Diamonds on the water.............

Doesn't it look like diamonds shimmering across the lake? This is my little piece of heaven that I sneak away to when I need to get centered and re-energized. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us run away to the heart of Texas and the heart of our family.

Memorial Day weekend arrived and we headed to Central Texas to celebrate my Dad's birthday. It felt GREAT to get away from end of year activities at school. Allowed me to re-energize to make it through the last 2 weeks of school. This Friday, it will OFFICIALLY be summer vacation for me and I'm heading right back to the lake for a girl's weekend with all of my wonderful cousins......can't wait! It's already 100 degrees in Dallas....Summer is HERE!! Hope you're staying cool where you are.

~Allie

Bellydancing in Denton

About 2 weeks ago, the Cupcake Princess had a belly dancing recital. Sounds weird, doesn't it? She joined a belly dancing class that was held 0ff-campus at a coffee bar and fell in love with it. What a fun afternoon we had out in the Springtime weather, watching all of the classes dance! And it was a nice break for the girls since it was right before finals. That's her in the red and black.

And now she's home for the summer break. Four more weeks and I can join her......I can't WAIT! We've got lots of fun stuff planned for this summer. Hope you're planning a fun summer, too!

~Allie

Another musical family member!

That's my nephew in the striped shirt, singing with the Soundbytes at Carnegie Mellon University. What a musical family we have. It would be wonderful to hear Danny and the Cupcake Princess "jam" a bit........EVERYONE would have a blast! Young people make me smile :D Enjoy!

~Allie

My first Principal Appreciation Day

This past week has been a VERY busy and trying week. We're now 1 week out from state testing of all of our kids and I'm one of the testing co-ordinators in our building. There's way too many things to stay up on with all of the secure documents, checking every code assigned to a child (ie. economically disadvantaged, ESL, bilingual, race, special ed, immigrant status, etc.), and assigning correctly every student to the correct test within their specific testing group. At the same time, I've been completing my teacher's yearly evaluations. And of course, Spring Fever has hit the students. LOTS of office referrals! I've been spending about 12 hours a day at school lately. AAAghhh! And then came Principal Appreciation Day, right in the middle of the madness!

Our wonderful staff set up the office for my principal and me to have a lovely, homemade, Mexican lunch. Chicken Mole, rice, beans, chocolate and flan cake, iced tea.........it was delightful! It's nice to feel appreciated.

Hope someone has appreciated you this week.........
~Allie

MY ALARM CLOCK THIS MORNING!!!

Sleeping SO soundly this morning. Then continuous thunder noises. Am I waking up back home near Ft. Hood? Wait, I'm in Dallas!

We live about 20 miles from the site. Wow!!!!

Easter Fun

Look who came for the Easter weekend!

It's become an annual event with our family and friends....egg dying night.

Each year we get together with boiled eggs and an egg dying kit, have an easy meal before hand (usually KFC flavored wings and a tossed salad), eat homemade desserts (brownies, cookies, etc.), listen to music in the background (this time it was Rod Stewart's greatest hits), and do lots of laughing and story telling!

This is Jim and Julie. Julie has ALWAYS been into egg dying, but when Jim came along, he thought it was silly and we had to twist his arm. But he had so much fun the first time that now he asks when we're going to do it each year..........he loves it!

My husband is such a boy.......his goal every year is to make an ugly egg. Above is this year's contribution. We all think it looks like a dinosaur egg.........he calls it a booger egg. Boys!

I just love it when the Cupcake Princess comes home! She baked brownies on Friday night and carrot cake (Big Daddy's favorite!) cupcakes with cream cheese icing on Saturday night. This house is so alive when she's home! Hope your home is full of joy and life this Easter weekend.

~Allie

Don't need it.........but sure love it!

With the release of the new Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland, there has been an explosion of Alice products on the market. I'm 47 years old. Why am I so in-love with this new Alice? Maybe it's something in my subconscience from when I was a kid. You know how kids like to tease other people about their names.....the only thing silly boys could come up with for me was Alice in Wonderland.

I saw this add in a Ulta mailer over a month ago and I can't get this product out of my mind! Don't need it.....but sure LOVE it!!! Has anything ever grabbed you like this?

~Allie