The calm before the storm

I spent this past week getting my classroom ready for the first day of school - which is tomorrow (Monday). The thing that I think most people outside of education don't realize is that the "teacher work week" is not just for us to spend in our classroom. We have professional development days every day except one. So, to work in my classroom, I have to start at about 4:00 after all of my meetings. This makes for a long week.

Plano is all about "teamwork". Everything that is done has to be done as a grade level team. I am not used to this. So, setting my my classroom and preparing lessons for this first week of school was much different than it has been in the past. Different = longer hours. So, yes, by the end of the week I was exhausted. The good news is that my room is ready and I do know what I am teaching the first day of school!

On Friday night we had a "meet the teacher" night. The parents and students can come in, find their classroom, meet the teacher, drop off supplies, etc. I think this night went really well. I can already tell I have wide variety of personalities in my class, but that is normal. I met some parents that seemed really great. I also got some interesting comments from parents. My favorites are below:

Comment #1: I hear your husband teaches at the middle school and you just moved here from Lewisville. (i.e. this parent checked up on me)
Comment #2: You come highly recommended. Linda (my principal) had a lot of good things to say about you. (i.e. this parent checked up on me with the principal)
Comment #3: You aren't at all what I pictured. I knew a lady growing up named Hattie and she was a 65-year-old African American woman.
Comment #4: Everyone on this hall is pretty. This is like the pretty hall!

Below are pictures of my classroom.

Standing in the doorway.

Another one from the doorway

My favorite (on only creative) bulletin board. It is for when we find great words that we want to use in our writing.

From the front of the classroom looking back at where I was standing before. Please note the lack of a door. Plano is very "open concept", meaning no doors and everyone can hear everything you say.

Catching up

You might be asking yourself, "Where did Hattie go?" The logical answer would be that I have been watching the Olympics. And, while that is true, there is a much more prominent reason I have been absent. It is called Plano ISD. Oh me, oh my! What have I gotten myself into? But, more about that on a later blog. While working my little tail off, I have managed to squeeze in a few enjoyable things over the last few days.

On Saturday, I helped to host a baby shower for my friend RaeAnn. She is going to have a little boy in October, and we are so excited for her and Cody.

RaeAnn (in pink) with all of the hostesses

On Friday, Justin and Alli had their twins - Jake and Mallory. They are absolutely adorable! We went to see them on Friday, but we didn't get to hold them because they were being taken back to the nursery for a while. Well, I just couldn't stand not getting my hands on those cute munchkins, so we returned on Sunday. We are so excited for you, Justin and Alli! Congrats!

Proud mom and dad (I think they might be a little tired from lack of sleep!)

Holding Mallory
Yes, you are seeing clearly! Mark is holding Mallory!
Little Mallory
Little Jake

Haylee holding Jake and me holding Mallory

Finally, today I got a wonderful treat at school! My mom sent me a cookie bouquet my first year of teaching, and lucky for me, she decided to turn it into a tradition! So, every year, during teacher inservice week, I am so unbelievably lucky to get this little pick-me-up!
I think I'll go have one now . . .

U - S - A!!!

Yes, yes, I LOVE the Olympics. I am not, and have never been, good at sports. So, I live vicariously through all of the athletes. So, in honor of the 2008 Olympics, we held an "Opening Ceremony" party last night. We had 15 people in attendance and we all crowded around the T.V. in our living room. The night was filled with great food (pizza and brownies!), great conversation, and great friends. Hearing everyone's comments about the performance was very interesting, indeed! Then, when it got to the parade of the nations, we kept taking bets (don't worry, no money involved) on who could guess how many athletes different countries had participating. I won the bet on the USA with a guess of 633 and it was really 647, I think. The United States had the most athletes participating, but China ran a very close second. Props to the Stringers for sticking it out and staying all the way to the end of the ceremony with us! Then, this morning in my groggy state-of-mind, I remembered it was Olympics time and hopped out of bed to turn on the T.V. I watched the USA women's volleyball team beat Japan in 3 sets to 1. What a great way to start the weekend! Happy Olympics watching to you all!

Our living room was full!

Oreo, on his perch, keeping watch over everyone.

The All-American Breakfast Burger!

Mark here, Hattie is up at her school working in her room, and I'm at home left to my own devices, mwaaahahha.

I love the traditional American Breakfast. Fried eggs, sausage, bacon, ham steaks, hash browns, I love it all. Breakfast foods are greatness.

I also like hamburgers.

I don't know if you've ever seen one, but some restaurants will put a fried egg on a burger. I already liked bacon on a burger, and then they put fried eggs on a burger, so I thought to myself, "breakfast foods make burgers better."

So I figured if a few breakfast foods make a burger better, than all the breakfast foods will make a burger FANTASTIC!

So today I began the All American Breakfast Burger, of which I recently finished eating all of it that I could.

The cast of characters: Beef patty, sausage, bacon, egg, cheese, ham steak, hash browns, jalapenos, and a kaiser roll. Not pictured: the egg, it was still in the fridge.



Burgers cooked on Foreman grill, everything else on the electric griddle, I also toasted the bun on the griddle.







Assembly was as follows, from bottom to top:
cheese, bacon, beef patty, hash browns, sausage patty, cheese, bacon, ham steak, hash brown, bacon, egg, jalapeno.

Look at it. Isn't it glorious?


Physically speaking, it was very hard to eat. My jaw just doesn't open that wide. But it was SOOOOO GOOD! Seriously. This burger was awesome.


I ate about 70% of it I think. I'm gonna go succumb to a meat coma now...

7 years . . .

At 2:30 in the afternoon, on August 4, 2001, we became Mr. and Mrs. Mark Fowler! It was, by far, the happiest day of my life. I feel very blessed to be able to share my life with such a wonderful, sincere, faithful, and generous man. Our life together has taken us through joys and trials. All of these things have helped us to grow closer and stronger as a couple, and we wouldn't have traded them for anything.

Here are just a few of the blessings of our marriage:
- we serve a loving God together
- we laugh together every single day
- our families are very supportive and loving
- we have many wonderful friends we enjoy being around
- our cat provides daily entertainment for us
- we have a beautiful home in a neighborhood we love
- we both have secure jobs less than 10 min. from where we live
- we attend a church that challenges us to grow closer to God

The list could go on and and on. We have been so very blessed by our Lord. Mark, I am proud to be your wife. Happy Anniversary!

The dreams . . .

I am a teacher, and therefore I am very blessed to get the summer off. Nonetheless, eventually school must begin again. Usually, about the beginning of August, while I am trying to deny the fast approach of a new school year, my dreams will clue me in that my mind knows what is coming! I will start to have dreams about the first day of school. In these dreams, things are never as they should be. I might, perhaps, be trying to finish putting up bulletin boards while students arrive on the first day. Maybe I am standing in front on my new class and realize that I don't have any lesson plans. Or, the worst one of all, it is the first day of school and my students are already out of control and not listening to me. That usually doesn't happen until the second day of school! Just kidding! But, you get the picture. While my wakeful mind in trying to fervently deny that my days of sleeping in until 9:00 are rapidly drawing to a close, my dreaming mind is telling me "It's coming . . ." To anyone else who is a teacher, I'm sure that you have had these same dreams happen to you, unless you are really, really good at denial! Unfortunately, these dreams did not wait until the beginning of August to start this summer. No, no. I started having these oh-so-relaxing dreams at the beginning of July. I know that it can be attributed to my changing jobs. You may say, "But, Hattie, you are still teaching the same grade." I know, but I will be at a new school, with new teachers, in a new school district, with new expectations. And the worst part is, I don't even know what those expectations are yet! I think that is what make me more anxious than anything. The not knowing part. But, alas, in one week I will start my new hire teacher training, and I'm sure they will give me all the info I need to know, plus some. So, in conclusion, I am a bit anxious about this school year, but I am also excited to start a new adventure.

My girls . . .

For a few years now, several of the girls from church have gotten together once a month to play either bunko or pokeno. It is always such a wonderful evening spent together. It always involves a lot of laughter and the most random conversations. So, I want to say thanks to all of "my girls" for the wonderful memories and thanks to our husbands for supporting our "girls night out" (especially to those who take care of kids so that we can do so)! I look forward to many more years of laughter and fun!

Hanging out between games

Sharon always has a good story to tell!

Amy and me

Alli (34 weeks pregnant!), Sharon, Jill, and Jenn

Kelly (16 weeks pregnant!), Jill, Amy, and Andrea

me, Rae, Anna, and Lauren

Built myself a new AV Cabinet

Mark here,

I am bogartin' Hattie's blog to show off my mad carpentry skills.

I used my tax stimulus payment to buy new speakers. The new center channel speaker is kind of large and I wanted it as close to the TV as possible, so that meant getting rid of our old entertainment center. After shopping around and not liking what was available at reasonable prices I decided I'd just do it myself.

Hopefully the slideshow works... enjoy!

Yep, that's me

Looking through all my old high school things got me feeling nostalgic. The best times I had in high school were my times spent in JROTC. I participated in it in every way I could for all four years and devoted many, many hours of my life to it. So, to help you get a visual of me in high school, I have posted a few pics. They are not the best quality because they are pictures of pictures. We do not have a scanner.

Here I am with one of my very good friends, Mary. She was the cadet commander the year before I was. This is the summer just before my senior year at a Marine military base in 29 Palms, CA. Every other year the military paid for a select group of students from our school to take a trip to a military base for a week. The summer before my sophomore year we went to Camp Lejeune in NC. And, yep, those are my boots!

I am accepting an award from one of my instructors, Gunner Goodman. This was at the end of my senior year.

This is the summer after my freshman year. My mom took me to JCPenny to get pics. For some reason that was the only time we did that.

These pictures also show the three uniforms I wore most often.

Looking back, I sure was skinny in high school! Wish I would have appreciated then!

Lookin' good

This summer my parents gave me "the boxes." You know which boxes I'm talking about. The boxes your parents have been storing for you for years. The boxes that contain all of the old random items from high school that no one knows the true meanings of but you. The boxes that you can now take proud ownership of because you now own your own home. These boxes were fun at mom and dad's, but they now pose a problem because I have to figure out what precious space of which closet I am going to now house them in. After putting if off for a month, I finally pulled my boxes out today to sort through them. In the second box I opened, I found something I forgot I still owned . . . my JROTC combat boots! Now, now, I did not steal them. I remember trying to turn them in, but my instructor told me to keep them. Upon this discovery, I decided that the only logical thing to do was to put them on and show my sweet husband what he missed by not knowing me in high school. I had to fight him off with a stick once he got one look at me! Now for your viewing pleasure . . .



Props to my photographer!

Will they remember?

When I was in first grade I loved to daydream. However, as I have always openly admitted, I am not a very artistic person. So, even my daydreams were not very creative. I had the same daydream over and over again. I wore a perfect white ballgown that sparkled like the brightest stars in the night sky. My hair was pinned up and oh so gorgeous. I danced across a white and black checkerboard floor. That was it. I didn't do anything but dance in my pretty, pretty dress. I don't think I was a bride or a princess. I was just a girl in a nice place with a wonderful outfit. I vividly remember zoning out time and time again during class do dream this "wonderful" dream. That is basically all I remember from first grade. I have a few other memories of the playground at recess, a field trip to the zoo, and reading circles. But, what I remember most about first grade was my daydream.

Sometimes when I think of my elementary school years, I get sad for myself as a teacher. You want to know how much I remember and adored my teachers? Not very much. I don't even remember what my kindergarten or first grade teachers looked like or what their names were, and I only remember my 2nd grade teacher's name but not her face. I have a few more memories of my upper elementary years. I remember my 4th grade teacher's name AND face and a have several fond memories of her. My 5th grade teacher was an older gentleman and I only remember that I didn't goof off in that class!

Fortunately, I did have one teacher that stood out above the rest. Mrs. Lindamood was my 3rd grade teacher. I cannot recall one particular thing that made me adore Mrs. Lindamood, but adore her I did! I wanted to be just like her. I loved 3rd grade. In fact, from 3rd grade on I just knew that being a 3rd grade teacher was my calling. Well, I guess the teacher part did stick, but I have found my true heart in 4th grade. Most importantly though, thank you to Mrs. Lindamood for giving me the hope that some day my students will look back and remember me . . . face and name!

Cavanaugh Flight Museum

On Wednesday, our friends David, Kim, and their daughter Brooke joined us in going to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum. It is a collection of planes from different eras that is right beside the Addison airport. It was interesting to see the different models and how they changed through the years. I don't know much about planes, but Mark and David enjoyed seeing some of the more famous models of planes that they knew about. The museum is made up of 4 hangars that house the planes. It was enjoyable, but I would recommend going on a cooler day. It was all "outside" because it was in open air hangars and it was about 96 degrees. I got a little (or a lot) sweaty! All in all, we definitely enjoyed our time with our friends!

In front of Jim Cavanaugh's plane

Brooke checking out the planes

Make sure to heed the warning on the side of the plane!

Yea for home projects!

Yesterday, my wonderful, awesome, amazing, talented, and patient mother-in-law helped me with another project! I had a lot of material leftover from when she made my roman shades. So, we decided to use the material to cover the seat cushions for the kitchen table. The kitchen table we have was bought by my parents in the early 90's and used by my family until my parents gave it to Mark and me in 2004. The table was obviously well crafted because it has held up remarkably well. However, the seats were starting to look a little worn, so this was the perfect solution! The project took more patience than I had anticipated, but we got it done all in one day! Thanks again, Nancy!

The before picture

The after picture
The "whole" picture

Mark's family visit

Over the week of July 4th, Mark's brother, sister-in-law, and their two kids came to visit. They live in Memphis, so we only get to see them a few times a year. We were also blessed to have Mark's grandmother, Wilmamma, and Uncle Larry visit as well. We had a wonderful time together hanging out and catching up with each other. We spent a lot of time in the pool. Last summer, it rained most of the time, so the kids didn't get to swim much. And when they did, it was c-o-l-d! This summer we had perfect conditions for daily swimming. On most days we swam in the afternoon and after supper. On Thursday night Mark and I went on a "double date" with Mark's brother and sister-in-law. We first went to go see Wall-E. It was a very adorable movie and we all recommend it. Then we had dinner at Salt Grass. Yum, yum. We had a great time together, just the 4 of us. On Friday, Mark and I took our niece and nephew birthday shopping at Target. We started the tradition several years ago to let the kids pick out the birthday gifts. Since their birthdays are so close together, it works out that we can take them together. It is a fun tradition that we have really come to enjoy. Anna picked a Barbie with puppies, and Ben picked a train set. They had a great time playing with them and we hope they will for a long time to come. Finally, we ended our week with fireworks. We went to the Plano fireworks show, like we have for many years now. It is always a spectacular display. What a wonderful week!

Because he's just so cute . . .

Some people have children . . . we have a cat!