A Preview of the Playoffs with the Peterson's

This has been an amazing season for the Ranger's and I am so glad I got to be a part of it!  I know the Ranger's did not win the World Series, but I am still proud of my team!  Let's start from the beginning:

Opening Day:

Jerry and I got the 20 tickets package with Natalie and Brandon this year.  This averaged about to be one  game every home series.  I had a blast cheering on the Rangers this season.  I really enjoy baseball games.  It's nice just zone out, be quiet, and watch the game. 

Dog Day at the Ballpark:

Playoffs!!!!

All of our friends got tickets to the Game 6 of the ALCS.  We, unfortunately, did not.  But we did not let that stop us from having a good time in the parking lot.  Me, Jerry, and our friend Chris tailgated in the Ranger's parking lot.  We made lots of friends with the parking attendants and had a great time! 

Here are some pictures from various playoff games:

This is a picture from Game 4 of the World Series when Holland pitched an amazing game!

We decided to go in early to watch batting practice.  If you have never done this.... I HIGHLY recommend doing it.  It's really fun to see the players mess around with each other and they will also throw balls to you.  I was standing in the left field bleachers when Gentry pointed to me and threw me a ball!!! I was so excited that I accidentally dropped it...such a klutz!  Fortunately, Natalie caught it!  I guess Josh Hamilton saw that I dropped the ball and so he snuck over, pointed to me, and threw me a ball!  I was so excited!  Josh you are my hero!  I have always admired him and his amazing story.  If you have not read Beyond Belief I definitely recommend it! 

Fast forward to Wednesday, October 26. Jerry is emailing his professor begging him to let him out of his test on Thursday so he can drive to St. Louis. At 10, his professor finally emails him back, "Do what you gotta do. We will work it out." This gave Jerry the green light! He along with Rustin, Kody, and two other friends drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma that night. They spent the night in Tulsa and drove the rest of the way to St. Louis. They bought tickets on stub hub and were off to game 6 of the World Series.

The Arch:

Welcome to Busch Stadium!

Where Jerry stood during the game:

 Oh hey... Jim Sunberg... Jerry and his friends were able to move down to the first deck- a couple few rows behind Nolan Ryan.  I'm sure those Cardinal fans that left early were kicking themselves later! 

 Jerry and his friends decided to stay for Game 7.  How many time do you get to say you were at Game 7 of the World Series?  We all know how it ended... but I'm glad Jerry and his friends went and got to experience the World Series!  I'm going to try to get Jerry to submit a blog about his trip... with more details... hopefully he will!

GO RANGERS!

"New" Furniture!

Lauren and Dave were kind enough to give us a beautiful china cabinet, chairs, and table.   Jerry and I decided to stain it a darker color and recover the chairs.  Here are some pictures of our project:

Step 1: Sand down chairs... This is not as easy as it sounds.  Jerry did a great job!

Step 2: Stain.  This was very messy and greesy.  Jerry also did a great job doing this!

Step 3: Recover chairs.  This was my job! 

Step 4: Move into the house and fill with beautiful china from Jerry's Granny. 

We have been so busy with Rangers and school it took us about a month to complete the project.  I'm glad we did it though!  Thank you Jerry for doing such a beutiful job!

Sew Much Fun!

Lauren (my sister) and I decided to take a sewing class at JoAnn's this past Sunday.  My mom loves to sew and she is really good at it.  When I was little, she liked to make my sister and I dresses.  Recently, she made me curtains for my classroom.  I've kind of always wanted to learn, but didn't really know where to start.  Lauren and I found this class offered at JoAnn's so we figured we would take it. 

I showed up to JoAnn's 30 minutes early... big mistake.  I decided I needed bulletin board border, a funkin (fake pumpkin), buttons to decorate my funkin, and a bunch of other random stuff.  $50 later it was finally time for my class to start.  The teacher was really nice and very patient especially with me.  She told us we would be making a cute little purse.  We also got a free sewing kit that included scissors, thread, a piece of fabric, a pin cushion, and box of pins. 

There were 4 total students in the class including myself.  One girl had been sewing since she was 5, there was another lady that had always wanted to learn to sew, my sister who sewed a big fuzzy dog in home ec. in 8th grade, and then there was me.  I don't know what my deal was... but I was having a really hard time.  Everyone else seemed to really catch on to sewing except me... haha.  When I was making my purse, I got so excited that I was sewing a straight line, I sewed my bag shut all the way.  The teacher said, "Looks like you were having a party" as she was taking out the thread on one side of my bag.  Then as I was sewing the inside part of my bag, I forgot to put the thing down that holds the fabric in place as it's being stitched.  I didn't think anything of it... I just pushed the fabric through.  My teacher looked at my worked and knew exactly what happened.  Again... she pulled out my thread and I redid the stitching. 

Needless to say, I definitely not going to be on Project Runway anytime soon.  In fact, I'm not so sure sewing is for me... I think I'm going to stick to cooking and writing... haha! Here are some pictures:

This is Lauren pinning her fabric to the pattern:

Lauren: The sewing diva!

Class Clown:

This is me with my teacher... she is helping me fix my purse

The finished product!  I am actually going to use my bag at school to carry my phone and stickers! 

Here is a picture of my funkin that I made today.  I got the idea from Megan.  I'm going to put it outside my classroom.  GO TECH!



Wild about Mrs. Peterson's Class!

So I know it's been a while since I have blogged... I'm sorry!  I've been SOOOO busy with the start of the school year and my class I am taking right now!  It was a crazy-busy summer.  I did summer school in the mornings and interned in the afternoons.  I really enjoyed doing both but by the end of the summer I was worn out!!  After a few days of shopping and vegging out, I felt revitalized and was ready to rock and roll. 

The school year has been going great!  I love my students and I feel like I am really starting to get my footing.  The first couple of days I couldn't get over how small the students were!  I'm in the pre-k, kinder, and first grade hallway, so I am surrounded by little ones. 

I was very fortunate to get the keys to my classroom at the beginning of the summer.  I tried to go up to my classroom at least once a week to work.  One of my former students that graduated in June came up to school with me and helped out.  He was SO helpful!  He helped me cut out lamination, move furniture, and set up my bulletin boards.  I am very grateful!

So here are some before pictures of my classroom! 

This is the front of the room.

Here is the bathroom:

Lockers:

Kitchen area:

Front of room and window:

And now for the big finish!!! Drum roll please!!!!

Circle/ Calendar Time!

Kitchen Area/ breakfast/ small group instruction area:

 Class Expectations/ birthday board

Front of Classroom/ Library:

 Word Wall!

 Back of classroom/ Lockers/ Small Group area:

My sister asked me which one I like better the older kids or the younger kids.  To be honest, they are both so different, it's really hard to compare!  I really enjoy both!  The students are very sweet and the atmosphere is very happy.  I also have an amazing team.  Now that I think about it, I had all those when I was working in secondary.  Elementary and secondary are just so different...not in a good or bad way... just different.  It's really hard to explain.  People that have taught both know what I mean. 

Boston

This summer Walker was accepted to the Summer at Brown program.  During his 3 week stay he gets to go to class, stay in the dorm (ohhh memories!), and get a sneak peak at what college is like. 

Wednesday:
Jerry and I flew into Virginia.  We pretty much flew in, went to sleep, and got up the next morning at 5 ish. 

Thursday:
We got up at 5 and were on the road by 6.  Along the way I was amazed at how fast we were going through states.  We were literally in West Virginia for 15 minutes before we were in the next state.  It's just not like that when you live in Texas!  You could be driving for 10 hours and still be in Texas!  Karen and I counted up the amount of states that Jerry and I been in in the past 24 hours.  I think the total came to 10 (Texas, North Carolina, Virgina, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey (fist pump!), New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.)
Along the way, we saw a lot of neat bridges!

Here is Jerry driving. 

Boston!

On Thursday night we took the train to Union Oyster House.  It was very tasty!  I liked the "Clam Chowda!"  We even got to sit next to JFK's favorite booth! 

Friday was a very eventful day! It was a bit rainy, but that didn't stop us! We visited Harvard, MIT, went to a yummy sandwich shop called Cinderella's, went on a Duck Tour, hung out at Quincy, Market, and ate at the Salty Dog.  Needless to say, we slept very well that night! 

Harvard was everything I thought it would be!  It was a beautiful campus that was full of history.   

Jerry and Walker at admissions.  Do you think they will get in????

This is across the street from campus.  I thought it was pretty funny!  Don't worry, Dewey Cheetham & Howe is not a real office... we looked it up!

Beautiful gate at Harvard! 

Peterson's at Harvard!

Next, we went to MIT!  MIT was very engineered looking.  It was pretty, but not beautiful like Harvard.

This was a cool number statue outside the Student Union. 

Brothers!

The shirt reads, "and God said... a bunch of smart stuff...and there was light"  Haha

Boston University.  A lot of the buildings in Boston had this triangle look to them.  Did you know there are 52 institutions of higher education in the Boston area?!

Next stop, Fenway Park!

Fenway Park was pretty neat.  We took a lap around the park and found this bar that was on ground level of the ballpark.  In one area, the only thing separating you between the field and the bar was a chain link fence.  I thought that was pretty cool!

Baaa-ston Red Sox (said in Boston accent).  I love the Boston accents, by the way.  I'm catching myself saying "wicked" and saying I went to "Baa-ston."

Duck Tour Time!  Quack... Quack....Quack (Mighty Ducks anyone?)

The Duck tour was really interesting.  I learned a lot about the history of Boston and some really interesting facts. 

Saturday- Good bye Boston.... Hello Cape Cod! Saturday morning we headed to Cape Cod and saw the beautiful beach!  The water was very cold, but absolutely beautiful. 

We ate alot of sea food on this trip.  I was in heaven!  While we were in Cape Cod we had one of my favorite meals of the trip at this random place called Sam's. 

The Petersons!

Everywhere we went in Boston there were these beautiful flowers!  I had to get a picture!  Do you think they would survive in the Texas heat?

Our next stop was Martha's Vineyard. We had to ride a ferry to the island. I really enjoyed the cool weather and view!

Martha's Vineyard was a really neat place.  It seemed like an old fashioned town with lots of shirt and ice cream shops.  I would love to go back there! 

Last stop of the day, BROWN UNIVERSITY!   We walked around and admired the beautiful campus!    On a scale of 1-10... Texas Tech being a 10.... I would give Brown an 8, Harvard a 9, and MIT a 6.  Some of the buildings were old houses made into colleges.  I thought that was really cool. 

Go Brown Bears! I wonder if they are a fan of the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Eric Carle?  If I went there I would be!   By the end of Saturday, we were pooped! We drove to the hotel and prepared for our last day of vacation :(

Sunday- We got Walker registered and his dorm room settled in.  There were so many students!  The guy behind us in line was from Spain!  He was taking a class about Physics (smarty pants!)  Walker's roommate just got in the night before from Hong Kong!  Karen said every state in the US was represented except for North Dakota!  What a cool experience to be able to meet so many people from around the world.  Moving Walker into his dorm made me remember the good ole days at Tech.  I'm really excited that Walker is going to be able to experience a small piece of that over the next couple of weeks. 

It was time to go home.  We almost had an extra night of vacation because our flight got delayed in Rhode Island and we missed our connecting flight to Dallas.  Fortunately, we got onto a flight and made it home around 1am. 

This was a great trip!  I love Boston.  I highly recommend going there!  It's a beautiful city that is rich with history and fun accents!  Thank you Larry, Karen, and Walker for a great trip!