Nothin' Happenin', Baby!

That's right, nothin's happenin'--no baby yet! We are on call for a hospital run during the day while Kerry's guy is at work...So, we don't want to venture too far out from Spring in case we get the call....So-o-o-o...what did we do? Laundry....Wash the car.....go check out the Woodlands, another nice mall on the north side of Houston...Trying to keep cool, you know....

inside the waterway "cruiser"

a glimpse of the waterway at the center plaza

We just walked around..we took a waterway ride on the Woodlands Waterway Taxi. Some people call it the Woodlands Waterway Cruiser. Cruiser is a stretch! It's a simple boat that takes you on a canal ride through The Woodlands shopping center and surrounding office buildings alongside the canal. The ride lasts about 45 minutes as you meander thru and costs 5.00 for adults and 2.50 for children. The boat seemed hard to steer. The captain, as we shall refer to him loosely, cranked the wheel first hard one way, then hard the other to correct the position of the boat. We bumped into the sides of things several times as he maneuvered the boat thru the canal. Although the boat had some roof top A.C, it struggled to provide any cooling at all, which made people open windows for more air, which made it worse. Oh, well...Would we recommend the boat trip? No....save your money! There wasn't much to see from the waterway other than people eating at a couple of waterside cafes along the way and some nice cloud reflections on the sides of the office buildings....

The Woodlands is a beautiful mall.....it's like another city within a city. When you've been traveling all around the country, and staying in mostly rural areas, avoiding large cities because of driving a motorhome with a tow and all the congestion that comes with big city driving, going into a mall like this is sort of a culture shock. Malls back in my hometown of South Bend, IN are really really small in comparison to this one. Usually, unless it's a holiday, there aren't a lot of people walking around, either. This mall was VERY busy!

The mall had some interesting metal sculptures in the center....

There are many beautiful balconies to walk across from one side to another on the second floor which overlook the floor below.....

It's nice to see carousels still in operation.....

And if this set of horses outside P.F. Chang doesn't clue you in that it's an pricey restaurant to eat at, then I don't know what does. But it's still great food! Have only eaten there once, but really enjoyed it.

However, we didn't eat there, we decided to grab some supper at the Texas Roadhouse on the way home...They have a great budget conscious dinner special from 4:00-6:00 PM--- Mondays thru Thursdays. Several menu choices and smaller cuts of meat for 7.99 a person, that includes salad, their great rolls with the cinnamon butter, and potato. So that's what we did! Back home again to get out of the heat, and relax...and wait for that phone call.......Still waiting.....  :-)

Back at School With the Little Darlins'

Sparky went back to school today...It's tough to keep a good woman down! The kids remembered me, and one little guy would have just preferred that I went back home! He said, "Time you GO!" just as soon as I got there.  He and I went around a little bit last week, that little rascal! He softened up later and wanted plenty of help this morning, so we were ok with each other once more. We read "Dan, the Flying Man", tried to learn the letter "A", and tried to get along with each other....Wheweee!

Little kids with lots of problems are very up and down emotionally and behaviorally-ALWAYS!...this week they were much more difficult to work with. Lots of crying, lots of "he hit me!" and lots of pretend crocodile tears at the littlest perceived insult. I didn't help somebody fast enough, they cried. I insisted someone do their work, they threw their paper on the floor and cried. I firmly took the arm of one little boy and sat him down and he says, "I'm gonna tell my dad!" Wonder where he got that from!?....One little guy had a time out at recess because he was the most ornery. I was glad to see the teacher followed through with discipline, not an easy thing to do with a group of eight little kids, all boys and one girl and one program assistant. Even with three teachers in the room, these kids were still wild and out of control with their emotions and behaviors. Yet, the regular teachers continued to be patient and loving and consistent with the children.

The main teacher spends her own money every week to provide snacks for the kids and to buy materials for her classroom. Last year she spent $5,000 of her own money to provide materials in her classroom, which was a different grade level, too far removed from what she is doing this year to use those materials. This is VERY common of caring, hard working teachers to spend money they should be using for their own family budgets in order to have decent materials for the students in their classes, in order to do a good job. Schools are finding it harder and harder to provide adequate up-to-date materials for their teachers. There's just very little or no money for supplies for classrooms.

Every year I ALWAYS bought lots of books, taped books and special learning aids to help my LD/EH/Mild kids, it was just something that was needed and the kids were highly motivated with newer materials and learning aids, especially if it had to do with technology. I bought my own tape recorders and CD players so the kids could listen to taped stories. I bought lots of hands on learning aids to make reading skills more fun. I was always looking for SOMETHING to catch a reluctant learner's interest. And it helped! But not my budget. It was always out of whack!

This afternoon after a busy morning at school, I was back on guard duty again at the front gates of Florida Grande, from 1:00-4:00 PM....I had the company of nice gal in our park who is trying to learn how to knit. We got a little silly as the afternoon rolled on, and about three hours into a very quiet afternoon with no coaches coming in to register, I saw a cop pull in the drive. Being silly, I said to Judy, "I should give him a hard time just for the fun of it." She says, not knowing me very well, "I dare you!" (Uh-oh! She didn't!) She did! So, the cop rolls up to the gates, and Sparky says, "I'm going to need to see some I.D." And before the cop could register a sort of shocked look on his face, Sparky starts laughing nervously, because she just thinks she and her car license plates are going to be marked for the rest of her life. He smirked, which meant SURELY she didn't just say that, but he went ahead actually explained his errand in the park today just to be polite. (For crying out loud, Sparky, he's patrolling the park!) Uh, yes, uh, well, I was just being a smart a**. You know, as you get older, you don't take any *&$@# from anybody! I think I might have just gotten fired from my volunteer job as a gate guard today....It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!

Nick and Ritchie

After gate guarding, it was time to celebrate Ritchie's birthday today! Ritchie is our charming neighbor. She and her husband, Nick invited us to go celebrate with them today..We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, and it was GREAT! Great food, terrific steaks...we went right at the tail end of Happy Hour and had the great steaks, salads, potatoes, and those awesome yeast rolls with cinnamon butter for 8.49 as long as you get there and get your order in before 6:00 PM. Yum! And we made sure the waitress knew it was Ritchie's birthday. Which means, Texas Roadhouse style, they come out, they whoop and holler and make a big commotion over it being your birthday. They asked Ritchie how old did she want to be today? Being that she's a senior citizen and all, and she said "29". Her husband, Nick volunteered that she also wanted to "ride the saddle". And ride she did!  YEE HAW!

She's riding, but not going anywhere!

A great finish to another great day in sunny Florida! Happy Birthday, Ritchie!