A favorite forward!

A little teacher humor and a true story... people seriously need to learn to decipher the English Language....especially if they are going to create names for their children.

This is priceless!!! Suppose a new student enrolls in your school. Her name is Le-a How would you pronounce the child's name?
Leah? NO
Lee-A? NOPE
Lay-a? NO
Lei? Guess Again.
It's pronounced 'Ledasha'

Oh, yes...you read it right. The dash is not silent.
This child attends a school in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
Her mother is irate because so many faculty & staff are getting her name wrong. So, if you see something like this come across your desk, remember the mother's statement, "The dash don't be silent."

thankful

last night Murad called me in a panic. "Babe, I was in a car accident." He was really worried and upset. I mean who isn't when they've just been in a wreck. He was really upset because it was his fault. "Babe, I feel like such a failure." He's had a hard month. We both have and this is just one more thing that we don't need. However, I am thankful that he was okay. It could've been so much worse. I'm so thankful that he was able to call me and not the police officer or paramedic. It made all my problems so trivial. I guess things like this happen to put things in perspective. I don't know what will happen in the next couple of days (especially financially), but I'm so thankful I'm here to share the hard time with him.

Miserable

I've been thinking a lot lately about my spiritual gifts. I need to get a lot more involved in church, but I feel like I have no time. Thinking about this made me reexamine my career. This has been the worst year by far. I have work I should be doing right now, but I thought I better clear my head before I begin. I know the fall is always crazy, but seriously IT SUCKS! I'm seriously questioning whether or not I can stay in this profession. I just need some sort of reality check. Someone needs to say one of two things to me:
1. "Ashlea, you're an amazing teacher and you would be silly to leave this rewarding profession. Things WILL get better."
2. "Ashlea, you have so many other talents. Why aren't in another profession that can offer you so much more growth"

The question is, what can I do besides teach? I love teaching, but I do not love all the administrative stuff I have to do. Some of it is mandated by the state of Texas, so I can't not do it. I'm also questioning why I'm going to school to be an administrator. That would be such a stressful job. Even if I was an elementary school principal (which is what I would do), it would be stressful.

I don't know if I will leave the teaching profession, but it just felt good to get that off my chest. I just want things to get better. I want there to be a light at the end of this dark tunnel.

Texas State Fair

This is truly one of my favorite times of year and a great part about living in Dallas. Murad and I have had a rough couple of weeks at school and work, and we were able to set aside our worries and attend the Texas State Fair. We love the overpriced food and fried delicacies. We promptly arrived and grabbed hamburgers and something to drink. We then made our way around the fair, stopping to see all the attractions. We then found Fried Hostess Twinkies. We hadn't had those so we ordered them. It was like a sugar high. Delicious fried batter with sponge cake and cream inside....yummy! We then found my favorite....fried oreos! I could eat those every day! We also ate cotton candy and the classic funnel cake. Here are some of the other fried foods you can eat at the Texas State Fair:

fried peanut butter jelly sandwich

fried ice cream sundae

fried guacomole bites

fried cheesecake

fried coca-cola

chicken fried bacon

those are just some of the foods available....

We then made our way to the Latin American displays in Hall of State. We found the Dominican Republic display and talked to the couple running it for a while. The wife is from Santo Domingo, which is where Murad's grandmother grew up. It was fun to learn more about his heritage and answer some of the questions we both have. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we will be able to go to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon in August!

Lastly, we made our way to the Auto show. We picked out all the new cars and the ones we're going to buy. Murad picked the Dodge Charger and I picked the Dodge Caliber. Not that we can afford to buy new cars, but we can dream, right?

Well, I've attached some pics. Enjoy!