We had a great time on the 4th of July this year. The Baker’s friends the Sean’s brother’s family joined the fun here at Martinique. As usual there was the golf cart parade and fireworks on the beach. Darla and Mo also cooked great food, yumm. Above, Ellie is decked out for the celebration!
I’ve started a photo album for the trip so you can take a look at the rest of the fun we’ve had.
My family and I left Houston last Friday for Gulf Shores, AL. We have been coming to here almost every year since 2001 for a week or two at a time and really enjoy it. This year we have my parents, my cousin Darla, her husband Morris, their four kids, Sean and me. Next week more family will be showing up to add to the fun. On the way over we also stopped in Slidell, LA, and visited with family which was a lot of fun.
Yesterday Morris, Drew, my dad and I went fishing in the Gulf for the morning. We caught eight King Mackerel and two Spanish Mackerel. Well, actually we caught more than that, but that was all we were allowed to keep. I hadn’t fished since I was six so it was a fun experience.
This is the biggest one I caught. My arms were definitely a little soar today.
Drew in action. He caught the most of everyone I think.
While we were out we also saw a huge hammer head shark! It was from 12 to 14 feet long, one of the biggest the captain say he has seen in years. It was just hangin’ out at the surface, gliding along.
I’m working on a photo album, so more pictures to come.
As I mentioned before, Sean and I went up Longview, Texas a week or two ago to see our friends Kate and Luis. I had such a great time talking to Kate about her upcoming year as a teacher and taking silly pictures with Luis. I hope they can come to visit us in Houston soon. While we were there we stayed at Kate’s house on her families ranch. I loved seeing all of the horses, cows, chickens, dogs and other wildlife. Part of me would love to own land and have some animals, but they are also a lot of hard work and time. I think I’ll stick to my city dwelling life for now. Here’s a link to some of the highlights of the trip: Texas Trip
We also drove over to Hawkins Texas were Sean’s grandfather and great-grandfather are buried along with other family members.
And as a surprising treat while we were driving back home on one of Texas’ may back roads we spotted this! Sean and I both love peacocks so we pulled over so I could take a few pictures.
It was definitely a fun little trip!
Over a week ago Sean and I went to Waco for a few days and then drove up to Longview. It was fun to go on a mini road trip to start off summer. Waco was fun, but as I drove to visit one of my favorite little antique shops I was horrified by this image.
Last summer this was one of my favorite buildings to drive by. It was the Sanger Avenue Grade School. Originally built in 1904, the building had been empty since the late 70’s and many of the windows had been boarded up. Even though it looked a little worse for wear it was fun to think about what it must have looked like inside and what a beautiful place it would have been to go to school. I had always meant to take pictures of it, but always seemed to not have my camera with me when I drove by. Well, I found out that this past October the school was burned down by arsons. Luckily they have been caught, but what is left breaks my heart. I regret never taking pictures of the school before. This experience has further reinforced my recent goal to keep my camera with me and to not be tentative about taking more pictures. The owners haven’t decided what to do with the remains of the building yet, but I hope they choose to keep it around in some form. Even in ruins it’s still a beautiful building.
Here are some pictures from the Waco Tribune’s article about the fire. The top right show the school after it had been abandoned. I liked the architectural detail of the towers. Sorry these are small, they were all I could find.
After I got home and was looking at the pictures I took I realized in this photo of the back of the school there is a desk with a sewing machine on it just outside the door. I wish I had realized this when I was there so I could have investigated further, but know it’s just kind of a funny detail.
Today I went to the MFA Houston for a mini art teacher conference. I was able to do a workshop with Armando Rodriguez on print making and Peihong D Endris on Chinese watercolor painting. Both were a blast and above is an example of a Dry Point print I made. I really liked making the print and I hope to do more of them. The dry point was very easy to work with and a quick clean up. Here are some others from the class.
And here we are working away.
The Chinese painting was not as hard as I thought it would be, I usually get a little inpatient with watercolor. Here are a few gold fish. She also taught us to make bamboo, frogs, and butterflies.
Every year Spring ISD has a Spring art show for the entire district. I was able to choose 10 works to send off that I have been collecting since January. I’m so proud of all of my kids, their artwork continually surprises me. We only have 3 weeks left this year, and don’t get me wrong I am excited for summer, but I am also excited to plan and improve projects for next year.
Both of these are 1st grade works inspired by Van Gogh's Sunflowers
2nd grade under the sea project, I love the detail
2nd grade sunset silhouette
3rd grade stain glass rose window
3rd grade garden after Monet
3rd grade studied the solar system so we made our very own imaginary one
Both of these flowers are by 4th graders after we studied O'Keefe
5th grade made 3D fish with clay, this picture doesn't do this fish justice.
I had a great time today looking through old photos with my mom. I think she’s pretty swell, so in honor of my mother on mother’s day here are a few of my favorites of her and I together.
Me at 11 months
At Bob and Nancy's wedding 1986
Mom and I when I'm almost 5
On my 18th Birthday
Congratulations to Elizabeth and Austin who will be getting married this June! Elizabeth is a first grade teacher at Burchett. I had a blast taking pictures with the both of them as I hope you can see in their pictures. Here are some of my favorites.
The Brooklyn Bridge
During spring break Sean and I got to visit New York City. We stayed with Sean’s sister Juliana and her son Aidan, who were wonderful host. It was a great trip and I can’t wait to go back again.
Here’s are some of the high-lights – New York 2009
The Empire State Building
On Valentines Day we added a new dog to our family. He’s a greyhound of course. His racing name was Wild Fire and at the kennel they called him Wild Man. The thing is, he’s not very wild. He’s actually one of the cuddliest greyhounds I’ve ever met, and Wild Man is kind of a long name, so we decided to change it. After much debate we finally decided on Oscar. I think it’s a fun name.
