to load pics any easier or faster on a mac?

My New Hobby and some important questions....

I have an issue with sticking to my hobbies. I get bored easily, and if I cannot be successful doing that hobby, I am not going to continue said hobby. Let's go through the list: Paper Scrapbooking, Digital Scrapbooking, Yoga, working out, crafts, training Miles, etc.... 

I think I may have found a hobby that sticks..... Vegetable gardening! Cal and I made new landscaping beds around our patio a few months ago, and I had been thinking about gardening for a while. Cal bought me a Texas Gardening book for my Birthday, and I investigated what would work well in our area... I decided upon crookneck squash, tomatoes, bell peppers, and green beans. 

I have learned a LOT over the past few months. These pictures a from about a month ago. Things look quite different now, and I will update soon.  I do have a few questions for all of you pro gardeners out there:

* How on earth do you keep birds from eating your vegetables?

*What is the correct method for the upkeep of a squash plant? When the big leaves are dying, and the new ones are coming in, do you take the dying growth off, or leave it because you don't want squash bugs to get in the plant? I have researched this, and I keep finding different answers!!!

The garden!

Harvested Squash

Growing tomatoes

Tiny green bean plant

bell pepper plants

tiny squash

big squash plants!!!

PRIZE PATROL!!!

Ok-- I broke my blogging hiatus. The news was just too exciting!!! My K-1 team wrote, applied, and RECEIVED a grant from the Waco ISD Education Foundation!!!! Our Grant was titled:

It Blooms, It Hops, It Swims, It Flies: Pondering Life at the Pond We will get $5747.99 for resources to use with our pond at our school!!!!! YIPEE!!! The grant includes: digital microscopes, underwater microscopes, plants for in and around the pond, frog and butterfly kits, carts for microscopes, and LOTS of Gail Gibbons non fiction books.

The Story:
We knew they would be awarding grants sometime this week, because the timeline said LATE May, and well folks, it's the last week in May. I have been dressing cute for the last two weeks just in case! Whew! Glad that's over! Our principal asked us to come to lunch early to sign a poster for our cafeteria workers, and we walked in and saw first grade too. My first reaction was, "Ugh! We will have to wait for them to finish! This is my lunch time...!" I sure am glad I did not say that out loud! So... we were standing there, and the first grade teachers told us that our principal said that they needed to stay in the cafeteria. Something is fishy.....

20 minutes later... A huge ruckus came down the hall complete with video cameras, news reporters, and LOTS of important people!! It was SO exciting. We are so blessed to work at such a cool school that supports this kind of project. Now we get to spend MONEY!!
My team members are:
Tammy Johnston, Kathleen Minshew, and Meghan Robinson

Thank you WISD Education Foundation!!!

Leave of Absence

Ok friends-- so I haven't blogged in forever! I have been super busy with school. I have something I have been working on, that I am not quite ready to talk about yet. I promise, after school is out on June 5th, I will be back. Also--- blogger has been blocked at work now, so I can't blog during lunch! Aaah! I miss blogging, but I have been taking pictures and will do lots of make up posts. See ya when it's summer!

Life Cycle City!!

We have been studying life cycles lately, and we are finally seeing the fruits of our labor. On Monday, our first chick hatched, and on Monday night all the rest hatched. We did not know if we had fertilized eggs, but we were hoping for at least 5 live chicks! We estimate we had 10 fertilized eggs by the looks of it. 7 chicks made it! Oh my gosh they are so cute. It was an amazing process. It took 21 days from the day of fertilization for the eggs to hatch. 

We have an old school incubator, the non turning kind. We had to turn them 3 times a day, (we even came up on the weekends). The temperature had to be 99.5 degrees at all times. One day our incubator ran fever all the way up to 103 degrees. I was so worried it had killed the chicks, but it looks like they came out unscathed. It was A LOT of work, but completely worth it. We got our eggs from the World Hunger Relief Farm, and we will give our chicks back to them. I am so relieved not to have to find homes for these little guys (or girls). I am positive no one else is interested in this, but I am super excited, so I had to share it with my blog friends!

The "early" bird

Another one coming out

7 healthy chicks

I want to keep one!

I came to school today, and some of my chrysalids hatched! We got our Painted Lady Caterpillars from Insect Lore. I am very pleased with the quality of the caterpillars. Out of 10 caterpillars, 9 formed chrysalids. 3 chrysalids have hatched so far, and I am sure in the next 2 days the rest will come out. We will feed them for about a week, and then release them next to the butterfly plants by our pond. We snipped some roses that grow by the pond and infused sugar water in them to feed the butterflies. We will actually be able to observe the probiscus come out while they eat! Coolness!!

Ok-- enough of the teacher nonsense. Have a great week. I am excited to take Pioneer Woman's Mexican Lasagna to a friend who just had a baby tonight. I made it last night, and it looks super yummy!

What I can do with a day off!

I love days off! I feel almost sneaky going and doing things while everyone else is working. This morning I got up with Cal, so I could drop him off and have the car. I was at HEB at 8:00 a.m. It was WONDERFUL. I might actually enjoy going to the grocery store if it was like that. No crazy people. No screaming children. Good selection of fruits and veggies. All in all great!

I got brunch food, because LJ was supposed to come over, but through a chain of crazy events, she was not able to come. We will catch them next time they come into town! 

10:00 a.m. Then, I took Miles to the vet.

This is how he felt about the vet. Boo for shots. He was a trooper, and did not even yelp when he got them. He got his Heartguard treat-- so he was happy about that! We also got him some new flea medicine they promised was going to be amazing. We will see. I have not been happy with any of the medicines we have tried so far.

Better Pic

10:40 Miles and I went to Greenlife to pick out some veggies for my kids to grow at school. We settled on Green Beans. I also got some plant food.

11:00 We then went and got Cal lunch and dropped it off. I came home and had lunch (leftovers from Easter. YUM)

11:30 Took clothes to Goodwill and the consignment shop. I have been meaning to do that for months!!

12:00 Went to the feed store to get food for our chicks that are supposed to hatch tomorrow! He gave it to me for free! How cool is that?!?

12:30 Trip to Target... Oh how I envy people who can go to Target in the middle of the day. I picked up a watering can, some wildflower seeds, herb seeds, soil, and water.

1:15 I came home and became the gardener extroidinairre! I gave my plants some much needed food. My new impatients quickly lost all blooms last week. Hopefully this will perk them up! 

Not so perky

There were way more blooms on that last week!

A blurry pic of my favorite plant Silverado Sage. Seriously you can't mess up with this bush. The next pic is a fact of that.

For a few months now, this guy has had his roots showing, and it is still alive. I put more soil on top, and hopefully he will be blooming purple flowers soon!

My new rosemary plant

New tomato plant. I will repot soon. It is now just close to the water hose. I am super lazy.

2:30 I sat down to write this blog. I have had a few distractions. I think I will go to school and work a tad bit and check on the chickies, and see if we have any early birds :)

Oh, what I could do with a day off a week!! I am a new person!