Back to work...

Behold, the reason I have been non existent the last two weeks. Back to school!! It has been pretty stressful and very busy. Hopefully my 10 hour work days and 7 day work weeks will be over soon. I only have 13 kids in my class which is great and they are all nice kids (so far, it's only day two ha!) This classroom may not look like much, but I'm pretty proud of it- I started from scratch!

In other Swanson family news- Saturday Sam and I went rock climbing at Stoneworks in Carrollton- it was so fun! And SO tiring! I felt like jello that night! But, hopefully we'll do it again(when it's a little cooler outside, this place has no AC). That rock climbing workout inspired us that it was way past time we joined a gym so we got a membership at the place down the street and I'm pretty excited for us to finally get back into shape. (Kelly- you're loving this post right??)

I don't have pictures but Sam took me out for dessert fondue at the Melting Pot last night to celebrate surviving my first day as a 3rd grade teacher. It was so yummy- so if anyone wants to try it, call us because I can't wait to go back for more! (and then go work off that chocolate at our new gym. ha!)

Bathroom pictures at last....

So, it's only been two months since we finished up the bathroom... and I'm finally posting some pictures!! The only thing missing is the light fixture, we've bought one but it wasn't big enough to cover the gaping hole in the wall. But, I'm sure we'll have it done soon.

Panhandle Trip

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the panhandle. We went with Corey and Tay up to Hereferd, Tx. These are pictures from the Dairy we visited- stinky.

Corey's aunt and uncle had a trampoline- we thought the boys would never get off until the trampoline gave way and ripped down the middle with Sam on it!

Here are some shots from our day at Palo Duro Canyon

Below is the river crossing we drove through- it started flash flooding and the drive across was pretty intense.

Here is the park ranger explaining to the boys how high the water went into the engine and that was probably why the car wouldn't start- and eventually needed to be towed!

Despite the car trouble- we hiked down the canyon for a steak dinner and saw the musical Texas.

It was a fun trip but now its back to work for me! I started working on my classroom this morning - let the stress begin. There is a lot for me to do in the next two weeks before my kids return so you may not be seeing much of me around!

Meet Elijah...

Meet our nephew... Elijah James Sabin

August 2, 2008 at 6:45pm

And the best part- a whopping 10 lbs 4 oz, 21 inches.

Before Eli can start working on his possible career as linebacker, he is still spending a little time in the NICU enjoying some sugary cocktails to get his glucose up. But he'll be out soon and his proud mom and dad are home recovering! Congrats Jared and Becka! We can't wait to come down again and give him so hugs and smooches!

Look at these nieces...

While in Houston I got to hang out with our ever-entertaining nieces, Maria and Layla. They may be two of the cutest people I have ever known.

Week of the food poisoning (or stomach virus or something)

My cousin Michelle came to Dallas this week to visit from England. I was really excited about her trip but about one day into it Sam and I came down with some sort of food poisoning (we're still not sure what hit us- and we're still trying to recover!) So my pour cousin had to suffer through our sickness! But, we still managed to do some serious shopping and make a trip to the stockyards in Fort Worth.

This weekend we drove Michelle down to San Marcos to stay with Melanie, Corey and Tay made the trip to hang out with us. --

Here are the girls after floating the river^

Sam and I can't go to Austin without dancing at our favorite place- The Broken Spoke! Tay and I even bought cowboy boots for the occassion. We also got to have dinner with my good friends Meagan and Travis but I'm a dork and took NO pictures with them :(

We were proud to be Texans while stopping by the State Capitol.

Our final days in London

Prepare to be completely bombarded with pictures and these are only a very small fraction of them! I wish I didn't have to post them so tiny but there are just too many- click the pic to make them bigger, some are really worth a closer look. The view from the top of the hill in Greenwich

Sam setting his watch to official Greenwich mean time

Forget four corners... I have one foot in the eastern hemisphere and one foot in the western

So, I had terrible allergies during the trip and Sam convinced me to buy the tacky checkered sunglasses pictured above...

The above picture isn't great but the story is better- we walked out of the subway to find ourselves in the middle of London's gay pride festival- whoops! I've never seen so many men in rainbow underwear!

My grandparents' house ^

Where my mom went to school^ (also on the squre that my grandparents live on)

This is one of the two churches in the middle of my grandparents' square

This is the view from my grandparents front yard. Wouldn't you love to wake up to pictures like this every morning?

It was a fabulous trip but it went by too quickly! Apart from my horrible allergies and destroying my hair straightner the very first night- it was such a great trip! (I only mention the straightner because Kathleen gave me a great haircut right before we left and I was excited to show off my new shorter do.)