Vegas in Pictures…

I love the Bellagio. It’s beautiful. The water show was amazing. This picture is from in front of the hotel facing the Paris. (like you can’t see that or something)

This one was taken outside of Cesar’s Palace. I loved all of the fountains and they are everywhere.

I made it to a show. I wasn’t sure that I would like it because I’m not necessarily a Monty Python fan, but it was fabulous. We had a great time.

In every casino that we went there was really cool stuff hanging from the ceiling. The Bellagio had glass artwork. The Wynn had what looked like umbrellas. It was really pretty.

I took this one for Marshell….(the bike not the light fixtures. I can’t make wordpress separate  my words from that picture. ? I tried. If typing all of this works - Yeah!  If not, please be assured  that  my brother is only interested in the motorcycle.) 

The famous Treasure Island boats….(I didn’t get to see the entire performance. We always missed it by a few minutes. I hear it is nothing like it used to be.)

Going to Vegas

We drove to Junction on Sunday afternoon to catch our flight. It was my first time to head that direction and well, there’s just not much to say about it. I heard that there are a few wineries to visit, but that was about it. We did a quick drive-thru at a fast food restaurant because the airport is so tiny that they only have a small news stand. We checked in and then had to drag our checked luggage to another location so it could be loaded onto the plane. ?? yeah. The flight was a little over an hour and a little bumpy with some strange noises. We made it and it was really cool to fly into Vegas at night. You could see the lights well before you were over the city. It reminded me of flying into NYC for the first time. After retrieving our luggage we piled into a shuttle and were off to our fabulous hotel, Planet Hollywood. It was a great hotel with very large rooms. The bathroom was as big as my bedroom. Not kidding. We unloaded into our rooms and then I met with Rob. He’s a seventh grade teacher at my school. We decided to feed some slots and have a few drinks. I think we made it back to our rooms around 1:30 or so. (Vegas is an hour behind GWS time.)

The next morning we were up bright and early for our first day of the conference. We checked in, received a bag to carry our stuff, a name tag, and BREAKFAST! I’m not much of a breakfast person when I first wake up, but they did a good job for the conference. We had choices of mixed fruit, yogurt, cereal, bagels, muffins, 2 different breakfast sandwiches, juice, coffee, and water. I won’t bore you with all the details of the conference. I know that the majority of my readers are not teachers and I will save them. I will just say that it was totally awesome and worth every penny that the school paid to send us. Most of the speakers were entertaining and motivating. I learned a lot!

Okay, I’ll give you some pictures to entertain you. I’m starting with my hotel. : )

Here’s the room..

Here’s the view from the room…..

Here’s part of the bathroom…..

I forgot to tell all of you that each room had a different theme. Our room had an Adam’s Family theme. We had the picture in the bathroom of the entire family. A picture in the bedroom was Uncle Fez’s head (is he the bald one?) with Thing on top of him. Another wall had a mini electric chair attached to it. A little creepy, but I loved it.

Here’s a picture looking down into the casino from the mezzanine….

We didn’t venture out of our casino until Monday night. I’ll post some pictures of other casinos and tell you about my new favorite Italian restaurant tomorrow.

Dance with me….

I drove to Vail the Saturday before I flew to Vegas for the Ben Harper concert. It was (of course) freakin’ amazing. I met up with my friend Kristen (KK) and her boyfriend Ryan.

It was cold and snowing in Vail. It took a while to find a parking spot, but I finally did in the garage. The walk to the concert was slippery. I skated and attempted to walk on about 3 inches of packed snow. Who am I kidding? It was pretty much ice and I almost fell about four times. I did stop and take the picture that is above. I love to see snow on the river. I don’t know why, but water is always beautiful. A lake, a river, the ocean, you get the point. And before some smart ass comments, water in nature is beautiful. Water in the toilet bowl is not. Moving on.  At first I was a little scared about standing outside in the snow to listen to KK’s crush. I’m a little thing. I get cold. But, once you get in the middle of a crowd and have a beer…it was very comfortable. And there was fire because people had to light their pipes and joints. This is the third time that I have Ben Harper since I moved to Colorado. The first time was at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Festival. I met up with another teacher and her parents. I think I had a contact high that night. Wow! Welcome to Colorado! The second time was in October at the Orpheum in Memphis. I remember being a little upset that people were firing up IN the Orpheum. I love it and want it to always be beautiful. So, I wasn’t surprised that I felt a little funny when leaving or that KK lost her phone. Anyway, Ben Harper is amazing. If you ever get the chance to see him, you should. I leave you with one last picture from the concert. : )

Within 24 hours…

I went from ….

Snowbunny

to …..

Vegas Hottie!

MeMe From Joye

Before I go into my list of things to catch you all up, Joye tagged me for a meme. : ) We know each other from high school and we both teach meddle school! She’s a fun person. You should totally check her out. Oh, and I learned that we both have a female, tortie demon cat.

Here are the rules…(I didn’t make them up.)

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Post these rules on your blog.

3. Share six unimportant things about yourself

4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry.

Six unimportant things about me…..

1. I love Hostess chocolate cupcakes. They are so yummy. I always eat two and I eat them upside down. They start to crumble and the icing kind of helps keep them together.

2. I have only owned 3 cars in the past 12 years. My first car was a Grand Am. Part of the bumper was taped together and the head liner was falling when I sold it. My second car was a Sunfire. It was very basic. No power windows or locks. It was a stick shift like my Grand Am. I paid it off and planned to drive it for as long as I could. I did. It got smooshed when I was rear-ended in 2003. I bought my Explorer to replace it and it will be paid off at the beginning of next year. I don’t budget as well as Jana to pay my vehicles of early. ; )

3. I get very annoyed when people ask me if I want a regular or diet drink. Um, hello! Do I look like I need a DIET anything? I didn’t say diet, why would I want a diet? urgh. It’s kind of like my milk, full fat, please!

4. I have taught 7th grade LA, Enriched LA, 6th Science, Enriched LA, Math, a few weeks of SS, and 8th grade Algebra I and Linear Algebra all over the course of 3-1/2 school years. whew! I’ve been busy. I don’t know what was my favorite class. I teach students not subjects. : )

5. I used to fly once in a blue moon. Not anymore! I have been flying a lot more lately.

June - trip to Aspen    October - MEM  November - MEM   December - MEM   March - MEM

April - VEGAS! I know some people fly ALL the time for work, but I never did. You would think I would have a ton of frequent flyer miles. Nope. Different airlines most of the time. I love Frontier and hope that they hang on.

6. I always keep my toes painted. I love to bare foot or in sandals and you have to have pretty toes. Speaking of toes, I have long toes. Ask any of my friends and they will confirm this. I don’t know from where they came, but I sure got them. I’m glad that Spring is finally here so I can pull out my sandals. : ) It was great in Vegas.

Breaking the law, breaking the law

I’m not going to tag anyone since I’m so late in doing this and I haven’t finished reading everyone’s blogs from being out of town. So, if you love me and you haven’t done it…DO IT! or I will come after you with (insert one of your own fears). Not really that might mean I have to jump on another plane and I just can’t afford to do that right now.

I’m baaaack!

I made it back to Colorado last night. I have lots to tell and pictures to post. BUT, I am tired.

So here is my list of things to come…..

1. Ben Harper concert in Vail.

2. Vegas

3. Conference

4. Food in Vegas

5. Fires in Colorado

6. Spamalot in Vegas

7. Cool things in Vegas

Okay, I’m sure that you get the point. Off to bed. I have a busy weekend and will try to be back soon. I miss you all. I have to catch up on all of my reading soon. But, I have been thinking about y’all. : )

Lucky Here…

Just wanted to let you wonderful people know that Chrissy? she may not leave Vegas! It’s warm, it’s beautiful, and she’s enjoying it! She’s thinking that if she moves there, more of us will visit her then. Sounds good to me, you in?

She has no internet connection. Well, none that is free, at least. She’s really missing the internet folks so she may end up paying for it one day. She’ll be back Thursday night. She’s taking lots of pictures, and I can’t wait to see them. Could they really be cooler than the pictures of Colorado? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

 

 

Awesomeness First

I asked for a topic and I got a couple. : ) Thanks, everyone! My first post will answer the question…

“Why are your friends Joseph and Ashley so awesome?”

Where oh, where do I start with this couple? I guess I have to start with Ashley because I’ve known her longer than her awesome husband, Joseph. Ashley and I attended the same high school and lived in the same city growing up. Notice I said attended. I knew who Ashley was in high school, but we didn’t run in the same crowds. I, of course, was attached my brother’s friends the first two years and then Stephanie and Jana for the last two years.(Yes, I had been with Jana and Steph since middle school.)  Moving on…after high school I attended State Tech and eventually graduated with an Associates. I ended up at PHG and loved so many things about working there. BUT, I still thought about teaching all the time. Jana convinced me to go back to school. She may or may not have even threatened me. (I know, Jana! ha!) I took her seriously and enrolled at Crichton College. I was in the program that had class EVERY Wednesday night. Guess who was in my group?! ASHLEY!! I remember seeing her and thinking something like oh, great, some girl from high school. At this point in my life I wasn’t ready to revisit my high school days. It turned out to be great. We spent almost every Wednesday night together for 2 years. After all those lectures, projects, heartaches, and joyous events we became really good friends. I remember saving her ass with a few teachers. What are friends for? lol Somewhere in all of this I met Joseph. I realize now that I know Joseph, but I feel like I know him more than I do from Ash talking about him. He’s a fun-loving, beer drinking (and brewing), honest, funny guy. Oh, and he’s bald. (by choice) We had some great times hanging out as a foursome. (Ashley and Joseph. Jason and Me) But, I still haven’t answered the questions as to why  they are so awesome……

A list of things I have in common with these two or just things that make them awesome

• We have a deep love for the UT Vols!
• No matter where we live, we are all proud to be from The South.
• We all have a soft spot for children and dogs and cats.
• We have all recently moved. They moved to STL in May. I moved in August.
• We’ve all attended small colleges.
• We are all very loving and forgiving.
• Joseph and I love beer. : ) He would be so proud of me for trying so many new one

Another reason this couple is soooo awesome is that they love people. This summer before the move to Colorado, I spent a weekend with them in St. Louis. I should really rephrase that…They put up me, my mom, my cousin and her baby in their townhouse. Ashley only let us take them to dinner once. She cooked for us and made sure we had everything we needed. Joseph had school and Ashley had to work, but they were more than willing to open their home to us. We had a great time in St. Louis. I had the opportunity to see them quickly at Christmas. They came by Mom’s house to visit. And, the last time I was home we all met at the walk. Then, they were cool enough to come to KT’s house for the stock the bar party that night. They brought the moonshine. No, Joseph didn’t make it. It was a hit and scared me to even smell it. Joseph and Ashley are two of the nicest people I have ever met. They would do anything for anyone. They have a great relationship together. Yes, they get irritated with each other, but you can always see the love between them. They have always supported me and been true friends. How did I get so lucky to have them in my life?

.

I need a topic…

What do you want to know?

What do you want to hear about?

What?! I can’t think of anything to write about. I usually think of things and then forget them as soon as I get in front of the computer. URGH!

I almost had a fight in my class room today. I jumped in between the two boys, calmed them down, and then sent them to the office. The joys of teaching 8th grade in the Spring….I still have no idea why they were fighting. I’ll just blame it on the hormones.

This time next week…

I will be in VEGAS!!! Ooooh, ahhhhh! I have a lot of planning to do. It so hard for a responsible loving teacher to take 4 days in a row off from school. Luckily, I only have to plan for 3 days b/c the kids have a field trip on Thursday. I hate to give them busy work, but I hate to give them a grade for any assignments that I am not not their to monitor, teacher, whatever. I know some of you think it is the control freak in me, but, yeah..you’re right…I’m a control freak. I have to be around to control the situation even when my kids learning or testing. Four more days this week! Oh, did I mention the white fluffy stuff that fell from the sky all day today? Yeah, when is Spring? The mountain closes next weekend, so I’m gonna need it to warm up, quickly. Please. : )